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 Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 8:19 am
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Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 7:12 pm
[[another baby brother?]]
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:13 pm
[[March 14th, 2006]]
{There's no top or bottom....}
Dreams::
Aido slept deeply, curled up atop her blankets. She was still in her day clothing, as she hadn't bothered to change before collapsing on the bed. One arm was loosely gripping an old, worn walrus plush while the other was buried in her scarf, squashing the cloth to her cheek.
Within her dream she wasn't even given the comfort of being inside. Firmly planted in a well worn saddle she bobbed along with the movement of the creature underneath her. Feathers, wings, and long taloned feet, it was a far cry from Rael and the forest rising around her was lush and warm, opposite to the barren trees of home.
Absently she wiped at her forehead with a sweat tinged wrist, only succeeding in thickening the existing layer of sweat further and drizzling some of the salty fluid into her eyes. With a noise of annoyance she stripped out of the long frock coat adorning her torso and readjusted the satchel at her side, double checking at the buttons and latches that assured that it would stay shut.
Beneath her, her mount continued to trot onwards, trampling the foliage under its feet until a sharp crack of twigs snapping somewhere behind them caused it to stop, perking and looking around warily. Its feathers fluffed out to brush against one of Aido's exposed ankles and her hands as she finished adjusting her trousers.
Pausing, one hand on her scarf, she looked around. The shadows beneath their feet twitched and tightened, attuning to her worry.
Behind them the slow, shifting change of a large shadow, which had been happening so slowly she hadn't even noticed it before, suddenly snapped and finished its shift at breakneck speed, fully forming into whatever it was going to become.
With a jack of her heart Aido chucked her tongue sharply and edged her mount into a straight out sprint, one hand snapping out and clutching the satchel to her chest as the other gripped the reins.
She'd left them in her dust before, but that had been on the plains, with the sun near noon, she couldn't help but doubt the chances of a similar tactic working here.
Coat tails flying behind them they sped through the trees, leaping over low logs, and frightening more than one small animal away from its leafy meal. But the almost metric tempo of crashes followed by the absence of noise followed by yet another crash didn't abate. The short absences meant their pursuer was taking the shadows, but only for short bursts of distance- but why?
Mind whirling she tried to puzzle it out. Multitasking between that, directing her mount and franticly trying to recall the map of this area she barely noticed when the lack of foliage crushing sounds lasted a moment longer than usual.
With a snarl and a flash of white teeth their pursuer, a black mass of a creature, leapt from the shadow of the nearest tree ahead of them. Wildly her mount squawked, and snapped backwards, arcing a leg to deliver a kick to the black creature's chest.
As soon as her mount had reared backwards Aido had been thrown. Nothing gripped the way it should have and she slid off her mount all together, numb pain lacing her arm as, for just a moment; her hand was stuck, tangled in the reins, before the leather thankfully snapped.
The force of her fall had pulled her mount back just as it kicked, forfeiting most of the force behind said kick and the poor creature was toppled over. Squawking it kicked and pecked against the black creature, which quickly followed it to the ground. But the white teeth bore down on it even as dark rivets of blood ran from the black creature's golden eyes.
Scrambling up again Aido nearly ran to her mount, about to try and force their attacker from it, but she was frozen in her tracks. The black creature's jaw, having seemingly stretched to a width it should not have been able to reach, was fitted neatly around the skull of her mount. With a low growl it crushed her mount's head between its teeth and proceeded to crunch on the fragments, its golden eyes shifting to focus on her once the corpse ceased to twitch.
Stomach attempting to throw itself out her mouth her body pivoted and she fled in the opposite direction, clutching the satchel to her chest with one hand and reaching out for the shadows with the other. Damn the treaty, she couldn't last here!
A figure, human this time, stepped from behind her as she disappeared into the shadow, reaching out casually and finding her shirt just behind the shadows. With ease it hauled the fighting girl back from within the shadows and threw her a fair distance away to tumble out of the tree line.
Skidding, grip tightening on the writhing tendril of shadow she still held Aido scrambled up, but the woman, cloaked and face hidden, was already besides her again, and snatched up her satchel.
"No!" Aido cried, lunging for it, shadow hardening to form a blade, but the woman had already thrown the precious pack behind her. It lay where it landed for a second before sinking into the shadow of the tree. As she lunged the woman caught her, ignoring any pain she might have felt as the blade pierced her side, and threw Aido backwards yet again.
Aido landed in a heap in the middle of a well fed stream and was unable to gain her footing before black creature sat upon her torso and the woman began to saunter towards her-
-jackknifing upwards Aido fell off her bed's edge. She didn't move from where she landed on the floor, concentrating on keeping her mouth shut, trying desperately to keep the bile in her throat down.
Besides her Rael rose out of the shadowed floor quietly and leant against her, trying to offer comfort through his cool touch.
But as Aido looked at him her stomach flip-flopped and she saw the black mass of a creature's jaws crushing down-
With a muffled cry she found her footing and raced for the bathroom.
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:42 am
[[March-May]]
I'm so cheap xDD
{This is the moment that you know....}
It started off with tiny, almost unnoticable things but quickly snowballed. She started to get tired when riding Rael or doing any shadowmancing; walking through the shadows began to feel like slogging through three feet of snow, with a chill to match.
It was almost easier to simply slip back into the role of sister. She wandered around, taking care of Cheshire, helping Chao with the shop; she kept herself busy enough that the fact that, slowly, she was shifting from Shadowwalking to normal walking all the time, didn't bother her as much as it should have.
She asked Kibeth, once, what was happening, but the Other woman was unable to offer any answers. Nothing in her memories, the ones Aido knew and the ones that were still hidden, could offer a similar situation or a solution.
Accompanying the than the tiredness and the inability to Shadowwalk (she couldn't now, accidently walking into what proved to be a very solid wall cemented that fact) she couldn't help but feel that something bigger was... wrong. Something she couldn't place, something she didn't understand.
But, otherwise, things mostly stayed that same and she couldn't see any reason to alert her family to the changes going on with her. There was no proof of any greater wrongness, nor were her problems a threat to her family.
After all, Aido didn't want to be a burden....
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:45 am
[[May 28th, 2006]]
X-posted in Reid's journal >3
{You blame me but some of this is still your fault.}
Roundabout ::
"Reid?" Aido called into the apparently empty house. Fai had gone off to play with Cheshire and their mother was at the shop with their Uncle, leaving only herself and her smallest brother.
Yawning slightly the Tale climbed the stairs, quietly humming under her breath. The shadows clung to the soles of her feet, apparently wanting attention. Rolling her eyes she dragged her hands through the shadow cast by the railing. Not that giving them what they wanted was fair, after all, the shadows seemed to have collectively decided that she wasn't worth letting through or something, rendering her unable to shadow walk, yet still they wanted to be pet and played with....
She shook her head. She'd never quite understand the logic, if there was any, behind the Shadows.
"Reeeeiiiid~" she called again heading down the hallway. Had he locked himself in his room with his books again?
"Reid, c'mon Reid, it's lunch time. Rico left it for us," the last part was a hastily tacked on disclaimer, considering her cooking skills were... well, 'not quite up to the standard of the house' was a nice way of putting it.
The Tale knocked on her brother's door then gently slid it open, fully expecting him to be sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by books he'd taken out of the library and carefully making notes. But he wasn't. Instead the closet door was open and, apparently, currently leading to the portal which connected her brother's room and the Mishap HQ, if the black screen was any indication.
Carefully picking her way part the dragon plushes and alchemy notes Aido made her way to the portal, pausing just before entering it. There was a noise coming out of it... a strange, almost melodious, jumble of sounds that she couldn't quite identify. Frowning at the strange occurrence she shook it off, after all, even if sound usually didn't manage to make it through the portal didn't mean that it couldn't. It was probably just Reid playing the piano. Smiling she stepped through.
Reid wasn't playing the piano, Reid wasn't even at the piano. Her brother was lying on the floor, staring blankly upwards at the ceiling. Everything except his eyes was contorted in pain.
Nima, in ermine form, was perched atop his chest. A long gash was ripped across her neck and it was dripping blood onto Reid's chest. Her beady eyes were larger than usual and as soon as she saw Aido she hissed, spraying spittle, and leapt at the Tale.
A shadow snapped to Aido's hand and she batted the crazed shapeshifter away.
Nima hit the wall back first and then lay in a boneless heap on the floor.
Pausing only to flick the same shadow at the shapeshifter (it quickly snaked it's way around the ermine's neck, stemming the blood flow, and snapped in two, its other half going to pin her down incase she awoke again) Aido rushed to her brother's side.
"Reid? Reid what's wrong?" she asked hurridly, dropping to her knees and wiping the blood (was it all Nima's? No itcouldn'tbe, ohgods) off her unresponsive brother. Her fingers brushed the stone protruding from his chest and a shock ripped through her.
Snatching her hand back Aido eyed the black stone, still dripping with Nima's blood. There was something- someone- in it. A shadow that was not her brother's which seemed to be.. what? She couldn't tell, the contact hadn't lasted long enough for that. But she understood that the intent, whatever it was, was a malicious.
Still, it didn't feel like much progress, if any, had been made.
Both eyes glowing gold, halo braced against her head Aido grabbed at her own shadow, pulling it over her right hand. Not pausing for breath she plunged it into the stone and pulled-
- -
The woman blinked and looked around, as if she'd heard something, before returning her attention to the boy in front of her. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"Elena. I said 'Elena', that's your name, isn't it?" Reid asked, eying the woman who'd been saying that she was responsible for helping him.
She smiled and Reid felt the sudden urge to run as fast as he could. He bit his lip and fidgeted a tiny bit. His room had faded so much in the past few minutes that he barely noticed the double vision at all now.
"Yes, that's right. What a good ear you have," Elena replied with a nod of amusement. "I suggest you remember that. Maybe it'll help you in the future? Make all this interesting and such. I do love a game that lasts more than a few minutes. Such a rarity, so invigorating..."
Reid eyed the woman with increasing worry. "You... you said you were my 'benefactor'. What did you mean?"
Her smile widened. "I meant that I'm helping you, little, well, maybe that will be solved- but yes, I'm helping you firefly. And, game or not, I suggest that you remember the fact that I'm helping you."
"Helping me... with what?" he frowned, "with... did you send the letter?"
"Mmm, so sharp too," she murmured. Reid couldn't tell whether she was being sarcastic or not.
"But... are you part of the Mishap's staff?"
"Well... I suppose one could say I'm a member of the extended staff," her eyes flickered to the side and she sighed, "it seems someone is meddling with us. Oh well, I said I wanted an interesting game, didn't I?" he nodded, because it seemed like she was expecting a response. "Well, perhaps we'll be able to talk somemore later. And even if we don't, remember, we're connected through a debt now," she winked at him and he swallowed hard.
--
A writhing mass of black came out of the stone and Aido quickly stood, putting more space between it and her brother.
Reid gasped, blinked, let out a hoarse, audible, cry and curled up into a tight ball.
"Reid?" Aido asked, darting a glance at her brother.
The tendrils of the writhing mass all snapped to attention and made as if they were going to try and get back to Reid. Aido made to bat them away but they avoided her hand and arched up and over her shadow glove, diving into her wrist.
Aido gasped and let out a silent cry, halo glowing with all its strength.
--
Aido, Kibeth and their Other regarded the woman standing in front of the throne.
Kibeth smiled darkly, "don't think you can get into our head, witch."
"Too many voices are in here already," their Other murmured blithly.
"I can see that," Elena replied with a blink at the strange collection of people, all holding weapons. She smiled, "fine, then kill me if you want."
"You're not really here, please just leave out while you still can," Aido grumbled at the woman, the mere piece of consciousness that was apparently the cause off all this.
"Nono, I think I'd rather feel the sting of a blade. After all, I haven't been killed in a very long time," she replied, waving a hand.
The trio looked at one another, shrugged, and relaxed. Elena arced an eyebrow at them. "What're you doing?"
"Even if we kill you you'll just come back, right?" Kibeth said with a sweat smile. "You'll feel the pain but it won't do anything else."
"Though I doubt this'll do much more," their Other sighed.
Aido shrugged, "it's better than nothing."
Elena blinked, froze and glowered. "Don't think you can do this and escape the consequences."
Their Other shrugged, "it's this or you'll destroy this body."
Elena blinked again and suddenly threw her head back and began to laugh, "oh~ what an interesting game indeed...."
--
Aido ripped the mass out of her wrist and tossed it to the side, "Rael!"
The Shadow leapt out from amongst his fellow and snapped up the wristing ball in midair. Landing he began to rip it apart, ivory teeth glinting in the dull light of the room. The other shadows in the room carefully swarmed towards the intruder, helping Rael to shred the mass to pieces and carry it off.
Aido panted, gripping her bleeding wrist with her free hand. Slowly she collapsed to her knees and leant against the piano bench.
"Reid?" she croaked, her eyes sliding to the curled up ball that was her brother. "Reid... can you hear me? Please... please answer...." She blinked blearily and a few tears absently dripped down her cheeks.
Reid's wings flapped once.
"Thank you..." Aido shut her eyes and collapsed.
--
"Don't worry~ be happy~" Chao sang, silently cursing the guy at the hardware store that had been singing the cursed song that she only knew one bloody line of. Said song was now stuck on repeat in her head.
"Be happy~ yeah...." she paused outside her room, pondering grabbing out her iPod and forcing some new, better song into her brain.
No, find children first, nag them about leaving a note, then find music. Priorities and all that.
She peered into the already open door of Reid's room, pursed her lips, meandered over to the portal and hopped through with a small flap of her wings. "Hey, Reid, Ai you guys... in...." she trailed off and bolted over to her children.
"Aido! Reid! C'mon guys, answer me!" she cried, promptly checking for Aido's pulse. Heartbeat-heartbeatwherewas-there it was! She slid over to Reid, glancing at the blood and her son's ripped shirt. Quickly she checked for his pulse (weren't her fingers usually bigger in comparison to his neck?) and found it in a few minutes.
Letting out a deep sigh of relief Chao jumped up and ran to the kitchenette in the room, grabbed out the bandages and the extremely well stocked first-aid kit.
She cleaned up both of them carefully. After cleaning out the small scratches (they looked like clawmarks) she eyed the small, obsidian stone that had been covered by Reid's fur collar. It seemed to be half submerged in her son's chest and, when she attempted to tug it out, it hadn't moved. But as it didn't seem to be the source of the blood she'd been forced to ignore it.
She was in the middle of wrapping up Aido's wrist when the Tale began to wake up.
"Aemu?" she muttered, sitting up and grimacing at the stinging disinfectant that was being dabbed at her still bleeding wrist.
"Aido... hey hun, are you... well, not okay. But... what happened?" Chao asked quietly.
"I... I don't really know," Aido muttered before taking a breath and beginning to explain what she'd seen.
Chao finished wrapping her daughter's wrist and gently moved Reid to his bed, surprised on how much room he took up in her arms, all the while listening.
She frowned as Aido finished, "I don't like that..." She looked to the time, then to her son. "We should take him to the infirmary."
Aido looked to her brother, "Mu... he doesn't feel," she groped for the word, "stable?" She met her mother's eyes, "he feels safe, Rael and I got rid of that... whatever it was. Just like something's changing and it's all very contained. That's what the shadows seem to be saying.... Maybe opening the door to the HQ hall isn't the smartest thing right now...?"
Chao regarded her son and plopped down in a chair, "yeah... alright... it's late anyway. We'll wait into morning. If it feels like something's going wrong tell me."
Aido nodded and sat down next to her mother, blinking when Chao pulled her into a hug.
The Tale smiled wearily, "Aemu, don't worry, its fine, everything's going to be fine."
Chao gave her daughter a solemn look and hugged her tighter.
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 8:32 am
[[May 28th, 2006]]
X-posted in Reid's journal >3
{If we can gain happiness, then our suffering doesn't really matter....}
Roundabout; Part II::
It was almost dawn by the time Aido woke up.
Muffling a yawn with her hand she looked around, quietly taking in her mother's sleeping form and the empty bed.
"Rael, is Reid nearby?" she murmured, standing up carefully and rubbing at her left wrist with her hand. The appendage ached dully in response.
Silently she padded over to where they'd left Nima the night before. Grabbing a discarded hoodie that must've belonged to her mother she pulled it over her head, fingers brushing against her halo.
A silent affirmative to her question suddenly drifted across the link and her shoulders slumped in relief.
Gently she picked up the unconscious ermine, biting her lip in worry when a patch of white fur was left behind on the counter, and depoisted Nima into the front pocket of her shirt.
Casting a last look at her mother she slipped out of the room and into the hall.
Reid and Ike had parted ways only a few minuted before and the firefly had been on his way back to his room when he ran into his sister.
Despite being significantly taller than before the look Aido pinned him with still managed to make him feel like an igsignificant bug. Aido's glares were few and far between, which only made them more potent when they came out.
Silently they walked back to the balcony and sat down, Aido gently removed Nima from her pocket and Reid started when he saw his companion.
"Nima... I-I forgot all about her..." he murmured in dismay, gently taking the ermine in his hands. Immediately Nima's breathing became easier and he placed her gently in her lap, stroking her carefully with two fingers. Reid looked back to his older sister but Aido's gaze was trained on the sky.
"Aiai?"
Aido sighed and rubbed at her wrist, "are you alright, Reid?"
"Yeah! Of course! I'm better than alright!" Reid grinned, glowing warmly as he pressed his toes against the ground. His earlier happiness at being taller returning.
Aido smiled slightly and lent back in her chair, "I'm glad... that was really scary."
Reid's smile faltered and he nodded, looking down at his lap, "yeah... it was, wasn't it? I've never felt like that before...." The firefly blinked, head snapping up, "is Aemu okay?!"
"She's fine, worried, asleep right now, but fine...."
"Shouldn't we head back now? Before she wakes up?"
"Just... I want to talk about what happened before we go back," Aido looked to her younger brother. "Did that woman get in your head too?"
Reid blinked. He'd almost convinced himself that that part had been a bizarre dream. "Elena?"
Aido nodded.
Reid grimaced and scratched at his cheek, "yeah... argh, I thought she was just a dream."
"Part of her was in that stone," Aido replied, as if it was the most normal occurance in the world, "or... part of her shadow, at the very least," she itched at her wrist, grimacing as she recalled what it'd felt like to have that woman inside her.
Reid's eyebrows knit together and he pressed a finger to the stone, "but why?"
Aido shut her eyes, shook her head and shrugged.
Reid bit his lip then shurgged as well, "but you got rid of her, didn't you, Aiai? You were the one she said was 'meddling' weren't you?"
"Meddling?" Aido chuckled, "yeah... I suppose I was meddling. I pulled her out, if that's what you mean. Rael tore that part of her apart...."
Reid grinned. His big sister took care of everything. "So everything's better now."
Aido blinked her eyes open and tilted her head, "you have a stone that had part of a woman's consciousness in it stuck to your chest, Nima's hurt, a woman managed to get into both of our heads..." the current conditions were listed without malice and he knew his sister wasn't trying to make him feel like a fool but Reid grimaced all the same.
"Yeah... you're right, things aren't okay, are they?"
"I don't know... but something happened. Something different and perhaps bad," that shadow hadn't felt good, that was for certain.
Reid sighed and the two siblings quietly watched as the sky got lighter, little by little.
"We should head back before Aemu wakes up," Aido stood, the reached out a hand.
After carefully cupping Nima to his chest Reid took her hand, allowing her to help him up. The two of them headed back towards his room.
Aido abruptly ruffled her brother's hair, "Reid?"
Reid, who'd taken the antennae abuse without complaint, looked up, "what is it, Aiai?"
"I'm really happy for you, even if things happened in a sort of weird way..." Aido said with a small smile as she took in her brother's form, walking straight backed next to her, displaying his new height. Nothing ever happened in a 'normal' way with their family anyway, maybe it was fitting that Reid had to get to a proper height via a witch and a stone....
Or maybe she was just rationalizing things.
"Though you do know that Aemu will be dragging you into helping her work on the shop now, don't you?"
Reid smiled and shrugged, "oh well, I don't mind... I'm just happy I can help more now." He bat his wings and raced the last few feet to open the door.
Aido laughed and followed him into the room.
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Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 7:46 pm
[[reserved for Aido/Linny/Arya RP ]]
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Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 7:48 pm
[[reserved for babysitter!Aido/Diae RP :3 ]]
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Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 10:42 pm
-This is where the status quo ends. :: Part I-
It looks like a pillow exploded in h e r e.
The first time one of them found a feather on the floor they all thought it was cool; the second time they just thought it was amusing. Rico, in the brief time that he was home, teased his sister mercilessly about this being her version of getting grey hairs.
Chao hadn't reacted to well to that and her twin had been forced to flee from flying cutlery.
Then Rico left and no new feathers were found in random places for quite some time.
And then parts of them, a tuft of fluff here, a broken shaft, started to appear everywhere in the house and suddenly the situation wasn't as funny.
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Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 11:37 pm
[[July 24th, 2006]]
-This is where the status quo ends. :: Part II-
If you're so strong you might as well just do it a l o n e.
Inside the Luaier household the atmosphere was tense with unspoken fears and cut off talks.
"What is it?!"
"'What is it?' What is what? There's nothing! What's it with you?!"
The shouts from earlier that day still echoed in many ears.
Aido sat on her bed, hugging a pillow and silently berating herself as she tangled her fingers into her scarf. She didn't even have Rael here to keep her company or bite it out of her own self pity; she couldn't support him any more. She couldn't do anything; couldn't shadow mance, and couldn't even do the simple task of keeping her own emotions in check around her family.
Chao sliced a carrot in the kitchen, staring at the countertop and feeling a dull pulse beat in her back.
She sighed and her hand twitched, longing to launch the knife it held into a wall. Gods, sometimes she wondered what sick, twisted god of fate had decided she was fit to have children. Let alone near teenagers when she was barely a teenager herself.
"I know something's going on! Just tell me what it is! I can help!"
"Help? You can't help! You can't even help yourself! You're falling apart, we can all see it! What've you been keeping from us?"
Aido sighed into the hot air of the summer and picked herself up, rubbing at her eyes, trying to get the frustration to go away and wondering what was the cause of all this. Her inability to Shadow Mance or something more? Something like what Linny had suggested when she'd seen him last?
It didn't matter, whatever the cause it was only a flimsy excuse. She shouldn't have lost control like that, shouldn't have dug at her mother. It wasn't acceptable and, at the very least, she needed to apologize and find a way to make it up to Aemu.
"I am not falling apart!"
"Yes you are! We've seen the feathers! What secret are you keeping from us this time?"
"What about you Aido? You're not sharing things with us either, you've been planning something for months now-"
"I-!"
"And you've been tense and snappish, you won't talk to me or anyone, you haven't been shadow walking- and don't give me that look, young lady, I'm not stupid. I can see that there's something happening!"
"It's got nothing to do with you!"
"You still haven't even taken off that bandage from your wrist! You keep changing it! What's happening?!"
"Shut up! It's none of your business! Why are you asking now anyway? You don't care!"
"Of course I care!"
Throwing on a fresh t-shirt Aido headed out of her room and into the hall, Fai, on his way back to his room from the bathroom gave her shoulder a passing squeeze and she tried to smile but it came out wrong and she let it drop as she headed down the stairs.
"Ae...mu?" she asked tentatively, peeking around the corner into the kitchen.
Oh dear, her mother had a knife in hand, maybe she should've waited (not that she thought Chao was going to attack her, no, she just feared for the tabletop).
Chao took a deep breath and looked over, "Aido."
Aido shuffled in, eyes darting between her bare toes and her mother, "I... I'm sorry. I had no right to say those things. Or yell. Or start a fight. I'm sorry."
Chao smiled slightly, shutting her eyes, "no... no you had every right to say them. Perhaps yelling at one another wasn't the best way to get them across, but they've been in the air for a while, haven't they?" another of her feathers was unhinged as she beat them restlessly. Aido's eyes followed its path to the floor and she nodded.
Chao sighed and put her knife down, looking seriously at her daughter. "I did mean what I said... about being worried at least. I've been worried about you, Aido."
The irrational anger at that concern rose up immediately but Aido made short work of squashing it.
"I'm sorry," it was all she could think to say.
Chao frowned, "Aido... don't be sorry. Just tell me what's going on."
"I... I can't," she fidgeted in place, staring at her feet again.
Chao sighed and lent back, she opened her mouth to say something and stopped.
Aido blinked after a few moments of silence and looked up tentatively. Immediately her fear of the conversation was replaced with a wave of concern for her mother, who was shaking gently and staring at nothing, struggling to breathe.
"Aemu...?"
Chao's eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she collapsed.
"Aemu!" Aido screamed and rushed forward, her yell loud enough to reach all the ears of the house and soon her siblings arrived.
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Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 6:50 pm
[[July 24th, 2006]]
-This is where the status quo ends. :: Part III-
Raise your chest and try your best; smile even during your most lonesome t i m e s
Fai leapt out of the room, veering sharply to avoid his gathering siblings, barely a second after he'd arrived. He's seen as much as he needed to and knew what he had to do.
Wrenching the phone off the hook he began to dial 9-1-1 when a groan stopped him mid-motion and he dropped the phone, darting back to look into the kitchen. "Mom?"
"Mu?"
"Mum?"
"Aemu are you alright?" Aido was the last to ask the question and the first to get a reassuring reply in the form of a pat to her cheek.
"I'm fine, I'm fine... just had a little dizzy spell," their mother soothed the four pairs of worried eyes, laughing slightly at herself and rubbing at her own temple.
Immediately Reid and Aido helped their mother to her feet. Reid dipped back down to pick up Cheshire and hold his baby brother, who latched onto him and clung fiercely.
"Mu oki?"
Chao smiled and ruffled her youngest's head, "I'm perfectly al-right," the teen gasped as pain spiked through her and doubled over, only the support from Aido keeping her upright at all.
"'Mu!" four voices chorused and the Luaier children moved closer.
"Sorry... sorry... m'fine," Chao was lying through her own gritted teeth, forcing a smile.
None of her children were fooled for a second and Fai, who'd completely abandoned the phone at this point, moved forward to take his mother's other arm and, with a nod to Aido, the two of them began to gently guide her towards the stairs.
Chao protested gently, looking back towards the unfinished meal. "Fai.. Ai... really..."
"Just... shut up for now, okay Mom?" Fai ground out, worry making him short.
Chao's gaze hardened and she seemed about to snap out a terse reply when Aido's gentle squeeze on her arm stole her attention back to her first child and she softened at the lost look Aido was giving her.
Sighing she allowed herself to be led up the stairs to her room, but that was where she refused any more help.
"I just some rest, don't worry so much you two," the Heanzian teen smiled and squeezed both their hands and shooed them out the door.
Fai looked at his sister, "what should we do?"
Aido pursed her lips, reaching for her scarf and tugging on it gently, "let's call Uncle Rico."
"You don't think we should call an ambulance?"
"I... well, maybe, but, Uncle Rico's Aemu's brother and they both come from the same world, and he's also in medicine. Perhaps he'd know something that doctors here wouldn't?" besides, the last time their mother had gone into a hospital she'd been there for weeks, many of which most of the Luaier family was convinced weren't necessary and their mother had hated the entire thing. Aido didn't want to subject her mother to that again if she could avoid it.
"Ahhhh, well, it sounds like as good an idea as any, let's go call," Fai replied with a tight smile. The siblings shared a look, bi-colored eyes filled to the brim with worry and fear. For a moment they gripped each other's hands and, chorusing a deep breath, slipped on their respective masks and went to go talk to their younger siblings.
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Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:10 pm
[[July 29th, 2006]]
-This is where the status quo ends. :: Part IV-
Tell me, what is the definition of s t r e n g t h ?
Aido sat in her room, watching the stars wink out from the twilit sky and hugging an old plush to her chest, a gift from her birthday. It was fraying around the edges a bit, having been the subject to much clinging attention, especially as of late.
Rico had arrived as soon as he'd gotten the message, sporting a two week fringe of hair on his face and more than a few cuts and bruises. Regardless of his frayed appearance he quickly set himself to taking charge of the household. Not that the place had exactly fallen into chaos.
Aido and Fai had taken the temporary rule as joint rulers of the household for three days, delegating chores and doing their best to make meals.
At first Chao had protested, but as things had gotten worse and whatever it was that was plaguing her seemed to truly set in she'd resigned herself to doing much less than she was used to as her family picked up the slack. In a way she was very proud of them; they were all so independent that she hadn't know what to expect of them. From the often muffled shouts she was certain it hadn't been smooth sailing either.
But Rico was considered an 'adult' so it was easier to not argue over who should do what and simply listen to him.
Not that herself, Fai and Rico didn't argue, as they did, usually over stupid things, stemming from a deep worry over their mother or sister, respectively. Reid and Cheshire were no less worried, but the two of them seemed to be better with their emotions and tended to let them stay as they were, rather than internally bludgeoning them into something different.
Steps drifted past Aido's door and she perked, dragging herself out of her vacant almost-thoughts as she recognized the heavy step of her Uncle.
Soundlessly the Tale slipped sock covered feet onto her floor and followed, falling into a comfortable crouch, cocking an ear towards her mother's doorway where Rico had entered and carelessly swung the door itself back, leaving a sliver of room between door and doorframe for sound to easily pass through.
"-do you think?"
A sigh, "well.... most of your symptoms are pointing to something like pneumonia, especially the fact that you've been losing weight fairly rapidly, along with the aches, fatigue and that fever of yours. Though you're not coughing up phlegm or blood, which I can't decide is a good thing or not... and it doesn't explain is why you're molting...."
Aido bit her lip and started silently as a hand settled on her shoulder. Head snapping up her gaze met Fai's, who pressed a finger against his lips. A motion for silence.
Nodding they both shuffled closer to the door.
"-me it doesn't involve going to the hospital."
"Well... I'd honestly like to get your chest scanned, but you wouldn't have to stay the night!" the tail end of the sentence was hastily tacked on and Aido and Fai shared a knowing look. Their mother could be scary when she wanted to be.
"The sooner we figure out exactly what this is, the better. If it is pneumonia then it'll probably be easy enough to deal with. I'm going to start you on some antibiotics all the same."
"I'll agree to that, but nothing-" the end of the beginning of what was sure to be a tirade was cut off in a chorus of wheezing coughs.
The bed squeaked as Rico moved and the two Luaier children quickly made a fleeing escape to Aido's room, sliding the door shut just as Rico poked his head out and went off in search of water and medicines for his sister.
In Aido's room Fai lounged on his sister's bed, "Pneumonia, huh? You think that's really what it is?"
"I don't know... but then again, I've no experience in medicine," Aido replied with a shrug from the foot of her bed where she was sitting with her legs crossed and her chin resting on the curve of her palm.
"I sortof hope that's what it is, and not something strange that no one here knows how to treat. Though... that'd be exactly Mom's brand of luck, wouldn't it?"
"Knock on wood or you'll end up tempting fate," Aido muttered half-heartedly, ending her comment with a sigh as Fai rapped his knuckles on the headboard. Why couldn't they just know everything rather than having to poke around with unknowns?
'Oh, you don't really want that. If you knew everything it'd be no fun at all,' Kibeth sing-songed with a stupid amount of cheer. 'Not to mention the fact that your brain would probably implode.'
Aido blinked her eyes back open as Fai ruffled her hair, "don't worry so much sis. I'm sure everything will work out."
Aido smiled, though it was forced and tight. Fai poked the side of her lips, "stop forcing yourself. God only knows we're all far too emotionally constipated for our own good. Want to get out tomorrow? You can head off and I'll hold down the fort, take care of the minions, ect."
Frowning Aido opened her mouth to protest and was treated to a mouth full of scarf for her efforts, "nope, you're not allowed to say no. You should head off early, wake up with the dawn! I'll set out food and, here, I'll even set your clock," and just like that he did and, without waiting for Aido to get the material out of her mouth, fled from the room.
With a sigh of defeat Aido sprawled herself across her bed and quietly hoped that nothing would happen while she was forced away from the house.
Burying her head in her pillow she yawned and tugged her socks off with her toes. Deeming her pajamas too far away she curled up and began to lightly doze, still trying to puzzle out what could be happening with her mother. As semi-conscious set in she found herself less inclined to steer clear from thoughts of 'what's happening to me', but no answers to either question presented themselves to her sleepy mind and she fell asleep just as the broken melody a distant wind chime broke through the other sounds of the night.
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:05 pm
-This is where the status quo ends. :: Part V-
How far will this dream g o ?
Aido sighed and placed her chin on the cusp of her laced fingers.
She was sitting in a forest, huge towering tree trunks stretching up and out of her line of sight with her blue eyed other sitting next to her. Neither of them had spoken since they'd arrrived there and the stretching silence wasn't comfortable, but breaking it wasn't something she could bring herself to do.
Suddenly her Other perked, standing quickly, her long dark hair brushing against Aido's bare shoulder and the edge of her scarf- a mirror image of which was laced around the Other's neck.
She sighed and stretched out her hand.
"Since I can't speak of the things worth talking about and any meaningful conversation will travel far in this place I say we end this and move on, hm?" there was no malice in her voice and Aido nodded, greatfully taking her hand-
She hit the sandy ground hard, cheek and shoulder first.
Suddenly awake she scrambled up and fled as the first shout hit the air.
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:59 pm
-This is where the status quo ends. :: Part VI-
So when you ask is something wrong, I think you're damn right there is but we can't talk about it n o w
Aido pressed herself further into the relative darkness beneath the overhanging stairs, eyes wide and panicked as she struggled to figure out exactly what was going on.
Her spontaneous landing in the middle of a semi-crowded street had surprised the locals even more than it had surprised her. There'd been shouts in a language her mind was still struggling to translate but, somewhere deep inside, nestled in that tiny layer of primal instinct, she'd known it'd equated to something like 'that girl just came out of the shadows! Ahhhh! Witch! Devil-spawn!' and etcetera. The first shout had spawned and caught the lips of many until she'd nearly had a mob on her heals.
Dear gods how she hated mobs.
It was sheer dumb luck that she'd missed being caught by them. After picking up speed she'd dove into one of the alleyways, praying for shelter or some way to slip away from her pursuers.
She'd tripped, scraping her bare toes and knees in the process and had ended up face to face with a small opening beneath a stairwell as a result. She'd crawled beneath, one hand covering her mouth to keep quiet her heavy breathing and had lain there ever since, waiting for the last of the mob to pass her.
And there she was still, franticly trying to get her mind around the situation at hand.
She wasn't in Gaia, that much was evident. This place didn't feel like Gaia, something she'd learned to pick up on during her time in Reit. And, quite honestly, she didn't think Gaia was ever as hot as she was beginning to realize this world was.
Worse still... "Rael?" she mewed quietly, feeling around desperately for her companion's familiar presence. They were rarely separated but she hadn't felt him him the entire time she'd been here, wherever 'here' was. "Rael?" she called again, one hand pawing at the shadows, testing to see if her Shadow Mancing had returned, but she found them just as blocked and unresponsive as they'd been at home.
Internally she desperately tried to feel around in the place in the back of her mind where Rael's voice usually echoed to her; where she could always feel her Companion, even when she couldn't support him on the physical plane.
Suddenly a shout rose up from outside and she froze, one had gripping the sand, fully expecting to see a face peer down into her hiding place and announce her existence. But it didn't happen, the shouts continued to get louder and abruptly her mind found the tendril that connected her to Rael and a wave of stark fearpain rippled over her.
"Rael!" the Tale cried, throwing caution to the wind as she furiously pushed herself out her hiding place and raced towards the shouting.
The crowd had found another anomaly to face its stones and rage. A shadow that moved with a life of its own, what seemed to them to be another devil creature come to ruin them and their home.
Aido skidded out into the open, sighting the mob circling her poor Companion as he bucked and snarled. He was deep into a fit of nearly rabid and starkly uncharacteristic hysteria, yet he was resisting the desire to rip his attackers apart as they stabbed at him with pitchforks and battered him with stones.
A tendril of the dream Aido had had a long time ago came back to her and her breath hitched. Fury laced through her and she grabbed at the first large, heavy, movable object she could find, which just so happened to be a shovel.
Several members of the mob turned around at the sound of various farming equipement shuddering and screaming with the grate of metal on metal as the shovel was pried loose and pile itself tumbled apart.
Eyes bright and halo braced against her head she charged. Several people let out a scream and scattered, not about to have their heads bashed in, others were less deterred and lashed back.
A minute later Aido and Rael had reached one another and they jumped up and over the mob's head, abandoning the shovel mid-jump to fall on some poor man's head, and raced out onto the sandy desert plain that stretched away from the village.
They were followed for a short distance but Rael continued to run long after the mob had turned back. The Tale had tried to get her Companion to cease running at that point, but it proved fruitless. The Shadow's mind was fogged with panic and something else that he couldn't pinpoint or fight and primal instinct had taken over.
When Aido tried to bodily force him to cease running his shadows chained her to his back, relentless in their grip even as she screamed and begged him to stop.
Eventually her cries fell away and the silence of the barren desert was interupted only by Rael's footfalls as the Shadow continued to run.
It was some indeterminable amount of time, when twilight had begun to set, that Rael's mind began to crawl out of its fog and the tendrils began to unconsciously loosened. Full consciousness had returned when Aido had fallen off his back, barely conscious and overheating from the sun and the realtively heavy clothing she'd been wearing.
It wasn't until the next morning that Aido had woken up, stripped to her essentials and nearly smothered in the cool darkness of Rael's shadows as her Companion slept on.
With a glance up and around at the blistering sun along with their barren surroundings Aido was forced to simply sigh and bury back down under Rael, unable to take the heat coupled with the building strain of maintaining Rael.
Hopefully they could just sleep until night fell and the world became cooler. When the climate was more tolerable they would deal with the questions of how and why they were there.
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 8:40 pm
-This is where the status quo ends. :: Part VII-
And we walked together until we lost our f e e t . . .
There didn't have until nightfall to rest.
It was perhaps one of the weirdest noises Aido had ever heard; something between a scuttle and the chorus of clacks which lasted merely a moment before it smoothed away, almost as if it'd never been.
Immediately she'd woken Rael and they'd watched as the sand moved, shifting as something slid beneath it. Something that was heading their way.
Aido felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise and slid onto Rael's back. Without a word between them they raced off beneath the burning sun, leaving whatever had been stalking them in the dust within moments.
The scout's serpentine head laced out of the sand and hissed a low toned call into the air, pursing out sounds in three separate pitches before ducking beneath the sediment and resuming the chase.
-They're following us.-
Aido panted as she tied her shirt over her head in a makeshift hood, creating as many shadows, meager as they were, as she could and looked at the bulges in the sand. They'd kept a steady pace since this had begun but, every once in a while, a new bump would emerge to join the others and by now a pattern was showing. "They're circling us..."
-Wonderful...- Rael snarled as a several of the creatures suddenly snapped up not ten feet away from them and leapt straight at them, achieving a surprising amount of leverage considering they were leaping out of sand.
Rael bucked and Aido nearly fell off, saved only by her own vice grip, as they snapped around and bolted in the opposite direction.
"They're herding us!" she had to shout over the chorus of high-pitched cries at their back. She threw her weight to the side, "tur-" the ground dropped out from under Rael's feet. Both Shadow and Tale threw themselves backwards, grabbing onto half formed walls which were either too smooth or too granular to truly grasp and neither of them could get anything but their nails into cracks and bits and scramble for purchase with their legs.
Aido cried out once, sharp and crisp, the sound was quickly snapped away as she was jerked down, jaw snapping together as her fingernails ripped and what little hold she'd had was lost as she disappeared into the deeper shadows of the pit.
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