[ Tinder stares at Fer's palm reader for a long time. He writes a text and deletes it, and writes it again. There's no way he did it. Kaname's an illegal pet. If Yuber had done it, this never would have happened. Why did Yuber wait? Was all that just a joke or a lie? Was he just waiting for the right time or something? Tinder's still nervous. He doesn't want to ask because he's afraid, he's so sure that he's just being jerked around. But he has to ask. He has to know. ]
[There's no question what this is about. The boy doesn't intentionally reach out to him often, and with their last conversation in mind, there's zero doubt in Yuber's mind as to what Tinder is inquiring.]
I did.
[He doesn't elaborate. It's not untrue; he had killed Khepri. The man just hadn't stayed dead.]
[ Tinder's heart jumps in his throat at the answer. No way. Yuber's lying. But... He doesn't usually lie, right? He's a jerk but he's honest about it. ...Did he seriously kill him? ]
[If there's one good(?) thing that can be said about Yuber, it's that he's honest in his assholery. Well, sort of. He doesn't really lie per se, but he doesn't always tell the whole truth. Conveniently leaving things out isn't really much better than outright lying, though.
Besides, Tinder hadn't told him that he was sending him after a man who wouldn't stay dead if he killed him, either.]
I put a sword through his chest and his own vermin devoured him.
[Almost devoured Yuber, too. Good thing that rune of his is possessive.]
[ "His own vermin" ? That... seems weird. And Kaname was still an illegal pet. Did that happen before? Yuber probably wouldn't lie, but it still seems fishy... Like something's not right. ]
[ It's probably not. Why would he lie about it? Yuber's... He's a demon or something but he's always helped them. They're chaos and he likes that right? But if he really did kill Khepri, for Tinder like he said, like Tinder asked, then why... ]
I want to see it.
[ He's terrified but he has to know. He can't think of a better way to know for sure. ]
[He 'wants to see it'? How can--ah, right, that 'empathy' power of his. He wonders... how much would he see if he looked into his memories? Would he just see Khepri die, or would he see both halves of that encounter? How many other countless deaths from the world before would he also glimpse? The temptation of possibly seeing a flicker of fear in the boy's eyes is enough.]
I will be in my room, then.
[His room, where he spends so little of his time. There are no adornments, no furniture aside from an untouched bed. He keeps nothing there, and anything that is there is covered in a fine layer of dust from disuse, bedding included.
[ Tinder's nervous. He's really scared. He thinks about taking someone with him but he tells himself that Yuber is honest. They're in Dana-Burn anyway. If something happened... Somebody would find him first, right? Never mind that Yuber has, like... teleportation skills. And stuff. ...Whatever. Tinder doesn't want to admit to anybody else yet what he did, especially if it's all for nothing. So he goes alone, he shows up pretty quick. ]
...Hey.
[ He says, ducking into the room and looking around. ...It really does look just like before Yuber even lived here. Demons are seriously creepy. Does he really not sleep? Tinder leaves the door open behind him and he gets right to the point of this meeting, still way too nervous for small talk or anything. He holds out his hand for Yuber to take. He'll thank him, and talk and stuff, if Khepri really is dead. ]
[When Tinder enters, he'd find the blond leaning against the far wall with arms crossed. This room is his in name only--he's only actually set foot in it once before now. He much prefers the sub-basement now that Pluto's gone, or out and about in Midas. To be in Dana-Burn at all lately is rare for the demon. Mismatched eyes fall upon the young man and he steps away from the wall, pulling one of his gloves off as he approaches.]
A bit bloodthirsty of you to want to see someone's death. [Tinder continues to surprise him. There must really be some bad blood between him and the man he'd sent him to kill.
Yuber doesn't touch the kid's hand so much as grab him by the wrist, holding it in an iron grip. He doesn't know just what he'll see when he pokes through his memories, how many bloodstained battlefields he'll wade through in addition to the one death he wants to see, but he watches. Watches Tinder's face for his reactions, watches for the first sign of retreat, of fear, of disgust, anything.]
[ Yuber grabs his wrist instead of letting him take his hand and Tinder panics, but it's way too late. It doesn't go in order, it never does. It usually goes by whatever's closest, whatever's worse, but with Yuber it's... It's like everything all at once. War, battlefields, hundreds of people being slaughtered, screaming, death, and in the back of it all, starting soft and getting louder is laughter.
He wants to let go but he can't. Yuber's holding on, and he still hasn't seen Khepri anyway. Or has he? Everything's happening at once. There's fighting, a swarm of beetles, another empty body falling in a pool of blood into already blood-soaked grass, and that laughing getting louder, everything getting louder. Tinder's saying, "Stop it," screaming, "Stop it!" but he can't hear himself over the roar, over all that death and an overwhelming feeling of euphoria. It's disgusting. He feels like he's going to throw up. He's been pulling, trying to break Yuber's grip, but he doesn't even know if he has, if this is happening or memory, he can't get it out of his head and it's awful. ]
STOP IT!
[ And then it does. It all stops. All the death, all the life. Everything just... goes empty. Tinder looks around, for the colors, for life, for emotion of any kind... but all he sees is gray. There's nothing. It's like hell. Worse... It's like limbo. Tinder stares and keeps staring, empty and vacant, until Yuber decides to let him go. ]
[It's an interesting progression of emotions that passes over Tinder's face as the demon watches and prevents his retreat. Horror, confusion, nausea, and between it all, the begging, the pleading for it to stop, to make it end, then... nothing? Had he broken the frail creature?
Yuber's face remains impassive as he releases Tinder's wrist. What had he seen? Whatever it was had terrified the boy--with all the war and death in his past, that was to be expected, but was that really enough to prompt the kind of emptiness in his eyes he'd seen at the end?]
Did you find what you were looking for? [His black glove slips back over scarred fingers, shielding the offending hand from the boy he'd just traumatized.]
Edited (fixing some syntax) Date: 2015-05-30 10:19 pm (UTC)
[ Tinder's hand stays outstretched even after Yuber's letting go and putting his glove back on. Tinder stares, his brown eyes just empty and watching all that... Whatever it was. He looks around and he can still see it, like an echo in a cavern that gets further away but never really ends, just keeps going... It takes him a minute to actually see Yuber again. The red and the black. ( Yuber was red, wasn't he? Before the rune, before the laughing and everything... Tinder never really thought about it before. ) His hand slowly drops. He saw it, saw Khepri but his own life and his own problems, Khepri and the pet trade and everything, seems to matter way less right now. ]
What was that? The... The emptiness. The gray.
[ He finally looks up to Yuber's face. His eyes finally focus. ]
Did you do that? Seriously? Did you destroy your whole planet?
[Emptiness? Gray? Ah, so that's what he'd seen. He'd touched Eightfold's memories. 'Memories' that defy the linearity of time and recall events yet to pass, the visions the Rune plagues him with every time he allows his eyes to slip closed, that he'd seen in a thousand dreams... before he'd stopped sleeping altogether. It's interesting that Tinder would see the same vision that haunts all True Rune users at some point, but not especially surprising. If Tinder sees death, then the cessation of all life surely qualifies.]
No. [A simple answer that explains nothing. The world previous to this one still thrives, and the world of Emptiness, where he's from, is far from dead. Stark in landscape, perhaps, but there's still plenty of life there.] What you glimpsed was a vision of 'Dharma'--complete order--created by the Rune. It hasn't happened yet, and I don't intend it to. [It's not something he enjoys thinking about, let alone discussing.]
[ It... It didn't make sense. Why would Tinder see something that hasn't happened yet? He doesn't see like... wishes or aspirations, he just sees memories. How could someone (something) remember something that hasn't happened yet? Something that scares even Yuber...
Tinder feels cold. He shoves his hands back in his coat pockets and buries his face in the scarf. Khepri, and his own fears and nightmares seem like nothing compared to that kind of destruction. The Rune, the demon that's using Yuber... it's terrifying. ]
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2015-05-23 12:15 am (UTC)Hey. did you do it or not?
no subject
Date: 2015-05-23 12:27 am (UTC)I did.
[He doesn't elaborate. It's not untrue; he had killed Khepri. The man just hadn't stayed dead.]
no subject
Date: 2015-05-28 03:06 am (UTC)Really? what happened? tell me everything
no subject
Date: 2015-05-28 03:23 am (UTC)Besides, Tinder hadn't told him that he was sending him after a man who wouldn't stay dead if he killed him, either.]
I put a sword through his chest and his own vermin devoured him.
[Almost devoured Yuber, too. Good thing that rune of his is possessive.]
no subject
Date: 2015-05-28 04:14 am (UTC)You're not lying right?
no subject
Date: 2015-05-28 05:01 am (UTC)It isn't a lie.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-29 11:58 pm (UTC)I want to see it.
[ He's terrified but he has to know. He can't think of a better way to know for sure. ]
no subject
Date: 2015-05-30 12:21 am (UTC)I will be in my room, then.
[His room, where he spends so little of his time. There are no adornments, no furniture aside from an untouched bed. He keeps nothing there, and anything that is there is covered in a fine layer of dust from disuse, bedding included.
At least it's a landmark.]
no subject
Date: 2015-05-30 01:27 am (UTC)[ Tinder's nervous. He's really scared. He thinks about taking someone with him but he tells himself that Yuber is honest. They're in Dana-Burn anyway. If something happened... Somebody would find him first, right? Never mind that Yuber has, like... teleportation skills. And stuff. ...Whatever. Tinder doesn't want to admit to anybody else yet what he did, especially if it's all for nothing. So he goes alone, he shows up pretty quick. ]
...Hey.
[ He says, ducking into the room and looking around. ...It really does look just like before Yuber even lived here. Demons are seriously creepy. Does he really not sleep? Tinder leaves the door open behind him and he gets right to the point of this meeting, still way too nervous for small talk or anything. He holds out his hand for Yuber to take. He'll thank him, and talk and stuff, if Khepri really is dead. ]
no subject
Date: 2015-05-30 04:02 am (UTC)A bit bloodthirsty of you to want to see someone's death. [Tinder continues to surprise him. There must really be some bad blood between him and the man he'd sent him to kill.
Yuber doesn't touch the kid's hand so much as grab him by the wrist, holding it in an iron grip. He doesn't know just what he'll see when he pokes through his memories, how many bloodstained battlefields he'll wade through in addition to the one death he wants to see, but he watches. Watches Tinder's face for his reactions, watches for the first sign of retreat, of fear, of disgust, anything.]
no subject
Date: 2015-05-30 04:46 am (UTC)He wants to let go but he can't. Yuber's holding on, and he still hasn't seen Khepri anyway. Or has he? Everything's happening at once. There's fighting, a swarm of beetles, another empty body falling in a pool of blood into already blood-soaked grass, and that laughing getting louder, everything getting louder. Tinder's saying, "Stop it," screaming, "Stop it!" but he can't hear himself over the roar, over all that death and an overwhelming feeling of euphoria. It's disgusting. He feels like he's going to throw up. He's been pulling, trying to break Yuber's grip, but he doesn't even know if he has, if this is happening or memory, he can't get it out of his head and it's awful. ]
STOP IT!
[ And then it does. It all stops. All the death, all the life. Everything just... goes empty. Tinder looks around, for the colors, for life, for emotion of any kind... but all he sees is gray. There's nothing. It's like hell. Worse... It's like limbo. Tinder stares and keeps staring, empty and vacant, until Yuber decides to let him go. ]
no subject
Date: 2015-05-30 03:56 pm (UTC)Yuber's face remains impassive as he releases Tinder's wrist. What had he seen? Whatever it was had terrified the boy--with all the war and death in his past, that was to be expected, but was that really enough to prompt the kind of emptiness in his eyes he'd seen at the end?]
Did you find what you were looking for? [His black glove slips back over scarred fingers, shielding the offending hand from the boy he'd just traumatized.]
http://media1.giphy.com/media/MFR8ycs6Ss7pm/giphy.gif
Date: 2015-06-04 04:57 am (UTC)What was that? The... The emptiness. The gray.
[ He finally looks up to Yuber's face. His eyes finally focus. ]
Did you do that? Seriously? Did you destroy your whole planet?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-10 04:21 am (UTC)No. [A simple answer that explains nothing. The world previous to this one still thrives, and the world of Emptiness, where he's from, is far from dead. Stark in landscape, perhaps, but there's still plenty of life there.] What you glimpsed was a vision of 'Dharma'--complete order--created by the Rune. It hasn't happened yet, and I don't intend it to. [It's not something he enjoys thinking about, let alone discussing.]
Did you see the death you desired?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-16 08:43 pm (UTC)[ It... It didn't make sense. Why would Tinder see something that hasn't happened yet? He doesn't see like... wishes or aspirations, he just sees memories. How could someone (something) remember something that hasn't happened yet? Something that scares even Yuber...
Tinder feels cold. He shoves his hands back in his coat pockets and buries his face in the scarf. Khepri, and his own fears and nightmares seem like nothing compared to that kind of destruction. The Rune, the demon that's using Yuber... it's terrifying. ]
Yeah. I mean... I saw it, so... Thanks.