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 Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 8:47 pm
She couldn't put it off any longer.
Word continued to spread through the school about who had been captured; the longer she put it of the more risk there was of Lucien finding out before she could be the one to tell him. She just couldn't let that happen; it had to be her. She had to tell him. Lucien was her friend, and Israfel had specifically requested his things to be given to her; there was no way out of this. She couldn't just let this one sweep under the rug.
That didn't mean she could do it alone. She already had the displeasure of telling one friend about the loss of a dear one, she couldn't do it again. Certainly not alone, either; Calder had been with her the first time, and she made a point of bringing him along again. Even if he didn't say anything; care for the caregiver and whatnot.
The coat that Israfel had given her never came with a specific instruction, but she had decided that it should go to Lucien too, along with the phone. She had opened it once and seen the new recording, but never listened to it; it wasn't for her. So the phone rested on the folded coat as though it were a pillow baring a crown; a sad one, but a crown.
With Calder in tow she headed to the ghost dorms, following her way down to the room she had been to a few times before in her first year. She gave one final look to the Kelpie, a pleading stare, and then turned to the door, dread filling the pit of her stomach. How would Lucien react? Sweet, dear, precious Lucien. Would that smile of his fade? Would he tear up the room like Christof had?
Only one way to find out.
"Lucien?" Amrita called, fighting to keep her voice even as she knocked on the door. "It's Amrita. Are you in? I...I need to talk to you."
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:15 pm
Lucien was waiting in his dorm room, waiting for a certain someone to drop by. He had been waiting for what was probably weeks but as an air spirit waiting came naturally to him. His first hint of excitement struck him when footsteps alerted him that someone that didn't live here had arrived. He knew this because he lived in the ghost dorms and ghost just didn't make much of a footstep. It wasn't much but it was enough to cause the boil to sit up and listen to the a strange, almost knocking sound that seemed to accompany it.
He waited to see if the footsteps would continue further into the dorms but they didn't. They stopped and following the silence came a familiar voice. It wasn't the voice that Lucien had been dreaming would call out to him but it was a voice that brought fond, rather pleasant feelings to the boil. He remembered Amrita from the days they were both not even a couple weeks fresh from orientation, just a couple year ones without a clue. He hadn't even met Israfel at that point but he hadn't been alone either.
He couldn't even imagine what had brought her here but neither had he last time. Perhaps she had another cloud pet for him? He'd really have to find a gift for her to tell her how much he appreciated her in return one of these days but today he had to answer the door! He barely needed to crawl out of bed, simply shifting his weight back so that his position was upright before he made his way over to the door. It opened much like a soft breeze, and waiting on the other side was Lucien with a goofy smile.
"Amrita!" He announced, looking at her growing face. She wasn't the little girl she used to be, but he could see recognize her!
"What brings you all the way over here?" He asked pleasantly, his eyes falling on Calder for a moment. He hadn't seen the pony in awhile but that made sense since the air spirit wasn't all that familiar with him. He knew him probably mostly thanks to Israfel, and had seen him around quite a bit but they weren't close.
"And Calder?" That was his name, right?
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:32 pm
Calder had only returned a day or two ago, and was in no condition to be doing anything crazy. However, this was only a short walk, and he had already promised to be here for her. Luckily he had rested beforehand, and wore pants and a sweater to cover his bandages. All that was left was a bruise on his neck and eye, but there was no way to get away with that.
When the boil opened the door and said his name, he nodded. "Yes. My name is Calder. Nice to met you." He didn't really know Lucian all that well. Only in passing. It was sad they had to talk now when he was helping Amrita deliver such a heavy message.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 9:53 pm
That goofy smile shot straight through her heart before sending a wave of guilt to crash against her in it's wake. That happy, goofy smile; the boil who had been the first to make her laugh. She couldn't do this, she couldn't - she didn't want to see that smile to break. They needed people like Lucien in their world, the happy kind that brought joy instead of suffering...
Amrita felt like a horrible person.
"I...um." She faltered, giving a weak smile back to Calder; sweet Calder, who hadn't quite healed yet but was backing her up. "I...I wish there was an easy way to say this, but..." The ghoul paused, a guilty and rather forced smile on her lips. It faded quickly, her thumbs brushing the fabric of Israfel's nicely folded coat before holding it out, trying to bring it - and the phone - to Lucien's attention.
"Isra asked me to give these to you..." She said, deciding that the best way to get this over with was to just...do it. Like a bandaid. "...B-before he died." Amrita tried to keep her voice even, tried to stop her hands from shaking and more importantly she tried to be strong. For him. Her friend. It was the same reason she lied to him, not wanting him to know that a Hunter had to pass along the instructions. In her mind, it was better that way. Besides, it wasn't entirely false; he had to have told Madison to give it to her after all.
"I'm so sorry, Lucien..."
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Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:02 am
Amrita's expression changed in front of Lucien to something he was unable to decipher. She looked so pained that automatically his hand raised up to pat her on the head, attempting to make a smile come back to her face. It had worked before, he had no doubts that it wouldn't work now. The smile that came on her face wasn't what he was hoping for it though and instead it was filled with guilt and looked so fake. It was a smile without any charm at all.
"What do you mean?" He questioned before she even had a chance to finish, his eyes drifting down to the objects in her hands that she was trying to make prominent. His eyes widened for a second before his fingers reached for the coat, brushing against the familiar fabric while a soft smile that lingered on his lips for a moment. He was certain that was Israfel's coat, and there was no mistaking that was Israfel's eyePhone. He didn't understand, why did Amrita have these things?
If this was a Band-Aid then it was a world recording setting Band-Aid. This was no small Band-Aid you ripped off to get it over with, this was removing a cast and walking before the broken leg had healed. Amrita had dropped the ball so suddenly that Lucien's feet hit the ground from the shock of what she said. It sunk into him like a storm's wind, surging through his body. His balance wobbled for a minute before he hovered just an inch above the floor. He had hope, it wasn't crushed entirely. It lingered just below his feet. Israfel couldn't die, he loved him! It was such an impossible notion for Lucien to comprehend that his expression remained closer to an expression of confusion than sorrow. However, deep in his eyes was an inextinguishable sorrow waiting to burst.
"I don't understand, he can't die!" His eyes were looking directly at Amrita now as realization crossed with fantasy. His blue eyes were big, pleading with her with almost a look of betrayal. It couldn't be true. She was just playing some joke on him! It was bad enough that the logic that sweet Amrita would never pull such a joke was gone. This was all some cruel prank and Israfel would come out smiling from around the corner, cooing and nuzzling him as he always did.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:51 am
The head pats didn't help; if anything they made her feel worse. He was trying so hard to cheer her up, and she could only reward him with world-shattering news. She was terrible. Terrible. She sucked in a breath at the way he hit the ground, about to drop everything - literally - to see if he was okay, but he seemed to right himself. Somewhat, at least. The denial didn't come as a surprise; the same thing happened with Christof of course, but now she was preparing herself for something else. Not only did she have to explain what happened to them, but now she was expecting it to come back to her; Christof had believed she was playing a cruel joke on him, lying to him, and he'd gotten mad at her.
It came as a surprise then, but this time she was prepared for it, and as the look of betrayal settled on Lucien's normally cheery features, Amrita took another approach to try and avoid it.
"I...I'm so sorry, but...it's true." She started hesitantly, worrying at her bottom lip for a moment before continuing. "I don't know if you heard but...recently a handful of students were...were..." The ghoul started to tremble, and had to pause for a moment to hug the coat and phone against herself. "c-captured...by Hunters." She fought back her own distress, trying to avoid being the one who needed the comfort. This was Lucien's time, she wasn't going to mess it up with her own problems. "Israfel and I were a couple of them. They...they kept us in a cell, they talked to us, and e-eventually...they asked us to join them." She could still see Cael's face on the screen, telling them they were all ignorant, sheltered and blind, but he'd give them a chance to see their inner workings, to be part of them... "I said no, but..." She looked down at the coat she was clinging to, her grip loosening somewhat. "He...he said yes. They...they took us to a special room, and t-then...then they..." The ghoul paused only long enough to swallow hard; she didn't need to, but the motion was almost comforting.
"They weaponized him." She remembered the screaming, the way his form was torn and stretched into something foreign, something cold... With a shudder Amrita extended her arms, once more offering the phone on it's pillow of folded coat to the boil. "I'm sorry, Lucien. I really tried to stop him, but I failed. I'm so sorry..."
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 11:51 am
Amrita may have been prepared for what was going to happen but nothing could have prepared Lucien for this. The more she told her story the less Lucien felt that Amrita was lying to him, simply playing a cruel joke on him. Lucien had lived a very sheltered life in the clouds and not even experiencing the horror of becoming a weapon during the Death Trials could have prepared him for the agony he felt when Amrita had said that Israfel had been stolen from him.
His eyes were locked on Israfel's jacket and phone, his thoughts lost on the words Amrita was saying and glued to the past. He was reliving the horror of the Death Trials over and over in his mind. He could remember just how it felt to be trapped in the glass dome, right down to the details of how he struggled to get out. He could remember how the walls of his cage burned when he tried to escape and how he could see Israfel's confused face on the other side. He could remember how glad he was that it was him inside the cage and not Israfel. He could recall the very second in the glass cage that he realized he loved Israfel.
Why did it have to be Israfel? He loved Israfel so much but he didn't even get a chance to tell him how he felt! At this moment he wasn't even glad that Amrita was safe and instead he wondered why it couldn't have been Amrita instead. Anyone else. His eyes looked at her for a moment, cold and betrayed, before a small warmth returned to them as he looked back at the jacket and phone. Israfel was gone and all that was left was the jacket and phone held out in front of it him by Amrita. His arm reached out slowly to accept the reality but instead of grabbing the jacket with the phone on top his hand fell through it all, his tangibility fluttering and unstable despite the skull pin holding him there.
His very world was breaking and he couldn't do anything. Words were impossible, his throat tight and his lips shut. Any acceptance to this world was being locked out by Lucien's unconscious, his very body betraying him or perhaps simply protecting him. He wanted to hold Israfel, but now the closest thing to that was out of reach. Only one part of him was free from reality's submission, the very windows to his soul. His eyes were filled with a sorrow that refused to submit, water swelling around the very rims. He was flooding inside and it wouldn't be long before the glass broke.
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Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:25 am
Amrita could do very little but watch as Lucien took and processed her news. The way he looked at her, the way his expressions contorted and twisted in an attempt at understanding...it hurt. All of it hurt. She couldn't imagine how he felt right now, if she felt this bad. Her brow creased sadly as he tried to take the items from her, but just ended up phasing through them; all this suffering, and he couldn't even hold them. Couldn't hug the last gifts he was given.
She wanted to hug him. She wanted to hug him so badly, but that meant putting down the items...and she didn't know how he'd react to that. She couldn't put them down on the ground, that was somehow disrespectful in her mind, but...she couldn't at least mime hugging him, either. Even if he was intangible, she could at least pretend...
"Lucien..." She said softly, her words failing her after that. All the comforts she wanted to give, all the words she wanted to express, they were all gone. Only the pain remained, and the knowledge that she was the one dealing it. Carefully she shifted the items, clutching them safely against her with one arm, the other extending to at least try to give him a hug. Any hug.Appeal I'm sorry for the wait oAo~ And for the small reply aaaaaaaa all my feels qq
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