|
Post by kyla on May 2, 2010 19:00:05 GMT -5
Kyla hesitated. eli still looked jumpy but he sat down and was making an attempt to cover up how tense he was. She had her own secrets and could appreciate not wanting to broadcast them. There were no more howls from the hounds, perhaps it was a bit too close to dawn. Most supernatural things preferred hiding under the cover of darkness. She grinned at Eli and nodded thanks to Dru the girl's words seemed to have had a calming effect on Eli. She sat back in her chair and pulled the guitar case from behind it. The guy had given her the perfect opening to get her best weapon in her hands.
Kyla popped open the catches on the case and lifted the guitar from its velvet nest. Power tingled under her skin as soon as she touched it. Illusion, she tried to remind herself. The power was within her and not the instrument. It was a fact, but it never felt true. She looked up with a smile. Her fingers found a home on the fingerboard of the instrument and she strummed the strings. It had the faint hollow sound of an electric guitar that wasn't plugged in. Kyla touched a dial and strummed again, the sound was richer and fuller.
"I installed a small amp," she explained to her small audience, "I have to play in odd situations sometimes." Like diners after midnight. she thought. "My band is alternative." She played for a minute and relaxed a little when she felt the wards go up around the building. Not much, but at least she'd get some warning if invisible dogs brushed against it. "What kind of music do you guys listen to?" she asked.
The waitress brought the food. "Finally." Kyla muttered, she set her guitar aside leaning it against the wall beside her instead of putting it back in the case. She picked up a fork and dug into the eggs.
|
|
|
Post by dru on May 2, 2010 20:28:57 GMT -5
Eli was still freaking out a little and his unease put Dru on edge. Not the dogs, huh? Something was bothering him. It wasn't really her business though so she let it go. Dru turned more toward Kyla and tried to ignore her buzzing thoughts. She couldn't help but giggle as she watched the other girl dive into the food. "At least they do the eggs right." She smiled. Dru felt a little better but still not 100%. Maybe it was just being around new people...with weird quirks.
With a little sigh Dru relaxed back in her seat. The guitar was beautiful and after hearing a taste of Kyla playing she wanted to hear more. Still it wasn't her place to ask. "I listen to a lot of music." Dru finally answered. "But I think I lean more on the Indy rock and folk side. Dar Williams, Indigo girls, and Ani Difranco. Stuff like that." Drawing a hand through her hair she rearranged her body and leaned forward, once again looking between them. "You said you have to play in odd situations." She zeroed in first on Kyla. "What's the weirdest situation you've ever been in? Both of you."She glanced at Eli. Dru knew her curiosity was showing. She wasn't going to question why she was being so bold. Normally she wasn't. But despite not feeling 100%, she was still comfortable enough with the pair to just let things go where they needed too. For her that was a rare thing.
|
|
|
Post by adam on May 2, 2010 20:59:34 GMT -5
Eli listened to Dru run down a quick list of bands and groups she liked and realized he had no idea what she was talking about. Not that being unable to follow was unusual or unexpected. He didn't listen to music and he could only name two bands off the top of his head: The Beatles and The Who. He wasn't even sure why he knew the names of those bands, to be frank and assumed they just had enough media coverage. To Eli, Dru was the all American girl and he wasn't sure what he thought about that.
To further his opinion of Dru, she asked that question. Was it caring and sharing time suddenly? With his cigarette long gone, he looked towards Kyla pleadingly before realizing what he was doing. Yep, way to come off as a total creep, but he was pretty sure the girls were weary of him already and he didn't all together trust Kyla. What a band of misfits they were.
"My grandfather was the superstitious type," he started, motioning to the waitress for more coffee. The waitress simply ignored him and went about her business. Of course. "Uh, believe that salt would ward off bad spirits and shit like that. Spent most of my childhood stealing salt shakers from diners like this and spreading it around a room." When he was younger, he didn't even question it. He had blind faith in his opa's ability to care for him but now it all seemed really strange and stupid.
|
|
|
Post by kyla on May 2, 2010 21:46:00 GMT -5
Kyla about choked on her steak at Dru's question. What was the oddest situation she'd played in? She wondered if the girl wanted to hear about the time Kyla had used her music to explode the heads of the vampires who'd trapped her in the basement. Cutting off their heads was NOT the only way to kill them. Or if she wanted to know how to counter the illusions woven by a succubus with a song. Or maybe...Kyla froze in the middle of cutting another piece of steak. Something skirted the edge of the ward she'd set around the diner making it sing. The electric vibration of it buzzed an echo of the tune she'd used to set it. She laid down her fork and knife, Eli's words finally penetrating her thoughts.
"...spreading it around the room." Kyla took a long drink of her tea.
"Your grandfather was a practitioner?" she asked and the wards buzzed again, "He taught you to keep away..." she hesitated replaying his words in her head. He'd played it off as a religious quirk to the boy. Kyla wished like hell she knew what the old man had been warding them against, "spirits or something?" was how she chose to finish. The wards hummed a louder warning and she reached for her guitar.
|
|
|
Post by dru on May 2, 2010 22:03:54 GMT -5
Dru was sure she was missing something now. That or she had way over stepped her boundary. She sat back, watching and listening to the other two talk. Salt protection and Witchcraft or something similar. It gave her a weird feeling. She didn't know much about that stuff. One of her friends at college was Wiccan, but that was about the extent of her knowledge. Kyla at least seemed to have an idea of what Eli was talking about. It was strange to think about being raised stealing salt shakers. Seemed like buying bags or those larger containers would have been easier, but who was she to say.
Dru's eyes followed Kyla's movement as she reached for the guitar, but she decided to ignore it. Instead Dru turned her attention to the table, contenting herself with tracing it's designs as she listened to them speak.
|
|
|
Post by adam on May 9, 2010 18:34:36 GMT -5
He wasn't quite finished with his story when Kyla interrupted him. She seemed...on edge, like she knew something more. Perhaps she had someone in her family like his grandfather. It wouldn't surprise him, it seemed a lot of people from his grandfather's generation had strange beliefs. He looked from Kyla to Dru and then back to Kyla before shrugging. "Not sure if I'd call him a practitioner, more like...paranoid, I guess." They were treading into interesting ground. His grandfather was a lot of things and while Eli definitely admired the man and even looked up to him, Eli always found his fixation on spiritual things to be his ultimate weakness. "He believed salt would protect against spirits. He always said something about the purity of salt." Another shrug and he was happy to move off of that topic for a while. It felt almost personal when people asked for more details about the people who raised him. It wasn't shame, not really just wasn't how he wanted to spend his evening.
His senses were still on alter but he hadn't caught a thing since his initial freak out and found himself calming finally. He redirected his attention back to Dru. "But yeah, I guess that's strange enough but ended up going to jail because of it. Was at some little restaurant in the middle of fucking nowhere in Montana and lifted a few salt shakers. The owner caught me and pressed charges. I didn't know it then, but the salt shakers had been in the family for years and was worth a pretty penny. Who the hell leaves out antiques for their diners?" He left out the part of how his aging grandfather had to sneak him out of jail. Eli Johnson didn't really exist, at least not according to the United States government. The last thing their family needed at the time was for him to get deported. It wasn't too long afterward that his grandfather fell ill for the first time.
"So yeah, that's my strangest moment, going to jail for stealing salt."
|
|
|
Post by kyla on May 9, 2010 21:57:06 GMT -5
Kyla picked at the strings of her guitar as she listened to Eli's story. He didn't seem the type to open up but the story was amusing, especially since it sounded so much like something that could have happened to her. People got touchy about the weirdest crap. He was visibly relaxing as if he sensed the danger, whatever it had been, was gone. She wished she was as sure. The wards still hummed their warning that something was lingering just beyond.
Kyla laughed with Dru at the conclusion of Eli's story and settled back in her chair, relaxed enough to take a long drink of her tea. That was when whatever was out there pushed harder against the wards. She could feel the feedback buzzing in her head. She sat up and gripped the guitar tighter. Her attention distracted completely from the others at her table, she stared into the night out the front of the diner. Something was out there, something she couldn't see but the steady hum of her wards assured her was real. Kyla chewed her bottom lip and took a deep breath.
Zack had been working with her on some new stuff, one of his ideas was that anything that was invisible was taking up space and there should be a way to make it visible enough to keep away from it if nothing else. He had a lot of theory, and no practice. The first time using his stuff was chancy, there was almost always a glitch. Still it didn't seem like there was a choice, she needed to know what was nosing around.
She closed her eyes and focused her attention on the seemingly empty space outside the doors. She began to play quietly, her fingers moving expertly over the strings, calling forth an eerie melody. She felt the power of the magic filling her, more so than it ever did when she called it without the music. She murmured the spell opened her eyes and sent the power towards her goal. A moment later two huge hounds were outlined in blue energy. They stood at the shoulder higher than her waist. They were posed muzzle to muzzle as if they were conferring with one another. Kyla's heart pounded and she gasped, staring in horror at the length of the teeth clearly defined by the blue light. She leaped to her feet, and for the second time that night there was the clatter of a chair on the tile when it fell over behind her.
The light around the supernatural creatures grew brighter and brighter until it was nearly blinding when without warning it imploded and the light and the beasts were gone. Ah yeah the glitch. Kyla stared wide eyed at the blackness outside that seemed twice as dark as before. She turned to face the others unsure of how much they might have seen. Had anyone other than herself been able to see it? she damn well hoped so, it wasn't much help to illuminate things that she'd be the only one who could see to fight. Of course that whole imploding/banishing whatever the fuck thing it was there at the end sort of precluded the need to fight.
"Holy Crap." she muttered, "maybe we need to get out of here." Hell hounds couldn't be destroyed and while Kyla had no idea what had happened to them she was pretty sure that where ever they were, those dogs were mad as...well hell. sticking around was a very bad idea.
|
|
|
Post by dru on May 11, 2010 23:24:59 GMT -5
When Eli turned his attention back to Dru she gave him her attention. She listened closely to the rest of his story and gave a little smile when he finished it. She wondered how long he was in jail for and if he ever stole salt shakers again, but kept those questions to herself. “Yeah.” She chuckled “That does seem like a strange moment.” Dru glanced at Kyla, who was sitting up straight now with her guitar. Maybe she was having a creative moment. Brushing it off, Dru looked back to Eli.
“It was that guy’s fault I think. He should have known better than to leave out antiques.” Dru agreed with a grin while only partly listening to Kyla’s song.. “My turn now, huh? Mine isn’t as interesting I don’t think but that’s ok. Lets see. I have a twin. We go to the same school. We wound up having a set of teachers both of which were twins as well. We’re supposed to have meetings with the teachers during school so I was trying to find mine. Strange thing about it; my sister and I were catching the twin teachers we had at different times. We would get them to meet us but somewhere along the line one of the teachers, or my sister or me, I guess, would inadvertently change the time and place…” Dru continued her story about the teachers, the surreal experience, and the three weeks it took them to figure out the problem until Kyla leapt up from her chair. She stopped then and stared at the girl. Second time tonight someone was standing and frightened. She was really beginning to doubt the company she’d chosen for herself this morning.
“Are you-“ Okay? She didn’t finish the statement but turned around in her chair to glance at the door. At first she saw nothing but then her vision filled with a growing bright light. With a little gasp she turned back to the table, shielding her eyes just in time for the light to implode and wash over the diner. Dru saw the briefest flare of light and shadow but was too shocked to comment. Finally, uncovering her eyes and looking around, she let out a strangled shout.
“What the hell was that?” She demanded in a panic.
|
|