Jiaying Maki is limping home, her arm is bleeding again and her tags were damaged so any time she passes a dog it starts to bark at her. All in all she's in an extremely bad mood and it's not hard to figure out. She's made it almost to the apartment she's living at and once she's there, she's bandaging up after a bath. Maybe a lot of alone time too.
Lacrima had to make sure that Eilam was okay first. Once that was done, and once they talked--- she left making it across the rooftops. She hears dogs barking. She 'huhs' and peeks over the edge to see a bleeding Jiaying. Where is she going?
To an apartment building apparently. Hop. Hop.
No, she isn't a hoping vampire, but she jumps across rooftops well enough. She gently lands on a fire-escape right outside a window, and she gives it a few knocks against the glass. Tap tap tap tappity tap tap tap tapppity tappity.
Jiaying Maki isn't at all disguised in her own home and the windows to her room have heavy covers over them. At the knocking. She scowls and can be heard gathering a few things. Pulling the shades open, one can see she's got a heavy object in one hand and a spell tag in the other. Recognizing who it is, she contemplates closing the curtains. After tugging one of her bandages a bit tighter, she pockets the spell tag and unlocks the window before stepping back to see what happens.
Lacrima could 'phase' through into the room if she wanted to-- unless it was warded or something. Regardless, the window is unlocked and she peeks it open. "Are you okay? You were bleeding." she says with a frown. She still leaking something herself from the side of her mouth.
She blinks once and places a finger to the side of her mouth and removes it. "Phef." she goes as she gathers up a small bit of dark energy and touches the side of her cheek. This seems to stop it from bleeding now. She wipes the side of her mouth with her sleeve.
She steps one foot in testingly.
Jiaying Maki hasn't warded her room yet, after tonight there's a good chance of it. She sits down on her futon heavily and says, "That was from earlier. One of your... cohorts had a giant mouse running around trying to eat a kid. It did the same thing you two did in the court." Her tone is flat and she's taking effort to hide her face. She may have been crying and all.
Looking to the side of the room that Norie's not on she adds, "I thought you didn't want to just take criminals out that way." She doesn't have a healing method. It looks like she had some frostbite across her arms and legs and she smells rather heavily of some kind of ointments
Lacrima steps in and smooths her dress out. She frowns a bit.... and then just lets herself shift into Norie Okana. Less threating this way maybe. She purses her lips. "I don't know of any cohorts that summon large mice that eat kids." she says matter of factly. "Who was it?" she asks. "Can you describe them?" she asks.
"Huh? Oh. Shiniko gives me chances to drain energy. I help her. I get energy." she says. "Shiniko punishes people. That's what she does." she says. "Curses them." she says.
She head tilts. "It's less about the situation and more about the energy when I help Shiniko. I'm sorry if you don't like that, but I need to live too." she says.
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and adjusts one of the bandages as she sits up. Letting out her breath after, she settles back in place and slowly and deliberately crosses her arms. "I don't know who it was, didn't see them. Did hear her though." She presses her fingers to the bridge of her nose and adds, "You at least have an excuse. She's no better than that Yakuza. Neither was the other fox in the room.
She sniffs and adds softly, "And next time I'm not..." She stops, then shakes her head and says more firmly, "Next time I see her, I'm sucker punching her."
Norie Okana huhs? "Oh. Inariko." she says softly. Who she knows is Ayana. But she isn't saying that to Jiaying. "She used to be like me. Darkness... n' all that." she says. "Or so she claims." she says softly. "I dunno much about it." she says.
She sort of sighs a bit, and brushes her black hair out of her face. "Your bussiness and issues with Shiniko or Inariko aren't my bussiness." she insists. "Shiniko's chosen her path, whatever it is." she says with a sigh.
"Not all of us who use 'dark energy' are cohorts. Or even friends." she insists. "I'm not one of those things from the Dusk Zone." she spits. "Who wants to destroy humanity." she says.
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says, "She used to be? Didn't sound like a used to be thing to me. Oh laws are stupid, they can die! She's lower than a dog and so is that other one." Mostly she just sounds frustrated more than anything else. Pain might be a good cause of that too.
"You're associating with them. The old proverb rings true, you lay down with the dogs and you'll get fleas." Though after a moment she tries to slowly ease her hands behind her head, eyes closed. "Thanks for checking one me I guess or c-.. Thanks."
Norie Okana frowns. "I am /not/ associating with world destryoing monstrosities." she spits out, taking severe offense to that. She does bite back her tounge further though as she scowls a bit, which looks odd when she's pretending to be a human.
She frowns. "You were hurt." she said. "Are you going to be okay?" she asks softly.
Jiaying Maki shrugs after a moment and says, "Sorry, being lit on fire by cold apparently brings out something in me." Pushing herself up slowly, she checks to make sure nothing is bleeding again, swings her legs around so that she's facing Norie and sits crosslegged, whincing immediately, but living with it. "I'll be fine eventually. Do me a favor and bring me homework. I'm staying home."
Norie Okana blinks. "I don't go to your school, but I'll bring your homework for you if they'll let me." she says softly. A pause. "Should I knock on the door next time?" she asks. "What Apartment number is this?" she asks. Norie seems to have no problem doing this. It's a simple request. Not exactly asking for blood here.
She frowns. "I wish I had better answers for you, but I don't. I need to do things to survive. Nothing ever changes that." she insists.
Jiaying Maki looks confused for a moment and asks, "Wait I thought you did got to Seishou?" She shrugs, shakes her head and holds up her hands, "Not... that I spend a lot of time at school hanging out. I'll get Sora to do it or someone else I'm sure. Or I'll just skip doing it."
She provides the apartment number after a moment, then says, "I still haven't found anything on your necklace. I've got the next few days so I'll probably try a bit harder then."
Norie Okana bites her lip... Sora is Shiniko. Jiaying apparently doesn't know that. She keeps her mouth shut again.
She frowns. "It isn't important. I did do what you said though. No 'maker's mark' or anything, but they said it was an itallain design of some sort, most likely that would had been popular around the 1500's. Then I was offered to sell it and I told him no." she says flatly.
"But that's all I could find." she shrugs.
"Anything else you find out besides that, let me know." she says softly as she sighs and looks to the window.
"Am I able going to cause problems if I shift from here?" she asks.
Jiaying Maki slowly reaches over and takes a notebook and takes a few notes, scribbing through the book in quick and crude looking Chinese if anyone were able to properly read it. Tossing it back so she doesn't have to move much, she asks, "Was the metal part - the... uh furniture, was it." She scowls and mutters to herself, shrugs and continues, "Was the furniture original? I want to know if it's the gems or the whole thing."
Glancing to the window, she gestures Norie further into the room and says, "Close the curtains and you should be alright."
Norie Okana blinks. "Oh. The jewler couldn't place the gem as anything he knew. I um. Didn't explain it. It looked like he wasn't able to stare at it very long with his little... jewelers... scope? Thing? Magnifier, whatever." she says.
She closes the curtains and sighs. "Is that it then...?" she asks as she folds her arms a bit. "Not much I can say about it..." she says softly.
Jiaying Maki looks confused at that and asks, "He wasn't able to look through the eye-thingy very long? Did he say why?" Hey that's actually an important detail and the faint whine that escapes as she shifts to grab her notebook probably establishes that. After writing it in place, she looks to Norie while asking, "Are you any good with magic or martial arts?" and then as an after thought, "What was that black stuff by the way?"
Norie Okana shrugs. "Magic I guess. Dark Energy stuff. I guess you might call it 'Black Magic' she says softly." she head tilts a little. "Not so much fighting. I mean. I guess I'm stronger than a human, but not really stronger than people like that girl who punched me in the face." she says.
"Oh. Uhm. The stuff that's inside me. It's some sort of thick black stuff. I think it's just concentrated dark energy or something." she says. "I guess you could say 'it was my blood'?..." she says. "That'd be the closest to it." she says.
Jiaying Maki slowly pushes herself to her feet, moving stiffly and definitely favoring her left leg. Looking down at herself, the numerous bandages, she moves to sit down at her computer chair, hoping it's more comfortable at this moment. "Ever look at it up close?" Hey maybe there's a clue there instead. Though then she remembers Norie trying to get away from that and she instead rests her chin against her hand, leaning a bit heavily on the desk. "Want to practice with me? Something.. not so dark?" Or darker in some cases, but of a different kind. It might backfire... it might help. Who knows.
Norie Okana blinks. "I don't think I can channel 'non-dark' things." she says. "Look at what up close? The necklace?" she asks. "A lot when I was looking at it in the antique shop. Often otherwise. It's just a clear red gem to me." she shrugs. "I dunno why the jeweler couldn't stare at it up close for so long. Maybe there's some wavelength hurting his eye we can't see or affects mundanes." she says.
"If you mean my blood. Not really. It's just thick and black but never actually stains stuff. or seeps into things." she says.
She head tilts. "But what is it you'd want me to 'try' practicing?" she asks.
Jiaying Maki shrugs and says, "I got the run around from a giant mouse and I got lit on fire and it still hurts. I'm going to return the favor for the latter, but I'm tired of being hurt because my magic is sloppy and I was never good at martial arts. I'm fixing that." She says this matter of factly. She gestures towards Norie and says, "It was an attempt to give you something else to think about and a chance to spend time I guess."
Norie Okana shrugs. "I dunno about the mouse. As for Shiniko. I dunno what to tell you about her. I think something is wrong with her though. She didn't /use/ to be able to go into the Dusk Zone... but now she can. Only someone seeped in Dark Energy can do that and survive. She didn't /used/ to be that either." she frowns. "She didn't used to be so brash about this sort of thing either. I dunno. A close friend of mine says that you either control the Dark Energy- or it controls you. Maybe it's controlling her."
She shrugs a bit. "She seemed bothered by whatever tag you tried to use at least. What was that?" she asks softly.
She blinks. "You want to spend time with me?" she asks a little dumbly. "I guess.. um. okay?" she asks. "If that's what you wanna try we can try it..." she says a little softly.
Jiaying Maki listens queietly at the suggestion that something has changed about Shiniko. She doesn't know her, but that does sound odd. "Maybe she's possessed?" Though there's that big about her going into the Dusk Zone. "Is the Dusk Zone Diyu? Uh.. Hell?" With the usual stiff movement she begins to type a few things into her computer. Then after a moment, begins transfering her notes from the notebook to a fairly long looking document.
"The tag? I filled it with Yang, I wanted to see if it was... I wanted to see what happened." She looks a touch embarassed and adds, "I was kind of hoping the good would stun her long enough for something else to happen."
She nods at the last part and says, "I only really know you, Sora and Kukai and he's kind of a jerk, Sora has... something off about her that I can't put my finger on and you've been honest about being off." In a softer tone she adds, "And you seem like you need a hug from a friend sometimes."
Norie Okana just kind of listens. "Dusk Zone is hell? I don't think so." she says matter of factly. She just head tilts. "Ah. Yeah... if she reacted that way to 'positive energy' she probably is using dark energy now-- but it didn't seem to overtly hurt her either-- not like something hurting me." she says.
She heads tilts and softly frowns a bit. "It's hard being this thing I am." she says matter of factly.
"I'd rather not talk about it right now." she says softly.
She looks around a moment before peeking over Jiaying's monitor at the computer screen. "Are you really taking that many notes?" she asks.
Jiaying Maki turns to face her computer and taps the screen lightly, "I've noted what you do, what has affected you, what you differ from in terms of the normal myths. I'm uh, having some issues with a few of the sources. Something about grave earth in some, which is weird isn't it?" One gets the feeling she's using online translations for that. "I've noted the details you've said and.. yeah. I want to know what it is! I meant what I said. I think everyone deserves a second chance.."
She quickly changes subjects and asks, "So the uh, dark energy. If it just made her look sick, it's not too bad? Maybe it's like... like uh. A disease on a plant? You can sometimes stop the spread by cutting it off?" Then she frowns and murmurs, "I don't mean literally cutting. But maybe cutting off their Yin would do something? Like... pressure points or something? Does that even work?"
Norie Okana blinks. "Grave earth?" she asks. "I don't really know anything about that, I haven't tried walking into any graveyards recently." she says. "..should I?" she asks matter of factly as she purses her lips. She sighs a bit and shrugs a bit.
"I dunno." she says. "I'm not really going to let you try that against me." she says. "I really don't like being hurt by that stuff- and I definitly don't want to be hit by it right now in my current state..."
Whatever state that is. She isn't clarifying.
"I dunno if that'd work. I don't even know if I have pressure points, for example." she says.
Jiaying Maki raises an eyebrow and says, "Why do you say that?" That is kind of an odd statement really! "You feel pain and everything right?" She wheels the chair over slowly, clearly trying to move only when necessary and may or may not be reaching out to just poke Norie's upper arm, no pressure points or anything. She just wonders now.
"Wait what does Graveyards have to do with grave earth?" Though after a moment it clicks and she mutters to herself in Chinese, getting a voice from across the room mocking her in Chinese as well. This gets her to throw her notebook at the stuffed bunny, which illicits a squeak and laughter. Especially after she whinces. "So.. I didn't want to test cutting that off on you. You're kind of made of it, that might leave you like an empty pillow case which isn't what I"m after."
Norie Okana is poked. She blinks once. "I don't know if I experience pain like a normal human." she says. "Losing an arm hurts no more than a really bad papercut." she says matter of factly. "And I was able to gorw that back in the dusk zone." she says. "Then there's idiots who try shoving stakes into my heart. That doesn't actually do anything, by the way." she says. "That stings a little." she says.
"That black stuff? That's all that's inside me really." she says. "As far as I can figure out." she shrugs.
She head tilts. "Yeah I'd rather... you not do that." she says softly at Jiaying.
Jiaying Maki raises an eyebrow at taht and asks, "Hey uh.. weird question." She taps her fingers together as she thinks of how to phrase it. "Do you think your body is somewhere else maybe and this is... something different?" Better than the initial quesiton of are you really you at least. Still, the suggestion that she's made of goo is an odd one. "Do you like.. can you fit under door frames then?"
Norie Okana blinks. "No." she says. "I know that for a fact. I went though an excurciating week where I was turned into this 'thing' in the hospital." she says softly. "I'm positive I was human and now I'm not." she says matter of factly.
"So no, This isn't some 'proxy' body." she frowns.
She head tilts. "I don't think I can shift. It takes a lot of energy just to keep this disguise up." she says softly.
Jiaying Maki hesitates for a moment and fishes around in her pocket, pulling her primary tag free. Norie may or may not recognize it at this point. Either way, Jia sticks it to herself and goes strangely fuzzy and there's an inrush of mist, then she looks completely human. She wrinkles her nose and pulls it off again and the effect is lost just as quickly. "I don't like using it, because it muffles all of my magic and senses, but it doesn't take any effort to maintain." She holds it out to Norie and says, "Stick it to yourself and see what happens if you want."
Norie Okana blinks and takes the tag as she looks at it with a blink. She can't understand chinese. She purses her lips and looks up to Jiaying wearily. She sticks it to herself and--- nothing happens. At least apparent happens. There's no reaction one way or another. She purses her lips. Squints a bit at Jiaying. She goes to say something. But then closes her mouth. She purses her lips in thought a bit. She gently takes the tag off.
"I don't think it's working for me like it is you." she says matter of factly as she hands it back. At least the tag didn't light on fire or something...or do something hurtful to her.
Jiaying Maki shrugs and takes the tag away and sets it next to her computer, nudging it away from herself. "How do you disguise yourself?" Maybe looking for a new way to do it. "I'm tired of being chased by animals, but not being able to hear without it sounding like I'm under water is.. frustrating." Her ears twitch as she says that and she swats at them. "Did you feel anything at all when you put the tag on? It stuck so.. there was something there. right? I uh... wonder if it would work in the other one, but that's... something else."
"I've got one last thing to try with you at some point. I want to see if I can create charms to absorb the dark. You can help with that. After they're filled and burned at the edges, I want to see if you can syphon the energy from them."
Norie Okana blinks. "I don't know. No one said anything." she says softly. "It felt weird." she says as she head tilts. "I don't really know how I disguise myself..." she gently folds inwards a bit. "'The disguise' as I'm calling it.. is 'who I used to be'." she says. "It does a good job of making people think I'm still human. It bleeds, and acts like a human body." she says softly. "--and doesn't feel as cold." she says.
She just shakes her head. "I'm sorry if you find that confusing. I just know I'm able to fold it over me, and it takes energy to maintain." she says.
Jiaying Maki does look confused and says, "I assumed the other one was the disguise." She pokes the girl and says, "This is you and you shouldn't forget that. Especially since it still bleeds." Hey, if it bleeds, it's alive! She takes a moment, clapping her hands together and forms that mist around her, as before her form blurs, but it's 'wrong' compared to the tag. She looks fuzzy around the edges, her eyes aren't changed and if Norie can sense magical sorts, she's radiating it pretty openly. "This is the best I can do without the tag." she says simple before releasing it. "I'm... going to practice a lot more. I don't like being hurt and if the people pretending to be 'good' are the same as I encountered there... I won't have help."
Norie Okana frowns... "When the whole thing happened, I was turned into that thing. It doesn't cost me energy to be Lacrima. It costs me energy to be who I used to be. I hate it." she says. "But I gave up trying to think otherwise a good long while ago." she says matter of factly.
Norie can't quite sense magic, not unless it's loud and obvious enough. This isn't that so she purses her lips and sighs.
"I think...I'm going to go home now." she says matter of factly. "Is that alright?" she asks softly at Jiaying.
"or is there more you need to ask me?..." she asks.
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says, "I'll... call you later if I find anything Norie." She turns to face her computer, feeling like she probably wandered too far off topic. "I'm staying home a few days. Maybe I can find a way to provide the magic for you to say this way. I will.. see you later." She was going to say sleep well, but she's not sure if that's true, or possible if she can sleep.
Norie Okana does sleep. Sleep serves a purpose for her. Mainly healing and processing thoughts.. or opening a gate way to talk with a weird voice. Regardlesss she nods. "Take a break. Let school know." she says matter of factly as she gently waves a hand in the air. There's a flare of dark energy, and it envelopes her- taking her off and away from the room.
Why use doors or windows when you can just prance through a zone of darkness?