paradisa | 38 - Savage Helm | 25th / Day 6 Evening [ Voice / Action ]

{forward to Monday Evening / Day 6}
[ There are only a few things that make Duke angry, and it just so happens that these last few days have done so. Its just harder to tell when he doesn't ~~use his face~~ make use of expressions. ]

If there are any left with the idea that magic is a cure all, let me disabuse you of that. It is a tool - it can be powerful, it can save lives, it can be absolutely worthless in the next breath. [ There's the anger, in the clipped words and slightly more forceful tone. This he isn't apathetic about. He liked the other Chimera mages, and now there's a lot gone.

And he can't figure out what to get rid of to make it stop. There are too many new things, and he's not going to wander around like a mad man lighting everything new on fire. It would make him feel a bit better for only a little while. ]

Or perhaps you lived in a truly wondrous and terrifying place where such things had no rules or logic behind them.

[ He is silent for a good minute, basically taking the time to calm down. ]

... Regardless of your opinions on magic, I have done my best to increase the durability of the table and chairs in the kitchen and lobby. Should you need to use them as a barricade against anything, they should last longer. I will do the same to the door and furniture in the library as well.

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[Meg sounds miserable when she answers. She's been locked in her room all day, a nervous wreck. She knows what they are, what's going on, and she knows that somehow it's her fault. She also knows the best anyone can do is just lay low and wait it out. She's given up entirely.]

Don't waste your time. It's not going to help. Nothing's going to help.

[True to his word, the daevas find Duke in the library. His actions, like Howl's, had drawn the attention of the Castle, and thus he's next on their laundry list.

Pages begin to flutter around him and a breeze blows. Shadows with flowing robes close in on the one he casts on the floor, brushing lightly against him at first.]

[ If anyone can manage to make silence sound disgusted, Duke just did.

Sorry, did he just hear that?

Yes, yes he did. And here he thought he was bad at seeing hope. ]

I suppose if you like being useless in the form of not even trying, that would be the best approach.

[ Pages shouldn't be fluttering like that. The light brushing just worries him more, particularly with the deaths, and the reinforcing spell is abruptly halted for another.

Not sorry castle, he refuses to go down without attempting to fight. ]

Light!

[ Have fun with glowing rain, which doesn't seem to hit the books or objects of the library at all - just how his magic works. Duke is immobile for a handful of seconds after casting, but he's ready to move back and try to prevent anything from getting behind him by putting a wall there. ]

Edited 2014-08-27 04:01 (UTC)

[The glowing rain draws indistinct hisses and shrieks from the shadows and proves to be enough to drive one of them off - they don't like it at all, but for the rest, it's... avoidable. What would have been a slow death toying with this one all shut up in the small, dark library was now a desperate fight to finish the job they'd been given. Light touches turn to vicious slashes at Duke's face and arms and legs and torso in quick succession. Anything to make it stop. Anything to let them win this one, too.

They are bound to finish the job, driven by the will of the castle.]

[It was unsettling to wake and feel nothing. To breath but not feel it. All at once he understood a little better what all those spirits he'd met were experiencing in their deaths, an exactly why they preferred to cross over fully instead.

Shaken for a time, Felix eventually begins to wander. While he's upset, he becomes focused instead on stopping this, and it's thus that he wanders right back to the library to renew his search, feet soundless on the floor.

This is where he finds Duke, hard at work just as he'd request. Good.]

At least someone listened.

[ Congratulations Felix.

You've badly startled Duke. The spell he was pushing into the door stops abruptly, and a golden one starts before Duke stops again. ]

... Felix? [ He's hearing things, he has to be hearing things. Felix had died, the castle revives them in a week. And he didn't hear anyone approaching. ]

[ The light doesn't last long - spells don't, for obvious reasons that he'd hinted at earlier. And as much as being under attack is never something he enjoys...

He's pleased with this response. 'They' aren't teasing him. 'They' are either angered, or realizing this would be more of a struggle. He clearly wasn't useless-

On the other hand, Duke doesn't do well with groups. He can't do anything against the first few - but throws his arms up before his face and neck the moment he can. A rare time where he both hated and was fine with his lack of sight - he couldn't see his targets, but the blood on his face didn't cause that. The wall becomes how he stays upright, focusing instead on casting another spell. ]

Guilty Resolver! [ A dome of light, to knock them back. Hopefully, anyway. ]

[He didn't mean to! In fact, he hadn't been sure anyone living would even see him, given his own experiences on the opposite side of the scenario back in his own world. It was simply a musing, but the reaction surprises Felix almost as much as he'd surprised the other mage]

Yes, it's me. You can...here me?

[ Okay he's rubbing at his face now. Felix responded. The other voices hadn't been, but it wouldn't surprise him if that was going to change. ]

Can. Not sure if hearing you or something of the castle. Not sure which is more worrying. [ This isn't how being dead was supposed to work in the castle. ]]

It's all very deeply worrying. [He drifted closer, although Duke couldn't see him. Maybe he could find a way to prove to them both he was really real]

I was hearing voices too, before--

... Responding. Going mad, clearly. [ Or its Felix. Which is worse? Mad is just him. Felix being there means the castle's rules have changed, is he stuck like this? Is it terribly uncomfortable, or worse?

But it feels odd to try ignoring him, because Felix is part of the reason he's in a terrible mood to begin with. And this is clearly why Duke already talks to himself occasionally. ]

Before you ended up dead in the hallway. [ ... or is it a castle thing, mimicking Felix.

He didn't need to have that thought. ]

Yes, thank you... [The driest of sarcasm.]

And now, I am a ghost. [He's not really a fan of Duke thinking he's a figment of his imagination, so he knocks one of those chairs over.]

[ Hey, they're on the same page.

And good job startling him again, Felix. Duke flinches at the noise, throwing an arm up before his face and a bubble of light around him.

He sits in there for a couple seconds, before hesitantly lowering his arm and the small barrier. ]

... that was you? [ He wasn't aware that ghosts were solid enough to do that.

And he isn't sure whether he wants to hear that as affirmative. ]

[Too bad, Duke, because he isn't going to lie, although it has nothing to do with solidity, as he'll likely explain at some point.]

Yes. I am, despite both our fervent wishes I am sure, actually here.

[ Duke settles more comfortably on the floor. ]

... That is distressing. Likely more for you than I, however.. [ The rules changed. Would this change stay? Duke rubs his face for a bit. ]

... Yes, as rude as it could sound, I wish you were dead in the... castle's normal way, rather than this. [ Of course, he'd prefer Felix wasn't dead at all but. ]

Yes. [You and him both]

But at least I'm free from that torment and it gives me some opportunity to stop this madness. Has it...has it gotten worse?

Something was found in the library, helpful as far as I could tell.

[ He doesn't actually know much more than that. ]

... Unless you are talking about the hearing things, and people crying blood, which still seems to be a problem. As far as I know, no one else has been mysteriously murdered, dropped dead, or was eaten.

... Although someone did wake up missing a hand.

And...what about you? [The hesitant way of asking if Duke was also experiencing any of these problems.]

... [ Duke rubs at one ear. ]

I occasionally hear voices of people who haven't been here. [ But on the other hand, he hasn't been bleeding from the eyes, so maybe there's something he's missing from that. ]

Otherwise, it is mostly just.. [ He trails off for a moment. ]

Anger at not knowing what is going on, and thus not knowing how to stop it.

38 - Savage Helm | 25th / Day 6 Evening [ Voice / Action ]

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I looked and couldn't remember if people can hear them so-

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I couldn't either, but it doesn't say that can't so-

otherwise haunting would be really boring.

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Poor Felix, finds Duke, (wanders off , comes back, Duke's dead- )

hislife.jpg

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