featherduster | ( sheep ) ic inbox

[ OF COURSE IT DOES!!!! He picks up the dagger, and assuming nothing buckwild happens when he does so, pockets it. If this is Charon's blood, then in some morbid way he's getting the impression it will be good to have. ]

[he gets a memory --

you're holding your bleeding hands over the bowl, breathing slow and deliberate, trying to ignore the pain you're unaccustomed to, the smell of smoke and burning flesh coming in through the walls, the distant screams, the queasiness of your own stomach and conscience. you need as much blood as you can get, right now in the time of the summoning, to give the ones you absolutely don't want him to touch.

'if he comes,' Julian ~~Silverberg~~'s centuries-old instructions had said. you know, with certainty and a measure of arrogance, that the demon will come to you, if he came to your grandfather. whether you can sufficiently protect and leash him is another matter, but you're going to have to.

stout heart, quail not. you're committed to the course now.

-- but he can pocket the knife afterwards.]

[ NO WONDER THIS MAN IS SO BLASE ABOUT SUMMONING DEMONS EVERY WEEK. GOOD FUCKING LORD.

He pauses there for a moment to get his "fuck this shitty goblin demon" feelings under control before heading for the other door. ]

[he’s got the cred!

the door brings him out into…a hallway. he recognizes it under the lack of colour. it’s the same one everyone started in within Charon’s subconscious, where all the windows on one side are curtained heavily and the other side of the hall is lined with bedroom doors.

at one end is the way to the rest of the mansion.

he may recollect that there was another door on the other end.]

[ . . . Huh.

Well, a dream is a slightly different thing, he figures.

Eyeing the bedroom doors first -- are the doorframes still beat to all hell? ]

[all of the doors appear to be splattered with blood. the one he's next to is open a crack; the others are tightly closed.]

[ Dude. That better be ward blood and not trauma blood.

Cautiously pushes the cracked door open and peers inside. ]

[it's random splatter and not deliberate symbols, so almost certainly trauma blood.

but! inside is a child's bedroom of sorts, a little spare and without much decor, but otherwise fitting with the rest of the mansion's fancy build.

there is a five-year-old redheaded child sprawled on his stomach on the bed, reading a book. unlike the rest of this place, he's in full colour. he glances up when the door opens.]

[ OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ok calm down Minuet. It might be the brother just wait a second. ]

Oh...

[that tiny unsmiling frown is DEFINITELY the brother he actually knows]

Who are you?

Me? Oh, I'm just--

[ HOW DOES HE EXPLAIN ]

Nobody special. [ nailed it ] Just a drifter who got himself a little lost, it looks like!

[tiny Charon reacts with even more inborn scorn than 25-year-old Charon]

You don't 'get lost' in somebody's house.

[ Somehow it's more withering from the baby ]

No? Well I'm really in a pickle, then.

[ anyway ]

What're you reading?

[he can see the baby mentally turning over if he'll get in trouble for answering that or not]

...something Grandfather wrote. Why?

Curiosity! I won't tell anyone if it's a secret.

[ Drops cross-legged in the middle of the floor ]

What was your grandfather writing about?

... ... ... ... ...

[mumbles]

Th'war.

The war? Just one?

The important one.

Is that why you're reading about it? 'Cause it's important?

Whole lotta kids your age wouldn't bother with history lessons.

[draws himself up like a tiny puffy bird]

I'm not most kids. I'm a Silverberg.

[ Diligently commits this to memory ]

What's it mean to be a Silverberg?

[pretend the real name was censored kdjfjfg i always fuck it up]

It means...being the smartest. And winning the wars. And...having secrets.

[ TRIES NOT TO LAUGH ]

Having secrets is a requirement, huh.

[nodding solemnly]

The most. Um..."knowledge is power."

[ Fuckin nerd ]

It can certainly be an advantage, if you want to win a war. Are you planning to follow in your grandfather's footsteps?

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