Kyle Delacroix's page

You guys still around? :(

Poke poke nudge nudge.

Kyle smiles. "Last time I was here, I wasn't old enough to go exploring, so I'm afraid I can't offer to many ideas. Museums are certainly worth visiting, though. There's a lot of history here." She pauses for a second and laughs at herself. "Not as much as New England, of course. But we have more legends." She pauses for a second to take in the skyline. "And why wouldn't we? So much of this area is still so... unclaimed."

How large was the package, since I didn't think to ask earlier?

As Mr. Craw takes the package from her and handles it, she eyes him with curiosity. 'Hardly knew him?' Before she can ask how they knew each other, the man speaks more quickly, seeming to attempt to speed things up. "Uh, yes. Thank you." She smiles at his condolences, but it falters slightly. "The funeral will be tomorrow."

She eyes Michael sidelong to see if he has any reaction to this bit of news. She had wanted to invite him, but wasn't quite sure how. It wasn't as if they had met. And it wasn't as if she really knew him.

Feeling the pressure of eyes on her, she turns her attention back to Mr. Craw and forces another smile. She mumbles something about how it was nice to meet him.

As the door closes quickly behind her and Michael, she frowns. "That was... odd." She frowns for a second, and looks at Michael as if to ask something, and then changes her mind. Breaking out in a smile, she looks up at him, "So, afternoon off, huh?" She asks, feeling her cheeks warm at how lame it comes out.

Sorry for the delays, I'll get a post up tonight!

Yeah it would have been fine to say something like "I'd love to but I have to x/y/z", and Kyle would have been like "Oh no, of course, I have to get ready for the funeral anyway", but her going first totally works, too.

Kyle smiles at Mr. Craw, and Michael. "Certainly I would. I mean, I'm not sure if you have other plans, or anything..."

Horray!

Damnit I noticed I wrote Crow instead of Craw like 3 minutes after the window for post editing closed.

"Yeah, that would be great." Kyle says, falling into step with Michael even as she tenses up at his description of Mr. Craw. 'A front? More aware than he seems?' She thinks back to the mysterious package and frowns. "I'm not rightly sure what it's about," she admits. "My father's Will included a stipulation that I should meet with him. Just some unfinished business, I guess?"

Holding back the tears in her eyes, Kyle forces a smile, finding it at least somewhat endearing of Michael to not have any idea of what to say. He seemed to always be so self-assured, and she had to admit that even in the circumstances, it was amusing to see him taken aback. "Thanks. I've got some things to take care of, but I'd like that. Do you think, I mean, ah nevermind." She shakes her head. Seeming to remember all of a sudden where they are, she snaps her attention back to the Lodge and then to Michael. "Hey, listen, do you know a Mr Crow?"

Kyle looks over at Michael, and then quickly away, not sure of what to say. "Yeah. I mean, no. He's, uh. He didn't make it." Somehow it was harder than it had been on the phone. With no degree of distance to separate her and Michael, she suddenly felt very exposed and uncomfortable. Brushing her bangs behind her ear, she glances uncomfortably between the lodge, the ground, and something in the distance. "I'm doing okay." she forces out, thinking that they'd probably both realise it was a lie.

Kyle breaks out into a smile, walking towards Michael's car as he parks. "Hey, stranger. How're you settling in?"

Kyle makes sure that Copernicus will be okay without her for a few hours, and hops into her father's car, heading over for the meeting.

Short post, leaving it open to see if I know if this is place that Michael works at, or even whether he's there.

Kyle hangs up the phone, thinking that it will be good to at least have something checked off her list of things to do. Focusing on taking care of things, rather than what had happened, was helping at least.

She thinks of the first time she had ridden in an ambulance with a patient, how she distracted herself from how horrible his wounds were by giving herself the tasks of checking and rechecking everything she could think of, and how it saved his life, because she caught something one of the other EMTs had missed.

That's what she would do, now. Make a list of all the things she had to deal with, and go through them one by one, and when there was nothing left, she'd go through them in her mind all over again, making sure she hadn't missed anything.

She looks into the living room, thinking that something she will have to do is go through the house. 'Especially if you're going to sell it,' She thinks, not surprised to found that she has already decided what to do. With her father gone, there was little left for her here, and staying felt in some way like intruding.

'First things first, though' she reminds herself. 'If you're going to meet with Mr. Craw in a couple of hours, you should probably shower.'

Kyle sighs, feeling somewhat disappointed and relieved at the same time. She wasn't sure what she had been hoping for, but she wasn't in the mood to be treated like a child. She wasn't sure that she would ever feel like one again. "I'm fine, Mom, I'm staying at Dad's place. I know. Ye- I know, Mom."

She takes another deep breath and does her best to sound formidable. "The funeral is in the morning, and I'm not going to miss it." Even though her mother can't see her, Kyle shakes her head anyway. "I'm not sure I can take care of everything from there, but I'll be back soon, and I'll call you tomorrow, ok?"

'I'm not even sure I can take care of everything from here,' Kyle thinks to herself once they've hung up. She knows that she should have told her mother about the house, about the money, but she wasn't sure how to, and suspected it would be met with negativity anyway. "I'll tell her once I decide what to do." She mutters to herself, looking down as Copernicus rubs against her leg. Smiling despite everything, she reaches down to pet him, taking solace in his purring.

Something that Kyle's mother had said creeps back across her mind. 'Are you by yourself?' and Kyle remembers that her mother doesn't know how she had got here - and that she was't by herself. She may not know Michael enough to tell him about everything, but she should at least invite him to the funeral.

She picks up the phone to dial, but as she starts to do so, her eyes fall across her father's letter on the table where she had placed it the night before. Rereading the clause, she instead begins to dial a different number. "Yes, hello, I am looking for a Mr. Dennis Craw."

Belated Happy Birthday! Hope it was great!

How would you imagine your mom reacting to all this? I can roleplay the phone conversation but I'm not sure how to play her.

I didn't really think about it before, which is why I left it as open as I did. It can kind of go in a lot of directions. I'm sort of imagining that the reason that the mother picked up and left and doesn't speak of it at all is because something happened and she doesn't know how to cope with it.

Something beyond, you know, one of them cheating on the other. Something more in the vein of the Silent Hill stuff. Kyle might also have some recurring nightmares that come up that she had as a kid and had forgotten about. I want to play with the past a bit, essentially.

As far as the mother, I don't really know. She could miss James, she could feel free, I kind of think she'd have some degree of concern about Kyle being out there, especially alone, which Kyle interprets as "Worrying mother" but actually comes from the mother knowing something she doesn't? So it could go as a basically completely ignoring James but focusing on Kyle, or it could be basically deadpan, or it could be emotional.

Honestly, go with what feels like it'll be the most interesting / fun, I've left a lot of things open because I can go in a few different directions with it.

Yeah it's understandable that it's hard to get back into, but most of the next bits should be fairly slow/easy, at least on my end. I expect telling people and the funeral itself to eat up the next like, 15 of my posts.

"Mom, it's... It's Dad." Kyle could begin the hot tears welling up behind her eyes, spilling out as she forced herself to speak the words aloud. "Dad's gone, Mom. He's... he's dead."

Since they'd moved when she was young, Kyle had barely known her mother to ever mention her father. Knowing that Kyle and he still spoke, especially through her teenage years, was met with silence. It had never seemed that Marie didn't approve, since she certainly would have been likely to voice things like that, but it seemed more that she just wasn't interested.

It was as if she saw James as a closed chapter of her life. Or, perhaps more accurately, it seemed as though Marie might have remembered their time together from outside of it, as if it had been someone else, or something she saw in a film. She had a detachment about James that Kyle had never understood.

This fragmented relationship, that Kyle has never really understood, floods through her mind as she takes a deep breath, unsure of how her mother is going to react to the news. It had been more than a decade since Marie and James had seen each other, and Kyle couldn't be sure when they had last spoken, but she was certain it wasn't something they did often. Kyle realised, for the first time, that she had no idea if her parents had even spoken after Marie picked up and left with Kyle. And she still, and perhaps never would now, did not know what had driven them apart, and so severely.

I am missing this game. Hope things are going well for you guys!

Hey guys, I'll be at PAX East this weekend so I won't be on here much, but I'll try to drop in tomorrow if we get going again!

That means lots of gaming to come! :D

Ooof, that sounds brutal. And no problem at all, obviously school comes first!

So sorry for the delays, I had everything written up and then when I cleared my computer for space, it logged me out of all my sites. Problem is, I use a variety of temp emails and I could not as hell remember what this one was.

But I finally found my document where I keep the list so I'm back! Expect an update later tonight!

Use Lastpass! Also, yay, I'm excited!

I just realized that we are proficient with simple weapons... what average person known how to fight with a quarterstaff like a pro, let alone a sickle, heavy mace, or a longspear?

Haha, I assumed we'd be using the d20 modern weapons, which are more like: brass knuckles, knife, club, crowbar.

But I could totally see you running down the street with a flail. :P

Kyle smiles sadly, remembering how much her father had liked the rain. It felt so fitting, and she'd rather it now than at the funeral. Frowning, she realises how much is still left to be done, and how much of it is unpleasant.

As Copernicus makes himself at home exploring the house, Kyle tries to do the same. She begins to go room to room, familiarising herself with where things are. Her father being in the hospital meant that most of what was in the fridge had gone bad, and she realised she'd need to buy some things.

[i]'One thing at a time.'[/i She reminds herself. She knows she should start with what she feels she can handle, and work up, but she's never been the kind of person to shy away from difficult things. Besides, it was already almost noon back East. She picks up the phone and dials. "Hi, Mom? It's Kyle. There's... there's something I need to tell you."

I don't have anything in particular, I'm super enjoying it so far.

I do want to mention that I'm expecting Kyle's life / decisions to be somewhat up in the air over the next few days, but don't worry about finding reasons for her to stay, I have something in mind.

Before reading the letter, Kyle had hoped that she would be able to put it off. Even having seen her father's body, even knowing that she would be burying him soon, what she knew would really make it feel like he was gone was hearing his final words, reading the last things that he would ever say to her. She wanted to put it off, to carry the envelope around, because she knew that as soon as she opened it, and read those words, that he would be gone, and they would be all that she would have left.

She would have liked to wait, to keep the mystery of his last word's alive. But there were too many unknowns, too many things that she knew she would need to take care of.

Sitting in the funeral parlour, Kyle thinks about the nature of possibilities, and how all the decisions that you make in life affect the options that you have. And that all of a sudden, they can be taken away from you. And all those potential things you could be, or do, are gone in a flash.

Reading and rereading the letter, Kyle realises that for the first time, she has options. Too many options. More than she knows what to do with. She never planned on a house in Shady Grove, but now she had one. She shakes her head, thinking that it all feels like too much to handle.

Her eyes drift down towards the end of the letter again, and she smiles, her eyes welling up with tears. 'Little Sparrow' she says softly, thinking that she hadn't heard him call her that in years, but that she could imagine him saying it as if he were still there with her.

And it occurs to Kyle, sitting there on a bench in a darkened room, that she had been wrong. Knowing his last words didn't mean he was gone. They meant, more than ever, that he was still with her.

She stands up, walking back over to the body, and wipes her eyes, aware that her makeup has been running. "I'm sure I look a right mess." She says with a mixture of a sob and a chuckle. "But I don't figure you'd mind. There's a lot that I wish we could have talked about, too. But I won't hold it against you, if you won't hold it against me. I know you tried to hang on, and I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner."

There were so many things to say, but she couldn't find the words. "I'll take care of things, now, and I'll see you again one day. I love you, Dad."

Kyle leans forward, kissing her father on the forehead as he had done for her many times, and straightening up as tears roll down her face. She smiles down at him, sad that he was taken, but grateful for the times that they had together. It's a struggle for her to walk away, but she does it eventually, heading for her new used car and her new used house and the uncertainty of tomorrow.

Yup, sorry, I got hammered at work yesterday. I'll have a post up within a couple of hours.

Agreed! I'm loving this game.

Are you posting an intro for Episode 2, or shall we just pick up from there?

"Thanks." Kyle says. Looking at him, she thinks about how much he changed through the years. But he still looked like she remembered. Albeit a bit older. Even then, he was still so young.

Feeling uncomfortable by the funeral director's presence, she asks "When is the funeral?" before the gravity of the situation sets in. She turns to the man, "I... I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing. Is there something for me to take care of? Do I owe you money?"

She realises she's beginning to babble and takes a breath, running a hand across her face and brushing back her bangs. "I'm sorry, this is just all so sudden. He was supposed to have more time."

Kyle forces a smile. "Thanks."

'Why do people find it necessary to say that?' She wonders as she walks away. 'What could I possibly need right now that anyone could actually manage?' Shaking her head, she glances at the address, and starts making her way towards the exit. Kyle found herself alone, on the West Coast, in a place that she hadn't been in more than a decade, thinking that anything she needed now, she'd get herself.

'It isn't the first time you've felt alone.' She reminds herself. But it's different this time. She feels hollowed out, as if there's a chasm where her lungs and stomach should be. As if there's a hole where her heart had been.

And suddenly, more than ever, it feels even more important that she sees him, even though she can't say why. Intellectually, she does not doubt Llayne, but it is still something that she does not want to accept. Every time she tries to swallow, it feels like choking down a pill that's too large. It's too big of a truth.

She shakes her head as she steps outside, trying to clear it. She glares at the mountains, and at the sky, and they are unmoved. 'Llayne's right', she realises. 'It is getting late'. But they'd let her in.

They had to.

As the doctor spoke about what had happened, it took everything Kyle had not to scream. When he spoke of it being only yesterday, she wanted to call Michael and holler at him for not getting here fast enough, though she knew it wasn't his fault. If it weren't for him, she wouldn't have gotten here at all. The mention of her father being surrounded by friends made her want to grab Dr. Llayne and shake him. 'Sure, Doc', she'd say, 'But friends weren't his daughter, and you should know the difference'.

In the end, she simply stares numbly. She clutches the envelope in her hand, afraid to open it, and stares at it as the doctor continues to talk. It's only after he has stood up and begun to leave that she comes back to herself. She leaps up and chases him out of the room. "Doctor Llayne! I need.. I need to see him. Now."

Kyle races through the automatic doors before they've even fully opened. She can only imagine how she looks - exhausted from driving for days, greasy and disheveled - as she walks rapidly up to Reception, speaking even faster than she's moving. "Hi, yes, I'm looking for James Delacroix's room. Or Dr. Llayne. Preferably both."

Midway through the message, Kyle's heart has already begun to hammer so much so that she was having trouble hearing it. She tries to take a deep breath, telling herself that he's probably fine, but she has to grab the counter to stop the room from spinning. 'Come on, focus. Pull it together,' she orders herself. She considers calling the doctor, but realises anything that they'd say, she'd prefer to hear in person. And she wanted to see her father. 'Okay, then. First thing. I've gotta get over there.'

She begins searching around the kitchen for the keys to her father's car, hoping like hell that it's an automatic and she'll actually be able to drive it.

I'm in Elementary Education.

Meant to reply before and say that this is awesome!

In other news, this entire week has been a mess with the rampant storms destroying Boston. But I ought to be around more in the coming days (if it ever stops snowing).

Oh! I also haven't been doing any rolling, because I'm not sure how much we're using the Pathfinder system. Obviously let me know if you want me to roll things. I've been trying to end my posts where I think a GM decision would fit (walking up the stairs, searching for the keys, etc), but let me know if I should be going further with assuming success.

"Of course." Kyle sighs, closing her eyes and squeezing the bridge of her nose for a second, before going over and closing the window correctly. 'Strange.' She mutters, looking at the open drawers. Unable to shake the feeling that she's being invasive, she lets herself out of the bedroom, and pauses in the hallway for a moment before closing the door.

Walking back down the stairs, she heads to the answering machine to see what message awaits. She also checks the kitchen for any kind of note. "He knew I was coming." She says with a frown, wondering where he could be.

That house is gorgeous. Since Kyle's dad has died, do you think I can buy it when it goes on the market? Even though it means moving out West. :P

Almost immediately, Kyle puts Copernicus on the floor, knowing how he didn't like to be held. In typical cat fashion, he begins rapidly exploring the new location, sniffing everything in sight. Kyle herself moves towards the phone, but at hearing the sound from upstairs, she cocks her head quizzically. "Dad?" she calls out again.

Slowly and hesitantly, feeling as though she's intruding or trespassing, Kyle moves over to the foot of the stairs. "Dad? You up there?" Telling herself that she's being silly, she begins walking up the stairs.

Definitely on numbers.

Kyle smiles at Michael, looking for the first time genuinely pleased. Her smile is like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, as this incredible weight has lifted from her. All her worry, and yet she got here perfectly fine, and in time. "I'll be fine. I would like to invite you in, but I know that you're running late for your own arrangements. And besides, we have a lot of catching up to do."

Because she's still a bit anxious, Kyle's excitement turns into a kind of nervous giddy. She looks like she wants to run in a million directions all at once, but takes a second to calm herself down. "But you know where I'll be, now, and you have my number, so don't be a stranger. We'll insist having you over for dinner soon. And a Delacroix doesn't take no for an answer."

She smiles again, scooping up Copernicus in her arms and unloading her bags from the truck onto the ground, with a very 'Who cares I'll grab these later' sort of attitude. Waving with one hand, while the other cradles her cat, she shouts out. "Thank you for everything, Michael."

Reaching into a pocket, she pulls out the key her father had mailed her after she'd insisted on coming to visit. Taking a deep breath, she begins walking towards the house, remembering how wild the grass was in her youth, and how the two of them had planted a garden together. She'd been awful at taking care of plants. 'People are usually easier.' She thinks with a smile, walking up towards the door.

Sure! Feel free to describe as much as you want, always. I like your vision of the world.

Kyle cocks her head, thinking that Perth Amboy wasn't far at all from where they'd been, and that it was strange not to make so short a trip at all in the intervening years. She found herself wondering, not for the first time, exactly what Michael's deal was. But anything she thought about saying was dispelled when he described them as bookends and began walking towards the car. The comparison made her smile, and she the idea of seeing her father again was giving her anxiety. Michael's curious background was lost in a million other thoughts. Hopping back into the truck, she moves Copernicus back onto her lap. He looks up at her with a yawn and a small meow, and she scratches behind his ears. "I know, baby. We're almost there. It'll be over soon."

I'm good with moving on whenever Michael is. Certainly there's more we can talk about.

I got into it kind of accidentally, and got super lucky with finding out that I actually love it.

Very cool that you're thinking of those two directions. I loved taking Psych in college (and also found that I didn't have much of a mind for business, hah.) What about you, NorthwestGM? What are you studying?

She nods slowly, chewing on her lip for a second before speaking, cigarette burning between her fingers. "It's strange. You go back somewhere that you've imagined a thousand times, that you haven't seen in years, and it looks familiar but so different." She looks from the mountains back to Michael. "It's like looking at a photo of a childhood friend while seeing them in front of, you know? You can see all the years of change, but there's something that you still recognise as if it never changed at all." Shaking her head, she takes another puff of her cigarette before stomping it out under her boot. "I'm probably not making any sense."

I totally dig the soundtrack, and that timeline idea works for me. I have a few ideas for things that can keep Kyle in town, most of which will come up at the funeral.

Kyle nods at the plan, anxious to get to her father's place. When Michael mentions the flat tire, she forces a smile, still embarrassed by how useless she had been during that entire situation. But they'd gotten through it, and made it, and she felt relief for that, at least.

She's feeling so much more relaxed now, that she actually laughs lightly at Michael's confusion. "It's a small town," she replies.

Watching Michael go into the shop, she shakes her head with a smile. Moving the cat off her lap briefly, she places him on the seat and steps out of the truck. Stretching her legs and back a bit, she walks an appropriate amount of distance away from both the truck and the gas pumps, and lights a cigarette. Breathing out smoke and looking towards the mountains, she thinks about how beautiful it is here. She just wished it were under different circumstances.

Small world! I'm also in EST - I'm in Boston.

And as far as posting, I'm a web developer (and a huge nerd), so it's pretty rare for me to be away from a computer.

I went out drinking after work so I'm not in a super great mindset to be able to post right now, but I can get one up in the morning.

What timezones are you guys in, and what time of day do you usually post? just for appropriate planning purposes.

If he has died while I was en route, I'm imagining that we were likely places that I didn't have a phone signal. So, yeah, she won't know. She'll probably head to the house, first, find it deserted, and go to the hospital?

Digging the Pilot vibe, it feels really appropriate. Super super excited for this game!

Seeing Shady Grove come into view, Kyle folds up the map and places it on the dashboard. She glances down behind where it was to see the tabby cat sleeping on her lap. She smiles, and scratches under his chin. "Someone has been very well behaved this trip." She coos, feeling him start to purr, without opening his eyes. She looks out the window, breathing a heavy sigh. "Well. We're here." she says lamely, as much to herself as Michael.

Looking across the car at him, it crosses her mind that he, too, had been well behaved. There were plenty of guys that wouldn't have kept any amount of distance, no matter how distraught she seemed. And it wasn't as if he couldn't overpower her. But he hadn't made any kind of move. Grateful as she was, she had to admit that she still hadn't figured him out. 'Though,' she reminds herself. 'It isn't as if you really tried.'

She stares up at the looming mountains as they near the gas station, thinking of how strange it was to be back, and wondering what her father would say when she got home. 'Home?' she asks herself. She hadn't lived there for more than a decade, but already she felt herself regressing. Even though they had kept in touch over the years, she hadn't seen him for... She thought back. Eight years, now? But she was already feeling like his little girl again, ready to run into his arms when she saw him.

She shakes her head, thinking of how strange time was, and how it could feel so long and so short all at once. And she wonders how much she had really changed, and how much "home" would have in her absence.

Sounds good to me! We could always bring someone in later if we do want a third.

No word back from either of the guys that I PM'd so far.

(Also, thread bump.)