The Other Kind of Not Fade Away - Part 3

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The Other Kind of Not Fade Away - Part 3

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chatterghosts

chatterghosts

@chatterghosts 2 years ago

(( A continuation made on Tai's request and behalf! Winkety wonk. ))

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Tairais • 2 years ago • edited

(( Wizardblizzard - Sorry, I know its past when you wanted me to wait on posting, but if I don't do it now I'll forgot. Considering it's like 2:23 in the morning for you right now, you'd better be asleep anyways >:c

"Isabella Walker. And this is my father Andrew. Pleased to meet you." The ritual of introductions came automatically. Something was still puzzling her... when had he arrived, anyway? She was about to ask, but was distracted by Charricthran's next question. "It's for Dr Jekyll, of course."

She lit the burner as she was speaking. ))

"Naturally, kid, but I meant what does it do? How does it relate to our dear Doctor Jekyll?"

He clasped his arms behind his back and rocked back on the balls of his toe, looking as if he hadn't a care in the whole world.

As with most things regarding him, it was a clever illusion. He was much more curious than he let on.

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Wizardblizzard  Tairais • 2 years ago • edited

((If Charricthran definitely doesn't speak alchemy or astrology, then I'd better adjust course slightly. I started this assuming he was the kind of character who might, with all those runes and things. New plans needed. But I've basically written myself into a corner anyway, and think I need to shake things up.

And yep, I do know what time it is and shouldn't be doing this, will try and do better!))

As the water warmed up, colour began to seep out of the crystals at the bottom of the flask. "At LAST", Isabella said with relief.

At Charricthran's coment, she looked puzzled for a moment. "Oh - Doctor the other Jekyll, I mean. Helen" She chuckled, "it's confusing with so many Jekylls, I'm not even sure now I think about it that there aren't more than two Dr Jekylls. As for what it's for - can you keep a secret?" Looking Charricthran in the face she noticed his eyes for the first time. Whatever she had been about to say was pushed to one side. "Who exactly are you?" she said carefully.

She took a step back, and her father took a step forward; something about the movement was reminiscent of soldiers closing ranks.

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Helen Jekyll  Wizardblizzard • 2 years ago

((Oooh, a dream about making something or other for my dear Helen. Interesting! What ever could it be for, I wonder... hmm... *sinks into deep thought*))

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Wizardblizzard  Helen Jekyll • 2 years ago

((hello! I warn you, as usual I barely know what I have in mind myself...

Would love to play with you next time we can get our characters to collide!))

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Helen Jekyll  Wizardblizzard • 2 years ago

((I look forward to it! :D))

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Tairais  Wizardblizzard • 2 years ago

He'd grinned when the reaction seemed to work according to plan, mirroring her father's military posture. Granted, the surefire grin didn't necessarily fit his parade rest, but what about his patchwork appearance did?

"I'm Charricthran, kid. I'm too old to be sharing secrets, so yours is safe with me."

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Wizardblizzard  Tairais • 2 years ago

And there was a hint if ever there was one. But Bell wasn't giving up. Here in the dream world she seemed a shade different from the polite and puzzled girl who hung around the edges of the Society for Arcane Sciences; more sure of herself, odder ... somebody who didn't seem one hundred per cent out of place talking to Charricthran.

Out of place, yes. But not one hundred per cent out of place.

"Yes, but who ARE you, and what brings you here?" She soundd part defensive, and part hopeful. Outside, the wind started to blow.

"Wait a minute, that name seems familiar. Charricthran. ...Of course!

Are you - " that bird, she'd been about to say. "I

think I've seen you at the Society," she said instead carefully. "Are you... a

friend of Richard Prince's?"

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Tairais  Wizardblizzard • 2 years ago

A shadow crossed his features, quick as you please.

"'Friend' ain't the word I would use. Try 'associate'. 'Acquaintance'. 'Concerned-yet-estranged almost-family-member', if ya want several of them. I'm jus' passin' by, dreamin' by."

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Wizardblizzard  Tairais • 2 years ago • edited

((Bell is familiar with the situation of not quite knowing why you're running around after these people :-D ))

At the word "dreaming" a very faint bell rang at the back of her mind. She ignored it.

Well, that cagey explanation told her more than she'd previously known: she'd been doubtful whether the raven had been there as friend or enemy. So. Their visitor was... Um. An unknown, unquestionably magical creature, of ominous appearance, connected by some obligation she didn't understand to somebody who, come to think of it, was still a mystery to her himself.

On the other hand...

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers..." she said under her breath, coming to a decision that might have been different had she not been asleep at the time.

"Fair enough. I know how it can be. About the experiment... you may know about it already. Do you know about the Hydes, what they are? I think this is ready, better let it cool off before I try mixing them," she added, and turned off the flame under the flask of water, now deep yellow.

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Tairais  Wizardblizzard • 2 years ago

"I know a wee bit of practical and theoretical knowledge. Care to enlighten me? I wouldn't say I'm dyin' ta know, considerin', but I am a fair bit curious. And I'm a bit stuck, so really, we've got all the time in the world here."

He rolled his shoulders back and leaned against the table nonchalantly, without a care in the world.

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Wizardblizzard  Tairais • 2 years ago

((I drew a thing again! I put it on DeviantArt.))

Isabella shook her head. "I'm trying to enlighten myself. What the Hydes are is, they're shapeshifters," she explained in case Charricthran didn't know. "They're the result of some very unwise experiments. Like a werewolf, only they turn into a different person. Or rather, the Hydes are the people they turn into, if you follow me. Different body, different mind, or at least a variation on the same mind. Again like a werewolf, most of them can't control it, or not always. And a lot of the Hydes seem to be nearly as insane as a wild werewolf, so... it's a bit of a problem," she said dryly. "So I'm seeing if I can do anything with this but it doesn't seem to like me very much." She picked up the sheet of notes. "Gold, the sun, the self, the heart, Leo, what am I missing?"

She wrote six more Sun symbols to assist thought: ☉ ☉ ☉ ☉ ☉ ☉ It did not seem to assist thought very much.

"How are you stuck?"

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chatterghosts • 2 years ago

Sleeping after such an overwhelming personal loss was one of the more simpler struggles Elias faced nowadays. Try as he might, he couldn't seem to escape the nightmares that chased close at his feet. However, while most of his night terrors were comprised of memories, there was nothing that lingered in his subconscious that even remotely prepared him for this newer, more alien, and irrefutably horrific scene.

He was lying, quite helplessly, at the floor of a seemingly empty room, stone and glass comprised walls extending to the sky, as far as the eye could see. He made no attempt to move– but really, he couldn’t have if he tried. His wrists and ankles were bound together with thick leather belts, restricting his movements to stiff, aching jerks.

Finally, he concluded he was trapped, seemingly alone (despite the sensation of glares biting into his spine), in an infinitely tall, glass-and-stone tank. His stomach heaved at the revelation.

He had little time to grasp his new surroundings before the floor began to grow icy, warping and shifting in an almost liquid manner– a fitting thought, given how it took Elias far, far too long to realize that the floor was, in fact, stationary. Rather, cold water had began to trickle into the tank. Surprise and disorientation were barrelled over by the sensory shock, promptly giving way to panic.

”Brother dear, you're looking in desperate need of a helping hand."

Elias whipped toward the owner of the voice (he’d too soon forgotten the exact sound of his brother, but now it was harsh on his ears, entirely unbelonging and painful to hear), frantic eyes bounding across the surface of the walls. Finally, he caught the faintest of silhouettes– a freckled face, distorted by water, with lips pulled into a nauseating grin.

“Art..." A squinting, scrutinizing glance. "Artemis?”

”In the flesh– er, or perhaps not? Pardon my humor.”

In immediate response, a wave of tears pricked at the corners of Elias’ vision. “Are y–” A shallow breath. Focus. “Can...can you– can you help me out?”

Artemis began to pace around the tank, his thunderous gaze never leaving Elias’. “You would like that, wouldn’t you?”

”What?”

“Did I stutter?” he responded sharply. “You want me to help you?” A keen tilt of his head. “Tell me, do you think you deserve that?”

Elias spluttered for his words, struggling and eventually managing to pull himself to his knees to combat the rising water. The belts bit into his already-pinned wrists, sending twitches of pain through his nerves.

”You really think I’d help you,” Artemis continued, “when you let your mylimasis kill me?”

As it was in life, Artemis’ tone was uncomfortably level, even gentle - he longed for him to shout instead, feeling it’d be easier.

“Richard didn’t do an–”

“And you defend him, too?” Artemis paused in front of Elias, eyes narrowing. “What kind of a brother are you?”

Moving like ink in water, Artemis’ neck turned dark with sickly, blood-red contusions. “Would you really sit by and have me die? Again?”

“Nononononono, you know I’d never, just let me–” briefly, his attention returned to the rising water that crept along his spine– “Please, give me time to explain, please, I’m so sorry!”

”How funny– that’s exactly what I told the three of them! And how far do you think that got me?” His voice dropped to a vindictive growl, still ringing clear as day in Elias’ ears despite the droplets that blurred his eyesight. “You don’t deserve to be saved. You traded my life for Richard’s, and there is no coming back from that. You betrayed my trust–” he opened his arms, gesturing toward the tank– “and this is your retribution." A grating pause, and Artemis' voice warped and darkened the tiniest bit (the voice wasn't his - it was never his). "You always forget, Elias, you always forget– all men get what they deserve.”

Elias’ eyes widened almost comically. ”N- no- God, no, no, no, tell me it isn’t you saying that too–”

Cold water seeped into his mouth and cut off the end of the sentence, and Elias clamped his lips closed, barking out a gravelly, rough cough and flapping toward the surface of the water to no avail. The more he struggled, the more he seemed to sink–Arty’s figure was soon little more than an impression in watery glass.

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Tairais  chatterghosts • 2 years ago

He wished he could say stepping off the Shifting Paths into freezing water was the most jarring of transitions he'd experienced in all his wandering. Naturally, there was always something worse, and he'd experienced plenty.

That being said, he really, truly did not like the water. Cold water, warm water, boiling water- the temperature made no difference, not really (how could it when he didn't have nerve endings? The sensation of temperature seldom drew his attention unless he was... otherwise compromised). It was all terrible. Terrible for feathers, terrible for skin unless you were washing, which he was not. He didn't mind baths or anythin', but outside that-

Focus, feather-brain.

His form stretched and blurred somewhere between raven and man, feathers and wings dragging against the water that, to his mind, was no heavier than air.

He instinctively knew to dive downward, just as he instinctively knew where Elias was. He hooked his arms around Elias' chest and soared upward, breaking through the surface with barely a ripple or splash.

Not today. Kid needs at least one restful night.

He glanced down at Elias with a blank expression. "You still breathin', kid?"

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chatterghosts  Tairais • 2 years ago

Elias gave a shuddering gasp for air as they broke through the water's surface, coughing and retching out the water that had flooded his lungs for a long moment. (And even when he was clear and finally able to breathe, he coughed still.)

He gave a few shivering, pained breaths, before tilting his head back to look at..whoever had rescued him.

"W-- who are... what?"

He was grateful, of course. Infinitely so. But the fact that the man (man...bird...something) was even faintly familiar unsettled him in too many ways, and it created more questions than answers.

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Tairais  chatterghosts • 2 years ago

The beats of three pairs of wings (one visible, two somewhere out on the periphery of the faint reality of this world) thudded like a sluggish heartbeat as he spoke, a small smirk blooming on his face.

"I'm called Charricthran, you're Elias, and we're both in your dreamin'. Nightmarin', more like. I was just wandering. Door was open though, and ya felt like ya needed a hand and a pair of wings. Take it you're still breathin' though, so that's good. Anywhere I can set ya, or...?"

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chatterghosts  Tairais • 2 years ago

"Um..."

His gaze turned toward the sky, where the walls of the chamber extended infinitely beyond his vision.

"I...don't think so..."

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Tairais  chatterghosts • 2 years ago

"Fine enough, then. I'll be carryin' ya until you wake up or the walls go down, whichever comes first."

Dadadum, dadadum, dadadum.

He paused, considering the words he said next.

Dadadum, dadadum, dadadum.

"I suppose if ya want to talk anything out, I'm as good a pair of ears as any. Copious, frankly ridiculous amounts of feathers aside."

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chatterghosts  Tairais • 2 years ago

I want to go back and see him. Let me go back letmegobackletmegoBACK-

"I'd...rather not."

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Tairais  chatterghosts • 2 years ago

His thoughts bounced back and forth against the walls like frantic tennis balls. Charricthran found he had about about as much an idea what to do with those thoughts as he would the metaphorical tennis balls:

Absolutely none. No idea. He was sh*te enough with his own emotions- nevermind someone else's.

He eventually went with nodding, hovering over the surface of the water and watching his reflection after a time.

What was there to say? A nightmare like this, a nightmare with Artemis, was really his fault. They couldn't know that of course- he'd lose what few friends he had at best (and be so terribly, achingly alone, alone, alone-), and at worst, there'd be... a bloody witch hunt or something, Nine Hells if he knew.

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chatterghosts  Tairais • 2 years ago

"Your name...vaguely familiar. I'm not sure why."

(In the dreaming world he was in, that only made sense - he couldn't fully tap into Oliver's memories from his place here. The name Charricthran was imprinted with painful connotations, but little more than that.)

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Tairais  chatterghosts • 2 years ago

"Would you like me to tell you, or would you rather I keep my carefully-cultivated air of mystery?"

He wasn't sure if telling Elias was a safe idea. He knew it was almost certainly a bad idea for Elias, what with their surroundings being a direct result of his thoughts and emotions. Color him curious, though. Don't get him wrong, he liked the kid well enough, but Charricthran was a curious sort of bastard.

Wind em up and watch em go. Hannibal would be proud. How disgusting and amusing.

The steady rush of air between his feathers faded into the background like the gentle susurration of a sluggish heartbeat-- it was his best attempt at being subtly comforting. Words were jagged things, piranhas and spears and the traps of hunters. Words of comfort did not come easily when they were to be given to someone else's loved ones.

(Red hair in the autumn, the smell of wet, decaying leaves and the flash of sunset illuminating violet and gold eyes, green and blue eyes, red eyes. The warmth and heavy smoke of a damp campfire. Easy words, gentle words to the lost soul they were guiding home with smiles on their face. The woods were home-)

He scattered those thoughts to the farthest corners of his mind, protecting them against his own mind. The heartbeat of three pairs of wings beat on.

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chatterghosts  Tairais • 2 years ago

"Feel free to tell me. I'm curious." Not like I can really go much elsewhere.

And curious he was, in a twisted sort of way. It wasn't as if things could get much worse from thereon out.

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Catt Hatter • 2 years ago

(("You're right, I don't have any right to tell you how to discipline. I do, however, happen to have the right to enjoy my meal without someone shoving their elbow into it by accident. Therefore, if you could kindly wait to... 'discipline' my dear friend when the pair of you get home, it would be ever so much appreciated."

He cast a quick glance towards Catt, noting that the kid... looked more like an actual kid. About seven, if he could estimate worth a damn. Her hair was different too- no bangs, length down to the seat. Still brown, at least. Modest, if a bit posh outfit meant for dinin' out in.

Right then. Nightmare territory most definitely. He had yet to be in any situations where skeletons and children mixed to a favorable outcome. He'd really rather Catt wake up before it got worse, but he couldn't leave now- he was part of events.

Nothing to be done for it except help Catt out as best he could. Hence the skeleton-wrangling.))

"You're more than welcome to find another table, sir."

In one fluid motion, punctuated by her formality, the woman single-handedly heaved both him and the young Catt through the air, sending them crashing into the aisle. The other passengers merely watched, empty and placid as statues.

"I-I'm sorry!" Catt cried, trying to scramble to an upright position.

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Tairais  Catt Hatter • 2 years ago

He really was just trying to be civilized. Well and truly- It seldom worked to get angry in these sorts of things, best to just let the nightmare run its course...

Except Catt had been kind, and Catt was a friend. He'd never been able to be impartial towards friends.

So he compromised, closing his eyes for half a moment to store his rage aside for the inevitable confrontation, stalling it for a bit.

He stood and offered a hand out to Catt to help her stand up, all too aware of his shadow, which now spread wings of warning against the ground. They twitched in irritation as they moved, the temperature inching ever so slightly colder.

He ignored the skeletal bi- 'woman' in favor of addressing Catt concernedly.

"You all right, kid?"

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Catt Hatter  Tairais • 2 years ago

Catt hesitated a moment before taking his offered hand. Once on her feet, she didn't let go, clinging to his arm with her small, shaky hands.

Their skeletal adversary stood glowering near the booth, her rage palpable in the steadily cooling air.

"Come here." She ordered, pointing to the ground near her.

Catt whimpered and tried to hide behind her tall friend, burying her face in his arm. Her head barely reached his elbow.

"Come here NOW!" The woman bellowed. The shockwave snuffed out all the lamps in the car, leaving them only the blueish silver light from outside.

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Tairais  Catt Hatter • 2 years ago • edited

F*ck storin' the rage for later, the rage was needed now, sharp and cold like an icicle plunged directly into the heart. Or perhaps the eye. It depended on how cruel he felt like being.

Fighting hatred with love only worked if you weaponized the hatred, else you were just standing passively by to let the flames of that hate rage and roar around you-

(The image of hair redder than a dying sunset and a pair of mismatched, wildly vibrant eyes came to mind, accompanied by the sensation of three matching, crooked smiles.

His heart burned- with rage, and with a fierce loneliness.

His heart called out in a quiet voice: 'you're trying to replace them. don't replace her- you CAN'T

He didn't listen. This was no replacement, this was paying homage and honoring her memory- both of the memories left behind. The memories he hoped to return to, and the memories he wonders if he was ever relevant to.

All those images flickered at his fingertips, gone like streaks of watercolor drowned in tears of grief and frustration. They wouldn't help here.)

-And he would not stand to see a kid burned by the hatred of a bitter, dead, thing.

Never let it be said he was ever without a weapon.

The train car grew colder and colder.

Colder.

Colder still.

How f*cking dare she bully a child like this?

He smiled reassuringly at Catt, then bared a smile full of far too many teeth, with lips that cracked and peeled along the jawline to her tormentor.

"Last warning, ma'am. I'd hate to see a pretty little thing like you get hurt. Stop bothering the girl, you're causing a scene."

His voice couldn't drip any more venom and acidity without being literal. He didn't want to accidentally harm Catt, after all.

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Catt Hatter  Tairais • 2 years ago

Catt noticed two things in the seconds that followed.

First was that the three of them suddenly seemed to be the only passengers in the dining car.

The second, was that the woman had teleported directly in front of Char and was shrieking directly into his face.

"I HAVE SURVIVED WORSE THAN A BAR FIGHT YOU SEXIST PIG!" Then her fist was heading to make a solid connection with his jaw.

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Tairais  Catt Hatter • 2 years ago

Charricthran smiled as the woman's bony fist flew through him as if he was made of so many smoke and mirrors.

"My dear woman, this is about to be so very much more."

The very air seemed to still itself, drawing in a held breath that crackled with pent-up energy- Torke's legacy, springing to life.

The air exhaled with a vicious roar and a single beat from a pair of thunderous wings. Lightning arced across the ground, shattering windows as it scampered up walls and scattered across glass that fell and leapt outward into the snow, tearing chunks of train-car with it.

The bones of the vehement fiend that had so rudely shoved her hand were scattered out the shattered graves of those poor windows into the snow.

He turned to Catt with a soft, almost sad smile, teeth back in their usual configuration now.

"I hope I haven't frightened ya too much, kid. Just stay behind me, yeah? I don' wantcha gettin' hurt."

This wasn't the end of the fight. There was a primeval sort of awareness skittering down his spine like so many ants- he knew.

He always knew.

(Red hair, golden eye, violet eye, scars and teeth and pointed ears and a wry smile trying to be strong-)

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Catt Hatter  Tairais • 2 years ago

Trails from the lightning glowed like blue veins along the floor, dimly illuminating thin wisps of frosty vapour which drifted through the air.

Catt wrapped her arms around herself and nodded as tears surged in from the shattered windows. The frigid water rose quickly and she shivered from both its icy touch and from fear.

Why had everything gone so wrong? She'd just wanted to ride the train with her friend, share a warm moment of safety. Why did things always have to go this way? Why did they have to turn sour and tear into her happiness?

Because I don't deserve to be happy.

Sobs seized her body as the flood closed over her head, filling the car completely. Debris from the tables drifted lazily past, the faces on the cards and even her own reflection in the glasses seemed to glare at her disdainfully.

She squeezed her eyes shut against, everything, and wished she wasn't so helpless.

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