The End of an Era (Pt. 5)

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Artemis and Elias Roleplay Event The End?..er
The End of an Era (Pt. 5)
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chatterghosts
chatterghosts 
@chatterghosts 3 years ago
(( Okay, this. THIS should be the end of The End of an Era. Maybe. Probably! ))
---
Richard (awaiting response): There was a hacking, coughing noise almost perfectly center of the cloud; unintended, but it gave up the position.
Lewis (Joseph, in response): "Ah, the... orange one?" His gaze flits towards the window. "Eight feet tall? Nine? It's hard to tell from a window," he admits with a dry laugh.
Jasper and Silverliné (in response): The two would find themselves waiting outside the building, commotion and yelling beyond the doors, as well as the occasional heavy thud.
Dr. de Lozo (in response): Finally, finally, one of the siblings stir: though definitely still in slumber, Arty shifts, rolling onto his side. The keen ear would recognize his disgruntled noises as mumbling, though it was unclear what he was saying.
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Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
"The very same. Eight feet, I believe, though the hair adds a bit."
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chatterghosts  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
"And the smaller, needier one, is she her...?"
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
"I'm not certain, but it seems the likely thing, doesn't it?"
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chatterghosts  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
"Mm." He pauses, considering the thought. "Ah, well. It's not mine to judge, certainly."
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
"Nor mine," Lewis agreed.
Internally, he kept Prince abreast of his plan.
The right action in the right moment, Richard. Ride the tempest. Neither drown nor fall.
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chatterghosts  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
Joseph still listened to the outside. "It's... quiet."
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
A chorus of shrieks broke the calm, as the men in the other room came face-to-face with Prince's handiwork.
"I daresay the fellow I wanted to aim has found your men, unfortunately," observed Lewis. Richard's frame of mind didn't bode well, but he was getting the job done. "Would you like me to intervene? I doubt he'll be happy to see you, should he make it to this door. And my proximity to you might be taken as license to kill me as well, if he puts two and two together."
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chatterghosts  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
Joseph hums. "I have faith in my men; money's a delightful motivator. And if not, then..."
His gaze drifts back to Lewis'. "You'll see."
Yet another instance of Joseph keeping his hand close to his chest.
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
He couldn't really blame Joseph for not taking his suggestion, but it was irksome.
"I suppose I will." The calm of his voice betrayed none of the trepidation rising within him. Richard was delightfully deadly, but he was in terrible danger--not necessarily from the hired thugs, but from himself. And Prince's state put Lewis at a degree of risk. He'd have to do something about it before--
Pain, guilt, self-loathing, regret, apology, and a smiling shadow churning into darkness roiled forth from Richard as the fight took its toll.
The tsunami of emotions stemming from self-hatred rushed past him without any ill effect, like water off a duck's oil-coated feathers. Those feelings were definitely Richard. Lewis had long since made peace with his own demons, and regret was a useless thing. The shadow-puppeteer, the one tangled in Richard's strings, was interesting, but rather too full of itself, Weir thought. It presumed much. And presumption, to his mind, smacked of hubris.
Pride goeth before a fall, old boy.
It didn't surprise him greatly when it wound up needing his help.
Then he sensed other energies in the room--Jasper and Silver, it seemed. Lee was still there, too.
No, scratch that, he corrected himself silently, he's scarpered.
As the sounds of battle died down, he looked to Joseph.
"Well, I suppose it's decided, one way or the other," he observed. "I don't hear any more screaming, at least."
To Richard, lost beneath an ocean of darkness, he cast out a lifeline, a call, a feeling, a command that bordered strangely on a hymn:
Richard Ričardas Patchwork Prince,
shadow and sinew and bone and soul,
arise!
From the depths of the ground,
from the waters of death,
from the dark of the heavens,
arise!
Your work is not done yet.
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Jasper Jekyll  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago • edited
( Through the door, Jasper enters. Not with a loud kick or the telltale commanding march of an overconfident soldier, but with slow heavy footsteps and an eerily calm demeanor- amber eyes sweeping the room with a piecing cautious gaze. )
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Tairais  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago • edited
Richard found blissful darkness yanked from him as he fell head-first towards the skylight of the cathedral, through one ocean into another. He was falling from far enough away it seemed he was merely suspended for a time, though the rushing of wind stated otherwise.
Lewis's hymn reached his ears just as his already battered body collided against the skylight with the screams of breaking glass. It cascaded through the jagged hole and followed after him like a bloodthirsty waterfall- and at this pseudo-thought, his mind provided a waterfall of words echoing and magnifying until the sanctuary of the cathedral rang with the sheer NOISE of it all- as he fell.
He hadn't realized he'd connected with the ground until he realized he couldn't move, past the moment when all the air left his lungs.
A moment after this realization, the current and tide of words swept him up and it was all he could do not to gasp and suck more water into his lungs as it rushed through his nose and mouth.
This lifeline of Lewis's was meant for the whole of him, yet he was disappearing in parts and could do nothing to stop it.
He spluttered and he choked and screamed and screamed and screamed because there was ink and tar bubbling and leaking from every pore in his body and it HURT, it hurt it hurt.
If agony had followed in the wake of the chipped stone in his hand, there wasn't a single adjective that could describe the excruciating torment that was being boiled alive from the inside out.
He was terrified and alone and in pain so much pain gods couldn't anyone spare him please he was drowning everything was wrong he was wrong spare him spare him just end him and it would be wonderful just end him-
As if matters weren't bad enough already with water and tar alike drowning him, he almost missed the pain of antlers splitting his lungs and chest, only this time the antlers were glass and porcelain rather than bone.
It hurt all the more for it, and if he weren't already unconscious he would have fallen there. His vision was white and black and every atom off his very being was on fire and he had no clue or reason as to why.
As it was, his physical body merely gave a single full-body shudder before he went completely still. He would have seemed dead were it not for his faint, shallow breathing and an even fainter heartbeat.
As he was still, he screamed and screamed like a dying man- no, dying men did not sound like this, there was no word for the sheer terror and agony rippling off him in waves.
Distantly, practically in another person's mind, he realized what effect this would have on Lewis. He hoped the faint hint of apology was not lost to the rising tide as he felt himself slipping away into a mindset he remembered all too well and absolutely did not want to be awake in around Elias.
He could not save Elias from Richard or even Ričardas as the Patchwork Prince. His design would not allow it, and that was unacceptable.
Further still, he remembered the urges he had coveted during nightmare-ridden nights: of the desire to hold Elias's still-beating heart in his hands, to crawl inside him and make a home for himself there, to honor every part of him.
These thoughts passed like sand caught in a desert storm, gone in the barest trace of an instance, eroding rock and person alike.
And still, he could only scream and wordlessly beg for help, for the answer to a problem he didn't know the true origin of.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
Joseph flashes a smile to the newcomers. Not a mean one, nor threatening- just.. friendly. Inviting. Finishing his statement from earlier, he chuckles, looking towards Lewis, "And the cavalry comes."
Despite the coolness of his demeanor, his eerie calm facade that he refused to break from, everything was going wrong. This plan of his was failing, falling apart so fast. Lewis wasn't supposed to wake up. He hadn't compensated for a warrior like the woman before him - more he hadn't entertained the idea. He hadn't prepared for Richard. He didn't know that this many people cared about Elias. Why did this many people care about Elias? What had he done for them?
The only one who he'd really, successfully put in their needed position was-..
... Arty.
Never a variable, always right where he had to be at the right time. His last movable piece.
...
The plan could still work. There were still things to do.
But it would work. He could be satisfied with one, he realized. One was enough for Elias to fall apart.
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
Lewis had hoped he'd scraped by and managed to act in time, not only to put Richard back into some semblance of his typical self, but to keep any ill effects from Prince from affecting him personally.
He was wrong.
He'd been about to answer Joseph; instead, Weir quite unceremoniously toppled over, with all the grace of a fainting goat.
...and found himself in the hollow of Richard's soul. The screams and waves and wind and sand, the burning agony and drowning tar, antlers and porcelain and glass, a tumbling tumult of terror and pain and darkness and searing fire. The wracking tempest buffeted him about for a timeless time.
Until he got his bearings. He cleaved to his own self, a shining hulk of darkly glistening diamond, imperturbably eternal, untroubled by sea or storm or any other part of another's spiraling spirit. They could do their worst; he was unchanging. At most, he would simply grow more polished.
To work, then.
To this end, he cast about for Richard, or Ričardas, or the Patchwork Prince, though naturally he didn't necessarily know all the pieces by name, simply by the way they felt to him.
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Jasper Jekyll  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago • edited
( Jasper's equally calm facade is broken by Lewis's fall. A large muscular arm shoots quickly out to catch him. A flicker of agitation burns across her amber eyes, however briefly. )
Oh great, now they're BOTH out?!
( With a sigh as agitated as the fire in her eyes, she rests him against the wall behind her. )
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chatterghosts  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago
Joseph releases a sigh, propping himself against his desk. "Well, this is interesting."
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Jasper Jekyll  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
I'll say.
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Tairais  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago
The many identities that made up Richard weren't entirely separate people, but nor were they entirely the same person. They were different reconfiguration of the same puzzle on different tables: made of the same pieces but individual circumstance.
Following this metaphor, his current state was as if each configuration and table had stacked onto each other in a desperate bid to escape the tide of tar, fear and glass, sickness and guilt and bone, porcelain shattered teacups and tears streaming down his face and- unadulterated agony.
The puzzle would be missing a few pieces by the time it was put to rights.
With a sickening 'CRACK!', Richard felt his thoughts configuring into the masks he had hoped to keep during his stint in the Society. The blossoming of antlers that had held him aloft dropped him into darkness.
He fell again.
...
'Thud'. The air was forced out of his lungs, but he was on solid ground again. It was peaceful and quiet.
Light chased away darkness soon after, and he sighed in blessed relief to see the familiar sights and comforts of the Society's Library.
It was tranquility personified. A window was open and allowed the faint song of birds and a cool breeze to filter through. It was quiet, it was comforting. He curled up in one of his favorite chairs.
It was wrong.
A restless sort of energy filled him with the buzzing of a thousand angry gnats. He ignored it for a time and smiled softly, feeling sunlight pass through the window onto his face.
It was wrong. Too calm, too dull. A beast flickered in the edges of his vision, trapped behind this facade of normalcy and domestic bliss.
He ignored that, too. He was perfectly content to ignore the darker parts of him again, even if he'd have to retreat to the corners of his mind for all eternity.
He looked down at his hands and arms and saw they were whole again, and he smiled.
Peaceful.
WRON- HUSH!
...
There was a quiet snarl, and then nothing but the sound of thoughts rushing in his ears like the lapping of an irritated river.
Peaceful.
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago
"This is what feeds it, you know," came a voice to Richard's left. Lewis had sought out this part of him, its desire to sequester itself ironically making it the easiest to find. "In a way. Gives it the excuse to burst forth later, out of your hands." He stood in the sunlit library, shadow trailing behind him. "What have I told you, Richard? The only true sin," he made his way over to him, "is self-deception. It is no crime to enjoy the sunlight and love and the good things in life, but do so honestly. Understand that is not all you are. Else suffering follows."
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
Richard stiffened in surprise, then sighed. He drew his knees to his chest and rested his forehead on them, wrapping his arms around them as if he could ward off Lewis. He knew Lewis was right, of course.
It didn't mean he had to like it.
"L-Leave m-me, Lewis. I k-know." He sounded tired, defeated. Too much so, really. Almost child-like, if he had ever truly been a child.
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago
Weir came beside him, smoothed his hair the way a mother might. A gentle sigh.
"You're this, too, dear boy," he soothed kindly. "Never forget that. Light and air and the gentle breeze. A quiet read and a cup of tea. A sheltered garden. This, too, is your self. Someone's sanctuary. Make it your own. Share it with Elias. But keep it, always. Sacrosanct. Let the darkness support the light within you, never extinguished."
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
Richard huffed and glanced out from his arms, irritation clinging to his skin like the smell of smoke.
"Y-you and E-Elias w-were sup-p-posed to stay out of m-my h-head. You, e-especially. I j-just wanted t-to be k-kind, a-always. T-the people I l-love deserved it a-and-" He sighed and buried his head again before he could do something as stupid as shedding tears. Sadness gnawed on his ribs and at his stomach. Resignation and quiet acceptance clawed at his heart.
"I s-should be a-angrier at you b-both. Y-you, e-especially again. Asilas. P-poking t-the darker p-parts of m-me w-with a stick."
There was acknowledgement there, and the quiet plea for just a few more minutes of pretending everything was well and peaceful.
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago • edited
"You are kind," came the feeling, Richard's harsher words ignored...for the moment.
Lewis gave him time. But it, like all things, eventually drew to a close. After what felt like minutes--hours?--he spoke:
"Blame me if you like, Richard. But don't deceive yourself. You hadn't even laid eyes on me when you ran Elias through. And until you come to terms with yourself--all of yourself--he will always be in danger."
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago • edited
(( Heads up for some particularly graphic murder of a particularly loved character :') Oh, and also cannibalism. Murder is hard work, y'know. ))
At first, he chuckled, a grateful, if a bit self-deprecating thing.
Time passed, and then he snarled at Lewis's words, but it was like watching a puppy trying to be threatening.
There was another sigh, and he felt as if his very essence was fading away with each breath. In truth, it wasn't him, but the room around him that was. The color bled away as "night" fell on the world, and Richard found himself gripped with a sudden sense of urgency.
He stood and faced Lewis, some unidentifiable mixture of emotion churning in his stomach and shining in his eye.
"I will need you to find me- the rest of me, Doctor Weir. I'm afraid I've lost some part of myself."
"CRACK!" Color and clarity returned as he stepped backwards and-
Fell into the complete inverse of the kindly persona he'd left behind.
There was a man before him, familiar by face and name, if not so much by personality and importance to himself.
A one 'Hastie Lanyon," if he wasn't mistaken.
The poor man really was in bad shape- hardly recognizable at all, what with the purples, reds, yellows, and browns of his organs spilling out from clutched fingers and one of his katars buried to the hilt in the man's face, the width of the blade where it connected to the hilt almost too large for such a fragile construction.
They were both bathed in the baptism of his blood, and it was a glorious, wonderful thing.
He quickly assembled the rest of his design, breaking the last bits of sinew and bone still in the way of the poor soul's heart. He pulled a scalpel that had been hidden away in his pocket and, with a reverence and care that in no way matched the brutality of Hastie's murder and subsequent evisceration.
Setting aside his meal on the altar of the cathedral's sanctuary (for he was in the cathedral, and oh, didn't that add a wonderful sense of sacrilege to the whole endeavor), Richard set to work, the familiar voice of one of his former mentors narrating as he went.
"I take his heart to take the chance of love in all forms from him, and set it aside so that I may have a chance of loving properly once more. Despite the fact he and most like him are merely rude and ungracious livestock, I have respect for what assistance he had lent our home." His blade had pierced the back of Hastie's throat and a bit of his nose, but his eyes were fine and intact, his last moments of horror forever preserved by a glassy gaze.
He pressed the eyelids closed and nodded.
"I dress him with the wealth of his former life to replace what he cannot have in death." He looped Hastie's intestines around his neck in morbid mimicry of jeweled necklaces. Glancing about, he snatched one of the cathedral's collection plates up and carefully extracted the rest of his bounty and placed them within.
"I have sewn him into robes of crimson-" He had stitched Hastie's clothes into his very skin, so that he may never be parted from them as they were dyed with the essence of his life. "-and adorned his neck and hands with jewels, a watchful and kind king who will forever look out over his subjects." The chair meant for the priest is turned into a throne for a guardian of good intention and treasure as he hoists his rapidly cooling display.
Working quickly, he manipulated the corpse before him into a pose of lounging, almost. With a hand propping up his chin as he leaned on one of the arms of the chair and his free hand wrapped around the processional crucifix as if it were a scepter of sorts. After another moment of thought, he turned Hastie's gaze away, as if he were distracted by a sudden arrival.
"I make him look away because just this once, it is not the victim's fault that they died. Just this once, he was a victim of circumstance he could not foresee."
He took his gift and strode to the center of the aisle before turning and lifting Hastie's barely-warm heart as one would lift a wineglass to propose a toast.
"This... is not quite my design, but it will do."
He sits in the chair he had dragged to that spot in the aisle and bit into the heart raw. It was stringy meat, but the flavor was almost overwhelmingly strong- enough so to take the edge off the ravenous hunger gnawing in the very depths of his bones.
He paid no mind to skin that was blackened and freezing, reaching just short of his elbows, both still flesh. He paid no mind to the shards of glass embedded in his back, dripping tar and ash to the floor, nor to the feathers that draped down his spine and neck and chest like a half-finished cape, nor to nails just becoming sharp and pointed.
He only paid mind to the feeling of blood rushing down his gullet and the sensation of stringy, chewy, delightful flesh catching and ripping in his teeth.
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Tairais • 3 years ago
(I just want to say I'm sorry Hastie Lanyon for everything here. I know I didn't write it but I still feel really bad for enjoying the writing and all the emotional impact of the scene. I never want this to happen to him ever and I'm sorry. :C )
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Tairais  Hyde without a Jekyll • 3 years ago
(( *Cackles softly in the distance* ))
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Catt Hatter  Tairais • 3 years ago • edited
(*Looks at you and raises an eyebrow.* Enjoying yourself?)
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Catt Hatter • 3 years ago • edited
(Far too much if you ask my opinion. ;D )
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Tairais  Catt Hatter • 3 years ago
(( Immensely :P ))
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Catt Hatter  Tairais • 3 years ago
(Good. Me too. :D )
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Hastie Lanyon  Hyde without a Jekyll • 3 years ago
(What the hell just happened...)
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chatterghosts  Hastie Lanyon • 3 years ago
(( I AM SO SORRY THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN ))
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Hastie Lanyon  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
(No, it's fine, I'm just wondering how in the world all of that happened.)
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chatterghosts  Hastie Lanyon • 3 years ago
(( Well, about three months ago, I decided that in December, I would have an event revolving around Elias. It was an innocent enough idea.
I since regret everything :') ))
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Hyde without a Jekyll  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
(No regret here! Only feels and a fantastic story!)
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Catt Hatter  Hyde without a Jekyll • 3 years ago
(Yes, no regretting allowed!)
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Jekyll1886  Catt Hatter • 3 years ago
((I also second this!))
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chatterghosts  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
(( And this is the story of how Doodle fell into a comatose state after too much flattery. They never even reached their twenties ;___; ))
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Hyde without a Jekyll  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
(NO!!!! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!!!! >:( )
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Catt Hatter  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
(Don't you dare! We can't finish the story without you!)
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Jekyll1886  Hyde without a Jekyll • 3 years ago
((I second this!))
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Hastie Lanyon • 3 years ago
(Well.... Lewis and Richard have a connection that was solidified by the soul hug at the start of all of this. Richard sort of lost it when they were trying to rescue Elias. Thus to try and put Richard's psyche back together Lewis went into Richard's mind [and could do so of his connect]. Now that Lewis was in Richard's mind he could see pretty much everything and Richard could also see a lot of Lewis. The Patchwork Prince then saw what Lewis feared most, which was Hastie dying and then you have this...sorry about that...)
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Jekyll1886  Hyde without a Jekyll • 3 years ago
((An engrossing scene, but let's hope nothing like this ever actually happens to Hastie.))
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
(Agreed! The affect it would have on poor Lewis! I don't think he could handle that! Also I know I would miss the sass something fierce! )
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Hastie Lanyon  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
(Please god no.)
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Hastie Lanyon • 3 years ago • edited
(*looks off into the distance as though seeing a terrifying potential future* The air is filled with iron, London returns to the sea, and the blood of one becomes the blood of many.
....It's best not to question it. :| )
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Catt Hatter  Hyde without a Jekyll • 3 years ago
(I think I understand.)
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago • edited
Such a tumble of emotions shot through Lewis that he had no words to identify them. Yet his very essence blazoned them.
Shock: HASTIE???
Disbelief: This couldn't be real!
A bracing, cold, rapid, sinking feeling that would never translate well to words: Have I--?
Trauma, reawakened: Not again!
A halting irritation as he remembered the manner in which his Hastie'd died. A terrible thing, truly...but nowhere near this nightmare, this indignity, this...............
Anger: "Sacrilege." Not of the setting, not of the props, not even of the manner of death, not of the acts on their own. No. But Hastie. This Hastie. The only one left, anywhere. In all the countless, heartless realms.
Glass shattered, stone scorched, metal melted and the corpse went up in ash as the entire cathedral burst into flame. Weir resembled nothing so much as shadow and stars, diamonds and darkness as he lost all semblance of human form, on the creature before him in less than the pause between breaths, then down him, into him, mist-like, only to reform in a solid, spiking mass to burst him from the inside out.
He contracted, gathered his breath, his emotions, warped back to a ripple of his normal form, a man...ish, dark as Hell, nothing stable, the edges still vibrating in frenzy.
He beheld what was left of...not-exactly-Richard-but-still-Prince. The fire burned, unending. His form slowly quavered back into color, into...mostly Lewis. Shadow still clung at the corners. The flames began to die down, their light collecting inside him.
A moment.
Take a moment.
He stilled. The flames extinguished themselves as his mind returned.
This wasn't real, he realized, his perceptions coming back to him in the quiet. Not in the physical sense. A truth of the soul, but not... he looked to the empty throne.
He let out the metaphysical equivalent of a long, slow breath.
He was in Richard.
And, as such...
It won't be long till that part of him is back. For who could destroy a soul in its own castle? It ought to reform shortly.
He went over to it. Pointing a finger, one word, one sentiment, one charge he leveled at it:
"RUDE."
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago • edited
He crawled out from the ashes and shadows of himself with a smile on his face, teeth dripping and falling and returning to his mouth, glass shards rippling as the cathedral melted back into existence.
"Oh, I'm the rude one, hm? And yet you're the one traipsing about our mind without even receiving an invitation first. Yet, you lecture ME on rudeness? My, my, but aren't you funny, Doctor Weir?"
He had (somehow, perhaps through sheer force of will in his own corner of the mind) held on to the chunk of heart he hadn't gotten the chance to eat, and chose that moment to let his jaw unhinge as he tilted his head back and dropped it into his mouth.
He rather fancied he swallowed it in the manner of an alligator.
He chuckled, a laugh made of smoke and tar and ash and dust.
"I wouldn't have known you to be so fond of the late Mr. Lanyon. A pity I can't reenact these urges in the physical world. Ah, well." He shrugged, the shoulders of a great beast rolling over in a patch of the sun without a care in the world.
He leveled a stare at Lewis that was equal parts amused, flinty, enraged, and perfectly calm, kaleidoscopic eyes shifting through many different reds, greens, blues, golds, and at ties, pools of black and purple.
"Is it so rude to act according to my nature? You seemed perfectly open to the idea before I took a mimicry of your mylimasis away. How hypocritical."
He was almost tempted to take Lewis's heart as well, though stayed his course out of curiosity.
He wanted to see what made the good doctor tick
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago • edited
"I am here because it is necessary." He enunciated each syllable clearly, his voice between a growl and a hiss, trying to claw back his composure. "I am here because you are no shattered teacup--you're sodding Humpty-Dumpty!"
A moment. He ignored the gulped heart-chunk--it wasn't real anyhow.
"I am no hypocrite, Patchwork Princess. But you're too smug and blind and pleased with yourself to see it."
He sighed, his tone changing.
"A pity. I'd hoped you'd be something other than petty and rude." He shook his head.
Sadness, disappointment.
"This part of you, Richard...will never truly know me." Not after what you've done here. Even I have my limits.
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago • edited
He nodded, amused and calmed all at once. He'd gotten what he poked for. Though still trapped in a monstrous visage, his body language shifting into something more relaxed yet hawk-like in nature.
"If that were truly the shape of this part of me, I'd be inclined to agree." A pause, roads considered. Honesty, the road less traveled by. "In truth, I was merely curious how you'd react to something as tasteless as we first found your poking through our mind."
Shifting faces, shifting guises, and stepped into the slightly-tarred and chipped gargoyle sort of figure he had been under it all: A mouth full of broken glass and hands the color of coal and diamond dust, shards of color threatening to rip free, hair made of moonlight and liquid fire flowing freely though there was no wind. Antlers made of blackened bone and starlight, cloven hooves and feathers made of midnight blanketing his skin. Eyes that gleamed golden in the dim light of the cathedral, looming eight feet tall, though the antlers spiraled higher. Constellations and flames and waves of color trapped beneath the bare skin of the unmarred parts of his arms and his chest and neck and face.
Part of a whole, a different face of the puzzle that regarded Lewis with the same apathetic curiosity a lepidopterist would give one of their specimens pinned to a board.
He was unconcerned of Lewis's attitude towards him. He could claw his way out of here on his own if he had to.
He knew how to wait. Knew how to be patient. Thoughts wandered, and he was all too eager to follow in their wake when Richard drifted away.
It was amusing to see what had emerged from the cracks in Lewis's soul, temporary as it was.
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago • edited
Weir had settled back to normal. He looked his host directly in the eye, cocking a brow as he did so.
"Present whichever face you please, I've the shape of you now, and I don't mean this piffling form," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You think yourself different, objective, apart. Yet you truck in sadly human justifications. 'Blah blah you traipsed through my mind therefore I justify my rudeness, not seeing your motive, not seeing how rude I'm actually being, like a hypocrite. Then I'll project my own motives and call you one.' Charming. If I wanted hypocrisy, I'd go to church."
He shook his head.
"If you ever want anyone to understand you, you'll stop playing games with me. If not, suit yourself.
But, a word of warning to you: It's one thing to act according to one's nature. It's quite another to be a slave to it. You think yourself the master."
A pause.
"You're mistaken."
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
He had only just begun to smile with delight, a response on the tip of his tongue when he heard the shattering of one of the stained glass windows behind him. He tilted his head in further amusement.
Ah. So that's where Richard had gone.
He only had time to register a sudden high-pitched ringing before he crumpled into the smaller form he had been in originally.
After that, he had only the time to think, "Funny you should mention going to church, seeing as we are in one." as he choked down fear and rage.
After that, there was the sensation of being forcibly tugged through the shattered window backwards, and he knew no more.
(( I'd like to take this time to offer you guys the image of what was basically a stringy teenage!Richard tackling a 7 foot tall gargoyle of sorts. That is all. ))
It was a rather anticlimactic ending, true, but the annoying creature had deserved it. Unchecked and without creativity, he really was quite irritating.
Ričardas entered through the main doors and fixed the decimated window with a wave of his fingers. The stag that haunted his footsteps was close behind, hooves echoing and ringing across the marble floor.
Still, something seemed out of place. Missing. And that was disregarding the reopened smile on his throat, slowly staining the white marble floor pink and red. He glanced down, rolled his eyes, then tucked his scarf around the wound before crossing the final stretch of distance to Lewis.
"I believe those two are the only ones you will have to wrangle any time soon. They are the most unlike me, and as such my imagination tends to take their ideals and run with them." His voice was his own again, but it still didn't feel right. Nothing fit right at the moment.
His identity was a secondary, itchy skin he couldn't get rid of. It was irksome, to say the least.
His voice shifted to one of sincerity, and in his mild embarrassment, he had reverted to his old habit of avoiding eye contact. There were no masks at this time, and for all he felt out of place, he felt balanced.
He hadn't the heart to tell Lewis he knew it wouldn't carry over to the waking world. Something was terribly wrong. He had kept his hands hidden behind his back for a reason.
As it was, he forced a quieter smile onto his face. "Thank you, by the way. I'm sorry you had to see the last one. He was a product of my.. teenage years. Truly, a bit of an idiot." His attempt at humor was the only real humor, honestly. For all the suaveness in his voice, he was terrible at hiding emotions from himself in his own mind. The thought alone gave him a headache. A headache in his min- he really just needed to stop thinking about the technicalities of the situation before something else happened.
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago
Finally, thought Lewis, though of course thought was as good as speech here. An adult. Relief flooded through him, and he just began to feel how tired he really was.
"You're...welcome," he returned. The equivalent of a laugh, then, "Idiots, we all are, in our youth. I'd apologize for losing my temper, but...I can't. Not honestly," he admitted.
The Richard before him was...as Richard should be. Ideally. The stag his companion, his counterpart, but not his lord. An easy partnership. What Lewis had wanted for him all along. All was right, the balance struck.
Yet something was...off.
"Oh, Richard..." he sighed with a smile, extending his hand to him, palm up. "Why do you never ask for help?"
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
Richard had chuckled and nodded along with Lewis until extended his hand, to which he froze and snarled, a flicker of expression that belonged on the creature behind him more than anything.
It passed like the breath of summer, and he sighed softly, allowing his face to smooth and relax once more.
He chuckled and lifted his hands, glancing down at them with no small amount of apprehension and fear.
Corrupted crystal and charred darkness leaked from the small hole in one hand (made of flesh in his mind's eyes, for he frequently forgot that his actual hands were not). It was at once both a ghastly and beautiful sight. The dusting of glass trapped below the first layer of skin gave the black markings on his arm a vaguely dried or reptilian look.
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Once he looked at it, he couldn't really look away. "I am not entirely sure what I am asking help for, Lewis. Besides, I've done enough asking. I can help myself for the most part, you know."
The stag loomed behind him, even as it sat down. Lingering in its massive shadow almost seemed comforting now.
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago
Lewis reached slowly, gently for the injured hand. His eyes sought permission even as they conveyed the necessity of his action.
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
Necessity, he decided, was an irritating and bothersome thing that had no place in the halls of his mind.
He sighed and kept the darkened hand extended but allowed the other to fall to his side. Unease reached through his throat to paw at the back of his teeth, but still he stayed his hand.
A flicker of pain raced up his arm, and he thought he could see the edges of the darkness creeping further upwards. Likely just a trick of his eye, especially given that the markings didn't and hadn't moved before.
(They had moved, just the tiniest bit. He didn't want to acknowledge the fact.)
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Jekyll1886  Tairais • 3 years ago
Lewis placed his right palm atop Richard's; he used his left to support the injured hand. A warm glow suffused the cathedral, not unlike what Elias must have felt whenever Richard smiled at him. Weir's features began to blur, his form white-hot without burning. Light enveloped all.
When it faded, they stood apart once more, both seemingly normal. The corruption was within the stone, the dust-like shards rejoined.
A salve, not a cure, thought-spoke Lewis. I must suffer you to go your own way, be it the midnight, noon, or twilight path you tread. Your fate... he cracked a smile, unable to resist, is in your hands.
With that, he fell backwards, dissipating as he hit the floor.
Richard was, at last, alone.
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago • edited
Richard shook his head with a fond smile on his face, fighting back the sour taste of fear and the urge to run.
He had never made good choices for himself. His fate was doomed. He giggled aloud at the thought.
He turned his hands over again and again, as if to ensure it wasn't some small trick of the light. Satisfied when he discovered it was in fact, the true nature of the situation, he sighed and cast his gaze to the soaring ceiling of the cathedral, stars suspended like candles on strings.
He glanced down again and saw a faint shimmer where Lewis had mended the hole in his hand. A substance like charcoal dust itched under his skin. "A salve, not a cure" indeed. His eyes darted back to the glass ceiling with almost a forlorn look. He could hear the faintest echo of his mother singing, as if she were once again practicing for the eve of one of her concerts.
"The ship there is and she sails the sea
She's loaded deep as deep can be
But not so deep as the love I'm in
I know not if I sink or swim"
He chuckled as her voice faded away. Even his memories were trying to warn him. He really never did make good decisions for himself.
He turned to face the stag, who regarded him with a curious and relaxed, almost sleepy expression. It bowed its head, and he walked up slowly to it, wrapping his arms around its neck. They both were still for a time, foreheads resting on each other as acknowledgment and acceptance bounced back and forth.
The stag stood. When it was drawn to its full height, and Richard himself suspended more than twelve feet from the floor, he let go.
And fell into consciousness, though he kept his body's breath and heartbeat as even as it had been, and paid no mind the the throbbing of many wounds.
There was still work to be done.
(( Edit: Just in case whoever notices this is interested: If you look up "The Water is Wide" as sung by Hayley Westerna, she's the voice I picture for Richard's mom. ))
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Jasper Jekyll  Tairais • 3 years ago • edited
( In the room with her enemy, Jasper watches, waits, engaging in menial smalltalk.
It feels cramped and stiff, like the lift on a Spaceship.
She could almost here the musaac when she feels movement on her back.
"What the-?"
"No. That's unacceptable. Give nothing away to the other side." )
Good morning Sleeping Beauty
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Jekyll1886  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago • edited
Lewis's body still slumped against the wall, just as Jasper had left it.
He really didn't want to go back. Exhaustion and a painful injury awaited him, never mind what further tasks lay in store. But it wouldn't do to stay gone too long, either.
Resigned, he crawled back inside himself. He took the liberty of feigning sleep, wanting just a few minutes to rest before he had to get up...again.
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chatterghosts  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
Joseph shifts on his feet. "So one's awake..." His eyes fall to Lewis. "... delightful."
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Tairais  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
"Aš jaučiuosi kaip šūdas. Padėk mane žemyn, prašom." He felt he'd kept his voice admirably steady, all things considered. If it weren't for the fact there were two bullets embedded in his chest, a gash in his stomach, and countless other nicks, bruises, and strained muscles, he'd definitely get away with looking calm.
As it was, he sounded faintly annoyed more than anything, though inside was a different matter. It was by no means the worst pain he'd ever been in, but it was no minor inconvenience.
It was after this pause in his thoughts he realized he hadn't spoken English. Oops.
"My apologies, that was the wrong language. Miss Jasper, if you would, set me down, please?"
He still couldn't feel the arm that'd been shot. He tamped down the worry threatening to bubble out of his throat, keeping as relaxed and unbothered as he had been (outwardly, not inwardly. Definitely not inwardly) while unconscious.
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Jasper Jekyll  Tairais • 3 years ago
Finally!
Took you long enough.
( She unhooks her arms from Richard's thighs, allowing him to slide down off of her and onto the floor. She almost regretted not bending down to save him the extra distance. )
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Silverliné Carew  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago
Oh oh oh!
( Silver rushes forward, arms outstretched to if not catch Richard, then break his fall. )
I've got you!
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Jekyll1886  Silverliné Carew • 3 years ago
"Nhm," said Lewis groggily, wincing before he opened his eyes and stirred. The entire room seemed far too solid.
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
In a surprising turn of events, Richard didn't actually fall. For one thing, he was used to falling from greater heights, and for another, his legs weren't the problem. He landed in a half-crouch almost, then drew to his full height, covered in blood and bits of organs that were (mostly, in the case of the blood) not his.
He cast a quick glance down at the cut in his stomach. He didn't show any outward expression of emotion save for the faint twitch of his eyebrows, full masks not quite back yet. Shallow enough to not to bleed enough to warrant concern, though it was definitely something that would require a few stitches at least.
He attempted a slightly deeper breath and was greeted by the familiar pain of bruised and/or broken ribs, which caused him to release the breath even slower. He didn't even want to think where the stray bullet was- one of the two had fallen out on his journey down, thankfully.
All things considered, and disregarding the whole situation with his arm, he was doing quite well.
His eyes darted around the room, pausing to rest on Lewis with an inscrutable expression before they finally landed on the mind behind all this madness.
"And you would be, seras?"
His grammar was sorely lacking again. Typical, and fair, given the situation. There was a possibility of concussion, though he hoped not. That'd be... counterproductive.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
Joseph opens his mouth, extending his hand. "My name is J--"
"JOSEPH!"
The shriek was strangled, coming from somewhere above them - from a source recognizable to Lewis, less so to the others. It didn't necessarily sound like either of them, though it could certainly be deemed a mix - and it still bore that familiar accent.
Joseph didn't let it show, but he'd stifled an irritated growl at the yell. Inconvenient. Unpredictable. Why couldn't he keep his damn mouth shut when it was most important?
Unbelievable. Everything that had transpired and Elias - Oliver - still thought he owned the place. Joseph knew what he was going to be asked, and was all too eager to answer, but the set-up behind it was... unfortunate timing. At best.
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
Weir's gaze shot up, in the direction of the cry. He looked to Joseph, Richard, Jasper, Silver, silently thanked all their lucky stars Arty wasn't there, then fumbled for his staff, and stood up shakily.
"Oh dear." It was honest, and meant for all of them.
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Silverliné Carew  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
( With a wheezing gasp, Silver jumps several inches back.
Nerves of steel indeed.
Whatever caused that sound, it didn't mean anything good for them. )
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Tairais  Silverliné Carew • 3 years ago
Richard blinked once, slowly, and tilted his head questioningly. He ignored the faint trickle of blood into his eye from a(nother) cut on the bridge of his nose.
Perhaps the only nice thing about the number of wounds he currently had was the fact it was hard to notice any new blood.
He was getting distracted. That didn't bode well.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
"... That.. would be your companion," he says flatly. There was little point in hiding it.
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
Lewis sighed.
"Well, he sounds angry as always," he said with a shrug. "Take that as you will."
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Silverliné Carew  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
( Silver's lips set into a small pout. )
Our...companion? ( She tilts her head up as if to search Jasper's face for answers. )
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Jasper Jekyll  Silverliné Carew • 3 years ago • edited
( Stoic. Expressionless.
Jasper neither acknowledges Silver's question nor gives anything away, but inside herself, she snarls.
"Curse it all Elias! What have you gotten yourself into THIS time?!" )
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Tairais  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago
They roared at the same time as he did this time.
"Mylimasis!"
Tamping down on the urgency that felt as if it were about to scoop his heart from his chest, Richard went utterly and completely still. Not even the rise and fall of breath could be seen (though he was still, in fact, breathing).
Hope. Hope mixed with relief and righteous fury. The expression contorted his face like the visage of a strange gargoyle, gone as quick as a water strider darting across a still pond.
He tamped down the burning need to do something, knowing there were many things at state, secrets hidden. All things considered, it felt too easy.
Still, in the solitude of his mind (though he shared the images with Lewis out of a twisted sense of amusement), he envisioned no less than twelve ways to tear down Joseph, and fifteen recipes to pair him with.
His shadow flickered again, and though this time it was only in his mind, there was a sudden flicker of pain along his unfeeling arm. Something was wrong with him, big surprise, yet this.. this was something more.
Again, he was getting distracted. Blame the loss of blood and stint of unconsciousness.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
"This was...not how at his was expected to go, I will admit. And you're lacking a few members in your party..."
His gaze flits across each and every person, filling in the space that Arty, Susan, and Nicolette could have been in. "Though those injuries are my fault, naturally."
He rests on the table with all the casual, calm geste one would at a dinner party. A humorous thought, considering the people in his company.
"... and I sense that you're all .. quite eager to get rid of me, hm?" His stare locks far too long on Richard and Jasper, specifically. "I'd ask why you haven't, but by now you've likely realized that I have a sort of... connection, binding your friends together. Or..have you not yet?"
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago • edited
The images Richard attempted to share never found their way to Lewis. In binding the spiritual wound, Weir had sacrificed their connection, a bit of himself. Like burning one's mittens in winter to keep another warm. He felt its absence. The world was just a little bit colder.
Pray I do not grow colder with it. A flash of chagrin at his own foolishness: It wasn't as if Prince could hear the thought-message, which had come up unbidden but honest.
In truth, Weir looked rather less than well. Fatigue cried out from every cell in his body. He braced himself against the wall, and leaned heavily on the staff.
"I'm not eager to do that, actually," he answered Joseph. "Enough people have died already, 'connection' or no."
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
He did not move. He was a creature frozen in ice, bound by glass and stone. If he moved, more than just Joseph would die, he didn't deny that he wanted to tear the man limb from limb and crack every bone in his body.
In focusing on keeping his mind and body still, he perhaps didn't give as much thought to the absence of Lewis's presence in his mind as much concern as it warranted. His list of "Things to Deal With Later" had never really stopped growing, nor did it ever become 'Later'.
He needed to do something, anything. Moving was out of the question.
"Is it entirely out of the realm of possibility to see him?" His timing was wrong, but the detached, almost bored tone of voice was impeccable. Very nearly real, forged with his own weariness and the sense of floating away from his body.
Perhaps his wounds were a little more severe than he realized. No matter, he'd stay standing until the very last drop of his blood pooled onto the floor. He had a bit of a start already.
He suppressed an entirely inappropriate giggle at the thought.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
"Would you rather me lie to you?" Joseph snapped back to Jasper.
He looks to Richard. It wouldn't do to poke the sleeping bear, but..
"Are you the one Elias is so interested in?" He pauses, clearing his throat. "The ... bond they all share right now leads back to me, you know. And I believe one of those might have said some--"
The voice that yelled once more wasn't Elias', you could be sure of it now. It was more restrained. The cracking of it wasn't from effort; it was an attempt to retain some degree of calm. "I have a question to ask you!"
Joseph took a deep breath and succeeded - mostly - in keeping his annoyance from showing. Two that hate me, and Lewis is... neutral. This can work. There's a way this can work out.
Calculate. Recalculate.
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
Weir looked to Joseph.
"Whatever else happens, I think you had better attend to him." He glanced over the rest of the group and back. "Perhaps we should...all go up."
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Tairais  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago • edited
Richard inclined his head towards Joseph in a 'What do you think?' sort of manner, the corners of his lips twitching up even if he didn't actually smile. He rather felt as if his body was floating again, and swayed ever so slightly, barely a shift of balance. It was still more than he'd wanted to show.
His anger had been moving in the manner of currents, ebbing and flowing for some time. The rage he had so strongly felt moments ago withdrew like the tide before a tsunami, leaving him drained and weary, tired in the bone-deep sort of way.
At this point, he'd do whatever it took to break the web of connections without harming those he cared for, even if he had to either spare Joseph or do something rash himself.
One of the fingers of his paralyzed hand (still holding on to his katar, he noted thankfully) twitched as if it were trying to remember how to function normally. It didn't regain feeling, but he appreciated the effort.
He nodded to agree with Lewis almost as an afterthought.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
Joseph didn't want to say yes, but that would get them nowhere. He hadn't counted on reluctance. He'd thought this part through too quickly, he didn't plan for --.. he'd wanted revenge. Everything had been so careful.
There was still a way.
Moments pass before he resigns, sighing and turning to face the door closest - the door he'd, after returning to Lewis in what seemed so long ago, neglected to lock again. "Fine."
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Jekyll1886  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
Lewis followed after Joseph, as did everyone else. Before long, they found themselves in an upper room.
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Silverliné Carew  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago • edited
( Silver follows quietly, an uneasy feeling making its home in her gut. She stays behind the others, both strategically making herself smaller and also scouring for threats.
If she had a gem to protect, she'd rather be prepared. )
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Jasper Jekyll  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( A gesture unbefitting Joseph's assumption- an eyebrow raise. )
Are you asking us to kill you?
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Silverliné Carew  Tairais • 3 years ago • edited
Oh! he's awake! ( She tilts her head with a gentle smile, her tone almost a coo. )
How are you feeling?
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Hastie Lanyon  Jekyll1886 • 3 years ago
(Honestly I feel more sorry for Lewis than for Hastie.)
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Jekyll1886  Hastie Lanyon • 3 years ago • edited
((Thank you, as I am not usually subject to such a degree of emotion when I write. 'Glad I was able to extrapolate/funnel it into character and that it seems to have been conveyed properly with regard to Lewis.))
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Tairais • 3 years ago
Richard practically slithered into place behind his target, not one sound escaping. If one were to follow that metaphor, he struck like a cobra in a flash of liquid movement. For a moment, he imagined the play of muted light over his metal arms transformed the metal and cables into scales of copper, brass, obsidian, and steel.
The sight vanished as he pinned his prey's arms to his side and kicked his legs out from under him in a single flowing motion. As quietly and quickly as he was able, he dragged the man towards another corner of the room, clamping one hand over his prey's trachea to stifle any sound he might make.
The movement would buy him a few seconds when the smoke cleared, hopefully.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
The man attempted to bite down on the hand, but as his teeth connected with metal, he yelped and thrashed around. Struggling seemed a useless task, but he did so anyway.
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Tairais  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
(( Hahahaa, get screwed, random goon #... 4, I think? Hope you have decent dental care. ))
Richard growled, a low, almost subsonic sort of thing felt in the vibrations in his throat and chest more than anything.
He wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't snapped the man's neck and thrown him at his comrades yet. It did seem like the most sensible thing to do but-
Golden eyes flashing with mirth and affection. Stolen glances over teacups. A form that was both more fragile and yet more solid than his own, knowing suffering but marked in different ways than he, less gaunt and frigidly bony, more warmth and the feeling of home.
His hand slipped away from his prey's mouth for a handful of seconds.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
A gasp of breath; laughing in a raspy tone. "He might live through it, but that boy is doomed in more ways than you know. Saw it with my own eyes."
A death wish - a death sentence, rather. And the goon had known that it would be so, but still.
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Tairais  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
For a moment, Richard returned to conscious thought.
For a moment, Richard smiled.
It was not a kind smile.
His mouth felt full of glass and brittle bone, and (quiet, always quiet- he couldn't remember the last time he had shouted at someone) words fell from his mouth like silent bullets into water, only the water was the tar dripping into his lungs and the blood leaking from his nose and eyes into his mouth.
His lifeblood tasted like the iron-cold bite of winter, stardust, and the smell of ozone. It wasn't real, of course, but he could imagine it vividly, remembering punishments and lessons long since earned and learned.
"Am I supposed to be upset by that? How charming."
He lowered his voice a voice that wasn't his own, it was too dark, too smooth, had the wrong accent, the wrong cadence, the wrong emphasis on the wrong vowels- almost impossibly further, a mouthful of jagged teeth looming dangerously near the man's jugular as he leaned closer to his ear.
He imagined he could hear the man's pulse. He couldn't really, though he could certainly feel it again, now that the barrier had fallen.
"I will share a secret with you, snarky one: He is doomed further, by falling in love with me and by being with me for even a second more, and I am doomed for letting him and letting me."
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago • edited
The man flashes a smile. It was too confident for comfort. "I'll take it to my grave. Though... you should really mind what you say." There was an edge to his voice. Outside of buying time, and knowing he was doomed, something was terribly, terribly wrong. "You never know who's listening."
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Tairais  chatterghosts • 3 years ago • edited
Richard shrugged nonchalantly, the thin line of tension between what remained of his shoulder blades going unnoticed, given their positions.
It's not like the man knew knew what was happening to him or anything. Especially since he himself was unaware of the full extent of the cracks forming in his psyche.
"The right action in the right moment, Richard. Ride the tempest. Neither drown nor fall."
He was drowning and falling and floating all at once, two parts of a whole dancing and snarling in a corridor of mirrors that broke with each exhalation and reformed with every gasp for greedy lungfuls of air.
And they were empty for the hunger gnawing on their bones and greedy for even the smallest amount of sustenance. The smallest hint of knowledge or understanding or sympathy or anything, really.
"Well, if it helps, what I have said can be heard by all, but the meaning will only be heard by a few. And with that, I must say farewell."
He didn't give the man time to breathe before he carved a charming smile into his throat, similar to the scar snaking around his own neck. For an extra measure of vindictiveness, he repeated the motion on his abdomen, scissoring it open with cruel hands before he picked up the carcass and threw it in the general direction of where he'd seen the fellow's comrades.
Briefly, his paranoia wondered if Elias could hear him. The thought sent fingers of iron into his chest and stomach, and they clenched and tore painfully.
"I am sorry, mylimasis, but you know it to be true. I am not good for you, and yet you are.. everything, in a sense, to me."
"I wonder if I would kill you to stay with me."
Sickeningly enough, the thought didn't disturb him nearly as much as it perhaps should have. It felt like the logical conclusion, the last domino to fall in a chain reaction.
He could imagine how he would do it, too. He could picture his design, as Will would have called it.
Like a seal slipping into water, so too did he slip back under the current of his thoughts, letting them all wash away until he felt nothing, thought nothing except of battle.
A battle he wasn't sure he'd win. A battle he wasn't sure he wanted to win.
"Mylimasis."
That was his last conscious thought for a great time.
A tsunami I see all the signs of a rising tsunami within you of grief swept across plains of bone and dust, plains of desolation. A snow of glass and ash tore and burned into his skin with hot rage, and he did nothing, could do nothing. 
Self loathing and regret tore into them- into Lew- into him with a tangible, visceral pain, and acceptance did very little to dull the edges.
He ached inside, though he wasn't entirely sure why. He felt empty, and he ached as a result. Or perhaps he ached and felt empty as a result.
There was no telling.
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chatterghosts  Tairais • 3 years ago
There was a resounding shriek from said comrades, a series of expletives, and horrified yells of the name David (presumably, what had been the man's name).
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Tairais  chatterghosts • 3 years ago • edited
He smiled his glass-and-tar smile once more, despite the sensation of being on the wrong path, of walking on an eroding cliff face. In that single moment, time seemed to both suspend entirely and rush by impossibly fast.
In later times, when memory would take over and guilt would clutch at his chest, he'd realize the itching, scratching feeling that had skittered down his spine moments before was his subconscious's attempt at a warning. A warning he should have heeded, perhaps, but perhaps not. The circumstances and consequences afterward would have changed, but would he really have wanted them to?
The next three chain links cut before him managed to be enough to drop him into the inky depths of unconsciousness, and the terribly unforgiving terrain of his own mind. Perhaps David's subtle barb had had more claws than he realized. Perhaps not. There wasn't really any telling which subtle factor led to his inevitable plummet.
The first link, in the form of the fifth man he had killed, was stubborn and difficult to burn through. Witnessing his friend's death had tempered his resolve with ironclad thoughts of revenge and made their dance all the more exhilarating.
A dodged punch here, a superficial cut to the cheek (that was hardly noticeable amidst the rest of his scar tissue, save for the fact it leaked crimson onto an unforgiving floor), a jab to the throat, a fatal wound narrowly avoided, they bent and wove like willows in the breeze.
It was beautiful.
"This is all I have ever wanted for you. For us." "It is.. beautiful."
Eventually though, the man had made a mistake, and the curtain fell on their dance. Perhaps the siren's call of retribution had made their battle more personal, perhaps not, but the fact of the matter remained that when his foe had crowded him to slash at his throat, he had grabbed the man's upper arm and neck in a macabre mockery of a friendly embrace.
Reflexes and instincts were such troublesome things at times. As the man stepped back in a bid to escape the strange hold, Richard hooked a leg behind his knee with another flash of quicksilver movement and pushed.
The man fell.
Try as he would later, he never quite could remember how he would make such a mess of the man's chest cavity and face, nor how the man had screamed the screech of a dying animal- a horse, perhaps, for it was high and shrill enough.
The second link, the bullets that pierced the arm holding his katar, he remembered quite well, as well as the sheer agony that rippled across his entire nervous system when one such bullet struck the stone in the hand, chipping it. He remembered the feeling of something deep within him changing and warping and burning at the sensation.
To those with Lewis's eyes, a veil of sorts parted. There was a puppeteer behind Richard's battered marionette, caught in his tangled strings. A shadow behind his soul.
Shadow and soul switched places for a single moment, escaping through the stones that were somehow a part of himself yet not at all, two stars perpetually in orbit around each other.
He moved without thinking, disemboweling the man responsible and looping lengths of his own intestines around his neck, a customized noose.
Rude.
The shadow returned to its rightful place, but echoes of it stayed in Richard's eye, were one to look. The knowledge rippled across whatever strange bond they had in a flash of otherworldly amusement. An invitation of sorts.
See me if you can, but you will not be able to know me. An impression felt more than heard. Look into his eyes- his eye.
When the world had stopped ringing in his ears and bleeding black spots across his vision, he would come to realize that, in addition to the bullets embedded in his arm, there was also a bullet or two lodged in his chest next to a gaping knife wound he couldn't remember getting.
He laughed, broken glass and nails against a chalkboard and porcelain shattering. It was easier than focusing on golden eyes and stardust trapped in skin, and the heavy current of guilt and apology for all he was that tugged at their- Lewis- THEIR his stomach almost as painfully as his wounds throbbed. His left arm hung uselessly by his side, though he was grateful to see his hand had reflexively clenched around the handle of his weapon. It wasn't going anywhere.
He allowed bits of himself to resurface for a moment more, despite the extra surge of agony awareness gave (to a point, he could distance himself from pain so long as he didn't think, but he had to) and pushed a warning across an ocean of many hues and materials.
"I am afraid you're going to have to come to my rescue, darling Lewis." His voice wasn't his, his voice wasn't his- Why wasn't it his? Why weren't HIS thoughts coming through? Or were they his thoughts? They seemed right, in the same way counterfeit money seemed right at a first glance and- " Do hurry, won't you?" There was the impression of a bloody-toothed, nigh on shameless grin, warped and wobbly at the edges through frustration and hunger pain of more than one kind.
The thought passed in a single shuddering beat of his heart as he was still. It was that single heartbeat that betrayed him.
The butt of a pistol (the third link broken, the wrong link broken) was forcibly introduced to the juncture where his neck and skull met. Too late, he saw flashes of impressions of movement and trajectories that stated what he should have realized earlier:
He was falling before his job was done.
His reaction was wrong, in a sense. The expected rage and indignation were there, yes, but above all that, he felt a deep seated amusement and lackadaisical 'what can you do?' sort of attitude to sweep over the landscape of his mind. As he fell, here was a moment of acknowledgement, of acceptance.
He landed in darkness. Temporary darkness, but darkness nonetheless.
He'd ignore the fire and light threatening to burn it away, for now.
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Jasper Jekyll  Tairais • 3 years ago
( As if on cue, two people burst through the door- one of them a giant of gleaming stone and eyes of fire. Strong limbs move at light speed, like a dancer.
Swish
In a series of rapid movements, she twists his arm sharply enough to hear the telltale crack of bone and flips him, hurls him high into the air, setting him up for a rather hard landing. The gun falls to the floor with a clatter.
One down.
For only the pause of a heartbeat she realizes the gravity of the sin she is about to commit.
She could only hope Silver would forgive her.
A heavy boot lands on the gun, smashing it into thousands of fragments, before she approaches the likely unconscious gunman and lands a heavy foot to his trachea. )
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Silverliné Carew  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago • edited
( Silver can't suppress the involuntary chill running down her spine when she hears the crack of bone. She focuses her attention on the injured warrior before her instead. Although every nerve screams to run away and hide, she places one long foot in front of the other and soon finds herself standing between he and the ensuing battle. )
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chatterghosts  Silverliné Carew • 3 years ago
Only one man remains, lingering in the back, but he already looks defeated: thoroughly terrified at the sight of eight - or nine? - corpses, one viscera-stained and unconscious man, one hulking warrior, and... well, Silver, who he didn't identify as a threat.
Nonetheless, a horrific scene. He flashes a weak smile. "They're, uh, in that room," jabbing a finger in the direction of the room they'd neglected before. Jasper and Silver would have to turn back.
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Silverliné Carew  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( Silver reads his expression instantly, her own nerves singing with a sensation of dread.
Not a threat.
She looks to Jasper. )
Don't you dare hurt him.
( From inside her psyche, a voice muses. Her voice muses
"compassion is your weakness" )
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Jasper Jekyll  Silverliné Carew • 3 years ago • edited
( Jasper's eyes shift from one to the other, her face devoid of expression.
She DID have a knack for reading people. )
Get out of here.
( After a moment, she adds. )
...Before I take you out myself.
( It is always best to be threatening. Just in case. )
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chatterghosts  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago
The man's expression floods to relief, and he locks eyes with Silver, his voice cracking. "Thank you."
With that, he scurries past them and out the door.
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Jasper Jekyll  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
They probably know we're here. They'll be expecting us.
( Jasper heads towards the door. )
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Silverliné Carew  Jasper Jekyll • 3 years ago
Um...wh-what do we do with.....
( Her voice trails off with a sudden horror.
She doesn't know his name. )
...um...him? ( She points to Richard. )
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Jasper Jekyll  Silverliné Carew • 3 years ago
( A good question.
An excellent question.
He put up a spectacular fight, but it took a great toll on him. Their host would not have good intentions and the tortured soul would not be able to withstand another attack, but leaving him behind would also leave him vulnerable to their...whatever they were doing here. )
...He's coming with us.
( Effortlessly, Jasper picks the man up and lifts him onto her back in an unconscious piggy back carry. )
Let's go.
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Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
( He leans in. They both look unconscious but...
Curious.
On the off chance the opium is wearing off, he decides to play along. )
I'm sorry, what was that?
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
There is a response, though it seems that it isn't towards Alano - but if not him, then...?
The words are garbled by sleep, naturally, but certain phrases surface. "Nnyour.. name?" A down beat. "Somethin's not.. right. 'stoo... dark.."
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( He tilts his head.
Hallucinations then. Must be allergic.
He'd have to note it in his chart.
In the meantime, he'd continue to indulge. For Arty's sake. He replies gently )
My name? You know my name Señor. I'm Alano
Of course it's dark, it's night time. Are you afraid of the dark?
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
Arty's face remains even, void of emotion in his sleep despite his words. ".. got to get back... Elias.. Ol- ..."
Silence.
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( He must be really deep into his hallucination.
Best to monitor and wait. )
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
Minutes pass in silence.
One was enough for Elias to fall apart.
Arty's eyes shoot open.
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( Alano bristles slightly at the sudden change in consciousness. )
Arty!
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
Arty moves swiftly in pulling himself up, both hands planted firmly on the ground.
Ouch.
He recognizes his mistake and yanks his hand back, eyes wide. Memories and fatigue crash his thoughts at the same time, and he throws his head back. "Yeah, okay, could'a thought that one through.."
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
Just relax! You've been through Hell and back.
Your body needs time to rest.
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
The words Arty had caught cascaded through his head.
One was enough for Elias to fall apart.
"N - no. I have to get in there, so-- something's going on!"
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
You're not going anywhere Señor. Whatever is happening is much more than what you can handle right now.
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
"No, y- you don't understand. I could hear the one hurting Elias!" With a sigh, he scrubs at his face. "He's-- he's gonna do somethin'. He wants Elias to fall apart."
With clear struggle, Arty gets to shaky feet. "I need to be there!"
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( Alano gently guides him back down. )
You know HOW he's going to pick this Elias apart?
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
"He's-" The lump in his throat seems to grow. "I think he wants to kill someone in there, but I'm not sure who.."
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
You care about him, no?
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
Arty can see where this is headed, and he snarls. "Yes. So I should stay alive for him, right? Don't risk myself?"
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
I don't know all of you or why you've attracted this kind of attention, but if your words are true then your sacrifice won't save anyone.
I know his kind.
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
"It isn't a damn sacrifice!" His voice cracked at the word.
"If you know anything about what's going on in there, then I'd think you would know that you don't just - I can't sit out here and wait for this! I'm not going to!"
He abruptly, but not entirely unexpectedly, pulls away from him and begins to leave for the second time.
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago • edited
( Alano reaches for his guitar and winces when he realizes that she never gave it back. Moments later, Arty finds himself pinned to the dock. The doctor's voice isn't angry, but urgent. )
They're going to kill all of you if you go inside. Can't you see? this man is using you as a pawn!
They want you there. They're waiting for you!
You can't take this bait!
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
Unlike Alano, Arty sounds pissed. "I have to! Get off of me!" He squirms under the pin.
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( Alano continues holding the pin, arms and legs shifting slightly to better hold down Arty's limbs. )
I can't! You have to listen to me,
You'll kill everyone in there, yourself included!
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
He spits in Alano's face. "GET OFF!"
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( Not even that disrupts the man's hold. )
I can't!
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
Arty continues to struggle, but the drained state he's in only becomes more evident. "Please! I need to help them!"
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
You ARE helping him! You're keeping him safe by staying here. Let the others do their work and they'll be coming back very soon.
( He adds with a weak chuckle. )
They have some special magic with them anyway. No one can harm the gang with La Rosa on their side.
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
Arty is out of breath, now, and his head thunks against the docks. The tension he'd had before has dissipated. "Pl-- please.." His voice is broken, defeated.
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( Very gingerly, Alano tightens his arms into a warm hug before returning them to their original places. )
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
"Don't hug me," he seethes.
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( With an unseen nod, Alano seemingly goes completely still.
"I never wanted to harm you mi amigo"
He thought.
"I hope you can forgive me when the world is safe again...
....the sun should be rising soon. I also hope they get back before it does" )
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
A solid minute passes in stiff silence before Arty speaks again. His voice is a low, defeated mumble. "This is all my fault."
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
No no, you couldn't have known.
( He sighs. )
These people like to prey on the vulnerable. They groom those they assume to be helpless, maybe promise them whatever they want, maybe threaten their family. Whatever gets the victim into their hands.
These people start wars
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
"No, this is really my fault..."
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
how?
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
A beat passes. Arty closes his eyes. "I didn't - Elias had warned me. He'd always said to steer clear of the shady types, y'know, don' let 'em poke around, especially for him, but..."
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago • edited
( His voice softens, sweetens. )
You didn't know.
This? This is not your fault. It's not mine, it's not his. Not even the mean giant inside is responsible for his capture.
The only person to blame here is the the terrorista who orchestrated this mess.
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
"I heard him.."
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
Did you see the future too?
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
Arty blinks. "What? No!"
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Dr. de Lezo  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
( He smiles.)
Then it's not your fault. You didn't know this was going to happen so you had no way to stop it.
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
"I could've stopped it, though!" His stare hardens, calcifies under Alano, though he still refuses to meet his gaze.
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chatterghosts  Dr. de Lezo • 3 years ago
"I could've stopped it, though!" His eyes are unfamiliarly indurate, though he still can't meet Alano's gaze.
(( Disqus ate my response.. ))
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Hyde without a Jekyll  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
((*Quietly whimpers from the self blaming corner with Arty.*)
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Alicia Ghast • 3 years ago
(I've been God knows where and not paying attention, and I'm still gonna be off doing whatever, so... can someone tag me when Arty gets home and isn't... dying? In case that happens?)
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chatterghosts  Alicia Ghast • 3 years ago
(( There will be an aftermath/infirmary post. ^^ ))
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Alicia Ghast  chatterghosts • 3 years ago
(Sweet!)
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Hyde without a Jekyll  Alicia Ghast • 3 years ago
(It's bad...It's really really bad.... Right now he's a hand down and a brother up and my guess is someone's going to snap and we'll be down so many many things...It's bad...)
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ATasteForVintages  Hyde without a Jekyll • 3 years ago
Looks like Jasper's still kicking though!
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Hyde without a Jekyll  ATasteForVintages • 3 years ago
Oh most definitely! Jasper, Alano, and Silver have been so far the safest out of the lot.
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Alicia Ghast  Hyde without a Jekyll • 3 years ago
(Oh. Well.)
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