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Post by DestinyJoyHope on Oct 5, 2015 19:21:35 GMT -5
Eve didn't know exactly where she was.
She had been wandering aimlessly around the catacombs, ignoring how she had been dragging herself along at point and how she still flinched at every movement she saw, especially from the branded member, even if they'd recovered or their masters were dead. The fact that her paranoia had increased since the Puppeteers had been defeated irked her; the change in her nightmares has her waking up in cold sweat rather than the pain in her chest that never went away, leaving her with more sleep deprivation than usual. She rubbed her eyes and looked around the practically barren tunnels until she spotted a door. With a new found destination, she walked a bit more deliberately towards the door and pushing down her fear enough to let her fist hover for a second before knocking and opening the door and walking in.
"Hi, um, sorry to bother you," Eve briefly glanced over the room and spotted a tall figure sitting on the bed and gave him a small wave before continuing, "do you just know where-"
She froze mid-sentence the moment she saw the brand of marionette handles attached to the heart.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2015 21:09:56 GMT -5
He was unsteady. He wasn't shaking like he had been, but he was still very unsteady. A gust of wind could knock him over. It wasn't uncommon to feel this vulnerable, significantly after devastating events he didn't have the luxury of remembering or forgetting.
So when Tea heard the approach, he stiffened. This was not the first time he'd encountered a cultist since waking. It wasn't even the second time. But each happenstance guaranteed a reaction of some kind. This one . . . he had a bad feeling about.
He didn't bother covering the mark on his neck, split in half by a black scar that encircled his throat. He did unintentionally run his tongue over the the corner of his mouth that also bore a black scar. He kept his eyes cast down as his stammer emerged, "C-can I help you?"
How long till this cultist realized who he was? There were some who didn't know, who still didn't know. Would he be so lucky?
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Post by DestinyJoyHope on Oct 6, 2015 8:39:29 GMT -5
Eve resisted every urge to break out of the room and get away as far as possible from him, but not enough to prevent her from her hand fumbling behind her for the doorknob and grasping it tightly, ready to burst through the door the moment she got an answer. Her gaze didn’t lift to meet his eyes, not able to break her horror of the from the brand on his neck. She’s seen the brand on so many of her fellow cultists, but he was different from them. He was a Puppeteer, he was a traitor.
And what gives you the right to be able to accuse him of that yourself?
The ever-present voice echoed in her head, and she broke her gaze from the mark on his neck to follow the black scars all over his body. Was that what she damned them to? She bit her tongue, trying to feel something other than the growing guilt and fear, and flickered her sight up to his eyes, which thankfully weren’t meeting hers. “L-look, I- I just-!”
Breathing is a thing, you know.
She took a shaky breath before continuing, though it didn’t help calm her nerves at all. “W-which part of the cat-catacombs are we right n-now?”
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2015 8:48:17 GMT -5
Tea's brow furrowed. She knew. Either that or something else was bothering her. He decided both. Closing off the ebb of his own energy to keep as much within himself as possible, he answered her question with one of his own. "Where are you trying to g-go?" He didn't necessarily know where they were. He had never bothered to fully map out the catacombs, hoping his ignorance of the area might one day save someone. But he did know how to get out.
He rubbed his neck fretfully, already wishing he had a collar to cover the marks left behind.
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Post by DestinyJoyHope on Oct 6, 2015 15:15:48 GMT -5
Good question.
It was probably a really stupid thing to ask without any particular destination in mind, but she was mostly thinking along the lines of ‘anywhere besides here’. She’d never actually claimed a room of her own and chose to sleep in the woods until the puppeteer takeover made her be too terrified to being alone outside. She hesitated a bit before shifting her gaze up to look him in the eyes to meet his. Without easing up on her grip on the doorknob, she replied, “I don’t know, just somewhere, anywhere! Just not…”
Not here. Not in the same room as a Puppeteer who betrayed them.
But you did exactly the same to your own, Lucy.
She swallowed hard and broke her gaze, focusing on her feet instead.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2015 19:10:19 GMT -5
Tea glanced up at her for the first time. Just a girl. She was just a girl. She couldn't have been much older than he was when he . . . when they . . . .
He averted his gaze quickly, covering the side of his neck with his whole palm. His claws dug into his nape as he flushed a brilliant purple hue. "I can . . . I can show you a way out-t. If you like." It'd be easier to show than tell, but he wondered if his presence would continue to discomfort her. It would, he decided. It most certainly would. There was nothing he could think of to assuage the discomfort either. He was everything the cultists had accused him of. He had no real worthy excuse for his actions.
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Post by DestinyJoyHope on Oct 6, 2015 20:01:28 GMT -5
Eve was honestly surprised the knob wasn’t dented considering the stress she was putting on it. Was he really offering to go with her? No. No! That was just- the entire notion of her wanting to spend time with a Puppeteer after everything- it was ridiculous! It was insane, and that was clearly readable on her face.
The denial never came out though, due to the fact she still didn’t know where the heck she was and where she was even planning on going once she did. She still hesitated on his offer, her eyes flickering up and down, noting his general appearance being… Well, weak, basically.
Didn’t mean she still wanted to be with him, just that having him show her the way out didn’t seem outright dangerous. Her eyes went back to meet his before she muttered and quick “fine” and opened the door, not waiting for him to catch up before she was already in the hallway and waiting for him to point her in the right direction.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2015 20:23:12 GMT -5
Tea followed slowly, his strides shorter than he recalled them being. He thought it strange. He'd heard accounts of people waking up from comas and feeling as if no time had passed at all. Tea truly did feel like the time had passed. A month. It had really been that long.
Guiding the girl down the hall with small gestures, he kept his neck covered. He probably shouldn't try to start a conversation but he did anyway. The silence was too much for him to handle. He'd had enough of silence in his life. "Your name is . . . Eve. Right? She was relatively new. So new in fact he knew virtually nothing about her. " I'm . . . sorry. That you joined when you did." He actually couldn't remember her joining. All he seemed capable of recalling at the moment was the battle. And oh how it had scarred them.
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Post by DestinyJoyHope on Oct 6, 2015 20:53:55 GMT -5
Eve visibly flinched when she heard him speak, slowing her down a bit to comprehend what he was saying. Right, she barely got any peace of mind before the Puppeteers took over the cult. Not that she’d had much since her first encounter, but enough for her to get by. Now she found herself jumping at every sudden movement and with the inability to let herself go outside, along with being stuck with the guy who caused it all as well.
“Yeah, that was just great,” she muttered, following his gestures down the various paths. “You had amazing timing there, right as I thought I was gonna be as fine as I ever could be. So thanks a lot for that.”
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2015 5:34:31 GMT -5
Tea kept his gaze forward so she wouldn't see how her words had affected him. He deserved it. He knew he deserved it and worse. His hand slid from his neck as he uttered, "Wasn't my decision to invade." He quickly added, "That's no exc-cuse. I'm . . . I'm still guilty." Incredibly so. "But . . . they're gone now." Save for a select few, Tea among them. "Maybe . . . maybe it's possible to start fresh."
The trouble was he wasn't sure he believed that himself.
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Post by DestinyJoyHope on Oct 7, 2015 8:04:28 GMT -5
‘Wasn't his decision.'
Having a choice in the matter changed a lot, didn't it? Yes, he was guilty. But her gaze shifted back to his scars and his brand; he was punished. She didn’t know the details. She didn’t want to know. Something happened at the Puppeteers headquarters that managed to get him to disappear for a month and come back a complete mess. He got what he deserved. She... didn’t.
"What makes you think traitors deserve something like that?" Eve scowled, turning her back on him.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2015 8:21:53 GMT -5
He winced, his whole being bristling before he sensed the comment wasn't entirely directed at him. "I . . . I don't. I think I deserved worse." It was the honest truth. He at least deserved to remember what painful torture had left him looking like Frankenstein's creation. He'd deserved to suffer at Tapi's smoking hands. Even the terrifying cult leader's retaliation had not felt like enough to atone for what he'd done. He'd taken a space that had once served as a refuge for so many creatures and made it a hell. Here he was, a living reminder that safety was an illusion.
He swiped at his eyes before the tears could fully form. He wasn't sure if this pain was just his. Judging from the currents running over his skin, it didn't feel like it. Stowing it away, he cleared his throat and gestured for them to turn down another hall.
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Post by DestinyJoyHope on Oct 7, 2015 10:07:38 GMT -5
“At least you got some.”
The comment was out before Eve could stop it. She winced for a moment before continuing on, walking a bit more ahead of him. Her curiosity still itched at her as her mind went back to his scars; were they Tapi’s or the Puppeteers? What difference would it make, wondering if it was because he was one of their beasts or a traitor or some form of both. She could ask anyone else, so many others were captured by Puppeteers, not him. Except… He went through the worst though, she was sure of it. If she was going to know, it had to be the worse. But did she even want to know?
No, she didn’t. She needed to.
“What was it like?” Eve asked, turning on her feet and facing him. “Being one of their beasts, I mean. What happens to them?”
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2015 12:11:57 GMT -5
Tea stopped moving at the question, clenching his fists tight. He was not prepared for it. He was not prepared in the slightest to answer that.
Still, he recalled vividly in pictures that flashed behind his eyes what had been done to him. Liam's false promises. Lance's torment. Their individual ways of punishing him for whatever they deemed fit to reprimand. The pain. Oh the pain . . . .
His palms were slick with black blood where he'd pierced himself with his talons. He hid his palms, cradling them against his chest as he examined the punctures. "It was," he swallowed hard, a lump forming as he started to shiver and the only word he had for it was, "awful."
That covered nowhere near enough detail that the question begged for and he knew it. But he couldn't give it. Not to someone her age. Her presumed age. There were so many older than he that looked younger.
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Post by DestinyJoyHope on Oct 7, 2015 16:03:29 GMT -5
Eve could taste blood.
She’d probably have to get ice for her tongue afterward, but she had done far worse to cancel out the guilt. She shut her eyes and turned her back on him, leaning against a wall and trying to get her own thoughts together. No details, she didn’t want details, she didn’t need the details. Details would just make a more graphic image. Details would just reassure all of her worst fears. Except…
“Is that the worst?” She asked, not turning around, and her question was barely audible either, almost hoping he wouldn’t hear it. She knew what the answer would probably be. “Your wounds and scars and stuff. Is that the worst they can do?"
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