 Location - Alex's house "Alex?" Coppelia says, unable to keep the fright from creeping into her voice. She wants to say more, but fights a brief and vicious struggle with herself and manages to prevent herself blurting anything out that would get Alex into deeper trouble. Still, her hands clench, her perfectly ovoid fingernails digging into the cold flesh of her palms hard enough to dimple them. She resolves that whatever happens, Alex stays with her. Ever since she first awoke, she's been chained to the Contraption in the workshop, each link in the chain another heartbeat before she'd run down. Alex took her off that chain when he wound her last night. She's not letting these cops put it on her again by taking Alex away. pre:Hot -1 Cold -1 Volatile +2 Dark +1 Harm 0 XP 4 Clipperton fucked around with this message at 07:16 on Dec 7, 2014 |
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Dec 7, 2014 07:06
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Welp, I asked for it. pre:Hot: 1 | Cold: -1 | Volatile: 1 | Dark: 0 Harm 0/4 | Experience 4/5 | Conditions: I edge in front of Coppelia. Let the cops focus on me; I've done nothing wrong. Heck, I think I saved a life last night. "Is this about the lady who got shot? Did she not make it?" I'm pretty sure that's not it, based on Mom's reaction, but it doesn't hurt to bring it up, right? I pay attention to all four of them; one of them has to give me something here. Come on! Assuming Heightened Senses works in social situations as well as physically violent ones, I'm going to roll it. I'm using +1 to the roll because my focus is on keeping Coppelia out of it all. Heightened Senses: 2d6+1 9 I'll ask "What's their secret weakness?" (If Heightened Senses is inappropriate here, I'd like instead to Manipulate NPCs to put them at ease; I'd actually get a 10 for that (plus XP) if we reused that same dice result.)
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Dec 7, 2014 18:05
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 Carmine takes a second to pick his jaw up off the floor as the smoke clears from the stuffy room. He's seen some weird stuff, no doubt about that. But this is a chick from his high school. She's normal. Well, not exactly normal, that's why he's here right? But that's collects-a-lot-of-books weird, not phantom-attackers-and-smoking-from-the-mouth weird. Did this happen last night? How the hell didn't he notice that? His mind runs in circles until Adrianna's voice snaps him out of it. He looks away quickly, his gaze hitting the floor like a rock, "Yeah I think I saw it too." He takes a couple of tentative steps forward, looking somewhere just down and to the left of her face. He brings his hand to her face and holds it gently. "We should take a look at your lip, that looks pretty nasty," She breathes out and Carmine runs his fingers through the smoke like a thick incense. He looks up directly into her eyes "Sorry for starin', but you don't belong here either, do you?" Turn Adrianna On: 2d6=8 Mark XP Hot =0 | Cold +1 | Volatile -1 | Dark +1 Harm=0/5 | XP=3/5 | Conditions:Blamed Location: Mercante House
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Dec 7, 2014 20:52
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 Hot -1 | Cold 1 | Volatile -1 | Dark 2 Harm 2/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: Morbid, Darkest Self, Delusional Location: Mercante House As Carmine's shape steps past her Sophie scrambles to her feet and stumbles out of the walk-in closet in blind panic. He... they... someone's here to get her! She has to get away, get out and go somewhere it's safe, get help. Her eyes fall onto the books she'd thrown from the closet and she starts frantically flipping through them, tearing out pages and placing them on the ground until they form huge letters spelling out HELP!
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Dec 7, 2014 21:41
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 Hot -1 | Cold 2 | Volatile -1 | Dark 1 Harm 2/4 | Experience 2/5 | Conditions: Blamed Location: Casa Mercante Even with fluency in two languages and the works of the greatest authors ever written surrounding me, I don't have the words to answer his question. So I don't. I just bury my head into his shoulder and cry. Because I don't know what's happening to me. Because I'm being tormented for no reason. Because I wanted Carmine to like me and now he knows what I am, and because maybe, just maybe, if I cry loud enough, someone will hear me. Take a string. But it isn't long before I hear the most repellent, brutal sound in the world. Glue unbonding from where it was applied by loving hand or uncaring machine. String ripping from cloth-covered cardboard. Carefully folded paper being rended, like a fly having its wings torn off. Looking past Carmine's face, I see the message spelled out on the ground, my breath still heavy and acrid. "What? Help?"
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Dec 7, 2014 22:17
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Hot =0 | Cold +1 | Volatile -1 | Dark +1 Harm=0/5 | XP=3/5 | Conditions:Blamed Location: Mercante House Carmine shifts his body ever so slightly to wrap his arms around her. Well this is a first. He knew he would have some sort of effect, but this is kinda unexpected. He can see the smoke filtering through his shirt and curling up to frame her face. It stings his eyes so he closes them, tears springing out at the edges. Adrianna's breath is warm and dry, like the heat from a nearly dead campfire. He listens to her sobs, confused and a little embarrassed. Christ, I try to make a move and she winds up cryin' her eyes out. Smooth one, Carmine. He feels her shift and he opens his eyes. She's looking at something past him, and her smoke's gone from campfire to burning oil. Carmine looks at Adrianna confused for a second then turns around. His blood runs cold. This isn't just some psycho who got in the house, this is a spirit. Might even be the one Granny was talkin' about. "Hey, who's there? I think I can help you!" he yells in the general direction of the note. If its anything like the spirits he knows, it'll hear him.
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Dec 7, 2014 23:52
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Hot -1 | Cold 1 | Volatile -1 | Dark 2 Harm 2/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: Morbid, Darkest Self, Delusional Location: Mercante House They noticed! She can hear them talking about it. She scrambles to rearrange the pages to spell out her name, then finds The Silence of the Lambs, The Canterville Ghost and Frankenstein in the pile of books and puts them underneath her name, then spells out 'Ruby' underneath that with loose pages.
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Dec 8, 2014 00:10
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Hot -1 | Cold 2 | Volatile -1 | Dark 1 Harm 2/4 | Experience 2/5 | Conditions: Blamed Location: Casa Mercante When Carmine turns around to check out the message, I crawl over and start looking at the books. What can I say? Even given the circumstances, I can't help but try to solve the puzzle. "S-O-P-H-I-E. Sophie. And three books. SCF, STF, TTF, TSOTLTCGF - no, the titles themselves aren't important. And then R-U - okay, Ruby. So loose pages equal individual letters and words. So..." I try to think back to last night. Ruby and Sophie had gotten out of the car first. Together. Maybe they were hanging out before the chaos at the gas station. Come to think of it, there was something familiar about that outline in the smoke. The way it shrunk when I fought back. The same way she shrunk when I got angry at her by the lockers. "...so what do the three books mean? A book about a cannibal. Well, well-known for a cannibalistic character, at any rate. A book about a depressed, powerless ghost, and a book about a created man." Another look at the torn pages reveals them to be from a biology textbook, I think. Doesn't appear to mean anything - blank pages lie alongside anatomical drawings and the usual fluffy, useless pictures of cute animals they waste page space with. "Sophie, why these other two books..."
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Dec 8, 2014 01:19
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Hot -1 | Cold 1 | Volatile -1 | Dark 2 Harm 2/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: Morbid, Darkest Self, Delusional Location: Mercante House Nothing happens for a while, then Frankenstein slides down towards Ruby's name and the pages spelling out Sophie's name reshuffle themselves to spell out 'LOST'.
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Dec 8, 2014 01:42
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 Hot 0 | Cold 2 | Volatile 1 | Dark -1 Harm 0/4 | Experience 1/5 | Conditions: Darkest Self Location: Stillman House Ruby has had a lot of time to think. Too much time. Who is deserving of her rage? The rest of Jenny's little pack, perhaps, or that lunatic cop...but it's all starting to feel hollow now. It won't bring Sophie back, anyway, and that means no more friends along the lonely road she's heading down. Her mind keeps going back to the beginning, to the source of all their troubles. The alchemist has already suffered all he's going to, but fair is fair, and he's not the one who ran her over and left her for dead. She didn't see who was driving that night, but she did see who was sitting in the passenger seat... That will have to do until she can find out if her theory about the alchemist is correct. Until then, there's only one person who can tell her anything useful. She takes a moment to regard her handiwork. Even with razorblades for fingernails, it took awhile, but into the plastic coating of the alchemist's freezer she has scrawled, COME FOR ME. She contemplates her interminable loneliness again and slows the car down. She's not going to get into wreck for want of a moment to dry her eyes. No sooner does she cruise by Alex Stillman's house than her plans for him go to poo poo. He's got Coppelia with him. And much, much worse are the two police deputies she sees through the living room window. Oh, well. Twice in one day, I suppose. She parks around the corner and circles the house looking for whichever room belongs to Alex. She doesn't want to break his window. She doesn't want to tear the police apart. But she came for answers, and she'll have them, one way or another.
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Dec 8, 2014 03:13
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Hot =0 | Cold +1 | Volatile -1 | Dark +1 Harm=0/5 | XP=3/5 | Conditions:Blamed Location: Mercante House Carmine stares in shock as Adrianna goes to work translating the riddle. Its like a soft wind is blowing each book and page into place, spelling things out, the soft shuffling of each book and the thin tearing of the pages punctuating the quiet. Sophie? No way, he'd just seen her yesterday. But there it was, spelled out in the books. And Granny did say the spirit was new. But what does Ruby have to do with it? His belly turns and writhes like its filled with snakes. She must be the one responsible for this. That's how this poo poo goes in the movies. The ghost tells people the name of the killer so they can find peace. Silence of the Lambs, Frankenstein? Must have been a fuckin' horrorshow too. "God Sophie, what did Ruby do to you?" he whispers to nothing, barely breathing. The gris-gris bag is burning a hole in his back, feeling like the button inside is pulling its way into his flesh. Granny, is this really what you want from me? he thinks, staring at the name laying on the floor, But if it'll help her out, I'll do what I have to. "Adrianna, I've gotta go. All this is a little fuckin' much for me" Carmine says, zipping his coat and stepping around the message on the floor, "Just uhh, be safe, alright?"
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Dec 8, 2014 16:56
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Hot -1 | Cold 2 | Volatile -1 | Dark 1 Harm 2/4 | Experience 3/5 | Conditions: Blamed Location: Casa Mercante No, wait. Where's he going? He can't leave now, after all of this. "Carmine, wait. I... I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened after you came over out of the blue asking for books about ghosts and seances. In this weather, it has to be about something more than 'messing with the penguins.' Am I right?" As he tries to step around the message, I wrap my arms around him from behind. I can't let him go. I'll go with him, if I have to. "Besides, your socks are probably still wet. So why don't we sit down, have some nice, warm coffee, and see if I have any books that can help. I don't want to be alone right now." Turn Someone On: 2d6-1 4 Orokos strikes again! Marking XP. Jolinaxas fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 18:24
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Hot -1 | Cold 1 | Volatile -1 | Dark 2 Harm 2/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: Location: Mercante House She's trying, she really is, to explain herself to them somehow. She even started to regret lashing out at Adrianna but now they turn away from her to get all cozy with each other and she's ignored once again. They're no help at all! She picks up the loose pages in a big clump and throws them at the two. What a waste of time! The only one who pays any attention to her is Ruby and even if she's scary that's still better than nothing, right? She storms out of the room and down the stairs, slamming doors and pictures and shelves as she goes until she rushes out the front door. For the second time today she runs off into the snow, unsure of where to go, so she wanders aimlessly through the empty streets. Maybe she should go back to the house... No, she can't stand the thought of her dead body sitting in that freezer like a piece of meat. She could go home, pretend she's just being ignored by her parents instead of being a ghost... Is this what happens when you die? Then shouldn't there be others? Why is she all alone in this place? Is she supposed to do something? Gazing into the Abyss... 2d6+2: 10 [2d6=2, 6] ...and curing Morbid. As she wanders her eyes fall onto a familiar car. It's the Beast. Not that she knows it's nickname but she recognizes it as Alex' car. She also sees the police cruiser. What's going on? Did he get in trouble for helping them last night> She slowly trudges towards one of the windows to peer inside, not noticing the car parked around the corner. Atropha fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 18:53
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Hot =0 | Cold +1 | Volatile -1 | Dark +1 Harm=0/5 | XP=3/5 | Conditions:Blamed Location: Mercante House Carmine can see the worry written all over Adrianna's face. He knows what this must look like to her, darting off after seeing all this weird stuff. Hot coffee, warm clothes and a pretty girl is a drat tempting offer, for that matter. But he can hear the spirits whispering and the image of Ruby sitting warm and satisfied while Sophie lies frozen somewhere keeps intruding into his thoughts. He can't take his time with this. "Yeah, you're right. About everythin' really. I've just got somethin' to do, and I don't think you wanna be there for it. I gotta find Ruby, you know where she lives?" Carmine's face softens when his eyes meet Adrianna's, "I'll be back soon, and when I am, we can- well we'll talk. Sorry about this."
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Dec 9, 2014 01:48
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Hot -1 | Cold 2 | Volatile -1 | Dark 1 Harm 2/4 | Experience 3/5 | Conditions: Blamed Location: Casa Mercante "Just... let me know if there's anything I can do. If I can help. Here - take my number." I let go and write my number down on one of the scrap pages. When I catch a glimpse of my face in the the shiny brass of a desk light, I remind myself that I should probably concentrate on looking less like an insane, bloodshot wreck in the immediate future. "Her address should be in the school directory. It's by the phone, downstairs - I'll show you. Let me call you a cab?"
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Dec 9, 2014 02:56
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Hot =0 | Cold +1 | Volatile -1 | Dark +1 Harm=0/5 | XP=3/5 | Conditions:Blamed Location: Mercante House Carmine accepts the number with a hint of a smile. "Thanks. And yeah, if cabs are runnin' in this poo poo, I'd like that a hell of a lot better'n walkin'." He follows Adrianna through the winding library, his heart pounding like a prizefighter. What is she? Collecting books, breathing smoke, solving puzzles, it makes for a lot to sort through in his head. And doesn't she have parents? He was serious when he said they'd talk, just as much for his benefit as hers. But as they both descend the stairs his curiosity is tempered by anxiety. What if Ruby's at her place? That's gonna make it a hell of a lot harder to grab something to hex her with. He briefly thinks about Remy back home, but gently caress it, she deserves what's comin' to her. Sophie never did nothing to nobody and she can't just be left to suffer like this. As Adrianna makes the call Carmine fights his way back into his boots and stares out into the wintry world. Hes just gonna have to cross his fingers.
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Dec 9, 2014 05:31
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 Alex's House In the silence, Alex's eyes dart between his parents and the officers. His father is livid; just the fact that agents of the law have entered his home incenses him and the idea that it was his son's doing that brought them here offends him a good deal more. He'd seen the reports on the news and never thought Alex would be mixed up in something like that. Alex's mother is the other side of the coin, naturally. She wants this to blow over. The only blessing here is that the poor roads kept a police cruiser from parking out in front of their home. I mean, what would the neighbors say? Neither of them seem to be concerned that he's returned with a young woman they've never seen. The officers, however, seem to be quite concerned with this - and everything else. They know that a young woman roughly matching Coppelia's description was seen at the incident last night. Deputy Miller frowns from behind her long, swept bangs. She knows that something is up, and these two are in the thick of it. Any questions that really matter are going to come from her. (Unrelatedly, Alex can smell that she is just barely pregnant - she probably doesn't know yet.) Deputy Wagner is sweating, but from excitement, not from the heat or fear. Wagner is short and hanging over hit belt and he's ready to pull his cuffs on this little punk - or his nightstick, if necessary. Someone has upset the balance in his little city and there's an explanation at the bottom of this bucket of teenage deviancy. Alex pegs him as the one who threw implications and accusations at his already aggravated father. The heartbeats in this room could power a pretty sick beat. Since it's a social situation and not a combat one, I decided to go with the spirit of the move and lay out everything Alex can see, smell, and hear about the situation. What do you do? Mercante House Whatever presence was here, it has departed. There's one fucker crazy enough to brave the ice and snow for a fare, but Old McNabb demands a hundred to take them maybe a few miles. Adrianna casually produces it (plus tip) and they are off in a minivan with a AARON IS GOOD BUT HE'S NO BART sticker on the bumper. You may arrive wherever you wish. Sophie & Ruby Ruby literally can't see Sophie. In her state, Sophie can't see Ruby. They are both searching, needing, stuck in their own personal hells. The mists of the Abyss swirl around them, ready to take the first soul that wishes oblivion. There it stands, happiness and hearth and danger and anger. Love, maybe; hormones, certainly; absolution - probably not. Super 8 - Room 215 The room is generic and cheap in the way only cut-rate chains can be. Will (or whatever he's called) isn't seeing the thin floral bedspread. He hasn't even opened the curtains to the beautiful view of the snow-covered airport. He barely slept last night. His intent, rapid keystrokes betray that he's found something here. It is something real, something true that he hasn't captured yet in fiction (the ultimate reflection of truth). Adrianna is mixed up in it, even if she isn't one herself. That young man she was with is definitely the something. Perhaps there are others here. Do they know what they are? Does he dare ask?
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Dec 9, 2014 09:09
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Hot 0 | Cold 2 | Volatile 1 | Dark -1 Harm 0/4 | Experience 1/5 | Conditions: Darkest Self Location: Stillman House Ruby would just as soon wait for the police to leave and walk through the front door like a sane and normal person. Hello, I'm Ruby Clark, she'd say. Is Alex home? Blah blah, homework, blah blah, just wanted to thank him, and they could have a private conversation. But things can't ever be sane and normal, can they? And she can't wait, can she? At least she can listen in on whatever the pigs have to say. It doesn't take long to find Alex's room. Boy stuff. Having committed her second break-in today, Ruby reflects that it's easy to tell whose room is whose by the posters on the walls. Ruby isn't allowed to have posters in her room. She put a framed one on top of a bookcase once, didn't even nail it to the wall, and her mother had taken it down before she got home from school, which is why all her posters are on the walls of the den. She sits on Alex's bed and waits. It smells like him, and until then she didn't realize that she knows what Alex smells like. And although nothing will deter her from doing the right thing, she reflects that Alex is the only person she knows who really stuck his neck out for her since she arrived in Green Bay. Not just for her, but the other girls too, and it was plain that he would have helped them even if she hadn't batted her eyelashes at him. She feels a little let down by that. But even worse, Alex is a good person. She doesn't have the right to hurt him, so how is she going to get to the bottom of this? She rises from the bed and creeps near the door, trying to listen in on the conversation in the living room.
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Dec 9, 2014 17:32
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Location: Alex's House Dammit, this just isn't fair! There was obviously a whole lot of accusation going on before I walked in the door, and now they just clam up and wait for me to make trouble for myself? I shrug my hands in a "I dunno" gesture. "I'm happy to tell you officers what I know about last night, but I don't know much. I just happened to be there buying gas, and mom taught me some basic first aid stuff, so I did what I could for the lady. I didn't see how I could do anything for the guy in the Ranger. He should have put on his seatbelt, right?" If they ask about the cop, I can truthfully say I have no idea why he acted like that. I just hope they don't ask about Coppelia; but why should they ask about her? She wasn't there when he started shooting up the place! Pretty sure this triggers Manipulate NPC, so. 2d6+2 4 poo poo! Marking XP, though, which gets me to an advance. Will think about what to take. pre:Hot: 1 | Cold: -1 | Volatile: 1 | Dark: 0 Harm 0/4 | Experience 5/5 | Conditions:
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Dec 9, 2014 20:11
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Hot -1 | Cold 2 | Volatile -1 | Dark 1 Harm 1/4 | Experience 3/5 | Conditions: Blamed Location: Casa Mercante Watching him drive away in McNabb's taxi, I decide to make an effort to stop feeling sorry for myself all day. First step is taking a shower, getting properly dressed and cleaning this lip. Occasionally, I say Sophie's name, to see if she decided to stick around after all, but I never get a response. Before heading back downstairs, I tidy up my library as best I can; throwing out the biology textbook and re-shelving the books on the floor. I don't know why she had to pull this one shelf completely over - now I have to put them all back in order... One book catches my eye - the 1943 edition of the Joy of Cooking. I don't have any of the other editions, but this one interested me, because it has all this stuff in it related to wartime rationing that was cut out of the 1946 reprinting. I'm no sooner down the stairs and in the kitchen when I realize a complication related to my mother being out of town - the refrigerator is woefully understocked. Still, there's some leftovers in here - would a cookbook made during war with the Japanese have instructions for a teriyaki stir-fry? I may have to improvise. So let's open a bottle of wine and hope for the best. Spending some downtime to drop her harm down to 1/4. I think blamed still sticks around, though.
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Dec 10, 2014 01:09
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Location - Alex's house Coppelia has shrunk behind Alex, almost peeking around his shoulder at the cops. As he talks to them she lets herself hope a little that this will turn out okay--he sounds so confident--but she can see the cops aren't buying it. She can't see that the cops have an interest in her--as far as Coppelia knows, she's just a bystander. She's wondered if the cops know about the Bug, but there's nothing to link the car to her (it's not like she had it registered). It might lead them to her house, but who cares? The only thing in the House she needed was the Contraption to wind her, and she has Alex now. So she won't let him go with the police. Not if she can help it. She steps jerkily forward. "Officers? How is that officer--the one at the Gas'n'Go--I mean, the one with the gun...how is he doing? It was terrible...I thought he was going to shoot us! Do you know what happened?" Maybe if they're reminded that it was one of their own shooting up a gas station that started all this, they'll be a little reluctant to throw their weight around. Manipulating the cops in Alex's house: 2d6 9! What'll it take to get the cops to take a hike? pre:Hot -1 Cold -1 Volatile +2 Dark +1 Harm 0 XP 0
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Dec 10, 2014 02:15
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Hot =0 | Cold +1 | Volatile -1 | Dark +1 Harm=0/5 | XP=3/5 | Conditions:Blamed Location: Ruby's Place Carmine winces as Adrianna pulls five crisp 20's out of her wallet. "Thanks, I owe you a big one. I swear, I'll be back." He gives her an awkward half-hug and trudges out to McNabb's minivan. The windows are cloudy with cigarette smoke and the whole thing smells like Hardee's and Vitalis. McNabb gives Carmine a crazed smile. "Hold on tight, bud. And you're on pig watch, I got enough points on my license already." Carmine fidgets and buckles his seat belt, wishing it were just a hair tighter. The ride is mercifully short, especially with the way McNabb drives. By the time they arrive at the hulking Victorian place, Carmine is clutching the hand strap with white knuckles. When the ABS chugs the van to a stop in the driveway, he dives out the door with his bag slung across his shoulder. He flips up his hood to keep the snow off his head. "Hey bud, unless you're paying you're SOL for the way back," McNabb calls at him. Carmine throws him a big shrug and turns toward Ruby's place. The van revs up and barely gets enough traction to get out, fishtailing its way out into the street. Carmine is left alone in the quiet snow, in the flat shadow of the big house. Now to find a way in. No chance of not leaving a trail, but if his plan works he won't have anything to fear. He tries the front door, locked of course. But the back door, that's got a nice window, one pretty close to the door handle. He digs under the snow and finds a pathway rock he can pry up. The first hit doesn't do it, and Carmine freezes solid for a second, waiting for someone to yell at him. But it never comes. Just the muffled hiss of falling snow. The second hit does it, and he ducks his way into the house. Its cold and dark and smells like funeral flowers. Carmine suppresses a shudder as he walks into the yawning living room. Now he just needs to find a bathroom, or maybe a laundry room...
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Dec 10, 2014 03:11
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Alex's House The officers listen to Alex's description and then to Coppelia's additions. They ask a lot of questions like "how did you all end up in the same place?" and "why didn't you stay at the scene?" In the end, though, they seem satisfied with several pages of notes and a copy of Alex and Coppelia's licenses. Coppelia tries to hide her fear when they ask for hers, but one of the fortunate things about living so close to Canada is that the police don't blink twice at a Canadian license. They lecture the two teenagers about the importance of spending time with the right people and staying out of trouble. Then they wish everyone a good day and depart. They aren't ten feet off the step when a window shatters upstairs. "What in the hell was that?" yells Mr. Stillman. "Stay here, Rose. I'll go check on it." He pulls a pistol out of the hall closet and transforms from Alex's father into the Marine still in his heart. Alex knows there is only one closed door - his - and a moment later it is forced open. Upstairs Ruby presses her ear against the door. It bursts open, knocking her onto the floor. An angry middle-aged man with close-cropped grey hair and a face that advises an onlookers against loving with him is pointing a pistol at her chest. "Who the gently caress are you?!" What do you do? Ruby's Place Of all the things he could think of, Ruby's house reminds Carmine of the movie Alien. Not the crazy acid-spewing flamethrower part, of course. His mind goes to the empty, atmospheric elements of the film: the silent journey through the corridors, Harry Stanton calling for the damned cat, the dilapidated, used haunted house of a spaceship. It might have to do with the fact that inside the house, everything is normal. There's a coffee maker and a relatively new television and pictures on the walls that don't follow him when he moves. And yet...something is wrong about this place. It shouldn't be this empty. It's not that there are spirits here, it's that there aren't. There's a seventies bathroom behind an unpainted door, olive green bathtub and all. It's too small to have the tub; someone hacked this out of another room sometime after America realized that one toilet per house wasn't enough. Mercante House Adrianna is midway through cooking the worst rendition of "stirred fried vegetables" she's ever read when the house phone rings. She jumps; the house is too quiet as it is. Thoughts of who might be calling: that weird Will guy? The police? School? She edges over to the cordless handset, lifts it up, and presses TALK. "Hello?" "Hey honey!" says her mother's voice. "How have you been?" It is actually your mother. Dropping a bit of characterization opportunity in your lap while Carmine has an adventure.
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Dec 11, 2014 00:08
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Hot =0 | Cold +1 | Volatile -1 | Dark +1 Harm=0/5 | XP=3/5 | Conditions:Blamed Location: Carmine's House Even with breaking and entering aside, Carmine doesn't want to be here any longer than necessary. Its nothing he can put his finger on, exactly. This old place just doesn't feel right. It reminds him of the time he went urban exploring after Katrina hit. Like everything had just stopped and never started back up again. Silent and still and dead. That's the right word for it. He does his best to keep his hands to himself,but can't resist running his finger along a shelf and picking up a pile of dust. You'd hardly believe anyone lives here, he thinks, scanning the hallway for more rooms. There's a room with a big lock on it, one that looks like it might be a bedroom, and bingo, a half-bath shoved in between them. He quietly pushes the door the rest of the way open and begins rummaging for something he can use against Ruby. Luckily, bathrooms tend to pick up those things. Hairbrushes, towels, makeup, all of them can hold pieces of their owners. And even the smallest piece can be as great as the whole. There's a hairbrush sitting at the side of the sink. Carmine grabs it and starts ripping out stray wisps of hair. With something this close to her, it shouldn't take much. He stuffs the hair into his gris-gris and takes a deep breath. He needs to get back home, where he's got the supplies to make the spell really bite. He steps out into the snow once more, slogging through the thick covering as fast as he can. From the times he managed to keep his eyes open during McNabb's ride, he finds his way back. He shucks his coat at the door, not bothering to hang it up. He throws his bag down and digs out the hair from the gris-gris, twisting it into a thick strand and tying the end to keep it together. He grabs a crude doll made of burlap and jute out of his closet. He wraps the hair around the neck of the doll and begins chanting. Carmine takes a jet-black ribbon and begins wrapping the doll, starting at one leg, and continuing up the body until he reaches the neck. His chanting grows louder as he wraps the neck three times, calling the Loa to do their work and bind Ruby. I'll make it so you can never kill again... Hex Ruby: 2d6+2=5 Permotriassic fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 01:55
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The door flies open right into her face, and Ruby goes sprawling onto her butt. "Ow, Jesus Christ!" she shrieks, rubbing her forehead. It doesn't really hurt, but nobody likes getting caught off guard like that, do they? She looks up into the barrel of a gun. It's pointed at her chest, and she imagines the barrel covering the blazing scar that runs down her breastbone. Roberta's never felt more scared in her life, hollowed out, naked and exposed. She wants to cry, scream, beg for mercy, and most of all, cry out for Alex to come save her. But in an instant that terrified girl feels like a rubber skin worn by the Ruby underneath. She takes her eyes off the gun barrel and makes eye contact with Mr. Stillman, pulls her knees to her chest and rises to her feet. Ruby is sick and tired. Of hating, of feeling hated. Of men holding women under a scalpel or a gun. Of anything in her way. Wrong place, wrong time, and a gun. Is this how Sophie died? Tiny red pinpoints flash in her pupils. But no. She owes Alex. He's Alex's father. She broke into his house. He's probably scared, too. This isn't right. Her weight has shifted forward onto the balls of her feet, and she has to hold back the beast from jumping through her papier-mache and onto Stillman, bullets be damned. "I'm sorry about the window, Mr. Stillman. I didn't mean to scare you." The words sound like they could have come from a computer. "I'll repair it." She looks down at the gun again, and back up at Mr. Stillman. "I'm Roberta Clark. If it wasn't for Alex, I'd be in the hospital. He's very brave. Put the gun down." Hold steady: 8 Ruby keeps her cool, too detached to glean anything from the situation. quote:
Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 02:34
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Hot -1 | Cold 2 | Volatile -1 | Dark 1 Harm 1/4 | Experience 3/5 | Conditions: Blamed Location: Casa Mercante When I hear who's on the other end, I pause for a second to try to get the lightness (caused by her wine, no less) out of my voice. "Oh, hi Mama... well, just trying to keep myself occupied. Should I take one of the cards and go shopping when the snow clears?" "No, I understand. If they need you there, it must be important. What? Well no, I don't really know what ISO 19011 is..." "There's a lot of snow - no school, but then, you must have known that, since you called so early. Or should the maid have been here? No friends over yet - don't sound so disappointed..." A pause for some explanation. My mother (Diane, though she hates when I call her that), she works for this advertising agency as some kind of media coordinator. Most of the time, she works from home, since most of her job has to do with the Internet. Apparently, this week there's talk of some kind of reorganization? She talks very fast, sometimes I miss important things... "So, when are you due back?"
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Dec 11, 2014 03:03
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Location: Alex's House I'm close on dad's heels. He blocks the doorway, but if I duck down, I can see under his arm to spot Ruby standing there and the broken window behind her. "Ruby?" I say, louder than I meant to. "What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" I mean, I can tell from just looking that everything isn't — she had nowhere near that kind of expression last night — but you gotta start somewhere, right? Reposting the complete playbook, since Alex took a new move (Light the Way, from the Chosen skin). Werewolf posted:Look: wiry, savage eyes
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Dec 11, 2014 03:19
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Hot -1 | Cold 1 | Volatile -1 | Dark 2 Harm 2/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: Darkest Self, Delusional Location: Stillman House Sophie slowly pushes herself through the window when she realizes she can't hear anything and listens to Alex and Coppelia explain things to the cops and she wonders if she might be able to get the cops to find her corpse in the freezer. For a moment it seems like the thing to do, but then she remembers that Ruby already killed the one who murdered her and clearly that didn't do a dang thing to put her to rest. And would she even want that? What if there's nothing else after this? Or maybe this is it, you die and then you get to watch everyone else go on with their lives. Maybe she should just go haunt the place where she died for the rest of eternity. She's so preoccupied with her morose musings she doesn't hear the breaking window or notice Alex and his dad heading upstairs. Instead she just sits in the corner of the living room, spreading a chill through the air as she wallows in her misery.
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Dec 11, 2014 03:31
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"Alex," she says. "I'm sorry. I didn't know where else to go. I just freaked out, and I'm scared." And she realizes that she is scared, even if she can't detect within herself the precise layer that separates the pulsating animal from the cold carapace. It's a discomfiting feeling. "I just came to talk with you." She tries her best to look past Mr. Stillman as if he's no longer there.
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Dec 11, 2014 05:41
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Location: Alex's House "For Christ's sake, dad, put down the gun!" I squeeze past him and stand between him and Ruby. Nobody's getting shot today, not if I can help it. "Do you want those cops to come back because you shot up one of my classmates? Really? You're the adult here, so act like it!" I'm risking a grounding or worse by talking to him like this, I know. But just because he's sick doesn't mean he gets to threaten my friends! As discussed with Z, this is shutting someone down. 2d6-1 4. Well, drat. pre:Hot: 1 | Cold: -1 | Volatile: 1 | Dark: 0 Harm 0/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions:
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Dec 11, 2014 06:16
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Hot -1 | Cold 1 | Volatile -1 | Dark 2 Harm 2/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: Darkest Self, Delusional Location: Stillman House As Sophie let's her thoughts wander towards what might lie beyond whatever in-between space she's in right now she feels the world go blurry and washed out around her and she starts to loose track of where exactly she is. Her feet suddenly don't find the floor solid anymore and without it to stand on it's as if she lacks a point to orient herself on. The whole house is just kind of... around her. Or maybe it's her whose self is spread around. She feels like she's falling in place without going anywhere but at the same time she doesn't know how to move or pull herself together or find the floor again. Here and there she catches glimpses of windows of sharper images and she slowly begins to panic as she tries to force herself towards one of them, but everything is so floaty and directionless. For the second time today she feels anxiety tighten her chest and she screams trying to free herself from it as she tries to claw her way towards the rectangle of crisp colors... The other side of the rectangle turns out to be a mirror in Alex' room and ice flowers spread out over it's surface as a vague shape appears in it, to stand just a little behind Ruby, sort of fluttering and distorting as it silently screams.
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Dec 11, 2014 06:26
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Location - Alex's room Coppelia's heart was going a mile a minute all the time the cops have been in Alex's house, so fast she was afraid she'd run down there and then. When they finally leave, it resumes something like its normal rate--for about ten seconds, until the sound of breaking glass comes from upstairs. And Alex's father charges up there with a loving gun. That's it, she thinks, I'm done. I'll just stay here and--but then Alex follows his father upstairs, leaving her alone. With Alex's mother. After making out with her son five minutes ago. Next to that kind of social anxiety, a bullet in the head starts to seem positively refreshing. She makes her way slowly and cautiously up the stairs. She can hear Alex's father shouting, then another voice (is that a girl?) and finally Alex's. Then she reaches Alex's room and slowly sticks her head inside. "Ruby?" she says. Then she sees the rectangular mirror of the wall, and the frost flowers that bloom on the glass as a shape appears behind her. Her heart freezes and she points at the mirror and screams.
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Dec 12, 2014 05:03
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Carmine The voudoun is not any one thing: not death, not life, not luck or doom or witchcraft or knowledge. It can as easily bestow any of those things (and just as often finds a way to bring more than one). Carmine just knows that his spell has gone wrong, as one knows a storm looms and the sun is nearing the horizon. Instead of a binding, something has been released into the world; not a spirit, but a piece of something - something at the center, the core, the heart of a being. Grandmama's voice comes unbidden. She's gone as quickly as she came. "Boy, you mess in things that ain't yours. That girl is lost and you done nothin' to find her." I am thinking Carmine wants to head back to Adrianna's. Mercante House "Oh, honey, you're the sweetest," says her mother. "I've missed you too!" Adrianna rolled her eyes. Clearly. "I'll be home early tomorrow. I heard about the snowstorm! Have you been throwing some cool parties while I was gone?" Adrianna is reasonably certain her pupils are going to disappear. "Has the maid been by? Oh, yeah, I fired her. She wasn't doing so great of a job. Will you please dust before I get back?" The doorbell rings. Adrianna says goodbye and hangs up the phone before her mother can reply. Alex's Room Mr. Stillman is yelling something, but no one can make it out over the spine-chilling scream. It's not a human scream; it's the sound of metal protesting at being bent and torn. Everyone looks at her finger, and then at the mirror: Sophie, screaming behind spider-webbed frost, her face a distorted memory of the girl that once was. Abruptly, the glass shatters. Everyone realizes that there has been a gunshot. The US Marine Corps trains its soldiers well - so well that they keep things like "target checking" and "fire/hold" internalized for decades after their service is over. What they absolutely do not train you for is a ghostly teenage girl's screaming face appearing in a mirror in your son's bedroom. For this first time since Afghanistan, Stillman panics. His accuracy is perfect; had the girl actually been there, he would have put a neat hole in the bridge of her nose. Alex's dad returns to sanity. He lowers his pistol and looks around the room. Seeing that no one is hurt, he looks at Alex. "I want these people out of my house." His voice registers absolute zero. "All of them. Now." Everyone's heart is beating overtime. Ruby doubles over on the ground. Her chest spasms, like a combination of a smoker's cough and the worst heartburn you've ever experienced. On the right side of her chest, something pulses. Something added. Something extra. Thu-thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thu-thump. Thu-thu-thu-thump. Ruby feels the rage and hunger leave her body as she returns to cold reality. Ruby's Darkest Self has passed. It's a loose interpretation, but someone has confronted her and stopped her in her tracks. Sophie Sophie's form, such as it was, dissipates in the panic of a bullet flying toward her head. She immediately reforms: part of the wall this time, looking at the room. Not looking, really; more like looking at herself looking into the room. A warmth grows in her chest where her heart used to be. It's just the slightest sliver of life, but it's all she has right now.
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Dec 12, 2014 07:59
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Hot -1 | Cold 2 | Volatile -1 | Dark 1 Harm 1/4 | Experience 3/5 | Conditions: Blamed Location: Casa Mercante "Of course, Mama can't you hear the loud rock music and vomiting?" Two can play at the passive-aggressive sarcasm game, drat it. Oh, the doorbell! "What was that about the maid? Can't hear you - your cell must be..." Click. Let's just put this attempt at food in the sink and set two more espressos to brew. "Hey. You came back. So how'd it go?"
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Dec 12, 2014 08:47
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Hot =0 | Cold +1 | Volatile -1 | Dark +1 Harm=0/5 | XP=3/5 | Conditions:Blamed Location: Adrianna's House The chanting grows louder and louder until Carmine stops dead, waiting for the surge of spirit voices to take up his call. Instead, Granny's voice stabs like a dagger into the back of his head. He unwraps the black ribbon from the doll slowly, afraid of what he might find hiding there. But there's nothing, no hair, no horrible critters, no blood, just dust flying away under his hard breath. But I'm tryin' to get her back now, Granny! he thinks, throwing the doll against the dark window. He punches the floor hard, his frustration building to a crescendo of anger. Sophie's dead, her killer is out there and I can't do poo poo about it! gently caress. gently caress! Carmine takes a few deep breaths. Alright, alright. I had a plan right? If I can call her spirit to me, I can get her back. It could still work. Okay. He sits in the shaft of light from his half-opened door and sighs. If he's going to try it that way, he'll need to go back to Adrianna. And that means he can't hide behind a school project or some other dumb excuse anymore. He shifts nervously, pulling Sophie's button out of his bag and rolling it between his fingers. Maybe Adrianna will understand, even if he doesn't understand her. And if it'll save Sophie, maybe one person can know his secret... *** Carmine stands back at Adrianna's doorstep, trying not to look like a kicked puppy. It was a shorter walk when he didn't have to make it from the library, and the snow is slowing down a bit, but he's still not too happy. He looks down for a moment then rings the doorbell. Adrianna's showered, changed, and Carmine feels suddenly self conscious. "It, uh, didn't go so well," he says, staring at the ground as he steps up into the house, knocking some snow off at the door, "Hey, so we need to talk. About Sophie. And some other things too."
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Dec 12, 2014 18:04
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Hot -1 | Cold 2 | Volatile -1 | Dark 1 Harm 1/4 | Experience 3/5 | Conditions: Blamed Location: Casa Mercante "Oh. Well - come in. I've got some espresso on, just give me a second." Whatever strange errand he had - it looks like it didn't go so well. I head back into the kitchen to grab the little espresso cups and walk the two of us over to the dining room table. Best leave the wine in the kitchen for now. "Okay. Let's talk." Jolinaxas fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Dec 12, 2014 |
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Dec 12, 2014 22:37
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Hot -1 | Cold 1 | Volatile -1 | Dark 2 Harm 2/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: Darkest Self, Delusional Location: Stillman House She clutches her chest in surprise at even just a little bit of warmth blooming inside her chest. How is that possible? She feels dizzy, as if she was in two places at once and stumbles out of the wall. The small ember in her chest glows ever so slightly brighter as she steps closer to Ruby. There's something floating there, just above the ground, something that's part of her. Like a spark dancing in the air. She grasps at it and it slips through her fingers no matter how much she tries, but it's there and that gives her at least a little bit of hope. She glances around and spots Coppelia. She looks at her blankly for a moment and then realizes whose name she had called out. Ruby! Of course... Her heart sinks a little as she looks back at the pulsing spark in front of her that slowly fades from her view as Ruby's shape seems to fade in. She's clutching her chest and looks like she might be hurt. She tries to help her up but only manages to vaguely tug at her clothes. "Ruby! Are you... is my... Please don't let it stop!"
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Dec 13, 2014 03:32
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Hot 0 | Cold 2 | Volatile 1 | Dark -1 Harm 0/4 | Experience 2/5 | Conditions: Darkest Self Location: Stillman House When Ruby lays eyes on Sophie's face in the mirror, she only has time for a sharp intake of breath before the bullet breaks it to pieces. She gropes at the broken frame when the pain hits her, bearing her up and tumbling her body like an ocean wave. But the rhythm, the rhythm is pounding faster and faster inside of her. She feels it squeezing her lungs, knocking against her ribs, as if...as if her heart was expanding. When the pain subsides she's left with the memories of the day flashing before her eyes. A terrifying realization dawns upon her like the cold light of a winter morning. She's not a cold-blooded killer or an agent of Nemesis. She's a girl, lonesome and ashamed, and when she thought her only friend was gone forever, she became a monster to escape the pain of being just a girl. All it got her was a close call with a loaded gun and a stolen sliver of glass. But deep inside it all and through it all she feels the steady and unwavering beat of something she thought she'd never feel again. Not passion or kindness--things she'd never really lost, anyway--but hope. Hope that life is something more than making it through today, and tomorrow, and maybe the next day. A hope that she hadn't felt well up inside her since...since the day she told Sophie she liked her necklace, Sophie said something about her jacket, and she had something to do that day besides watch old movies. She sits, slumped over before the broken mirror, and pulls her arms in tight and draws her knees to her chest, holding on to that sliver of hope like a flickering candle. "Oh. I knew it was you. But I thought that was the only piece of you left." She peeks out between her fingers with her hands pressed against her face. "Dead inside me. Are you...Sophie? Are you there?" She whispers, oblivious to Alex and Coppelia, but hoping that Mr. Stillman has wandered away. "I'm sorry. I'm just so, so sorry. I knew I had to tell you the truth, and I did, about what happened to us. But not the truth about me. Not really. Please, come back? It's all I could think about while I...while I held you and waited for the light to go out. I never told you how much it meant to me that you put up with my poo poo. I never told you that I don't feel lonely when you're around. That you make me feel like a person. That I feel like a person when you're around. That like...you made me feel like maybe I can actually make it. Be really something to somebody. gently caress, I never even thanked you for being my best friend!" She clutches at her scarf, wipes her eyes and nose. "I should have said that, I know maybe you think you don't belong here anymore but, you've got to hold on. The world's better because you're here. My world. I am. I've got a piece of you inside me but I'm sorry, Sophie, it's not enough. I want you here." She looks up at the ceiling and holds herself again, as if the sky might descend and crush her, heart and all.
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Dec 13, 2014 06:44
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Hot -1 | Cold 1 | Volatile -1 | Dark 2 Harm 2/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: Location: Stillman House And that's when Sophie slowly fades back into existence, clutching fistfuls of fabric of the coat Ruby's wearing tightly in her hands. She almost falls over as she regains some of her physicality, falling into Ruby and holding on to her in a tight hug. "I'm here." she says and when she realizes her words produce an actual sound she repeats herself more firmly. "I'm here! I didn't mean to... I just... I didn't know and... and..." She chokes up a little when she realizes there are other people in the room and that explaining how she got here, much less why she vanished in the first place, feels almost impossible. It's still hard to believe even for her, though impossible to deny. She's dead and when she rejected Ruby out of shock and fear she faded away. Whatever else Ruby might be, she's her friend and now the only connection she has left to the world of the living. She can't afford to let that slip away again. "Don't let my heart stop beating..." she whispers through tears. Atropha fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Dec 13, 2014 |
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Dec 13, 2014 08:40
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Location: Alex's House pre:Hot: 1 | Cold: -1 | Volatile: 1 | Dark: 0 Harm 0/4 | Experience 0/5 | Conditions: I don't even care about the mirror. That was a hand-me-down from Susan; I'll clean it up later. For now, better get everyone away from Dad while we give him a chance to calm down. "Come on," I tell the girls. "Let's go find someplace to talk." On the way out, I get one of the coats from the hall closet for Sophie. They just accumulate in there and I figure they might as well make themselves useful. If mom's startled to see two more people come down than went upstairs, she doesn't show it. Dad's already in the kitchen, distracting himself with the coffee maker. Good. That usually helps him. I lead our strange little group back out to the Beast. After I turn the key and kick it into gear, I grab Coppelia's hand with mine. Her thing almost seems normal now. My heart's racing as fast as my thoughts. This can't be the kind of weirdness I was chosen for. Can it? What the hell should I do? "Okay, who likes the Waffle Hut?"
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Dec 13, 2014 19:56
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