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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:30 pm
This is the PRP Contracting/ Essence Spark Pickup RP for Syusaki
Location: Life Essentials shop Weather: Springtime~ Warm sunshine shimmering through the chinatown alleys
Graficcha/EssentialShrimp will RP Miss Longway, Misha & Banning Syusaki will RP miss Flare Bennet.
Now, Syu, your pickup~ You can do this however you like, there's two options: Either Flare has been in touch with EBI before, and she has been screened and approved of, so now she can come pick up her precious illegal lump of rock. Or, she stumbles in for the first time, perhaps she's already poked in before, and now spontaneously comes to request one. Either way you can count on Banning knowing a thing or two about her~
I'll leave all of it up to you XD
-For information about how the shop itself works, you can find out a lot more by browsing for other pickup RP's, and the basic info section somewhere here in the guild, there's even a floorplan of the lobby XD -As your Proto stage art is complete, you're allowed to RP the emergence in the shop itself, should you want to do it right here. It has, in fact, happened before.
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Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:37 am
These days, Flare constantly questioned herself. Questioned her morals. Questioned her sanity. Questioned her state of mind. What was she getting herself into? She wasn’t one-hundred percent sure her self, but sometimes taking risks and diving into the unknown was necessary for moving forward in life. Her tall figure standing apart from those that strolled through the streets of the city, she calmly zigzagged through the oblivious crowd and stolidly passing shop windows brimming with colorful clothes and gleaming items.
The lids of her eyes drooped even lower and the frown glued to her lips deepened, giving the young woman a pensive yet annoyed look to her. She was only in her early twenties, but stress lines born from endless days scowling and furrowing her brows were already starting to manifest. A restless sigh and she finally ceased her walking, sliding pale hands into the deep abyss of her pockets, warming up her chilly skin. It wasn’t always like this, argued Flare as she tiredly stared at the reflection in the transparent window. When she was first thrown into the adult world, it was new yet exciting. She stumbled through the challenges of living on her own, but thrived on the sudden dose of independence received. Flare had quickly found a job as a game designer at a well-known gaming company, rising through the ranks before she knew it. But then pressure to do better and constantly shell out high-quality work settled in. The death of her parents. Caring for her siblings. By itself, the burdens were miniscule. Difficult to endure, but not impossible. However, life had pushed the problems into her arms without a second warning, all at once. Before Flare knew it, she was suffocating.
The mere thought of the past months bred weariness in her bones. Her shoulders sagged. Her head listlessly fell forward. Her usual rigid posture disappeared in a matter of seconds. Flare had eventually finished her mourning and her siblings were seamlessly weaved into her life once more, taken under her care.
Yet the terror of work still remained. Work. Work. Work. Pressure. Pressure. Pressure. She was fed up with wracking her brain for ideas. She was fed up with overtaxing her brain. She wanted to be inspired, not forced. Playing games and listening to music was not a perfect solution, however. So other means had to be employed. Legal or . . . not legal.
Then she became aware of the soothing blanket of warmth made of sunshine that she was wrapped in, instilling a sense comfort and relaxing the worn woman.
Vigor filled her body and she naturally straightened her back, confidently and coolly carrying herself with grace. Though her hands were still buried deep in her pockets, Flare’s movements were firmer now, meaningful and intent. Indeed, the time of moping and stressing was over. She would seek out the answer to her problems, whether that followed the law or not!
Narrowed eyes peered ahead of her, taking note of the numerous, oncoming people that passed her, heads down at their shoes or purposely ahead like hers.
For the first time, she entered EBI. Her gaze surveyed the room, soaking in the details as her feet treaded against the floor. Flare continued walking. And walking. And she wondered why this hallway seemed so damn long. “Hello?” she called out.
[[ Quality is 'meh'. orz But yes, if it's not noticeable, Flare was screened. /attempted to make her familiar with shop sobsob And grow in pick up RP, it shall! So this RP would count for the proto to alter stage? ]]
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:07 am
((I'll see that XD Technicaly Pickup counts towards Spark => Proto first and foremost, the next are all totals after. I've never actually *counted* RP totals before growths so far, all of our current Alters have had more than their share of RP :3 ))
Ah, there she was, the lady, as expected. The Duke had spent many an hour pondering her, checking her connections, her past, not that to him, there were very many noteworthy details to find. Overall a pretty mediocre lady, in terms of status and lifecycle, apart from her outstanding records. Hard work, a good head and some inborn finesse. Yet it was no surprise that the young woman desperately needed backup in her life, a little extra nudge. The fact that she had sought it here was a lot more significant to him then her entire portfolio, extended family and bra size together. Not that Banning would ever be caught dead pondering a female's chest, boring sod.
He had already gotten this inkling, instinctive, like the seventh sense of a bird of prey picking up a target nearby, that she would come by today, and just as Flare had made her way in from the busy street outside, he had gotten the itches, making him stand up from his desk upstairs to come and fetch him a cup of coffee.
Behind her own desk, the reception counter, as usual almost hidden behind stacks upon stacks of documents, ranging from mundanely interesting to bloody boring, miss Longway had risen as well, calling out to the new arrival with her ears poking up curiously.
"Yes, yes, right here, do proceed, you're almost there." she said clearly, almost with a chuckle. Don't be shy, come in, come in. My, what a good mood she was in. Don't tell anyone, but the crazy cat-lady had secretly snuck in a few 'other' documents to work on. It made a pleasant diversion at times, to be able to polish down the plans for her upcoming official wedding on her own tempo. Only slowly was the idea getting less intimidating, so now the fun could begin. Hey now Timka, don't get distracted, you have a customer waiting!
"Ah, welcome to Life Essentials." she greeted her, smiling uncharacteristically chipperly, her cat-tail curved in an 's'-shape behind her. "You must be miss Bennet." Hmm, let me guess, let me guess. No, no doubt, it's you. Twinkle twinkle, amused cat-squint.
While miss Longway was dealing with Flare, mister DeLonghy had just come from the second floor, looking a little surprised to see Flare already there, but that moment passed quickly. The instant he was out the door and in the lobby, his features pulled into his usual calm, calculating smirk, that one where you never knew if he was being playful or pondering to eat you whole when you least expected it. Timka hadn't even noticed him coming in yet, what with his manner devoid of all bombastics. She would likely catch on in three... two...
Yup, her tail fur puffed up.
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Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 5:33 pm
[[ I meant for the RP describing the proto's emergence. xD;; My bad. ]]
There was an end to this corridor, right? Flare thought to herself, idiotic as the question was. Her arms mindlessly folded across her chest as she continued to press forward. The lids of her eyes drooped, wondering if this feeling of walking in a never ending hallway was merely a trick of the mind – a result of stressing over recent projects.
A female’s voice warmly rang in Flare’s ears, urging the purple-haired woman to keep walking, and destination nearly in sight. She drew her breath in, surprised when it transformed into a soft sigh, hidden tension suddenly releasing itself from her shoulders and body. Fingers with neatly trimmed nails nervously brushed locks of hair back to reveal pointed ears. As soon as she found the solution to her problems, the better, she guessed that it wouldn’t be long until she was scheduled for a meltdown.
A soft brown desk appeared up ahead, drenched in fluttering papers. Behind it was a woman with short green hair, feline ears playfully poking out. A grin matched the eagerness in the secretary’s voice as she welcomed Flare.
She nodded her head and stiffly half-bowed. “Thank you, and I am,” she answered, loosely lacing her fingers and politely placing them in front of her body. Gaze idly wandering the room, Flare casually added, “I’ve come to pick up my . . .” She tried to recall the term Banning had used in his letter. “Spark? I hope my unannounced arrival hasn’t troubled you.”
Footsteps from the outside caught her attention and her head turned toward the source of the sound, unsurprised to find the cause to be a man, presumably Banning. Flare moved towards him, her strides long and light. She brought a hand out, expecting a formal handshake. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Mr. Banning.”
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 5:30 am
Miss Longway gave a good-mooded nod at her. No, no problem at all, hey-heyyy, good to have you here. Aww, how nervous she looked. Timka then quietened, eventually ducking away behind her desk to prepare, when the Duke took over Flare's attention.
The man eyed her keenly, and with an almost wary air leaned back a little when she approached him so boisterously. Not to say the man was shy or in any manner held a distaste against touching her -beware of misinterpreting this statement, the man's a sixty-year-old virgin-, but it was undeniable that he greatly valued his personal space. Much against his usual policy he hitched for a second or two before extending his hand and shaking hers with a firm grip. Had she just used 'mister' in conjunction with his given name?
"The pleasure is all mine. ...If we are to do this politely you may as well use my family name, miss Bennet." he said then, rather quietly as if he was a bit peeved at his inability to let the little slipup slide. If you will be using titles, you'd do well to recall my name is DeLonghy, not Banning, for you. Then again he seemed well aware that this reminder of their distance was awkwardly placed. Ahum.
"If you are ready, we can move onto the protocol. It has been breached a few times now, but isn't it most pleasant when a deal can be settled without a hitch, now." he said then, hawk-eyes resting on her with their sharp gaze. It was hardly a question, though far from a threat. Be calm, milady, then we can finish this smoothly. Only awaiting her response for about three seconds, he then turned away from her and made his way over to the forbidden door aside, telling her it would only take a minute. It took him only one motion to open it, and slip inside the dark room beyond.
Back behind her counter, Timka had poked up again with a roll of cardboard, holding the contract to be used soon. "Don't mind him dear, he doesn't get out to talk with regular folk a lot. Born with a stick up his bum." she smiled, whispering that last bit with a conspirational chuckle.
"How about you take a seat over there, master DeLonghy will be right back. Hes just gone off to fetch your 'item'." Again there was that cattish grin, reassuring Flare that all was normal, really. She'd motioned over to the quite cosy salon off to the side, where a stack of flyers lay neatly on one edge of a low black stone table. "Relax, he doesn't bite."
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Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:32 pm
Normally, Flare would be as wary as the older man. She wasn’t too fond of physical contact either, but there something special about handshakes. It was a sign of friendliness, of sportsmanship, and other things. Physical contact all the same, but the symbolism of the insignificant gesture didn’t make her shrink away.
His hand tightly wrapped around hers and they shook hands. Once they released their grips, Flare’s arm gladly fell back to her sides, escaping into the pockets of her pants. Spotting the uneasy gleam in his eyes, the neutral line of her lips pulled back into the smallest of grimaces. One of her odd quirks had revealed itself already? She rewound time in her head, eyebrows furrowing when she realized her error.
“My apologies, Mr. DeLonghy. It’s a peculiar habit I developed as a child,” Flare answered, brows drooped and mouth drawn into a frown to create a sorrowful, business-like expression.
She immediately nodded her head, watching him turn and disappear behind a door with a steady, careful gaze. Eyes locked on the polished wood of the door, Flare vaguely wondered what lay beyond it. Was the scene the typical laboratory setting? Or perhaps something darker, like a dimly lit room and glass case upon glass case of the “sparks”. Her mind crawled with questions, squirming and wriggling.
The secretary’s voice broke her pondering, startling as a baseball shattering one’s window on a hot summer day. Softly rotating on the balls of her feet, Flare half-nodded to the woman. “It’s alright, I don’t mind at all. I’ve dealt with different kinds of people, and I’m not exactly the most normal person around, either.” She smiled and angled her head to the side, shoulders sloped into a relaxing position and put at ease by the secretary’s words, nonetheless. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She walked over to the salon and sat in the nearest chair, taking in the homey feel of the cool chair against her skin.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:48 am
As Flare sat down, miss Longway calmly popped the lid off her cardboard roll, and slid out the contract parchment. She had just finished smoothly flattening it upon the table and readying a pen when Banning returned. The Duke closed the door behind him, on lock, then made his way to the salon and with a glance at Flare, sat down opposite her. Then he set down a case, about two hands broad and one hand high. The outer was marbled with a peculiarly shimmering layer, not quite reflecting the light, but definitely displaying a pearly pattern that changed when it was moved. Lithe fingers found an almost invisible latch, and he opened up the top lid, lifting it until it found a solid resting position at an almost ninety-degree angle, revealing the cyan blue Spark oozing its gaseous-liquid Essence onto a soft beige padding.
No time to get distracted by it yet, though. "This is your Spark. As you might be able to tell from its essence colour it is a magicker class, as you requested." he told her calmly, then politely gestured at the contract laid out before her.
"Now before we move on to the bonding, if you would be so kind to take a look at this. This contract is of no legal value, it does not allude to any official instances or personal information. There is no fine print. You may take all the time you want to read it through and confirm this." he continued, in that same even tone, never once raising or lowering his voice.
"I consider this a token of mutual trust. We shall protect and assist you in times of need, and you will promise us, all in good faith, to do what lies within your abilities to not endanger yourself, this organisation, and by extension, all of our other customers." No pressure at all there Flare, nah. "When you are satisfied, please sign there."
All the while, Timka stood by, quietly attentive, and quite excited. Go for it girl!
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Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:26 pm
Small talk broke away to peaceful silence that Flare gladly welcomed. The ability to smoothly converse idle talk with others was beginning to escape her. She clasped her hands and placed them on her lap, half-lidded eyes staring at the polished wooden table in front of her. The room sat in comfortable silence, save for the shuffling of papers and the clicking of pens by the secretary.
A curt click of the door and Flare quietly raised her head to stare at Banning. She shifted in her seat, placing her hands on her chair and adjusting herself as he strode over and seated himself across from the woman. He carefully lowered a case onto the table, it was fairly small, but Flare didn’t expect to be given such a large, bulky item anyways. As the lid flicked open to reveal a stunning blue spark, she tilted her body to the side to better examine the Ocarina-shaped object, as it dripped dark purple.
Although eager to closely soak in the details of her new Spark, she reluctantly pulled herself back into a straight sitting position and inched forward to slide the contract towards her with her fingers. Flare scanned the paper, carefully speeding through the terms listed. Concise, to the point, and from what she could tell, not misleading. She wordlessly listened to Banning’s words, mulling them over, turning and tossing them in her head like she was kneading dough. A small pause, and she grinned. Pressure? As if.
“Rest assured, Mr. DeLonghy, I’ll be sure to keep this a secret,” she confidently answered, slipping the pen into nimble fingers and smoothly signing the contract. “Is there anything else you would like to inform me of?”
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 6:56 am
"It should be clear by now that should you have any further questions or need assistance, you may always contact us. So apart from a reminder of that, no. We are quite finished with the paperwork." Banning nodded, sliding the parchment towards himself when she was finished and with a swift motion, rolled it up to put back into its safe casing.
"Now it is up to you, miss Bennet. The Spark is yours to bond with." His stark gold eyes cast the calmly oozing rock a glance. "It is very simple really. Just take it into your hands and let it happen. Tell it what you want of it, out loud or in all silence, it does not matter. These creatures sense the soul they bond with as if it were a body of its own, and they cannot live without a bond nor without a Purpose."
As he told Flare this, miss Longway stood by, nodding along almost solemnly. Before she'd encountered any others of the Essentics she had never truly realised just how important a Purpose was to an Essentic. Humans could re-educate themselves, they withered without a task to fulfill, and can not switch.
Oddly enough, it turned out the creatures had a way with taking their owner's intents rather broadly. They could be more than a mere working tool under the energy-saturated circumstances of this era. Naturally this brings along a whole slew of less practical consequences... Timka made a vague wry grimace thinking about how that had worked out for Aoi. Poor kiddo, at least he seemed to be finding a balance now.
As it was, both her and her employer were now silent, patiently, somewhat expectantly waiting for Flare to 'do her thing'. Have fun, milady, this is a once in a lifetime experience.
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Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 5:55 pm
[[ Wasn't sure what to do with the bonding. orz orz ]]
Flare nodded her head curtly, how obvious.
He glanced at the rock, calmly speaking of bonding with the Spark. She angled her head towards Banning, keeping a cool expression despite the questioning look in her eyes. Bond . . . with an oozing rock? She cast a curious stare at the Spark, his instructions ringing in her mind. Her face turned blank upon realizing the full meaning of the directions. So simple, yet somehow odd, she noted as she shot the man a final glance before bending over to reach out to the rock. It was hers now. No sense in shying away from the thing.
Flare took it into her hands, feeling the cold, smooth feel of the Spark. For a moment, it seemed lifeless to her, but nonetheless she continued on. Her terms weren’t very difficult to achieve, she hoped. Become something that can help me get inspiration for my games. Help me visualize . . . everything! She softly spoke the request in her mind, her lips moving to silent words that never quite left the tip of her tongue. Become a Virtual Reality mage!
Then she waited.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 8:25 am
Well, there she had done it... Perhaps somewhat forced, had the lady felt the response from the Spark now, or not? Technically, once it connected, you knew. There was truly no mistaking it.
Maybe this particular one was a little sleepy and needed to be roused some more by her silent words? Don't be afraid milady, open your heart~ Let it hear you, allow it to touch, to reach out. At least the slowly bubbling goop seemed to be responding, pooling in her hands and reaching around her fingers.
((You can always refer back to what other peeps did for this XD From now on the Spark's consciousness is all yours. You take it over from here.))
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Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 7:56 pm
[[ Hopefully, I did this right. 8D;; ]]
Flare felt like a child, an awkward child that had done something wrong, but did not know what it was. She furrowed her brows and contemplatively stared at the rock and its oozing essence. There was another reprieve of silence before the purple essence began to slide down her arm, twining around it like mischievous tentacles. If that is what you want. A voice echoed in her head, high yet low enough to remain ambiguous, gender-wise.
As the gaseous liquid trailed down her arm even more, she yelped out of surprise and reflexively dropped the rock as it coated itself in a purple mist, chuckling all the while. The rock clattered to the floor and sparks lit up the violet cloud. The amused chuckling grew louder as a blue blur scampered out from the cloud and trailed around Flare before settling itself around her neck.
Heterochromatic eyes glittered and as the ghost of a smile disappeared from the Proto’s lips, Flare turned her head to wryly stare at the creature. “Quite a flashy entrance there, don’t you think?” she remarked dryly as she tentatively patted the fox’s head.
“I merely hoped to impress you, someone incredibly imaginative and creative,” it replied in a monotone.
Flare wondered if it was lying through its teeth. If it had any teeth at all.
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:38 am
Miss Longway had taken a cautious step backwards, giving this peculiarly-paced bonding and unexpectedly early emergence the room. Despite herself, her tail's brush stood on end, and her ears flattened themselves back to a suspicious mid-level. Hello there, newborn. Already the woman wasn't sure if she liked this 'thing' much, though she berated herself for getting biased so quickly. Hadn't Misha been just as cold upon its-his emergence? They learned quick, but there was no denying their inate social skills were mostly nonexistent, like their personality. Her bunny had turned out alright... so why wouldn't this one?
"Why hello there. That went fast... usually they take a few days to incubate." she eventually peeked by again, her fur smoothening again as curiosity won her over. My my, another gem of a strangeling this one was... A biologist would scream in horror and dive off a cliff if he were ever asked to classify the foxy creature now draped around miss Bennet. Having sufficiently examined the Proto, miss Longway glanced at Flare then. "What will you name it? We find they greatly prefer having an identity." Well yeah, so would you. The rather redundant nature of her statement had her grn her fangs bare.
"They're usually quite impersonal at the start, but they grow out of that." she added as well. "Before you know it they're suddenly their own self. The more they learn and develop the more efficient they get, certainly in a creative business such as yours."
And as Timka was guiding Flare through the first 'hello's', Duke DeLonghy was watching all three with intense hawk-eyes.
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Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:47 pm
Half-closed eyes turned to curiously stare at the secretary as she took an uneasy step back. Flare slowly tilted her head a fraction of an inch, wondering if the feline woman was surprised by the emergence of the Spark. The very thought made the video game-lover furrow her brows. Was it really that unusual? Nimble hands trickled up to idly brush the fox-like Proto.
It brought her to another thought that made her softly chuckle, the quiet laughter rumbling in her throat. Flare was not very fond of physical contact. Handshakes and other minor acts of touching was nothing, but prolonged contact set her reeling with panic. What are you doing? Why are you holding my hand for so long? Let go! Let go!
There was a calming presence about the Proto that made Flare easily and lovingly brush her fingers against its fur. “A few days, hm? I suppose it was Fate that made it emerge so quickly,” she replied with twinkling eyes. “A name?” repeated Flare as she stared the fox in the names, unblinking. The woman had a point. If she, herself had to be referred to as “that” or “her” for the entire time, it would drive her mad. “Fenn,” she decided after a moment of thought. “I’ve always wanted to use that name and it’s genderless, I think.”
Flare listened to her words with the utmost of care, soaking in every word and detail she said in her brief advice. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you,” she curtly said with a matching nod. Turning to Banning, she asked, “Is everything settled and I free to go, then?”
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Gracious Conversationalist
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Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:24 am
So 'Fenn' it was. Timka smiled and nodded, making the mental note to certainly not forgot that. Misha'd certainly want to know later. "Sounds good to me. They do usually gravitate towards a proper gender later." she reminded Flare, somewhat redundantly, then left her to finish up with the Duke.
Banning had calmly stood up, and briefly bowed his head at her question. "You are indeed done here." he answered, in his usual tone so lacking of affect. "Thank you for doing business with us, miss Bennet. I wish you a safe trip home."
Following his polite dismissal came the obligatory handshake, accompanied with that prolonged smouldering gaze at her. Perhaps he was warning her to certainly not forget the contract she had just signed, that small detail about preferrably not prancing around and showing off the newly emerged Proto. If he did, he seemed to have made the choice to not berate her about it vocally, leaving her adult pride intact. She was not a child, and Banning trusted her to know what to do.
"Good luck~" miss Longway still piped up, already back behind her desk and busily fixing up some quick reference files. Good luck indeed, Flare, good luck out there~
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