[log] double meetup bonanza [closed]

[mrcreamsicles]

Characters: Davesprite, Karkat, and the Cat, plus Steph and then Ecks and Castiel
Location: Building 263, then building 254.
Date: Day 246, midday then evening.
Summary: A bird, a crab, and a cat play courier to a super hero and a quilt person. Also, an angel is there.
Warnings: Discussion of/allusion to anomaly murders.

263: A small office building. It's the sort that looks like it should attach to some larger facility, but whatever it might have connected to is long gone. It's two stories: the first contains a small lobby area, a waiting room, and an area for secretaries. Going upstairs reveals a small honeycomb of eerily empty cubicles. There are desks and chairs in each one, but nothing on any desk or placed on any of the cubicle walls. There's one small one-person office in the back that's similarly empty, and two public bathrooms that work, though the water runs cold. On the wall by the desk in the one-person office, a drawing that says "I love you, Daddy!" has been adhered with cat stickers. "ALPHONSE ELRIC, DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO. IF YOU NEED ANY ASSISTANCE, PLEASE CALL @LELRIC." has been written on a wall.

254: This skyscraper is half-ruined: the top of it has clearly collapsed. Still, it's large enough to work as a landmark, what's left seems stable enough, and the doors still work. Going inside reveals a fairly standard-looking lobby. The marble floors were probably pretty once, but are now dusty and cracked. Any signage indicating what this building was for is long-gone, and instead graffiti speaking of the prophet and eye symbols dot the walls.

The elevator shaft and the door to the stairs both open, but there's no elevator car, so it's best to take the stairs. Most of the doors here are ruined, crushed by rubble and debris and impassable, though there wouldn't be anything of use in crushed floors anyway. The top floor, however, is intact, and stepping in reveals what was probably once a floor for offices, though now everything is empty. There is a symbol of the prophet drawn in red paint on the floor by the door, and then a line that can be followed in one of three directions. Each one leads to one of the three skybridges in this building.

Comments

[mrcreamsicles]

[If there's supposed to be any humor in that, it falls flat. Even if there isn't, it's such a short answer as to come across almost dismissive.]

That's not what I meant, and you know it.

[absentconstellation]

Then perhaps you should say what you mean.

[ He wants to dismiss this line of questioning anyway, but he won't lie about it outright. He can't. ]

[mrcreamsicles]

How did you deal with it emotionally? She looked like Alanna, didn't she?

[He'd said before something about it, but he hadn't had the time to ask then, and he wants more detail.]

[absentconstellation]

Hmph.

[ It wasn't easy, by any means. But he could pretend that it was. ]

The real Alanna would have been far more upset about the cold than any missing "light".

[mrcreamsicles]

[His arms fold.]

You say that like this place doesn't mess with people's minds on the regular.

[absentconstellation]

And why should she have been real, and none of the others? Should I have believed that the rules of this place had changed, so suddenly and so drastically?

It is foolish to think that I could have made any other choice.

[ Foolish for the Cat to think, not foolish for Davesprite. But it doesn't suit him to clarify. ]

[mrcreamsicles]

And how do we know the others aren't? We got turned into monsters just like they usually do. You think being a stitched-together nightmare puppet is on my usual roster?

[absentconstellation]

If they are, it does not matter. There is no saving them, Davesprite.

[mrcreamsicles]

[His postures tenses up altogether, then loosens like a string cut, breath gone out all at once.]

It doesn't make it any easier.

[His voice has dulled.]

[absentconstellation]

[ The Cat's voice turns low, still pragmatic, but somber. ]

No. No, it does not.

curses the errant s on posture up there

[mrcreamsicles]

[And even more quietly:]

I never killed anyone before that. People keep blaming me for when Clint died out in the snow with me, but that wasn't... that wasn't the same as this. I've fought monsters and everything, but none of them were human. They were game constructs.

[absentconstellation]

These were not human either, Davesprite. Not anymore.

[mrcreamsicles]

I guess?

[He sinks forward, bunching his tail to settle his elbows on, the better to cup his forehead in his hands.]

Royce tried to tell me it was mercy. That if I just left it, he might go on and hurt somebody else, or something worse might happen...

[A pause.]

I talked to Al this morning, and his face is entirely static on the camera because he didn't kill his. And that can't be the end of it, something else bad is going to go down because it always fucking does here. But I've still got the image in my mind, Cat. It still looked like John.

[absentconstellation]

It will stay with you the rest of your life, I don't doubt, as Alanna's broken form will stay with me.

There is much in the past, both painful and pleasant. But the future remains as well.

[mrcreamsicles]

[There's not a whole lot he can say to that right now that won't sound like weak arguing. But if there is one benefit the Cat has, it's in that he's a cat. It's a lot easier to seek contact and comfort from what looks like a fuzzy house pet. It's why, rather than leave or just sit there, he goes to gather his small, furry form into his lap to hug against him.]

[He'll stay like that for a bit, if the Cat lets him.]

[absentconstellation]

[ He puts up with it, though he does wriggle around a little to get more comfortable. Honestly, he could use a hug too. ]

[mrcreamsicles]

[Davesprite lets him without fuss, and pets at his back to compensate.]

I'm sorry you had to do that too. Even if it was easier for you than me.

[absentconstellation]

I have killed before, and I will again.

I pray you never will.

[mrcreamsicles]

[That hurts to hear. Hurts to contemplate.]

That's dark, Cat. Fuzzy bundles of stars shouldn't have to kill anyone, and you're not going to convince me otherwise on that.

[absentconstellation]

Better to kill than to lose those you love by doing nothing.

[mrcreamsicles]

[He rubs at his forehead.]

Sure.

[The idea keeps coming up. He thinks of Aymeric telling him about knighthood where he comes from, and what the Cat himself said earlier about Alanna. About way too many stories, and about the kind of person Bro was.]

You want to talk about anything else? No offense, but it's pretty weird getting life and death lessons from a house pet.

[absentconstellation]

Yes, I usually prefer to let life teach such lessons.

[ There are extenuating circumstances, for sure. ]

I have other stories to share, if you would like to hear them. They need not all be about the trials of knighthood and political unrest.

[mrcreamsicles]

[At least he moves on smoothly. Davesprite exhales, relaxing the tension from his shoulders.]

I would, yeah. My ears are open.

[Meow Mix gets a grateful ear scritch.]

[absentconstellation]

[ He begins to purr quietly. ]

Alanna felt that once her true gender was revealed, all those she knew in the palace in Corus would despise her. This was, of course, absurd. Those who hated her for being a woman and lying never truly knew her. Still, she was determined to spend her early years as a knight wandering.

She went south-west first, towards Tyra through the Great Southern Desert. There the Bazhir lived, and though their land had been claimed by Tortall they were not all at peace with the king in the north. Alanna found herself among one of their tribes after a short battle with hillmen.

Among the Bazhir women wear veils, and only men are permitted to take up arms. The tribe that found her, the Bloody Hawk, did not acknowledge the northern king. They were uncertain what to do with a woman warrior, a knight sworn to the kingdom. They decided to let her try the combat. Naturally, she beat her opponent and they made her a man of the tribe.

The shaman at the time was a stupid, hateful man. He tried to kill her outside the laws of his tribe. He died in the effort, using magic he did not have and burning up his life in the process. As such, Alanna, the Woman Who Rides Like a Man, became shaman for the Bloody Hawk tribe. She had to stay with them until she finished training her replacements - two girls of the tribe with the Gift of magic.

She meant only to pass through, and instead became a beloved legend among the Bazhir, leaving two young female shamans in her wake.

[mrcreamsicles]

[He keeps up the attention, though mild enough not to distract, while he listens through the story. It's a better one, less upsetting yet impressive all over again. Not just the first female knight in an age, but one of high accomplishments.]

Man, closest I ever got to something like that was making friends with some of our consorts. They never made me any fancy shaman, though. I just got them to stop trying to steal my stuff.

[In the background, the difference sits in his mind, percolating over the concept of 'hero'.]