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 Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:15 pm
Didn't everyone have a wish, somewhere buried in them, that they wanted to come true? Well, Amarus didn't really know if she had something like that; she wasn't standing by the horde of carnivorous plants just because she had some sort of tender feeling to nurse, she was bored and considering how best to make it past the plants. The wishing well was just the goal she'd set for herself, and she was waiting until she had a strategy before tackling the sheer number of plants.
Idly, she tossed a bit of twig into them and watched as they utterly ignored it. She wondered if they would ignore her, too, since she was technically a spirit and also she kind of considered herself mostly-plant in the first place. "Is it cannibalism, I wonder, if they try to devour me?" Amarus mused aloud, toying with the teardrop crystal at her throat.
She should maybe have been in class, but she seldom was where she was supposed to be, anyway; it was a nice day to be out. Every day was a nice day to be out, if you liked fall. And it would be pretty tragic if not. Amarus started to push into the plants with one foot, an immediately regretted it as several of them latched onto her foot. She sucked in a breath and started to pull herself free, stumbling backwards.
And hopefully not into a Raum she'd already run over once before. She thought she had noticed someone nearby, but had been too preoccupied scheming to really look until she was falling backwards.
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:43 pm
Xavier could not figure out why he was here for the life of him.
He sloped towards the wishing well with the sort of despondency only the raum demon could have, his head drooping low, a few feathers flitting free of his hair with every step, twirling to the ground like leaves.
Everyone else seemed to be affected by this strange sort of dream that had overtaken the majority of Amityville's student population. Everyone else seemed to notice that something was off, but no, he was just here and he was just by himself and he was just -
- getting squashed by a falling ghoul.
Xavier had not even noticed where he was walking until it was too late. With a squawk and a grunt and several feathers later, he was on the ground, something - or rather, someone flopped atop him, Xavier wheezing for breath.
"Ow."
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:57 pm
Well, it turned out she was, in fact, bowling Xavier over for a second time. "Hello, sad bird," she greeted him, without extracting herself. She tried to crane her neck to get a good look at him and check if he was at least still breathing alright, but it didn't work, so she concentrated herself intangible and rose, taking the pressure off him. Returning immediately to being tangible, Amarus tried to offer him a hand to help him up. This all seemed very familiar.
"I have not, ah, run into you in a while. Would you like to make a wish?" she asked, her expression cracking so that she could smile at him. "I am not sure what I want," she admitted, looking back at the Wishing Well.
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Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:06 pm
Oh.
Oh.
It was the ghoul from before, the one he had...run...into...before...
Xavier felt everything inside of him droop, his face pressed into the grass. Voice muffled, he said, "Hello" in a very small voice that was hardly audible.
But then she had moved off of him, and Xavier gave a sigh, crawling to his feet and not noticing the hand she had extended until after the fact and making him feel relatively stupid.
"...a wish?" he repeated, looking up at her with despondent eyes. "What do you mean, a wish?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 7:22 pm
Amarus' expression was somewhere between amused and vacant, depending on the second that one managed to look at her. It seemed to be shifting subtly under her aura's soft glow. He seemed like a very sad bird indeed, which is probably why she had decided she would call him that. "Well, we are at the foot of the wishing well, sad bird. If you would like, we can brave these plants and make a wish-- which is why it would be good to have one planned," she said.
"Tell me, sad bird, why are you so sad?" Tactful, Amarus. Very tactful. "I have always been fond of birds, after all, but they have never seemed so ... sad and fragile," she said, gesturing to all of him.
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:46 pm
Xavier had no idea what the wishing well was, nor was he even sure that he had a wish to make if there was such a thing as a wishing well. He brushed a few stray feathers off of his shoulder and glanced sideways towards Amarus.
"I am not sad," he said dejectedly, and shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I'm merely getting used to being here when I shouldn't even really be here in the first place, it's not like I even belong here."
He coughed, shifted again, and said, "So...so what is the wishing well? How does it work."
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:51 pm
"I am no master of emotions, but you still sound sad, sad bird," Amarus said, scrunching her nose briefly in distaste. "You should let me take your pain away," she half-offered, her expression softening, eyes narrowing as her aura flickered brighter for a moment.
She turned to look at the wishing well again, or where she thought it was, nestled amidst teh carnivorous plants.
"I do not know how it works, sad bird, it has been covered in malicious plants for quite a while. I plan on getting past them to see... we make an offering to the well, as far as I understand, and it grants us our wish."
She paused.
"But I am not sure I know what to wish for in the first place."
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Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:42 pm
"Not sad," Xavier mumbled, but he gave Amarus a sidelong glance that had the slightest hint of curiosity in it. Warily, he asked, "...what...what does that mean, exactly, take the pain away. I'm not...in any pain."
He wasn't sure he wanted to know, on second thought.
Xavier shuffled his feet, casting a look over at the well. "I...I have nothing to wish for," he said, after a long moment.
"...not that I know of."
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Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 11:31 am
Amarus stared at him with a look that pretty much indicated she could care less what his opinion was: she had decided he was sad, and so he was. He could probably argue until he was blue in the face, and she'd still just stare at him and say I am not sure about that, sad bird. Apparently she was in one of her selfish moods again.
Her face lit up again, though, when he asked what it meant to take his pain away. "I would have to show you," she said, "but it always feels good. Until it doesn't." She paused meaningfully, then slipped a slender vial no thicker or longer than her pinky finger out of her outer robe: it was 3/4 full of a pink-purple liquid that had a faint silvery glow to it, and some kind of smoke curled at the top of the vial, pressing at the cork. She smiled wickedly, and then tucked it back into her over robe.
"Of course you have something to wish for, sad bird. Do you not want anything at all? I want power, I always want power. Success. Strength. To be a figure of legend," she said, clenching one hand into a fist and relaxing it, staring at her fingers as she did. "If all else fails, why not wish for something for someone else? I can always use more power, for example," she suggested.
Not so much charitable today, either, apparently.
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Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 2:44 pm
He wasn't quite sure there was any actual point in arguing with whatever Amarus said because she just seemed to barrel through with her own views and opinions without actually asking for his own.
Xavier wilted.
"I, er, don't want power, or...or anything...well maybe a bit of strength or something...no, well, I'm not really sure myself."
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Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:45 pm
Amarus was sort of listening.
She just didn't always care. Or, more accurately, she was relatively incapable of seeing the other side to any situation. As a result, even if she was kind of being caring (as far as she could be, anyway) when she wanted to make sure the sad bird wasn't sad any more (even if he said he already wasn't and she was not listening at all) she seemed like she disregarded absolutely everything he had to say.
She more or less did, admittedly, even with all things considered. However, she certainly seemed pleased when he suggested he might want strength. "If it's strength you want, we can train until you wish you were dead," she said cheerfully. "But maybe you've changed your mind?"
Amarus edged a wooden plank onto the plants, and dragged a second plank with a rope tied to one end towards herself. The plants underneath were stupidly resilient, and being crushed mostly just seemed to annoy them. However, the plank was broad enough that it kept them from biting her. She stepped onto the first plank.
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Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 9:36 pm
There was a long pause.
"But...what exactly does that entail, training, where are you going."
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Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:35 pm
"Training: combat exercises, running, lifting, scenarios, open courses. The usual," she shrugged. "You would not be weak for very long, by my side," she assured him, smiling in a way that looked a lot more like the glint of light on a blade's edge than any kind of sincere joy.
She prepared to pull the one with a rope closer, reaching down with quick motions to grab the matching rope on the one she currently stood on. "This is the express route to the wishing well. All on board, not-sad bird," she said.
She looked at him meaningfully, as if to say: look, I actually listened to your feelings.
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Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 7:25 pm
He wasn't entirely certain how he felt about all of the aforementioned tactics for training, but there was no denying that he was, in all senses of the word, incredibly wimpy when it came to physical prowess.
With a slightly concerned glance, Xavier gave a small sigh and clambered after Amarus, looking petrified at the very idea."This isn't dangerous, right."
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Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 9:41 pm
She made a mental note to revisit the training later: maybe she could convince him to allow her to train with him. She could certainly use more diligent sessions, and maybe having someone there to help train would contribute to her focus.
"Just do not step where they can bite you, and you will be fine," she reassured the raum. "It is perfectly safe so long as you do not allow yourself to get maimed."
With that, now that he was on the good plank, she pulled up the first plank and set it down in front of them, using the rope to retrieve and replace it. "See? Just like that," she said, pleased with herself. There was, effectively, no way to get back now that was not through the carnivorous plants.
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