psl; [the healing process]

[animalqueen]

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ELLE GRAYSON is generally a normal one, with enough variety sprinkled in throughout the week to prevent it from becoming a deadly dull routine. She lives in a flat in London, a charming little one bedroom and two bath, not particularly large, but cozy. It’s a strange fusion of modern and old fashioned, a dichotomy that reflects her own personality quite well.

Every morning, she wakes up and makes a cup of strong coffee. (Black, no sugar.) Her cat, a grey, long-haired, grumpy looking thing, lazes on her bed for longer than she does, only trotting out when he’s ready to be fed. His name is Paladin Leeroy. Sometimes she just calls him Lee.

When coffee and breakfast are a thing of the past, Elle usually hears chirping on her balcony, a structure small but laden with potted plants. She will open the doors, and sometimes, if she’s in a particularly energized mood, will announce, “Your Queen has arrived! Court will now be held,” and the little sparrows will chirp at her, and line up in a row. She’ll feed them birdseed, or bread, if she’s run out. Later, Leeroy will bound out, but she always tells him to leave the birds alone until they’re done eating. He listens. They always fly away before he gets a chance to do any real harm.

Lately, she’s been working part-time at an advertising agency, writing and tweaking copy that slides across her desk. It isn’t the most fulfilling job, but it pays the bills, and that’s what matters. Her real work is her own writing; freelancing for various websites, and poking and prodding at the idea for a book, slowly trying to force life into the narrative. Sometimes inspiration strikes her, and she sits and writes for hours at a time, until her eyes begin to strain, and she has to stop. Other times, she grows tired and can’t seem to string words together at all, and her word document looks a bit like this:

And then stuff happened. Everyone died tragically but it was fine, because it was thematically appropriate to the narrative.

ugh ugh you suck

That always gets deleted at the end, of course.

Crammed in the corner of the living area is an upright piano, white and well-used. Sheet music sits scattered on its stand, and an acoustic guitar rests on the floor next to it. There’s a television, of course, a flat-screen that looks larger than it actually is in her apartment. Connected to it is a Playstation 2, a blu ray player, and little else. On the shelves above, there are books — so many books. Mostly horror and old classics; copies of Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice look particularly worn.

The shelf next to it is stocked with board games. Tabletop and family ones, alike. One in particular is even out of its spot, instead spread out on the little glass coffee table. It looks as if a campaign hasn’t been started yet, though someone’s been flipping through the manual quite recently. Maybe quite frequently.

Her bedroom is small, but the bed is large and roomy. There are pictures of friends and family on the bookshelves in here, and a few on her nightstand. Beyond that, she keeps this part of the flat a little messier than the rest.

GENERALLY, SHE LIVES A RELATIVELY NORMAL LIFE, quiet and cozy. Sometimes living by herself is a bit lonely, and the time difference means that she cannot call her mom and step-dad any time she likes just to hear their voices. But like all things, these emotions pass like any other. Perhaps the only real oddity in her life are the strange surprises she sometimes finds on her balcony. There were a family of raccoons once. A possum. A falcon, who looked lost and confused when she opened the door, turning its head at her, blinking. There were even rats, but they only sniffed the air in her direction, and did little else.

Elle Grayson is just a normal 26 year-old, with a magnetism or two that might be considered abnormal. Perhaps that’s the extent of the oddities in her life. Perhaps this is all she could ever really wish for.

Perhaps she’ll be proven wrong, sooner rather than later.

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D I R E C T O R Y;

➤ a reunion
➤ a cat
➤ a novel
➤ an outing
➤ a resolution
➤ a sickness
➤ a home
➤ a boyfriend
➤ a horror

Comments

[coalheart]

[He has the look he gets when he's a cat and is silently judging her with his cat face. Except, he's a guy this time, so Corvus looks baffled.]

... Are you sure?

[animalqueen]

[She laughs.] Of course I'm sure. I already built his character sheet and everything. What, you don't think I should?

[coalheart]

Well. I can't very well stop you.

[it just seems weird after all the near killing he's done ok

ANYWAYS]

You said you have a character sheet. Do I fill one out?

[animalqueen]

[corvus why

And she nods.]

Sort of? I'll help you out with this part. [She waggles a pencil at him.] You mentioned something about animals, right? You should be a druid. They can turn into any animal they've encountered.

[Kind of like what you already do, Cor.]

The fun part is thinking up a backstory.

[coalheart]

[Oh, okay, the explanation of the druid sounds pretty good. Corvus nods.]

Then I will be the druid. I've never made up story before though.

[animalqueen]

Then we'll start with the easy stuff.

[At least she looks like she's having fun.]

First, pick a name. Something heroic.

[coalheart]

[Ugh, using the imagination is hard. He decides just to make up a jumble of vowels and letters, smash them together and hopefully come up with a name.]

Kharis.

No surname. Not needed.

[animalqueen]

[She scribbles that down.]

Kharis... that's actually pretty cool. You're good at this naming thing, did you know that?

[coalheart]

Not really. I ended up with letters that just happened to sound like something.

... And as for my own name, I can't say that's really creative either.

[After all, it's pretty on the nose.]

[animalqueen]

True, you're taking the crow motif to new heights with that one. But even so, it's a cool name. It fits with your image -- do you know that when I met you, I thought that you'd make a good Byronic hero? "Lord Corvus."

[coalheart]

[Elle... Don't do this to him... He looks embarrassed. Almost.]

I take it, that's another author whose works I've yet to read.

[animalqueen]

A poet, actually. Lord Byron. I'll read you some of his works someday, if you like.

Maybe you can make your character a Byronic Hero; that'd be something. Harboring some terrible secret in his past.

[coalheart]

[He nods. He'd like to hear the poems for sure, especially since he likes Elle's voice whenever she reads.

Now as for his "character..."]

... I doubt this sounds any good, but perhaps the terrible secret is that he failed to save his family from some sort of disaster.

[He's trying! But this is hard.]

[animalqueen]

That sounds like a great starting place to me.

[A tragic hero. Maybe dark and brooding.]

Maybe you're secretly trying to exact revenge against the man... or monster... that killed your family?

[coalheart]

Right.

Let's make it a monster. It can be an obstacle during the journey that he takes.

[animalqueen]

[She grins.] You know what that means.

[No, Elle, he doesn't.]

Monster Manual time. [She opens up one of the books, flipping through the pages, then seems to get an idea.]

Close your eyes. I'm going to flip through the book and whatever page you stop me on, that's the monster we pick.

[coalheart]

[He feels like he's been confused throughout the whole process, but Corvus probably isn't as frustrated or irritated as he possibly could been... Because he's doing this with Elle.

Always pushing him to do something new, never letting his doubts settle down around himself. He appreciates it. He appreciates her.

But he'll keep his thoughts to himself. He nods to Elle and closes his eyes.]

Go ahead.

[animalqueen]

[Elle is keeping this watered down and simple for his sake; while she could be throwing statistics and numbers at him, she doubts that'd be any fun for Cor. Instead, she wants this to be enjoyable for the both of them, and she's certainly having her own brand of fun.

She starts to flip through the pages, eying him.]

Okay... tell me when to stop.

[coalheart]

... Stop.

[Here's an interesting beat to contend with in their little game.]

[animalqueen]

[And she stops, looking at the page that remains flipped open in her hands. She reads it out loud.]

Chaos Beast. [And Elle looks at him with an arched brow. How very... appropriate.] A being that changes forms constantly with every second. You sure you didn't pick it on purpose?

[She's kidding (mostly). She knows it's coincidence, but what a coincidence it is.]

[coalheart]

[Corvus opens his eyes and frowns at the page, not because he's displeased, but because he's trying to keep track of his progress of creation in his mind so far.]

So far, I'm a druid. One with a dark past. Said druid failed to save his family.

... This is becoming too complicated. [DON'T LET HIM GIVE UP]

[animalqueen]

[She has to fight back a grin at his expense; him trying to keep it all sorted in his head was kind of cute. But she keeps that to herself.]

It isn't that complicated, Cor. Think of it like a story. You're a heroic druid, so you're something of a shapeshifter yourself. Maybe something you do causes the Chaos Beast to awaken, and it takes your family as its first victims. And, in a touch of irony, it's a monster that can shapeshift much like you, except in far more terrible and frightening ways.

So now you're out to kill the monster that took your loved ones from you, either for revenge, or so that others don't share the same fate. Or both. And maybe that's how you stumble across my character.

[coalheart]

[Elle seems to make everything sound more fun than it may be in theory. Corvus wonders if he'd be able to develop a colorful imagination like that or if he'll have to simply go along with her whims as usual.]

And you're playing a villainous character.

I don't think this will end well.

... Perhaps the druid is compromising its morals in order to hunt down the beast and decides to team up with you.

[animalqueen]

Well, he's villainous in the sense that he's amoral. He's an assassin, you know, a grizzled and experienced one. He's just in it for the money, and he'll take down monsters, too, if the pay is good enough.

So an uneasy team-up could be in order, as long as your druid decides to play nice. But whether or not he does is up to you.

[coalheart]

I see. So a neutral stance towards one another towards reciprocal exchange should make the journey easier.

[The books he's reading are working, yay]

I think we should do the team up then. Uneasy as it is.