[log] Noisy Black Part Three - Mingle [closed]

[snowblindmods]

Characters: characters participating in the noisy black event
Location: An office building.
Date: Night 261 - Day 262
Summary: Conversion and exploration.
Warnings: body horror, body trauma, medical horror, psychological trauma, forced IVs/forced feeding, note specifics in subject lines please

Sinners
Converted
Exploration

Comments

[termineur]

He doesn't curse much, but he certainly isn't going to blame Rhys for it. It sounded accurate. "That's awful. I'm sorry. Maybe you can find her once you're out of here. Talk to her and not your dad."

He waits what he figures is a respectable amount of time before continuing. "So what is it that's so different about you? What happened? What landed you here? -if you're okay talking about it, of course," he said, the last sentence more apologetic than anything else. "If not, I can tell you about me, but there's not much to tell."

[sleight_of_fate]

"Think he might be the one who had me committed."

He's slipping again, caught between the illusion that he's in the hospital and hurt, and in a mental ward. The mental ward doesn't let you have beds if you're dangerous, right? He can't remember. That sounds right.

He quietly buries his head in his arm, wincing at the sting of stitches against whole skin. "There was...an accident? I don't know." He pulls his legs up tighter against his body, to get his entire frame under the cloak."Devil. Unclean. Junkie whore. Should've been drowned." He laughs, and it's tired, but completely sane. Maybe it's a little worse for that, and he sighs, as hidden as he can manage under his cloak with just the pointed tail sticking out.

Okay, that particular choice of alteration might have been a little too personal.

"It's better for her if I don't find her."

[termineur]

Gabriel isn't exactly the best person to help someone find their self-esteem or get over past traumas. As it is, he thinks he's probably in a mental ward himself. Even if he'd never thought about it before, it seems like the sort of place he'd be if things went...poorly.

So this guy had probably lost it a little (or maybe a lot, who knows?). The fact that the same probably held true for Gabriel goes ignored. He just asks bluntly- "Have you killed anyone?"

[sleight_of_fate]

"Mmph."

Too much truth already, and Rhys's head hurts. If Gabriel is trying to peel back Rhys's skull (hahahahahaha), he's not quite that easy to get all the way inside, because some secrets are bone deep.

You don't stay out of jail by forgetting about the statute of limitations. Namely, that there is none on capital crimes like murder.

"No one that wasn't already trying to kill me," he mutters.

Liar.

[termineur]

Gabriel's too interested to notice how Rhys is emotionally backing away from the subject. His answer is practically a 'yes', and it makes Gabriel feel less alone.

"I killed someone, too," he replies. "But he wasn't doing anything to me. He came to me for help, and I just- it was like it didn't matter, what I was doing. Not until afterwards."

He's not worried about sharing, because he figures that's why he's here. It has to be, right? He belongs here.

[sleight_of_fate]

That's a pretty terrible confession. Rhys blinks slowly, trying to process that.

They're all monsters here. Is that the lesson? They've all got some sort of demon?

Flowers growing on the hill
Dragonflies and daffodils
Learn from us, very much
Look at us but do not touch
Phaedra is my name...

He doesn't actually realize he's singing until he hears the song in his head and remembers it's supposed to be Nancy Sinatra singing it and not his own hoarse tenor. He stops, blinking, and then is sad that it's quiet. Then remembers Sylar was talking. About serious things. Ugly things. Secrets.

"Someone's they see what you are no matter how hard you try."

[termineur]

The song is nice, and he thinks he remembers hearing it before. It seems like the right thing for this situation, even if he's not sure why.

"...yeah," he replies, quietly, before trying to explain further. "It felt like the man, he was broken, and I could take the pieces and- I don't know. It's unforgiveable. I should be here, I'm not safe. I don't know about you, though." If he'd only killed someone who was coming after him, that's just self-defense, right? It's not fair for Rhys.

[sleight_of_fate]

Rhys can only give a broken laugh, curling up to rest against the cool bars for a minute. It hurts a little less this way, for a minute.

"Don't think any of us are safe. Maybe they figure we'll eat each other."

He feels like there's more to the song, but Lee Hazlewood's half doesn't work in his head, even though the words do. It's a weird disconnect.

Some velvet morning when I'm straight...

"I guess that's what monsters do, right? We consume. We take."

He reaches up to touch the horns on his head, touching the bone with a shudder. "Truth in advertising...'the devil hath a pleasing countenance...'"

[termineur]

He doesn't think he can really counter that argument- either argument. It would explain why no one has been by in...how long? He didn't even remember. Clearly they were being left for dead. And he had to be a monster, one who took other people's specialness.

The nicest possible term for it was predator, and even that was too kind. They were evil. He doesn't speak for awhile. When he finally pipes up again, the emotion is thick in his voice. "I don't want to be this way. I'm sorry. I tried to stop, but it all kept falling apart. I tried everything I could think of. I'm not...how do we make it stop?"

He barely knew what he was saying, now. But there had to be something better than this. Anything was better than this.

[sleight_of_fate]

Kind of awful how much it explains, isn't it? Rhys has had longer to accept that quiet, horrible truth, and he's more resigned to it.

From the very start, he's known what he was. There's no illusions there.

"I don't know. Wish I did. I stopped. Don't know if it made things better or not. Seems like things got fucked up no matter what I did." He sighs quietly. Even when he was trying not to be a monster, bad things happened anyway.

Some are born to sweet delight...some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.

Words that aren't his keep dancing through his head, bits of songs and poens and...aren't songs just poems set to music? He keeps trying to find the tune for that one, but there isn't one, and it seems strangely maddening.

"Maybe it's just what we're supposed to be. Wherever it leads." Some people do bad things. It's what they do. What they are. Maybe that's what this place is. To keep the good people safe from them. Because Rhys has never felt so naked, even though he can't even use his powers here.

[termineur]

They weren't words of comfort, but at least Gabriel wasn't alone in this. He certainly didn't have it in him to refute that this was what they were supposed to be. So he just leans forward, until his head is against the bars. It's the closest he can get to comfortable with his body like this.

Rhys might hear Gabriel sniffling from time to time. Or he might not- there were plenty of other noises of fear and sadness coming from all the other cells, after all.

[sleight_of_fate]

Comfort is a scarce resource here, but there's something to be said for company in Hell. Rhys doesn't have anything else to offer, not as tortured as he is, and it might be exactly why he's here: a confused and exhausted ruin years before he ever set foot in this place.

But for now, it's enough to settle his torment, let him ignore the voices, and if there's tears, well...there's going to be a lot of those anyway.

It's going to be a long night.