Welcome to Gaia! ::

{{Dang his/your flattery is amazing! biggrin }}

Lin breathed a ragged sigh of relief and then wrapped her arms around his shoulders tightly in a hug. She was so relieved. She didn't like that Dymetri was worried about not knowing what might happen with this, but she was relieved that he would still be able to be around her pendant safely, have one of his own, and live here.

She laughed softly, tears in her voice, as she heard the last part of what Dymetri said. "Dymetri... I love you so much. You flatter me so much with your words."

She leaned back slightly and smiled up at him, happy, relieved tears in the corner of her eyes. "Yes, eventually my father will probably discover what you used to be, and I actually wish for that, so that there will be no secrets between all of us as a family. But I first want him to get to know you as a person, as I did. He will be harder to change, but if he comes to like and appreciate you as a person, then I think it will be easier for him to eventually accept the fact that you used to be a high vampire. My mother will also be able to help convince him, I am certain of it. They simply have to get to know you as an individual."

She rested her forehead against Dymetri's and closed her eyes. "I know there is hatred between vampires and elves still, even though the violent war has long-since been over. I am not worried, though, because I know they will come to love you as well. They will see your soul and look past you formerly being a vampire once they become familiar with you."

She opened her eyes and pulled back slightly. She smiled. "As for the tour, down the hall is one smaller spare bedroom. Across the hall from that is a small bathroom. The main bedroom is upstairs as well as is the master bathroom."

"I can spend a lot of time with my family. However, I want to spend tonight with you, Dymetri... As long as you do as well."

For once, she looked unsure and vulnerable.

"That way," Ophiuchus said to Athena, pointing behind him to the clinic bathroom. She would be easy to deal with. At least, highly more forgiving.

"As a Hero of Prophecy and a student of MFHS, you should have been skilled enough to recognize the charm on that little lump of sugar," he then chided Danni. "I'm surprised though, that the qareen has such a distinct form already. And as a child? You must have an incredibly strong maternal instinct."

{{Sorry! I thought you went offline for the night, so I finally went to go take a nap. Benadryl finally overtook me. lol.}}

Lin was hurt at what Dymetri said, at several things he said. It almost seemed as if he kept putting off wanting to be with her for something else. At first, he wanted to come here before they were together. Now, he said he didn't want to be with her because he couldn't be with someone tonight and that he wanted her to spend the night with her family.

She looked up at him with pained eyes. "I may have not been alive during the war, but I have been taught much about it. Why do you think I despised you so much when I first saw you? You had to have known it was more than simple elven hate for a vampire. I may be young, Dymetri, but I know quite a bit. My mother was the main healer for that war and my father was one of the Elders in it. I have had first-hand stories from both the standpoint of the war and the carnage that was created it from it. It is also one of the historical points that we study in elven school before we attend school outside of our city."

She slowly stood away from him, though she did not drop his hands. One, because she did not want anything living to possibly die around him, and two, because she still was not used to finally having him back. She was still afraid that she was going to lose him again. She wanted to physically hold onto him, to connect herself to him.

"And I did not find someone else 'quickly'. Ambrose and I were already friends and it just started to blossom into something else, but it was still nowhere close to how I feel about you. I was lost without you, Dymetri! I worked myself to exhaustion searching for a way to bring you back! And then, I had to learn how to live without you, to even breathe knowing that you were never going to be with me again!"

She couldn't repress the sob that escaped her lips and she looked down at the ground as her eyes filled with tears. She kept holding Dymetri's hands, though.

"You were gone, my heart felt as if it had died with you, and I felt complete guilt for having caused what happened! I fainted from grief and exhaustion days after you had died and had to be taken to Bai Ching to heal properly! I could not even be at Mystic Fountain for a time because it reminded me too much of you! I did not even leave my old room at Bai Ching for days, and you know how much I adore my school and would normally love to be with my sisters, friends and professors!"

Tears were falling down her cheeks now and onto the rug beneath her, the rug her eyes were fixed upon but not really seeing.

"Ambrose and Professor Akakios were the only ones I felt I could anchor myself to when I came back to Mystic Fountain. Professor Akakios had many other matters he had to attend to, naturally, so Ambrose became my main companion. I befriended a boy named James as well, but I did not know him as well as Ambrose. And Ambrose... Ambrose was in love with me. He protected me, actually made me smile, and took care of me. He never pushed me. He had visited here a few weeks ago with me and his sister Lia and I knew that my family adored him. I also cared for him, deeply. I still do, though it is simply as a friend. How could I not want to be with him, then, when I believed that my true love was lost to me forever and I had someone who could make the agony dissipate just a little bit? I could barely breathe without you, Dymetri! Ambrose made it a bit easier, and I will always be eternally grateful to him for that."

She shook her head slightly, still looking at the rug. "I could never move on from you, replace you with someone else. I cannot believe that you might even consider that I could. I was willing to give up everything to be with you... I still would."

"Yes, maternal instinct," Ophiuchus explained patiently while Athena ran to the bathroom. "What you have is a qareen, a spirit that is a reflection of your self. Unlike humans, they can't lie about who they are. Or rather, who you are." He pulled a stool out from under the counter that ran along one of the walls of the clinic and sat down. "A clingy, sensitive child that thrives on physical contact...." He looked thoughtful. "Ialo has surprisingly good insight, just like his father."

He leaned forward. "I tried to persuade Ialo that this was a bad idea, and I still think it is, but perhaps not as bad as I first thought."

"You're not clingy and sensitive, are you? Typically, you prefer to distance yourself, by staying in the kitchen with Cook.... whom you've adopted as a father, because your biological father neglected you. Your own mother tried to kill you, once she found out you were a dark magic user." Ophiuchus was quite serious as he spoke, studying Danni for her reactions and expressions. "It makes sense to me, that because he tried to protect you and because of his highly emotional nature, that you've unconscionably also adopted Ialo as a mother."

The professor for quiet for a few moments, mulling over his thoughts. "This child... Poopsie? That's a cute name. If I were in your place, I would take care of Poopsie. Perhaps if you love and accept him in the way that your own parents did not love and accept you, you will come to love and accept yourself. That's just theory, of course. Perhaps pure rhetoric. Historically though, people who have had qareens reported that the spirits gradually disappear once they've, quote, found themselves."

"I'm curious. Why don't you like yourself? That's who Poopsie is, after all." Ophiuchus looked at the boy. "He's quite a dear."

Dymetri gave her a thoughtful smile. "You take my words so heavily, my darling. I'm sorry my death was so hard on you."

He let one of her hands release his own and he reached up to smooth her hair. "But one of the traits I admired in you was independence. I never want you to lose that fire that made me love you in the first place, Lin."

He leaned into her face and kissed away some tears.

"Don't give up everything for me. I want you to live your individual life. Spend it with me in it, but don't devote yourself completely. You're still a wild flower, able to get away with so much," he whispered. He took her hands in his now, lifting it up to his face so that only his bright eyes were able to be seen. "When I marry you, then our lives were merge together as one."

He smiled at her calmly, letting her speak without pause. That's what women liked to do still, right? Of course.

When she walked out, he had ten minutes to himself.

He closed his eyes and slumped down in a chair. "I need a drink," he muttered. Running a hand through his hair, he sighed. He couldn't believe it. "I died," he said outloud. "It was virtually painless, but I knew I had died. I didn't even feel my soul running around until I saw Lin again."

"Until I saw Lin again," he repeated.

He raised his hands and looked down at them. Harmless, they looked. He could crush skulls like one would crumble a dollar bill. Then something happened that hadn't happened in all the time he was near Lin or anyone else for that matter.

"I think it's amazing," he said, almost grinning. "But it's a shame I've got all this newfound strength and nowhere to place it. I could help farmers plant all their goods without need for tractors. I could help so many people. Especially Mother, she needs help, but none that I could provide." His own lips moved as if there was nothing he struggled against.

He knew who it was that used his mouth to speak, and it wasn't him. Then again, it wasn't his mouth. The amusement from his face died and his brows pulled together. "You've had that ability the whole time, Marcos? And here I thought your mind was deteriorating."

The childlike goodness twinkled in his eye once more. "This is my body and my mind was here first. If anything, your mind should be deteriorating. This place is amazing, by the way."

"Your vocabulary isn't that wide a range as I once assumed. But of course, that's amazing."

The neutral face Dymetri put out was still even when Marcos wanted to speak. "Don't make fun of me, Dym," he said softly; his eyes like glass, staring into nothing. "You know what it's been like growing up. Now I have you as a friend and you're taunting me too?" His voice sounded so little in the room which now seemed so big.
A small, quick tear fell down from his eye. "If I get bitten by a vampire, what will happen to you? I didn't even have to try and I know you so well, probably better than Lindolyn."

His face made a sharp twist. "Don't use that name," he almost growled. "I mean, that's her family name. Like some of your teachers used to call you Mark."

His eyes grew solemn. "I'm sorry."
He blinked slowly, the tears that Dymetri boiled off his face were about to return. "I don't want to lose my only friend, Dym. You're the only one that I haven't met with my xBox, and I know that sounds pretty sad and all, but--"
"Enough."

And that was all his said. He sat in silence, part of him-- most likely Marcos's part-- felt such fear grew within him. The other part wondered if this was right. If he just should've stayed dead. More importantly, died back when he was just beginning to live. He wished he remembered how old he was back then, but he was too busy with his fake ages. And like life, it kept changing. Even when he never did.

"Let's go eat," he said outloud. "It's your game now."

Dymetri stood and walked through the front door of the guesthouse, not knowing whether or not most of him was Dymetri Valen or Marcos Demoir.

((I forgot how she died anyway. Lol.))