Geist: The Sin Eaters

First topic message reminder :

It's a story that begins with death - with your death.
Why did the Reaper reach out for you before your time? Why was it that you fell between the cracks?
Do you remember the flare of the gun or the sharpness of the knife?
Do you remember the gnawing emptiness or the choking thickness of disease?
Did you fall across the Threshold alone in the wild, or in the heart of the city?

The story begins there - with the moment of death, and with the Bargain that reversed it.
With the cold hand that brought you back to the living world, with the dry whispers that still haunt you, with the presence that has nestled in your soul.

You've returned to a world where the living cannot see the shades that surround them. Every night is the carnivale, because every night you walk with ghosts.

Death is a door. Your the one with the key.
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In Geist, you were an ordinary human, who happened to be placed in the most extraordinary set of circumstances imaginable. You have died, or had a near death experience, and been pulled back from the brink by a Geist. These are powerful spirits, and all they ask in return is to use you as a host vessel, so that they might experience a twisted form of life once again. Another side effect, beyond simply living, is access to otherworldly powers. You have become a Sin Eater.

Things to choose:
Threshold: How did you die? There are five thresholds, each being a broad description of your death. They also determine the nature of your powers. They are as follows:
The Torn: Death by Violence, Passion and Stigmata (Blood) powers
The Silent: Death by Deprivation, Stillness (Stealth and Silence) and Wind
The Prey: Death by Nature, Primeval and Earth
The Stricken: Death by Illness, Phantasm (Illusion), and Water
The Forgotten: Death by Chance, Industrial (Machines and technology) and Fire.

Here are some universal abilities all Sin Eaters share. You can see ghosts, and must actively concentrate to not see them. You can also speak to and understand ghosts, regardless of what language they spoke in life. You heal from injuries unnaturally fast. And finally, you have a sixth sense, with which you can sense the presence or recent presence of the dead.

Post up your bios if you want to join, and feel free to jump in at any time.

I help the door open and smiled at Logan. "No worries. I'm fine. Just been waiting here." I say as he passes me with the girl.

I guide the girl inside, and take her up in the elevator, along with Jade. My apartment, or you could call it a suite, is the entire top floor of the complex. Once inside my home, I set the girl down on the couch, and go to make a fresh pot of coffee.

"Adam, Cissy, you two in here yet?" I call out.

She slouched on the sofa and put her head in her hands. Everything was still stiff and uncomfortable. She tried her hardest to remember what she had forgotten, but everything eluded her. She was afraid, more so than she'd ever been in her life, but now she didn't know what she feared. Was it life, or was it death?

"I'm not sure how you died, but I can tell you why you're alive. You may not remember now, but when you died, you made a deal. The deal was with something called a Geist, which is a powerful variety of ghost. Right now, it's living in your body, and you're alive. You can do a bunch of stuff now that you couldn't before, like see and talk to ghosts."

As I explain her situation, I pour a couple cups of coffee, and hand one too her.

She trembled. "I want to be dead. I'm supposed to be dead. I'm not supposed to still be here still," she said taking the coffee in her hands and nearly dropping the cup at first.

ooc-I was following you, Banather. ;P

Cissy staggered back a step or two as the sick girl lunged out at them. She gasped, but soon enough grasped the concept of what was going on. Another one like them, another..."Sin Eater," as they called themselves. Logan certainly was calm despite all this.

"Forgotten me so soon?" she asked, folding her arms slowly across her chest. "Why do you call yourselves 'Sin Eaters,' anyway? What's so sinful about us?"

ooc: lol, oops

"I haven't forgotten you, don't worry." I say to Cissy with a smile. "To be honest, I'm not exactly sure why we're called Sin Eaters, we just are. There are a lot more of us out there than you might think, and from what I learned when I first made the Bargain, we've been called that for longer than anyone can remember."

I walk across the room, and pull out a chair for Cissy to sit down, if she wants, and then I walk over to the front of the room, and remain standing.

"It is surprising, however, to find not one, but two very recent Sin Eaters, in the same night, within a couple blocks of each other. So tell me, what are your stories?

"Thank you," Cissy said quietly, crossing and sitting in the chair Logan had pulled out for her. Not unfolding her arms, she swallowed and took a deep breath. She hadn't spoken of her death, hadn't even thought about it since it had actually happened. She didn't want to remember. She wanted to just wake up and discover this was all some horrible nightmare...but she knew that wouldn't happen.

"Bears are pretty rare around the places we went camping," she began, "it's more coyotes and the like you gotta worry about, so I wasn't too worried. I go...went out to camp by myself all the time, didn't think nothin of it. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. So I go out right, and I'm just on a walk through the woods. It's very few and far between you actually get enough trees togethr out there to be able to call them woods," she added, smiling slightly. "Anyway, I hear some rustlin' and crashin', figure it's some sort of wild dog so I take out my gun...and along comes chargin a big, mean ol' grizzly. Well, I'm not sure if it was a grizzly, but it was a big brown bear. Naturally I go to shoot it...little do I know it's rabid and on a rampage. Turns out I just made it angry. I um...I remember a lot of pain..." A lump was forming in Cissy's throat and she worked hard to swallow back the tears. "And everything went red...then black...Next thing I know, I'm shooin' away the buzzards and coyotes..." She wiped at her eyes furiously, trying not to show weakness. Her death, however, was still something she was understandably sensitive about.

Anaya gulped. Her throat felt dry. She forced herself to drink some of the coffee. She had only tasted it once before, but she didn't care much for it. The bitterness was not her thing, but it did feel good on her throat.

"There is nothing to say..." she murmured. It was true enough. There was still some part of her mind contemplating whether or not she was in purgatory awaiting either an ascension to paradise or a swift snatch to hell. "I got sick and I died. That's all."

I stood leaning against the wall, sipping my coffee as I observed the others. I wasn't sure what to make of these strangers yet, but considering they were sin eaters, I trusted them more than most.

"oi anyone here" i shout through the house i walk in with the cissy's record i was flipping through it not really paying attention as i walked through to the study and setting about fixing up her record

I look around as I hear a voice. "Just in here" I call out, recognizing the voice and knowing who was calling.

She looked around still nervously, expecting to see messengers and abominations more than other people. She trembled slightly.

"If I'm not dead now...then when will I die? Why am I alive now?"

i heard some one call back and followed the voice to a room full of sin eaters "jade long time no see, i guess you called out, got the record cissy, if i am needed i will be across the hall" i say before exiting the room to go about my business

"Thank you," Cissy said quietly, taking the file from him and flipping through it. He was good. She looked up at the girl, the one who had just died. "You won't. You probably don't remember it, but you made a deal...we all did." She looked up at Logan and Jade. "Y'all two can probably explain it better."

"But there's nothing I want. I don't have any desire to live. I can't imagine making that choice...not the way life's been for me," she said setting the cup down on the table as it was turning room temperature.

Cissy shrugged.
"God knows why any of us made the decision, I certainly don't. I'm stuck here, having to live without kith or kin, no hearth to call home. To me, that's more terrible than dying." She curled her knees up into her chest and hugged her shins, setting the file down on the table. "I guess maybe no matter how resigned we are to it, when it comes time we're all afraid of that eternal darkness..."

"i know why i made mine,it was because i didn't want to see my brother and sister got through i my mum put my through, i wanted to protect them but, when i came back i couldnt see them it was part of my deal, they i get to come back but not see any of them and they get protected, i could go back whenever, since dad was told i ran away and that no one knew the full truth except her" i mumble leaning against the door frame

"Very true," I say to Cissy. "The fact of the matter is, whether we know why or not, we've all been given second chances at life. We may as well make the best of it, because no matter how hard we try, we're stuck like this. Until old age takes us, our Geists won't let us die. I have been stabbed, shot, hit by cars, and beaten to within an inch of my life, but every time, my Geist pulls me back from the brink. I haven't been sick since I made the Bargain, which I guess is a plus."

I look towards the thin girl on the couch, and realize that none of us have really introduced ourselves, and I still do not know her name.

"By the way, my name is Logan, I don't believe I caught yours." I say to her.

"But my life was pain...I welcomed death. I wanted it to end..." she said. "I don't want to live in pain anymore. I don't want to be another person's burden anymore."

"You don't have to be another's burden; you don't have to live in pain," Cissy said gently. "Didn't you hear Logan? He hasn't been sick since his Geist took him. Welcome or not, we're all afraid of the unknown. I'm Cecilia, by the way...Cissy, if you want."

"geist dont just come to everyone that die's early, it choose you for a reason, and you accepted its deal, so i don't wanna be the arsehole here but girl change the attitude you took the giest deal so obviously you had something to live for" i hiss not liking her mood much

"Leave her alone, Adam. She's just scared, and who could blame her? She just died, and came back. Weren't you a little scared when you first made the Bargain?"

"honestly i had other things going through my mind mate, and i have told you about that many times before, so back off" i hiss walking out of the room

ooc: well aren't we abrasive?

bic: "This may be so, but i was fairly content to be forgotten. I can't divine my own reason. My name is Anaya. It is nice to meet you, Cissy."

"You don't know me. Mind yourself," she replied to the boy who's name she didn't even know.