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 Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:21 am
The day after the prom, Malodore moved itself back into its own room, leaving the small chamber with its sarcophagus. It didn't take all that long to move its things, since it hadn't brought much with it, but re-assembling its 'Insanity wall' in its old room kept it busy for a good two hours. Finally, though, it was done - and with that completion came a vague, gnawing feeling of boredom. It wasn't sure what to do, now, and it had come to hate that feeling. It left too much time for thinking, and when it had no concrete goal its thoughts lead down the same weary path... The plague doctor left the dorms, drifting towards the monster dormitories with a vague feeling of seeking out Jericho, but the closer it got the less it felt like visiting with the dragon again. Not that it didn't care for Jericho, far from it, but the grey marks on his flesh were a constant reminder. It was a challenge to think of anything but the Insanity affliction around him. No... but it remembered where someone else lived. A knock came on Calder's door a few moments later.
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:18 pm
Calder was preparing. His room was cleaned, the pets fed and given a reserve that would last him some time. The leeches were also taken care of and fed well, and given instructions not to leech too much off the other minipets. After that, he made a note set in his room that, in the event he didn't show up again, what to do with his belongings and pets, and information that he was not taken by Hunters. No. Murchadh was the only one that would force a kelpie to stay in his room or to assume he was somehow made to forget the proper ways. It was only a possibility, and one Calder had to account for. Other being trampled to death and being torn from limb to limb.
There was also a small box made of wood, with inside was wrapped a length of his kilt and the anklet that Murchadh used to propose his claim to him.
It sat upon a table nicely packed and watching him as he moved about.
It was then that there was a knock, and Calder looked up. Not to many people visited him, and he wondered who it was. "Coming!" He called before going to the door and opening. "Oh. Hi Malodore!" He wasn't exciting Mal. The undead had been dealing on his own, and the last time Calder saw him was to talk and offer him the option of seeing him when he felt the need.
"Is everything okay?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 3:22 pm
" Buon giorno," Malodore said, its beak creaking open in a weary but genuine smile. "I, ah... I am sorry to interrupt, I just... thought perhaps... you had said that I could come to you if I needed to talk, and I... find myself in need. Of talking." That was uncharacteristically nervous of the plague doctor, really. "... And I am well enough, I suppose," it added, belatedly realizing that it had been asked a question. "Yourself?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 3:58 pm
"Oh. Good. Good." He said, mind bouncing about as he looked about his room before back at the undead. "Just...making some preparations." Speaking of, he still had to go out and pick up a few things outside before he packed up and left.
"I wouldn't mind talking, but...well, I have to pick up a few things outside. Did you want to come with me? It will be out in the woods so it will be a walk. If not we can sit a while.." Though he did want to leave sometime that night seeing as the moon would be nice and full to light up the way.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 4:48 pm
"Of course... whatever would be easiest for you. I do not mind," Malodore assured him, still looking uneasy. "Did you attend Prom? Was it enjoyable for you?" It had no idea if the kelpie had spotted Riley or not. It had to admit it hadn't been really focusing on who else was in attendance.
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2012 5:16 pm
"Oh good. Just give me a moment." He gestured, turning about and moving about the room before he picked up a wicker basket, a sturdy cloth, a jar, and a pair of shears before heading back to the door and closing it shut.
"Prom was good. Barth and I danced outside since it was getting pretty crazy. It was nice and easy." They had one dance, after Calder....more or less proposed. Then they talked about more serious issues. "Barth says he wants me to be with him after graduation." He said with a smile that just couldn't be stopped, but was because Calder was aware of how selfish and possibly cruel he was being to the undead. "Oh...I'm sure he'd love to see you around too. I hope we can see each other after graduation." He did want to still be Mal's friend even if they weren't in school anymore.
Calder lead the way out of the clustered, crazy monster dorms and started to walk across the campus towards the nearby woods.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 9:56 pm
"Ah, I see," Malodore said - so, then, Calder had most likely not seen Riley. Would Christof had told the kelpie? He hadn't told Amrita, though, and...
... focus. Things. Important things. "I am glad for your happiness, my friend," it said, opening its beak in a small but genuine smile. "And naturally - I do not intend to let go of any of the relationships I have forged here." Graduation seemed so far away. So remote, like a dream.
It gladly followed the kelpie out, breathing in to taste the air as they got closer to the woods. It liked the natural world, having been denied it as a child - but it had to actually talk to Calder. It had to open up, and not put it off...
"Calder, I... ah..." it said, awkwardly, as they walked. "I... don't know if you..." This was difficult.
"... Riley is alive," it blurted out at last. "The Bogeyman who took her, they were able to revive her. She is alive, but her memory is gone... the Bogeymen are keeping her in their custody..."
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:03 pm
Calder liked being outside, but he doubted anything could put him at ease these days. He was restless more than anything, unsure, and nervous. He hadn't been able to eat much, let alone sleep. He made preparations instead. Plans. Checked lists for the sake of feeling prepared when he knew he wasn't. Soon he'd be out of things to prepare for and then he'd leave school - and he wasn't sure if it was for good. Should he tell Malodore about what was happening? After all that had happened, was it cruel to place an additional burden as this, or was it mean to not tell him.
He trusted Malodore.
Just as they neared the woods and passed the first few trees, Malodore blurted out something Calder never expected to hear. Ears up, the kelpie stopped and turned about, looking wide-eyed at the Plague Doctor. "She's what?"
"Whoa. Wait. Wait. Wait. How did they REVIVE her? She was....she was stone. Done. She had plants popping all over and turned gray and then stone." Of course Calder in no way knew that Riley had insanity beforehand. "And why would they have her in custody?!" WHAT THE HECK?!! Too much was being left out from such a sudden revelation, but if it was Malodore, Calder knew better than to ask if the undead was kidding. It wouldn't kid about this.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:43 pm
"I... I don't know, though I would like to. They have... very advanced laboratories there. I thought I knew a great deal about Insanity, but it is clear that their understanding goes far deeper than mine," and wasn't that difficult to say. Malodore didn't like admitting its inadequacy in this particular field of study. "She is kept there for her own safety. She is... fragile. Not yet herself. It is akin to being under medical care for some time, I would suppose..."
It heaved a sigh. "I am sorry, to startle you so. But I could use your advice, my friend, as well as your company..."
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:08 pm
Insanity? Yes. In the end, she had been turned into stone and was all gray, but it had been hard to really grasp when she had been gone in a blink of an eye back when the hunters attacked in the plant room. The next time he saw her, she was just a stone statue. He always expected it to be more - wild. Like the phoenix that had rose up and tried to destroy them, but thinking Riley doing that to her friends made him think that being a statue had been a better end.
But it hadn't been an end.
"No. No. I'm glad I know. It would have gotten around at some point." And Maladore was kind enough to break the news to him instead of having him hear from an unreliable source and then fighting to ask the undead if it was true and possibly hurting it. It seemed It also needed to tell him to sort his own head out, and Calder nodded.
"I'm always here for that. I just hope I can help. Let's....let walk. Moving always helps me think better." He felt he made progress if he went places physically.
Moving again, he touched his hair, tugging on a ear as he through about what was just told to him. Riley being alive. Riley being in the medical care of the Boogeymen. "So I guess the Boogeymen have the cure for Insanity? That's good at least." He wondered what else they knew how to cure.
He smiled to his friend. "You must be very relieved." Riley was back from the grave, and for someone who lost a loved one, that had to be like getting a second chance. He had to wonder how everyone else was handling the shock. Did everyone know already? Who had Mal told?
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:14 pm
"Of course," Malodore said, strangely relieved; a little bit of the tension bled out of it. It had been worried, as if somehow this reversal would invalidate past offers of assistance...
It walked along with Calder - the kelpie was right, physical movement did help, a bit. Grounding it into its body and anchoring it, as it were. "I suppose it is, si - and I am, in a sense, but... oh, Calder, she has lost her memory." It swallowed, hard; that part never got any easier to tell or to think about. "She is willing to learn, and I am willing to teach... but it is not the same as it was. When I am around her, it is easy. All I wish to do then is tend to her needs and take care of her. As if she were a patient..."
It shook its head, the words bitter in its beak. "And then when I must leave her, it all crashes down once more. I do not know how to... how to continue this. I do not want to lose her," it added, voice cracking a little bit.
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:30 pm
Calder's brow creased in concern, taking in even more about the current state of Riley, yet still digesting that there was a state of Riley that wasn't just 'not alive'. He didn't even know Riley as deeply as the others, but he had adjusted to the fact she wasn't coming back, and had been set on being there to help everyone accept this fact. Now he had to change gears and help with the transition back. He didn't know which one was harder.
"You've always liked to be useful, Malodore. You like making everyone your patient. I always see it as your way of showing that you care. That you're there for someone. Everyone likes being useful. Needed. Wanted." Him as much as anyone. "Riley's your someone special. I'm not a doctor, and if I knew Barth was fragile, I'd want to take care of him to and do whatever I could to make him feel better. To help the way I knew I could. For you, that's doing what you're good at. Just....don't treat her as just a patient. I guess it's hard now that she doesn't know about you and her as much as before." He removed his hand from tugging his ear to run a hand through his black hair, thinking hard. "That is weird." If he had to think of coming to Barth and the boil not knowing anything about him, he'd be crushed. It would feel as if he was the only one living a dream, and then he'd wonder if it was all real. He'd have all these feelings and would have to start from square one. Even if you got to the same point, would it ever be the same?
"But....but love works through. Even if it's weird. In the end, you'll get back to that place you two left off, and move together forward. There will be a point where that happened." He tried to inspire some hope in the undead, because it looked so very lost.
"You just...shouldn't take her recovery all on yourself. For her to be her old self, she has to also be with everyone else. Every person she met made her who she was, and well.." He gave a smile. "...Riley was very social." Is very social, right? He couldn't even remember the Riley he first met. It was hard to recall.
"Maybe making new memories will be just as fresh and exciting as before? " But he had to be realistic with this too. "Though I guess it would be hard not to try and force the process. Frustrating even." If he had been making out with Barth on his couch one day, and then the next day finding out Barth didn't even like-like him, he would be crushed, if not planning cold showers for a month.
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:56 am
Malodore couldn't help but chuckle at Calder's this is weird. "Si, si, you speak truly... even though I know, in my mind, that such things can happen for made-undead and made-ghosts, it is strange indeed. It is... somewhat easier, in that her nature allows me and others to show her our memories of how she was."
It shook its head. The kelpie's words were deeply resonant, as it had hoped they would be. Calder understood, somehow. "It is very... very hard to show her a memory, and then to look up and not see awareness flooding back into her mind. The temptation is very strong to force, yes, exactly as you have said. As if I could fill her with my memories and have her be as she was again, like forcing medicine down a a patient's throat to cure them," it said, slowly. "She is still herself - or, rather, she is as she was when I met her. She is... willing to be open to me. But I am not sure if it is because she feels she should, because of how I act and the memories I hold, or because she truly wishes to.... or because she is experimenting."
That word, too, was bitter. It was well aware of Riley's curious and manipulative nature, something she had never brought to bear on it in force before her death. "All my instincts shout for a familiarity that I have not earned. Not with her, as she is now. It is hard to remember..." The plague doctor heaved a sigh. "And I, too, am not the person I was only months ago... ah, Calder, perhaps I should forget as well. I feel like my mind is all edges, ready to cut me when I least expect it. And yet I still love her... or I did."
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:35 pm
And that was when Calder hit Malodore over it's head. It was a move his mother did when he was acting stupid, as she tended to believe a physical slap was better than a vocal one.
"You do NOT forget your memories, Malodore!" Calder snapped. "You created those with Riley. They are PRECIOUS. Even if she can't remember,those memories make up who YOU are too, and even if she can't remember, that does not mean you should forget. They were still memories and feelings you had for Riley in the past, and you should not forget your past. There was love and passion there. I saw your date. You worked hard for that. Just dismissing it - it's, it's STUPID!" He huffed, not caring if the undead was confused.
"I would never forget the memories of this place, no matter what happens in the future." He grumbled, looking away. "Even if everyone forgets about me, I won't forget them." He felt his insides twist. If Murchadh decided to force the herd to keep him on their territory against his will, he wondered if everyone would come to forget him.
"It might be easier to forget, but it's also mean."
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:37 pm
Malodore had not been expecting that; it flinched back, vaguely stunned, and its hat tilted and actually fell off. It just stared at the kelpie as he spoke, and even after Calder was done it still kept staring for a few more seconds.
"I... it would be easier," it admitted, voice low. "It feels as though all those memories are made... almost as if they are invalid, because of what has happened. That the instincts and experience I gained from them - because she can no longer respond to those as she once did, they are no longer of value. This is... not so?" It did genuinely sound confused, and it made no move to retaliate or even to retrieve its hat. Instead, one hand came up to rub at its now bare head.
"I try my best to be logical, yet I am discovering more and more that the heart - the metaphorical heart - defies logic in every way, when it has a mind to."
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