|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 7:50 pm
She had the perfect life – the only child of two working parents, she had everything a teenager could ever want or need. A laptop, several game consoles, the latest games, the latest music, a wardrobe filled to the brim with the latest trends, attending one of the best schools in the district... All her hardworking, middle-class parents ever asked for return was for her to study hard, to get into a good university and then get a decent job upon graduation… A reasonable request, for every parent wants their child to have a secure future.
Ariane Brown hated it all.
In her eyes, her parents led boring, mundane lives – they were nothing more than zombies, slaving away to earn money they don’t even have time to spend on themselves. She could feel it every time they talked to her about her future – the fact that her parents wanted her to grow up to be like them, to live a mundane life because it was a ‘steady’ one. Heck, even her last name was a boring, common one!
Maybe that’s why she often followed her two childhood friends - Dean and Jeremy - on adventures, to search for the things that go bump in the night… Or did she lead them? It was difficult to recall how this fascination started, but it never stopped; she went deeper and deeper into it, looking through the internet for famous haunted sites, visiting the local graveyard with nothing but a flashlight and her two friends by her side, one of them armed with a video camera. She felt truly alive then, like those days would go on forever… But good times never last.
When their parents died in an accident, her parents decided to move to a better district, and overnight, Ariane lost the only two things in her life that made sense to her; when her grades in her new school started to drop, her parents started to talk to her more often... She should study hard for the sake of her future. She should drop her little ‘ghost hunting’ hobby. She should start applying for university. She should be glad they moved her away from her loser friends as they were a bad influence.
That was, of course, the last straw.
Running away from home with nothing but the clothes she was wearing, Ariane moved in with the boys – she made them promise not to let her parents know, and whenever they came looking for her, she would always hide. Overtime, they stopped coming, and she settled back into the life she had always preferred... No, the only life she had always known.
Dean was special; always had been a big brother figure to her, but having the huge responsibility of looking after his younger brother took its toll. He became like her parents – he became the thing she ran away to avoid becoming. Jeremy was… She wasn’t sure at times, but she often dragged him along for adventures, one after the other, like the good old days. If she could find some sort of evidence of the existence of things in the darkness, maybe Dean would finally come back to them.
“You’re acting like an old man! Act your age!”
“Jeremy and I took on a part time job at 7-11, so don’t worry about expenses so much, Old Man!”
“Jeremy, meet me there on time with the video cam, okay? You shouldn’t make a girl wait!”
“… Why would I want to go to a strip club?”
“We’re the best threesome ever! What do you mean threesome sounds bad, Old Man? I’m sure Jeremy would agree that it’s a great name for our little trio!”
She would try to laugh and smile in their place – in his place. Which of them was it? Heh, it was hard to tell at times, even for her. They made her feel alive when she felt dead; she wanted to do the same for them… And when that stranger approached her after her shift at 7-11 that fateful night, she had listened with mixed feelings. At first, he sounded like a crazed man – and that was coming from her! However, day after day he would come, telling her more and more… Soon, all she looked forward to were his visits. She fell in love for perhaps the second time in her life – not with the man whose looks she had forgotten, but with the tales he fed her with…
Then came that day, that very last visit where he offered her a proposal… A proposal she was more than willing to say ‘I do’ to, even if it felt like she was signing her soul away. Of course, he didn't tell her the specifics, but she was excited - it was a chance to prove that she was right all along, that the things that go bump in the night do exist! Furthermore, she was going to be a hunter - whatever that was, it sounded like she was going to be a real life Ghost Buster and... Well, that was not going to be a boring, mundane life for sure.
When she realized that Jeremy had taken that same offer, and Dean was coming along because both of them were, it was more than enough... The ‘Threesome’ was back together, like the good old days, and once again, Ariane Brown felt truly alive… Except good times never last, and she died again, only to wake up, alone, as Beta Seven, known to the few comrades she had as 'Boss'.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 3:28 am
... Now that she actually remembers her past, Ariane realized that she had just spent most of her time in purgatory with the two people she loved the most - those voices, they way they spoke... It must be them! But it was too late to tell "Gamma Two" and "Gamma Seven" anything now... Too late.
Everyone's dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.
Beta Seven and Ariane; two different people sharing the same body. Relationships... Bonds... These invisible things that tie people together... They're formed by memories and shared experience - Ariane had her own set of memories and shared experiences, and Beta Seven had hers... Now that both sets were melding into one, she felt so lost - she was Ariane, but having gone through the few days on the island and in purgatory, she was Beta Seven - Boss - as well...
"Who am I?"
A question she would have easily answered if she was one or the other. Ariane just wanted to lead an exciting life chasing the shadows with her two best friends; no regrets. Beta Seven just wanted to survive the week, not afraid of getting her hands bloody and using her teammates as her meat shields if it came down to it; she also liked using the word 'balls'... No, Beta Seven had more humanity than that. Perhaps not at the beginning, but she had formed bonds... Relationships, just like Ariane had.
She would cry out in frustration if she had a body to yell with; Ariane was, in some ways, stronger than Beta Seven ever was. She was not afraid to cry, to show that she lacked balls at times, and to admit to growing fond of people - she had grown fond of Beta Four, Beta Six, Beta Three and even the psychotic Beta Ten/X... People who had chosen to walk with her, calling her 'Boss' even when she verbally abused them and told them not to grow close to her or each other. If only... She could go back and tell them all this... To tell all her precious friends and comrades this...
However, this was the end of the road for her... She had walked through the door knowing this - she had walked through that door laughing and seeking answers... Some of these answers weren't exactly politically correct though.
Heh, as Beta Seven would say, life is unfair.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:39 pm
At first nothing. Ariane was dead, after all.
And then the strangest phenomenon. The darkness, the nothingness whispered back to her. "Life is unfair," it hissed, voice low, soft, twisted. "Life is so unfair Ariane, how could it treat you this way. Yes, abandon it, abandon this silly last attempt at life, and simply sleep, give up. Death is much more fair, death never judges."
That's right, she could sleep forever. She would not have to worry about any thing, about her friends, about those answers she sought, go back and say her hellos and sorries, grasp her friends for the last time and...
"... Do I feel regret from you, Ariane Brown? Or could it be something else?" There was a change in the tone of voice. It seemed to pick up now, stronger, clearer. "Are you still searching for the answers that you promised yourself?" It grew louder, booming, commanding. "Do you still hear yourself - this is the sound of your soul shouting at you, your mind trying to comprehend something beyond your cage? It whispers to you, to free yourself, break out from your shell. To find your center, find your weapon, call to it, and use it to wake up."
Silence again, the last of the ringing commands reverberating against the nothingness as the voice suddenly sounded quiet again, mocking. "Or you can hide, be a coward, death never judges... but it never changes either."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:52 pm
"A coward?"
From her point of view, the voice said it like an insult. Was her own soul insulting her? The voice was right - she could sleep forever, just die and fade into nothing. To not feel anything... But it was not what she had signed up for. She signed up for more than just this... This nothingness. She wanted answers, and what Ariane Brown wants, Ariane Brown gets, even if it means fighting for it.
The voice mentioned a weapon - was it the dagger from before...? No, that's not it.
"YOU WANT A WEAPON? I HAVE BALLS. BALLS OF STEEL." She grabbed at the air in front of her with invisible hands; she couldn't see anything, but she could feel it; something hard and round that was difficult to grasp, but there was something attached to it that felt so right to hold... Smooth, connected links, like the bonds she had formed with others; too bad she didn't have time for such sentimental thoughts. Both invisible hands gripped the chain of her weapon and swung it forward, attacking the darkness that was almost suffocating her.
Ariane Brown was not a coward.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 12:43 pm
And that would be the last move that Ariane Brown, wielder of the steel balls, ever accomplished. This was the end of her chapter, the closing of the book, the final page of the chronicle.
And where Ariane Brown simple faded into lackluster nothingness, Ariane the Hunter began a legacy anew. ((OOC: Congrats on the successful awakening! Please post following the prompt on page 13 here to wrap things up ICly for your char!))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
