castle on a cloud [aria, sylph]

tagged: ROGUE, SYLPH. time: MAY 1ST 2012, 19:00. speech: paris. notes: tights, shoes, shorts, tops.

Paris had felt it: the exact moment the world had come to a screeching halt, crashing down around his ears. The crowds parting around him seemed to slow to the pace of molasses, seemingly unaware of the horror unfolding in their midst. Paris envied their ignorance; the alternative was much too cruel. This wasn’t happening… His… His iPhone was out of data. No texts, no calls, no internet. Et tu, Brute?

“Oh my god, don’t do this to meee,” he whined, shaking the damn thing and holding it up to the heavens as though a better signal might bring it pinging back to life. Come on service gods! One more miracle! Yet the device remained stubbornly silent. When he tried once more to ring Rhiannon, the call predictably went straight to the tinny little automated voice messaging system. “Your service has expired, please hang-up or call this number to top up your account,” he mimicked along with the automation before ending the call with a jab, “only do you know what I need for that, ATT? A working phone! Unlike this one! Wow! You’re just so helpful, what would I ever do without you?”

Weaving out of the crowd, Paris slumped against a shop window, the store’s neon lights playing over his unresponsive screen. Dad wasn’t going to be happy, that was for sure. This was the third time in so many months Paris had maxed out his phone plan and he really did not want to have that conversation again. Time to brainstorm ways of surreptitiously getting to Mom before the bill came in… Maybe he could make Quentin go for him if he begged. In the meantime, he supposed, he’d just have to wait out his sister the old-fashioned, unplugged way.

Shudder.

… Or, he could go bug that cute guy sitting over by one of the signs for his phone to reach Rhiannon. Frankly that sounded like much more fun. The boy in question looked like he could use a pick-me-up anyway; Paris had seen kicked puppies look more cheerful. Then again, maybe it was the fact that the guy was so ridiculously tall that his whole frame seemed to sag forlornly against the bench as opposed to just occupying the space like a regular person. Tucking his phone into the back pocket of his shorts, Paris plopped down next to him on the bench. “Heya stranger, why the long face?”

tagged: aria, sylph. time: May 1st 2012, 19:00. speech: hayden. notes: sorry bros he's cosetts, rhi is eponine.

It was really lonely, being the only person you knew; Hayden had known that it would be difficult, but he hadn't expected it to be this hard. Adrian's momentary company this afternoon had been great, and the guy had given him his number in case Hayden needed anything, but he was pretty certain that there was some law of the universe that dictated that you needed to wait a while before calling someone like that, right? He didn't want to seem too desperate, no...

He had been all but prepared to get up and go and eat alone, but the sudden voice of a stranger startled him out of his thoughts. Hayden glanced upwards, only to see a boy with hair that was the most shocking shade of pink plop down next to him on the bench. He was short, about five feet at max; Hayden suspected that he was probably about thirteen or fourteen with his slight stature. The brunette smiled, shaking his head.

"Don't worry. It's all good- Ah--" Before he could finish his sentence, though, a third person entered the scene, a girl with hair as pink as the boy that she was addressing. Hayden blinked, looking at her, and then back at the boy, and back at the girl again, before turning to both of them with the most dazed look anybody could possibly have given anyone else sober.

"I- is the hair-- is your hair natural?" Upon saying that, Hayden immediately cupped his mouth with his hands, horrified with the realisation that he had just made a statement like that. "Ah, no, sorry, that was dumb, pink hair-- pink hair doesn't genetically exist, but you guys just look like you're-- you guys look like siblings, and you have the same hair! That's all. Sorry if I was being rude."

tagged: hayden, paris. time: may 1, 2012 - 7:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems.

Of course he would groan. It was just so quintessentially Paris that Rhiannon almost laughed. Almost. It would be most unbecoming of her if she laughed out loud in the middle of public. Oh, no, demure giggles were more the way to go, if even that. "Yes, I must admit that I do have a knack for impeccable timing, darling brother of mine." Her tone was just dripping with exaggeratedly lofty sarcasm. If people thought that Rhiannon was too much to handle already, then she hoped that they never, ever met Paris. Because the only people equipped to deal with Paris levels of uncalled for sass was her. And Quentin. ... And maybe their parents. Just maybe.

And, of course, he would inevitably start sassing all over the place again. Rhiannon's hand twitched around the handle of her purse -- she was just itching to smack her dearest little brother over the head right now with it. But one, it was a genuine, true blue Dolce & Gabbana handbag -- the real deal, and two, hitting someone in public, even with a purse, was just such an classless thing to do. So instead, she took a deep breath, and said, "Paris, think carefully now. If you called me so many times, then isn't it rather unbecoming to not pick up the one time I do call? I even told you over text message that I would be at least fifteen minutes la --" Rhiannon froze for one moment. "... You maxed out your phone again didn't you?"

Seeing as how Paris was always glued to his phone (much like her too, so it seemed), Rhiannon couldn't come up with a single reason as to why he would ignore her call -- unless he had used up his phone's plan already. Again. Their father was going to throw a fit. Again. Yes, this was normal. Typical Chou family stuff. Thankfully, the boy that Paris had been talking to stepped in at just the right moment and averted what probably would have become a sister-brother catfight of the verbal sort. Even if his commentary was on their hair and whether or not... wait, what. Did he seriously just ask them if pink was their natural hair color? Huh. Well, actually, Rhiannon was rather flattered that he thought that -- it meant that her colorist was indeed one of the best ones if her pink hair looked natural of all things.

But of course Paris had to sass. Again. Again seemed to be a word that popped up a lot around Paris. He was... quite a character, so to speak. "Paris, don't be rude, that isn't very pretty," Rhiannon said, knowing all too well that it would probably get on Paris' nerves if she implied that he wasn't being attractive. (What sucked was that her brother was rather pretty, sometimes even more so than herself -- it was a point of contention, to be brutally honest.) She then turned her attention to the boy that her brother had been talking to, who was indeed quite a looker -- maybe she should try to get his number and call him up to model her work for her when she needed photos of them. That, and imagine how terribly jealous Paris would be if she got his phone number! Oh, it would be so hilarious. Purest of gold, if she did say so herself.

"Apologies for my little brother's behavior," Rhiannon said to the brunette boy, putting on her best demure but sheepishly bashful smile, making sure to keep her tone a pleasant one that was just ever so slightly apologetic. "He's a bit of a handful at ti -- Paris, no." Oh, no. Hell no. Paris did not just go there. He did not just do that. Oh, good god, Paris, why? Her entire life could be summarized by that, actually. Paris, no. Paris, why? "... I am sorry." She didn't know what to say to the other boy.

tagged: ROGUE, SYLPH. time: MAY 1ST 2012, 19:00. speech: paris. notes:sorry it got huge omg.

Urk. Busted. Not that he hadn’t seen it coming, but Paris didn’t even want to know what kind of crazy voodoo witchcraft Rhiannon possessed to let her see through him so quickly. Older sisters were a terrifying breed. Paris was just glad to let the conversation steer itself away from that inevitable lecture… though not so pleased that she had the nerve to insinuate that he wasn’t being attractive; he was always attractive. Rhiannon of all people should know better than to tread those waters, just like she should know better than to put on that faux humility BS and start trying to butter up his catch. Paris bristled like a tiny cat.

“Still cuter than you,” he quipped, crossing his legs primly. “Or haven’t you been in touch with Nathan lately?” The two of them, he and Rhiannon, had always vied for the unofficial title of Prettiest Chou Child. Perhaps because they’d been so close in age it had been more of a competition between them, whereas Quentin was blessedly saved by his few years head start. Of course, Paris knew who the winner of that particular debate always was, even if Rhiannon so hated to admit it. He had proof, which she probably hated even more.

Back in her high school days at San Marino, Rhiannon had had the most hideous crush on a boy in her biology class. It wasn’t her fault Nathan had been queer as a two dollar bill, or that he was in the same club as Paris was after school, but when he and Paris had started dating… she’d flipped her shit. To this day Paris was happily convinced she thought he’d stolen her future husband. He only had to mention his name and she’d go positively green. Of course it had hardly lasted the month, Nathan was so far back in the closet he’d popped through to Narnia, whereas Paris liked to proclaim that he had never actually seen the inside of the thing, so there was some friction, but it all made fantastic fodder for unleashing the She-Mannon.

If that wasn’t enough, mentioning the guy was like killing two birds with one stone. With any luck Starbucks Guy would assume Nathan was Rhiannon’s boyfriend, and if she wanted to explain that away, she’d be admitting her pretty little brother had nicked her man. Had he any fewer manners, Paris might have smirked. Take that.

Speaking of Starbucks Guy, Paris was starting to think he’d like to bottle this boy and clone him. AP biology? Really? Perhaps the guy wasn’t so spectacularly dense as spectacularly innocent. “Aww, don’t be like that,” Paris reassured him sweetly, turning up the charm. “I just meant I think you’re super cute. It wouldn’t be fair for you to be walking around with a face like that and an intellect to boot... but I stand corrected.” He feigned a little shyness, playing with the hem of his cardigan. Adonis here seemed like the type to jump at a bit of Damsel In Distress; maybe it would get him to stay. “Actually, I… meant I was busy talking to you, but I guess I haven’t even gotten your name. Do you really have to go?”

tagged: aria, sylph. time: May 1st 2012, 19:00. speech: hayden. notes: sorry bros he's cosetts, rhi is eponine.

Once again, Hayden found himself staring at Paris, then at his sister, and then back at Paris again. It was all too confusing-- there was obviously some sort of background to this, involving some guy called Nathan that was probably his sister's boyfriend, but she didn't seem too pleased at the mention of the boy's name. Maybe the two of them weren't in a good relationship. Hayden parted his lips, ready to speak, but held his tongue. No, the girl's relationship was none of his business-- he shouldn't butt his head in. He did, however, flush a little as the small male called him cute. Cute?

"A- ah, thank you!" he exclaimed. He'd heard that he was good-looking before, adorable a lot of the time, but it didn't mean that it wasn't nice when other people complimented him. He kind of wanted to return the compliment, and he bit his lip. Was the other male cute? Kind of... Sort of... Yeah, definitely, but he didn't want to sound like he was coming on to the other guy. That wouldn't have been very nice, especially not in front of his sister. He could only imagine how awkward it would be for him to have someone come onto him when his sister was anywhere within a ten-mile radius. More awkward than a platoon of awkward turtles in awkward soup, and that was very awkward indeed. Luckily, the girl didn't seem to notice his little inner dilemma, and she and her brother were very friendly-- wait, was her brother trying to come on? Was he? Was this all a conspiracy? Oh nooooo...

Now Hayden flushed once again. This was all going south. But wait, no! Paris wouldn't be coming onto him if his sister was there, right? That would just have been strange. This was okay, keep calm Hayden, keep calm. He was just being friendly. "Ah, my name's Hayden. Nice to meet the two of you." He extended a hand for the siblings to shake, offering it to the girl first-- ladies first, right? Hopefully the boy wouldn't be offended. To be as fair as he could, Hayden stuck out his other hand. Yes, that was the perfect solution. "And I'd be glad to go to dinner, but only if you aren't doing this because... You feel obliged, or anything."

tagged: hayden, paris. time: may 1, 2012 - 7:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems.

Make that several red-hot cans of whoop-ass -- which meant enough that poor Quentin would have to pull the two of them apart from getting into a catfight -- all before the parents got involved in trying to calm them down. Thankfully (or perhaps not), a public image and good reputation were things that Rhiannon valued very, very much, so punting Paris to the other side of LA Live was not an option. Even if that was what Rhiannon really, really, really wanted to do right now. It was just plain unfortunate for her (and very fortunate for Paris) that she had to simply settle for haughtily replying, "I would be careful with what you consider as your business or not, you never know when you might catch yourself in a little too deep -- I saw that!"

How old was Paris again? Eleven? Nine? Six? Whatever the case, he certainly wasn't acting like a sixteen year-old right now, as far as Rhiannon was concerned. Sticking your tongue out at someone was so first grade. Rhiannocn was sure that she had been much, much more mature and sophisticated back when she was sixteen. Oh, she definitely had more polish to her even back then -- there was no way that she would have been so utterly blatant when trying to flirt! Didn't Paris know that flirting was best treated as a subtle art? Poor, poor Hayden... having to deal with Paris must have been so taxing on him. He was a very, very lucky that she had arrived when she did -- or at least, that was what Rhiannon liked to believe. It was all in a day's work of being a respectable, responsible older sister, she supposed.

"Oh, no, it's not a problem at all!" Rhiannon replied to Hayden right after her little brother had spoken, accepting the hand that the brunette boy had extended to her. (And he had offered her a hand first, take that! Rhiannon: 1, Paris: 0. Shut up, he was totally still at zero, and no one could convince her otherwise.) "A little extra company never hurt anyone, after all. So please, feel free to come along, it's no trouble to us." And, of course, leave it to Paris to be dramatic -- Rhiannon instead chose to offer Hayden one of her smiles, making sure that the one she gave him was demure and sweet and just the slightest bit playful. Two could play at the flirting game, and if Paris wanted a contest, she would give him one. Which meant giving (at the very least) most of her attention to Hayden. "A pleasure to meet you as well, Hayden," Rhiannon said. A classier greeting -- and class, of course, was everything.

"Well, seeing as how Paris here was so perfectly lovely as to introduce the both of us at once --" Sugarcoated sarcasm if there was ever any, and anyone who was anyone would have been able to tell that Rhiannon certainly did not think that Paris was being "perfectly lovely" from the way she glanced to the side at him. "-- if you would like to come along, it would only be fair to let you decide where we have dinner as the guest of honor, yes?" She lifted her hand a bit to almost touch her fingertips to her lips as she gave a (practiced) bashful giggle. "Anything will do, really. There are plenty places to eat here, depending on what you want. Sit-down restaurants, cafes, bars... there's even a high-end sushi place if that is the sort of thing you like. The choice is all yours, if you wish it to be." There were plenty options, all of them good.

tagged: rogue, sylph. time: May 1st 2012, 19:00. speech: paris. notes: rogue the heartattack song is stuck in my head.

“Rhirhi, I think you broke him,” Paris observed. Judging by the deer-in-headlights look of confusion Hayden was sporting, the poor guy had no clue what he wanted or what was nearby. More importantly, Paris was just about to open his mouth and chime in on his sister’s stellar flirting technique in the hopes it might embarrass her enough to give it a rest when an almighty grumble beat him to the punch.

It took a moment before he realized that that awful disgruntled whale sound had been Hayden’s stomach, tipped off mostly by the almost comically mortified expression dawning across the boy’s face. Paris couldn’t help it: he dissolved into peals of laughter. The fact that it was so audible even over the constant background bustle of LA Live was downright impressive. “You poor thing!” he exclaimed. “What have they been doing at home, starving you? We better tame that beast before it eats us all. Come on—burgers we most definitely can do. The Yardhouse is pretty close, and they do all kinds of pub food.” Attaching himself to Hayden’s side like a little pink limpet, and shooting Rhiannon a tiny smirk over the other’s shoulder, Paris steered them off in the direction of the restaurant, still chatting away.

He quickly discovered that he hadn’t properly realized how tall Hayden was until he’d stood up; with about a foot of height separating the two of them, Paris had to stand on tip-toe to link arms properly. Jesus, what must life be like from all the way up there? Did it ever snow? Did he get clipped by low-flying airplanes? Though Paris didn’t hate being small (it made him that much cuter, let’s just be honest), he was a little envious; in big cities like LA with more people per square inch than oxygen in the air, he had a tendency to get swallowed by the masses. That irked him to no end, for obvious reasons. Paris Chou was not just a face in the crowd, thankyouverymuch. Thank God he knew his way around or getting swept off course all the time would leave him not only fuming but perpetually lost.

Hanging off of Hayden’s arm and having the tightly packed people around them part like some sort of metropolitan Red Sea was a vindictively satisfying change. Pleased with himself, Paris leaned into the other boy, piping up with a smile that was just innocent enough that he could play off the contact as friendly if he wanted to. “So, HayHay, do you not live in LA? Most of the city people seem to spend a lot of time down here, but you looked like super confused when Rhi asked you where you wanted to go… Just a guess.”

tagged: aria, sylph. time: May 1st 2012, 19:00. speech: hayden. notes: fuck have i been spelling cosette wrong.

"T- the Yardhouse?" Hayden asked. Pub food certainly did sound good. There'd been this one place that he and Gabi and Leon used to go to that served pub food, but it was also a place that had waiters sing embarrassing songs to you when it was supposedly your birthday. Gabi had always gotten the waiters to sing to him even when it wasn't his birthday, and it had been the most embarrassing thing in the world-- his ears went pink even at the sheer thought of it. Hopefully Rhiannon and Paris weren't planning the same dastardly kind of mischief, but they seemed to be innocent enough, Paris attaching himself to one side of Hayden and Rhiannon following them in her heels. How did she walk in those things, Hayden couldn't help but wonder? Paris asked him a question, and he shook his head at the mention of his not being from here.

"Actually, I just moved here a while ago..." They didn't seem like kidnappers or anything, so he could probably reveal that he was fairly new to the area, right? Make that very new, seeing at this was his literal first day, but Hayden was going to withhold that piece of information. "It's my first day in L.A.-- I mean L.A. Live!" Phew, that had been a close one. While he couldn't see what could have been so bad about telling them just now new he was, it was probably best to reserve that statement just in case. His sister's words rang through in his mind: trust no one, especially because Hayden was a Green and they had much more to lose than the average person.

Yet it was undeniable that he wanted to trust people. He wanted to trust Rhiannon and Paris, especially as Rhiannon chided her brother about questioning him. Hayden shook his head. "It's okay, really. Do you... Do you both live here?"

tagged: hayden, paris. time: may 1, 2012 - 7:00PM. speech: rhiannon. notes: please pm me if there are problems.

Jealous? Oh, no, she wasn't jealous. Okay, maybe she was, but just a little bit. No? Okay, fine, she was jealous, but it was more of an issue of pride than anything else. Rhiannon didn't like losing to Paris, it was really that simple -- or complicated, depending on how you looked at it. So many of her female peers who had brothers often complained about how they wished their brothers could be more... conscious of things like fashion and style and just, oh, you know, take care of their looks more? That had never been a problem for Rhiannon. Oh, no, her problem was quite the opposite. Because as sad (and ridiculous) as it sounded, Paris was competition. How many girls could say that they felt threatened appearance-wise by their brothers...?

Not that she would ever let Paris know -- when accused of jealousy, she simply turned her nose up with a slight "hmph" sound before continuing, "Think what you so wish to, but trust me, I know that you're trying to get a phone number out of this at least." Really, what else did Paris ever think about when he started to cling all over another boy? Especially handsome, good-looking boys in particular -- and Hayden definitely hit that nail dead on the head. Speaking of which, Rhiannon picked up her pace a bit so that she could walk at the brunette boy's other side as she said, "Thank you for putting up with us -- it's just sibling things, I promise. I'm sorry that you had to get caught up in the middle of all of this though." She gave him a sheepish, apologetic sort of smile that was supposed to be more sweet and bashful than anything. "We're usually... a bit more civilized." Well, at least she was.

Ah, so Hayden hadn't been to LA Live before? How unusual! Most people who lived in Los Angeles tended to visit the place fairly often, but she supposed that perhaps Hayden was not the usual sort of person one would find in this particular city. That, or he just simply hadn't explored the city very much at all, whereas she probably knew where all of the little gems of the Los Angeles were like the back of her hand. She also wanted to smack said hand against her forehead at Paris' long-winded explanation about where he lived. He really could have just said San Marino and have been done with it, did he really have to pull the theatrics out now? Sure, a little bit of dramatic flair was fine, but that had just been plain ridiculous. "The Sparknotes version of what Paris just said would be that he lives in San Marino," Rhiannon clarified. Words were like fashion -- sometimes, simple was simply better.

""I do live here in Los Angeles though," Rhiannon continued, so as to answer Hayden's question. "It's a bit of a necessary thing -- I'm attending school here for fashion design, you see -- but it is a rather lovely place, I think." Of course she had to state that -- after all, Rhiannon knew just how much Paris wanted out of San Marino to be in a big city such as Los Angeles, and she was going to rub as much salt in that wound as she possibly could. Discreetly though -- she still had to keep as classy as she possibly could, even if Paris had dampened that effort a bit earlier. Noting that they were nearing the Yardhouse now, Rhiannon quickly asked Hayden, "Are you more partial to a seat outdoors, or would you prefer it if we dined indoors? Really, the choice is yours -- your our guest, after all, so it's only fair that we let you choose." Rhiannon wasn't picky about where she sat -- both had their pros and cons.