Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kirai smiled and called back, raising her hand to her mouth, "Of course I miss the breathers! However, you should try hanging out with dead people more often, they typically make lovely company!" This was Kirai's sense of humor starting to come out.

Phantom nodded and then chuckled. "Yeah I know the feeling. I swear I was about ready to rape any man that walked by the building." She sighed again and hugged Mim. "Thank you though, you have no idea how worried I was about you.... after the fun."

"Jerk." Mim said, playfully shoving Phantom away. "You're lucky I'm too stubborn to die, you know!" Pausing a moment, she continued. Her tone slightly more serious. "Dad isn't going to take this laying down, Phantom. He's pissed. He'll show here...are you ready for that? I know you've been wanting to get at his throat, but I need to know if you're ready to face him again."

"Well," Tessa began, "what does it mean to you?" Combing her fingers through her hair, she said, "Right now, freedom is hope. I didn't think I'd ever escape Vaclav castle. Ever. Month after month, I had to relive the nightmare of murdering my children. For centuries. I'd given up hope. Yet, here I am. Sitting with my dearest friend and I'm free." She hadn't realized she'd begun to cry until she noticed her dress was beginning to dampen. "I'll never forget my crimes, I can't erase that, but I just feel so invigorated. Like I could dance again." Smiling, she added. "You too, Kirai. You needed time away from that place. We were both haunted by the past."

Kirai nodded her head, "I'm happy I was not alone." Her smile grew softer, as she clinched her delicate hand around the ribbon. "I want to be complete again... But my soul still loves Avarice, and is very different from what I've become. I want to care for Edward and Salazar, but because my personality is just a recording of how I was before I died..." Kirai started crying, and pulling her knees up, buried her head in the black lace and ruffles of her dress. "I can only find myself not wanting Avarice to die. It hurts, pain, that is one real thing I have left... It would be so much easier if they just saw this body as left over impressions of what once was... Kirai died two hundred years ago, she is no longer here." Kirai poured out her deepest thoughts and heart aches to Tessa... Her life long companion.

Phantom looked up at Jackie. "And how can you help?" The question was said in a kind tone. She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to smile. "This is a lot harder then you think."

Phantom nodded and pointed down the hall where her office was. "Come and talk with me in there. Something like this can't be talked about in the open. You never know where ears might be."

Noting the girl's unease, she closed the door but kept it unlocked and unlocked the window in the office before sitting down at her desk. "Alright, how do you think you can help us?"

((Kirai has me listening to Pain from Three Days Grace))

"You are right," Tessa chided, pulling a ruffled clip from her hair. Holding out one lace-clad hand, she said, "May I?" Indicating towards the ribbon. "Maybe it is simply accepting that you are not the woman you used to be. You've been so concerned with becoming whole, finding what you had lost..." Taking the ribbon from Kirai, she tied it into a delicate bow and attached it to the clip. Plucking away a black silk rose that had decorated her bodice, she centered it between the bow and smiled. "and make something of it. Something better." Brushing back Kirai's curls, she clipped the bow into Kirai's hair. "I was a ghost once. Nothing more than an impression of what I had once been, but over the centuries I became something more. A phantom. Kirai, you aren't just a doll. You are your own person, just as your soul is. This loyalty you feel for Edward and Salazar...that isn't her. That's you."