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 Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:53 pm
He was lost in Uppers. It hadn't been a particularly conscious decision to get lost, or where to get lost - in fact, he hadn't even realized he was lost for at least half an hour. Usually Fish had a good sense of direction. At least, if he knew where he wanted to go.
Not tonight, though. He wasn't sure if he was looking for Miss Floros or not - maybe he was. He needed to talk to someone, and he certainly didn't want to go home. They wouldn't understand and he was in no state to try to explain. He was too tired to try to triangulate street names, politicians and places and pop culture all blurred together.
Every so often, a lone firework would go off. He couldn't go near the zone edges or the suits would take him. He was beginning to get tired.
He needed, desperately, to find Miss Floros, though what she would be doing in Uppers he could not fathom.
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:15 pm
"Of all people, I'd hope that you'd know better than to be this far up. It's not safe here."
The imposing frame of a high-scale apartment complex made Persy appear small and fragile in the washed out light that seemed to dominate Uppers at night. She supposed that people who could afford it didn't like to be reminded of the darkness if they could avoid it, which was ironic, considering all the Blacksuits she'd seen that day. She bundled herself up tighter in the gray sweater that clutched at her form, and cautiously, she looked around, even though she knew she would sense them before she saw them.
Then again, her senses had failed her before.
She crossed the street with brisk steps, her bare feet making light taps against the pavement. Between her disheveled hair and the flannel shorts, it was apparent that she hadn't been expecting visitors, or that she'd only known moments before and she deemed catching him more important than getting properly dressed. Her expression was gravid, and though it was barely noticable, her nostrils flared. Then she held her breath.
In a soft voice, she murmured, "Who did they get this time?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:27 pm
Fish looked up, startled to see that the object of his halfhearted search had come to him, rather than him going to her. He hadn't seen her in months - in his memory she was taller, more imposing. But he had grown and she had stayed the same.
He opened his mouth to speak and it caught in his throat. He tried to force his voice and it hurt. He shook his head. He couldn't articulate it just yet. He shook his head, and hoped his expression said enough. Any moment now he was going to begin crying again. He knew it wasn't a strong or masculine thing to do, but right now he felt eleven years old again. He knew he was almost fourteen in real time, and certainly almost twenty physically, but it felt like he had not aged a day since he had first entered the flower shop.
But Miss Floros looked smaller. He swallowed the lump in his throat.
"Dwayne," he said, and it hurt. "And Quinn's mother. But- I- Quinn- We-"
It was incomprehensible. He needed to breathe. He couldn't breathe.
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:21 pm
Persy rested a gentle hand on the man's shoulder, leading him back towards the apartment complex at only a slightly slower pace than the one she'd set walking out to meet him. Her fingers flew across the numbered lock, and with a click the door opened, the woman ushering him inside without so much as a comforting word to ease him across the threshold. The goddess watched with heavy eyes as slowly, the door closed again, and waited for the click indicating that it was once again locked to refocus her gaze on Fish.
"I couldn't be sure who it was, since I'd never met him, but I felt it," she explained, still leading him, this time to a grand lobby with a number of elevators, plated in some shiny metal to look fancier than they really were. She pressed a button, and the doors slid open to reveal a mirrored room larger than some apartments in the Scene. "We all felt it." She pressed a button at the top, illuminating her choice as the doors pulled to a close. The pulley system was so nice that she barely even felt the tug of their masses being lifted.
"...I'm sorry," the goddess said finally, trying her best to keep her eyes from looking away. "This shouldn't have been his fate. Mortals are far too fragile for the Game."
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:28 pm
The mirrored walls of the elevator made him feel impossibly small. The chamber seemed to go on forever. Fish slouched inwards, visibly shrinking. He leaned heavily on his trident. The end of it was still stained with blood. He tried not to think about it and focused on breathing. It was hard to get himself under control again.
"Quinn and I," he said flatly, "We went to their offices, to try to get him back, because they left an arrest notice."
He stared at his feet.
"He was alive when we got to him," he continued quietly. "They'd poisoned him. We were going to take him to a hospital but-"
He fell silent. The elevator eased to a halt and the doors opened. He looked up at the plush hallway ahead.
"Who lives here?" he asked lowly.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:56 pm
Persy stepped out from the elevator, taking a few steps into the hall before turning to make sure Fish was following behind. "Anubis keeps an apartment here," Persy explained with a nod, "Though he's out in the City right now. You're not the only Player who's had trouble tonight. They must have planned this." Her expression darkened, and she scowled at a doorway on the left, opening it without a key in sight.
"If you'd like a night of amnesty as one of your favors, I'll have to provide it here," she said grimly, clearing the way so the man could enter the plush apartment. "They got ahold of Seasons, too." Something about the statement didn't sit right with the woman, and her face crinkled up as if she tasted something sour. It was almost violating, to think of Suits in her domain.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:05 pm
Fish blinked and followed her through the door. Anubis lived... here? The blacksuits had... Seasons? What all had gone on today? And why all at once?
"I don't know if I'll stay all night," he said shakily, thinking about how much he might need those favors later. "I should go home - they might worry."
He sat uneasily on the edge of a couch - there was an air about this place that made it feel like the inside of a crypt. He'd been surrounded by too much death today. The smell would never go away.
"They'll ask questions," he continued, and found it hard to keep his thoughts in order. Too much was happening at once. "But if I tell the truth - what if more people wind up dead for it?"
He set the trident down - it was beginning to nauseate him. He didn't want any more innocent blood on his hands.
"The killing gets easier every time," he confessed quietly. "I'm scared, Miss Floros."
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Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:13 pm
Something about Fish's tone struck a nerve, causing Persy to hesitate before she sat down on the opposite couch. She'd been thinking of him as a Player, a man in his own right, but by all mortal standards, he was still a boy, and a boy that had lost quite a bit in one night. Perhaps in an older time, someone of his actual age would be expected to endure, but Persy knew that the world had grown softer since then. She decided against the opposite couch, and sat down beside the boy instead.
"Everything gets easier with time. It doesn't mean you have to like it," she said, resting a hand on one of his knees. "You're one of a select few that doesn't have to accept it, either, because you've got power on your side. A lot of it. I don't care what Uncle says, you've become quite the warrior in your own right, and it's not something you should be afraid of."
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Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:52 pm
"He was mortal," said Fish in frustration after a long moment of silent contemplation. He heard was the woman at his side was saying, but continuing in his own line of thought was easier than replying to hers. "He was totally and completely mortal. They wouldn't have gone after him if he wasn't someone I cared about. If I'd never told him - if I'd broken it off - he wouldn't be lying in a morgue somewhere. If I go home and I tell my roommates what happened, there's no way to celebrate the Game from everything else. I don't want anyone else to die because I can't keep my mouth shut."
He buried his face in his hands.
"I just don't understand what they have to do with all this. It doesn't make any sense."
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Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 7:50 am
Persy hesitated, but ultimately let the boy rant, knowing well and good that nothing said at this stage would be heard. She waited until he put his face in his hands, and figured that would be an appropriate time to put her two cents in. Remembering something that her mother used to do in the first few days of spring, when she was still shaken from the months of being underground, she lightly ran her hand down the back of his head, almost in a petting motion. Granted, had her mother been there the woman would have pulled the boy in for the biggest bear hug of his life, but Persy liked to maintain some professionalism, even in times of sorrow. That, and she didn't think the hug would help.
"Death is an essential part of the Game, and of our current Players, you are perhaps the first among them to taste this," she said, her voice somewhat softer than she liked to show to the Players. "It's a part of life, too, even if it's better hidden."
"And I know you blame us for Dwayne, but the fact is that being in the Game gives you an opportunity of a thousand lifetimes. Someday you'll realize that death is only a change of scenery for the departed." She tried to offer a smile, even though the topic still stung with recent events. "You'll never be able to change Dwayne's scenery, but you might just be able to change yours for a little bit."
"After all, the Game is not over, and there are powers still to be learned."
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Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:51 am
The touch sent shivers down Fish's spine, and he reflexively flinched away. After a moment, though, he relaxed back towards Persy's hand. It was soothing. Maternal even. He hadn't been mothered in so long.
He slumped against the goddess's shoulder, the exhaustion of the day finally beginning to catch up to him. There was not a muscle in his body that did not ache.
"I can't bring him back, can I?" he asked. "Even if I win, I can't bring him back."
And how many more people would have to die because of him, just so Poseidon could rule the next age?
"What do I tell them?" he asked tiredly. He didn't know what to do next. He could, he supposed, simply not go back, but that would leave him homeless and leave them wondering. He'd done that before, and he still felt guilt about what he'd done to his parents.
"I miss my parents," he confessed. "I miss going to school and doing homework and swimming in the harbor and playing soccer in the street and having someone tell me that everything's going to be alright and believing that everything actually is."
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 11:43 am
"No," Persy said, "You can't bring him back. Even if I let you into the Underworld alive and well, you couldn't bring him back. Death is a one-way trip."
There was an awkward period of silence, where the air felt too thick with sorrow and death for Persy to say another word. She shifted to provide him with a more comfortable section of her shoulder, continuing to pet his hair and letting him talk, but amongst it all she could not seem to find her voice. Perhaps Echo would have known what to say, if she could still speak.
And then Persy's head lifted, a thought occuring to her. "In the past, when my brothers and sisters lost mortal lovers, we would immortalize them with their stories. We left reminders of our past in the stars for others to see, and we spread the word of those most important so that they would always be remembered."
"You can't ever have Dwayne back," she said, "But it is possible for him to live on, in a way. After all, if everyone knows your story, your part in the Game, it won't be painting a target on them for Blacksuits. It will enlighten them."
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 1:31 pm
Fish considered it for a moment, and then frowned. "So one person is a security risk, but an entire Zone isn't?" he asked, his voice slightly sardonic and slightly hoarse.
Oh well. Nothing made sense anymore. He was talking to a goddess and had just infiltrated a major government sector. Nothing made sense at all. But he was, at the very least, calmer now and able to thing reasonably.
"I guess that significantly narrows my options," he said, and stifled a yawn.
"On second thought," he said quietly, "Could I spend the night here? I'm exhausted. Today has been too long."
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 3:21 pm
"No, it's just that the Blacksuits couldn't get away with eradicating an entire Zone," Persy said with a frown of her own, the sympathy draining from her face. Her features softened once she saw him yawn, however, and she decided that she shouldn't use such sharp words on someone who'd had a long enough day as it was.
Even so, he deserved some sort of retort. "You can spend the night here just as soon as you bathe. Death god or not, I don't think Anubis would appreciate having blood on his couch. And you smell like a government agency." She rose, taking his trident with her as she eyed the bloodstains on each of the three points. "I'll clean this," she said, her nose crinkling. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could get some of the death off of it, too.
"The bathroom's the door on the right," Persy instructed, pointing to a closed door with a golden knob. "The guest room's on the left, that's where Des and I will be, and you can borrow some of his clothes if you need to. The master bedroom, down that hall, is off limits." Just as she finished, she began to go down the very hall she referenced, taking a moment to look back at Fish.
"Is there anything else you need?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 3:59 pm
Fish shook his head, and then got up to follow her towards the bathroom. "No," he said in response to her question. Under different circumstances he might have asked for something to eat, but at this point the thought of food made him a bit queasy.
He placed a hand on the doorknob to steady himself and looked seriously at her.
"I don't think your husband's clothes would fit me very well," the boy said, and then disappeared into the bathroom. A long soak sounded really good right about now.
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