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 Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:52 am
Halloween.
She never would have seen this coming a few months ago, but she does live in a world where being scary was everything... And she was pretty sure that whatever transformation was taking place in her was pretty scary in its own right. Perhaps school did help, despite the lack of hands on FEAR combat training... After all, mother had said that when these changes happened to her, she was much older.
Stopping outside Xiu's dorm room, Lizzy was starting to feel a little self-conscious about herself; she actually felt oddly... Naked without her usual horns.
... Then again, she did grow a new roll of... Tiny... Head spike things. Retractable, but too much focus needed - might as well leave them out!
She didn't know spiders were so spikey though.
"Xiu? It's Lizzy!" She smiled, knocking on the door, "Are you in right now?" She had rushed down as soon as possible, after reading that Groanspring message... Xiu seemed like she was really desperate for a listening ear or two!
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 1:14 am
Xiu sat on her bed, her knees pulled to her chest and her head tucked down within her arms. Now she was was left alone with her thoughts, whenever she closed her eyes, it seemed as if all she could see were her experiences in Christof's nightmare. It was kind of strange, really--while the dream had clearly bothered the patchwork boil, she felt as it had bothered her even more. The feelings of terror as desperation as she tried to struggle free from that chair--
"O-oh! Lizzy!" The knock had terrified the ghoul out of her wits, but this was immediately followed by a flood of relief when she heard her friend's familiar voice. Uncurling herself, the Baku jumped off the bed and head towards the door.
There was a mixture of emotions on Xiu's face as she opened it up and saw the pink-haired demoness on the other side. Her expression was mostly dominated by relief, but there was also some kind of desperation and gratefulness mixed in. Now that Lizzy was actually here, Xiu was glad that she had decided to confide in the other ghoul. It would probably be better than holding everything inside, at least.
Managing a smile, she was about to invite Lizzy in when she suddenly realized something. It was with some confusion and concern that the Baku noted the demoness' horns were gone, but...were those spikes lining her head? For a moment, all she could do was stare, but then she quickly shook herself out of her stupor and smiled.
"I-I, um...t-thank you for coming."
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 5:07 am
"... Xiu, you look... Terrible!" She was so used to seeing the Baku smiling and generally looking contented or happy that seeing her this way both worried and confused her; did something really bad happen? If so, Lizzy couldn't help but feel touched that the ghoul would confide in her, of all people... Even if she thought that 'no news is good news'.
She gathered Xiu into her arms for a hug, giving her a comforting squeeze as she closed her eyes; if Xiu was shorter and more Amrita-height, Lizzy might had lifted her up into her arms. However, seeing how Xiu was actually around her height if she hadn't decided to wear her heels, Lizzy had to settle for hugging and gently stroking her hair the same way her mother would, whenever she had a nightmare as a child.
... Which was ironically close to what Xiu had experienced, not that she knew yet.
"There's no need to be so formal with me," She looked hurt for a moment, but the grin and head pat that came after showed that she was just joking. She did notice Xiu staring at her head, which could only mean that she had noticed the change... But Lizzy wasn't sure if she should feel relieved that she chose not to mention it; after all, that could be a bad thing too, right?
"What happened?" She decided to cut straight to the chase as she took Xiu's hand, walking into her room and closing the door behind her, "You said you needed someone to talk to, yes?" There was no hiding the mild curiosity and worry in her voice.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:10 pm
Xiu laughed weakly, knowing that she probably didn't look much like herself right now. However, she accepted the hug gratefully, resting her head on her friend's shoulder. She was really lucky, wasn't she? She had all these great friends, and Lizzy was one of the best that she could ask for.
She smiled a little at the joking, but she shook her head. "No, really. I...I'm sorry if you were in the middle of doing something. If you were busy..." The Baku trailed off, her eyes filling with concern. At least they were in the same dorm. If Xiu made this quick--as quick as she could manage--then her friend could return to whatever she had been doing before.
"Y...yes, I needed to talk to someone, so..." She hesitated, her gaze flickering to Lizzy and then away. Without a word, Xiu led the demoness to the couch and sat down, patting the spot beside her to indicate that she should do the same. For a while, the Baku didn't say anything, and when she finally did speak, it was a question.
"You...you know how I can...um, look into dreams, right?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:46 pm
"Oh, don't worry! I really wasn't doing anything nearly as important," She nodded with a small smile, not wanting Xiu to think of herself as a bother; since the new semester, Lizzy hadn't had much to do, after all! No homework, no personal projects... It was rather dull actually.
Then again, no news is good news.
She followed behind Xiu, pausing briefly at the couch before sitting down when instructed to do so. She didn't mind the silence since it wasn't an awkward one; instead, she took it as a hint that the ghoul needed some time to think. However, with the increasing length of time spent in silence, she couldn't help but feel more and more worried about what Xiu needed to talk about.
"Ah... You did mention it, yes," She nodded; besides, Xiu had sort of told everyone over Groanspring, so it was no secret... She then turned her body to look at the Baku now that she seemed ready to talk.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:09 pm
Looking uneasy, the Baku wrung her hands together in her lap, her gaze falling to the floor. Where to start? "I...I wanted to take a walk to think over some things," She conveniently left out that these "things" were others dreams she had witnessed lately, as she wasn't sure if she should share those yet, "And...and I got lost. I ended up in a graveyard." How she had wandered there in the first place was beyond her, but she knew that she had kind of zoned out for a while. There had been a lot of information to process and mull over, and by the time she finally snapped out of it...well.
"I-I'll admit right now that I probably shouldn't have done what I did. It's mostly my fault." Xiu turned her gaze back to Lizzy, hoping that her friend wouldn't judge her too much on her bad choice, "But...but when I realized I was lost, I tried to get out my phone. I ended up dropping it into a grave where a boil was sleeping."
"He looked tired so I didn't want to wake up, but...but I thought maybe I could enter his dreams and find a way to make him shift. Just so that I could grab my phone without waking him up. But in the end, his dream..." She trailed off, shuddering a little. There had never been an opportunity for her to ask. Everything had happened so fast that she didn't get the chance, and by the time certain events had happened, she had completely forgotten the initial reason she had entered in the first place.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:33 pm
"Ah... So you didn't ask for permission before you entered the dream..." She blinked; she didn't think Xiu was that kind of a person, but she did say that she didn't want to wake the boil up! That was a good enough reason for her, really... The intention was good, even if the way she went about doing it wasn't. At that, she reached out for Xiu's hand to hold it, patting the back of her hand.
The next part of the sentence intrigued her, as that seemed to be the source of Xiu's worries, judging from the way the ghoul was acting as she said that.
"His dream...?" She gently pushed, giving her hand a gentle squeeze, "What about his dream?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:51 pm
"It was...I-I guess it wasn't too bad at first. There were...surgical tools everywhere. Big surgical tools--kind of like a forest of them?" She gave Lizzy's hand a squeeze and shut her eyes, trying to remember what it was like, "A-and then...I saw the dreamer walking on the edge of a blade. He ended up falling and...and the blade he was standing on sliced--...a-anyways, I noticed these stairs so I followed them down."
While there had been many moments of horror, this particular part actually terrified Xiu the most. Maybe it was because, for once, she was actually a part of the scene instead of an observer. With the other dreams, the "bad guy" was just a character--a memory--in the dream, and therefore couldn't see or interact with her. This was the first time that the dreamer had done anything to her.
"He was...down there. The dreamer I mean. I...I tried to talk to him, but he had me sit down. I didn't think much of it at first, but...but then he started to strap down my wrists, and my legs, and I struggled and struggled but I couldn't get free, and...and then he brought out this saw and.." She was starting to sound she was panicking now, mentally reliving the scene as she recalled it. To some, perhaps it would seem as if she was overreacting, but Xiu had been genuinely terrified.
Opening her eyes again, she looked over to the demoness. "...L-lizzy, what do you know of this...Christof boil?" Lizzy had been here much longer than she had. Surely she had met the patchwork before and had an opinion of him, right?
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:43 am
She listened quietly as Xiu described the dream, deciding not to comment on anything until she was done with whatever she had to say... Even if it was really tempting to just jump in. She nodded occasionally to show that she was still listening, and when she felt the ghoul squeeze her hand, she frowned and returned the gesture; the way she was speaking, it sounded like one of her nightmares rather than someone else's dream.
"He... He what?" Her voice raised an octave higher as her frown deepened; no wonder she sounded in need of someone to talk to! Dream or not, the fact that someone would do something like that was... Just plain disturbing... Ugh, no better than those false reapers on that foggy island, with their talk of turning students into weapons to be used like tools. That was disturbing too, even if it was a different issue.
"Wait... Did you say Christof?" She actually sounded... Angry? It had been a while since she actually felt this angry over anything. Pulling Xiu into a hug, Lizzy gently pushed her head down to lie on her shoulder as she patted the ghoul on her head, "Stay away from him. If he looks you up or makes an attempt to contact you, say no and be firm about it. If he continues to pester you, inform me... I... I have no control over him, but I'm pretty sure that if this persists, we might have to talk to Riley."
From the festival, she was pretty sure those two have some sort of a leader-follower relationship... After all, Christof had practically abandoned his own booth to slave away at Riley's. If anyone could get through to him, it would be the mindflayer.
"This is no longer 'scary'," She huffed, holding Xiu closer, "What he did was just plain wrong, holding you captive without your permission. It doesn't matter if he was in a dream - from my own experiences, when you're dreaming, you don't actually know it anyway... If he dared to do such a thing to you, who's to say he won't try it on someone else?"
... Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no oh no.
Amrita. Her new body! That was part of Christof, Malodore and Riley's project, right? If Christof is helping to build the body... That means... He... He...
Lizzy was now frozen in place, a hand resting on Xiu's head and the other wrapped around her body.
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:16 am
Xiu was quick to return the hug, finding it comforting, but there was something in Lizzy's voice that confused her. Her reaction to Christof's name hadn't been anything like she imagined--the tone she used actually sounded upset. Angry, to be more specific. The demoness' warning for Xiu to stay away actually shook her up a fair bit. Was the undead boil really that dangerous? And she had actually been alone with him for a long time in that graveyard, and again when he showed her the work in progress of his motorcycle!
A rather violet shiver wracked her body as she considered her friend's words. Maybe it really would be best if she stayed away from him, but at the same time...the patchwork really confused her. Yes, that scene in the dream had frightened her, but the Christof she met in the waking world seemed to be completely different from that. At the very least, he was courteous and gentlemanly, and even seemed a little shy.
However, the pink-haired demoness was definitely someone who Xiu would put all of her trust into. Anyone could see that she was friendly, sociable, and kind at a glance, so what did it mean when Lizzy was so against someone like Christof?
But wait, she hadn't finished the whole story yet. Perhaps that would change something. "W-wait, but...h-he didn't actually get a chance to...to cut off my a-arms or my l-legs." Saying it aloud just emphasized how close it been to happening, even if it was simply in a dream. "I...I ended up being saved from Christof by...another Christof." Surely that meant something, right?
The Baku frowned when she thought she felt her friend stiffen. Pulling back, she eyed Lizzy with concern. "W-what's wrong? Lizzy?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:23 am
"A-ah... N-nothing..." It took a moment for her to realize that Xiu had pulled away, and was addressing her; she was deep in thought, not quite sure what to make of the whole Christof thing - he had attempted to do things no student should do to another student in the past, but he had also proven himself to be somewhat of a reliable person when he helped Amrita again and again... And Amrita seemed to think that the Patchwork was someone who could be trusted.
Perhaps she was just paranoid, but the thought of Christof doing something bad to a good friend like Xiu...?
"The fact that he tried is already unforgivable," She relaxed a little, although she still sounded a little off as she sighed, hesitating for a moment before cupping one of Xiu's hands in her own, "Christof... To be honest, I am war of him due to things he had done in the past, the worse of which was when he slapped Amrita." Sure, she had insulted his master, but... It was Amrita! He should know that she did it with the best of intentions - there was no need to resort to physical violence even if he was upset.
"He did... Make it up to her, but..." She sighed again, managing a small, sheepish smile, "I just don't want history to repeat itself. I don't want him to hurt you or anyone else, and I guess avoiding him might not be the best way to resolve this problem, but I can't really think of a better solution."
She paused, listening to the new piece of information with a raised eye brow, "Oh?" It was a prompt for Xiu to give her more details, since... That did not make any sense to her.
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:57 am
Her eyes widened at Lizzy's words. "He...he slapped Amrita?" The sweet undead ghoul? That Amrita? Her opinion of the hunchback just kept getting more and more muddled. Was he a good guy or a bad one? Then again, no one was completely black and white--maybe Christof was just...more of a shade of gray. Maybe he had his faults, but no one was perfect, right?
...Right?
Well, she supposed it was more of a matter of where he fell between dark gray and light gray. Smiling at Lizzy's words, she immediately reached out to hug her again. "I...I know you just want me to be careful." She murmured, "T-thank you for always looking out for me." It was a little embarrassing to express aloud, but the sentiment had always been there that she was forever grateful to Lizzy. She definitely wouldn't trade the spider demoness for anything else in the world.
She pulled back again, taking a deep breath so that she could finish the rest of the tale. "S-sometimes...sometimes the dreamer kind of...separates themselves into different characters in a dream. I-I guess that's what Christof did, because right when the first one came...came to me with the...um..." She made a vague gesture to fill in for the word "saw", "Another boil showed up on a motorcycle. He looked almost exactly the same but...more...mature, maybe?" It was hard to explain.
"The second Christof got me out of there, but...around the end of the dream, there was this giant...creature. I-I'm not sure how else to explain it, but my rescuer told me to run, and when I turned around, he was being pulled apart by--a-a-anyway." Xiu swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling dry, "I think...the scariest thing about that part was that the giant monster could see me." Since only the dreamers could ever sense her presence, then the Baku had come to the conclusion that all three of the characters she had met were all parts of Christof.
...Which was a scary thought. Two out of three had terrified her out of her wits.
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:16 am
"He did," She sighed softly; she was equally confused about Christof. The hug was gratefully returned and she smiled, her expression softening as she reached out to gently pat Xiu on her head, "Aw... You're welcome." Her cheeks turned a light shade of pink as she smiled, feeling touched but a little embarrassed.
As Xiu went on to finish her description of the dream, those mixed feelings of Christof came back, and she couldn't help frowning at certain parts of the story - mainly at the part where she was rescued, and then at the part about a monster attacking them. For the most part, she tried to remain neutral, not wishing to jump to conclusions... After all, she had done that before and it ended up being just one big misunderstanding.
"Why is the part about the giant monster being able to see you the scariest part?" She asked; after all, wasn't it normal for her to be seen anyway, since she was just there in plain view? A short pause followed as she chewed gently on her lower lip, "How about this... If Christof asks to meet up with you, make sure you do not go meet him alone? If... A more mature Christof saved you from a younger Christof, maybe... Maybe he's not that bad?"
She had to force herself to say that though. Her slowly raising opinion of the boil had just hit rock bottom. Again.
"Make sure you have someone there with you, just in case...?" She managed a small, sheepish smile before looking nervous, "I hope I'm not being too much of a nag, but... I'm just worried that he might try something similar to hurt you, and this time, it would not be in a dream."
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:58 am
The question made her hesitate. She hadn't done a proper explaining of how the dream diving worked, had she? "When I um...go into someone's dreams, I can only interact with the dreamer. So...if I were to go into your dreams, for example, only you could see, hear, and feel me. I would just go through any other characters and they wouldn't be able to acknowledge me. But..." But in this case, the monster had been able to see her too, which was extremely alarming. "T-that...that thing...might have been Christof too."
So basically, only 1/3 of the dream Christofs had left a good impression on her.
Lizzy's advice was a good one. Perhaps she could ask a friend to accompany her if the patchwork ever asked to meet? That way, at least she wasn't avoiding him completely, and there was someone with her if something did go...well, wrong somehow.
"You're not being a nag!" Xiu assured the demoness quickly, shaking her head, "I'd be really worried if anything like this happened to you!" Worried and furious, actually. Now that she thought about it this way--how she'd feel if this had happened to a friend of hers instead of herself--then she definitely saw where Lizzy was coming from.
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Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:06 am
"... Ah..." She frowned at the new piece of information; while that little fact shed some light on why Xiu was so frightened, the fact that Christof had such a... Monstrous (not in a good way) and violent side also disturbed her greatly. It was something she wished she could do something about, but she wasn't exactly on good enough terms with the boil to attempt talking to him about it.
"Aww," She smiled, rather relieved that Xiu didn't think that she was nagging at her. In fact, that called for another hug! Her smile widening, she then put her arms around the ghoul again, giving her a squeeze before letting go, "Do you need me to... Sleep over?" She wasn't sure how reassuring that would be, seeing how Xiu could probably control her own dreams or something, but whenever she was scared, having someone near helped!
... As a scareling.
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