featherduster | ( sheep ) ic inbox

[ OKAY GREAT HE'S BACK AND READY TO MAKE MORE (FUCKING INSANE)(SELF-DESTRUCTIVE)(IMPULSIVE)(POORLY THOUGHT OUT) DECISIONS

Putting his whole arm through the portal just to see what happens lol ]

[he feels, incredibly distant:

the demon walking through a ruin, a sword in one hand, the detached head of a monster dangling carelessly from the other. inhuman psychic presence, like an extension of what he just went through. metaphysical acid burn

and

something sensory back in the real world. Charon jolting in his sleep as blinding pain goes through his skull]

[ The sensory feedback from Charon and the tiny scattered parts of his brain that are still reasonable are the only things preventing him from just trying to put the entire gate in a black hole.

(Infuriating that there is a link here he cannot (currently) do anything about. Infuriating that he promised not to kill the stupid demon. Infuriating that he wants to. Infuriating that he's not sure he could anyway.)

He wrenches his arm back out and settles for something inferior: mustering the same will he'd used to cast a rope down into Hope's abyss, attempting to weave together a dam. ]

[he is actually correct in that Yuber is not intervening. maybe it's his personality, maybe he is just too far away to be actively rather than passively unpleasant.

he kind of feels like he's weaving a net across a bunch of knives. fine as long as he can build at specific angles and nothing moves, utterly fucked if the arrangement shifts. but he can build it. he gets the sense it'll even stay stable -- at least as long as Charon is in the pasture far away from the other side of the equation.

on the other hand if Yuber gets in arm's reach and isn't just way over on the other side of an interdimensional link, that probably opens up a LOT of other options at that time, so]

[ Listen. At some point once they finish their business here and he bursts his way into Suikoden proper, he'll do something better with this. But if the aim is to at least let Charon get some sleep without demon bitches barreling in to taunt him with looming nonexistence, then

Get fucked, portal.

He continues until lack of energy prevents him. Considers powering through it anyway to slap a few extra flextapes on there. By some miracle he refrains. ]

[he's so tired. but the effort hasn't cut him up any more than he has been already, and the link is temporarily stoppered. it's not nothing.

when he's finished, the lettering around the portal pulses. weirdly beckoning. it's made of Charon's blood, too: maybe it's a way back?]

[ It's not nothing.

Trusting Charon's blood without question, he presses a hand to the glowing runes. ]

[the terms:

your unquestioning assistance, in matters of war
no scion of the family this blood belongs to can be slain
no scion of the family under a Star can be directly harmed
none who ingest the blood that called you can be slain

for every life sacrificed this night, a war in your name.

...

and he wakes up.]

Edited 2024-03-05 19:09 (UTC)

[ MAN ]

Charon.

[ He presses his hand to Charon's forehead immediately. Urgent: ]

Are you alright?

[Charon kinda makes an 'ughhhhhh' noise as he comes to, turning his face into either Minuet's shoulder or a pillow

I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH HE'S STILL PSYCHICALLY DIALED INTO CHARON ATM BUT THEY BOTH DEFINITELY HAVE A HANGOVER]

[ Enough to like take mental vitals probably ]

I'm sorry.

[mentally the situation feels normal, he hasn't ruined anything

Charon shakes his head a little and wraps both arms more securely around him]

...none of that. Thank you.

[ CURSE HIS ARM SHORTAGE RIGHT NOW IN PARTICULAR

He rests the hand he does have against Charon's cheek ]

I don't really know if it worked. But...

[tucks his face into it a little, metal be damned]

You tried.

[ :( ]

Tried isn't good enough.

But more should wait.

...just don't harm yourself on me too much.

It's not like Mute's...power source. You gain no benefit.

Anything that helps you is to my benefit. No matter how small it is.

And will you let yourself be helped, after?

[ bro does he look like he needs help

(yes god please help h,) ]

What did you have in mind?

[smooths a thumb over Minuet's brow, exactly where the blood was in the dream]

Let me in.

With Lethe as a medium, if you want, to make things safer and more stable.

But you're always getting injured in ways kissing won't heal. Maybe there's a way to soothe some of that.

[ SLAMS INTERNAL PANIC BUTTON ]

. . . I'm not sure you know what you're getting yourself into. And Lethe definitely doesn't.

[inclines his head]

If you don't let me try, will I ever?

It's not as though I don't see the walls you have up, whenever I'm in there.

[ He's silent while he pulls up and then discards multiple responses here, it's not worth it chiefly among them. Charon will just say that it is. ]

Maybe.

But I don't want you to... regret anything.

[looks him in the eye, even if the way he's slightly squinting from the headache throws some of the impact off]

You can call it stubbornness, if you like.

But I have never regretted anything I have offered you.

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

1/2

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]

Re: [night 61]