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 Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 5:42 pm
Ripley sighed.
"Just get in."
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 5:44 pm
Grumbling, Otto entered. At least he was sure he'd get to talk about this key business, since Ripley had allowed him in. Of course, he walked cautiously inside, his gaze critical of all he saw.
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 5:50 pm
The room was clean and neat, thanks to the occupants both being rather particular about their space. They shared it rather well, but it was really only his meticulous aspects that had any label faced outwards and everything organized alphabetically.
Ripley lead the grumbling brat into the room after closing the door behind them, and took a seat at the small two-person dining table at the kitchenette. The idea was, of course, that Otto would also sit down.
Except he didn't extend the invitation. He just stared at him, and wondered if he'd miss this hint too.
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 5:52 pm
By some miracle, Otto understood. He sat down too.
"So?" He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms in a display of comfortable arrogance.
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 5:55 pm
"So, now you tell me when you got yours, and anything else you know about it."
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 6:10 pm
Otto was quiet at first, just to make sure Ripley knew he could say what he wanted when he wanted to. He didn't need no white haired jack-off to tell him what for.
But then he spoke anyway.
"Got it two years ago. After I woke up from that dream about Wonderland. It was in a little box. I didn't touch it right away. Only after a few days I did, and that's when it got stuck in my hand."
He took a moment to recall his conversation with Simon. "I asked Simon about it. He said they all got somethin' to do with Legacies.. or The Legacies?" Honestly, information gathering was better suited to someone who retained knowledge.
"Um... he said they reflect like.. personal themes. Like.. uh.." He had to dig into his memories, concentrating on Simon's words and not just the gist of random bouts of knowledge he'd picked and chose from others, like Mimsy. "When he looked at mine, he said theme wise it could be reflection.. but colour is more like Destruction."
"I don't really get it at all. I talked to Mimsy about keys once too," Now he just sounded like a blabber mouth. No wonder he got in trouble so much. But at least his asking around was bearing fruit.. "She was wondering if it was about Alice. N' at some point Morgana came up in conversation.." Was that with Mimsy? Someone else? He couldn't recall anymore.
"I dunno. I ain't all that great at figurin' out s**t. Kinda puttin' myself at risk every time I ask around." But he was so tired of feeling weak. SO tired of being left in the dark.
"But... they could be bad news. Maebe warned me that Sasha wasn't what she seemed, and sure enough that chick went psycho and said she needed my key for some s**t. Bad s**t."
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 10:39 am
He had never known Otto to be a good story teller, and now was no exception. Still, he had known the younger man long enough to be able to understand and follow his train of thought easily enough. He found, surprisingly, that there were some answers to the questions he hadn't realized he had. Leads where there were originally none.
"I wondered if there were others." Ripley said after a moment's pause. He appreciated that Otto had stuck his neck out to learn more about them. That was something he couldn't bring himself to do, simply because he had been too afraid of what had happened to him just prior to it. His gaze fell to stare at the table between them, his mind working through the problem at hand. It was obvious they were bad news; he had pegged that one from the start. How could it not be? He wasn't sure who Sasha was, but the other names were familiar at least -
"Alice." His gaze lifted suddenly, as he recalled that small piece of information. "That little girl with the missing face?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:42 am
"Uh..." Did she not have a face? He didn't remember. Back when he'd met her on the beach with Gale, he'd been too focused on other things. "Iunno. Probably." He answered vaguely with a shrug. "That was just Mimsy's theory, since I got it after Wonderland. But I ain't found any connections with her through this thing since." He rubbed his palm, trying to think of anything else he could offer. "I could always ask Sasha what she wants with it, but.." He wasn't suicidal. Curious, and risk-taking. But not out to get himself killed.
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 4:18 pm
Ripley frowned. How many little girls could be haunting them? There had to be some connection there. Otto had since moved on, and he found himself leaning forward, immediately ready to protest his latest idea.
"Don't!" He said first, hoping to help shoo away that ridiculous notion. "If she's that bat s**t crazy, just avoid her." At the very least she could be considered a very last resort, but he'd really rather not deal with someone like that, especially from what little Otto had said of her. It seemed safer that way.
"When I got mine…" He flinched a little bit at the memory, even after all this time. "I can trust you with this, right? You won't go sharing it around?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:02 pm
Otto blinked back, surprised by Ripley's urgency. "Oh.. okay." Asking Sasha would probably have more risk than gain, anyway. It was still tempting though. Otto gave a light nod. "I won't tell anybody." He promised. He'd only play around with his own safety, and not Ripley's. Even if the information was helpful, he had to at least respect that.
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:33 pm
Ripley scrutinized Otto for a moment or two after he uttered his promise. He had no reason to not trust him, but there was always this small sense of panic that rose in him whenever he needed to go in depth with something. He had told Chance a little bit about it, but he hadn't gone into detail. Now he'd need to, and put his trust in someone more than just Finn to keep it quiet.
He heaved a breath, and went on.
"When I got mine, something had already had it's claws in me, so to speak." There was another pause as he steeled himself once more. "Months back I had a dream. There was a little girl there, the one without a face. She told me that someone wanted to talk to me, but they were hurt, and angry. She said if I talked to them, I had a chance to save everyone. I was already infected, though. My infection ran deep, because I was chosen." He spat out the word as if it hurt, as if it were venom on his tongue.
"There were masks, there. And vines. It took something from me, a whole emotion, and in exchange, told me a little bit. It said I was chosen for a war, to represent knowledge, and that this war in inevitable. What it took from me made me less than a person. I did something terrible at it's suggestion, because I didn't see how bad it was. It made perfect sense." One he had started to talk about it, the words just kept coming; just like it was with Finn, and just like it had been with Chance, though the latter hadn't gotten the down and dirty details. Was terrifying as it was to share this, it was also somewhat freeing; especially now that he knew others had the keys, too. That they'd likely be just as doomed to do something terrible as he was. He wasn't going to be alone.
"A few months later, while still missing that piece of myself, I woke up to this key on my arm. It was after that rescue mission, with the infected and the humans. Finn helped me get back to myself little while after, but this key stayed. I know it's not done with me. I know I'll probably do something terrible again." Ripley took a deep breath, held it to calm his nerves, and let it go in a slow, shaky sigh.
"I'm fairly certain it's Creation. The Legacy that is doing this to me." His hand slid onto his arm, gripping the key through the fabric of his shirt. "Finn thinks so too, as does Jack, though he doesn't know my involvement in it."
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 5:42 pm
"What exactly did he make you do?" He asked, sparing no tact. He was also curious just what emotion had been taken from him, or how such a thing could work. Ripley left it out. Likely very on purpose. The man didn't avoid topics by accident.
Masks he'd never seen before. Vines he saw on the island, that day he'd given his hourglass wish over to a... masked boy. Wait.
"Vines and masks. There was boy on the beach once with a mask. He covered the island in vines, that day everyone went crazy and attacked each other." He'd nearly killed Chance, almost blinded Maebe. He winced remembering it, trying to shake off the hurt and dread of that time. "I traded him a wish I had on my arm in exchange for the island's safety; an hourglass tattoo I got from Charon a ways back."
Destruction, Creation, and all these other things... what were they? What did it even mean? There were so many little clues that led nowhere.
"Do you know anything bout what this Legacy balogne means?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:03 pm
"It wanted me to find it a host." Ripley admitted after a moment's pause. "I found a relatively unknown trainee for it. It tried to take him over, but turned out he was too weak. The thing seemed to want me instead." He shivered involuntarily, recalling the moment when he realized the search had been a fool's errand. "It didn't do anything, and hasn't since." He was certain it would, though. It seemed so sure that he would agree to be it's mask.
"I remember that day." Ripley said grimly, recalling the stories that had gone through afterwards. "Before that -" He thought it was before that, he was certain it was before. "I saw the boy in a cage. Were you on that mission, when we were put into groups through a quarantine zone? I believe it was September 2014…when the infections first cropped up. I got separated from the group, and saw him then. He came to me in a dream a few nights later, bidding me to pick a mask." He's almost forgotten. The boy had waited a long time to resurface again, and on a wide scale island attack, that was thwarted when…what? Otto traded a wish?
"Charon…as in the Death Horseman? What would he want with that…" Ripley trailed off, trying to follow that train of thought. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. That sort of power…
"I know only a little. I could find out more, I'm sure." He knew where he could start, too. The hunter took another deep breath, finally forcing himself to realize the scope of what was happening. "I feel like everything has been leading to something big. Something's been building up for over two years now…it might even be too late to stop it, and it might happen sooner than we think..." Not that they even knew where to start.
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:13 pm
A host. That was scary. Otto kept his gaze on Ripley, and wondered if at any moment that creature might take him over. As if they were all pawns, toys and tools to be used. Otto tried to remember what mission Ripley was speaking of, but there had been so many it was hard to remember one from another. Something out there was picking people off, choosing their hosts and their playing pieces carefully. Years in advance. "I knew giving that wish away would be bad news, but it was better than the island killing themselves." Even though they'd nearly done just that anyway. All this talk was helpful, and it felt amazing to flesh out ideas. However, it was also making him realize how much bigger than him it all was. "This s**t is gettin' scary." They needed more information. Otto felt impatient, wishing to rip knowledge out of the Earth's belly right then and there. "I don't wanna assume we're too late to do somethin'. That'd make it all feel hopeless."
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Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 6:26 pm
"I wonder if we were in any real danger." Perhaps the danger had only been perceived. Used in an attempt to make Otto give it what it wanted: the wish from Charon. Then again, there was nothing to say it wouldn't have destroyed the island anyway, or have taken the mark by force. It was a question that would never be answered, now. Not without some impossible technology.
"It's hard to think otherwise." Something's been building up for years, years, and they hadn't an idea as to the scope of it all, or what it entailed. What this war meant, and what it was for. How many times had they almost all died already? Everything that had happened so far, was one thing after another. One step supposedly defeated, before another flung itself in their path. What would happen when all of it converged on them, all at once? Many times they had barely survived. He couldn't imagine those near-deaths magnified and multiplied.
"But," He pushed aside his very real doubts and his agonizing pessimism, for this one moment. "There might be a small, minuscule chance to thwart it…if we can figure it out." They had won on less, before.
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