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 Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:56 am
Sin was sitting in her suite with her desk moved and another chair set out across from her. She stared down at fine black paper and gave her fingers a little wiggle. Alcyone would be here soon to help her out with the invitations for the demon party, but her mind was elsewhere. Soft music made the room seem more cheerful, lyrics from 'Material Ghoul' echoed outward. Sin sighed softly and then pulled out a black black card with red print.
Lucky 13
She closed her eyes a moment thinking of Braum and his...vision, and the attack that followed. It was obvious now that Braum wasn't coming back, and he had been at the head of the Major Arcana in Lucky 13. He was the one she had gone to with the idea of using the party to recruit new members. Except he was gone now and Sin had to decide if she wanted to step up, or fall back. She had been at Amityville for a while now, and she had made friends, things hadn't been easy but if she took on this secret roll things could get harder. She thought of her non-demon friends and let out a deep breath before shaking her head. She had to do this, this kind of chance only came once in a blue moon she tucked the card away again. This would be much easier to manage if she didn't feel so isolated, she needed alliances, not just friends.
She forced a smile and then picked up her pen again dipping it in the silver ink and trying to look normal for Alcie. Worrying about it would only cause wrinkles, she had to try and look at things in a more positive light.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:12 am
Her head had been spinning for the past few weeks about so many things. Alcie was having a difficult time making sure that her head stayed in school and focused on the important things. After the raid on Christmas town, the water demon had mostly remained in her room and she was sure that Sin would have noticed her odd behavior by now. A lot of things had changed. Being friends with Sin had made her realize quite a few things about her demon heritage and how she needed to take care of herself. Her mother was right though. Alcie needed to use her time at school to her advantage.
Shaking her head, Alcie exited the confines of her room for the purposes of social interaction for the first time in days. Though, she was eager to see Sin and talk to her about her revelations. They were going to be working on their party invitations today and it would be a nice distraction from everything that was going on. The party seemed to be developing into a rather large thing. It was unfortunate that they weren't inviting non-demons but it was just the way things were...
Her room wasn't too far from Sin's so while she had been enraptured in her thoughts, she realized that she had just passed her friend's door. Turning around, she approached the correct one and Alcie raised her hand and knocked lightly.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:21 am
Sin jerked a bit at the knock lost in her thoughts, she frowned down at the ruined invitation and grabbed a new peice of paper. She took a deep breath and then smiled practicing the mask again and feeling bad about it. Alcyone was her friend shouldn't she just be herself around her? Except Sin knew better then that, her parents had drilled deception into her, you didn't let anyone see you upset if it could be helped.
"Alcie? Come in!" She paused to stand and give a little stretch and shake her hands out.
"I'm so glad your here, I felt like my fingers were starting to cramp. Want a drink?" The falseness of the smile slowly faded away when her friend came in, she was genuinely happy to see her. It felt like Alcie had practically vanished after their ordeal in ChristmasTown. Then again that had been quite an experience for everyone, Sin had celebrated the return home by burning her elf outfit.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:36 am
Before Sin opened the door, Alcie took a deep breath and recomposed herself because weakness was not tolerated, not here or in the demon world.
Hearing Sin's voice, Alcie put a smile on her face and opened the door. "Hey Sin! It's been awhile. Sorry that I haven't been around. Been staying in my room mostly..." Chuckling nervously, Alcie walked into Sin's room and quickly hugged her. It was such a relief to see a familiar face and she knew that she had to confide her thoughts with her friend today. It was rather important.
"Glad to be here. It's time I left my room anyway! And we need to get on with our party plans." Nodding, Alcie responded, "Sure, do you have water?" She observed Sin carefully wondering what was going on with her. It was too soon to tell but it looked like Sin had a lot of things on her mind too. "You're making the invitations? What do they look like?" Glancing over at Sin's desk, she was curious to see what Sin had come up with.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:55 am
Sin relaxed a bit as Alcie hugged her, she returned the hug with a tight quick squeeze of her own before nodding and moving into the small kitchen alcove of her suite. Grabbing a bottle of water she moved to sit back down and set it on the desk of Alcie. "Don't worry about it, Christmas was...tiring for all of us I think. I'm glad your feeling better though, I need some help with invitations and I still need to ask for permission to use the demon common room for the party. I also thought it might be a good idea to hire a few...guards to make sure no one slips in uninvited."
Guards sounded nicer then bouncers didn't it? Her parents always had 'their people' around to make sure no party of theirs got crashed. Sin wasn't sure how likely that was at school, but it didn't hurt to practice for more important affairs. Besides if she was going through the trouble of inviting all these demons by hand then no one was getting in without proof of her hard work.
"Oh here!" She smiled and handed Alcie a sample invitation. The envelope was dark grey, the inside a pale silver. This one had already been opened, the seal impressed with the #13 clinging to the paper. The mock up invitation was a black card with silver trim, handwritten in Sin's script was the invite.
"It's simple enough, we don't want to make it seem too big a deal incase any non-demons see them..." She glanced at Alcie and then quickly added. "you know wouldn't want to hurt anyone feelings." Except feelings hadn't been the first thing Sin had thought of, but rather the little black cards she was slipping into certain invitations. She didn't need any non-demons to see those and start nosing around. Lucky 13 was a well kept secret and she wasn't going to blow it.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:44 am
Christmas being just tiring was such an understatement. Her clothes were ruined but thankfully her mother had immediately sent her some more outfits. That and she came out with a distaste for the snow. "That does sound like a good idea. Back home, I remember my family always had a group to watch over our get togethers."
"I can help you with the invitations and whatever else you need." Grasping the invitation, Alcie turned it over in her hands and looked it over. "It's very pretty, Sin. And yes, not too flashy so to attract attention."
Things were falling into place and Alcie had been awaiting this get together. There were many demons that were enrolled in Amityville and she wanted to see exactly who they were. She had noticed that there was a #13 on the paper and made a mental note to herself.
"So for now, let's get on working on these invitations? Do we have a list of all of the demon students enrolled currently?" Assuming that all demons were going to be invited.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:59 am
"Thanks, I used to help my mother with invitations, so I had a fair idea of what I wanted. We'll have to see who's available and trustworthy to keep an eye on the guest list and keep out anyone who isn't on it. Yes, here's the list, we're inviting every demon. We don't want to...create any rifts by neglecting to invite someone. I decided to forgo RSVPing I figured we'll provide enough for everyone and then it will look like there's more then enough if anyone doesn't show up. I've contacted my mothers caterer and asked about light dinner buffet options, I thought that would be more casual then a formal sit down dinner. After all this is about mingling and meeting our fellow demons."
She had gone into practical recital mode, and her tone had changed, it was almost like she was repeating a lesson. Then she smiled and looked back up at Alcie her voice normal again. "What do you think? I still need your help figuring out decorations...and we need to talk to someone still for permission to use the common room...though I don't see why not since everyone is invited and we all live here."
She looked back down as she finished Riley's invitation and set it aside, she wanted to hand deliver it later. Riley seemed rather interesting and Sin wanted to extend a verbal invitation to join Lucky 13's Major arcana. With Braum gone it wouldn't hurt her to make an alliance to share the top ranks with her.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:20 pm
Nodding, Alcie knew that it would be good to ally themselves with some trustworthy non-demons. Though, finding personalities that could swing that way was difficult but not impossible. "Yeah, it's a little late notice to be doing RSVPs anyway and I'm sure we'll have enough for everybody. That's a good idea. It lets everybody move around and mingle with others." Alcie preferred social gatherings that way anyway because it allowed for more variety of interactions. Surprisingly, even though Alcie was a light-hearted, carefree spirit, she was very adept at reading others and their body language which would come in handy.
"Ooh decorations. I love that part about parties. Hm. Well, what kind of table arrangements are we going to do? Since we don't want to be too casual, we could decorate the room with some demon-esque centerpieces on the table. If we wanted to, I could find some drapery because the ones already in the common room look horrible." Alcie tried picturing the room in her head and her mother taught her that spatial arrangement of the room was very important.
"Yeah, it should be okay that we're using the common room though I'll figure out who to ask about that." Alcie had pulled up a chair next to Sin's desk so that she could help Sin with putting the invitations together.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:26 pm
Sin nodded and relaxed a bit more as Alcie sat down and they began to share ideas. It was nice doing something like this together, less stressful to say the least, and nice to be working with a friend. "We could do small tables that seat four or five scattered about, or maybe some couches and comfortable chairs we can arrange around a smaller table. Though I'd like to be a little short on seating so people won't ground themselves into one spot."
She smiled and dipped her pen again moving on to the next invitation. "What do you think of setting up a small dance floor? Dancing is always fun after all? We can pick a wide selection of music so everyone gets to hear something they like at least once."
Sin tried to remember the drapes and then nodded, Alcie was right they would want different ones for their party at least. "Excellent, you handle the permission then, and let me know if you want me to come with you and do some convincing."
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:38 pm
"Yeah, a few tables here and there would be nice. That's a good idea, makes people move around a little more." Pausing, Alcie thought about a dance floor in the middle of the room and chuckled. "That would be nice and very interesting to say the least. It'll loosen people up and hopefully make everybody more relaxed. We'll have to compile up a list of songs then." She couldn't help but grin and wonder how the other students were going to react to a dance floor.
"Will do. It really shouldn't be a problem for me." Smiling at her, Alcie grabbed the printed invitations and placed them into the envelopes. "So, Sin I've been thinking about things and especially about that conversation we had at the maul." She hoped that she had been specific enough and that Sin would remember what they had talked about. "Well, the Christmas raid kind of made me re-evaluate my thoughts on that topic and to be honest, I know it would be better if I stuck to my demon roots instead of pushing it away. And I know that in the long run, it'll be better for me and my family." Pausing, Alcie knew that this was for the best and she was glad that she could finally get this off her chest. It's not like she had anybody besides Sin to tell anyway.
"Our friendship means a lot to me and now I hope that you won't be worried about having to hide things from me."
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:01 pm
"Excellent, I'm afraid I'm more familiar with the classical and older music my parents enjoyed, so if you could find the newer stuff that would help." She laughed and sealed another envelope. "Dancing is always good, it...helps you meet new people and relax, besides it is a party after all."
For a moment she fell silent half listening to Alcie and half remembering an old masquerade ball her parents had thrown. Yes, dancing was a great way to meet people...like her Raven. She snapped back to attention and looked at Alcie curiously.
"Yes I remember?" Where was this conversation heading though? She smiled at Alcie and nodded when she heard what she had to say. "That's great Alcie, I mean...I'm glad you feel that way, sticking together...it's important."
Then Alcyone mentioned hiding things and Sin felt a knot of guilt form low in her stomach. Could she share things with her ghoul friend? She had changed her mind once, what if she began to feel sorry for the non-demons and changed it again? She decided to casually skim over it, maybe Alcie already knew about Lucky 13, some of the older demon families had no doubt prepared their children just as her parents had prepared her.
"Say Alcie...were your parents members of some of the social clubs? You know...group get togethers?" Social clubs, it was a polite mask for a group of elite demons to get together and plot from the most mundane things like who to invite to a luncheon or the big stuff, like how to rig a political vote so that a demon ally would win.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:35 pm
Alcie's taste was a little old fashioned too but she was sure that she could update herself on more modern music. It shouldn't be that difficult to compile a list of these things. "Very true." She loved to dance and of course she had been required to take formal dance lessons when she was younger. Even though she could be quite clumsy at times, Alcie was very light on her feet when it came to dancing. "It is very important. I large reason why I've been conflicted and changed my mind though. It's time to grow up I guess and learn to deal with these things. If we hadn't become friends, I don't think I would have ever realized." She knew that it was a good thing and she was glad to finally tell Sin about her change of heart.
Nodding as she slipped another invitation into an envelope, Alcyone had almost started day dreaming again until she heard Sin's question about social clubs. "Hm? Yes, I'm rather familiar with those." Her parents attended many of these social gatherings on a weekly basis and it wasn't until she had gotten older did she understand what was going on. "What about them?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 2:07 pm
"I'm glad our friendship has helped you Alcie that means a lot to me." With a glance up again she listened to Alcie, so she was familiar with them. Except she didn't seem to know that such a club existed here at their school. She heated a bit more wax for the next set of seals.
"Well, it's interesting to see who's in them, who's on top...who's not. Have your parents mentioned Lucky 13?" She tried to sound mildly interested but kept the tone casual. Figuring out how much Alcie knew was important if she wanted to try and convince her to join the club.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:45 pm
Alcyone smiled at Sin and continued to put together the invitations. "It is interesting." Tilting her head at the mention of the name, she knew the name though she was definitely not aware of its existence at Amityville.
"Yes. I've heard of Lucky 13." For some reason, she felt that this conversation had a little more than just mentioning these demon social clubs. "It's good to keep up with what's going on and these social clubs are a good way to do that." Her mother had made sure to mention to her how she needed to find out about these clubs and get involved somehow.
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Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 7:54 pm
"Have you? Ever thought to try and join?" She glanced up at her before pouring the wax and sealing the next letter. At that point Alcie could probably manage to put two and two together and realize that the seals were all 13's probably for a good reason. Sin had come to school and knew right away who to see, how to apply, but things had changed, and maybe not everyone was aware.
The trick of course was making themselves open to other demons while keeping their existence a secret from non-demons. Worst was making sure demons who were in weren't spilling info to non-demons. If some of their little club activities were brought to light it could make some people very unhappy. So the best thing was to keep their numbers small and keep a close eye on one another.
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