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 Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 5:13 pm
xxxxx『 〄 Sheltered 』
xxxxxxxxx〆 ┊ somewhere.... to be honest, Kieran gets lost quite easily
xxxxxxxxx〆 ┊ early afternoon.
xxxxxxxxx〆 ┊ it's raining, it's pouring.... it's also pretty chilly
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Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 5:36 pm
Kieran gasped and the rain filled her mouth, sucked in through her nostrils. Coughing, she shook her head, smoke-hair drifting about her face, unaffected by the storm rolling around her. She breathed in again more carefully this time and looked up. The rain was almost blinding; the cold icy sting of it numbed her face. She was out wandering, watching clouds, when the sky had opened up, drenching her and turning the world a muddy grey. If she stood too still in the rain, her heart sped to match the tempo. And it droned on, oh, it droned. It hammered and blew and Kieran worried that it might melt even her bones with it's force. But still, she looked upwards,
"Cumulus, cumulonimbus, nimbus, nimbostratus...." she whispered, the rain falling into her open mouth like cereal into a bowl. And she twisted the rain around on her tongue, tasting the acids, the remains of smoke that hid inside clouds, chewing on the weather. Kieran smiled and then, she shivered violently. The cold was cutting and she hated it. An overwhelming need of warmth streaked through her. Her thin clothing was plastered to her grey skin, the cream cloth a stark contrast against her sooty fingers. She whirled. Suddenly, every direction looked the same and she no longer remembered which way her home lay. Shelter. If Kieran could just wait out this storm....
There. A bank of trees rose like saviors to her left. Most were sparse; the oncoming winter having stolen their colored gowns. One tree still gleamed lushly through the falling rain. It looked dense and big and just the perfect place for waiting out the rain. A nearby house would, of course, be preferable, but a tree was better than the cold rain slapping against her, raising goosebumps in places she thought couldn't even get goosebumps. She ran, her goal that one, lonely tree. Her shawl flapped wetly against her shoulders and her dress twisted around her legs. but her golden eyes remained fixed on that tree. As her small, thin legs pumped furiously as the ground beneath her began to turn to sludge.
With a startled cry, she crashed down, a small unseen hole capturing her ankle and twisting it sharply. Pain shot through her lip as her teeth clacked and bit through the corner. The small grey girl lay weakly in the grey mud.
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Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 7:00 pm
The rain, the clouds, the growing grey sky, it all warmed Cadaver despite the bite of cold that would normally turn others into icicles. He loved the rain storms, strong ones like this because it reminded him of gentler times. A time when friends were abundant and the only worries in the world were a scrapped knee.
"Krinn..." The name remained forever on his lip and therefore on his heart. He smiled forlornly to the sky enjoying the sting of the rain on his pale skin. The woods were his favorite place to be, silent, secluded, empty. No guardian around to bug him, and keep him on an asinine schedule of cleaning and working. Edelweiss was a wonderful guardian, he took Cada in at his lowest and helped to slowly rebuild his broken heart. Now that he felt a little better Cada had gotten out more, spent more time on his own in the woods just to himself. After these little moments he went back to town to open the shop and get things ready for work.
Today's freak storm had been a welcome surprise but he didn't mind. Kicking a small pebble he smiled sadly as it skipped away into the shrubs. It was then he heard a slight cry. "Hm?" Looking around he saw nothing at first and shrugged it off to bad hearing. Heading back toward down it was then he saw something glowing in the distance. With a curious tilt to his head he moved in closer cautious of any danger. Upon closer inspection it looked like cloth billowing in the wind but as he stepped nearer to the cloth he noticed it was clothing, and a young child was attached to it. "Hello?" He offered in greeting then his eyes focused more noting the child's strange features. A dust?!
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Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 7:18 pm
Kieran went immediately still as Cadaver's words reached her ears. Pain forgotten, her mind whirled with all the possible please she could speak, the ways she could move to make herself seem worthy of notice. But he had already noticed her. She was like a frightened rabbit, her trembling hidden by the rain. Hesitantly, she looked up.
Her mouth fell open in an 'oh' and her eyes widened, fire dancing in their depths. The man near her was different. She was different. They were the same. Her mind leapt at the childish logic, gears whirring as a tiny dribble of blood snaked down her lip. He was tall, almost as tall as Eli (which was somehow comforting), although he was purple. She struggled to sit up, wrenching her ankle further.
"I hurt my ankle," she whimpered, her eyes becoming twin pools of pleading gold. "And I'm lost. I'm Kieran." Here, she sniffled, the pitiable sound nearly lost in the storm.
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Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 7:33 pm
Cadaver knelt closer coming to a sitting position. "You hurt yourself. I'm sorry." He offered, while inspecting the injured child. "I'm Cadaver. We are alike." He offered noting that this child, this Kieran was another dust he had not met before. "I'm going to check your ankle please bare with me." Looking closely he gently lifted her leg placing it delicately in his lap. He gave her a weak smile taking a closer look. "It's going to swell a bit but if you let me take you back to my place I can put some ice on it. I don't live far."
Standing to his feet he gave her a stronger smile then. "Would you like me to carry you back? It's not a good idea to walk on that."
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Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 7:43 pm
She whimpered again when he manipulated her ankle. It wasn't a bad sprain. but for someone who had never sprained their ankle before, it was nothing to laugh at. Kieran focused instead on studying him as he looked at her leg, his hands moving deftly. Cadaver seemed to know what he was doing. She puzzled over the name, rain nearly forgotten. Cadaver. Didn't that mean dead body? Eli had an awful lot of weird books....
"You're pretty, but weird colored, like me," she blurted out, then gasped as a horrified expression crawled across her face. Carefully,. she rearranged her face into one of merely polite interest. "That would be really kind of you, sir. I wish I knew my way back home..." She smiled at him, a deliberate attempt to seem innocently charming. Cadaver would like her: she willed it! Her practiced expression vanished as she sneezed. Kieran never did well when she was cold.
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Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 8:05 pm
"Pretty?" He questioned as he knelt down to gather her in arms. Situating her more comfortably in a princess carry he gave a rather awkward grin. "Pretty." He said this more to himself no one had really called him that before. Strange, different, unique but he wasn't at all sure he heard pretty in that list. "Thank you." He said then as an after thought.
Heading through the woods he took the shorter route toward home, minding his step so they both didn't spill onto the floor and hurt themselves more. "As for my weird coloring that's because I come from a weird essence." He offered leaving Kieran to wonder what his essence was. He liked leaving others to guess it was fun, and besides he was doing the same with hers.
She was light upon picking her up, wispy hair and her skin like ash. Her eyes were similar to his but warmer like a fire unlike his own which glowed yellow like a cats. They both were of dark features something he could appreciate but he figured her element was worlds different from his own. "You smell of washed out soot." He muttered in after thought. It was true she smelled like the after effects of a fire. As if someone drenched it with a bucket of water. With a slight shrug he stepped from the woods glad to find the entrance to the town. "My house is at the corner of the next block. "Um... I have to apologize, my guardian does not like dirt and such. So if he seems a bit harsh don't pay him no mind."
And as if the man were summoned, upon entering the store front he found Edelweiss shining one of many antique trinkets. Seeing the two of them sopping wet all over his shop floor put him in a mood instantly. It was like watching fireworks go off, first the frown to his brow, the grim set of his lips, then the twitch of his hands as they carefully set the item on the shelf. "Cadaver, mein Junge, why do you insist bringing in strays and dripping all over my prestine floor no less. What have you there?"
"This is Kieran, she twisted her ankle in the woods. She's like me. Can I take her upstairs to tend to her?"
"Yes yes, hurry you're still dripping on my floor."
Cada simply laughed situating Kieran once more as he hurried past the miffed guardian upstairs to their living quarters. Setting her comfortably on the sofa he hurried to gather some ice in a towel and set it on her slightly swollen ankle. "This will keep the swelling down. It got a little big during our walk. Do you feel okay? Need anything to take the pain away?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 6:41 pm
In Kieran's eyes, Cadaver was pretty. He was all purply tones and yellowed eyes and he was nice and he carried her just like a princess. She nestled into his chest, reveling in the warmth he gave off. It was a little like being next to the most gentle of flames. Cadaver smelled a little odd, but he felt strong. For a friendless young dust, he was exactly what she would be weakest to. Her little heart skipped a beat and she clutched his shirt in both hands. The short trip to his house passed in a blur of heartbeats, marred only by drizzles of rain and the tinges of pain from her ankle.
His home was a store! Kieran looked around, craning her neck from the safety of Cadaver's arms. A man stood just inside, shining something that glimmered softly. She sifted, a sweet smile curving her mouth, but at Edelweiss' words, she instead curled her soot-black hands into fists, instinctively making herself smaller. The shop was so pretty and so very clean and she was ruining it. He would hate[/] her and so would Cadaver! Peeking up at the older dust, she startled as his eyes, so like and unlike hers, crinkled in laughter. Maybe everybody wasn't bad. For some reason, Kieran felt an innate distrust of anyone normal, perhaps because she was so different.
"I'll be okay. U-um, I'm sorry... there's water everywhere. Do you have a towel? I can help clean." She really couldn't ask for anything more; he had already helped so much... Kieran kicked her free foot against the sofa, knocking off her slip-on shoes. Idly, she realized that one of them must still be languishing in that muddy hole. Her lips drew together in a short frown before smoothing."You mentioned essences earlier. Do you know what mine is?" She smiled, and although the expression was a little pained, the curiosity was real. "I don't know what yours is... I've never met another Dust." She knew the word 'dust' from Eli and his late nights spent reading books on mythology and muttering about magic, but beyond that, the word had no meaning to her other than 'different'.
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Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 7:09 pm
With a warmth in his eyes he shook his head. "Don't worry about the mess, I'll clean it in a bit. And don't worry too much about Weiss he's always like that. I leave messes all the time and he just smacks me for it." He laughed as he hurried to gather some towels, passing his room he put on a fresh pair of clothing and grabbed a long tee shirt for Keiran to wear. Returning to the couch he handed her the tee shirt. "Dry up a bit and put this on."
With enough time for her to change he went into the kitchen to make some sandwiches. Listening in on her question he peeked into the room making sure she was properly dressed. "Essence?" Heading back inside he set a plat of sandwiches on the coffee table along with two glasses of water.
"I'm not entirely sure what yours is but you smell like fire, no soot... no... smoke?" He inquired taking the first bite of his sandwich. "What do you think my essence is?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 3:42 pm
Kieran changed quickly, reveling in the warmth a dry shirt could give. Hesitating briefly, she dropped her wet dress on the floor with an inelegant plop. Oops. It lay there like a sodden grey cloud. She nudged it a little with her foot, trying to make it as small a pile as possible. Her head whipped around as Cadaver reentered, hair billowing and floating around her face without rhyme nor reason. He looked much better drier and she curled her toes, suddenly very conscious of how silly and childish she must look. She was still a child, after all.
Curling up on the sofa, she tucked her legs underneath her and reached for a sandwich. Kieran nibbled delicately at it, her mind spinning in dizzying circles. Social stuff was so confusing, but she desperate;y wanted him to like her. Preoccupied, she startled as he spoke, his voice rolling over her. She smiled and let out an involuntary giggle.
"Wow, you're right! It's smoke. I wonder if that's why rain tends to.... dampen my spirits a bit." As a pun went, it was weak at best, but Kieran still hid a smile behind her sandwich. She at least though she was quite punny. Sliding her glowing eyes up and down Cadaver, she pursed her lips. The silence stretched between them, a little like invisible cobwebs, delicate and interconnected. She huffed out a sigh.
"I... um.. I can't figure yours out! I'm sorry." Her face fell a little. "I haven't met any other Dusts, so it's hard for me.... have you met a lot?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 1:38 pm
Cadaver smiled lightly as he pent to retrieve her dress. Taking it in the back to hang and dry near the heated stove. Returning he sat next to Kieran smiling at her nervous energy. He could feel it waft off of her in droves, in a way, it was cute. Taking a bite of his sandwich he took time to indulge one of his usual pass times. People watching.
While she nervously spoke of her essence, which he was pleased to have guessed correctly, he continued to assess the girl before him. Fidgeting this way and that, seeming to be a bit nervous around him, he was glad for once it wasn't because of his essence. She just seemed naturally this way. Although he figured she'd get a little more nervous or alarmed once he told her what he was primarily made of. "You have a very bright spirit, damp or not. So I don't think the rain did you any real damage. Aside from the ankle that is." He turned his vibrant gold eyes to her injured leg then watching for any change of skin color. It didn't look to be getting worse. He was glad for that.
"Other dusts... I've met a few. Made some friends with a few at least I feel like their friends." He smiled taking another bite of his sandwich. "I know there are quite a few, many others that I haven't seen in a while." Shrugging he didn't know what else he could offer. Kieran's best option was to seek out the others. "There is a way to know if you're near them. It took me a while to figure it out but when another dust is close by you'll feel something, a tickle, flutter of the heart. I'm not sure what to call it but you'll just sense the others. I picked up a few of them as bottles but it's harder, as children or teens they are a bit easier to pick them out. You just need to listen to your instincts."
Setting his sandwich down he leaned closer placing his forehead to hers. "Don't be alarmed. Close your eyes." He smiled softly waiting until she did. "For me, a sudden wave of nausea will wash over you. Nothing major and then it's gone... the reason you'll feel like that is because my essence is pestilence. I'm sickness in the flesh." He moved back softly a sad smile on his face. At this point he just waited, looking for the telltale sign of worry and possible rejections. Not many were able to accept him, those that have, he didn't know where they were or what they were doing. So he watched her, intently, with eyes that seemed to searched her soul.
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Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:56 pm
She wiggled her ankle experimentally when he mentioned it. Hissing between her teeth, she decided that perhaps that was a bad idea. While she was content to sit quietly for this moment, Kieran hated the idea that her mobility might be impaired. Running was her freedom, her release from any thoughts that might be swirling in her head. And sometimes, she hated the thoughts in her head. Cocking her head at the mention of a flutter, she place on dark hand against her heart and held her breath. "Ah..." she breathed out, a sound wispy as thin smoke. "I feel it. I can feel you." Her voice was full of wonder, but it was followed by a tiny squeak as he touched his forehead to hers.
Cadaver's skin was warm and dry where it pressed against her and she sighed again, that breath feathering out softly. Mesmerized by his voice (so close, she thought, she could feel it vibrating the air around her) Kieran closed her eyes. His voice relaxed her, that lilting accent so near. His breath whispered against her face. Kieran flushed, freckles darkening across her cheeks. And then she felt it: a hot, rolling feeling, like when her stomach turned slightly, or a fever. She sucked her breath in sharply and then he was gone; her forehead cool once more. As she flicked open her eyes, her mouth dropped into a small 'o'. He was staring so intently that she longed to glance down, away, anywhere but the burning yellowness of his eyes.
"You're... sickness. I felt it. It felt hot and shivery and so weird." As she spoke, her words tumbled out more and more quickly and impulsively, she reached over to clasp his hand. "That's so amazing... But," She looked at his hand. "I don't feel it now. I didn't feel it earlier. You can control it? The fever and the fire." She giggled a little. Something about Cada made her feel... nice. Like it was alright to be whomever she wished, although she still agonized over saying the wrong thing. Realizing she still held his hand, she tried to surreptitiously side hers back. She was being awfully forward. "I-I'm sorry." she squeaked out.
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Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2013 6:42 pm
He chuckled softly, watching her reaction to his powers slipping through her. Mindful to turn them off immediately upon the sudden shift of discomfort on her face. He watched her closely, smiling when she began to ramble on about his powers and how she could feel him. It was good to experiment. He liked to learn more about himself as well as the others like himself. "I'm able to control it if I concentrate but it has been know to get out of my control. If I'm around too much sickness it can turn into a really bad thing." That was why he did his best to draw the sickness out of people rather than actually cause it. He wasn't sure if he could but one day he'd work on that ability.
Looking down at her hand on his he didn't make any moves to remove it and was almost sad when she decided to so. Placing a hand to her shoulder he gave her a soft tug. "You don't have to feel uneasy. I don't mind."
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 5:55 am
"O-oh." The word was more an intake of breath than a syllable, but it held a wealth of pleased surprise. Abandoning all reservations, she softly fell into his tug, snuggling up against him. Kieran was still chilled and, like most guys, Cadaver gave off the most delicious heat. "Hmm" It was a happy noise. "You're so warm!" She wanted to stay like this; it was nice to feel anther's body warmth, and she could feel herself becoming a little drowsy. Her eyelids fluttered delicately.
Suddenly, she jerked. How could it have slipped her mind? stupid, stupid she berated herself. Eli would be so worried. Imagining that tall lunk of a man craning his neck around to find her made a giggle bubble in her throat, but it died without sound. What if he didn't actually want her? What if he never came looking for her, never missed her, had been looking to get rid of her? Shaking her head, she clutched Cada's arm. "E-eli, my guardian. He'll be so worried! I should go... but.. I don't know where I am... or how to get to him. Will you help me?" She ran her hand down his arm, to his hand, interlocking their fingers. A small, childish smile curved her lips as she looked up at her, her eyes so round and wide and guileless.
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Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:51 pm
It was interesting sitting there with her wrapped in his arms. Viewing it from a clinic standpoint, he could feel her slight shivers, perhaps she was still a bit chilly. Wrapping her tightly against him he sat quietly for a moment letting her absorb his body heat. He chuckled softly to himself at her admission of his warmth. "I would hope so. I'm a big guy for my age... err.. type?" He wasn't sure but he did understand that as a child he had been overtly taller and bigger than his counterparts. So it was with an obvious notion that as a teen he was still taller and bigger than the other teens. He truly hoped to stay that way into his adulthood.
At Kieran's sudden jerk, he loosed his hold on her blinking with surprise. "Oh?" The thought that she had been wandering aimlessly around out there and had gotten herself lost hadn't crossed his mind. Even more so he hadn't even thought to ask about her guardian. "I can help." He breathed moving closer to give her a quick kiss on the forehead. "Lets just see if your dress has dried." He hurriedly went to collect her things bringing them back dried and ready for wear. "Here you go, put this on and we'll see about finding your home." Excusing himself to give her time to dress he went to busy himself with other activities.
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