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 Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 6:28 pm
Location: A forgotten graveyard
Players: Xiu and Lucia
The day was dark and gloomy and people could be seen hurrying about their business lest they be caught in a sudden storm. In their haste, many failed to notice a lone figure floating aimlessly along in search of food…
Actually, that would be stretching the truth a little far as the day, although cloudy, was nowhere near to being dark and Xiu was in fact, floating along with a rather determined pace to the park and attracting the attention of many as he did so. Girls tended to stare and later whisper in a conspirational tone among friends, kids pointed, adults stared (although not openly) and old ladies tended to avoid him. Xiu was unconcerned as he had taken it all in his stride but that group of rowdy looking guys up ahead was starting to worry him. Should he take a different route to the park or should he try to get his way past those guys? Xiu paused in uncertainty. He needed to feed and the park provided lots of positive energy and innocence from the generally happy people.
While all this was going through his head, a guy from the group (obviously wasted) noticed the white haired raevan and began to nudge his equally alcohol infused friends. The group now observed the raevan with interest and a few of them began making beckoning motions to him. It was around this time that Xiu began to notice that the crowd of people mentioned earlier was slowly thinning as they took shelter in nearby buildings. Xiu also began to notice a rather dark looking aura emanating from the group. This was bad as normal people normally do not generate dark looking auras about themselves and this group had only begun to generate it after noticing him. Which probably meant that they were up to no good and in one way or another, it involved Xiu.
Xiu began to back off slowly. There should be a way to avoid confrontation if he could. Trying to look calm and unconcerned, Xiu floated into the nearest back alley that he could find and upon coming to a dead end, simply floated over it. A moment later, shouts and curses could be heard from the rowdy group when they realized that the raevan had simply vanished. Satisfied, Xiu floated out of the said alley and found himself in an area he was not familiar with. This was troublesome and Xiu could not possibly turn back with all those hooligans still about so the raevan did what came next to his mind. He began to explore.
The first thing that had caught the raevan’s attention after emerging from the back alley was…the graveyard. Xiu had never seen a graveyard before (and probably had never heard of the word graveyard) but the place was…odd. For one thing, it was quiet. For another, the energy surrounding the place was…different and it made Xiu feel uneasy. As the raevan watched, graceful black tendrils occasionally swirled about the graves of certain individuals while others had vague shapes. Perhaps it was the cloudy weather playing tricks on his eyes but Xiu would strongly encourage anyone to not step onto those swirly black aura that seemed to emanate an ill intent. Xiu wondered at this and was curious about what lay beneath the ground that could cause such a reaction above it.
Glancing about, Xiu could not find an individual whom he could ask so the raevan floated tentatively over to where the graves were. There was a gate there but it was rusted and in all probability, no one had visited this graveyard in years. Xiu paused; unsure if he should continue on or turn back. He was curious about the energy generated from the place but he was wary as well.
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 9:31 pm
Yuurei pulled her silver Mercedes up to the alley way and looked down it. The dark sky certainly didn't help her desire to turn the car around and head home. She certainly did not want to drive her expensive car down the alley and the fact that Lucia, sitting in the back seat holding an invisible girl's hand, had ordered her to turn there as if she was her personal chauffeur. The blonde woman glared childishly at the dark haired raevan girl through the rear-view mirror. With a huff, she turned down the alley.
Lucia, however, was completely unaware of any ill will from her guardian as she was busy talking to the young girl sitting next to her. The sweet brunette sitting next her had to be five or six at oldest. Though invisible to Yuurei and probably the rest of the population, the girl wore a white dress with the blue lace and ribbon in her shoulder-length hair. Sitting in the back seat, the girl who introduced herself a "Chrisshy" (Lucia pronounced it Christy assuming the lack of a front tooth and occasional thumb in her mouth caused the speech impediment) was kicking her mary jane shoes and had a sad smile on her face as she told Lucia where to turn. The cat-raevan had met the little girl's soul at the hospital, but Christy was crying at the time, wanting to see "Mommy and Daddy." She didn't know what happened to her, and therefore Lucia's questions were met with confusion. Currently, they were talking about what Christy described as her beautiful Mommy and pretty Daddy.
As Lucia told her to stop the car in front of the old gate Yuurei looked up and realized that the thing or girl Lucia was talking to had parents who were also dead. Parking the car, and stepping out, she walked through the gate with the raevan and girl's soul. Looking around at the old cemetery, she sighed. No one liked being in a graveyard. They were places people avoided. It had been two years since visiting Nana Lucia's grave before Lucia arrived. Now she visited her grandmother's grave at least twice a week. This old graveyard was probably not visited in years as well. Glancing around, however, Yuurei did a double take as they were not the only ones in the seemingly abandoned yard. A white-haired raevan was floating in one place alone just past the entrance. Are all raevan's associated with graveyards or something?
Preoccupied with helping the young girl find her parents' graves based on the young girl's memories alone, Lucia did not even notice Xiu until the little brunette spirit lifted up the hand not grasping Lucia's and pointed at him. "Oh! Do you mind if I greet him? It will only take a minute and then we can find Mommy and Daddy's resting places," Lucia asked the girl softly. With a slight nod of her head, the little girl grasped both hands around Lucia's right hand and wrist and Yuurei walked up behind her charge. Lucia smiled at the girl, went over to the strange raevan and softly cleared her throat. "Um...hello?"
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:17 pm
Xiu had managed to somehow squeeze his way pass the gates of the abandoned graveyard and was surveying the grounds when a feminine voice cleared her throat and greeted him. Surprised as he had not heard anyone approaching him despite the grave’s silence, Xiu turned to find…another being like but unlike him at the same time. Curiosity aroused, Xiu gave the other a once over. The raevan seemed to be built on the same lines as his guardian but where the curve of his guardian’s chest was barely discernable beneath her sometimes multi-layered clothes, the clothes that this being was wearing allowed one to see a fair bit of the being’s cleavage and like him, this being lacked a lower abdomen as well. This was an eye opener to Xiu as all the raevans he had met previously were flat chested like him. Another thing that Xiu had noticed about the other was the presence of her ears. It was different from his and…a lot more mobile looking. The being also lacked horns. Why the difference in appearance was a mystery to the white raevan and Xiu floated back a bit to observe the being better before noticing a human as well. Xiu could not see the child that was with Lucia but Xiu noticed that the swirling black aura around certain graves had taken on a rather sentient like attitude and seemed to waiting for something. Xiu was worried. He had never seen auras behaving like that before. Something that was invisible to him except for its aura of ill intent was taking an interest in their meeting.
Xiu floated over to Lucia and took hold her right wrist (his hand passing right through the young child’s) and began to tug Lucia gently but urgently towards the graveyard’s exit while looking over his shoulder in a worried manner. “Hello,” agreed Xiu in response to the other’s greeting. Then in a more hesitating manner, like one who is not accustomed to speaking just yet, Xiu murmured “Bad place…over here,”
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:06 pm
Feeling a little awkward as she was inspected Lucia went to tell the stranger her name when, "Jesu-" Lucia cried out at the other raevan suddenly attacked her. Lucia went to turn her body towards the child to protect her, not thinking that the young girl was just a lingering soul, not even a visible ghost, when she realized that Xiu's intentions were not to harm her. With his hand tugging on her wrist, going right through her invisible appendage's hand and arm, Christy began to cry. Lucia went to scold the other raevan when she noticed that the crying child wasn't looking at the white raevan, but at a scary disfigured woman brandishing a charcoaled rolling pin, her fire-blackened face glaring at the intruders.
Yuurei didn't see anything wrong except for a strange raevan trying to pull Lucia past her and out of the cemetery. From the look on Lucia's face, she didn't like it. "Hold on!" she yelled at Xiu. "What do you think you're doing?! Let go of her!" While she did not like Lucia's hobbies, Yuurei certainly wasn't going to let this strange raevan man handle the cat-girl, even if he wasn't using too much force. React quickly, assess the situation, then adjust and judge. The "Parenting Your Troubled Teen" handbook that she skimmed occasionally offered little help for her and Lucia's relationship, but it seemed to come in handy here.
Lucia decided now wasn't the time to pay attention to Yuurei, but took her free arm, crouched down, and wrapped it protectively around Christy. "It's okay, Christy." She looked up at Xiu and replied, "The place isn't bad; she's bad, but wait, let's see if we can maybe do something. Or at least avoid her enough to help Christy here." Lucia did not connect his hand going through Christy's and Xiu's inability to see spirits. Could souls harm each other?, she wondered as Christy continued to sob. She didn't know.
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Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 5:57 am
Xiu cringed as the woman yelled at him for taking a hold of the other raevan’s hand. Apparently that woman did not approve of it. Perhaps it was presumptuous of him to grab the hand of the other like that but that was not Xiu’s primary concern at the moment. Right now, Xiu was worrying about the attitude of the black haired raevan. She had not moved from where she was but had crouched low and wrapped her arms around something that was not quite there and called it ‘Christy’. Xiu was puzzled at this behaviour and gave Lucia’s arm another tug to indicate that they should hurry. The raevan girl had also mentioned something about the place not being bad and had referred to the intimidating black aura as a ‘she’. As far as Xiu was concerned, that black aura had no feminine features to speak of and it was coming at them menancingly.
“Please, hurry,” said Xiu as he took hold of Lucia’s shoulders and tried to get her to her feet, figuratively speaking of course as the raevan girl did not have any feet. Turning to the raevan’s guardian, Xiu pointed to the cemetery’s entrance. “Go,” said Xiu. Perhaps if her guardian left, the raevan would come around to her senses enough to leave as well…
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:00 pm
Yuurei's brow furrowed slightly. Lucia seemed unsure of herself. Why was she protecting the ghost thing? Why were both raevans afraid? Yuurei made a decision. The blonde woman stalked over to the cluster of people, grabbed the back of the cat-raevan's collar and began pulling, dragging the raevan away from the woman and out of the cemetery, hoping to go as far as possible from whatever was making everyone afraid.
Lucia turned her head and scowled at her guardian. What was that . . . b***h doing?! Holding Christy's hand so she would follow, Lucia was dragged out of the graveyard by her guardian, Xiu's gentle tugs, and even Christy backing away as hard as she could against Lucia as the old woman began limping towards them. As they got through the gates Lucia suddenly let go of Christy's hand, pushed Xiu's off of her's and whipped around, the lace of her collar slipping through Yuurei's hands. "Will you STOP!! she yelled at generally everyone. She paused, collecting herself. "I want to help her!" Lucia sighed and looked at Christy who was staring up at her with tear stained cheeks and round eyes.
Yuurei closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She was getting a migraine. And she had never had one before, but the throbbing from the loud noises the light and the . She couldn't deal with this stress. "I should have stayed home." The blonde sighed and looked at Xiu, "I'm Yuurei and this is Lucia. Can you or you tell me what the hell is in there?" she asked, directing her question to both Xiu and Lucia.
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:29 pm
Xiu was surprised at the sudden yell of the black haired raevan as his hands were roughly pushed away from Lucia’s shoulder. Help her? Who? Xiu gave a glance around and saw nothing that could be regarded as a person or even a living thing. The negative presence maybe? Xiu gave it a scrutinizing look and was glad to note that the threat was not coming any nearer. But how was the other raevan planning to help it? From the looks of it, it had every intention to cause harm. What kind of harm Xiu did not know but it was bad.
Xiu’s thoughts however were interrupted by Yuurei’s question and the raevan stared at Yuurei with a slightly puzzled expression on his face as he was not too familiar with the human language just yet. But at least she had introduced herself as Yuurei and the other was called Lucia. “Xiu,” Xiu replied simply before turning to stare at the dark aura in the graveyard once more. “Bad thing,” said Xiu motioning towards the dark swirls. “Plans to harm someone,”
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:12 pm
"She might not be bad! She's just upset! Something must be wrong." Lucia looked at Xiu. "You don't see the woman, do you?" She sighed realizing that she had been making assumptions. "There's a woman over there by the grave whose face has been burnt. She's holding a burnt . . . umm I think it's something from the kitchen. But it's all charred like it was burnt too. I think she died in a fire."
Yuurei looked deadpan at Lucia. "Yeah I would say that that's a bad thing then." The woman turned to Xiu. "Lucia can see spirits of . . . people and animals? . . . people and animals that have died recently. She can touch them and talk to them and tries to help them often." The woman looked at Xiu's face, trying to see if he understood.
Lucia nodded slightly at Yuurei's description of her powers. "With us is a little girl," she placed her hands gently on Christy's shoulders. "She wants to visit her parents graves before she goes away." The cat frei looked at Xiu and Yuurei. "We should try to help the woman. Maybe we can figure out what's wrong. Then we can help you, Christy." She smiled sadly at the timid soul before her.
Christy looked at Lucia and tugged on her hand. "I wait in car until we see Mommy and Daddy?"
Yuurei smiled as she watched the purple-eyed raevan nodding gently, floating with an outstretched hand towards the car, open the back door and help an invisible something onto the back seat. "I can't help in there, but I'll stay with her if you want," she offered.
Lucia nodded at Yuurei and looked to Xiu. "Xiu, will you help me make the angry woman happy?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:25 pm
Xiu shook his head. He could not see the woman Lucia was talking about nor the little child that was supposedly with them. But dead people and animals? How? Weren’t dead things supposed to be well…dead? The idea that dead things were still capable of ‘moving about’ and feeling ‘upset’ was new to the white haired raevan and Xiu was rather skeptical about it. Perhaps once this adventure was over, he’d go and have a little discussion with Hazeline. She seemed to know about everything that was puzzling him thus far.
“Make her happy?” Xiu asked tentatively. “Yes, but…how?”
Could dead spirits be made happy? Xiu wondered. Lucia seemed to think so and anything would be worth a try if it could dissipate the dark aura of the graveyard. Xiu did not want something like that attacking people of animals that could not see it. “It is dangerous; means harm,” said Xiu as he stared apprehensively at the black fog of ill intent. “Black aura,” added Xiu in an attempt to give an explanation. Xiu had often wished for an easier way of communication but speaking seemed to be the main mode of communication amongst the humans that he live and interacted with.
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 12:13 am
Lucia bit her lower lip her eyes scanning the white haired raevan thoughtfully. What would make the woman happy? "I think we should try to talk to her. Every soul I've encountered so far has wanted something different. One angry one just wanted to know who killed him." Lucia paused and looked at Xiu.
He couldn't communicate very well. He must be new. "You see auras? She's upset, that is obvious. All the ones that look like they do when they died are upset." Lucia studied the thoughtful eyes of the raevan and smiled. "I know you can't speak well, but can you understand well? If you can, we could work together. I'll talk to her and let you know what's going on that you can't see and then we'll figure out what to do next together. The only way to know how to help her is to talk to her."
Lucia smiled warmly, hoping that the younger raevan would decide to help her. While she was used to helping souls on her own, she often got tired and wasn't good at helping the ones so upset their souls weren't even pleasant.
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 10:31 pm
Xiu nodded. He could see ‘auras’ but as to whether the dead woman was upset, Xiu couldn’t tell as he couldn’t exactly read emotions. He was only able to tell if someone had an intention to cause harm and Xiu had seen some people smiling as they inflicted harm (in the form of lies) to others. So one’s feelings and the intention to hurt were not exactly related. However, Lucia had seemed convinced that the soul needed helping and she’d volunteered to talk to it. This made Xiu curious. Would he be able to hear the conversation then? That would be interesting.
“I’ll help,” said Xiu nodding before turning to give a glance at the car. Xiu could only see Yuurei and wondered if the ghost child was okay.
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 12:40 am
Lucia nodded and glanced at the visage of the woman still by the graves, pacing now. She bit her lip as the woman glanced, angrily their way. Closing her eyes to steel her nerves, the cat-raevan took a breath and reached her hand out to hold Xiu's. Hopefully the white-haired raevan's touch would give her comfort. "If her aura gets angrier, or if she gets happier, let me know..."
Lucia slowly floated forward with Xiu to be about twenty feet from the woman's soul in front of them. As the woman faced them, a snarl on her lips, Lucia gasped slightly as she took in the blackened skin of the face before her. "W-what's wrong?" she asked the spirit. "Can we help you at all?"
The middle-age woman looked at them with contempt. "Where's the little girl?" she asked in a raspy voice, looking vengeful, but determined. "Where's Christina?" The old woman glared at the two raevans, threatening them to challenge her thought that it was Christina.
Lucia looked at Xiu, squeezing his hand. She whispered to him, "she wants to know where Christina is, the little girl. I think she means Christy! Has her aura changed?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:22 pm
Xiu was surprised when the other had taken a hold of his hand. Nevertheless, it seemed to do Lucia some good as the cat-like raevan seemed to have steadied herself somewhat. However, Xiu was really reluctant when Lucia began to lead him into the graveyard once again. Twenty feet from something as dark as that was too close for comfort and Xiu shifted uneasily.
"W-what's wrong?"
"Can we help you at all?"
Xiu’s gaze shifted from the black haired raevan to the black aura before them. Lucia was talking to it and seemed to be listening to a reply of some sort before turning to him and explaining what the thing had said. Christy? So that was the name of the invisible child. At Lucia’squestion however, Xiu looked over to the dark miasma and shook his head. It was still dark but at least it was not coming to attack them.
“No change,” said Xiu as he eyed Lucia.
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 10:56 pm
The old woman looked at Xiu as the white raevan spoke under his breath. He seemed to be looking in her general direction, but his eyes were not looking in hers and he seemed unsure of himself. The woman addressed him. "You. Go get Christina!"
Whatever was going on, Lucia knew that right now was not the time to bring Christy back over. At least not until she and Xiu knew why the woman wanted her and what she would do when she got her. Lucia quietly relayed the woman's message, but also shook her head, indicating wordlessly that he should remain here. "Why do you want Christina? What is she to you? What did she do?" Lucia bit her lower lip, hoping the answer would relate a simple problem that they could easily remedy.
"Christina Dufor is my daughter," she explained with no less anger even when saying her daughter's name with a slight French accent. Her fist around the rolling pin tightened and the handle crumbled in her fingers. Her anger intensified with the destruction of the object in her hands and she threw the rolling pin on the ground. "She has been a BAD girl and needs to be punished."
Lucia's eyes widened as the woman explained their connection and her anger even seemed to intensify. She relayed the information to Xiu and asked him what they should do. She didn't think that this was the woman Christy wanted to see. Christy had also helped push Lucia away from the graveyard while crying, so obviously she was afraid of her mother. "What should we do?" she asked Xiu before almost echoing her question to the woman. "What did she do?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:30 am
“ No,” said Xiu staring straight at the black form before Lucia and him. A moment before Lucia had relayed the message of the angry spirit, the aura of the said spirit had increased in mass; as if the being was enraged. Xiu wondered how Lucia could still remain where she was and not flee from it. “She’ll hurt…Christina,”
Now that felt odd. Protecting someone he couldn’t see against something he could vaguely guess at what it was. This wasn’t normal and Xiu gave his wings an uneasy flick. Warning people against potential pickpockets he could do or preventing a robber from robbing someone by alerting the victim was also something he could understand but this…this was something different altogether and Lucia seemed to be fine with it. Was this her specialty then? But by being able to see the bad intentions of deceased beings, did that mean that Xiu would probably encounter similar cases as this as well? Xiu certainly hoped not. Without someone like Lucia around, protecting someone from an invisible being with a dark aura would be…complicated at best and probably fatal at worst.
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