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 Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:14 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 12:47 am
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Leo had only just returned to Amityville before hearing of the new alumni mentorships. It was the sort of thing that, before being an Initiate, she would have instantly jumped to get in on. Now... she sometimes wondered if she even knew what she wanted anymore.
But she needed something to take up her time. Something to focus on, other than school and the things that brought. Something that gave her a sense of purpose, or even just a sense of doing something, moving forward. And maybe sometimes the way forward was the way backwards, back to the person she'd been before the whole mess with killing humans started.
She hoped so, at least. She'd give anything to be able to go back to that ghoul
But that wasn't really an option, so the only things left were to either attempt to move forward or continue to wallow in her own guilt. The latter was tempting, but she owed the former to all the creeple she loved - staying stagnant in her current frame of mind wasn't doing anyone any favours.
Which was why she'd decided to try out this mentorship thing after all, she told herself in her mental peptalk as she arrived at the meeting point to find someone already waiting there.
"Hello?" Approaching, Leo attempted a smile. The result was rather wan, but it was definitely there, "I'm Leo - are you Hel?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 9:02 am
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As someone started to draw closer to her, Hel perked up. She pushed herself off the reaper garden wall, and a light grin tugged at her lips. Once Leo was most certainly heading in her direction, that's when Hel immediately began to evaluate her. She looked sort of familiar, and while it was possible she could have passed her on campus, she felt like she had seen her elsewhere too. Hrm. Oh well. Might as well just keep it as a fresh start.
"Ya!" Hel replied, and held out a hand to the ghoul to shake. "I am Hel, your mentor!" She grinned a bit now. "A pleasure, Leo!" What the ghoul also probably didn't know, was that Hel was waiting for the handshake as another character judge of sorts.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 11:56 am
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Hel wasn't going to say 'it was no problem' just yet. She had yet to see what she was working with. That was part of the fun though. The unknown. As Leo took her hand and gave it a nice firm shake, Hel was pleased. Good first impression. This was definitely gonna be good, and just by that handshake Hel could tell she had a good student she was going to work with. The reaper returned the firm handshake, and her grin widened.
She released the ghoul's hand, turned around, and then leapt, pulling herself up and onto the tall stone wall of the reaper dorm gardens. She took a seat on top, letting her legs dangle over the side, and then patted the spot next to her.
"So I will be teaching you a battle technique to raise your offense, ya, but as a mentorship I believe you should be getting more out of it...so..." She swung her feet a bit, still grinning. "Tell me about yourself! Where you came from, why you are here at Amityville for, what you want to accomplish, your plans after school...what you want..."
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 1:12 pm
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Things had been going well, she thought - until her new mentor pulled herself up on the wall in impressively fluid movements. The very tall wall that seemed even taller when one was a short mare of only 4 feet 11 inches. Was this a test of her athletic abilities? If so, it was a very clever one, Leo thought, daunted by the prospect of having to get up on that wall.
But it wasn't like she'd be getting anywhere there just by standing around and staring at it, and she hadn't come this far (metaphorically speaking - the reaper gardens weren't really all that far away) just to give up at the first sign of a challenge! With steeled determination, the monster ghoul made a leap and attempted to imitate Hel's actions. Which worked, though much less fluidly than it had for the older ghoul - but after a bit of grappling, Leo managed to pull herself up on the wall, where she scooted over to sit next to Hel.
"That sounds good!" She smiled, attempting to pat her large curls back into some sort of order after the hectic movements had disrupted them, "me, huh? I'm Leo, 17 years old and a second year here in school. I'm here - well, because my parents enrolled me," a chuckle and a quirky grin later, she finally managed to get her hair into some semblance of normality. "Originally that was it, anyway. Now, I don't know... it just feels like sometimes you have to finish what you started, right?"
She shrugged, "I was away from school for a while. I have been several times - mostly for family stuff - but this time, I just... it all got to me, you know? I got into some bad stuff and I did some things that I was convinced were right when I did them, but it turns out they weren't."
A deep breath, an exhale, and then Leo angled her body to look at Hel, "I messed up. Really bad. I can't undo it, and now - now I just want to move on and maybe, I don't know, atone or something, if that's even possible. I wanna feel like I know who I am again." She wore a half-smile and shrugged again, "as for plans after school, I really don't know. I guess I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Maybe a job where I can do some good for creeple, though I don't know what that'd be."
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 2:00 pm
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It actually hadn't been a test, but Leo still scored points for trying and making it. Hel rests her hands on the stones, and rested her weight upon them as she listened to Leo. The reaper was nodding her head to indicate she was listening, and chuckled as the reason for Leo coming to school was made known.
Things seemed to take a turn though, as Leo hedged around a subject Hel wished she would elaborate on. The reaper stopped singing her feet, and leaned in a bit. Something bad, huh? Really bad? Seemed out of place almost with this good natured and cheerful ghoul, but she knew better. s**t happened to everyone, and everyone made s**t happen. Hel was never one to beat around the bush though, and she was one to pry when she felt the situation called for it.
"What did you do?"
She felt like she did need to know, that way she knew what she needed to do to help. Plus, honestly, Hel was also just nosy. Very, very nosy.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 8:21 am
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Focusing on Hel's commanding voice, Leo took deep, even breaths and slowly calmed down. That had been a close call - as far as she knew there were no way around the sworn secrecy thing, and as she'd just proved, it was very much still in effect even though it was months since she'd done anything that was even vaguely Initiate-like.
"I can't -" it wasn't her oath that stopped her this time, but nerves instead.
Another deep breath and the mare visibly steeled herself, "I can't talk about it. Literally. I don't know how I can explain it to ya without tal - wait, actually!" Leo almost buzzed with excitement at the thought she'd just had, "I guess I can show ya? Although to be honest if you don't know know what it means, I can't elaborate, but it's probably worth giving a shot, right?"
Without waiting for a reply she started unbuttoning her shirt from the top, shrugging out her right shoulder and revealing her clavicle; under which sat the Lost Clans sigil that had appeared when she became an Initiate.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:19 pm
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She can't? Hel's brows knitted briefly, before relaxing, and instead opting to quirk a brow at the ghoul. "Why no--Oh." Since she seemed okay, now, though, Hel released her collar, and shifted her weight back on her hands, staring at the spiral that marked her skin.
Honestly, it wasn't too hard for Hel to connect the dots. Initiate mark. Killing. Horsemen...humans. Once she had made the connections, Hel's eyes lidded and she stared at Leo for a long, long while without saying a word. Finally, the ghoul released a breath, and spoke up. "You need to be careful." Fine words, coming from herself. "s**t like that makes you known to Hunters, yanno?" Hel reached up, planting her hand on top of Leo's head and heavily mussing the ghoul's hair.
"So..." Hel's cheerful attitude had been replaced by an uncharacteristic seriousness for the reaper. Not harsh or judging, but serious, despite still having her hand planted on Leo's head. "How do I know you will not go do that again?" Hel wanted to be many things. A mentor to a killer was not one of them.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:05 am
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She was pretty sure the older ghoul knew what the sigil meant, and Leo waited, anxious, as Hel stared at her for a good, long while. She made no effort to disguise herself or her emotions though, wearing the terrible guilt and exhaustion on her sleeve for once. She was so tired of being who she'd made herself into, and oddly it felt good to not have to pretend to be someone else for the sake of other creeple for a bit. She hadn't thought it would, hadn't even tried to talk about it when she'd been at home recuperating - her family wouldn't understand and it wasn't like she could really explain it, anyway.
"Hunters... I hadn't even thought that far, to be honest," Leo's smile was rueful, and she didn't mind the hand on her head messing up her hair again. It felt nice, stabilizing. At least the reaper hadn't run screaming or outright refused to be her mentor yet.
Influenced by Hel's seriousness, she took a bit of time to think before answering the question. "I won't. I," words were failing her, she thought with frustration, "I really won't. I don't want to hurt anyone who's defenseless ever again, I don't want to be that person. But I don't know what kind of guarantee I can give you - do you want me to swear? Or maybe a blood oath, if you know anyone who can do the magic for that; I'll do it. I will not ever be that person again. I'd rather die."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:06 am
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Hel continued to stare at the ghoul, hard, as she spoke, and once she reached the end, the reaper sat a bit straighter, and cracked a pleased smile. "No, no blood oath or magic binding. Just your word is all I need. It is the binding agreement you should live by. Do what you say, and say what you mean." The conviction in Leo's words was good enough, and Hel's hand slipped from Leo's head to instead hook an arm around the ghoul's shoulders, pulling her snug against the reaper's side.
"So this is what you shall do first--" As Hel said this, she reached into a side belt pouch and fished around. After a moment she pulled out two small notepads and a pen. She held out the notepads, indicating that Leo should take one of them, the less worn looking one, and the pen.
The reaper had an idea, and had been playing with it ever since Leo had spoke. She was in the ghoul's shoes once upon a time. She'd lost sight of herself, and needed to find it again, and she had done this for Mot once upon a time, too. It seemed like a good idea.
"You will write down your words to live by." Hel grinned a bit. "I will not call them 'rules', because rules are too constraining and meant to be broken, so...words to live by, actually--" Hel took the notepad back before Leo could take it, and she opened it up. Uncapping the pen, Hel jotted down a 1 and circled it around it. It was then followed by:
THINGS CHANGE
She handed the notepad back to Leo now.
"First words to live by!" She wiggled the notepad. "So what I want you to do, is to write down things that mean something to you and how you want to live. It is to remind yourself. Also, write down something even if you are not that far down the path yet. It will be something to remind you to keep journeying towards." Hel grinned a bit more. "You do not need to fill it all out right now, and there is no such thing as too many! In fact, you could keep adding to this list until the day you cease to exist, but write down a few right now. Make sense?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:57 pm
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She wasn't generally a ghoul who cried about a lot of things but when Hel said that her word was good enough and half-hugged her, Leo got more than a bit misty-eyed. Slumping against the older ghoul, she took a deep, shuddering breath and listened very carefully to what the reaper was saying.
It seemed like a good idea - better than that, it seemed like a direction, something to do even if it was small and would still take time to get to her end goal. Even if she might never get there. The simple act of finally doing something, getting started and moving forward - even in baby steps - was liberating.
Nodding vigorously, she reached up to wipe the small bit of wetness that had escaped her eye before grabbing the offered notepad, "y-yeah, that really does make sense."
Thinking for a moment before beginning, Leo got as far as adding a 2 below the first line before she paused, and went back up to underline THINGS CHANGE. The simple action carved a proud though watery smile out of her, and the mare nodded to herself in determination. "I can do this. Start small."
But her first words weren't small at all, at least not to her. Imitating Hel she circled the 2 that she'd already written, before painfully etching down:
NEVER HURT SOMEONE DEFENSELESS
"But does that really cover it - maybe it should be more like; don't provoke needless fights? Or don't fight unless you're defending someone. Or doesn't it matter as long as I know what it means?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 12:42 pm
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Hel was honestly a bit baffled that Leo had gotten teary eyed. Was she...really having that much of an effect?
...
Well, okay, Hel's ego just shot through the roof. The room barely contained it already, now it was just in the sky. Hel felt her chest swell up with pride, and basked in those feels as she watched Leo over her shoulder write down in her new notepad. She nodded her head in agreement to the 'start small', and as she read what Leo wrote, Hel let out a gasp. "Yanno, that is a good one--" Hel opened up her own notepad too, and flipped a few pages before she wrote 64, and then what Leo had just written.
She paused, looking up from her notepad, and then nodded her head, grinning. "It does not matter as long as you know. This notepad is only for you, anyways!" Hel looked back down at her own notepad, chewing on the end of her pen briefly before she capped it and slid it back shut. She then dropped the items back into her side pouch.
"How about a few more points, and then we shall get to the battle skill part of this mentoring!" Hel did have other things to teach her after all, despite how long she could certainly spend on doing stuff like this.
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