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 Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 12:31 pm
It had taken rather a lot of convincing to get Juno to let her out at this hour of the night, But Ishi rather thought it was worth it. She wasn't even sure why Juno had been reluctant; he had a nice house in a nice part of town that was well-lit and just about impossible to be abducted from. Granted, Ishi had no real intention of staying anywhere near his nice house in the nice part of town; she was in a foul mood, sick of fighting with him, and missed her mother. So as soon as he had agreed to let her out, she had left and headed straight for home.
It was nice, being out in air that was warming up; she still wore a coat (it certainly wouldn't be warm enough to go without one for another few months) but at least she wasn't freezing and hadn't felt obligated to wear a scarf to keep her face from going numb. It was nice enough that it took Ishi a while to realize that to get home on foot, she was going to have to pass through one of the dicier parts of town. Shuddering, she took a deep breath and headed on her way to the park, pulling her coat tighter around herself and almost wishing she had asked Angelique to come with her. If nothing else, Ange could protect her. But....she hadn't thought to, so she'd make due without. And it wasn't like she was going to get attacked. Dicier in this neighborhood just meant that it wasn't quite as pristine.
She'd never admit that she was scared.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:03 pm
The "dicier" part of town may not have been quite as dirty and debauched as certain other parts of Gaia, but the lawns were poorly cared for and the houses were derelict and the whole neighborhood seemed uncared for and sloppy. Even at the park, the slide was crooked and the swings were rusty, creaking in the chill breeze. Galleai, who didn't really know the difference between upscale and dicey, thrived in semi-creepy environments.
Leeward hadn't wanted to let her go out anymore. After what had happened recently, the coven had wanted to keep her on a pretty tight leash. But Galleai was not the sort of girl who took no for an answer when she really wanted something. It wasn't that she was outright contrary or disobedient or whiny, it was just that there was a quiet intensity to her when she felt strongly about something that the coven, at least and Leeward most of all didn't seem to be able to resist. So she quietly came and went as she pleased and in the end, no one really minded. They had bigger things on their mind than the wherabouts of the half-feral girl who had fallen in their laps.
So she'd made her way to the same neighborhood that Ishi now wandered and to the very same park that the girl was cutting through. She was sitting on one of the creaky swings moving softly back and forth, humming "ring around the rosie" to herself in time with the haunting rusty wail.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:50 pm
Ishi had been expecting some time alone; the park was rarely occupied at that time of night. But today seemed to be the exception. She pulled up short when she realized that the soft creaking of the swings wasn't in time with the occasional breeze, frowning and slowing down so she could get a good look at what she was hearing. It was pale and about the same size as her and might have been threatening, if Ishizuke was afraid of ghosts. As it were, she hadn't quite heard the singing yet, and as she approached she did give brief pause. Then she scoffed. As a nocturnal child, she had seen horrifying things on the television for quite a long time, and was desensitized to them...or at least to the parts that were so unrealistic it was ridiculous.
So there was another girl in her park. A girl paler than Ishi (how was that even possible?) who was decidedly creepy, in a pretty traditional horror film sort of way. And she was in the park Ishi spent a great deal of time in. It was like...Ishi's park. And Ishi, still in a bad mood, was not in the mood for spectral beings encroaching on her territory. Since she had never seen a ghost in the park before, Ishi had no reason to start now, and strode boldly up to the pale girl on the swings. She put her hands on her hips and frowned at her.
"I've never seen you around before. You make a habit of haunting swingsets, or is this a new thing?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 1:56 am
Galleai stopped singing and stared at the other girl. Here was someone pale, like her. Someone who she didn't recognize from dreams. And someone who seemed to be decidedly agressive. She stopped swinging and studied the new person.
"I've never been here before..." She began. Then paused. Haunting? Like a ghost? "Why does everyone think I'm a ghost?" She asked. It seemed like a reasonable question, since she was flesh and blood as far as she knew. And yet... this wasn't the first time someone had thought she was dead. Death wasn't frightening, but this new stereotype was perplexing as she didn't realize how she looked to other people. "I'm not a ghost." She added helpfully.
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:00 am
The girl's perplexity didn't bother Ishizuke in the least, and she shrugged and let Galleai puzzle things out at whatever damn speed she felt like, still mildly annoyed that there was another person, another girl on what she had come to think of as her territory. Ishi liked the solitary spaces she got at night time when everyone else had gone home, and though she had to dodge the occasional teen vandal, she was by no means ready to willingly share the space with anyone else, particularly her age.
"To be honest, the level of spectrality that you possess neither interests nor is of any importance to me." She was talking like Juno now, and she knew it. If she could manage to infuriate the girl like Juno infuriated her with her words, it would be interesting after all. "Either way," she continued, almost lapsing into the same drawl she had come to know well over the past few days, "you're in a park, in the middle of the night, on a swingset humming to yourself. I have a reason to be out at this hour. What's yours?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 11:45 am
Galleai wasn't bothered by Ishi's extensive vocabulary. Sadly for Ishi, Gal wasn't the sort of girl to take umbrage at being talked at. She was, though, curious about someone else being out at this time of night like they were used to it. "We sleep during the day, and I'm not allowed out when it's light out anyways." She answered, toeing the ground so that her swing moved slightly. "Why are you out here?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 1:24 pm
Galleai's comment made Ishizuke raise her eyebrows. "What, are you a vampire or something?" she asked, a combination of irritation and genuine curiosity. The girl's question almost threw her for a loop, but she recovered quickly and smiled slightly. "Allergies to the sun," she said. "Can't go out in strong UV rays, or I die."
It was so rare to come across another nocturnal child that it didn't even occur to her that it might seem quite a bit more to Galleai that Ishizuke was a vampire. Allergies to the sun were not altogether...common.
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 1:36 pm
"I'm not a vampire. They are." It was a royal they, referring to the coven in general. Though Galleai realized this might be confusing and for once, sought to clarify. "The coven." She added, as if that should explain everything. "You're allergic to the sun?" She'd never heard of a live person being allergic to the sun. Just undeads. But she'd heard of stranger things, she supposed.
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:20 pm
Well...that stopped Ishizuke in her tracks. The idea of a group of vampires actually made her stop, consider all the different things she could say, and then laugh. There was no way this girl lived with vampires! That was ridiculous. There was no such thing as the Undead, capital U or no capital U. Vampires and werewolves and all those things didn't exist. She would have heard of them before now. Or...at least...she thought she would have.
Wouldn't she?
After all, she came from a cabbage and lived with a synthetically produced humanoid being who seemed to lack an emotional center, more commonly called a 'heart'....so perhaps she had been too quick to judge. "Vampires, really?" she asked, Galleai's other question forgotten in what had quickly become legitimate curiosity. When she did remember the question, she shrugged.
"Photodermatitis, it's called. Mama says it causes third-degree burns if I go out in the sun. Kind of like sticking my hand in a fire...only it's the UV rays that do it."
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 12:34 am
"Wow" Galleai said softly. "I stayed up once to see the sun rise. It was pretty, but I'm used to the night." She smiled a little wryly. Mostly she was too tired to stay awake during the day. Half the time she slept at night when everyone was awake, too. Galleai much preferred being asleep to being awake. Then flipping back to the original question, Galleai nodded. "Yes, there are four of them in the coven, but there are lots of followers and pilgrims that show up sometimes. And theres the oracle of course, but.." She trailed off, wondering if she'd gone too far. She was pretty certain outsiders, especially living ones, werent supposed to know that stuff.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:00 am
It was interesting, to say the least, to meet a child who was perfectly all right with being awake during the night and didn't seem to mind that everyone else was up during the day. Ishi hated her nocturnal habits, but there was nothing she could do about them. Galleai actively chose to sleep during the day. But it seemed like her family was just as nocturnal as she was, so maybe it wasn't so bad for her. Especially if her family was really vampires. Ishi listened, most of her bad mood disappearing as Galleai went on to explain the coven. That was...really cool, if a bit weird and scary. She kind of still couldn't believe that vampires existed.
"Wow..." she said, then cocked her head at Galleai. "So...you're not a vampire, but they are," she said, puzzling things out and making sure she had everything from the girl's explanation. Vampires. Wow.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:19 am
The girl nodded. "Leeward got me for Nicola, but when I got bigger... I guess I'm not as good now that I grew because Nicola doesn't like me as much." This was said matter-of-factly without rancor or bitterness. "Do you wish you could be out during the day?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:27 am
Blinking in something like alarm as Galleai told her story, Ishizuke cocked her head to one side and was about to offer condolences, or something like them, when the girl asked her another question. She considered it, and then shrugged.
"Mostly, I wish I could watch the sunrise and the sunset," she answered. "They're so pretty. But I like the stars. I don't know if it's exactly that I wish I could be out during the day..." she shrugged. "Maybe more that I wish other people were out at night. I like the night." Nodding matter-of-factly, she looked a bit surprised that she had actually just said that. There was something to it. Maybe she really didn't want the sun as much as she thought she did.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:40 am
She understood the sentiment, though Galleai didn't miss other people being awake. If she wanted a friend she could always go to sleep and fall into someone's dream. Loneliness was impossible. "I like the night too. Daytime hurts my eyes but the moon and the stars are nice and friendly." She thought for a moment. "Could you cover up all your skin and wear sunglasses and watch the sunrise out of a window or something?" Or would the sun burn through the clothes? Thats what would happen to the coven.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:56 am
"With proper sunscreen and long clothes, I can go out in the sun for a while," Ishizuke said, "but after a certain point, even that gets dangerous." It was like the walk from the house to the car to one of her doctor's appointments. She had once spent ten minutes outside...and even that was tempting fate. "It's just best if I stay out of the sun, because we're not really sure about the limits and what can make things go wrong. And Mama doesn't like me 'risking things'," she added darkly. "I've snuck out to watch the sunrise before, and oh, was she pissed when she caught me."
Pausing thoughtfully, she ran a hand through her hair and then moved to the swingset. Sitting down on the swing next to Galleai, she closed her hand around one of the rusty chains and swung slightly back and forth.
"What about you? Do you get lonely on your own in the dark?"
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