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 Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:00 pm
Lumi could see the hurt in his eyes, was she imagining that or was it real. "I won't forget you. I promise" he was promising her, it wasn't in her head right. No it couldn't be the hurt on his face was so real, and the sudden warmth that his embrace caused was real. Wrapping her arms around him she laid her head on his chest,
"I'll find a way to talk to you...I'll..."She wanted to say she'd find a way back to him. But something stopped her. She just wanted the voice in her head to stop to just give her a minute of peace before she had to leave Julian and return to being alone. "I'm sorry...I..."Shaking her head again she looked up at him, "Since the isle I can't get this voice out of my head...but I know I think...that you're really promising me..."Looking around she added still not letting him go, as if letting him go would make this all fade away like the memories from the isle.
"I guess we should follow..."Reeshie Hack Poor poor Julian gotta deal with a ghoul unable to deal with the voice in her head...
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:12 pm
All paths lead to the same end.
Siddie lingered at the forest's edge, still tired, still aching and heartsore and feeling sick. Her body hurt, but that was not so very important; her Fear would regenerate, given a little time, and even her hair would grow back. It was the sorrow that pierced down into her very core. The Four Clans - no, the Lost Clan - had been deprived of home and history and pride in one shattering moment. No, perhaps not pride. The Horsemen would always have their pride. She could see that in the way they carried themselves even now, standing tall and moving onwards. Surviving.
And yet it hurt to watch them. She should be glad, proud, amazed that the survivors were working to rebuild what they could, to keep their pride and reclaim their glory. But she felt pain instead. Hurt. Anger. Even jealousy, a poison film over all other emotions. They had lost their homes, lost everything, and still they carried home with them. They carried a sense of pride in themselves that Siddie had never felt, that she longed for and envied with a strength that disgusted her.
She was so very alone. She wanted to go home. She had no home.
Sammy was turning strange before her eyes, a slow process and one Siddie felt helpless to stop. Did she even have any right to protest the change? The ghoul she loved was becoming paranoid, ferocious, bloodthirsty, and there were reasons for it, clear and obvious and justifiable reasons. But with the growing violence in Sammy came a hardness of purpose and hardness of soul that frightened Siddie terribly. Had she only imagined the cheerful tenderness that had made her so comfortable? Certainly not; or perhaps she had changed too, grown so different that Sammy had begun to turn away from her. Siddie put a hand over her chest, where the dog tag Sammy had given her lay. Were they still even Obsidian and Samantha? Or did the changes in them run terrible and deep?
Siddie turned away from the clearing where the Lost Clan was beginning to set up their camp. She was tired. She wanted to bathe and sleep and do something about her ruined hair. She lived here at school, now, but she couldn't really call it home, could she? If she had no home with anyone else, what could she do?
All paths lead to the same end. The phrase echoed in her head, resounding and fluttering like crows' wings, obscure and dark. What did it mean? Did it mean that awful, dying world she had seen in trance, or perhaps the world she had seen at the end of the trials, grey and fading, being utterly destroyed? Or perhaps - perhaps it meant, simply, death.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:17 pm
The Insanity had taken hold of every poor mind it touched, hunter and student alike. Perhaps it was too weak to spread itself this far and keep hold, but the delicate strands that slid into each mind would soon change the way every victim saw the life, or unlife, that lay before them. Even in it's own, small way, a few days of Insanity for all would do more damage than the concentrated force that had taken hold of the mindflayer that was now a slab of stone, carted away by men who cared nothing for the person she used to be. But someone cared. Many cared. And they were the ones who were headed back to their dorms, their rooms, and their beds. The ones who wrapped their arms around their loved ones, or writhed in lonely agony for their loss. The ones displaced from their destroyed homes. Destroyed cultures. Destroyed lives.
And if someone had been able to ask that mindflayer, that piece of lifeless rock that was taken away from the only place she'd ever truly called home, and the only people she'd ever truly loved, her answer would have been instant.
She was the lucky one.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:59 pm
Julian pulled out of the hug and dug his hands into his pockets. From one of the larger pockets of his cargos, he pulled out the small journal he used for traveling. There was a small pencil stuck into the spine, which he pulled out. He tore a page from the back and wrote his number, squee-mail address, and his address for normal mail at school.
"If you get your own skellyphone you can call me, or PreC this is my squee-mail address, it's like sending me a letter, only electronically. But you could also send me a letter," he said, holding out the paper to her with a smile. He was suddenly very worried, very nervous. She wouldn't take it, she didn't actually want to talk to him anymore, she didn't want to see a wimp like him again. He was paranoid and scared. He wasn't good enough for her, wasn't good enough for any ghoul. He wasn't strong or brave or suave or anything a demon was supposed to be. He was a failure of a demon, why would anyone want to spend time talking to him...
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:24 pm
Lumi watched in slight horror as he pulled away but smiled when she noticed that he didn't leave, he was still standing there. And it looked like he was reaching for something. "Letters?"Well why didn't she think of that...wait why would he want to write her? For a split second she was able to drown out the voice, as she smiled and took the paper and threw her arms around his neck kissing his cheek, "Thank you Julian"She wasn't sure if she was thanking him for being there, for offering to write her, or even if she was really thanking him. But whatever the case the words came out of her mouth and she smiled once again before those insistence voices came back bringing with it the worry and anxiety of him forgetting and leaving her.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:40 pm
Ciel sat there grinning. The heavy feeling and nausea were tangible things, things she knew could not be denied as a part of normal life. Finally, things were starting to feel real again. When she noticed the pyre, she looked on curiously. She had never seen incense burned in this way before! With her attention already drawn to the area, when the ceremony began it had her full attention.
Gone. Everything she had seen and doubted before was gone. The memories began to swirl again, but there was no sadness. "Sometimes things are not as they seem." the horseman teaching Kumiko had said. This was not an ending.
Four little bubbles glistening in the realities had burst, ripped asunder by the sheer madness underlying them. In a way Ciel was right: something like that couldn't be "real". Something that isolated and perfected could never last. The nature of reality is change. Perfection is stagnation. Stagnation breeds destruction. It was the natural course of things, believing otherwise was madness.
These were thoughts and feelings Ceil had no words for, but she understood. As the non-class had taught her, she would take these lessons and carry on, understanding without knowing. Knowing without saying. It was zen.
It was a small change, but the few people who had met Ciel would have noticed it. Her pale skin now took on a rice-floured white like that of a Geisha and, just slightly, her features were more refined. The clans were not dead: they were evolving and Ciel herself was evolving as well.
With great effort she stood up. Suddenly she folded over, unsteadily bent at the waist and almost falling over. It looked like the side-effects taking hold until she held the bent pose. Although she wavered a little, she was bowing to the horsemen.
Ciel sat back down clumsily, practically falling into place. Her head was swimming, but she still smiled.
[[OOC: Thanks for playing with me and for the fun event! Take care, guys, and I hope to play with you all again soon.]]
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:01 pm
Aksaja was one of those who'd completely passed out, collapsed in something of a heap on the floor of the gym. His mind was still whirling in circles when he awoke, so much so that he could hardly make sense of what was being said, blinking around at the others who were slowly sitting up. Oh. He should probably get up too . . . ?
With a soft groan, the lightning dragon sat up with a hand to his head and then discovered that he'd actually passed out close enough to a wall to obtain its assistance in reaching his feet. By the time he had managed this feat, most everyone was moving out of the gym, following Medea and the Boogeyman. Mind still a bit fuzzy, Aksaja followed slowly, toward the back of the crowd. He moved closer once everyone stopped, though, blinking in the dim light. For some reason, everything seemed more . . . grey than it had before. Maybe it was just that the islands had been more vibrant by comparison.
He felt a stab of sorrow then. The islands . . . that were now gone forever. Thanks to the Hunters. A low snarl built in his throat, but the dragon choked it off, listening to the short ceremony. So even if their home had been destroyed, the Four Clans would somehow go on. As would they all. It was their right to live, to exist and to continue their way of life, no matter who or what tried to stop them. More and more Aksaja was seeing that coming to Amityville was changing him . . . he cared about things now that he had never thought about. The Four Clans . . . he'd only heard vague stories before, nothing personal, nothing concrete.
But now, having been on the islands, seen them and all the varieties of culture there . . . it made him angry that it was all gone. Angry that someone thought it was their job to destroy them. To capture and weaponize everyone they could get their hands on. He wasn't going to let them. Not anymore. Which meant . . . he had to get his act together and train even harder than before. Learn as much as he could. So he could join the fight against the Hunters as soon as possible. They weren't going to be allowed to do something like this again. Never again.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:10 pm
She kissed him on the cheek and Julian smiled. She was happy, she wanted to write to him, she wanted to keep in touch. He hugged her back, glad that all his worries had been for nothing. In the back of his mind, though, he knew this might be the last time he'd see her in a while. They would write and talk, but it wouldn't be the same as actually being in the same space.
He gave her a kiss on the cheek, his own flushing a bit.
"I'm sorry... for kissing you like that, back on War... I... I should have asked, but I didn't know... if I'd be coming back..." He sort of kind of wanted to try again, but that hadn't really been fair on her, had it? It seemed like something he should have had permission for...
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:20 pm
Touching her cheek she tilted her head to the side. He kissed her...but that was just a friendly good bye wasn't it? It didn't really mean anything did it? No it probably just meant, 'yep I'll see you around' Coming back to reality and the conversation at hand, sorry? he was sorry for kissing her...well that just reconfirmed everything she thought. He didn't want to kiss her, no sir, he was just caught up in the moment. Yep exactly like she thought. This was not exactly what she had wanted to hear when she saw him again. Then again she wasn't exactly thinking she'd ever see him again. Her normally calm and watchful self didn't seem to be around as she pushed against him and glared, "You're sorry?! You didn't know if you were coming back and THATS why you kissed me?! Well I never! Are you saying that I'm not a good kisser?! I ne...well..gah!"Her anger grew a little but more out of frustration at the idea that Julian had only kissed her because he might not be coming back. What a way to ruin a ghouls day. Well she'd show him wouldn't she, yeah make him sorry...wait was she really getting angry for him kissing her to the point of making her forget everything. Thinking about it for a split second, yep she was angry about that.
"I'll show you sorry..."
She leaned up and wrapped her arms around his neck kissing him on the lips with such force and passion that if she wasn't leaning against him she might have fallen over.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:33 pm
No! That wasn't it at all! It was just that he, shouldn't he have, he shouldn't have made the choice for both of them. He started sputtering when she pushed him away. He wanted to say that it wasn't like that, that he just thought it hadn't been quite right that-
Julian expected her to hit him. Yell at him more. Tear up his contact information. Slap him and turn and walk away.
He did not expect her to more-or-less tackle him and kiss him surprisingly forcefully. Face bright red, eyes wide, he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away, just enough to break the contact so he could sputter some more.
"I m-meant I sh-shouldn't have done that w-without your p-permission." His wings were all kinds of ruffled and he was slowly getting this surprised yet sort of pleased smile on his face.
"You kiss r-really well."
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 11:40 pm
He wasn't tired, not really- even though his legs threatened to give way, even though his vision was blanking out here and there. Maybe he just didn't want to be here, maybe some part of him was pretending-- the whispers in his ears angry, making him angry, too.
There were barely any trees on the island of Death.
Alke didn't want to live here, not this awful place. He knew- he didn't have any more choice, he couldn't go back there was nothing to go back to, nothing, not even Medea, he had failed her, and Ylaria, and everyone back home.
Home. That word had, over the course of the day, changed its meaning so many times for him, and now he wasn't even sure what it meant, or if it meant anything at all. Home. He was so sick of the word. How had it been that easy, before, to make promises? It sounded so stupid...
He crumpled to the ground, his weapon disappearing as he fell, spirits completely crushed.
--------------------------------------------
When he finally woke it was to the scent of burning incense.
Instead of getting up, Alke curled up tighter, in a corner, closing his eyes. If he imagined hard enough, he was back on the island, assisting Medea with one of her rituals, flirting with the priestesses. A life he had gotten used to after so, so many years.
He was tearing up from the memories, still running through his mind. It was hard to come to terms, still, with the fact that everything was gone for good. He did not want to be here. Even with Medea's summons he found it hard to pull himself back on his feet, to stand. If not for the outsiders around him he would probably have just rolled over to her feet, curling up there.
At the very least he managed to steel his expression, wiping his tears away, outwardly displaying, albeit shakily, the proper pride a horseman should have. He still could not meet his priestess' eyes, simply following behind her like a lost puppy.
Through the ceremony he stood, watching, seething, hating. The voices he couldn't make out were still whispering in his mind. What were they saying- he spent more time trying to decipher them than actually watching- all he knew was that they hated, they were angry.
And so was he. The sudden reappearance of the heirs, he reasoned, had accomplished nothing but the destruction of the four islands. And yet they would now be protectors?
That was his job. His. Wasn't it? He was Medea's only guardian, why were they coming between him and his priestess? Everything was so wrong, the whole balance of the world he knew had dissipated, everything was.. gone.
He waited, until it was all over, before stalking away silently, unwilling to participate in any festivities.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:34 am
It would have been impossible for Yin not to notice that the words sounded strange, especially coming from Alexander. But he could not do anything about it. Not right now. He nodded in response, not looking up to see that the zomboil was not looking at him either, that he would completely miss the communication that Yin was trying to offer. After he turned away there was just a moment where Yin glanced over to the spot beside him. When he had been on the Isle of Conquest all he had wanted was to not be alone anymore. But now...now he heard murmurs when there should be none. And despite Alexander being there the dreams had been lurking for him the moment he closed his eyes. At least now he could go back to his own dorm. Shift back to his own form without needing to duck into another room. He did not want to sleep...but maybe he could meditate. Simply get away from it all and just pray that the dreams did not return. That the voices would lessen. That for once he could be in control again. Tomorrow he could deal with everything else, he could go see how Alexander was doing...if he had truly meant for him to stop by. He had left with little enough protest. Yin turned and began to make his way back to his room, ready to move on. Ready to be alone. He did not stop even to pick the rabo up from Nurse Cricket's office.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:36 am
Junko was used to sleeping at floor level, yet waking up right now was odd to her. She opened her eyes and simply laid there at first, glowing green eyes staring ahead of her. Every now and then they would turn and look another way, trying to see as many faces as she could, but mostly she avoided making eye contact with anyone. Eventually though she sat up, rubbing her face and looking almost startled as a thick tendril of hair wrapped itself around her forearm. Her hair was moving again, all on its own. They were back in Halloween.
They were home.
If they were home...did that mean..?
One eager look around the gymnasium for any sign of a healthy, healed Riley gave her the answer she didn't want. Her heart clenched painfully and her eyes filled with tears. She wasn't here. That painful lump in her throat was back and she coughed, her chest feeling tight as she struggled to breathe evenly. Riley.
It wasn't until Medea gestured for them to follow that she finally stood, stumbling as the world spun and she felt nauseous. You can do it, Junko. Come on..
Her hair swirled and twisted around her, occasionally brushing against her cheeks in a comforting motion; they would wipe away the tears that fell down her cheeks. For the most part Junko was silent save for the occasionally sniffle and strained whine, making a conscious effort to hold it back as much as she could. She had to stay strong. Cry behind closed doors, not in front of everyone else. Riley was gone, she couldn't let that weaken her. She wanted to, she wanted to so badly.
Junko hated this. She hated the hunters for what they did, what they caused. If it weren't for them Riley could have--
The last..surviving ruler of the four clans?! She quieted and stared at the Horseman of Death. They were gone. Those beautiful islands, those rich histories and traditions. All of those horsemen. They were gone.
Her eyes darted to Invictus and she pursed her lips, nearly taking a step toward the boil. He was a protector now. He and Aisa and Cymbeline and Eris.
Okay, maybe not so much Cymbeline...
When Death's attention was on the students she lifted her head, her hair moving away from her face to simply frame it. Don't hide your face, don't cry, and don't waver. That was how Riley would do it, right? She would stand tall, confident, and strong. Don't let them see you shaking, Junko. There was no way she could ever forget what she had seen, what she had experienced. Not in a thousand years. She just wished she had taken more advantage of it while she could. She wanted to see Invictus smile again.
They were dismissed and Junko sighed, looking all around her at the students. It was silly but a thought did wriggle its way into the forefront of her mind; with Riley gone she was going to have to pick up the position of Student Council President until the next election. There was no way she could..no...she..she could't do that. She couldn't do what Riley did. There was no way. Junko bit down on the end of her thumb nail and held back a whimper, following the other students away from the Lost Clan's reserve. She did cast a look back at the horsemen before turning away, hurrying after the others.
Be strong. Be strong. It hurt, and it was going to hurt for a long, long time...but things could get better. They should grow from this. They could.
For now Junko wanted to lock herself up somewhere where she could cry without worrying she would be judged, or that it would make anyone else cry. She wanted to cry, sleep, and just..not be alone...
Home..
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:55 am
Lumi felt herself being pushed back ever so slightly. Growling very very subtley she still had her eyes closed and missed the pleased smile on his face, 'great look what you've done' she thought to herself, for some reason even though every fiber of her being told her to be happy, when she opened her eyes she was still a little angry. And those jacking voice weren't helping the situation at all.
"Great Hecate! Of course I kiss really well...." Pulling away from him completely and crossing her arms looking at him, her face completely flushed and her ears pounding. She wasn't even sure if she was still standing after all that. But she knew that she suddenly felt very alone as she stood apart from him. Resisting the urge to reach out to him she frowned slightly and looked anywhere but at him. Her hand still clenching his contact information as if it was the only thing keeping him standing here. "...I...I...m...s-sorry."She managed to say before the voices drowned out the part of her that felt bad for embarrassing him.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:27 am
Waking. Slowly, slowly. Rikki's eyes felt like they were glue shut. And he honestly didn't mind. He'd like to lay his head back down and go back to sleep. Every ounce of fear in and around him felt like it was fighting for the same thing, just to pull him back down into the sweet abyss of sleep. Even the sounds that plagued his mind fought to get back to sleep. He was so tired. But he felt the ground under him, unfamiliar and smooth instead of grassy. He had to open up his eyes just for the second it took to find out where he was.
Bit by bit he blinked his eyes open and stared in shock at his surroundings. They'd made it home. They were no longer on an island. No longer battling a bird of so much sorrow and anger. They were on the floor of the gymnasium. They were in the school! His dorm and his minis were just a small walk away, as were the classrooms he'd almost...missed. He'd never been so happy to know he'd be going back to classes and normalcy.
There were voices - like a waterfall, babbling and too loud to really understand. Rikki fought to focus, and caught the gist of the conversation. Quarantined. They weren't going back to normal life yet. His heart fell. So close and yet still so far. He realized around the same time that they hadn't come home alone. All the horsemen - or those who had survived, rather - had come back with them. He supposed it made sense, but he didn't see why they'd want to come to amityville of all places.
They were herded out of the gymnasium and down the the weeping forest, which seemed weird to him, and then were was more waterfall babbling talk. He tried to focus and understand, he really did, but he was just too tired. Everything was too formal. Too ceremonial. It made him feel weird to be expected to be a part of this. And then he made out a single word, clearer than the rest.
Remember.
He didn't want to remember. He wanted to forget and to pretend it hadn't happened. He couldn't have been more happy when they were dismissed. He needed to get away from the memories.
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