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toxic_reveries) wrote2012-01-08 02:54 pm
toxic_reveries) wrote2012-01-08 02:54 pm
five.
5.
“Don’t you ever pull shit like that a--”
The one screaming was an insufferable human (more or less) by the name of Corinthians. There was no irony in it; so it happened, when Nigel looked into it, was that a child was faeried away to a cheerful little cult where they brainwashed the boy into thinking he was a warrior angel for them for his lovely little bird wings. Fit to match with his bird brain skull. Of course, because all stories have happy endings, the child was reclaimed and healed, and raised alongside of the child of the one who broke him free-- That was to say that Arianna’s mother saved him, and he was raised as Arianna’s foremost playmate after being returned to his parents. It was only after he grew up, it seemed, that he started getting too big for his britches.
Nigel sighed from his position on the ground, shifting his gaze to focus to the side. This, of course, enraged the other man, and as he took a step closer, likely to physically threaten like the ape that he was, the flat of a hand came down on the back of Corinthians’ head, the sound loud, the man wincing.
The woman looked to Nigel expectantly, and feeling her gaze, he turned back to Corinthians, smiling cheerfully. “You’re an idiot~”
Arianna rolled her eyes and took two steps further, lightly kicking Nigel in his shin before offering a hand to him. He took it good-naturedly, rising, then offered his arm to her as if he was an escort. She took it gracefully, an act of old habit, and Nigel only played the part set for him. “Ah, my mistake. She says that you’re acting idiotically.”
The other man made a sound of bubbling anger. “Idiotically?! Ari, if you saw what he--”
“She saw,” Nigel said cheerily. “And she said it was the correct choice under the situation. Didn’t she say to watch us while she was gone~? Didn’t she say to follow Alan’s lead in strange situations~?”
He got another kick for being so enthusiastic about his little job, but only shrugged in the end. If he had to play translator to someone who would have tried to beat him in another moment, why not, then, press it in a bit deeper?
You could almost see Corinthians attempting to restrain his anger. That was, of course, if one could see. “There wasn’t anything strange about the situation other than it was a fucking dragon! Hell, if I hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have believed it! Ari, it was just another--”
“Obviously,” Nigel drawled casually, his own thoughts and Arianna’s aligned on this. “It was not just another beast.” To point this out, Arianna held a hand out, and the dragon shifted to her, the ruffle of scales and wings a sound of silk on rocks. Charming. Or something like that.
He was not in the mood to translate for one who played too much into fairytales and came out scathed. As alike as they could be at times, Nigel was ill-tempered currently, was likely housing broken ribs, and this was just beginning to grate. He felt more than saw her attentions shift to him. She could not read him as she could Alan, but his emotions were likely obvious for all to see. As light as a brush against a cheek, her mind fluttered against him. Thank you.
Ah. How annoying. A woman who apologized for him being irritated by something he had agreed to do. He exhaled without wholly meaning to, a quiet huff of temper. Her fingers patted once on his arm, then rewrapped there. It wasn’t as if he hated her. Or this, in particular. Alan and Nigel, per what they were, were the perfect living translators for a woman who spoke with her mind. Well, that wasn’t entirely correct. With her mind and with her will. And one could not commit to casual speech if that will carried over in every syllable.
As he stated. Arianna was one who had become too caught in fairytales. A cursed princess, unable to use her voice to her own wanting. Alan, normally, was her escort and main ‘voice,’ but Nigel was the one who was here. Fine, then. He would be the perfect little tool if she wished. They were only but hers to command at any rate.
The sarcastic thought felt got the threat of another kick.
“Did you know it was a dragon? --If he did, we weren’t told of it at least,” Nigel replied to her own question, stated in a way that made the other man step forward again. Leah, who had been dressing a wound on her arm, finally strode forward, pushing at Corinthians’ shoulder.
“Go take a walk, Corey. Nigel, less commentary right now, got it? Ari, we didn’t know what it was. There’d been injuries and reports of something shadowed attacking Home, and we were just going to check it out and take care of it.” There was a pause, an intake of breath. “…We brought a hunting party, but.”
There was tension in the air, and Nigel could taste it.
“Let us fucking kill it!” Leah’s voice held more pain that was turning to anger. All of it would be that soon. “These were good fucking people, Ari! People that followed you! Are you going to seriously let that thing go when these people were yours?!”
“They weren’t hers,” Nigel replied, and felt the quiet flash of muted emotion. The gratitude of Nigel’s bland speech that gave over no reaction. “They were their own people, doing what they thought was right.”
It was as if an explosion was present. “And that excuses it?! That thing killed six people!”
“That thing,” Nigel gave dryly. “Is a comrade. One that you attacked, and first provoked by entering her area with open weapons when she had something to defend enough to give her life for.”
There was a thick beat, the threat of violence in the air, and it was only readily apparent that Leah still did not follow Arianna wholly. “A comrade.” Said perfectly and doubtfully, scorn present. “Ari, it is an animal.”
“Not qu--” Nigel tipped his head to Arianna, questioning as well. “Not quite?” Silence crossed; a moment, far more than enough for mental communication to be exchanged. “She’s more intelligent than most of the people present, Arianna included. Dragons have accelerated intelligence and magick, and a life-span stretched out. Which is why she,” A gesture of Arianna to the dragon. “Is, in actuality, only the size of an adolescent.”
Another one of those thick beats. Three, now. It wouldn’t be long until this erupted further. Nigel would wait, would continue to provide this function until it was complete. He had agreed. And words were but bonds, in the end. There was a sudden fierce exhale, and Leah started to move away. “I’m not dealing with this, Ari. Do whatever you fucking want to do.”
The sound of feet slowly retreated in exchange for two other sets. Andrew’s voice, in contrast to Corinthians’, was low and melodious, almost soft. “I checked them over. Just in case some might have…. But they are all dead.”
The ripple of pain was potent through Nigel’s mien, and he wasn’t sure if the woman showed the expression to her fellows. He only gave what was given. “It’s regrettable.” There was a soft sigh from her, tired and old.
Corinthians seemed split-minded, likely watching as his elder sister made her way back to camp. “Ari, you know that I’m with you, but this…. How can you expect us to accept this?”
“How can she expect you to?” Nigel’s words were incredulous, and unexpected even from him. “You swore yourself to her, did you not?” Her hand dropped from his arm, a distinction of his words and not hers. Unhappiness rippled from her at what he was doing. As if he cared. “Accept it? That’s your duty. She doesn’t need to explain anything, and in the end--in wars,” he said carefully, enunciating as if for a child. “There are sacrifices to achieve goals. Don’t be a child.”
There was a quick shuffle, fabric ruffling, and it was obvious to any that Andrew was now holding the darling angel back. A repeated act, song and dance, and Andrew trying to calm the other down was a show that Nigel was tired of. He threw up his hands loosely, turning away. There existed a murmur of words, then, more clearly, Andrew sent Corinthians after his sister, likely after a nod from Arianna. Nigel stood where he was, waiting. It was likely that he’d be told he spoke in error, but as if he cared now. The energy had shifted in this place, and that point remained.
He wanted to throttle that dragon near them. He wanted to see if it could be strangled even with its scales. If the edges would cut into his hands and bleed him out even as he took away its life.
She was behind him. The other man likely as well. Nigel didn’t turn, kept looking at the cliff face. “There was some kind of building up there,” he said, as if the conversation shift was natural. Neither of the others questioned a blind man describing something. “It housed something, and it was what that was protecting.” The careful ‘she’s’ when speaking for Arianna dropped, the man’s voice only housing distain. “Alan needed to go find out what it was, and I gave him that opportunity.”
“Nigel…” The sentence cut off, likely by the woman’s hand on Andrew.
“I’ve done what you wanted, haven’t I?” Nigel spun, voice perfectly light as his expression darkened in contrast. “Perhaps not to the letter, but I’ve done it, and I’ll do it again. I’m a tool of yours, and I know it, relish it at times. So tell me. I’ve done what you wanted. Haven’t I?”
Silence came. Arianna made no move to breach the distance, touch Nigel to communicate through minds. Only watched. He could feel her watching, feel the way she stared, the pressure of it--
“I’ve done what you asked!” It was a plea, perfectly and simply, and his body shook with it. “There’s no building up there. There’s nothing up there. I’ve done what you asked. So tell me,” he said suddenly, voice light again. “…You should tell me.”
A thick pause, weighted. How disgusting to fall into the habits of that broken angel. Nigel gave a sound of unreserved disgust, and broke the silence, voice dull and flat. “Tell me," he said. "Where is my brother?”
“Don’t you ever pull shit like that a--”
The one screaming was an insufferable human (more or less) by the name of Corinthians. There was no irony in it; so it happened, when Nigel looked into it, was that a child was faeried away to a cheerful little cult where they brainwashed the boy into thinking he was a warrior angel for them for his lovely little bird wings. Fit to match with his bird brain skull. Of course, because all stories have happy endings, the child was reclaimed and healed, and raised alongside of the child of the one who broke him free-- That was to say that Arianna’s mother saved him, and he was raised as Arianna’s foremost playmate after being returned to his parents. It was only after he grew up, it seemed, that he started getting too big for his britches.
Nigel sighed from his position on the ground, shifting his gaze to focus to the side. This, of course, enraged the other man, and as he took a step closer, likely to physically threaten like the ape that he was, the flat of a hand came down on the back of Corinthians’ head, the sound loud, the man wincing.
The woman looked to Nigel expectantly, and feeling her gaze, he turned back to Corinthians, smiling cheerfully. “You’re an idiot~”
Arianna rolled her eyes and took two steps further, lightly kicking Nigel in his shin before offering a hand to him. He took it good-naturedly, rising, then offered his arm to her as if he was an escort. She took it gracefully, an act of old habit, and Nigel only played the part set for him. “Ah, my mistake. She says that you’re acting idiotically.”
The other man made a sound of bubbling anger. “Idiotically?! Ari, if you saw what he--”
“She saw,” Nigel said cheerily. “And she said it was the correct choice under the situation. Didn’t she say to watch us while she was gone~? Didn’t she say to follow Alan’s lead in strange situations~?”
He got another kick for being so enthusiastic about his little job, but only shrugged in the end. If he had to play translator to someone who would have tried to beat him in another moment, why not, then, press it in a bit deeper?
You could almost see Corinthians attempting to restrain his anger. That was, of course, if one could see. “There wasn’t anything strange about the situation other than it was a fucking dragon! Hell, if I hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have believed it! Ari, it was just another--”
“Obviously,” Nigel drawled casually, his own thoughts and Arianna’s aligned on this. “It was not just another beast.” To point this out, Arianna held a hand out, and the dragon shifted to her, the ruffle of scales and wings a sound of silk on rocks. Charming. Or something like that.
He was not in the mood to translate for one who played too much into fairytales and came out scathed. As alike as they could be at times, Nigel was ill-tempered currently, was likely housing broken ribs, and this was just beginning to grate. He felt more than saw her attentions shift to him. She could not read him as she could Alan, but his emotions were likely obvious for all to see. As light as a brush against a cheek, her mind fluttered against him. Thank you.
Ah. How annoying. A woman who apologized for him being irritated by something he had agreed to do. He exhaled without wholly meaning to, a quiet huff of temper. Her fingers patted once on his arm, then rewrapped there. It wasn’t as if he hated her. Or this, in particular. Alan and Nigel, per what they were, were the perfect living translators for a woman who spoke with her mind. Well, that wasn’t entirely correct. With her mind and with her will. And one could not commit to casual speech if that will carried over in every syllable.
As he stated. Arianna was one who had become too caught in fairytales. A cursed princess, unable to use her voice to her own wanting. Alan, normally, was her escort and main ‘voice,’ but Nigel was the one who was here. Fine, then. He would be the perfect little tool if she wished. They were only but hers to command at any rate.
The sarcastic thought felt got the threat of another kick.
“Did you know it was a dragon? --If he did, we weren’t told of it at least,” Nigel replied to her own question, stated in a way that made the other man step forward again. Leah, who had been dressing a wound on her arm, finally strode forward, pushing at Corinthians’ shoulder.
“Go take a walk, Corey. Nigel, less commentary right now, got it? Ari, we didn’t know what it was. There’d been injuries and reports of something shadowed attacking Home, and we were just going to check it out and take care of it.” There was a pause, an intake of breath. “…We brought a hunting party, but.”
There was tension in the air, and Nigel could taste it.
“Let us fucking kill it!” Leah’s voice held more pain that was turning to anger. All of it would be that soon. “These were good fucking people, Ari! People that followed you! Are you going to seriously let that thing go when these people were yours?!”
“They weren’t hers,” Nigel replied, and felt the quiet flash of muted emotion. The gratitude of Nigel’s bland speech that gave over no reaction. “They were their own people, doing what they thought was right.”
It was as if an explosion was present. “And that excuses it?! That thing killed six people!”
“That thing,” Nigel gave dryly. “Is a comrade. One that you attacked, and first provoked by entering her area with open weapons when she had something to defend enough to give her life for.”
There was a thick beat, the threat of violence in the air, and it was only readily apparent that Leah still did not follow Arianna wholly. “A comrade.” Said perfectly and doubtfully, scorn present. “Ari, it is an animal.”
“Not qu--” Nigel tipped his head to Arianna, questioning as well. “Not quite?” Silence crossed; a moment, far more than enough for mental communication to be exchanged. “She’s more intelligent than most of the people present, Arianna included. Dragons have accelerated intelligence and magick, and a life-span stretched out. Which is why she,” A gesture of Arianna to the dragon. “Is, in actuality, only the size of an adolescent.”
Another one of those thick beats. Three, now. It wouldn’t be long until this erupted further. Nigel would wait, would continue to provide this function until it was complete. He had agreed. And words were but bonds, in the end. There was a sudden fierce exhale, and Leah started to move away. “I’m not dealing with this, Ari. Do whatever you fucking want to do.”
The sound of feet slowly retreated in exchange for two other sets. Andrew’s voice, in contrast to Corinthians’, was low and melodious, almost soft. “I checked them over. Just in case some might have…. But they are all dead.”
The ripple of pain was potent through Nigel’s mien, and he wasn’t sure if the woman showed the expression to her fellows. He only gave what was given. “It’s regrettable.” There was a soft sigh from her, tired and old.
Corinthians seemed split-minded, likely watching as his elder sister made her way back to camp. “Ari, you know that I’m with you, but this…. How can you expect us to accept this?”
“How can she expect you to?” Nigel’s words were incredulous, and unexpected even from him. “You swore yourself to her, did you not?” Her hand dropped from his arm, a distinction of his words and not hers. Unhappiness rippled from her at what he was doing. As if he cared. “Accept it? That’s your duty. She doesn’t need to explain anything, and in the end--in wars,” he said carefully, enunciating as if for a child. “There are sacrifices to achieve goals. Don’t be a child.”
There was a quick shuffle, fabric ruffling, and it was obvious to any that Andrew was now holding the darling angel back. A repeated act, song and dance, and Andrew trying to calm the other down was a show that Nigel was tired of. He threw up his hands loosely, turning away. There existed a murmur of words, then, more clearly, Andrew sent Corinthians after his sister, likely after a nod from Arianna. Nigel stood where he was, waiting. It was likely that he’d be told he spoke in error, but as if he cared now. The energy had shifted in this place, and that point remained.
He wanted to throttle that dragon near them. He wanted to see if it could be strangled even with its scales. If the edges would cut into his hands and bleed him out even as he took away its life.
She was behind him. The other man likely as well. Nigel didn’t turn, kept looking at the cliff face. “There was some kind of building up there,” he said, as if the conversation shift was natural. Neither of the others questioned a blind man describing something. “It housed something, and it was what that was protecting.” The careful ‘she’s’ when speaking for Arianna dropped, the man’s voice only housing distain. “Alan needed to go find out what it was, and I gave him that opportunity.”
“Nigel…” The sentence cut off, likely by the woman’s hand on Andrew.
“I’ve done what you wanted, haven’t I?” Nigel spun, voice perfectly light as his expression darkened in contrast. “Perhaps not to the letter, but I’ve done it, and I’ll do it again. I’m a tool of yours, and I know it, relish it at times. So tell me. I’ve done what you wanted. Haven’t I?”
Silence came. Arianna made no move to breach the distance, touch Nigel to communicate through minds. Only watched. He could feel her watching, feel the way she stared, the pressure of it--
“I’ve done what you asked!” It was a plea, perfectly and simply, and his body shook with it. “There’s no building up there. There’s nothing up there. I’ve done what you asked. So tell me,” he said suddenly, voice light again. “…You should tell me.”
A thick pause, weighted. How disgusting to fall into the habits of that broken angel. Nigel gave a sound of unreserved disgust, and broke the silence, voice dull and flat. “Tell me," he said. "Where is my brother?”