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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 23, 2018 17:43:57 GMT -8
/Lekalis/ Nodding, he focused hard and dedicated each word to memory as Florence spoke. He was never grand at taking notes, but he oft prided himself on his memory... at least, for important things. To say each word she spoke was important would be saying too little. "... You can still hear me?" Lekalis asked carefully, leaning forward worriedly as he stroked Florence's knuckles with his thumb. He idly pondered on how nice it would be to have dinner without something otherworldly happening... though he reckoned it might be a dull affair. \\ // There was a swelling sensation in Florence's person; her arteries and veins would feel as if they were expanding, pulsing harder and faster to a heart that wasn't her own. The gilded bones twisted and examined themselves as the vermilion vision began to bleed away... but... so too did the last vestiges of reality. Shadows went away with every blink, as if Florence were blinking back tears, the Darkness faded away to reveal a vast desert of bone-colored sand with onyx pillars piercing a red sky that boiled and turned unto itself like a raging sea. Dazzling green lightning shot across the sky but there was no sound. The bone-sand was picked up in a silent breeze, and the swelling sensation Florence felt began to fade. Though, suddenly, it felt as if her blood was pulled upwards, then forwards as a figure strode out before her... Gilded bones were wreathed in familiar red robes, though now pinkish muscle bound the bones together in the semblance of Man. The figure bore no arms, and its red robes, though shaped much like the brief glimpses of the Red Man Florence had seen before, they were tattered and revealed slivers of its upper torso. It did not face Florence, rather, stared out into the rolling dunes of white. Lekalis was not there, but she could still see the wiry chords of red against the white dunes. A sudden, pulsing, pinching and piercing sensation pounded against Florence's skull as though the water encapsulating her brain was being squished and molded. It was there, that she felt words... narry, letters formed from a multitude of voices Florence had heard from the past; each only baring a snippet of noise, "Re... Mem... Ber..." Gilded arms of skeletal make floated out and away from Florence's own, to rest at the shoulders of the figure's own missing sockets.
A sensation of... bleeding from the brain distantly imposed itself upon Florence's mind; draining that ended with a chill just outside of her nose and upon her cheeks.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 23, 2018 17:56:49 GMT -8
In that moment Florence summoned up every ounce of will that she had to look this jailer in the... whatever eye or eyes he had, standing in the middle of this unreal desert.
None of this was real. It was an elaborate hallucination conducted by a creator that benefited from others' misfortune. There was a danger, yes, but the arms it seemed to steal away from Florence surely would not result in a real armlessness in herself.
She ignored the pounding in her skull, honing in on what she saw. She refused to remember for this Red One.
"Excuse me." She rubbed her brow and (at least attempted to) called out to the manikin.
"What are you? What is your purpose?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 23, 2018 18:19:25 GMT -8
/Lekalis/ For a moment, he was rather caught off guard by Florence's remark though... given the circumstances, he rather figured she must be communing with the Red One. He tilted his head left, then right, leaning in carefully he examined Florence's face with respective analysis. She looked rather fine, as ever, though he noted her eyes were a bit rheumy and her lips seemed rather suddenly dry from last he'd checked. Her eyes did seem unfocused, frighteningly still, truth be told. Though, there was a detail he found particularly unsettling, "F-Florence... you're eyes they're... Red.", he whispered to her quietly, as he saw the dark of her eyes seemed to have whorls of red, like a tumultuous sky... \\ // Florence would, distantly, hear Lekalis words though they were filtered through a haze of white noise. The Red One's arms moved with hypnotizing grace as they cradled something infront of its face, before turning to reveal a mask of ivory... or perhaps pearl. The material was of undeniably otherworldly designs, with a sheen soft glossy sheen yet a clear grain like wood, though the grain shifted and moved in patterns that seemed impossible to focus on without further straining Florence's mind. At its center was a gem, a perfect mirror of the one which Florence now wore around her neck... Though the gem at the center of the mask pulsed with power and arcane energies. Red lines whipped about and warbled Florence's otherworldly gaze, tearing holes in this constructed reality to show a ceaseless vista of red emptiness.
"Excuse me." The figure's mask wilted to one shoulder like a cat to a canary, as its hands interlinked with one another in a steepled kite shape; the tips of the boney digits pressed delicately together, with the thumbs lightly together.
"O... Rub... OrS... ang... uin... esQ... uiD... eEx... cel... soI... llo... Flu... xis... tiQ... uod... Div... ini... tas... Tet... igi... t..." Again, the Red One spoke with a sporadic collection of jarbled words and phrases, though they seemed to be pulled from Florence's earlier years, when she'd been privy to lectures of anatomy and understanding the language therein.
The Figure strode forward with due fluid grace, as if the thing moved through water, it strode towards Florence now; its meat hugging the bones in an unnaturally perfect means... A walking diagram of the perfect human specimen, though the layering of bones upon meat was rather sporadic and inaccurate.
"Wil... You... Rem... emb... erF... orM... e?"
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 23, 2018 18:39:13 GMT -8
Latin and anatomy-- these creator modeled itself after her own memory, Florence surmised. The figure that approached her, in spite of its mask and robes, was perfectly textbook. She would be inspired to study its form if she were not certain it was drawn from her exact memory.
She stood her ground and watched as he approached and studied the joints of his hands, his arms... the way the muscles tensed and relaxed. The swirl of the gem. Anything besides what she was being pressed to remember.
"Quid dabis mihi?" She tried. What can you give me?
It was an utter shot in the dark.
"Tu perniciosius."
You have been destructive.
(much apologies for the garbage google-translate Latin)
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 23, 2018 19:13:25 GMT -8
/Lekalis/ The Ex-Lord stared at Florence and swallowed his worries for now, as he sat back and furrowed his brow; the Old tongue was something he was relatively versed in, from poetry to the odd bits of anatomy he remembered... It was difficult to piece together what words Florence was saying, but he made do. \\ // The more Florence observed, the more vivid breaks of red began to snap out from the gem; there was an even balance of palpable reality in the dunes, and incomprehensible flat color to Florence's current view, as the Figure stood before her in its perfection it flaunted with every motion. This close, now, Florence noted the little-finger of the figure's hands were markedly elongated, nigh double the length of any other digit upon its hand. It was particularly noticeable as it reached out and placed this gilded claw upon Florence's brow. This, Florence felt. A sharp, yet warm texture that seemed to suck the moisture where the digit struck. "Only... give... what's... got." "Remember?"
The Red One insisted as a shot of pain went through Florence's brow and out the back of her brain... But that was the last of the pain, as the throbbing stopped. Though... now, different sensations... Less a feeling and more a reading, a simulation; she knew what the sand should feel like, it was coarse, rough, and got everywhere. The air... was dry, and fleeting, but she did not need it to breathe. The onyx structures in the distance were ruins, designed for some malign purpose. The sky was not of Earth's, and she knew the sun had died here long ago.
The red haze had vanished and now, she saw through lens of emerald hue, that ran with so many small letters that it hurt the mind to try and focus on them. "Blood... for... Blood. Soul... for... Soul." "You... want... this?"
\\ |
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 23, 2018 19:37:17 GMT -8
Florence closed her eyes and took a breath, as though to drown out the wave of stimuli of a barren world. Excess information: she cared not of the troubles outside of Earth's. The onyx structure, the alien sky, the letters that ghosted across her vision-- it was all an unneeded surplus.
She was here for a singular purpose.
Enduring the shock of pain, again-- it was white noise. Unreal, white noise. She was quiet until it ebbed.
"I did not ask for this." Her eyes still were held loosely shut.
"What do you offer me? What is 'blood' and 'soul'?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 23, 2018 19:54:24 GMT -8
\\
The Red One stared at Florence from this realm of bonedust dunes and onyx pillars, its monsoon of maroon hues in its sky twisted viciously and lightning raced through the clouds. The tears in reality began to spread as the gem's whipping energy lashed out with a singular pulse that snapped with such noise that it popped Florence's ears and sent them ringing.
There was no sound, as words that spoke like the ebb and flow of the tides sang out in her head... Though, Florence only knew they were words by some primordial instinct. What they meant or even how they were pronounced were beyond reasoning. She knew the Red One desired her to go to the Cove, a place where flotsam is more present than sand, where a pier receives shipments of curious design. Where the Deep Blue rests amongst the Brothers of the Sun.
The world began to rapidly unwind into a blinding red; as if she were staring into a red sun, it scalded and burned into her retinas. Pain shot out from the back of her head and seemed like to burst her eyes as a vicious migraine tore into her mind...
//
\Lekalis\
He'd been quiet, watching Florence speak to nothing as he awkwardly but anxiously held onto Florence's hand; he wondered what she saw, how she held her head. Whether he should help her or not... "... Florence?" He asked quietly, worriedly, as he watched a droplet of blood pool out of her eye. Lekalis was hesitant still, but when she didn't speak, and blood began to fall rapidly from both her eyes, and nose, and ears, he figured enough was enough. Whatever Eldritch interaction she was having, it needed to stop.
Lekalis swiftly snapped out a hand and pulled the Amulet free of her neck. "Florence!" He called again...
\\
Despite the removal of the Amulet, Florence still experienced the throbbing pain which felt much like threatening to push her eyes out of their socket. The vicious and unending vista of red was all she could see...
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 23, 2018 20:09:41 GMT -8
Florence lurched forward into her open palms with a sputtering gasp that turned into a tortured scream. Hands clasped over her eyes as though to hold them into her sockets and hunched over, she was in the throes of an agony she had never in her life felt before-- beyond all the self-operations, the beating, the stabbings, the shootings she had known.
She knew not what was happening to her.
She screamed into her hands, flattened against her bleeding eyes.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 23, 2018 20:19:43 GMT -8
With every beat of Florence's heart, every heightened pitch of her screamed woes, the red pulsed harder... It was only when she pulled her hands over her eyes that the world went black, then the red was back but... faded; much as the vision had began, the red began to drip away like rain upon a glass of window.
The pain dissipated but... slowly. Every ten odd heartbeats, the pain faded.
/Lekalis/
He spared any more shouting as he quickly pulled Florence into an embrace; he didn't quite know what to make of her howling, he'd never heard her scream before... It was chilling, and he pressed his brow to hers and hastily tried to wipe away the flecks of blood with the cuffs of his sleeve,
"Florence? Florence... It's alright, I'm here-- Can you hear me?" He whispered warmly and wrapped an arm about her back in an attempt to massage some soothe into her to alleviate whatever pain was tormenting her.
Times like these, Lekalis rather wished he'd some occult or blessed means to aide her... As it was, all he could do was console and brush away the blood and whisper soft words to Florence.
\\
As mundane as the deed was, Lekalis' wiping of the blood on Florence's face, too, helped clear her vision and the migraine began to subside quicker. She would be able to vaguely see the world illuminated by the candle, though it was unnaturally blurry, her eyes still wetted but the malady seemed to be abating.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 23, 2018 20:43:56 GMT -8
She was shivering in his arms in the wake of what she had seen. Her breathing came fast, and she tasted copper in her mouth from the blood that dripped down from inside her nose.
The sensation could not abate fast enough. Though, Florence was slowly finding her wits again as she was left with its echoes.
Hastily, she made to smear the blood away from her eyes. She would not have been surprised if the experience blinded her.
"I can--" She dared to open her eyes, blinking rapidly,
"--I can hear you."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 23, 2018 20:52:19 GMT -8
The Migraine now was little more than a nagging pain in the back of Florence's mind, and her vision began to come back... slowly. Though something was off; Lekalis cloak was completely absent of color.
Florence is currently colorblind to the color of Red, and her vision is blurry past the extent of her hands (roughly 1 meter, or 3 feet)
/Lekalis/
"What happened..?" He asked carefully, giving Florence a little space to breathe as he brought his arms about to hold her own and ease some of her quivering with a frown of fretsome nature. He didn't doubt the terrors that might come from such an artefact, but he'd never witnessed it in person... Part of him childishly worried he might endure another scenario akin to Lavinia's.
"... It's alright, you're here now... Do you need water?" He offered, trying desperately not to overwhelm Florence but he felt his own antsiness rising with every breath, his own fingers quivered slightly as he reached into his satchel to find the uneaten rations of his expedition last.
With his other hand, he carefully pushed back Florence's rather greasy hair behind her ear and out of her face as she opened her eyes...
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 23, 2018 23:43:44 GMT -8
Florence was pale, shaky and distant.
Her hands drew over the silk of Lekalis's cloak with none of her typical dexterity or calculatedness. She moved with soft motions, as though unsure what response any interaction with the world around her would provoke.
It had gone grey. The color was drained from Lekalis's skin-- from her own skin.
"I... do not need water." She answered; her voice had gone hoarse, but it was just as monotone. "And I currently do not wish to speak of what has happened."
Veritably, she seemed to have wilted before Lekalis's very eyes. She had slumped over onto an elbow and seemed on the verge of laying down on the ground entirely.
"...I would like to be alone."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 6:27:58 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He chewed on the corner of his lip as he watched Florence slump, Lekalis' brows knitted up in confusion and worry before he swallowed hard and lightly pressed the back of his hand to either side of her neck, then her brow to gauge her temperature.
"You've gone pallid, Florence..." He informed her flatly, not out of any measure of calm, rather, an excess of both relief in that she had not died and worry in that she might in the next odd hour.
"... To leave you alone after what had just happened would be irresponsible of an assistant." Lekalis added with a small cheekish smirk, hoping to inspire some brevity... as hopeless as it may be on Florence's wits.
Taking some small hint from Florence touching his cloak, he undid its clasps and beckoned her forward as he set the cloak aside.
"Come now, lay your head here--" He beckoned, patting his lap, "-- We'll rest, then..."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 12:45:05 GMT -8
Florence rose a palm to halt Lekalis, and she instead made to slump all the way down to recline flat on the floor.
"I risk vasovagal syncope in remaining upright, thus I just lay down." She explained, staring up at the ceiling with furrowed brows as she contemplated the things she had just experienced.
It had deeply upset her. No longer was she confidant in her ability to pry this Red One from their lives.
With a grimace, she made to flake some newly-drying blood off her face... Or she assumed it was blood. Bereft of color, it could be anything.
"I experienced very extreme pain, and now I cannot see red tones. My vision has degraded..." She extended an arm straight in front of her, towards the ceiling, "...immensely. And I accomplished nothing."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 16:51:40 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
"... we should have prepared more." Lekalis offered quietly as he idly fidgeted with his cloak in his lap as he watched Florence lay down and outstretch her arm,
"You were talking to the Red One, then..?" He press carefully, as he shifted his weight and the stool so he might lie down next to her. Lekalis' gaze was to the ceiling, contemplating how much he should press. Florence most certainly needed time to rest, but he also knew her to quicken her recovery with a focus in sight.
Perhaps... poor wording, given her present maladies, which he didn't doubt for a moment. Florence was hardly one for hysterics.
"... You talked but didn't seem to hear me, your eyes were focused on something very far, far away... and very bright." Lekalis reported slowly and softly as he rested his palms on his belly.
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