Prepare for the #LodanRespawn2024 Existing characters may choose to be displace from/have memories of different timelines, thereby allowing returning members the option to retcon their whole character. These changes are the result of the "Unnatural Fog" plot device that is running between now and the Respawn. The plot is simple: no matter where your character is, that place is shrouded in a thick fog that suspends time, but not thoughts or memories, so even if they're repeating the same day over and over again, they continue to remember, so each time feels like a new day. For those retconning OCs; this is where new versions of themselves have the opportunity to replace the old versions. Official lore and tree updates will be announced asap
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Aug 24, 2016 2:37:57 GMT
He nodded, understanding her quiet comments. She probably meant the death of her husband as being the unlucky occurrence. Lasair doubted that it could have been spurred on from a black cat, but there were worse things blamed on animals so he didn’t really know what else to say on the matter. Instead, he shrugged and reached for his drink, sipping more from it. Seemed that it was close to being finished; how unfortunate.
“No more room for paintings? That’s too bad; I’d love to see the little cat. Perhaps you can finish up an image or two and send them out to make room. As for getting a cat, I hope you can find one. I see cats running around all the time it seems, some of them sleeping on the streets. So if you can get at least one into a good home, it’d make me very happy. Just make sure you give them a reason to keep coming back to you. But if the quiet itself bothers you, you might want to think about maybe getting a dog or songbird. They tend to be a little more vocal that cats, but some cats are rather noisy.” But, that was just his opinion. She was welcome to accept or deny it as she would.
Post by Veronika Tallent on Aug 24, 2016 23:10:00 GMT
Veronika took another drink, mulling over what he'd said. "Yes, I could probably finish a painting here soon, then start one of the cat in its place. And, yes, maybe I'll take in a stray." She said with a smile. "That'd be nice, giving one a home so it doesn't have to sit out in the cold all day." She nodded. "Thank you for that idea! That is much better than going to a pet store."
She laughed a little when he said cats could be noisy. "Yes, some cats can definitely make a lot of noise!" She thought back to the incessant meowing a small white and brown one at the orphanage did. "I don't mind it much, I've been around noise my entire life. I can usually ignore it." She didn't think she minded the actual quiet, but rather the emptiness. There'd always been others around her, that's what she missed. Though, because she'd always been around others, there had also been some noise. She was immune to noise, being able to drown it out with her own thoughts and imagination easily. Sometimes it could be a problem if a person of authority was speaking to her and she started receding into her own thoughts, but that didn't happen often.
"Does noise usually bother you?" She asked, remembering how he'd led her away from the loud music earlier. That was probably just because it'd been too loud to hear each other speak. She certainly hoped the answer was no, as the band in the pub had been playing the entire time they were speaking. Veronika had easily drowned that out as well, since she'd been listening to Lasair.
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Aug 25, 2016 1:17:52 GMT
Nodding along to her answers, he realized his drink was nearly empty. A shame, really, but should he order a replacement? Perhaps, but she had mentioned not wanting to stay that long and he didn’t want to make her sit with him as he drank, else he’d be left sitting along. Maybe it would be better not to order one.
“Noise bothers me some times, but that’s only because I’m so used to the quiet. I spend a lot of my time in a library doing reading and such. So when someone walks in, suddenly I can only focus on them and what they’re doing and the book I was reading gets left behind. It’s a little frustrating, really, but I get over it usually. Except when they start talking to me, then it’s a lost cause.” He shook his head, realizing how silly it might have sounded when it was coming from someone like him. A bookworm was not a label most tagged him as.
As he stopped speaking, a young man looking no older than nineteen approached the pair of them. He seemed to be a little tipsy, but was at least able to keep walking without falling over completely. Resting an arm on the table for support, he turned to Veronika with a goofy smile. “Hi there. I’m Richard. Haven’t seen you here before. Wanna spend the night at my house?” Off in the corner of the bar, there were two other young men who were snickering as they watched their friend. Glancing around his arm, Lasair tried to see if Veronika needed any help, or if she could handle this drunken man herself.
Post by Veronika Tallent on Aug 25, 2016 23:05:38 GMT
"Ah!" Veronika smiled happily. "Libraries are absolutely amazing! Books are wonderful tools; they have so much knowledge to offer to the world, or maybe just a nice story that takes you to a different place. They're great! Do you have a specific genre you like to read?"
But now a stranger approached them, slurring crass words. Veronika wasn't quite sure what to do. Something like this had never happened to her before, and her cheeks burned red in embarrassment and anger. She felt disgust well up inside of her, and she gritted her teeth. How dare he be so direct and mannerless, she thought. She quickly forgot her constant goal of staying happy for the sake of herself and others.
With a big bright smile and sarcastic sugary sweet voice she asked, "Sir, I must ask. Why would I ever want to do that, especially with someone as tasteless as you?" She applied all of the venom her voice could muster to the word 'you.' Her tone became sharp. "You insult me if you honestly think I would ever want to spend a minute of my time with you." In the moment it had seemed like her voice was too high pitched to correctly display her disgust with him. When she realised what she had just said to him, she didn't want to land herself in trouble by making him angry (but didn't regret it either).
Veronika took a deep breath. She tried to calm herself, to achieve a cool composure before she said anything ruder than she already had, but she couldn't stop the slight edge from appearing in her voice. "I'll be politely declining your company." She hoped he wouldn't get upset with her because of her answer and make a scene. Although she felt disappointed in herself for not chiding him more, she knew it was best to stay as calm and polite as possible.
She hadn't been around many men in her life except for her father when she was a child, and of course, her husband. They'd both treated her kindly before their parting. The rest of the boys she had known were just young children that the orphanage had separated the girls from anyway. She didn't know how she'd react if one started yelling angrily at her. She imagined it'd be rather intimidating, but wasn't necessarily scared for it to happen. She felt much more insulted in the moment than scared. She didn't want to slap anyone, and didn't want to cry in frustration, but she wasn't sure which of the two she'd do if he persisted. Possibly both.
As her nervousness set in, she squirmed a little in her seat, willing him to go away. She looked away from his glare with a firm expression, trying to appear casual while communicating to him with body language that the matter was over, and to not continue with another word. She bit the inside of her cheek, continuing to stare defiantly away from him, waiting for him to walk away.
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Aug 31, 2016 2:49:06 GMT
Before Lasair had a chance to reply to her question, the stranger showed up and began talking to Veronika. And as she replied to him, he needed to lift a hand to cover his mouth before his reaction was drastic enough to be noticed by the other two. He was stuck between a look of shock and the desire to laugh, but laughing would have really given him away so he bit his tongue and waited to see how the guy would take the stern rejection.
The guy just sort of blinked at her, unable to understand how anyone would ever decline an invitation from him, of all people. His drunken mind needed several moments to process this. And as it worked, his hand began sliding towards the edge of the table, ever so slowly. He apparently failed to noticed, that is, until his hand slipped over the edge and succumbed to gravity, which pulled his face down onto the table. Shortly after, the rest of him tumbled to the ground and as his drunken mind tried to understand that fact, his buddies walked up and began dragging him to the door, mumbling an apology for how he made a mess of himself (but not for how he acted).
At this point, Lasair finally allowed himself to laugh, leaning on the table a moment. “That was great,” he said to Veronika, a hint of adoration in his voice. “I’ve never seen someone turn a guy down quite like that. Best I’ve seen in a long time,” he said between the chuckles, finally calming down some. “Oh and as for books, I usually read for research reasons. Not as exciting, unfortunately. But I enjoy it.”
Post by Veronika Tallent on Sept 1, 2016 1:25:58 GMT
Veronika was still not looking at Richard. She heard a loud smack and jumped, panicked. Her hand raised and was ready to slap the man. For a moment she'd thought he'd gotten angry and hit the table out of anger, but now that she had turned to meet his eye, she beheld an entirely different scene than what she had expected. His face looked awkward squished against the table, and as the surprise drained from her expression, it was replaced with amusement. She watched as he slid to the floor in a drunken heap. Laughter erupted from her, and her eyes shone with merriment. She glanced at Lasair to see if he was seeing this too. He definitely was. When Richard's friends apologised for his intoxicated accident, she rolled her eyes, not offering a word of any sort to them.
"Thanks, I guess. I hope I wasn't too rude to the man." She replied with a glowing smile and another small laugh. There was only a hint of sincerity in the comment, for he had made her rather angry. However, she also understood the man was impaired in the moment, and that the next day he would likely regret he'd said anything to her. She felt only an ounce of embarrassment for him. Despite this, she laughed again, saying, "It really was quite the show, though."
Once again, she simply couldn't fight her curiosity. "Oh! Research? No, no, that's very exciting! What kind of research do you like to do? Are there any certain subjects that interest you?" She questioned, unable to understand why he might think it wasn't exciting. She found the want to learn new things very exciting, and was eager to know the topics he enjoyed learning about. She always thought it was interesting to know what others were fond of.
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Sept 2, 2016 19:44:41 GMT
“You weren’t too rude,” Lasair assured between snickers. “He was asking for trouble, just in his mind the question meant something else.” Shaking his head some, Lasair quelled his laughter and regarded her with a calmer expression. Readjusting himself in his chair, he debating on what he should say about his research, as well as how to say it. There were a couple different options, but his usual choice generally worked best. “History mainly,” he began, appreciating how it wasn’t completely a lie. “I try to uncover things that have been lost to time, or misunderstood as the years go on. I find it fascinating, but not everyone agrees about that.” Offering a light chuckle (that lacked the emotion his earlier ones contained), he shrugged and turned the conversation back to her. “What about you? What books do you like or what topics interest you the most?”
Post by Veronika Tallent on Sept 6, 2016 5:13:12 GMT
Veronika eyed him curiously, detecting some sort of sign of discomfort from him, but didn't know if she was imagining it or not. She felt as if she'd asked the wrong question, and decided to try to steer the conversation away from research. She quickly answered his question, so it didn't seem like she ignoring it. "I enjoy history as well, along with books that give tips on different art styles and techniques. Mostly, though, I'll be honest, I enjoy a lot of fiction novels, of many genres." She looked around hurriedly, taking in the environment around within a second, drinking the last of her drink as she did so.
She inhaled the scent of something cooking, but couldn't place her finger on what it was. She contemplated ordering something to eat, but the food smelled like it was starting to burn, and she wrinkled her nose in protest to the thought of eating it.
The people who'd been dancing earlier now sat chatting loudly at a table next to Veronika and Lasair. They were still a bit tipsy, and spoke in a drunken tone.
A large group of people had just entered the tavern. They laughed as they linked arms and talked about a subject that Veronika's ears could not pick up over the music and loud chatter of the intoxicated pair at the nearby table.
Unfortunately, there was not much to comment on at all, and as much as she adored one of the ladies' cloaks, she assumed Lasair would not be very interested in hearing about that. "I know you said you usually read for research reasons, but have you read any horror novels?" At least this wasn't about research. "I find them extremely exciting. If you haven't I recommend it." She smiled. "There's something fun about being scared while being aware of safety."
She opened her mouth to say more, but quickly forgot the words she had been planning to speak. Loud screams pierced the air, and Veronika stifled a loud scream of her own that had risen from her lungs, her nerves too frayed in the moment to note the irony of the situation after what she had just said. Her eyes reflected the flames that leaped before her, and a horrible ache rose in her breast, threatening to burst out in a sob. A grease fire must have started somehow.
Her frozen-in-fear moment ended as she saw a woman lift her glass of water to help put out the flame. Veronika moved so fast she nearly flew to her, and smacked her hand away. The glass soared across the room and shattered against the floor. "Are you daft?" Veronika shrieked at her. "Water will not help this!" The woman simply stared at her in shock. Veronika was panicking, whimpering, her hands flailing around in front of her for no purpose at all as her thoughts rushed. Memories clouded her mind. She remembered the fire, and the corpse of her sister as she was pulled screaming from her charred house by rescuers. Tears pricked her eyes but she groaned and desperately tried to push away the awful memories, only partially succeeding. She had not faced an uncontrolled fire since then.
She knew she needed to smother the fire to put it out. But with what? She saw no blankets around. A woman near her was wearing a cloak, the one she had thought was so pretty earlier. She reached for it, and pulled it off the lady's shoulders as if in a trance. The woman grasped for it at first, but must have caught onto to what Veronika was thinking, thus allowing it to be taken from her grasp. However, Veronika's mind wasn't functioning correctly. She stared blankly at the cloak in her hand, telling herself mentally, smother the fire, smother the fire. But nothing happened. She just continued to look at it, her trail of vision tracing the lines of the pretty green and red plaid pattern.
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Sept 8, 2016 6:13:09 GMT
Everything happened so fast in those few moments. A reply about the research, a spark erupting into a flame. Lasair jumped back but it wasn’t until after he was through the motion that he registered that it happened. And then Veronika, she was reacting, moving, responding. She stopped the water from joining the fire, and then she produced a cloak out of thin air. And then she smothered the fire with it. Wait, no, she was stuck. She couldn’t handle the fire. It was staring at her, hypnotizing her. And it was threatening to do the same to Lasair as he watched her, nearly joining her frozen nerves.
But, his mind woke up and kicked him into gear. This certainly wasn’t the first time he worked with fire after all. Stepping forward, he took a few strides so that he stood behind Veronika. Reaching out, he grabbed her hands with his own and pushed forward, drawing the cloak over the flame before it could grow any more, before it could cause any more harm. “Don’t let it beat you,” he spoke to her, coaxing her to wake up and move. It was a little difficult to handle the cloak when it was being clutched in someone else’s hands, after all.
Post by Veronika Tallent on Sept 8, 2016 22:07:37 GMT
Veronika started to become more aware of what she was doing. She loosened her grip on the blanket when she realised Lasair was trying to make her throw it on the fire and her hold she had on it was preventing him. It covered the flame, containing it. Though she was extremely hesitant, Veronika forced herself to stomp on the blanket, smothering it. She turned to the lady she'd taken the cloak from and gave a shuttered sigh. Her nerves were now catching up with her finally, and she was filled with a sense of anxiety and panic. She was glad nobody was hurt. "Sorry about your cloak." She managed to choke out to her. She reached into the pocket of her skirts with shaking hands and took out enough gold to cover the cost of the now ruined cloak. She held the money out to the lady, while watching the cloak on the fire, half expecting the fire to leap back up, fully alive, though she knew it wouldn't. The lady closed Veronika hands over the coins and shook her head, refusing it, and taking a step back from her without a word.
Veronika sighed and sat down, as her knees were definitely going to give out if she didn't. She looked to Lasair. "Thank you for helping." She said. "Fire isn't my friend at all, as you could probably see." She forced herself to laugh, despite knowing the reason why fire scared her so much.
It was smokey in the pub, and the laugh made her cough into her arm. Don't laugh, she noted silently, internally wishing for fresh air, debating whether she should open one of the windows or not. "Good thing you were here, or else I probably would have let the place burn down from looking at the cloak for so long." She spoke with a hint of anger in her voice, but it was barely detectable at all, and switched to sincerity with what she said next. "I apologise." Why in the world had she not done something sooner? She felt ashamed of herself. "That poor woman is out of a fine cloak now. It was beautiful too, it must have cost her a lot."
She wasn't entirely sure what to do with herself now, but she couldn't just sit here. She hated herself for letting her memories get to her like that, and wanted to distract herself from the self-loathing she felt. She asked the man who'd been working for a broom, and he pointed her in the direction of the corner. She swept up the little bits of glass from the lady's glass of water she'd sent flying across the room. She didn't want anyone to get hurt on it. Wouldn't that be bad luck to witness a fire, come out of the scene unscathed, and then get hurt by a bit of glass on the floor? "All done." She said quietly, mostly to herself, yet nobody at the same time.
She said to Lasair as joke, "It seems the food here tends to come out a little burnt. They're likely to get a bad review." then internally rolled her eyes, knowing she probably sounded like she was forcing casualty after an eventful occurrence. She knew better than to laugh, because of the smoke, which probably made the joke sound even more stupid. She coughed again anyway. She watched him, gauging his reaction. Was he angry that she'd not done something sooner, that she'd waited so long he'd had to step in? She wouldn't blame him; she was angry with herself.
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Sept 13, 2016 5:21:57 GMT
With the fire put out, he stepped back, taking shallow breaths as he tried to relax. Despite knowing what to do, it didn’t stop him from feeling shaken from the event, from the fact that something had almost happened. “It’s hard to make friends with something like fire,” he admitted. Could he call it his friend? He certainly could summon it on command, but did he actually control it? No, then again you couldn’t control a friend. But it was something he knew how to handle, at the very least.
When she moved to sweep up the glass, Lasair found himself a bit dumbfounded, at a loss for words even. What had possessed her to take up such a task? She was not a worker here, in fact, she had just saved the place from being a scorch mark in the dirt. Somehow she felt the need to do more though, to keep busy perhaps? “Come on, let’s get some clean air.” The bartender waved them out, mentioning that the drinks were free tonight as thanks. Lasair nodded and ushered Veronika out the door.
“You reacted quickly, faster than anyone else. That was impressive,” he spoke once they were outside, hoping it would consol her some. The clean air should do wonders as well.
Post by Veronika Tallent on Sept 13, 2016 23:09:10 GMT
When they stepped outside, she replied to Lasair in a quiet, "thanks." She didn't really believe him, but wasn't going to put up an argument where it is unnecessary.
The clean air filled her lungs and she inhaled deep breaths, cleaning away any smoke from her lungs. Along with it went the foul memories, and she felt her spirits slowly lifting. She remembered her vow to herself. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. The world goes on. She thought to herself, a hint of a smile appearing, her default expression she'd come to know very well by now. "It was awfully kind of them to give the drinks for free. They seem to be good people. Despite the fire being out, they'll have quite the mess to clean up. I do hope it doesn't affect them too badly." Concern flitted across her face, but only for a moment. She was sure they'd probably be fine. She looked at Lasair to see if he was okay, not burnt anywhere. From what she could see within the quick glance he looked fine, but just in case, she asked, "You're unharmed, yes? I didn't think anyone got hurt, but it all happened so quickly." She resisted the slight urge to take him by the shoulders and scan him for injuries, but she wasn't his mother, so she refrained.
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Sept 14, 2016 4:31:31 GMT
Watching her from the corner of his eye, he was relieved to see that she was relaxing now that they were out of the smoky building. She took deep breaths which he found himself matching as her expression calmed significantly too, even pulling up a small smile. “You helped save the building from burning down. It doesn’t seem like much when you compare it to that.” Walking forward some more, he paused when she asked about how he was doing. Honestly, he hadn’t noticed if anything had happened with him, not while he was so busy with trying to handle the fire before it could get any more wild. Looking down at himself, he didn’t notice any cuts or bruises, nor did he feel any, but then again it wouldn’t be the first time that he had one without noticing.
“I think I’m alright.” But he could be wrong. She would probably have a better eye about it than he did. But if he were actually alright, then they could continue their walk and resume a nice conversation.
Post by Veronika Tallent on Sept 15, 2016 2:39:31 GMT
He looked over himself for any injuries, but must not have found any. When he told her he was alright, she gave one deep nod, said, "good," then they continued walking. She wasn't entirely sure where they were going, the area being a bit foreign to her still, but she continued anyway. Veronika's dress looked black in the dark, regaining some of its colour as they walked past one of the dim, flickering streetlamps. She faintly smelled the gas of the lamp, and she felt a slight shock it hadn't been changed to electricity yet. Her boots' short heels clicked on the cobblestones.
She looked at Lasair, watching the shadows slide across his face as they walked past the lamp, the angle of the light being cast upon his features differently with each echoing footstep. She had always been fascinated with shadows. When she made paintings or drawings, she always thought of them as the hardest part. The edges were neither soft nor hard, solid nor transparent, and it was difficult to catch them in artwork, especially paintings as they had to be the perfect shade. Her fingers brushed the little sketchbook in her dress pocket, but did not take it out.
"So." She started, quickly searching her brain for somewhere to go from there. "Where are we walking to?" It was the first thing that popped into her head, and the curiosity had gotten the better of her. Perhaps they were walking nowhere in particular. She wouldn't want to get lost in the city at night, and she assumed he felt the same on the matter.
Post by Lasair Landevier Lupen on Sept 20, 2016 22:38:23 GMT
“Uhh,” was the first word out of his mouth, if it were even a word at all. Taking a few moments he looked up the street, remembering where they were in the city. “Currently we’re walking towards the Main Theater but I didn’t have a destination in mind. I just through that fresh, clean air would be good. Is there anywhere you’d like to see? You did mention not knowing the city well yet. If not, I could walk you back to your place at least. I want to make sure you’re alright after that scare.” Offering her a light smile he looked back to the street. The street was calm right now with a few people rushing around, but most were in no such rush. Some groups stood around talking, a car or carriage occasionally passed by, a clockwork bird flew by at times, it was a normal day on the streets.
"All you need is love." -John Lennon
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