Alexis tensed under Fell's grip, fingers trembling; they did not stand, but they did not try to free themselves from her hand, either. There was still a curiously dreamy look to their eyes.
Wick had taken half-a-step towards Melany, when she appeared -- of course he loved her, any fetch would be a fool not to - but Fell had a grip on his Lord, the foolish child that they were, and he looked at them expressionless. Work, wasted. The Lady would do with them what Alois had not, perhaps. (He tipped his head to Oroh; the universal gesture of our stupid, foolish children.)
shibrogane
azuredreams
smerdle
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:33 am
Temperance was pushed down in her seat and did not fight it. "No," she mouthed at Rabbit. No manner of puppy dog eyes would allow her to be okay with someone harming another in her stead, even if she did not agree with the initial decision. Her hands clamped onto the arms rests.
As Adze pushed Temperance down, her own double was there, too, placing a hand on her free shoulder. She looked at Adze and smiled a thanks for his movement. The women in trials was stupid beyond belief. Hart leaned down and whispered into Temperance's ear. "No one here is on your side, foolish girl."
melancholies
iloveyoudie
smerdle
ok last tag from me until Hand time lol work eats me
A look was given to Wick, though it was only brief given from Fell. The kind of look that passes briefly between siblings. That they know what happens to those who do not listen well to the words of the Madame, to the Lady who has looked after them all this time.
Fell's hand slips to their forearm, a gentle but forceful tug. Her grip was not relenting. "Up," she says, giving them time to move, to bring them before the Spinel Lady. "You will learn your place in the Court."
There was another passing glance, one given to Adze, as they clearly were working in tandem. Those who did not know their place, those who did not show respect- they would learn it the hard way.
Melancholies
shibrogane
mom, i brought u this heathen.
iloveyouDIE
adze ur awesome too
Daekie
fell says it's time to visit momma
cibarium
The Semblance of Unity
Smerdle
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 6:18 pm
"Her place in my Court," said the Spinel Lady. She smiled. "Fell, I think you will find that this one has no place in my court." With a speed that Eve would have found familiar, the Spinel Lady caught one of Alexis's hands in hers.
There was no pain. A bitter anesthetic numbness washed up on Alexis, an unstoppable wave that carried away all of their powers, their rank, everything. Their eyes turned to grey, their vision returned to normal, their gills leeched out. Dull teeth where something sharp had once resided. The Spinel Lady bared her own teeth as she let Alexis go. The once-noble, now dethroned.
"Wick, you will return to Lord Ezra's care," said the Spinel Lady. "Until such a time as I deem that this one's punishment has been completed and that they are fully educated in the matters of my Court." Her gaze raked across the nobles there now. "Would one of you wish to take her in hand? It is only fair to ask, since you so object to my methods. Can you do better than I?"
The Spinel Lady said to Temperance, "Choose. Your hand or your patron's. I give you leave to speak."
Melancholies
hi bby
azuredreams
iloveyouDIE
Daekie
Alexis has lost all of their powers, including their noble class. These can be earned back through a path one event or a personal plot.
cibarium
The Semblance of Unity
ya got to choose
Smerdle
beep
shibrogane Vice Captain
Stellar Lightbringer
Offline
The Semblance of Unity
Predestined Victim
Offline
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 6:37 pm
"It wasn't clear?" She opened her mouth without thought, which wasn't the best idea about Melany, but hey. Yolo? Hart and Adze's fingers dug into her shoulders. It was clear that although fetches had their respective nobles, each one belonged to Melany ultimately. How could they create a court when half of the members swore loyalty to one who believe in an eye for an eye?
"My hand," she said, not looking at Rabbit. Temperance swallowed heavily, her fingers gripping the armrests tightly, as if by sheer force she could prevent it.
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:12 pm
Shiloh watched as Alexis went through what Eve must have. Their powers being stripped from them, the gills washing off; even he could feel their oppressive aura slowly washing away. He had been stalling, mulling over Melany's question, what he truly valued. Inaction was still action, he realized, but what would speaking out get him? More beating? More pain? More misery? Was he wrong for wanting to protect himself? Could he allow himself to stand in their place after chastising others for wanting to be a martyr?
"Well?" Beel was speaking next to him, though he hadn't yet moved, even at the Lady's command. His empty eyes looked down at Shiloh. "You do know I obey the Lady over all else, correct?"
He was speaking vaguely of their conflict of interests.
"Beel—" Shiloh sounded like the wind had left his lungs. He hadn't stood. His eyes drifted down onto the paper in his hands, the one that Mercer had handed him, the one with everyone's names. All the nobles. America Jones brought him confusion. Oliver Beaumont made his heart stop, Jamie Delacroix made his chest ache with something terrible and oppressive. The fetch made a hmm sort of sound, apparently intrigued by the contents of the page himself.
"Isn't that sad." He said, his voice hoarse, garbled, rough like sandpaper, "And what do you have to say for them then?"
Shiloh was silent as Temperance boldly declared her hand forward. Beel went to move forward, but Shiloh's hand shot out just as quick, grasping Beel's wrist.
"Please don't." He asked his fetch, realizing exactly what he was doing. "Please don't Beel. Don't contribute to this."
The fetch was still, tense, saying nothing.
"The things I value," Shiloh started to say hastily, "It—it isn't this. It's not this continued cycle of pain and misery and—" He was speaking out against her, he knew he was, but something in his voice was pleading. "Mercy. I know, I know—lessons learned through pain are double earned—Madame I know because I had that beaten into me."
He drew in a shaky breath. The court document returned itself to his folio as he stood, his knees popping as they did. "I can't be complicit with this torture anymore. I wanted this world to be something better, something kinder, something softer, something—"
"Shiloh, that's rather naive of you." Beel noted duly. "I thought those things had been bruised out of your system."
"They were!" He said in response, voice raising slightly, "They were. I didn't want to hope. It hurt to hope. I don't give a ******** if it's naive. It doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be about breaking people down and rebuilding them. It can be about helping people grow and heal and—"
The fetch put a hand on Shiloh's shoulder, gently nudging him to sit back down.
"This court was built on a foundation of abuse and mistrust." He was rambling, it felt like, "We could rebuild it. We could fix it."
"You say this like it's broken." His fetch tilted his head.
"Because it is." Shiloh said, "It is broken. It never should've happened this way. It never should've become this. It shouldn't ever be anyone's first thought that they need to suffer, that someone always has to suffer."
He took the veil off of his head, his eyes red-rimmed and sunken with the sure signs of sleep deprivation. He looked... young. His age, more or less. "You never learn to really value the the things you love until you're stripped of them. You were the one that taught me that..." He huffed quietly, the sound more or less his palpable exhaustion rather than any sort of sarcasm. Did she understand? He wanted to believe she did, that somewhere deep underneath the hardened layers of steel and cut glass was the Melany he met on the other side. She knew what she lost; she meant that, right?
Granted, it was probably stupid to try and empathize with a monster.
shibrogane
azuredreams
iloveyouDIE
daekie
cibarium
The Semblance of Unity
Smerdle
Melancholies
Springtime Teenager
Offline
cibarium Crew
Noob
Offline
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:19 pm
At some point Julian had written "PRIORITIES" on the board, underlined and in large letters, and now he was staggeringly writing "mercy?" underneath it. The marker squeaked very loudly at least twice and each time he felt like the apocalypse was upon him.
Melancholies
azuredreams
iloveyouDIE
Daekie
shibrogane
The Semblance of Unity
ya got to choose
Smerdle
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:22 pm
The Spinel Lady looked at Shiloh, really looked. "Is that so," she said. Her tone was cool. Familiar to Shiloh, that tone and those words had prefaced pain for him so many times. But she held up her hand, and she said, "Then it is as Lord Beaumont says. Mercy."
She looked at Temperance. "You ought to thank him on bent knee," she said. "None argued so eloquently for that one.
"If you truly mean what you say. Then I will let you try." She turned that lambent gaze around the room. "What assurance can you offer that you speak truth as you understand it?"
shibrogane Vice Captain
Stellar Lightbringer
Offline
Smerdle
Scamp
Offline
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:54 pm
Oroh released her Noble as Rabbit dropped to his knees and stared at the floor. It was not in deliberate thanks, but he was thankful under the fear and anger. All of his hopeful solutions and dreams for this place were lost behind the vision of Alexis's magic falling away, their form reverting back to the one he had almost hit with his car a year ago.
He had no assurances. They were all ********>
Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:46 pm
Were Fell the kind to blush, she might have. Instead she nodded. If that was the will of the Lady of the Court, then so be it. Alexis would have no place within it; they would have to work for it- prove they were deserving.
Jeremiah watched with a numb sort of gaze - his thoughts going to Eve, of the look on her face, of how she has been since the Spinel Lady has touched her - but he moves without thinking about it. He is, of course, right there next to Alexis, opposite the side of Fell.
A look is given to Fell, the fetch relinquishing her hold now that they are no longer with power. Jeremiah places a hand on Alexis's shoulder, eyes focused on Melany. Yet Shiloh speaks (and he saw it, there in the set of his mouth, the clench of his shoulders, that he read the names on the paper and knew how far this went), stepping up where the words have stuck in his throat. Was he afraid himself? He did not know. Cold has eased in and smoothes out the edges as it was like to do.
"I will take them," Jeremiah says. As Shiloh had stated: it was about helping and healing and- "To help them grow, to mend what is broken, to see them become more than they are right now." To undo this damage, to undo Alois's work and what had been wrought upon them- even this moment would need to be overcome.
"What was necessary then, what the Court was founded on, may not be necessary now. That's the point of this meeting, Madame. We want to see change, we want to move past one for many. No more building this place on the bone and blood of the innocent, no more abuse. We want it to end but the only assurance I can offer is my word, pittance that it is. Noble Beaumont and I have been seeking this, searching for where the deceit ends and truth begins. It is not an easy task but we are trying." There is tiredness, it can be seen at the edges, but Jeremiah believes what he speaks. "We are capable of so much more. Each of us."
trigger warning: mentions of self-harm, suicidal ideation
Alexis can barely hear Jeremiah over their heart pounding in their ears -- even with the cool anesthetic of the Spinel Lady's magic it still hurts, it hurts, they drowned for these gills and even without pain it's like pulling a tooth -- their lungs reshaping, their teeth so blunt, so strange again -- their knees buckle, a little, and Alexis lets out a little hopeless "Oh," before they figure out how to be quiet like she wants. Without the strange-dark of their eyes, suddenly their court attire makes them look washed out; dull and grey and ashy.
It's not like bile building in their throat. But there is a knot in their chest, surely, and so strange and senseless -- they hardly remembered, what it was like to have no magic; there is no thrum of water in the back of their mind, kin calling to kind.
Jeremiah's hand is so cold. Their hands feel numb. His voice seems so very far away, and they are so very far away with nothing to tether them.
My lady beats like a heartbeat in their head. They'd said what she'd wanted. They'd done their best --
(Wick watches them dispassionately and thinks about the flames licking up his flesh; his own fetch had been desperate, eyes bright with panic, and it had hurt. There is no pain in what the Lady does, to take away. Everything is still and dry. He nods to the Lady, taking a step back and closer to Ezra; "Milord," his voice is quiet and warm, and he stands at attention.)
azuredre4ms
shibrog4ne
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 3:35 pm
"You take ownership of Lord Beaumont's efforts," said the Lady. "Interesting."
She rose. Her skirts cascaded down like beads from a broken necklace. The Spinel Lady spread her hands at her sides. "Pretty words, Lord Mercer. Or is it Tailor? It's so hard to keep track..." She shook her head slowly. "Silly boy. The only way to end the cycle is to burn it down. But will you choose something like that, knowing that you're only robbing yourself of power?"
The Spinel Lady looked down her nose at Alexis and Temperance. "Learn quickly, little girls," she sneered. "Grow up." She turned to Hart. "See that the vessel goes back where you found her, if you please."
She collapsed as if her bones had turned to jello, the dress and the gems shimmering into dust motes in the sun. The Spinel Lady was gone, leaving behind just Melany, unconscious and too-pale and blood soaking through her shirt.
Ezra spoke up. "It's likely true," he said, his voice raw, like he was biting back tears. "When you try to rebuild the court, you might have to raze it to the ground, and you might not be able to build it up better. And if you break both sigils and free Ascencion, it likely won't matter anymore. The magic will return to the world and everything will be as it was in the first place."
Lady sat very still, green eyes on Temperance, tears tracking silently down her face.
Melancholies
hi bby
azuredreams
iloveyouDIE
Daekie
Alexis has lost all of their powers, including their noble class. These can be earned back through a path one event or a personal plot.
cibarium
The Semblance of Unity
ya got to choose
Smerdle
beep
shibrogane Vice Captain
Stellar Lightbringer
Offline
The Semblance of Unity
Predestined Victim
Offline
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 4:11 pm
Weakling, weakling, was all she thought as Beel started forward, was stopped, and Lord Beaumont spoke. But the Lady acquiesced and, although her fingers dug painfully into Temperance's shoulder, Hart let go and moved away. It was not to be. A shame, that was.
And, therefore, Temperance was not spared a second glance. The Spinel Lady spoke and she answered. "Yes, my Lady," she said. Hart moved towards her, but was not quick enough to catch her. Carefully, she gathered Melany into her arms; Hart was stronger than she looked and Melany was slight. The blood was alarming, and Hart made a note to tend to it once they returned to Horace's house. She turned and nodded towards Silk before taking her leave. It was nice to see the other fetches, even if Beel was experiencing some kind of mid-life crisis.
[[Hart & Melany out]]
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 4:35 pm
The hands on her shoulders were heavy, so heavy, but this was it. Beel was coming over and Temperance wanted to close her eyes, but that would have been cowardice, so she watched. And then Shiloh held him back. Of all people, she didn't expect Shiloh to come to bat for her. But, as Temperance listened, she realized it wasn't about her at all, but the act of violence. She didn't know if that was disheartening or not. She guessed it really didn't matter.
Her eyes flickered to Julian and his squeaky marker, a bastion of ridiculous normalcy in the midst of this. She heard the Spinel Lady's words and breathed deeply. Somewhere near her, Rabbit fell forward. Temperance would not thank Shiloh on bended knee, and Lady Melany did not actually care if she did or not. It was a small victory, however, that she would let them try something. They'd probably ******** it up, and she swallowed a panicked noise at the thought. The fetch finally let go of her shoulder and it was so, so strange to watch herself rush to Melany, like a replay. Temperance did not move (later on, when she remembered the blood, she'd berate herself). They left.
"I think," she said, still determined to talk despite everything. She did not learn and quite frankly refused to. "More than anything, we need more knowledge before we continue. Either with Renard or maybe even Melany, though I don't think that's... safe." Temperance stood, because she couldn't be in that chair anymore. Lady's eyes burned holes into her and she wasn't sure why.
She wrapped her arms around her torso. "What's even the next step?" She walked slowly over to Rabbit, kneeling down next to him. Temperance placed a hand on his shoulder. "You going to be ok?" she whispered. Then she looked up, and mouthed the same thing to Lady. The Spinel Lady had come and left tears in her wake. It was a theme.
"I take ownership of nothing but my own actions, to do anything else is a discredit to Lord Beaumont." Jeremiah would meet her gaze, unflinching. No, he would not lay claim to any work that Shiloh had done but things they had worked together on some things and this had started all from a desire to see the Court change.
Shiloh was, at this point, braver to stand up and stop the Spinel Lady from her actions. Not that it mattered, her point was made as she retreated and Melany was left behind. The scared young girl from the market, the one they wanted to save, who was then whisked away by Hart.
His gazed flicked to Ezra as he spoke and he let out a breath, his fingers still resting against Alexis's shoulder (they were shuttered, somewhere in there). "It's already crossed my mind," Jeremiah admitted, "that should we put an end to this - to the cycles, the sigils, and the cage - all this power we've gained may simply retreat. Everything goes back to the way it was before."
His shoulders rolled, gaze going to Algie and then over to Temperance as she spoke. "There's other avenues than just those two. Melany is in a precarious position and Renard is, as ever, very much someone to approach but his motivations are not necessarily in line for what anyone here wants. Before we do anything we do need more knowledge," Jeremiah agreed with Temperance. A glance to Rabbit then, the memory of them at Darlene's coming to mind suddenly but pushed away.
He knew where he was going to go next, who he would see, though there were other things first.
"The first step is make sure that everyone present is as alright as they can be, the next is to gather our wits. We'll move forward from there." Jeremiah gaze fell to Algie again and there was, very briefly, something visible in his bright eyes but it flickered away. Later. Instead he turned his attention to Shiloh, Fell was (for the moment) being rather pointedly ignored.
"Beaumont?" There was a lot to that question. Alright was in there somewhere but trite. The young man had been something else, something stronger than probably expected by anyone.
