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Post by skyeknight on Dec 20, 2017 20:52:40 GMT
Jane yawned and stretched. After Adrien's party, she had gone home and promptly crashed. Now that she had finally gotten up and started her day, she was doing some last minute shopping for the holidays. She was going to have dinner over at her dad's place, which mean, now that Namine was adopted and Aqua was officially dating her dad, she had more people to pick up something for. That didn't even include what she had gotten for Yang (and now Yang's boyfriend/Namine's brother Adrien). And she figured she should probably pick up something for Shadow. He wasn't a half bad guy, even if he was a cop. She was also going to make sure he had somewhere to go for the holidays. It was a hard time of the year if you were alone. Plus Shadow's best friend just got engaged, so she was likely off doing stuff with him. No one wanted to watch couples play kissy face over the holidays. If he didn't, then she was inviting him to her dad's. They were going to have plenty.
She was cutting through the park to head to the shopping district. It was a nice morning, crisp, but not cold. No snow, which was a bit of a bummer. She was used to cold and wintery holidays bundled under a million layers. The kids in the park seemed to make the most of it. They were running around hooping and hollering to their hearts' content as their parents watched on. Jane felt a twinge of sadness. That could have been her and her dad years and years ago, if not for the police. She was trying to let go of the anger, but every time she was reminded of something she could have had or rather should have had, it came back, broiling just as hot and heavy as before.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Dec 21, 2017 3:53:19 GMT
Most of the people in the park that day were smiling as they went about their business. Holiday cheer seemed to have infected all of them in the best way possible as children played on the playground, adults laughed on benches while drinking coffee, and passerbys briskly walked by on their way to finish last minute shopping. However, out of all the people in the park that day a single figure showed no signs of cheer, holiday or otherwise.
In fact, the figure looked downright unsettling. It wasn't that she was ugly or wore a nasty expression, most people would have thought of her as beautiful with her slightly curly long white hair, pale unblemished skin, slender frame and deep violet eyes. No, the thing about her that was so unsettling was the fact that she didn't move where she stood, looking so motionless and blank of expression that she might have been a life-sized doll if it weren't for the spark in those deep eyes. Any who might have spotted her would have said it was as if she were waiting for something. However, no one had seen her that day despite standing only partially concealed by a tree near one of the walkways. She didn't want to be seen.
Lilith watched everyone who passed her, tasting the emotions coming off of them and growing sick of the feelings of warmth and good cheer that oozed from them. She didn't need good sentiment, she needed the worst emotions that humans were capable of and yet they were scarce that day. It agitated the She-Demon to no end. She was running out of time and while she had broken the Seal of Rage, she still needed three more people to break the remaining locks that kept her Master at bay.
She was just watching another giddy shopper go by when suddenly she felt a sizzling moment of negative emotion come off of someone. It was extremely potent despite how brief it was and seemed to consist of anger.... and disgust.
Immediately, her eyes turned towards the source of the disgust and landed on a young woman with long brown hair and blue-green eyes that was walking only a few yards away. Lilith's lips twitched before pulling into a smile as she read the emotions and memories coming from the woman. Normally she would have spent more time making sure her prey was the right choice but she knew that time was drawing short and her instincts almost always correct. This woman could be just what she needed.
Slowly, she allowed her form to chance, her hair turning golden and slightly shorter, her face filling out and her eyes turning into an innocent blue. With the disguise in place, she finally moved just enough to draw the eye of the young woman. And what she saw.... was her mother.
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Post by skyeknight on Dec 21, 2017 21:47:33 GMT
Jane tried to shake those thoughts away. She was being negative during the holidays. But she couldn't help it! Especially with all the families walking around, flaunting the life she could have had (even with only one parent). No one could have stopped what happened, but they certainly didn't have to make things worse by sending her away with little more than a dismissive pat on the head and an automatic wave. To the officers that found her that day, she was just a number, another case that they took the easiest route to solve to get it off their desk. She went through years of unhappiness because of them. She would never forgive them for that.
She took a deep breath. Her good mood had gone dour. She turned to walk towards the shops, no longer in the feeling of the holiday season. She hoped that maybe if she tried hard enough and focused, she would get back to it. She had been in such a good mood. She was supposed to be letting this sort of... anger and resentment go. Her father certainly wouldn't want Jane biting Aqua's head off at dinner if she got short tempered. She took one step before she froze in her tracks, breath catching in her throat when she saw someone who had been gone for years. Dead. In the ground. Buried. Pushing up daisies.
"Mom?" she croaked.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jan 4, 2018 9:26:47 GMT
The figure said nothing but only continued to look at Jane where she stood, the shock making her round face look younger than it was. They merely stood that way for several moments that seemed to stretch beyond time itself. And when the blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman finally did move it was to give her a small smile, a smile that came from the very images of Jane's memories of a mother long dead.
Suddenly, the figure turned from where she had been standing partially hidden behind the tree and headed towards a cluster of bushes. Pausing only once to look back, she then pushed through the plants as if they were a curtain and disappeared from view. However, she knew without a doubt that the young woman, Jane, would follow. After all, how could she resist following what could only appear to her as the ghost of her dead mother?
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 4, 2018 18:18:35 GMT
When her 'mother' moved Jane almost felt like magnets were pulling her to follow. Her feet slowly plodding after the woman. Her mind hadn't caught up with her emotions. Logically, she knew this couldn't be her mother. Her mother died. Jane saw that. Dead was dead and nothing could fix that. If her mother had lived, her father would have told her. Because he loved Cindy with all his heart. It was only because Jane wanted to see her father happy that she hadn't voiced any displeasure about his attraction towards a faery. He had been alone for so long. But if Cindy had lived, he wouldn't have decided to try and date some faery. He wouldn't have gotten tortured over it because of his stubbornness to let go of someone who waffled over whether or not she liked him.
"Mom!" she cried. "Mom, wait!"
Desperation filled her when she disappeared into the brush. Not again, she thought. Suddenly she felt immensely colder than she had. Chills ran down her spine as the all encompassing fear of losing her mother again. She frantically pushed past the plants, trying to see her again. She was choking on the fear of losing her again. The helplessness Jane had felt as a child, witnessing the death of her mother and brother was what spurred her on to act the way she did. If she was tough and strong and knew how to defend herself (hence her hunting) then she wouldn't ever have to feel that way again.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jan 8, 2018 6:36:27 GMT
In her disguised form Lilith moved through the bushes and undergrowth that covered this wilder part of the park easily. However, she moved at a calculated pace so that she was just tantalizingly out of sight of the woman that followed. And as she continued forward towards the place she sought out, a cruel smile turned the disguised face she wore into something vicious and feral.
Follow me, my darling. Follow your dear dead mother so that you can help me, aid me. Let your disguise and distain be the key that unlocks this gate, the hammer that breaks this seal. Follow and fulfill a greater purpose then you'll ever know.
With this, she let out a low laugh that was completely inhumane before putting on another burst of speed. By that point they were still in the park but a section that was seldom used and rarely maintained. It was thick with the vegetation with only barely discernable tracts of dirt forming pathways. Low flying clouds of insects filled the air and the leaf-strewn ground moved once or twice where a hidden creature raced at the disturbance.
At last, the undergrowth began to thin out somewhat and Lilith slowed her tread as she stepped into a space that opened up close to the edge of a river. The water, a small section that broke off from the main Antoinette River before rejoining with it further on, moved sluggishly, the water dimly reflecting the sun back.
To anyone who might have accidentally stumbled across this clearing in the middle of what seemed unkept parkland, it would have meant nothing. However, those who knew the local areas darker history and secrets might have guessed at what the clearing once served as a site for.....
The wicked smile once again spread across the shapeshifted woman's face as she felt the energy of the place, the evils that had been done here and the residual energy that still remained like a stain long after the acts had been committed. She stepped closer to the edge of the river and, upon hearing the woman's steps rapidly approaching, she smoothed her face into a motherly smile before turning to face her oblivious prey.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 8, 2018 19:38:31 GMT
Jane struggled to keep up with the image of her mother. She fought against the brush and the branches that tried to keep her back, stumbling as she made her way through the wooded area, deeper and deeper, further and further away from the park's trails and people. She all but froze in her tracks when she finally caught up with the woman. They stared at one another, her mother smiling at her as if no time had past at all. Jane was caught in a whirlwind of emotions, so much so that she suddenly felt ill to her stomach. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. She had to be imagining things or worse, she had gone around the bin and snapped. She felt herself choking on her own breath, fighting to even make sense of what she was seeing.
"How?" she gasped out. "You're dead. I saw you..."
She flinched. She had seen her mother die. Right in front of her. Helpless and unable to do anything to stop it. It had been the cause of her nightmares for years and her nightmares for years to come. She didn't dare herself to get any closer. Jane felt that if she touched this woman, she would disappear again. If that did happen, Jane wasn't sure her heart would be able to handle it.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jan 10, 2018 3:23:09 GMT
Lilith said nothing within her disguise as Jane appeared, didn't move or change her expression when the young woman spoke in a choked voice. All she did was stand several feet before her with that same soft smile on her face. The wind picked up ever so slightly and blew up liter from the leaf-covered ground, causing the blonde hair to blow around her face.
The wind let out a low and mournful hoot before dying away as she moved at last, lifting her arms up from where they had rested by her side. She held them up towards the young woman who stood before her, her eyes crinkling up as she spoke in a voice that did not belong to the She-Demon.
"Oh my dearest Jane, my sweet Jane. How I've missed you so much. How I have longed to hold you in my arms again."
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 10, 2018 4:05:13 GMT
"You're dead!" Jane shouted. "He killed you! You and Danny!"
She shook her head. This couldn't be her mother. She took a deep breath, feeling like she was going to get sick. She wanted to hug the woman but she was frozen in her spot. Disbelief struck her hard. She wrapped her arms around herself. She was trembling, not certain if it was from the cold or her own shock. Perhaps both. Her throat felt like it was closing up from the raw emotions raging through her.
"How are you here?" she demanded once more.
Her mother and Danny - taken from her and Omar too soon. And the police? They let the murderer get away. So many long years later and they still never caught him. The case had gone cold. They had given up. Worse yet, they threw Jane herself into foster care. Years she suffered under the 'care' of foster parents that wanted the angry little girl to grow up, move on, let go of her hurt. She just couldn't. Not when she had been let down so badly.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jan 10, 2018 4:19:29 GMT
The woman's smile didn't falter nor did her arms lower but a look crept into her blue eyes then, a sorrowful and hurt look that made the smile look as if it were made in pain instead of love.
"I'm here because you need me. I came because you called to me, darling. Even now you're calling to me. Don't tell me that you have forgotten me so soon."
The face melted into a truly heartbroken look, but inside the She-Demon felt a thrill of cruel pleasure at the sensations, the powerful feelings coming off the young woman. The emotions were a raw mixture of fear, of pain and sorrow and disbelief. Even love. And yet if this girl were to serve her purpose, one emotion would have to rule above them all. Disgust.
"But perhaps you haven't forgotten me."
At this, she suddenly lowered her arms to her sides. The hurt look grew on her face even as she began to lead this stranger, this girl she had only chanced across, into a dance that would end with her becoming the Vessel.
"Perhaps you have replaced me with another.....like your father has."
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 10, 2018 15:39:20 GMT
"No!" Jane said hurriedly. "I could never forget you!"
Foster parents had tried and failed to take over the role of her parents. They wanted her to forget. Hated that she couldn't let go. Even now, just the thought of the way the police had failed her family set her blood on fire. But what else was there for her to do? The police were not something the city would get rid of. Even if they were the most ineffective beings at their job, they still made some strides in the right direction. However meager that was.
Jane's hands clenched at her sides. How could she forget the woman that died for her? That she watched die? That she had missed so fiercely since the day she had passed? It didn't anger her that her father had moved on. It had been twenty years. What pissed her off was who he moved on with - a faery! A woman who could torture him and hurt him just as much as the faeries who kidnapped him. A woman who probably saw him as a toy and would use him until she got bored. Jane would keep an eye on Aqua and if things went south again, she would likely take revenge on the faery.
"I wouldn't... I could never replace you! They tried! They wanted me to forget you but I can't!"
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jan 11, 2018 9:36:58 GMT
"Then why will you not come to me? Why will you not let me hold you in my arms as I once did?"
Lilith let pain fill her altered voice, let the mask she wore show an expression of deepest hurt and sorrow. And while she had never met or known the mother of this girl before now, the memories pouring off of Jane gave her all she needed to act the part. The trap was laid out right before this foolish girl and all that she had to do was give into her feelings and take a single step forward....
"I have waited so long for you, darling. Just as I have waited for your father, waited for the justice that was never served for my death. Will you now make me wait even for you?"
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 11, 2018 14:17:31 GMT
"Mom," Jane breathed.
No, don't, the logical part of her brain whispered. It was ignored by the emotional part of her heart. She took a step forward, then two, then three, closing the distance between her and the specter. Hesitantly her arms moved up, around the woman. If only she could stop her hands from trembling. She had only wanted her family back for years. All those years of torment, going through the foster care system, fighting to stay as close to her true home as possible. The driven child who hated everyone who tried to replace her family. When she hugged the woman, she hid her face in the woman's shoulder. Her eyes screwed shut tightly, as if she were afraid this was all just a trick of her imagination. Tears threatened to seep past the closed walls of her eyes.
It wasn't fair.
Her mother was dead. No one sought justice for her. Her father had moved onto some faery! It was too much at once. She felt ill to her stomach. Angry. But she was always angry. The police let her down. The system let her down. Now her father was letting her down. He hadn't even told her before he asked Aqua out that he was thinking of dating her. Jane would have tried to convince him of anyone but the faery. He was determined to have her, even though it meant he was tortured for it. By faeries - Aqua's kin.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jan 13, 2018 9:44:35 GMT
The woman, Jane, seemed to linger for a moment of indecision. Clearly some part of her knew even as Lilith cast her enchantment that this couldn't be real and yet she couldn't push herself away from the image of the mother she had lost so long ago.
Lilith watched and waited, knowing how close Jane was to falling right into her trap. It was only by a stroke of luck that her illusion was holding up so well against this woman. She had always been perfectly skilled at fooling men, reading their emotions and preying on them easily while wearing the face of the woman they desired the most. Females, however, had always been harder and were far more likely to see through her rouse.
However, Jane's overwhelming love and sorrow for her mother made it easier to fool her then most and soon enough Jane's uncertainty finally crumbled away. Rushing forward, she threw her arms around the figure she longed to see most and buried her face into her shoulder.
Slowly, her 'mother' put her own arms around her oh so gently and stroked her hair, caressing it under her palm even as the smile on her face turned from sweet and caring to something vicious and cruel.
"Now darling, that wasn't so hard was it? I know my little girl wouldn't turn away from me. She wouldn't deny what she felt. Hurt, angered.... disgusted."
She lingered over this last word, her voice suddenly changing ever so slight in pitch. The blue eyes suddenly flashed a hellish purple as something began to flicker and form under Jane, some unnatural light that encircled her.
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Post by skyeknight on Jan 14, 2018 1:25:53 GMT
"Yes," she admitted, "I hate them! I hate them all! The cops! They didn't care back then about solving your case... They didn't care about you or Danny because we weren't human..."
The resentment and hatred curdled in her mouth, making her sick every time she saw a person in uniform she had been filed with such disappointment and disgust. She had been through so much in such a short span of time. Told to suck it up, move on and forget about it. It only served to make her angrier. She supposed that was what she was, an angry little kid who had grown up into a resentful young woman. No one understood the importance of catching her mother and little brother's killer, not the police and now, not her father.
"Because we weren't rich we were brushed off! They sent me away!" she rambled. "And now dad's with a faery!"
It was a bit much at once. Not easy for her to swallow. To just grin and bear it. He hadn't even told her - his daughter - that he was considering someone else in his life. Sure, she was happy so long as he was happy but she didn't trust Aqua as far as she could throw her.
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