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 Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:15 pm
It wasn't often that Clarisse got out of the house - and when she did, it was usually only to work at the bookstore downstairs. She just wasn't a very sociable person, so the people that came into the store, the owner, Gabriel, and her online gaming buddies were plenty as far as she was concerned.
But damn it, there were games she wanted to buy, and it was difficult to do download purchases when one didn't and couldn't get a credit card. So a walk down to the game store it was, with her shiny new cash paycheck - since bank accounts were also for people with identities. She'd even actually cleaned herself up, pulled back her hair, put on makeup, the whole nine yards. Sure, she wasn't going to impress anyone, but it felt nice to look in the mirror and see someone that looked older than she was, instead of younger.
At least it wasn't going to be a particularly long trip. Just down the block and back, and she'd be home in not more than an hour and a half to enjoy her haul of new games. Clearly this was the best plan she'd had all week. Strickenized i am so bad at starts but here u go
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Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 9:18 am
Occasionally Angel took a breather; wading through a sea of people hosting imbalances and angry spirits often drained her spiritually, so she took a pause from her long trek and situated herself on a bench. Legs crossed and tight jeans smoothed, she rested her head against the wooden backing and closed her eyes. Even as she watched the fading afterimages dance across her eyelids, she felt a hefty presence weighing her down. For a moment, she considered that she hadn't appeased her own demons and that she was the one who wore an imbalance of energies... But how could that be? She was the rare one who knew of these events in the first place!
With a huff, Angel opened her eyes and examined the crowd. Nameless faces passed to and fro, sporting hairstyles far different from the last or demeanors entirely different from the person preceding them. People were a strange bunch to Angel - interesting, if not irritatingly judgmental of her practices - but she liked them nonetheless. She could help them... If they were interested. And occasionally she found the one schoolgirl who wanted her to contact the dead, thinking that the resulting events wouldn't differ from the movies, but overall the populace showed no interest in her activities.
Their loss.
An olive-haired girl walked by, unruly strands attempting to envelop her face, and she looked as though she tried desperately to avoid eye contact with others. Maybe she was just in her own little world, but Angel raised an eyebrow as she passed. Something felt jarringly off about her, and Angel didn't like it. However, with how quickly she darted toward her destination, Angel couldn't easily stop her unless she felt like sticking her boot out and waiting for the ensuing foot to the ankle. Still, that didn't present the greatest image of herself.
Disguising her intentions as a stretch, Angel obstructed the girl's path with her booted feet regardless. Undoubtedly the girl would trip, as her energy felt imbalanced enough to warrant such clumsiness, but... considering that the occult follower's senses felt off as of late, the green-haired teen might be perfectly fine spiritually. But if that were tha case, she'd just step over Angel's feet and keep darting toward that destination of hers.
Time to play games with the spirits.
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Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:07 pm
Clarisse was generally reasonably coordinated, but given how on edge she felt in such a public space around so many strange people, perhaps it was of no surprise that she ended up tripping over the booted foot placed in her path, flailing all the way. She managed to catch herself, sort of, but her palms and knees were definitely going to be good and scraped up.
And yet her response, instead of getting annoyed, was to stand up quickly, brush herself off, and start apologizing.
"I'm very sorry, I didn't see you there, are you alright?" Never mind that she was the one that fell, never mind that could very well have been purposeful, Clary was going to sorry this poor dark-haired girl into oblivion for something that wasn't even close to her fault. It was like some kind of strange reflex, and it was also a lot easier than getting annoyed and picking a fight, especially when there were places she very much desired to be.
"I hope I didn't hurt your leg or anything, I just wasn't really paying attention to where I was going," she admitted, flashing a very uncomfortable and awkward smile.
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Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 6:07 am
Angel shifted slightly with the sudden force of impact to her boot. She hadn't been expecting the girl to walk quite so... briskly into an obstruction like that. "Of course I'm alright, but look at you! Your palms look like roadkill, love." Angel leaned forward to clasp the girl's hand, turning it upward to reveal the damage done from breaking her fall. Layers of skin peeled back, undoubtedly, and it had to burn. Angel frowned slightly, though it had little to do with the girl's injuries.
"You should start paying attention to where you're going, because your future doesn't look terribly grand." Angel spoke quietly as she loomed over the girl's palm, examining the fine lines and their interconnections. Standing at a hair over six feet with heels, Angel practically dwarfed the girl, though she didn't seem to mind. "Have you gotten your fortune read before? I've got a bit of a knack for it myself, but tasseography's my expertise. I read tea leaves like books." With the help of a book felt more accurate, but what was a little white lie to garner the girl's interests? More individuals should've taken interest in the occult, and from what Angel saw, they desperately required motivation to seek it. And what better motivation than a stellar occultist with years of experience?
"Come now, let's not dally. Spirits aren't the most patient buggers." Stealing the girl's wrist with a light grip, Angel started in the direction of the nearest cafe. With much luck, she'd find a fine establishment that believed in brewing loose leaf, and she could request the dregs left in the cup.
With her destination in sight, Angel halted abruptly and rounded on the significantly shorter girl. "I'm Angel, by the way. Angel Aimless. I figure we should get acquainted and all that before I start delving into your future. Usually helps to get a bit of an idear about who you're accosting the spirits about." Not that the green-haired girl actually agreed to go along with it, but most people required a great deal of goading before they finally capitulated to learning about the world of the metaphysical. Spreading awareness of spirits and demons and the like felt terribly tiring at times.
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 10:02 pm
Clarisse had expected the stranger to brush off her apology and go on with her day, or somesuch - certainly she hadn't predicted having her hand grabbed and all of the touching that went on as a result. She wasn't used to human contact at the best of times, but human contact with a stranger was straight-up frightening.
"I, uhm, I've never had my fortune read, no," she admitted. Not that she could remember, at least, but she certainly wasn't going to say that out loud. Not when that might well open up more uncomfortable questions she wanted to avoid answering. "But I would like to have it done!" Her past was a mystery, but maybe a little hint about the future might give her something? And sure, perhaps she should discard all this occult crap, but she'd been a magical girl for over a year. It wasn't like she was unfamiliar with things most people would consider magical, strange, even impossible.
She certainly could've backed out, she supposed - the girl's grip was light enough - but she didn't particularly want to, even if she was a little nervous. Wasn't it better to get out, to meet people, than to shut herself away? Even if it was someone strangely unusual.
"Clarisse Stark," she introduced herself, and she frowned a little. "Um, accosting the spirits? That sounds a little dangerous."
And a little crazy, but everything in her life fell neatly into that category, so she couldn't exactly complain.
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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 10:18 am
Angel gasped with either vast irritation or blatant surprise - she wasn't sure which. "You've never had your fortune read? How have you managed to get through life without it? I don't know how I'd live without knowing where my fortunes take me - I'd probably still be living in Liverpool, selling tarts to junkies..." Continuing to mumble to herself, Angel tugged the girl along with ample conviction. "Oh, and we'll need to get you cleaned up a bit - maybe a cafe might have some bandages we could use. Wouldn't do to read skinned palms, you know? Touchy thing, that."
Finally she located her target - a quaint cafe, or 'coffee shop' as it read on the placard, only a half a block away. Still approaching at her determined pace, Angel expected to arrive in a matter of minutes - perfect timing for communing with the spirits about the new girl's fate. "Oh there's no 'little' about it - it's terribly dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. But with the world we live in, spirits influence our destinies all the time and are half the reason we do the things we do. Ever felt that gnawring sensation to turn around and look behind you? Spirits do that. They give us clues, here and there, to keep our lives on track. Demons do the same - though they're a little more mischievous about it. Little buggers like to have us trip over our own feet - or someone else's, as the case may be." She turned slightly to waggle her eyebrows at Clarisse.
"Well, here we are," she declared, drawing to a stop before the coffee shop. "We can do this two ways - you can order loose leaf tea unstrained and drink it all, but leave the tea leaves, or you can order what you fancy and I'll poke at your palms til they hurt." She wasn't particularly interested in causing the new girl pain, but reading palms required ample pressing of the skin and life lines, so how could she avoid it? "If I were you, I'd stick with the tea - unless you prefer a little pain over a cup of darjeeling."
Opening the door, she motioned for her smaller companion to cross the threshold first. Angel herself had a minor phrase to utter before she crossed into the establishment, effectively leaving her demons at the door. She only hoped it worked - as newly-written magic, she expected its fair amount of problems, and didn't want to hold up Clarisse with strange phrases before the caught a break from the wind.
With her piece said, Angel walked in briskly, and soon found herself accosted by the irritating blare of blenders, boisterous blokes, and bitching. She never fancied any of the above, but she'd tolerate it today due to the special guest who stumbled across her on the street. Girl was cute as a button, too, more than worth the time. "Why don't you take a seat by the window and I'll order us drinks? Let me know what you'd like."
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Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 1:51 pm
Clarisse had the decency to look embarrassed in the face of Angel's utter shock, shrugging her shoulders. "I go with the flow, I suppose - though I guess a little bit of knowledge about where I'm going couldn't hurt." At the very least, she'd love to know if she had even a reasonably long life ahead of her. With all the madness of being a Senshi, she supposed that was unlikely - but then, Order wasn't exactly brimming with badass killers, so maybe she was safe.
All this talk of spirits influencing her fate had her wondering - you had to start believing in a certain amount of destiny, living the way she did, so maybe the idea that there were invisible forces nudging people the way they needed to go wasn't so strange. After all, so many little things had added up to lead her to where she was, and the idea of coincidence had always seemed too...dismissive of causality, to her.
"I'll take the tea, I think," Clarisse said. Loose leaf was only familiar to her from a few raids in Lance and Alistair's pantry, though she'd never had it unstrained before. And with her palms stinging as they were, she didn't exactly like the idea of poking at them until they bled or anything like that.
She ducked inside, and felt relaxed. Coffee shops were calming, even with all the noise, and the scents and sounds were so very familiar. "I'll trust you to get me something interesting! Teas aren't my specialty, really," Clary said, heading for the nearest empty table to the window.
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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:04 am
Surprisingly, the line thinned down quickly. She counted her blessings inwardly while she waited, though she had little time to get through about half before the barista was calling to her for an order. With the cups soon paid for, despite one highly unusual look for unstrained loose leaf, Angel stood off to the side to wait for the arriving teas. Once her name sounded for her order, Angel gave a nod and a quick 'thank you' to the team before she headed toward the table where Clarisse sat looking rather taken with the scenery.
The way the light played across the girl's features appealed to her; soft lines rendered softer by sunlight smudged with clouds.
After placing the cup in front of her, Angel took a seat across from Clarisse and afforded a quick glance to the outside world. "Things are as they'll always be out there," she offered, in reference to the myriad of individuals rushing about for a packed routine. "Drink up when you can; loose leaf is a wee bit strange to deal with, but having your fortune read makes it quite worthwhile. But then again, I've always been weird." She offered a laugh, mostly to herself than to Clary; she wondered if she was trying to clear up an awkwardness that wasn't really there.
"Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? What had you rushing off and tripping over my foot, for example?" As Angel spoke, she opened a package of Tazo tea and began dunking the filter bag into her cup of hot water. The color spilled out almost instantly, forming thick tendrils of rosy browns. "I find it helps to learn a bit about the subject before telling their fortune, you know? Anything helps, really - likes and dislikes, big changes in life, favorite pets, even last song sung in the shower. Bit strange, maybe, but I'm serious." Satisfied with the color, Angel took a sip.Songstress Kitsune wow i didn't realize this had been sitting for so long o_o
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Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:40 pm
Clary looked away from the window when Angel returned, giving her a smile as she accepted the tea. "Well, I look forward to hearing what the leaves say about my future!" She said, and then she took a brief sip, and was a little surprised to find it was strong, but pleasant. Well, at least drinking it wouldn't be a chore. "And besides, weird is exciting."
She meant it, too. It wasn't as if anyone she knew was normal, and that was fine with her. Normal was boring, weird kept her on her toes.
Talking about herself was always interesting, because it meant skirting the lovely topic of 'yeah, I'm missing eighteen years of memory, it's tragic.' So she considered her answers carefully. "I just got my first paycheck, so I was planning to be a responsible adult and blow it on video games." A light joke at her own expense, easy. "I got a new job and a new place recently, with a little help from a friend. I work at - and live above - a weird little bookstore. The Truth is Out There?" Perhaps that was too much information. Oh well.
Another sip of tea and she found herself continuing. "Uhm, mostly when I'm not working I just play lots of video games and spend horrifying amounts of time on Netflix and Crunchyroll - which is basically Netflix for anime."
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Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 5:07 pm
Angel offered a hearty laugh. "You sound just like my cousin - that girl's got the notion in her head to become an internet makeup star. Quite the dear, but a spot air-headed sometimes. Why, not long ago I just met up with her for lunch. Lo and behold, the cousin I knew who hated makeup decided to change her name and take the world by storm. It's a touch endearing, don't you think? As much as I'd like to do the same with the occult, that's just too farfetched for my taste. The supernatural just falls in and out of favor with time." After her tangent, Angel took a sip of her tea and hummed thoughtfully.
The Londoner plucked a packet of honey from the offered amenities at their table, peeling back the yellow honeycombed foil to reveal the pasteurized contents soon pouring into her tea. Afterward she whisked her pinky along the corners and sucked the remnants of the honey from her fingernail. "Never heard of that bookstore before, but you've probably guessed by now that I'm not from around here. From London, I am - well, originally from the more northern regions but I doubt anyone would recognize the name of that little hamlet I grew up in. That's all bullocks anyway," she dismissed the topic with a swat of the air. "The name sounds terribly fascinating, though - The Truth is Out There? Got something to do with those alien tales I keep hearing about, does it?" She smiled just beneath the rim of her cup, belied by the tug of cheeks and warming of her gaze.
"Sounds like you got quite the home life, my dear." Retiring her cup momentarily, Angel rifled through the contents of her purse to produce a pocket-sized book. "Ever considered getting out and about more often? Maybe it's not quite the thing for you, but doll, you look like you could use a touch of vitamin D sometime. Oh, speaking of that..." After placing her guide to tasseography on the table, Angel's attention returned to the seemingly bottomless depths of her purse to produce homemade business cards. She slid one toward Clarisse atop the table.
"I'm starting a book soon, but I'm still in the research stages. It's about Destiny City and all of the odd phenomener going on around here. You might find it a touch interesting. You could come along with me sometime; I won't deny that it's a wee bit dangerous, but you might find it to your liking. Could be a bit like those stealth games my brother used to play. Hitman, was it? No, maybe it was Thief... That sounds right. Anyway, give me a ring if you want to come along, okay? Now drink up so we can decide if that's actually a good idear or not."
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 8:56 pm
"Internet stardom is fickle and often kinda painful," Clary said, shrugging her shoulders a little as she took another sip of tea. It wasn't exactly her thing - the idea of being on camera in front of even a few strangers was terrifying. "But it sounds like your cousin's got some good things going for her!"
She gave a small shrug at the mention of not knowing of the bookstore. "Even if you were from around here, you probably wouldn't know of it - I didn't know it existed until a friend of mine started working there and then got me a job. Owner's a great guy and let me live in the apartment when I had to move out unexpectedly." She even managed to affect withdrawing a little and looking down, and hopefully appropriately indicating it was a topic she didn't want to be pushed on. If only because it was a little more complex than it needed to be. "It is totally an aliens thing, though. The people that come through are delightful, just...totally wacky. Certain the government is out to get us and-slash-or controlled by the Illuminate to a man." She let out a light laugh. "What's England like? I've never been outside DC."
She looked vaguely embarrassed at the idea that she might need more time outside, and poked at her rather pasty arm. "Outside is complicated," she said, accepting the card. The suggestion of danger didn't really bother her - it wasn't as if she didn't get up to worse every night. Strange phenomena in the city, indeed.
"That sounds fun, actually." She said after another sip of tea. Alright, so maybe she kind of wanted a friend not connected to the whole Senshi-Negaverse...mess.
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 7:28 pm
Astarte watched astutely when the girl shied away from her own mention of an unexpected move. Trouble in paradise, love? She wondered curiously. Life's a touch hard at that age. Must've been something awful. My family's none the greatest, but they never quite kicked me out. "Good on him to let you in, then." Hands dropped to the counter where Angel traced its edges with painted nails. "Even if he is a bit odd with that alien business, I've heard worse. Don't think fortune telling's too far off, especially paired with my supernatural business. Definitely not all that different, if I do say so myself."
Her inquiries about England coaxed a warm smile out of the girl, wrought by fond memories in her home country. "Oh, England's a lovely place. Full of bizarre folks, rains all the time - not sure I've ever seen the sun there myself. I hardly recognized it coming here." She laughed, almost automatically. "Oh, and the damned lot of it's haunted. I'm quite certain the number of dead that still stick around far outnumber the amount of living. You can't quite navigate England without hitching across a haunted bridge, or staying in a haunted hotel. It's highly different from here, and lacks all that tell of monsters and superheroes, but if you find it within your means to visit, I highly recommend it. My best friend took over my flat when I left; i could let her know to spot you a place to stay for a while. That is, if you hop across the pond sometime."
Angel propped her head against her fist as she spoke. "I've noticed," she responded in animated tones. "I can't believe how many strange buggers are out there! And I'm not just talking about the monsters that trundle about. Have you met some of the people out there? They're worse than some of the blokes back home! Then there's that whole mess of terrorists and their anti-terrorists who are really terrorists when no one really gives a rip, plus all the fallout from their shenanigans and... Oh, I'm rambling again. Dammit." Letting out a perplexed sigh, a few strands of stray hair rode her frustrations.
"In any case, if we run into any trouble, there's not too many problems that a can of bear mace can't handle." Angel offered Clarisse a knowing wink. "Now, finish up your tea so I can see what's in store for you. Might be a touch of love, eh?" Her shoulders shrugged mischievously while her foot nudged her new acquaintance beneath the table.
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:44 am
Clarisse leaned forward with warm interest as Angel described her home. It was nice to hear someone talk so enthusiastically, and maybe she would make England a possible place to visit. Exploring haunted locations without the fear of being ambushed, or having to power up, or any of that? Also just -- taking a break from this whole mess? She could absolutely do that.
"I'll have to think about it. A big international trip's a bit outside my means currently," and she'd have to find someone to forge her up a passport, "but it does sound like something absolutely worth doing." The offer of possibly-cheaper-than-normal housing was especially good.
She sipped the last of her drink, and then laughed. "Oh, my god, it's an absolute disaster, and I promise you, you can't stay in this city very long without getting into some kind of absolutely crazy incident." That was absolutely true enough, and it only got worse if you ever actually got swept up into it. "But bear mace does sound like it'd work well."
She slid the cup over, a slight flush creeping up on her cheeks. "Uhm. Maybe?" She said, looking genuinely embarrassed.
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 9:22 pm
"Good, I look forward to some absolutely crazy incidents. Brings a bit of spice to life, and maybe a few stories to boot. Never a bad thing, if you ask me." Lords of hell, Angel, shut up for once. Sitting across from a pretty girl is not permission to run your mouth. She'll know your whole life's story at this rate, and what fun is that? Her index finger tapped against the side of her cheekbone gently. "I'd say a few absolutely crazy incidents would be grand if present company's around."
I don't think talking your way into her pants afterward qualifies it as a date, either.
Angel's hands wrapped around the now-empty cup after she removed the black plastic lid. Inside the loose leaf sat along the bottom in clumps and swirls - familiar shapes, most of them, and depended on how she viewed the smattering of dark tea and negative space, the future lurking therein changed dramatically. So much about tasseography depended on accurate interpretation of the visuals, and for a moment she questioned if there might be a few too many possibilities lying at the bottom of the cup. "Alright... Time to get started. I suppose I can leave my book out of the mix for this. Shouldn't be too terrible." Clearing her throat, Angel began the fortune.
"Right off, I see a swallow there - and swallows stand for love and new beginnings, start of a fresh relationship and all that. Near the bottom there's some bones, which is a touch of a mar on your future. You'll encounter a situation that calls for your inner strength, so be prepared for that. A forked line here indicates that you'll have a decision to make soon. Its closeness to the bones suggest that it might be that same incident I mentioned. On the upside, there's an oak here, so you'll have a long life full of good health. There's also a rainbow here, which is a bit of a trick: it lines about half the cup here. Rainbows indicate that your wish will come true, but with all this falling beneath its arch... The arch itself represents a link between where you are now and your destiny, and all the rot I mentioned earlier likely have a hand in it." She sighed slightly, her lips pulling into a thin frown. She continued to shift the cup in her hands while she continued divination.
"Lastly, there's a wheel - so events outside your control will change the direction of your life. It's near the beginning of the rainbow, so that'll likely come first. Some of these don't strike me as related to one another, but it's hard to tell in a cup like this. Much easier with actual tasseography cups, or even just a plain ol' ceramic." Finally she passed the cup back to its owner - "In case you're a touch curious about what I saw in there."
Likely it looked no different than a few lumps of tea dregs.
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 10:23 am
Clarisse leaned forward with interest, eager to hear what Angel could read out of a few dregs of tea. She wished she could write all of this down, because it sounded so very plausible. She wondered if this said more about her civilian life or her powered life, and if it mattered because her civilian life was mostly empty.
The rainbow, though, that seemed particularly tricky. What was her wish? Did she even have one? She was still pondering that when she accepted the cup back, examining it.
"I don't know how you got all of that out of this," she admitted, because it was nonsense to her, "but that's...that's really cool. I guess you could say I'm gonna suffer, but I'm gonna be happy about it?" She quirked a smile, and then wondered, briefly, if Angel would pick up on the reference, Ah well, Harry Potter was pretty universal, right?
"Thanks, it's actually really neat to have an idea of where things might be going." Even if it didn't entirely make sense, and probably wouldn't until it happened. Oh well.
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