019 - You Play In The Sun As In A Tidal River - Action

[worldofourown]

[In the forest, chaos erupts. Sparks of light. Billowing smoke. Birds flying from crashing trees.]

[A blinding force swoops through the area. Bluish and blurred, it has no shape. Energy crackles at its edges, the heat enough to blacken trees and scorch skin. In its wake, it leaves a wasteland: vast and boiling in fumes. The stink comes next: smoldering wood, charred earth, the spilling blood of many creatures, like garbage left out to rot.]

[At times, the bright blur seems to be a creature. Draconian yet human—red-eyed, covered in blood, screaming like a banshee.]

[But the glimpse is fleeting. Mostly, it remains indistinguishable. Racing on and on. The air behind it is smoky. Ash and sparks drifting like snow. From the distance it seems surreal— a hallucination.]

[It may be hours still, before this beast tires itself out.]


[OOC: Karl's tldr post is here for details, and if anyone has questions. Characters with superpowers are free to try curbing his tantrum. Also, any forest-dwelling citizens are free to comment on the rukkus. Police involvement to be kept at a minimal pls <33]

Comments

[worldofourown]

[She's not Karl's girl. What she is, is Diva's sister. His Bride by blood and right. Even if she has been stubbornly resistant in the past.]

[When Setsuna tosses the shirt at him, Karl blinks a moment, like he doesn't know what's happening. Then, registering his own state of undress, he pulls the shirt on. The forest air is cold. But he doesn't feel it. Can't feel anything beyond his own misery.]

I don't know anything in this City. That's the thing...

[The curses, the uncertainty, pull his already addled mind in different directions, like a psychedelic taffy.]

[He has no power here. Didn't, in his own world, either.]

[He'll always be a lab-rat in a cage.]

[beyourarmy]

[Leave it to Setsuna to assume the right things about people emotions more often than not, but when it comes to assuming about facts? Usually all wrong. Not that Karl was helping.

[Since Karl pulled the shirt on, Setsuna wonders if he's bothered by his lack of clothes. Well...he's got boxers under, so the blond gets up and unbuttons his jeans.]

You're right. It kind of sucks. One day we're all fine, then the next some of us are doing something weird. People come, then they go. Getting out...I still think there's a way, but as if anyone's got any clues to it.

[Slips his jeans off and tosses them at Karl.] I don't think you're much taller than me it should matter. And you're slender enough you should be able to wear those.

Besides, even if they're a little tight, or a little short, it's better than nothing to get you home, right?

[But after that he collapses to his knees, slightly out of breath. Okay. Not standing up again for a while.]

[worldofourown]

[When the trousers get tossed his way, he's out-and-out confused. What is wrong with this child? Karl all but drained him to a husk. And now he's offering him the clothes off his back like they're friends.]

[Unused to the kindness, he's wary. But after a moment, he skins into the jeans without comment. Clothes are clothes. And walking around naked in the forest isn't really his style.]

Thank you...

[The words are a bit too stiff to be heartfelt. He watches the angel slump dizzily to his knees, and shakes his head.]

If you couldn't handle the blood-loss, you should've stopped me sooner.

[beyourarmy]

[What's wrong with this child? Why don't we start with the whole fact he thinks they ARE friends?

[A light laugh. Setsuna doesn't care if Karl doesn't mean it. He didn't do it to get thanks or his gratitude anyway. Only because he looked cold, and took the shirt. Another laugh.]

I tried, actually. But you were being way persistent and not listening. Besides, I'll be okay in a couple of days. [Touches his neck - still ravaged. Well, fuck. Can't go home just yet.]

[worldofourown]

[The blood on Setsuna's still-oozing wound is distracting. It's all Karl can do not to reach out and fit his teeth back in. The fact that the boy is so trusting makes it so deliciously easy.]

[But the bloodlust so prevalent in his nature has fizzled since drinking from the angel. Like Jast's - only worse. It gave him a damned pulse. He can still feel it, beating sure and strong in his body.]

What will you tell Kira?

[Asked more out of idle curiosity than wariness. He'll deal with the Boy-Devil's anger when - if - it comes to that.]

[beyourarmy]

[Yeah, but the fact Karl's not doing it will be one reason Setsuna's trust remains in tact. He doesn't know about the pulse, though.]

Kira? [A chuckle.] That I was an idiot, careless, and deserved it. Truth be told, he probably already knows. If he's not here, then he probably didn't think he needed to interfere. He only gets involved when he thinks I really need it.

[Oh, hell no. Setsuna does NOT want that. Keeping Karl out of trouble was part of why he did this in the first place, not to cause MORE trouble for him.]

[worldofourown]

He's right.

You are a stupid boy.

[But there's no rancor in the statement. If anything it's half-hearted, like a badly sailed paper-plane. With a returning semblance of control comes the realization - the real realization - of Saya's departure.]

[He isn't sure he can bear it. Wants to crawl off someplace dark, shut his eyes and will time and the universe to stop.]

[Wincing, he dabs at the tears on his face. Things have come to a pretty pass. He's being comforted by a Cherub, like some pathetic martyr.]

[beyourarmy]

I know. [He gives Karl a smile, leaning back on the grass.] But that's okay, isn't it? I've gotten this far being who I am. I'm not gonna worry about it.

[Oh, that feeling? Setsuna knows it all too well, and has tried to do it a couple of times, hide away from the world. He'll let it go if Karl is gone for a couple of days, but after that, he'll hunt him down.]

Is it my imagination, or are you more lucid right now?

[worldofourown]

[He half-winces again at Setsuna's question. Lucid? Terrible, if he is. He doesn't want to be. Doesn't want to endure the maddening grind of life here without Saya. With psychosis comes freedom, after all. The erasure of consequences. Of reality itself.]

If I am - I blame your blood. It isn't normal...

[But neither was Jast's. A reminder, almost. Not to sink his teeth into every creature there is here.]

[beyourarmy]

Uhh... Karl. Duh?! You idiot! Six wings, and I regenerate. No shit my blood isn't normal! I tried to warn you about that.

[A heavy sigh.]

...I fed a friend of mine one of my feathers, and it gave him life. I mean, he got cursed with my existence, too, and he could still die if he wasn't careful. But it was a life all the same. I tried to tell you.

[worldofourown]

[The debate of who is stupider could go on. Setsuna for letting a crazed vampire bite him. And Karl for biting some strange preternatural being in the first place. If Solomon were here, he'd shake his head in disgust.]

Cursed...?

[A look of half-trepidation.]

Your blood gave me a pulse. Are you saying it might be permanent?

[He's not sure if he wants it or not. Being City!Dead is a bitter reminder that he's not truly dead. But being alive - is worse. He wants nothing to do with life.]

[beyourarmy]

I was cursed...to live miserable life after miserable life and die young. I'm not sure how that transfers, though. [Curls his knees up to his chest and leans his head on them.]

And that's my feathers. Not sure about my blood. They might not do the same.

...if the pulse is permanent I'll get it fixed for you, okay? If it's not gone in a couple of days, let me know and we'll fix it. [He knows Karl would rather be dead. It's okay. He's not going to let that happen.]

[worldofourown]

So - your blood might've cursed me by proxy. To live a miserable life.

[But not to die young. Karl isn't young. And death is near-hopeless in the City. How ironic. He keeps getting the wrong end of each deal.]

Fix it how? [A shadowy smile.]Going to try killing me?

[beyourarmy]

Like I said, if it did...I'll get it fixed. I'll take responsibility for it, okay?

And I'd rather not have to kill you. [He looks a little more miserable at the very idea, curling up tighter.] I mean, if it comes to that, yeah, I will. But there's a probably a way around it. [Hoping it wears off in a couple of days. He JUST got over the first trade he made. To make another one now...?]

And, anyway, sounds like you've already lived a pretty miserable life, so it's not like this could've done more damage.

[worldofourown]

[He does laugh now. Woozy, empty-headed and coming down his adrenaline rush, it's not too startling a reaction. Even if it isn't a necessarily sane one.]

You're such a strange boy.

[It's all he can think to say. Perhaps, once, he might've been like Setsuna. Brimming with goodness and pure intention. But the memory of that past - as a human - is both sickening and unreachable now. Not worth contemplating, let alone pining for.]

[He has Diva's blood is his veins. That alone makes it enough to be a Chevalier. Even one as skewed as he.]

[beyourarmy]

And you're not strange?

...but why specifically? [Setsuna can't help asking, considering that he's strange for a lot of reasons, and he knows it.]

Besides, strange or not, someone needs to take responsibility for it if this is permanent, right? Do you want to be the one to do that? If you are, go ahead. Kill yourself again. If it's what you prefer, then...do it. I'm not gonna rob you of the few choices you can make here, and I'm sorry I did so unintentionally at all.

[worldofourown]

You just are.

[For more reasons than he can list. That little tirade being one of them. It was Setsuna's attitude that he finds most bemusing. How can anyone be capable of such infinite and convoluted understanding? Or was the boy really so pure of heart—ego, really—that his good intentions were just that? Good.]

[Those were the marks of a saint. And saints, in Karl's experience, didn't exist.]

I would. But killing myself is harder than it seems.

[Especially with Saya gone.]

[beyourarmy]

[Then it would probably twist Karl's brain to realize everything Setsuna says is pure and sincere, when he's not being playful, and he isn't right now.]

But...if you're complaining about a pulse then you WERE dead here, so it's possible. Or did you come here like that?

[worldofourown]

I arrived dead to the City.

[And what a short-lived death that was.]

[beyourarmy]

Fuck....

[Setsuna had really helped screw things up, hadn't he?]

I meant it, though. I'll find a way to fix this if the pulse doesn't go away, okay?

[worldofourown]

I'll deal with it when it does. No sense for you to worry about it until then.

[Pulse or no pulse, he's still trapped in this City. Without Saya. What difference does it make?]

[beyourarmy]

[It seemed to make a difference when Karl was going on about it. And Setsuna has this guilt-complex problem.]

Well, you better tell me, got it? Because if the pulse doesn't go away, we may have a few problems outside of that....

[worldofourown]

Other than the miserable existence and early death, you mean?

[beyourarmy]

Yeaaaahhhh....

See. The guy that ate my feather was sorta connected to me.

[worldofourown]

Like what?

A telepathic link?

[Similar to that between him and his brothers? Or between a Chevalier and a Queen?]