poly_chromatic | 6th Contract

Entry tags:

howl's moving castle - howl jenkins

6th Contract - [audio]

[Filtered away from Sophie Hatter]

Oi, you lot. I'm loathe to use 'deities', as I've no evidence that title is anything but arrogance on your part.

I'd like to make a bargain.

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Citizen Jenkins, have you filled the appropriate paperwork?

I don't do paperwork. Are you the lot I'm meant to speak with, then?

What is your request?

I gave something up some years ago now.

I need it back.

Specifics.

The world runs on specifics, Citizen Jenkins.

Specifics and paperwork.

So you can't read my mind and figure it out on your own? This isn't a promising start, let me tell you.

My heart. It is currently in the possession of a rather ornery fire demon in my world, but I have been informed that I manage to get it back in the near future without it causing either of our untimely demise. I would like to speed up that process, if you would.

And in return?

What do you want?

A heart that doesn't beat.

Or magic that will no longer work.

For how long?

Three months.

And my heart will be just as it was before?

Unblemished, unbruised, and not at all charred.

Do we have a deal? Life or magic?

You have a deal.

Trade APPROVED.

[ooc: so just so we're both clear! Howl gets his heart back in exchange for no magic for three months, yes? It will start immediately!]

Thank you for your assistance.

[ooc: Yep! All sounds good. Thank you!]

[Sunday, after throwing a star back to the sky and having her heart be picked apart by Howl, piece by piece and word by word, turns out to be a day quite ordinary. The words he'd given her, that promise - 'I'll fix it, Sophie' - still pressed at the back of her mind. She'd never gotten him to promise not to be reckless. But she sees him around the house in the morning, and sees him enough during the day that she doesn't think he'll do anything drastic.

What would he, if Calcifer is back in the castle? If the roads out of the City are blocked?

The unease that lingers is much more from the way her lips seem to tingle with the reminder of that kiss - they'd both been sane as they could've been for it - so she keeps herself busy. She puts the blue roses in a vase in her bedroom, and spends the morning and afternoon puttering about the garden.

When she finally finishes, there's dirt on her hands and her knees, and her face - and probably her hair, too - so she heads to the bathroom. And there she finds it. Marked brightly Hair. Unopened bottle, the smell from the product inside it permeating the room.]

Oh, no! Oh, no, this is not going to be a tyrannical dominion over the bathroom. [She snatches the bottle and the cap, and stomps her way to his room, busting in with very little regard for privacy.]

Howl! I'm going to have to change your name to Mister Messy Wizard, you know?

[Oddly enough for Howl, he doesn't react when she barges in. He's pulled a chair under the window and is sitting in it, eyes closed. His room is also a little bit messier than usual. What looks like a vase and maybe a glass have been smashed into the far wall.]

And - what...[What in the world has happened to the room? She knows he's all over the place with his bottles and contraptions and books, but instead of appearing as a messy room, it just looks...wrecked, actually.

Brings her rage to a full stop, or at the very least a pause, as she takes in the mess and closes her mouth. She finds him at the window, and frowns.

That she remembers, he hadn't been brooding the rest of the day, so what now? (Ignores the way her stomach knots.)]

Howl? [She sets the bottle on a table and walks to the window.] No answer? Nothing to say?

I fixed it.

[His voice is oddly calm, even. He doesn't look up from the window. Not yet.]

[Swoosh! Goes the rug, snatched from under her feet. She couches down by the chair.]

How? What did you do? [She reaches out - hesitates - and settles her hand over his on the arm rest. She can't tell him, right now, that this calmness is far more terrifying than anything her imagination could come up with regarding what he could've done to fix it. (And why didn't she fix it first?)]

[Rather than answer, he reaches for her hand and places it over his chest. Feel anything?]

[Swoosh! Oh, was there another? How many more times is she going to feel like someone's thrown her off a tall building today?

Her fingers tremble slightly, before she presses her hand fully to his chest. It's beating again. Her own heart it in her throat.] What did you do?

I made a trade.

[He covers her hand with his own, keeping it there. There are little tingly feelings going from the tips of his fingers downward. God, is this really what it felt like? It feels like ages ago.]

I'm rather good at those, in fact.

You're terrible at them. [She brings her other hand up to cover his, the action bringing her to her knees beside the chair; she doesn't mind it as much. This trading business, though.

She can't tell if she minds it because he did it with who knew what consequences, or because she hadn't done it before.]

What did you trade?

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6th Contract - [audio]

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