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[Friday
December 31st, 2010 at 12:01am] |
Skinned her alive, ripped her apart
Scattered her ashes, buried her heart
Rise up above it, high up above it and see
Pray to your god, open your heart
Whatever you do, don't be afraid of the dark
( Cover your eyes, the devil's inside. )
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| [26] |
[Monday
September 27th, 2010 at 7:27am] |
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The kid asked me today why I decided to shave (most of) my hair with the weather turning cold, as though the concept of a hat completely fails her. Brilliant little thing, clever, but sometimes she just gets lost on the way to logic. All this fuss over a little change - you'd think I'd gone out and dyed it bright fucking pink or something.
But the weather is turning cold and shortly I'm going to have to start looking to hire someone to go on pick-ups so I can lock myself in the basement and not have to deal with this pesky weather thing. The wonderful thing about winter, though, is that no one thinks twice about a slight influx in fire-related fatalities - heaters tip over, wires are faulty, impromptu fireplaces get out of hand - and it certainly makes my job easier.
And just because the temperature drops doesn't mean the sun goes into hiding - it just means that people think less about being out in it for long periods of time. I think we proved to ourselves last year that I can work wonders in the snow as well.
I have a trip to plan, though. I'm thinking New Mexico. Last year left a bad taste in my mouth for Nevada and as much as I like Vegas, I don't like repeating myself.
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| [25] |
[Tuesday
August 10th, 2010 at 5:24am] |
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A delivery of roses got lost in all the other flower deliveries today and I, spending all my time in the basement working on bodies, didn't notice them until long after we had closed up shop and I came upstairs. Where they had been clustered amongst the others all day, they sat alone tonight. And I would remember that smell anywhere.
Now if only I knew who delivered the gift, I'd be able to return the gesture appropriately.
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| [24] |
[Wednesday
August 4th, 2010 at 9:47pm] |
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August 4th and we've only gotten our second heat-related death in. I think the fact that Lady Midday and I were out of the state put a bit of a wet blanket on those flames. Of course business is great either way, but that's business, not pleasure. I would enjoy having a little bit of pleasure thrown in just to break up the tedium of it all.
But now that Osiris is back to work, I'm thinking of planning another little trip - as though I haven't been away from home enough this summer. Somewhere hot, the boy said, so we're going as far south as we can get; somewhere hot and dry and devoid of humanity. A pleasant little get-away.
Can someone kindly keep an eye on Nitsa while I'm gone, though? If you must, sweep her up and put her in a bottle with a tight cork. I'll let her out when I get home. If someone lets her blow away again, I'm not going to go looking for her. Dorthy can stay over the rainbow (now don't think I don't adore you, Nitsa, you'll just have to do something nice for me first before I go chasing dust-bunnies across the country for a third time).
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| [23] |
[Friday
July 30th, 2010 at 5:02am] |
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And oh, what a gorgeous clusterfuck it was.
But now that it's over, I'm terribly bored and I'm thinking brunch on Sunday might be in order. We don't have any funerals scheduled. I'll leave the invitation open; gods forbid I leave anyone out that might for some bizarre reason wish to dine with gods of death. And I suppose I can acquiesce to any of Devin's requests to invite some friends of hers along because it's regrettably difficult to tell her no.
I promise to keep the zombie squirrel presence to a bare minimum, as I've been informed that we are not in need of entertainment.
And also, where the fuck is that boy this time...?
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| [devin | 13] |
[Thursday
July 1st, 2010 at 10:08pm] |
Hymenopus coronatus, the Malaysian Orchid Mantis; found in humid climates; feeds on small insects including fruit flies, house flies, butterflies and moths. It's cold as fuck in New York during the winters, but I could convert the closet next to the cremation room and put some more lights and maybe some misters like what they have in the produce section in grocery stores in there. It stays nice and warm and humid all year around in there and they'd be separate from the flies and beetles upstairs and they wouldn't hurt each other. Plus, there are always strange bugs down there - more spiders than usual recently, actually. But I don't know that they eat spiders. Unfortunately... They might be a little illegal to own in this country. I still want a pair to mate, though. Maybe a few extra males because, y'know, mantises.
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| [22] |
[Saturday
May 15th, 2010 at 10:45am] |
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Still looking, but I'm pretty sure we're only a couple hours behind her now. Searching for someone would be a lot easier if they didn't vanish into a cloud of dust every time a heavy cloud rolled in front of the sun, not to mention the apparent tendency to switch directions with the wind. But we'll make do.
Hopefully we'll be back with Lady Midday by Sunday. If not, I'll be back without Lady Midday on Sunday, because the hospital isn't taking so kindly to my extended leaves of absence anymore and if I intend to keep my foothold on the business from the morgue at Bellevue, I should probably actually show up for work once a month or so. The bad new is, though, that I'm down one good pair of eyes and a natural instinct for finding Slavic demonesses, so I guess I'm relying on the sun and my own nose for her particular brand of death-dealing to get me by. But after this, I swear, we're sticking her with one of those tracking chips so she can never float off some place where we have to hunt her down again.
Kieran, Osiris... How are things holding up?
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| [21] |
[Monday
May 10th, 2010 at 10:14pm] |
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You'd be surprised how much information you can get out of coroners.
I think I have a pretty good idea of where Lady Midday is. Due to the hour, it would be entirely useless to go out looking for her right now, but first thing in the morning, I think I have a bit of a road-trip to take. Hopefully she hasn't wandered far or, if she has, we'll be able to track the traffic accidents and mysterious deaths on the way.
If anyone has any desire to go with me, I'm leaving the funeral home at 7 AM.
Kieran, Devin... Don't kill, rape, maim or eat each other while I gone, alright? And do attempt to keep the funeral home from burning down or exploding in the meantime as well.
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| [20] |
[Friday
May 7th, 2010 at 7:22pm] |
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A little bird told me...
When someone throws a tantrum, there's only ever one guess who is responsible for it. And no one should really be surprised by this eons-old pissing contest. You terrified my wife, my boyfriend and my child and now I find that my best friend has gone missing in yesterday's darkness.
What's done has been done and retaliation will only cause this utter idiocy to continue. Our efforts need not be focused on continuing the petty show of power, but moving on and fixing what was destroyed by those so cowardly that they have to do their business in the darkness.
But right now I need help finding Pscipolnitsa. That is my only prerogative at this time. The real question is, how do you find someone who scattered, quite literally, like dust in the wind?
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[Thursday
May 6th, 2010 at 7:18pm] |
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[Thursday
May 6th, 2010 at 6:06pm] |
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Embalming is very delicate work and Nergal has been doing it for eons, but when the lights go out his hand slips and he gets formaldehyde all over his shoe. That's the least of his worries because the cold of the basement grows colder and a creeping chill runs up his spine. Above him he hears a crash and a scream followed by the slamming of a door and feet going up stairs. Devin.
He rushes up from the basement, forgetting what he's been working on, running into things and tripping over stuff in the darkness until he runs gut-first into the railing of the stairs and calls for her. She calls back, she's upstairs. She thought she heard one of the cages in the bug room crash but they're all fine. She thinks. Nothing in those cages could hurt them anyhow. Not while they're alive.
Nergal stumbles up the stairs after her, groping through the darkness until he finds her arm. She screams, but he pulls her against him and wraps his arms around her - not sure if he's comforting her or if she's comforting him. But they huddle at the top landing together, her hands fisted in his shirt and his fingers combing, shaking, through her hair. He may have spent the vast majority of his existence in the dark underworld, but anything that can blot out the sun - his sun - is enough to make him tremble.
He feels them slinking around his body like wisps. She cringes and he does his best to gather her close enough that nothing can touch her. Trying to keep her from being so terrified is giving him something to concentrate on, so he doesn't feel it so badly himself. To her it feels like an eternity before it's over and she's been crying. She'll tell him later that felt like all the dead downstairs were crawling up to grab at her, and like the beetles and flies in her collection were crawling over her skin. He doesn't tell her, but he thought of death in the darkness and his fear came from the idea of losing those he loved.
When it's over, he lets her cling to him still, the both of them hammering away at texts, trying to make sure their friends and loved ones were okay.
[Text to Saleos]
Are you ok? You mom and sister?
[Text to Ereshkigal]
Are you ok? Do you need anything?
[Text from Devin to Namtar]
Not ok. Please tell me you are?
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[Monday
April 19th, 2010 at 8:53pm] |
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| [19] |
[Monday
April 19th, 2010 at 12:38am] |
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Why the fuck does it smell like diseased little hellion in my house?
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| [devin | 12] |
[Sunday
April 11th, 2010 at 10:48pm] |
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[Private to Osiris]
Nate Nergal said that should anything happen and he has to disappear suddenly, that you're in charge of the downstairs business in his leave. Well... guess what, he disappeared suddenly about an hour ago with his boyfriend Saleos. So... looks like you're going to need to be here at 9 AM to pick up the clients from Bellevue, the keys to the hearse are on the hook in the kitchen by the back door.
If you need anything, my number is on the desk in the front office and my bedroom is the first door on the left at the top of the stairs. Wake me up when you get in.
&hearts Dev.
[/]
[Private to Namtar]
Boss is gone. Come play?
[/]
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| [devin | 11] |
[Thursday
April 1st, 2010 at 4:28pm] |
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[Locked from Nergal]
Note to self: Telling your boss that you're six weeks pregnant when he knows the only guy you speak to is his ex-wife's messenger boy is probably not the wisest April Fool's joke.
It is funny that was the first thing he thought of, though.
I wonder how long it'll take him to figure out what today is. I let him freak out for a couple hours before telling him.
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| [devin | 10] |
[Saturday
March 13th, 2010 at 12:06am] |
Nate needs to stop giving me presents. I think he's up to something and I can't say that I particularly trust that it's a good thing he's up to. He says that it's just because Spring is right around the corner and he's excited to see the sun again. But really, I'm pretty sure he's up to no good. He sent me out shopping after we closed up the other day and he hired some guy to redo the upstairs and remodel the kitchen. He keeps asking me how my car is holding up. And then today he comes in with a tank full of leeches and asks me if I wanted to learn how to breed leeches. Duh! I've only been talking about learning how to breed leeches since I started with the beetles! I was just so busy with school and all that dumb stuff that I couldn't make time to give them all the attention they deserve. But now that the flies have their own room and they mostly take care of themselves, I have room to start with this new project. And I'm sure there are tons of places in the city that do bloodletting or leech-therapy or whatever they call it. And Nate said that he'd even feed them! This is very exciting, guys! I have new babies to take care of! But this isn't going to distract me much from figuring out what he's up to. |
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| [devin | 9] |
[Monday
February 15th, 2010 at 1:47pm] |
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It's so quiet without Nate here. We always do something for Valentines Day - like watching slasher flicks and eating junk food and saying nasty things about the slutty chicks in the movies - and he wasn't here this year. Off in Aspen for a few more days and I got this big (I won't say empty because we're packed with corpses) old house all to myself. It's a bit lonely after all the employees leave.
I went speed-dating yesterday. It sucked. I didn't meet anyone I like because... well, because it's a little hard to find someone you like when they don't compare to the person you have a stupid, ridiculous crush on. Ah well, that's Valentine's Day. At least Maui and I had fun watching the entire Friday the 13th series together last night.
[Private to Namtar]
Hey. He's going to be out of town for a couple more days... Did you still want to come over or something?
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| [18] |
[Wednesday
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:26am] |
So it's that time of year again, huh? That time of year when things get so busy between the two places that I'm sleeping on a slab at the morgue in Bellevue and another slab at the funeral home in between being literally elbows-deep in intestines. It would be fun if I didn't have other things I'd rather be doing - or should be doing, as the case may be. I haven't even seen that stupid, obnoxious fucking angel in weeks so I have no one to vent my frustrations at. It would be better if we didn't have a new intern thing at the morgue who asks stupid questions and makes me want to slap him. I've taken to calling him Sparky, though, because it pisses him off. It's the little things. Got off work at 6am, opening the funeral home at 9am, working until 6pm and then back at Bellevue for another 12 hour shift. If I could die I would request that someone kill me now. Regardless of what my schedule looks look a week from now, I've already delayed my trip to Aspen once and I'm not delaying it again. We're going and that's that. Even if I come home to find I no longer have a job and the funeral home has burned down. ( Delivered to Saleos ) |
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| [devin | 8] |
[Monday
January 18th, 2010 at 8:31pm] |
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I booked him two tickets to Aspen for a week this morning. In return he gave me a raise and said that I was in charge of everything while he's gone. Ha. I know who he has working here and I'm in charge of him? It's enough to give a girl a complex.
Good thing I like him, though. I won't tell him to do crazy things like clean the inside of the furnace. I would do that if it was just any old person off the street cause I'm mean like that. And if I were Nate, I'd probably turn the furnace on just for giggles. The fact that I know that he's done that and it doesn't bother me should be worrisome, I think.
But anyway, he'll be gone for a week and I'm in charge of everything and that means we won't be doing any late nights or overtime or taking up more than we can handle in a day. And also, I'm not wearing shoes and I'm putting the sold sign back up on that Persian coffin. It's too pretty to sell anyhow and cozy.
...Stop looking at me like that. They are cozy.
Also, Nate, I decided today that I like your new boyfriend. It'd be real awesome if you kept him for a while longer than the last one. Thanks.
That doesn't really help me figure out what I'm going to do with all this free time and lack of amusement, though. It's really too damn quiet around here when everything shuts down. Like... now.
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| [devin | 7] |
[Monday
January 4th, 2010 at 5:03pm] |
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Someone really needs to learn to confine his sexual acts to his own bedroom. I would really like it if I never had to walk into the kitchen and find random bits of his clothes from the day before under the dining room table. Then again, there's a very good reason I don't go down into the basement while he's down there without buzzing first. Walked in on that one time too many. Ew. Though, I suppose... if he had to be screwing a corpse, at least it was a pretty one.
It's a bit unsettling that things like that don't even faze me anymore.
Maui, my second Christmas present from Nate, is behaving herself very well. She sits in her little bed under my desk all day and only barks when she needs to go outside and all the customers really think she's sweet. Just an adorable little ball of white fluff. I never thought about having a "comfort animal" around before, but she's just so lovey that anyone can pick her up and get a cuddle. And sometimes puppies are a lot better than humans.
Though he did give me a human for Christmas too. Had to leave that one in Hawaii.
Shopping list strangely mundane again this week. And I'm glad the holidays are over so we can stop getting gross suicides in the funeral home. We lost another makeup girl because she couldn't hack doing the hair of a gunshot victim who's family insisted on having an open casket.
Wuss.
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| [17] |
[Thursday
December 31st, 2009 at 8:36pm] |
Posted via BlackberryIt's 9:30 and she's already drunk. Mortal girls are so funny. I do enjoy the fact that she has friends close enough to Times Square that we can see the ball drop from the roof. And she's enjoying the fact that I keep things a mild 50 degrees bare minimum.. ( Text to Saleos )
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| [devin | 6] |
[Friday
December 25th, 2009 at 1:28am] |
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| [16] |
[Sunday
December 20th, 2009 at 7:05pm] |
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Call it a whim. Call it a sudden good mood. Whatever you want to call it, I think I just did something... nice.
I've known the kid since she was eight, I practically raised her myself, I think once every twenty years she deserves to be stunned and realize that I'm not a heartless bastard. Amoral, yes. Heartless, no. And perhaps this will raise morale among the employees and when they all come back to clean up after New Year's, they'll be in good spirits. If not, I'm killing them all and stuffing their worthless bodies in the incinerator. Except the perky blonde one. She's for keeps.
Personally, I refuse to celebrate any holiday that revolves around the Christian church attempting to divert attention away from a pagan holiday, even if I wouldn't have celebrated that pagan holiday either. I didn't like the Persians or the Romans that much. But whatever, if it makes the mortals happy I suppose I can set aside my dislike towards the meaning of the holiday and spoil my employees with a bit of pure consumerism.
I'm terribly bored. And this place is going to be depressingly empty when she leaves for her little vacation. Whatever is an old plague god to do to amuse himself.
I'll take willing bodies and able sacrifices.
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