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LaRPS : Legacies Role Play System » [IC] Character Chronicles
…wherein Gloriana muses on the Fickle Nature of Fiction
(3 posts)-
Gloriana gave her hair a pat as she finished dressing. She peered anxiously into the mirror, compulsively pulling her hair back one final time: the marks on her neck had finally reduced themselves to two faint pinpricks. With slender, gloved fingers she twirled the last of the pin-curls over them, hoping that was enough to where no-one, especially that nice Mrs. Muircastle, would notice. Heaven only knows what her new employer would think of Gloriana's character if Dr. Spatterdash was correct about the wound's origin, the explanation of which she still doubted (as vampires were, after all, fictional creatures) but after everything she'd seen in the past few days… well….
Best to hide them, she thought, nodding absently. Ladies of Good Character and Breeding simply did not have bite marks on their neck, especially due to Unfortunate and Bewildering Circumstances.
A last smoothing of her skirts and she was on her way - she bounced down the front steps of her flat and headed towards the Inn.
Her hooves clattered crisply against the cobblestones as she wound through the busy streets, and she had occasion to reflect on the aforemetioned sights as she traveled. Nothing in the books the doctors at the Asylum had given her indicated the existence of creatures such as the likes of which she'd seen, or, at least, not in any book they told her was "non-fiction". Beings with fantastical wings, animalistic features, skin the color of granite - and of course that absurd story Dr. Spatterdash cooked up about the supposed nature of her injury - these were elements straight from the tales spun by the Best and Most Fantastical Authors, and to be sure, Gloriana loved those stories the best; but, also to be sure, they were just that: tales.
It had taken the Doctors a long time to teach her the difference between fiction and non-fiction. She had lost a little bit of herself the day clarity came.
It was probably the fever, she realized suddenly. People with fevers sometimes Had Visions; she knew that from her beloved stories. That must have been it.
The cold fog swirled around her as she made her way through the park, dodging the slightly maniacal squirrels. Approaching the train station she laughed to herself. That Mr. Spatterdash was such a card, she reflected, greatly amused by his gentle and whimsical demeanor. He meant well, surely, but….
Vampires. Next he will be telling me that the Wee Folk exist.
Preposterous.
The Inn loomed close, and then she had arrived. She mounted the stairs with an air of hope and happiness, grateful to finally be making a Beneficial Contribution to Society after dreaming about it for so very, very long. This place was the Best Thing That Had Ever Happened to Her, and she intended to make the most of it until the Doctors came to fetch her back to the Asylum.
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[22:47] Gloriana enters the foyer and looks around, eyes widen. "What a lovely home," she murmurs, a bit winded from the trip. She follows Astrid into the next room
[22:50] Astrid Muircastle smiles warmly and gestures to the furniture, "Thank you, Please have a seat Gloriana"
[22:51] Gloriana seems rather agog. She takes the indicated seat, her neck craning in admiration of the place. "Thank you…" she murmurs.
[22:55] Astrid Muircastle nods as she takes a seat, and looks at them "I am concerned about your aura, it is weak. Has something happened in the past couple of days?"
[23:01] Gloriana shakes her head quickly, and then slows the shaking. And then stops. "I think you'll have to define 'odd', ma'am." She laughs quietly. "i'm not sure what that word means here." She tilts her head. "I should say… Mr. Mateem was kind enough to point me to Torn Oak. So i've spent time there, and have greatly benefitted from the exercise. But I am tired more often than not. And of course, last night -- there was a curious… ghost. A rather malevolent one, actually. At the cafe. He… it -- " she shakes her head. "He was in my mind for a while." She stops, realizing just how bizarre that sounded.
[23:06] Astrid Muircastle frowns and shakes her head, "Please continue... I must know what what the ghost did before I move forward."
[23:10] Gloriana picks at her skirts. "I honestly don't think he meant any harm," she says. "But was trying to communicate. Through me…. I -saw- things, images he placed into my head. And heard voices. And… it was painful, some of it quite so. Mr Mateem told it… said something like. that I hadn't learned yet, and I couldn't understand what it was trying to tell me. Which, I suppose, was true enough. It made no sense to me at all."
[23:15] Astrid Muircastle frowns and nods, "I am sorry to hear that. I will tell what I had planned, as you may change your mind. I want to use my energy to enter your mind. It will not bring with it any messages or images, it will be an attempt to figure out what has happened to you. Why you have changed, and now I am hoping to find what has happened to your aura. My energy will help me sense these things."
[23:17] Gloriana tilts her head a fraction, still fretting at her skirt. After a time she says quietly, "If you think it would help, then I should be able to bear it. It won't… hurt? Like last night? Will it?"
[23:19] Astrid Muircastle shakes her head, "If done correctly all you will feel is a calm, warming sensation. However, if it reveals something emotional, it may bring that forward to your consciousness, and experience them again."
[23:20] Gloriana 's eyes flicker upwards. She studies Astrid for a time, and then seems to come to a decision. "Well, let us try it. if it become too much for me to bear, will you know? Or will i be able to tell you?'
[23:25] Astrid Muircastle nods, "I will stop if you are too distressed. She stands, removes her coat, and moves over to kneel next to her. She smiles, "Can you remove your gloves please, I will just need to make a connection with our hands."
[23:27] Gloriana seems taken aback by the request. She glances down at her hands and, very reluctantly, removes her gloves, folding them in a neat bundle and placing them in her lap.
[23:34] Astrid Muircastle nods, she tilts her head slightly as she looks at her wrists for a moment. She kneels next to her and places her hands on Gloriana's. She closes her hands as she concentrates on her core, she pulls gold threads from her core, and attempts to direct them, with their warmth and calm, to Gloriana.
[23:34] Astrid Muircastle focuses on their expert skill of Evocation, successfully performs a supernatural presence on Gloriana.
[23:37] Gloriana is a little unsure about what to do here. She settles into her chair, gritting her teeth against the unfamiliar contact on her skin. But she calms as Astrid's strength pours into her.
[23:46] Astrid Muircastle feels Gloriana calming with her, she focuses on the gold threads and guides them to the woman's mind. She would do what she had given her word to first. With the threads she searches, looking for traces of enchantment.
[23:46] Astrid Muircastle focuses on their expert skill of Evocation, gets a stellar success in performing a supernatural discovery on Gloriana.
[23:51] Gloriana 's breath slows into a steady rhythm as Astrid starts her work. Her mind prickles at the sensation of another picking through the twisty alleyways and paths her mind has fashioned over time, parts awakening at the disturbance, others lying dormant and watchful. But there is no trace of enchantment along those roads.
[23:54] Astrid Muircastle frowns as she feels the path her energies are taking, and nothing is found. She tries something else, she looks for energy like her own... Sebastion had told her faun were fae after all. She looks for any sign she had been fae-touched.
[23:55] Astrid Muircastle focuses on their expert skill of Evocation, critically misses in performing a supernatural discovery on Gloriana.
[23:57] Astrid Muircastle furrows her brow, her energy seems almost to backlash against her, her head stinging in pain. Her hands squeeze Gloriana's slightly as she hisses at the headache.
[00:01] Gloriana flexes her hand involuntarily as Astrid's grip around them tightens, and she emits a small gasp. Her eyes open in confusion. "That… ma'am? That hurts."
[00:05] Astrid Muircastle nods, relaxing her hands though not releasing the touch, "Yes I am sorry, it hurt me as well, let me relax it..." She inhales deeply and refocuses, once again she tried to guide her energies through Gloriana's mind, trying to find some hint as to what the cause of her change might be.
[00:05] Astrid Muircastle focuses on their expert skill of Evocation, successfully performs a supernatural discovery on Gloriana.
[00:11] Gloriana relaxes slightly as the woman's grip lessens. As Astrid looks, she will see that Gloriana's energy patterns have started the process of reforming into a more natural pattern for them; much like a river, once the dam is removed, will find its old path from since before man diverted it. The channels are recently crafted, but are moving turgidly and with great effort. And the ones they are replacing are scarred, as if blasted into existence with dynamite.
[00:17] Astrid Muircastle looks more at the channels, the rivers that run through her mind, she speaks softly, "Gloriana, how old were you when you were given to the hospital where you were raised? Do you know anything before it?" As she waits for her response, she keeps watch on the rivers, hoping to find another piece of the puzzle.
[00:29] Gloriana answers slowly, "I couldn't rightly say. The doctors said I was brought in as a baby. I've never known anyplace else." The patterning of her energy flows are atypical, Astrid will realize as she watches; place a rock in that same river and the river will find its way around it, but the path itself has been unquestionably altered. And Gloriana's pathways have been more than altered; drastically twisted in some places, completely dead in others. Brightly alive where they shouldn't be. The whole in its entirety works in its own fashion but it's held together with chewing gum and twine. But the places that travel to her legs seem to be the 'right' of it, no matter the difficulties it seems to be facing, and those 'difficulties' are quite large. There seems to be a battle going on. It's unclear what's winning.
[00:33] Astrid Muircastle frowns, this was strange, she hadn't seen something like this before, she lets her energys follow down to her legs, trying to examine that path.
[00:33] Astrid Muircastle focuses on their expert skill of Evocation, successfully performs a supernatural discovery on Gloriana.
[00:41] Gloriana 's legs are a bastion of calm compared to the wasteland of her mind. There is no tension here, no battle going on, nothing suppressing their True form. This is, unquestioningly, what is Right, and the channels reflect that: calm, brilliant, serene.
[00:44] Astrid Muircastle nods inwardly to herself, the puzzle was far from complete, but there was an idea at what it was supposed to look like. She then says softly, "I am almost done Gloriana." This time, she guides the gold thread to the areas were her aura seems affected, her wrists, her ribcage, as she tries to see why it is so weak.
[00:45] Astrid Muircastle focuses on their expert skill of Evocation, gets a stellar success in performing a supernatural discovery on Gloriana.
[00:52] Gloriana nods silently, containing her curiosity. As the thread travels it will find that the aura surrounding Gloriana's upper torso, hips, and until very recently, wrists, are being constrained by outside influences, which are currently present, very close, mundane in nature, and quite malign. Whatever it is, it seems to be draining the essential forces from her; indeed, most of the pathways leading to these areas are solely focused on supplying enough energy that the areas don't wither away entirely, which leaves the leaves the remainder of her needed strength at a deficit.
[00:56] Astrid Muircastle seeing that she slowly begins to retreat then stops... feeling something odd she releases one hand only to pick up the woman's gloves. She tries to focus on the energies, trying to find out what forces are draining her.
[00:56] Astrid Muircastle focuses on their expert skill of Evocation, gets a stellar success in performing a supernatural discovery on Gloriana.
[01:03] Astrid Muircastle: "me's Astrid's eyes open and she slowly pulls her hand back. She turns attempting to throw the gloves into the fire. Without explaining, she says "Gloriana, what is your corset made of?""
[01:04] Astrid Muircastle focuses on their expert skill of Evocation, gets a stellar success in performing a physical presence of 13% on the environment.
[01:07] Gloriana doesn't attempt to stop her but she does sit back in her chair, confused, and watches the gloves quickly catch fire. "…Ma'am?" she asks, bewildered and staring. "Uh… cloth. Metal boning and busks. i'm not sure what the cord is make of…."
[01:12] Astrid Muircastle nods, "Gloriana, I cannot explain how exactly, but I did learn something." She looks at her, as she speaks calmly, "I know this will sound strange to you but you must trust me. You are not human. You are faun, a fae. I suspected as much, but the gloves proved it. Iron, makes us weak, Cold forged iron is the worst. I knew as soon as I touched the gloves." She watches her a moment, "I think something is in your clothing, possible the metal boning. I think... I think you should get rid of any clothing you came here with and start anew."
[01:19] Gloriana stares at Astrid in near-incomprehension. Slowly realization dawns, and her hands tighten around her legs, fingernails digging into the skirts so hard her knuckles whiten. Her entire body tenses up, and she starts to shake her head involuntarily. "No," she whispers. "You're wrong. You must be wrong, that -- that's impossible. People don't change into things they aren't!"
[01:23] Astrid Muircastle nods slowly, listening to her, "That is what I don't know, I don't how it was done, how you were kept to appear as human, though I suspect the iron in the gloves was part of it. It kept you weak..." She sighs and looks at her, "Tell me Gloriana, did you feel anything besides the warmth, did it give you strength as well?"
[01:24] Astrid Muircastle (astrid.floresby): *besides the warmth when my energy entered
[01:26] Gloriana 's head jerks up suddenly, the expression on her face would answer Astrid in the affirmative. "How did you know that," she whispers forcefully.
[01:28] Astrid Muircastle nods, "Because, that is how I feel, how we all feel when we are around other's like us."
[01:33] Gloriana rises to her feet in a swift motion, reaching a hand out to steady herself on the arm of the chair as she does so. She automatically reaches for her gloves and then just as suddenly remembers they are currently in the fireplace. She wraps a hand around her wrist and rubs at it anxiously. "I don't," she breathes forcefully, "…even understand what you mean by 'us'. The fae are things that… steal children and spoil milk in fairy tales and you're telling me now I am one," She laughs and it comes out somewhat hysterically. Her eyes start to dart around, looking for an escape.
[01:37] Astrid Muircastle closes her eyes and nods, she steps towards the door, she is remaining calm through it all though, "I will call a cab for you to go home Gloriana. I want you to take off your corset and see how you feel when you get home, leave it off and see if you feel better. We can discuss the fae more later. For the record, I have never stolen a child, and the only milk I've spoiled is my own."
[01:37] Gloriana seems near tears, but remains silent as she follows Astrid to the door.
[01:40] Astrid Muircastle calls to one of the nearby cabs, then looks to Gloriana, "I know it seem like everything is wrong, but trust me that it will be fine. It might even be wonderful."
[01:42] Gloriana: "I'll --- try." Gloriana is visible struggling. "This is all so much…" She looks around wildly in the gloom of the night; the cold air seems to shock her back to her senses after a time. Her manners take over, but her voice is weak as she answers. "I'll try," she repeats as she climbs into the cab that approaches. "But this is…incredible.""
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((very nicely done--1 merit given))
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