Kaliri
Academy Student
Hope bounds forever... love springs eternal.
Posts: 1,381
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Post by Kaliri on Feb 26, 2008 21:44:34 GMT -4
"Why?"
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Post by Otomeken on Feb 26, 2008 21:47:16 GMT -4
Otomeken shrugged. There was only one answer to that kind of a philosophical question. "Why not," she said simply, and started walking again, hoping Kaliri would catch up...
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Kaliri
Academy Student
Hope bounds forever... love springs eternal.
Posts: 1,381
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Post by Kaliri on Feb 26, 2008 21:58:27 GMT -4
Kaliri jogged for a moment. "No, I mean, what's with this whole.... new you thing? You never... you've never been nice before.... why now? You're almost free... what do you need me for?"
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Post by Otomeken on Feb 26, 2008 22:01:27 GMT -4
"Need... Nothing I guess. But... Why do I have to need you for something to talk to you. Sounds a bit selfish doesn't it?" Otomeken shrugged her shoulders and continued to walk. Without realizing it, they would soon be at one of the lakes if they continued on this course...
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Kaliri
Academy Student
Hope bounds forever... love springs eternal.
Posts: 1,381
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Post by Kaliri on Feb 26, 2008 22:08:51 GMT -4
"Well, in my experience.... Selfish, Abrasive, and cold is pretty much the definition of Otomeken." Klairi walked for a few more moments. "You'll have to explain to me what's going on here. And why would you come to me in this clearly intoxicated state?"
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Post by Otomeken on Feb 26, 2008 22:11:10 GMT -4
Otomeken laughed again. "Haven't even touched whiskey in almost two years..." She relented though and found a tree to lean up against. Her voice both softened and lowered. "And the definition of Otomeken is none of those things. It's honor. It's protection. It's justice and fairness. Sometimes cold, sometimes callous... But selfish isn't in there..."
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Kaliri
Academy Student
Hope bounds forever... love springs eternal.
Posts: 1,381
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Post by Kaliri on Feb 26, 2008 22:15:50 GMT -4
"Oh, well, excuse me for letting my experience get in the way of things I don't know. I'd like to take this moment to remind you that i don't know that about you, but by no fault of my own. " Kaliri sighed and crossed her arms across her chest, shifting from foot to foot and back again, clearly nervous. "I'm sorry. Here you're doing exactly what I wanted you to do for ... well, look at my arm." She held up her arm with a faint blue glow about it, in bands around her wrists. "That long." She pulled her sleeve down her arm again. "And I'm just giving you a hard time about it. But you have to understand that... as far as I've always known... this isn't you. And... you'll have to forgive me if this is a little... much for me to grasp........ " She sighed. "Nevermind."
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Post by Otomeken on Feb 26, 2008 22:18:38 GMT -4
"No need to forgive," Otomeken said shaking her head. "I know how I've treated people around here, and I don't blame you. But I see things a lot more clearly now. I don't need to be so brash, so impulsive or ruthless. I have time now, and I have knowledge. They word wonders on perspective..."
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Kaliri
Academy Student
Hope bounds forever... love springs eternal.
Posts: 1,381
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Post by Kaliri on Feb 26, 2008 22:32:58 GMT -4
Kaliri bent over a bit, inspecting the ground beneath her feet. It occurred to her, when Otomeken said it like that, that she was now doing the same thing to Otomeken that Otomeken had done to her after her subconcious sealed an oath to her. "So...... what happened? What made you change your mind? The last time we met, you were going to try to kill me...If it hadn't been for Gwen's father, I think you might have done." Now she'd done it... she could feel a rant coming on. "You kept pushing me away." she dropped her hands, and clasped them behind her back, and started pacing. "I tried to be there for you, to show you how much you meant to me. You were my first friend here in the village, but for some reason, at first, we were friends, and then we got a teeny bit closer, then-" She smacked one hand with the other. "-WHAM! A wall. You pushed me away, and stomped me down, and shunned me. Nothing I could do was good enough for you. And you wouldn't tell me what I could do to make it up to you. I tried, am still trying, to get rid of the oath seal, but it's not easy, and my brother died, and Kumori and Rachi have gone, and Lenore and the stupid freaking bird are all I have left, and day after day, I kept thinking "What did I do wrong? where did I mess up? Why is she so angry with me?" only now it's not so much she as they and I want to know why it is now... why now..." She sobbed for a moment and sucked it back up immediately. Her voice cleared up, and went as cold and hard as the earth she moved, though the moisture of tears threatened to destroy her resolve. "Why you would choose now, at my weakest, to finally come all the way out here, act a friend, and try to cheer me?? Why, when you know you're going away, must you be so cruel as to show me what I could never get to know? Why?" She took a breath. She tried to stop shaking. She realized she wasn't pacing anymore. She turned away from Otomeken in shame of her outburst. Why was this woman constantly responsible for making her appear weak. She wasn't. SHE WASN'T!
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Post by Otomeken on Feb 29, 2008 22:27:38 GMT -4
"I'm not leaving yet. So I still have time to be a friend before I do. And besides. I'm not going to just up and leave without explanation. You'll know what's going on with me...." Otomeken 'looked' around. "And I don't care if you do cry. We all do from time to time. It helps..."
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Kaliri
Academy Student
Hope bounds forever... love springs eternal.
Posts: 1,381
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Post by Kaliri on Feb 29, 2008 22:37:44 GMT -4
Kaliri ignored that last part, and without looking Otomeken's way, knowing Otomeken would "see' what she was doing, even if she couldn't see it, Kaliri lifted her hand. "Ya think?"
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Post by Otomeken on Feb 29, 2008 22:57:10 GMT -4
"I try not to. Thought gets complicated and clouds my judgement. I prefere to live fairly spontanious. I find it works best...
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Kaliri
Academy Student
Hope bounds forever... love springs eternal.
Posts: 1,381
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Post by Kaliri on Feb 29, 2008 23:00:27 GMT -4
Kaliri snorted. She sighed and looked hard at otomeken in the failing light, which ironically made Otomeken better attuned to the world, able to "see" better than she. "I want to know, honestly, if you were in my place, what would you do with the information that's lying in front of you. What would you do. Then tell me what you hoped I would do. Then tell me what you hope I'll do next. Be careful to answer honestly. A lie might cost you more than you're willing to lose."
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Post by Otomeken on Feb 29, 2008 23:05:39 GMT -4
Otomeken's turn to laugh. "I don't lie Kaliri. You should know that. Now, what I'd do; I'd say damn it all and let impulse take over. What I'd hoped you'd do, was to shout a little, cry a little, and then let impulse take over and just have a good time. What I want you to do next, is to move on from the shouting to the crying so you can release your emotions, and get on to the having a good time part..." Otomeken actually smiled at Kaliri, which was odd given thte juxtaposition against her words...
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Kaliri
Academy Student
Hope bounds forever... love springs eternal.
Posts: 1,381
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Post by Kaliri on Feb 29, 2008 23:29:51 GMT -4
Kaliri was taken aback. She'd never heard Otomeken condone crying. It made Kaliri's stomach turn. Actually, it did a whole lot of things for her. She clenched her jaw, and it started to ache, but as she unclenched it, amid grinding teeth, she felt her legs shake, just a little. Then, as she was trying to settle her leg, she noticed her eye stinging, and watering. She blinked to get the tear out of her eye, and her lip started to tremble. Normally, she'd be able to live with all this. She'd be able to do something for it. Only her head was also swimming around in a myriad of thoughts. Why couldn't Kumori have felt the same way? Would he have left? Was it because of Korokyo? Why didn't he listen to Papa? Did Kumori leave with Rachi? Why did they go? What was mama going to do now? How was Papa getting along? Why would Otomeken pretend to be one thing, then switch it up, only to go back again.
After what seemed to her to be an eternity, but was actually only a split second, she started having trouble breathing. Hyperventilating, she turned her back to Otomeken, and sank down on her shaking knees. Planting her fists in the dirt, she let one tear escape, thinking to clean up after it before turning around. Who knew what kind of freaky echolocation Otomeken had developed. Maybe she could see the tear when she next spoke to Kaliri. Voice waves and such. She thought of Otomeken, standing there, that smile on her face. Standing there in the sunlight. Standing there, just as Kaliri should have been able to do. Just as Kaliri wanted to be able to do. The thought made her choke, and she tried to hold it in, but then she couldn't breathe. Reluctantly, she tried to breathe out. When she heard the sound gushing from her, she tried to stem it, but the result was a sob-like sound, pitiful, and acidic to her ears.
But by that time, it was too late. She sat there, punching at the dirt, trying to stop from sobbing, trying to stop and knowing she'd failed. Knowing she'd failed it all, in just that moment. Knowing she was no stronger. Knowing she'd let Korokyo die, knowing she'd upset her two best friends, knowing she'd let Otomeken down, in some random, indefinable way. Both ways. All ways. Always. She kept pounding till she broke skin, about the third strike, and kept going, blood on her face, so close to the ground, and running down her arm. "I'm done!" She screamed into the cool night air. "I'm done! I'm done! I've had enough! It's over! I'm done!"
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