Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 18:28:55 GMT -5
Jaebi was either very lucky, or fate had seen to torture him.
He could hear Kemekin snickering at him from the other side of the room. Jaebi did his best to ignore this, focusing instead of his own desktop, upon which lay several sheets of loose-leaf paper and a pencil borrowed from Professor Harrows. His desk had been pulled up next to his partner's-- the entire class had been paired up for a writing assignment. Needless to say, he and Kemekin had not been allowed to work together since the first week of classes-- Kemekin's fault, of course.
The first sheet of paper bore only two names-- his and his partner's-- scrawled in the upper corner in Jaebi's neat but cramped handwriting:
Jaebi Lyckander, Ariel Hawk.
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 19:28:11 GMT -5
Ariel tapped her pencil on the surface of her desk, glancing over at the blank paper in front of Jaebi.
"So... do you have any ideas to start with?" She had a few, at least. They all stemmed from her recent nightmares. As long as she was losing sleep, she figured she might as well turn it into something useful.
Hearing her classmates snickering behind her, she turned and glared briefly at the perpetrator before returning her attention the her assignment.
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 19:38:47 GMT -5
The corner of Jaebi's mouth curled upwards at this action. He glanced at Ariel while she was looking away, feeling the heat rising in his cheeks. He brought his focus back to the paper before she turned back, scribbling out the beginning of an outline on the sheet. He also had nightmares to build from-- nightmares that he had told very few people about. They weren't as frightening as Ariel's, but Jaebi had eternal reminders... they were etched into his very skin.
After a few lines, Jaebi read over the beginning of a plot map. It involved a monster trapped in a dungeon, fearing his own voice and haunted by the thoughts in his head-- an primal mind that encroached upon his own, driving him to madness in that dark, enclosed space, filled only with echoes and frantic pain.
Jaebi's eyebrows rose. He made a move as if to snatch the paper up and crumple it, but stopped himself. Ariel couldn't know the origins of the monster described on the paper.
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 19:46:00 GMT -5
"Hmm..." Ariel nodded approvingly, adding some ideas of her own to Jaebi's outline.
The monster was the prisoner of a powerful demon king--one of many captives in an underground labyrinth of dungeons. The demon who guarded the dungeons had kidnapped an angel who had fallen from heaven, and locked her in a cell next to the monster. The angel befriended the monster, and attempted to teach him to sing.
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 19:53:24 GMT -5
Jaebi's smirk became a smile. He continued with the pattern, adding another few lines below Ariel's.
The monster could not bring himself to use his voice-- so horrible were the echoes in the absence of sight. He was content to listen to the angel's voice, so sweet and lovely that he imagined the angel an ethereal beauty-- ever the highest contrast to his phobic, feral self. Over time, the monster began to tear down the wall between the angel's prison and his own-- if he could not speak to her with sound, he would find another way.
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 20:06:38 GMT -5
Ariel grinned, jotting down more notes.
The angel helped pull down the wall from her side as well. Eventually they were able to make a gap in the wall, large enough for the angel to look through and see the monster by her own soft golden radiance.
"Pitiful creature of darkness," she whispered to him in her musical voice. "What kind of life have you known?"
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 20:13:49 GMT -5
Jaebi laughed aloud at this, looking at Ariel and saying, "A Phantom of the Opera reference? Very nice."
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 20:24:29 GMT -5
Ariel gave a dramatic gasp. "Lo and behold! He speaks!"
She giggled and added, "Phantom is my dad's favorite musical, if you couldn't tell just by looking at him. He has every one of the Phantom's lines memorized. It's kind of creepy sometimes, actually..." She leaned close and giggled. "The first time Dad caught me with Korlian, I half expected him to start singing 'Insolent boy, this slave of fashion, basking in your glory!'
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 20:30:09 GMT -5
Jaebi felt his cheeks burning as Ariel leaned in, feeling his heart rate increase a little. He felt a short pang of jealously at Korlian's name, though he had no ill will towards his fellow student.
"That would have been funny," he managed to say, his voice ebbing away as the break from his shy demeanor dissolved. He returned his gaze to the paper, crossing his arms and tapping his pencil against his bicep. He gave Ariel a furtive, sideways glance, knowing that his blush was only getting worse by the minute.
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 20:35:01 GMT -5
Ariel caught Jaebi's glance, noticing his burning cheeks. She nibbled her lower lip, wondering if something she'd said or done had embarrassed him. "Are... you okay?"
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 22:17:09 GMT -5
Jaebi sunk down a little in his seat before making himself grin. "No worries," he assured her, returning once again to the paper. "Now, where were we?"
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 22:30:44 GMT -5
"The angel was seeing the monster for the first time," Ariel replied, looking down at their outline again. "And then, how does the monster respond?"
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 22:42:30 GMT -5
"Well," Jaebi tapped the pencil's eraser against his chin, thinking. Looking at Ariel, the figurative lightbulb flickered to life above his head.
"The monster hasn't ever seen anything as lovely as the angel before," he said slowly as he wrote. "I think he would be really shy... more ashamed of himself, actually..."
The monster, conscious of his horrendous personage, backed away from this vision of beauty that had shown him such kindness, adverse to inspiring disgust-- or worse, fear-- in such a divine creature. He wondered what would possess their demonic captor to lock away such an angel.
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 22:51:24 GMT -5
"But," Ariel smiled, writing again, "the angel knows that beauty is more than skin deep. Real beauty comes from inside..."
The angel spent the long, dark hours conversing with the monster, singing to him, trying to learn the inner workings of his heart. Surely, she thought, not all creatures who were outwardly hideous were as inwardly evil as the demon king who held them there.
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 22:57:29 GMT -5
Jaebi felt the heat rising in his face again. So Ariel wouldn't see, he leaned over the desk, reading over what they had written so far. A new smile crept onto his features. "Learn the inner workings of a monster's heart, huh?" He doodled a pattern of blotted stripes on the lowest corner of the paper-- a design that looked like the markings he himself bore in his cheetah form. "Are you sure the angel wants to do something like that?" he asked. "She might not like what she finds."
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 22:59:59 GMT -5
"Better than judging by appearance alone," Ariel shrugged. "It's like Tolkien said, all that is gold does not glitter. And all that glitters is not gold. You can't really tell what a person is like inside until you look past what's on the outside. Maybe the angel can find some good in the monster."
She frowned a little as she read over their notes again. "This is kind of veering away from 'horror', wouldn't you say?"
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 19, 2009 23:08:31 GMT -5
Jaebi emitted a soft laugh. "You're right," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's a lot of fluff... I like this angel" you "though. She makes the monster seem like less of a monster."
After a moment of contemplation, he added, "Think their captor would have noticed them tearing down the wall? He wouldn't want the angel and the demon to plot against him, now would he?"
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 19, 2009 23:15:19 GMT -5
"Oh, I don't know," Ariel smiled. "Somehow I think the monster is just someone shy and scared, trapped inside a body he hates. Like Quasimodo. He just needs to find someone who will accept him no matter what he looks like. He's only being held back by his fears."
She nodded at his second statement. "Okay. So the demon king notices something's fishy, and goes to investigate. He finds the broken wall and sees the angel and the monster talking together, and... how does he react? He'll obviously want them to suffer. Maybe he locks the angel away on the other side of the labyrinth, where the monster can't even hear her sing."
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 20, 2009 15:23:58 GMT -5
Jaebi propped his chin up with the knuckles of his right hand, continuing to write with his left. “Ooh, the monster won’t like that,” he muttered. “So, after a few days of this forced solitude, the monster would break out—try to, at least. What if other prisoners got in the way? The demon would come back to find blood and broken bricks everywhere, and the monster rampaging through the perimeters of the labyrinth.”
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 20, 2009 15:39:56 GMT -5
"Ooo, I like it," Ariel grinned, writing as she spoke.
"Then someone tells the monster that the demon king has come down, and the monster goes back to find him and kill him. There's fighting, lots of blood going everywhere, and it all seems to be going badly for the monster. But the angel, having heard from the other prisoners that the monster is loose, starts tearing down the wall of her dungeon to escape and help him.
"To get to where the monster is, she has to crawl through a long, dark tunnel, where the darkness is so thick it's taken on a life of its own. The darkness both desires and fears the angel's light, and so it clings to her, trying to get close to the source of the light. By the time she reaches the battle, she's covered in darkness that's as thick as mud.
"The monster turns and sees her, thinking she's another of the demon king's servants come to kill him. The monster leaps onto the angel in attack, locking his hands around her throat. She tries to tell him that she's not a demon, but it's too late. All that comes from her throat is a strangled string of music, and then she dies. The monster hears the music and realizes he's killed the only person he thought could care for him. In a madness of rage he leaps onto the demon king and rips his head off in one movement, then flees the labyrinth and vanishes into the night, forever grieving for the angel he killed."
Ariel grinned sheepishly as she looked over what she had written. "Huh... I got a bit carried away..."
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Kemekin Evans-Barros, Jr.
Keme
Academy Freshman: Were-Korean
No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.
Posts: 229
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Post by Kemekin Evans-Barros, Jr. on Sept 20, 2009 22:55:32 GMT -5
"Oh boo, Jae. This isn't a horror story, it's a snuff fic."
From where he stood behind them, one hand braced on the back of each chair, Kemekin leaned between the two classmates and turned his head to look directly at Jaebi. "Is this your idea of flirting, man? A monster enamored with an angel?" Then, to Ariel, he gave his most charming smile and a sidenote of, "It's a wonderful character, by the way. But if you're going to have Jaeb-- er, the monster kill her, you should at least use some claw action." Returning to Jaebi, Kemekin added in a whisper, "Learn to flirt or I'm locking you in a closet with her."
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 20, 2009 23:01:58 GMT -5
Jaebi stiffened at Kemekin's sudden presence, the characteristic tension in his shoulders visibly apparent even through the fabric of his shirt. Having the boy's voice so suddenly in his ear made him blink. Dude, not cool...
"Back off, Keme," Jaebi said, spinning his upper body around and delivering a swift punch to his friend's diaphragm. It was a playful gesture, partly because Jaebi didn't want to hurt him, despite his annoyance; mostly, though, it was because in a full-out fight with Kemekin, the bigger, more hardy boy would certainly win... unless Jaebi sprouted claws and fur, of course.
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 20, 2009 23:11:10 GMT -5
Ariel grinned, shoving the two of them apart. "Really, guys, I'm flattered that you're fighting over me, but we all have work to do." She shot a second glare at Kemekin and turned back to Jaebi. "Just ignore him."
Ariel turned her pencil over and over in her hands, staring down at their story outline. She hadn't missed Kemekin's mention of Jaebi as the monster; her eyes slid quietly over to Jaebi, watching him curiously. A smile curled the corner of her mouth. She'd keep quiet about it for now.
"So what do you think?" she asked, pointing her pencil at their story. "Anything you want to change before we write it out in full?"
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Jaebi Lyckander
Keme
Academy Freshman: Cheetah Shapeshifter
This secret side of me, hid under lock and key; I keep it caged but I can't control it.
Posts: 200
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Post by Jaebi Lyckander on Sept 20, 2009 23:24:30 GMT -5
Jaebi chewed on his lower lip. "Hah, we could add an epilogue... A group of hikers or travelers a few generations later, they find what's left of the prison and get lost in the labyrinth... They hear the echo of a sad song and they follow it to a trail of huge half- paw prints that lead them to safety. The prints are stains of some sort... I'm thinking blood."
He was glad for a reason to blatantly ignore Kemekin-- Ariel told him to, he was going to do it. No matter how difficult it was not not turn around to check and see if his friend was still there.
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Ariel Hawk
Ireth
Academy Freshman: Mortal
Come away, O human child, to the waters and the wild, with a fairy hand-in-hand...
Posts: 251
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Post by Ariel Hawk on Sept 20, 2009 23:38:07 GMT -5
Ariel nodded in approval. "Perfect. So, how to begin...?"
She pulled a fresh sheet of looseleaf from her binder and began to write.
Long ago and far away, there lived a demon king who ruled over an underground labyrinth of dungeons. The dungeons were filled with prisoners of every sort. One of them was a monster who lived in total silence, fearful of his own voice and haunted by his own thoughts.
One night, the demon king brought a captive down into the dungeon next to the monster's. She was an angel fallen from heaven, clothed in a gown of purest white, with wings of shimmering gold.
The pencil's point snapped and rolled away across the desk. Ariel dove into her pencilcase for another one.
"Crap. I don't have another pencil and my sharpener's broken." She looked at Jaebi. "Can I borrow your pencil, please?"
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