[ They enjoy themselves under Myday's watch, seemingly proud of himself for this band he has cultivated with Nodd as his righthand man.
... This is the day, isn't it? The day that member named Jura returns after a run. He does return here, too, and like that day there are ten mercenaries stood right behind him. Jura apologizes, saying he just wanted to live, and the mercenaries laugh while shoving him onto the ground. Their boot grinds painfully against his back, heel painfully digging in.
"And thank you for leading us to our meal ticket."
They kept a promise to let Jura go, so they don't kill him in front of the rest of the gang. Weapons are unsheathed with a swish and clang—hostility is palpable as much as their greed... Myday calls for those who can fight to the front so those who can't can be protected, or better find an escape. Some of the gang brandish their knives, but they stay put. Very few of them are ready to throw their lives when they can see the difference in strength. Everyone here is much smaller than the ten mercenaries.
"Look, we are here to negotiate!"
The tone is playful. It's... Untrustworthy. Why would mercenaries want to negotiate with a little band? ]
[ nodd hisses under his breath as the betrayal becomes apparent. he reaches beneath the table and his hands return, each curled around a dagger's hilt. ]
Go with the others. This is my job.
[ any gang worse half its salt in this city has at least one designated bruiser.
nodd is on his feet and he darts directly to the threat, not waiting for more words. they mean them ill, right? then it's within his prerogative to protect.
everyone who matters is behind him.
he guts the mercenary's leader, his leather armor somehow barely an obstacle.
[The hairs on the back of her neck raise as the mood shifts. The mercenaries aren't fooling anyone: there's no peace to be had here tonight.
But which part of this are they meant to be stopping? Rosamund's eyes slide from Nodd to Yuri to the scattering rabble-rousers. Nothing's flipped in and out of focus here. It's a smooth transition.
Very well then. This time she reaches not for her new weapons, but the old and the comfortable. Rosamund rises to her feet, an arrow already notched and firing off without a second thought, aimed wider for a target out of Nodd's range.]
[ The atmosphere has changed entirely, and yet Yuri can't bring herself to focus. The Green Stuff sure was strong, even if she coughed most of it.
But she holds onto her blaster tightly. If this thing can explode a head through a helmet, Yuri's confident that she could protect herself, but... wheee... ]
[ i'm fucking losing it maybe they shouldn't have hookah'd.
While the mercenaries are large, burly, with so much experience under their belt, the leader doesn't evade Nodd's blade. The knife pierces through their leather guard and out comes the blood from their gut, then also from their mouth. Keeling over some, they take a swing at Nodd with their sword, but Myday swoops in to block it. He gives Nodd a confident and knowing smile—he has your back.
This is their home.
Rosamund looks for any telling signs in this memory, but it is seamless so far. What she can immediately see are the mercenaries ready to ransack and exploit her new community. With bow and arrow, her shot lands straight to a mercenary's shoulder, forcing them to drop their axe.
Yuri follows up
with being high.
The other youths with them take Nodd's and Rosamund's attack as a sign to charge. The frontrunners follow up with the mercenary Rosamund disarmed, putting them down for the count, while those in the back help Yuri sober up with some whatever. They are naturally curious about her blaster What's this gun?
[ gods, what was he ever worried about? these teens and sundry are doing so well. they've been paying attention when he taught them to go for throats and scrotes. nodd has other warriors at his back and their salvation is assured. he's so fucking grateful. he won't ever say it, but he'll have to find a way to express it later.
leave shiny (stolen) objects under their pillows. clear the bathrooms for a month.
and there's myday, beautiful, strong, ineffable. everything nodd has ever wanted and believed in. a hit with the ladies, but that's okay, that's not a problem, nodd is fine with it.
the mercenaries fall to a fearsome den of thieves.
[Everyone rallies. The gang's all here, and these interlopers have no idea what they're dealing with.
In fact, it's going so well that Rosamund lowers her bow an inch. She watches the youths tackle and kill, she watches Nodd drink in a swift victory, eyes flicking to the handsome fellow he serves under.
She looks to Yuri, who is...oh dear.]
Hey, are you o—kaaff-kaff! [She raises her and turns her head to cough. There's a thick smog of pine on the air. It's strange. Rosamund coughs more, but her eyes dance around in a stern alertness. Where is it?
Where's the shift? Where's the truth in all of this?]
[ Well, Yuri can see whatever she thinks she sees. Yuri can maybe look around and see the corpses of the gang on the floor. She could see unicorns. Who knows?
For Rosamund, she hasn't noticed anything off. yet.
But that isn't something to worry about, is it? You know what time it is? Everyone cheers, raising their weapons into the air. It's time for celebration even though the mercenaries are bleeding on the floor, which makes Myday sigh with annoyance. He gently nudges a corpse while looking at the gang here and mentions they should get this figured out before they have their little victory party.
A number of youths are pouty and sulky about cleaning up, but they know the importance after being lectured about hygiene before. The mercenaries are disposed of. Maybe their parts sold. Who knows? That isn't important; you are all little guys getting by.
Now how will we celebrate during this pizza party? After taking Jura's profits and tying him up like a hog, they can get some nice grub! Pick your favorite food dishes, all three of you. ]
[ during clean-up, a girl who can't be older than a human fifteen gets nodd a cloth to clean off his blades. he gives her a poke with his knee, hands too full for a hair ruffles.
then he makes up for it once they're settling down for a celebratory feast and messes with almost the whole crew (definitely stoner yuri and best archer ever rosamund).
his chosen food is a simple plate of creampuffs with chocolate drizzle and if anyone has comments they don't actually. ]
[As loathe as she is to be the pooper of this party, the longer it goes on the more Rosamund nurses her worries. She takes the messing with gamely, and she offers smiles and kind words, and accepts her plate of boar stew (maybe petty if she thought twice about the Baron of the Bricks, but she'd liked it before that whole mess so it's definitely not personal), and yet nothing simmers down. She keeps checking for something to be off, and nothing ever is.
She'll tug on Yuri's sleeve before bothering with her bowl or her mead.]
Hey, so. This is going really well. And that's actually making me even more scared.
[ No one comments on Nodd's cute choice of celebratory feast. Myday however asks if he could have a puff, showing interest in Nodd instead of the girls who have been vying for his gaze. Of course not Rosamund and Yuri, though. They're just respectfully looking with no intentions at all. Anyway, Myday tells Nodd they wouldn't have gotten out of this without him. Thank you. He's grateful.
The look he gives him is not one a friend would give a friend. It's more than that.
...
But the scene does shift.
Both Rosamund and Yuri see many of the youths on the floor, eyes without light staring at nothing, and Nodd himself among them. They see him barely crawling as the ten mercenaries they slayed are alive and with some injuries. Myday is still alive, for some reason. The mercenaries beckon him over—they were here for him. Suddenly, all that happened earlier melts in their minds... It's painted over with the reality that likely everyone in the room was ruthlessly slaughtered.
This room which had smelled of pine and wine reeks of blood.
The pizza party returns though. The youths are back chatting, regaling what literally happened ten minutes ago. All is well. ]
[ this is more than perfect, it's all he's wanted for so long. since he left that awful house, since he abandoned the academy. since myday found him and said there was something a boy like nodd could do for him. his knuckles have been split from fisticuffs ever since. he killed and found he was good at the whole detaching part. a talent! at last.
and now he takes myday's hand, feeling confident.
he shuts his eyes, smiling.
once they'd disarmed him, those miserable opportunists, they'd kicked and smacked him around until he very well should have died there like the others. slower, though. from a punctured everything. he'd been too stupid to bleed out, though--
except none of that happened. they were so strong, it's so incredibly cool. so proud of the newbies. can't wait for tomorrow. ]
...Let's put a pin in the unicorns. [Cute! But she senses they are not relevant.
Especially once the scene does crack.
Much like the warehouse of Yuri's past, the happy folks become leaking bodies in the blink of an eye. Nodd is crawling, barely alive, and his handsome benefactor is walking willingly to the mercenaries.
[ Will Nodd come over to them? He could instead kiss Myday right now... It looks like he's open to it with the way he takes Nodd's hand, holding it with care. A calloused thumb gently brushes over any scars etched onto Nodd's knuckles. They're admired, accepted, and loved.
The visions flash... There are the dead—the rising smell of iron so thick it could coat their tongue when they take a breath. It isn't unfamiliar to the branch, is it? Sisters, we're neck deep in here. ]
a weariness enters nodd as he hears rosamund call him over. wouldn't it be nice to live in the delusion a while longer? to be loved by someone he'd do anything for--say the word?
his heart aches. for a while, simply beats and aches.
he's had many years to accept this loss. to grow past it. let go. be a better person.
but he doesn't want to. ]
You fucker.
[ and nodd spins myday around, locking his arm behind his back before smashing his pretty face into a table. charismatic bitch never knew shit about a real fight. nodd always let him win when they sparred. ]
You ruined everything!
[ is there a third option between fantasy and reality where he gives into rage and kills that beautiful piece of shit? ]
[Okay as much as she would have loved to stealth every single party goer out of here without Myday seeing (perhaps a conga line?), it looks very much like they're going to be putting out fires a different way.
Rosamund leaps from her seat to grab at his arms.]
Stop! Stop!
[And slips on a cream puff Nodd dropped.]
WAAAH!
[Her delicate legs toss high in the air like a pair of Popsicle sticks and she cracks down hard on a pure stone floor.]
[ Yuri was actually happy that Nodd and Myday seemed to have reciprocated feelings, but then this happens. This sucks, dude. The stench of blood is so familiar to Yuri that sometimes she wonders if she isn't bleeding from her nose at every single point in her life.
She's about to go help Rosamund, but she didn't expect her to trip and fall, so now she trips with a squeak and falls over Rosamund. With the blaster. It goes off and Myday's foot is now gone. ]
[ The reciprocated feelings were not real, womp womp. It does suck and the girls both trip together. Sisters suffer the horrors together, sisters fail together. One second, the two girls fall onto the floor, another second they're seated on the corpses of youths. They're still warm, freshly killed, and blood stains them further as a throne of tragedy and misery would.
The blaster goes off and despite how Myday is already being subjugated by Nodd, his foot becomes nothing much like Alex's head. He lets out an ugly scream, unbecoming of his handsome face. Maybe, instead, it's reflective of his true self...
Myday continues to writhe in pain, gasping like his life depends on it after losing a foot unceremoniously. It would be nice if this was something that did happen, wouldn't it? Take revenge. Make him hurt like he hurt you. Like he hurt everyone in this spot of warmth in Nodd's memories. But instead the fabric of reality shifts and Nodd will find himself on the floor, beaten just as he remembered, only for it to shift back to Myday below him pressed against the table bleeding profusely from the ankle.
Myday begs. It was all for fun... Didn't they have fun? ]
[ a lot happens as nodd holds myday down, all mercy learned over the last however many years vanished. this is that aggression para, his teacher, always told him needed to be accepted before it could be tamed. but how?
he squeezes his other hand around the traitor's throat. myday's howling--so what? you lost a foot? what did nodd lose that day?--quiets. nodd breathes in, breathes out.
rosamund and yuri have fallen over. it is up to an internal sense of self to help nodd choose the right path.
they are all, perhaps, fucked.
he's on the ground, gasping, in so much pain. this isn't like the hazing at school. nothing like mother's treatment. nothing like the fights he'd thrown himself into before, even those that had a deadly outcome. but he wants to run and if it's impossible, he should crawl.
back on his feet, myday bent over (ironic?).
nodd returns to his breathing again. ]
... No offense, ladies, but you're kind of taking me out of the moment.
[Maybe it's fate. They all needed to be on the floor.
Rosamund groans and scoots, gently extricating herself from under Yuri.]
We really killed the mood, didn't we?
[Oh, Nodd. Sweet, passionate Nodd, left to crawl on his belly by the man he pledged his life to. When she's able, Rosamund reaches a hand towards his, twining their fingers together.]
[ ... The memory is as it is, as it should be. Myday losing his foot never happened and the wine cellar returns to vision. Nod, Yuri, and Rosamund are back in the manor now with their clothes stained with blood from this door and the last and likely a bruise from tripping.
There's just silence in this old abandoned basement, but at least they have each other. Everyone can take this time to tag amongst themselves, lick wounds, and take a breather. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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... This is the day, isn't it? The day that member named Jura returns after a run. He does return here, too, and like that day there are ten mercenaries stood right behind him. Jura apologizes, saying he just wanted to live, and the mercenaries laugh while shoving him onto the ground. Their boot grinds painfully against his back, heel painfully digging in.
"And thank you for leading us to our meal ticket."
They kept a promise to let Jura go, so they don't kill him in front of the rest of the gang. Weapons are unsheathed with a swish and clang—hostility is palpable as much as their greed... Myday calls for those who can fight to the front so those who can't can be protected, or better find an escape. Some of the gang brandish their knives, but they stay put. Very few of them are ready to throw their lives when they can see the difference in strength. Everyone here is much smaller than the ten mercenaries.
"Look, we are here to negotiate!"
The tone is playful. It's... Untrustworthy. Why would mercenaries want to negotiate with a little band? ]
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[ nodd hisses under his breath as the betrayal becomes apparent. he reaches beneath the table and his hands return, each curled around a dagger's hilt. ]
Go with the others. This is my job.
[ any gang worse half its salt in this city has at least one designated bruiser.
nodd is on his feet and he darts directly to the threat, not waiting for more words. they mean them ill, right? then it's within his prerogative to protect.
everyone who matters is behind him.
he guts the mercenary's leader, his leather armor somehow barely an obstacle.
this can be done. he can save everyone. ]
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But which part of this are they meant to be stopping? Rosamund's eyes slide from Nodd to Yuri to the scattering rabble-rousers. Nothing's flipped in and out of focus here. It's a smooth transition.
Very well then. This time she reaches not for her new weapons, but the old and the comfortable. Rosamund rises to her feet, an arrow already notched and firing off without a second thought, aimed wider for a target out of Nodd's range.]
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But she holds onto her blaster tightly. If this thing can explode a head through a helmet, Yuri's confident that she could protect herself, but... wheee... ]
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While the mercenaries are large, burly, with so much experience under their belt, the leader doesn't evade Nodd's blade. The knife pierces through their leather guard and out comes the blood from their gut, then also from their mouth. Keeling over some, they take a swing at Nodd with their sword, but Myday swoops in to block it. He gives Nodd a confident and knowing smile—he has your back.
This is their home.
Rosamund looks for any telling signs in this memory, but it is seamless so far. What she can immediately see are the mercenaries ready to ransack and exploit her new community. With bow and arrow, her shot lands straight to a mercenary's shoulder, forcing them to drop their axe.
Yuri follows up
with being high.
The other youths with them take Nodd's and Rosamund's attack as a sign to charge. The frontrunners follow up with the mercenary Rosamund disarmed, putting them down for the count, while those in the back help Yuri sober up with some whatever. They are naturally curious about her blaster What's this gun?
....... Can they borrow it? ]
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leave shiny (stolen) objects under their pillows. clear the bathrooms for a month.
and there's myday, beautiful, strong, ineffable. everything nodd has ever wanted and believed in. a hit with the ladies, but that's okay, that's not a problem, nodd is fine with it.
the mercenaries fall to a fearsome den of thieves.
it smells like The Green Stuff everywhere. ]
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In fact, it's going so well that Rosamund lowers her bow an inch. She watches the youths tackle and kill, she watches Nodd drink in a swift victory, eyes flicking to the handsome fellow he serves under.
She looks to Yuri, who is...oh dear.]
Hey, are you o—kaaff-kaff! [She raises her and turns her head to cough. There's a thick smog of pine on the air. It's strange. Rosamund coughs more, but her eyes dance around in a stern alertness. Where is it?
Where's the shift? Where's the truth in all of this?]
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...
The others tried sobering her up, but that effort is gone to the wind.
Can she actually see shifts while high, because that would be funny. ]
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For Rosamund, she hasn't noticed anything off. yet.
But that isn't something to worry about, is it? You know what time it is? Everyone cheers, raising their weapons into the air. It's time for celebration even though the mercenaries are bleeding on the floor, which makes Myday sigh with annoyance. He gently nudges a corpse while looking at the gang here and mentions they should get this figured out before they have their little victory party.
A number of youths are pouty and sulky about cleaning up, but they know the importance after being lectured about hygiene before. The mercenaries are disposed of. Maybe their parts sold. Who knows? That isn't important; you are all little guys getting by.
Now how will we celebrate during this pizza party? After taking Jura's profits and tying him up like a hog, they can get some nice grub! Pick your favorite food dishes, all three of you. ]
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then he makes up for it once they're settling down for a celebratory feast and messes with almost the whole crew (definitely stoner yuri and best archer ever rosamund).
his chosen food is a simple plate of creampuffs with chocolate drizzle and if anyone has comments they don't actually. ]
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She'll tug on Yuri's sleeve before bothering with her bowl or her mead.]
Hey, so. This is going really well. And that's actually making me even more scared.
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[ She leans in to whisper to Rosamund. ]
I think I saw bodies. Bodies everywhere. Bodies as far as the eye--oh, I have two eyes now. So, yes. Eyes can see.
... But I also saw pink, fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows, so.
[ Anyway, she likes bibimbap the best. ]
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The look he gives him is not one a friend would give a friend. It's more than that.
...
But the scene does shift.
Both Rosamund and Yuri see many of the youths on the floor, eyes without light staring at nothing, and Nodd himself among them. They see him barely crawling as the ten mercenaries they slayed are alive and with some injuries. Myday is still alive, for some reason. The mercenaries beckon him over—they were here for him. Suddenly, all that happened earlier melts in their minds... It's painted over with the reality that likely everyone in the room was ruthlessly slaughtered.
This room which had smelled of pine and wine reeks of blood.
The pizza party returns though. The youths are back chatting, regaling what literally happened ten minutes ago. All is well. ]
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and now he takes myday's hand, feeling confident.
he shuts his eyes, smiling.
once they'd disarmed him, those miserable opportunists, they'd kicked and smacked him around until he very well should have died there like the others. slower, though. from a punctured everything. he'd been too stupid to bleed out, though--
except none of that happened. they were so strong, it's so incredibly cool. so proud of the newbies. can't wait for tomorrow. ]
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Especially once the scene does crack.
Much like the warehouse of Yuri's past, the happy folks become leaking bodies in the blink of an eye. Nodd is crawling, barely alive, and his handsome benefactor is walking willingly to the mercenaries.
Then it's gone. She tugs on Yuri's sleeve anew.]
You saw that too, right?
[Then she turns, calling out.]
Nodd? Come here for a moment!
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... Okay, most of her senses.
But before Nodd reaches them, she manages to whisper to Rosamund. ]
Let's take everyone here... and put them somewhere else... when Myday isn't looking.
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The visions flash... There are the dead—the rising smell of iron so thick it could coat their tongue when they take a breath. It isn't unfamiliar to the branch, is it? Sisters, we're neck deep in here. ]
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a weariness enters nodd as he hears rosamund call him over. wouldn't it be nice to live in the delusion a while longer? to be loved by someone he'd do anything for--say the word?
his heart aches. for a while, simply beats and aches.
he's had many years to accept this loss. to grow past it. let go. be a better person.
but he doesn't want to. ]
You fucker.
[ and nodd spins myday around, locking his arm behind his back before smashing his pretty face into a table. charismatic bitch never knew shit about a real fight. nodd always let him win when they sparred. ]
You ruined everything!
[ is there a third option between fantasy and reality where he gives into rage and kills that beautiful piece of shit? ]
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Nodd!
[Okay as much as she would have loved to stealth every single party goer out of here without Myday seeing (perhaps a conga line?), it looks very much like they're going to be putting out fires a different way.
Rosamund leaps from her seat to grab at his arms.]
Stop! Stop!
[And slips on a cream puff Nodd dropped.]
WAAAH!
[Her delicate legs toss high in the air like a pair of Popsicle sticks and she cracks down hard on a pure stone floor.]
Aaaahhaaaaaaaaah...
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She's about to go help Rosamund, but she didn't expect her to trip and fall, so now she trips with a squeak and falls over Rosamund. With the blaster. It goes off and Myday's foot is now gone. ]
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The blaster goes off and despite how Myday is already being subjugated by Nodd, his foot becomes nothing much like Alex's head. He lets out an ugly scream, unbecoming of his handsome face. Maybe, instead, it's reflective of his true self...
Myday continues to writhe in pain, gasping like his life depends on it after losing a foot unceremoniously. It would be nice if this was something that did happen, wouldn't it? Take revenge. Make him hurt like he hurt you. Like he hurt everyone in this spot of warmth in Nodd's memories. But instead the fabric of reality shifts and Nodd will find himself on the floor, beaten just as he remembered, only for it to shift back to Myday below him pressed against the table bleeding profusely from the ankle.
Myday begs. It was all for fun... Didn't they have fun? ]
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he squeezes his other hand around the traitor's throat. myday's howling--so what? you lost a foot? what did nodd lose that day?--quiets. nodd breathes in, breathes out.
rosamund and yuri have fallen over. it is up to an internal sense of self to help nodd choose the right path.
they are all, perhaps, fucked.
he's on the ground, gasping, in so much pain. this isn't like the hazing at school. nothing like mother's treatment. nothing like the fights he'd thrown himself into before, even those that had a deadly outcome. but he wants to run and if it's impossible, he should crawl.
back on his feet, myday bent over (ironic?).
nodd returns to his breathing again. ]
... No offense, ladies, but you're kind of taking me out of the moment.
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Rosamund groans and scoots, gently extricating herself from under Yuri.]
We really killed the mood, didn't we?
[Oh, Nodd. Sweet, passionate Nodd, left to crawl on his belly by the man he pledged his life to. When she's able, Rosamund reaches a hand towards his, twining their fingers together.]
He doesn't deserve you. Not one bit.
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That's good, because... losing yourself to anger is bad. So taking you out of the moment is a good thing. Rosamund and I... did well.
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There's just silence in this old abandoned basement, but at least they have each other. Everyone can take this time to tag amongst themselves, lick wounds, and take a breather. ]
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