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"Graduation," the beast repeated as its form began to change once again. The snake like head and the dragon like arms soon faded as a snake girl stood before him. This time it was Iri, just in another form just as the little girl from before. "You humans are always talking about this 'graduation'," the naga chided.
She then slithered closer to the boy, leaning down close to him. "Tell me, is this 'graduation' thing worth your life?" She asked him. "You humans keep coming, but do you really know what you are dealing with? Please, I would love to know what you know of this place." She then sat back slightly, an amused smirk on her face. |
Razz stared for a moment, then shook his head to regain himself. "If I don't graduate...then I won't be able to go to college. If I don't go to college, I won't get a good job. If I don't get a good job, I'm done...I'll be homeless, suffering on the streets. The moment I turn eighteen, my parents are kicking me out of the house...I need to know I'll graduate. If I don't pass this project, then I won't graduate...I'd be better off dying..."
He sounded completely sincere. "All I know is that it was an old saloon that's closed, now..." |
Iri sighed, Does anyone ever know the histroy of this place before they come in here? "So let us get this one straight real quick," the naga said, tongue flicking out for a moment. "I am, for I suppose, a lack of a better term, a ghost, am I correct? At least that is what you all yell and go on about when I appear," she was trying to get to the bottom of things, trying to keep people from coming back. "Am I to assume that all of you know the same amount of this saloon, one that is in your own town? A land mark that you do not know the story of?" Sighing she then shook her head, Always jumping into things, do human realize that this will be their downfall?
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Razz, still a bit numb from shock, wasn't reacting too much to her appearance...he would probably freak out later, once he had a chance to calm down.
"...It's really old...and most of its records and even its deed are missing. So we really don't know a lot about it..." he admitted, quietly. "I just want to get my project done...if you didn't do anything when people came in, the rumors would start to fade away, and less and less people would come..." |
Iri laughed, her head thrown back, this shown fangs that the naga form had. She then looked back down in him, her yellow eyes gleaming as she looked back down at him. "You silly boy, if I didn't do something about it then people would get curious anyway. They would start to look about the building and then they would find me. I can't have that happening," she then crossed her arms under her chest, tightening the red ribbon slightly. Not again anyway.
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Razz visibly shrunk more into himself. His camera was still rolling. He didn't seem to have the willpower to move. "Maybe you should go somewhere else, then..." he mused, pointedly. "Didn't you hear the news...? The town bureau is contemplating knocking this place down...to make room for residential zones..."
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A wave of fear seemed to come over the naga's face as Iri felt her breath catch. No, they can't, she thought as her mind began to spin. That wasn't apart of the deal! Her eyes flicked from one thing to another as if these objects would give her the answers she was looking for, but obviously that was to no avail. Her eyes then fell to the boy again, she had lost her composure but she still said, "Get out," though her voice was quieter than before. The naga then disappeared, not even the snake that the naga had come from was still there.
"No," Iri said once she had materialzied on the top floor once again. She began pacing, her foot falls light though she could still see the dust they kicked up. "They promised, they promised me that this place would be safe." She then shook her head as she tried to catch her breath. "Why would they do this to me?!" |
Razz sat there for a moment, still numb. Then, he stood up and cleared his throat. "It hasn't been finalized yet!" He called loudly, hoping it would reach her. "They're debating it! If you want to do something about it...they'll be debating it for another thirty days, and then they'll make their decision!"
He paused. "I...I'll be leaving, now! Um...can I at least have your name? Mine is Rasputin...Razz, for short." Razz wasn't fond of telling people his name. He didn't like to be compared to the real Rasputin--that crazy Russian. |
Rasputin, Iri rolled the name over her head over and over again as a smile came to her face. She had always liked that name. She then fell back into an old arm chair that was up there, and like with the floor dust went flying everywhere. "So I have thirty days to keep them from tearing this place down?" She then asked herself before she waved a hand dismissivally in front of her face. This lead to the name 'Iritana' drew itself in large letters on the dusty floor in front of the boy. A comma then came after followed by 'Iri', the whole thing underlined in that girly, curled sort of way.
The demoness wasn't even sure why she was giving the boy her name, she knew how powerful a name was. "After all, your name is very fitting for yourself isn't it?" She then asked aloud, chiding to herself. She leaned back in the chair taking in a deep breath, she wasn't sure what she was going to do. She couldn't leave the saloon, she hadn't in a very long time, it just didn't. "No, it just can't be done," she said sutting her thought off. |
Iritana...Iri, for short--that's what Razz had gathered. It was almost as strange a name as his, which was relieving--he felt sort of alone having such a peculiar name.
"Iri...okay. Goodbye, Iri..." He turned and walked across the creaky floor, towards the door. He clicked his camera off as he did so, feeling he'd caught enough to make a good video with. |
Iri sat up quickly as she heard the floor boards creaking, he was leaving that was good. After hearing him say that though she wasn't sure if she wanted him to go. Out of everyone that had been in her saloon he seemed the most innocent, and obviously the most scared, save for the girls that come in though they don't make it past the shaking. She held a hand before her and watched as it slowly vanished. Soon enough that same little girl from before was waiting for him outside the saloon.
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Razz paused once he stepped off of the building's wrap-around porch, noting the same little girl from before. Considering what she'd said before, he assumed this was also one of Iri's tricks.
"Uh...hi." His expression seemed numb, and unsurprised, but somewhat friendly. |
The little girl tilted her head slightly as the wind blew past the same baggy stripped shirt as before. Her eyes studied him for a moment. He doesn't look much like a Rasputin, Iri thought to herself before looking back up at the boy's face. "She thanks you you know," the little girl said though she wasn't too sure if the boy even knew that Iri was a girl in the first place. She only thought this because she knew of demons who would alter their gender in their little antics.
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"...Oh."
Razz was ashamed that he couldn't think of anything more to say. "Um...she's welcome, I guess. Thanks for the footage..." He checked his watch, then made a face. "I better get home." |
The little girl giggled as she held out a hand to him, her palm open and in it was an opal stone carved into the shape of the bat. "I think you may come to realize that things aren't as they seem and what you may believe to be true is actually just a dream," she told him, her riddles coming in use once again. That was almost her fancy way of saying that what she held in her hand would be the only proof of that night that what had happened would not show up. That was what Iri liked about 'haunted' places, they always had a way of not showing up on tape.
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Razz blinked, then took the small stone, studying it.
"Thanks...I'm guessing this means that only thing that will really show up, at best, on the film is mist, shadows, and maybe a bit of the building shaking? I need some kind of footage, even if it's just me running around and claiming I'd seen something." |
The little girl giggled as she brought her hands up closer to her mouth. "Well perhaps an agreement can be made," she said as the joy seemed to be refelected though her bright brown eyes. "You'll just have to talk with her to find out." Her eyes then relaxed, studying him once again before the bat cut stone began to glow purple at the raised edges and then she was gone, yet this time she didn't reappear in her usual room. The stone pulsed slightly in the middle, a purple light that warmed it slightly. Iri was going to see this town for herself, see what she was up against. She wasn't setting foot out there so everything would be safe, at least that's what she hoped. Plus, if things got too bad then she could always return back to the saloon at a whim.
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Razz studied the stone curiously, then sighed, instantly regretting not having deeper pockets--they were full of his camera gear. He held the stone in his hand as he headed back through town.
It wasn't a metropolis, but it wasn't a tiny village, either. There were suburbs around the outside of it, and in the middle was a slightly big, bustling city. Razz preferred to walk home rather than take the bus. He had no money. Despite it being late at night, there were a few people in the street, still. It took a bit of walking for him to reach his house. It was just bordering the main city, and was medium-sized. Quietly, he used his key to get back inside. The inside was plain. His parents were very plain people...the only decorative room in the house was his room and his sister's old room. His sister, Lutfiya, had moved out three years ago to live in the main city. She was twenty-one. Sighing heavily, Razz made his way upstairs very quietly after re-locking the door, and slid into his room, which was at the end of the hall. Everything was white and blue. There lots of things taped up on the wall--everything from band and anime posters to newspaper clippings and song lyrics. At once, he put his camera gear away and set the stone on his dresser...and then plopped directly into bed with a soft groan. Tomorrow would not be a good day at school. |
The movement had stopped and Iri felt a solid surface under the stone. Everything else appeared to be still as well so the stone started to glow once again. The stone slowly turned into a female with small bat wings at her back. She looked about the room, a curious look on her face. "Humans are definitly interesting creatures," she said quietly to herself as she looked at the surface she was sitting on. Her hands traced the smooth surface before she slowly slid off of it. Out of instinct she brushed the back of her skirt off and checked her socks. No dust though. "Well that's new," she said once again to herself. She wasn't used to others being in the same room as her let alone people in general, or the lack of dust for that matter.
The brunette then looked down at the bed, the male was laying there but she paid him no attention before she moved to his walls. There were images on them, large ones. Some of them even had symbols that she recognized and she traced them with her finger. There were many other things, things she didn't know of but they interested her nonetheless. |
Razz was only half-asleep, and he stared at her once she materialized in his room. "...Why am I not surprised?" he asked, half-exasperated and half-amused. He was very quiet. "I don't mind you being in here...but please try to keep it down, okay? My parents are a few rooms over, and if they're woken up this late at night, they'll fillet me alive..."
His head fell back down onto his pillow, eyes closing. He looked like he wanted to sleep, but was having trouble doing so. He had been diagnosed as a child already with slight insomnia. |
Iri jumped at the sound of th voice, her brown eyes wide as she stared at the boy. He didn't seem all the surprised though, that confused the girl. He's the first to see your true form, you have to do something, she cried out in her head as the boy finished talking. He lay back down, his eyes closed, was he really asleep this time? Her dark eyes narrowed as her tail snapped back and forth for a moment. She just watched him though, she was slightly paniced as she tried to figure out what it was she should do. She didn't move from the far wall, she couldn't risk getting close to him.
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Razz rolled over in bed, to see if that would work. No luck. He turned over onto his back, then onto his stomach, and then onto his back again. Still, no luck. He opened his eyes again, looking simply distraught. He was so tired...so tired...why couldn't he sleep? He almost felt like crying, but he had promised himself he would never cry in front of another person.
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Iri tilted her head to the side as she watched to boy's odd movements. She had never seeing a human sleep before. She didn't have to sleep, she could but she didn't have to. Were his movements a part of human sleep? Did they help the body in some way? The demoness didn't know so she just watched. Then his eyes opened again, there was almost a pained look in them. This was definitly interesting and the winged girl found herself moving and sitting back on top of the dresser he had placed her stone on earlier. She pulled her legs up to her chest disregarding the shortness of her skirt, she was a demon after all. Wrapping her arms around her knees she just watched the boy, almost as if she were anxious as to what the next part of the story would be.
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Razz sat up slowly, eyes half-lidded and expression quite upset. He noticed she was staring at him, quite profusely. It sent a slight chill through him, as he didn't like to be stared at or watched, but he disregarded it, glancing down to stare at his legs.
"...Sorry if I'm acting weird...I'm really, really tired...and I just can't sleep..." |
Iri didn't like when the boy looked at her, it was almost as if he were really acknoledging she was actually there. It just made her very uncomfotable. "Don't humans sleep when they are tired though?" She then shook her head before saying, "Your statement doesn't not make any sense." Her voice was quiet, as it always was since she had been on her own in the saloon for much longer than she had remembered.
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