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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 18:25:28 GMT -8
"Yes, I was talking to the Red One. It was very unpleasant and I must take time to process it." Florence did not take her eyes off from the ceiling, laying her arms flat on her sides in resignation, hands laxed, but her brows were still tensed.
She was the very picture of discouragement as she mourned the previous series of events.
"I do not know what to do next."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 18:52:10 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
"We will rest, for now... After that, after you have time to process it all..." Lekalis doubted that she might ever process whatever horrors had shaken her, but he held out hope yet as he pushed himself unto one elbow and placed a palm over her shoulder, squeezing it gently,
"... Take it one step at a time. I've had my fair share of ventures in decrypting the cryptic so... whatever this entity prattled out can't have been harder to understand than some self-proclaimed philosopher-poets." He jested lightly with a chuckle.
Lekalis felt the urge to speak on but he held his tongue as he looked to Florence's stern nature, then up to the ceiling in kind with idle ponderings on what woes she'd seen...
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 19:26:36 GMT -8
"This beast that we are dealing with is very dangerous. I thought that I might die." Florence said to the ceiling with a sigh, frowning as though something on the blank, dusty canvas above displeased her.
She made no effort to move.
"I realize now that this creature has more power over us than we can manage. To struggle is futile."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 19:34:15 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
The Ex-Lord felt he 'aught to be distraught at Florence's frightful loss of stoic determination, but it only inspired him further;
"Every monstrosity we've faced has had more power than us, and we've always managed!" Lekalis insisted, shaking Florence's shoulder lightly as he stared hard at Florence, in hopes of catching her gaze.
"If we don't struggle... we die. We give up." Lekalis pointed out, as he rather realized that was nigh precisely what Florence was aiming to do,
"And we can't die... we can't give up..." His words were hardly well construed but they were served with dire intent as he stopped his shaking, his tone wrought with a desperate need to inspire hope into Florence. Or at the very least, a desire to move forward...
\\
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 19:53:13 GMT -8
"...I will have to reconsider my approach to this monster. It is too powerful to face." Florence avoided his gaze; her eyes still stared forward as though she might glean some wisdom from its shadows.
But there was nothing within her and nothing without. She was a child toying with machinations she did not understand, and no good could come of it. Perhaps if she had accepted this sooner, she could have saved herself this current trouble.
"I do not know the further steps to take. I must think about it and concentrate."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 20:00:16 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
His eyes scanned over Florence's tensed features with a small hum before he nodded in solemn acceptance. He shut his eyes and lay back down beside her, his own inkish pools sent up to stare at the underside of his manor's foundations.
"I will be here, to listen and help." He assured her as he moved his hand to quietly curl about her own.
The Ex-Lord hadn't a clue what she'd seen, but he was able to infer much... What he could do to soothe her mind was... always a perplexing notion as she seemed to be rather unphased by his typical stimulations of flesh and wine. He only had mundane means of easing her pain, though what curses she'd wrought upon herself seemed utterly arcane. Beyond his works.
Stilly, he pondered if she might benefit from a massage or bath or two... At the very least, it might clean her grime and blood...
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 20:25:27 GMT -8
Florence continued to lay there and stew in her own regret, staring at the ceiling.
She would stay still for much time as she could. Which, ultimately, would prove to be a very long time.
[Dootdoot timeskip initiated?]
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 20:33:48 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
Likewise, the Ex-Lord decided to meditate some while he lay there beside the Crowgazer as she contemplated the traumas she'd been faced with. As much as he wished to inspire some means to motivate her, he felt hopeless to inspire her without risking a deathly stress upon her heart. He kept his breathing light and set to a steady rhythm as he eventually felt his eyelids grow heavy and shut for slumber.
[Timeskip to morning?]
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 21:24:04 GMT -8
Florence stared up at the ceiling for quite a while, even after Lekalis had drifted to sleep.
She thought about many things. She thought about nothing. Throughout it all she did not move.
Though she did not intend to, eventually she fell asleep.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 21:56:21 GMT -8
/Lekalis/ He awoke slowly, as if he'd never truly fallen asleep, to the darkness of the cellar ceiling above him. It took him a moment and a few blinks to recognize that he was, in fact, awake and not in some deep and dreamless sleep. His fingers clenched and released; he felt Florence's hand in his, still limp, but her eyes were shut all the same... Which was good, he supposed, as he let go of her hand and shifted his cloak out to cover Florence's rather heavily robed form... He thought of leaving it off her, lest she overheat, but he figured it might be better to be safe than sorry. Plus it gave him an excuse to return... Lekalis' stomach growled, though he already knew he wanted to fetch some food for himself and Florence. With some due haste, he fished out a spare sheet of papyrus from Florence's satchel as well as her ink and quill to quickly write a report of where he'd be should she awake before him. He doubly had a mind to visit Silvant, though that could wait t'ill he tended to Florence... Then Tilly, too. He 'ought to try and catch her before she ran off to her expedition. It was a busy day lined up for him, so he stood up promptly and let the paper fall upon Florence's belly before he strode off and out of the cellar... \\ /[Florence]/ [Dream state] When her eyelids shut, sleep swept her away like a greedy tide; a fish on a line, a plank of driftwood at the mercy of the shore. Weightlessness took her soul as she fell, for true, upon familiar bonesome grains of sand... Though the world was infinitely more grey. And... real, despite the lightness of her person. It felt as though she might get blown away by a stray sneeze. Yet, the sands clung to her face, and an idle wind did blow over the now drab dunes. A smell of vicious copper pervaded her nostrils... not like blood, rather, the pure metal. A kite-shaped silhouette drew out over and before her, in the sand. "I apologize." The words drawled out with a whispering wetness that seemed to slicken the ear, worming through her eustachian tubes as if she'd been submerged in water... yet the words wound through in an evershifting pace and flow... Yet the tone rather mimicked Florence's own monotonous speech. "You weren't ready... Still... not." The words hissed with a vicious noise, and her head began to pound again, "You should listen, for now... Will you listen?" |
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 22:04:25 GMT -8
The world she had been dropped to was monochrome, noted Florence with disappointment: it seemed she was utterly and completely blind to the hue as she feared.
Florence hit the sand and shot up to sit upright, now staring this creature again in its... equivalent of a face.
"Oh... dear."
There was a cold, deep dread again, and she made to scurry away from the kite-figure some distance before the pain took her head again.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she clasped a palm over her forehead and braced herself,
"Y-yes, yes, I'll listen."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 22:46:48 GMT -8
/[Florence]/ [dream state] "Good." It replied flatly, though, as Florence whirled to face it... she saw nothing but the expanse of dull grey emptiness. Flickers of sickly green energy still snapped across the clouds, now dark and stormy.. And, without the red haze, she could spy faces amidst the swirling shapes, despite her apparent short-sightedness of before. The shadow still loomed over her, but ever behind her. "Blood. The conduit of Life. A cord for which tethers meat to mind. Sup upon this and thou shalt see beyond thine mind. I will... Help. Thee." It paused, as if waiting for her to swallow the information before continuing in its pulsating tenor. A voice that droned on that rose with hisses like waves breaking upon a shore. "Drink of thy blood, or of Blood, or his... Tether. And I can... Help. Thee." Again, it waited as the shifting sands stirred and whistled in the wind, biting against Florence's exposed skin as an onyx pillar in the distance cracked as a bolt of verdant lightning scored a groove across its glimmering surface. "Seek blood, seek souls..." The kite's head wilted to one side, "Desire of me, and I shalt speak to thee. Help. Thee. Thou must learn; blood burns all but those of like kind." The wet, sapping touch of the Red One's little finger touched the back of Florence's mind, "Fear the Dark, but not the Red. Drink but a drop, and thy shalt be of a kind nigh my own... and nigh of Blood. Le... Kal... is..."
"Speak of thy alignment to me or not, but be slow. Do not reach beyond thy mind." |
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 23:06:25 GMT -8
Florence curled forward into her knees, fingers stretched and arched into her unkempt hair. Her heart beat fast in her throat, but it was bereft of the typical stutter that that entailed. Smooth and unobstructed, as though she were young again in a blatant disregard for time.
"I-I..." She swallowed her fear and started again, "I do not want to be your kind."
She drew her palm down her face and shivered.
"My... intent is to return Lekalis's soul, and Tilly's soul, and their child's soul to their respective bodies. That is what I want."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Nov 24, 2018 23:17:02 GMT -8
/[Florence]/ [dream state] There was a long, frustrated sigh as a long trail of dark shadow of the Red One suddenly whipped around Florence like a snake winding itself around its prey. The sound was still ethereal, like silk running over glass, as it spoke though it sounded... tired. "It is not want, but need which I speak." Another grumbling hum as its presence hissed against the sands as its shadow stalked left and right, "I cannot deliver unto thee souls without conduit or host." The creature reasoned in solemnity, skeletal hands scratched at the chin of a mask, so shown through the silhouette of its profile laid out before Florence upon the sands that stirred and hissed like rain. "I can deliver, though, thy wants and wishes whence conduit or host are set before me." It seemed to agree for a moment, but suddenly turned to loom over Florence again; a shadow at the edges of her periphery above. Skeletal hands drifted from the back of her scalp to rest upon her shoulders, the gilded claws that pressed against her cloth seemed to pull her blood towards them, like a maelstrom at sea. "Blood for Blood : Fair trades, a humble request, thou art short."
"What has been given can not be returned. What is mine cannot be delivered without Fair. Trade."
"Blood for Blood." |
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Post by Vanitypirate on Nov 24, 2018 23:27:56 GMT -8
If she would drown out the sounds of the Red One's movements, could stuff her ears with the bonedust to deafen her, Florence would. The sensation was utterly unwelcome to her, each interaction with this world she desperately longed to see destroyed.
There was a fierce desire to salt and scrub where those bone digits traced.
"If I drink my blood... will..." She began to choke on her words, "...will you return those three souls?"
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