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 Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:22 pm
The notice was short and simple, a short text stating that the mindflayer would be stopping by for a visit. Considering they lived in the same dorms it was strange the two hadn't crossed paths since her 'return' still it was just one of many things Sammy had to do on a long list of things. Even if she wasn't sure how she felt about it.
So she left her door slightly ajar, slumped on the bed in the middle of her room strumming a bass guitar. Ixxy was curled up at her feet, Nuu the homounculous scareon lingered around the room a moving shadow of black and red.
"Oie, both of you, settle down." She glanced towards the Canis Major sitting on a sofa near by, "Off the couch Shaw, that's for Riley today. Go make sure the others don't cause trouble." The pricoli look alike minipet barked once before moving to curl up beside her closet blocking the door for others Scareon's attempting to wander in.
Best to keep things as calm as she could given Riley's.... situation. From what she recalled the ghoul wasn't quiet herself in more ways then just memory. Weak, if that made sense, but a word she would never use.
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Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:41 pm
The door creaked open, as Riley arrived. Her hand was pressed against the flat surface, pushing it slowly open, and only then did her hand twist and her knuckles rapped against the wood. She couldn't see Sammy until the door was completely open, but she knew the ghoul was inside. She had called ahead to make sure not to waste the visit, after all - and the door had been left open for her.
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:14 am
Even as the door opened Sammy moved to place the bass guitar beside her bed sitting up proper on the side of it to watch Riley enter the room. "Hey," she waved briefly with her blackened bone hand before whistling once, Nuu and Ixxy moving to curl up beside the bed as she gestured to the couch across from the foot of her bed.
"Feel free to take a seat, I was wondering when I would hear from you all things considered."
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 2:33 pm
Riley mirrored the wave, pausing just slightly when she whistled as if wondering whether the sharp sound was meant for her. When the creatures responded instead, Riley moved forward fluidly, walking to and sitting on the couch in one movement. The edges of her dress fluttered back down to the floor, stilling before she crossed her legs and decided to speak.
You can imagine how busy I've been. Re-integration into a society is a difficult procedure. She cocked her head slightly. Did you often hear from me, before all of this? Was my presence a constant in your life?
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:31 pm
"Doesn't surprise me at all. Though I think you have it easier then you believe, you made an impression on a lot of people and most of that is only going to make coming back easier."
She held up a hand wiggling it slightly side to side, "A fair amount I'd say? We spent the last two weeks of your ahh previous life together as close friends. To top that off obviously..." She raised her hands gesturing to her room, "You where one of the Demons who didn't heavily object to my presence in the demon dorms. You, Barth, and a handful of others that is. So while we didn't hang out every day, yes I would say you where at least a constant contact."
She paused for a moment frowning, "Jack dammit we almost sound clinical about discussing all this and it feels weird even coming from you."
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Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:07 pm
I hear that a lot. Every time a new face and a new voice presented itself, she was often told that she had made some strong impression on them. Riley was not surprised, but she was pleased. Her work here was going well.
What did bring you to the demon dorms, if you don't mind my asking? One brow rose when Sammy expressed suddenly displeasure at the tone of the conversation. She tried, with obvious intent, to rest back on the couch, and uncrossed her legs. She put both of her arms out on the sides of the couch, and tried to look comfortable. She ended up looking like she was trying too hard to look like she wasn't trying.
Is.. that better?
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 10:51 am
She only nodded at the response, though she had little clue what her original intent was, she considered Riley a friend and as such never put too much thought into why she was so well known or if it had a second motive.
She didn't really want to think that the few demons she could trust where really just the average dealer in contracts and lies.
"Oh that? Ahh a demon used to live here, he was a bit of a racist and him and I had a bit of a tiff. Punishment was we had to live in each others dorms for a week or so, maybe longer. To learn to accept our fellow peers regardless of their species." She paused grinning ear to ear, the purple fire in her eyes gleaming with delight, "He got moved into a windowless basement room and I scored a second story view of the campus with a personal bathroom, and he got expelled and here I am today enjoying the luxuries of this room."
Ultimately though she had to laugh as Riley tried to relax. "Hardly, you're trying to hard. Here let me show you something." She pulled out her phone moving to drop onto the couch with a dull thump as she tilted the phone over towards her. The image of the two of them in a jungle sitting on a hammock high in the trees. Riley smiling with complete ease and delight, Sammy looking slightly more pained but still smiling. "THAT'S the Riley I remember. I swear you spent more of those two weeks like that then you ever did. A warhorsemen could toss you around like a rag doll, and did, and you came running over practically prancing and that was only day one."
For a moment Sammy seemed happy, truly happy recalling those memories but just as quickly as she started grinning she slowly began to sink back down to reality. The reality that Riley had died, and the person beside her wasn't quiet the same.
"Of course things have... changes a lot since that."
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Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 6:42 pm
Riley sat up straighter when Sammy came to show her the phone, but when she looked at the picture, a tense moment of horror fell over her. She stifled it, returning to apathy and ease, but her eyes still remained glaring starkly at the picture.
I am.. She hesitated. I seem very happy. Her expression, in the picture, looked so unfamiliar. She'd never seen a mindflayer make a face like that before. It disturbed her. I am not quite.. there yet. She pulled her gaze away from the picture, and let it fall on Sammy herself. I don't mean to disappoint you. These things require time.
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Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 3:15 pm
Purple eyes of flaming fear flickered ever so slightly to the side, catching Riley's reaction to the photo. It was a painful thing to see that look. She couldn't tell what it was, was she angry at herself? At Sammy? Or just confused. Still it all worked to drive home the fact that Riley wasn't herself from before. Eventually she snapped the phone shut tossing it back onto her bed where Ixxy was quick to nudge it with her nose.
"You where, it was rare considering your condition at the time of that. I took that just after I found out, about the insanity and how bad it was. You hid it all the way up till that day from me and died a week later."
She shifted slightly turning her head to the side purple eyes flickering as she watched Riley look at her, "I know it does. Trust me, I've been in your shoes once before. Maybe not as bad because I didn't have memories from before, but I've done the whole 'getting used to a new life' sort of deal."
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Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:54 pm
The ghoul was an undead. Perhaps she did have an unusual insight into the problem. Well, it's nice to know you understand. She patted Sammy's knee gently, and shifted to face her fully, while still rested against the back of the couch. I came bearing questions for you. I'm very curious about something. When we first met, she chuckled, You mentioned that I should not trust the boil named Shun. Do you remember that?
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 6:27 am
Sammy offered a mild shrug at the pat and the remark, "This is a problem I can't simply fix with brute force and determination. I suck at patients but I'll make in exception in this case."
Settled down across from one another the question about Shun was brought up causing her to raise an eyebrow before nodding her head, "Yes. I remember that, I don't feel the unending desire to break him anymore, but I still don't like him. Why do you ask?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:08 pm
Riley's expression turned wry. I spoke with him, concerning his actions the day of my death. I thought perhaps we should discuss it, a bit. Malodore has shared with me the memory of the day.. so I am not completely clueless as to what happened.
Riley leaned in, very carefully, and looked Sammy in the eyes. Her expression cut to the core. What were you trying to do, that day? Your reaction to the giant monster borne from my death was.. well, it confuses me, I suppose. Will you explain it?
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:41 am
Sammy nodded, "I'm not surprised at that, even back then you would have taken my warning and still asked him about it." She nodded again at Maladore, "You might wish to talk to Shehk as well about it, I assume he filled you in on her and I helping to move your remains before the Boogiemen took them?"
The eyes where far different from other ones, empty sockets filled with burning FEAR like her left arm often flared with. They continued to burn flickering, un-blinking.
"I was trying not to make the same mistake twice."
The flames suddenly cut out and Sammy sat back as if seeming to meditate, "Go on, look at the memories, you'll understand why." With that she thought back farther, to the day Red died. To her cry to hunters and Halloween to turn on Red's new form, how they all had lashed out against her, the deep guilt at knowing they turned on someone they loved, someone who Sammy had a far deeper connection to then others knew. The image of an older werewolf and a young girl flickered up but was instantly cut off, the image of a funeral, students in red silent and mourning, one of them showing purple tentacles poking from her cloak.
"That's why Riley," her voice was harsh as if fighting back a desire to sob, "I didn't want to see another friend die. Not like that. I don't need that blood on my hands as well."
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:48 am
Riley watched the memories, foggy and distant. They were new, and she devoured them readily, but when they were over, Sammy's answer still did not satiate her curiosity.
But I was dead, Sammy. You must know that. Her tone, and expression, were soft. The Riley you knew, the one you cared about, died long before the monster attacked. She thought of the memory of her own self, giant and grey, attacking the students without discretion. She knew that couldn't have actually been her.
What were you trying to accomplish by giving yourself up to me? What hope did you still harbor?
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Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:53 am
When Riley finally looked at Sammy again her eyes where burning purple once more, empty holes filled with a raging flame that danced just outside the sockets fueled by the ghouls emotions.
"Were you dead? Were you dead as we enjoyed those last two weeks? Did you damn yourself the moment the Insanity first sank in?" She shook her head, "No, Red was still in there, she spoke to us, she had moments of clarity. She spoke to us, protected us in the end just as you did Mal." She clenched her fists a few times shaking her head.
"I was trying to bring you back. By any means, any way. Killing you, turning you to that stone insult, we couldn't bring back Red from it, we've barely gotten lucky with you here now, but there has to be another way. Invictus spoke of FEAR from the source once, more then my own, a humans FEAR not a hunters, but how can we even try that if we kill you before we had a chance? How can we try anything if our first instinct is to kill the ones we loved out of misguided sense of ending something we don't know the first jack damn thing about?"
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