Skylar and Serafina Reduex

[Tei Kae]

The first thing she noticed was how much her head hurt, but at least her dreams had been plenty pleasant, if a bit odd. Shaking the cobwebs from her brain, she slowly sat up and felt each ache and pain. Heh, didn't do a half bad job this time, she noted of her bandages. No blood seepage and it wasn't falling off her body. But man, she must've been messed up if she'd completely stripped. Oh hey, food... She was far too interested in the food to really care how it had gotten there. Hopefully, she hadn't surprised the delivery boy with a show but whatever...

Pushing to her feet, she snagged the sandwich and made her way out of the bedroom, pushing the hair out of her face as she stumbled forward. More than a little off balance, more from blood sugar than injury, she was not at all prepared for the flashing bright light that greeted her as she stepped past the door. "Oi....Ow! Put that thing away!", making a feebly swatting motion as she stumbled back against a corner. "OW! ******** her shoulder into the corner as she tried to recover. Where was that whiskey again...

She hadn't even registered who her guest was, and at the moment didn't care. That thing was giving her a massive headache.  

[Psychofish]

He glanced over in surprise, lowering his hand, giving it a toss and catching the pendant inside his fist, hiding it from whatever about it had her reacting so bizarrely. It could have been physical, or the energy, or just his imagination, but it seemed warm to the touch.

"Walking already?"

He stepped quickly up and took a firm grip of her upper arm, leading her to the nearest surface he could push her to sit down in.

"Seems not. Sit. Until you can walk properly. Your ribs are knitted, but it won't take much to rebreak them for a few days." He was still dressed entirely aside from his coat. The rest of the house looked untouched and in order- perhaps too much so. Her books were in the same order they'd been in, all tucked tight against the backs of the shelves, and her medical kit was put in order and tidied up nicely. Even the clothes she'd worn earlier were sitting on the table and folded so neatly only the wrinkles and stains of wear gave a way that they hadn't been washed and pressed.

Clothes, including the corset, with its cut laces laid neatly beside it.

"I'd rather prefer you didn't cough blood during class."  

[Tei Kae]

"Ha! Ha...", breaking off into a cough even as she sat down. "What? No excused absence even if you did stitch me up yourself?", that much she had figured out even if she wasn't working on full cylinders yet. But sit she did, giving no mind to her nudity in the least. Flopping her head backwards, she let it rest on the couch.

"Anyways...uhmm...yeah.", waving a hand around, she wasn't good with thank yous at all. "It's appreciated", she finally managed without saying the words. It always seemed an obligation to her, somehow. Didn't help relations with her mother either but that was a doomed path to begin with it seemed most of the time. "So what is that thing anyways? I remember something else flashing at me at some point earlier."  

[Psychofish]

He stared at her sideways, making a small grunt of a sound in his throat. "Just don't break it again before it's healed." She clearly didn't want to thank him, and he wasn't sure if that was part of why or not, but the whole thing had him feeling just like his mother must. How bothersome.

He sat lightly on the edge of the table in front of her, most of his weight on his legs, and held his hand out, cracking the fingers just slightly and watching to see if she'd react like it was suddenly blinding again, or more like it was radiating more light. Or at all, given that he couldn't see any light from it in the first place.

"Heirloom. A simple pendent. And not producing illumination." He closed his hand over it again, observing with that almost predatory focus again to see how she reacted or thought. "Nor the strongest source of mystic energy you've been exposed to. Yet you've reacted violently to it repeatedly."

It was a mystery. As if the girl wasn't interesting in the first place. And this one could just be another oddity of hers- or it could help inform him on details of his link to this pendant, to his pasts, in a controlled and safe fashion- the sort of experiment he hadn't thought would be possible.  

[Tei Kae]

Her face twisted up, screwing into a grimace as she twisted her face away from it. "Heirloom...from a family of mystics with more power than sense most likely, given that I know I wouldn't be up and move with even this much less pain except for magical healing..", her voice was only mildly disgusted; after all she didn't have her father's out right disdain for magic. What helped her get back in the game faster was alright by her, even if it seemed a little like cheating. She'd cheat if it meant someone was helped for good reason.

"Yeah, that makes sense", she reached down and pinched her wrist hard enough it was easily going to bruise soon, but she did finally lift her head and look at the piece. "Wow, yeah, that's pretty old...even the art...that several centuries old...geez, why do you have that just hanging out in your pocket?", turning the interrogation back on him. Man, who would have thought grandma Veli's old books would be so useful.  

[Psychofish]

"Granted," with a tight wolfish smile.

"The aches will come with a vengeance soon enough. I mainly expedited the process, once you were properly treated. Most of energy was yours." That seemed to remind him, and he stood quickly, moving to the kitchen and returning with a pizza, which he handed at her somewhat stiffly.

For as good as his manners were when he was behaving in public, he seemed equally brusque without reason to play nice.

"Sentimental value."

He was not learning nearly as much from her response as he was hoping, though it seemed strange that she was inflicting pain on herself to bear it- implying that the discomfort was not of a physical nature after all (though that was nearly a forgone conclusion). He certainly wasn't going to tell her precisely what the thing was, and he hadn't lied either.

"What else have you reacted to that way?" Nodding at her wrist- she knew how to counteract the problem. It was one she was familiar with.  

[Tei Kae]

She rolled her head around as if look of 'are you kidding me'. "So now a doctor, poly sci geek and a mystic? Heh..", snorting her amusement although she took the pizza gladly. However, in order to not move the shoulder, it meant the pinching had to stop and so the light went back to blindly.

"Well, that's the most powerful piece I've seen in a while. But I've found the distraction of physical pain dulls the senses a bit so it's not quite so overwhelming.", she leaned a little closer, wincing with the pain in her ribs. "Usually ...uh..., I uh....nevermind. I'm just delusional. I...", she paused then, for once a bit hesitant to speak her mind. It was the easiest way to get people to leave her alone about this stuff usually. Just admit she was crazy and move on. Not like people ever disagreed with the idea. Besides, hard to tell someone you barely know that you see dead people or things with really strong emotional energy.  

[Psychofish]

"Oh shut up."

It wasn't the right answer, and his eyes were still hard and sharp. He was watching very carefully, even as he put the necklace away in a pocket, and turned that side of his hips slightly away from her, since she'd seen it through his shirt pocket before. Yet his hand seemed a perfectly fine shield. Interesting to note.

"You're a terrible liar, and insulting the both of us."

Feverish wouldn't have been the right word for the look in his eyes, but it was close. Whatever this thing was, it was clearly important to him, and he wasn't even noticing the little ways he was slipping just from the proximity to it.  

[Tei Kae]

"So what?! You want me to tell you I see dead people like that creepy kid from that one movie and that sometimes, really powerfully emotional items give me headaches?", she snapped back, grumpy from the pain, the hangover and his telling her that she was insulting him. "Yeah, because that didn't get me made fun of in school. At least until I kicked their a**."

"Whoever made that into a magic item had a LOT stored in it, but they didn't make it. The maker and the energy signature aren't the same. Happy?", She slammed back into the couch, her arms wrapped around her body to sulk even as it remembered that oh hay, I was bruised and fractured not so long ago.

[Psychofish]

Her outburst had an interesting effect on him. For one, he didn't get defensive or snap back. At first he simply absorbed it, watching carefully, with a slight hint of some emotion other than frustration showing only hints of existing on his face.

And then he reached back down slowly into his pocket, gripping the pendent's head, and pulled it out, holding it up- cupping his hand so he could see it but his fingers would shield her. He stared at it for a long time. The muscles in his face slowly relaxed. The taut expression and sharp tension in his eyes faded, and he silently directed more questions at it until he looked very, very different.

Vulernable. Perhaps a little sad.

"No," Skylar said quietly, "No they weren't."

He tried to picture it. The face of his first wife, first son. There weren't even paintings though, nor written descriptions. They were just shades. He supposed that made it a good answer to both of her questions. Waking, lost, desperate, afraid- that he could imagine much easier. But if so... why? Simply because it was a way to amass power, a tool? He would have believed it of his father in a moment, had he needed it. But even when he'd tried, he had trouble crossing that line. It was funny that he was the one who wasn't quite human, but he couldn't just lock his 'humanity' away.

"Ghosts. That would make sense." He looked up to her eyes. "It's full of memories."

He realized that there were tears in his eyes. Suddenly mindful of his appearance again, the vulnerability he had let himself feel until he wore it like a shirt, he quickly started to stuff it away. Visibly his face set and his eyes grew removed again, wrapping himself up safely from it. Perhaps she'd been too busy sulking to see. Or hear.

"Stop that," he reproved gently, and stood, leaning over her with an arm to either side of her on the back of the couch. Then lowered them to her shoulders, not thinking about the pendent he was still holding against one palm.  

[Tei Kae]

Her teal eyes flicked, and the bright blood red sparks lit up her eyes even while she seemed to fade at the touch. Her voice when it came out was huskier, and drier than normal even as she looked at him with affection. "I'm no one of your delicate court ladies, my Sky. I'll mend as I always do by your hand." Her good arm reached up, brushing the stray tendrils from his face. "I dun understand your love of that noxious weed but I admit on the battleground it makes a fearsome sight." Her nose wrinkled charmingly as she smiled widely, the grin cracking from ear to ear, her fingers still idling brushing that strand of hair. "However, it is not as pleasant smeared on my body as the way it got there." But she let him push her back if he was still pushing until she was leaning back and the pendant was no longer touching her skin.

"Whoa...you move fast. That made my head spin just watching you.", the red flecks in her eyes dying down to simply brighten her naturally bright blue green. "Any chance I could have another drink?"  

[Psychofish]

His heart beat faster.

Head spun.

He was looking at her lips, moving, moving like someone else. He saw other lips moving- a wide mouth, but lush and tempting. Darkened background, glow of fire. Hands slowly took a grip on his hair and pulled-

He slipped forward as she fell back, and the spell was broken. Her eyes were different. The dizzy girl in front of him. His eyes were wide. When had that happened. He opened his mouth to speak, but sound seemed to be beyond him. He stared a moment and then stood up. In his hand the pendant was hot to the touch, and he slipped it into his pocket before she could somehow trigger another episode.

A little numbed, he turned and went to fetch the bottle of bourbon.

Had she absorbed a memory of someone else from it somehow? Or had he somehow projected a memory from within the pendant on her? She had been... been... he felt like he should have known. But there it was just out of his grasp, taunting and impossible to reach. But he had almost seen it. Two times, centuries apart, overlapping in a moment. His mouth felt dry. Part of his mind spun. He could manufacture that. Open up the pendant, let himself see what was. The girl was a ready receptacle. He could envision those moments; perhaps a wife he'd known. Bring one of those specters to life. He could hold it in his hand, sate that burning urge to hold it again and-

He realized he was standing with the bottle of bourbon in his hand.

No. No, it would do nothing. What would he do? Dredge up memories and try to relive them for a few short moments? Perhaps a few days, likely destroying this girl entirely in the process, emptying her out longer and longer to recreate a past that was past, and make it harder for him to let go every second.

In the end, he'd destroy himself as surely as her.

He should have cast the pendant out the window and been done with it. Instead, he calmly walked back to the couch, took another small swig of the mix, and held it down to her. "That's a fascinating talent you have," hoarsely.  

[Tei Kae]

She watched him stand, wishing her head didn't throb so. The bourbon wasn't likely to make it any better, but she'd take what she could get. Her head lolled on the edge of the couch as she internalized his odd behavior today. Of course, they couldn't really do anything in the condition she was in, but it seemed like he genuinely gave a s**t. Which should have been even odder than it was...but where was that bourbon anyways.

"Hey...oh there you are...talent? Don't you mean curse? Seeing dead people is not my idea of fun. Usually they want you to carry a message beyond the grave for them or right some wrong." She shuddered slightly, wincing with the pain even as she accepted the bottle; it was getting low and she'd need to smuggle another one out from home soon. Preferably after the latest batch of injuries healed.  

[Psychofish]

"Do they truly?" he snorted in amusement, a hollow sound, and then sat on the couch beside her. "A price for all things. Fitting one, I suppose, for hearing the past's echoes."

"But is that even a blessing? I wonder. How long one could straddle two worlds, and not begin to lose one..."

She was turning out to be a rather miserable distraction after all. He should have just ******** her the moment she woke up after all, and been done with all this nonsense and gone.

He turned his head, looking at her from one side and extended a hand, lightly tracing a scar on her skin, from one end to another. Whatever sort of foolishness this girl got up to, she was quite intent on throwing her flesh and talents toward it apparently. She had a modest collection started already. "...the shoulder will scar. With proper tools I could remove it, but I get the sense you don't care." He traced another one idly, trying to let his brain move somewhere else.  

[Tei Kae]

"Straddle worlds?", she puzzled his words for a few moments before speaking. "You have to live your life, sometimes the past catches up to you. Deal with it then", her shoulders heaved upwards in another shrug; resulting in another wince. "As long as you don't lose who you believe you are, what does the world matter?", she queried innocently enough before reaching for another drink in the almost empty bottle.

"It's not that I don't care, silly. It's that each one reminds me of who I am, what I am capable of. Each of them is something I chose to do, for my own reasons and to accept them as part of me. Why would I hide that? I am made up of my past, but I am not my past and that is MY identity."