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 Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:22 pm
" That's sweet of you", replied Eisheth holding ghoul's hand tightly. Somehow anything didn't matter anymore. " You should tell me a bit about you home and background, anyway. I know nothing about Jiang Shi". The alchemist remembered the funny mistake from the beginning of their acquaintance, when she thought Jiang Shi stands for Giant She, and smiled. The evening was perfectly nice and peaceful, and even the usual Halloween cold air didn't seem to disturb Eisheth even a bit.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 6:46 pm
Soon they came upon what seemed to be a randomly placed bench. It was a simple bench made of lacquer wood and wrought iron. Leading Eisheth over to it, she took a seat upon the bench, smoothing out her skirt with one hand as she held Eisheth's in the other. "Lets see." Looking thoughtful for a moment, she tried to decide where to start. "Well, I suppose I can start with what a Jiang Shi is. Jiang Shi...I guess the best way to put is, we are considered like vampires but also like zombies in a way. Zombies in the way that we are re-animated corpses of our former selves. Vampires in the sense that we absorb what we call qi. Or a human's life force or essence. Not unlike how everyone absorbs FEAR but Qi is a lot more potent and we don't do it much anymore save every now and again or when fighting living creatures. But unlike traditional vampires or zombies we are controlled by the scrolls that we wear on our foreheads. If removed we fall away to dust, but it can also be used against us in the matter of say....someone putting a dominating enchantment upon our scroll. We would be compelled to follow the orders of the spell caster for as long as the enchantment held. The scroll is our life and our weakness." She stared straight into Eisheth's eyes. "I trust you enough to tell you this and hope you will not relay to anyone else what I've said. Not many have knowledge as to why we wear these scrolls and it is a closely guarded secret."A smile crept to her lips as she finished the more serious part of explanation. Next would come a tail about her family. "When I awoke from my tomb in the graveyard I was found by a group of Jiang Shi who made it a habit of combing the graveyards in search of newly arisen Jiang Shi. Lucky for me they had happened to be there or else I might have ended up roaming the streets lost and confused." She laughed lightly at the thought, remembering how confused and scared she had been when they had approached her. "I was taken back to the compound, though I suppose what my home looks like is fairly similar to the buildings that Conquest dwelled in. Very similar in fact." Indeed, when she had visited the Conquest island she thought she had gone home actually. "Anyway, all the Jiang Shi of my 'family' live there. Though I suppose we're all not blood related we are family. I've got like twenty uncles, thirty aunts and a bunch of cousins. But my father and mother are the ones who run our particular house. Everyone looks up to them and respects them heavily. They are two of the oldest Jiang Shi still alive. Now I'm sure you are wondering if I had any siblings and the answer to that is no. Younger Jiang Shi are generally adopted by the established mini families within the big family, but my father and mother had never adopted children before. So I was their first and their last."It didn't really bother her that she had no siblings, she had plenty of others her age that she spent time with. Even still, she had never gotten an only child complex from it. "The younger Jiang Shi were raised in groups by age. So there was always a handful of scarelings to be around. The males would learn fighting and other physical things while the girls learned dancing or some sort of art. Its very.....gender segregated I suppose in a way." Mei certainly would have liked to have learned a little bit of fighting to prepare her for what had gone on once she had arrived at Amityville. "Eventually I was old enough to attend school so my parents sent me to Amityville. And well, here we are."Mei was silent for a moment as she mulled over the short hand version of her tale. She didn't want to drone on and on and on. And if Eisheth had any questions she was sure she would ask them. "What was your home like Eisheth? And...your family?" She was sad that she had never gotten a chance to visit Eisheth's home and interact with her people. And hoped that her question didn't upset her. The ghoul knew it was still a fairly touchy subject.
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:43 pm
Oh Queen, that was certainly quite a lot of information. Totally mesmerized, Eisheth kept silent for a few long moments. She definitely needed to remember this, though, of course the alchemist, with her passion for knowledge and studying, already had some questions. " All right, I think I understood everything, but I'm quite curious. Say, Mei, how do you protect your scrolls? Since that's an object of great importance, literally your heart and soul, - and yet it is exposed, being quite visible for possible enemies and just folks passing by, who might damage it just accidentally, even without knowing your secret. Any protection charms, or may be the scroll itself isn't easy to be harmed?.. Also, what you just told about enchantments, as like domination, that's just horrible, it makes you very, very vulnerable", Eisheth shook her head. That wasn't good news, anyway, from now on she should keep an eye on Mei's forehead, if a simple knife ar any sharp surface capable of cutting the scroll, can be of a grave danger for the ghoul. " Isn't there a way to protect the scroll, - and therefore you, - better?" That was not all. " Also, I've been wondering, - who makes those scrolls? Is there anyone who can be called your creator? And who created the first ones, or just the oldest, like your father and mother?" And that wasn't all, as well. " And I've thought about your ability... it sounds magnificent, though I have no idea what is Qi, I've never heard about that, but that makes sense. I've always had that theory, Halloweeners, Horsemen, all the Fear-based creature consist of Fear energy particles, Fear generated by humans. I know that there are other worlds with creatures living on other types of energy, also generated from human emotions. So, in a way, humans might be considered the basement of our existence, but I've always suspected there should be a type of energy, may be unknown to us, that humans consist of and feed on, just like we do with Fear. So, that actually explains a lot in my picture of the world.
But tell me, Mei, why didn't you use this ability in the battle with hunters?...", Eisheth looked at the should smiling curiously. Yayoi TLDR; Eisheth will tell about her home, after Mei's answer smile )))
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 6:06 pm
"Ah well that's the fun part about it." Reaching up with a hand she flicked the parchment. It merely rustled about before settling back against her forehead. "In a way it has it's own protective enchantment. You can't really pull it off or tear it. The only way to destroy it would be with very old old magic that I don't really think anyone currently living or unliving knows. But who knows, maybe there is someone or something somewhere that has that knowledge. Weirder things have happened I guess." She picked up at the concern in Eisheth's voice which made her smile more. "Jiang Shi just don't like it to be so much public knowledge just in case someone decides to go snooping." She mostly meant that statement to be directed at Hunters, but who knew what kind of old grudges the more ancient creatures of Halloween, who might actually know something, held. If they were even still around that is. The next set of questions caused her brow to furrow just slightly. "In all honesty I do not have an answer to those questions. I really only know the general ya know...need to know information. Those would be questions to ask my father, but I highly doubt he would be open to discussing it." He was a gruff old man, that one. But also kind and gentle when it was needed. Large for what he was, yet graceful all the same. She admired him greatly. Her father knew much but he rarely shared just how much or what he knew. Especially with those outside their kind. "Qi is just a cultural term." She pondered Eisheth's own thoughts for a moment. "I believe you are right in that sense. From what little I know of Humans it is just all one giant food chain. They prey upon the creatures of their world just as we prey upon them. All in all if one were to fall it would create a break in the chain and we would all suffer." She didn't spend much time pondering over things about Humans, what she knew was limited to what she had learned early on. While she could understand and recognize how the Horsemen felt towards Humans, to destroy and subjugate them all would be counter productive to keeping them all alive and kicking. You don't starve and beat an animal you plan to eat. Now she was embarrassed at the last question. Why hadn't she used it really? Well, that had a simple answer to it. "Because its not strong enough yet to actually have any serious effect."
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:57 pm
" I see", Eisheth nodded. "Don't worry, you still have a long way to go", she smiled at Mei, who seemed to be a bit embarrassed by her Qi sucking skill. " Well", the alchemist started. " I don't really know the origins of horsemen, since I obviously wasn't one of the first ones, but looks like human being always had a fear of the Apocalypse, the end of the world. it one of the oldest fear in history, and still it's quite modern: it's basically an ultimate fear that has no particular reason, but no particular way to be defeated. Other fears, such as certain illnesses or certain technological inventions, come and go, but Apocalypse, it's not a monster or disease, but more like a fear of ultimate force affecting the whole world. That's how we were born, and that's why we remained powerful for eternity.
As time passed, humanity determined four certain aspect of Apocalypse that scared them: Conquest, War coming after it, Famine that awaits all the survivors, and unbeatable Death in the end. That's what we are.
Famine is... was a very organised society where everyone was on a proper place. Colony soldiers, scavengers in charge of harvesting Fear, Alchemists who were the scientists and philosophers of the clan, and sages, capable of performing any task. You could change your class, but mostly our clansmen didn't feel the urge to do it, since you were doing what you could do best. Though I had some hopes of working towards sage one day", the alchemist sighed. " Technically, we all are siblings, one big family. We even used to have one, enormously huge dorm room for everyone, so your private life was quite exposed, as you might say, but that was normal way of how things are for us. I have one close relative, and one I cherish most, Kiwi, my cousin, you should have met hum before", Eisheth smiled. " Also, Faiyum the alchemist is my distant relative, but we are more like rivals.... or used to be, not it's not a proper time for rivalry.
When at home I mostly used to work in a Crops room - a big aviary with different crops, - practicing poisons, antidotes and studying various potions' effects: that was my specialization". " I really miss those days", admitted Eisheth, " Though it's helpful for me to talk about it, so if you have any particular questions, I'll only be happy to tell more".
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Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:53 pm
Mei knew she had a way to go. Although the way Eisheth said it it sounded like it would take forever. She listened attentively as the Horsewoman spoke. Taking in all the information she was given. It was quite a lot to take in really. But everything was fascinating none the less. Mei knew so little about the Horsemen that anything she could learn, especially if it pertained to Eisheth, was good. It would help her in the long run both with Eisheth and other Horsemen. When Eisheth's story came to a close, she could hear the longing in her voice. The loss of her home must have been devistating. The ghoul knew that if her home was destroyed she wouldn't be able to handle it. But she really only had one question. "What did...do you do for fun?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 5:22 pm
The sincerity of Mei's question confused Eisheth for a moment. For fun?.. Good question, actually. What did they actually do for fun?.. " Well...", the alchemist tried to explain. " First of all, I've never thought of my duties as of a hard work: everything we did was pretty much fun for us. it's our nature, and the way we are. Though, if you mean something entirely unpractical, I've been always fond of jewelry: I could spend a lot of time designing and making some beads or earrings. And also, my researches: not all of them were practical, sometimes I was just curious". Still, the horseman felt her explanation isn't really convincing, but she really didn't have a better answer. " It's getting colder here", she shrugged. " Do you think we should start getting back? Don't worry, it's not the last day of the world... I hope so, at least", Eisheth hugged Mei and sent the ghoul her best smile. Yayoi I think we should finish this RP, and mebbe start a new one, ICLY happening after the latest events, so they can talk it over / share their feelings and thoughts? wink
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 5:48 pm
Mmm, well. That wasn't quite the answer that Mei had expected. She meant like something other than Eisheth's work. But her mention of jewelry made her smile. Little by little she was starting to see bits and pieces of Eisheth that the Horsewoman probably didn't share with others. She returned the hug with a soft smile. Leaning her head against Eisheth's chest momentarily before pulling back and giving a small nod. The cold didn't really bother her, generally it was extreme heat that made the ghoul uncomfortable. Especially if it included fire. "Sure." Mei laughed lightly. "Yea, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't live like it isn't." Taking Eisheth's hand, she began to lead her back towards Amityville. santime Works for me. Want me to start it this time?
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