Aerin Thomas: Several moments of silence, before footsteps come up to the door, and then it opens. Aerin looks out briefly, looking Rei over before offering a smile. "Hey, Rei. How are you?"

Valerii Raven: "I'm alright. You?" Not caught out in the much-dreaded open, he seems perfectly calm.

Aerin Thomas: "I'm...okay, I guess. Bare mimimum of crises at the moment" He shrugs and smiles, opening the door for the other. "Come on in. Get you something?"

Valerii Raven: "No. If I need anything, I can get it." He frowns just slightly. "I brought you-Bliss mentioned-this is all very complicated. Here. You'll pehaps want this. I know you've little time and he's hopeless with anything actually practicaly useful." He offers an oversize manilla envelope to Aerin.

Aerin Thomas: He blinks a couple times, and takes the envelope from Rei...the false starts having him curious and a little wierd. "Okay." He nods a little bit, and opens it up to look inside.

Valerii Raven: Inside are normal sized manilla envelopes, each with information, including printed out glossy pictures and sketches. The sketches vary from quick idea sketches of a room, or a tree, or a shovel leaning on the well cover, to fuller views in detail. Six different properties in all, no less than ten acres to property, mostly farmhouses with barns and a good amount of space.

Aerin Thomas: He blinks, looking them over, and then looks up at Rei, surprised and gratefully smiling. "Wow...thank you, Rei. I...damn. This is awesome...I appreciate it, really."

Valerii Raven: "I swear this city lacks properly trained kin." He shakes his head with a faint smile. "Or you'd act less astounded. But you're welcome, it was no trouble. All of them want to settle as soon as possible, as in, within days if possible. If whatever you and Bliss have to throw together won't make a downpayment, I'll fill in the rest."

Aerin Thomas: "Downpayment shouldn't be a problem at all. Just have to decide." He smiles a little bit. "Really, though...I do appreciate it. Takes a load off of my mind...and any load off this poor overstacked pea of a brain I've got is a serious help."

Valerii Raven: He reaches out to touch Aerin's arm lightly. "That is why you have kin. Most of us would not last more than a moment caught in your place in the war. But we can keep that to be the only thing you need worry over."

Aerin Thomas: He smiles a bit and shurgs. "Well, it is appreciated. Thank you." He looks down at the information, still obviously blown away by it, then back up. "You sure you don't want to come in? Haven't seen you in a while...it would be nice to just talk."

Valerii Raven: "I can come in, if you'd like. Shall I make tea? Coffee?"

Aerin Thomas: He opens his mouth to offer to get it himself, but then stops from doing so. "I'm fine...if you'd like some, feel free." He steps aside, to allow Rei entrance, and closes the door after. "How have you been?"

Valerii Raven: "Alright. I think I've grown far too easily acclimated to living with Mercury to suit my mother, but I've not done that for years now, so it's no matter." He's not bothered by his relationship, or lack of one, with Maia. "You?"

Aerin Thomas: "Busy." He sighs, making his way to the couch to sit down. He's already got a glass of scotch there. "I've got...I think four or five projects I'm working on. Various stages of completion. But it's keeping me busy. Busy is good."

Valerii Raven: "Well, if you do need anything, you know how to find me." He does start making tea, perfectly familiar with where pretty much everything in the kitchen is. "What happens when you aren't busy?"

Aerin Thomas: "The earth rotates backwards, the sky turns orange, people start speaking in tongues, and my back will finally uncoil itself?" He smirks a little bit and takes a drink off his glass.

Valerii Raven: "Ah." He slips onto the countertop to get into one og the upper cabinets. "That would be traumatic."

Aerin Thomas: "Likely," he says with a nod. "It would be nice, but it's not going to happen any time soon, so I just roll with the punches as best I can."

Valerii Raven: "You really should learn to take some time. Not even huge amounts of it. An hour here or there."

Aerin Thomas: "I do have a few minutes every now and then. I try to spend them with Bliss, or with Michelle and help her...or with Kaeleigh, for the same purpose."

Valerii Raven: "Whoa there, tiger, helping people isn't resting...."

Aerin Thomas: A slight shrug of his shoulders. "I dunno. It doesn't seem like it...but that's rewarding to me. It's...relaxing, to help people out. I really...can't explain it. Maybe it's just a comparitive thing...it's easier then, say, breaking into a Wyrm chemical factory or trying to spy on people I probably shouldn't, or...whatever. But it helps, it seems. Them and me."

Valerii Raven: "I didn't say it didn't help. Just that you might need time that is just not taken up by doing something." He drops lightly back to the floor with a box in his hands. "Which is different."

Aerin Thomas: "Yeah, but what would I do, then? Watch TV? Sit in the Park?" He shrugs. "I'd be going nuts."

Valerii Raven: "Get a massage. Read a book. Garden. Cook. Knit. Tai Ch'i. Zen Garden. Get a facial. Doesn't matter. Everyone needs time to decompress."

Aerin Thomas: "Soon enough. After all of this Magadon shit is over with, I can bring my daughter back down from Gaia's Hand. That'll help."

Valerii Raven: Rei huffs softly and throws a potholder at Aerin's head.

Aerin Thomas: He looks over and smiles a bit, letting the thing bounce off of him. "What? Some shit won't wait, Rei. I can't just ask the Poisoned Heart pack of Spirals 'I'm sorry, we need to take a time out so I can make my way through the latest Palahniuk novel. Go catch a movie...I'm sure you could use a break, too.'" He grins. "Unless you think that would work..."

Valerii Raven: "Oh, I dunno, I think if you got Bliss to do it in full theatrical form he'd have at least two of them on the round before they'd quite figured out what was happening." He grins back. "But like you meant, no. Not exactly. However, like you mean, there will never be time." He shrugs. "Burned out Garou are thess than half as effective, however, and Harano is brutal."

Aerin Thomas: The grin fades a little bit, and he nods. "I'm not going into Harano, Rei. Trust me. Not a concern."

Valerii Raven: "I don't believe any of the Garou I ever spoke to in Harano intended to go there."

Aerin Thomas: "I've felt myself on the edge." He sets his glass down, his voice softening a bit. Quieter. "Didn't know it until later. I've seen others on the edge. That's not me right now."

Valerii Raven: He nods and pours two cups of tea, walking over to set one gently in front of Aerin. "Good to know. If it helps, you're not the one here I truly worry will go mad." He sits down with his cup of tea.

Aerin Thomas: He looks from the tea to Rei, nodding a little. "Yeah. Me, neither." His expression is warm, but definite lines of concern there when they venture onto this topic.

Valerii Raven: "So, who are you worried about?"

Aerin Thomas: "In this city, or in this house?"

Valerii Raven: "In general."

Aerin Thomas: "You got several hours?" He gives a weak smile. "Let's see. Bliss. Michelle. Ethan. Tori. Dante. Andy. Alex. Tony. Surly. Dara. Joshua. Morgane. Lucien. Caroline. Stephen. Nathaniel. Liam. And that's just for starters."

Aerin Thomas: ((Throw Kristjan in there too, after Dante. ))

Valerii Raven: "Well, my housemate does not make the list, I must have accomplished something." He chuckles. "Bliss...I love him, and I know you must, but his fate I think is his own more than anyone's now. And whether he can learn to live without someone present to be the voice of Thunder whispering her orders to him...." He smiles. "I do not fear for him. He's stronger than that. The others...I do not know. Save Stephen, a bit."

Aerin Thomas: "Who do you worry for, then?"

Valerii Raven: "I do worry that he'll go mad in the end. I can't help it. He's almost entirely someone else now, from who he was when I lived with him. I worry for who he used to be I think, lost in what he's pretending to be and what he thinks he must become."

Aerin Thomas: He leans back in the couch, his jawline coming to rest in an upturned hand. "That's...I think that's what I'm worried about, too. I think."

Valerii Raven: "Watever he is, will be brilliant. But there is a part of me that will be disappointed if I lose the boy I grew up with to time and to destiny, no matter how wonderful it may be." He doesn't have that same concept of destiny though, he simply means it in a far more mundane sense.

Aerin Thomas: "I understand." He nods a bit, smiling sadly. "I...don't know. I hope I'm doing right. I really do."

Valerii Raven: "It's not about you. He has to realise who he is. You and I cannot do that for him. We can love him. But we cannot save him."

Aerin Thomas: "I know. Won't stop me from trying."

Valerii Raven: "I'm glad he found you."

Valerii Raven: [And...almost ready. Cut them here? *cuddles close and nuzzles* Love you.]