[PRP] Jar of Darkness (Lucky + ?)

[Molten Tigrex]

If nothing else, Lucky had made a sincere effort to keep the jar Charlotte had entrusted to him out of sight. Given how Mark and Carl had reacted to the sight of it, it wasn't exactly a pleasant surprise should any teenagers come across it. With the barricade's defenses compromised, he had taken to just holing up in his small dorm room and placing the jar as far away from himself as possible while he worked, enough to convince himself it wasn't sapping his life force. No one had warned him any further than that, and the jar hadn't reacted to being picked up, moved, and knocked around. It seemed safe, but...

Across the room, there was a light rattling sound, like glass. Lucky looked up sharply toward the shelf.

The jar was shaking.

*****

Several hours and a red butterfly attack later, Lucky was actually more angry than scared, for once. As if things couldn't get any weirder. At least the teenager epidemic had finally been alleviated - maybe now he could find someone who could actually give him a real answer about the jar and what was inside of it. If it wasn't related to a legacy, why did it move on its own?

Once things seemed to be safe again, and only a few of the red butterflies still floated lazily outside, he stalked his way to the death office, jar casually slung under one arm as he'd grown used to carrying it. The main building looked surprisingly... normal again. Even the hallway leading to the death office was clean, all the scorch marks and bloodstains gone. He did a quick double-take at the empty hallway. A realization that the barricade had vanished without his involvement made him suddenly very, very wary of going any closer to the office.

xoobey

tl;dr he stopped juuust short of actually going up to the death office door

 

[WE ARE HALLOWEEN]

Samuel, or the guy with the O tattoo, had just arrived at the office too with a cup of of extra foamy coffee in one hand. He saw Lucky, and then he saw the jar-

-"Nope." And did a quick one-eighty.

The good news was there was someone else in the office and they too were trying to avoid Lucky, immediately standing up to exit.

"Don't talk to me, I alread regret it," was the only thing Oz the said occupant said as he too began to scoot the other direction away from Lucky.

Molten Tigrex

 

[Molten Tigrex]

The general vibe of the jar was that nobody wanted to so much as look at it, or him. Or tell him why they didn't want to get near it. The secrecy grated on him, even more than it had the last time, somehow. They couldn't have made it any more obvious they were keeping secrets from him on purpose.

"Hi, Sam." Lucky's maligned expression really didn't match the odd friendliness of his tone. With his free hand, he grabbed Sam roughly by one shoulder before the other hunter could get any further. "Oh no you don't."

He was out of free hands to hassle Oz with, but that didn't stop him from giving the other death hunter a pointed look. He'd never seen Oz move that fast away from anything. "Yeah, no. Since you all seem to recognize it on sight, I want to know what you're all not telling me. About this."

He held up the jar, with its single solitary void-black marble resting at the bottom.

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"Dude," Sam hissed, immediately brushing off Lucky's shoulder. "No touching, I like my body artifact STD free." He was already trying to move away as he talked. "You're kidding me right, so, humour me, because you worked at Life. Fact one: you were given a jar by someone who does done nothing but want to drop you off of helicopters. Fact two: the jar has death literally written all over it and I don't mean our faction's division symbol I mean it's literally smouldering black smoke from within it. Fact three: since when did anything sealed in jars actually mean good news. Fact four: we're not friends so please call me Samuel, I'm not the ghost of your other dead girlfriend."

"Harsh," commented Oz, who had actually stuck around to watch.

Molten Tigrex

 

[Molten Tigrex]

Lucky pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose huffily as Sam successfully wriggled away. By the time Sam had finished talking, Lucky was practically seeing red as much as he was starting to turn red.

"Wow, look who's talking, Samuel. Where did you say you got that tattoo again? I only went there because you and Mark wanted me to help stop something that wasn't even ******** happening." He held up a finger for each counterpoint. "One - why wouldn't she just open it herself. Two - prove it. Three - of ******** course, that's why I'm here, it was shaking earlier. And four -"

"For not being the ghost of my 'dead girlfriend' or whatever, you sure know a ******** lot about that."

He seethed a little bit where he stood, and debated taking a step toward Sam again to close the gap. But he suddenly had a better idea. His demeanor seemed to relax a little too quickly.

"No, no. You're right! Why ask questions in an intelligence division. Silly me." He knocked an open palm to his forehead almost comically. "I should go back to my old life division roots, and do a little experiment instead. Like, hmm, I don't know, breaking the jar open? That will definitely tell me everything about it that you two aren't. Thanks, Samuel!"

In one almost casual motion Lucky grabbed the jar firmly between both hands and raised it over his head, as if preparing to smash it to the floor.

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

Sam made an incredibly grim face as Lucky raised it over his head, and then relaxed a little more as Lucky just held it there. It seemed Oz has made a very timely exit as the latter knew a little better than to get between a dead lover's quarrel.

"Look, just put down the jar and how about - how about you wait a few days and cool off your head, John Wick, and then you can ask me all the questions. All the intelligence division question questions," he amended, and then muttered, "within reasonable discretion."

He backed up a few more steps.

Molten Tigrex

 

[Molten Tigrex]

Lucky continued holding the jar up for a few more seconds, then smiled almost pleasantly at Samuel as he slowly lowered the jar. Oz's disappearance barely registered - his focus was entirely upon Samuel now.

Somewhere underneath all of the anger was a part of him that enjoyed being feared, even if indirectly.

"Not later. Now," he demanded. As many steps away as Sam tried to take to get away, Lucky quickly matched pace with him, keeping the other hunter dangerously close. He clearly wasn't going to let Samuel get away now. They ended up beside a desk; Lucky made a show of setting the jar down on it. Mark's warning about its life-stealing radiation evidently hadn't fazed him. "First, tell me everything you know about the jar."

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"Oh yeah, let me just get on that, let's see," Samuel held out his hand and started counting fingers down from four, "It's sealed which is bad news, it has death literally written all over it and is still smoking smouldering black smoke by the way, it was given to you by someone who have done nothing but want to drop you off of helicoptors, and news flash, I still don't like you."

To be fair, that was actually everything he knew about the jar.

As Sam talked, the black smoke in the jar thickened, and Lucky could make out the faintest of a hand, a red hand suddenly pressing against the surface inside through the black smoke. As the tips of the fingers touched the glass, Lucky could feel his anger escalate as loud whispering, and then laughter, and then a sudden hot surge of rage overrode his thoughts

"But what is it that you REALLY desire?"

Molten Tigrex

 

[Molten Tigrex]

"<********> you," he spat. "I followed you and Mark's stupid plan, I brought Caelius back, alive despite his best efforts to die on my watch, I've been keeping that death jar out of a bunch of teenage hands for a week and you - what, you and Mark were going to just leave it with me until it killed me? Not even try to get rid of it? It's not like Mark didn't know I had it, or Rep. Nothing about me is much of a god-damn secret to you either, what with all of you talking behind my back. If I hadn't stopped you just now you - you would have been right behind Oz! You didn't want to warn me."

He threw his arms up in exasperation. "What did I ever do to you?"

Beside him, the smoke in the jar was indeed thickening at an alarming rate. He gave Sam another dirty look for being right about something. From within the billowing black it almost seemed like there was something moving within it. "What the -"

Ethereal red fingers suddenly shot out toward the glass from within - and whatever else Sam had to say was drowned out by whispering, mocking and suspicious. Lucky took a sudden half-step back, and the whispering grew into laughter that left his ears ringing. It was too loud, too infuriating; he couldn't think. He slammed his hands down on either side of the jar, and sucked in a breath behind clenched teeth.

The question taunted him, as if they held what he desired just out of reach. He should have known better than to answer - but here, and now, and in this state of blinding rage, the words were like removing a heavy weight from his chest. "I want everyone to stop keeping secrets from me!"

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"Besides you-" Samuel stopped talking and then grimaced as he looked directly at Lucky, "Whoah okay there Clint Eastwood, look let's just- let's just take it easy. Here, I'll tell you everything I know."

"He's lying," hissed the jar, and it felt like it a cold hand was reaching into Lucky and squeezing his lungs, making it hard to breathe. He could only feel the rage, less of a burst and more of a simmer that hadn't hit escalation quite yet. "You've done everything for him and all he did was make FUN of you when you WORKED HARD."

Hurting him wouldn't be so bad, Lucky's voice said to himself, and it felt completely too easy to agree. Hurting Sam wouldn't be so bad at all, then maybe someone would take him seriously.

Molten Tigrex

Lucky is under full influence of Red Eyes virus

 

[Molten Tigrex]

It all made a strange kind of sense, and he found it impossible to disagree - Samuel had to be made an example of. Lucky seemed to be transfixed by the smoke-filled jar for a several long seconds before he finally reacted to Samuel's voice.

"Shut up."

He turned toward Samuel, shooting him a bloodthirsty look - and in what seemed like no time at all he had advanced on the other hunter, menacingly close.

"Just shut up! You already had your chance. I'm sick of your lying --" Lucky's hand shot out to grab Samuel by the throat, shoving him toward the wall by it. "And I'm going to make you regret every word."

His other hand was wreathed in blue light as a long, jagged sawblade materialized in it, and in one swift motion sank itself up to the hilt in Samuel's stomach.

DMG: 11
HP: 60/60
CHARGE: 1/3

zoobey

I"M SORRYYYY

 

[Zoobey]

In the haze of red, it was difficult to see what was actually happening. Samuel was making a strangled noise clutching their abdomen as they backed up - they were saying something, but all Lucky could hear was an increasingly high-pitched buzzing in his ear and then everything turned bright red. Sam was bleeding, he was backing up, footsteps, Mark or Oz maybe, and then more yelling, Mark was shouting something about the jar -

- His forearm began to ache, and then began to sting and then burn like scalding metal in the same spot as the hourglass tattoo. But Lucky couldn't control his actions as he surged forward in a maelstrom of red, and his weapon was maniacal too, she was frenzied, hungry and he struck again, and a second time and then moved forward as they backed up always defensive-

- and the third time it resonated with another weapon, and as it did Lucky's haze broke and he was looking at Sam on the ground bleeding and he was looking at Mark staring up at him with shock with his own weapon drawn, Lucky's free arm now clutching the jar like some maniac-

- And he was looking at Circe clamping down on his own-

- "IT'S HER." the voice shrieked louder and louder and louder- "DESTROY HER."

The clarity was slowly beginning to fade as the red began again and his own voice seemed to be yelling at him to let go of the jar.

Molten Tigrex

 

[Molten Tigrex]

Blood was blossoming from Samuel's abdomen, and Lucky could distantly hear his own laughter at the sight of it. The red filled up his vision, drowned his senses, and blotted out the sounds, freeing him from distraction. There was nothing inside him but that burning anger, driving him to tear Samuel apart, and his body moved as if trapped in macabre choreography. Only his arm was alight with pain, an hourglass shaped branding that burned white-hot. But that pain, too, receded into white noise. Everything was a beautiful bright crimson and Song dug hungrily into flesh again, and again, and -

There was a violent crack.

Time seemed to slow down as the red leeched from his vision, leaving him oddly numb. The sight overloaded his senses - his fingers wrapped around the glass of the jar, Samuel lying broken in a pool of blood, Mark's weapon pointed at him, a familiar glowing blue arc pinning his weapon in place and -

He let out a howl of pain at the sight of Circe. That imperious voice was screaming at him at an earsplitting pitch, louder and louder until it was nothing but a high pitched whine. Everything was starting to turn red around the edges again, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

His own voice rang in his ears now, begging him to let go of the jar; but as if it were a last act of conscious defiance, his grip on the jar only tightened. Even with the rage starting to burn him up from within, he had found a spark of fear - a fear that he was no longer in control, no longer himself.

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

The last conscious thought he had was that fear-

- And then it was dark, but just for a small moment. The place lit up, just enough for Lucky to recognize shapes. Tables of unusual sizes, chairs impossibly small or too large to fit. Windows and doors and-

-"Oh no!" There was Alice, holding a very large, quite simple looking pocketwatch. It was broken, and she continued to shake it, before looking at Lucky. "I think you broke it." None of the numbers on the watch made any sense.

Molten Tigrex

 

[Molten Tigrex]

Red became black, everything shifted, and it was like waking suddenly in the dead of night. It was just a dream, just a nightmare.

The impossible shapes of Wonderland took form in the low light, leaving him standing beside Alice as she tinkered with a pocketwatch.

"I'm sorry," he answered Alice, or maybe it was to someone else, with that tone of voice that knew it was too little, too late. "I didn't mean to -"

He finally focused on the watch she was holding. He couldn't make anything of it - it seemed to be broken not just in form but in function, the numbers around the face of it telling him nothing at all. He felt like he was treading deep, dark water above some primal unknown. He felt small, just a kid again, observing as his father picked apart the inner workings of broken watches until he found a way to make them tick again.

Maybe there was still something he could do.

"I can - I can fix it." He held out a shaking hand to receive the watch. He understood if she didn't trust him. She wouldn't be the first. "Can I see it?"

zoobey

DREAM LOGIC