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 Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 3:01 pm
Though there was a lot of other things weighing Rep down, there was one really important thing he had to ******** go and deal with while he was still able to think straight, while he was aware that he was a hunter, while he remembered that he wasn't a ******** horseman.
He didn't like the way his wings responded instinctually to everything he did, he didn't like the tail, he didn't like much of it, it all felt a bit wrong and he wasn't wearing any ********> trousers.
Setting all of his distress aside, he made his way to the various likely spots where Mask usually went to hang out or play, finding himself really really ******** angry that no matter how he tried to turn it, he couldn't shake the feeling of protectiveness that still lingered around the thought of the boy.
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Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 3:43 pm
There were no signs of the child, but hanging from a tree branch, or rather nestled snugly in between where he was last spotted was a closed box.
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Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 4:00 pm
Rep sighed, making his way over to the box, which he eyed with obvious suspicion. He spent most of his time telling people not to touch suspicious s**t and that leaving s**t alone was the way to survive, therefore logically he shouldn't touch this box at all.
But there was still part of him that remembered having a kid he cared for and in some ways wanting to make sure that that kid was all right. He remembered trusting them and them seeming to want to do nothing more than help.
So he went against all of his well honed instincts, reached out and took the box and tried to see if he could open it.
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Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 4:33 pm
The box opened immediately - if there was a latch he must have coincidentally triggered it. Inside was a book, the same appearance as it had always been. It was wrapped in unusually thin chains, filaments of white that seemed ready to break upon contact.
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Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2017 4:48 pm
Rep sighed at the book. He didn't understand the importance of it other than a vague feeling he had that it should be kept away from creation. He felt like when it came to power creation was a bit like him, a lot of well meaning s**t combined with an addiction to power that ran very rapidly out of all control and ended with everyone really ******** upset.
He knew that white was the cage, that it restrained things and kept them bound. He'd almost ended up locked in the cage if Cael hadn't taken some degree of pity on him and yanked him out of its grasp.
They seemed like they were trapped here in this dream, so the usual concern also was thrown out the window as he reached out to see if he was able to break the chains himself. He'd sooner take his chances with the madness of creation than destruction's much much more ******** scary madness to deal with.
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 1:19 am
"Hello Rep."
It was a pleasant voice, but it wasn't her, and it wasn't the tree and it wasn't nearly as maddening as Medea's presence had been. It was just Dorothy, appearing as Alice had - a child, a shadow, an apparition without eyes and a wide smile. Her shadow was a deep red, as red as the butterflies had been.
"That mask - if you give it to me, I'll give you that second chance you've always desired." It's tone was much, much more straightforward than Destruction in its purest form had been.
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 6:14 am
Rep eyed the apparition in front of him with a suspicion which by this time had been forged in iron. He'd spent too long trying to trust other supernatural creatures with his wellbeing, trusting them to help him when nothing ever would. He'd learned through repeated setbacks that no help was coming and anything people promised him was bullshit.
Besides, the red was what got his back up. He had trusted Destruction, and even now still in some deep tantalising way found himself seduced by the power it offered, but he knew, knew without a doubt that it wasn't for him. He wasn't able to handle what it was, wasn't good enough to sustain the forces involved.
Calling the book a mask made him more possessive of it, reminded of his kid, the child he'd protected and could remember raising as his own. It felt like he was being asked to give him away rather than just an object and he rankled at the very concept.
"I made my decision." he said, steadfast and cold. "I'm a hunter, I will always ******** be a hunter. If I had a second chance, a hundred chances I'd only ******** it all up again. I ******** s**t up, I repeat mistakes, it's who I am." Rep. It had meant Repent when he was trying to be edgy but over the years had edged closer to Repeat and Repay.
"I won't give it to you." he said, narrowing his eyes at her. "It belongs to my little s**t of a kid and he gave it to ME."
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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2017 2:15 am
"And you have accepted this?" It wasn't scathing as more questioning in tone. She took one step forward, her shape flickering slightly. She looked small.
"If you give the mask to me, I'll give you your fake memories back of this child, and everything within it as well. I'll even let you stay here, where you can be happy, with everyone else. You want to be happy, do you not, isn't that what you said?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:50 pm
"Look." He said tetchily. "I don't want to stay here. I tried living a lie before, I even tried forgetting. I don't want to be happy, I just want the world that's mine." Even if that meant a world without kids and the ever looming threat of death. "I'm a hunter and I won't give you the mask. I'd sooner give it back to ******** creation than you and he's a little s**t."
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Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:16 am
Another flicker, as if she were thinking, processing.
"That's not very nice, Rep after everything I've done for you. This world could be yours too, but if you really want what you think is your world, let me show you instead."
She didn't explain further, the reality simply shifted.
It was the island, his island in his world, but there was something wrong with it. At first it was just the gradual gradation into green, a tree that was a little too large peering over the edge of the island-
- And then it overtook the entire range, curling over mountains and trees and around the main buildings themselves until there was nothing but tree.
"Do you see?" Dorothy said as the reality shifted back again. "Because none of you listened, you created that." Her tone was more menacing now, accusing. "Do you want to see more?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:46 pm
Rep watched what she had to show him and with a slow sinking feeling understood what it was. Creation had overtaken everything that had tried to contain it, every single thing, going so far as to twist and corrupt entire cities. Even if he was immune to some of the effects of it, there were many people who were not. Harrison wasn't and Jordan had potentially sided with it.
Destruction was capable of reining it in, of limiting it and had done several times, but she was so out of control, so wild and vicious that there was no way to effectively steer her. There was no balance without control and that control lay in the cage in the crystals.
He hadn't figured out what steered them yet or how to use them in a way that didn't just involve stabbing them into s**t. "Show me more if you want." he said. "I want to trust you, I always ******** want to trust you the way I wanted to trust /her/, but you aren't like me. How is what you offer any better than this vision?"
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