genessia | [ action | closed ] terrible things happen to good people every day

Tannusen would do whatever it took to not, in any way, become his father. Anything. Full stop.

If that meant he had to beat himself into the dirt, that was a very small price to pay. And even this 'good' version didn't have a problem with the idea, honestly. Good fights were hard to come by; who better to match him than himself?

But right now, his focus was on this strange, soft-spoken Cassian. Okay, that was weird. Tannusen stared for a brief moment in surprise, then lifted a hand to touch that terrible haircut. Had he done that himself? Why? And where had the thick accent gone?

"Did I what?" he asked, distracted, and then glanced around them. "Oh, the Wyrd? No. That was the other one. I followed him here." That was a far less alarming way to put it than 'guessed where he was going and went there too'.

Then, because he was honestly just that confused, "What happened to your head?"

Edited 2017-01-15 05:35 (UTC)

"The... other one." Well that just meant that Tannusen was in the same boat he was, first of all, and second of all if that was the case-

He jerked his head towards the attic. "They're going to kill each other- Tannusen, we need to get to the attic! He was-" Okay he really didn't actually want to get into it but...

"He was going to look for you." That... that came out rather dire. Offhandedly, even as Tannusen felt the need to toy with the haircut-

"I... I cut it. It shouldn't have been allowed to get that long anyway."

Oh good, everyone was hunting each other around here. For one reason or another. It didn't take much imagination to fill in the blanks, knowing what he did of Cassian's curse. One thing he knew for certain was that he couldn't let this Cassian run up there and get in the middle of things!

"Don't worry, I'll be interrupting them shortly," Tannusen just smiled, despite the sound of a heavy thump upstairs. He knew the kind of damage he could take, and knew Cassian actually didn't know. That meant neither version did, not just this one. The tiger had plenty of time.

"Here," he pulled a folded note out of his coat, and pressed it into Cassian's hand, "give this to the tree for me, will you? And, Cassian--" he'd never actually used the guy's name, before.

It's like a party! Only no one is having fun and everything is totally awful. And this Cassian seems pretty dead set on getting up those stairs and to his double to try and convince him to be less of a bag of dicks. Chances are that conversation wouldn't go well, with or without Tannusen's evil twin.

He flinched at the sound of that, and tried to press past Tannusen, starting to grow frantic.

"They'll kill each other, we need to get up there now!"

Okay fine first he'll take this paper and secon-

... No actually, Tannusen had never used his name before. He looked up from the note, distracted from opening it to take a peek at it. "... Yes?"

The note, written on a small bit of scrap paper, had been folded and opened and folded and re-folded so many times the crease in the middle was just about ready to fall apart. It wasn't Tannusen's handwriting inside, however, but Trahearne's. The sylvari had taken to stocking the bookcase he'd given Tannu, himself, with books he thought the tiger would like, complete with notes stuck between the pages on bits of paper.

Tannusen had taken great pains to make it seem like he'd never read any of them.

But... obviously, he had.

Letting Trahearne know that his efforts to try to make the tiger feel like he belonged somewhere hadn't been totally in vain... that seemed like a decent apology, in lieu of anything better.

But Tannusen wouldn't be letting Cassian past him, no way. He blocked the short priest's way, actively, and then smiled again when the human looked up. "I'm sorry," the tiger said, with a strange sort of gentleness that he never let show, before. "For... everything."

And then he teleported Cassian away. Straight into Trahearne's apartment, aimed to appear a foot or so above the couch-bed so that he didn't splinch into any of the housecats -- or the sylvari himself.

Nothing Cassian would understand, then. But he tucked it into a pocket nevertheless.

There was a flustered, frantic huff as Tannusen blocked the way, the frail man unable to just shove his way through, and it seemed that he was currently unwilling to attempt to do it too, still trying to wiggle his way around without actually doing anything ruder than put a hand on the tiger.

Sorry? That cut through the cloud, there was a blink, and he opened his mouth to question why he felt he ever had to be sorry, and then his world was a blur, the priest dragged along for the ride with a yelp of surprise before landing neatly in the couch bed, frazzled and confused.

A grey and white blur yowled as it dashed from under the couch and fled into the kitchen, followed by the sound of breaking glass. Trahearne hurried out of the kitchen, a squirming silver tabby in his arms.

"Don't go near the door," he said as he passed Cassian, not sparing the man a glance until he'd shoved the cat into the other room and closed the door. "Or the kitchen for that matter, there's glass on the floor."

Trahearne walked back by the couch and looked down at Cassian, concern in his bright, cat-like eyes. Aside from his general shape, there wasn't much human to him, black seed pods warped the shape of his face and everything about him, down to his clothing, was made of plant material. He radiated magic, magic to make that plant body work and his own necromancy. A glyph of that same magic was drawn on the front door, glowing a faint, ominous green.

"I am assuming that Tannusen sent you here."

Well this was... this was new. He'd met dryads before of course but-

He's sorry if this sounds offensive but-

"Are you a male dryad?" Distant, confused. A bit dizzy from the teleporting, apparently Tannusen was pretty good at pulling the rug out from under him. He slowly moved to fix himself a bit on the bed couch, uncertain about standing quite yet.

"Y... Yes he did. I think." He was pretty sure that was what he did.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude, I need to get back to Everglade, things are a mess, I really can't stay-" Polite and frantic together didn't really fit Cassian, but Trahearne wouldn't know that one, the priest trying to head past him for the door before stopping suddenly.

"He gave me a paper to give to you, it seemed very important..." Dug out of a pocket and held over for the tree being to inspect, after all he could only assume this was what Tannusen meant by the tree.

"A sylvari, something close to a dryad or ghillie dhu, as far as I understand it." Trahearne had been doing plenty of research on the matter himself. It was odd he might have more in common with Tannusen than the humans of this world.

"If he sent you back here, you should stay." Still, Trahearne took the note and opened it carefully. He was confused, at first. It was just a note he'd left in one of the books, explaining, in small, neat handwriting, that Tannusen might like the chapters he'd listed. He considered asking if Tannusen had said more about it but stopped himself. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach, there was more wrong than he'd feared.

"You're staying here," he said once he'd folded the note up again. It was an order and damn well sounded like one. "Don't try opening any of the doors to leave, you won't like what happens if you do."

"Most dryads are beautiful women." Just randomly said, but honestly he's met so many males of species that supposedly only had females that he's not too surprised anymore. If he wasn't so dead set on getting back to his house and trying to keep everyone in it from slaughtering each other, he'd be more fascinated with Trahearne.

As it was, he shook his head, trying to go for a door before he could be warned of it.

"I can't- They'll all die in there, you don't understand, I can't just let them-" The warning caused him to falter at the door.

His double in the house had the lions share of that stubbornness. The mouse inside this home pulled back from the door, nervous but torn.

"... Please, I can't let him die." Who though? Tannusen or his other half?

"There's little either of us can do about that," Trahearne replied, sadness and resignation in his voice. He was far too used to this kind of situation. He moved between Cassian and the door, trying to usher the priest away from it. The mark glowed violently green the closer Cassian was to it, a warning.

"I can't face Tannusen and if you could, he wouldn't have sent you here." And clearly Tannusen, or the good side of him, cared about Cassian enough to send him to someone he knew would keep him here and safe. As safe as he could be for now, waiting to see which side won that particular war. The marks on the doors were more to warn than to keep Tannusen out, there wasn't much he could do to stop the fae if he wanted inside.

"Sit down. Please. It's terrible to just have to wait, I know, but it's all we can do." He motioned to the couch but didn't move away from the door.

"He is going to die." Even if it wasn't at his dopplegangers hand, despite the house being stuffed to the gills with traps, then surely at that fouler version of the fae who'd been so dead set on locating the heretic in the attic. He allowed himself to be steered away from the door, not without some difficulty but still, a hell of a lot easier than it would have been if he wasn't in two separate halves right now.

"They're both going to die-" Not his fouler half of course, Cassian knew damn well that his other half was just as immune to fatal damage as he was. "You don't understand, he's been planning on finding him, he was going to-" Well actually... the less said of that the better, he knew himself well enough to know that if he'd been wiped of all morals, the first thing he'd do would be to set about lessening his own suffering. Even if it meant laying some down on someone else.

"There must be something else we can do, if we both went together perhaps or if we called someone to help, something!"

Trahearne kept herding Cassian away from the door and to the couch, he was a stubborn and surprisingly hard to push plant man.

"Sit. Please." He's a good bit taller and denser than Cassian. He might just pick him up if he has to. Only if he has do. But he might do it!

"If I thought I could face one of him, I would already be there facing them both. Right now we should focus on reducing the damage and that includes me keeping an eye on you. I don't know anyone with the strength necessary to handle him, if you do, I suggest you call them now. If you do not, sit. I'll get you something to drink."

Trees have been nothing but good friends to him while he was drunk and in need of things to lean on so yes, he knows how much trees do not give when you push on them. He's not surprised, but he sounds pretty upset nevertheless.

"How can I even relax knowing what's going to happen in there?"

"The entire house is one big trap, everything can go off either with a wrong move or the right word, the house will kill them if they don't murder each other!" NO HE IS NOT GOING TO HAVE A DRINK, HE'S WORRIED.

"And if we rush in there to save what might be left, we will only add to the tragedy. I'm not asking you to relax but I do ask you to think carefully about the situation at hand. Tannusen, or part of him, knows the damage to come and has done what he can to reduce your pain. I advise you not squander that." He still wasn't moving out of the way of the door and the sliding glass doors to the porch were even more well covered in glyphs, not welcoming.

"If the worst does happen, he will return, hopefully whole. We can wait for that and be prepared to aid him in case there is any lasting damage. That is what I intend to do." Trahearne is very worried too! He's just getting good at hiding it.

Okay he... he had a point there, didn't he? "I don't want him to be hurt..." Was that the apology? For causing him this pain anyway? He didn't want to apology, he wanted Tannusen, whole and safe, right here. That's it. It wasn't so much to ask now, was it?

"... I feel like I am helpless."

"I know," he replied, voice softer now Cassian seemed to be relenting. Trahearne was already tense to have to defend himself and his cats from the risk of Tannusen's worse half winning and coming back here... But now he had to watch Tannusen's friend as well. He'd watched after more, much more, though those times he had an army at his back.

"Where we can help comes in later, when this is over and there is cleanup to do. If there is cleanup to do. Let's make it as easy for everyone involved as we can and rest now." They might need every bit of their strength should the good half of the tiger fail.

"I should have disabled some of the wards before he spoke to me. I should have shut them all off." His other half didn't want the good side of him getting hurt, but... Well this particular half was personally disgusted from what he knew of his doppleganger. Better off that he die in there, right?

As long as Tannusen stayed in one piece.

Trahearne didn't know the house in question or the wards or exactly what was happening other than it was bad. Bad enough that he doubted Cassian had much time to do anything. Tannusen wouldn't give him much time, he figured.

"Should anything of the sort happen again, you will have a better idea what to do then. Right now, you'll do yourself no good by finding faults in your actions in a desperate situation. Best we think of what we will do when this blows over. Please, sit down." He was going to keep asking that until Cassian actually sat down. He wasn't moving away from Cassian until then, he couldn't risk him bolting from the door and ending up hit by the fear spell in those marks.

Yeah it was bad, it was real bad. He had a house full of booby traps that could be activated on voice by a guy who took no issue with carving out human hearts and eating them raw, it was bad.

He was still pacing as Trahearne spoke, clearly unwilling to actually take a seat any time soon. "I can't. I cannot sit down, I'm sorry."

Trahearne crossed his arms and watched Cassian go. Well he couldn't blame him for needing to move, Trahearne would kill to have more to do than just wait. He'd drag Tannusen back by the scruff of his neck if he thought he could that without getting an arm ripped off.

"We can talk, if it helps. About something else."

"What on earth else is there to talk about?!" He scrubs his hands through his now short, poorly cut hair, trying to clear his mind.

"What on earth can we possibly talk about, there's nothing to talk about!"

"It was a suggestion, nothing more." Trahearne shook his head and turned to go to the kitchen, he needed to pick up all that glass.

... Well now he feels bad. Maybe he should like.. go in after him and apologize for being ru-

Door's unblocked. Apparently, his unpleasant half also got the lions share of problem solving skills, because he heads right for that door and then

Trahearne might be treated to a stuttering shriek, a few things toppling over, and now Cassian is back in the couch bed with every possible blanket pulled up over him.

Well. That went well.

Trahearne couldn't say that wasn't exactly what he was expecting to happen. Nothing cut a meltdown in half like a fear spell, even if it created its own, unique kind of meltdown in the process. He calmly dumped the glass on the dustpan into the trash can, set it and the broom down, and went out into the living room again. At least he hadn't knocked over Caladbolg on its stand in a corner, that would've hurt. The house plants could be replaced.

"If you recall, I did warn you that you wouldn't like what that did." He reset the mark on the door before going over to check on Cass. From a distance, it felt like the spell had passed but he couldn't say how exactly it would effect someone not from Tyria.

Lifting the edge of a blanket, he tried to peer under the pile at Cassian. "Are you alright?"

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