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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Nov 29, 2013 10:54:56 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- The first sign that things were bad was the way Emmeline acted after the incident. Her parents had really started to worry when she’d taken down all of the paintings around the house and stuck them in the garage. When asked she wouldn’t talk about it, so they’d called her therapist and asked for an emergency session.
When Emmeline had tried to tell her therapist. . . well suffice to say it was going to be on ongoing process.
To make things worse, Emmeline had started hearing things. At first she’d chalked it up to stress and trauma, but those voices ended up telling her that wasn’t so. But that’s what crazy people’s voices said anyway. She just needed to talk it out with her therapist. That was all. Maybe get on a new medication to dim down the trauma. If that was possible.
Just when she started to think she’d dreamt the whole thing, her shadow had a complete fit. It had thrown stuff around the room, it unmade her bed, and just a bunch of other petty pranks. At least this time the voices were helpful. Those whispers told her to go outside, in the sun. Then her shadow calmed down enough to tell her what was going on. Kind of. It didn’t speak very well, but at least Emmeline knew it wasn’t going to hurt her. Apparently she’d just stayed in her room too long.
The last couple of days definitely didn’t make her want to leave the house. She’d gone through a couple bottles of her beta-blockers already. That definitely wasn’t good for her health, but it had least helped keep her calm. She’d started taking pills to help her sleep, too.
Without thinking about it, Emmeline had wandered to Skid Row after her session. Her mom had dropped her off and asked if she wanted her to wait, but Emmeline had said she’d rather walk home, have some time to herself to think about the session and all of that jazz. Though skeptical, her mom agreed and promised to have something tasty waiting for her when she got home and not to stay out too late.
Mostly Emmeline had just wanted to make sure her shadow was fed.
It was weird, but she hardly thought about it after all of the things she’d seen.
She was looking for something—someone—and wasn’t even really thinking about it. The big guy that had made her feel safe. At least this time she was out in the daytime and wasn’t lurking around corners trying to find the right street. Emmeline stuck to the main streets, peeking in towns, hoping that it hadn’t been a fluke that she could recognize him.
Emmeline didn’t even know if she’d find Moose here. She just knew that this was where she found him, and he said he lived nearby.
If not, she’d just go home.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Nov 30, 2013 8:31:24 GMT -8
Moose did not like the fact that aura wasn't with him. He'd grown used to having the dragonfly perching on his shoulder, staying with him for almost the entire day. She was a constant little companion, and while she occasionally drew stares, no one questioned it. She was like a pet, and while many places would have told someone that pets weren't allowed, no one was willing to confront someone Moose's size about the fact that he had a bug sitting on his shoulder. He didn't go out for restaurants much, and he hadn't done any grocery shopping, so most of the places he'd gone hadn't been terribly concerned about the fact that there was a giant bug riding around on him.
Unfortunately, that was no longer an option. Moose had woken up that morning to find a large silken cocoon stuck to the corner of one wall, and a few hours of worrying later, Aura had emerged. She was bigger, and her wings were different, and at the size of a puppy she could no longer be considered a natural insect by anyone. No one was going to look at her and think of anything but a monster, so he'd been forced to instruct her to stay home. He'd disposed of the cocoon before heading off to work, leaving an upset Aura pacing around the terrarium he'd made--which was now far too small and little more then a bed for her.
Work had ran long and left him exhausted, and he was on his way back to Oskenonton's place when he spotted her. She looked out of place--not too far from skid row, someone her size stood out, and having seen her just over a week before, it wasn't hard to pick her out in a crowd. Most importantly she was wandering around, glancing to and fro. Most people were power walking, a destination in mind that they were doing everything in their power to reach. People didn't really wader around skid row unless they lived there, and Emmie definitely did not.
Dressed in a suit that looked washed for once, Moose looked out of place. His size and the scar on his face kept people from bothering him though, and he beelined towards her, happy that this time around she wasn't being accosted. He'd learned his lesson from approaching Rhiannon too quickly, and he didn't tap her shoulder as he might have before--instead, he cleared his throat and said her name.
"Emmie?" What the hell was she even doing back there? There was no reason for a girl of her size or age to be lingering near Skid Row. Was she lost again? Was she going to be a chronically lost puppy he was going to have to keep taking home? Because if so, he was going to have to get a damn bus pass. The walk was too much for his poor legs.
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Nov 30, 2013 10:55:41 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- She was certain she was going to be able to find him. At least, she hoped she would. Was it too early in the afternoon? Was he still working? She couldn’t hang around for another few hours to find out. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Emmeline was about ready to just give up forever and find someone else to talk to. Hayden and Gabrielle would listen, wouldn’t they? They might not believe her though.
Even though he’d tried so hard not to startle Emmeline, she still jumped slightly when Moose cleared his throat and called her name. She turned, eyes wide, then relaxed when she realized who it was. It was a good thing, too—her shadow demon pet thing had tensed. She could feel it.
It was going to do that a lot though. Emmeline was constantly afraid.
Though she’d been hoping to find him all along, Emmeline now felt really embarrassed. What if he didn’t particularly want to see her again? He didn’t barge in all angry-like, though, so maybe he was at least a little. . . probably not excited but at least not angry that she was there. Was there even a word for when someone isn’t happy per se, but also not anything else? Indifferent? Curious? Emmeline couldn’t really decide what it was but it was a step in the right direction.
Emmeline looked down at her feet and scuffled the sidewalk slightly, smiling just a tiny little bit. Her plan had worked after all. “Oh—uh, hi Moose,” she greeted him, looking up long enough to give him a little wave before embarrassment made her look down again. “I uh—I was hoping I would find you here.”
Jeez she sounded pathetic.
Explain quick before he thinks you’re a stalker, she told herself.
Finally she looked up to look in the general direction of his chin area. “Um. . . I. . . I was hoping that maybe. . . maybe I could talk to you about. . . something?” she asked, cheeks red and eyes getting just an itsy bit teary. They always did when she thought about what had happened only just a few days ago. Her desire to tell someone the story had kept her from running straight home, afraid of being attacked again.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Nov 30, 2013 20:15:13 GMT -8
Moose had not expected to see Emmie again. It wasn't as if he didn't like her--she was simply from a much different sort of world then Moose was. Moose was the sort of person who had grown up in poverty. Technically speaking, he didn't even know he'd grown up in poverty, but it was relatively obvious. Whatever childhood he'd had, it was probably crappy. Meanwhile, Emmie had all sorts of problems and plenty of help for them. She had a loving family. She had support, and a home, and a place to go back to.
They were opposite in every way. She was small and quiet, Moose was big and loud. She had a family, Moose didn't. She had a home, Moose didn't. She was getting help for her issues, and Moose definitely was not. Any issues Moose had would have to be worked out bit by bit, and for the most part he was handling it well. He'd seen people die--seen people be eaten in front of him, devoured by a monster bug. He'd taken it in stride, had recovered and done just fine. If anything, his life had improved since watching someone be snapped in half by mandibles. Hell, he lived with the monster bug's spawn. For him, it wasn't even that strange. For most people, it was mind boggling, impossible to accept.The thought that magic and monsters were real was something people struggled to accept, and only accepted over time.
For Moose, accepting that there were things he didn't know was standard and expected. It happened all the time for him. Finding out giant bugs were real wasn't even a surprise for him. It rated extremely low on his mental scale of 'alarming things'. The fact that Emmie had given him casserole was just as surprising to him as finding out bugs grew to human sizes.
The fact that she wanted to talk to him again was significantly more surprising then either of their facts. Moose was not the type people wanted to sit down with and chat. People wanted him for a lot of things, but talking was not one of them. After a moment of sheer confusion, he was forced to stumble blindly ahead, ensure of what talking entailed.
"Uh, sure." He glanced briefly to one side, thinking for a moment before glancing back and realizing that her eyes were red. Was she crying? Was she about to cry? Fuck. "There's a park over there. We can sit on the bench there." Moose wasn't going back to her house. He'd learned his lesson the last time, and he paused before carefully resting an arm on her back, letting himself guide her along and hoping no one was going to give them a second glance.
EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PM |
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Dec 2, 2013 13:56:53 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- Emmeline nodded, glad that he had agreed to listen to her. She really probably should have talked to her parents or to some of her other friends instead of bothering this man, but he’d just been so receptive when she’d told him about her condition she kind of felt like she could tell him anything and he would either believe her or at least humor her and not say anything about it. She felt like anyone else might just question her about it like she was making it up.
She still couldn’t believe it had actually happened, and she had been right in the middle of it. Emmeline still had bruises from falling down the stairs, and she wasn’t sleeping.
“Did—did you just get off work? Or are you, going to work?” she asked, noting the suit he was wearing. The last thing she wanted was to bother him if he was going to work, but she was fairly certain that if that was the case he would have probably told her so and made a rain check. Or told her never to come here again. She’d really more expected the latter rather than the former.
Just as he said, the park wasn’t too far away. There was a nice secluded bench under some trees, and Emmeline sat down, slipping her purse from her shoulder and letting it sit next to her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket not to use it, but to have something to stare at while she sat. She turned it over and over in her hand, mouth open slightly as she tried her hardest to figure out where to start. Maybe he’d heard about it on theTV? Or radio? Or something?
Well it was as good a place as any. An opener.
“Um. . . did you hear about the. . . uh, the incident at the. . . art gallery a few days ago?” she started, looking up from her phone slightly to try to read his expression. She fought back the urge to burst into tears—something she had gotten good at the past couple of years.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Dec 2, 2013 19:52:36 GMT -8
It wasn't hard to guess she'd noticed his suit. Moose had been very homeless looking when he'd gotten out of prison, scruffy and unkempt with dirt on his clothes. All of a sudden he looked presentable, and it stood out. Even if the suit didn't fit quite right, it still made him look far better.
"I just finished." He clarified, before shoving a hand into his pocket and drawing out an outdated looking phone. It looked brand new, but it also looked like it had been sitting in a box behind a counter for three or four years. He held it out for her, not even bothering to try and work out how to add a umber into it. Technically Donovan had shown him, but he'd only followed half of what the kid was saying. "Look, if you want to find me, put your number in or take my number or whatever. You didn't come to skid row to find me, did you?" Because he had a sneaking suspicion that she had, and he was worried by that. Skid row wasn't a good place for someone like her. Even during the day, it was just begging for trouble.
He took a seat, letting her do whatever with his phone, and then glanced over at her as she asked a really odd question. "No. Don't really... listen to the news. Or watch it. Or however you're supposed to get news." He really didn't know. Newspapers? Were those still a thing? He honestly didn't know anymore. People talked about getting stuff online, but online was a vague and sort of terrifying concept to Moose.
EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PM |
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Dec 5, 2013 11:55:32 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- Emmeline took his phone and set hers down for a second while she punched in her number in his phone. After saving her contact, she called herself and answered it—to avoid having a missed call on her phone, she hated that—and then saved his contact. When it was all said and done, she handed it back to him a little sheepishly before answering his question.
“I. . . um, I had to walk past here to get home from. . . my therapy appointment. But. . . I uh. . . I was hoping I’d. . . see you, yes,” she murmured, quite embarrassed that he’d called her out on it. She was hoping he just never would have realized, but it was probably obvious. She wanted to kind of lie about it and write it off as a coincidence, but that was hard: Emmeline had already told him that she had hoped she could talk to him about something.
He ended up explaining that he hadn’t heard about the art gallery. Well, that was alright. She’d just have to. . . start from the beginning. And try to relive the whole thing. Or at least relive the highlights.
It was already making her uncomfortable thinking about it.
She took a breath and looked down at her phone, sitting still on the bench. She’d finally got it back the next day after the police had found it. “Well. . . that’s alright. They probably would have, um, made up some story. . . anyway,” she started. Emmeline took another breath and continued, trying hard not to cry. “I was—I was there for a free gallery. To look at the art. But—but something went wrong and—”
Nope. Here they came.
The tears.
Her voice went hoarse and she lifted her hand to cover her mouth slightly, but not enough to make it hard for Moose to hear her. “Everyone—everyone started dying. The paintings—the paintings came alive and—started killing everyone.” She choked back a sob and tried to take a moment to calm down, or to let him take all of that in.
The effect her tears had weren’t totally noticeable unless you were looking for it, but her shadow was unhappy. His charge was crying. He wasn’t going to strike, but her shadow slowly rotated from where it was supposed to sit behind her and rested at an odd angle on the ground next to her so he could better watch this large man he’d never seen before. If it found out he was making her cry, he might just have to scare him off.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Dec 5, 2013 13:03:06 GMT -8
The vast majority of the time that he was around technology, Moose felt like he was the stupidest person on earth. Absolutely anyone could just reach over, pick up a phone, and do what they wanted. Meanwhile, Moose struggled to even make a call. The buttons were too small, and seemed to always be in the wrong places. Everything used short words to describe things in the interest of saving space, but did so at the expense of clarity. Most people would know what 'lock' did on a phone, but Moose had no idea. He knew how to get the time off his phone, and he could manage to call Oskenonton and Donovan, but that was it--anything beyond that was too technologically advanced for him.
Moose watched her carefully, squinting for a moment as she admitted she sort of had to find him. "Find a better way. Cutting through skid row is a bad plan. You want me, just call--don't come here or you'll just put yourself in danger." Skid row was not a good place for someone as small and dainty as her. Skid row would chew her up and spit her out, and god help whoever had decided to make her walk home through it. "Take the bus or something." Or a car. But Moose knew little about cars, and he'd prefer not to talk about them at all, much in the same way that he didn't like to talk about phones, or computers, or the internet.
When she started to cry though... Moose had very little experience with tears. In fact, his entire list of experiences with people crying were now all from Emmie, and he was forced to mentally fumble around as he tried to work out how to comfort her. What had she done last time? He hesitated, then reached forward to lightly drape his arms around her in an approximation of a hug. She'd sort of done it in reverse last time, and wasn't this what she wanted?
A very unfortunate thing about Moose was that he was colossally, ridiculously ignorant about the world outside of prison. When a bug taller then he was had stared him down, he hadn't realized anything was odd about it until it started to talk. He'd only barely been able to guess that a dog made of flame was weird, and he'd started to mentally class things into 'weird' and then 'impossible'. There were lots of things he'd seen that other people would claim were impossible--things that people would outright deny had ever happened. Those were the sorts of things he didn't tell his parole officer, and otherwise he told him everything.
He did his best to be delicate about it just the same. "I'm not -- I'm really not trying to be smart or anything." He prefaced his question that way, well aware that when you asked questions that most people considered really stupid, they tended to think you were insulting them. "But that's not supposed to happen, is it?" He was fairly sure that paintings were... well they were something. He had only a vague idea of what a painting was, but by her reaction he guessed they weren't supposed to come to life.
EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PM |
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Dec 5, 2013 15:49:30 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- Emmeline looked up at Moose like he was suddenly speaking a different language. She sniffed her tears away and blinked at him. Was he for real? She looked around as if waiting for someone to jump out with the punch line but that never happened. He looked serious enough and it sounded like a pretty serious question. Or was he making fun of her? It didn’t seem like it.
Maybe he was actually serious.
She made a little O shape with her mouth and looked back down at the bench top. “No. No that doesn’t happen,” she murmured in response, wiping her face with her jacket sleeve. At least he’d managed to nullify some of the tears with his out of this world response. She was still slightly convinced he was making fun of her.
Closing her eyes, she leaned down on the bench top, pillowing her head on her arms. She turned her head so she could still talk to him. His arm around her shoulders, though a small and tentative gesture, did make her feel a little bit better. At least he was listening. Even if he was making fun of her.
“They just—came to life. Monsters came out of their paintings. One—one right next to me. It—it grabbed someone that walked in front of me and—and pulled them into painting to lie. . . take its place and. . . .” she was talking a little faster now.
For a short pause, Emmeline sat back up again and tapped her hands against the table. “Everyone—everyone was being killed and—I didn’t know what to do. I—I grouped with some people and—but—the first chance I got I just—I just left. I left them. They—they could have died and I—I just don’t know,” she gasped, the tears starting fresh. It was not one of her proudest moments.
Calm down, something soft whispered in her ear. She turned her head slightly, but tried to pretend it hadn’t happened. You did well.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Dec 5, 2013 19:56:32 GMT -8
From her reaction, Moose was fairly sure it had been another one of those really stupid questions. But he hadn't been sure how he was supposed to react until he knew for sure it was one of those impossible things.
The parallels were clear, even to Moose. Monsters that had tried to kill people. Monsters that had succeeded. People running for their lives and just barely escaping. Of all the people in the city to tell her story to, Emmie had certainly picked the right person. If anything, he was forced to wonder if Magnus was involved somehow. He was actually so convinced that he felt the need to ask, still half holding onto her, even as she pulled back a bit.
"There wasn't a big bug there, was there? Like... eight feet tall. Talks." Another question that probably sounded like he was making fun, even though it was a genuine question, and a tiny voice told Moose that he should probably keep talking. "I ran into him before if so. Was at a party, when I first started working. He just kind of showed up and started... well, eating people. He kept talking about kingdoms, and he wanted..." He paused, wracking his shoddy memory for what Magnus had been seeking. "The leader of Earth, or something. I tried to explain that there wasn't a ruler of earth, and then he gave me Aura and sent me off."
There was a long pause as he composed himself. "Got a few people out, but the rest stayed. They're all probably dead." So he knew exactly what she'd gone through. Exactly. Right down to walking out past people who were either dead or about to die.
EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PMe |
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Dec 9, 2013 11:33:22 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- Emmeline looked at him with what could be considered dismay. Was he really making fun of her? His face said “no, he wasn’t” but Emmeline had that sinking suspicion in her gut that he was mocking her. Maybe it was because she was convinced that her story was too surreal. That no one would ever believe her except for the few people that had been in there with her.
Unless they died. She still wasn’t sure if they’d died or not.
And it made her lose a lot of sleep.
She looked down and rubbed at her eyes. She’d never really taken Moose as a joking kind of guy, so why would he be making fun of her over this? Was he being serious? Had he really run into a giant monster himself? Emmeline looked up again to try to read his expression, but it just looked the same. Maybe he looked a little more earnest than normal? Was he being serious? She opened her mouth to speak, but it just kind of wobbled up and down.
Then, the whispers again.
He’s serious. It’s true.
Swallowing, Emmeline looked up at him more time and shook her head. “N-no. Not—not that. Just—just painting monsters. Like—a giant. . . dragon thing, and a big, um, Flopsie monster and, um, a big scorpion and a big. . . Stick man? Slenderman, maybe?” she explained, feeling ridiculous. He probably wouldn’t get the Flopsie or Slenderman references but that was all she had.
Then she looked down again and tugged at a few strands of her hair. “You—you’ve seen monsters, too?” she asked.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Dec 10, 2013 9:01:02 GMT -8
He was not, in fact, making fun of her. Moose was not good at jokes. He simply wasn't a very funny person. Any attempts at making jokes were either profoundly unfunny, or so obscure that no one got them. On the off chance someone did laugh at him, it was because he'd said something so stupid they thought it was a joke, and inevitably Moose would simply roll with it, pretending as if yes, ha ha, it was totally a joke. Joking was not really a Moose thing to do, and he was one hundred percent serious as he launched into an explanation of exactly how screwed up and confusing his life was.
"Yeah, and live with them. I've got Aura--who's like the size of a dog, and Osk says that bugs aren't supposed to get that big. Plus she talks, and bugs aren't supposed to do that either, and she can shoot like... ice bubble things." Moose was not very good at describing things at the best of times, and his ability to explain himself only amplified when he was explaining something that a normal person would struggle to explain.
What else? There was lots else. "Then there was this dog made of fire, but we killed it, and then Rhiannon had this egg hatch, and Osk says it's a thunder bird but it's kind of like a bird and a dog as the same thing." Which was his way of explaining that he'd killed a dog made of flame, and then ended up living with a baby griffin. "So lots of weird shit going on." Which was a very, very light way of putting it. "Kinda miss having Aura around. She used to be able to ride my shoulder, but now she's too big so she has to stay at home." EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PM |
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Dec 16, 2013 12:06:39 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- Emmeline’s eyes widened as she thought about what Moose was telling her. He had a giant bug living at his house, and knew another person that had hatched a strange creature from an egg. Was he really not lying, then? He wasn’t saying it in a mocking tone like she was used to hearing—that sarcastic tone hidden behind an earnest one—so maybe, maybe he wasn’t teasing her.
Well, one way to find out.
She wiped a few traces of tears from her eyes and turned slightly. “Um—I have—I have this thing living in my shadow,” she said, turning even more to point at the object in question. It realized it was being talked about and snapped back into the correct position. Emmeline sighed quietly when she caught it, but decided to ignore it. “It doesn’t say anything and. . . I don’t know if it has a name. But it threw a fit that first day after the incident and made a mess of my room. . . .”
What was it called? Emmeline figured it would have told her, but besides throwing the stuff in her room around it hadn’t done or said anything. Even when she tried to talk to it, it wouldn’t talk back to her. Maybe it couldn’t talk.
He is a sentinel shadow, the voice whispered cooly. Cacodemon. He will protect you when we cannot.
Blinking, Emmeline glanced around. Who was we? She closed her eyes tight and smushed her face with her hands briefly, as if that was going to keep the voices from saying things to her. Was it the demon? Was he the one talking to her? But no—no the whispers in her head didn’t sound anything like a demon, but what did she know about demon voices? And it—he—wouldn’t talk about himself like that, would he? No, no probably not.
“I haven’t seen him outside of my shadow yet, though,” Emmeline said, her eyes still closed as if that was going to block anything out.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Dec 17, 2013 9:00:35 GMT -8
When Emmeline announced that she had a thing living in her shadow, Moose immediately shifted his head to look at it. He caught only the very end of it's movement, a tiny flicker. Then suddenly it was back in place, as if it had never moved at all, leaving him second guessing himself. Had it really moved? was he just imaging it because she'd said something was there? If Moose noticed Emmeline's odd behavior--the glances around--he said nothing and made no sign.
Moose went right on squinting at the shadow, as if expecting it to make a face or something of the sort. He glanced back up at Emmeline after a moment, genuinely curious for what felt like the first time in ages. On one hand, the idea of having a thing in your shadow was kind of freaky. On the other, it would have been nice to have someone with him for so long. "So it's like..." He paused, trying to scrape together the words that would make the situation make sense. Moose had a hard enough time communicating regularly, let alone trying to describe giant bugs, or to ask questions about living shadows. "Is it a thing in your shadow? Or is it your shadow that's alive?" Which was his fairly unclear way of asking if it had been possessed or replaced... or something. "You try talkin' to it?"
EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PM |
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Dec 23, 2013 11:52:26 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- His question made her think for a little bit, and she shrugged. “I guess—I think it’s a thing inside my shadow. Like, it. . . possessed my shadow or something. It can, um, kind of control my shadow? I guess? I don’t know when it got mad it threw things around in my room and made a mess so. . . but it wasn’t like this until after the incident.”
The thought of it made her shudder slightly.
“I was—um, I was running out of the building and—this, um, raven or crow flew at me and—and then it dove into my shadow and—I guess that’s when it happened?” she tried to explain, though it sounded completely insane even to herself. She was just glad that—if he was telling the truth and not mocking her, which she was still sure he was doing—he had gone through similar situations so it wouldn’t sound insane to him.
Emmeline shook her head and looked at the shadow (was it just her or was it quivering slightly? Eh it was probably her). “I have, but it doesn’t talk back. I don’t think it’s ignoring me, I just—I don’t think it can talk. It—it calmed down after I went outside. I think—I think it likes sunshine,” she added, as if that was an important bit of information.
Of course the voice in her head had helped her come to that conclusion, but like she was going to add that she was hearing voices.
With all of her problems, she would be hospitalized. Maybe even have to deal with shock therapy. . . . That did not seem like something she’d want to ever do. No, she wasn’t about to tell anyone about any of this besides maybe her therapist and then Moose, now that she knew he had dealt with these things before.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Dec 26, 2013 18:30:02 GMT -8
Moose didn't know the word 'posessed', but he nodded just the same, as if he knew what it was she'd just said. Really, he only understood half of what she was saying, in part because she used a lot of terms he had no idea about, and in part because he had only a vague and partial explanation of what had happened at the art gallery. Emmeline's explanation had been more of a framework then a full explanation, no doubt in large part because she thought Moose was making fun of her.
Moose found himself squinting at the shadow for a moment before deciding he couldn't see anything anyway and sitting back. "Dunno much about that. You'd know better then me." And she would, because she'd at least seen the bird... what, go into her shadow? Moose wasn't doubting it at all, but he knew better than to try and make a guess at what had happened when he knew so little about it.
"I just know Aura only talks when I touch her. Or she touches me, I guess. You tried touching it?" He paused as it slowly dawned on him that she was more or less always touching her shadow, but the point stood--maybe it had to be her hand or something.
EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PM |
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Dec 28, 2013 13:17:04 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- Emmeline looked at her shadow and considered it for a moment. “I hadn’t. . . thought about touching it,” she admitted at last. However, when she leaned down and tentatively touched her fingertips to her dark shadow, she didn’t get any extra voices in her head. And the usual ones were silent now. No hint for her about this, she supposed.
After a few seconds Emmeline pulled her hand back and sat up. She flipped her hair back into place and shook her head. “Nothing. I guess it just can’t talk.”
Pity. She would have liked to know if it had a name.
“Um—thanks for listening,” she murmured, looking back down at the picnic table. Part of her was still pretty convinced that Moose was mocking her, but at least he wasn’t being overbearing about it. She couldn’t even hear any sarcasm in his voice. He didn’t seem like the mocking type, though—more like the type that would just tell her she’s talking nonsense. Maybe it was just all in her mind. She really had to work on that.
She looked up at him and fidgeted slightly. “Can—I mean—is this. . . Aura thing. . . friendly?” she asked. Truth be told, Emmeline was interested in seeing this giant bug thing for herself. She didn’t mind bugs—it was spiders that she hated. And scorpions. Especially after the one that attacked them.
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Dec 29, 2013 12:31:29 GMT -8
No such luck on the touching front. Moose had thought it would work, and he felt vaguely silly for the fact that it hadn't. It really wasn't the sort of thing he should have blamed himself for, but he found himself doing so anyway. He wanted to help, and Emmeline had come to him for hep--but he was proving to be little help at all. Just because he'd seen weird stuff didn't mean he understood it, and he was providing advice no better then that given by someone who had never experienced anything at all. Really, the only thing he was actually doing was believing her, and Moose didn't quite realize how important that was to the young girl.
"She." Moose corrected. Aura was definitely a she. He'd called her 'it' a few times, just because sometimes it was hard to see a bug as a female, but she was definitely a she. "Yeah, she's really nice. Her dad's a piece of work, but she used to come out for walks with me. Kinda a pain to do now. She's like..." He paused for a moment, trying to think of something the proper size to compare her to. "Like a cat. That big." He'd wanted to say a dog, but dogs came in a far larger variety of sizes compared to cats, and that made the whole thing pretty tricky to compare to. "She has to stay home most of the time, because people would notice her." The shadow thing was lucky--no one was going to notice unless it was pointed out to them.
EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PM |
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Post by EMMELINE EVANS on Dec 31, 2013 11:24:41 GMT -8
| rabbit - hearted I look around, but I can't find you If only I could see your face Instead of rushing towards the skyline I wish that I could just be brave I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice We raise it up, this offering We raise it up This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind The waters turn from blue to red As --- For some reason the topic had shifted from the incident. Emmeline, truth be told, didn’t really mind. Anything to get her mind off of all those dead people and the ones that she had left behind to escape. That was what tore her apart the most—she could forget about the monsters and the demons, but the fact that she’d abandoned people. . . . That would haunt her forever.
“She, sorry,” Emmeline muttered. She hoped she hadn’t insulted him.
Emmeline fidgeted slightly, turning her phone over and over in her hand. “Do—could I see her?” she asked, not looking at Moose. Part of her really was curious, but the other part of her was still worried she was being made fun of. If she could see this little bug thingy he was talking about, then maybe she would feel a little bit at ease.
And, well, she didn’t really want to go home.
Hastily, Emmeline added “I mean—if it’s okay and—I don’t want. . . to step on—any toes I just—now I’m curious and. . . stuff. . . ,” she muttered, looking up at for just a few seconds before she quickly averted her gaze again. She felt so awkward and nervous but words kept spilling out of her mouth. “I mean—I don’t. . . have anything to do and I don’t have to be home and um, I could just take a bus back home or—a taxi or something. . . .”
He probably thought she was so weird right now. And what was she going to do if he declined? Accuse him of making fun of her? No, that wouldn’t ever happen. She would never straight out accuse him. She’d just go to bed feeling absolutely no closure about her story. Once again, she’d have to find someone else to talk to about it.
But who?
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Post by DARRIN "MOOSE" MOORE on Dec 31, 2013 17:22:19 GMT -8
Moose almost said no. It was an instinct more then any conscious thought. No, she couldn't come home to see Aura because he didn't have a home, and even if Moose was fairly accepting of his lot in life, he knew that there was no good ending when he took someone 'home' and they ended up in a park. His mouth actually opened before his brain caught up, processing what she'd asked and finally realizing that yes, he could take her home.
He had a home. He didn't own it, but he did help with the rent. He didn't even have a proper bed, just a couch, but it was still home. He lived there, and so did Aura. When he'd first met Emmeline he certainly wouldn't have said he had a home, but now he did, and he found himself grinning despite it.
"Yeah, don't see why not. Home's not too far from here, and I don't think Osk or Rhiannon's home." It was a school day, which meant that Rhiannon was probably out. Oskenonton... well, he might be home, but it was hard to tell. He could just as easily be out shopping or picking up supplies for his work, and he didn't realize that he was probably better off asking first. He stood up, shifting as he cracked his back, stiff from having to sit so long. "Not much of a walk. She'd probably like a visitor. She won't be getting out much now that she's so damn big."
EMMELINE EVANS | MAY 22ND, 4PM |
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