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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 4:18 pm
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The first thing she noticed was how much her head hurt, but at least her dreams had been plenty pleasant, if a bit odd. Shaking the cobwebs from her brain, she slowly sat up and felt each ache and pain. Heh, didn't do a half bad job this time, she noted of her bandages. No blood seepage and it wasn't falling off her body. But man, she must've been messed up if she'd completely stripped. Oh hey, food... She was far too interested in the food to really care how it had gotten there. Hopefully, she hadn't surprised the delivery boy with a show but whatever...
Pushing to her feet, she snagged the sandwich and made her way out of the bedroom, pushing the hair out of her face as she stumbled forward. More than a little off balance, more from blood sugar than injury, she was not at all prepared for the flashing bright light that greeted her as she stepped past the door. "Oi....Ow! Put that thing away!", making a feebly swatting motion as she stumbled back against a corner. "OW! ******** her shoulder into the corner as she tried to recover. Where was that whiskey again...
She hadn't even registered who her guest was, and at the moment didn't care. That thing was giving her a massive headache.
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 4:36 pm
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He glanced over in surprise, lowering his hand, giving it a toss and catching the pendant inside his fist, hiding it from whatever about it had her reacting so bizarrely. It could have been physical, or the energy, or just his imagination, but it seemed warm to the touch.
"Walking already?"
He stepped quickly up and took a firm grip of her upper arm, leading her to the nearest surface he could push her to sit down in.
"Seems not. Sit. Until you can walk properly. Your ribs are knitted, but it won't take much to rebreak them for a few days." He was still dressed entirely aside from his coat. The rest of the house looked untouched and in order- perhaps too much so. Her books were in the same order they'd been in, all tucked tight against the backs of the shelves, and her medical kit was put in order and tidied up nicely. Even the clothes she'd worn earlier were sitting on the table and folded so neatly only the wrinkles and stains of wear gave a way that they hadn't been washed and pressed.
Clothes, including the corset, with its cut laces laid neatly beside it.
"I'd rather prefer you didn't cough blood during class."
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 4:40 pm
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 4:52 pm
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He stared at her sideways, making a small grunt of a sound in his throat. "Just don't break it again before it's healed." She clearly didn't want to thank him, and he wasn't sure if that was part of why or not, but the whole thing had him feeling just like his mother must. How bothersome.
He sat lightly on the edge of the table in front of her, most of his weight on his legs, and held his hand out, cracking the fingers just slightly and watching to see if she'd react like it was suddenly blinding again, or more like it was radiating more light. Or at all, given that he couldn't see any light from it in the first place.
"Heirloom. A simple pendent. And not producing illumination." He closed his hand over it again, observing with that almost predatory focus again to see how she reacted or thought. "Nor the strongest source of mystic energy you've been exposed to. Yet you've reacted violently to it repeatedly."
It was a mystery. As if the girl wasn't interesting in the first place. And this one could just be another oddity of hers- or it could help inform him on details of his link to this pendant, to his pasts, in a controlled and safe fashion- the sort of experiment he hadn't thought would be possible.
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:01 pm
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Her face twisted up, screwing into a grimace as she twisted her face away from it. "Heirloom...from a family of mystics with more power than sense most likely, given that I know I wouldn't be up and move with even this much less pain except for magical healing..", her voice was only mildly disgusted; after all she didn't have her father's out right disdain for magic. What helped her get back in the game faster was alright by her, even if it seemed a little like cheating. She'd cheat if it meant someone was helped for good reason.
"Yeah, that makes sense", she reached down and pinched her wrist hard enough it was easily going to bruise soon, but she did finally lift her head and look at the piece. "Wow, yeah, that's pretty old...even the art...that several centuries old...geez, why do you have that just hanging out in your pocket?", turning the interrogation back on him. Man, who would have thought grandma Veli's old books would be so useful.
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:14 pm
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:23 pm
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She rolled her head around as if look of 'are you kidding me'. "So now a doctor, poly sci geek and a mystic? Heh..", snorting her amusement although she took the pizza gladly. However, in order to not move the shoulder, it meant the pinching had to stop and so the light went back to blindly.
"Well, that's the most powerful piece I've seen in a while. But I've found the distraction of physical pain dulls the senses a bit so it's not quite so overwhelming.", she leaned a little closer, wincing with the pain in her ribs. "Usually ...uh..., I uh....nevermind. I'm just delusional. I...", she paused then, for once a bit hesitant to speak her mind. It was the easiest way to get people to leave her alone about this stuff usually. Just admit she was crazy and move on. Not like people ever disagreed with the idea. Besides, hard to tell someone you barely know that you see dead people or things with really strong emotional energy.
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:35 pm
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 5:41 pm
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"So what?! You want me to tell you I see dead people like that creepy kid from that one movie and that sometimes, really powerfully emotional items give me headaches?", she snapped back, grumpy from the pain, the hangover and his telling her that she was insulting him. "Yeah, because that didn't get me made fun of in school. At least until I kicked their a**."
"Whoever made that into a magic item had a LOT stored in it, but they didn't make it. The maker and the energy signature aren't the same. Happy?", She slammed back into the couch, her arms wrapped around her body to sulk even as it remembered that oh hay, I was bruised and fractured not so long ago. |
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:01 pm
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Her outburst had an interesting effect on him. For one, he didn't get defensive or snap back. At first he simply absorbed it, watching carefully, with a slight hint of some emotion other than frustration showing only hints of existing on his face.
And then he reached back down slowly into his pocket, gripping the pendent's head, and pulled it out, holding it up- cupping his hand so he could see it but his fingers would shield her. He stared at it for a long time. The muscles in his face slowly relaxed. The taut expression and sharp tension in his eyes faded, and he silently directed more questions at it until he looked very, very different.
Vulernable. Perhaps a little sad.
"No," Skylar said quietly, "No they weren't."
He tried to picture it. The face of his first wife, first son. There weren't even paintings though, nor written descriptions. They were just shades. He supposed that made it a good answer to both of her questions. Waking, lost, desperate, afraid- that he could imagine much easier. But if so... why? Simply because it was a way to amass power, a tool? He would have believed it of his father in a moment, had he needed it. But even when he'd tried, he had trouble crossing that line. It was funny that he was the one who wasn't quite human, but he couldn't just lock his 'humanity' away.
"Ghosts. That would make sense." He looked up to her eyes. "It's full of memories."
He realized that there were tears in his eyes. Suddenly mindful of his appearance again, the vulnerability he had let himself feel until he wore it like a shirt, he quickly started to stuff it away. Visibly his face set and his eyes grew removed again, wrapping himself up safely from it. Perhaps she'd been too busy sulking to see. Or hear.
"Stop that," he reproved gently, and stood, leaning over her with an arm to either side of her on the back of the couch. Then lowered them to her shoulders, not thinking about the pendent he was still holding against one palm.
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:22 pm
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:57 pm
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His heart beat faster.
Head spun.
He was looking at her lips, moving, moving like someone else. He saw other lips moving- a wide mouth, but lush and tempting. Darkened background, glow of fire. Hands slowly took a grip on his hair and pulled-
He slipped forward as she fell back, and the spell was broken. Her eyes were different. The dizzy girl in front of him. His eyes were wide. When had that happened. He opened his mouth to speak, but sound seemed to be beyond him. He stared a moment and then stood up. In his hand the pendant was hot to the touch, and he slipped it into his pocket before she could somehow trigger another episode.
A little numbed, he turned and went to fetch the bottle of bourbon.
Had she absorbed a memory of someone else from it somehow? Or had he somehow projected a memory from within the pendant on her? She had been... been... he felt like he should have known. But there it was just out of his grasp, taunting and impossible to reach. But he had almost seen it. Two times, centuries apart, overlapping in a moment. His mouth felt dry. Part of his mind spun. He could manufacture that. Open up the pendant, let himself see what was. The girl was a ready receptacle. He could envision those moments; perhaps a wife he'd known. Bring one of those specters to life. He could hold it in his hand, sate that burning urge to hold it again and-
He realized he was standing with the bottle of bourbon in his hand.
No. No, it would do nothing. What would he do? Dredge up memories and try to relive them for a few short moments? Perhaps a few days, likely destroying this girl entirely in the process, emptying her out longer and longer to recreate a past that was past, and make it harder for him to let go every second.
In the end, he'd destroy himself as surely as her.
He should have cast the pendant out the window and been done with it. Instead, he calmly walked back to the couch, took another small swig of the mix, and held it down to her. "That's a fascinating talent you have," hoarsely.
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:06 pm
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:18 pm
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"Do they truly?" he snorted in amusement, a hollow sound, and then sat on the couch beside her. "A price for all things. Fitting one, I suppose, for hearing the past's echoes."
"But is that even a blessing? I wonder. How long one could straddle two worlds, and not begin to lose one..."
She was turning out to be a rather miserable distraction after all. He should have just ******** her the moment she woke up after all, and been done with all this nonsense and gone.
He turned his head, looking at her from one side and extended a hand, lightly tracing a scar on her skin, from one end to another. Whatever sort of foolishness this girl got up to, she was quite intent on throwing her flesh and talents toward it apparently. She had a modest collection started already. "...the shoulder will scar. With proper tools I could remove it, but I get the sense you don't care." He traced another one idly, trying to let his brain move somewhere else.
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Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:29 pm
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