[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) 2015-05-30 22:19 (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. ]
no subject
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
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
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
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
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
[ 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.