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Post by jacqueline on Feb 7, 2010 22:36:12 GMT -5
Jacqueline walked quietly between the bookshelves, glancing to and fro as she got acquainted with the structure of the place. She browsed the spines of the books in eager curiosity, brushing a few of them gently with her gloved hands. The library was a storehouse of information waiting to be unlocked.
The still air hummed gently with the murmuring voices of both students and professors. She listened absently, coming to the end of an aisle of shelves and spotting a very familiar figure seated beside a window, immersed in a book. The light gave his milk-white skin a pearly sheen, even a faint glow. Jacqueline couldn't help but laugh aloud at the fond memories that sight brought to the forefront of her mind.
"Bonjour, Valérian," she greeted him softly as she approached him. "It has been far too long." Let him remember me...
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 8, 2010 0:17:37 GMT -5
Valérian glanced up from his book, brushing his silver hair from his face as it fell. "Bonjour... I fear the advantage is yours. I know I am rather distinctive, but my memory is not what it once was," he said, setting the book aside. His pale eyes glanced her over carefully, attempting to find something about her that he recognized. There were very faint glimmers, but no clear memories. It was frustrating.
Even after these past several months, his memory was still very sketchy. He could remember since coming to Dunehelden, and up to approximately 1794, with a twenty year gap right after Étienne's death. It was about all he had been able to remember since before the Christmas break, and he was growing afraid that the memories were lost for good.
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 8, 2010 0:37:59 GMT -5
Jacqueline's smile faded just slightly as she looked at Valérian. Well, it had been nearly a century and a half since they had last seen each other, after all. She took a step nearer, holding out her hand in greeting.
"Then I hope we can get re-acquainted. My name is Jacqueline Gaudreau; you and I met in the mid-nineteenth century in France. We spent many years together before we were separated. There were several of us whom you took in and cared for. We had been being hunted... the other fledglings, you and I. I've been looking for you for nearly a hundred and fifty years."
She looked at him quietly, trying not to seem anxious. Of all the places and times to be reunited, she had not expected this. What were the odds? And he didn't even remember her... There was sorrow in her polite smile.
He had forgotten everything they had shared together in those decades long ago, and it would be rude and forward of her to remind him blatantly of that. But it changed nothing of how Jacqueline herself had felt... how she still felt. Why else would she continue to search for him for so many years?
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 8, 2010 0:50:33 GMT -5
"Ah, that would explain why I wouldn't remember you. Forgive me," he said, standing and giving her a slight bow, taking her hand and kissing it. "I gained a head injury last semester and lost a fair amount of my memories. Essentially, everything from seventeen ninety four to just last semester is completely blank."
He smiled at her, offering her a seat. "But any chance to meet someone I once knew is a chance I thought I would never get."
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 8, 2010 0:56:00 GMT -5
Jacqueline smiled and curtseyed in return as Valérian bowed and kissed her hand, then took a seat at his side. The poor man... more than three hundred years' worth of memories gone? It must have been a serious injury.
"That's terrible," she said softly. "May I ask what happened?" Hope flickered faintly in her heart -- perhaps she could help him regain his memories, or at least some of them.
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 8, 2010 0:59:16 GMT -5
He laughed awkwardly, "Would you believe I merely hit my head? A student of mine has a glass eye... he sneezed and it hit me in the head... It knocked me out and I fell to the floor. And then hit my head on my desk when I tried to sit up. How childish, no?"
He laughed again, sitting beside her. It was nice to speak with someone his height. Someone who wasn't a crazy student... The two freshmen came to his mind and he inwardly twitched. "It seems I will never mature."
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 8, 2010 11:54:10 GMT -5
Jacqueline laughed as well, reassured that she could do so without seeming rude. She shifted slightly in her seat, turning to face him. "Neither of us are getting any older. I'm not that much older or more mature than you are."
"How long have you been here?" she inquired curiously. "I arrived not two weeks ago; I'm still getting to know the place. What can you tell me about it?"
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 8, 2010 13:19:38 GMT -5
"Here? Since... oh, early October. I had been teaching since mid- to late October... My memories of that are all hazy, but I have files that confirm all that thankfully. This school... How long have you been here? It doesn't take long to learn all that I know about it," he told her, brushing his hair out of his face again. She was as anachronistic as he was, completely out of place among these children and the professors who all wore modern clothing.
They probably made an interesting picture, both shorter than most of the students and all of the other faculty, with one hundred years separating their clothing. He found he had unconsciously turned to face her and smiled slightly.
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 8, 2010 13:31:19 GMT -5
"Ten days ago," Jacqueline repeated a little awkwardly, wondering if his head injury was impairing his short-term memory as well as the long-term. She smiled in return when he smiled at her.
"Well, I hope you can regain your memories somehow. It must be terribly frustrating. I could help you remember a part of them, but not all. Still, a little is better than nothing, non?"
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 8, 2010 17:11:57 GMT -5
"Oh..." He chuckled awkwardly, "Now that you tell me again, I remember you telling me before. It is frustrating... I am having to do much more research than I was expecting. Luckily, I take very good notes," he grinned. Rubbing at the place where he'd hit his head though there was no mark left, he looked a little embarrassed. "I took the job as history professor because I had lived through so much... but now those memories are gone, and my notes weren't that good. I spend most of my free time that isn't involved in class or grading studying the history I should remember. It's very frustrating."
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 8, 2010 17:23:27 GMT -5
"I can see how it would be," Jacqueline nodded. "I've lived through much of the same history you have; I can help you remember it, at least from the start of the nineteenth century onward. I won't be able to help you with anything before 1813; that's as far back as my memory goes."
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 8, 2010 17:51:38 GMT -5
"Anything would be greatly appreciated," he said softly, smiling at her. Those glimmers kept nagging at him, feelings he felt he should recognize and put a name to. "Failing to remember a lady as lovely as you is distressing in an entirely different way."
He hesitantly took her hand, feeling like it was daring something and yet as if it was something he should feel comfortable doing. Her face suddenly became clear in his mind, a memory he could not grasp well, but that gave him a warm feeling he wanted to keep.
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 8, 2010 18:48:19 GMT -5
"I'll give you anything I can," Jacqueline answered just as softly. Her smile widened when he grasped her hand, and she felt the flame of hope in heart burn a little stronger, seeing the look of sudden almost-recognition in his face. She hoped she could bring those memories back to the surface.
"Well, I am sorry to distress you so," she laughed lightly. "I hope you can forgive me."
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 8, 2010 18:58:41 GMT -5
He just smiled, the one he'd used for so long to disguise his fangs. The same lock of silver hair fell into his face, creating a half-frame about his face.
"I think I can find it in my heart to forgive you," he said softly, holding her hand a little more tightly. The young lord leaned toward her just a little. "But tell me... how exactly did we meet? You mentioned fledgelings... Almost as though you were one of those that I had taken in. I only remember four, though I know there were far more."
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 8, 2010 22:35:26 GMT -5
Jacqueline nodded, her eyes growing distant as she recalled the memories.
"It was a few decades after I was turned," she said softly. "1852, if I remember right. I had left my vampire guardians not long before, and was beginning to fend for myself. I had lost my way in the forest of Vercors, and you happened across me wandering. I remember it well; you were dressed all in red and gold, and the moonlight through the trees made your skin glow as if you were the moon itself." She laughed softly.
"'May I help you?' you asked. Of course I replied that you could, and that I was lost. You took me back with you to where you were staying. You had a few other vampires with you at the time. I stayed with you for many years, and we grew quite close during that time. You took in many other fledglings, and some of the earlier ones left and made their own ways in the world.
"It was a winter night many years later that we were separated. A band of hunters had spied your hideaway and were intent on flushing us out. We all fled; I tried to follow you, but it was so chaotic that we were soon forced apart. I began to search for you as soon as it was safe to do so. I found one or two of the other fledglings since then, after a great deal of searching, but not you.
"I looked all over Europe and eventually came to North America, where I met the Headmaster, and she asked me to become a part of the staff here. And now..." Her eyes were bright and clear as she looked into the young lord's eyes, squeezing his hand gently. "After all these years, I've found you at last."
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 9, 2010 12:00:22 GMT -5
He glanced at his skin as she mentioned his faint glow, smiling slightly. He usually avoided light... but he could see himself doing as she said... it certainly was a way to make an impression and he'd done that before within his memory. And even in the life he remembered he'd taken in young vampires who'd been left on their own as he had been. Everything she said made sense so far, and as her face had, it triggered glimmers that refused to become full memories.
As she spoke, he rubbed at his forehead, his eyes narrowed slightly. The harder he tried to remember, the more his head was hurting... He gasped slightly, blinking as if to force back tears. "I... I remember that night. I had tried to keep track of you... of all the others, it was you I tried so hard to find... I couldn't... Eventually I gave up... I found so many of my fledgelings that had died that night... I assumed you were among them. I stopped caring for so many at a time. I never had more than two fledgelings after that, and we always parted sooner, always wandered." He laughed softly, a sad sound.
"I never forgot you... I never even looked at another woman, not without seeing your face. Funny that I only remember it now...How could I forget?" he looked distressed, still holding her hand.
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 9, 2010 12:19:48 GMT -5
Jacqueline winced at seeing his distress. "It wasn't your fault," she soothed him gently, massaging his hand with her own. "It was an accident, nothing more. But you remember me now..." She slowly smiled again. "Perhaps your other memories will return as well."
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 9, 2010 18:13:39 GMT -5
"I remember that night only..." he said softly. "And a little of searching for you... fruitless searching... I remember despairing of ever finding you and giving up completely. And so very few of the memories I have regained are good... what if I don't want most of them back?"
He smiled at her slightly, "Why can't I just pick and choose, you know? Remember the good and forget the bad permanently?"
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 9, 2010 18:48:32 GMT -5
Jacqueline laughed sadly. "Well, sometimes the bad memories shape us more than the good ones... often the bad happenings are the ones that set our lives on an entirely new course, and so they're just as important as the good ones. Whether for the better or for the worse, time will tell. If I hadn't become a vampire, I very well may never have met you at all." She smiled again. "And I am infinitely grateful that I did meet you."
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 10, 2010 17:48:03 GMT -5
Valérian smiled at her, "You probably never would have... I hadn't been in the region long when I found you, as I recall... though admittedly my memory is not to be relied upon... and I avoided France quite a bit. During the lifetimes of my contemporaries, after the madness of the Revolution... I came back occasionally only because France always was and always will be home."
He glanced around the library, "Although, the longer I am here the more this castle feels like home. Especially as more of my memories return."
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 10, 2010 18:00:34 GMT -5
Jacqueline smiled and nodded. "Home is where the heart is, they say... one can't always abandon their roots. Not completely. Though I hope this castle does start to feel like home to me as well. The world changes so quickly nowadays... it's refreshing to find somewhere that still has some connection to the past, at least outwardly."
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 13, 2010 0:47:34 GMT -5
"Well, all castles do, really. I still have mine... Technically it doesn't belong to anyone, but supposedly I haunt it," he grinned. "That legend's been going since 1750. I have this twenty year gap... I guess I lurked in my home during that time. It would make sense, though I was far from there when I came to myself...
"It was thirty years after my... change... that I started taking in fledgelings more lost than I was..." he said thoughtfully, softly.
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 13, 2010 0:59:06 GMT -5
Jacqueline nodded slowly. "I don't know what kinds of stories arose in my family after my groom-to-be was murdered and I was turned... I never had a grave, I was just gone without a trace. Philippe's was the only body to be found."
She sighed. "I don't know if it would be better or worse to have been found, assumed dead, and buried, or not to have been found at all. If my family thought I was alive, they would have had hope that I might return, though I was forbidden to. Certainly they would have searched for me. I imagine, though, that they would have given up hoping and searching after a time."
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Valérian Mervielle-Dion
Kitty Kat
Hold me closer, tiny dancer~
'I am cute, wounded and unloved. Give me a hug and some hot chocolate.'
Posts: 191
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Post by Valérian Mervielle-Dion on Feb 13, 2010 1:02:39 GMT -5
"Digging your way out of a grave is painful... it is perhaps better than you were not found," he said softly. "Better for you, if not for your family. It was believed that I had committed suicide... But you probably know this. You probably know more about me than I do right now," he laughed softly.
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Post by jacqueline on Feb 15, 2010 19:12:57 GMT -5
Jacqueline nodded, her face pensive. "Perhaps... though knowing only that I was missing would have given my family any number of fears regarding what might have happened to me, as well as a false hope that I was alive and could return. If they had seen my body and believed I was dead, they would have accepted the finality of it."
She smiled faintly. "Well, with what knowledge I have of you, I hope I can start you on your way to regaining all of your memories in time."
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