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alpha lyrae generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
40!
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Friendly Conversationalist
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 Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:50 pm
Claire continued to skirt the building, looking for an in when Lorenzo received his text from Vesna. She frowned at the walls before them, placing a hand to the stones. As old and worn as they looked, they were not budging. This was a frustrating trend with the building.
"Looks like we may have to," she replied with another rap to the wall. Claire let one hand run along the walls as she walked, hoping to find a weakness of some kind, or at least solid enough holes in case they needed to scale up and over. But as she maneuvered around the corner, she was confronted with the sight of some very rude graffiti with some Very Rude Words.. but more importantly, the much-sought opening they were looking for. Many of the stones had been worn (or pulled) away and there was enough room for them to push through. "Might be snug but here's our chance. We may need to pass the supplies through between us." Her pocket vibrated and she fished out her phone - Vesna had tagged her in a new photo and they were closing in on the tree. She could see brighter patches of green than the grass they had come across earlier - their search grounds. "Looks like they're already there. Shall we?" She gave Lorenzo another apologetic smile and approached the nook in the wall, going at it sideways, but there was enough room for her feet to rest flatly on the ground. She emerged on the other side and waited for Lorenzo, helping him feed through his supply bag before he climbed in himself. Part of her wanted to make a jest about breaking the law, but considering his profession, she thought that might cause more stress than anything else.
It did not take them long to catch up with the others, and Claire raised a hand in a short wave as they approached, picking up the pace just slightly as soon as she spotted them. "Thanks for waiting." Her feet slid a little on the clover, still somewhat damp from an earlier shower, it seemed. Her eyes scanned the immediate area at her feet briefly before flickering up towards the two Raevans and Lorenzo before they began the search in earnest.
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Atmadja generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
8!
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:52 pm
"Ah yeah, Eden! I've met her, she seems awesome. But ten friends, wow. That's not a bad number to shoot for," said Cesc as they floated along, nodding. "How many did you manage to meet before the birds got in? And then you've got one more now, so that's got to put your total somewhere in a good range for your first time out."
At her request to take a picture of him, he turned and smiled boyishly. "Sure, if you want--do you want me to take one of you by this angel headstone? Definitely one of the cooler we've seen."
He noticed the needle at that point, it's tip indicating… the clovers? He frowned gently, looking down, before spotting Lorenzo and Claire.
"Hey, there you guys are. No groundskeeper, I take it? Or just a very lazy, sleepy one."
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kotaline generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
15!
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:21 pm
"She's super cool," Vesna affirmed. "Apart from Eden, I made, liiiiike, three friends? Yuri and LuLu and Aadhira. But I already sort of knew Aadhira. And I sort of met Iorek, too?? But the birds were attacking and all by then, so he was just like 'hi kids don't die' or whatever." She gestured vaguely at the top of her head and added, "Yuri and LuLu had kemonomimi, it was soooo cool! So do you, I guess, but they had, like, anime kemonomimi." Anime people just didn't often have deer ears.
As he offered to take her picture, she grimaced and looked away. "I kind of don't have a reflection," she explained sheepishly. "So I can't take selfies or anything. It's a huge bummer." She studied the angel headstone and added, "Anyway, dead people stuff is kind of boring to me. Dad's house is full of it, you know?"
Back at the church, Lorenzo craned his neck around for signs of life in vain, but had to eventually agree with Claire.
"I suppose so." His face fell, but he gathered his resolve, and hefted his hiking backpack into Claire's arms, looking left and right rapidly before crawling in after her. Letting out a deep sigh, he took the hiking backpack back from her. Now that they were in, he looked around and got his bearings, hoping perhaps vainly that Vesna would not try to read the Rude Graffiti that marked their entrance point. He followed Claire to the clover patch then stumbled ahead to reunite with Vesna, examining her carefully and asking, "Are you okay? No scrapes? No bruises?"
"Oh my god, Dad," Vesna said, rolling her eyes. "I was only gone for, like, fifteen minutes."
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alpha lyrae generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
43!
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 7:32 pm
Claire chuckled at the exchange between Lorenzo and Vesna - ever the fretful guardian. Perhaps they were more alike than originally thought; if Lorin were here, she would certainly be fussing over him with the same intensity. She took a moment during their exchange to answer Cesc's question.
"I'm afraid not." She folded her arms with another glance behind her, back towards where she and Lorenzo had emerged from. "Nobody has been here for years to look after the place, it seems." With the heavy padlocks on the front gates and the church door, it seemed that there were rarely, if ever, visitors coming by legal means. She was curious as to how far back the dates on some of the headstones read, but that was an idle thought. Instead she turned to the angel statue and examined it carefully, finding the name on the front of it easily. Was he one of the earlier pastors of the church? "I wish I had a better idea of what we were looking for, specifically.. but I suppose if something stands out, that would be clue enough, wouldn't it?" She laughed quietly to herself at her own silliness, and set to scanning the clover patch at her feet.
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Atmadja generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
14!
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:02 pm
Cesc followed along with only a half understanding of what Vesna meant; he picked up from context clues that his ears were not up to snuff the way Lulu and Yuri's were. He flicked his ears toward her as she spoke, and couldn't help but let out a laugh, half his mouth tipping upwards.
As she continued, however, his smile grew more genuine and his expression earnestly interested. "That's really interesting!" Rhedefre said, and he bent down to start combing through the clovers and the base of the statue. "So you're just that pretty naturally?"
He peeked at the needle and then back down to the flora, looking for anything out of the ordinary. To Claire, he said: "Well, it's got to be natural and unnatural, so just something that looks or feels patently… wrong, if that makes sense."
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kotaline generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
2!
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:27 pm
"Nope!" Vesna replied cheerfully. "I didn't think I was very pretty until I started watching anime. At first I was all like undead and gross looking?? And I was really sad, and then I started watching anime and all the anime was like 'Girls are super pretty and can do anything!!!!' and I was like 'I'm a girl!' and now I think I'm way cooler looking." This was a confusing sentence even by Vesna's standards, but she dumped another statement on top of it: "Also, Eden taught me how to use makeup, and I'm getting better at putting it on without looking."
She hunkered down to examine the clovers with Claire, jabbing the compass at them, but it seemed like it wouldn't get more specific than giving them a general location. "It's definitely pointing here," she said, angling the compass it a few other directions, only to have the needle swing back their way.
"Whatever it is, it's dangerous for us to touch," Lorenzo reminded, "So maybe the raevans should look closely, and we can just examine things and call them over if something seems unusual."
"Can we, like, ask the spirit of Father Patrick or something?" Vesna asked dubiously, looking at the gravestone looming above them.
"I'm not a ghostbuster," Lorenzo replied, a bit testily. The subject was clearly a pet peeve.
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alpha lyrae generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
37!
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:45 pm
"Makes sense," Claire replied. She crouched down at Vesna's approach to examine more closely, and craned her neck to look at the compass in the Frei's hands when she joined her. "Somewhere among the clovers is our target, guess we'd better be watchful." The word of caution was meant more for herself and Lorenzo, feeling she could accidentally trample on it, but as she said as much, Lorenzo had brought up a very good point on the actual danger of the item. That was why the Raevans were recommended to handle it in the first place, was it not? She placed both hands on her knees and heaved herself up, chuckling again at the exchange between guardian and Frei. It sounded like a jab that had been used before at some point.
"Even if we could, I doubt he'd know what to look for," she said as she moved more closely to the statue, checking around it. "Not any more than us, that is."
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Atmadja generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
33!
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 6:24 am
"Putting on makeup of any kind without a mirror takes some serious skill," said Cesc, running his hand gently over the crop of clovers he was nearest, his brows knit. "Clovers, huh. What's the basic characteristics of a clover or of, ah, mud or moss? Green, number of leaves? Ah… I don't see any that are red or something, or that give off heat, or that feel rough or super strong or anything. You guys see anything weird?"
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kotaline generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
8!
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 7:57 am
What about the number of leaves?" Vesna said, picking through the clovers a little less carefully than Lorenzo. "Like, there are three leaf clovers and four leaf clovers, but what about, like, a no-leaf clover or a two hundred leaf clover??"
"That still seems like a sort of arbitrary unnatural feature," Lorenzo said. "It could be something subtler, like how your essence was a reflection that looked strange." He eyed the moss and the mud and continued, "I think of everything here, the clovers are most likely to be obviously different to the untrained eye, though. I just hope the difference isn't a particular effect or something."
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alpha lyrae generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
27!
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:01 am
"I suppose it'd be too easy if it was a glowing clover or something similar," Claire mused with a chuckle, picking through the stragglers of the clover patch behind the statue, her voice somewhat muffled. "Aren't four-leaf clovers supposed to be lucky? But then again luck isn't really something you can actually see." She frowned as she patted the base of the statue and emerged from the other side.
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Atmadja generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
30!
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:21 am
Cesc continued to gently run his fingers along the clovers, then looked at the moss at the base of the headstone. He started to laugh as he did so, studying every inch of the perfectly normal looking flora. "I have a whole new respect for Dr. Kyou and anyone who has to search for anything. I can't use my powers, but there's a literal compass pointing right at it and I still can't find anything."
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kotaline generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
44!
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:41 am
"It's impressive that the Lab's found so many fel essences," agreed Lorenzo. "For something so powerful, they sure are difficult to spot."
"Mmm," said Vesna, who seemed to be getting a little bored of this game now that she had not immediately won it. Looking to occupy herself, she asked, "What are your powers, Cesc?" and to Claire, "You have a raevan, too, right? What are they like??"
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alpha lyrae generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
50!
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Friendly Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:53 am
"I agree; even if he has a better idea of what to look for, if this is any indication then I most definitely tip my hat to him." Claire surveyed the base of the statue one more time after she stepped from behind it for anything she might have missed. Perking at Vesna's attention, she fished her phone out of her pocket with a small smile. "He's still young yet so we're not quite sure what he can do yet, but.." A few small swipes later and she held up the phone for Vesna to look at, showing off the solo photo she had shown earlier at the party, of Lorin coyly leaning into the living room with a smile. "This is Lorin."
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Atmadja generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
19!
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:06 am
"Mm?" Cesc looked up from his task, his eyebrows raised. He was beginning to float around the base of the statue, looking for something anywhere in the vicinity that might go with the description.
"I feel like having one super-powered compass is probably better than a bunch of little makeshift ones. But who knows. I was a bunch of shattered light, so I'm guessing that wasn't too tough to see," he mused. "And Lorin is going to be amazing. He's already got cuteness off the charts. As for me…" His smile went wry. "I can find lost things--people, items, magical stuff, whatever. And I can feel loss, or grief. But I can't find these fel essences, because, well… apparently they don't mind being free. So they're not giving me off any signals." He laughed. "I haven't been this useless in a search in… ever, actually."
Cesc adjusted his ball cap with one hand, eyes still down. "I can also break light and manipulate it into anything I like--and I can calm people down."
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kotaline generated a random number between
1 and 50 ...
31!
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:21 am
Vesna gasped and dropped the clover she had been examining. "He's so cute!" she crooned, leaning in towards the phone. "He's so little! He wasn't here today, was he?" She looked around, as if Claire might have been hiding him behind her this whole time.
"Feeling loss and grief sounds like it'd be a bummer," she said as Cesc explained his power. "I don't really remember being a rusalka, but I've seen how Lorenzo's clients can act, and I've read about rusalki, and I think I've have enough grief for the rest of my life, never mind feeling all the grief everyone else feels." She smiled at him sympathetically, and said, "Anyway, you're being really useful! You're, like, holding the bottles and stuff."
She was much more interested in his light powers. "Can I see you make something cool?" she asked.
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