Lancaster 1 Posted July 22 #21 Share Posted July 22 As Mari would begin to crumble, some pang in his heart would sheer off layers that were long scarred and hardened. "There isn't any magic tricks left, mi amore." The man could only tighten his hand to clasp hers. "I have left Laughing Coffin, done the unthinkable. In front of the Faceless Lord no less." He pulled hard at the cigarette, as if to keep the strength he needed to follow through the explanations required of him by the pair listening on. "It gave me little choice, demanding that I settle the sheer mess that our love had caused." Lancaster leans forward, pressing his forehead against hers, enjoying her scent as if it would be the last time. "The lord was fishing, aiming to force me to do something drastic. It wasn't made fully clear what it had wanted, but I had my guesses." A lean to scan over her hair, locking eyes with the man of the hour. Freyd. "The motive seemed to have me kill you. I declined." Popping off a coy grin, to hide the pain of gravity crushing him. "When Mari told me that she'd defend you from me, it was made clear amico that you were.... off limits. When I had to choose between Mari's wishes and the Lord's...." His left fingers ran through her hair, trying so desperately to enjoy it. "Is obvious. Color me a romantic, a hopeless one." "Let’s cut to the chase: you need me.” "Mari... if he's left them. There may not be much time." The man would clutch at the cigarette hanging out of his mouth, using it like tool to gesture with more moxie. "Fare centro, exactly why I am here. Is why I am late." The man would pause and lean forward, pulling the woman close to his chest to bury her into it and deliberately covering her ears. The less she dove headfirst into this grave the safer she'd be. Freyd was already in the thick of it, from the look of things. Lancaster guessed that he wouldn't be changing much. "If you are hoping for more then rumor, tangible? verifiable? Your fighting a losing battle friend. Usable? Your only way of reaching the Faceless Lord is through necessity. Is and was my exact plan to take its place to begin with. The lord comes when a finger operates out of turn, and the others cannot deal with the problem. There in lies the weak point. They will come for me amico. That much is certain. But I will not go down without hell to pay. It would be too risky to send more then one against me. But it would be the only way to reach me. Unless..." Pulling Mari tighter, as if trying to squeeze out her panic and fear. "I... suspect that the big cheese will be forced to deal with me personally, else risk an entire hand in a communion. You may not need what I can offer, but I would bet this is your only shot of ever getting the chance at an attempt at all. Am the bait to your little trap, amico. Mari is the only thing I give a damn about." Another huff of smoke from the jimmy stuck in his teeth. "You want to protect her, I do as well. This Lord wants you, and now it wants me. It knows Mari to be our chain or leash, and will not be afraid to use it. capiche? Am not asking to protect me." The expression would convey his intention as he'd match the mans intensity on equals, his tired eyes breathing realism on the almost weak retelling of consequences. "Just a truce, and defend her. As a friend, and if we happen to kill similar people. Is a win win." Link to post Share on other sites
Mari 1 Posted July 22 Author #22 Share Posted July 22 (edited) ♪ ♫ ♬ Mari saw that look on Freyds face. The tightening of his jaw. The way his cerulean eyes bore into her as if to say ‘this is not over’ a look that screamed silently at her. It felt like something deep within her chest snapped at the sheer weight of that look. Memories of her Gemini telling her that Freyd was sick of her bullshit. Was Akir right? Was this it? It wasn’t just anger behind his eyes. It was disappointment, frustration, curiosity. Questioning. Was she worth it? And was she? It tore at her more than any blade could. It hurt. It hurt Mari’s heart to see someone she cared for so irrevocably look at her that way. All Mari could do was offer him a pleading look - one that would not sate his concerns. No amount of silent glances would allow her the grace without some sort of explanation. One she could never give him. Mari wanted to apologize to him, she wanted to tell him something, no, everything - but she made a promise. She couldn’t break it. It would shatter more than just trust between her and Raidou. It terrified her. The tight feeling around her chest grew. Mari struggled to breathe. Tiny flecks of white ghosted across her vision. Mari’s brows furrowed as she blinked a few times to try and clear it but the edges of her world were still frayed. Every human being had a finite processing capacity, a capacity. Every soul a threshold to keep everything in check. A barrier to stop the sheer pressure that life threw at you at bay and Mari had passed hers long ago. Mari straightened and took a step back from Lancaster, shaking blue eyes on Freyd. It felt like there was a fog setting into her mind, Mari prayed her laboured breaths weren’t noticeable. She just had to get through this. Get through the dizziness. Push past the crushing pain. Push past the numbness that tickled at her fingers and threatened to throw her to the floor with unrelenting pressure. Breathe Mari…. Breathe Mari…. Breathe Mari…. She was hyperventilating. "Mari... if he's left them. There may not be much time." Her world spun, and if it wasn't for the sudden rush of warmth she would have collapsed entirely. Mari felt Lancasters trembling fingers trawl their way through her hair. It calmed her. Grounded her. Right…these two didn’t know. Mari’s eyes fluttered shut as she wrapped her arms around Lancaster, soaking in his warmth. The erratic thunder of her heartbeat slowly began to sync with the steady languid rhythm of his own. In that moment, it was enough. Lancaster was still talking to Freyd- but if Mari were being honest - she barely heard it. It felt like white noise. A comforting static in her unravelling world. He’d hold her together. Arms surrounding her like a shield. It wasn’t till that moment - until the heat of someone she loved wrapped around her completely - that Mari realized what had nearly happened.She was on the verge of a panic attack. Lancaster would move to cover her ears with his hands. A strangely sweet and childish gesture and Mari couldn’t help but choke out a laugh. A feeble attempt to stop her from hearing him. Mari lifted her head up to kiss the underside of his chin. Words broke through the haze of her panic. They will come for me amico Am the bait to your little trap, amico Am not asking to protect me The way he desperately clung to her as though she was slipping through his fingers. How he would bury his face into her hair and inhale between words. It felt like this was a goodbye. Mari wouldn’t let it be. With a weak, yet newfound resolve Mari took a step back. He didn’t believe her. That was fine. “G-Give me a moment…” She said, barely able to hold her breath steady as she stepped away from the two. “I almost….” She breathed, it was difficult to admit such a weakness. “I think I almost had a panic attack, I think. I just need some fresh air.” Mari would give Lancasters hand a squeeze, followed by another kiss. Pausing to breathe in his cologne, the scent of ash, of gasoline, and everything else that was undeniabaly irrevocably him. She headed to the front door, and closed it behind her. Now outside Mari opened up her messenger. Spoiler To: @Raidou From: Mari Subject: Help. hesout Please help. wat di i nede to do? Don respnd, Im delntin shi fom my mesage history. The message was so hastily typed and sent away that it was riddled with errors. Mari removed it from her sent history, in case anyone would try to check then with a deep breath trudged out to the snow to collect her lost slippers. Tears fell from her face. She would not lose him. She would not lose Freyd. Mari would become hell itself to protect those she loved. She blinked when she got a reply from him almost instantly... hadn't she told him not to respond? Quote "Where, is he with you?" Mari sighed. This wasn't going to be easy, was it? Then again. Nothing worth fighting for ever was. Quote With me, and Fryf.d. Another response from Raidou, quick. Quote Coordinates? Mari sent him the coordinates before going through and removing everything from her inbox. Something she had done often anyway, so to those who knew her, it'd be no surprise to see nothing there. Mari picked up one slipper. It was soaked. Where was the other? Her entire body trembled, and it wasn't just because she foolishly ran out into the snow barefoot. Was she doing the right thing? It didn't matter. What mattered was Lancaster. What mattered was Freyd. And their survival. "I'll be the monster if it means you both live." Edited July 22 by Mari Link to post Share on other sites
Freyd 0 Posted July 23 #23 Share Posted July 23 (edited) ♪ ♫ ♫ ♪ Mari made quick exit, emotions overwhelming her. Freyd suspected trouble imminent. She would never leave these two alone without some other exacting scheme to set the cindered world alight anew. “You really love her, don’t you?” Words rang out as conflicted as their speaker, they pained him just to voice aloud. Freyd hated this man, for reasons more than two lifetimes’ memories could validate. Knowing every facet of his callous monstrous nature, this was the first and only moment he’d ever glimpsed even a modicum of decency in the bastard conqueror’s heart. So many friends lost to a Lancaster’s flames, effigies seared indelibly into the very definition of who and what Freyd was. Every part of him wanted nothing more than to give in to those instincts and rip the cocky bastard’s heart out with his bare hands, spraying shattered sprinkles across the freshly stained hardwood with the same gleeful disregard reserved for spilling the guts of a slaughtered overstuffed pinata. Behind blue eyes, girded with dispassion, Freyd seethed for nothing short of brutal, violent, righteous murder. Only one thing held his finger from pulling back that trigger. Ever under the rigorous and demanding auspices of his own machine mind, he’d already parsed all the angles and considered every conceivable variable within a fathom’s reach. None in the main viable subset of options were especially appealing. One version would do Lancaster’s bidding and play out some scandalous farce of a battle between him and himself in a vain attempt to spare two reckless lovebirds from the maelstrom of consequences their own foolish lusts had set into motion. They'd fed the beast till it threatened to consume them and all others in a sizably calamitous splash zone. Too improbable and prone to propagating a problem already swollen beyond its breeches. A non-starter. He could literally do nothing, ironically giving Mari the very thing she thought she wanted by keeping out of her business, leaving her to suffer to the collapse of a world she seemed incapable of keeping from perpetually imminent doom. It would break her, and so many others by rippling proxy. He could kill Lancaster, drawing forth a rapturous momentary bliss at the cost of Mari’s forever rightful wrath. Oh, how he wanted this, every muscle coiled and ready to deliver. But that would sacrifice the last iota of what kept him from becoming the very thing he hated. That line was already so very, very thin. A thought spared for the mirror, Freyd’s eyes never parting from his quarry. Could he ever look at it again with that choice? Every path led to the same inescapable conclusion, leaving him truly and forever Faceless, in all its ignobly oppressive solitude. Unless... “There might be a way,” spoken in quick and quiet conspiracy, the urgent privacy of their discussion clear. It stung just to think the thought, though Freyd clung to it like his only fraying strand of hope. “We only have a moment. I see that you’re willing to die for her.” Rhetorical, the crux of the other's insane plan being some absurd blaze of glory that might get many others killed, including the beloved he purported to spare. The choice: an oubliette instead of death. Stasis. A risk of madness at the sheer stale boredom of it. But it could stem the storm. “Do you have the courage to live for her? How much would you actually endure for Mari's sake?” A rolled sheaf manifesting in his hand, unfurled as Freyd’s wrist pivoted to reveal a random dungeon map. “I can’t guarantee her safety if you die or if you remain free. But I can offer you safe harbor here while the storm passes,” eyes pointing at the map. “Stay in the vestibule. You’ll be safe. When the Faceless Lord is dead, all will be forgotten and you can have your ever after. But those stay here,” Freyd gestured to the pile of rings on the table, all visually counted against the sneaking of a shiv. If kept, Lancaster's hot head would eventually fight the mobs and unleash chaos again, lest given motivation enough to soothe his ego and passion alike. Convince him he's the hero he thinks himself to be. Give the burning and drowning man something to cling to and scent it with the romance he so craves. Mari’s frantic agitation was visible through the glass. They were all about to be hit by the mother of all stormfronts, enough to make a category five hurricane feel like kitten cuddles. “I’ll hold the key,” the map shaken for effect, “until it's done. And, keep her safe. You have my word.” Counteroffer delivered. No better deal was possible. It was more mercy than he thought himself able to manage. Harshness faded but a tad, true pity beyond the plausible, some fragment of it granted here only for Mari’s sake. Lancaster would know it. "You know it’s the only way, or we wouldn’t be here. All other roads lead her to tragedy. Please. For Mari's sake. Go. Now!” A threshold opened. Rings swallowed by a Whisper's hand. A fateful choice in need of making. How rare to be granted the opportunity to choose one's destiny, especially at the hand of an enemy? All that remained was to witness what mattered more to the lion: pride or love? Edited July 23 by Freyd Link to post Share on other sites
Lancaster 1 Posted July 23 #24 Share Posted July 23 Mari had since left her own home, finding herself suffocated by the gravity. The situation had taken such a dramatic downturn and it was one Lancaster had rightfully expected. The moment he chose to bite the hand that called him to action, there would be a reckoning. His last ditch to turn the table in his favor. Lancaster nursed that cigarette, where 16 remained in such a brief conversation to convey his stress in triplicate. The trail of smoke from tired eyes as they sized the man up, his gambit and attempts to salvage this stretched thin and ethereal like it. Listening rather intently which was a strange one for him, given those that knew him knew that he hardly checked in. Playing the silent audience and wrapping the plan through his head, as the maestro would lay it all out. ♫ “You really love her, don’t you?” Pressing his hands into his knees, he'd stand and move for the fire pushing the stoker through it to breathe it to life. The flames flicker. "I do, as much as I tried to ignore it. Avoid it, it dug under my skin. Amari stole my heart, and has gave me hers in return." Turning the iron bar, its slid over an awaiting hook. A dancing pyre causes the shadow to pool on his brow, like a grave foretelling of what was to come. Freyd would present a map, but it wasn't the sort that presented a landscape. No this one, a portal key to a pocket where only a select few could enter. The tips of his finger and thumb grab at the filter near his lips, reading the situation and the mans absent body language. “I can’t guarantee her safety if you die or if you remain free. But I can offer you safe harbor here while the storm passes” His wording didn't inspire any confidence, nor did the suggestion. It was rather common place for these little pockets to be used by other members of the guild he'd left. Laughing Coffin used these quite often when they wanted to contain a player. Rosaria and her little minion training program, Hiroshi and his mountaintop keep. Even Tybalt and his little shows, all took place in these locations. Lancaster didn't spite the mans lack of inner working knowledge of the guild, but the notion didn't sit right with Lancaster. "I see." He'd offer, choosing to hear it all before making any real decisions. Even more alien to him, was the fact that somehow his containment was going to somehow strengthen Mari's defense. Although Lancaster understood that proximity to her would offer the chances of collateral damage, proximity could be changed rather simply. Aincrad was a big place, and it was no secret that most members of the guild held untraceable for this exact reason. Lancaster could no longer use guild warp gates if he wanted to remain undetected, but there were ways to get around without them. To be locked in a specific place, hoping for the best seemed utterly foolish. brash. “Stay in the vestibule. You’ll be safe. When the Faceless Lord is dead, all will be forgotten and you can have your ever after. But those stay here” “I’ll hold the key” Retaining his focus on Freyd, as the rings he'd set aside were swiped from the table. The sign of good faith long gone, and yet it would have been unnoticed that his most important one was cursed. If there was any level of trust, then perhaps Lancaster could agree to this very risky gamble. Moral was, there wasn't any and the guy wanted him to sit in a lead box where he couldn't escape. Where only he held the key, and his guard dogs were more then just a rumor. Disarmed? It was obviously a trap, yet the strength of which Vincent hardly knew. To accept would be so wholly stupid, given he would be a fish in a barrel ready to get shot. The posture that Freyd had conveyed, Mari's pleading toward him confirming how ready to pounce he was. "You know it’s the only way, or we wouldn’t be here. All other roads lead her to tragedy. Please. For Mari's sake. Go. Now!” And the final nail in the proverbial coffin, the call to action to instill a sense of urgency. To force a quick decision when the level of agency did not match it. To dive off the deep end without thinking, and let emotion guide choices instead of any sort of logic or rationality. Lancaster did not obtain his station by making choices so carelessly, and despite that station being forfeit the fact remained. Lancaster would turn toward the door. "Counter offer, I will keep my distance as necessary and disappear under the radar. You have my name, feel free to ring. But pardon my gut, this doesn't add up. Too risky, and removing your bullets from the chamber doesn't strike me as the best way to defend someone amico." A couple steps toward it would snap the length required for his cursed ring to rip itself out of Freyd's attempt and find itself squarely back on his finger, the system forbidding it from leaving him for too long. "Good luck hunting, Fratello. I will protect her in the ways I know how. Will not become a mouse trapped in a cage waiting for someone to slit my throat." Link to post Share on other sites
Raidou 1 Posted July 24 #25 Share Posted July 24 A flash of blue out of the blue, in response to Mari's midafternoon message. Raidou's hands covered in soil with a roll of his right shoulder. A bag slung precariously over it, he'd turn and toss the thing into the snow causing it to get stuck as it caves in. "Sorry I'm late. Is he inside?" The man scans her surroundings looking for Freyd as well. Confirming that they were both likely within, a flash of green draws a sweeping sonar over the environment confirming the total lack of hostiles under that concrete perception. "Mari, If you would." He'd adjust his robe around his collar tightening it and making sure it was affixed well. "I need a vial of your truth serum." A shocked look on her face would provide a sense of confusion, showing that she couldn't piece together how he knew what he did. After a harsh swallow, she'd slide through her inventory then produce the requested syringe. "Thank you." Raidou comments pulling his glasses off his face and folding them away into his robe pocket. "Please come inside, but try to relax. I wont kill him, however this will not be pretty." Turning the door handle, finding a very familiar frame faced away from him. "Good morning gentleman." Raidou presses his hand into Lancasters back and a wave of black coils rip around him like self tying rope, causing the cigarette to bounce limply on the floor. A wave of sudden heat discharges causing the door to turn to ash, half of Raidou's skin is scorched clean off his jaw showing his teeth before it immediately reforms. Juiblex rips the remaining rings from his fingers, having them dangle limply on thin ebony wire. The flame snuffed out, Raidou looks to the purple ring confirming its removal. A handful of red hair, and a jam of that syringe into his neck. "Let's not be too hot headed. Take a seat." A whip of his hand, sends the man in a wave of ink into a chair that sticks to it with a sticky slap causing windows to break. Raidou leans down and plucks the cigarette off the floor, wandering toward the table and snuffing it out in a glass that appears to him like lemonade. It hisses and goes out just like Lancaster's flame, as Juiblex opens a hole where his mouth would be allowing him to gasp for air. The nomad begins to place out tools of all sorts on the table next to what used to be a meal, as broken chairs and wood litter the floor. "Who the fuck, figlio di puttana." A bit of flame begins to spark up, and Raidou tosses a small jar of white paste toward Juiblex who gobbles it up. The man begins to smoke, the heat no longer able to build up. "Another friend of Mari's. But introductions would be irrelevant. Wouldn't they Vincenzo Lionetti?" Tossing a honey bun to Freyd as the red head sat in total shock, before pulling over one of the last working chairs and throwing his feet up on top of the table he'd take a bite of his own. Waiting for the truth serum to take full effect. Phase 1 complete Guild Rank : +5% Final EXP Specialization: Resolute (3) Actual Block | Raidou | HP: 1180/1180 | EN: 156/156 | DMG: 11 | MIT:142 | ACC:2 | TAUNT | F-SPIRIT | EVA:4 | BH:65 | VAMP-D: 130 | VAMP-O: 195 | REC: 8 | BLI: 32/-20 | LD:6 Narrative Block | Raidou | HP: 1416/1416 | EN: 156/156 | DMG: 1 | MIT:450 | ACC:4 | TAUNT | F-SPIRIT | EVA:7 | BH:78 | VAMP-D: 156 | VAMP-O: 234 | REC: 8 | BLI: 32/-20 | LD:6 | DOTE: 3/3 | PROB:36 | CAIN: 50 | BRN-IMM Spoiler Name: Raidou, The Red Wanderer True Tier: 17 Level: 34 Paragon Level: 129 HP: 1180/1180 EN: 156/156 Stats: Damage: 11 Mitigation: 142 Accuracy: 2 Evasion: 4 Battle Healing: 65 Loot Die: 6 TAUNT VAMP-D: 130 VAMP-O: 195 REC: 8 BLI: 32/-20 Equipped Gear: Weapon/Armor/Trinket: - Ebon Star - Vanguard Revenant [T4/Demonic/Straight Sword]: V.O 2, Taunt, Blight 1 Armor/Trinket: - Red Wanderer's Resolve - Sympathy [T1/Demonic/Cloth] 2 Evasion, 2 Vampiric Defensive Shield/Armor/Trinket: - Vision of Wisdom - Whisper [T4/Demonic/Trinket] Evasion 1, Recovery 2, Accuracy 1 Combat Mastery: - Combat Mastery: Mitigation R3 Combat Shift: - TECH Shift Familiar Skill: - Custom Skill: - Ill Omen in Red Skills: - Battle Healing R5 - Charge - Cloth Armor R5 - Energist - Fighting Spirit - Howl - Quick Change - Searching R5 - Straight Sword R5 Extra Skills: - Survival - Parry - Forgotten King's Authority - Concentration - - - Inactive Extra Skills: PhotosynthesizeBrawlerFrozen Hide Addons: - Ferocity - Focused Howl - Nimble - Precision - Reveal - Stamina Mods: - Athletics - Detect - Justified Riposte - Tracking - Vengeful Riposte Inactive Mods: Battle Ready Inventory: - Crippling Composition - Lullaby [Tierless/Rare/Debuff/Instant] Hypnosis 2 | [224055] x1 - Teleport Crystal x1 - Vocal Augmentation - Resonation [Tierless/Perfect/Support/Instant] +15% HP [160898][161641][161642][162018][162529] x1 Housing Buffs: - Basic Kitchen: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. This can exceed normal Cook enhancement caps. Ex: A perfect T2 MIT food gives 35 MIT instead of 30. - Storage Closet: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot - Living Room: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts. - Attic (Storage): +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests - Basement: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll - Guest Room: Players can have one «Amenity» in a «Guest Room» and the «Amenity» cannot be recovered. Players are allowed to change which «Amenity» is in the «Guest Room». Multiple instances of the same «Amenity» do not stack. This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members. - Master Bedroom: -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat - Master Bathroom: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down) - Extended Workshop: +2 Crafting EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day - Greenhouse: +2 Gathering EXP per Attempt and additional +1 LD & CD to gathering attempts. - Dining Hall: Turn 3 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Feast. A Feast contains 6 portions of the food items sacrificed. Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread. - Mega Slime Farm: +10% EXP to a thread. Limit one use per month. Must be used on a player's first post in a thread. Cooldown begins counting down when used in a post. Guild Hall Buffs: - Trading Hall: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters and Rank 4 merchants/performers receive +1 crafting/identification attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters and Rank 5 merchants/performers receive +2 crafting/identification attempts per day. - Treasury: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests. Scents of the Wild Totem: - Tanos Wedding Ring: Crafting Profession: Gathering Profession: Link to post Share on other sites
Mari 1 Posted July 24 Author #26 Share Posted July 24 (edited) Being outside helped calm herself down. Focusing on a simple task like collecting lost slippers. Having messaged Raidou and knowing he’d be mere minutes, if not seconds away. Mari tilted her head watching the two people she cared about most in this world through a frosted window. The tension in the room was thick, palpable, a miasmatic maelstrom she could feel even from out where she was, ankle deep in the snow. A shaking hand gripped a soaked and dying froggy slipper. It wasn't the cold. It was still that fear. Watching as their movements shifted. Freyd drawing closer, tighter - sharper movements. Something seemed to be crumpled up in his hand. Not a weapon. Was it a plan? A threat? It looked a little bit like a map? She wasn’t sure but at least they were talking. That counted for something…surely. It just had to. With a quiet sigh Mari turned away from her home. She bent down to retrieve her other slipper, half buried in the snow. Mari shook it off. There may be no way to salvage these. Shame…Mari kinda liked how goofy looking they were, it reminded her of stonks. Honestly…she should have gone back in already. She should be in there to act as a sort of human meat shield between Lancasters wild desperation to protect a modicum of their happiness, and Freyds unbridled rage and distrust in the former Laughing Coffin member. She saw it in how he looked at her. It almost caused her to spiral. “You've been heard, Mari. It's your life. I'm here to deliberately not to get in the way or appear to be making any choices on your behalf. They are yours. Right… Mari had to trust him. Freyd had always told her to be honest with him. He could read her half-truths like pages in a book—always pulling at loose threads until the truth spilled out. And she let him. Because despite everything, Mari trusted Freyd. She trusted that after all these years, after every mistake and every silence, he still had her best interests at heart. He already promised her. He wouldn’t go back on it. He wouldn’t go behind her back. Not after all this time. Not after all they had been through. So whatever it is they were doing, Mari truly believed it’d be okay. She had to believe that. Because if he of all people would lie to her… then there was no hope left in the world at all. Mari was not the best person in her past. She was doing better now…far better than she ever had. Yes she slipped, but she had far more control over herself. Her emotions. The run-in with her gemini showed her that. All Mari could do was hope that Freyd could put his trust in her, just as she had for him. That he could see just how much she changed… because sometimes, Mari felt like Freyd didn’t see it when he looked at her. Okay… she had to go back now. Raidou still wasn’t here so - "Sorry I'm late. Is he inside?" Mari jumped, literally - as she almost fell back in the snow. “Jesus f-fucking christ!” She hadn’t heard him, he just appeared silently. He was already walking toward her home. "I need a vial of your truth serum." “W-What? How did you?” Mari sighed as she opened up her inventory and handed him a metal case, within it he’d find several vials and three needles within it. It was Raidou. That’s how. Not that Mari ever intended to keep it a secret from him. She just hadn’t had a chance to show him the things she had been working on. “Things are pretty tense in there I don’t know if its a good idea to-” Her words fell on deaf ears. Mari pushed past Raidou, being the first back inside. She almost bumped straight into Lancaster. Catching the last of his words. Good luck hunting, Fratello. I will protect her in the ways I know how. Will not become a mouse trapped in a cage waiting for someone to slit my throat." Why had Lancaster said those words? Trapped? Her eyes shifted from her lover, to Freyd who held what was clearly a dungeon map in his hands. Dots connected, an effective method to keep someone contained. One that had been used on her. Granted, hers was willingly. Will not become a mouse trapped in a cage. Did Freyd try to offer him some sort of deal when she was out of earshot. Another glance to Lancasters fingers. His rings were still gone. So he’d be trapped, with no way to defend himself? That didn’t sit right with Mari but she didn’t have time to question anything. Then it all happened so quickly, Raidou had wrapped shadows around Lancaster, and disarmed him. The man was burned - but quickly reformed. Mari was immediately at Lancasters side, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Praying he wouldn’t hate her for this. Then - the syringe was jammed into Lancasters neck. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Mari spat at Raidou, frustrated. She trusted him. She trusted Freyd. Why was this maelstrom happening now? In her home? It was supposed to be a neutral zone. try to relax How was she supposed to relax? The three people she trusted most were now in this room. Two of them seemingly with their ires aimed at Lancaster. “You could have asked him first!” Mari said, this time with a little more control in her tone. “Not just fucking jam it in his-” Another friend of Mari's. But introductions would be irrelevant. Wouldn't they Vincenzo Lionetti? That shut Mari up. Of Course Raidou would know who he was. He was the initial Faceless Lord. But what would Lancasters reaction be? Mari watched as his eyes blinked slowly. It’d already taken effect. “It’s not fair for him to be the only one drugged and bound like this.” Mari said softly. “It’s funny, you two are supposed to be the protectors - and yet…” Mari’s hands balled into fists. Shaking from rage. She had to bite her tongue. Spitting vitriol at her friends would not help the situation. She stormed over to Lancaster, who was practically bound to the chair, his breath coming in short and angered successions. With a Yank Mari ripped his rings away from Jubilex. “Give them to me.” The creature yielded- the rings falling into the palm of Mari’s hand. Green, antivenom - and his ever present little firestarter. The others? She wasn't sure where they were. Not important right now. But the creature had allowed her to take them. That meant something…right? Mari turned her back on both Freyd and Raidou, placing the rings on her own thumbs for safe keeping. Mari attempted to Shoo Jubliex away from Lancasters lap. “Please…include me in it if you have to. I just want to sit.” She asked. Unsure if the creature even had its own capacity to listen or if it was purely an extension of Raidou’s thoughts.The black ichor of the creature rumbled and shifted just enough for Mari to sit. Mari sat, wrapping one arm around Lancasters shoulder. The black binds quickly wrapped back around him, and her - trapping them both to the chair in its rope like binds. If this were any other situation Mari would have coy comments, but not now. She was practically using herself to shield him. “I need explanations.” Mari began. Her eyes shifted first to Freyd then to Raidou. They both had some serious explaining to do. First...was Raidou. She was pissed. She had trusted him. Him telling her to 'try and relax' after throwing Lancaster into a fucking chair and gagging him like this was some sort of adult animated series was not on the list of things that was okay to do. Nor was destroying her home. Granted the door was Lancasters fault. "Raidou what the fuck?" She started off angry, practically spitting the words at him as he casually ate. No...no she had to calm herself down. Mari turned her head into Lancasters neck and took a deep breath. His scent calming her. "Raidou." Mari began, her voice more even now. "You tell me to relax. You come into my home. You fucking ram some shit into MY Lancasters throat. You bind him, you blow up my windows and my furniture...coming in here like a goddamn whirlwind... And you tell me to relax?" She paused, her voice lowering. "You could have asked. I'm sure he would have accepted it if you only fucking asked." Mari turned to Lancaster to run a hand through his hair, as best s she could with herself being half bound to him, and to the chair. It wasn't the first time he had experienced her serum. "He's willingly used it before." Was her gambit wrong? “Freyd…?” Mari asked. It was her brothers turn now. Her voice cracked, broken and small as it questioned him. Why had Lancaster said those words earlier? Trapped? Her eyes shifted from her lover, to Freyd who held what was clearly a dungeon map in his hands. Had he…had he tried going behind her back? Tried sending Lancaster away without even giving her a chance to say goodbye? A chance to have her own input - did he put that little stock in her gambit - as wild as it may be? Or in her as a person?? No. NO. Mari wouldn’t do this to him again. She wouldn’t assume things, she wouldn’t take a glance at the situation and make her own conclusions. “I also have my own questions about that dungeon map..." Mari said with an even tone. She impressed herself with how much control she had right now. Feet wet and red from the snow, hands shaking from the cold, and the sheer adrenaline pumping through her, yet she kept a level head, an even temper. Emotions running wild now would not help. Its why she took a step back earlier. "I don't want to do what I've done in the past..and just assume things." Edited July 25 by Mari Link to post Share on other sites
Freyd 0 Posted July 27 #27 Share Posted July 27 (edited) “I tried, though now I understand your hesitation.” He had to play at ignorance, selling it as a distinction. “Few people appreciate how cages are safes working in reverse polarity.” Laughing Coffin’s tools were too well known to Freyd by now, and Lancaster was too wily to be so simply fooled. Unless the dupe lay behind the obvious. He needed to distinguish himself the nemesis Lancaster had fled. “But you’re too much of a coward to leave your fate in her hands, too reckless to wait for her sake, aren't you?" The words a deadpan realization as much as an accusation. "You’re committing her to a bloodbath as if it offers protection.” Ring returned, by its own means, Freyd noted which it was if the final moment came in needing to cull a finger. “Let’s not pretend that this is about risks to her,” Freyd’s tone spoke as if unfurling an epiphany. “It’s about you.” Face pulled towards pity and sneer alike, Freyd permitted it neither.. “She doesn’t need you to protect her, Lancaster. Mari isn’t some wilting flower. She’s endured more than either of us will ever know. You’re trying to save your own hide on her dime and expecting me to slaughter your allies in her name. Allies that would leave her alone if you weren’t here” A slight narrowing of the eyes to inflect the importance of that thought. “I wonder what Mari will think when she finally figures that out? When she learns who and what you really are.” A flash of light outdoors. Instinct called instantly to shadow and revealed an unexpected guest, but one far better than other possible options. The Wanderer’s appearance could still complicate matters more than help, forcing Freyd to admit that the two men needed to have a serious chat about boundaries when it came to a certain unspeakable role. Too many supposedly cut tethers were still being tugged upon, leaving him to clean up the resulting messes. Lancaster’s active rebellion reminded him just how much that was going around these days. It also made it far harder not to make an example of the very man he was trying desperately to save, purely for Mari’s sake. We both know his ego was never going to allow itself to fit into that particular box. Still... worth a shot. Maybe. But some things must be done for the sake of appearances more than their potential results. Wins have to be carved by force into the flesh of every available outcome. On that note, it was time to play the part… The door swung wide, blasting bitter cold; inspiration instantly latched onto by the Whisper’s souring mood. Freyd looked.. something? Hand firmly on hilt and jaw clenched tight enough to shatter teeth. Neither would ever have seen the deadened look in their friend’s eyes; cold enough to make the floor behind feel like it should be taking notes in chilling as a masterclass. Not a muscle flinched as Raidou’s gangly murder pudding wrapped its victim in black tendrils, though seemingly keener on the giant ass needle plunged into the hothead. "Let's not be too hot headed. Take a seat." "Who the fuck, figlio di puttana." A strange exchange of substances most others might struggle to follow. Freyd knew it as ‘alternative snack time,’ lest the goop’s current victim become its latest meal. Honey bun tossed bounced off Freyd’s chest plate with a dull thunk, flaring briefly as it landed fatally in the fireplace. That lack of reaction alone would speak volumes to both new entrants regarding the level of risk in the room, yet he dialed it up another notch. “Rai. Keep that thing away from me, or everything on this floor might die.” Threat confirmed by the pastry’s ignoble demise. There was pure unbridled truth behind his words. Freyd wanted to obliterate this man for what he was doing to his friend. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” A flurry of chaos and neck stabbing, complete with tentacle arms and flaming flashbangs even Freyd found hard to follow. "Another friend of Mari's. But introductions would be irrelevant. Wouldn't they Vincenzo Lionetti?" Mari’s sudden silence noted. She didn’t seem surprised. Interesting. Predictable protests and outrage followed. To her credit and his own surprise, she was less of a hot mess than usual, yanking the hot potato rings from the pudding, like the music was about to stop and they were seriously short on chairs, placing herself in the hostage hot seat in the process. “Please…include me in it if you have to. I just want to sit. I need explanations. Freyd…?” “An offer was made, Mari. Nothing forced. I gave him a way out the could save everyone. His presence fuels this entire threat: a blaze sparked by his sole actions.” Freyd’s thumb flicked towards the portal. “Everyone assumes dungeons are prisons, but they can also be bolt holes” A flick of his wrist rescinded the writ, closing the funnel and casting the sheaf back to its slumber. Escape clause sealed and gone. Options dwindled accordingly. “He wants the fight. More than that, he wants us to win a fight he can’t. One that isn't necessary. One that is only happening because of his own choices. He could end all this, right now, and even be there for you when the smoke clears. You said it yourself: you’re off limits. Only his presence fuels the fire.” We’ll talk about how and why she's protected another time, though I suspect the reason wears frequently broken glasses and is standing three feet to my left. “Yet… he still chooses the painful path? Offering to die for a cause is easy. The blaze of glory entices. Actually living and taking responsibility - taking the hit for others - that’s the hard shit.” Raidou would know that better than anyone. He wore that ideal girded in red. Freyd’s own time as a tank had taught him to appreciate that perspective. “I kept my promise, Mari.” Calmer, more collected, Freyd visibly relaxed as he spoke, content in Raidou’s ironclad grip. The imminence of devastation dwindled with a heavy sigh. “Lancaster isn't choosing you. He's choosing his own survival. That isn’t love. That’s ego and desperation. You’re just icing on his cake. A dying flame will do anything, consume everything, to keep itself alight for just one moment. And... I think you know it.” Fuck. It sucks being the messenger. Morrighan’s ears were surely burning at the thought. “I’m sorry, Mari. I really am. You deserve so much better than this man can offer. I didn't choose for you, Mari. He did, or is trying to. So... what will you choose for yourself?" Edited July 27 by Freyd Link to post Share on other sites
Lancaster 1 Posted July 27 #28 Share Posted July 27 Finding himself suddenly trapped and dosed with a pinpoint prick in the neck, a surge of flame would see the needle melt but not before a fair indoctrination is slipped in. That familiar greasing of the wheels as before yet this one wasn't nearly as bipartisan. It was forced down his metaphorical throat, as was the contents of the last few hours. All manner of conflicting bodies battling on opposed sides using him as the bit of rope, like a game of tug of war with Mari and him as the center fighting to keep their arms linked. His eyes fully dilated, in a stupor he'd look to Freyd with chemically induced persuasion and begin to respond: “Few people appreciate how cages are safes working in reverse polarity.” "You are a frontliner, and from all the information regarding you I've been given amico you would easily enjoy my head on a pike. An easy kill without anything to protect myself, especially when the only person I trust couldn't get to me or dissuade you." He'd glance at Mari currently bound and tied to his chest all the same. “But you’re too much of a coward to leave your fate in her hands, too reckless to wait for her sake, aren't you?" "Is not Mari I am concerned about, is your intentions cazzuto. Is very clear your more than capable, the lord believes it and encouraged me to. I am not stupid enough to accept giving you the knife to press into my heart. I do not trust you. Twist the taste of that however you want amico, but I can see the reversal and suggestion for what they are. I trust her and her alone." A thumb of his hands against the binds yet would find no release, yet he doesn't put up too much resistance given his goose was rather cooked. His goal? to seek out a slender hand for a final time. "You’re committing her to a bloodbath as if it offers protection.” “Let’s not pretend that this is about risks to her” “It’s about you.” "It IS about me, I want this. I am willing to fight for this. For Mari. The rest is so dannatamente insignificante. Worthless, garbage the entire lot of it. A fucking lacky despite any success. Nothing to live for except wondering of today was the day you die. Must be nice to sit on the 'right side' of the line and enjoy your security because you subscribe to an imposed set of fucking morals. Sit on your high horse and judge me for coveting just a sliver of happiness." The man spit fire and smoked yet could not light any flames, all of them snuffed out. That borderline drunken doe eyed expression, iris as big as saucers. Noticing the eyes faintly staring at the ring he reclaimed. "Good luck, it will always find a way." “She doesn’t need you to protect her, Lancaster. Mari isn’t some wilting flower. She’s endured more than either of us will ever know. You’re trying to save your own hide on her dime and expecting me to slaughter your allies in her name. Allies that would leave her alone if you weren’t here” The man jerks against his binds in mild irritation at the sheer number of assumptions flying around "You don't think I don't know that. I wasn't here to protect her. That woman can do whatever the fuck she wants when she wants. You're damn right I am trying to save my own hide. I wanted her help. Your help, amico. She trusted you, and wanted to protect you from me. That was the rules, and I've been trying amico. But in a round about way I was told to kill you, non capisco. I give my boss the middle finger and stick my head in a guillotine for this? These are your friend's Mari. Only pretend to be the 'good guys' until it becomes troublesome. And according to the lord you were already fighting them, yet somehow this is an inconvenience?" “I wonder what Mari will think when she finally figures that out? When she learns who and what you really are.” "It never was a secret, and I tried to walk away. But mia anima gemalla. She drew me in like a moth to a flame. There isn't any secret, I never pretended to be something I'm not. So many assumptions by every damn player in this game, taking everything at face value. With no proof, nothing more then a damn gut feeling to guide them. So if your going to jump to conclusions and decide for yourself. At least aim for my neck. Then you can go on pretending it was justified." A mix of sour taste on his words, a mudded mixture of fulfilled expectation and floundering hopes at any beneficial conclusion. The comment from Raidou leaves him little in the way of a response. Sending him in a disjointed silence struggling against the medicinal intoxication. "Another friend of Mari's. But introductions would be irrelevant. Wouldn't they Vincenzo Lionetti?" "Probably, I don't really give a fuck anymore." Link to post Share on other sites
Raidou 1 Posted August 1 #29 Share Posted August 1 Looking through the various objects now littering a table that once held a meal, the man gingerly sets a plate to the side. "Suit yourself, figured you could use a battery recharge and something to chew on." The man stands and dismisses his robe with a glance to Freyd, leaving nothing more then a simple long sleeve black shirt and pants, very plain and generic. The sheer tension in the air was so damn thick the man could almost harvest it and brew it into a potion, at it seemed that his no nonsense approach left a number of questions lingering in the air as well as irritation. "Understand that this is a precaution, and I need to confirm the facts alone." He spoke directly to Mari before his eyes would advance to Lancaster. "Pardon the theatrics Lancaster, but understand that Freyd's caution is more then necessary. Frankly his solution was a far easier one. Your past affiliations and allegiances make it difficult to take you at your word. Lying and betrayal is integral in the Laughing Coffin MO, which I am sure your aware. The questions I am about to ask should be rather painless, but will help clear the air." The man slides in the dining room chair, kneeling down in front of them as to not tower above and looking up at the couple and their matched aggressive expressions before advancing to Freyd. "Question 1: Is this an attempt at a trap?" The man offers little pause, firing them off as if reading from a mental list "Question 2: Have you left Laughing Coffin?" Another simple one that could have largely underlying problems if the answer wasn't concise. "Question 3: How do you feel about Mari?" Kneeled down with folded knees, the man looks up with a rather plain and stalwart deadpan. The questions spoken almost like a formality, no vitriol, no aggression. Like an interview. Allowing cooler heads to prevail. "Question 4: If given the opportunity, would you cut all ties with your past affiliates and sever your connection with the guild known as Laughing Coffin?" The routine recount would be almost like reading from a book, yet there is no paper to refer from. Just that same complacent yet adamant staring contest with the pair of lovers. "Question 5: Given what you know now, and your connection with Mari do you wish you had never joined Laughing Coffin?" That last one would be the final nail in the mans coffin, and Raidou would push hard against his knees to stand and move for the table. "Take your time to answer, I have cleared my afternoon schedule for this. Mari, relax. See?" The man loosens the strap on his sword, making a note to show it being leaned against the fireplace. Begin Phase 2 Link to post Share on other sites
Mari 1 Posted August 1 Author #30 Share Posted August 1 (edited) Mari wasn’t privy to the words exchanged between Lancaster and Freyd. It was a conversation they had before she came back inside. Worry bubbled up inside her. She could take a guess, and it wasn’t pleasant. Mari offers Lancaster a worried glance as words spilt forth from him like a fountain. Lifting a bound hand to gently brush his cheek, unlike him Jubilex allowed her movement - though its inky black tendrils still curled tightly around her fingers in a quiet warning as if to say ‘don’t give these to him’ Mari wouldn’t. Although in the moments that followed she was tempted to do so. To rip a little teardrop necklace off Raidou and escape to a forgotten part of the tower. But that was reckless. Too reckless - frenzied thoughts fuelled by fear. She wouldn’t let those win. “-especially when the only person I trust couldn't get to me or dissuade you." Her heart aches at the confession. Knowing she was the only person he could trust. His only person. His entire world narrowed down to a single point, and that point was her. He quite literally burned the only connections he had within the Laughing Coffin and now an attempt to leave were, ironically…also going up in flames. Mari wanted to widen his world, brighten it. Have him build more connections, others that he could trust, but how could he after today? Mari’s own attempts to widen it were only creating deeper wounds and cause for mistrust, and it hurt to watch unfurl. Mari felt powerless. Too weak to stop it. How was she supposed to be stronger than this? Mari wanted to apologize, to whisper sweet nothings into his ear that may soothe the fire that burned in his chest and came out in plumes of wispy smoke from the corners of his downturned mouth. She missed his goofy grin. Mari wanted desperately to have her silly childish fantasy with Lancaster. She wanted late mornings tangled in the blankets with her head against his chest. She wanted afternoons in her workshop tinkering away with him. Mari wanted evenings cooking dinner with him - sauce being spilled as they laughed - drinking wine and whiskey late into the night till they could repeat it all again in a dreamy haze. Mari closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry. The weight of the world was against them. Against him. Mari knew she was too weak to fix this. To heal the oncoming storm. So Mari silently shifts closer. Leans into him, and rests her head in the curve of his neck. Her lips press gently to the pinprick where Raidou had stabbed him. If these were their last moments together. No. If these were her last moments. She’d make them count. She’d silently promise him every piece of herself. Mari refused to lift her head till Freyd had addressed her. “An offer was made, Mari. Nothing forced.” “An offer without me there.” Mari elaborated on Freyd’s words, “Because - you knew if I was there - I’d try to go with him.” Her voice quiet and steady, yet taught like a wire threatening to snap. The woman was doing all she could to keep control of herself. Her fingers curl into Lancasters chest and shift under her shirt, finding comfort in the erratic beat of his heart. Freyd talked about how Lancaster wanted the fight - his words always so sharp and steady, enunciated with such pointed notes. Freyd spoke about what Lancaster wanted -others to join a fight he couldn’t possibly win. He couldn’t go up against the Faceless Lord. But…Who was that now? Mari’s mind kept flicking to it being Freyd - but every word, every tiny action. His shift in posture, the burning veracity behind his steeled calm eyes… It would throw her off that assumption. If they were the same person… Why force Lancaster out the hand with an ultimatum, only to question him like this? A test? Why such lengths. Some things weren’t adding up in her head - and Mari would loathe to make an assumption so would keep her thoughts to herself. Such things weren’t important right now. It would do no one here any good for her to keep thinking about it. More than anything right now, she was trying to not fall apart, trying to contain every flicker and flame in this room, fruitlessly. “You said it yourself: you’re off limits. Only his presence fuels the fire.” “Yes.” Mari said, as she moved to hold Lancasters hand. Mari’s eyes scanned the room, flicking from Raidou to Freyd. “Don’t you all…find that kinda odd? An entire organization told to leave me alone.” Mari paused, her voice soft, contemplative. “What makes me different? What gives me that special right? No attempts to recruit me. No attempts on my life - a little odd for an organization built around freedom, drenched in the death of countless players, no?” Mari wouldn’t outwardly say anything telling - but she’d plant the seeds. It had the potential to backfire and paint her as some sort of insider to the Coffins workings, which wasn’t exactly true - but it’d also show the pure absurdity, and outlandishness of it all. If something as unexpected as that could happen, why couldn’t her gambit? “I stand by my words - no one here may believe them. But I can extend that to Lancaster. I wouldn’t repeat it if I didn’t wholeheartedly believe in it.” Mari lowered her head, a motion that she felt would fit the moment, despite herself feeling so detached from everything right now. It was like she was puppeteering her own body. She could feel the erratic beat of her heart - struggle with shallow breathes, but everything else? She couldn’t explain it but she felt like she had more control now than ever. “I’m…sorry I cannot elaborate. I would if I could.” It was the truth. Although, one man here already knew. Actually living and taking responsibility - taking the hit for others - that’s the hard shit.” Mari knew those words all too well. She lived with them. She took responsibility for the lives she had taken. She had taken the hit countless times before, so much so that it resulted in her complete collapse and ostracization, thrice before. She flinched, and a thumb grazed over Lancasters hand. “Lancaster isn't choosing you. He's choosing his own survival. That isn’t love. That’s ego and desperation. You’re just icing on his cake. A dying flame will do anything, consume everything, to keep itself alight for just one moment. And... I think you know it.” Those words hurt to hear. Mari had to bite her tongue. She felt all her energy being drained. For all the bravado she had, the strength of holding everything together - it all began to falter. “I’m sorry, Mari. I really am. You deserve so much better than this man can offer. I didn't choose for you, Mari. He did, or is trying to. So... what will you choose for yourself?" “I choose to believe in someone.” Mari said quietly. “I choose to give someone a chance, one that I had been given so many years ago. Freyd… you didn’t know me back then - when I held the Pink Pker mantle. I wasn’t Laughing Coffin - but I may very well have been. I was so lost. In everything. I lashed out at everyone - destroyed everything around me. It wasn’t until people started to give me that benefit - that small hope that I was able to claw my way back out…” Her head lowered, voice tired and void of energy. “Every step of us.” Mari gestured to Lancaster. “He has pushed me away. Even at this meeting, he had no intention of involving me to protect me. I don’t need his protection. I don’t need yours. I need you Freyd. Just as much as I need him. I’m choosing to be selfish. I’m choosing to give a small reprieve in the form of a childish dream. A warm home. A bed with a loved one in it. If that dream shatters then at least I will have the memory.” Mari closed her eyes, a thought ringing in her head. Something about manufacturing her own oblivion. Maybe she was. Maybe this all was some elaborate ruse - Lancaster was incredibly selfish. Mari knew that, but in a sense… so was she. Mari sighed, then opened her eyes again to look at Freyd. Mari shifted to move, and Jubliex let her escape its bindings before wrapping tightly back around Lancaster. Four steps broached the gap between them, and she reached out to grasp Freyd’s hands in hers. “We all wear different faces, Freyd. Different masks, so much so that we can lose sight of who we are.” Mari wasn’t entirely sure where she was going with this. She squeezed her brothers hands for support, they felt freezing between her warm palms. “You said you’d let me make my own choice. My choice is to keep the both of you in my life, and I’d fight hell to make it happen. I understand where you’re coming from, and I appreciate it…I really do. I just…” The words to come failed. Mari was tired. Instead of offering anything else she just shook her head and stepped away. Shifting toward the kitchen table where Raidou sat. He began to rattle off questions. Simple, and Mari felt she knew the answer to all of them - but she remained silent. Instead fixing to pour each person present a hard drink. Mari shifted one glass to Raidou, and headed over to Freyd, placing one on the side table beside him. Finally, she headed back over to Lancaster, holding a single glass to share between them. “Move, Jubilex.” Mari said with a shooing motion. The inky tendrils would shift, allowing Mari to return to her preferred seat on Lancasters lap. God she was tired. "Take your time to answer, I have cleared my afternoon schedule for this. Mari, relax. See?" “I still feel you could have at least asked before jabbing him with fucking truth serum.” Mari muttered as she took a small sip. Her resolve and strength quickly leaking. She understood why he didn’t, she understood the precautions. It just felt so heavy. Exhaustion sunk into her bones. Her head landed on Lancasters shoulder once more. “I get it… I Just don’t like seeing it. I don’t like seeing someone I love being treated this way. He’s left. He’s making attempts, isn’t that something?” Edited August 1 by Mari Link to post Share on other sites
Freyd 0 Posted August 4 #31 Share Posted August 4 (edited) ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ Freyd listened dispassionately, unmoved as Lancaster confirmed every last one of his suspicions and assertions, making poor effort to deflect his own selfish nature. "It IS about me, I want this. I am willing to fight for this. For Mari.” “For your prize?” The words snap in a biting gust of crisp frigid air rifling through the nearest shattered window. “For the treasure you cling to in desperate hope that it will keep a drowning man afloat? The same man who would snuff the candle that saves him the instant a shinier blaze comes into view? I know you, Lancaster. I know the fickleness of your flame and the catastrophe you willingly leave in your wake.” An image from another lifetime plagues the Whisper’s minds eye. A guild in flames. Friends and kin closer than any familial bond trailing as wispy shards coiled around plumes of soot and ashe. A face matching the one before him, penultimate in its cause. Something coldly visceral pounded from the deepest parts of himself at the thought, stirred from slumber where it would have better lain untouched. "You don't think I don't know that. I wasn't here to protect her.” “No.” Flat out rebuttal. A liar calling out a liar. The dull thud of it resonated as if spoken by the voice of certainty itself. “You came here to protect yourself. She’s just the convenient excuse - your friendly neighbourhood macguffin and get out of fail free card. Another lamb at the altar of the great and wonderful Lancaster, who somehow gets relegated to the background, no matter how much he ignites in childish tantrums to have his ego stroked. Nero would have been so proud to call you his protege. You’re both sad little men and out of your narcissistic gourds.” "Dozens of new player ambushes in the boar fields near Tolbana" "Destruction of the White Clarion guild, burnt alive while they slept." "Seduction and slaying of the Jasmine Sisters." "Child murders at the Florenthian Orphanage, etc." “Yet you sit here calmly professing love, as if some foppish dilettante. You want credit for neglecting to kill what you admit you can’t? You want my help, but offer only misery and blight for everyone but yourself, if it were somehow to be granted. You don’t even seem capable of looking beyond your own nose, Lancaster!” The name spat out with utter disdain. “I trust Mari because she’s always tried to be better - to undo past harms. Because she has the potential to be the sort of beacon people need to guide them out of this hell hole: to prove there is hope. But you? You’re not even offering to change. You want to keep doing the same self-destructive shit you’ve always done with a free bailout delivered on her coat tails.” “Mari is a thing to you,” he tried, as if so few words might yet breech two thick skulls at a single lance. “She’s a trophy, a toy, some prized possession you crave in the drowning moment, clinging to it desperate for salvation, yet just as prepared to discard it as jetsam the instant something newer catches your eye.” Mari returns, insinuating herself into the bonfire’s heart, nestling tightly against the very source of her own self-inflicted misfortune… again. Freyd doesn't relent his barrage, surely heard through the perforated wall, as time repeats itself before his eyes: Congratulations, you've engineered your own personal descent into oblivion…again… “Don’t you all…find that kinda odd? An entire organization told to leave me alone. I stand by my words - no one here may believe them. But I can extend that to Lancaster. I wouldn’t repeat it if I didn’t wholeheartedly believe in it.” “And why do you believe this protection will hold once you bind yourself to him? He said it himself: giving his boss the middle finger and placing his head in guillotine. Do you know who that is? You’re gambling your life for his by placing it on the same block, whose axe-wielding counterpart does quite get concepts of mercy.” Lancaster’s denials persisted, growing angrier as if that somehow made his delusions more real. Maybe they did, to him, drowning reason with passion was definitely his way. Mari’s pleading found an equal lack of purchase. She had Mari-ed to many Mari-s for him to ignore. When so many others' lives were threatened, for Freyd, emotional pleas fell into the void. A frosty thumping within his heart grew more insistent with every word, Freyd's own features blanching as if by weather he could not feel. There isn't any secret, I never pretended to be something I'm not. “Hideo - killed by Lancaster” “Masashi - killed by Lancaster” “Saburoi - killed by Lancaster” “Ryuunosuke - killed by Lancaster.” “Masao - killed by Lancaster.” “Akemi-kiko - killed by Lancaster.” “Shall I go on?” Each syllable punctuated for clarity, hammering home the point to Mari’s shuttered ears. There were so many more and Freyd knew them all by rote. All those visits to the wall were never without reason. “This is who you made yourself to be. How many more names shall we let you gleefully add to the wall for the sake of your own fucking machismo?” Raidou removed his cloak. Interceding and instantly dwindling all veneer of caution that might have still lingered beneath couch cushions, deep within lint traps or clinging about neglected bellybuttons. There was no more dire warning: the proverbial gloves were off. Freyd looks on in grim stoic silence, his efforts given over to delicate introspections and impending finality as his hand held his blade’s hilt in check by the thinnest tethers of a promise, even as his fellow captain gave voice to enigmatic questions. Uncertain where these were expected to lead, Freyd trusted the Wanderer to be conjuring some elaborate ploy for the duo’s salvation - some fleeting gambit he could not yet conceive, nor yet be convinced of sufficiency. In his opinion, a seawall constructed of tongue depressors might stand a better chance to survive a looming rogue wave. “I still feel you could have at least asked before jabbing him with fucking truth serum.” Hand tensing on his weapon, Freyd glimpsed something of where Rai might be going and held death's grasp yet a moment longer. “I get it… I Just don’t like seeing it. I don’t like seeing someone I love being treated this way. He’s left. He’s making attempts, isn’t that something?” As Mari takes her sip, keen sight spots the bloodstained ring on her finger, the line still lingering from her severed wrist signaling its significance. Internally, a breaker snaps. One final pound breaks the soul's seal, releasing the caged red-eyed engine within, asserting its calculus over all other considerations. Heart and mind, at odds, catch the private window popping open for their eyes only, fate’s hand demanding a choice in a restricted channel meant only for the most morose and lethal of affairs. Two voices spoke as one in the Whisper's own mind. Yes, she had been doing better. But here she blindly places countless lives at risk for the sake of one daft, selfish fool of a man-child who would doom us all. Each life is an integral part of a slowly dwindling number and chances at survival. How best to math the heart's math against the head's? People are Aincrad’s irreplaceable resource, and player killers the gravest threat to their kin and themselves. Doing nothing, or turning a blind eye, means more people will die for the sake of this sadly timed tryst. Lancaster cannot keep his fire in his pants, and Mari is too blind with desperate need for love - precisely the place where she always falters. A gust of wind from outside scours the room with a chill, catching the note pinned beneath Mari's freshly unfurled mirror. Tearing the frayed parchment from its moorings, funneled by the chimney flu straight into the hearth, the lingering flames quickly consume its message: ‘Please relax everything’s going to be fine'. Mari's protective ward torn from the rest and sitting now by its lonesome beneath the reflective sheet. Freyd, meanwhile, has gone deathly still, he and his shadow alike watching, waiting, screaming into silence without voice, each struggling for control of his hand. Spoiler To: Nine Fingers From: The Faceless Lord Kill Lancaster. Coordinates X, Y, Floor 4. Protection for Mari rescinded. [ ] Send [ ] Cancel Edited August 4 by Freyd Link to post Share on other sites
Mari 1 Posted August 4 Author #32 Share Posted August 4 (edited) Mari had never seen Freyd like that before. Freyd referring to Mari as a prize hurt, that…wasn’t what she was to Lancaster, was she? An inward flinch at the word as her fingers fiddled with a makeshift ring upon her finger. She’d been burned before. For all the strength Mari had…for all the growth she did - the one place she always faltered were matters of the heart. “I know you, Lancaster. I know the fickleness of your flame and the catastrophe you willingly leave in your wake.” When Mari admitted she loved someone, be it platonically…or romantically, she gave those people everything. Every part of her - and now those two people were mere moments away from tearing each other apart, and Mari already knew who the winner would be. Her brother. Lancaster for all his blazing glory stood no chance, and where he would fall...so would Mari. Mari shut her eyes against Freyd’s verbal onslaught, words not meant for her, but cut her all the same. She knew he spoke from pain. Pain Lancaster inflicted. She’d heard the tone in his voice before, recognized it - she held that same one when she had lost her daughter. Dozens of new player ambushes in the boar fields near Tolbana" "Destruction of the White Clarion guild, burnt alive while they slept." "Seduction and slaying of the Jasmine Sisters." "Child murders at the Florenthian Orphanage, etc." ….Children? Mari flinched away from Lancaster at the last sentence, so much so that Jubilex let her pull away to a standing position. “....Vincent?” Her eyes turned to him, begging him for some kind of answer. Cold hit her. Hard, almost knocking her out. Children…. Still not wishing to be away from him, wishing for him to tell her that Freyd was somehow mistaken Mari reached a trembling hand out to land on his shoulder, fingers grazing his neck. Children.... Mari couldn't imagine it - she couldn't imagine that goofy grin of his taking the lives of those so young. How Freyd knew so much of Lancaster...Mari did not know. But it was clear the man would never trust, nor accept Lancaster. So why bother with the gesture in the first place? Mari's eyes shifted to the Sullivans Cove that sat on her mantle, next to a lovingly restored violin. Red bow fluttering in the wind. Why? Why? Why? why? why? “I trust Mari because she’s always tried to be better - to undo past harms. Because she has the potential to be the sort of beacon people need to guide them out of this hell hole: to prove there is hope. But you? You’re not even offering to change. You want to keep doing the same self-destructive shit you’ve always done with a free bailout delivered on her coat tails.” Mari never understood that…why Freyd thought she could be a beacon - why he thought she of all people could be a guide when she was so small. If Freyd had asked her a week ago, hell… a day ago - maybe she’d believe it. But right now? Now….? "I'm..not a beacon...I never was. It's...nice to hear you still believe that about me Freyd - but..." Doe like eyes would gaze upon him, questioning. Confused, hurt. "I never understood why." “And why do you believe this protection will hold once you bind yourself to him? He said it himself: giving his boss the middle finger and placing his head in guillotine. Do you know who that is? You’re gambling your life for his by placing it on the same block, whose axe-wielding counterpart does quite get concepts of mercy.” “I don’t know. To be honest… I figured I’d exchange it for his.” Words uttered with a quiet guilt. With every question Freyd posed. Every word uttered she felt more and more of herself crumbling, shattering away like fickle shards of glass. So much for her confidence…so much for her resolve. Why did Mari ever think she was strong enough? Why did she ever think she was anything else beyond weak? Why did she think a foolish gambit promised by a man adorned in red would ever work? A finger traced the scar around her hand, where her Gemini had chopped it off. That had been such a hard battle, Mari felt so sure of herself after coming out of it. She knew that the Gemini would always be within her, in some capacity - but… its words were nothing but a noxious poison. Lies, with just enough truth seeped in to make them believable. But now, Mari questioned it. She questioned everything. Maybe Akir had been right all along… “Frankly…I never even knew I was under protection till recently. If that is taken away that’s fine.” Mari shook her head. She was used to being hunted. “Would I…even be me if I didn’t put myself in harm's way for someone else?” She asked Freyd. “I’d give that up for any one of my friends. Hell, I’d give that up to save almost anyone. What is one life against many?” She asked the entire room. But realistically - Mari already knew the answer. She valued those she loved above the many. A choked and warbled laugh as Mari pulled her hands away from Lancaster, instead wrapping them around her own waist. “Hah…who am I kidding? I say that…but if I’m being honest. I value everyone in this room far more than others.” And was that so wrong? Was it wrong to place family above all else? “But is that wrong?” Mari asked everyone. “If you had a partner, would you place them above all else? What about Family? Would you be able to sacrifice them for the ‘greater good’?” Mari carefully, on purposefully didn’t use Eruda’s name, she didn’t want to bring the woman into this. She wasn't addressing anyone in particular - just asking the questions. Voicing her own concerns with her trembling morality. “Is it even the greater good anymore if its asking you to make those choices?” Mari didn’t have an answer, she doubted anyone in the room would. She had so much more she wanted to say, but she hadn’t the slightest idea on how to articulate it. Then... Mari caught sight of it, fluttering in the harsh winds let in by Raidou’s rampage, by Lancasters flames. A desperate leap for something so small yet so precious to her. Jubilex wasn’t able to release her in time. “No!” Mari fell to the floor with a heavy thump. “Stop it!” A desperate cry from a fragmenting woman. She was barely able to scramble to her knees, crawling to the fire to try and catch the note before the inevitable happened. 'It's here when you're ready.' A kind action from someone she loved. A small note in neat handwriting that Mari adored, going up in flames. Somehow it felt symbolic. It felt like if she didn’t save it she’d lose her brother. Tears stung in her eyes as Mari reached into the fire trying to grab it before it crumbled into ash. But she was too late. Mari withdrew her hand with a hiss, nursing the red burns on it. Forcing her eyes shut. She trembled. “It…It’s not gone…” She pleaded. Although knowing full well it well and truly was. “It…It can’t be gone…” Mari doubled over, her head hitting the floor. It can’t be gone. Her heart was her biggest weakness. It’s capacity to love, and its yearning to be loved in return. Raidou called it sympathy. Compassion. But right now. It felt like a curse. One she wanted to be rid of. If only she didn’t feel like this. If only she hadn’t foolishly made all those connections. If only she were numb to it all. Mari glanced up at Freyd, wavering crystalline eyes glistening with waves of emotion looking up at him from beneath fluttering eyelashes and curtains of orange. How was he able to do it? How could she emulate that? How could she cast away such a big part of herself. To tear away the tethers of this agonizing, shattering emotion? A blink, as tears fell - and hope faded. Mari lowered her head, hair spilling over her neck and falling to the floor. Exposing the skin. Like a lamb to slaughter, a fallen knight steeped in darkness bowing its head - waiting for its king to strike and snuff out its life, placing her head in the proverbial guillotine that was Freyd. I can’t stand that look. Just end me. "Lancaster....it hurts..." Edited August 4 by Mari Link to post Share on other sites
Raidou 1 Posted August 4 #33 Share Posted August 4 ♫ The man who had wandered through nearly every path, strolled through countless circumstance sat idle in his same stoic stare into Lancaster's soul. As the room would explode into a cacophony of truths, of facts, of failures and mistakes. "It seems that I was given the role of the voice of reason." He spoke in a calm collection, one that he had always wore. "It would appear, that despite it all that tensions are at an all time high." Raidou would slide into a stand and move to his robe, reaching into the pocket and taking out a pair of lenses. "So let's begin by coming clean, given with all this hatred its hard to think clearly. Remove expectations, and sway only to the facts of the hand we've been dealt in ways that were never quite spoken. Until now." Raidou moves for a chair and slides it in front of Lancaster, overlooking Mari with her head pressed into the floor. "You were convinced, Mari. Sure that Lancaster had the ability to change. Where did the hope go?" Spoken like a tired observer, one that had traveled eons against it all to always end up back here. "Freyd, you're convinced he is lying when I have robbed the ability for him to do so. No risk, no fairy tales. What he provides is genuine, even if you cannot hear it. I understand your frustration. You are allowing your anger to blind your judgement. If you are so ready to kill him, then do it. I will not stop you, it isn't my place to." The man would pause crossing his arms, and gesturing to the man "Not anymore. I have chosen to put faith in the same people I have. Call it blind faith." Reaching down and placing his hand on the woman's shoulder. "Get up Mari, you didn't come all this way to crumble when it became difficult. The world isn't only blacks and whites. Life isn't easy, but that doesn't mean you should fold." He crosses his legs and look to them both, a third party with no expectations. "The truth is, Mari was my Lancaster. Hidden was my Lancaster. Pinball was my Lancaster. That list is longer then one might think. For the greater good, The pink pker, APD's most wanted. Expectations, and to kill them would have saved countless lives that is for certain." There was a bitter truth on his words, an old veteran and a man once with the same cold calculation. To kill one to save many, including himself when the time came. "There was a time, where I would have cut you down without a second thought Lancaster, Freyd has given you far more then a benefit of a doubt then I would have back then. Understand that this is a privilege that a few years ago you would have never gotten." Finally the ill omen would look to Freyd, the man who he trusted with the darkest of secrets. "However a few once told me that my life was too valuable to forfeit. Kill him Freyd, succeed where I have failed. To put the greater good above all else." "Or.. On the table is a Distillation of Shadow. The strongest potion I've ever concocted where the recipe will never be written. It was used to erase Hidden from the memories of all brokers. It was used a few times to maintain a sense of order. Mari, if you still believe that Lancaster deserves a chance. If Freyd is willing to put his faith in you that you will be Vincent's guide, to give him the same opportunity that me and Freyd both have given you. It will be your responsibility, because if he should fail it will not be long before either Freyd or I reach him. There will be no second chances. You will give it to him, and I will induce you once you are through." Raidou stands and moves for the table, and retrieves the clear bottle of liquid. "Lancaster needs a conscious, he needs lucidity just like you did once. A single drop in his eye, then tell him. Forget everything he knows about laughing coffin, everything he knows about the faceless lord. Tell him that he shouldn't want to harm another player unless he is defending himself, that it he should be filled with remorse. That today never happened. Because eventually, the past needs to be let go. Or we will never move forward. Life cannot proceed without hope and fear in equal measures Mari, and Freyd is right. As he is now, he cannot be left alive." The man would pass her the bottle by dangling it down above her, allowing her to make her choice. The same opportunity that he had received when they first met. As it would turn out, it wasn't the marker that made a monster. It was the choices they made. "Once you are done, I will do the same to you. And this will be settled. Ignorance is bliss. You will have your dream, and I will take my place back in the shadows. Watching, waiting once again for the moment where I will need to kill him or you. I am glad that I was swayed that day Mari, you've grown so much in ways I could not begin to foresee. I could not be more proud to be wrong." Laughing Coffin Severing | Phase 2 Final Phase Link to post Share on other sites
Mari 1 Posted August 4 Author #34 Share Posted August 4 This all fell apart... Mari lifted her head to look at the fireplace, its embers slowly dying from the onslaught of snow and wind that tore through her shattered home. Why? Why was it every time Mari finally managed to grasp a modicum of happiness it was torn away from her. Why...why every time she tried to crawl out of that dark hole she was denied hope, light? Was it so wrong to fall in love? She glanced over her shoulder at Lancaster, still pinned to the seat - pupils wide like saucers. Still under the effect of truth serum. Mari pushed herself to her feet, snatching the clear liquid from Raidou's hand. "His choice." Mari said quietly. "I refuse to force anything upon him." Why? Mari trusted every single person in this room with her entire heart. All she wanted today...all she wanted was to share a warm meal with someone she considered a brother, that someone was seething, hands upon his weapon. Eyes flashing a shade of red she didn't recognize - and yet... somehow Mari knew where this was headed. They...really were childish dreams...weren't they? I guess I don't deserve happiness. I don't deserve a family I don't deserve a home I don't deserve to leave Redemption is out of my reach Mari wasn't sure how powerful this potion truly was. How long its effects would last...how detrimental it would be to the mind. She had dabbled in such things in the past, but had stopped, anything she concocted was all temporary. Nothing more than frivolous poisons to entertain a bored and broken mind. She turned the vial to and fro in her hands. A desire to forget everything and everyone, and to end her pain. "I still believe he deserves a chance." Her voice was small. She knew she was the only one in the room who believed it. "If he cannot be left alive, where does that leave me?" Mari asked first turning to Raidou. "I promised him I'd protect him. What would that make me, if I didn't vehemently protect someone I love?" Her voice was stable, but her entire body felt cold. Her tone empty. There would never be a happy ending for me. I was so stupid to think it possible. "I don't want to forget. It's...painful, but I don't want to forget today. I don't want to forget my talks and experiences with you Rai...each of those moments helped push me forward. How am I supposed to act as a guide an arbiter if I simply...forget?" Mari shook her head. She wasn't sure she even had a choice in the matter. Raidou had trusted her with so many things, it made Mari feel a special kind of warmth - a strength from knowing that others had placed their faith in you. But that would all be torn away from her with a single drop? It wasn't fair. Mari stood over Lancaster, a hand to his cheek. Her lips pressed against his. The warmth undeniable, yet her heart still felt cold, like concrete forming in her chest. "Vincent...I do love you." She shifted to bury her face in his hair. Would this be the last time she'd breathe in his scent? Any scent? "I promised I'd protect you from them, just as much as I promised I'd protect them from you." Mari turned now to Freyd, flinching as her eyes met his. "Freyd. Montjoy. Takeshi." A blink, and despite her best efforts tears would trickle down her face. "I don't want to forget your anger - I don't want to forget your words today. I love you, All of you. You're my brother. The only person in this place I'd consider my family. Family fight. But if you try to strike him down. I will stand in your way. I won't fight you. I couldn't. Please, let him choose." This was it... ... wasn't it? Link to post Share on other sites
Freyd 0 Posted August 4 #35 Share Posted August 4 (edited) Black steel scraped silkily against the laquered wood of its saya, shiny Veritas an unpleasant reminder of terrible purpose and duty combined. Inside, Freyd's heart was broken, but he'd long since consigned it to an understudy's role in the face of the iron resolve required to see them all to the end. He'd grind it into the dust in sacrifice, if required. Rai knew it. His words rang true. Freyd would do what he could not Both people standing before him knew were ultimately guided by their hearts, each in their own disparate ways. Not him. Freyd was kin to a machine, cold, calculating, ruthless. Then why does this hurt so much? Blade kept low, its drawing declared the seriousness of his intent. An era of banter and light company had passed in the span of mere minutes. Time stood at an inflection point. If I do this, I break my vow to offer Mari hope. If I don't, I've sacrificed everything I am for nothing. Yet, Mari's tears had an impact. None of this can be about you, Freyd. Do you think anything ever is?! Stop your nonsense, Montjoy. You're not good at it. Still, a furrow of brow at the thought. Is it enough to make it only about her? Will I still think so when Lancaster kills again? ... "Let him answer the questions posed. Anyone deserves that chance, even him." The message still glared ominously in his periphery, Freyd's inventory depleting required stocks for a battle never meant to be fought while the others' attention turned back to the addled murderer in the chair behind them. *** [Narrative stats will go here] Edited August 4 by Freyd Link to post Share on other sites
Lancaster 1 Posted August 5 #36 Share Posted August 5 ♫ All the senseless murder, the mundane jobs and tasks that he'd found boringly mind numbing. Waking up and asking himself just what sort of mess he was going to have to clean up today. Who he would have to put down due to insurrection, who he would kill to maintain the guilds strength. What most did not understand was that Laughing Coffin was in a constant power struggle, where at any moment one could find themselves under attack. An ever looming feeling of fear and tensions, this situation was just another Tuesday but this time Lancaster didn't have the upper hand. Because he showed weakness, because he was foolish enough to trust the other occupants in the room. His exact situation was a result of being too trusting, and lacking any other options. The man would squirm a bit as the induced persuasion rattled through him, yet questions wouldn't find any real purchase. The reason? Vincent had only one thing on his mind, one potentially final statement to share with them all. Running his tongue across his teeth, unable to find the alcohol to stem off the terror like usual. No cigarette to help calm rising nerves. He was despite his drugged state, blindingly lucid and it stung almost entering an early morning after spending time in the dark. The man would push to no success against the coils, looking to the brand new men now threatening not only his life but the life of his beloved. An ultimatum presented by both, and his instincts based on the troubled life he'd lived in here were screaming to decline them both. His gaze moves down to Mari, rolling the vial in her hands of whatever crap she'd been given. "When I told you mia fiamma, that this was what I wanted it was the truth. To live for the sake of someone else, to die for the sake of someone else. I think myself a fool to be in this situation mi amore. But you make me foolish, I want to be foolish. If doing...." A glance to the vial and back to lock eyes with her, one can even see him attempt to point but cannot. "Whatever this is....abiding by whatever.... I am used to being pressed under a thumb, at least this way I can share our dream. Do it mia anima gemala. I am not pretending I have not done some horrific things, or that I am saddened by most of them. I told you I would give it all away for one more day, is no lie. Do it. If to prove nothing more than I love you, and would do anything for you. A service to a poison with you is much better then servitude to a shadow alone." That cocky smile of his, the very same he'd worn every time he was making some cheesy show of affection, on full blast. With the statement given, Raidou would move behind the chair snapping his fingers to allow Juiblex to puddle on the floor and begin sorting through Lancaster's HUD. Removing all of his message history, his contacts and transcribed notes. Going through his pockets for all accounts, and surprisingly Lancaster doesn't resist. Only smoking a single cigarette out of the olive branch that Mari offers him, going through the pat down like a new arriving prisoner would. The man would even remove his cursed ring, leaning over and pressing it onto the dining room table now utterly spread around in a gaggle of crap. This is done while Mari would begin to offer a drop of that clear oil into his right eye. Link to post Share on other sites
Freyd 0 Posted August 6 #37 Share Posted August 6 (edited) >♪< Like the second hand spinning wise the clock towards destiny’s irrepressible advance, Montjoy’s figure stretched and pivoted across the room. Drawn as tides are to the moon, glossing over every surface of the space, marking time in mementos beneath the slice of ending’s vanguard, a black needle hurtling at agony’s glacial pace… … a violin’s silenced song … a bottle’s dreams turned to bitter vinegar …a wish for better days, its hopeful message burnt to ashes …. a cursed infatuation set against the flame’s enticing serenade … a soggy frog, frosted over and forgotten amidst debris …a mirror’s lost reflections and ambitions shattered by the blooming cold Injustice rankled ‘neath a cowl flinched suddenly back into its proper place: fittingly, an executioner’s hood revealed for all it ever was. Black. Dull. Hollow. Freyd, Faceless, black blade rising, adding dimensions to the ticking of time’s heartless unraveling. He had wound himself too tight, clockwork’s mechanisms snapping under so much tension, pushed beyond all limits of persistence, patience and sufferance. Too much calculus, unleashed, devoid of mercy’s light or sympathy. Guilty. It wasn’t right. Too many stains. Too many missing graves marked with runes bearing the same causes over, and over, and OVER on a polished stony field of white. And now the world should yield its consequence for fleeting romance sake?! Anathema. Madness. WRONG. Even his brother-in-doom’s solution tasted too boldly like conveniently contrived chemical salvation. A bottled panacea, left by luck’s sheer happenstance to solve the piling woes? How nice to have the world forget all missteps and transgressions? How nice the rueful wrongs that right themselves at hand’s liquid wavings. Drown your sorrows in a bottle and forget. Veritas gave way to its own absence, replaced by Samael’s Pride, that craven engine of destruction never far from calamity’s event horizon. It seemed summoned to the scene of its own will and accord. This was its domain, cursed to serve as lever to unleash so many final curtain calls. Despoiler of hope, borne by the diremost fool and puppet dancing upon his own strings. Lancaster’s broken confession, too little too late to reach a heart no longer capable of listening. Raidou’s desperate need to pour enough magic on the problem ‘til it vanish beneath a shining sea of eternally hopeful sparkles. Mari’s tears reflecting years of untold suffering, most of them belonging to others. Freyd saw in them only the weeping of her victims mixed together with a lifetime of calamitous mistakes. …and the sword came down. *** Or so Freyd’s mind’s eye envisioned the denouement to a tragic sordid tale of a dinner gone so incredibly, horribly wrong. Things still stood at the precipice edge, Mari watching Rai’s monstrous release as Lancaster’s soul spilled forth for feasting upon by his prisoner’s confessional. All three others bearing witness to the honest measure of the man. Was he deserving of last rites? "Freyd. Montjoy. Takeshi." A blink, and despite her best efforts tears would trickle down her face. "I don't want to forget your anger - I don't want to forget your words today. I love you, All of you. You're my brother. The only person in this place I'd consider my family. Family fight. But if you try to strike him down. I will stand in your way. I won't fight you. I couldn't. Please, let him choose." Turning and opening the vial, accepting whatever fate she was offered, Mari’s reach and dropper exposed the lingering scar ringing her left wrist and Lancaster’s brand girded against pale finger flesh, borne through and despite all her struggles. Beloved resigned to pleading for her to deliver his fate, she moved to deposit fortune against the tune of singing steel’s passage through wind and the silence of collective frozen breaths. Dolop struck tang instead of moistened orb, death strike stopped mere fraction’s fraction above the mark, a few snipped crimson whiskers from his brow hemming in omission’s liquor in the tiniest of barricades. Viscous roiling dark teetered at the literal knife’s edge. “Earn this.” Freyd’s words curt and cutting at Lancaster’s shaken gaze as he withdraws his blade. “Earn her. Every. Single. Day. It might be easier with your wits intact." Gaze fixed upon the tangerine they'd witnessed in a hazy fever dream from his own earliest days. "I always knew she’d be a beacon someday. I just never imagined she'd be yours.” The cowl remained on his shoulders. The Faceless monster’s hold remained at bay for one more breath, one day more, and as many beyond as he could manage. What was one more straw upon this ebon camel’s back? “Put that stuff away, Mari.” The Whisper’s eyes called her sister. She would know, having seen the same gaze protecting her from Akir's wrath as she had just done against his own. “It’s more dangerous than this situation can afford.” *Snikt* Blade back in its saya, Freyd’s gaze wandered past the Wanderer, drifting to the unclad mirror, thankful that he could somehow still see himself gazing back. Edited August 6 by Freyd Link to post Share on other sites
Mari 1 Posted August 6 Author #38 Share Posted August 6 (edited) "I don't like this." A flat statement as trembling fingers wrapped around the vial. "I hate this solution." Her back still to Lancaster, Her eyes fixed to Freyd's blade. It wasn't fair. Lancaster wasn't being given an option, he sought out Freyd in desperation. In an attempt to redeem himself, he left the coffin on his own accord. He was taking steps. They were small, they were slow but they were his. Wasn't that what this was all about? How could he ever truly absolve himself if it was aided like this? What of the lives he took? The destruction? He’d remember them - but… in a different sense, in a haze. "How is anyone supposed to believe in his penance if it's forced?" Mari spent years...no.. a decade it felt like... trying to better herself. Desperately clinging to glimmers and lights of hope that were constantly ripped away from her. Even now...this all felt like it was for naught. “What of the lives he took? The destruction? How is that fair to the victims, and those affected by them?” Do it. If to prove nothing more than I love you, and would do anything for you. A service to a poison with you is much better then servitude to a shadow alone." Mari's eyes, broken and pained and pleading, shifted to Freyd. Or, what she thought was still Freyd, standing before her. His eyes an engine of wrath that burned red hot. Was it safe to turn her back on him? Would he strike her down if she did? "Maybe...this is my oblivion." She whispered. Two steps toward Freyd, ensuring she kept between both him and Lancaster, a hand reached to rest on top of trembling white knuckles that held a pommel tight. “I wouldn’t be mad if you did.” If he had to cut through her…Mari couldn’t blame him. The man wore the weight of a world on his shoulders. She’d break. She’d no longer be able to cope - but she wouldn’t hate him. A final attempt to calm the roiling wrath that bubbled and churned beneath his form - a sight she’d seen before. Maybe the man couldn’t even control himself anymore. Mari wasn’t sure. Mari turned her back on him as she turned to face Lancaster. As if to say, if you were to strike, strike me down too. Jubilex was already at work, removing everything from him - shifting through his menus - it was something Mari did not like to see - yet the man calmly accepted it. How? How was Lancaster all too readily accepting this? That big goofy grin of his, that usually gave her so much comfort - bought her little succor. Even as Mari stepped toward him, planting herself firmly back into his lap she found no warmth. Even as he wrapped a spare arm around her waist to anchor her, and with one final drag of his smoke before flicking it into the dying embers of the fire to place a hand on her cheek. Even then...Mari still felt cold. "I'm sorry..." Mari mumbled as she pressed her head into Lancaster's neck. He snorted, "Anything for you, mia anima gemala." His hand would reach out and hold her own hand steady - over his right eye. A sword swung, barely missing Lancaster, barely missing Mari - as it caught the single drop that fell from a dropper - ready to fall into her lovers eye. It took a great deal of strength and willpower to not crumple right there and then - the blade had been so close...and despite her best efforts she hadn't even been able to stop it. If Freyd wanted to he could have angled it just so and Lancasters head would be on the floor. “Put that stuff away, Mari.” The woman stilled, pulling the dropper away from Lancaster. So close Freyd? Was it? Mari turned to the man, clearly confused at his lucidity. “It’s more dangerous than this situation can afford.” Slowly, Mari pushed the dropper back into the vial with a small clink. She held it in her hand, not moving from her position above Lancaster. Why? I’m not a beacon…Mari denied the words that he said. Even though they rang true. For who, if not a beacon would be able to pull a lost soul from the depths of the laughing coffin? Who but a beacon would be able to calm the roiling wrath of vehement shadows vying for revenge and justice for those lost? A Whispers eyes marred with what must be done - the greater good. The sum of many against the fleeting and foolish wishes of the few. Who but a beacon would stand, wavering but unrelenting against the tides of losing everything they loved over and over again, only to still attempt to climb back out and stand against the oncoming storms? Didn’t Raidou say he couldn’t live as he is now? Uncertain eyes shifted toward the red wanderer. Two men Mari trusted so much, who she was willing to stand against to protect a childish fantasy, a dream of a happy home. People she was willing to die to - if they so willed their blades to be drawn. What changed. Everything was falling apart, ready to come to a point - the blade dropped upon the heads of the two foolish and tainted souls in the chair. So tired…. Mari bought a hand to cover her mouth as she hiccuped, breathing in a shuddering breath. She had been so prepared to die in that moment. But she was alive. Right now… Everyone breathed. Edited August 6 by Mari Link to post Share on other sites
Raidou 1 Posted August 6 #39 Share Posted August 6 A blade sheathed sends the entire room to silence, causing Raidou to finalize his own attempts to a solution. The hands helping their way through Lancaster's pockets cease to move, and are withdrawn. The wanderer stands and offers an open palm to Mari, reclaiming the vial of clear liquid from her. "Sure you are. Glad I'm not the only one who could see it. Starting to think I was crazy." The small glimmer of something blue around the woman's neck catches the mans eye. Instantly Raidou knew what it was. The very same recipe that he'd spoken rather plainly to her another day. A gateway pendant, one that very few had cracked the proverbial code on. It wasn't an easy craft to succeed and it spoke volumes to Mari's ingenuity and capability. Raidou cannot help but smile, finding quite readily the same mindset and the same level of caution that him and Freyd shared. She had expected the worst but hoped for the best. Lesson's from time and time again now finally finding purchase. Their business was through, and this dream was safe for at least one more day. The pair both new and old, each a connotation of the same darkness found themselves outside. In the bitter colds of snowfrost. The blank white tapestry where countless paintings of the future had been drawn, where meetings that would stand past the test of time held audience. A glance back from both, as if a warning but an encouragement with no words. The men would share a muffled conversation, one of conflicting yet shared ideals. Each a lord of their own perspective, one an understudy and the other an elder. Fury always found itself bending a knee to hope, and the offer of it. A crimson red robe and a copper rose, the single buoy on an endless sea of the void. In time once the path was clear enough, when she had walked a mile in their shoes she would easily find a space beside them. Mari was entirely capable, and despite her reticence and doubt she moved squarely down that road. With their absence all that remained was the glistening sunlight casting that white powder into a glowing vibrancy waiting to have memories drawn on it like a easel. There was an entire life to live, so the lovebirds had a lot of catching up to do and take their days in strides. The man breaks off allowing his long time friend and ally to wander off to his own devices, assuming that either private matters or guild affairs had his attention. With his afternoon cleared Raidou had nothing but time to reflect on history, in the bittersweet nostalgia of the floor as memories come flooding back. There would be a time and a place for all things, for bloodshed and comfort. Glancing toward the ice, a mirage of Haine dances on its surface as a reflection of Ruri goes darting past. In the backdrop, a fond recollection of Mari playing her violin as the girls danced. Eruda doing her best at making an igloo. Image after image spoke to him from times passage, and with it the man cannot help but offer a smile despite the cold. There was a success today, although for now it may taste like a failure. It was rather easy to lose sight of the smaller grains of sand when so much was colliding down, when the stakes were so obviously high and the very notion of survival was rigged against them. Yet the wanderer time and time again had bore witness to the exact adaptability of man, the hardship that players could endure and the success snatched from the jaws of defeat. Mari despite her lack of confidence was in fact a prime example of this, the hand she'd been given and the few missteps she had made had offered her very little to claw her way back out. The woman tried, and tried until her fingernails were bloodied. Her heart sore and scarred, but she persevered. Freyd had taken his own share of punishment, taking on burden after burden and constantly at ends with his own mind. A sentiment and circumstance that Raidou shared. The layers of his tired and long journey unfurl as the man removes his glasses, walking out onto the ice. He'd sit upon its glossed white surface, illuminated by the sunlight that oozed through racketed branches powdered gently through the constant storms and weather in this tundra. The very same space to which some of his most unforgettable moments had transpired. Folding his legs underneath him, enjoying the serenity of a lesson passed down. In his silent meditation all the effects of the ripple began to parade about behind his exhausted but potent amber eyes, his glasses removed he urged and welcomed that tide of thoughts and recollection. Faces in the hundreds came rushing in, voices, smells, sights, landscapes. A regular cacophony of history began to play on repeat in an endless and nigh overwhelming droning. A glance toward the specter of Mari, and the man would reach into his pocket. Out comes the smallest prism, a recording crystal that glimmers in a myriad of trapped color like a carved chunk of glass. Tapping with his right index twice, it sprang to life with those trapped hues becoming more pronounced and alive. Leaning forward, the man slides it toward the ghost, allowing the song trapped within to play from the diviner that to which it paid tribute. But it wasn't matched with the same level of passion. ♫ Raidou shuts his eyes as to allow the soundtrack to take hold, mentally holding onto every note. Those plucks of a string begin to give him the tools to sift through that shouting tirade of memory, one that for most of his time within Aincrad had threatened to consume him. Drive him mad. Where before his dives within this space were unwilling, accidental these most current renditions were in fact intentional. As the somber track plays, conveying with it Mari's pain. It was transcribed within an inexperienced and frankly just beginning performer, but Raidou recalled the notes as if they were written and paid the guy a small fortune until it was finally right. The small beacon that helped divide that all consuming wave. In his meditation the man would begin to peruse the sea of his own memories as it thins down into a river, recalling the face of a blonde. A black and white hound at her side, a forest ablaze. Screaming in a panic still as clear as the day it had happened, the scent of charcoal and ash. The warmth of the dogs fur, even the woman's heart beat beneath clad metallic plates. Releasing that fond lesson, another removed from the stream of consciousness. An amphitheater with fictitious kings sporting cloth crowns around their necks. To which one's throne was a wheelchair. The bubbling fury in his stomach, the way his skin tingles and his hand twitched in an urge to draw a blade and carve them to pieces. If the man didn't allow himself to calm, if Mishiro didn't stall his blade then he would have. Another teaching, from something so mundane yet forever etched in the creases of his thoughts. Another memory allowed to fall back into the tide, and out another. A careening vassal of flame and anguish, falling from an ever blue sky. A decision carried as flames licked his heels, and the surge of power as the game obliged every request to prevent coming catastrophe. The sound of a torn blade and the grinding of metal on metal, the weight of a structure far beyond his and yet his feet remain planted. A white haired woman sporting an orange marker, looked to him in desperation and disbelief. A lesson renewed and allowed to rejoin its companions. Down to another Raidou nursed his way through them, this of a girl with black hair desperate to be an info broker. Released to find another with a woman not entirely dissimilar unconscious and in his hands a broken blade. Another sailing across an ever dark shore toward a hidden island. Another as he swam through bitter black water at the stroke of midnight surrounded by lanterns. Another as he tosses up a golden apple and cleaves it in twain. A broken tower, a shattered door, the lift of a stone, a giant falls, cold rain falls upon his skin. Fire licks his heels, ice rushes through his veins, alcohol numbs his system. Faster and Faster. Over and over, Raidou picks up speed allowing each and every lesson to bleed out from the deeper recesses of his mind, proving that nothing was irrelevant, nothing was forgotten. All of it mattered, every breath, every heart beat, every smile, every laugh. Mattered, it made him. Defined him, taught him. The very long road the man had walked stood far greater then most could realize. Although he spoke very little, it was not as if he wasn't listening. It was they that defined him, spoke to him and guided him. To this exact point, to who he was. A faint film of blue rushed across his shoulders, an oozing potency as a skill continued to be honed down like a knife. The sharpness growing sharper still. His glasses now only a formality, for they no longer were needed to maintain his grasp on his humanity, his identity and his origins. No, now instead of being consumed by the ripple it had become him. A million voices that pushed him ever forward, he was the red wanderer. Link to post Share on other sites
Mari 1 Posted August 7 Author #40 Share Posted August 7 (edited) Trembling hands would gently run over Lancasters face, thumbs grazed beneath his precious verdant vermillion eyes. Eyes she had been so close to dropping a proverbial poison into, one that Mari was so afraid would have changed him. Would have dulled that insatiable curiosity and fire that burned so much so that it warmed her aching heart with just a look. Distillation of Shadow… What a scary concoction. Freyd was right, it was too dangerous. Another thing to question Raidou about, but that was for later. For another day - for now…Mari simply didn’t want to let Lancaster go, fervent kisses traced the underside of his jaw and the nape of his neck before burying her face in his hair. Still smelling of ash, gasoline, and the smallest and most subtle hint of his cologne - he probably didn’t have time to wear any today, and this was lingering from the day before. Mari didn’t want to let go, she didn’t want to move away, desperately afraid that she’d lose him. She almost had. “Vincent…” His name dropped from her shaking lips. “Vincent…Vincent….” She repeated his name over and over as relief washed over her, threatening to erupt and send her spiralling into another panic attack. The only thing that stopped her, that grounded her was the quickened rise and fall of his chest. Breathing. The erratic thump of his heart. Alive. “We’re safe….” Mari mumbled as she wrapped her arms around his torso. “For now, for another day. I have you. I will fight for you. Always.” Mari was thankful she had put her trust into both Freyd and Raidou - things had been incredibly tense - and for a moment Mari truly believed her brother would run her through to get to the goofy man beneath her. Maybe he would have…it seemed like Freyd had lost himself for a moment there. The telltale signs of shifting shadows and glimmering red eyes… She almost lost her brother too… Mari had almost lost everything. What would she have done if that happened? Mari couldn’t imagine a scenario where she’d burn everything to the ground, figuratively. But… she couldn’t imagine being able to hold things together. Leaving the frontlines, her guild, her friends - all of it behind to be shut in a world of science and fact seemed apt… maybe out of spite she’d keep everyone trapped here. Somehow…but what did it matter? That didn’t come to pass. And wouldn’t…right? Lancaster returned her kisses, dragging Mari back to reality and away from spiralling thoughts. His arms wrapped tightly around her waist and shifted to cross over each other around her back, anchoring her to him. Mari could feel the chill of the winter air as the winds outside picked up, shoving more wet snow into what was once a warm and loving home. “It’s cold.” Mari mumbled as goosebumps formed on her shivering skin. Lancaster laughed beneath her, a tight rumbling laugh as he loosened his grip around her. “Mi Amore. Is this - “ He’d gesture to the chair they sat on with a jut of his chin. “Mi anima gemella, fireproof? And you have yours?” “What do you think?” Mari asked with a snort. Had she not told him she practically fireproofed the entire place? Most of the furniture had been too - granted a few kitchen chairs and the now burnt to ash front door weren’t. Lancaster leaned forward, reaching out with one hand to grab his ring, cradling Mari in his lap so she wouldn’t fall. Mari kept her grip tight on his shoulders till he leaned back into the chair. Fwoom. His body ignited instantly, the flames large and bright enough for Mari to wince and cover her face till they lowered, becoming nothing more than tiny licks of orange and yellow that danced over his skin. “Allow me to be your heater, Amari.” He’d place a hand on her back, pressing gently to get her to lower herself to rest against him. “But the window-” “Can wait.” “And the door-” “I am sure your ….Amico are keeping an eye on us. No one will enter. Rest.” Mari mumbled in protest. She couldn’t rest. She had to clean up everything. She had to…maybe that note had somehow survived the fire… A fruitless wish…Mari knew she saw it ignite. Still…she was so tired, and feeling Lancaster gently rub her back. The calming rhythm of his heart. Even the strongest of people could not fight such a thing. It wasn’t long before Mari had fallen asleep. As the woman slept, small and curled up she wouldn’t have noticed her lover. Her fiance pick her up. She didn’t hear the tired sigh - nor the trembling admissions from the man of how he had been afraid. Mari was so exhausted she didn’t even feel him gingerly pick her up and carry her up the stairs to a much warmer room. Off came her shoes, and beneath the plush blankets she was tucked. Then, she was joined by Lancaster - who held her tight - so tight because he too was afraid he had lost her. Night had fallen on that day. ---------------------- Mari groaned as she sat up, Lancasters arm loosely hung over her chest. Right... yesterday happened. He was sleeping soundly. His eyes puffy and swollen. Mari carefully reached out brushed red strands of hair out of his face. The man didn't stir. Knocked out cold. A glance to the side table on his side of the bed and she noticed the empty wine bottle. Lancaster must have been more stressed than he let on. Mari leaned forward to kiss his forehead, and the strong scent of wine permeated from his breath. Mari would let him sleep. Bare feet hit a polished wooden floor and padded downstairs. It was a shame her froggy slippers were ruined. Mari doubted she'd find another pair like them. The woman descended the stairs, immediately being hit with the cold air that had rushed into broken windows and doors the previous night. Her hair disheveled. She wore nothing more than an oversized long sleeved shirt that hung to just above her knees. A blue teardrop necklace glimmered in the morning sun rays. "Huh?" Halfway down the stairs Mari saw him. "Raidou?" He paused, like a deer in headlights, hammer in hand. He was affixing a new door. Edited August 7 by Mari Link to post Share on other sites
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