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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 18:07:03 GMT -5
Jonathan walked slowly down the hall, stopping every few seconds to make sure no one was around. He was doing his nightly walk... at the moment, he was in a part of the castle he had never been to before, a wide hallway that overlooked the courtyard. Jonathan made his way over to the window and looked down at the dark courtyard, thinking to himself.
Mostly he thought about two people; Ian and Jason.
He couldn't feel more different emotions about the two. Jonathan despised Ian with every fiber of his being, and as for Jason... Jonathan didn't want to give it a name. If he gave it a name, it would reduce it to something... normal. And Jason was far from normal. So was Ian, but in a totally different way.
Above Jonathan, the moon shone down. Below him, a squirrel scurried across the courtyard. And inside him, confusion reigned.
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 18:16:23 GMT -5
Evelyn trod softly down the hallway, feeling the sharp coldness of the floor against Liam's bare feet, hearing the soft swishing of his red satin pyjamas with every step she took. The moon lent some light to her path, and she spotted a tall figure standing several yards ahead of her. Could it be Jonathan?
She stopped, momentarily faltering in confusion. She had never tried speaking with Liam's vocal cords before... would his body still retain his voice, whether or not his spirit was driving it to talk? Or would her, Evelyn's, own voice come from her brother's throat?
Well, she reasoned, there was no way to find out except to try, and to deal with the consequences, whatever they might be. She stepped forward again, making Liam's mouth smile, and trying not to think about the sheer awkwardness of this whole scenario.
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 18:20:09 GMT -5
Bored with the view, Jonathan turned, and saw his was not alone. One of Ian's friends, Liam, was standing near him, staring at him, smiling rather oddly. Jonathan managed to hide his shock - he didn't even raise an eyebrow. He took a step backwards, pointing a finger at Liam.
"Ian sent you, didn't he?" Jonathan challenged. "Well, I'm not going back to the dorm. If he wants me to come back so badly, he's going to have to come and get me himself."
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 18:24:08 GMT -5
Evelyn shook her head--Liam's head, really--and spoke with his throat and mouth, immediately relieved to hear that her voice was still her own.
"Nobody sent me," she told him, taking a step closer. "I came on my own. I've been curious about you ever since I first saw you, and this is the first opportunity I've had to come looking for you."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 18:28:23 GMT -5
Jonathan couldn't even hide his surprise. His eyebrows popped up, and his arms crossed in front of him. "What..." His jaw moved up and down, but no sound came out. The voice was a girl's. Jonathan knew it. He had heard Liam speak before, and this was not his voice. That was not even a boy's voice. Why was a girl's voice coming from Liam's body?
"...your voice." Jonathan said finally, recovering. "Why has your voice changed? Getting in touch with your feminine side? Don't tell me... you're going to start dressing in drag soon, aren't you?"
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 18:40:53 GMT -5
Evelyn half-smiled, half-grimaced at the boy's remark. "No, I'm not. I don't own any women's clothes. I don't even own this body I'm in," she told him, looking him right in his pale blue eyes. "I'm not Liam. I'm just... borrowing his body for awhile. I'm his sister. Or was, depending on how you want to look at it. My name is Evelyn Farrell. It's nice to be meeting you at last, Jonathan Harris."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 18:42:58 GMT -5
If Jonathan hadn't been a freak of magic, he would have turned and ran right then. "That's..." He took a step forward, confused. "That's impossible. How are you inside your brother's body? And, while I'm asking questions, how do you know who I am and where to find me?"
This was too weird.
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 18:50:39 GMT -5
"To answer your first question, I don't know how I ended up in his body," she replied. "Neither does Liam, but he seems bent on trying to get me out. All we know is, on our seventeenth birthday I was killed in a drive-by shooting, and died in his arms... 'died' in a loose sense of the term.
"My body died, but somehow my spirit was trapped inside Liam's body, sort of... beside his mind. I see everything he sees, hear what he hears, feel what he feels... you get the idea. But I can't move his body around... at least, not while he's using it," she added with a half-smile.
"I recently discovered that I can use his body just like my own whenever Liam is unconscious. I helped him write notes when he fell asleep in class once. He never realized what had happened, and I haven't told him. So, to answer your second question, I know who you are because my brother does. Is that good enough?"
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 18:55:14 GMT -5
"Hmmm..." Jonathan took another step forward, giving Liam - Evelyn, he supposed, was the better name - a strange look. "He's intent on driving you out? Really? His own sister? That's odd. I mean, I know Ian wants to get rid of me but that's for..."
Jonathan stopped and turned back towards the window. "Never mind. My 'family' drama isn't all that interesting to you."
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 19:09:29 GMT -5
Evelyn nodded. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't feel like it. Liam means well, I know he does, with his talk of heaven and life after death... but he just doesn't understand what it's like, being me. Existing only inside his head, dead to the world." She sighed. "I don't expect you to understand it either."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 19:45:21 GMT -5
Jonathan snorted. "At least you get to hide away in the back of someone's mind. I get to be out in the open with a giant bulls eye painted on me. Oh, and you got... what... seventeen years of a normal life? I got nothing." He kept his eyes firmly planted on the courtyard, not looking at Liam or Evelyn or whatever his or her or it's name was.
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 19:53:55 GMT -5
"At least people know you exist!" Evelyn retorted hotly. "At least you don't have to borrow someone else's body when you want to go somewhere on your own. You're free to do whatever you want, whenever you want. I'm stuck watching and hearing whatever my brother feels like doing without getting to be a part of it."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 20:00:02 GMT -5
"Really now?" Jonathan turned away from the window. "Well, you can just stay nice and safe inside Liam's head, while out here, I get attacked by anyone and everyone for simply existing. And hey, at least Liam loves you." He took a step forward and jabbed a finger in Evelyn's face. "You know what I get stuck with? Ian. Who hates me. Who wishes I were just rubbed out like a mistaken line on a work of art. You... you have somebody. I've got nobody."
Well, there was Jason, but that hardly counted, as Jonathan couldn't make heads or tails of how he felt about Jason...
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 20:12:57 GMT -5
Evelyn fell silent at this. She recalled a conversation Liam had had that day with Ian and Seele, and a phrase Liam had said stuck out on her memory: Someone should teach him... ...teach Jonathan how to be good, how to show love and respect. He needed a friend, someone to be there for him. Someone to talk to, to confide in. Someone who knew how he felt, alone in the world, with no-one else who could relate to him.
"Well, that makes... almost two of us," Evelyn spoke up again. "The only person I have to talk to is Liam, and he gets so busy with his friends sometimes, I think he almost forgets about me. And that's hard... when the only person who knows you exist doesn't even know you're there."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 20:16:42 GMT -5
Jonathan nodded. "Yeah... the only person that doesn't hate me pities me, and that's almost as bad, if not worse... it just makes me feel terrible, because he's so good and I'm... I'm not. In some ways, I guess pity is even worse than hatred..."
Tired of standing upright, Jonathan leaned up against the wall. "Won't Liam mind that you're stealing his body? Or did you ask first? It doesn't seem like something anyone just hands over."
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 20:21:31 GMT -5
"He doesn't know I can do this," Evelyn replied, coming over and standing against the wall beside him. "I've only done it once before, when he was sleeping in class, and it was only for about five minutes before he woke up again. Besides," she added with a shrug, "it's not like I'm doing anything really wrong. I'm not drinking or doing drugs. I'm just talking to another soul who's alone in the world. And I fully intend to go back to bed... at some point. He'll never know I was out here if we don't mention it."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 20:26:06 GMT -5
"Heh." Jonathan chuckled a bit. "I'd be worried about that if I were you. He and I are best pals. We have tea together every weekday at three, where we recount all the events of the day and munch on crumpets. No, I'm kidding. I can't see any harm in it either... you deserve some time to be human again. And I deserve... well, frankly, I'm not sure what I deserve. A home? A family? A soul? Have I earned any of these things?"
He laughed again. "Listen to me, getting all damn philosophical. I'm turning into a regular Ian."
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 20:33:54 GMT -5
Evelyn laughed. "Yeah, I know a bit about Ian, from what Liam knows about him. He seems... interesting."
A slight frown tugged at her--Liam's--lips as she mused, "I don't know how one would go about earning anything that humans just naturally seem to have, unless it be respect; and to earn that, you have to give it. Sometimes respect leads to love, which can lead to a family, in the case of a boyfriend and girlfriend becoming a husband and wife. But I've never heard of anyone having to earn a soul, or being born without one."
She laughed again as she looked over at Jonathan. "Now that's irony for you... I'm a soul with no body of my own, and you're a body who doesn't believe he has a soul."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 20:37:55 GMT -5
Jonathan chuckled. "A body who believes he has no soul? Evelyn, I know I have no soul. After all, how can a soul be created? That would make the creator God, and I hope that Ian isn't actually God, because that could end up very badly for me." He drew a pencil from his pocket and twirled it in his fingers.
"But you... you're more interesting than I am. Magical accidents are a dime a dozen - some freshman mage set his whole arm on fire yesterday, pretty funny - but accidents involving the soul? That's... new. Any idea how that happened?"
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 20:49:45 GMT -5
Evelyn shrugged. "All I know is, I didn't pass on when everyone thinks I should have. One minute I had a bite of birthday cake halfway to my mouth and a camera in my face, and the next I was lying on the ground with a bullet in my chest and blood all over me, listening to Liam screaming and crying. 'Don't leave me, Eve, don't leave me,' he kept saying. He pulled me against him, and then everything went fuzzy, and then I was looking down at myself, lying there on the grass, dead.
"I was stuck in Liam's mind from then on. Inside him, but separate from him. I had to attend my own funeral and hear my own eulogy, and watch my parents say goodbye to my body. I felt Liam crying as he played a song on his cello for me, first at my funeral and again beside my grave. I saw my coffin being put into the ground, with my body in it. And my life, or whatever I have, just went on."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 21:16:55 GMT -5
Jonathan didn't quite know how to respond to that. "That... that's quite sad, actually. But like I said, you had all those happy years. And you had - and have - people that love you. That should make things a little more bearable... right?"
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 21:21:56 GMT -5
"It should," Evelyn nodded, drumming Liam's fingers against the wall behind her. "And it would, if anyone else but Liam actually knew what had happened to me... my parents, for example. They both think I'm dead and gone. Liam can't even tell them about me. They miss me so much it hurts. And I miss them, even though I never really left them at all. No one knows what that's like."
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 21:26:18 GMT -5
"Look... I'm sure it'll all get worked out in the end." Jonathan said, trying to make the situation a bit less awkward. "I mean, the teachers here are supposed to be smart. If there's a way to pull a soul of of someone's head and do something with it, it'll be the people at Dunehelden... or that other school. I can't remember the name of it. Well, somebody will figure it out... and there is a potential solution to your problem."
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Evelyn Farrell
Ireth
Liam, Liam, b?m I gc?nai I do theannta...
Posts: 60
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Post by Evelyn Farrell on Oct 7, 2009 21:27:32 GMT -5
Evelyn frowned at him. "What makes you so sure they can fix my problem and not yours?"
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Post by jonathanharris on Oct 7, 2009 21:30:27 GMT -5
Jonathan shrugged. "Because you have a place to go back to. And I don't. I mean, you can return to a body, and continue life here on earth. And me? I can't go back to where I came from, because I didn't come from anywhere. I'm lost, trapped in this... waking nightmare, and I can't go back to sleep."
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