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 Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 4:01 pm
alois scholz || 25/25 || dripping Alois stumbled through the back halls, one foot over the other, wine bottle in hand and blood dripping from his fingers. They patterned the floor mildly; perhaps onlookers would find them a fitting addition to the night’s decorum. He didn’t care. The magic of the place would ensure their disappearance by the end of the night - he would be certain of this if his mind ever touched it. As it was, he passed through the halls without attention paid to one iota of his surroundings. He simply moved, unbidden, toward the black halls.
His hand ached, but he didn’t much feel it. Sometimes he drew long nails through it to ensure the cuts hadn’t fully healed over. The clotting action of his body promised a full heal in certain segments, but not so much others. Sutures weren’t out of the question, he told himself, and that was true. A ghost through the corridors, he simply passed on while marking his way with red footprints.
He grew close, he knew. But most of him was numb now in mulling over prior conversations. Prior interrogations. Perhaps he was wrong before, but he didn’t feel it himself. He wasn’t convinced. Suffering was a part of this world for a reason, he reminded himself. Autumns viewpoint wasn’t wrong, but it was irreconcilable with his. He deserved an early death, she told him. He deserved eternal enslavement, she told him.
Perhaps, he answered wordlessly as he grew closer to those double doors.
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 7:01 pm
Unmasked Rabbit Vaughn: 25/25, following the ruby drip road There was no denying this place was odd. He had grown used to the court after spending his captive summer vacation here, but over all the weeks he'd wandered the halls doing the jobs that were required of him, he had never come across a trail of blood before. Surprising, really, with all of the vicious creatures at this party, but when tensions were low, there was rarely a need to resort to such extremes to get things done, at least under Ezra's watchful eye. Singeing and humiliation were plenty.
It was for this reason alone that Rabbit was compelled to follow the little red drops he found between the hall and the cellar, the stretch of the manor where the other Alois had directed him. He had a terrible feeling they were relevant, considering how things were going tonight. When the spots smudged, morphed into curving footprint moons, Rabbit broke into a jog, slowing again when he saw Alois up ahead.
Eventually, he approached, trailing a good distance behind. He knew from experience that he still wasn't very good at dodging the surprised flailing that resulted from him accidentally sneaking up on people.
"What did you do?" Because it was always something Alois had done, wasn't it? At least Rabbit didn't sound accusatory. It was simply a question.
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Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 7:07 pm
alois scholz || 25/25 || egads, a door Alois spared no look toward the familiar voice. Weeks spent together culminated in easy identifiers from diction and timbre. Rabbit followed, nosy as always. Was he looking for something to report to Father, now? Something to prove that he was the better son?
„I pushed glass down a man’s sroat,“ he answered disjointedly, „because he killed my dog. What did you do, Rabbit?“ A rare lack of nickname this time.
The door was close, but Rabbit was closer. Alois halted. He halted in the center of the empty hall, and stared straight ahead at the door. He focused on the artistic filigree filled in by gold leaf, lending an air of sophistication to the Court of the Sorrowful One. He breathed a slow, steady sigh.
„We are his tithe, you know.“
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:47 am
Unmasked Rabbit Vaughn: 25/25, sorry enough to give alois all his cigarettes, but probably won't Out of all of the things he'd expected to hear, that was so far from one of them that the "What?" was out of his mouth before he had breath to do it justice. It emerged as a near soundless squeak, a pubescent burst of disbelief that seemed out of place considering their situation.
"Who?" That pointless question was clearer. That there was someone here who might have killed his dog while he was away wasn't inconceivable, but why? Why would they tell him now? Unless Alois meant him. The Alois he'd met upstairs. His own double hadn't mentioned p***k, but whether that was because the cat had kept his distance or because he'd been killed on the first day was a mystery. He pushed it away, compartmentalized. "I'm sorry. I didn't do anything, I guess."
Rabbit drew closer, lifting his hand between Alois and the door, but only once.
"Father's?" He thought he knew what that meant now, the significance of the masks and that only some without them would die, but he didn't know why. What was the purpose of the killings and, the biggest question of all, why the two of them? "Yes." He knew, but he didn't understand.
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 10:42 am
“His name didn’t really sound like a name,“ Alois mused. „Bristling Vale. It sounds more like a location out of a fantasy novel. He was me.“ And, he considered, since the life he would return to now looks far less desirable, perhaps it was better to let Vale continue being him.
„Autumn led him to me. I don’t know why. She wanted him to tell me what he did to my life while I was away. I don’t sink it was a good choice.“ He looked at his hand, the rolling droplets careening down the heel of it before striking the ground one by one by one. „I’m not sure what good she thought it would do. Maybe she wasn’t sinking of the good at all. In any case, I don’t regret what I did to him. Torture or not. He killed my dog. Do you sink that means I deserf’e deas’ or slavery? Would you do ze same if you were me?“ But what asks of the past isn’t very important, is it?
„I know you didn’t do anysing, Rabbit. You never do.“ He stared down at the other man, his gaze cold. „Zat’s how it’s always been. You do nossing and soak up ze good praise by juxtaposition. You were only ze good son because I was ze bad one. You weren’t zere to stop me - Autumn had to. You weren’t zere to stop her, eizer.
„But I guess zat doesn’t matter. I haf’ to talk to Father. He can fix zis,“ he finished, holding his injured hand for Rabbit to see. „He can fix zis, and explain our fate.
„We are ‚tithes‘, but I don’t know what zat means for us, you see. Maybe we are to be murdered. I sink zat would be an acceptable fate - at least for me.“
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 6:35 pm
Bristling Vale? Somehow he hadn't thought these creatures would have names of their own. To him, they were just crazy magical copies, made to take over human lives, probably live them better than they had.
"No, I, um..." He touched the scratches on his cheek, recalling how easy it had been for his double to hold him down and steal away his last hope. "How did you do it? I couldn't even tickle mine. If it'd killed my cat though, yeah, I would've tried." He took a shuffling step back when Alois looked at him, all of the competitive spirit he'd built these last few months stifled by guilt. "Why did you try to be the bad one then, if—" He held back the rest of his muttered complaint when the other moved on, realizing it really didn't matter, not when the kid was bleeding and mourning.
"You should go then. I would come too, but I don't want to see him unless he calls. It's been hard to be good tonight." He looked up from where he found himself staring at Alois's hand. "For the record, you getting murdered wouldn't be... acceptable at all. But I'm not going to volunteer to off myself to save you either."
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:13 pm
“I didn’t do it. Were you listening?“ Alois started to anger. „Autumn led him to me. Autumn was ze one zat incapacitated him. All I had to do was shof’e glass down his sroat for killing my dog. Zey won’t tell you unless zey haf’ to, or unless zey sink zey get more power out of you by telling you. If zey can steal ze wind from your sails. If yours never mentioned killing your cat, zen I guess you got off easy. It must be nice to still haf’ a pet to go home to. If we go home at all.
„But if we don’t, zen I guess I’m the lucky one, aren’t I?“ He laughed mirthlessly.
Alois smeared the blood along the side of his sarong, but it mattered little. Either by magic or by the power of black, the stain didn’t take. His stance slackened, and when he looked to Rabbit again, the exhaustion showed in his face. „It’s not zat I tried to be, but zat it’s natural to me. I don’t do well wis’ aus’ority figures. You look older zan I do, too. Isn’t it normal for ze younger sibling to be ze sings zat ze older sibling isn’t? Child psychology aside, I remember wanting to escape. To go back to ze lives we led. I’m not sure why. Maybe just for Schatzie. But zat doesn’t matter now. Zere’s nossing to go back to now.“
Rabbit replied with an almost humorous declaration against killing himself, and Alois smiled. He gave the shorter man a slight push with his bloody palm. „Zat would be too much a spectacle, I sink. No, I’ll go play ze Martyr card. Zat’s in vogue right now, isn’t it? Well. I’m certain he prefers his good son alif’e and well.“ He started to walk toward the door again, but about-faced to walk backward. „Don’t worry, zough. I’ll be sure to haunt you and gif’ you wet willies while you sleep.“
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 10:53 pm
He wanted to say there was plenty to go home to, but in truth he didn't know. Everyone he cared for might be gone. Rabbit chose to believe they weren't and Alois didn't, forever his opposite. He was surprised to find he wanted to smack some sense into their Father's son, to tell him that he'd be there at the very least. But what comfort was there in that? A living reminder of all the times he had disobeyed and been punished, of the months he'd been imprisoned? Rabbit allowed the corners of his lips to rise ever so slightly instead, nudged into a subtle wobble by Alois's hand.
"All right. As long as I've got restless nights to look forward to."
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