emily

private rp

[embinx]

“What took thee so long?”

( x )

Name: Emily Binx Nicknames: Em Age: 21 Birthday: February 3, 1672 (d. October 31, 1693) Height: 5′0″ Sexuality: TBD Occupation: Ghost

[nctahousecat]

Though their conversation was sort of one-sided, Emily was still able to follow along as he explained. He watched her expressions as he dived into details, unsurprised by her initial shock at the news. It was heartbreaking, but perhaps it was a good thing that she had been unaware of all he’d gone through; it meant that she hadn’t followed him around this entire time, waiting. She must have had an entirely different experience in the afterlife — he wished he could ask her questions. 

On the other hand, she seemed happy for him as he described Sophie. He left out the part about how much of an idiot he’d been at first, how he judged Sophie after he found out she was magical and ghosted her (though he wouldn’t have used that phrasing anyway… Emily would likely be confused). In reality, how he’d initially handled Sophie’s magic didn’t really matter, because now he loved her. After 300 years, he found a way to love someone else and love her magic. It made his curse somehow worth it, despite the hardships and heartache that had come along with it. 

Thackery watched as Emily motioned to her throat, understanding what she was trying to communicate as he read her lips. He smiled reassuringly, surprisingly feeling at peace with this. His sister was okay. Even if he couldn’t touch her, couldn’t hear her or hug her or ask her questions, she was okay. He nodded, communicating he understood. “You’ll come back again?” He asked, hoping it would be soon and not a long wait. He wasn’t sure how long they had together right now, if she could only appear for short amounts of time. Did ghosts have their own set of rules to follow? Now that he was communicating with Emily, he wished he had tried to do so sooner. “I’m sorry I didn’t speak to you sooner... I thought you were simply a part of my curse.”

[embinx]

It was strange. Emily had seemingly been drifting in the in-between for hundreds of years with only spare moments of breaking through to the living world, so when her brother asked if she would come back again, her instinct was to answer that she didn’t know how soon she would be able to visit again. Yet now that she was here, conversing with him (as best as she was able without the power of speech) she felt more…tethered. She knew she had found what she was looking for, and she was suddenly sure she could hold onto that connection to find her way back. She nodded in answer. Her energy now was waning, the apparition of her flickering as she tried to maintain her focus, but she was confident in her ability to return after resting. Perhaps she would attempt to communicate audibly next.

Thackery’s apology for not speaking to her sooner was easily forgiven; neither had known any better. His curse had prevented her from recognizing him as her brother at the same time it made him think he was being haunted by a vision sent from the witches. How could either of them have guessed? “And I thought you a cat,” Em answered, laughing. Her ghostly form steadied as she did, and then resumed flickering as her giggles subsided. “I have to go now.” Her smile turned sad again, and then the veil parted before her eyes, the pull of where she belonged separating her from Thackery again. Before returning to the other realm, she stopped trying to be seen and focused all her essence into being heard so she could leave with a promise he’d hear, her voice lingering in the air after she disappeared. “I’ll come back.”

The waiting between visits wasn’t so easy after that. Now that she had found her way to him once, Emily couldn’t wait to return, but she had yet to master how to do it exactly when she wanted. She still had no way of knowing how much time passed while she was lost in the mist, but she hoped it hadn’t been too long since the last time when she found Thackery again. This time, she focused on projecting her voice, not her image. “Good day!” she greeted, delighted to see him react to it, disembodied as the sound was.

[nctahousecat]

He wasn’t sure what he expected when reaching out to Emily, yet he was still disappointed as her hand went completely through his. He felt nothing except a chill. Thackery’s heart sank, at least until he saw his sister’s smile. It had been a very long time since he’d seen that. He still couldn’t hear her, only able to make out a word or two through lip reading each time she spoke, but she seemed delighted to see him. His smile returned.

It was clear though, that despite her happiness she was also confused; she must have had a lot of questions. Thackery did too, though it didn’t seem like he would get many answers from her tonight. A moment of silence followed as he thought of what he wanted to say, his fingers running through his curls before finally settling on, “I hope you haven’t spent all these years waiting for me.” He meant that sincerely — it would hurt to know if that was the case. She had died so long ago; had she been a ghost this entire time, waiting? Did she even realize how long it’s been? He sighed. “If those witches hadn’t cursed me, I would’ve been with you by now..” A long, long time ago. That was something he used to long for, to finally move on from this life and experience peace with his sister, but things changed now that he and Sophie were together. Love reminded him to enjoy the magic of life again. Thackery’s expression softened as his girlfriend crossed his mind.

“Believe it or not, I’ve actually fallen in love with a witch.” He chuckled at the irony. “She's a good one, I promise," Thackery quickly reassured her. "Her name is Sophie. I.. I hope one day she can help me with this curse.” Emily probably had no idea what he was talking about when he mentioned his curse, he suddenly realized — she died, and probably didn’t even understand what happened to him. He took a deep breath as if to refocus before he continued, “Sorry, let me go back .. After you died, the Sanderson sisters cursed me to the life of a black cat, forever." Perhaps when he saw Emily before, she didn't recognize him; he had faced the same problem when trying to see their parents after first cursed. He'd never thought to try and communicate with Emily's ghost before either, since he'd never trusted his own cursed perception. Now, he wished he had. Thackery continued, "But then, 300 years later, a virgin lit a candle, and .. long story short, now I’m only cursed under the full moon.” He understood this was probably a lot to take in, but he wanted her to know why he was stuck this way — why he never came to the afterlife himself after so long. “I’m human again most of the time, but .. I don’t think I’ll ever change, unless Sophie finds a way to help me.” Everything about this was really bleak, and breaking the bad news to his little sister wasn't ideal.. He attempted to lighten the mood again, with the mention of Sophie again making it easy to do so. "... I think you'd really like her."

[embinx]

Emily supposed she had spent all this time waiting for her brother, but she couldn’t imagine how many years he was referring to. Time did not pass for her the way it did for the living. After the witches had drained her body of life, she had wandered in the wood between worlds for a while, looking for Thackery. Now and then she’d make a breakthrough to the world of the living, but it could have been hours between those points of connection for all she was aware. It was only when Thackery explained everything to her—his being cursed to take on the form of a black cat, the fact that it had been at least three hundred years since then, and even his falling in love with a witch who he hoped could help with his magical affliction—that Emily understood how different their experiences had been since her death. Her brother had not followed her there; she had not been seeking for him in those misty woods so they could move on together. Instead, he had been burdened to live on endlessly, so that they should never meet again. This was a worse punishment than those witches sucking her life out. At least her eternal soul remained free. Her brother was trapped, fated to be separated from her forever, and that broke her heart.

Her eyes had widened with each new piece of information Thackery provided until they could grow no wider, but Emily managed to suppress her shock enough to find in herself a glimmer of happiness for his happiness. She had never seen her brother in love before. It was unexpected perhaps, but it looked well on him. And if he promised his Sophie was a good witch, she would trust his judgment, no matter how wrong her own had been about the Sanderson sisters. It sounded like this Sophie might also be their only option to lift Thackery’s curse and help his soul rest. Emily smiled at him again as a show of her support. There were so many things she wanted to say, but she couldn’t now. Not until she figured out how to be heard…or he got better at reading the words on her lips. 

She wanted to tell him that it hadn’t felt like three hundred years to her, that she was sorry she led him to being cursed by those witches, and that she hadn’t known the black cat she had seen before was him, or she would have tried to say hello sooner. She wanted to ask for more detail about that virgin lighting a candle he mentioned, and what Sophie was like, because whoever had managed to win his heart must be someone special indeed, and she also wanted to tease him about it because he couldn’t expect to mention such a thing without being teased. “I shall try,” she promised, bringing her hand up to motion to her throat where no voice emanated. Hopefully he understood that message. “I shall learn to speak again.”

[nctahousecat]

This wasn't the first time Thackery had seen his sister's ghost, but this time was different. He'd only seen her before under the full moon, under his curse while in his feline form. He didn't talk about it much to anyone because, in reality, he wasn't sure if it was really her or not. What if it was just part of the curse? An illusion?

Tonight was just a normal night, though. There was no curse interfering, no full moon nearby. Thackery was stopped in his tracks the moment he recognized Emily, her completely unchanged appearance contrasting with their modern surroundings. He felt like an entirely different person standing in front of her, yet it was also as if no time had passed at all; they both remained untouched by age.

Watching as she tried to speak, Thackery's eyebrows furrowed, unable to decipher from reading her lips. "Emily?" He took a step forward, shortening the distance between them as he was able to catch her next attempt at communicating. I'm sorry. He smiled sadly as his heart ached, shaking his head. "Don't apologize.. I'm sorry."

Thackery wasn't afraid of her, though there was an undeniable chill surrounding him. He still wasn't sure if he could really believe this was his sister — there was still a chance he was completely hallucinating his deceased sibling — and there was no one there to witness with him. He took another step closer, hesitantly reaching his hand out toward her. "... Is it really you?"

[embinx]

Emily knew even as Thackery reached out that they would not be able to make contact, but she matched his motion anyway, feeling no sensation as her hand phased through his. Sad, but expected. Despite the failure to connect, a playful smile grew on her face at his question. “Who else woudst it be?” she answered his question with her own, though if he was able to read her lips or not she wasn’t sure. Surely the teasing nature of her response was communicated well enough by her mannerisms.

Of course she wasn’t physically here, but what he saw really was her, her spirit returned to visit him. It was no trick of his mind or magic. Just a younger sister whose soul was not yet at rest, wondering what was taking her brother so long to join her so they might finally cross to the other side. She was too happy to have found him to chide him for making her wait. It had taken her long enough to reach him herself; every time she had been able to cross the veil before, she had only found a black cat. Emily didn’t know why she would be drawn to such a creature when she was looking for her brother, but there were so many other questions to contend with, she didn’t let it bother her.

Thackery still looked so sad, and that did concern her. They had reunited—why was he sorry? Because she had died, or because he wasn’t ready to cross over with her? She hoped, even if it wasn’t much of a two-way conversation, that he would continue to speak to her and explain some of what was going on.

[embinx]

@nctahousecat said: “I thought I would never see you again…”

“How long hast thou been waiting?” Emily asked, but no sound accompanied the movement of her mouth. It was all she could do to present herself in this ghostly form, concentrating her energy on breaking through the veil to be perceptible in some way to the senses of the living. It seemed she could only manage one at a time, and being seen by Thackery meant she couldn’t be heard. She pressed her lips together in clear disappointment, then mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.” Emily didn’t know how long she had wandered in the mist before finding her way back to her brother, but the world she found him in was unrecognizable. The clothing he wore, the dwelling he resided in; nothing was familiar to her besides her brother’s face. How was he untouched by time, if so much had changed around him? Or was this even the same world she had left? So many questions, and no way to ask them.