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

[black_black_heart]

xxxxxxxxxx"Consequentially, I am not one of the good people.
xxxxxxxxxxI am one of the terrible things."

xxxxxxxxxx — Marianna Paige

Who: Cassian Lynch, Trahearne, Abel Nightroad, Tannusen (and possibly more, will add as needed)
What: Multiple threads involving the Quiet Minds event and its aftermath.
When: First thread is on Friday the 13th. Subsequent threads are anything from a few hours to over a week later.
Warnings: A LOT. Graphic violence and gore, on-screen character death and dismemberment, cannibalism, attempted sexual assault, mentions of past assault, and more angst in the aftermath than you can shake a tree at.

Comments

[feckinboomstick]

Oh sorry to interrupt this very important self flagellation but-

"Tannusen?"

Just the person Tannusen wanted to hear from, right? It wasn't the one from the house, that's for sure. Uncharacteristically soft, and more or less impossible to hide the concern and worry in the tone.

"Tannusen is... are you-

Where are you? Where are you, stay where you are, I need to find you right now!"

AND YOU BETTER LISTEN. Unless... like... unless you don't want to! Then... well he can't really stop you I mean it's a far ways to just sort of run and shit. So he's sort of operating on the trust system here.

Please stay right where you are, he trusts you.

[black_black_heart]

The self-flagellation hasn't even started, buddy.

And oh, definitely the person Tannusen wanted to hear from. Totally. Tannusen leaned his elbows on the trash can so that he could rub his forehead with his free hand.

"I'm not telling you where I am." It's just a flat statement of fact. "Are you still at the tree's place?"

[feckinboomstick]

"Tannusen!" Yeah it lacks the usual demanding punch, it's definitely more pleading.

"I'm fine, I'm with Trahearne- You need to come back, we are both worried about you, I thought I'd never see you again..." There's movement. He's not sure about this door today but he's gonna give it a try!

"Please... Please come back."

[black_black_heart]

"I... can't," Tannusen's reply is almost too quiet for the phone to pick up on.

[feckinboomstick]

Well... that's...

"You have to... Please, let me help you. Let me find you and bring you back. I need to speak with you."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen levers himself down to sit on the sidewalk against the trashcan, too dizzy to stay up. Not only is he recovering from death, but he's had two sets of memories rammed back into his skull. The tiger remembers considering the closet door, and planning on returning later for the other one... the mouse.

He feels sick.

He is sick.

"And I'm sure you'll have plenty more to say to me once there's a cure out for this, probably with your shotgun," the Fae says tiredly, adjusting his grip on the phone. Lingering on the line like this, this is probably the official start of the self-flagellation.

But at the same time, he may never get to talk to the guy again.

[feckinboomstick]

"I won't shoot you, Tannusen." Well at least that one had plenty of conviction. "I want... I want to help you." He still had almost no idea what had happened, why they'd ended up split into separate people, what exactly the pattern was. He had ideas, but at the moment that's all they were.

"I need you to let me help you. I need you to come home."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen just sits there for a moment, processing that. His chest hurts; his hands hurt. He really needs to get off the phone, for Cassian's sake if not his own.

"Let Trahearne know I'm in one piece, will you?"

That definitely sounds like someone who's about to hang up.

[feckinboomstick]

"He'd be happier to see it himself. Tannusen, do not hang up the phone, I'm begging you. Please, please let us help you. Please do not leave again."

[black_black_heart]

"Cassian," oh look, there's his name again! Tannusen's going to wear it out, at this rate.

[feckinboomstick]

"Yes." No aye, he's still trying to keep that out.

"That is my name, thank you, Tannusen." OH LOOK A LIL SASS.

"I want to see you. Please don't go."

[black_black_heart]

"It would be a lot kinder in the long run if I did," Tannusen sighs, leaning the side of his head against the trash can. "Look, when you get all your memories back, you'll... I think you'll understand why it's better if I keep my distance."

[feckinboomstick]

"I'll have two memories of you to choose from, Tannusen. What makes you think I'll choose the worst one first?"

[black_black_heart]

"Some things can't be ignored," the tiger's reply is quiet, and resigned. "At the end of the day, I'm just a rotten piece of shit wrapped up in a pretty bow. Your other side got a pretty good glimpse of that."

He's not even trying to be dramatic, it's just... the facts.

"I didn't think it was as bad as it is, but it is, and I can't ignore it. I shouldn't be around anyone. I'm sorry."

[feckinboomstick]

"I'm sure there's things you got a glimpse of from my other side that's less than pleasant." If he even lived long enough to see it, any way. All of Cassian's sins usually happened once someone wasn't breathing anymore. Necromancer and all.

"Tannusen, pleaselisten to me. Please, I want to see you again. When this is over, and we've fixed all of it, I promise that my opinion of you will not have changed."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen doesn't reply for a moment.

"You can't promise that, and I wouldn't want you to," he says quietly. And then, even quieter, "I... have to go."

And he hangs up.

Not that he can actually make himself move, other than to tuck the phone back into his pocket. The tiger is going to be stuck here for a while, just... processing. There's so much to process, and none of it is good.

[02crusnikabel]

It was a modest sized city. Abel works at the city’s main library, and by the late evening, he closed the place down for the night, and finished his shift. Lately, he heard news that everything in Nova City is a bit hectic, but the manhunt for the scientist responsible is being underway by bounty hunters under emergency state. Or at least, he read that in the latest edition of the news.

He was walking down the block about to head toward the end to cross the street, when he heard what sound like a man talking to himself and a metalic thump of a trashcan. Abel thought it was a stray alley cat, so he peered down the narrow open of the alleyway to see if it’s really is a cat.

Nope, he found a tiger instead, struggling with his head bumping into the trash can, trying to get up. The tall priest stepped into the alleyway to get a closer look, until he looms over the exhausted Fae warily. How come this well-dressed bar own become so disheveled in a dark alleyway?

“Tannusen? Is that you? Do you need assistance?” Frowning with worry. "How long you been here? Here, let me help you get up at least." An alleyway isn't a place for proud Bengal tiger.

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen allowed Abel to help him to his feet, but he was quick to hold onto the trash can for support. He wasn't as well-dressed today; a blank t-shirt, jeans, and boots. The Fae stared for a moment as though he didn't remember who Abel was, but then a light went off. "Ah, priest Abel," he smiled, as though this were a normal meeting. "Fancy running into you here."

And there's an unspoken question in that wording, almost as clear as though he asked it. Why is Abel here?

[02crusnikabel]

"Yep, its me. Priest Abel. Goodness, you look quite haggard." With the shirt, jeans, and boots and not the suitable gentleman white suit attire that he wears and dressed sharply at his bar for work. Are you well? Do you need help to get back home? If you tell me where you live, I can escort you."

Noting his confused look, "I work closeby. I think I told you I'm librarian. You know the Genessia library? That one." He helped Tannu stand up to get on his feet to gain his footing and balance.

[black_black_heart]

"Well, I just got over a case of death," Tannusen pointed at the hospital with one thumb over his shoulder, "so no, I'm not super well. And I think... for right now, I live at Velvet Lust."

[02crusnikabel]

"Oh, that's terrible." Abel caught on the humor and the sight of the nearby hospital, but he is actually smart and perceptive enough that perhaps Tannusen has hurt himself to the point of that.

But for now, he won't ask question. Clearly his mission today is just help escort from point A, the trashbin in a lonely alley to point B, a much more comfortable bar.

"Okay, let's walk you home. You'll feel better once you reach there."

[black_black_heart]

"Is it terrible?" Tannusen asked, sounding distracted. He held onto Abel's arm, obviously not doing so great in the balance department. "I promise, I earned it. Weird coming back as myself, though, that's a first."

[02crusnikabel]

"One shouldn't make a light joke of their own death." He said. "Especially, if what you said...is what I think happened to you, then yeah." Said the priest, but he's being casually about.

"I suppose I know that weird feeling of getting your body back together as a whole unit, that sort of thing." Abel said, as he held Tannusen gently, guiding the way by walking him. "All right, just take your time taking the first step."

"I remember the first day I arrived here. I walked out of the Bay and into the city. No one greeted me because nobody knows me. I just dragged my tired body to the commonspace and slept for days. To feel my head reconnected to my neck, that's...the weird coming back as myself too."

[black_black_heart]

"Oh come on, if I can't laugh at my death, who can? And you... had your head cut off?" Tannusen sounded pretty impressed by that, and he let himself be lead along. "I remember a few of my deaths, but standard procedure is reincarnation into another human life, to wake back up in my teens and possibly remember a little of what came before, but also very possibly not."

Although he... hadn't been sure that would even happen, here. There were no royal bengal tigers on this world that he knew of, and pooka were irreversibly tied to their animal affinity's fate. Murdering himself could have easily led to his final spark of sentience going out for good.

It hadn't been worth hesitating, though.

[02crusnikabel]

"It happened back home in my homeworld." Said the priest calmly. "My twin brother, Cain, he used his powers and blew my head off. He made a bloody mess out of me. His only reason to kill me because he wanted to consume me so he can possess my powers. It's a vampire thing." In a cannibalistic way.

"Oh reincarnation? That doesn't sound like a bad idea as oppose to go to the eternal afterlife." Still, the kind priest lead Tannusen back to his home, at the front door of his bar after walking him several blocks.

"Here we are. Would you be fine from here? I mean, if you're hungry, I can cook you something on the light, but if you feel unwell, nothing beats sleeping off."