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 Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:26 am
Darkness was coming quickly, and she really didn't want to walk back to school alone. Uncle Asmadai (who wasn't really her uncle, but her cousin) had called someone to walk her back; though unfriendly, the person looked frightening enough to remind the little girl Rosalie of Spiritua, the avenging angel of death. No one would dare mess with them. This Aurelius had picked her up, set her on her hip, and trotted off without so much as a salutations to Asmadai, and now they were halfway back to school.
"Let's stop for a second," Aurelius said, sitting abruptly on a bench. The dark-haired child shrieked, clinging to the white jacket the tall blonde was wearing. "I can't carry you forever, and I'm too tall for you to keep up with. Logically, we should stop for a moment." Rosalie was in too much awe of this hoarse-voiced woman to respond straight away.
"Why didn't Uncle call Fres?"
Aurelius tugged on the strange green things sticking out of her head absently. "Fres is ill right now."
That shocked Rosalie into silence, and she sat next to the blonde quietly.
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:37 am
The quiet would be broken though, for the pair weren't the only ones about the area for a long shot and as darkness approached - so to did it's apprentice. Her arms were heavy and her footfalls audible as Josie shifted herself beneath the weight of several supplies that her Master has asked her to fetch, an assortment of 'supersticious' relics and oddities that had grown heavier and heavier by the mile. The additional weight of the small child she carried did nothing to alleviate the discomfort.
Josie continued on for a little while longer before a bench came into view, already occupied but seeming, from what she could judge, to have JUST enough room for her to dump her things for a few moments. She cast her gaze over her shoulder to assure Victor was alright before hessitantly approaching the other females.
"Excuse me...is this seat taken?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:44 am
Aurelius looked up. "No, it isn't. Help yourself." Rosalie shifted over to make a little more room, and tucked her black skirt under one leg. She watched Josie and Victor with wide eyes. "Why are you out so late?" The girl tugged at some of the ribbons in her sleeves. Aurelius hadn't seemed like much of a talking person, even when she'd been carrying Rosalie from the church. Why would she be striking up a conversation with someone she didn't even know?
"G-good evening," she said softly.
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:48 am
Setting her things on the ground, Josie reached back to dismount her child before slipping in beside the girls. The little one could sense that which his mother could not and found interest in people when usually none surfaced. His intent blue eyes moved from one to the other before settling on the smaller one. Josie took no notice of his observations as she leaned back a bit and softly made her reply, "Good evening indeed, and thank you. I only just woke up a few hours ago, to be honest, and my master required me to do his shopping."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:03 pm
Rosalie balled up her hands in her skirt, timidly returning the baby's gaze. "Hi," she said softly. "I'm Rosalie- what's your name?" The girl didn't expect an answer- she just felt too shy to talk to the woman, so she figured she'd talk to someone who didn't talk back.
For her part, Aurelius was rather more interested in the mother. Other Illusionary had long since ceased to concern her as she got more interested in her own past, rather than networking. "You're apprenticing?" She looked closer at the shopping Josie had done, resting her hands on her knees. "Necromantics, or else the more general dark arts. You're ambitious."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:09 pm
The child certainly could not return the answer but allowed the phantom remnents of a smile to drift upon his thin lips before vannishing. This one was paying attention to him! Victor liked that although it would be some time before he could have the reasoning needed to asses her worth. For the time being though, he would humor her.
Josie nodded and shifted the child a bit. "Thank you, it isn't often I find those who appreciate that sort of thing. Necromancy has proved to be a much more difficult profession than my prior line of work..."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:17 pm
Encouraged, she smiled back a little, her lips barely curving but definately smiling. "Well, I guess it's silly of me to expect you to answer." With the two adults talking, she didn't really feel the need to whisper, yet she did. "You have pretty eyes."
Aure shook her head a little. "I have a dabbler's interest in it." She shrugged. "I prefer to work; I'm in my last weeks of a bachelors in the sciences. What did you do before?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:21 pm
Victor merely blinked at her, his reply a constant silence. Ah how he longed for speech! It was that which eluded the babes comprehension and yet he hung intently upon the sound of the girl's voice as though understanding what promise it held for him.
"It's a coincidence, than.." Josie smiled, "I used to work on medical technology at my uncle's hospital. I was their lead engineer of the cardiovascular and cerebral observation unit."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:27 pm
"Um," Rosalie interuppted. "May I hold him?" She looked up at Josie hopefully, her clasped hands paling slightly from the pressure she exerted on them.
The blonde's eyebrows went up almost immediately. "Is that so? What made you switch from prolonging life to necromancy, a practice that focuses on death?" Aurelius wouldn't tell, but this felt more like data collection- a good thing, as she was planning to soon take over her grandfather's company. She did feel guilty, of course- he was her grandfather- but he wasn't doing all he could with such resources. So she'd make do for him...
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:44 pm
Could she resist a face like that? Josie looked down at the child and smiled, shifting a bit before picking up Victor and gently offering him to her. "Just be careful, alright?"
Victor wasn't particularly disturbed with the matter and allowed himself to be hoisted up without fuss. There were better things to cry over after all and this was certainly not worth his energy.
Josie then turned her attention back to her company. "Indeed, although I haven't completely forsaken my work. I simply think of it as being..." She paused, contemplating her words carefully before she continued, "Extended. Researching the minds of the dead, one might call it?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:52 pm
She smiled happily. "Of course."
Just like with her dolls, she tucked her elbow under his head to support it and let her arm curl naturally to form a nook. This was peaceful, very peaceful and happy... Rosalie touched his head and settled her face into a look of contentment. "Pretty baby," she sang softly; her voice was well-pitched, like all children's, but she was quiet, as usual.
"I suppose you never took the Hippocratic Oath," Aure said, crossing her ankles and continuing to stare at Josie. It might have unsettled a more common person, that unblinking look, but the green-eyed Illusionary didn't expect it to do much to a necromancer's apprentice.
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:04 pm
Victor was quite comfortable with this new arrangement and even snuggled into the girl. His deep blue eyes closed as he listened to her singing, everything about him seeming completely innocent at that moment.
"Of course I did. I took the oath that I would be hypocritical and frustrate both of my uncles whilst gaining the greatest amount of knowledge and profit as possible." Josie leaned back and raised her arms over her head, stretching herself out as far as she could before both appendages came to rest back in her lap, folded neatly.
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:41 pm
Rosalie shifted a little to better accomodate him, but otherwise nothing changed about her. "And your hair is so fine, like Voice. Except I suppose I shouldn't compare." She blushed a little and tucked her spare hand into a pocket under the first layer of her pink dress.
That startled a laugh out of Aurelius. "Is that so? Seems like a reasonable thing to swear to, compared to the true Hippocratic Oath."
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:22 pm
Josie grinned having gotten the response she desired. "I never swear on a promise I can't keep - thus I feel it's a very managable substitute."
A soft sound emanated from Victor as he nestled in but he soon fell quiet again, prefering much more to listen to what went on around him.
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:49 pm
"Managable indeed." Aure fell silent and placed her fingertips on her lips, as if in thought. "Do you find the study of necromancy interesting? If so, why?"
Rosalie fell silent as well, as if she had realized Victor's preference of silence. Unable to keep from doing something, she unlaced one of her sleeves partially and chewed lightly on the untied end.
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