Haunted By The Thought (Cora)

[shinigami]

Thursday, so the cathedral would mostly be deserted, except there happens to be an autumn fundraiser going on. Just go through the gate, just go into the yard, the grass-in-the-cracks, even under Las Vegas' scorching sun; the bleached stones; down, beneath trelisses. The cathedral is a powerhouse, the way so many religious houses are; a powerhouse, filled with a sense of ghost, of that which is holy.

These places aren't necessarily kind to those of the Night World who are near them. They're human things, after all, and a vampire who was once human, who once took solace in faith, might find that the faith burns them when they're no longer living; witches might find that they can't look at a cross; shapeshifters might find that they burn, that they lose control.

This isn't one of those places, per se. It's very welcoming. Very peaceful.

Aidan has a big chocolate brownie in hand -- it's almost as large as his face! And only two dollars! -- and he's sitting inside the cathedral proper, sitting on one of the wooden pews, while outside there's laughter and talking and gossiping and people being cruel and debating politics. He's sitting alone, and he's watching a candle burn, and his sooty eyelashes are low, giving his features a cruel and indolent cast.

[doreyg]

Outside for a moment something very odd happens, all the people there suddenly feel themselves shudder (Like a person is walking over their grave, or more accurately seeing their grave and teh manner they'll get in it) and turn almost as one to the gate... The girl standing there gives them a dreamy smile and brushes her hair out of her face.

Everybody smiles at each other and force laughter, why should they fear this girl? She has every right to be here, she definitely looks like she's jsut come to worship... And as she walks through teh crowd people talk to her and she smiles, people smile at her and she smiles and by the time she's reached the cathedral proper she's holding a chocolate cookie (free of course, people often feel the impulse to give things to Cora free) and smiling.

Nobody has noticed her bare feet, nobody has noticed the overly pale tone to her skin and nobody has noticed her still fairly black eyes... And if they have they've immediately forgotten it, most human brains are not designed for things like Cora.

The cathedral is calm, faintly cool (and Cora's presence makes it cooler) and peaceful... Cora glides a little along (almost as if dancing) and then freezes, her eyes going completely back.

She's noticed Aidan, even though she appears to be looking at one of the stained glass windows... She's noticed, adn she's noticed who he really is.

[shinigami]

The napkin crackles around the Huge Gigantic Brownie Of Death By Chocolate as Aidan maneuvers it this way and that. He's trying to decide how best to bite into it, but he's not thinking very much about what his hands are doing. His hands, so competent, so well-worked, so beautiful -- in their way, do their own thinking. There's a cowboy hat on the pew next to him, and further study might reveal that Aidan's expression is distant.

He's miles away, in his thoughts; he's dreaming while he's still awake. When Death enters the Cathedral, Aidan's thoughts go still as the air without wind. He finds himself smiling, faintly, smiling like a cinder sparks, then dies. He doesn't know why, and the smile's gone pretty quickly. Aidan does not turn, and Aidan does not look to the side, does not see Cora. He looks up at the altar, then takes a HUGE BITE OF BROWNIE OF DEATH.

And it promptly breaks in half, half of it plopping into his lap, that half breaking -- mmm, moist! -- and slopping onto the church floor.

Well, great. Now he's going to hell.

[doreyg]

Cora smiles, a actual proper smile instead of her usually dreamy offering... Her teeth actually flash free and for a moment she looks a lot like she did so many years ago when she finally succeeded in tempting Ares to her.

Her head turns slightly, her eyes (a little lighter now) focus on Aidan and a small breath slips out between her lips, it sounds a little like a giggle but it's very doubtful that he heard it.

Cora takes a step forward and tilts her head, hair flowing freely over her shoulders and back.

He's bound to notice her at some point, right?

[shinigami]

He couldn't help but notice her. At some point. And yet, the sad truth is very few people notice Death coming until it's too late. Too late for what, at this point? Aidan still doesn't notice Cora. He mutters something that taints the air, electric ozone; tang of copper, blood. There's a smell, see, to Aidan's skin; it's the same smell that Ares had. Of course, it's underneath the usual boy grime, and he is quite grimy today. He bumps his head against a hymnal when he leans over to dig up moist brownie crumbs, so when he climbs back to his feet --

That's when he sees Cora, all dark-haired, all madness, gazing at him with such a look. Aidan's pupils dilate, and after a second's intense silence, he says -- shyly; yes, shyly.

"Ah, hello miss."

[doreyg]

Cora suppresses a laugh at the shyness in his voice, surely a different life for him then for Ares was rarely shy, especially around the women.

She smiles (Perhaps a little shyly but who can blame her? In her past life she had lusted after Ares since the moment she had discovered what adults do behind closed doors), Gives her thoughts a firm poke (Behave, be sane) and takes a step forward calmly.

"Hello... I'm sorry if I disturbed you, it's just it was getting a bit crowded outside and..."

Cora can be sane for brief periods of time, it's rare but it's quite impressive when she is.

[shinigami]

"Oh." He gives her a half-dreaming, half-waking sort've look; flushes, slowly, when she takes a step closer. Then he grins, wide and easy and (secret: unsafe, but for a cause, baby) abashed. "Well, it's not like this is my house."

He doesn't seem to remember her. To remember what he is. Who he is. Then again, not everybody's super obvious about it. Then again, maybe he just doesn't.

His expression changes again, and he awkwardly shifts his weight from one foot to the other. "Oh. Did, uh. Were you going to pray? I'll leave."

[doreyg]

"Nor is it mine" Cora laughs, not a dreamy one but a light tinkling sound... Okay, so maybe if you llisten clsoe enough the laugh may echo a little like the funeral march but that can hardly be helped.

Cora's eyes widen, she goes slightly whiter and starts forward a step hurriedly before halting and forcing another smile "No, No... A friend dragged me here you see, I get a little... Woozy when there are too many people around, I'm fine with one or two in calm places but out there it's jsut a bit too much."

A pause "I'd be glad of some company in here though, jsut while I get my breath back."

Hint hint.

[shinigami]

Aidan's thick eyebrows draw together when Cora half-hurries forward, turns as white as a sheet of paper; it's all seriously strange. Maybe she's sick, he thinks; there's something about her. Brittle, maybe.

He smiles at her again; the smile turns back into a grin, which is as shy as they come, and his eyelashes sink to kiss his cheekbones, and it's still just -- shy. "Well, you know those Church crowds -- they can be rowdy."

It was a joke. But behind his eyelashes, his gaze darkens; goes from that clear, clear bluegray to something muddier, something darker. Those Church crowds could get rowdy -- any witch should know; any Night Worlder should know. There was a reason the Night World was a secret world.

Then he looks up, quick, as if he was startled; smiles again. "Uhm. Did you wanna -- ?"

Sit, he means. Or -- well, whatever she wants; who knows what lurks within the minds of females?

[doreyg]

"Yeah" You used to make them rowdy "as my sister always said, anybody can get downright nasty when baked goods are involved."

She laughs, her proper laugh again... It burns her throat a little when she does that.

Ah, yes, sitting.... She sits in a graceful movement, that still manages to look somehow like a body falling into a grave, lithe and boneless like none of her troubles matter anymore.... Cora does that a lot, it's one of the (many) reasons she scares so many people.

"I'm Coraline Berith by the way, usually everybody just calls me Cora" Look! She does remember her old name, she just doesn't exactly want to.

[shinigami]

Aidan fixed his gaze on Cora again as she took a seat in the same pew, with that queer, unbelievable grace; it made him wonder. He shifts, awkward in his own skin; a teenage boy, through and through, and a small one at that. He and Cora were of a height; she might've topped him by half-an-inch. It wasn't evident yet, what with the sitting, but it would be. "Well, it's nice to meet you Cora," he says, the twang in his accent sharpening during the introduction. "And hopefully not Anybody can get downright nasty." He points up, rolls his gaze exaggeratedly heavenward -- just for a second, though; then he fixes his gaze on Cora again. "I don't think smitin' sounds like a good time; just ain't right."

[doreyg]

Cora smiles at him (Gosh, she hasn't felt this much like a teenage girl since teh first time round) and brushes her hair back absently, and then giggles softly "I'd hope not, I thought it'd" Slight shrug of one shoulder upward "like all this fundraiser business."

[shinigami]

Then there is an awkward silence. Aidan is just no good with girls. He doesn't know how to talk to them. He's never known how to talk with them. The ones who find him attractive baffle him when he notices what they're thinking. Which he usually doesn't. He isn't one of those guys who just assumes that he's magnetic (and he is, in a certain way: magnetic). He assumes quite the opposite, and has some real life experience to back that up.

So there's an awkward silence. Aidan smiles at Cora, just a tiny smile, reflex. He tilts his head back and fixes his gaze on a stained glass portrait, a saint he doesn't know, bristling with arrows, head thrown back in peaceful ecstasy.

He should probably say something. But but but but. GIRL. Pretty girl. Cora is a pretty, albeit strange, girl. So his tongue? Is tied.