» Nothing Left To Say, Open

[Somerset Agrippa]

tag: Cole, Devon, others

place: the Hovel

time: Afternoon, August 7th

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

Black As Night, Black As Coal

The little miserable shack had never looked more like home than it did after he had decided to leave it.

He hadn't been there for nearly a week--he'd be hiding out in various places, afraid to be seen by anyone, friend or foe, and sort of afraid to come home. He had messed up this time, he knew, and badly. Surely Cole would be furious. There was no denying his crime, either; Grip had heard a newsie calling out the headline the morning after his fire, saying that four people had died. Everyone knew, and as soon as Cole saw his younger brother, he would know he was responsible for it. Grip's hair was stiff, his hands and face dirty with soot and ash, his entire person and all his clothing reeked of smoke, despite the fact that he'd tried to wash his clothes off in a stream in the Forest two nights ago. Maybe he was imagining that he smelled like smoke, but regardless of how he smelled, he knew he looked a mess.

There was no way to fix this, he knew. He'd run into Abbey a day ago, on the edges of the Slums--he hadn't meant to talk to her, but she'd seen him, and the tenacious little thing had followed him halfway through the Forbidden Forest to find out if it was really him, and so he'd had to tell her everything. She agreed that he was in a pretty bad place, but while he was talking to her, he'd actually found his solution.

He was leaving. With the circus. Not that he had any intention of being in the circus--he was enough of a freak as it was--but it was a good cover to leave under, and when he was surrounded by Carnies, no one would ask questions about him. He'd befriended one of the fire-eaters, and he thought if he asked the man would probably smuggle him out, so that was where he was going. With Abbey by his side. Neither of them had anything left in Hogsmeade, they'd realized.

Which meant it was time to say his goodbyes. Pushing his way into the little shack, he looked around tentatively for his brother. "Cole?"

thanks!

[Cole Agrippa]

After being out on the trail for so long, with no shelter, miserable company and all of the other dangers the woods had presented, Cole had never felt more at home in his little hovel of a house. It was slowly getting fixed, now that his wrist was healed and he had his earnings from the trail in his bank account, freshly opened after the trail had ended. Cole was not taking any chances and while it seemed odd for a man of the lower class to have a bank account, Cole had plans and he didn't want anybody to change them. It wasn't as if he didn't trust Grip... well, no, not with money in the house.

Speaking of his little brother, he hadn't seen Grip around lately, but he'd been acting strange, even stranger than usual. Cole felt guilty because he had been gone so long, leaving Grip to his own devices. Which wasn't always a good thing. Merlin only knew what he had done to himself to get those scars... Cole had a vague idea that underage magic was involved, but when he approached Grip about it, he hand't gotten any clear answers. Eventually he just stopped asking altogether, but his little brother was starting to worry him. Ever since he'd been kicked out of school things had gone downhill. Cole had been pushing so hard for Grip to finish school and the kid hardly had two years left to go and while Cole didn't blame Grip for getting kicked out for something he didn't do, if the boy had just minded his manners a little better, the whole situation probably could have been avoided.

Still, there was nothing he could do about the past now, all he could do was look forward and hope he could make a better future for the two of them. Cole sat at their very rickety, make-shift kitchen table, make of a barrel and piece of scrap wood, a cup of cold tea in his hands, preferring it that way in the summer heat. The afternoon light filtered through their open windows, casting a strange half-light into the house. Soon most people would be turning on their gas lamps, but since the Agrippas couldn't afford such a luxury, they were quite used to the house being dark. As Cole sat there, his ears perked up as he heard his name. Funny, considering he'd just been wondering where Grip was at this hour.

However, as soon as he got a look at his kid brother, he knew something was off and very, very wrong. "What on Earth have you been doing? Where have you been?" He stared, open-mouthed at Grip's appearance, the guilty look on his face and the smell of smoke lingering on his skin.

[Somerset Agrippa]

tag: Cole, Others

place: The Hovel

time: August 7

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

Black As Night, Black As Coal

It was an odd sensation to feel that his eyes were heavy, but there was no other explanation for their continuously falling down to the floor. He was trying to look at Cole, he really was. What sort of goodbye would it be if he didn't even get to see his brother? Still, he could manage nothing more than a fleeting glance before looking back down at his shoes--or rather, looking at his feet and remembering he was barefoot. Not a terribly big deal in the summer, but sooner or later Cole would ask where those boots had gotten to.

Or rather, Cole wouldn't ask, because Cole wouldn't get to see Grip when it started getting colder. And maybe, if luck decided to find him again, Grip might be somewhere a bit warmer by the time the rest of the "good kids" went off to school. Maybe Italy, where all those rich people went for their health. Maybe Australia, where they sent the convicts. Now that was an idea.

Cole had asked him a question, he realized, and one he hadn't found words yet to answer. Where had he been, what had he been doing?

Cole hadn't pressed him about his scars. Maybe if Grip was vague enough, he wouldn't press him about the smell of smoke and the soot still caught in pieces of his hair... No, that would never work. Cole was really understanding, the best big brother a kid could ask for, but he didn't understand everything. Not even Cole would understand this.

"Startin' a fire," he answered, his voice half a mumble. "Used up my las' match."

thanks!

[Cole Agrippa]

Cole could not help but to notice just how guilty Grip looked at this moment in time. The tell tale signs being the fact that his brother would not look at him when he spoke. Cole liked to think he had done the best he could in helping to raise his brother. It was hard when he was constantly working, trying to make enough money to keep them afloat, alive. It left quite a bit of time, especially in the summer when Grip was not in school and Cole could not keep a constant eye on him, leaving him up to his own devices.

"Starting a fire?" Cole questioned, eyebrows raised, trying very hard not to get angry with Grip. He had very rarely been truly angry with his brother. Now however, that Grip was old enough to realize just what he was doing, Cole had higher expectations. Taking a calming breath, trying not to sound as tired and weary as he was, Cole knew he only had himself to blame. Had he just tried harder, pushed Grip harder to do better in school, not to fool around as much, that perhaps his brother would still be going to Hogwarts in the fall. With his reward for completing the Hogsmeade trail, Cole would have finally been able to give Grip some new school supplies, new robes that fit properly instead of his old ones.

"Why, why would you waste matches like that?" Matches were expensive, hard to come by and while Cole had finally gotten starting a fire down with his wand, it had taken a while and having the matches as back up was comforting. Cole could not always count on his wand, he could however, count on striking a match. He sighed, controlling his voice yet again as it attempted to betray just what he was feeling. "You need to use your head, to think about what you are doing. There have been rumors running around town of an arsonist. You're going to land yourself in jail." It was hard for him not to rant at his brother, to yell, to tell him he was being childish, but he just couldn't. It wasn't fair to yell at Grip because he failed to instill the right messages in his brother. "You cannot be so careless." He said finally, knowing now that it was most likely his brother behind all of the fires in town. "You need to have control."

[Somerset Agrippa]

tag: Cole, Others

place: The Hovel

time: August 7

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

Black As Night, Black As Coal

When Cole said starting a fire, Grip almost broke down and just gushed the whole thing. And why not? Cole would have to know it all sooner or later, anyway. He owed his older brother at least that much before he left, he knew. Cole had done so much for him, so he was at least owed the truth.

He was almost relieved that Cole's focus was on the matches, instead of what Grip had burned with them. The answer to that one was easy. "I like fire," he said, his voice smooth and quiet. "I wanted to see something burn. Makes the night feel less lonely." He didn't know why Cole cared so much about the matches; Cole was old enough to use magic, and it was easy to start a fire with magic. Grip could do it, simply enough; it never occurred to him that perhaps Cole couldn't, and he had never seen his brother struggling with matches, or with his second-year knowledge of magic. Cole was careful to hide such things.

More confident by half now that he had found his voice and answered one of Cole's questions, Grip tentatively ventured out, "Well, they won't be looking for the arsonist for much longer. I heard he's skipping town."

thanks!

[Cole Agrippa]

Wasting matches, a fondness for watching things burn, now he knew it was his little brother that had started the fire that had almost burnt down half of Bartonburg. He should have known better. He hated to say it, but ever since Grip had been expelled from Hogwarts everything had just gone downhill. School, despite the fact that his brother did not exactly enjoy it, it was the best place for him. Cole had not gotten the chance to get very far and he pushed Grip to be better, but apparently that was not enough.

Cole sighed and put his head in his hands for a moment, thinking. There was really nothing he could do at this point. Everything was said and done and he supposed he would rather see Grip get out of Hogsmeade than land in jail. Not without a little brotherly advice however.

In having always been a mostly selfless person, Cole found it so hard to believe that his brother was so selfish. Cole had given up hi education to provide for them. He worked several jobs, none of which made much money because he wasn't qualified to do any real work, because he had no education and he had just survived the damn expansion expedition to come home to this? Cole was not in want in much in life, despite the fact that that many would only see the poor, impoverished man with little to call his own. Cole found himself to be luckier than many of the other slum rats. They at least had a hovel to call their own, it provided enough shelter to keep them warm in the winter. He had a steady income now that he was working at the post office and though he often had to deal with a cranky Lucinda, it was nice to have enough money regularly buy food. Not to mention since his successful return from the Trail, he was now a landowner and he could sell that to make more money. Cole had no idea what he was saving up for, but it was nice to have a savings at least.

"What's your plan?" He asked, running his hands through his shaggy hair and looking up again at his brother. The kid had probably best leave the country if he wanted to avoid jail time. People had died after all.

[Somerset Agrippa]

tag: Cole, Others

place: The Hovel

time: August 7

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

Black As Night, Black As Coal

Grip watched Cole carefully, and he could see the moment when the realization of what Grip had done hit him. He watched it soak through his features and Grip felt like he could almost see what Cole was thinking, and none of it was very good. There were people, he knew, that could use magic to read other people's thoughts, and sometimes Grip had thought that this was a pretty useful talent and could have come in handy. Times like this, though, he knew he would never need it; he didn't need magic to know that Cole was wondering where he had gone wrong, which only made Grip feel terribly uncomfortable. Nothing Cole had done was wrong, Grip was just bad, bad to the core and no amount of schooling, like Cole had tried to give him, or skill teaching, like he'd gotten from Devon, or money from the Flamels or nice clothes or hand-made scarves from Elsie would ever make him less bad. He'd taken every chance he had and ruined it somehow, without ever meaning to ruin anything at all.

"I'm leavin' with the circus," Grip said quietly, looking down at his toes to avoid having to meet Cole's eyes. "I got a friend who'll smuggle me in, and then I'll be outta Hogsmeade. That's the hardest part, I think," he reasoned. Yes, once he was out of Hogsmeade, no one would be looking for him, so he would be free to roam where he would--well, within reason. Two underaged magical thieves, one with a hobbled leg and the other with clumsy fingers... yes, they'd go far, those two.

Still, Grip had managed to not starve to death his whole life so far, and he didn't expect to start changing that habit anytime soon. "I'll fit in with the carnival freaks, heh? Nah even my school chums'll be able to pick me out, I bet," he joked, but his tone was rather hollow and his laughter even more empty than his words.

thanks!

[Cole Agrippa]

It seemed at least the Grip realized too that getting out was his only choice and he had thought the action through. Getting out of town when you ha no money was not exactly easy, or so he assumed. Unless you were planning to just walk away, like they had been forced to do on the Hogsmeade trail. It wasn't exactly the best way to travel in his opinion. At least he'd be with the carnival and would most likely get to wherever the carnival landed next, safely.

Cole nearly reached across and slapped his brother when he joked, joked about the whole thing. It must have been written clear on his face however, even though he restrained himself. Very few times in his life had he ever thought of striking another person, but he felt so hopeless and frustrated.

The last thing Cole wanted was for them to separate on bad terms. "Do you need anything?" He questioned, figuring it was the only thing he could do for his brother at this point. He had some spare cash and if Grip desperately needed something, something reasonable, then he'd try to make it happen. While he didn't approve of this whole thing it really was beyond his control at this point and Cole hated the feeling. He hated feeling helpless and useless. He'd be all alone with Grip gone and while the two were hardly ever in the house at the same time, they weren't ever really alone. They could depend on one another and that would never change. Now though, Cole would be doing everything truly on his own and that was not a prospect he was looking forward to.

Unsure of what else to say, lest things turn into an argument, Cole waited a beat wondering if his brother had anything else to add.

[Somerset Agrippa]

tag: Cole, Others

place: The Hovel

time: August 7

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

Black As Night, Black As Coal

The boy frowned when his older brother asked if he needed anything. Like what? The one thing that immediately came to mind was matches, more matches, I used my last one, but he knew better than to say that. Cole was on the edge right now, he could see it--he was on the edge of insanity, really. If Grip pushed him over the edge, this could turn from a rational conversation into a fist fight and a shouting match, neither of which Grip wanted.

"I'll get by fine," he said after an uncertain moment. "Always do 'n always have." Which was true; he'd been on the streets his whole life. Their mother, when she had been alive, was honestly more of an emotional drain on the two boys than anything, since in the last days she didn't bring in much money whoring. Sure, the brothers were there for each other--but Grip had managed to survive for half a year without Cole, when he was at school and Grip was no more than a toddler, practically. If he could survive six months in London when he could barely talk, he was surely capable of taking care of himself now. Even with the scars and the slight limp and the shaky left hand.

"'Sides, I'll have Abbey," he said quietly. "We'll find something. Maybe even 'spectable work, if we kin," he said, but didn't have much hope of that. Grip had never been half as good at anything legal as he had been at stealing, and even if he wanted to turn over a new leaf, no upper-class houses wanted servants with a face like his, and no labor jobs wanted gimps. If he wanted respectable work, maybe he really ought to just stay on as a freak.

"I kin stay here 'till I go, can't I?" he asked hopefully. "I'll lay low, promise. I won't leave the house or nuthing, but it's better than the woods. Jus' fer a day or two."

thanks!

[Cole Agrippa]

Abbey was going too.

Well that made sense, Cole supposed. His brother and the girl he considered to be a sister were planning on gallivanting off to foreign countries together. Well wasn't that just lovely. It was a relief Abbey was going too, at least one of them could keep their heads on straight, at least he was hoping so. At least they could depend on one another. Those two had always been close and would be alright if they stuck together. That was comforting at least. Cole still wasn't pleased that they had to go, but the did have to and there was nothing to be done about it.

When Grip asked if he could stay here, Cole almost fell out of his chair. This was his house too, whether or not he chose to use it most of the time. Why his brother never came home was beyond him. Cole had given up long ago on trying to figure his brother out. It didn't stop him from worrying, like the whole hospitalization thing.

"Sure, it's probably a good idea, you know you can always come here." Cole said finally. He was curious to know why his brother didn't come more often and was torn between asking and letting it go. He was again unsure what would start a row and he didn't want them to leave one another on bad terms. He knew he wouldn't be able to handle it, the guilt would eat him alive. Not to mention he wasn't even sure he really wanted to know what his brother was up to when he wasn't home. It wasn't apparently very good, considering he had lit half of Bartonburg this last time. That was so disappointing and he known Grip was turning into a pyromaniac, he would have demanded he come home more often and kept better tabs on him.

Hindsight was 20/20.

"There's bread and cheese in the kitchen." He offered his brother. He had no idea what else to say at this point. Picking a fight was not an option. It just wasn't and even though there were things Cole wanted to get off his chest, he would just talk to the walls like he usual did after Grip left.

[Somerset Agrippa]

tag: Cole, Others

place: The Hovel

time: August 7

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

Black As Night, Black As Coal

Grip nodded eagerly when Cole said he could stay. He didn't have anywhere else to go, unless he went to the little shack he'd built for the gang, but then he would have to talk to his gang mates and they'd want to know where he was and where he was going. He didn't really mind telling them, except he didn't know if all of them would be able to keep their mouths shut long enough for him to get out of town. His plan was perfect, unless someone in law enforcement got a tip-off that the arsonist was trying to sneak out with the caravan.

When he was younger, Grip had always known that Cole and he would be able to stay together, brothers, no matter what happened, so coming home had been the logical choice. No matter what, though, was sort of vague, and burning down Bartonburg was a pretty big deal, and Grip had been seized with some doubt as to whether Cole would still be on his side... even after all that. When his brother offered him some food, though, Grip knew that nothing had really changed after all.

"Thanks," he said, a rare genuine smile finding his face. He ducked around the corner of a makeshift furniture piece to search for the victuals Cole had mentioned. He wouldn't eat them all--he'd only take a nibble now and then break off a little chunk to take when he left--but he'd been in the woods for days and cheese sounded really good. Finding them, he took the tiniest piece of cheese in his hand and started to nibble on it, then looked back at Cole.

"You're a good brother," he told him, looking at Cole's feet. "Better'n I deserve. Thanks... fer everything," he said, and, abandoning the food, reached out and wrapped his arms around his older brother in what might have been the first hug the two had shared since they'd been toddlers huddling together for warmth. I'll miss you most, Grip thought, but didn't want to say out loud. That was enough mushy stuff for a while, after all.

thanks!