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 Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:09 pm
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She'd begun to try and treat it as a game. If she outran, outhid or outlasted him, maybe he would give up. Hollandaise was still frightened - there was a not-so-subtle air of malice that gleamed in his teeth and followed every footstep. But, if she pretended it was a game (and she was getting very good at pretending), she could get through her day. The nights were still beyond her; Hollandaise did not sleep very much anymore. She supposed there were moments when her tormentor slept, too, but they seemed irregular. During the night, she sat wide-eyed, hearing the scratches at her door. But during the day, she could pretend and run and fool herself just a little bit.
So that's exactly what she was doing.
Hollandaise checked shadows and took them before he could. She skirted corners and made sure not to enter rooms alone. There was a close call in one classroom and she had skittered away, sweat blossoming on her brow. Because she was so focused on avoiding, Hollandaise often neglected to look where she was going. She had already brushed uncomfortably close to several other students and-
...thump
-now she could count actually running into one on her list of inattentive blunders for today. She was so surprised that normally collected warder actually screamed.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 4:47 pm
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With the Help of Zaire, Jory was actually starting to come out of his shell a little. The afanc didn't look quite so hunched as he wandered around the school on his own, less skittish, less awkward. A lot more comfortable in his own skin. at least assuming everything was going well.
Which they were, until he was rather suddenly knocked right off his feet by a quickly moving body.
One that screamed.
Jory cringed, the color draining from her skin, as he snapped his head up to stare in wide-eyed horror at the ghoul that had run into him. "Jack, are you okay?!" Because somehow this was his fault, despite having been simply walking past, minding his own business.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:00 pm
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She looked at the boil, a thousand apologies begging to drip out of her mouth. Instead, her eyes glistened. When she wasn't moving, she felt the stress, the constant weight of her fear, on her back like a burden she could never loosen. Hollandaise breathed in noisily, her eyes darting to the shade behind the boil. The dark circles under them had not lightened recently, even with the occasional night spent out of her own dorm room.
"I'm t-terribly sorry; are you alright?" she said haltingly. And to her mortification, a tear rolled fatly down her cheek. She wiped it away with one quick hand, but stayed on the floor where she'd also fallen.
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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:25 pm
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"Oh no, please don't cry." Jory rose up on his knees, hands out and somewhere between beseeching and defending. He didn't have any clue how to deal with crying ghouls, and his anxiety level, already pretty high, shot through the roof. "I'm not hurt, it was an accident." There was a definite thread of panic to his voice. "It's okay. Don't cry."
The boil was at a lose, but he got to his feet, and offered a hand down to the poor ghoul.
Now he noticed it, the dark circles under her eyes, the tension that sang through her shoulders. Surely she hadn't gotten hurt just bumping into him, had she? "Are...are you alright?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:11 pm
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If Hollandaise had been a little less sleep-deprived and a little more in possession of her normal faciliates, she would have simply apologized and headed on her merry way. As it was, she stared up into Jory's distressed face, her own expressions mirroring his. With a distinct sniffle (she tried to hide it and was unsuccessful), she took the boil's hand and slowly straightened up.
"I'm sorry," she said lowly, suddenly finding the ground very interesting to look at. "It was entirely my fault. B-but... " She did not want to look up - an irrational fear had blossomed in her over the past weeks, that any shadows she did not have her eye on could contain someone who was, in essence, her stalker. He could be anywhere. "Could you do me a favor? Is there anyone around? Or, ah," she bit her lips, feeling supremely embarrassed,tired, and anxious all in one. "anything in the shadows?" She could not be collected at a time like this. If they saw her, her Elders would surely laugh.
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Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:17 pm
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Jory hovered around her nervously, hands up as if he were going to touch her arms, but afraid to. He didn't have a clue what to do in these sorts of situations, and usually he just shut down, retreated back into himself and waited until it passed before running off to find someplace to hide. Zaire's influence was helping. The Boil was anxious, but he was there, present.
The frown he wore turned distinct;y puzzled as she asked her favor, and he blinked, eyes turning to looking into the shadows near them. "Um..." It wa an odd request. "I guess so.. Just. Um. Just wait here." Now he'd pat her arm, a feather light touch that spoke volumes as to just how uncomfortable he was.
But he did look. Not the quick glance of someone simply trying to placate another person, but thorough, as if he actually expected to fins something. "I don't see anything..." He returned to her, fingers hooking together. apologetic that he hadn't managed to find the thing she'd wanted him to look for.
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Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:48 am
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'Be careful who you ask.'
Hollandaise wondered if a professor would just tell her to deal with it herself. The note from the Elders lay in her desk - she couldn't bring herself to throw it away. At least, not yet. It was a reminder that by coming here, she had somehow unknowingly renounced her past and would not gain it back ungil they determined she was ready. Every hysterical emotion she felt - the fear, the anger, every thud thud of her fear-born heart as she listened to the scrape of claws against her door - they were all markers of her weakness. Indicators of just how unreeady she was. And wasn't it funny (she tried to make herself laugh about it sometimes, and always failed) that a creature made to scare was afraid of another?
She gave Jory a tenative, shaky smile, vaguely sensing his unease. He was only trying to help. Her hands still twisted around each other in nerve-ridden circles and she forced them to stop, dropping them down to rest against her thighs. "The art teacher? Ah, why her? Though, thank you for your advice... I will consider it." Her golden eyes darted to each side of the boil.
Beejoux tbh I think we almost done? perhaps once more from each of us?
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Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 10:48 am
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That small smile was returned, because however anxious the boil felt, however much he felt ill-equipped to handle situations like these, he did care. Possibly more than he should. He'd only just met the ghoul, but to make that tight look leave her eyes, to see that smile brighten, he'd have done a great deal. It was just how Jory was, selfless to an extreme degree.
"Because she's very nice," he told her, remembering that class with fondness. "The nicest teacher I've met so far." There were some, he was sure, that might not take Hollendaise's problem seriously, and he would hate for her to go to them first, and be turned away. She seemed so distressed, it was almost painful for him to see.
Lips pursing thoughtfully, the boil glanced down the hall, then back again. "Arel, maybe, also? The Secretary?" Not as friendly, but he seemed to at least care about the students. Certainly he stressed about them.
"Do..do you want me to walk you to wherever you're going? I can help you keep an eye out for whoever is following you around?" Jory was not a knight in shining armor, but he could be an extra pair of eyes, at least.
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Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 4:15 pm
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"I don't know many teachers yet; I'm still pretty new here." She forced her hands to stop moving (although they still shook, just slightly), her back to straighten. The fact that she had been so weak as to ask for help appalled her on some level - this was why she was here. Hollandaise could not handle herself and her own issues. Weakness. But when she looked at Jory, she was thankful for him, just a bit; he had halted the slow spiraling game of shadow-watching. For now, at least.
Her mouth opened to refuse his offer, but she paused. In the game of weaknesses, what was one more tiny one? A drop of water in a pail. Hollandaise tucked a strand of hair behind one ear. One drop led to another and another and another until everything overflowed. It was enough. "I... I, no. No, but thank you. I will be alright - my destination is just a few rooms away. Your advice is useful and for that, I thank you." Suddenly, a full smile blossomed on her lips, a toothy smile.
"I will repay you sometime," she said, then began to dart down the hallway.
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