Event Private A Proper Burial

Kait · Nov 13, 2018

It was the night of the bonfire, a little over an hour before midnight.

In her hands, she held three smooth river stones, taken from November's chest. Jude said that burying one would let you speak to someone dead, someone who had been close, who you lacked closure with. And the people Chloe wanted to see more than anyone else were her parents and her brother. She still couldn't believe they were dead, even seeing them in the bonfire.

And she really wanted Amber to meet her grandparents. Not Mikhainon; the people who actually raised Chloe. Chloe's real parents. This might be her only chance.

So Chloe led Amber out into the forest, somewhere they could have some privacy with the deceased. Holding one of the rocks in her hand, she took a shaky breath and smiled down at Amber. "Alright. Are you ready to meet your grandparents?"

Amber was probably a lot more ready than Chloe was.

@Pallas

Pallas · Nov 14, 2018

Amber had always grown up how much her grandparents would have loved her if they were still alive. Part of her always felt that she missed out on the wholesomeness of having caring grandparents. She had pleasant memories with her grandpa Mikhainon, who was her technical biological father, but... she isn't allowed to see him because he was a... manipulative jerkwad. At least according to her mom Chloe. But it wasn't Mikhainon who raised her mom into the person she is now. That was... well... grandma and grandpa.

"Yeah! I mean... you always talk about how great grandma and grandpa were. I always wish I could have met them... but now it seems like we have a chance." said Amber with a great big grin! She was excited though deep down she was... slightly nervous as this was her first time meeting them if everything went according to plan. "Alright then... whenever your ready mom."

Kait · Nov 20, 2018

Chloe hesitated.

She reached into her purse, muttering "Where did I put it?" in Abyssal. By now, Amber would know that was how Chloe opened the hell portal sewn into her purse. She pulled out a piece of paper - a sketch of Chloe and Amber's family tree in this world. Amber, her sisters, Pandora's other lovers. It looked like a wheel more than a tree, but it was easy enough to understand, Chloe hoped.

Now, with that in hand, she knelt down and buried the first river stone.

While Chloe patted down the dirt over the stone, they would hear footsteps behind them. These footsteps belonged to a woman. Middle-aged, greying hair cut into a bob. She was smiling, but there was some tension to it.

"M-mom..."

"Chloe. I've been keeping tabs on you, so you can stop practicing that speech in your head." And with Chloe good and stunned, the ghost-woman turned to Amber, leaning over a little so they were closer to eye level. "Amber! You probably didn't know it, but I first met you when you met your mom. I'm your grandma Kathy." Kathy's smile seemed a lot more relaxed when it was aimed at Amber.

Pallas · Nov 25, 2018

Amber stood idly by as her mother made the proper preparations. For as harsh sound as Abyssal sounded at times, it was amusing how innocent a passphrase it was for Chloe to open the portal in her purse. It was basically her mom's own bag of holding and part of Amber wondered how she is ever able to find anything in that vast space. As her mom pulled out a mere piece of paper, she at first expected them to be list of instructions of sorts but moving a little closer she realized the messy familial tree of her pedigree. Well... less tree and more of spiderweb or wheel in its shape. Had she not picked out a few familiar names she doubt she would have understood the information that the parchment was trying to communicate.

As her mom buried the round stone into the soil, stared into the ground expecting... something. Something like an aspiration or visage of her grandmother coming out from the ground in ghostly form but it never came. While she heard footsteps behind her, she didn't register their importance as she was too transfixed on the ground for she assume that the steps belonged to a passerby and nothing more. It was only when her mother whimpered out to her grandmother behind her that Amber turned, her heart stopped for a moment as she could only let out an small but audible gasp. While she was initially surprised by the sudden appearance of her ghostly grandmother, the way she child Chloe almost caused her to laugh and was only able to stifle it by covering her mouth. When Kathy turned to face her granddaughter, all of the nervousness she initially felt melted away as she lowered her hands to reveal a great big smile on her face.

"We have!? Well this is still my first to meet you face to face like this... its nice to actually you grandma Kathy! Mom always talked about you and... and I always wanted to meet you and here you are! There was always so much I wanted to do with you and ask you about but... can I... can I give you a hug first? I dunno if it works that way since your ghost but... I still like to give you big warm hug even if I can't exactly touch you."

Kait · Dec 12, 2018

Kathy was absolutely delighted by Amber, grinning ear to ghostly ear. "Alright, then let's try hugging." She would reach out, wrapping her arms around Amber. For a ghost she would feel surprisingly warm and solid. She laughed with surprise, and there was sort of reverberating, echoey quality to the laugh that couldn't have come out of a human mouth.

"My God, she's such a little angel," said Kathy.

Chloe would chuckle. "That's one way of putting it, I guess."

"Oh, get in here." Kathy would wave Chloe in, and soon all three of them would be in a group hug. Chloe could feel her eyes watering up a little bit, and Kathy patted her on the back, rubbing her, trying to soothe her from beyond the grave.

Eventually, the hug ended. "Alright," Kathy said, looking at Chloe, "I know you're anxious to ask it. So let's get that out of the way."

Chloe was used to this. Her mother seemed to have some kind of intuition with her. Even now, four years after the last time they spoke, Chloe's mother still seemed to know her so well. She took a breath. "What happened to all of you?"

"Death squads." Kathy seemed surprisingly casual about it, shrugging. "It is what it is. I'm sure it's not a surprise to you."

Before Chloe could ask any followup questions, Grandma Kathy's focus was already turned back to Amber. "When Chloe was your age... well, when he was two, he was just learning how to speak. But you would have liked her when she was old enough to be your friend." She lowered her voice in a conspiratorial stage whisper, covering her mouth so that Chloe couldn't see it, but Chloe would definitely be able to hear them: "Did she ever tell you that she cried the first time one of her Pokemon got hurt in that video game?"

For her part, Chloe still looked a little uneasy. For a number of reasons. But at least that mystery was solved, now.

Pallas · Dec 12, 2018

Though Amber expected her arms grasp onto nothing but perhaps a cool fog, she was surprised that she could actually wrap her arms around her grandmother whom was more solid than she suspected. She even felt warm to the touch but no in the body temperature sort of warm... more like comforting warm that radiates out. Amber laughed and snuggled, holding dearly onto the grandmother whom she though she would never see let along hug. Part of her wanted to interject that was technically a demon but she was too busy just wanting to enjoy the tender moment by coming off as smart aleck. No she just wanted to enjoy the three of them now all hugging one another before moving on with the conversation as her mind pondered on what sort of questions that she should consider bringing up. Questions like... what was the afterlife like? Or... how was mom when she was her age?

Amber's stomach lurched as grandma mentioned death squads ever so causally as the cause of her demise. Of course... as grandma said, it wasn't much of surprise. Grandma Kathy was obviously a specter now and from what her mother has told of her her world it was bound to have been the answer they were both going to hear... it was still hard for her to hear nevertheless. As the conversation shifted to when her mom was age, Amber was keenly listening in and the thoughts of Deaths Squads evaporated from her mind. Once again she almost wanted to correct her grandma when she referred to her mother as he before recalling that her mom Chloe started off as a boy in her younger years so... in that sense grandma was technically correct in that case.

"Heh... I guess I am just a bit of fast learner is all~" spoke up Amber, coming off as bit braggish but in joking manner for she was well aware that she developed far faster than most children her age. "But yeah I am sure we would have been the bestest friends if we had gone to school together."

As Kathy whispered into her ear, eyebrows perked up as she grinned with childish delight. That thought of her mom crying over her Pokemon being hurt... well reminded her a bit of herself as she recalled having a mini-heart attack when her Cutiefly first fainted. She then looked to her mom with a toothy smile before whispering back to her grandmother. "I guess I know where I got my love and sympathy for pokemon from~"

Kait · Dec 29, 2018

They weren't so far away that Chloe couldn't hear them, and the whole exchange was delightful, despite everything else. "I can't believe you would embarrass me like this in front of my daughter," she said, tongue firmly in cheek.

"Embarrassment is just another service I have to offer as a mother. I've got plenty of stories."

Oh sweet hells, no, Chloe knew the stories Kathy was going to tell. Time for a subject change to something Chloe actually wanted to know. "Speaking of stories - I've always wondered. Ever since I met Gabriel, or whatever name he went by when you knew him. How did you two meet?"

Kathy seemed a little bit surprised by something. Chloe and Kathy just looked at each other for a moment, and Kathy gave a very strange answer: "Of course you can."

Chloe kept giving her an expectant look.

"I'll give you the short version. Before I knew your... well, before I knew Dr. Black..." that might make it easier to explain. Amber would know Chloe's 'dad' back home was a doctor. "I was a very different person back then. I used my power for all sorts of things I probably shouldn't have, but it paid well. It wouldn't pay well enough to keep me safe from the death squads, of course, which is part of why I asked — the duke, let's call him — to let me go back in time and do things over again."

For a moment, Chloe looked absolutely horrified

"And before you ask, it wasn't that hard for me to find out his name. He doesn't have my soul." Visible relief from Chloe's end. "But I did keep bumping into him for a while on my second go around. I think I drove him a little bit crazy, you know, he was bested by a mere mortal and he just couldn't stand it." Kathy seemed proud of that. "He kept doing petty little things to try and make my life harder, and I kept catching on to it and stopping him. Until one day we just... got it out of our system, I guess."

She would look down at Amber, almost apologetic. "I don't have a very good romantic story for how I met your grandfather. But I have a much better one for how I met Dr. Black."

"For how you met my dad," Chloe corrected. Kathy just smiled.

"... Family doesn't just mean you share blood with someone," she said to Amber. "It's the people you share love with. I hope you know that, even though I don't get to be a big part of your life and make you cookies every time you fly in to visit, I love you. And if your mother and that Malara woman ever decide they want to get married, I know that they would both continue to love you like —"

"Mom! Really?"

"Chloe, this is my only chance to talk about it. If my granddaughter doesn't feel loved I'll turn into an angry poultergeist, probably." Kathy would emphasize this statement with another hug for her granddaughter.

Pallas · Dec 29, 2018

Amber listened in as she listened to her grandmother all about her how she met her grandfather... or at least her biological grandfather Gabriel. While part of her secretly hoped to hear some wily tale of how a woman of the mortal plane and dashing demon prince come together like some Disney fairy tale, grandma Kathy's story about meeting Gabriel was... sort of what she already suspected. Disappointing but exactly what she had come to expect from her kind really.

It was hard to hide her disappointment and she could tell that her grandmother could pick up on as she turned the subject onto grandpa Black. She listened to her go on how family are those whom are part of life and not part of your blood before teasing her mom about her and Malara, much to her her mother's own shock.

"Mom its okey... you of all people deserve to be with people you love the most right?" calmly interjected Amber, smiley sweetly to her mother before resting her head as she is comforted by grandma Kathy's warm embrace. The idea of Chloe and Malara getting married was an idea that still weird out Amber in secret but she tried not to show it. After all, Malara may not have been her mom but she was the person whom is still here... and maybe just being here is the sort of person her own mom deserves to be with.

"And... yeah... I know those things already grandma Kathy. But its nice to hear it from you cause... I forget that sometimes." Amber then latches her arms around the ghostly visage of her long departed grandmother, squeezing perhaps a little more tightly than before "Your already a big part of my life anyway... and whenever I am making cookies I will make them extra sweet just for you. Even I know I know you will be behind me me telling me that I am adding too much sugar and it will make me sick, I will do it anyway because I want them to be just as sweet as you."

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Event Private A Proper Burial

Kait

Gay Idiot

Pallas

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Kait

Gay Idiot

Pallas

Moderator

Kait

Gay Idiot

Pallas

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Kait

Gay Idiot

Pallas

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