CLOSED

[call me rae]

​

Dearly Departed,






 






Welcome to Last Revelry the hip new funeral parlor where we celebrate death as the last big hurrah before the Afterlife comes and takes you away.

 


Mortician Meri Finley prides herself on bringing a bit of life to the saddest of circumstances.

 





 


Speaking of bringing things to life, Meri’s in for a bit of a whoopsie moment when her latest client decides to pop up out of the coffin all unexpected like.

 


Now as a self proclaimed "millennial" vampire Meri is no stranger to the undead moving through her funeral house but this particularly specimen has inadvertently been bound to her in unholy matrimony.

 


Well fiddlesticks, the Master always said her frivolities would get her in trouble some day.

 
​

THE ZOMBIE

Spoiler

NAME : Henry Akio Ichikawa


AGE : 28


GENDER : Male




SPECIES : Zombie (Human)


BUILD : Heavy


NOTES : Itamae










 






Akio is an American of Japanese descent who actively resisted the assimilation imposed by his parents. He goes by his middle name, Akio, rather than his Americanized first name.


After high school, he went to Japan to get back in touch with his roots as a ramen and sushi chef. An onmyoji took an interest in the American, since he was unlikely to be cremated. Akio and the onmyoji made a deal, where Akio would be connected to a culinary kami. In exchange, Akio agreed to have the kami animate him after his death, to serve as a personal chef to the onmyoji.  


While he loved his time in Japan, he could not obtain residency while there even with the onmyoji's help. Sometimes bureaucracy is even greater than magic. Rather than wait for deportation, he moved back to the States and opened a popular sushi restaurant with the help of his parents.


There he met the love of his life, Megan Passmoore, and they dated for three years before getting engaged at the age of twenty-eight. Before the wedding, Akio obtained some fugu from his contacts in Japan. While he had not been trained in its preparation, the fish was a fascination of his from his youth, and he was determined to eat a meal of it just before his wedding to show off the skills that he brought into the marriage.


Unfortunately, the church kitchen weakened his link to the culinary kami so much that he prepared the fugu incorrectly. He sat down to eat it after putting on his suit, and never got up again.


Now he resides on a slab at Meri's funeral home.





The kami inside Akio waits for the onmiyoji's ceremonial call, but the onmiyoji has been dead for two years. With the original anchor gone, it's ready to bond Akio with the closest likeliest candidate to discharge its giri.


The willingness of the candidate and the nature of the call is not the kami's concern.


Akio will remain in an undead state with the kami's cooking skills so long as the anchor is alive.

THE VAMPIRE

Spoiler

[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]NAME [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]: [/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Merritt “Meri” Finley-Lanier[/SIZE]


[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]AGE[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] : [/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px]appears in her 20s ( 204 )[/SIZE]


[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]GENDER[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] : [/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px]female[/SIZE]




[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]SPECIES[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] : [/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Vampire[/SIZE]


[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]BUILD[/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px] : [/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px]boyish[/SIZE]


[SIZE=14.666666666666666px]HOUSE [/SIZE][SIZE=14.666666666666666px]: [/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Finley[/SIZE]










 






Meri is what she laughingly calls a “millennial” vampire, not so much in that she was born in the 21st century but in the sense that as far as vampires go she’s seen as particularly young and carefree.

 


She was born in the early 1800s and likes to pretend her human life doesn’t exist, instead she focuses on the life and times of a young vampire around the Victorian era. She lived in House Moore for about a hundred years before migrating over to Finley when the Sentinel made a bid to move to the New World and establish their own home.

 


She only recently took to working outside the House system - having grown tired of being a pampered doll she decided to rather belatedly join the workforce.

 


She chose funerary work as a way to still aid her House - by getting rid of bodies and providing funerary services for the new Fledglings.

 





 


Appearance wise Meri is not naturally much to look at, she was changed more for her vivacious character than any physical attributes she might possess. She is on the boyish side with bony limbs, over-large teeth, and slightly overlarge eyes. Her hair was a dirty dishwater blonde color and tended to frizz into an unmanageable rats nest in the years before hair products become available.

 


Nowadays she plays up her newly fashionable physique and has taken to shaving her hair nearly entirely off with just a bit of frizz on top to give her a hip new look. She regularly dyes her hair a rainbow of colors at a whim and has taken to using makeup to give herself an overall androgynous look.

 

[call me rae]

[SIZE=26.666666666666664px]Merritt/Meri[/SIZE]



[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Meri hummed a upbeat pop song under her breathe as she shimmied from one end of her office to another. It was dusk and her regular clientele wouldn’t be up for a few hours and the humans were all heading out to party or to bed. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]So that left Meri the chance to jam out by herself as she went over her new clients. She had a partner that handled the daylight portion of a the business, a technomage who had a strange fondness for book-keeping and funerary arrangements. Not that Meri was a vampire to judge, Amaryllis was a blast to work with and she made Last Revelry a legit business rather than just a project to keep Merritt busy during her evenings.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]The client list for this particular night was rather skimpy just a sad bloke who caught a bad case of food poisoning before his big day.  Merritt looked at the man all dressed in his white ceremonial garb and was interested to see a note by Am that the family seemed to be undergoing a bit of a cold war on what to do with him. The parents apparently wanted him given a traditional death - cremation - and the wife was all for a more American funeral and burial. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Since Merritt had all vampires healthy fear of fire she was thinking the fact that they chose Revelry at all meant the little lady had won this round but she figured she could give the family as much time as possible to make their peace.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]But the white garb did nag at her the rest of the night as she went through the simple cosmetic touch-ups that would prepare Mr. Ichikawa for a extended stay at her fine establishment. She knew enough about funerary practices to know death was more traditional for the Japanese people but it kind of looked to her like the poor man was all dressed up for a party he was never gonna get to go too.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]It was the European romantic in her, white meant weddings. And the more progressive in her insisted it didn’t matter that the person in question wasn’t exactly female. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]And that nagging sense kept up throughout the whole night even as she tended her more traditional clientele, including a Ghoul who had seemed strangely fixated on Mr. Ichikawa, and not in the usual haggling her for a price for the fresh carrion way either.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Finally it was nearing dawn, a time for new beginnings, and about when Merritt headed home for a good day's rest. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]On a whim she decided that it really won’t hurt to go through the motions. It was a harmless jest and it would make her feel better about the tragic waste of it all. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]So before the sun had fully risen she had gone through the traditional vows. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]And then got the shock of her afterlife when as the sun crested the horizon Mr. Ichikawa popped right out of coffin and looked around.[/SIZE]


@RatFlail

 

[RatFlail]

[SIZE=26.6667px]Askio/Henry[/SIZE]



[SIZE=13.3333px]The world blurred from a crystal-clear black into a landscape of grey and white. Askio had a hard time remembering, or even thinking. He had been...eating? That seemed right--hunger still clenched at his ribs. Something else. It had been hard to breathe. Was still hard to breathe, actually. It didn't come naturally, or at all in some moments. He felt scared in those times, until he managed to expand his chest and pull air back in. It took all of his focus to do so, but it wiped away a lot of the unknowns in his mind.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.3333px]His kami, the culinary spirit inside of him, rejoiced at a duty fulfilled. It had been annoyed at something undone while in the darkness. Something that had disappeared unexpectedly, leaving the kami searching to hear some sort of call. That expectancy had been the only thing between the meal and here. Wherever he was.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.3333px]An obligation strung between him and a pale oval in front of him. He'd never felt it before, but it was momentous. His half-wakened brain struggled to cope with this central tie to his existence, until he remembered a ceremony. A...wedding ceremony. His wife, Meg. She must be here. Watching him. Concerned. He had to let her know that he was alright. Well, functioning, anyway.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.3333px]As he reached out into his body, muted sensation returned to him. The pressure of a hard surface supported him from underneath. Air gently swished across his skin as he attempted to move. His arms faded in and out as he struggled to reconnect with them, jerking them in different directions. Finally, he lifted them to the oval, palms up to seek out touch.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.3333px]His vision jerked as he reclaimed his head. He opened his lips, letting out a cadaverous stench. The taste of it in his mouth disgusted him, even in its muted state. He attempted to move air across his twisting tongue, but nothing came through. He'd forgotten to breathe in again. Resolving to put that on a list so that he would remember it, he expanded his lungs one final time. He needed to tell her. To let her know that her Askio was alive.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.3333px]He said, "Mmmmmrrrrrrgggggggg."[/SIZE]


@A Nerd Named Rae

 

[call me rae]

[SIZE=26.666666666666664px]Merritt/Meri[/SIZE]



[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]It took a few moments of stunned blinking to kick Meri’s brain into gear. No wonder the Ghoul had looked so weirded out, it was a Fledgling! An unauthorized Fledgling! Possibly a Houseless Fledgling! Merritt felt dizzy just thinking about how Master Dorian would take the news, he was a pretty easy going guy but he could get supper prissy about this kind of thing.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]And that was just if the Fledgling was a Finley, it would be way worse if it wasn’t. If it was a Sullivan House Fledgling or gods forbid a Daily House Fledgling, than Master Dorian was going to have a whole herd of cows. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]When all the fledgling did was just kind of moan in her general direction she was even more flustered. It was stupid. A stupid Fledgling! That was almost worst than a Houseless Fledgling. Houseless Fledglings could at least be justifiable killed with no fuss. No Stupid Fledglings made the whole House look bad. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Oh god, Dorian would lock her in a coffin and starve her slowly if he thought she brought a stupid Fledgling to Finley House.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]After spending what felt like a short eternity hyperventilating and scrambling away from the Stupid Fledgling, like distance would fix the problem somehow, she was finally brought into some feeling of rationality when Am stuck her head in the back with a frown.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“Mer - what are you doing? The Van is here and the sun is coming out quick, you want to be a crispy critter by the time you make it back to your house?[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]The technomage gave the Fledgling a squinty eyed look from her thick hipster glasses as she stared for a moment before giving Meri an raised eyebrow look.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“Soo either you decided to try out necromancy or someone fucked up royally and they’re trying to pawn it off on us. “[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]She said sardonically, ignoring the fumbling of the newly risen Mr. Ichikawa.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“IdunnowhathappenedAmarylishejustwokeupandoMGOHMYGAWDwhatifhesafledglingthatsA BIG DEAL. OMG THEY'RE GONNA SEND THE CHAMPIONS FOR ME. I CAN'T FIGHT BEAR!  I HATE FLANNEL!”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Merritt wailed as she rambled through her problems at a speed that had her voice coming out in a Minnie Mouse level squeak. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“ Okay Mother’s Mercy calm down Minnie. If that’s a Vampire it’s a poorly made one. And I mean not the best defense I know.  But the guy just showed up and I know for a fact you haven’t bitten anyone, and I’m sure some of the others could Vouch for you too. Dori might be a flaming dick but he’s not unreasonable. It wasn’t your fault. So take a breathe, get some sleep. I’ll see if I know any mediums or if I can get one of the local Coalition to come down and sort this - Don’t make that face for the Gods sake you look like a freaking anime character.”[/SIZE]
 


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Am snarked as Merritt gave a comical wide - eyed double take and fake gag response at the mention of the Coalition for Better Community Outreach - aka the Monster Mediators. No one of any kind of established society liked them because they were A. very modern and B. made up of a bunch of busybody misfits that none of the large society wanted anything to do with. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Still the Coalition would at least have a fairly decent mage on the payroll - well a burnt out ex monster hunter but close enough. He’d know that she was innocent. Maybe. Possible. Or he could kill her. But he’d at least do it quickly and Master Dorian would not feel the need to be that coddling if he decided to take offense.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“Omg maybe your right. Yeah do that. I’ll um.. I’ll take Mr. Icikawa home. Give him some blood. Maybe he’s just hungry. I mean if he isn’t stupid Master Dorian might maybe not be that mad. I mean really it’s the other Houses lack of management and responsibility. He loves a chance to prove how much better we are than everyone else. So yeah maybe we’ll do that. But um yeah maybe a Medium too. Also lots and lots of that Japanese schoolgirl blood. I think I’m gonna need a stiff drink to get through tonight. Maybe I’ll call up Kai. I might need it straight from the source.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Merritt rambled to herself as she steeled herself to head home. A part of her wanted to cower at the funeral parlor but that was just stupid. And burning alive HURT, so she was way too chicken to try it. [/SIZE]



[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]So instead she focused on herding the new Fledgling to the Van and heading home.[/SIZE]


@RatFlail

 

[RatFlail]

Akio/Henry



The oval that he thought was Meg got very animated, and Akio wondered if perhaps something was wrong with him that he couldn't see. Couldn't feel was probably more accurate.


Another oval appeared and they talked about something that Akio could barely hear. Suddenly, he found himself pulled to his feet and walking to a door. Things were getting a little clearer now that he was moving, but he still couldn't make out a lot of details. They were entering a van with bumper stickers across the back. He couldn't read them, but their haphazard appearance indicated that whoever owned the van cared more about expressing themselves than they did about squaring things off. Akio hated that. Things were tidy and square in his world. Well, until now, at least.


They didn't take the highway, so they must not have been too far from home. The slowly brightening East seemed to cause some anxiety in the oval. No, that was Meg. It had to be her. No one else would be taking this much care of him. And his parents would've whined about his suit already.


The house they came to was a large structure, with a central building joined by two wings. They parked in a garage off to the left side, and oval-Meg shooed him out of the car. She covered him in a jacket and then took him up some back stairs, rather than the main stars near the center of the garage.


They ascended a couple of floors before a door opened at the other end of a long hallway. Oval-Meg shoved him in a nearby room, and talked to somebody coming down the hallway. He couldn't quite make it out.


@A Nerd Named Rae

 

[call me rae]

[SIZE=26.666666666666664px]Merritt/Meri[/SIZE]



[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]The ride to the house was not one that Meri enjoyed, she hated being out when the sun was up. It wouldn’t kill her at this stage if she caught caught by a sliver but it would burn for [/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px]days[/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px] and she wasn’t down for that kind of discomfort.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]The so she was relieved when they rolled in through the front gates and the garage opened to let them in. Once inside the soft lighting of Rosebud had Meri relaxing, unfortunately she forgot about Hootie and Oscar as the two statues glowed with glee as soon as the new Fledgling stepped out. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Meri soothed the confused thing as best she could as they walked up several flights of stairs to the middle of a long hallway. Meri played along with the ruse, shivering and making her voice quiver a little as she shooed the Fledgling into a rather severely decorated room with some truly horrifying clashing wallpaper. She hoped the Fledgling wasn’t the sort to eat it, she was almost sure lead wasn’t allowed in decorating by the time Rosebud had been constructed but she wasn’t entirely sure.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Although being undead it wouldn’t kill the Fledgling obviously, it would however lead to some unfortunate stomach issues. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Just as she got the Fledgling settled a voice came down the hall. It was prissy and pitchy and more over the top than even Meri, but still Meri played along. She shivered exaggeratedly and begged the voice not to bring her or the Fledgling any harm. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]There was some wailing, flashing lights, some admittedly impressive use of shadows, and it all culminated in the [/SIZE][SIZE=13.333333333333332px]pièce de résistance, a purple floating head. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Meri struggled valiantly to give an equally good performance but ended up laughing at the site of a floating gypsy head mincing down the artificial hall.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Her had the head scowling before the atmosphere broke and the whole thing faded into a perfectly ordinary cottage with short hallway leading out into the cottage and a nice floral and stone design. The wallpapers shimmered away to be replaced with delicate embroidery and a deep purple theme.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]The glowing head - Rosebud - pouted a little at having her grand theater ruined but Meri was quick to reassure the house spirit that she had done a truly exemplary job.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Rosebud brightened a bit and the floating head landed in Meri’s hands before the face flickered over onto one of the pieces of embroidery hanging down from the room.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“A strange bit of magic you’ve brought in my dear. Wherever did you find it? And do tell me it’s housebroken. I should hate to think what an accident would do to the carpenting.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]The house spirit sniffed delicately. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Meri blinked at Rosebud before it belatedly occurred to her. Her house was magic, so much so that it had it’s own personality and the ability to alter its layout on a whim. Rosebud was hardly the only magical object in the house, although she was the most interact by far.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“Magic? It’s not a vampire then?”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Merri asked hopefully. If she could convince the master it wasn’t a Fledgling all together ( and without the Coalition ) than she could neatly sidestep the worst of her punishment. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Maybe. Doing magic all unsupervised was a problem for the House and the Coalition both. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“Goodness of course not, I couldn’t begin to tell you what kind of magic. Foreign I think. But It most certainly isn’t anything like a vampire.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Rosebud said the embroidered face peering curiously at the befuddled Fledgling. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Meri also looked at it, Mr. Ichikawa was Japanese, but she was pretty sure it was NOT OKAY to assume just because he was Japanese - American that his issue was foreign Asian magic.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“Um well that’s good. You’d tell Dori that if he came right? Only making a Fledgling, and doing magic, it’s really bad. Like they’d make me leave and possibly imprison me bad.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]She said worriedly.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Then immediately regretted saying anything at all because Rosebud got very huffy about it. The halls went dark for a moment and she heard the slamming or doors and the locking of windows as the house itself seemed to swell in indignation.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“Well I never! That cad threatening a sweet young lady like yourself. I should like to see him do anything to you while you're in my embrace. Never you fear my dear Hootie, Oscar, and I shall see to things.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]Meri watched as the face began to fade, before it went out completely she desperately called out.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]“Um let Kai through okay! I need to eat.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]By that point Rosebud had gone and again the house was back to normal. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=13.333333333333332px]She would just have to hope her human friend would be able to stop by without the house eating her or something. [/SIZE]


@RatFlail

 

[RatFlail]

Akio/Henry



The world shook unsteadily until Akio realized that his neck felt odd. He wasn't entirely certain on a fix, but he his hands on either side of his face and pushed up, which seemed to fix the shaking problem, anyway. He wondered if he should get a doctor to check his spine, but he supposed they had checked him out properly when he left the hospital. Or, he guessed that's where he had woken up. The bed hadn't been very comfy, though. He'd have to complain when they sent him the bill.


His vision began clearing now that he had a moment to sit still, and the stench in his mouth wasn't the only thing that was nauseating. The orange and purple wallpaper assaulted his vision unpleasantly, and he thought that he'd have to make sure that Meg had not let his father decorate this room while he had been injured. His father loved the pronounced and garish style of the seventies, proudly saying that it was the most American era that had ever been. Akio thought the same thing, but not in a good way.


A silver platter with a matching pitcher and cups appeared to have a solution for Akio's halitosis problem. The water in the pitcher looked fresh, and hopefully would wash out whatever was stuck in his mouth.


He attempted to pick up the pitcher, but couldn't find the strength in his muscles to do it. With a maddened groan, he struggled until he knocked the pitcher over, getting a little water into one of the glasses. The glass proved a little easier to lift, and he managed to raise it to his lips with both hands.


The cool liquid slid around his mouth, and he attempted to slosh it with his tongue but couldn't move the numbed muscle. Too late, he realized that he couldn't swallow and felt the water drain into his lungs. Panicked, he dropped the glass and attempted to cough. Well, the cough failed, so it was more of a harrumph.


He stood there, harrumphing and pushing his hands against his chest as if he could squeeze the water out. Things sloshed unsteadily inside while he threw his hands up and banged against the door, hoping to get Meg's attention before he drowned.


@A Nerd Named Rae