Character Lounge

[Joat]

May gets into a bed in one of the rooms she finds as she continues to sing softly. “Lying here beneath the twinkling stars. I’m still wondering where… you… Zzz…”

*OOC: Three down, one to go. The rest of you should probably wrap things up soon.*

Veronica takes another sip of her coffee.

[Gareeku]

As Aisha turned to look at Gareeku, she would see that the wolf had fallen asleep, the plate of food still on his lap and a peaceful expression on his face as he slept. It seemed that Gareeku's tiredness had finally caught up with him.

[Joat]

Veronica, finished with her coffee, bids everyone who is awake goodbye, and heads out the door and toward her home.

*OOC: And… they’re out.*

[Stygian]

Stygian sighed loudly. That was just great, another thing to be worried about. Another thing to trace him by. The fact that it might have been a temporary effect did not comfort him much.
   "And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of," he said bitterly. Shakespeare seemed a fitting theme here. Tragedy, an unlikely love, a Iago or Claudius in himself, madness... What or who might Mel be? Well, he didn't really need to know. He hummed a bit on a low tune that was recognizable as Nocturne no.1.
   "Worst part is actually that I don't know why I'm doing all this. It's to spend time, obviously, but... Even for someone like me it's hard to determine what compels these actions. Maybe harder, since I don't really know myself. I guess that it's just plain interest... And to be that mirror glass, of course," he said. Then, he seemed to notice something. "Hey... do you feel as if you're being watched, Shivers? I feel someone..." He raised his head and looked up at a nearby window.

[Aisha deCabre]

When Aisha saw Gareeku fast asleep, she had to stifle the urge to giggle.  Well, no wonder he's been so quiet.  She tilted her head with an amused smile, though there was a thoughtful look in her eyes.  I guess you're not afraid of having any nightmares...I hope not...Taking a second, the pantheress leaned over him and placed a soft kiss on his forehead, while taking the plate on his lap and placing it back on the table.  "Good night," she whispered the blessing in his ear.

When she rose, Aisha took one more glance around the dark main lounge, and to the few having fallen asleep in it, before walking up the stairs in quiet tones so as not to make anything creak.  Her tail ring's glow had thankfully dulled significantly, but there still shone a ball of emerald green light on the walls where she walked.

It didn't take too long to find a vacant guest room.  Having found where she had placed her cape and weapons belt a while before, she had them folded in her arms.  The pantheress closed the door behind her and placed the cape and her clothes on a nearby chair (but the weapons she set on a desk next to the bed, as per habit).

Before she fell asleep, Aisha looked through her tired vision at the dark window set in the far wall, having only just noticed that it had stopped snowing, before collapsing onto the pillow with a loud sigh and pulling the warm covers over her body.  Her eyes closed with no resistance, like the weight of keeping them open had just been cut, and she left all of her troubled throughts to the real world...letting dreams take her over.

[e_voyager]

groggy e rolls over and tries to sleep deeper into sleep. there are not ghostly voices calling him there are not battles for domination. he was happy and almost human.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

"Company?" questioned Mel. Still the size of a housecat she jumped on the bench and looked in the direction of the manor. "I thought everyone would be passed out by now. It was a long day. Rude to eavesdrop."

[Gareeku]

With a sleepy yawn, Gareeku slowly opened his eyes. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep, but it was still dark outside through the window, though it couldn't have been more than a couple of hours. Turning his head to the side, the wolf noticed that Aisha had gone. Curiosity getting the better of him, Gareeku got up and quietly began to explore the quiet house.

After what seemed a quiet, Gareeku peeked into one of the rooms to find Aisha fast asleep inside a bed. Smiling softly, the wolf quietly stepped inside, not making a noise as he sat down in a chair in the corner of the room. Watching the soft moonlight upon the sleeping form of the panthress, the wolf smiled softly once more. Seeing Aisha so at peace was, in his eyes, a truely wonderful and heart-warming sight. He would be quite happy just sitting there and watching her sleep.

[Stygian]

Stygian couldn't see inside the kitchen from the darkness and the reflection of the light. But he could still feel that it was the Boogeyman who watched them, so he simply smiled, and stepped down. He slipped out his cigar etui, and lit one up. Pulling a breath, he exhaled, and stained the air with some thick smoke and tobacco smell. He looked up at the stars again. You can practically see the whole damn galaxy frome here... he thought. He stood there for a short while, then turned his head toward Mel.
   "Speaking of eavesdropping..." he began, and exhaled the last puff on that slim cigar. "I've enjoyed this talk. Now, I'm going for another one, but I'd be glad to speak with you a bit more later." He dropped the butt in the snow, and then turned. Not waiting for an answer, he started seething with shadow immediately, and in just a few moments he was gone, vanished into the night, somehow not even leaving a footstep in the snow behind.

   The room was silent and still but for Aisha's breaths, slow and measured, the sheets rising and falling just a bit with each. But then, for just a second, it was as if the light had shifted a small bit. And then came the musty scent of fine tobacco from behind Gareeku.
   "They're always cute in their sleep," Stygian said very silently, from right behind the wolf's shoulder. "We need to talk."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Awake now Mel discovered she was hungry. She returned to her standard size and wandered back inside to rummage in the remains of the takeout for a snack. Seeing e and Joat asleep on the floor she took her meal to a nearby room. It was either a study with a lot of books or a library with a lot of desk. Taking a seat at the desk she had just begun eating when she noticed her ring and remembered that she intended to check the heat resistance spell.

Soon the desk was scattered with food, jeweler's tools, and magical supplies and Mel was humming, oddly offkey. but happily.

[Boog]

Rats. And things were just getting interesting, With a sigh, Boogey got up and retrieved his book. Not enough information for a full snack, which meant it was back to plan A. He wandered around as he read, hoping that both the information and tiring himself out would help him get to sleep, the sort of idea that always makes perfect sense late at night. Eventually, he found himself in the library. When he saw Mel his blend of curiosity and the munchies struck again.
"Hey," He said, sidling over and closing the book, "Am I looking at a fellow insomniac, or just a workaholic?"

[Gareeku]

Suddenly smelling the scent of tobacco in the air, Gareeku's soft smile swiftly vanished upon hearing Stygian's voice, replaced by a scowl.
"No, we don't." the wolf replied, his voice equally as silent as Stygian's. "Just leave me be."

[Stygian]

Stygian made a sound and frowned. He hadn't come here to be disregarded. Quickly, he sensed the wolf over, taking in the sadness, pain, guilt and most of all the loathing that had suddenly welled up in his scent and general feeling. He almost growled, but held it in.
   "I have no intention of doing that, and you know why. Now..." he said, and stepped a bit around the wolf, seeing if Gareeku would turn his head and face him. "You can either take it like a man and come along, or you can sit here and hide in the dark like some little child." Cold eyes, like green cinders, glared at the wolf from the shadows. Then they turned against the panthress. "You know, that's all your choice, and I can't affect it. But it's an insult against me, and more importantly to you I think is that it's a letdown to Aisha. Think she likes the idea of you this way? Think she wants you dead or worse?" He knew that was a far-fetched one, and he was just trying to get the wolf's attention, but hopefully it would do the trick. He stood like that for a moment just to emphasize, and then he turned, walking out silently.
   "You want to be alone with your nightmares, fine. But just so you know..." he said, and opened the door, standing in the doorway a bit, "Nightmares are all there is if that's what you're choosing." With that, he went out, and turned into another door, leading into a hallway down into the main library and turning up the lights as he went to show where for the wolf to head.
   The main library was a monstrously large hall, oval with the entrance on one end and windows on another. It ran through the whole three main stories of the mansion, and its walls were stacked with volumes and volumes of books behind catwalks and ladders until it took a very hard look to see any gaps at all on the shelves. In the middle of the rounded off floor, its marble set in a complex and beautiful pattern of black, brown, red and green, was a single round table under a huge chandelier and a sofa and some chairs. Stygian walked up to a wall, looked for a while, then took out a thick book with blackish red bindings and sat himself down in a chair, reading in the dim lighting.

[Gareeku]

Listening to what Stygian said, Gareeku stayed silently, his eyes fixed on the sleeping form of Aisha. Glancing as Stygian walked out, the wolf looked back at Aisha, still silent.

...Aisha... Gareeku thought to himself with a degree of sadness. ...I'm so sorry for what I've put you through...for what I am...
About a minute of so passed, before the wolf silently rose to his feet and walked out of the room. Eventually he came to the main library, walking up to and standing about a meter of so away from Stygian.

"Fine...let's talk..." the wolf said calmly.

[Aisha deCabre]

Meanwhile, it didn't take too long before Aisha fell into the deepest part of sleep, where her senses seemed to have been taken from the real world and put instead to focus on the recesses of her mind, and there she had been for a few hours.  The panther was left completely unaware of her visitors in the corner of the room, and the conversation between them.  The conflicts were in her dreams, as could have been seen if one observed closely enough...her breathing, though regular, had little bursts and pauses from time to time.  Her fingers twitched just slightly beneath the covers.  And her eyes moved rapidly within the lids.

The images she conjured were often the usual: memories.  Training sessions with her brother as a child...and Rynkura when she was older.  Missions that had come and gone...faces that she had only seen once or twice.  Names that she barely remembered.

The dead and dying.  The cries and the tears.  Elation...friends she had saved and kept.  And of course, she dreamt of Gareeku...which, contrary to his own nightmares, contained good memories...laughing and joking, and the fights she took alongside him.  The dance and their first kiss was in there too.  All images that she was used to...and a few that she wasn't.  One of such came barreling in without warning.

"Nn...Rn...k..." she groaned slightly in her sleep, moments after Gareeku had exited her room and was out of hearing range.  The growling only got louder, until Aisha's eyes shot open and she bolted upright with a "NO!" that left her gasping.

With her eyes roaming the dark corners of the room, her rapid pulse finally started to slow down, and the heartbeat stopped ramming into her ribs.  Aisha remembered where she was, and released a sigh of relief, hands coming up to her forehead.  "There's a new one..." she laughed silently, and uneasily, to herself.

It was then that she started to take in what was a little different about the room.  A couple of new, but fading scents caught her nose...and she recognized them easily, eyes widening a bit.  ...Gareeku...?  Then they narrowed again.  ...Stygian?  What in all...?  Then, the panther caught sight of the open door, and decided that she was just awake enough to try and sate her own curiosity.

She pulled her clothes on and peered through the doorway into the quiet darkness, her ears just barely catching a conversation with two familiar voices as she inched slowly closer to the light through the hallway.  She made little to no sounds at all and had her back pressed against the wall, stopping only when the lowest voice level could be picked up by her hearing.

[Stygian]

"Have a seat," Stygian said, not putting his book away until the wolf had. Then he carefully placed the volume on the table, and looked up. He bunched his fingers a bit, and took a deep breath, considering his words carefully before speaking.
   "You're going to kill yourself. That's how simple it is, because you can't go on like this, and you obviously can't accept the darkness inside you. That's why it's turned to evil, rather than just become a part of your feelings." He looked at the wolf directly, right in the eyes. "I know that it's not something that was with you from the start, if you're wondering. But it's completely a part of you now, and that's how it is. You can try and wipe it out, sure, but I'm pretty sure your soul would never recover from that. Not to mention what it might do to your mind..."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel mentally shook herself out of her little working trance and stopped scowling at the ring mount in her hand. She looked at Boogey, the magnifier she wore over one eye making him seem rather lopsided. "Insomnia? No. I probably should be back sleeping but I woke up and was hungry then allowed myself to be distracted by this." She held up the empty mount of the ruby ring she had been wearing earlier. The stone itself was now sitting precariously close to a half-eaten appetizer. "The enchantment was slipping." Warming up to her subject she added "It's a most unusual fault. It lost the middle range before either the high or the low."

She made herself shut up. No one wanted to hear about the enchantment of magical objects. Particularly not since she technically did it all wrong. "So, insomnia for you huh?"

[Boog]

"Pretty much, yeah. That, and the pressing need for a snack," Boogey eyed the ring, "So, what's this that you're distracted with? It looks like magic of some sort, and I'm not too familier with such things. Always wanted to learn. How does it work? What was the flaw?"

[Gareeku]

Taking a seat, the wolf listened as Stygian spoke, not taking his eyes off of Stygian's as he held his calm facial expression. Every word he listened to, Gareeku saw truth. The darkness within him was indeed evil, and it was indeed part of his very soul.
"A very nice job at profiling, I must say. However, I am guessing there is a point to your analysis. Mind telling me what it is?" Gareeku replied, his voice as calm as his facial expression. "Were I to accept and embrace this darkness within me, I would change. I would become one of dark intentions, one would use others to further his own ends."

[Stygian]

Stygian gazed at the wolf, studying him in detail. His scent, his sound, his movements, the very feeling of his presence, everything the creature noticed and considered. At the wolf's last statement he made a short, cruel laugh. He was still seeing the world in black and white, was he?
   "The point to my analysis is this, wolf; the evil is there because you're not fighting it. You're repressing it." He leaned forward a bit. "By keeping it pent up you're not dealing with it, and it wears you down. Is it so hard to see?" Stygian rose to his feet and went around behind the chair, turning his back on the wolf just a while and looking up in the ceiling. Then, his gaze was drawn to the space above the library entrance. What he saw nearly swept him off his feet. Had he really created that? Still, he kept calm. He looked down again, against the bookcases in the walls, and walked up toward one, idly playing with a finger over the titles.
   "As long as a light shines, it also casts a shadow somwhere. You might not believe it, but I was once a light too. Innocent. Good. Virtuous," he said, humour in his tone as if he was amused at the thought. "But every candle burns out..."
   Stygian turned around and looked down a bit.
   "But the world isn't just light and darkness, Gareeku. Even the most well-intended action can have catastrophic consequences, and even the most dire crime can make the world a better place. Light and dark is at best a point of view." He sighed and then looked directly at the wolf, holding his gaze. "What matters, at least to oneself and one's close ones, is that you go your path and try to do as well as you can. And if you can't do that, Gareeku, because of some fear or doubt you picked up somewhere, then I pity you. And I pity you for not trusting yourself and those close to you to have the strength, and the will, to do so."

[Gareeku]

Listening to Stygian speak, Gareeku rose to his feet as he finished speaking.
"If I knew how to fight it, then I would!" Gareeku replied, his voice raised in frustration and anger. "So unless you've got some bright idea that doesn't involve trying to screw with my mind, then I'd love to hear it!"

It was then, however, that the wolf saw what Stygian had seen a minute ago...

[Stygian]

It was a painting, one of the huge and exquisite kind that one could sometimes see in a great hall or castle. It was painted in an impossibly detailed and perfect late romantic style, and while its proportions and perspective were perfect its sfumatos and highlights, its theme and its range still made it seem as if taken right from some epic tale. It was vivid in its expression and masterful in its composure to the degree where no Delacroix, Turner or even Cole could ever have painted something better, and if Gareeku had been able to walk up to it he had no doubt that he could have stood tall right before it and it would still be a way to go for him to reach to the top of its frame. And it was still broader than it was tall. It seemed to depict a battle of some kind. The scenery was a mountain, or a cliff, set far in front of stretching spires that seemed oddly familiar. Many of them were set ablaze or toppled though, and in the details one could see hints of shadowy shapes moving between and around them, and lights following. In the foreground, on the cliff itself, a number of figures stood,  depicted in rich and lavish detail. To the right, higher on the slope of the cliff, stood what could only be described as an angelic host, winged warriors in decorated and ornamented yet somehow futuristic armor in golden, silver, blue and red hues and wielding glowing swords, lances and firearms of different kinds. Before them, clearly in focus and surrounded by a dim nimbus of light, was an immaculately beautiful woman, tall with windswept, slightly wavy silvery blonde hair and a large crozius-like sword of gold, wreathed in whitish flames in her hand. She stood looking down, pointing, blue bands hanging from her white-feathered wings and blowing in a wind around her white- and silver-clad form.
   Mel?
   To the left, further down on the slope, the scenery darkened, polarizing the painting, with light on the right and shadows on the left. There instead stood much less perfect and beautiful shapes than the angels, dark and grim-looking men and women, warriors of an entirely different kind, most with cloth or combat outfits and gear or cybernetics rather than armor and looking altogether functionalistic and cold and hard, rather than beautiful. They seemed much more a disordered and grizzled band, mercenaries to the elegant angel soldiers. Yet, their expressions were stern and stubborn, and full of loathing and hatred, but not much rage. Before them, kneeling as if struck down or broken, was a barechested man, an appollonian yet darkened figure with grayish blonde shoulderlength hair. From his shoulders and down along his back mostly, his skin was grayened and cracked, thick darkness that seemed to writhe before one's very eyes as one looked at it snaking and flowing out from within. His face was darkened as well, and as he looked up at the angelic woman above him one could see a fiery glow in his eyes. Gareeku knew that face.
   That far, one could understand the painting. But then there was the fact that the shadowed man seemed in pain, a somehow familiar hoodened figure trying to help him to his feet, black eyes gleaming from within her hood, and another one, a machine-man of some sort, standing behind and over him as if guarding his back. The whole of the dark host seemed to be on the defense, whereas the angels were looking down on them with cold loathing and disdain. And the woman who led the angels... Her face, however beautiful, was laughing out with cruel triumph, malice and somehow evil upon it.

   "It is not about how you fight it or with what means, because you're not supposed to be fighting it in this case. There is no evil in the power itself. Once you stop treating it as either a blessing or a curse, and simply see it as a power, then you can begin to understand," Stygian said, looking at the painting. "No matter the nature of your power or your origin, it does not determine how you use it, or who you are."

[Gareeku]

Studying the magnificent paintings, Gareeku recognised some of the people depicted, especially that of the angel woman, who looked remarkably like Mel had when in human form. Noticing the triumphant, evil look on the angel's face, Gareeku was reminded of many of the angels in Furrae who also held evil in their hearts. Seeing the two figures, the wolf also recognised them from somewhere before...

Listening to Stygian speak as he observed the painting, Gareeku sighed quietly.
"You made it seem as if I could fight it a minute ago." he muttered. "Now you tell me I can't. Or shouldn't. I never wanted this power. I haven't been repressing it, Stygian. It goes dormant and makes itself known on its own accord."

[Stygian]

"You're not listening to me!" Stygian snapped at the wolf. His face was angered now, almost snarling. "Life is a trial. There are many things that people don't want to do, but still have to. And why? Because there is no other option! This is one of those cases, wolf. That power of yours may not be under control yet, but it certainly is not as capricious as you make it out to be. You just hate it, and that is enough for it to be the way it is!"
   The bat turned around, and paced a bit, shaking his head angrily. Then he shot Gareeku a glare that would have pierced the wolf's heart if looks could kill.
   "Your light hasn't been extinguished. You've earned a power that is so great that many whom I know of would die just to have it for a short time, and at a low price. And what do you do? You poison yourself with it!" He stepped closer to Gareeku, almost pushing the wolf back as he came closer, right up in his face. "Do you know what kind of insult that is to those of us who have paid in full?!"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel looked at Boogey doubtfully, then shrugged, he'd asked to be bored. "I don't like being hot. This ring is supposed to be enchanted to keep me from getting hot. It wasn't working so I've taken it apart for a look. What I've found is that one of three enchantments failed." She glared at the piece of gold in her hand as if offended by it. "But the one that failed shouldn't have unless one of the other two went first. I can only assume that it has something to do with being magic deprived while in Stygian's toy. I'm about to re-enchant the ring but if you want to learn magic you shouldn't watch what I'm about to do. I've been told I do this all wrong. Quickly, efficiently, durably, but all wrong."

[Boog]

"If it does what you want, you're doing fine. At least, that's how I've always seen such matters," Boogey's eyes didn't stray from the ring or the jewels incorperated into it, "Besides, you'll have no critique from me seeing as I've never seen it before."

[Gareeku]

As Stygian's anger showed, Gareeku stood his ground, not moving an inch as Stygian came up in his face aside from the narrowing of his eyes.
"Well excuse me for not being a power-craving s.o.b." the wolf replied calmly, his voice dripping with sarcasm as a slight smirk appeared on his face, before it disappeared. "If you are so intent on me controlling this power, then by all means teach me if you think you can."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

"It's wrong because none of my teachers could duplicate it," Mel snorted. "If something isn't teachable it's the wrong way to do it." Mel's eyes seemed to become a brighter shade of blue and she picked an invisible something from the air. As she hummed unmelodiously she carved something into the inside of the ring with one claw. It glowed for a minute then faded. She stopped humming, her eyes went back to their normal blue, and she smiled at Boogey. "To place a heat resistance enchantment one must place the object in a bowl of ash and place that bowl in a bowl of ice then chant a particularly long and tongue-twisting series of power words that will eventually place the spell delicately over the outside of the object. It is absolutely impossible to grab magic out of the air, twist it to shape and shove it into the object." She picked up the ruby and with a bit more humming set it back into the mount. "You've just seen the wrong way to enchant a ring."

[Boog]

"Fascinating...." Boogey breathed, still watching the ring, "So, essentially, what you just did was an incredibly efficient and thus far impossible to duplicate technique. Most define that as genious," he chuckled a little, "Seems sort of like how my kind work with Arguments and thoughts sometimes. Just take the logic, bend it a little, and hit the situation with that until it's fixed."

[Aisha deCabre]

Somewhere in the shadows just beyond the library's entrance--one couldn't tell exactly how far--a panther was listening with quiet but hard-driven intent.  Stygian's and Gareeku's voices rose and fell, and came and went, but she could still hear each word.  With each passing syllable, she wanted more to stay and anticipate this outcome.

Aisha was keeping to her own promise to watch out for the wolf...but she also didn't want to over-protect him, if this was something that he could control himself...as Stygian had hinted.  Every time he argued against the bat's words, it seemed like a step away from his problem...but then, a part of her just wanted to slap Styg and tell him to mind his business.  She kept that part of herself at bay, though, instead just concentrating on being quiet...she had even left her tail ring back in the room.

While the black jaguar's ears still concentrated on the voices echoing in the vast room beyond, her eyes were staring in the shadowed lifeline of her palm, thinking about the nightmare she just had that mirrored a deep-rooted fear for losing those she loved...including him.  Please listen.  If it only means saving yourself, and your happiness.