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 Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 8:58 pm
Amarus had, lately, been drifting around as though in a constant daze. Crow had taken to following her everywhere, as if he was afraid she wouldn't return. Ashbel would probably follow her everywhere, too, if she had any notion that he could take care of himself. The little foxfire was kind of derpy, though, and Amarus was fairly certain his survival skills were nil-- Jin, her firelands wyvling, constantly tried to make him a snack.
In any case, lately she had just not felt up to talking to anyone, not even the ones she cared for, loved, missed. Just drifted around, napping in strange places. School work was lagging behind. There was only one thing that could snap her out of this daze long enough to interact: the smell of baked goods wafting through an open door.
And oh, my jack, was that smell heartrendingly amazing. Amarus' eyes perked up, her bells jingled and she returned to her usual state: to soothe herself, she often made her body as tangible as possible up until about the middle of her calves, when it slowly started to fade into transparency. She also didn't float, but rather walked about an inch or two off the floor, as if she was still alive. Hadn't quite gotten over that yet.
But the smell, oh, how it begged her to be over such silly things as regret or sulking. And it reminded her: she cared about someone who needed to relax, once. She didn't know if he still did, or where he was, but why not learn now? The skills would surely come in handy one day. "Maybe not for him, but for someone else," she mumbled, Crow perking his little ghost treat head up as she took a confident step towards the open door and peeked in, glowing faintly pink-purple. Her Lotus Eater aura.
"Hi, your room smells... delicious, and I was wondering if you know how to make cookies. Edible ones. I have, um, a science experiment I need help with and you smell like the best candidate."
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Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:56 am
Baking, Xiu had learned to find, was incredibly soothing for her. Perhaps not everyone shared the same feelings as she did, but the baku found that there was something calming about the task, especially when she finally got the pans into the oven and the scent of freshly baked goods began to waft through her room. Although she typically preferred to keep her dorm room door closed, she had propped it open today with the intention of inviting some of her fellow dorm mates in should they desire a spookie or a cupcake. Today was one of those days where she decided that she wanted to bake everything, which meant finding people to share her creations with.
Her attempts to lure people in to get free goodies seemed to have worked when the peaceful silence was suddenly filled by the voice of a ghoul. Perking up, Xiu grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe her hands off as she moved out of her kitchen area, eyes brightening as she caught sight of the figure peering in.
"Hello!" She chirped cheerfully, her tail swishing back and forth behind her. The corners of her lips curved upwards in a friendly smile, but her expression became a little puzzled as she listened to the ghoul's request. Cocking her head to the side, she nodded slowly. "I...yes, I do. What's this 'science experiment' of yours? If I can help, I will certainly try my best."
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Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 11:02 am
Calm was definitely not something Amarus needed help with-- at least, not until recently. And even now, while there were ripples below the surface, it was usually fairly difficult to tell what she was feeling at all, since her she tended to present a blank stare more than any other emotion. It likely made some students, previously, feel rather unsettled. But anyone she'd been friendly with didn't seem to care; probably because for them, she smiled more often.
The ghoul who appeared seemed so sweet, Amarus was not surprised that she was the source of the baked goods aroma. The corner of her mouth tilted up into the beginnings of a smile. She was very cheerful, too. It was nice. "I am a Lotus Eater, the only one here I know of, and my essence can serve as, um, a calming agent? And I have a-- had," she corrected herself, the smile at the corners of her mouth gradually slipping away, "I knew someone who had trouble sleeping, and my essence is stronger now, I can put it into things. I wanted to find a way to bake with it, so that I can share the calm with anyone who needs it. Does that make sense? Can we do that?"
Amarus was talking a lot. Far more explanation than she usually gave to strangers. Then, realizing suddenly, she bowed: "I am Amarus, Lotus Eater. May I come in?" Her bells rang as she bowed.
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Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 4:17 pm
Her tail swished slowly behind her as she listened to the other ghoul speak, her lips slowly spreading into a small smile as the ghost explained just what it was she wanted to do. Aah, how fascinating! "Hmm, I think I may be able to help you find a way to work that into baking," The baku mused, setting her cheek in her hand, "I've been blending certain tea mixes that have a similar calming effect, so it might be a somewhat similar process. With a little work..."
She trailed off, looking thoughtful as she tried to figure out how this would work. It wasn't until the ghoul introduced herself that Xiu snapped out of her stupor, her cheeks dusting with pink. "Ah, yes! I'm so sorry, how rude of me! Please come it!" She gestured for Amarus to enter before dipping her head down in a small bow, her tail swishing behind her.
"My name is Xiuying, though I typically just go by Xiu. I'm a baku, a kind of dream eater."
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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:17 pm
So this ghoul could create similar items? It turned out that the open door was extra fortuitous. Amarus pressed one finger to her own lips, in thought. "Tea? Frost once tried to introduce me to such things, but... it all tasted of leaves. The only part of Conquest I couldn't like," she admitted. "Perhaps your teas would be more... um, drinkable?" she suggested, awkwardly. She did mean that, though. In fact, something floral would probably be good. Hibiscus! Not that she would know that, given all the previous teas she'd had just tasted like leaves to her. Dried leaves.
"Thank you for letting me in," Amarus said, watching the swish of Xiu's tail. "I think I have maybe met you before, in a way," she suggested, "or at least seen you around. I must have." Her memory wasn't the best, at times. "A dream eater? That would explain why you have made the sleepy teas, then, wouldn't it," Amarus suggested, with a faint smile.
"If it's not trouble, I would appreciate your assistance however possible, I haven't exactly ever tried to make anything edible. Not really. So... where do we start? And what can I do?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:24 am
Xiu looked a little startled at the confession, but then she began to laugh, holding a hand over her mouth in order to stifle her giggles. "Don't worry--tea isn't for everyone! Not all tea, at least. There are ones that I'm not particularly fond of either." The made a face, wrinkling her nose before turning to smile at the ghost ghoul. "If you'd like, I can try to make you something that might suit your palette a little more?" Maybe something floral, with a touch of dried raspberries or something? Xiu was admittedly pretty partial to fruit flavours in her tea.
She waved away the thanks, the corners of her lips quirked upwards in a friendly smile. "No no, not at all! And haha--I...I do admittedly run around quite a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if you caught sight of me in the passing." There was a pause, and then she hummed thoughtfully, looking Amarus up and down. "Truth be told...I think I've seen you before as well. I'm not sure when or where, but..." She trailed off with a little shake of her head. It didn't matter.
Chuckling, Xiu scratched at her cheek, looking a little sheepish. "N-no, it's nothing like that! I just make tea for friends who are having trouble sleeping...and those that...volunteer to let me do some dream-diving, I admit, but only with permission!" She waved her hands in front of herself hastily, pausing only when Amarus brought up her request. Brightening immediately, the ghoul nodded, moving back into the kitchen. "Of course! We can make...spookies, then? Though how...will you add your essence, if I may ask?" It would be good to know just when the essence should be added in the mixing process.
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Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:56 am
Amarus smiled, slowly, when Xiu laughed. "Which ones do you not like? And which is your favourite?" Amarus wondered. She tilted her head, bells ringing, and added: "That would be very kind of you, I'd like that sometime." The ghoul was progressively happier and happier to be spending time with Xiu: the baku was sweet, and it made her less awkward, somehow. Maybe she didn't have to be awkward all the time, and it was just that the less comfortable she was around someone the less she found herself capable of acting, well, relatively normal. Or stable. Or both, something like that.
Well, they didn't know where they'd seen each other, but they had; that seemed like a fine enough conclusion. It was more a passing thought than any kind of crucial turning point.
"What is dream-diving?" Amarus asked, curious. She didn't know anything about baku, really, and she seldom remembered her dreams-- if she even had any? "Spookies sounds good," Amarus agreed. "Oh, um, this might seem kind of weird but..." Amarus took three glass vials out of her outer robe, where they'd been tucked in safely. They were tied together with some kind of discarded bit of string. The essence glowed like her aura, purple-pink in colour. It seemed like most of it was in liquid form, though a little pink smoke curled around the empty space at the top of each corked vial. "This is me. What it is to be a Lotus Eater."
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Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 2:46 pm
Xiu hummed thoughtfully at the question, her brows furrowing as she considered the possibilities. Finally, with a little smile, she moved over to her cabinet, opening it up to reveal...tea. Or rather, a vast amount of various dried herbs, flowers, and fruits, all sitting in clear labelled containers. "Well, I usually pick and choose what I want in my brew myself...but I guess I don't like super strong and minty teas in general. A light minty flavour is nice and refreshing, but nothing too strong."
Looking thoughtful, she began to pick out some of the jars. Well, she could brew a batch of tea for Amarus while they were making cookies, right? Maybe...yes, this flower would do, and...some berries? That would be good.
After she was satisfied by what she had sitting on the counter, she turned back to face the other ghoul, her lips spreading into a small grin at the question. "Well, as a baku...I can eat dreams, and I've also learned to manipulate them a little. I can't do this from the outside though--I have to go into someone's dream to work, and that's what dream-diving is." It was a bit of a strange power, she would admit, but she couldn't change what she was.
Her attention turned to Amarus' hands as she drew something out of her robe, her eyes lighting up in interest at the sight of the vials. Oh--how pretty the color was! And hmm, it seemed kind of liquidy, so..."Okay, I think I know how we can do this!" Xiu's expression became determined as she turned, briskly moving through her kitchen to pick out all the utensils and ingredients that they would need. Along the way, she also set a kettil of water on the stove and measured out the ingredients for the tea. When she was finally done, the counters had a number of things--wooden spoons, measuring cups and spoons, flour, salt, and so on--neatly laid out.
"Ready to start?" There was a pause, and then in a slightly more sheepish--but undeniably curious--voice, she asked, "And what is...a Lotus Eater exactly, if I may ask?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:57 am
Amarus looked at the rows and rows of dried ingredients in labelled containers and thought two things: That is a lot of tea, and Wow, she has much better organizational skills than I do. Not that Amarus had anything to organize; for a ghost, she had collected fairly few trinkets or possessions in general. The only newly acquired items she had at all were comprised of a scarf that had been made for her by one of the Horsemen and the eyePhone Mac had helped her choose months ago.
"I wouldn't know the first thing about what to choose," she admitted, shaking her head, her bells ringing. "Figuring out what goes in baking is hard enough already." Especially when it required reading. Thankfully, she appeared to have an excellent memory for baked goods and if she made them once or twice she seemed to recall what went in. More or less. Which made it a lot easier on the ghoul to learn.
She tilted her head at the items arranged on the counter, while listening. "What do dreams taste like?" Amarus asked, automatically. It sounded like a strange and kind of sinister ability for such a pretty, sweet ghoul. Fascinating. "I don't even remember dreams, if I have any. I wonder if I do dream?" Amarus was hardly paying attention to what she was saying, mostly just musing aloud idly.
Amarus had never actually had to explain to anyone what Lotus Eaters were, exactly; she hardly knew much about her own type, except whatever she had gleaned once on an occasion where she'd felt ambitious and had actually read some books in the library. Mostly she was busy watching Xiu collect things, and trying to memorize what went where and what they'd need. She was really glad someone else was teaching her this; she sucked at learning from texts. Xiu's method seemed to be very hands-on, which Amarus would really love. "Always ready," Mar offered, with a half-smile. Her smile widened as she could not help but feel that Xiu's sheepish and curious question was kind of ... cute. "I don't know much, but in stories they captured hapless wanderers by luring them in and making them... feel good, basically-- forget that time was passing, forget they had to be somewhere, even forget they were afraid. Make them so happy that they didn't ever think to leave, until it was too late."
Amarus smiled, but this time her mirror-silver eyes seemed to have sharpness to them for a moment. What she'd left out was that if someone tried to leave the Lotus Eaters, they felt like a part of themselves had been cut away. It was an addiction, as much as anything. "But those are just stories," she said, waving one hand dismissively, her expression returning to normal. "I will probably only be using these cookies to help people sleep. So... teach me, please!" Amarus implored, with a bow, her hands folded in front of her.
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Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 11:05 pm
Smiling wryly as she turned to face the other ghoul, Xiu lifted her hand and gave an airy wave. "Don't worry--I had to experiment a lot before I managed to figure out a decent brew, and even then, the brews most often as usually tailored to my own tastes, so not everyone may like them." Chilled fruit teas and hot, vaguely floral teas tended to be the baku's favourite, but she knew others who preferred stronger flavours too. That was why she had so many dried herbs and flowers--if she could help it, she tried to accommodate everyone's different palettes.
The question caught her offguard, but after a split second to recover, Xiu smiled and shook her head. "Depends on the dream! Good dreams are sweet and tasty--they're my favourite, actually--but nightmares tend to be a lot more...bitter." She made a face, and then hummed thoughtfully as she turned to face the Lotus Eater more fully. "That's interesting! I...know that sometimes people can't remember their dreams, but I never imagined the possibility of someone having no dreams at all." Was such a thing really possible?
...For a dream eater, it was actually almost a scary thought.
She worked on arranging the ingredients a bit before perking up as Amarus answered her, eyes growing round with interest. Ooh, so a Lotus Eater was...! "Oh--that sounds really neat! A perfect citizen of Halloween to be sure!" Beaming, Xiu gave a little wag of her tail, her expression growing determined as her attention was directed back to the spookies waiting to be made.
"Yes, of course! I'll need you to help me though, okay? First..." She gave the first few steps, directing the other ghoul to help measure out the dry and wet ingredients and to dump them in separate bowls to be mixed.Face Your Demons ;; TWO MONTHS LATER...sorry bby alkfajhsdf ;; <33
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