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Post by lilywilde on Nov 11, 2016 0:31:45 GMT -6
----- Never stop Running ----- tag: --- // words: --- // notes: --- Lily had certainly seen better days.
The full list of her injuries was incredibly severe. She'd severed several arteries, broken both of her arms and one of her legs, and four ribs. She'd also punctured both of her lungs, suffered countless cuts and contusions, and had been diagnosed with a severe concussion. There were countless small cuts and contusions that riddled the girl's body, and shards of glass had worked their way into her lungs after the chandelier shards had pierced her.
The worst, and hardest to treat injury however was on her arm. The vine-like lines that traveled up her arm were jagged, almost appearing like a thorny stem. In her upper arm the thorny vines began interweaving in a circle. In the center of that circle was a red and ominous eye. The Eye looked to be set against a stained glass window of some sort, with five diamond shaped spikes pointing at it from the right side of the marking.
Lily was unconscious for three days while in the Legion hospital, then another two days of intermittent consciousness. The entire time she teetered on the brink of life and death. Occasionally slipping into seizures.
This time was very strange from Lily's perspective. She found herself trapped in a hellish dreamscape. Grimm dotted the land, eviscerating men, women, and children without discrimination. Men in black robes with red eyes emblazoned on them performed dark rituals, corralling the grimm towards their next screaming dinner. One girl seemed to be at the center of each and every cultist, no matter what vision of them the fever dream produced. Occasionally she would see a glimpse of the girl behind some cultists who were setting fires in the city, other times she would be watching from an alleyway as a pronounced cult member slew some public official. She seemed to be constantly on the periphery of Lily's vision at points, soft laughter following her from dream to dream. Twisted monsters that might populate the scenes of a bad flesh horror dogged her every step at times. Once or twice, she found herself alone with the creatures of flesh and bone amidst the burning wreckage that was Vytal. How could she fail like this?
She caught glimpses occasionally, people in white coats standing above her, a white light glaring down as they talked hurriedly. A pump of chemical would put the girl back to sleep in moments as they operated on her. As consciousness faded back to the hellish dream world she'd been inhabiting, the bright white light above was replaced with a red eye that stared at her. The doctors replaced by men with black masks and claws, ripping into her flesh. They chewed on her, consuming her until there was nothing left. And yet, the red eye that stared down at her still stared. It blinked, and she found herself floating. She was floating towards something, where was she? When she looked around, she saw only darkness, but she could felt cold around her. Her limbs were heavy, her clothing waterlogged. She floated in total blackness, until a glimmer of red appeared nearby. She was drawn forcibly towards the beacon of blood. There amidst the inky depths stood a church, much like the basilica she had only recently been within mourning the death of a great huntress with Amber and her friends close at hand. Their heads all lined the walls, adorned on spikes. She saw Solomon, Amber, Aegle, Celia, Raven, Guinevere, Zari. Each head stared at her, accusing her with their eyes. Then she saw them. Her parents heads staked to the walls on either side of a great mosaic of stained glass. Their eyes were black, but red outlines of the same eye marking that had scarred Lily's arm hovered just in front of the lifeless dark pools. Staring at Lily.
"You did this." The heads both suddenly began chanting in unison, pools of red leaking from their tear ducts. They didn't flow down their faces as one might expect, but instead flowed freely, as if dispersing into water.
"You did this" She heard her chorus of friends began chanting. Lily fell to her knees, and suddenly realized how odd the ground felt beneath her. She reached below herself, hoping to clear some of the uneven terrain, and her hands met clammy flesh. A red glow appeared in the stain glass that was situated between the heads of her two progenitors. As she held the head up, she was met with The Silver Haired girl's head from earlier. "You did this, sinner." The girl said, causing Lily to drop the head and scream. The Silver headed girl tumbled down a hill of corpses, a giggle sounding like the tinkling of bells escaping her lips. The corpses were becoming more and more vivid, as the red glow grew brighter. When she looked up, she saw stained glass had been set in the shape of a giant red eye, and it was trained on her. All of the wisps of blood dispersing into the water from the bloodied tears of her parents and friends coalesced into reaching tendrils that took Lily by the left arm. They burned to the touch, but the chorus of "You did this, sinner" only crescendoed around her. Sudden burning took her arm, and she finally saw it. Just above the doorway to the church was a head. Long black hair draped down over the door, two cat ears and blood red eyes set against black sclera fixed her in her gaze.
"Sinner." It said, as Lily jolted into consciousness once more.
She looked around the room. She was in the nurses office in Vytal. She had grown stable some days ago, so the academy had taken possession of her once more. She was fixed to the bed. Chains held her down and there were claw marks shredding the bedding in every space that her hands had access to. The room had been shrouded in flowers, chocolates, and get well soon balloons, but Lily couldn't feel any of the joy that she might usually draw from such a warm reception. Her mind was a jumble of emotion, mostly despair, but partly fear. A nurse rushed into the room and said in relief "Oh thank goodness you've woken. We had begun to wonder if you ever would." She said doing some routine checks that Lily endured in a catatonic state. Her aura was shrouding her, but something was wrong. She felt no joy, no relief. Hope was dead. The brilliant white was now replaced by a muted grey. Even the nurse seemed eager to get out of there, the despair her aura brought with it was oppressive. She hurried through the last of her checks, before departing with only a few parting words.
"It'll be visiting hours soon, I'm sure your friends are very excited to see you." She said closing the door on the grey shrouded girl.
Lily wept in the mean time. Her aura was fixed. The girl had been so used to using it like a crutch whenever sorrow or other negative emotion set in, and now that she was shrouded in despair she couldn't deactivate it. She only slipped further into the depths of her own sorrow.
Eventually, she would call the nurse back, and have her books and scroll brought to her. She spent most of an hour just staring at the information displayed on her screen. The fall of the basilica, her part of it. Witness reports of how the the ball of black energy tearing through the basilica. The count of dead was officially set at 143, with several more critically injured.
"I did that." She whispered under her breath, tears flowing freely.
--
Hours passed, and Lily never fully recovered from this state, but visiting hours had finally begun. The dark circles that had been under her eyes for weeks were worse, despite the long period of unconsciousness. Tear streaked cheeks and a wavering smile were the best her friends might be able to draw out of her when they entered the room to come visit. Lily was still on the bed, her wrists bloodied from having struggled against her restraints. They had long since removed her bandages and splints. The only portion of her that was still preserved by medical tape and gauze was the arm, which she still hadn't been able to see in full.
Those present may have noticed the strange markings and marked flesh, but for now Lily was blissfully unaware of the red eye that marked her. She merely thought the arm was scarred and in incredible pain due to the weird power that veiled woman had possessed.
template by eliza @ TB & THQ Please note: For the duration of this thread, all people will be considered alone with Lily unless it's stated that they've either arrived while someone else was present, or they've arrived with a group. Someone may declare that they were the first, or last visitor if they so choose. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2016 1:25:31 GMT -6
Guinevere had not heard from Lily since she headed off to Rift for the funeral. Her parting after the dust lesson had been a bit apprehensive, and Guinevere wanted to see how Lily had been doing. Having not heard from Lily in some days, she was curious what would take a funeral so long. However, this was before she heard about the attack on the church in Rift. When she heard that, she impatiently waited for the hospital airship to arrive. Finally, it flew in and Guinevere was instantly at the hospital, mentally apologizing to her team if she had some obligation the organizational Genius Sepia had forgotten to tell her about.
She paced in the waiting room. There were rumors on some of the things that had gone on, and she damn well knew that Lily probably would not be too well if these rumors were true. As soon as the doors were opened for visitation, Guinevere sought out a nurse to tell her where the girl was. Having been in the clinic a number of times for not too dissimilar injuries, she had an idea where she might be going. To be fair, her immediate concern with the matter seemed to confuse the nurse – it was not one of her three usual names, and most people at the school were wary of Guinevere as a whole.
No matter. There was Lily to attend to. In her hand, Guinevere held a bow in a nice silver color she had been painstakingly working on in preparation for Lily’s arrival. Small lines of a light gray and violet traced along the delicate silk, forming an intricate latticework of lace and filigree along the entire piece. She hadn’t put as much work into something so small in a long while, after she finished all the leaves on Hammer’s Delight. Confidently walking through the halls with purpose, her white suit could probably be confused for a Doctor’s at no more than a passing glance.
Finally rounding the door to Lily’s wing, she arrived at the door, slightly ajar. With a small knock, she entered to look at the girl she had taught to sew and partially how to use dust. She looked like she needed a bit more stitching up overall, and there were a number of things that showed. Black bags under her eyes? Sleeplessness, for some reason. Black lines. Well, that would explain it. Not wasting another moment to observe anything about her, Guinevere walked in the door fully.
“I brought you something.” She lifted the bow from behind her back towards Lily, a voice of almost uncanny sympathy emanating from her lungs. Finishing her path, she sat down next to the bed, trying not to eye her arm. “Though I think you may need something else.” She lifted her hand towards an exposed part of Lily’s arm, shaking slightly. If what she thought had happened did in fact happen, Guinevere was probably one of the few souls that knew what she was going through at this instant. She did not touch Lily out of respect, waiting for some slight affirmation before continuing on.
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Post by lilywilde on Nov 17, 2016 0:05:03 GMT -6
----- Never stop Running ----- tag: --- // words: --- // notes: --- As Guin entered the room, Lily's sullen state didn't seem to change much. In a monotonous, dead voice she said "Hey,"
Lily's face was a tear streaked mess, but she was glad to see her friend. "I... Thanks, for coming." She said, trying, and utterly failing, to infuse some gratitude into her voice. She tried to lift an arm to take the bow, but the chains holding her down prevented that much arm movement. She looked once more at the shredded bedding, and the red hue the white cloth meant to soften the metal chain had turned. She couldn't help but wonder just how violent her rest had been. "I... I have a history of leaving the medical center before they want me to." She said in way of explanation. "Just uhh... Just sit it over there," she said nodding towards a nearby table that was piled with flowers cards and balloons. She had friends, they cared about her, but that care failed to reach her in her current state. She wondered if people refused to let her leave because of what she'd done in Legion. She knew she wasn't well, and they had told her they'd release her once she was, but those kinds of thoughts were never far away. The sheer guilt that she felt over her actions that day made it impossible to think that others didn't look at her with the same guilt.
She sat there for a moment, just wading through the thick syrup of thoughts that clogged her mind. She hadn't fully digested everything that had happened, but she did know that she'd brought down the basilica, and she also knew that lots of people died as a result. What would she say to the families of the people she'd killed? What business did she have even being here when those innocents had fallen for nothing? Why was her first response to everything always to run? If she hadn't run, she would have never killed all those people. She wouldn't have wound up almost crushed under debris herself.
She would have to find that Kim robot and apologize. Her feelings on Solomon were conflicted to say the least, but Kim saved her even after they'd fought. Perhaps they weren't so bad afterall.
As that thoughts of legion entered Lily's mind, her aura reflexively flared up. The once white and brilliant glow was now grey, muted. It brought with it an air of despair that permeated the room. Everything seemed a little heavier, and the numbing cold that had been creeping up Lily's arm only grew worse. A tear rolled down Lily's cheek, but her voice was unaffected when she went to speak again.
"If you think that's wise, then feel free. I don't know what you expect to accomplish though." Her voice remained hollow, empty, completely dulled. All of the hopeful energy and exuberance gone entirely.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2016 0:49:38 GMT -6
Guinevere went to place the bow on the tray with the other ornaments, and turned back towards Lily; she’d do well to rest a bit, looking at her present shape. Her hand fell on the back of a stool and she slowly drug it towards the side of the bed away from the door – if anyone else came in, she wanted Lily to be able to freely interact with them. The flare of Lily’s aura gave her a bit more confirmation on the whole matter. “Don’t like being cooped up too much with that speed, do you?” she poked. “Maybe I can bring you a book or something when I head out.”
She plopped down in the chair, looking over Lily. Yeah, she was down. She lifted up her hand and grabbed out a small length of thread from her hairpin and let it move about. Seeming to have a mind of its own, it inched down towards her chest pocket and withdrew a rather well folded pocket square. Meanwhile, she spoke to Lily a bit. “Void dust’s pretty nasty.” She wasn’t beating around the bush. “I can’t remove its effects, but I can block a bit of it. I can’t help your aura, but I can take some of the nightmares and negativity away.” There was a loud tearing sound as the string tore the pocket square into pieces, swiftly stitching it back together in a long strand of red silken fabric.
With the now long rope of fabric, she moved to put a wrap of it around Lily’s free wrist. Thinking she might pull back at the thought of being restrained more – she could understand why – she softly reassured Lily “I will do nothing to hold you back or hurt you.” Hoping to get her to relax a little, she gave it a light wrap with a loose knot. With the other end of the now scarf in her hand, she settled back into the stool some, taking a deep breath. ‘Just like a Grimm,’ she mentally whispered to herself. With a second breath, she let her semblance go.
As Lily would feel the sensation come over her from the connection, it would seem about the same as the previous times. Except as things started to settle down, she would definitely see and hear the close-eyed Guinevere tense up, take a deep, sharp breath in, and let it out in shudders like someone in pain.
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Post by Aegle Vitus on Nov 17, 2016 2:55:18 GMT -6
So far as injuries were concerned, Aegle had no shortage. Found a stone's throw from the ruins of the basilica, the orange haired pugilist looked as though she'd been stood dangerously close to the center of an explosion. She, like Lily and the tragedy's numerous other casualties, had needed to be rushed to hospital. She still bore signs of her experiences in the basilica, even as she limped into Lily's room one sunny April morning, just a little under a week after their shared trauma at Aisio's funeral. With both hands thickly swathed in bandages, she made her way up to Lily's bedside with surprisingly delicacy and care, seeming to be quite at home upon the crutches that supported her small frame.
"Hey?" She said hopefully, her small stature and crooked posture forcing her to lean over Lily's bedside to get a half decent look at the faunus girl. Her own injuries, while not so severe as some, had been both varied and extensive. She'd even required a surgery or two to remove the splinters which had driven themselves into her hands and chest. Still, she looked no worse of the wear, and wore her usual smile, though tinted with a bit of optimistic concern, and appeared to be moving quite easily despite the absence of her brace.
"Hey, you awake?" Aegle pressed with impatient irreverence which was all too familiar to her. She'd heard all about Lily's injuries, naturally. Most of the hospital had. Wounds that warped aura and seemed to infect the victim... Aegle hadn't understood a lot of the jargon she'd overheard, but then she seldom understood anything which adults said around her. What she had understood, however, was that Lily had been deemed capable of receiving visitors, despite whatever had been done to her in the church. Thus, she'd come to see her friend as early as possible, and hiked all the way over from her room to come visit Lily as early as possible.
"My family came to visit me yesterday..." She confessed a bit sheepishly, though her smile never faltered, "Well, not my whole family. Just Mom and Paeon. Dad's workin' and Vulcan's in Setek for some reason and Arron's..." Clearing her throat abruptly, she shifted one of her crutches out of the way and, a bit clumsily, revealed a tiny stuffed animal. It was a small calico cat, just a bit larger than the bandaged hands Aegle was trying to balance it between, wearing a top hat.
"S'sorta tradition, I guess," She explained, her emerald eyes fixed on the stuffed cat as she tried to put it on Lily's bed without losing her balance. "That whenever I had to stay in hospital, they'd buy me a little stuffed friend t'keep me company."
Trembling a little, Aegle raised her arms and deposited the small stuffie on Lily's bed, just beside her hand.
"Well, I figured, what with you not havin' a family, I'd get you one instead." She smiled brilliantly as she made this, somewhat callous, observation, eyes still on the stuffed cat, which she was trying and failing to sit upright. It was only then that Aegle seemed to properly take in her friend's face and to notice the state which she'd found Lily in. It was also only at that point which it became evident that Aegle had been avoiding doing so, up until that very moment. Her honest and open countenance didn't lie, and there was no mistaking the brief moment of apprehension and concern which took hold in the instant just before she finally looked fully upon her friend.
"S'the one Mom and Paeon gave me yesterday; Hope ya don't mind. I haven't been allowed out to go buy ya a proper one. S'okay though, I got plenty just like it at home, so I don't mind if ya have it."
As she spoke, her emerald eyes looked searchingly into Lily's, as the last of her boldness and exuberance seemed to peter out, and she finally let the bedridden girl speak.
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Post by lilywilde on Nov 18, 2016 17:01:39 GMT -6
----- Never stop Running ----- tag: --- // words: --- // notes: --- Guinevere
As Guin affixed the ribbon to Lily, she hardly batted an eye. She was so caught up in the horrors of that day that nothing in the present seemed to touch her. The only thing anchoring her to the here and now was the throbbing sensation coming from her right arm. Some part of her knew what was about to happen, and she wanted to slash the ribbon before Guin's semblance could kick in. Not because she hated the idea that Guin was putting forth, but instead because she wanted to spare the poor girl from this agony.
When she felt the link come through, she convulsed, almost as if in pain. The convulsion was followed by raspy heavy breathing. Every thing that was in the forefront of Lily's mind poured into Guin. The pain from her arm, the fear that she would be like this forever, and the memories. Fresh memories.
The memories of being tossed aside like a plaything by the woman she'd failed to stop. Of the pain those void crystals caused when they entered her. The constant agony that set her whole world afire. The running. Slamming into wall after wall in her pain blinded state, trying to outrun the agony. Even now she wanted to run and never stop. Addled memories of her delirious state which followed her. Of the woman, Kim, crouched over her, of wooden splinters sticking out of her chest. Struggling to breathe in the legion hospital as they extracted the crystal shards from the chandelier debris she'd been impaled upon. The slow corruption of herself over the next few days. Her aura's change. This... this awful disease that broke her down to the very soul.
The grey aura flared again. The grey cloak that enshrouded her hadn't receded since it's first summoning, but the light of despair seemed to shine brighter for a few moments as the connection was established.
She let out a few gasping cries, tears flowing down her cheek freely again. She could feel the girl taking her share of the burden, but all that did was free up the portion of Lily that the despondent girl was working so hard to numb. The part of herself that felt true guilt for failing to protect amber, for bringing that building down and killing so many people. The innocent, gentle heart that beat within her chest was crying out for somebody to tell her that everything was a dream, that she wasn't a murderer, that Solomon hadn't brought those evil people to the basilica in the first place.
She was a girl in pain, and now that her mental blocks had been breached, the full weight of that pain began to hit the both of them. She cried, finally gasping out to Guinevere.
"I.. I'm a monster now, my light has gone out and only the dark remains. I'll never be the same again, all that's left to me is sorrow and pain and..." The next word tasted strange on Lily's tongue. It was one that she'd only ever reserved for the Grimm. "And hatred... That woman... what did she do to me? Why did she do this to me?"
-------
Aegle
Lily sat quietly as Aegle spoke. The normalcy of her words were nice. Listening to her go on about her family and her own stay in the hospital. Her hands balled up the tattered sheets nearest them as she spoke, but she stayed her tongue. Her teeth were gnashing in her mouth.
How did this orange girl make her feel like nothing had changed?
She wanted to leap from the bed, and give the girl a hug, but the fear that she would somehow taint her, or that getting any closer to her would somehow endanger her life prevented her from moving even a single muscle. When Aegle finally finished speaking, a silence hung over the room. Lily's hand unballed the sheets and came to rest on her lap. Lily's eyes were turned away, they had been the entire time. She studied the floor opposite Aegle, and tried her best not to cry. An endeavor that she failed as her hands found the tiny stuff Calico. And so, for roughly thirty seconds, the room was filled with no sound save the sobbing that Lily was producing as she sat there, hands clutching the cat. Her claws were itching to come out. To shred this beautiful thing that Aegle had brought for her, but she stayed those claws. She finally sniffled out a weak "Mr. Flufflestiltskin will enjoy the company." A small but weak smile began to pull at the corners of Lily's mouth. She wondered if her belongings had been collected from her Legion hotel room, and if not, what had become of them. The black dress that her mother had sewn her so many years ago, and that she had repaired with the help of her new friend Guinevere. The backpack she'd been given by Fiore, and the stuffed animal, also a gift from the wonderful huntress who'd saved Lily's life.
Her aura cloaked her then. The worry that her precious belongings might be lost to her worried her immensely, and as was often the case when Lily was in particularly bad states of stress, her aura came out subconsciously.
The brilliant white that would bathe those who basked in it's glow with hope and peace was gone. Replaced now with a murky grey, and a feeling of despair so intense that the entire room seemed to grow heavier. The sobbing began again. She'd been trying very hard to suppress her aura, but it still came out from time to time like this. "NO!" She shouted as she dropped the innocent stuffed animal. Her claws came out and she grasped at her head. She'd managed to spare the gift kitty a cruel fate. "This... This is me now," She said, blood trickling down her face
"S'all about you, ain't it?"
Why did those words have to echo now? The way that Lily had left Aegle before had nearly broken her heart, and now more than ever, things should be about her. But.... she was right. When weren't they?
Slowly, the gray light fled, and Lily's visage returned to the same sad state it had been in before.
"Hey... why don't you tell me about Paeon? Or your mom, or.. or anything really..." She wiped the tears from her face, but they didn't stop falling. The futile attempt to clear her eyes of water had to look silly and desperate, but she knew that of anyone, Aegle wouldn't mind. She was good like that. She might feel uncomfortable, but she'd find a way to power through and deal with it. She was stubborn like that.
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Post by Aegle Vitus on Nov 18, 2016 19:34:07 GMT -6
For several long seconds, following Lily's outburst, Aegle said nothing. By itself, such a silence might have seemed suggestive, or even damning, of the orange haired girl's inevitable reaction, but to jump to such a conclusion would have meant disregarding one key aspect of Aegle's personality; That her interminable unflappability. For once she did deign to speak again, it was in an altogether controlled and unperturbed fashion, indistinguishable from the way which Aegle had conducted herself just a few moments prior. Dutiful as a faithful, if excitable, young dog, the small and crooked girl simply cocked her head to one side and gave an absent half shrug of her hunched shoulders.
"Well Paeon's pretty friendly with most of the staff here... S'why they got to come visit me outside of visiting hours." She explained in a matter of fact tone, as if nothing at all where amiss. Still, while she spoke, her emerald eyes remained keenly focused on those of her bedridden friend, as if they were looking for something that was just barely hidden beneath the surface. Whatever it was that Aegle might have been looking for, be it signs that a further outburst might be forthcoming, or any other damning implications about her friend's emotional disposition, she evidently didn't find it. After a few moments, and with the air of comfortable disinterest which so well described any moment where Aegle, through her lacking perceptive faculties, failed to take note of something, her gaze softened and her smile grew more free and absent-minded.
"He did his internship here. They taught him all about bein' a doctor and junk. He's still pretty good friends with head surgeon, Doctor Byrnes." This second name, Aegle spoke with a certain degree of close familiarity, and the barest flicker of warmth rushed across her open face. "Course he weren't the head surgeon when Paeon was here. S'always been real smart though, and kind. Just like Paeon. Paeon's always been kinder than he was smart though, always been good at figurin' out why people are sick and not just what their sick with."
Then, without pausing in her brief narrative, Aegle reached out and, with one bandaged hands, shakily dabbed at her friend's glistening cheeks. She focused first on the blood which had began trickling down from the small incisions of the faunus girl's claws, then moved her attention to the wetness beneath her puffy, bloodshot eyes. She did this, just like she did everything else, as if it were only the most natural course of action which she might have undertaken. She was not at all off-put by Lily's distressed and disheveled appearance, no more than she had evidently been following her outburst of tears and shouting, and she wore that stolid, almost disconnected, contentment upon every curve of her cherubic face.
"I sometimes think Paeon went into doctorin' cause of me, ya know? Cause he felt sorry for me or wanted some way he could help." Again, Aegle produced a tremulous and difficult rolling of her hunched shoulders, indicative of a shrug, "But I figure he woulda gone into somethin' where he could help people anyway. Might have been a scientist like my mom, workin' on ways to cure diseases and help people live healthier and happier lives."
It was with no apparent difficulty that Aegle spoke about her family and, much like every other time she'd ever opened her mouth, she was clearly just speaking aloud each thought as it came to mind, unchecked and unedited by any preliminary consciousness. For Aegle, it was as simple as Lily having asked her to talk about something, anything, and she was doing everything in her power to do just that.
Having spent the last minute or so fighting a losing battle against Lily's tears, Aegle's thickly swathed hand moved from the faunus girl's cheek and up to her hair. Gently, but with a kind of fussiness which, unbeknownst to Aegle, mimicked that of her own mother, the orange haired girl straightened and combed back Lily's hair from before her wet and bloodshot eyes.
"I dunno though. Seems like being a scientist, you're always kinda, sorta removed from what you're workin' on. Mom's always talkin' about how this or that illness is 'fascinating', or how this sickness has 'interesting' properties', like she doesn't know that them fascinatin' and interesting things all help hurt people." Satisfied with Lily's new hairstyle, which was wholly indistinguishable from the old one, Aegle then lowered her linen cocooned hand back down to Lily's, and gave the faunus girl a soft squeeze through her thick bandaging.
"Bet she never thought there was anythin' interestin' or fascinatin' 'bout me when I got sick. I don't think Paeon's like that though... I think it would get to him, ya know?"
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2016 1:11:04 GMT -6
As Guinevere dove in, she did probably go a bit hard a bit fast. She knew to expect something like diving inside the mind of a Grimm, and she had worked with a dozen of their so-called ‘hearts’ at a time, so she was probably being a little reckless. She had already locked off a lot of this side to her, though she did leave some memories – horrors, sorrows, anguish – from various Grimm that had feasted upon them. It was not so Lily would experience them, but to give an easy channel for her own memories and emotions to flow.
Regardless of her mental defense, every dive into the abyss was different. This one was no different in that regard. Flashes of people she didn’t know blinked through her mind, Lily tearing around the place, flashes of pain in her arm, the tide of sorrow that comes over one’s aura in touching the Void, and the woman who did all of this. Well, it was different, but nothing worse than feeling yourself die a few times over. However, Lily did not have the luxury of feeling other’s deaths, and for all intents and purposes, she already had to herself – and not in the ‘good way’ the Monks had talked about.
She gave another couple ragged breaths, still taking in Lily’s emotions and words. If she could just dive a bit deeper here, she could…
She felt a sudden, sharp tug on her arm as a mental projection of herself was flung across the room. That hurt. But she knew these emotions and experiences would throw more at her. Suddenly, she was mangled in a chandelier as a building above her was coming down. The four seasons – all falling around her. The cracks flowing from her veins to her aura – she could tie that one elsewhere quickly. The physical pain she could put to the memories of others being eaten alive that lingered with Grimm. She couldn’t pin any more down to her memories at the time, but this was enough that she could put some of her mental blocks in place.
She directed these upwellings from the most positive parts of her soul to three places. One, a metaphysical emotional wall between Lily’s arm and the rest of her body. Guinevere would be taking the brunt of the Dust’s lasting pains for the time being. Working this one into place, she opened her eyes, a look of intense, directed focus was not directed anywhere in particular. A couple more labored breaths later, she mentally ‘shook’ that wall, to see how well it stood. For her heart and mind, she just wanted to cradle them. She wouldn’t go prying around for memories of Lily’s mom hugging her or anything like that, but she would use some of her own similar experiences to add a nice downy coating to her strained heart and mind.
Lily’s words echoed in her mind, now coming to her through the air instead of via the connection. Déjà vu anyone? Hoping to have most things settled into place, this was a bit taxing to maintain, but nothing like doing this with and controlling a Grimm in a state of constant death. She hadn’t exactly thought through how to tie herself off, and had gone through the armrest of the bed without thinking of it. Since she wouldn’t be able to move much, she moved her hand towards Lily’s, her own feeling a bit fatigued from taking up fragments of Lily’s pain.
She gave her hand a squeeze, and looked towards the tearful girl. “A monster? You are beautiful.” She looked directly towards Lily’s eyes with her one uncovered eye, a gleam of complete confidence in her eyes. There was a background of hurt to the gaze – for obvious reasons – but it would probably come across almost as if Guinevere had dealt with similar things before. “And I’m not talking about physically. You’re a wreck.” She cracked a smile at the comment. Keeping a loose grip on Lily’s hand, she stretched up over the girl with her free hand and brought it close to her head.
“But up here,” she tapped Lily’s head lightly, sending a rush of her own nebulous happy memories to Lily’s mind, “And here,” she moved her hand down, tapping on where her collarbone met her ribcage – not lower as to not give Lily any more discomfort – “is where you have beauty.” She lifted the arm, sluffing it back more towards her seat. This was not draining her Aura to a great degree, but she was still feeling the mental stuff going on. She’d need to blow some things up or kill a few Grimm after this to vent.
Her head drooped a little in the chair, but her hairpins kept the hair out of her left eye enough for her to look towards Lily’s face. “You’ll be tha same. Jus’ give et time.” Her words were starting to slur a touch, revealing not only what Guinevere would be like if she were ever drunk, but also a slight accent she had caught in the theatres of Pinnacle. “Void dust bites. Et changes things, bu’ et doesn’ do that forever.” She was juggling more information than usual, now jumping into her own memory of what she had read from scrolls and books on Void dust; she had legitimate reason to be interested in it, so far as Lily understood.
She found a little fragment she was looking for. It was just a small bit, but there were blurbs about the one inflicting the curse being able to remove it – an unlikely scenario – or, an individual strong enough to contain the power of Divine Dust could purify a person’s aura of the Corruption. There were costs associated with each, but overall the little scrap of information might be enough to give Lily some bit of hope to work with. She knew it wouldn’t light up her Aura like the norm, but maybe for the time she was connected to Lily, she could lift what spirits she could. She passed it over for Lily to observe.
“And for the bitch that did this to you, when you’re all better we can go beat her up.” I this moment, she probably would have laughed like how girls often do when discussing bad exes and how to remove them from the picture. But she was tired – actually being open and mostly two ways was a lot easier than trying to enforce constant one-way communication through her links.
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Post by Celia Abbott on Nov 19, 2016 20:31:23 GMT -6
The walk to the room was somber, and silent, save for the paired set of boots that clacked loudly against the hard floor with each step their petite owners took. Celia had not ever been to a hospital. No injury she had ever received warranted such a visit, nor were any of those that her friends had sustained up to this point. It wasn't like they had them out in the settlement, anyway. Any time she got hurt, her mother would heal her. If it was worse, the town doctor would visit. Nothing ever warranted coming to a place like this. It felt so...stifling.
The air stank of manic cleanliness, and an aura of fragile hopes and resignation in equal measure coalesced like a thick fog in the grey and white maze of sterile halls the two of them walked. Her clone, crimson and black with it's fire dust augmentation, scowled as they walked, shooting distrustful glares back and forth at seemingly nothing in particular. Celia didn't notice. Lily was here, Lily was hurt. She couldn't help. That was the worst part of it. Her friend was hurt, and there was nothing she could do to help. What good would a visit do? Or a gift? Or a few words of comfort? The girl needed healing that Celia couldn't provide. She had...
The fire clone elbowed her, and nodded its head towards the door they had stopped in front of. It was simple, just as featureless and white as the rest of the building, with a silver lever knob and a black and white placard next to it on the wall, which displayed a string of numbers and a name.
Lily Wilde.
She knocked twice, waiting for a response. When none came, she turned the lever and eased open the door to poke her head in. "Lily?" she called quietly into the room, "Are you awake?" She stepped into the room fully and stepped out of the way to allow her clone to stand beside her. In its hands, it held a small, simply decorated clay pot, glossy, with a lid. A light steam came off of it, the scent of home-cooked food wafting gently through the air. Celia stood there, her hands folded, unsure of what to do, or say, or even look at.
"Brought you something." The clone spoke up in Celia's place, speaking with her own voice in a deeper, slightly harsher tone.
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Post by lilywilde on Nov 22, 2016 7:11:39 GMT -6
----- Never stop Running ----- tag: --- // words: --- // notes: --- Aegle
Lily sat and listened to Aegle's story patiently. It was nice, normal. To hear Aegle speak so freely despite Lily's injury almost made it feel as if she hadn't been injure at all. In the brief moments while Aegle spoke, Lily felt like that last week simply hadn't happened, and she was sitting with Aegle after a day of sparring. The stories of Aegle's family were nice. They made Lily fantasize about a life she could have had. Life like when she was young, and her family was still safe together in the tribe. There was something there, just out of reach, but she refocused on Aegle's story before she could really think too much about the peculiar sensation that plagued those thoughts of her early life.
"Paeon sounds like a really nice brother." She said, feeling the pang of something clawing at the back of her mind "But I get where your mother is coming from. I think that kind of curiosity is good when you're trying to understand something. I'm sure that the 'fascinating' properties she marvels at are... well, I just think it's probably easier for her to save people if she looks at it that way. If she spent so much time thinking about how bad that stuff is, she'd spend less time thinking about how to fix it."
It was nice, thinking about something else. Anything that kept her mind off of the reality of her situation was welcome at this moment. She was in constant danger of slipping back into her woeful state, so she clung desperately to any thread that would keep her mind occupied. She dug around for more to add, but came up short. Instead, she just asked "Got any other family members? Or do y'wanna know anything about me? I uhh..." She paused for a few moments before saying "I don't really do this much, I mostly just study and fight. This is how friends talk to each other, right?"
Though she was trying her best to keep her spirits up, the soul crushing negativity of the situation had found an outlet in the poor girl's insecurities. She couldn't help but dwell on how alone she'd always been, and how new this whole socializing thing was. She second guessed her every action, and it had been especially bad since Aegle's outburst the other day. She wondered if she were too self centered, if she spent more time concerned with her own problems than with the problems of the people around her. It had dawned on her not long after the chat wit Aegle that she didn't really know much about the girl. She hadn't really ever taken much time to talk to Aegle. In fact, Aegle had always been the one listening to Lily talk about herself. She wanted to know her friend, actually know her, and not just call her a friend hollowly. Maybe one day she could even meet her family.
That thought brought her back out of the misery that had almost dragged her down again, and she offered another weak smile, waiting on Aegle's answers.
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Guinevere
Lily felt the familiar, but still very alien connection take root once more and a small shudder passed through her being. It was as if pieces of herself were being forcibly suppressed. Lily's mind fixated on the memories flowing into her as much as the memories flowing out of her.
The sensation of death, one that she didn't truly care to relive, brought back memories of her own death. A vivid flashback of the nevermore's beak piercing her chest. Of the other flighty grimm flying high circling her. The ruins that should have been her cemetery towering over her like a necropolis. The fade to black, followed by the sudden agony of life being forced back into her body. Of muscle, and bone being knit back together. Those first few moments of agony as Fiore's aura restored the girl's body.
Then, memories of happier times flooded her mind as Guinevere focused her mind on happier thoughts. Evening spent sitting at a table. Mundane things like helping her mother set the table. A place for her, a place for her mother, a place for her father, and one other... The specific memory got blurry the harder she tried to think about it. Were they having a guest over? Why couldn't Lily remember anyone from the tribe?
Thoughts of her parents and her in the wildenress prior to their death came easier though. Her mother laughing as her father fell asleep while whittling a small figurine, wood shavings all caught in his beard and his carving knife poking his nose.
Her mother yelling angrily at her father about something or another, and the way her father could always diffuse her tensions with a knowing smile and a few calm words of wisdom.
Her mother awkwardly meditating with her father after one such argument.
Lots of happy times had managed to take place in the wilderness, as well as the bad times. The freedom out there was amazing, and none of them ever concerned themselves with the bad parts, so long as they were all together.
She flinched slightly when Guin tapped her head, and again when she tapped her chest. She couldn't believe it. She knew she was a monster, capable of inflicting so much pain on others. "I have killed, not ust at the basilica, but before." Her thoughts flew to the man at her campsite. His dusty coat black with blood. Who was he? His only crime was waking Lily when she'd slept. He was her first innocent, but the people in the basilica... they did nothing. They went to mourn a lost hero, and died for it. They died because Lily had to play hero. She couldn't stand by while that woman threatened her friends, and so many paid for that one brash action.
"I can't be beautiful Guin," she said, sniffling as a few more tears streaked down her face. "I was rotted to the soul before this, and now.." She held out a hand, emphasizing the grey aura that cloaked her, "That rot has been made even more clear. And as for the one who did this for me... If you're right, and that person has to die for this to be fixed... well, I dont' want to endanger any of my friends. This woman is dangerous. What she did to me was effortless, I do not know her true strength, and I do not wish to find out through one of you. For now, we will leave her. Maybe one day when more information is available we can act, but for now please do not do anything rash on my behalf."
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Celia
Lily looked up as Celia entered the room, she offered a weak smile and gestured to the seat on her left. Her right arm was still bandaged, but the bandage was ripped, with claw marks and the red eye that hadn't been there a week prior was shown for all the world to see. The lines of scar tissue that surrounded it were disgusting proof that the girl had been irrevocably changed.
She looked to the girl, and didn't even bat an eye at the clone. "Hey friend," She said quietly, nodding to the ribbon that connected her to a sleeping Guinevere in the back of the room. The connection was still strong, and was helping Lily to keep herself together. It helped the pain, and it helped the darkness that was always on her mind now. She clutched the small stuffed toy that Aegle had given her back in Legion, and sighed. "I really screwed up, huh?" She asked looking at her arm. It seemed like only a few moments ago that she'd discovered the scars and the eye. She had tried to claw it off, to forcibly remove it from her body, but her cursed aura still worked the same as any aura, and the scratch marks had healed as quickly as they always did. She looked at the pair, and seemed to sink back into her pillows. "How are things? Any news? How is Raven, and the rest of the students? Has the war begun yet?" Her questions were rapid, but she had to know. If the war had begun, if the students were already being drawn up into battle lines and shipped to their respective kingdoms, she would need to know. She wouldn't let the cuffs that bound her to the bed be the reason she laid idly by. Celia might understand, might help her out of her bed, but she wouldn't rely on a friend for that if she didn't have to.
"I... I am happy to see you again, you've been taking good care of her?" She said as her stomach let out a low growl. The last line was directed at the clone, just because she was a manifestation of aura, Lily wouldn't treat her any different from a normal person. She seemed to real for that kind of treatment, too much her own individual. The food in the hospital quarter of the school was decent, but the smell emanating from that urn was mouthwatering.
She scratched her head using the backboard of the bed, since her hands were otherwise occupied, and her ears, which had been laying flat perked up a little bit. They still looked droopy, and mirrored her sadness quite effectively, but there was a little more life to them now. With each new friend that passed through her doors, she was reminded that she was no longer alone in this world. It was growing easier to smile, despite her situation.
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