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 Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 3:13 am
x x x x x WHO: Alex, Doucette & Zul
x x x x x WHEN: Mid-afternoon
x x x x x WHERE: Lab 305
x x x x x WEATHER: Warm and clear!
"He shoots -- oh cripes Zul, you're a terrible aim!"
Alex leaned on the desk she shared with Zeke, laughing as the crumpled piece of paper bounced harmlessly off her desk and into her open palm. The Italian spun around in the chair, standing and tugging her jeans back on her hips, smoothing her tank top down with her free hand, tossing the trash into the air and catching it with the other. She pursed her lip out to blow her bangs from her eyes - the wild mane of black pulled in a simple ponytail today - and held up the wrinkled paper for the Frei to see. "Aim your hand at what you're trying to hit," she chided him, "and then let go. How can you be so precise with your power and not a ball of paper?"
The demon huffed, trying not to cross his arms and show that he was affronted. He'd been watching his woman write down notes while browsing something on her PC, occasionally grabbing the paper and reducing it to a small ball with a cacophony of sound, arching her wrist and tossing it into a trash basket without even looking. To say he was intrigued was an understatement, and what started as pure curiosity turned into a game of 'waste basketball,' or so she had dubbed it, teaching him how to aim since it appeared he was no good at it.
Zul pursed his lips, bone-framed wings rattling his dissent before settling against his tan back. "It's a part of me," he said matter-of-fact, managing to keep any defense out of his tone. "This is paper. It's not meant to be basketed!"
More laughter followed the Frei's made-up word, the woman's grin wide and irrepressible. "Then make it part of you. Be the paper ball!" she said in a faux-wise voice, lifting both hands so that the paper was scrunched between her palms, bowing in a mock-oriental style.
"You're insane," the demon informed his Guardian. "Now throw it back and let me try again!"
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Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 3:42 am
Doucette squinted from under the brim of her brown newsboy cap against the glare of sun glinting off the building before her. It didn't look like anywhere she should be ending up, and she couldn't help but wonder if this was one of those weird dreams you get after watching too many sci-fi movies. It might have been plausible...if Doe ever watched sci-fi movies. "Bugger," the Irish woman muttered before crumpling the address she'd scribbled back into the pocket of her shorts. The message had been clear enough to know she wasn't at the wrong address, and process of elimination was putting her directly on the path of going into the building. A nice deep breath was all that Doe needed to seal the deal, and she did so with her first step into the building.
As easy as it had been to find the building, it was equally easy to find the location of the office she'd been apparently assigned to. The woman would have lifted a freckled hand to knock at the door, but she'd noticed it was already partially propped and she could hear two people having a strange conversation about paper. No doubt a mid-day adventure from the land of work to the land of play. Some curls and one blue eye peeked around the edge of the door to spy on the dark haired woman and her bare chested companion.
"What the..." Doucette managed not to speak too loudly as she backed away from the door, not so much terrified of a floating man as shocked and a bit confused. In her haste to back up though, she managed to propel herself into the door on the other side of the hall. A door which had been left partially open as well. The poor Irish woman let out a yelp as she tumbled backwards into a (thankfully) empty office, or lab, or whatever strange area it was. People tumbling backwards rarely have time to assess their surroundings after all.
Knowing there wasn't a way the two people across the hall wouldn't notice, Doucette only managed to pull her cap over her unbecomingly red face and whimpered to herself. How. Embarrassing. She couldn't even comprehend getting up and running out of there in hopes of avoiding the whole situation. Her best hope was that the floor would indeed swallow her up, and she groaned when it proceeded to do little in that direction.
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Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 4:26 am
Alex was about to toss the paper to Zul when his head suddenly turned sharply; before she could ask what it was, there was a rather large crash in the hallway. She gave her charge a startled look, to which he simply said, "Someone's here," before she darted across the room and out of the door with all the agility of a doe. If someone was in the Lab, someone who wasn't welcome and was snooping around, she knew very well how to box--!
The door across the way was already open from the perpetrator's tumble, the light from the hallway pooling into the room to show a rather disheveled looking woman in a cap. "Ah..." As hopped up and ready to rumble as Alex had felt before, she found the rush of adrenaline dwindling, and in its place, a threat of laughter bubbling upwards. She repressed it as well as she could, clearing her throat and offering a hand to the unfortunate woman, wrestling her expression somewhere between a friendly smile, an inquisitive look and a disapproving scowl. "You all right there miss?" she asked politely, not too concerned - a storage room couldn't be all that dangerous, could it?
Zul floated after his woman, peering around her slightly bent-over form to see who had caused all the ruckus. The demon was surprised - though pleasantly or not, he couldn't yet determine - to see a woman, and one who looked mighty embarrassed for the discovery. Moving next to Alex, he gave her a confused glance and a shrug of his bare shoulders, extending his own glove-clad hand and offering a smile that was decidedly more friendly that his Guardian's.
"Wrong way," he quipped in a teasing tone, lips parting to display a white grin. "You could have waited at the desk for directions." Despite his words, there was nothing chiding or condescending about his tone, speaking as one might mention the milk in the fridge had gone sour.
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Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 4:43 am
With only the slightest shifting, Doe pulled her cap slowly from her face to reveal her too blue eyes, too pale skin and heavily freckled features. Her eyes either glinted with the shine of unshed tears, or they simply had that striking feature naturally. It was hard to tell in a situation where anyone could have easily found themselves sobbing in a corner. "Oh, uhm, I thought I was supposed to go there," Doucette said with an indistinct wave of her hand in the direction she'd intended to go. The fluttering hand found its way to Alex's offer instead of Zul's, partially out of the confusion she was still feeling and the mental rationalization that someone without legs couldn't possibly attempt hauling someone else off the floor.
"Oh, I hope I haven't broken anything!" she suddenly realized, twirling on the spot to survey around her and washing another humorous shade of red around the ears at the mortifying possibility she'd broken something she couldn't possibly pay for. "I'm really so sorry. I don't even know why I'm here. I don't even know what this place is." The Irish woman spoke in one of those breathy, hurried tones, as if there wasn't enough oxygen in the room to allow her to get her apologies past her lips fast enough.
Doucette put her hands on her cheeks, pouting slightly and looking around before turning back to the two people. The cap in her hands partially revealed the sheepish expression, but her smile filtered to her eyes easily while the blush slowly ebbed from her complexion. "Well, uhm, at the very least...my name is Doucette? Doucette Delacy? Can you point me in the direction of someone that can tell me why I'm here? I don't think I've broken anything, but if I have I'll pay for it." Slowly she thought with a mental gulp.
"You know...that's either a wicked Halloween costume or I really don't want to know the other option..." Doe said to Zul, finally looking over at him though the slight squinting around her eyes indicated her slight discomfort in his presence.
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Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 9:30 pm
Oh god. Alex had no idea what she was going to do if the woman started crying. The Italian could hardly handle her own stubborn tears when they shed, let alone know what to do for someone else under the same circumstance. Biting her lower lip, she took a step back and easily hefted the Irishwoman onto her feet, checking her back to make sure that if anything did break, that it wasn't making residence on her clothes.
Her eyes grew a tad bit large at the sudden, barely-there words, feeling something like laughter tickling her throat again even as she felt the overwhelming urge to comfort the stricken female. Alex held up her hands, hoping to calm the other, but the name offered made her brows furrow and her lips purse. Delacy, Delacy, she knew that name, didn't she--?
"That's right!" she suddenly exclaimed, a wide and affable grin tracing her mouth. "Doucette, you said? Beautiful name - I'm Alex, and this is Zul." Her hand extended to clasp the demon's shoulder, the Frei simply giving a nod as he watched the two. "He's...ah, if you don't know..." The Italian felt stumped. Another one who didn't know why they were here, or why they were chosen?
"At least we didn't have to find her," Zul commented with amusement, actually thinking the same thing his Guardian was. The woman whose name he couldn't begin to pronounce was much more agreeable than Milton by far. "No costume," he finally addressed the comment towards him, neither offended nor affronted by her seeming disquiet. "I am a Raevan. You've been chosen to take care of one of my kind."
To be frank, Alex was quite surprised by her charge's behavior; it was, perhaps, rather mature of him to greet her in such a fashion, by his standards. "That's right," she took his lead for once, giving him a silent smile that said she was proud of him. "This is Lab three-oh-five, founded by Doctor Kyou." The Italian slipped behind Doucette, closing the door to the store room - out of sight, out of mind! - and instead extending her hand towards the office across the way. "Long story short, Kyou creates these Raevans and gives them a place to live by screening potential Guardians either by application or credentials. The creation is delicate and a bit of magic and science. If you're willing to listen to anything else that comes out of my mouth, I promise that everything I've said so far isn't a lie or a farce, and we'd like you to join the ranks."
"Amazing she remembers to breathe, isn't it?" the Frei commented with a quirked grin, floating beyond the women and into the open office without a backwards glance, letting Doucette get a good, proper look. Zul was beyond desensitized at the topic of their creation, and besides that, it always seemed that the humans were more surprised and confused than a newborn Raevan. It never ceased to amuse him.
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Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 11:45 pm
Lucky for Alex, Doucette's eyes just always seemed to have that look about them and there were no womanly bawls or tears to make either of them uncomfortable. Not that Doucette wanted to make them feel uncomfortable...what if they decided to haul out some old piece of wreck that needed fixing with no funding and decided to blame it on her inability to stand on two feet? Especially when there was a guy here that clearly managed to stand on his own two feet without feet! Gratefully though the woman calling herself Alex shuffled her and mister-floats-a-lot out of the room, a hopeful indication that she wouldn't need to be writing them a check.
"I guess it's just wicked then," she started jovially before the grin upon her lips bowed into a confused 'o' shape matched with the rounding of those tear-stained blue eyes. "Take care of? Like a pet? You don't look like anything I ever saw in a pet store," Doucette finally managed, her ears reddening suddenly beneath her already flaming curls as she hoped he didn't assume her to be calling him a pet. If anything, he looked more than capable of taking care of himself!
Still trying to ponder over the entire situation, most of Alex's speech whistled by some space over her head, like a parakeet let loose in the aforementioned pet store. Application? I think I'd remember requesting half a body... The Irish woman bit her lip as a snort attempted to force its way from her at Zul's comment, but she quickly went back to a more neutral expression, pursing her lips in a way that caused her nose to wrinkle slightly. Credentials didn't make much sense to her either...who did she know that failed to mention they hung around with floating people? Maybe it was one of those spy-government-things that people were so worried about these days? But Doe hardly had anything to be spied on with, her cell phone was having a good day if it received a single text.
"Oh...er...I guess it would be good of me to listen at least," she said in her most committal tone and a short bob of her head. After all, she'd made it all the way out here, and apparently these people had been expecting her. Her mother would have been horrified if Doe had refused, had walked out, or done anything less than shuffling her butt right into that office behind Zul. Not that she wasn't a bit curious at this point; how often do people stumble upon something so...different?
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:40 am
"Ergh," Alex sounded intelligently, "you're not the first to be...well, come on in." The Italian re-entered her office, pausing to pick up the discarded paper and toss it into the trash bin. The room itself was rather neat and clean, the only type of clutter being on the desk as one would expect of a place that was actually used for work. There were nice pictures hanging up and a window view towards the whole of Gambino; two chairs and a love seat the color of beach sand were across from the desk, a dark wood end-table between the chairs. It was to the sitting furniture that she motioned, smiling in an apologetic manner.
"Now, where to start," she sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "This facility is run by Doctor Kyou, as I mentioned. He's...one of a kind." Alex chuckled softly under her breath, leaning against the desk and lowering her hand to instead cross her arms. "He's a knowledgeable man and I don't know his methods, but he hand-picks each Guardian for each Raevan. Most of the Guardians haven't met him, so ah...don't worry too much about it. One guy he chose because of their belief of science and magic being one in the same...another because her disposition is sweet." She paused, giving a friendly shrug. "He doesn't share his methods, but quite frankly, work ethic gets around. I imagine you're a savvy and honest lady, what with offering to pay for a few scuffed items and all." A grin accompanied her words, hoping to soften any injury that may have been incurred by their awkward meeting.
Nodding towards Zul - who floated complacently by the window, his eyes turned out over the cityscape - she continued. "You're right, they aren't pets, but they aren't like children either. Each one is different so I couldn't even hazard a guess what the next one would be like. They are compromised of two things." Alex pushed herself off the desk, rounding the side of it and bending over to reach beneath, producing a metal briefcase. She put it on the top of the furniture, flicking the clasps and opening it, fingers dipping into the padding and retrieving a bulbous bottle with a luminescent cloth on the side. She held it up by its glass bottom and contraption-fitted top.
"This is a soul bottle," she exclaimed in a quiet voice, still filled with awe of what she worked with to that very moment. "Putting this bottle against any living organism sans humanoids will take its soul. The soul must be relevant in color to the cloth here or it wont work." She put the bottle back into the briefcase, and with a small smile, withdrew a more slender vial; the liquid within had an odd movement to it, as though it was moving and the colored mercurial center would not mingle with the darker, inky surrounding. "This," she said with a bit of pride, "is a fel essence. The one chosen for you is a liquid aurora Borealis. If you don't believe me, come, hold it yourself. Take a look." Alex extended her hands, the vial snug against her palms, smiling all the while. This was the part that made or broke the deal, or so she'd learned in her limited experience; either Doucette would think them entirely mad or she'd realize the truth of what was being asked of her.
Or perhaps something entirely new. Alex never judged the Guardians of the new goods, and this was no exception.
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Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 4:21 am
Doucette gave the office a sweep of her gaze, though she didn't truly linger on anything. A home furnishing genius she was not, but the atmosphere was certainly enjoyable and her lips curled into a smile at the corners as she sunk into her seat when the other motioned at it. Several times her sights would slip over to Zul, lids narrowing only slightly as if to study him for the brief second until her attention was turned back to Alex, nodding along with the general assessment of her boss. Actually, it felt a little stalkerish for someone to be choosing her to guard a live being without ever having met her (to the best of her knowledge that is).
Brows wrinkled under her slightly matted bangs and that naturally pouty expression gained ever so slightly in degree until perplexed seemed to be just the right word for the situation. Confused wasn't really where she was at at the moment. The Irish woman understood everything the other woman was explaining to her. Dr. Kyou, check. Semi-stalkerish, check. Savvy and honest lady, check with a bit of blush on the cheeks and a sheepish grin followed by a short laugh at her comment. "Right, made a good neddy out of myself," Doucette said, letting out a breathy sigh which helped to ruffle her heavy-set bangs and get some of the hat-hair dent out of them.
The aforementioned hat sat in her lap, fingers picking at the brim and the hem or moving to the cuff of her gray and white pinstriped shorts. At least she'd dressed cute for the afternoon meeting, a combination of gray and brown with her bright hair. Maybe most people would have found it strange, but Doe would walk all over their opinion with her smart little brown boots...as long as it was in her own head. When Alex nodded over to Zul Doe gave a small start, thinking she'd been caught stealing glances at the magical creature. Dropping her hat in the moment, she quickly pushed it over next to her chair with her shoe as if she'd planned it all along.
The empty soul bottle didn't get much of a reaction from the woman, but the small vial with the liquid enchanted her in a defining way. Perhaps Doucette didn't really comprehend the process of the soul bottle (hell, she certainly didn't grasp the possibility that the bottle didn't copy souls into the bottle) but this liquid Aurora Borealis was magic in a bottle. It was allure in a word, and she slipped to the literal edge of her seat with a slow outward breath. Fingers closed around the vial as if the liquid inside were a small bomb, eyes widening so significantly that the swirling interior was reflected upon their glossy surface. Perhaps she didn't 'realize the truth' so to speak, for she certainly didn't fully appreciate the powers of the plain and empty brother, but at least she wasn't requesting for the paper of their admittance to the nut house.
"How do I feed it?" was her only question as she eyed the cork on the vial significantly. Poor dear thought this was the beginning of the 'taking care of' process.
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Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:21 am
Rich laughter returned the question, but it was far from condescending; it was safe to say Alex was wholly amused and, in her own way, officially taken with Doucette. "The essence doesn't need to eat," she grinned in a lop-sided manner, watching the way the woman handled the precious commodity with far more care than she had her own person and the storage closet across the hall. Alex could empathize with the woman in that respect, no matter how incorrect her thought process may have been.
"All you have to worry about is the soul bottle, really - we just give the essence as a means of reflection." The Italian withdrew her hands from the essence once she was certain Doucette had a hold on it, clasping them together in front of her stomach instead. "If you have any questions...concerns, feel free to ask! You can always call from home too if you think of something later." She paused, before offering a cheeky grin. "Assuming you are agreeing to take care of this, anyway."
Alex leaned down to open a drawer in the desk, fishing out a paper and seizing a clipboard from the side. A pen followed suit, and after scribbling on a post-it note to make sure it worked, she clipped the paper against the board, handing it and the pen over for Doucette to examine. "This is a contract saying you understand what you're undertaking and you agree to our terms - which, in so many words, basically says that you'll bring the goods back, in which case another contract will follow."
The Raevan had remained by the window, wordless and preening in the small bit of sun that filtered into the room, content to soak in the golden rays and attention he knew he was getting. However, as his woman procured the essence, he found himself floating towards the desk along with Doucette, blue eyes curiously settling upon the odd liquid. Zul gave the Irishwoman a brief glance of curious appraisal before looking back to the fel essence. "It suits you.." The demon gave his stamp of approval with a curt nod, crossing his arms over his half-formed chest and floating back a ways to give the potential owner all the space she needed, for now.
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Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 4:18 am
Thankfully, clumsy wasn't actually a word associated with the woman. Perhaps awkward or eccentric were better, but she honestly didn't find herself tumbling about like a failed gymnast every other day. Then again, it wasn't every day you saw part of a body floating above the ground. With any luck her little mishap could be looked over for a good caring of the vial and it's brother bottle. As Alex handed over the clipboard to sign, Doucette swapped the vial back into the Italian's hands to be boxed back up and taken home. There wasn't much reason not to accept the offer to take care of this new thing, to be part of something special.
Without reading much into the contract, for not only are they boring but all the legal language often went over her head, Doucette signed away her life to the tiny vial of magic and whatever was going to come of it. There were still question bubbling in her mind, rolling back and forth much the way the essence did in its own little home, but the woman didn't feel the need to make a fool out of herself any more today. Trial and error had worked for her before, no doubt it could work for her again. Besides, Alex said she could call any time. The red-head was likely to be taking up that opportunity.
Zul's comment startled Doucette slightly, as she'd almost forgotten he was in the room at all with his quietly enjoying the view from the Lab. Sheepishly she ducked her head and nodded, "I hope so...I hope I can suit it too." The woman took another moment to look between Alex and Zul, not really comprehending that a few months from now she'd be in the same sort of relationship but still being in awe all the same. Gathering the items she bid the both of them well and took her leave. There was a lot of mental chewing to be done, and home seemed like the best place in the world to do it.
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