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 Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:44 pm
Herald 04.01.07
When you come upon the scene, it is a weak and dying Herald that you find, unable even to stand. A few scattered feathers on the ground are the only remnants of the wings it once possessed. It has come to this place to die...or be saved? That, of course, is up to you.
You are alone when you find the angel. The Heralds have long gone unsaved, and though it appears to you, it does not hold much hope of living on. Near to where the two of you meet rests a grey stone slab that the angel seems desperate to reach. With your help, the Herald climbs upon it, needing something from you to save its life. What will you choose to give it? And what significance does that item hold for you? Is it a family heirloom? Something you happened to have on hand? Something you'd purchased earlier that day? A lucky charm?
You may have noticed that many details have been left off. This is because we want you to have plenty of freedom to develop the scene yourself. Consider time of day, weather, season, etc. when you post.
Night rose, filled with its viciously sweet song of what was to come, and Arch roamed the streets, wanting a few hours to herself to consider the world before she fell into the dreamscape and wandered on her nightly hunt. The chill night air forced her to reconsider her walk though, the nighttime filled with both the bitter hint of winter and the possibility of spring. Pulling her jacket closer around her tight outfit, Arch relaxed a little bit, taking a deep breath.
Ever since Eri decided to take in a child, Arch had felt a dissatisfaction in her life. Was she getting old? No, that was just the way things happened on Gaia-- one day you ended up with a child, within a year or so, the child was old enough to take care of another... it had nothing to do with real, substantial age. Then why did she feel so purposeless?
Perhaps it was the fighting with her sisters that had happened of late. Normally, the sisters were close, could sense each other, but now... between the secret getting out, Raven's jobs and her kids, Eri's child-cabbage, and Winter's refusal to get involved, Arch found herself exhausted, needing to take time out of her busy schedule to relax, to wander in order to rejuvenate herself.
The wind picked up, swirling around Arch almost insistently. Something was happening, something out of the ordinary-- or perhaps just another part of the ordinary Gaia. "Fine, fine," Arch sighed as she moved as the wind wanted, off the main path she'd been one, off to see what was going on. She knew better than to argue when nature demanded of her that she head in one direction or another. It just got to be more trouble than it was worth to argue with such a strong force.
A clearing in the woods-- how appropriate for a random chance encounter. It wasn't such a hard thing to slip between the trees and enter and-- a fallen angel. A young being who'd fallen, who'd become part of this world in its most chaotic time. Feathers scattered across the ground like so many tears seemed to cry out the angel's misery though the beautiful creature seemed silent, trying to reach the grey stone on the edge of the clearing as if it held her last hope.
What had she wandered into? Arch wasn't used to this, wasn't used to angels-- in her line of work, she dealt with people and their wants and needs, but people nonetheless. Where was Raven with her insistence of the existence of angels, that hope, faith? Where was Winter with her calm nature which would've just said: HELP NOW. THINK LATER.? Where was…
...she couldn't put this on anyone else. She had to think for herself, figure this out on her own. This creature-- angel-- was dying. Hurt. In a crapload of trouble. Moving towards her slowly, Arch shivered slightly. What was she doing?
...apparently she was picking up the angel, helping her to the stone she so desperately wanted. Huh. Go figure. Why was she doing this? She could just walk away-- no, she couldn't. Damn. Were you supposed to think swear words around an angel? Probably not. Oh, hell, what did it matter? "Come on, you can do this," she muttered, not sure if she spoke more to the angel or to herself. She didn't want the thing to die, after all, did she? Of course not!
This helping thing wasn't Arch's strong point, but she needed to do something to help the creature, didn't she? What could she... she didn't have anything but the tools of her trade on her. Tools of the--
No. She shouldn't. Couldn't.
But death.
Giving the angel an almost annoyed look, Arch grimaced slightly. "You're going to get me into so much trouble, you know that?" she informed the angel who gave her the slightest apologetic look. "Oh well... I guess this would count as an extraordinary circumstance which falls under the exceptional circumstances clause of my contract," she sighed as she pulled out her half-formed tangled web from her little niche in space.
She was going to get in so much trouble.
Luckily, she hadn't imbued the web with any real power yet, leaving it to just seem to be a simple spider web. Thank whatever being was out there-- God would be appropriate in this case-- for small favors. "I have no idea how this is going to help you, but... these have been used as power conduits before. Maybe you can make something of it," Arch suggested, placing it into the Herald's hand.
Oh, this was foolishness and madness! The angel didn't even really seem to understand her! What was she doing? She should be at home, preparing to enter the dreamscape, preparing to hunt down someone else. Instead she was here, pulling a Raven--
Fine. Fine, she'd be good and try to take care of--
Where'd it go? Okay, not cool. It had just... disappeared, vanished, leaving behind only a feather as thanks.
A feather with a name. "'Jerusha'," Arch read it aloud, rolling her eyes slightly. "Great. Now what am I supposed to do?" she asked no one in particular before turning and heading home.
...the things she did...
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:15 am
Herald 04.19.07
You sit inside, protected and comfortable as the weather rages outside. The evening meal is on the table, and you're filled with an intense feeling of well-being.
Your mind veers, against your will, to the dying creature that you had come across. It certainly wouldn't be comfortable tonight. What are you thinking? It's probably already long gone. But...what if it isn't?
What's it actually like outside? Do you go in search of the Herald? What do you bring to make it more comfortable, if so? Do you even find it?
"Raven, I blame you," Arch muttered under her breath. She'd been sitting at the dinner table with Eri and Cecelia for a while now, but where the younger members of the household had been happily eating their dinner, Arch's mind rose, unbidden, to the creature she'd encountered just the other night. It had to be suffering in the torrents of rain streaming from the sky if it was still out there. Of course it wasn't, but... if it was.
"Mother?" Eri blinked at her, pausing from feeding Cecelia, ignoring the little girl's protests at being ignored, even for that brief moment. It didn't take long for Eri to understand though-- her mother had shared her concerns about the strange creature she'd found in the woods. "...if you're worried, we could go check and see if it's gone or if it needs more help, Mother," Eri suggested gently, knowing that Arch would never go without a push, even if she wanted to go.
NO. Cecelia did NOT want to go OUT into the RAIN. The little elvish girl screeched her protests, shushed only by Eri turning her attention back to her to give her more food. "WAIN BA-- food." Sweet food, nonetheless. Cece liked sweets. Sweets were good for her. They made her happy.
"No, you stay here," Arch sighed softly. "I don't want you and Cece getting sick," she murmured, gently ruffling Cecelia's hair and pressing a kiss to Eri's forehead. "Take care of things for me, Eri, darling," she sighed as she gave her daughter an annoyed smile, grabbing a rain jacket and an umbrella and heading out to brave the water.
Within a few minutes, Arch regretted her decision. It was cold, damnit! And Arch didn't do well with the cold, having inherited her sisters' shared hatred of the cold water streaming from the sky. She didn't do well with the way the raindrops smeared themselves across her skin, creating a conduit for the wind's chilly fingers. In fact, she didn't do well with any of this.
But she couldn't exactly turn back now, could she? She'd dedicated herself to this creature by offering it her web, a part of herself she hadn't ever intended on sharing with anyone, including her children.
"All right, you thing," Arch grumbled when she got to the clearing. "I'm here, now come out so I can get you and me both back to a warm, safe place, all right?"
There was no response from the still clearing. Not that she'd really expected one.
"Oh, come on," Arch grimaced. "I don't want to be out here, Jerusha, if that's really your name. I just want to go home, and I won't be able to sleep unless I know you're safe, so give me something to work with here! I'm trying to do my obligatory good deed of the century, kiddo."
Sweet blue eyes stared out at Arch for a long moment before Jerusha crept out of the bushes she'd hidden within when she'd heard someone coming. It was that woman who'd helped her before, such a nice person... someone who'd done her best to keep Jerusha alive. Why was she back here? Jerusha allowed Arch's words to wash over her slowly. To help. To look out for her.
How strange...
Breathing a sigh of relief, Arch smiled. "...there you are. Let's go, sweetheart. I want you somewhere safe tonight-- it's not weather for decent people to be in. And you're decent, so I can't very well be leaving you here, can I?"
Someone who was worried about her. Cared about her well-being. She could do this. Nodding, Jerusha stumbled into Arch's embrace.
This wasn't going to be easy, and she'd get in trouble, but there wasn't anything else to do, was there? All right then... "Don't get scared, all right?" Arch murmured before weaving a spell to bind Jerusha to her body, keep her hugged tight so Arch could carry them both back on the Winds coursing through the land. She knew how to get back home faster this way...
Hours passed before Eri saw Arch land on the doorstep, the ex-Dream flinging open the door to let her mother in before she had a chance to knock. "You found her then," Eri smiled, seeing through Arch's glamour easily enough. "I started the fire and made some tea, and I brought some blankets and towels."
Arch found herself immensely grateful for her daughter as they helped Jerusha to the couch, wiping the angel off before wrapping her in warm blankets before the fire. "Cece...?" she thought to ask after a moment.
"Asleep, of course," Eri nodded. "Don't worry about her, Mother. You need your rest too."
Such a thoughtful girl. Nodding her thanks, Arch gave Eri a kiss on the cheek. "You too, sweetheart. Go to sleep now. Everything's all right." Her family was here.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:10 am
Just sorting out some things with my OCs...
First things first, Eric knew this was a bad idea. Yes, crazy neighbors were something of the norm on Gaia, but really and truly, knocking on the door of a neighbor to ask them a random question-- ok, so it wasn't that strange on Gaia. And yet, for some reason, Eric felt like it was something he should feel guilty about-- bothering someone else to try to map out the story that drifted just out of his reach.
But what else could he do? After all, he'd polled the members of the household-- Aimé holding significantly more useful information than Hector who'd brushed him off... and Eric didn't feel satisfied at all. He needed to know as much as he could about this child before he could do anything more, right?
"You're proving to be a bit of trouble," Eric smiled fondly at the wand, stroking the silver mirrored surface gently. "I want to understand you, but I'm not sure I know how to, yet. But I'd best prepare, since you're apparently supposed to turn into a child at some point, which would be..."
...he was going to have to take care of a child. A child, not a teenager who could care for himself-- or herself-- like Aimé and Hector. That thought... was he truly ready for that? How could he turn it down? But at the same time, it was a rite of passage Eric didn't know if he could completely handle. He wasn't used to being in charge of things, preferring to be the observer.
Giving the wand to Aimé seemed to be the best plan, but... Eric felt a fondness for the wand he hadn't expected when he'd first received it. Perhaps it was the months of getting used to the thought of the being within. Perhaps it was the fact that everything he'd learned hadn't been bad, but instead neutral, a blank slate, like any other child.
Ah well. What had he been doing? Yes. Knocking.
"We don't want any," Arch glared at the stranger outside her door before blinking. "You're Spencer-- from next door," she realized belatedly. He wasn't a salesperson... or so it seemed. What was he doing here?
"Ah... yes. Eric Spencer," Eric gave the strange woman a short bow, wondering if he'd interrupted her amidst something. She... well, she seemed to be as scantily clad as the next girl on Gaia, but... she didn't have the usual coy attitude that went along with such attire.
"Well then, Mr. Spencer, what is it that you want? I don't believe you've ever had occasion to drop by before, even when you moved in," Arch considered him, golden eyes sweeping over the poor man. So this was the man whose dream she'd stolen away? How strange and yet... fitting.
"I... well, I noticed that your family is quite large--"
"You were spying on us?"
"No! It's just," Eric stumbled for a moment, trying to figure out how to correctly phrase what he'd been thinking, "...just that I desire some information, and I thought that with your large family, you might have some idea of an answer."
...information, hm? What did he think this was, Goodwill? "Information from this family isn't cheap, Mr. Spencer," Arch informed him curtly. "If you want to know something, you'd best have a bargaining chip or two in your pocket, or else I'd suggest you turn around and walk back to your home."
She didn't seem to be the most helpful person in the world, but Eric couldn't walk away now, could he? "Ah... well, of course there'd be some method of payment," though he hadn't thought of one yet, "but I haven't a clue what you and your family would value, m'Lady."
Cocking her head to the side, Arch regarded Eric for a long moment, considering before finally nodding. "Right then. Come inside, Mr. Spencer--"
"--Eric, please."
"--Eric, then. We'll discuss the terms of our agreement."
Finally... he was getting somewhere.
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:46 am
Herald - It's now time for your Herald to learn about the birds and the bees- and how hard they sting! What a neglecting guardian... How does your Herald react to a bee-sting, and how did it happen?
Raven, however, was another story altogether.
"Raven--"
"Do you think I'm not still upset with you?" Raven asked quietly as she watched Imelda play with her cousin and her sisters. The little girl was growing up quite well-- she'd have to put her findings together in a comprehensive report later when her sister wasn't making her so upset.
"That's not the point, Rav--" Arch began before taking a deep breath. "Look. You'll benefit from this too. I made sure of that. You're curious about what's going on, what's happening, why these children exist, and with the history that this boy could give us, it'll give us a clearer idea of what's happening," she tried to use a bit of logic against her sister. Arch wasn't good at manipulating her sisters. Others, yes, but not her sisters. She couldn't use her magic on her sisters.
Hera glanced back at her mother and her aunt, considering the situation. Unofficially, Hera was in charge right now, but that didn't mean she shouldn't pay attention to the interaction going on over there as well, especially given the tension that had risen between Mother and Aunt Arch recently. These things... they didn't bode well. Then again, nothing seemed to bode well these days, especially not with-- "ERIANTHE!" Hera chided, turning to her sister, catching the lemur by her tail. "You can't push J around like that!"
"She started it!" Erianthe protested, jerking her tail away from Hera. Bossy kid thought she could tell everyone else off, just because she'd been around longer. Like that meant anything. Erianthe didn't listen to people she didn't want to, and she seldom felt the want to listen to Hera.
"She's littler than you--"
"So? Mel's just as big as J, but you let her push J around?"
"Imelda's not pushing her for real, just tugging at her," Hera glared at Erianthe, wondering why the redhead had to be such a brat. "You know she does that--"
"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Imelda stamped her foot, glaring at her sisters.
"Be quiet, Mel, I'm talking to Hera--"
"--about me!"
Oblivious to the bickering girls, Raven sighed softly as she let Arch's words slip in. There was truth there, there were pieces to what Arch said which resonated within Raven on many levels... she couldn't deny that. And yet, she didn't want to admit her sister was right either. How could she condone what Arch had done? Teaming up with those who'd torn apart a soul into three pieces to give them each to a child they'd created? "...and why are you so eager to help him?"
"Because..." Arch paused, unsure of how much she could tell Raven. There were things she shouldn't... but then again, not telling her sisters was what had gotten her in trouble in the first place. "...I stole his dream. Accidentally," she added hastily at Raven's horrified look, knowing her sister's sharp mind would understand what she meant. Erimentha, Arch's daughter-- the dream forced into flesh, stolen from the dreamscape.
"...it seems like we don't have a choice--"
Jerusha screamed, pain shooting through her young body-- or, more accurately, shooting from her finger through her hand, seeming to spread through her body. Hurthurthurthurthurt-- she couldn't think, could only stand there, trying to figure out what hurt, why, how to make it stop.
Whirling about, away from Raven, Arch's golden eyes shot open in surprise-- what was-- Jerusha--
First to the scene was Hera though, catching her young cousin's hands before she managed to hurt herself more, holding them steady long enough to see the little yellow and black bug fall to the ground, weakly crawling away. A bee. Unsurprising, given that they were in the backyard, but why was Jerusha screaming so mu-- ooh. Stung, hm? But Hera had never dealt with that--
Scared into silence, Imelda stared at her cousin like the girl had grown an extra head or two, shrinking back. Such a loud scream coming from her cousin-- had she been hurt by their playing? They'd only been playing, but... "J, stop it!" she whispered fiercely to the angel. "You're making too much noise! What's wrong?!"
Dimly, she heard her cousin speaking, telling her to be quiet, Hera's voice calling for Mommy and Aunty Raven, but... "Hurts," she whimpered softly in Hera's grasp, shivering slightly, though she'd stopped screaming at the touch of another person. Cousin. Hera. Hera fixed things. But Mommy...
If she'd ever needed more proof that her baby cousin was just a little baby, this was it. Erianthe grimaced at the screaming until it stopped, daring to creep closer only after she was sure that J would be silent. What had happened? Bug on the ground-- bug. Yellow bug. Bee? Probably. There were a bunch of those around the house...
Thank heavens for small favors. Hera seemed to have calmed J down enough for Arch to take the girl, considering her fingers. Where was-- there. "Hold still, Jeru-sweetheart," Arch crooned before using her long nails to delicately scrape the stinger out of the wound.
Hurthurthurt-- less hurt, but still... "Mommy, hurt," Jerusha whined, big blue eyes filled with genuine tears. She wasn't used to this feeling, and she'd only too recently begun to experience sensations, meaning that everything felt overly sensitized. "Make it stop..."
But Arch didn't know how to heal. It just wasn't in her-- she was better at killing than healing, better at taking life in the midst of pleasure than enriching it. "Shh, sweetheart..."
Gently catching the little girl's hand, taking it from her sister, Raven drew a symbol, hiding it from the gathered bunch, wrapping it around her niece's finger. "Just quiet now, Jerusha. Hopefully this will keep it from hurting more. Erianthe, go get a bandage and an ice pack, please," Raven instructed the redhead, waiting until she'd gone before looking at her two blondes. "Hera, Immy, please get me my salves and some Benadryl from the kitchen, all right?" she directed them, waiting until they'd gone off before giving her sister a pointed look.
~This is why we shouldn't argue when the children are around. We get distracted,~ she thought into Arch's mind, calling upon the seldom-used bond between them.
...this was what happened. Raven knew so much more about caring for children, she had healing salves, she knew techniques Arch ignored. She fixed things. Arch... well, she was trying. Nodding slightly to Raven's comment, Arch gently wiped away Jerusha's tears, kissing her on the forehead. "Shh, sweetheart. It'll be all right soon."
Something was happening. Aunty's hand was warm, so warm-- warm enough to dull the pain, though Jerusha could still feel a strange thumping in her finger, a pulsing beat. Sniffling a little, Jerusha tried to put her mind elsewhere, somewhere that didn't hurt anymore.
Immy carried the Benadryl back, watching Hera clutch the bag. Her sister was worried-- that much Imelda could tell very easily. What was going on? Imelda didn't really understand-- after all, J had gotten hurt, and then... then what? Mommy was trying to make it better? But could she? She'd made other people's hurts better, but J's was different, it was because of a little bug...
Bandage. Ice pack. And the little lemur girl didn't want to argue with her sisters anymore, handing the objects over to Raven as Hera and Imelda gave their offerings as well, watching in silence as Raven bandaged up Jerusha. This was something of a familiar scene for Erianthe-- given how often she got herself in scrapes-- but it was strange seeing it from the outside, seeing her cousin hurt. Did this happen because she'd been distracting-- no. This was Hera's fault. She was supposed to take care of J.
"There you go, J. Good as new," Raven released the angel, nodding to Arch. "I think that's enough playing for one day."
~I'll get you what you need.~
Nodding to her sister and scooping Jerusha up, Arch and the little angel bid the girls farewell and headed home. Enough adventuring for now.
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 2:13 pm
Tracing the letters on the paper, Imelda glared at them. She now had ten pretty squiggly things, each one representing a sound. They made for a good distraction against the annoying cousin who was deliberately annoying her by being there trying to take the attention by being around her most important brother. A, E, I, O, U. Ka, Ke, Ki, Ko, Ku. Ten.
"Immy, I thought you came over here to play," Jerusha sighed softly, placing a webbed hand on her cousin's arm, "not to try to ignore Cece." Not that the angel had really expected anything else, but... really. You'd think that at least once they'd be able to get along for a little while, right?
"I'm studying," Imelda replied, her voice sharper than she'd intended it to be. She wasn't frustrated with J, but with the other one, but J was interrupting and trying to make this not about what it was about.
"Immy dun' like me an' dun' like Jett talkin' tu me," Cece grinned, leaning against the black widow boy. She liked taking the attention away from her cousin because it meant that attention fell onto her, and that was important.
"He's not talking to you!" Imelda snapped, glancing over at Jett to confirm that her best-friend-brother wasn't talking to her arch nemesis.
Weaving his web, Jett glanced up at the commotion between the girls. He'd only come to Aunt Arch's house because Mother thought it would keep the tension down between the constantly arguing cousins, but apparently it wasn't working. Unless... he was supposed to be doing something to stop it? How could he? He didn't understand it. People acted in ways he didn't get all the time, especially his passionate sister and cousin.
"He not talkin' tu you," Cece pointed out. "He spendin' moa tyme wit me~"
"Jett!" Imelda protested, turning away from her studies to pout at her brother, hopefully convincingly. She needed his reassurance. She needed to make sure he was still on her side like he'd always been.
Closing his eyes for a moment, Jett took a long breath. "I'm not talking to either of you," the spider boy finally decided. After all, he had to say something with them. "I'm just sitting here until Mother and Arch are finished talking with the strangers."
Jerusha grimaced. Of all the people in the world, it had to be Jett, didn't it? He would never be able to handle all the problems that these two created, but somehow, for some reason, Imelda had come to care about him more than others. Of course the girl would choose the easiest person for her to manipulate.
Before the kids could come to another disagreement, Arch and Raven appeared out of the room with the two strangers. Raven took one look at the children and excused herself, moving to consider all of them before smiling ruefully. "Well, I hope you all behaved yourselves," she laughed softly, knowing all too well from the faces of each child that they'd been arguing again. This was the general state of being for her kids, wasn't it? This arguing that meant they understood each other at least...
"Time to go, Jett, Immy."
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Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 8:00 pm
Herald Time has passed, and your Herald is becoming fond of you and beginning to show affection. You two have grown closer, but that's not the only aspect of growing.
The Herald is maturing into a young child before your eyes. No longer dying and weak and no longer sexless, it now has beautiful angel white hair and dark blue eyes of unusual depth. You may have noticed that the Herald has been scratching and touching its back for a while, and now it's finally explained. The herald's wings have started to grow in.
How do you deal with the child's discomfort? Do you have any remedies to ease it? How does he/she react? How do the wings reflect the item given?
The dreamscape could be the most beautiful, dangerous fractal path if you knew how to navigate your way around it. Then again, if you knew how to navigate your way around it as well as Arch did, you didn't notice the beauty, you only saw what was before you. And Arch was getting--
Holy hell, what was going-- that dream was--
Grimacing, Arch turned to face the light at the edge of her vision. "Eri, I told you not to follow me here."
~i'm sorry, Mother. It's an emergency.~
Of course it was. That explained everything, like why Eri was risking her sanity, her life to be here. "What is it? And tell me quickly." Arch wanted her daughter out and now.
~It's Jerusha. She's in pain. The scratching you told me to watch, it's gotten worse.~
...damnit. How could things... she'd only just started her nightly rounds! But she couldn't ignore her child, her angel in need. Especially not if Eri thought it was this important. Eri was a good judge of these sorts of things, which meant it was important. And yet... there was still the job to do. "Give me a few minutes. Hold down the fort for me, Eri-love. Now go," Arch added the last as a plea, waiting until she saw the glow disappear before grimacing again. The kill would have to be fast... not subtle...
When Arch finally pulled herself out of the dream world and back into her physical body, she could feel that something was different in the air. Eri' felt tense, felt worried. Cece meanwhile seemed to be horribly unhappy but carried that same tinge of worry-- probably picked up from Eri. And J...
Pain. Fear. Frustration.
"J?" Arch called as she pulled on her robe, slipping off to the angel's room. "Sweetheart, what's going on?" she asked, glancing at Eri for some attempt to get her bearing on the situation, even though she knew Eri couldn't speak mind to mind in her physical form.
"Hurts," J sighed softly, turning to show her mother her back as she had for her sister to reveal the feathers on her back. It... felt strange. It hurt. It felt... bad. She was frustrated with this because it hurt and she was getting far too much attention where this was concerned.
...normally, Cece would've been annoyed. Normally, Cece would've been upset that the spotlight was being upstaged, especially by her normally reclusive cousin. But this obviously wasn't normal because J, the child who never ever ever wanted to take Cece's light, was in trouble. Hurting. That was the reason Cece sat quietly in Eri's arms, glancing at her cousin with big, green eyes wondering at her. She wanted to help, but she couldn't, could she?
"She's been trying to reach there for a while," Eri murmured to her mother after a moment. "It was starting to bleed." Which meant that something was more than just a little wrong. Eri knew her sister, knew that J never said anything without thinking about it, without paying attention to what was going on, and... this wasn't normal. She was complaining in a sense, but not because it was justified, not meaningless.
...oh, she was so not cut out for this. Arch wasn't good at taking care of pain in children. Causing it, sure. Taking care of it in adults she could sleep with, sure. Taking care of it in terms of causing pleasure instead of pain... but with her child? No. She'd sworn to herself to keep from using her gifts on-- but J had it in her... damnit! "Oh, sweetheart," Arch smiled slightly, pulling J into a gentle hug, running her fingers along the edges of the still forming wings. "How much does it hurt? How long has it been hurting?" She needed Raven.
"...enough. A while," Jerusha answered after a moment, leaning into her mother's touch. She wanted to just make it go away, she wanted it to stop hurting. After all... it wasn't supposed to last. Pain was here and then gone again.
Tugging at Eri, Cece motioned that she'd rather be next to J right now, snuggling up to her cousin when given the opportunity. She couldn't do much except try to ease her cousin's pain, her tiny hands trying to copy Aunty Arch's, running gently along Jerusha's shoulder blades where the wings were growing. Apparently there was something wrong here, the way J tried not to tense when a sensitive point was touched
Okay. She couldn't do this on her own. "Eri-darling, take care of them for a moment. I'm going to go make some calls..." Arch gave Eri a slightly apologetic look before slipping off to grab some tea and some hot clothes. ~Raven. I need your help.~
She'd been fiddling with her pendant, considering the strange, almost tooth-like shape of the thing. Originally, she'd felt like there was a purpose to her having it, another child on its way, and... that had been only added to by her meeting with those kids, but... it had been so long she'd almost forgotten about it, almost given up thinking of the possibility of the soul inside, but... at the same time-- damn. Echoing sound in her head meant Arch was getting herself into trouble again. ~What?~ Raven grimaced slightly.
Okay, so Raven was still mad. That didn't matter though-- Raven would never allow one of the children to be in pain. ~I need you to do that healing thing. For J. From where you are or over here. On her back. She has these... wings. They're growing in. And it's hurting her.~
If there was one thing that she couldn't turn down it was a family member, a child in need. Since J fit both of those qualities, it meant that Raven couldn't say no. "Arch, I hate you," Raven grimaced, wrapping her hand around the pendant, feeling it warm to her touch as she stood, moving to grab the picture of Jerusha before responding to the mental note. ~Fine. I'll do what I can as far as from away. When we meet this weekend, I'll take a look at it again if it hasn't gotten any better. I'll send her treatments everyday till then. You should give her your teas and your potions-- if you have any healing salve left, use that too. You know how to handle this, Arch,~ Raven reminded her sister gently.
...sanity. Thank the gods for Raven's ability to calm the situation. ~...thank you, Arch sighed softly across the link before closing it off, grabbing the teas and the potions with the last tub of salve she had. Tea. Potions. Salve. Treatments. This was handled.
Great...
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 3:55 pm
Sticky. That was the first word which came to mind when Jerusha ran her fingers along the feathers sprouting from her back. It felt strange because in all honesty, J never thought of herself as a sticky person. No, sticky was Cece with her need for attention, the way she clung. Sticky was Jett with his webs--
That's what it reminded her of. The webs. That...
Hah. Jerusha sighed as she lay on her stomach, flipping idly through her picture books. Mother said that there were things happening in the world which couldn't be explained through words, which meant J should look for clues from other points, which was why she'd been given this book, but... as much as that made sense, Jerusha didn't think she'd understand what Mother was trying to teach her until she knew more about human motivations.
For example, Cecelia and Imelda. They argued constantly when they were around each other, fought, but... at the same time, they obviously cared what the other thought because they always fished for those answers. It didn't seem to make sense. Or, perhaps the problem was, it made too much sense to everyone except for the strange pair. It wasn't really jealousy which hung between them, but more likely... more likely, it was a deep seated want to understand the other-- or perhaps understanding too well...
Maybe that was it. Maybe they were too similar. Maybe that's what caused their disagreements-- the fact that they saw in the other something they recognized in themselves... it didn't seem like too long of a shot. Mother always said that the person everyone loved and hated most was themselves. That would make sense then.
All these strange emotions floating around-- J didn't understand them. She didn't understand Mother's tension whenever the woman passed by the window to peer at the neighbor's house in the distance, didn't understand Eri's growing frustrations, didn't understand Cece's whining for attention--
"Thinkin' 'gain?" Cece asked as she crawled over to Jerusha, playing with the strange feathers on her cousin's back. J had gotten quieter-- if that was possible!-- since she'd started having problems with her back, with these strange feathers coming in. Since after Jerusha stopped complaining about the pain, she'd been mostly silent, which made Mommy and Aunty Arch edgy. It wasn't that weird for J to be quiet, but Cece understood, at least on some level, that there were silences and there were silences, ones which meant something different.
"...always," J smiled at the little girl, pulling her closer so her cousin wouldn't tease the still sensitive feathers. "What've you been up to? Thought Eri gave you crayons."
"Cwayons not fun 'nuff," the little elf pouted, snuggling up to J. "Wanna pway wif J." Jerusha was, without a doubt, one of the more interesting people to spend time with in the house. Partially because J was interested in spending time with her, J was interested in playing with her even when she was busy because... well, because J wasn't busy most of the time. That wasn't exactly true, but... it seemed to be true.
"'K then. We'll play," Jerusha smiled, pulling her cousin close. "Shinies?" she suggested.
Grinning, Cece nodded, watching J move to go grab some of the shining globes cousin Mekt made for them, and they began to toss them back and forth.
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Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 1:21 pm
Hero/Villian LOOKIT ME! I AM A HERO/VILLIAN!Herald: Jerusha Hero-Villian: SPIDERMAN Appearance Changes: Spiderman's trademark suit doesn't really suit J, so she's instead she wakes up in a dress in the same web-like pattern (complete with the web cans!) with a smaller spider on her chest, since Spiderman is bigger than her, so a bigger spider is better for him. Also, she finds she cannot see as well, and may require glasses. This is displeasing. Acquired Traits: First off, the bad vision. Damn you, Peter Parker! Secondly, the wall-crawling. Let's face it, that's just cool. (Web cans are a part of the costume, J does not really know how to use them. If she tries, they will likely go off in her face.) Why this character?: Spiderman. Spiderherald. MAKES SENSE TO ME. No, seriously. Peter Parker is a boy who was raised by surrogate parents (his aunt and uncle). Jerusha's being raised by a surrogate parent, Arch. And the family. (Oooh, sounds scary, like a mafia.) Um. Ok. Not such a good reason. *tries again* Peter Parker's difficulty spending time with his peers mirrors J's reluctance to meet with people outside the family. In addition, they're both incredibly intelligent, though not always in the common sense ways, and they tend to be a little on the clumsy side. However, both innately want to do good, though their motivations for wanting to do good don't always coincide with the way things turn out or how it appears. Peter Parker went through some difficult times, the loss of his dear Uncle Ben. J's gone through some difficult times, and the loss of her cousin, Cecelia. This causes both to do somewhat neurotic things. In Peter's case, he went off to USE HIS POWERS FOR GOOD. In J's case, she's going to USE HER POWERS FOR-- wait. What powers? >>; Um. Right. You get the idea.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:16 pm
Herald Your Herald has been acting strangely all morning, sneaking around the house, and jumping at every small noise. The cause of this behavior is discovered shortly; you find that a priceless object has been broken and it would appear that it was your Herald that broke it.
What is the object and what is its importance? How do you react to this? Do you punish them or let them off with a warning? How does your Herald react? Was it your Herald that broke the object or maybe s/he was an observer to the act?
"J, come in here," Arch called, not looking up from the tangled web before her. There was something wrong, everything wasn't as clear as it had been, which could only mean one thing. Someone had broken one of her hourglasses around the house, someone had sent some of her power back to the Company. Eri knew better than to even touch them, and while Jerusha had been taught, Arch wasn't sure her young daughter really understood.
"Going to my room," Jerusha glanced into Arch's room with a smile before attempting to sneak off towards her bedroom and the safety it provided.
"Coming in my office," Arch countered, motioning for the girl to come in. Ah-- there it was. That's what had been missing from the web. "Tell me what happened to the hourglass in the south wing of the house."
"Nothin' happened," J shook her head, pausing at the door of the office. She didn't want to go inside, didn't want to talk about what had happened. It wasn't her fault, wasn't her fault at all. But that wasn't the point, it wouldn't stop Mom from getting angry and upset. The hourglasses were important, and that was something both Mom and Eri kept impressing, especially now that the family was being all weird.
"Don't lie to me, Jerusha," Arch cautioned her before looking up from the web. "Come here." She was trying to hold back her anger, really, she was. But the hourglasses were important, they were what gave Arch the ability to see and walk through dreams, they were where her power was stored. It had taken an immense amount of time to convince the Company to give her the set, and it would take a longer time to convince them for a replacement for this one. "I just want to know what happened, all right? I won't be angry if you tell me the truth."
Well, she would be angry. She'd still be angry because Jerusha should know better. Jerusha kept claiming she knew enough to do things on her own, but if she was going around breaking things, she obviously wasn't nearly as responsible as she thought. But Arch knew-- or at least, she'd been told by her sisters at least-- that you couldn't get angry at children just because they acted like children.
Jerusha sighed. Nothing was simple with her mother. Arch tried hard to be nice about all of it, but Jerusha could hear the tenseness in her voice. "I didn't do anything."
"I didn't say you did. I just want to know what happened to the hourglass, J," Arch sighed, standing to pull the little girl gently into the room, hold her close. "Now tell me. What happened, sweetheart? Was it your wings again? Was it an accident?"
"I didn't do anything!" Jerusha protested, looking up at her mother honestly. "I didn't!"
"Then what happened?" Arch asked, trying to keep the sigh out of her voice. "Just tell me, J-- I don't want to hear excuses or anything like that, I just want the truth. Okay?"
"Ask Eri," J pouted, biting her bottom lip in clear indication that she didn't intend to say anything more on the matter without a lawyer, or the family's equivalent of it-- Erimentha.
"Fine," Arch tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice. ~Erimentha, I need you in my office. Now.~
~Is this about your hourglass, Mother?~ Eri's mental voice drifted through Arch's mind gently. ~Don't be angry with Jerusha, this isn't her fault.~
~She's not telling me anything, Eri. What am I supposed to think?~
~That she's worried about your temper? She doesn't want to get in trouble, Mother.~
Jerusha recognized the look on Arch's face-- it meant Mother was upset and talking with Eri wasn't helping. It vaguely resembled the look that Jett gave whenever someone interrupted him concentrating-- forehead furrowed, eyes shut, face tense.
All in all, it didn't bode well.
Trying to wiggle out of her mother's embrace-- which only tightened around her-- Jerusha wondered what she could do to get out of this mess.
~I told her I wouldn't be mad if she told me the truth.~
~You were lying. Of course you're going to be upset no matter what she tells you. You have to replace your glass.~
Arch clenched her teeth. What had she done to deserve this? Really? ~Eri, are you going to tell me what happened or not?~
~Jerusha and I were playing hide and seek this morning. She was hiding under the table the glass was on, and when she saw me coming, she tried to stabilize the glass. So did I. We ended up colliding, and it fell.~
~And when were you going to tell me this?~ Arch was going to have a long talk with Eri about this later when she didn't have Jerusha on her lap. A very, very long talk.
~I just finished convincing Braden over at the Company to give us a replacement. I'm coming home now. I was waiting until he knew whether or not he could procure one for us.~
~Eri, you know I don't like Braden--~
~He feels quite the same about you, Mother,~ Eri replied matter-of-factly, ~but he and I get along just fine. Jerusha likes him as well, so he was willing to do a favor for us. This time it helps you as well, so I wouldn't complain about him too much for a while.~
Jerusha knew that look on Mother's face-- it meant Braden. "Did Bray fix it?" she asked earnestly, looking up at Arch hopefully. "Did he?"
"Eri says he was willing to give her a replacement for me. Which means the two of you are off the hook for the moment," Arch sighed. ~Bring it to my office. I'm going to let Jerusha go play. The next time this happens--~
~I'll let you know immediately, Mother. I promise,~ Eri answered smoothly, severing the connection.
"Yay for Bray~!" J grinned, all sulkiness banished at the sign of her big sister and Braden coming to her rescue. "Going to my room now!" she smiled sweetly up at her mother as she managed to slip from Arch's grasp.
"Don't break anything else. And write a thank you letter to Braden," Arch added as an afterthought. "He deserves something nice for helping the two of you out of this mess."
J nodded happily, bouncing off towards her room. She had crayons-- she'd color him a big picture full of colors to say thank you.
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 12:04 am
.06.05.08.
"I'm ho~me!" Arch called as she stepped back into the manor, glancing around the empty hall. No one was there to greet her? What good were having daughters if they were just going to be not there when she came home with presents for everyone? Granted, most of the presents were for her, but still.
Midori had been lovely this time of year-- Arch was seriously considering connecting her home to it, making a double in Midori so she could visit both of them... though that would take some time and some doing. She could do it, but it might make some people annoyed-- which meant, of course, that she should do it. And she would. Later. Tonight.
"J? Eri? Where are you two?" she called again, putting the packages down on the side table while she slipped off her shoes, leaving them at the door. "I brought things for you!"
Stay very still. Wait for it, wait for it...
Jerusha waited until Arch unveiled the new presents on the couch, laying them out carefully-- there was a new dress and a necklace there for J-- before finally sneaking down the stairs. "New stuff?" she asked, looking over the items.
"Yes," Arch confirmed, pulling out the last item from her bag, this one carefully packaged and the reason she'd been so careful bringing in the gifts. A little burner filled with oil-- a sweet scent, flowery and intoxicating. "Go on, those are for you," Arch murmured, motioning towards the dress and necklace-- a white dress with silk ribbons and a pearl necklace.
"Mother, you don't have to buy us things every time you go out," Eri chided gently, coming into the hall from her wing to see what the commotion was about. "Jerusha and I have enough clothes, and you--" Eri cut herself off, glancing at the burner for a long, slow moment before changing what she'd been about to say, "--you should know better than to purchase odd things from stores on Gaia. Chances are, they'll become children, and you already said that the manor's getting full."
It wasn't, but that was beside the point. Eri understood Arch's reluctance to raise children-- after all, look at the experiences around her!-- but at the same time, that was one of the hazards of living here on Gaia. Children popped out of the oddest things, from cabbages to wands to pendants to any number of other items.
"Tch, I wouldn't worry so much, Eri-- it's just a pretty scent maker. Besides, it's for me, and your things are over there," Arch motioned to the dress and hairpiece next to Jerusha's presents. "Now, don't you think that's a lovely dress?"
J tended to agree with Eri on that-- while the dresses were certainly lovely, she and Eri both had their large closets full of clothes, something that their mother didn't seem to understand. "Thank you," she smiled simply though, taking the presents, fingering the pearls gently before glancing at the little burner. "Can I smell?" she asked, moving closer to the scent. "Where'd it come from?"
"It's from a little shop I found, a darling place in the other world-- it has all sorts of scents to choose from. They called this one 'Pride,' so I wanted to see what it smelled like," Arch explained, sniffing the oil again. Beautiful, and filled with a dark hint underneath the floral scent. "I suppose they must have a reason for naming it that."
"Thank you for the gifts, Mother," Eri sighed, patting Jerusha on the head before picking up her new things. "Just be careful with your new aromatherapy," she cautioned her mother, slipping out of the room as silently as she'd entered it.
Jerusha gathered her dress and necklace up as well, giving Arch a smile. "Have fun playing, Mother," she laughed softly as she moved out of the room too, back to her room where she could try on the dress, see how well it fit her, how well it suited her. Mother had even remembered to get her one with holes for her wings to come out-- or maybe she'd had it specially tailored that way. In any case, Jerusha appreciated it, appreciated the thought.
Finally left alone, Arch smiled and went off to her room with the remaining contents of the bag and the little burner, pleased with herself. This was a day well spent.
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