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Post by Marie on Dec 14, 2008 21:02:23 GMT -5
The small girl wandered around the abandoned looking shipyard with wide eyes. In the fog-filtered light her skin looked grayer than normal, her splotchy skin looked clammy and cold. Her long dusty brown hair hung lank, weighed down with the moisture that was in the air.
She tugged on the hood of her green jacket, making sure it was covering her head. Her knit-glove clad fingers fiddled with the hem of her jacket. Her blackened teeth chewed on her blue lip as she looked around for an idea of what to do.
Ofelia had no idea how she had wound up in this creepy place. She had just been walking then she was just there. The decayed-looking girl turned in a circle, looking for something, anything, to tell her what to do.
A small noise of frustration escaped her lips, she had half a mind to turn around and go back the way she came. She was getting officially creeped out.
The dusty brown haired girl turned around to go back but found that she couldn't tell which way back was. It all looked the same. Even the noise couldn't help her distinguish which way was which, the shift of water seemed to come from each direction.
Ofelia made another noise in the back of her throat, this one was a combination of whimpering and the noise a kitten makes when trying to be fierce.
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Post by Ladd Russo of the Russo Family on Dec 15, 2008 15:08:40 GMT -5
A tall, narrow figure hopped onto the docks, his hands in the pockets of baggy black knee-shorts and his posture slightly bent, perhaps because he was walking on the tiptoes of his shoeless feet. It gave him an odd kind of walk, like that of a stalking predator. A thickly ribbed bodysuit, deep purple and tight, covered his torso and reached three-quarters down his arms and legs, and a steepled hat of the same color rested on his head. It was covered with needles and pins of all shapes and sizes, tucked neatly into the fabric.
"Hello there girl," he greeted her in a friendly fashion. His lips had at some point been sewed together with a thick black thread, which stretched in vain when he opened his mouth. His eyes focused on her, seeming to be rounded slits that seemed more like openings to a furnace than proper whites. The only thing that indicated irises or pupils were two circles of a lighter yellow amid the fire, and right then they were focused on her.
His hair was thin and unnaturally stiff, almost like straw, and the length started just past his chin and got progressively shorter towards the back, a mellow blond color. He smiled at her pleasantly, but it was rather hard to give a pleasant smile when one's mouth was stiched up. The result seemed a lot darker than he intended.
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Post by Marie on Dec 15, 2008 19:41:35 GMT -5
Ofelia immediately focused on the man, she had not notice him approach so she was a bit startled. Okay, more than a bit. She jumped and spun to face him, her hands clutching where her heart was, if her heart was beating she would have had a heart attack.
"H-hello," She responded while making an attempt at smiling, she could tell that he was trying to be nice though her mouth would not obey her wishes and just twitched up a bit in a sort of grimace. She felt her face muscles twitch in fear, this place just kept getting creepier and creepier.
The brown haired girl mentally slapped herself, instead of standing around like a dead person (pun!) she should ask the man if she was in the right place. Though, he did scare her a bit.
"Uh... Mister? Is this the Ghost Shipyard?" She asked timidly, not quite knowing what to say. From his looks he couldn't be human, could he? She shivered, remembering her last run-in with a non-human.
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Post by Ladd Russo of the Russo Family on Dec 15, 2008 20:00:46 GMT -5
"There's not place at this school that deserves the name more," the man replied, leaning down slightly to look at her better. "And there's no one here prettier, so you must be my student. I've read that you're undead, but I was expecting a lot worse, my girl. I'm a type of unliving as well, so the school must have thought us compatible... People tend to call me a scarecrow." Casually he reached into his shirt and plucked out some straw from under his skin. He put the piece of straw in his mouth. "The name is Solomon, m'lady." Solomon dipped into a polite little bow. "What is the name of my girl here?"
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Post by Marie on Dec 15, 2008 21:09:40 GMT -5
The small girl's discolored lips twitched upward a bit more and she would have blushed if she could. She wasn't pretty, not with her black teeth and patchy skin, thought it was nice of him to say so.
"I'm Ofelia Lewis," She dipped into an awkward curtsy, feeling it appropriate seeing as he bowed. Curtsying was easier when one was wearing a skirt or dress, but she was wearing ill-fitting jeans that were probably meant for a boy.
"You read about me?" She asked in a confused tone while shifting the violin case on her back. Someone knew about her? About how much did they know?
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Post by Ladd Russo of the Russo Family on Dec 15, 2008 21:36:03 GMT -5
"A girl needn't be so formal," he said in response to her curtsy, though it did make him smile. The man pulled out a small note card on thick paper and read it aloud. "'Miss Lewis. Class: undead. Special abilities: Not yet known.' Teachers don't usually receive much in the way of info. What we do get is just to make sure we don't bring a ghost back by mistake."
"Tell me, girl, do you need to breath?" Solomon asked curiously with a tilt of his head. He had absently removed a needle from his hat and was poking his thumb with it thoughtfully.
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Post by Marie on Dec 15, 2008 22:13:57 GMT -5
Ofelia thought for a moment, "I'm not sure, I haven't really tried not breathing, it's just a habit. I suppose I don't though, I could always hold my breath and see what happens," She trailed off as she stopped breathing for several seconds. It didn't feel uncomfortable, and her lungs didn't burn like they did when she was alive, so she could only assume that she did not need air.
That was an interesting experiment, though it felt weird not breathing, she had been doing it for all her life and undead life.
"Do you need to breath?" She asked timidly suddenly feeling shy again, she didn't want to be rude by asking him. She was curious though.
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Post by Ladd Russo of the Russo Family on Dec 16, 2008 6:47:49 GMT -5
He had watched her during her experiment, glad that he had a student with an open mind. "I do not," he replied. "It was a bit startling at first, but then..." He paused, making a wry face. "Death was not a quick thing for me, so I had a lot of time to think about it."
Presently, he took a few steps so that he could view the waters churning around the shafts of wood. "Would you mind walking then? Assuming water doesn't bother you?" Solomon seemed to be suggesting they go the underwater route, though there were bound to be more than fishies below. "I'm not overly fond of boats, but I'll take one if you'd prefer it."
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Post by Marie on Dec 19, 2008 18:19:08 GMT -5
Ofelia nodded in understanding, her own death and been drawn out. Stupid DSTD and their stupid AIDS and their stupid painful deaths.
"Water doesn't bother me, I actually like the ocean," She told him, though she would like the ocean a lot more if this place wasn't so freaking creepy. And she could only guess what was in the water, she hoped that any sharks wouldn't want to eat a dead girl.
It took a moment for his last sentence to sink in. "If we're not taking a boat, then how are we going to get there?" She asked as she looked up at him in confusion.
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Post by Ladd Russo of the Russo Family on Dec 19, 2008 23:35:52 GMT -5
"Contrary to popular belief, my girl, the dead do not float. The floor of this lake is more or less a constant plain, due to some unfortunate thing in the past, and the residents have little interest in others like them. It's amazing how many people stop trying to kill a person once they're dead," Solomon remarked.
"But I'm probably not answering the question. I mean to walk the lake's bottom, if a girl is equally willing."
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Post by Marie on Dec 21, 2008 23:17:19 GMT -5
Ofelia looked back out at the water, it suddenly seemed very large, dark, and scary looking. But she didn't want to look like a coward in front of her new teacher and he had said that nothing would bother them.
"A-alright," She agreed, it couldn't be that hard, could it? She just hoped that her violin case was water-proof, she didn't know what would happen to Samwise if he got wet, and she didn't want to find out.
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Post by Ladd Russo of the Russo Family on Dec 22, 2008 6:45:40 GMT -5
"Easy then," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder for a moment. Those narrow furnace eyes seemed to notice that she was scared, but the fact that she decided to proceed anyway impressed him. Looking back at her briefly, the skeletally-thin figure walked into the water. The bank was steep, and after a dozen or so steps, his head disappeared under the water.
It was a different world down there. Cold and murky, there was little of the life one would expect under the water. Seaweed of any form was notably absent, though some hardy, billowing fronds had managed to grow up in the sunless atmosphere. These plants created their own phosphorescence, which, after a foot or two, became the only source of light. Like pale, ghostly flames in the darkness, they surrounded them silently on all sides.
The current was not particularly strong, but Solomon took off his hat and tucked it under his arm for safekeeping. That hat and his student he firmly intended to reach the other side.
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Post by Marie on Dec 23, 2008 14:12:05 GMT -5
Ofelia watched as her teacher walked into the water, it looked easy and he seemed to have no trouble. She took a deep breath, she wouldn't be able to get any air down there after all, and walked into the dark water.
Once she had completely submerged in the water she opened her eyes, which she had unknowingly closed. It was weird being in the water, she imagined that this might be what it felt like to be on the moon. Her steps were slow as she moved through the water, she lengthened her strides to catch up with the man.
She stared around at the plants with childish curiosity, there wasn't much seaweed, in which she was thankful for, but there was a weird glowing plant. She was glad that it wasn't completely dark, that would have been scary.
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Post by Ladd Russo of the Russo Family on Dec 23, 2008 17:00:11 GMT -5
Voiceboxes, undead or otherwise, really were not meant for projecting through water, since talking itself was an act of manipulating air. Air was rather scarce there, so Solomon merely smiled at her and gave a nod. There was a gentle downward slope to the floor, which stretched out like a plain of soft gray silt. The sky was a soft velvet ceiling of black, and solitude pressed in from all sides in the oppressive quiet of the the lake-bed.
Eventually there started to be structures that they passed. Broken down buildings of stone, covered in algae that had a glowing quality like the other plants. Sometimes bones littered the gaping doorways, and things like toys could be found in the dust.
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Post by Marie on Dec 30, 2008 0:00:22 GMT -5
Ofelia had to concentrate on maintaining her balance in the water, the gravity was decreased so it was a rather weird feeling. She felt as though she was a man on the moon, one small step for man and all that.
When she noticed broken down buildings under the water she was amazed. At first all she had seen were dark and menacing shapes, but when her eyes began to pick out significant pieces of what she was seeing she realized what they were. She thought it was rather beautiful in it's own way.
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