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Topic Started: Feb 17 2014, 10:25 PM (992 Views)
Smitejr

Kursten walked down the street, work concluded. The library wasn't particularly busy, it rarely was, but there were a few students that came by that needed his particular specialization. They usually went away wondering what someone with his knowledge was doing in a mere library, but he just did the usual, shrug and say "Who knows?" Sometimes they took it as some great mystery, but in reality it was just something that paid the bills as he worked.

His work on the Book was proceeding smoothly. He was understanding more and more of the archaic text each day, which was pretty good for a language that just seemed to be completely nonexistent anywhere else. In all his research, he hasn't found a single tome with similar script, let alone a translated piece. Still, he was tired, and he'd worked enough for one day.

When he went to cross the street, a car zoomed past the crosswalk, hitting him square in the body at high speed. Drystan bounced, flying into the air, and landing down a good ten feet away, blood trailing at his feet. Needless to say, the car zoomed away, hoping to outrun any police that might be called for him. At that speed, no one could survive...at least no one normal.

"Well...that ruined my day..." Kursten murmurs to himself.
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Smitejr

As the woman seems to spring into action, Kursten smiles. "Thanks! I really appreciate it." It wasn't often people acted this nice...though she didn't exactly seem like a normal person. Perhaps that was for the best.

Running along behind her, he shakes off the exhaustion that comes from a body forcibly regenerating vital parts of his body in a short amount of time. He hoped that food was for sharing...the calorie bar helped, but he needed protein and all kinds of other goodness that artificial strawberry goodness just couldn't provide easily.

"Is...Is it much further? I'm starting to feel really...really..." Kursten yawns loudly, and lets that finish his sentence.
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SarahSyna

The oncoming night was feeling pretty good, actually. Kind of balmy, and the stars looked really pretty. Destiny spread her arms out as she walked, soaking in the breeze.

"Nope!" she called back to Kursten. "My family and I like to live close to work, since people might die if we're late. I'm a doctor, by the way! Did I tell you that already? I think you probably guessed, since I carry around a big bag of medical supplies at all times, and it'd just be weird to have one of those. What do you do, Mister Tentacles? Do you like it?"
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Smitejr

Kursten nods. "I kind of assumed you were a doctor after you pulled out all that stuff from the bag. Glad to see I was right though, I'd have been kind of scared if someone that wasn't a doctor was going to be giving me medical help in the middle of the street. I mean, not that I ended up needing it...but it's the thought that counts, right?"

When she suddenly shifts tracks to his own work, Kursten blinks. "Uhh...yeah, I like it. I'm a librarian...are you the type that reads a lot? I mean, I'd imagine you'd have to if you were going to be a doctor...the human body is such a complex thing. It seems a bit more complex after I've had it opened up...but I don't think I really want to be thinking about that..."

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SarahSyna

"Oh, the thought definitely counts in that kind of situation!" Destiny agreed. "My father told me that one time, he and my real father were in a car accident, and car flipped over and he got knocked out. And then this guy came over and said he was a doctor and that he'd help them and then he tried to take my dad's kidneys while he was still strapped in upside down in the car, and my real father had to ward him off with a scalpel, which he had because he actually was a doctor. And that's why you shouldn't let people have medical licences if they're crazy. Or scalpels. What was I talking about again? Oh, we're almost there!"

She pulled out her keys in preparation for actually reaching the door. There was a dozen little keychains and trinkets hanging off them, and about three keys. They jangled and jingled together as she skipped.

"Oh, I like books! I mean, I don't read an awful lot, mostly because I don't get much time, but if I make friends with you, then I'll try read more so we have more to talk about, because I guess you read a lot since you're a librarian and you don't make a guy who hates flowers into a florist."

A thought sparked off in her head.

"Oh, and I can lend you some of my textbooks, if you like. The human body is not so complex as you think, but I do like the subject of biology, so I guess maybe I'm simplfying it so it seems more approachable to you. But I do like books that aren't my textbooks. I like sci fis with big, dystopian worlds and lots of zombies because zombies are so, so cool and high fantasies, especially the ones that centre around dragons, and horror stories that take elements of both and are really allegories for the nature of wickedness within humanity, and the price paid by those who relinquish their humanity in exchange for power or knowledge or divinity, or that examines the need of people to discover a higher purpose or a destiny given by a divine power when it can be argued that non-destined actions are more valuable to the human soul than prophesied actions."

She slowed down to beam up at him properly.

"So, what kind of books do you like, Mister Tentacles?"
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Smitejr

Kursten had to try to parse through what she said, which was difficult. He didn't have much contact with people before he left home to study his grimoire away from his family, and nothing that happened while working for the library had prepared him for someone like this. "...Yeah...crazy people are..uhh...bad..."

As the topic shifts to books, Kursten lights up. Finally something he could hopefully give an informed response in!

"Well, I'd certainly like to be friends. I mean, you did make a very good first impression, what with trying to save my life and all. And...I think it would be good if you got to read more, but if you're too busy you don't need to push yourself. I'm sure you're very busy."

Soon enough, though, Destiny's speech patterns shift back to the way that makes his head hurt with sensory overload. The worst part is it wasn't all that much information, and he knew it wasn't all that much information, but she wouldn't let him stop and think because she just kept talking and talking and

"Could you...err...please slow down a bit?" Kursten asked, clutching his forehead in his hand. "It's...uhh...hard to keep up with you..." Taking a breath, he tries to go over all that she said, but in the end he decides that most of it wasn't things he needed to respond to. With a sigh, he grins.

"Sorry about that...I get uhh...frazzled easily." He says, by way of explanation. "And my favorite books are ancient ones...texts with weight behind them. While I do greet people at the door and do restocking at the library, my main job at the library is deciphering and translating those old books into English. Aside from that, the books you listed sound really fun, but I tend to steer clear of horror stories myself as much as possible."

After all, his own life felt like one often enough that he almost felt like he didn't need to read them.
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SarahSyna

Destiny gasped, looking horrified.

"Oooh, I'm sorry! I didn't realise I was causing sensory overload. You know, I do the exact same thing to my cousin. I'll try dial it back a bit, but it is habit by now, so I might slip up now and again."

She stopped outside a two-storey red-trimmed white house, with blue and green curtains on the windows, and a fence with each picket painted differently. She skipped up the path (which was pretty much just two flat stones close together) and unlocked the front door. She held it open for Kursten, entering after him and shutting the door with a light click. The hallway smelt like mashed potatoes and cheap pot pourri. The cream coloured walls were decorated with childish sketches in flimsy looking frames and the hallway itself was littered with small endtables with little bowls of crap. Destiny shuffled around Kursten and dropped her keys down onto a glass topped table, beside two other sets.

"Destiny, sweetheart, is that you?" came a man's voice.

"Yes, dad!"

There was the sound of a chair scraping off tile and a man with light brown hair and eyes exited out of an archway on the left, wiping his hands with a tea towel.

"You're la-AGH!"

He recoiled as he saw Kursten behind her. Destiny tilted her head at her father.

"You alright, dad?"

Her father coughed, looking aside.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting... you do realise there's a... person behind you, right?"

"There's someone behind me?" Destiny asked, sounding genuinely surprised. She looked back at Kursten, and laughed. "Weird! It's almost like I let him in or something!"

"Oh, you invited...wait, did you invite him back?"

"No. He followed me home when I offered to sell him Tru." She skipped over and patted her father's shoulder. "Of course I invited him, dad. He had a little accident and some jerk tore up his clothes. You can help with that, right?"

"Oh, of course. I'm sure I can find something of mine that'll fit him. I'm assuming you want him to stay for dinner as well?"

Destiny's response was to look at her father with big eyes.

"Please?"

"Alright, alright. I wasn't going to say no. Take him into the kitchen, will you?" he said with a little sigh. He shook his head and headed down the hallway and into a different room. No sooner had he vanish out of sight than a young woman wandered out of the archway he'd come out of, chewing on a slice of bread. She looked almost exactly like Destiny, but taller and far healthier, and she wore a pink dress and a white bolero jacket that showed similar fissures to Destiny on her arms. She looked at Kursten, then down at Destiny, swallowed, and opened her mouth. Destiny cut her off, holding up a finger.

"Yes, I know."

The girl paused, the shrugged and went back inside. Destiny skipped back over to Kursten.

"That's my twin sister, Tru. " she explained. "And yes, it is kind of a silly name. She's Tru Destiny, I'm Destiny Tru, it's all very unimaginative. Our real parents were a little bad with names, but hey, I can't really complain. Though I guess I am...."

She pondered this for a second, then shrugged and continued. "The man is Harry Sutherland. He's our dad and he's a doctor too. He's super nice, but very easily surprised. Want to go to the kitchen?"
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Smitejr

As they stopped by the house, so oddly situated close to the more standard and drab looking buildings, Kursten smiles. It felt homey, in a way that even his own house never seemed to feel like. It definitely had the sense that it was lived in, where his own home was kept close to antiseptic in order to work with magical experiments in a pristine fashion.

As the door opens, Kursten looks back, unsure that he was supposed to go in. When Destiny seemed to tell him it was okay, he steps in cautiously, feeling rather out of place. Destiny seemed like she was impatient, as she slid past him, making him wonder just why she had wanted him to go in ahead of her in the first place.

As she calls out to her father, Kursten recoils as he lets out a cry. Waving, he lets out a weak smile. He never expected to get a warm welcome, but that was a bit much. He hoped his family didn't post up public wanted ads...as much as he wanted to help them, they were still probably a bit sore that he took the book with him when he left. If that was why he recoiled like that...well...he'd deal with things.

When her sister comes down as well, Kursten waves again. When she leaves as well, he turns to Destiny.

"Everyone seems...uhh...kinda shocked about me being here. I guess you don't bring friends home often?"

Pondering on that for a bit, he tilts his head. "Is it because of my shirt?"

When she offers to take him into the kitchen, though, Kursten remembers how hungry he was. "If that's alright..." he says, despite nodding very eagerly.
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SarahSyna

Destiny shook her head, smiling.

"Dad just gets worried about strangers, is all. I think he's been wary ever since my parents were killed, and that makes a super lot of sense to me, but I don't think I could do it because I just like people. Plus, you probably look super duper tall next to me, so you might of looked all loomy and scary because you looked so much bigger."

She skipped down the hall and gestured into the warm kitchen.

"This way, Kursten!"

She stepped through the thin fabric strips covering the archway and waited for him. The kitchen was small but warm. The colours were soft browns and yellows, with a little gold here and there. Terracotta pots of utensils and cutlery cluttered the countertop, and family knickknacks were stuck to the fridge with tape or magnets. Two large pots sat on the stove, steam escaping through small holes in the lids.

A lot of space was taken up by the dinner table, a bulky oaken thing with four cushioned seats, Tru was sitting in one, chowing down on more plain, sliced white bread. She looked up as they walked in and raised her bread in greeting.
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Smitejr

Kursten blinked a bit. "Your parents were killed? That's awful..." He couldn't imagine how she could just smile and change topics from that, for him, and for most magi families, the family was everything. To the point where he would make his life much harder for himself to try and get rid of any fear of collateral damage they might face.

"I...I don't think I could scare anyone though..." Kursten mutters, and there was a ring of truth to it. If anything, he seemed more like a wet puppy than anything else. An admittedly rather tall wet puppy. "Ah well...I'll just have to try and not look scary, I guess. Looming, you said? I suppose I could try and look smaller...."

Kursten tries to slouch over even more, and the effect is comical. "..Okay, that's not going to work..." he mutters, as he stretches himself out. "Gah, that hurt my back..." After stretching a bit, he settled down again. "I dunno...it seems troublesome..."

Following Destiny into the kitchen, Kursten smiles wide. "Wow...it's like walking in to a picture book! There's almost no metal! I've never seen anything like it...in real life, at least."

Waving at Tru again, Kursten tilts his head at Destiny. "Are you going to have dinner soon? Or is it alright if I make myself something?"
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SarahSyna

Destiny stopped for a moment when he stretched out, staring up in awe. It might have just been that she was so small, but holy shit, he really was tall as a house. For some reason, it gave her far more pause to see him breifly stand up straight than it did to see him get hit by a car and subsequently heal an otherwise lethal injury. She tilted her head, then she laughed.

"Don't worry, Kursten. I, for one, think that you're perfectly fine being all loomy, and I don't find you scary at all." she told him, petting his arm. "You're the perfect height." she said as she pulled a chair out from the table. She out it over by the counter climbed onto it. She took bowls out of a high up cupboard, leaving them down on the counter by the stove. One of the bowls was a regular size. The other two -three, once she remembered- were almost double its size, in both width and height.

Tru got out of her seat and headed over to the stove. She took the lid off the pots and stirred what was inside. Destiny leant over and sniffed.

"Is it done? It smells it."

Tru nodded and started fetching cutlery while Destiny hopped off the chair and began to serve out portions of meaty stew.

"Do you want me to fill up the whole bowl?" she asked, holding up one of the large ones so Kursten could see it and judge for himself.
Edited by SarahSyna, Feb 24 2014, 10:19 PM.
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