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 Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:10 pm
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Hel grasped his hand firmly and gave it an equally firm shake. She held onto his hand for a moment, still grinning at him, before it suddenly faded.
In a quick movement, she was across the table, and whacked her hand across the top of Xavier's horned head. "What is wrong with you!?" Hel cried, now leaning on the table with one hand and glaring holes into the boil below her. "You are a Jack damn demon, Xavier! I should be thinking twice if not three times about making a deal with you, and I just did! Because I knew I could with no consequence and mark on my part!"
The reaper flopped back into her seat, fuming, and pretty much emptied her milkshake in one long and angry draw. "You need a backbone, boyo."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:31 pm
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He gave a squeal of pain and ducked down, head ringing. Xavier's claws automatically lifted to touch the top of his head, cowering beneath Hel's glare, which in and of itself, was immensely intimidating. He supposed he could have been a little more aware of everything that was going on in life, but it was not so easy to change, even when one was literally getting it beat into him.
Xavier gave a great sniff and then his eyes narrowed across the table at the ghoul, a shiver of anxiety running up and down his spine as something snapped for the first time in a very long time. A few feathers fell free of his hair, wafting to the ground at his feet.
"E-excuse me for b-being this way!" he cried, with more force than he normally ever showed. Xavier pushed his chair back, the legs scraping noisily across the tile floor. Several patrons glanced around in confusion and curiosity. "Y-you've had y-your whole l-life to be w-who you are, and I'm j-just trying to s-stay afloat now and l-learn, and you k-keep pushing me s-so hard, why do you even c-care about m-m-me, I'm j-just a silly d-demon. Don't you t-think I already k-know about how m-much of a f-f-failure I am? D-don't y-you think I've h-heard it all b-before f-from everyone? D-don't you think I've t-tried to fix things, but t-things aren't so e-easily f-fixed, I c-can't change to f-fix m-myself if I d-don't know w-what to fix!"
A ringing silence followed this. Xavier reared back, his face flushed a deep shade of red as his claws curled on the tabletop.
"I d-don't n-need you to r-remind me that I am n-not a f-fit d-demon," he muttered. "I a-already k-know that."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:17 pm
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Oh.
Hel pushed her now empty milkshake away, and stared up at the demon who was not only, literally, standing up for himself, but also speaking up. For the first time since she became his mentor. Xavier had her full and undivided attention, and she listened patiently for him to get it all out. Everything about her posture was incredibly attentive as he vented.
While her face was, for once, carefully neutral but attentive, on the inside she felt nothing but glee. Finally. Finally she backed him into a corner and he started to fight back. Part of her was concerned he never would, even if she knew that wasn't true. Creeple pushed back after they were leaned on enough.
No ******** were given to any of the other patrons, and once Xavier finished, Hel stood and applauded him. It wasn't cynical either. It was genuine applause. "That--" She started, pointing at him. "Is what I have been waiting for. That is what I want, and that is a taste of what you should want for yourself. The courage to stand up against creeple like me and push back."
She then held up a hand, and lifted a finger. "First, though, to set some things straight, I did not have my whole life to be who I am. It took me my whole life to get where I am now and you know what? It is going to take more to get somewhere else. Creeple change, Xavier. All the time, and every Jack damn day. Second--" She lifted another finger, and shot him a grin. "I do care, so therefore I push you hard. If I did not care about you then I would not even ******** bother, and you can take that to the bank." Hel sat back down again, and fished into her side pocket for a small notebook and a pen.
"Sit down!" She told him, though this time it was with less command and more of a eager summon. Hel uncapped the pen and hovered over the open notebook. "If things were easy, then they would not be worth it." Satisfied with the paper, she glanced up at him. "Also, I do think you know what you would like to fix. Give yourself more credit than that. Sit down--you and I are going to make a list to work on!" She jotted something down: 'stronger'.
"In one of our first meetings, you said you wanted to be stronger." She looked up at him again. "How do you want to be strong?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:36 pm
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He didn't want to sit down. He wanted to get out of there, to run away like he always did, hide beneath the covers on his bed and pretend that the world around him didn't exist anymore. But his mind was whirling, twisting, shifting, and he knew, somewhere deep within himself, that running away was not the right answer.
Xavier was not strong. He never had been, and he could not possibly see himself ever being strong. He simply was not made that way.
Slowly, steadily, Xavier lowered himself back into the chair. His other wing hadn't broken out during his little tirade - miraculously - and he curled his claws around the half melted milkshake again, more out of a simple desire to have something to do with his hands than anything else.
Hel was given a flat look, which for once wasn't cowering or concerned.
"I c-can't," said Xavier. "T-there is no way of m-me becoming stronger. I c-can't even t-talk without s-s-stammering most of the t-time. It's a n-nervous habit. No one w-will t-take me s-seriously. I w-want to b-be able to t-talk to people and I c-can't."
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:53 pm
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Hel looked up, and shot back at him an equally flat look.
"You know what the first thing that needs to change, eh? Your attitude. You definitely can not if you are telling yourself that. You are quitting before even starting!" Hel put the pen down to point at him again, enunciating each of her next words. "You. Can. Do. Anything. You. Set. Your. Mind. to." Then she glared at him.
"If you want it bad enough, you will do whatever it takes, and I know you want to be stronger, and it is my mission to make that happen." Hel picked the pen back up and looked down at the paper. "If I have to carry you until you can move forward on your own two feet you bet your sweet demon a** I will." She chewed on the end of her pen. "The stuttering can be worked on, and yanno what? I am already taking you more seriously." She looked up at him again. "Yanno why?" He didn't, most likely. It was a rhetorical question. "Because you are being honest right now, and it takes Jack ton of courage to lay yourself bare and be honest."
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