|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 3:00 pm
Charlotte watched patiently as Gale reached through the barrier. She watched as absolutely nothing happened for a few seconds-
- Before Gale collapsed and began to convulse, heavily. Black tendrils, branch-like in shape, began to spread from where his fingertips had touched, coiling around his arm, causing the skin around it to shrivel terribly. His eyes were a sickly green, and he continued to thrash -
- And then stop.
Calmly, Gale stood up. One arm continued to rot, but the infection seemed to slow down. Calmly, Gale stood up, and looked directly at Charlotte.
"Again."
Charlotte looked like she was speaking to an old acquaintance. "Have you reconsidered my proposal? It would help find who you truly are."
"It has been considered." Gale, only it wasn't quite Gale, then focused his eyes on Rep and then Lucky. He brushed Lucky's hand off his shoulder. "You have strange guests. This is William Ried, and this is Szczeosny Brzenczyszczykiewicz. Their home is familiar. It contains power. It is an ideal nest for my awakening."
Gale's body began to buckle under pressure, the infection spreading to the other arm as well. The parasite looked at his hands. "Fragile. Next time, perhaps." He spoke in disjointed sentences, as if it was too difficult to simply speak. "Many. A network. I will find this island."
Charlotte opened her mouth, as if to say something else, only for Gale to collapse on the ground with a loud thud. Both his arms were shriveled, blackened, and black veins were still spreading to his neck, along his body. She took a couple of steps back as well, looking extremely satisfied. "Ah, well, I'm sorry about that Gale. I'm sure you understand. Your sacrifice was necessary, really, it was."
She took out a runic weapon, glowing red instead of blue, and pointed it at his head. "Now close your eyes." Kuuropii Gale cannot see what has happened to him during that time, but he will awaken when the ??? relinquishes control. During that time all he felt was pain and a terrible hunger he cannot understand.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 3:09 pm
Rep looked on in tensed horror, wishing he could summon or do ******** something other than try to stay concious and upright. He knew something ******** horrible would happen, and of course it ******** did. Gale thrashed and Rep felt nothing but deep, bitter irritation that it had to happen this way.
He curled a lip in repressed anger as he was addressed by something that wasn't an irritating English git but something else instead. Something more sinister and something that knew them, their home and their names. He felt nauseous with rage, a sick vicious fury that did not surface in him often. Gale's stupidity had directly put Harrison in danger, directly forsook everything that he held dear, and that was after callously leaving him to die.
"I'm only ******** sorry it's not going to be painful and slow if you do that." he said, his voice chilly and distant. Everything was going to be ******** now and he wanted to run, wanted to get away from the island, take Harrison and get out, get away from other people's mistakes, but that wasn't an option, he was ******** trapped and he might never get back to warn him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 4:18 pm
"What," Lucky began, but no more words were coming out. His thought process scratched like a broken record, back to the beginning, several times. "What. Charlotte-"
Not to say this wasn't all about as bad an outcome as he could imagine for 'touching the mysterious dangerous artifact', but still, watching someone shrivel up next to you was still extremely unsettling. He pulled his hand back close to himself, shaking it and wiping it off against his bloody jacket as if to dislodge any infectious 'knowledge' particles hitching a ride. A numbing chill went down his spine from the mixture of blood loss and hearing zombie-Gale say his name.
Lucky was finally looking paler than he had already gone from the blood loss. He took an instinctive step back, but he still felt too close to whatever was inhabiting Gale's body right now. It knew about them. About the island. And now, it was coming to them anyway. Charlotte was talking to it like they were friends! This was what Charlotte wanted all along. It was a <******** trap. He shifted from foot to foot nervously, flight instincts kicking in even as his body was crying out with overexertion with every movement. This was so far out of the scope of things he knew how to handle. And they'd been warned. They had definitely been warned and this was all his fault he shouldn't have been egging Gale on and now Gale was possessed and rotting and-
"Damn it. Kurwa. Skurwysyn, kurwa, kurwa-!" He collapsed to his knees next to the suddenly much less talkative Gale, half-reaching toward him, though he was reluctant to actually touch him. It definitely affected hunters - his question was answered in the worst possible way. It felt like time was slowing down just to mock the fact that there was nothing he could do about this. It was hopeless. He had no way to stop the spreading black veins any more than Lucky could keep his own blood inside his body right now. He was a life hunter, but not this kind of life hunter...
"Hey, wait, what is that-" He had finally noticed Charlotte was preparing to put Gale out of his misery. Time was up - and he didn't have a better plan to stop it from spreading to everyone else in the room, or to even save Gale from it. Was Gale already some kind of inhuman monster? How could anyone survive that... thing? He glanced between them one last time before self-preservation won out over pointless sacrifice, and he stumbled backward on the floor and out of the path of the weapon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 4:57 pm
There was a moment in which time seemed to slow, and Gale began to realize that he had, quite possibly, made a mistake.
Then time sped up again, caught up on itself, and his hand was sinking through the barrier and then -
Blackness.
Pain.
Hunger.
Give me more.
(It hurts, it hurts.)
More.
(I can't breathe.)
Hungry. I'm hungry.
(Help me.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 5:06 pm
The bullet passed his head and lodged clean into Gale's shoulder and for a moment all he heard was a deafening roar. His arm began to bleed freely from the wound, rotted sinew and bone shattering, and then slowly, his arms, the infection, began to repair itself.
"A favour for a favour" Charlotte put away her weapon. "And a promise is a promise. You were allowed to see the grail. Now, if you would kindly take him home with you. I'm sure I will find a use for you next time, and you will be called." She waved dismissively, sounding less like Charlotte and a little more like someone else, and then several figures in grey were escorting them to the elevator. Gale was unconscious.
In Gale's mind, he was in a room again, and there was a table. A book, pages empty, lay on the table. There were three objects on the table. A crown. A sword. A grail.
Choose me, whispered the crown, and I will give you power. You will become a king, and all will know the meaning of respect.
Choose me, whispered the grail, and I will give you knowledge. You will see everything and know everything and become part of something greater.
Choose me, rang the sword, cutting a little stronger than everyone else, and I will give you protection. Sometimes what you seek is not what you desire.
Baneful Feel free to wrap it up! The guards will portal them back home. AstaraeI Feel free to wrap it up! The guards will portal them back home. kuuropu Feel free to make a choice then wrap it up! Gale will wake back facedown in the lighthouse, assuming that Lucky/Rep don't actually bring him to the infirmary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 5:46 pm
The room was nice. The room wasn't painful, at least not yet.
It was quiet. Gale stood there, staring at the table with a bemused expression on his face as he surveyed the three objects placed there. Crown, grail, and sword, each with their own whispers getting into his head, each one appealing in their own way.
He paced back and forth, debating.
The crown was appealing in the sense that Gale had had to work very hard to get to where he was; and he had tried to get that respect from Caelius, had tried to prove that he was just as capable as the hunters older and taller than him, but his efforts still to this day were often considered useless.
But no, respect was something that, while he longed for it, was not something that could be simply achieved because one was higher than someone else. It was a nice idea in theory, Gale thought, but in practice, it never ran well. Fear did not equal respect, after all, and neither did resentment.
The grail called to him in a much stronger voice, because Gale had always thirsted for knowledge. It was part of why he was in Death, and he was constantly striving for more in that regard. But...
Protection.
He was maybe weak hearted, by some. Young. Ignorant. Foolish, as no doubt Rep and Lucky now thought, and Caelius, but Caelius had never taken Gale seriously from the start. Gale had long since learned that it was useless to try, so he had just kept going, doing what he wanted, focusing on his job and what he could do to better himself.
And what he could do to protect Stormy, because she was the most important thing in his life. Even now, thinking of her, the choice melted away, became easier.
Gale reached out, and his fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword.
When he woke up, sometime later, and only briefly before he nodded off again, the pain too great to stay conscious, it was to the familiar, sterile white walls of the infirmary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 6:04 pm
Gale would wake up, and everything would be okay. His arms were back to as normal as they could be, there was no other signs of infection, and he was feeling normal.
He was feeling fine until it occurred to him a very small detail.
He could not remember who he was. Kuuropii Gale has forgotten entirely who he is for the next 24 IC hours! After that it slowly returns to him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
