César Salazar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pineapplesalmon) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
myicebox2016-06-09 03:09 pm
pineapplesalmon) wrote in myicebox2016-06-09 03:09 pm
Zaknafein Do'Urden and Caesar Salazar Meet. And are immediate bros!
When Caesar wasn't at work doing science, he was at home doing science. There were limits to how many of his ideas that he wanted to hand over to his workplace. Not only were there so many rules and procedures that simply got in the way, but he wanted to retain ownership of the more interesting ideas at his disposal. So that took them to the here and now.
Caesar wanted to play with viewing other universes, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to get approval to do it from his boss. He also didn't want a corporation to take the technology and use it for financial gain. No, this was a purely scientific endeavor. It was important that it remained so. Mind you, he knew there was a risk of his company being angry enough to put him out of a job after he published the paper on this, but he'd be able to find another job easily, considering his skill set. They'd likely pay him even more.
Not that he wasn't paid well now--he was, judging by how his apartment was furnished fairly nicely. It was all mostly normal furniture, chosen for utility (how comfy, multipurpose) over design. It geared mostly towards the modern, but the couch was definitely a big green monstrosity of a thing with poofy seats, backs, and armrests.
Two bedrooms. One bedroom was his, and the other was being used as his lab. He'd at least covered the floor with a protective covering so that it wouldn't get ruined (too much). This was where he was now. Nice hardwoods and crown molding in a bedroom where a Murphy bed was up against the wall in case he had guests. (Mostly so he could sleep in this room instead.)
It was pretty high up, on the eighth floor of an apartment building overlooking a still somewhat busy street. It was Friday evening, and it meant Caesar could work out the bugs on his new toy all weekend instead of go out and be social like normal people. Which his therapist probably would have preferred, really. But Caesar was happy now. Maybe a little lonely, but he chatted with Rex regularly, and both visited at least a few times a year.
But that was an aside that Caesar was not even thinking about at the moment, and would probably be snippy with the narrator if he had any idea about her existence. Right now, he was focused on peering into other universes, mostly because he could, partially because he wanted to prove some of his theories, and a very slight, but more pressing than he would like, need to prove one of his coworkers wrong.
The system was fairly simple: a console hooked up to a server rack, both hooked up to the a metal doorway with various doohickeys on the inside of it to create and maintain the gateway to another world. I also had some more equipment in the front of the doorway to create a force field that would block anything trying to come through. It was all along one wall of the room, opposite the bed.
He was finally ready to switch it on. It was either going to work or cause their part of the universe to implode if he got his calculations wrong. Oh well, c'est la vie.
It was a simple boot sequence, all started by a big red button that Caesar had installed in the console because he found it funny. Everything hummed to life at once, and Caesar tried to keep a grin off his face. Each check and test passed one by one as the sequence went through all of them, and then the portal itself fired up, followed by the blue force field a second later.
Suddenly, Caesar was peering into darkness through the portal as it stabilized. He frowned a bit. It was theoretically working, but... It was pitch black. Nothing. No light at all.
And that's when his machine finally caused the power to dip for a moment, and the UPS for the force field failed, causing it to hum and fizzle out of existence. Caesar stared at the portal, dumbstruck.
"... That wasn't supposed to happen."
Caesar wanted to play with viewing other universes, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to get approval to do it from his boss. He also didn't want a corporation to take the technology and use it for financial gain. No, this was a purely scientific endeavor. It was important that it remained so. Mind you, he knew there was a risk of his company being angry enough to put him out of a job after he published the paper on this, but he'd be able to find another job easily, considering his skill set. They'd likely pay him even more.
Not that he wasn't paid well now--he was, judging by how his apartment was furnished fairly nicely. It was all mostly normal furniture, chosen for utility (how comfy, multipurpose) over design. It geared mostly towards the modern, but the couch was definitely a big green monstrosity of a thing with poofy seats, backs, and armrests.
Two bedrooms. One bedroom was his, and the other was being used as his lab. He'd at least covered the floor with a protective covering so that it wouldn't get ruined (too much). This was where he was now. Nice hardwoods and crown molding in a bedroom where a Murphy bed was up against the wall in case he had guests. (Mostly so he could sleep in this room instead.)
It was pretty high up, on the eighth floor of an apartment building overlooking a still somewhat busy street. It was Friday evening, and it meant Caesar could work out the bugs on his new toy all weekend instead of go out and be social like normal people. Which his therapist probably would have preferred, really. But Caesar was happy now. Maybe a little lonely, but he chatted with Rex regularly, and both visited at least a few times a year.
But that was an aside that Caesar was not even thinking about at the moment, and would probably be snippy with the narrator if he had any idea about her existence. Right now, he was focused on peering into other universes, mostly because he could, partially because he wanted to prove some of his theories, and a very slight, but more pressing than he would like, need to prove one of his coworkers wrong.
The system was fairly simple: a console hooked up to a server rack, both hooked up to the a metal doorway with various doohickeys on the inside of it to create and maintain the gateway to another world. I also had some more equipment in the front of the doorway to create a force field that would block anything trying to come through. It was all along one wall of the room, opposite the bed.
He was finally ready to switch it on. It was either going to work or cause their part of the universe to implode if he got his calculations wrong. Oh well, c'est la vie.
It was a simple boot sequence, all started by a big red button that Caesar had installed in the console because he found it funny. Everything hummed to life at once, and Caesar tried to keep a grin off his face. Each check and test passed one by one as the sequence went through all of them, and then the portal itself fired up, followed by the blue force field a second later.
Suddenly, Caesar was peering into darkness through the portal as it stabilized. He frowned a bit. It was theoretically working, but... It was pitch black. Nothing. No light at all.
And that's when his machine finally caused the power to dip for a moment, and the UPS for the force field failed, causing it to hum and fizzle out of existence. Caesar stared at the portal, dumbstruck.
"... That wasn't supposed to happen."
/quietly destroys you
It was more than just a touch, but the most tender of touches that the young drow has never known. Full of emotion, so blatantly showing him affection in a way that Zaknafein had never had before. In a way that Zaknafein, and Drizzt, had never felt safe enough to express before. Even the hug in the gym, when Zak had realized Drizzt had survived the Academy, had been short and intense.
The touch had been more tender than anything Drizzt has experienced in his young life and that Zak had ever dared showed. That, more than any words Zaknafein had said, drove home the fact that they were at last free from that wretched place. It was overwhelming, and for the first time in years, Drizzt not only saw his vision blurring but felt the hot wetness of tears rolling down his cheeks. He had thought the ability to cry had been beaten out of him many years ago by snake-headed whips, but it suddenly came back with force and without any control. In this place, in this new place, Drizzt knows that, as with showing affection, that it is safe to cry.
Even as a lump welled in his throat, Drizzt's heart soared free with a rare and often fleeting emotion--hope.
Drizzt's expression only crumples when Zak isn't looking at him, the tears, silent, only streak across his cheeks when the other elf is looking at the human, but he can't hide the sounds of it forever. He certainly can't hide it from the human, whom is now staring at him with softened eyes. Drizzt's breath hitches and he shudders a gasp for a moment of breath, trying to control the swirl of emotions within him. The young drow brings a hand over his father's, gripping it tightly with trembling fingers.
His father's wounds need to be dealt with, first and foremost, and this Drizzt knows, but one thought overrules everything, striking like a bell at the very core of Drizzt's being; he chokes on a whisper, managing to wrench back some control: "We're free."
quietly destroys own character as well
Caesar keeps focused on his work, cleaning the area around the wound so that it is free of blood and he can get a better view of it. The wound is deep and nasty, but not likely fatal unless it gets infected. If his memories about anatomy serve him right--which they do--then no major blood vessels are present in that area.
He knows what is next and necessary, although he doesn't want to think of it quite yet. When he removes the wood, the wound will have to be immediately packed to stop the flow of blood. Thankfully, he's got a toy for that, but that will only be good for the sort term. Long term, it will need to be properly treated.
Caesar looks up to Zaknafein to see how he's handling it, but his attention immediately turns to Drizzt. The drow seems to have been affected greatly, emotion overwhelming him to tears. It's intensity is enough to pull away Caesar from his current task, no small feat, and his eyes soften as he watches the emotional elf try to keep his emotions controlled as much as he can.
His eyes slowly slide over to Zak, jerking his head and gaze towards Drizzt to indicate the crying elf, his voice as gentle as the expression on his face. "Drizzt is crying."
Caesar stands, pulling the medical kit aside so that there is room for a shuffle of positions; he will work on the wound from Zaknafein's side if Zak chooses to face Drizzt, which Caesar expects he will. Perhaps he will not, but if not for Caesar's task that currently occupies his mind, he knows what that expression across Drizzt's face would do to him. He's never seen a face so mixed with pain and hope, not since after the time he was shot and reunited with the Hamadas so many years ago.
No matter what, he needs to keep these two elves safe--and he knows that the Hamadas, and everyone else close to him--will agree.
cruel and unusual you are
Drizzt is so much like himself, yet so much more than he could have ever hoped to be.
Zak had only turned away because of the business with his wound, knowing that while it's not going to be fatal on it's own, it still needs to be cared for. He trusts Caesar, but he's only capable of so much, especially when it comes to a stranger. The human has proved himself, but he views the world through a thick layer if ingrained paranoia that he's not even aware of because it's such a normal, natural thing.
The older drow's keen ears alert him to his son's apparent distress before Caesar makes mention of it, and he snaps himself around while giving little thought to his injury.
He's seen drow cry before, but not like this. Drow cry out of frustration and anger, or fear and desperation. He's never known a drow that could feel sadness enough to cry, let alone spill tears filled with such hope and emotions so seldom seen he can hardly recognize them. It makes his heart swell and his own eyes start to burn, but he keeps himself in control.
Again, there's his natural instinct to try and help the boy hide his tears. Weakness is dangerous and it could end him in even worse pain, but when he hears those two, sweet but heavy words, he lets it all fall away. Instead he lifts a hand to cup the boy's cheek, wiping a tear away with his thumb and leaning in close to rest their foreheads together, repeating the words to make them seem more solid and real.
"We are free."
:] I take pride in my cruelity.
Zaknafein returning his words shake him to his core, but also build it back up. There's a future for them, quite suddenly, that isn't simply surviving together through a horrible, crazy world. But what sort of world is this? It cannot be worse than the one that they just left, and Drizzt knows that from the short time on the surface, much of what he was told about the other races are likely lies.
He wrestles back his ability to breathe, although the tears would still blur his vision if his eyes were open. Drizzt lets himself be comforted by his father. It's not the first time Zak has touched him in such a way, and Drizzt already knows that it will not be the last. He swallows past the lump in his throat to speak again.
"I shall be fine," Drizzt reassures him. "Your wound must be tended."
*cruelty, because I'm too lazy to log back into his journal to fix it
Since Zak isn't in any danger of dying immediately, he'll give them a minute or two before interrupting again. They need whatever they're talking about right now. It's too important to interrupt, and even Caesar can see that.