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 Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:06 pm
xxxxxBeginningsJocelynn sneezed again, pausing to cover her mouth and hunch over as it morphed into a bout of coughing. She both loved and hated this time of the year. Loved it due to the changing of the leaves, the warm and cozy sweater weather, and how the air seemed to take on a crisp chill that was still pleasant enough to not warrant staying indoors all day to keep warm. On the other hand, this time of the year really set off another list of things as well and these were far less pleasant in her opinion.
The fall season marked the beginning of the stretch of a couple months where various plants such as ragweed, dandelions, daisies, and other members of the Asteraceae family decided to accost her senses. Put simply, Jocelynn had some rather severe pollen based allergies. Under normal circumstances, she had an easy enough time avoiding this issue. While staying within the city of Aimes, she only really frequents the cafe, market, and her apartment. Even then, exposure to the pollen is not completely unavoidable and more often than not, Jocelynn usually ends up spending the fall season constantly cleaning her apartment, having a permanent case of sniffles, an itchy throat, and an occasional pounding headache.
The hand that settled on her shoulder caused her to straighten and attempt to stifle the lingering coughs as she glanced up at the other with her. She made a weak attempt at a smile before stepping back, moving to make the other's hand fall from her shoulder and place a small distance between them. The young man was apparently one of the newer residents in the village where she was born and raised. This short trip home for her parent's anniversary had been something of a trap or matchmaking attempt apparently by her family and their new neighbors.
She had arrived in the village at the end of the week, and was almost immediately introduced to her family's new neighbors. It was obvious that the eldest son took a quick interest in her, she however was more interested in focusing on the reason she had come home at all; her parents. He wasn't discouraged at all, and since Jocelynn is the type of person who has a hard time saying no to people in fear of offending or hurting them, that is how she found herself in this current situation. Getting escorted back to the coast with this boy who didn't seem to get or care that she wasn't particularly interested.
She didn't remember his name, but was too embarrassed to admit as much. Granted, he seemed kind enough, but due to the supposed "short cut" through one of the many hunting trails that surrounded the village he had insisted they take, she ended up being much more preoccupied with the fact that it was getting steadily more and more difficult for her to breathe.
Because of that, instead of spending her time figuring out how to kindly friend zone Aaron or Anders or whatever his name was, Jocelynn was instead simply focusing on watching where she was walking and trying not to trip and fall on her face in the multitude of shrubs and slowly withering plants. Considering that she had all the grace of a inebriated person attempting to walk a straight line on a good day, she knew it was only a matter of time before it actually happened. Sighing, Jocelynn waved off the worried words from her male companion. As soon as he had realized that she was obviously suffering from seasonal allergies, he had tried to get them to turn around and go back. By then however, the trip back and around to the proper route would have more than doubled the travel time for her to get to the coast and catch a ferry back to Aimes. So instead, she decided that pushing through would be the better option, at least with the long term goal of getting home in mind.
Minutes stretched into first one hour, then another, one footstep followed by another, as the two worked their way through the narrow but well used path winding closer to the coast. The terrain was already thinning of some of the foliage and, according to the young man with her, there was already the faint scent of the ocean on the wind. During the trip, Jocelynn found that she was actually grateful for his chattiness. Somewhere along the way he had reminded her that his name was Anthony while joking about the naming habits of his parents who had insisted on naming all three of their children with names starting with the letters "A and n". Jocelynn had been close with the guess of Anders apparently, that was the name of his younger brother. She had smiled in amusement thinking of her own sister and herself; Jocelynn and Jacqueline, and was abut to say as much when something caught her eye in the brush about five feet from where they stood on the path.
She came to an abrupt halt and took several steps closer to whatever was nestled in the grass and weeds that was causing sunlight to reflect off of it's surface and glint. Anthony had stopped as well now, pausing to look in the general direction of where she was staring before moving into the brush to investigate. Jocelynn knew it was bad enough that she was even out here getting all of this exposure to the multitude of allergens, but something seemed to pull her after him, deeper into the mix of warm browns, tans, and other assorted warm colors that the foliage of the world seemed to have adopted within the past weeks since summer had transitioned into fall. As the two got closer, a glimpse of what appeared to be a glass bottle settled at the base of a small flowering shrub greeted them.
It looked to be the work of a high level artisan, the shape reminiscent of the lovely perfume bottles that her mother used to collect when Jocelynn was younger. There was a rosy tint to it from what she could see, the color becoming more rich and concentrated on the bottom and lightening the closer to the neck and opening of the bottle. Several more steps allowed her to notice the bands of a dark charcoal or grey that seemed to wind itself around bottle as well, and how a stopper seemed to be fixed on the top of the bottle. Tilting her head slightly she moved to reach for it, her hand brushing against one of the yellow blossoms in the process.
She picked up the bottle and lifted it to get a better look. Anthony moved beside her and stooped slightly to get a better look at it. There looked to be a large flower blossom inside of it, a mixture of a bright golden yellow and a deep red that stood out against the rosy hue of the glass bottle. "What is it?" Jocelynn glanced over to Anthony, seeing him eyeing the object in her hands with interest. She shifted her hold a bit, carefully turning it slightly and following the smooth lines of the bottle with her eyes.
"I'm not sure, it looks like a decorative bottle of some kind. I'm more curious about how it got here."
A sudden itching on her hand caused her to glance over at it, noticing the red rash that seemed to have appeared on the back of it. Her eyes flicked back down to the bush where the bottle had been sitting previously, and grimaced as she now belated recognized the flowering plant at her feet. It was one of the more common strains of the Chrysanthemum plant, and looked very similar to a common flowering daisy. It also happened to be a member of the Asteraceae plant family. Jocelynn knew that without any of the topical creams that she had in her apartment in Aimes, she would just have to wait out the contact based allergic reaction. It normally only lasted for an hour or two at the most before settling down anyways, and with any luck she would be able to make it to her apartment and apply the medicated cream to avoid any further irritation.
She contemplated the bottle again for several moments before slipping it into the bag she had slung over her shoulders. They were almost to Siren's Shore, and it was only a couple of hours from there for her to get home. Surprisingly, Anthony didn't mention or bring up the bottle again on the remainder of their trip. The parting of the two when Jocelynn purchased passage on a ferry to Aimes was awkward to say the least. It was only then that she realized she had never really gotten the chance to friend zone him, and he also seemed unwilling to say much and so the two just settled for a cordial handshake and exchanged the awkward "nice to have met you" before Jocelynn boarded the ferry and headed back to Aimes.
It took a couple of days for all of the lingering side effects of her allergies to dissipate, and during that time she had done a bit of research. As it turns out, that beautiful red and gold flower in the bottle was, in fact, a Chrysanthemum. Something classified as an "irregular incurve" variety. Jocelynn had contemplated selling the bottle, however in the end she decided that it couldn't hurt to keep it.
After all, what damage could it do?
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:20 pm
xxxxxA Break in RoutineThe clouds that had rolled in during the short walk from the bakery to her apartment cast long afternoon shadows between the tall buildings on either side of the street and caused Jocelynn to hasten her stride as the crisp and chilly breeze blew through the open street. This was normally a walk she enjoyed taking in the mid to late afternoon after her shift at the cafe and bakery was over because she could enjoy the warmth that the usually shining sun provided, even if the air had a bit of a bite to it. Today however, the lady who came to take over for her after her shift was over had been almost two and a half hours late. Normally, she could have gone home regardless because there were several assistants who could more or less hold down the fort until the other woman arrived, however today there had been a large order of mini personal tarts for one of the more affluent regular customers that needed to be completed by that evening.
By the time the other baker had arrived, the sun was already well on it's way through it's descent across the sky and by the time Jocelynn had actually departed, sundown was fast approaching. It wasn't that she had any particular dislike for the night or even the cooler autumn weather, quite the opposite really. Rather it was that she had fallen into something of a routine and since it was actually being interrupted for the first time in several weeks, it had thrown her off a bit. Sighing, she came to a stop outside of a tall apartment building and pulled open the door to head to the third story where her apartment was located. On the way up, she began to rummage through her bag for the keys to unlock the door to her apartment, hissing softly when she pricks her finger against something sharp on the bottom of her bag.
With a sharp jerk, she withdrew her hand and glanced down at her ring finger that now had a small slice across the fingertip. Swearing softly, she reached back into her bag and found both her key ring and the loose safety pin that she had stabbed, then consequently sliced her finger on when she was pulling away. Jocelynn looked down to inspect the cut, mildly surprised at how deep it actually was for having been inflicted with something as mundane as a safety pin. She brought the digit up to her mouth, sucking on it lightly as she moved forward and unlocked the door to her apartment. She stepped inside, unceremoniously dropping both her bag and the scarf that she worn around her neck onto the small love seat to her left that acted as a makeshift room divider between the living and dining room. She was heading towards the back of her apartment, to the bathroom where she kept her rubbing alcohol and bandages when she suddenly got feeling that something was off in the atmosphere of her apartment.
Before she even got the chance to really question it, a dot of red danced in the corner of her eye. Curious, Jocelynn stopped mid stride and turned to look into her living room and then promptly did a double take. There sitting on her small coffee table, right where she had left it for the past couple of days, sat the lovely bottle that she and Anthony had found on their trek from her home village to Siren's Shore. Jocelynn had taken to having it relatively close to her in the evenings when she was home and since a large majority of the time her evenings consisted of curling up on one of her two love seat couches with a cup of steaming tea and a book, the rosy hued bottle ended up spending most of it's time sitting at the center of her coffee table.
It was just that there seemed to suddenly be a flurry of color surrounding it. A swirl of crimson and gold petals that seemed to lazily sway amidst a pale golden whisper of color that wound around the bottle from the bottom up to the top. Bleeding finger completely forgotten, Jocelynn blinked several times as she stared in shock at this sudden change. She even decided to firmly pinch herself on the soft underside of her forearm to see if she was dreaming. Curiosity all but shoving any thoughts of caution into a dark corner of her mind, she haltingly made her way around the couch she had dropped her bag and scarf on and slowly knelt down so she was closer to eye level with the bottle. The swirl of colors seemed to liven up slightly at her approach, a few of the red petals floating further away from the bottle and swirling faster the closer that she got.
When the entirety of this new spinning extension seemed to expand softly, Jocelynn let out a very undignified yelp and scrambled back several feet until her back collided with the wall. Eyes wide in alarm, she belatedly noticed that the swelling mass of what looked to be petals and a faintly shimmering gold mist seemed to once again expand slightly and then contract again sending a few tiny blips of color outwards in all directions. It continued to swirl with a lazy grace, though it seem to settle in a slow and steady expanding and contracting pattern. Jocelynn's heart was hammering wildly in her chest, but as the moments stretched and no further things occurred, she slowly inched her way forward again and crouched at the side of the low lying table once more.
She leaned closer, gulping before tentatively reaching her hand forward towards it, her fingers curled in and index finger extended. Mentally, Jocelynn was already berating herself over the potential stupidity of this decision, nonetheless she still continued to slowly extend her hand out further. Surprisingly, it was the spin itself that seemed more evasive to close contact, and seemed to disperse in the areas where her hand got close. Feeling slightly emboldened, she opened her hand and turned it to the side slightly, reaching again towards the colorful petals.
The sudden surge of color towards her hand caused her to flinch and begin to pull away- until she realized that she didn't feel anything. Not the soft brush of petals. Not the texture or even anything tangible.
Nothing at all.
Her brows furrowed, as she realized the petals, or rather what appeared to be chrysanthemum petals, seemed to swirl around her fingertips. She shifted her hand to the right, tilting her head as she clearly saw her hand literally move through several petals without disturbing them. The pale gold mist like substance that accompanied the petals shifted to accommodate, the petals following closely after and seeming to concentrate around her ring finger. Frowning, Jocelynn turned her hand palm up and inspected her fingertips, starting slightly when she saw some blood beginning to scab over the cut from earlier that evening. She withdrew her hand from the bottle's proximity and noted how the pretty swirling mass attempted to follow, however seemed to reach its limit at several inches away from the bottle.
Her rise from where she knelt was abrupt, and for a moment she swayed as she got lightheaded. She backed away from her coffee table, her thumb idly tracing over the cut on her finger she continued to put more distance between herself and the object sitting on her table. Shaking her head, she shakily walked back into her room and the joined bathroom, distracting herself by washing her hands and then bandaging her finger. When she stepped back into the living room area of her apartment, she glanced over at the bottle, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she contemplated what she should do now.
In the end Jocelynn ended up just falling back into routine, heaven knows that she needed some of it now.
Some 15 minutes later, she was settling down on one of the love seats with a large book open in her lap. She kept attempting to convince herself that maybe she would just wake up tomorrow and see that none of this had happened, but until then she needed to be practical.
Sighing in exasperation after another 5 minutes pass by, she comes to the realization that reading tonight was a lost cause. She shuts the book firmly and glances up to regard the object sitting on the table in front of her.
The petals had returned to the slow spinning around the bottle, albeit the movements were now less languid and a bit more agitated.
Biting her lower lip, Jocelynn ran a hand through her hair before standing and tossing the book onto the seat and retreating back into her bedroom.
Practicality could wait until tomorrow.
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Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 10:46 am
Practicality.
(Dust Spin --> Child Quest*) Jocelynn may have wished and hoped to wake up the next day with not a trouble in the world, least of all a phantom-petaled bottle, but it seemed that would be the least of her worries. Not only will her allergies tell her something is wrong, her nose ought to inform her too of the cloying, almost suffocating scent of chrysanthemum. A quick look downward would show that her floor was entirely blanketed in velvet and gold petals, some of them even daring to float onto her bed as though openly defiant to her. The rest of the apartment is in similar disarray, with the long petals dancing everywhere - very tangible, this time - and not seeming to cease their slow rise in filling the apartment. The bottle, right where she left it on the patio, is nearly invisible beneath the whirlwind of petals that rage about it, threatening to fill not only her home, but to spill over the patio's lip and start showering the land around the complex. What does Jocelynn do? Can she manage to work through her allergies to deal with the petaled phantom? Will she acknowledge its presence as a sentient thing? Will her interactions with the hidden bottle disperse the petals, or will she be left to deal with that too? *Please note, there's a minimum word requirement of 500 words for this quest.
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