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Post by relentless on Feb 6, 2018 14:40:11 GMT -8
"Then why are you tagging along?"
Balt said quickly toward her, his match being held close to the ignition, causing a thin line of flame to hiss inside the glass. He whipped the match to the ground, and dropped it as he took steps toward the tunnel.
"Alright... here goes. Time to shut Meriwether up."
Balt murmured to himself, unsteadily looking down the tunnel with a gulp. Extending his lantern whilst bracing his right hand against the wall, leaning forward and looking down with yet another uneasy gulp, feet easing over the edge reluctantly.
With a deep breath, he steadied himself down and put his feet on the bumpy rocks, holding his lantern outward with the other hand clenching the rock as he made a careful, slow descent into the forbidden dark.
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Post by Outisakanobody on Feb 7, 2018 13:09:33 GMT -8
"Ah...Scheisse..." Bach grumbles to herself as she makes to follow the man into his tunnel.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 25, 2018 17:32:52 GMT -8
Tilly nodded, with another deep inhale and sniffle of the nose. She was unhappy. "Y-yeah..." She followed along and wiped at her wet eyes, shoulders scrunched, as if in fear that someone would spot her and out her as the vile woman who made a lonely, crippled man cry. The thought alone made her throat tighten up. "It was in front of the whole square." She repeated, pointlessly, hands retreating back into her pockets. "Why'd he have to go in the same direction as me? Why...?" [At a river within the Hamlet outskirts.] /Lekalis coming from Hamlet Streets/ He was happy to see her face again, and her blubbering had a certain charm as he led her through familiar grooves of dirt and cobblestones, past torches t'ill they gave way to a dispersed flock of trees and earth to show a small flowing river. "You are awfully alluring when in distress you know. Proper princess in all regards, truly." He nodded sagely with a bardic tone to his voice as he stroked her hair idly in amused fascination. "We'll get you some water in the tavern after we wash up here. You'll feel better once you get the stains outta your clothes, I guarantee it." He impressed happily as he paused at the gravelly beach of the shallow river, looking about for a good branch to hang their attire. "But... You're not feeling, y'know..." He motioned to her belly with rolling motions as he rose a brow in both worry and curiosity. \\ |
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 25, 2018 17:39:46 GMT -8
Tilly shook her head in complete exasperation, shoulders slumped.
"Oooh, no, no; there's never any warning about it. One moment I'm having a great, productive day, and all it takes is some bloke with too much perfume or something left out in the sun too long, and then the next moment, everything's ruined." She lamented, with a sigh; the whole ordeal had her feeling a small bit exhausted.
She rubbed her neck.
"I wasn't... interrupting anything, was I? With you and that Crow-gazer and the other man in there."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 25, 2018 17:43:44 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
"That sounds like a proper bother..." He agreed with some guilt, frowning a touch.
A moment passed as he clearly made a conscious decision on how truthful he wanted to be; he shrugged and shut his eyes, sighing as the weight on his shoulders became a bit literal in the way he glanced off to the water and made to break away from Tilly as he undid the clasps of his cloak.
"I'd hoped to talk to her more... But I'm happy to know she's alright at the least. There'll be more time later anyways." He nodded, an understanding coming to himself more than anyone as he hung his cloak up on a branch.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 25, 2018 17:52:41 GMT -8
Tilly's expression grew more pained, and she envisioned a wealth of ruined evenings left in her destructive wake.
She was good at that.
She found a rock to perch herself on, and she sat there and debated bathing with her clothes on instead of shedding them, and risk losing the ridiculous wealth she had accumulated.
"Sorry... about that..." She sighed again and rested her chin on her palm as she watched the water in the river flow by.
"What do you talk about with her, anyways...?"
She couldn't imagine the woman-doctor had any substantial words to offer.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 25, 2018 18:01:39 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He paused, contemplating again as he looked down at his shirt with a smile before glancing over to Tilly with a catty smile and slipping the garment free; bringing to bear his skin to the moderate weather.
"Everything and anything, really... I mostly talk and she listens, truth be told." He admitted the last a bit sadly, though he held a pleasant smile as he hung up the pomfsome shirt with some amusement, noting the dark stains in it.
He'd need a new shirt.
He started working on his belt, though at a slow, familiar pace as he looked to Tilly expectantly,
"Wasn't rightly you to be sorry; fellow was there already, Doctor Mercier. Seems they'd bathed at the same time." His brow rose almost by reflex, to the haughty implication, though there was a pained look behind his eyes as he finished the belt that held his chaps about his waist and only then realized he still wore his boots.
So, he knelt and saw to those.
"All I wanted was some quiet time, y'know? Then the whole world comes a'calling like I'd not just done a week's worth of fightin'." He shook his head in derision, a moment of spite came through in the way he vigorously tore the buttons free from his boots and kicked them off to the tree.
"Least it's done with now though..." He gave a somber smile to Tilly as he took in her huddled frame with some curiosity; his hands planted on his trousered hips defiantly, expectantly.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 25, 2018 18:55:02 GMT -8
Tilly watched him undress with some new focus and intrigue, before finding a new sense of guilt in the face of the more somber words he spoke.
She averted her eyes in kind, back to the water.
"We'll have time to relax and slow down, 'specially after we get settled in..." She didn't look away for too long, and watched the shift of the light in his midnight eyes. She'd seen that look before, with Grace: it was jealousy.
She was morbidly curious; she had never imagined that freak doctor to pursue any romance. It felt unnatural.
"Doctor Mercier...?" She ran a finger under her cap, more to rub her brow than anything.
"Are they... romantic?" She braced the question. She wanted to know, sincerely.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 25, 2018 19:08:34 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
"Perish the thought!" He guffawed, shaking his head and bowing forward as he drew closer to Tilly; though the motions all but hid a subtle flush and furrow to his brow that vanished by the time he squared up before Tilly. Hands, of course, still on his hips as he quirked his mouth to one side,
"Both are awfully lacking in any romantic airs... Florence alone is married to science, and science alone keeps her happy at night." He sighed, smirking, as he brought his hands over to the collar of her shirt, poking out from atop the jerkin and scale-maile.
But... his brows furrowed and he sighed again; there was less jubilancy and more genuine worry,
"Though I'd be a liar to say I'm not worried... Florence is so frightfully easy to manipulate; she'd do anything-- anything- for her studies, I swear. That Doctor Mercier doesn't seem so awful, but all it takes is a bit of curiosity and a poorly worded jest and-tsk-" He worked open one of the buttons on her shirt before setting his hands on his hips again.
"-Who knows what madness unfolds from there; look at us, we're infinitely better off than them but it's still a castle made of glass."
Again, he hummed and prattled on, at a leisurely pace,
"I know there's no love lost between you two, but she's been my closest friend and ally for the better part of a year; when Lavinia went mad and was writing it in blood, Florence was the only one to listen to my woes. Not that there weren't those willing, but she was the one that was there... Through and through." He shook his head sadly, before looking to Tilly slyly,
"Naturally, she doesn't hold a candle to your Light; but she was a candle in dark times all the same. I don't want it snuffed or tarnished."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 25, 2018 22:33:14 GMT -8
Tilly made a wry smile as she took the hint and began to slide off her gloves and her coat (the latter of which she more pointedly stashed underneath an overhang of the rock she sat on).
Already, she was feeling better; less at the fore of the public eye, and in more of a protective hidey-hole.
"I understand you're great friends and all; she's your little, crowly shadow." She began, plucking idly at the silver-plated scales on her front. "But she's about as womanly as a hound, you know? I'd worry more on some conman scamming her out of her savings than anybody trying to lay with her."
She felt much more free, bereft of the coat. She hadn't noticed how hot it had gotten wearing so many layers; rolling her shoulders, she relished in the feeling. Her arms slid into the scale armor as she set about shedding her silver skin.
And then she stopped, incredulous, as she picked up the next words and laid the armor across her lap.
"Lavinia... what? Writing in blood-- the substance?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 26, 2018 6:21:32 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
"Oh, aye..." He informed her with an almost insulting passive jubilancy, as though he were remarking about some fair weather as he nodded;
"... One morning, I woke up to her raving about 'The Mother', while writing my name... "Blood", in her blood... The substance." He nodded, his tone was soft and speculative as he stroked his chin thoughtfully, watching Tilly disrobe slowly, enticingly.
He rose a brow and shrugged,
"That was about the time I decided to send her to the Sanitarium... I was a fool to think I could subdue her." He scoffed, crossing an arm over his chest to hold the elbow of the other as he cupped his jaw,
"I'm still not sure I did the right thing but she seemed sane enough when she left." He sighed again, shutting his eyes and looking off down the river when he opened them again.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 26, 2018 6:50:51 GMT -8
Tilly watched him with mixed amusement and sympathetic horror. She'd known Lavinia to be temperamental, but to have gone downright mad...?"
"What in blazes..." She watched him tell the story, and her disbelief parallel the absurdity of it all.
Her shock turned to a smile, and she clasped her hands together momentarily in revelation,
"That explains how you can be so sodding patient!" She grinned and pointed at him, making to unbutton her jerkin with her free hand, "You had a bloody trial by fire with her."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 26, 2018 7:01:39 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
With a blithe smile he nodded,
"Quite literally. I'd thought it handled as I'd handled things like it with peasants who'd thought themselves haunted by one thing or another... I had only heard about such bloody ends to manic means t'ill that day."
He cast his eyes over to watch Tilly for a time before making his way over to his clothes nearby and saw to bringing them to the river to wash, seemingly to busy himself as he talked.
"I'm surprised you hadn't heard-" He began, harumphing as he began wringing out the blood and dirt from his cloak's silk,
"-You tend to have your finger in all the pies. Why; I'd not left you but for an hour and you come to me weeping with that man hot on your heel-- Do you know who he is? The cockish fellow who'd followed you?"
He clucked his tongue, shaking his head as he worked out some dirt by using some nearby river stones.
"I do."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Mar 26, 2018 7:16:33 GMT -8
Tilly shrugged, and reclined back, letting the jerkin hang loose from her shoulders, unbuttoned. Her grimy undershirt, a bleached white, fit snugly on her person.
"I was busy tending to Jacques and Cugey and Grace and the like! You and Lavinia were always off doing something else."
She seemed much smaller without her coat. Already her jarring angles on her person filled out to more pleasing and softer shapes, though she was still shockingly thin.
She removed her hat and sat it next to her, positioning it to allow Beansprout to soak up the sun.
Tilly cringed slightly, and prepared to hear that the man was a serial-murderer or the like.
"...He recognized me, but I didn't remember him." She smoothed her chopped, blonde strands back and frowned at the sensation,
"Who is he?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Mar 26, 2018 7:35:34 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
"Some nobly-wannabe... His name started with a 'D' I think." He hummed, pausing as he heard her rustling he looked over to her with some due satisfaction. He hadn't rightly had the time to behold as she was now, sat so like a picture. Whether it was the act of sitting in the sun or her glory, his chest warmed and soothed all the same as he paused his cleaning to ponder.
"I offered him a job at the bath-house... I'm predicting some scandal with the man, but I hope he'll be able to pay it off with good labor and coin." He mused listlessly, distracted from his own words as he cocked his head to one side, as though to get a new angle to enjoy the sight of Tilly.
"You always were the busy one though, weren't you? I doubt anyone's pranced about this Estate as much as you." He cleared his throat and looked to his cloak; satisfied with the cleanliness, he set it aside and worked on his shirt.
"You got a mind for what you were up to with those three then? Cugey is the only one that was remotely stable." He chuckled and nodded to himself, rubbing out the stains and muck from his shirt before pausing to watch Tilly again.
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