2253/I Won't Be Home For Christmas

I Won't Be Home For Christmas
Date of Scene:	25 December 2016
Location:	Plot Room #1
Synopsis:	Eilam visits Lacrima on Christmas. Feelings are exchanged- but something is wrong with Eilam. Very wrong and bad.
Cast of Characters:	Norie Okana, Eilam Hisakawa

---

Norie Okana has posed:
Many people in Japan don't celebrate Christmas. It just isn't part of thier traditions. It's mostly a Holiday for young children and couples. However, Dad's side of the family is Catholic. Which means Christmas gets celebrated properly.

She isn't at home though. She's in a manor. Alone. With a sleeping coffin in the basement and no tree.

The manor's gate has been new and replaced. No longer a rusted shut mess. The path to the front door has been cleaned of snow. Eilam has texted Lacrima- expressing his intrest in dropping by. Thusly she began the process of making tea, and baking some cookies from a package-- she isn't a cook or a baker--- she unwraps Pilsbury like everyone else that isn't~

She walks to the door at some point and opens it. Waiting for Eilam to arrive. She doesn't look excited or happy- but that's pretty normal for her anyways. Eilam knows this of course.

She looks around the yard. No strange people like the last visit from a stranger.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    Eilam himself wasn't all that dressed up for a change. Then again he wasn't exactly looking shabby either, Eilam rarely if ever actually dressed down as it were. Still, overall he did seem more tired than usual. Which might not be too foreign an idea for Lacrima as she'd seen him once or twice as it was when he could barely move. Today, though? One of his assistants was actually pushing him in a wheelchair until he got closer to the door and asked them to stop, pushing himself up with a bit of effort to walk - albeit slowly - towards Lacrima.

    "Hello." was about all he managed, smiling a little. His attire today was more... tired as well. White dress shirt untucked, no tie, no belt either actually. Just enough clothes on to be considered dressed, his hair not even styled out. Just kind of pulled back out of the way. "Can we talk inside?" The assistant who pushed him in the wheelchair had since returned to the gate to leave it and close it behind, the wheelchair taken with them for the time being. "I mean if you wish to talk out here, very well, but do let me know before I lose my balance."

    Soft-spoken as well, as if he really just didn't have much in the way of life left in him today. Likely if not for his curse, he'd probably be on his deathbed or quite close. So morbid, that.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "Of course we can go inside." she says flatly as she motions him into the vestibule, with it's couch and coffee table. There's the smell of cookies baking and tea being boiled down the west hall. She motions to the couch.

"Right....Happy. Holidays?" she asks. "Happy Holidays." she says flatly. "I'm not sure if you...celebrate but.. my family. Does." she says.

"or did." she says.

She escapes down said hallway and then comes back a few moments later with a tray with said hot cookies and tea. She places it down.

"You seem very ill today. Is it a bad week?" she asks softly.

She sits down, adjusting her skirt a little.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    Making his way inside, Eilam does go to the couch and sink onto it, the grip on his walking aid - the stave he always has with him - failing as he did and it sinks down towards his feat, caught with just a foot from making noise on the floor. "I do not, but I am bitter, do not let my... bitterness creep into you." Eilams eyes closed as he leans back into the couch, head reclining back a bit facing up, "I was born before Christmas became celebrated as it is now, anyways. Gifts and all.. sure, I do not mind. But the... theme seems silly to me is all."

    He fell quiet after that, seemingly struggling to breathe for a bit before taking a long, slow breath and sighing softly. "Yes. More so than normal. I... have bad periods. It comes and goes. But this is... a bit more than such. Maybe this condition of mine has finally started to decay, hard to... mmmsay." he paused there again, overall caught between wanting to say something but not really having the strength to properly manage what it was he was intending to say, or do. "Sorry." was all he managed, a bit soft. To what, hard to say.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "Ah. Well that'd make sense." she says softly. "As to why you don't celebrate it." she says. "I wonder what 'new' Holidays may exist in a few hundred years now..." she says pursing her lips a bit in careful contemplation for just a moment as she gently nips a cookie. No big bites. She isn't hungry. That's a pretty good warning sign since she usually eats boxes upon boxes of donuts.

She head tilts a little in thought. "It's worse than normal?" she asks curiously. "Do you know why?" she asks. "If it has 'never been this bad' and... it's been so long. Is your condition deteriorating?" she asks curiously.

She head tilts a little. "Or.. are you--- 'reseting' just fine?" she asks as she sips her tea a little more heavily than she eats.

She doesn't respond to the sorry. She merely just seems to wait for an answer. "Is that why you came here?..." she asks. "To find out about this? or..just. A visit?" she asks.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    For a bit, Eilam said nothing. Almost seemed as if he was barely even conscious. Finally he did speak, though. But the response might surprise a little. "I am... sorry. I never... apologize, because I will... outlive the need to. But you are... different. You're like me, and that... scares me. I don't want to... see you live as I did. Suffer as I did. But I... I am sorry. For how I have treated you. It is and will... always be your choice alone. ...how you wish to live. Or what you do."

    Reaching up slowly with his hand, Eilam reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box, some kind of jewelry box. "I live in fear... of having that choice taken from me. It is why... I try so hard... to stay hidden. I have lost that choice before. And to think... I was considering... treating you so, to... to try and... protect you."

    Then rather softly again he apologized, trailing off a little, "...sorry."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "It's not like I'll easily die." she says frankly. "If I get hurt bad enough I just retreat to the Dusk Zone and regenerate." she says. "I can be throughly obliterated and that will always be the truth." she says. "It's just...purification. That I need to watch out for. That can hurt me. A lot. But that won't always be the truth either. Eventually. I'll be strong enough to resist that too." she says.

"I just don't know what I need to do to get there." she says softly.

She head tilts down at the jewerly box as she purses her lips at it, curious, but not being intrusive and asking about it.

"There is no reason to feel you need to say sorry. I have my own choices to make. That is merely just how it goes." she says frankly.

"Regardless of whatever Jia-chan thinks she's going to do to 'fix me'." she says rolling her eyes a little.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    "I do. Have to apologize. And I... I know you are... strong. But I am not. I am... weak, scared, jaded. I cannot just retreat, I have to... suffer others, and you are still..." Eilam smiles a little at that, "...still naive, from lack of experience. Experience I hope you... never get. But still. I... wanted to give you this."

    He didn't move, though, instead just opening his eyes to look at the ceiling. "Instead of protecting you forever, or trying to... stop you from being... exposed to danger, I want to ask you instead." Shifting a bit, Eilam pushes himself a little more upright and raises the hand enough to offer the box out towards her. "Will you let me try to keep you safe... however I can? As my partner?" Inside the box was a rather ornate, albeit archaicly-designed ring. "We will both be here forever, so... might as well start somewhere, right? Together? Even if not... love, or... something silly, partners, friends... perhaps family, if you so wish. "

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts a little as she listens and then he offers the box and she takes it into her hands and eyes it softly. Inside is a beautiful old ring as she seems to think over his words. He brings up lots of points- and she has to think about this. A hand does reach down to pick the ring from the box as she scrunitnizes it. Not out of some sense of trying to percive it's value- more- her and... jewerly don't have a good relationship. Seeing as how the first bit she ever bought herself turned her into a horrible darkness abomination of a vampire.

When she's settled on the decision that it isn't going to turn her into a super double vampire- she softly talks.

"You should know that I have Natsumi-chan. I am... fond...? of her. I can't. Really feel. Love." she says quietly. "She says she loves me. And I belive that." she says. "But she also won't be alive forever." she says. "She..maybe be. Magical? But. She is still mortal-- and I don't even know if I will 'change' physically. I feel that I should be able to, but well. I've only been this way for a year or so. That's obviously not long enough." she says.

She head tilts. "Family." she says. "I'd like that. I think." she says quietly. She gently pauses. "This ring is very old." she says quietly. "Is it.. yours?" she asks.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    "You... have someone? I am happy for you. And it is old... and was mine, yes. Now it is yours. A long time ago, I cared for another enough to... ask them to wed me. But when I shared my condition, to let them in wholly... they betrayed me. Out of fear, perhaps. Or something else." Eilam seemed to be smiling a little, but it wasn't hard to see he was sad. "I told myself that I would hold that, which was... meant to be for her... forever, remind myself not to... keep anyone around too long. But here... now..."

    His strength seemed to leave him again as his shoulders slumped a bit and he seemed to sink back against the couch again tiredly, "...maybe others exist... that I can... be safe with. Even if I... really am... dying now." A bit of a weak coughing laugh followed that. "Ironic, chasing death for hundreds of years, and now I am... a bit scared. Of finally... dying, without knowing if I... could have been happy all along."

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    "Lacrima... something is... wrong with me. Please... help me. ...somehow. I want to trust someone and not... suffer alone like this. I do not know... who else to ask."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns. "I do. But I am probably going to dissapoint her. Somehow." she says quietly. "Maybe..in the future?" she says softly. "I'm not going anywhere." she says softly. "Phsyically at least." she says.

She head tilts and frowns a bit as she shakes her head. "I don't think you're dying." she says softly. "You most certainly are in some sort of pain. But if you were going to die- you'd be dead already I think." she says. "With how long you've lived." she says.

She purses her lips a bit. "I.."

She frowns. "Do you trust me...?" she asks quietly.

"I can. Take you somewhere. For a day. And run. Tests. Now is even a good time , as.. the one who would demand--- readings- of you- is away in another country." she says. "Find out. If something is odd. I admit. It would be easier if I had a baseline. But. Maybe. You know. Things. I can compare readings against." she says quietly.

"I just can't bring the equipment here is all." she says. "Expensive." she insists.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    For a while, Eilam was silent. Though finally he managed to raise a hand and point, after opening his eyes a bit, towards the jewelry box with the ring in it. "I... gave you that... yes? That is... my trust. In you. I know you will not... betray it."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima nods. "Then... tommrow." she says. "Tommrow I'll take you...UMBRA Labs." she says. "It's where I work." she says. "There's equipment there. I won't keep you long there." she says. "It's not a hospital, but it's close." she says. "And I don't want you to feel too uncomfortable despite the good reason for being there." she says.

"-and I am not a scientist- but the one I'd ask to help me would ask too much from you in turn." she says. "I'd belive."

She gets up. "I'll take you to one of the Guest rooms for now." she says. "I need to. Prepare things now." she says quietly.

"I want to. Talk to you. More. About. Personal things." she admits quietly. "But right now I'm more concerned with this." she says quietly. "Okay?" she asks deadpan.

Eilam Hisakawa has posed:
    Eilams breathing seemed to get a bit harder again, but finally he managed to just nod and mumble, "Okay." The thought of going anywhere 'close' to a hospital terrified him in this condition, but he wanted to trust her... so there he was, taking a chance with this. Hoping it didn't turn into another set of memories that would haunt him forever, like other past mistakes have.