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Samuel Wordsworth
Book maker/seller

Age: 34 | Height: 5' 5" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 28 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 25 - Int: 1
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#1
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
There had been a twinge of guilt and nostalgia in his heart as he'd set off to the ruins with a bag of things from his cupboards, but Sam had pushed through it and continued to walk to their execution; holding onto everything was doing him no good and the paintings of his parents couldn't come out of the frame and berate him for making this choice, no matter how intensely his father's painted eyes still glared from the dusty image.

The ruins had plenty of large stone courtyards perfect for a small bonfire and was a location far less likely to upset his neighbours. A pile of dry wood he'd brought from the market on the bottom, all of his things on top (evenly spaced) and Sam threw a match from a distance, careful to step far back. It took a few tries, but eventually it caught and he retreated to a nearby but far enough wall to watch the flames.

Little orange embers running up into the purple-blue evening sky seemed far too calm for the precipice they were all stood on. Occasionally he would see through the fire the curling of a page bending up and crumbling away, an old wooden frame crack and fall; between these interruptions he sat with his chin in his hands and thought on his recent successes and failures and the ones to come.
and the worst of the worst
You'll always be my favorite ghost
SAMuEL
Base Code by Sky!
Mabel Occidendum


Age: 23 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 16 - Int:
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#2
Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear
She’d seen the curl of embers in the distance, beacons of light and fire, and while it meant so much more for beings who could still live in its fold, be guided by the warmth, it was the opposite for those like Mabel: still too weak, still too new, still too wild.

Her intentions had been to slip in amongst the shadows and ensure nothing was untoward – she could flee faster in the dark, warn others, hope things hadn’t escalated again like in Torchline, or parallels to Isla’s infirmary. She wouldn’t be able to do much about the blaze itself, but at least she could provide information, and then snag at gaining assistance.

Except when she approached, barefoot, eldritch, and feral along the stone proportions of the ruins, it was only Samuel, a bonfire, and the crackling of burning wood. Her uncanny gaze flickered back and forth, striving to catch anything else maiming, ripping, tearing, or falling, flailing, apart. But it all seemed to hinge right back to the older Ascended, and his saddened exterior.

She blinked rapidly, and pondered over going back. Maybe it wasn’t any of her business. Instead, with no warning at all, she echoed over the throng, straight to the bookmaker. “What happened?”
MABEL
Samuel Wordsworth
Book maker/seller

Age: 34 | Height: 5' 5" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 28 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 25 - Int: 1
MIA - Regular - Ragdoll Cat
Played by: lancydulac Offline
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Posts: 3,135 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#3
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
Sam was deep into a pondering so far gone he was almost blank when Mabel spoke up; he flinched away from the voice but refrained from making a squeak, just about. "Uh- oh- um-" Clearing his throat and sitting up, recognising Mabel as one of the younger Ascended he was supposed to be a good role model (or something like that) for, he tried to speak again: "Hello. Nothing happened. Nothing bad, anyway. I'm just...clearing some things out of my cupboards and I didn't have anywhere to throw them away."

While a lot of the things in the fire were still painfully obviously personal, he hoped she wouldn't ask; the conspicuous corner of a gilded frame or the still-curling page of a book spoke of something more than just rubbish being burnt.

The socially awkward part of him, which was still very much present, considered just going silent and hoping she would leave, but the part of him that was growing by the day, that was responsible and mature, knew the Ascended needed to get closer than before if they wanted any chance of surviving what was to come. Patting the wall next to him, he tilted his head. "Would you like to sit with me? It's safe from this distance to watch the fire."
and the worst of the worst
You'll always be my favorite ghost
SAMuEL
Base Code by Sky!
Mabel Occidendum


Age: 23 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 16 - Int:
Played by: Heather Offline
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#4
Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear
The urge to smirk at his flinch was strong, but only because she rarely scared people. Instead, her head tilted in an enigmatic twist, watching with her sharp eyes as Samuel seemed to settle into whatever explanation heralded the crackling of fire. “Oh,” she murmured, quiet, when he motioned to nothing bad, nothing untoward, nothing dangerous or infernal - cleaning out the void of his home.

Her gaze went to the frame, the scrolls, the parchments, and wondered if that was what she should’ve done with all of her family’s artifacts. Instead of leaving it like a ruin, like a tomb, resting there in its space, dust, and nothingness. But listening to the pop, the sizzle, and knowing everything would be gone; Mabel didn’t think she’d be able to bear it. Perhaps he was stronger for it then, capable of moving onwards and forwards, while she stayed tucked back in her ashes.

Without any seditious efforts present, the younger Ascended figured it’d be best to escape via the darkness and linger elsewhere; not expecting the invitation. Her gaze rounded, widened substantially, for she and Samuel did not know one another well at all, and paused, considered. Eventually, her bare feet glided over stone and ruin, settling herself near the wall, drawing her knees up towards her chest – narrowing her gaze at the fire as if it might leap out anyway. “I still have all of my families’ things,” she offered, bluntly. “How did you decide to…,” and her hands motioned towards the flames when she couldn't say it: make them into a maelstrom and do away with them?
MABEL
Samuel Wordsworth
Book maker/seller

Age: 34 | Height: 5' 5" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 28 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 25 - Int: 1
MIA - Regular - Ragdoll Cat
Played by: lancydulac Offline
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Posts: 3,135 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#5
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
Mabel seemed for a moment like she might run away; Sam wondered if she had the same problems he did, if social interaction felt like the monumental battle for her that it did for him. Perhaps, but ironically because of that very characteristic, he didn't ask about it.

They sat and watched the fire until she asked her question. He supposed from an outside perspective it probably did look harsh, all of his families life dumped out onto a pile and burnt, memories turning to smoke; he hadn't thought of it like that. "Well, it's not everything. There's still plenty back at my house. This is just the things that had been in cupboards for years." He still had all kinds of mementos and knick knacks; the Wordsworths had never been shy of collecting a lot of things.

"But also, I never had a good relationship with them. All these things...they aren't nice memories. They're unpleasant reminders." He waved towards the flames licking over the nearly-unrecognisable portrait of his parents. "If you loved your family, maybe it's better to keep ahold of things."
and the worst of the worst
You'll always be my favorite ghost
SAMuEL
Base Code by Sky!
Mabel Occidendum


Age: 23 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 16 - Int:
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Posts: 425 | Total: 10,652
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#6
Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear
So just pieces? Portions? Little samples tucked away? Her eyes went back and forth, over stone and then to the fire, briefly mesmerized like a moth, watching the surrounding hues and beams swallow, engulf, and consume. Even if it would ravage her too, she could appreciate its power. Its might. Wonder what it meant to be so strong.

Thereafter, her gaze swept sharply to Samuel again. More torn relationships and severed things, similarities between them, perhaps, give or take the reasons why. “I loved them, but we didn’t always agree.” A sigh, unnecessary but valid just the same, as she curled around arms around knees and watched the spectacle eating away at memories. “Will this help you then? To purge the reminders?” Or was it just something to try for? She didn’t know. Not while the rest of her farmhouse crumbled from the inside out; alone and empty except for her hollowed little self.
MABEL
Samuel Wordsworth
Book maker/seller

Age: 34 | Height: 5' 5" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 28 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 25 - Int: 1
MIA - Regular - Ragdoll Cat
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,135 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#7
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
"Mm...I don't know if I can say much of love in my family." Maybe for Evie, but their relationship was constantly flowing up and down, changing in it's intensity and warmth; their childhoods had predisposed them to be at each others throats and even with the maturity and years behind them, the instincts remained.

Would any of this help? Beyond the practical part of clearing out his cupboards, Sam found he couldn't get his lips to move and give an answer for quite a while. Eventually, sitting up and twirling his hand in a small circle on his knee, he shrugged. "I won't forget, but...I won't be holding onto all of it anymore. I don't have to feel like my life is bogged down by all of it - I mean, we could live forever. I don't want to spend the next hundreds of years obsessed with the first twenty and how miserable they were." He didn't like to speak much about his immortality, but here it benefitted his point.

With a crack, the fire consumed more and a box crumpled in at the top, the wooden bars across it fading away into black and flame. "...We'll see if it helps. I've not been very good at predicting what will help me."
and the worst of the worst
You'll always be my favorite ghost
SAMuEL
Base Code by Sky!
Mabel Occidendum


Age: 23 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 16 - Int:
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 425 | Total: 10,652
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#8
Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear
No love in a family sounded heartbreaking; even to one as cold as Mabel. She’d at least had that – no matter how frustrating, how ignorant, how faithful her parents had been, there’d still been moments of adoration and familial bonding. Her siblings, undeserving of their slow, cruel ends, her twin, gone in a flash, had all been content with one another. Warm, hardworking, despite digging into soil that couldn’t grow, despite bowing their heads and praying to heralds that never listened and never cared – her irritation and rage for them had always been for moments where they could’ve just listened instead of perishing.

Lessons learned far too late.

She listened all the more, chin on her knees now, like a little ball tucked away in the shadows and corners. Maybe Samuel couldn’t forget, but these were physical, tangible mementos, scattered like ashes, nettles, and leaves; meant to go away in the wind and no longer be in the bleak line of sight. “I suppose you’re right,” she whispered in return, after a lengthy pause. “You have more time. Without them.” Her cheek touched down, and she sighed. “They can only define you to a certain point.” And then he needed to grow, grow, grow, beyond those sanctions of beginnings, and now endings.

The box crumpled and sparked, eaten away, blackened, scorched; and soon it would be nothing too. “I don’t think many of us are. But our goals are our own.” And they were things to grab and hold, rather than sink.
MABEL
Samuel Wordsworth
Book maker/seller

Age: 34 | Height: 5' 5" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 28 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 25 - Int: 1
MIA - Regular - Ragdoll Cat
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,135 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#9
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
"Mmm. I suppose now the Voice is our parent, and...defines us? I'm not sure if I like that either." Laughing, knowing he was being difficult, he leaned back and sighed. "Have you spoken to the Voice a lot? I know a lot of the newer Ascended haven't even seen her once." Troubling; Sam knew if he was newborn to this family, he'd want to see the Goddess right away - he worried for the faith of their new members if they did not have that chance.

Picking up a little twig by his side, Sam turned it one way and then another before tossing it over into the fire. "What are your goals?"
and the worst of the worst
You'll always be my favorite ghost
SAMuEL
Base Code by Sky!
Mabel Occidendum


Age: 23 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 16 - Int:
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#10
Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear
The Voice as a mother, leading them all onward, had been a concept Mabel and Evelyn thrived upon. A belief that there were better, brighter things, far more potential than being rooted into segments of Old God lies and pathologies. She managed a small smile at that, but it was likely hidden in shadow, behind her scrunched up form, immersed away from the crackling fire.

The question surprised her, and there was some level of disappointment in her vocals, quiet, subdued, despite all of her faith. “Not since I ascended. I went to her after I was told my sister was murdered. But I didn’t hear anything.” And the silence had mattered, in the stillness of her heart, in the beat of all those colossal things. “So I thought maybe I wasn’t ready. Or good enough yet.” So she’d been training, hoisting, funneling along as best she could.

Her fingers went to a rock, but she didn’t toss it. No sense in hoarding it amongst the flames; and played with it over her roughening palms. [say“I want to get revenge for Evelyn.” It was so easy to say, not so easy to do, behind her feral fangs and her untamed, wild convictions, unafraid of where it would push them all. “What are yours?”
MABEL
Samuel Wordsworth
Book maker/seller

Age: 34 | Height: 5' 5" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 28 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 25 - Int: 1
MIA - Regular - Ragdoll Cat
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,135 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#11
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
Sam knew an Ascended girl had been killed, but had not tied it in his mind to Mabel; hearing that her sister had been murdered he was shocked then angry again, that their kind were so easily struck down just for being themselves. "I see. I think...you should see her. You will be good enough - even when I turned my back on the Voice, she welcomed me back. She treated me with love even after I'd betrayed her. You need support after something like what happened to your sister and I think she would give it."

He watched her turn the rock over in her hands as she spoke of revenge, something he had never felt much for. "I see. Do you...know who killed her? How she died?" Anything to go off of, to start with.

"My goal right now is to survive as best I can through whatever is to come, and to help the Ascended as best I can. I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself." Sighing, he drew his knees up to his chest. "We're on the brink of a war. I'm trying to just take every day as it comes."
and the worst of the worst
You'll always be my favorite ghost
SAMuEL
Base Code by Sky!
Mabel Occidendum


Age: 23 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 16 - Int:
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 425 | Total: 10,652
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#12
Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear
She barely blinked from behind her own knees, tucked away from the fire and light, from maelstroms of family life gone to flame. “And if she doesn’t answer again?” A whisper, impossibly childish and juvenile, perhaps mildly afraid of the rejection that came with everything. Mabel knew they’d made the right call in Ascending – it was either that or starvation, but something still dragged at her senses, clawed at her insides.

Samuel’s question gave her the slightest pause, the rock stilling in her hand. A cold re-telling, because it was all she could stomach without churning over into an incensed rage. “Wessex told me, after I was brought back. Throat slashed. In the Temple. Older man, tall, dark hair.” Could’ve been anyone; little did she know she’d already tossed stones and fruit at him over in Torchline. Had seen the murderer – but no information, no wisdom, to solidify it with.

And his take on things was vastly different from hers. She’d tried survival once and it hadn’t gone very well. “I know.” Her eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint to them. “I just want so many of them dead.”
MABEL
Samuel Wordsworth
Book maker/seller

Age: 34 | Height: 5' 5" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 28 - Dext: 25 - Endr: 27 - Luck: 25 - Int: 1
MIA - Regular - Ragdoll Cat
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,135 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#13
You know I still like you the most
The best of the best
"...Then you wait a little bit, and try again. I didn't speak to the Voice for years after I ascended, and I would pray every month. It takes time and sometimes the Gods are busy. You just have to keep trying. I know...it's hard. I don't like to feel like I'm a bother. But it's the only way to be heard." To keep throwing yourself at the shrines over and over until one day, she deigned you worthy of an audience. "I've heard the Voice answers our calls a lot more than the Old Gods answer people, at least." He didn't know if that was true, but it sounded comforting.

The blunt and savage nature of the crime and it's telling gave Sam pause too. All he could say was a soft 'oh', not knowing any likely culprits and not having anything to say that would make it better. He felt a deep sympathy for her though and that was what made him hesitate before thinking her a bad person for her final statement. That kind of bloodlust he didn't often see in his fellow Ascended. Maybe it was a good thing, given coming events, but it still made him uneasy.

Nodding, looking down at the ground, he quietly added: "Hopefully, we will get through this with as few people dead as possible. A lot of them are innocent and pulled along with it all...but...those that have done us wrong, hopefully, will see justice."
and the worst of the worst
You'll always be my favorite ghost
SAMuEL
Base Code by Sky!
Mabel Occidendum


Age: 23 | Height: 5'7" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 16 - Int:
Played by: Heather Offline
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Posts: 425 | Total: 10,652
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#14
Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear
Patience was probably not one of Mabel’s virtues (and they were slim as it was). “Years?” Years. It echoed and burned in the back of her mind. She, nor any of them, didn’t have time for years upon years to not be answered. To not drive their onslaughts and wits, needing some measure of guidance for the long haul ahead. The notions nearly made her fumble and stumble along, had she been walking, instead of sitting. She pulled her knees more into her then, curled into a ball, staring back over at the stones, then the flames. Bristled inwardly, with the slightest clench of her jaw, at the Old God insinuation. “They never listened to my parents.” And then everyone fucking died anyway.

She didn’t pick up on Samuel’s hesitation; because she wasn’t gentle. Wasn’t nice. Craved far more blood and savagery; too much anger coiled into a willowy frame. The way he strived to summon something else, an easier, more compassionate accord, at least permitted her to release some form of her malice, though the tightness in her teeth remained. Were they innocent? Another blunt inquiry filled her soul, and she shattered it across the rocks and ruins with little misgiving. “Are you going to fight?”
MABEL


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