Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lucia glared at her guardian. She had called the lab and now she had to go see this Tsu guy who was probably a stuffed shirt. She didn’t need a doctor, she just didn’t want to talk to a moron. Her purple eyes slid the doctor’s door. The last time she had been in that room Kyou had tricked her. Really, now the lab and everyone associated with it couldn’t be trusted either.

She could just go to the spirit world. All she had to do was close her eyes and she’d be there if she wanted. But – she was still so drained from Marty.

Yuurei was wearing a tight black skirt suit so she could get to work (for once she had a meeting!) once this was done. Her blonde hair fell loosely on her shoulders as she tossed it to the side and her heels clicked on the floor as she once again followed Lucia towards the right office. It seemed that she had just followed this route so recently. But while that was for a cure for a virus, this was for an attitude adjustment.

She didn’t know why the Kitten couldn’t get along with her. She didn’t know why she wouldn’t explain what was going on with her. But hopefully the lab doctor would have an answer or explanation or at least some sort of clue as to what could be done to fix it.

Lucia reached the door first. May as well get this over with, she thought knocking gently on the door before opening up and looking inside. ”Hello?”

Yuurei scowled slightly at the rudeness of just opening the door, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

Lucia’s impression of how this visit would go changed completely when she saw Pasha’s friend from the beach party limbo. ”Zavier!” she said excitedly, rushing inside once he stopped cleaning and drawing the other raevan into a hug. The last she knew he had collapsed from the heat or something, so it was great to see that he was actually still alive.

Wow – the office looked very different when it wasn’t being used to put her in a coma, she realized after releasing the other frei and looking around as she floated towards the chairs. She still resented what Dr. Kyou did – but now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

Yuurei walked into the office with a wave of her fingers at the male raevan. Was he Dr. Tsu?, she wondered inspecting him. And where did Lucia know him from?! Her heels clicked as she walked to one of the seats indicated and sat down. She’d wait and see. She adjusted her black knee length pencil skirt and boots as she got settled in the seat, resting daintily on the edge of the chair.

”I’m good!” she said enthusiastically, not wanting to bring up any of the previous week. Just getting reacquainted with someone you don’t mention things like possessions where you sniffed dogs’ butts, rolled around in garbage, humped dogs, and chased cars. She didn’t know Zave much after all.

”I’ve been having fun mostly,” she said with a grin. ”How about you? What are you up to? How have you been? “ The Kitten giggled and teased, ”Enter any more limbo contests?”

Yuurei smiled at the airy frei. ”Yuurei!”, she said introducing herself warmly. ”Nice to meet you.” Her eyes flicked to her watch at the mention of time, but rationed that if she was late – well maybe a little late – it wouldn’t be too big of a deal. Though she had too much business sense to mention this to anyone – give an inch and they’ll take a mile.

The Kitten’s eyebrows raised sympathetically. ”Oh it wasn’t that bad! I think I was out before you!” Her eyes looked at Zave warmly; she had no problem approaching him at the beach party – if for not other reason that he was Melisande’s friend. That assurance didn’t wane even after all of the time since they had seen each other.

But Lucia’s attention was immediately drawn to Dr. Tsu when he abruptly reentered his office. She listened to what amounted to a lot of information. Her broken arm, from the infection. And psychological mapping? What the -- ? What had Yuurei told them? Her eyes flicked towards her guardian with visible annoyance.

There was nothing wrong with her mind – just with her guardian. But she’d jump through whatever hoops she needed to in order to get this over with. But for now she was silent on the matters.

Yuurei nodded at what Dr. Tsu said. Seemed fair, she thought. And if he wanted to hypnotize the frei, he would. ”I’m sure Lucia will be fine with anything that you think is necessary,” she said with a smile. The blonde woman reached down into the slim black briefcase she had brought in. Thumbing through the notes, business proposals, and stock information she finally found what she had been looking for.

Pulling the file of hospital x-rays out of her bag she handed them to the lab doctor. ”The hospital said this contained the images from the initial x-ray of the break and the final x-ray of the healed arm. Hopefully they put everything you need in there.” Sitting down again she closed the case again and her eyes flicked back up to Dr. Tsu.

Lucia watched silently as Tsu lit up the x-rays. She was internally satisfied, knowing that the doctors didn’t set anything – she did – right after she landed in the spirit world. But she wouldn’t tell them that. ”Nope, now that it’s healed it’s been fine.” As if to prove her point she twisted her hand right and left and then rolled her wrist in a circle. She hadn’t been able to do that when it was broken, but now it was fine.

As Zave floated closer, she floated a bit towards him too. It was really nice that he was being so comforting. So much had happened recently: the possession, Rivener’s crap, the virus, it was nice to have a friend. As Zave whispered, she felt his warm breath near her and a small smile played on her lips.

She nodded at Zave’s reassurance. If she was going to be hypnotized, she definitely would ask them to make Yuurei leave. Maybe before then. It really was none of the busty blonde’s business what happened to her last week. She whispered back, ”Thank you,” before he floated back a little. She wouldn’t mind talking to him about the possession. It seemed like he would care and because he kept using the “we” pronoun, it seemed like talking to him would be as good as talking to his guardian.

As he brought up the limbo again, Lucia smiled genuinely. ”We should play again sometime. I bet you can do better now. And I can show off for you, just how flexible I can be.” She grinned innocently, but was a bit annoyed when Tsu interrupted their conversation. From the frei’s perspective the conversation had been innocent. It took a dirty mind to interpret dirty things from a chat about limbo.

Instead, she floated next to Zave and slipped her hand in the crook of his elbow. She could deal with this bull if he would help her. ”That’s fine. I don’t know much about ink blots, but from what I’ve seen I really don’t get it. I’ll try I guess. And when we talk about my powers and stuff, can we have that patient confidentiality thing Zave mentioned?”

Yuurei hid the scowl that threatened to invade her facial expression. She could wait in the lobby, no problem. Actually it would let her take care of a few phone calls she could make before the meeting. But the blonde ran her fingers through her hair. This lack of trust was part of why Lucia needed this checkup. Hopefully that could be brushed on at least a little, she thought.

The blonde smiled slightly to Tsu and nodded briefly. "Thank you," she said as she gracefully stood up, grabbing her leather case with a manicured hand. She glanced at Lucia and wanted to smile, wanted to let her know if she'd be just in the next room if she needed her, but it wasn't the relationship they had. Yuu looked thoughtfully at the pair of raevans before following the doctor.

As she was directed to the room, Yuurei did smile at Tsu. "Thanks! Let me know if there's any problems." The woman settled on the couch and took out her laptop. It wasn't that she wasn't interested. She just didn't know how to handle Lucia's attitude.

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Lucia glanced at the cards as Zave grabbed them, but she didn't get a glance at what was on them until he was floating beside her again. They were just blobs of black on white cards. And that was supposed to say something about her? The kitten didn't get it. She was about to question him when Zave started talking.

She smiled slightly at the talk of her guardian. It was all fine to tell someone to discuss it with them, but it wasn't the same as having to tell your guardian everything. What even made it so that Yuu was her guardian? Why couldn't she have – well – the frei didn't know what would make a good guardian. Someone who listened better than Yuurei for sure.

"Powers?" she smiled, almost conspiratorially. "Well I can see and touch and talk to people and animals who have just died. Not ghosts really, but spirits who haven't gone to the spirit world yet. That's like the tamest power, but I can't not do it. " She gauged his reaction to that before continuing.

"I can also travel to the spirit world and interact with people and animals there! It's crazy – there's this whole other world that no one else can see or visit. But I have. I was there pretty recently be—because I was possessed. By a puppy spirit." She again paused, but rather than to judge the effect of her words, just to reflect on the previous week. It was weird, but, in retrospect, not completely—well yeah, maybe just awful.

"It was a weird week. I did all sorts of gross stuff, but I got him to leave. No matter what I did I couldn't control my body. I could hear his thoughts and he could hear mine." She was still really tired from the possession, but it was nice to tell someone about it.

Lucia's keen ears hadn't heard Tsu's approach or settling down as they normally would were she silent. The longish burst of information that flooded from her lips obscured any slight sound that might have given the doctor away. Had she known he was there, she might not have been so open.

As it was she was a little uneasy and let out a soft sigh as Zave seemed to ask a personal question between friends, and then got out paper to write down exactly what she related to him. Her conversation paused for moment when that happened.

Seriously? she thought. But Zave was her friend. He obviously knew this had to happen and if only he was listening, if his guardian and Dr. Kyou were only reading the pad of paper later, what the hell.

As she continued to talk she would feel a tinge of annoyance when he looked away from her to jot down a note. But when he asked about it he did seem really interested. Lucia even grinned slightly when he asked about talking to them and going to the other world. "It is a little hard. I have to go to cemeteries to eat most of the time – or it's the easiest place for me to eat for some reason – but in the spirit world there is no food for me. While everyone was infected and I was in that world, I almost died because I didn't have much energy." It was actually her almost death that made her want so strongly to be alive – the trick to getting back to this world.

"When I was there the first time I had a broken wrist and I hadn't eaten. But now I go when I've just eaten, so it's really just like visiting here or something – since there's no food here for me either. When I was possessed – well THAT took a bit out of me. I'm kind of scared to go back again. But I'm not going to go to the puppy world again. So I should be okay. And I can't go back now anyway. I'm too tired!" She grinned Tsu, hoping for a friendly reaction.

The frei stretched and mocked being tired before breaking into a few giggles.

His second series of questions surprised her a little. She had planned on asking him about his powers, since it was presented as a conversation at first. But instead she continued. "Yeah he did make me do weird things. Some were gross – like playing in a dumpster. A freakin' restaurant dumpster with food and everything – YUCK." She squirmed just remembering the taste and the vomit as he tried to eat but her stomachless body rejected it.

"He had me sniff dogs' butts. And hump this one little cute dog. And chase cars – I think he got frustrated that I wasn't as fast as him. That was one of the reasons he left me. And he didn't like it when he pulled my muscle and it hurt." The frei sighed – her arm had just started feeling better.

"But yeah, it was embarrassing and painful and annoying. I would tell him to just go, but he wouldn't. -- But no – my wrist broke on Halloween. I got in a fight with Prajna while infected in the middle of November, so I needed it in the splint for 4 weeks more. But my wrist was all better by Christmas. I was possessed"—Lucia paused to grin, like it was a secret. "This past week. He only left me four days ago."

Lucia was pretty good at telling stories it seemed. Though Zave was obviously supposed to take notes, she watched as he got more and more into her story, mostly forgetting about the stupid pad and pen. ”No Marty—that was the puppy’s name—he wouldn’t leave, no matter what I said. But I made a deal with him. He had a week. And I think it made him happy to have that time.” Lucia still didn’t like thinking about the things she had to do, but she was happy to be able to make Marty happy.

She had been surprised to get into the puppy world. And there was even a doorway within that world that she saw. Who knew how many worlds there were? ”I think it’ll just be something I’ll have to explore as I go. I can talk to this one girl I helped – Shanna, she’s there – and see what she can tell me about it. I think she would be a ghost right now if I hadn’t helped her. But I do want to explore more and see what the different areas are. If there’s a dog area, I can only imagine what else is there.”

She really was tired, she realized, leaning her side against the arm of the couch so that she could still face her friend.

The kitten nodded slowly as Zave was surprised at how recently she was possessed. She yawned slightly. ”It’s stupid though. She only noticed something wrong since I’ve been free of the dog. I think she liked it when Marty was controlling me. She makes me crazy.” The Kitten sighed, a little exasperated. Stupid.

After a long pause, Zave asked a question that didn’t seem to be necessary for the report. Lucia pursed her lips, thinking about it for a minute. It wasn’t that she didn’t immediately know the answer to the question, but she imagined what she’d be like. Even Shanna knew she wanted to meet this person. She had told her the last time she had visited before the possession.

”I’ve wanted to meet her for a while, ever since I found out I could go to the spirit world. I’ve visited her grave since Yuurei picked me up and named me after her. Her grandmother—Nana Lucia. That’s who I’d like to meet.” Lucia smiled slightly, the corners of her lips turning up just a little.

”Yuu named me after her because she said I reminded her of her grandmother. I don’t really know how, but I want to meet her and see.” She grinned at Zave. ”Who would you want to meet if you could?”