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 Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:30 am
--- TRIGGER WARNING -- This RP contains both an approved Disposable NPC for plot purposes - and involves a fall and injury - Please proceed with caution. > > > > > > > > > > > > > It was already a long night at the hospital, the sort of evening where tired got into your bones and your joints like it wanted to make them wage a war, one against the other. There were limits to how far vending machine coffee and cheese crackers could carry someone. Who thought could stop themselves though, when you received a message, a scrap of paper pinned to a file handed to you, somehow tucked in and un-noticed till you pulled it free. “I am going to jump, if no one stops me by… a notation of the time, then I will jump.” Chance, a glance at the clock said you had perhaps a minute to get to the roof, you could text someone from up there, but to ask for help might mean there was no time. There was someone, on the roof of the hospital and their survival seemed to come down to a scrap of paper tucked under a paperclip in your files, it came down, it seemed… to you.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:32 am
Priam paused, frowning as he tilted his head to read the paper. It took a few seconds to process--longer than it should, for a message with so few little words. He hadn't thought he left any of his files unguarded for too long, but it was a busy night and he found his mind reeling when he tried to recall.
Immediately, he tried to reason that this was some sort of prank. This was not the night for pranks, but this was far easier to believe that than that there was some sort of life-threatening situation going on.
It wasn't handwriting he noticed. He glanced at the clock on the wall and stiffened when he realized what the time read, and before he had really even processed, his feet were moving. In a daze, he passed the clipboard--and the note--to a nurse who was as confused as he was, and hurried up the stairs.
All things considered, he was lucky that he was close. There was no chance that the elevator would be here in time, and so he took the stairs.
He was already tired from tonight, had already been craving a few moments to himself. He rushed, two steps at a time, hoping that the roof was locked, that this was just someone's idea to give him a heart attack, but he felt his stomach sinking when the roof was unlocked, and more than that, just slightly ajar.
He was cold even before he got outside but it didn't stop him. He pushed the door open as quietly and quickly as he could, in a hasty attempt to get to the roof without making any jarring noise. It closed heavily behind him, with only a little creak, as he stood on the roof.
His eyes were frantic and darted around, looking for any signs of life. "--Hello?" he called, trying to keep his voice even as he caught his breath.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:34 am
It was dark enough that even with the street lights and safety lights it was hard to make out details. Hints of color, vague shapes, those were the only immediate clues to your surrounding. The sound though, the snap of fabric in the wind, dark cloth, there just where it was hard to focus between the lights, there near the edge of the roof was… someone. They turned to look towards you, there, precariously balanced on the edge of the roof. They glanced at their wrist, there must have been a watch and then back to you, taking half a step, shuffling closer to that precarious drop, teetering with a heel hanging in space. “One Person? I’m… touched.” There was something familiar about the voice, be it tone, or cadence it was hard to say. An accent perhaps.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:36 am
What Priam wouldn't have given to be able to see in the dark. He reached up to his face to adjust his glasses, like that would give him any more of an advantage in seeing what was going on.
"I'm sorry. You left the note, tucked in my file?" he asked; it was a redundant question, the note said someone would be up here, and there was someone up here.
"--I was hoping you might change your mind. If you come away from there, maybe we can talk? Whatever's going on, I promise, there are other options."
He wasn't trained for this. His heart was in his throat and he wasn't even sure that his voice sounded like his own. But he could make out the stranger just enough to know that he had been keeping an eye on the watch. That he'd been planning this. He didn't seem as distraught as Priam anticipated, but he was not an expert on how things like this should go.
He wasn't even sure he understood what this was, he just hoped the nurse he'd shoved things off to could do something before they ran out of time.
"Look," he held out his hand, as if to shake--a friendly gesture--and took a few slow, careful steps forward. "My name is Priam," he introduced, cautious but mustering as much friendliness as he could. "What's yours?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:37 am
You couldn’t make out much of the face, it was dark, but you could just make out the curve … of a smile, a predatory thing, strange indeed. A lip curled back from a hint of a surprisingly sharp grin as he reached out like lightning, a hand wrapping around your wrist with terrifying speed and skill as he spun you drawing you close, back to his chest. “You can call me Parisite.” The voice whispered in your ear. “You might feel, just a little tired, but it’s for the best…don’t worry, I won’t leave you up here.” You were tired to start with, but now the tired dragged down against the panic and adrenaline that likely rose with the sudden pull towards a rooftop stranger.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:45 am
What?
What?
Priam stared out across the way from the rooftop, feeling a remarkable sense of absolutely numbness. He was tired. He'd been tired for hours. His adrenaline had shot up when he got the note, when he found someone else.
What was this?
The panic had made him shut down for a few seconds, and his fear was practically palpable. He was completely rigid as he stared blankly in front of him.
At first, he heard parasite, but the gears in his head corrected him.
Parisite.
Parisite was not a name. It was a title.
Soleiyu said the Negaverse was named after minerals.
Had he been found out? Was that what this was all about? Was he supposed to power up and defend himself?
Wait, no. He knew moves. He'd been taking self-defense classes. He'd been working on these things. And yet--suddenly--they all felt so hopeless, so useless. He couldn't get over the hill of anxiety that made him freeze up.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked instead, forcing his voice to an audible volume. He tried to sound calm. He tried to sound comforting. "I came up here to help you."
He was just scared, and full of regret, and struggling to keep his mind in the here and now, and not somewhere far away from where he didn't have to think about this, didn't have to worry about this.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:46 am
“If you’re very lucky, you’ll live long enough to find out.” The man half purred. “Relax, I’m told it won’t hurt as much if you just… relax.” “I suppose this is a very good lesson though, some of us are just, well beyond help. We’re the viper under the flower, the rejects of society, cast out and recycled because we bite, and bite and bite again.” The energy was leaving like bleeding out, till it was hard to stand. “UP we go…” He crouched just enough to sweep you into his arms, and then, turned to face the edge of the building, the edge of the world it seemed. “They say, if you die in your sleep you die for real, I bet we could prove that...if you fell asleep on the way down. Just imagine, for a little while you’ll fly…down, down down, till gravity catches you in its arms and tucks you, right into sleep. You’re tired, right? This will be so much more interesting than a park bench.”
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:47 am
Priam's eyelids felt heavy and he wanted to fight. He felt it in his heart, it's just that the commands seemed to come too slowly, and his limbs did not want to move. He felt like lead, and even the cold adrenaline and piercing fear weren't enough to give him the strength he needed."
Maybe it hadn't mattered who was going to come up here.
Maybe, it could have been anyone. It was a good cover, he had to give him credit. A stressful night at the hospital. Who would scrutinize it too much, if someone decided they'd had enough? If he had been in the office and heard the news, what would he have thought?
Probably that if he'd known, he could have tried to help.
Which had done a lot of good now. He was too tired to scold himself. He wanted to just sleep. He wanted to stop fighting, wanted to just relax against the warmth. It was so cold up here.
He wasn't aware of his fist curling into the front of the man's uniform, holding it as tightly as he could. He didn't think he had that much strength, but it was all he could manage. He didn't want to fall, didn't want to hit the ground. He hadn't looked over the edge of the hospital, he didn't know if there was anything there to slow his fall or if it was a straight drop down.
"Don't," he said, in a tone that was almost begging. But he was trying not to be afraid.
...It would have been so much easier to sleep. He was so tired.
He couldn't wrap his mind around this; it all felt like a bad dream.
Destiny City was strange, but things like this did not happen.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:49 am
“Don’t?… Why not? That’s not exactly a convincing argument. “Come on, Icarus. Reach for the sun, after all… I’m shooting for the stars soon.” There was something to what he said that seemed to amuse him tremendously, like a joke that only he knew. “Besides, you can think of my charming smile as you fall. I’m told it’s quite…sharp.” Another soft laugh, like a secret. And for a moment, you were flying. Up, into the air with a lurch. For one glorious, terrible moment gravity had forgotten you, that moment where you could go no higher, that whisper of thought before it reached for you, and you fell down… down… down. The reality was screaming metal and broken glass. --fin???
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