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 Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:47 am
The quarantine had passed, Sammy found that more often then not she left her room at night. While others slept she wandered. the only company she held was the court of whispers in the back of her head and she knew well enough that such voices would do her no good alone in a room trying to find sleep that would never easily come. She reflected on the teaching of Meditation, though it only brought more pain to remember the faces of those who served the island of war.
Had it been a weapon? Or a defense? Did she accuse the horsemen of dark acts a mere week before they would all be destroyed?
She pressed the thought back, back as deep as she could trying to focus on the ground around her, watching as it flickered from green dim grass to muted twisted greys. It was both interesting and terrifying, seeing how the world could be tinted so strongly by the voices. Eventually she found a rock and simply sat staring at the dirt.
She remained like this for quiet a while till a small dog nudged at her boot. When she looked down her head cocked to the side. "Little Luce is on the loose." She mumbled reaching down to pick the cwn pup up and cuddle it in her lap. "You shouldn't be here. The doctor needs you more then I do." Slowly she stood up swaying side to side before turning to the undead dorms.
When she finally arrived she Luce refused to sit still, she was squirming in her arms yipping and whining far more then she had ever seen the small pup do. Eventually she relented placing the poor mini on the ground watching it scamper towards a cracked door on the first floor, it wasn't Mal's room though.
What she found inside was to say the least; disturbing. For the briefest moment the brilliant shades of red that usually draped over the doctors shoulder where replaced with greys and dust before the voices quickly receded to the back of her mind.
"Mal? Doc? What are you doing here? Luce is running lose and you... this isn't your room."
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:40 pm
Luce ran over to the plague doctor's still form, laying down next to it and making a soft whine in the back of her throat. Slowly, Malodore's eyes blinked open, though it's gaze was dull and unseeing. Then it sat up with a jerk, beak gaping for a moment before it brought both hands up to cover its face, a tremor running through its body. Sleeping was almost worse than staying awake. When it slept, it forgot - and when it woke, it remembered all over again. "S-Sammy," it said, finally, lowering its hands and looking up at the ghoul. "Mi dispiace, I... I could not, my room... I could not. Not alone." It sounded exhausted, and it had only just woken up.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:20 pm
The ghoul was crouched ever so slightly resting almost on her knees as she watched the doctor. "No, no, it's alright. I know." She offered a single hand towards the plauge doctor. "You sound terrible. You've been busy. Too busy."
She glanced at Luce, "You owe her a thank you, else no one might have found you."
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:04 am
"Busy?" Malodore said slowly, distantly. "No, no, not busy... not busy enough... I did not work hard enough. If I had, she would still be here. Too slow, too compliant, too silent... not busy enough..." Luce whined and put a paw on Malodore's leg before running over to sit on one of Sammy's booted feet.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:56 am
She watched the doctor, he moved like a broken puppet like all his strings had been cut and he had no reason to move any longer other then a faint memory of the life he used to be. It was painful.
Her hand remained extended as the doctor spoke, even when Luce moved to sit on her foot she didn't budge except to lean forward more and extend her hand. "I know Mal. I know you tried. I did my best when we found her, I didn't want it to end like Red, I tried to stop the others but..." She felt a twinge of guilt, for a moment it sounded like the voices where all chanting it was her fault, some shouted Red, but one in particular that felt closer then the others accused them all one last time before hushing and letting the swarm of locus like voices continue normally.
"C'mon we can go to my room, or yours. Anywhere but here, and somewhere we can feed Luce okay?" It was best not to touch the subject too much, not yet, not right now. At least not till she knew the Plauge Doctor would be somewhere safe rather then alone in a dusty room.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 3:29 pm
"No!!" Malodore said instantly, recoiling sharply; it stared at her for a moment, shaking, then slumped again. "No, no, not... not my room, it is a tomb of memories. Yours is in her - another... another tomb. Here is better. See, it has a coffin already." It gestured weakly at the sarcophagus, evidently trying to make a morbid joke and failing badly. "I will be..." It stopped then stared at Luce and seemed to crumple. "No more morning runs, she will miss the so much and I have no way to explain to her why, why, why, when I don't know why myself, why, WHY?!" Its voice rose unbidden into a wail.
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Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:45 pm
She didn't move to chase him at first, she could only watch as he curled away from her. "I know it's not... it's not a place you would want to be." She reached up to her neck gently lifting a chain that held two diplomacy tokens, it's own and Riley.
She watched as the poor doctor broke down even further and she moved, her arms wrapped around the dog and it's owner, her voice hissing softly to shush as she clinged to the doctor, "Because the world is cruel Mal, it's wrong sometimes." She reached to her neck lifting the chain again, "But you owe me a favor, and I want you to fight and even if she's not here you're making it up for her." She held the plauge doctor as he wailed squeezing the tokens in her right hand.
"You know she would want you to be strong, she valued strength, brilliance, do not let this break you Mal." Her eyes flickered, FEAR dancing wild as she held the doctor, in all her unlife she was almost sure she had never heard such a miserable cry.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:25 pm
Malodore stared at the tokens, focusing on them to the exclusion of all else. "I still..." it began, and then the plague doctor was rummaging through its sleeves, throwing things around as it sought one particular item. At last, it came up with a tiny bone dragon clutched between shaking fingers. ".... Technically, I already used this, but she never took it," it whispered. "I... I wonder what material this would have to be made of to bring her back to me? Silver? Gold? Something more priceless? Someone ask Conquest, hah, but they're all gone too, everything is gone, gone... gone..." It swayed for a moment, then looked up dully at Sammy. "I don't... I don't know what to say, what to do, so the most ridiculous things spill forth from my beak, I... I know I must continue on, but the path is... I am already broken, Sammy. I broke when her mind touched mine for the last time... last time, oh merde why was there a last time?!" Was it still crying? Had it ever stopped? Would it ever? It had no idea. The future, once so clear and shining, was as featureless and empty as a void.
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Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:39 pm
The tokens would fall, but her hand moved to rest on it's shoulders keeping it in place as it rummaged it's pockets. She tilted her head looking down at the small piece, she wasn't sure what it was, what it meant, what the plague doctor was even talking about.
"We'll....we'll find a way.... there might be a solution..." A single hand reached up to cup it's cheak as it looked up at her, it did look broken, something in those lenses was off, she couldn't quiet see through but she could feel something was staring out miserably behind them, almost as sadly as the hollowed holes filled with FEAR looked back.
"Go to the others... help them. Make sure it doesn't get worse." She leaned in speaking quietly, "She touched you because she loved you, she would want to say good bye to you. It hurts, it's going to hurt but you can't just stay in this room not moving on... we have to fight. We have to push forward Mal."
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Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:54 am
"I know," it grated, "I know, what you say is true, but you do not feel - you were not to her as I was. No one was. I cannot... I cannot simply... simply cease to feel, to... damn!" It lashed out, smacking one hoof into a wall and prompting more dust to fall from the ceiling. "... I will... I will help them. I will not let anyone else... go... as she..." It shook its head sharply. "I want her back, Sammy. I want her back, they cannot keep her. Please... please, help me..."
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:05 pm
The hoof did not stop her from holding the plague doctor not a shout, not a cry, not a single thing caused her to pull away, she was simply there as a presence near it to keep it as calm as she could while it suffered. "I know, I can't understand, I would be the same if Siddie or Shehk ever had this happen..." A single hand moved to pat it's head gently from behind.
Slowly her left hand would move to take the doctors, squeezing gently as a purple FEAR flared to life around it, something small and round was pressed between their hands as she leaned in close to speak quietly in a whisper. "Mal. I promise, I will do what ever it takes, I won't let them lie about Riley like they did Red, I won't let them lie about the hunters, Insanity, or the Four Clans."
Slowly she moved away letting the plague doctor have its space as she crouched near it, her pin tucked in his fingers.
"I'll bring Riley home."
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:26 am
Her hands were so unlike Riley's, one bone and one familiar, undead flesh - it helped that she was so different. It squeezed her hand back, shifting to lean wearily against her. "Grazie," it sighed, exhausted, "grazie mille, my friend, I... I will depend on you..." Its free hand tightened around the emblem it had given her. "I will return the gesture when I am not so tired. I promise... Tell the others the truth. I will tell them too, when I can. I will tear out their tongues before I let lies be spread about her. Oh, my Riley..." It was crying again, but something in the tears was less desperately broken. A little bit less lost. "And... and you, my friend, how do you fare in these times..."
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:46 am
Mal's own touch was different as well, it wasn't the cool flesh that was Shehk, or the warm pulse that was Siddie, it had more in line with her left hand, all that matter though was it held on. That it take the pin, her promise, and her hope. Take all of it, and lean against it to support himself.
"When ever you want, I'll be here. You always know where to find me." Her left hand reached up, gently tilting his beak up so she could look at him more properly offering a nod, an agreement and a seal on her promise to be there before she let the doctor return to his tears.
"I'm....." She paused looking at her arm's, one hand absent minded reaching up to stroke the rim of her empty sockets feeling a slight chill from the FEAR lingering inside, how long ago had the world been bathed in gold when she had fought with Shehk in a storm of insanity?
"It touched us... the insanity... it's been hard. But. I'm okay, bitter, angry, but okay," she mumbled quietly. "Sometimes the world looks grey, confusing and twisted, but it's gone the next. Lingering effects I guess from the Pheonix..."
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Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:46 am
"Yes... yes, the effects," it said, brushing past it; it had more thinking to do on the Insanity apparition and what it had felt and not felt during that time, but it would deal with that later. "Take care of yourself, please - if your flesh begins to change... the one symptom I know of, conclusively, is a greying of the body. Watch yourself and those around you, and if you see the grey, tell me? You know I will not betray you to the bogeymen." A tension returned to it, and its fists tightened again. "One of them cut my head off to get me away from her. I will never forgive them for that. I must find out where they have taken her, and what they intend. Chance and the Hunters denied them Professor Red, but... she is my Riley, not a specimen!" Possibly the truest statement of love it had ever professed.
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Posted: Sat May 05, 2012 4:00 pm
For a moment Sammy seemed to stare at her left arm, the black bone curiously. "The closest I've come to that, is this arm." She rolled her arm admiring every edge of the flecked and burned bone before lowering it, "You would be the first to know." She closed her eyes leaning back resting on her hands nodding as the doctor spoke. "No, I would, we need to know who's at risk, who we can still save..."
Her eyes opened again, purple orbs of FEAR flickering sideways if it made any sense. The plague doctor could tell she was staring right at him. "They did a lot of terrible things. We will pay them in kind for it Mal, I promise."
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