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 Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:28 am
{part 1}
"I've got something for you."
Jess rolled over in bed, blinking muzzily.
"Hmn?"
Daniel grinned slightly, pressing a box into Jess's hand.
"What's this?"
"A present."
Jess snorted, sitting up and yawning. She tousled her hair with her free hand, holding the box up to her ear with the other and shaking it.
"Is it jewelry?"
"Nothing so mundane."
An echo of Daniel's grin slipped onto Jess's face and she opened the box.
"Perfume?"
"Candle."
She turned a bemused expression to Daniel. He shrugged, smiling a little.
"I found a little candle store. I thought you'd like it."
Jess unscrewed the bottle and took a deep breath. The scent was strange, musky and pleasant.
"You're sweet," she said, closing the bottle up again and putting the box onto her night stand. "But I still expect jewelry."
Daniel sighed in mock-consternation as Jess leaned over and kissed him. Soon, the off-beat gift was forgotten by them both. For a while, at least.
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Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:28 am
{part 2}
"No, I dunno. He'll be back in a coupla months."
Jess shifted the phone under her ear, cleaning up the kitchen and listening to her stepmother prattle at the same time.
"No, Marie. No proposal. I wasn't expecting it - oh, s**t, - no, sorry, I know, I almost dropped like five plates. Alright, one second."
Putting the dirty dishes into the sink and wiping last night's dinner off her hands - damnable tomato sauce, always got everywhere - Jess picked the phone up again.
"Sorry Marie. Anyway - heh. No. He's studyin' abroad, he'll be back soon."
Jess sighed, rolling her eyes.
"I don't see how that's your business. You're not getting a grandkid out of me yet."
Squeezing a good deal of floral-scented dish soap into the sink, Jess sighed and resisted the urge to tousle her hair.
"Marie. He didn't. Propose. Drop it."
She flipped the hot water handle on the sink, and it filled noisily with already-steaming water.
"Yeah, he gave me something. Hm? No, no. It's like....an oil burner. No, I like it. Yeah, I like it. It's...hold on."
Picking up the box, Jess squinted at the label.
"Mania. I dunno, some kinda combo-perfume sort of thing. I don't know, Marie, he just gave it to me. I don't know where he got it."
Starting to grind her teeth a bit, Jess put the box down again and turned the hot water off.
"Okay, Marie. I know, I love you too. I gotta go, my house is a pit. No, I'm serious, the garbage is gaining sentience. I'll call later. Okay. Okay. Bye."
Hanging up and throwing the phone onto the counter, Jess sighed and started washing the dishes.
"Y'think she'd just want me to be a homebody baby-factory," she said dryly to herself. "Cripes. Me with a kid. Yeah, that would work out well."
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Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:27 am
{part 3}
"So, is there a story behind this?"
Jess opened one eye a crack. The man tattooing her arm gave her a politely curious look as he worked.
"No," she managed, wincing a little. "I just...kinda wanted it, y'know?"
"Heh. Well, it's a nice design."
"Thanks. Drew it m'self."
"Really?"
Jess nodded, feeling a touch of pride. He seemed genuinely impressed - unless he was just being polite again. She craned her head slightly to the side to look at the progress. It was fully outlined, and he'd just started coloring it.
"I do wish I'd made it a little less colorful, though," she admitted. The tattoo artist laughed good-naturedly.
"You'll be done before you know it," he said. Jess winced again and squeezed her eyes shut again.
---
"Jess, what the ******** is that on your arm."
Jess looked at the bandage on her arm and pointed her chin in the air.
"My new tattoo."
Kirby sighed.
"Another one?"
"I only have two other ones."
"Where?"
"In places only Danny got to see, that's where."
Kirby took a sip of his beer and shrugged.
"Hey, whatever. S'long as you didn't get n****e piercings too."
Jess faked a sly look that made Kirby choke on his drink, and moved on to another customer at the bar.
"Do I stand a chance of seeing that, too?" he called after her. Jess grinned and shook her head, ignoring the steady throb on her arm and Kirby's half-joking lovelorn catcalling from down the bar.
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Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:24 am
{part 4}
"I'm home."
Jess walked into her quiet, empty house at two o'clock in the morning, smelling faintly of cigarettes and liquor. Shrugging off her coat - and wincing as the sleeve brushed against her tattooed arm - she flopped onto the couch and stared at the ceiling for a few moments. The house was lonely without Daniel. It was cold and rather uninviting, without someone to come home to.
Feeling lonely and particularly sorry for herself, Jess forced herself up and made herself some tea before going upstairs to her room. She went about the usual routine getting ready to sleep, sneaking occasional glances at her bed. It was just as uninviting as the rest of the house.
"Hmph," she sighed, a little bitterly. She picked up the box Danny had given her, opening it up again. The little bottle of silvery oil was really rather pretty.
"Hell, why not."
She unscrewed the cap and poured the bottle's contents into the included oil burner. The oil swirled benignly, an unexpected spiral of reddish-gold spinning slowly in the middle.
Jess looked around for a match to light it, sighing with annoyance when she could find none.
"I'll light you later," she said, finishing off her tea and throwing herself onto her bed. She stared at the oil burner for a long time before she slipped off into sleep.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:32 am
Lighting Prompt (Required to reach Lit Scent stage) You have just purchased an oil burner and a specific scented oil from the Solace Scents shop and you can't wait to light it! Now that you're home, it's time to find the perfect place to light that scent! However, strange things seem to happen when you do... particularly with the smoke...
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:54 am
{part 5}
Jessabelle lounged on her bed reading a magazine and smoking a hand-rolled cigarette, flicking the ashes onto a makeshift ashtray that had one been a china saucer. It was her day off, and predictably it was raining and cold outside, utterly inhospitable. It was immensely comfortable to be lazy and read all day, listening to the foul weather outside.
Even if she was still rather lonely.
Glancing up from her magazine, Jess eyed the oil burner and then the matchbook resting on the ashtray. Well. Why not. Getting up, she struck a match and lit the candle, watching as the oil slowly warmed. She smiled as the musky-sweet smell of the oil drifted in a cloud over the room, but the smile began to fade as she noticed the oddness of the smoke.
"Zig-zags?"
The smoke was not behaving like anything she'd ever seen before. It twisted and arched crazily, all distinct sharp angles. Jess blinked, rubber her eyes, and snuffed her cigarette out of growing concern. Maybe that hadn't been tobacco she'd been smoking.
"Uh...yeah."
Deciding she probably just needed glasses, Jess threw herself back onto her bed and kept reading, sneaking glances at the smoke every once and a while and ignoring the growing confusion that accompanied it.
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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 6:44 pm
Awakening Prompt (Required To Reach Child stage) Having run into your last ounce of oil, you mournfully place it into it's burner and light it, letting the aroma spread throughout your home happily. ------ [For Those Who Want To RP Witnessing The Event]You leave for a moment, deciding you felt peckish after smelling something so wonderful, and grabbed a snack from your kitchen. When you return you witness something absolutely amazing. The end result of the incident being a child on the floor of the room. Describe the sight, and the reactions of both you and the child at the end of it all.------ [For Those Who Want To RP Finding The Child Only]Having remembered something you needed to do, you ran out of your home quickly, forgetting all about the burning oils inside. You return content, having completed your task only to find a small child wandering the halls of your home, leaving oily foot steps behind, leading to a cracked burner, and split candle wax. Describe your reaction, and how you deal with the oil tracking child.
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Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 8:45 pm
{part 6}
Jessabelle looked over at the clock.
"Ugh, two o'clock already?"
Time for an early breakfast, she reasoned. Jess didn't mind being a night owl so much, really. It meant she always got to see sunrises, which she happened to be fond of. She stole a glance over at the burner and its odd smoke, and wondered again if perhaps Daniel had pranked her with weed in her little bag of tobacco.
"Yet another reason to quit smoking," she mused aloud, half irritated and half amused by the notion. "Dipwad."
She headed downstairs and made herself an omelette and tea, and trundled back upstairs with her hands full.
She dropped everything when she glanced over at her desk.
There was a giant, swirling bubble of fog hovering about the desk, threads of reddish gold scattered through it like veins. Jess stumbled back and slid down against the wall, eyes wide and mouth agape. The sphere of fog broke loose of it's umbilical-like connection to the oil burner, and it plummeted to the floor. It seemed to explode, fragrant smoke clouding the room and making Jess choke and cough. There was a tinkling crash as the burner was knocked off the desk, and the sound of a falling body. Jessabelle squinted in the smoke, trying to see. Something skittered across the room and opened the door, running down the hall. Jess bit back a shriek, and got up. She seized her old softball bat and left her room, looking around for the....well, whatever it was.
"Hey. Hey. I know you're in here," Jess said, trying to sound tough and failing. "Come out before I call the cops."
She heard panting, frightened breathing, and the Thing skittered back into the bedroom. Jessabelle followed and raised the softball bat high, and then dropped it just like she had her omlette.
A little girl, hair wild, eyes wide, cringed in a corner. She looked terrified.
"Get away, get away, songbirds beating broken wings, never hurt a soul, don't you break my wings away," the child said, voice keening like a song. Jess approached her slowly.
"Hey, now...little girl, where'd you come from?"
""Silver sea, silver water burned all up, out comes me, out out out like plants in the dirt, came out to see the sun but there's no...sun to see...."
She sounded very sad. She twitched and rolled her head on her shoulders, skittering forward a few steps towards Jess.
"Heard you," she said. "Saw you. Didn't mean to scare, didn't mean it. Happens, yes. Scare scare, scaredy scary, bad girl didn't mean to scare..."
She rushed Jessabelle and hugged her, trembling. Jess was knocked over, but awkwardly hugged the girl back.
"Hey, now. It's okay. You didn't scare me."
"Didn't?
"Nope, not a bit..."
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:22 am
{part 7}
"As much as I enjoy finally getting to see where you live so I can stalk you that much more effectively, I have to ask why you called me at four in the morning, Jess."
Jessabelle hushed Kirby, beckoning him along. She stopped short of entering the living room and pointed to the couch.
"What does that look like to you?"
Kirby squinted over his glasses.
"A kid."
"Exactly. Now, where do kids come from?"
"Is this a rhetorical question, or did someone not give you the birds'n bees talk in grade school?"
"Kirby, if you sass me one more time I'm going to hit you. Is it normal for kids to just randomly appear out of nowhere?"
Kirby tilted his head to one side. Jess looked sleep deprived, harried, and a little freaked out.
"...not usually, no," he said finally. Jess nodded.
"Great. So explain to me how she-" Jess pointed at the girl on the couch, who was currently sleeping, "-just up and came out of a big cloud of smoke."
There was a long silence.
"...Jess, are you on new medications?"
Jess smacked him upside the head and dragged him into the kitchen.
"This is not funny! Danny bought me this oil, right? So I lit it last night and then all of a sudden, SHE came out of this big...I don't know, smoke womb."
"Smoke womb."
"Yes, that's what I said."
Kirby took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Jess, I..."
He paused as the little girl wandered in and went to the refrigerator. She rummaged through it and took a jar of relish, then wandered over to the two people staring down at her.
"Your face is hairy, mister four-eyed mister," she said, her strange eyes staring right into Kirby's. "You smell like stars."
After this odd pronouncement, the little girl went back into the living room, eating relish. Kirby watched her go, utterly baffled.
"Is she a little..." he said, twirling a finger on the side of his head in the universal sign for The Crazies. Jess shrugged, half-nodding.
"Hasn't said anything more than half-lucid yet," she said. Kirby made a thoughtful 'hmm' kind of noise.
"I have no idea how to help you with this problem," he said cheerfully. Jess groaned.
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 9:13 am
{part 8}
"Sooo....you got a name?"
"Nopers, no no no."
"Uh huh. Where are your parents?"
The girl pointed instantly at Jessabelle, not tearing her eyes away from the television. She slurped the oatmeal Jess had made her eagerly, her face sticky with honey and maple syrup.
Jess sighed, lounging on the couch next to the girl.
"Where'd you come from?"
"The silver sea."
"You keep saying that. There is no silver sea."
"Yes, no. It burned up and away. Up up, it turned to the smoke, made a cloud and out popped me."
Jess reflected on this. The oil had been silvery colored, hadn't it? Hmm.
"But...people don't come out of oil burners," she protested. "That's not how it works."
"Yes, no."
Jess ran her hands through her hair in frustration, mussing it more than usual.
"Alright. So. Ugh."
"I don't like being blank."
"What?"
The girl looked at Jess, her strange eyes earnest and unusually focused.
"Blank. No Name, that's not a name. Can't go around being No Name, I'll never be me. Can No Name have a name?"
Jess nibbled her lip thoughtfully, head tilted to one side.The little girl copied her.
"...you look like a Maira."
The child's smile was so starry and bright it caught Jess off guard. She looked as if she was radiating joy. And then the moment passed, and Maira turned back to the television set.
"Now I'm Maira. Now I'm not blank, I'll be someone and I'll always be me."
"Okay..."
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 7:06 pm
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:53 am
{ Jessabelle's Diary }
Dear autobiographical notebook which I forget about constantly,
I have a kid now.
Don't judge me, it's not like that.
The oil that Danny gave me the day before he left. I think there was something DEFECTIVE about it. Not in the bad way, the weird way. Because, after I lit it like an idiot, a little girl popped out. A crazy, crazy, crazy little girl. I named her Maira (yeah, I know it's supposed to be spelled MYRA but who gives a ********, she's my crazy kid). She's alright, nuttiness aside. Has a tendency to wander, though.
**(note to self, buy lock for bedroom and bathroom so embarrassing scenes will be avoided)
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:45 am
{ Maira's Diary }
OnCE upON a thyme time taim thar was a girl her name NAme was MAIRA MAIRA MAIRA MAIRA and she lives in a cassle maDE of clOUds and she has LOts of frendS like A ladee nAMeD jEss who bURNd the silver see but THAts okay i see stars in the ceeling there thereS a DOG IN THE wall i heer water MY NAME IS MAIRA
i met a boy
he was PREttY
but hE waS MEAn too and brook bruk broke things and calLeD me crazy like thAT was My NAME
so i yeLled and told a fIB but JEsS told me MAIRA MAIRA dont fIb its not nice
i GoT prEtty in trubble buT i dont caRE he was meaN to me
jEss is maKINg me oatmEal for SuPPer i liKe oatmeaL wiTh honee
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 10:02 pm
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