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 Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 3:47 pm
As soon as Lady Persephone had given her leave, Echo was on the streets, sprinting down the cobbles of the store but having reached the roads becoming more hesitant. Monsters and ghosts had roamed the city and it looked less like the Underworld than it did now, and the utter solidity of the darkness felt thick and tepid on her cool skin. She couldn't tell if it was this sense of deja vu or her hopes of seeing Ciro that gave her stomach butterflies and made her fingers shake, but either way, she had to steel herself in the face of what was to come.
Doing her best to have a determined look to her, she pressed her fingers onto the metal bangle at her wrist for strength and took a cautious step onto the pavement, followed by another. She slowly picked up speed until her legs were racing nearly as fast as her heart was, and once she realized how quickly she was walking, she stopped and turned around. She could still see the dim glow from within Seasons. She hadn't gone very far at all.
Miming a shaken sigh, she pressed on again, looking out into the expanse of nothingness before her. She imagined if Ciro felt this way sometimes, if he had been this lost when he first awoke without his eyes. She'd been there to witness his revival, aided it herself, but she never really knew. Of course, she would have liked to known, but it wasn't as if she would have asked, and it wasn't as if it would have been her place to ask even if she could. Being mute had taught her to respect the privacy of others.
A thought struck the girl in her walk, and it was enough to make her falter once again, nearly turning around. How was she to find him in this emptiness? She couldn't call for him, nor could she see him. Then again, neither could he see her.
She supposed the best she could do was trudge on, and she did just that.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 3:57 pm
Ciro continued following in toe, hands in pockets as he listened and smoked. He made no act of protest towards going to Seasons, and simply continued on almost like a dog.
"I've been there. To the apartment. He took me there when I first joined the game. I thought he was going to rape me or something."
He grinned mischievously, thinking back to how innocent he was then, despite how bad he thought he was. Really, he had been nothing but a little brat before he really got to know his god.
--That didn't mean that he was grateful for Shamash, though. It just meant he acknowledged his own personal growth.
And at the thought of Shamash, Ciro grew slightly, but only slightly, concerned. Months had past since he god had last tried to goad him into fighting or taking action. It had been almost weeks since he had felt his god's presence at all. And even now, after he had used his powers and even walked around with other gods, Shamash felt no need to see what was going on? Ciro felt slightly insulted at this injustice.
Whatever, it was quiet. There was no need to try to get himself irritated.
"So... You think she'll actually help us? Isn't it all about fair trade with that woman?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:11 pm
"And we've got things to trade, haven't we?" asked Fish. "It's all about information. I've seen people around, and I'm sure she'll be glad to hear what I know, and you, well... You haven't seen people, per say, but you have to have come across something interesting the last few months."
The walk to middling was a long one when public transportation wasn't running. The whole city had shut down. People peered suspiciously at them through windows
"No one's going outside," he observed. "They're all too scared."
Is this what society has become? asked Poseidon, A world of cowards afraid to leave their own homes? Fish, you're better than that.
They were getting closer. At least, he thought they were.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:21 pm
When one sense is lost, the others compensate, and it was for that reason that Echo first heard the murmurs of conversation at a distance. Again, she stopped, afraid that she had walked into danger, but after a while, the voices seemed familiar. One she knew for sure, the scaled boy, and that meant that she was safe, if for no other reason than by association with Lady Persephone and the collective respect and fear for her.
"No one's outside?" She called out into the darkness, having very little to work with at such a distance. However, at least she could make herself known, so despite the frailty of her voice, she called out again. "One's outside."
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:35 pm
Ciro's ears perked up. A girl was out in this nonsense, despite having heard Fish's description of the city. He knew that voice... But pinpoint it, he could not.
Taking one cautious step in front of the other, he picked up speed and moved in front of Fish, moving through the familliar darkness. The smell was what was jogging his memory the most... Damp and cold, like the inside of a cave... He knew the smell, he found it comforting, yet it seemed like forever ago that it had washed over him.
".....Echo?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:40 pm
Fish's ears picked up, hearing an answer. A girl was outside?
Ciro clearly knew more about this than he did, because he pushed past him, moving with purpose. "Echo?" asked Fish, a questioning response to Ciro's question. The name sounded familiar, but he wasn't sure he'd ever met its owner, merely heard her referred to.
They were getting close to Seasons now, weren't they?
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:53 pm
Echo heard two distinct sets of feet, which put her on edge, as she had only recognized one of the voices. However, when she heard the voice of the other, she positively froze.
Ciro. It was really Ciro.
"Echo," she confirmed, willing her legs to work so she could step forward. It was so frustrating--she was so enamoured with the idea of seeing him again, she felt that if she didn't call out his name into the darkness that she would burst, that if she didn't call for him, he would disappear again. But soon, she saw dim figures ahead of her, one with a very distinct set of horns, and her pace turned to an all-out run.
When she reached him, Echo nearly collapsed into him, clutching her arms against his shoulders and pressing her cheek on the warmth of his chest. He smelt so much of alcohol and drugs that it was almost dizzying, but she didn't care after her long wait and extensive worries. Lifting her eyes to where his should have been, she placed a cool hand on his cheek and smiled, taking his hand with her other and placing it on her face as well, so he could feel her grin. For someone as cold as she, his heat was intoxicating, and after all these drifting months, she finally knew she was home.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:19 pm
His fingers felt the icy sensation of Echo's face, his own scruffy face receiving the same treatment. He remembered her clinging nature, and how much she had tried to stay with him despite how much he pushed her away. But it was Echo who held Shamash's trinket, so there was a bond there regardless of how Ciro acted towards the girl.
"Hey..."
Really, he was almost kind of embarassed by getting mauled by a girl in front of Fish, but there wasn't much of a choice. He was embarassed enough to make Echo let go of him. Pulling away slightly, he turned towards the sound of Fish's breathing, smirking slightly at having a noninsane woman around.
"Yea, she works at Seasons-- she's a good kid." His smile dropped somewhat as he thought about how to phrase his next comment. "She doesn't really talk right, so it complicates things. "
His attention drifted back to the girl latched onto him.
"We're almost there?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 6:27 pm
Fish blinked at the girl latched onto Ciro for a moment. Her name was Echo? Wasn't that the story with the girl and the cave and the flowers--
And the angry goddess, finished Poseidon. Yes, the same Echo.
This, Fish assured himself, made perfect sense. Which wasn't true but it made him feel better. Heterosexual love is weird, he thought. Poseidon laughed.
As they kept walking, a familiar ivy-covered storefront came into view. The windows were glowing - Persy had some kind of light inside. "We're almost there," he confirmed, feeling a bit like an echo himself.
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Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:43 pm
"Hey," Echo responded, her smile growing now that she could at least articulate some of her feelings. She let her arms retreat at Ciro's touch, only because she had learned patience while he was away, and she could afford to wait.
"We're almost...Seasons," she nodded, though she really had no intentions of heading back there any time soon, unless that's where Ciro was going. She'd rather stay with him and chat as best she could, given the circumstances. Granted, they could not chat, too, but based on the stiffness of his body Echo didn't think he wanted that sort of thing from her, not now. Regardless of how she tried, he wouldn't think of her like he had the hooved girl.
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:37 pm
Ciro took a small step back. He wasn’t exactly sure why this girl seemed so attached to him. He had never really done anything that impressive, let alone anything that kind to her. He felt as though he only really went to her when he needed something, just like right now.
It was convenient, but whatever conscious that Ciro had pinged at him that it was not the right thing to do.
Regardless, would pushing her away be any less cruel than leading her on? Was it even considered leading her on? She seemed like a good person… But that in itself made Ciro feel a bit guilty.
He was the epitome of a bad person.
“I guess we gotta go then…”
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Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:06 pm
"No..." Echo pleaded, her voice barely a whisper at using a word that had so long ago been spoken aloud. "...No...gotta go..." She reached her hands to touch him, but when she made contact, her fingers went right through, transparent as the air. She mouthed a gasp, then pulled away, realizing that it was probably for the better anyways. Ciro wasn't the type who liked to be touched.
"It...It complicates things," she explained, folding her hands together. If Persy saw her with him, then they couldn't be alone, because those two would probably argue, and that would indeed make things complicated for poor Echo. "...No...go."
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Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:35 am
Ciro hadn't even noticed the nymph's attempts to touch him. Without the ability to see her fading, as well as not being able to feel her slide through, he would be completely unaware.
And albeit confused, Ciro felt no immense pressure to enter the shop. Fish was entirely competent at dealing with that woman. Certainly more than Ciro was, at the least.
Ciro had long since decided that the ways of girls were far too complicated for him to ever understand. While Crow had been deranged and insane, a devil woman; Echo seems near the exact opposite. It was more than just a little refreshing. Even just her smell, that dark, earthy smell, seemed to contrast so well with his life up until now. It was almost as if she was untouchable to a dirty man such as himself.
"You wanna just hang out in the middle of the street? Or do you have something in mind?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:36 pm
Echo smiled, and she reached for his hand, lightly tugging him towards the harbor. "Something in mind," she murmured, hoping that he would enjoy the surprise she had come across in her weeks alone.
It was never far to the Harbor, and so Echo had spent some of her spare time there, listening to the sounds of the ocean, the remaining few sea-birds, and the creaking of ships as they rusted in the harbor itself. It was amidst all this noise that she hatched an idea, and as she led him along the smell of salt began to block out her own earthy scent, and she wrinkled her nose in distaste. If things worked out as planned, though, the tradeoff would be worth it. She could handle smelling strange for a few days.
The ocean soon came into view in the dim lighting of the sun that peaked through the upper levels of the city, and in the distance, the outer locks to the sea. It was here that Echo turned from the paved path, the ground beneath them becoming somewhat muddy and gritted with rocks and discarded seashells. Ever silent, she held his hand until the two of them came under one of the docks that jutted out into the water, standing in the sand just shy of the reaching grasp of the lazily-flowing waves. From inside this little alcove, the airs and waters murmured, laying down a soft undercurrent of constant echos around them.
Echo squeezed Ciro's hand, then gulped. She still had no way of knowing if this would even work. "...Ciro?" she murmured, her voice soft and airy, but her own, a word crafted without the aid of others. She seemed startled by the sound of her own voice, and put a hand to her throat, as if she somehow could have misheard. "Ciro? C-Can you hear me? Am I speaking?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:26 pm
After following in silence, Ciro continued. He knew that if he didn't start a conversation, nothing would happen, but he didn't know what to say. He followed the girl, trusting his instincts and her lead. The smell and crunch of the sand under his feet let him know that they were next to the sea; his boots sank into the sand with each step that he took.
It seemed like a weird place to go, what with how dangerous the seas were for people now adays, but Ciro wouldn't question her. It wasn't as if they were normal humans anyway. Whatever she was doing, she was doing it for a reason. To take him to the harbors, under the docks like this, she had to have some reason to go to such a remote place with no one around.
For a brief moment, Ciro thought he might be raped.
But then the girl's voice rang out-- had he said something? Why would he say something like that? it took a few moments of using his brain for Ciro to figure out what had happened. He didn't know why, but he did know that for whatever reason, Echo was talking of her own accord.
"Y-yea, I can hear you.... What.... What did you do? How are you talking?"
His own voice was low, as if he was falling into her pace. It almost felt like they were stealing away for a secet tryst.
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