[ Open ] A Home for the Holidays

[maddeninghatter]

Date & Time: December 10th - 21st
Location: The Museum of Old and New(ish) Art
Characters: Xerxes Break and you. Information about and a map to the castle has been left in the Transporter Facility, so anyone interested in renovating a warm and secure (if weird) place to stay is welcome.
Summary: An eccentric billionaire’s 27th century medieval-replica castle/art museum/hotel lies abandoned and half-buried in the snow. It’s going to take a lot of work to renovate, but hey it’s more kid-friendly than a brothel. Right? Right?
Warnings: None.

The 1980's ski-wear themed snow suits Break brought back from this mission proved to be a hit with the local population (so stylish!), as were Mister Cecil's ugly Christmas sweaters, so they have been able to trade for goods and some technical services, to help make this place more livable. Supplies from the DITR have also been a great help. However, a lot of work needs to be done: cleaning and vermin-smiting and clearing away snow. Come and help, or simply explore.

(ooc: feel free to start threads willy-nilly, action-spam or prose, name your time and place, threadjack and mingle.)


(1) Museum:

The stairway forces you straight down, past four floors, into the very dungeons of the castle. There are no windows; it was artificially lit, although the electricity isn't on at present. However, the old geothermal power generation system in the structure is simple and robust, so only a small amount of tweaking will be required to get it operational once more. In the meantime, the DITR has kindly supplied you with bright uber-LED flashlights and batteries with advanced energy storage, meaning they should stay lit for weeks. Should.

As soon as you emerge in the dungeons, you’ll find yourself lost in a maze of gallery after gallery. High sandstone walls rise up, towering over everything. What was once a set of opulent velvet curtains lining the art spaces hang in rags, having long since been devoured by rats.

Many of the paintings are destroyed, but most are intact, as are the sculptures and installations, preserved in the deep freeze. The subject matter is bizarre and disturbing. Take this human centipede for instance. And what on earth does this machine do? What’s that smell….

However, some of the “artworks” are playful and interactive. Try a game of ping pong on an accordion-shaped table; or jump on a trampoline in a cage with bells underneath; or find the white library, full of blank books (don’t deface the art!).

Try not to get lost.


(2) Castle/Hotel:

The upper levels of the castle were hotel rooms, long ago. Alas, all of the sheets and bedding were made into nests by rats. Here too, the lush velvet curtains hang in rags, and the wool carpets over the stone floors have lost their battle to the moths.

Yet most of the furniture remains intact, as well as the elaborate chandeliers. Compact heaters will keep the spaces at a near-comfortable temperature, and sleeping bags will do for now.

Let’s get cleaning!


(3) R&R

All that hard work has finally paid off. The geothermal power system is now providing electricity and abundant steam heat, and multiple hotel rooms are in habitable shape. Most importantly, the kitchen is functional. it's time to relax with a cup of hot spiced wine (or chocolate) and pastry. Some mischievous person has hung mistletoe over various random entranceways, so look sharp!


(4) Playing in the snow

The weak December sun makes an appearance, illuminating the ice crystals in the frigid air, creating a sun dog. The snow sparkles like white diamonds. It’s still freezing, but how can you stay inside on a day like this? Anyway, the snow needs shoveling, but perhaps there’s time to make a snowman (or snow angels).


(5) Penguins:

In addition to vermin of the four-legged, tailed and whiskered variety, this castle is home to a flock of penguins. These might be the principal reason the castle has lain abandoned all these years. They can be found anywhere in or around the structure. Approach with caution. Or better yet —



— run away.

Comments

[senseandcecilbility]

You are still young. Too young to talk as if desserts were the only pleasure to live for.

[How long has Mister Break been this desperate?]

If you do not live at least one hundred years, many of us will feel terribly cheated.

[maddeninghatter]

[ A hundred years. To have so long as that...

Polishing off the second shortcake, he leans in closer to Kevin and drawls horribly: ]

Is that sooo, Mister Cecil? Well then, what pleasures should I live for?

[senseandcecilbility]

[There is a frightened little sound as Kevin covers his face in shame.]

M-Mister Break, you are being horrible again!

[But he also knows what Break is up to. Distracting him from the main point. And so he bravely pushes forward:]

If...if that is what it takes...

[maddeninghatter]

Hahahaha~!

[ In a single, fluid movement, he throws himself back upon the sofa and hooks his legs over the back of it, batting at Kevin's shoulder with his stockinged foot. ]

Don't force yourself.

[senseandcecilbility]

[That, of course, reminds him of Michael, though with far less danger of getting one's trachea crushed. He holds Break's foot and is about to express his annoyance, but reconsiders it.

Instead, he squeezes the foot gently and gives it a meditative scowl.]

...I am not.

[maddeninghatter]

Does he know?

[ Break doesn't pull away; he stays where he is, half-reclined on the sofa with Kevin holding his foot. ]

Does this... this Mister Solomon know what happened to you?

[ Losing a wing and searching for three millennia? ]

[senseandcecilbility]

[Kevin understands why Break chose this moment to ask about Solomon. It just makes him afraid that he will leave too.]

I cannot hide my true form from him, but the Initiative took him from just a few days after our very first meeting.

I...could not tell him...what happened to me afterwards.

[Though Solomon is smart enough to figure out on his own that Uriel lost his wing because of him, and that concerns the angel quite a bit, to say the least.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ He is surrounded by people in tragic circumstances. Rosette, the orphan. Oz, who can't even claim to be one, because he isn't a real boy. Elliot, dead. Allen, the idiotic hero. Gilbert...

Gilbert. That he is his precious master's enemy is another one of fate's cruel jokes (she has so many). And now Kevin: reunited, after so many years, with someone who hardly knows him. ]

I see.

[ With that, he pulls his foot from Kevin's grasp and rights himself, sitting up on the sofa once more. A long moment unwinds, as he sits next to Kevin, wordlessly. Finally, he reaches out with one hand, finds Kevin's fingers, and laces his own through them. ]

[senseandcecilbility]

[The touch is more welcome than Kevin himself would have anticipated. Someone who seems to be there for him, how strange it feels. He rests his forehead on Break's shoulder, as if supporting his skull full of thoughts had became simply too difficult.

He chuckles at his own awkward existence, and finally allows himself to close his eyes.]

It is the best for him, believe me. Everything became so much worse before they became even remotely better.

[Maybe Solomon will not remember half of the terrible things he did to him. Can pain be measured that way? Kevin doubts it, but he can always hope.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ He has wondered, often, if Fate would be cruel enough to reunite him with his old master, Lord Sinclair — or little Miss Emily, his youngest daughter, whom he should have protected with his life. He would never want them to know the terrible things he'd done for their sake; nor that he'd lost an eye, in failing. He would very much rather they didn't know him at all, than know all that. ]

I understand.

[ A thousand questions are on his lips, but he won't ask any of them. ]

[senseandcecilbility]

[Break's words have brought all those gross tears back, in spite of the fact that Kevin is trying very hard to stop them. He covers his face again, desperately suppressing the incoming sobs. He does not deserve any consolation, or this human warmth. Or Solomon. Or young master. Or Mister Break, for that matter.]

...You do?

[He forces himself to ask, because silence will only give opportunity to a storm of impossible feelings, and he should not impose any of that on Break.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ "You have mistaken me for a good person," Kevin has told him countless times, and now Break thinks he understands why.

Continuing to let Kevin lean against him, he murmurs quietly: ]

I can't claim to understand everything, cos you haven't told me. But... I know what it is to hurt somebody that you love, and regret it forever.

[senseandcecilbility]

You...You too?

[There is a pool of silent tears spreading on Break's shoulder. Indeed, three thousand years later, Uriel's voice is still ridden with desperate perplexity and even a touch of hysteria.]

He would not repent!

[maddeninghatter]

Repent? You...

[ It all becomes clear. ]

Your sentient weapon. It's only a modification of something you once wielded, is that correct? You... visited holy vengeance upon the wicked, and....

[ Angels exist only to fulfill the commands of heaven, Kevin has told him more than once. Uriel must have tormented this Solomon repeatedly, because he would not repent, and somehow developed feelings for him along the way. Had he tortured Solomon to death? That would explain the millennia of regret and obsession. Perhaps that was the point at which he refused to do heaven's bidding any longer, refused to punish sinners, and thus was mutilated and cast out of heaven.

He had been sitting still, letting Kevin lean on him; but now he turns, opening his arms and drawing this angel of repentance into an embrace. ]

[senseandcecilbility]

[He doesn't expect that embrace. Actually, he had expected to be repelled with all the might a human can summon. Still, he manages a single nod before his body is racked by silent sobs. ]

I failed them all, you see? After all that pain, in the end Solomon still regretted nothing and was taken by hell.

[He clings to Break, shaking violently.]

W-why would they bring him back?

[maddeninghatter]

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.

[ Break, in his abundant free time, had taken to listening to Shakespeare. King Lear, in particular, stood out. ]


Fate is cruel. Life is suffering.

[ He draws Kevin closer, resting his cheek against the poor angel's head. ]

The best that we can do is — just muddle on. Just keep going, as best we can.

[ Does Kevin hear Solomon's screams in his nightmares, just as Break hears Lady Sinclair's plaintive cry: Don't leave me! I'll be all alone! ]

1/2

[senseandcecilbility]

[Kevin does have his share of nightmares, and his share of sleepless nights. What he has never had before is someone holding him like this, no alignments demanded.

Muddle on, isn't it?]

My young master's namesake. I...met him once. Not for repentance, but for inspiration, you see...

[He offers the blind man a tentative smile, wiping off his tears with the back of his gloved hand. This is a sin. Though not one that would cause him to lose his remaining wing. This much he knows at least.

So he might as well be a proper gambler and take the risk.]

Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt...

[senseandcecilbility]

...

[From the depths of Break’s embrace, Kevin tilts his head so their lips are a mere fraction apart. He glances up at Break’s unseeing eye and, after a heartbeat, closes the distance between them.

As one would expect, it is an innocent kiss. Not much more than the silkily warmth of inquiring lips. And yet it is still an angel’s kiss, laced with the same tender divinity and sunlight Break knows so well.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ From a "mad crush" to "sincere affection" to this. This is love, confessed and sealed with a kiss. He can feel the divine warmth and tenderness of it, to the very depths of his soul.

Even as his heart takes flight, it twists. He has always hidden his own secrets away, not only because of his deep guilt, but also not to burden anyone with them. But to stay silent now is to accept Uriel's angelic love on false pretenses.

He draws out of the kiss and the embrace. His hands are on Uriel's shoulders, pushing him back. ]

I deserve your torment, not your love.

[ He knows he won't be believed without specifics, so: ]

I am a murderer, who coldly slew one hundred sixteen innocent souls.

1/2

[senseandcecilbility]

[He expected something dark and terrible. He did not expect this. One hundred sixteen innocent souls. He has seen Break's violent side, and yet it is extremely difficult for him to link so much bloodshed to the human right in front of him.]

[senseandcecilbility]

[ A short moment of silence passes before Kevin takes his gloves off. He brings both hands to Break's cheeks, tracing its lines with his fingertips as if he were the one who had been blind. Finally, he brings Break's face closer to his, the gesture both gentle and dangerous.]

...Tell me why.

[His eyes briefly fall on the rag doll on Break's shoulder, reminded of how the human reacted when he inquired about it. Kevin realizes that Emily is not so different from the scar he carries on his own shoulder, but he still must understand its full meaning.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ He can feel the power behind this gesture, and — though he longs to be punished, finally, for his sins — a wave of terror thrills through him. It's what every sinner must feel, standing at judgement. ]

Because... because I was a failure and a fool. Because, in my arrogance, I thought I could stand against the will of Fate. Because I was blind, despite having two eyes to see.

[senseandcecilbility]

[Like the Initiative itself. No matter how many times humans are punished.... And yet he says nothing, for Break's story is far from finished. He allows the silence to stretch between them, his warm hands still supporting Break's face, forcing him to look at him. It is not possible to evade his gaze, and Break, who has been hiding all this time, might find out that all protective shadows have become incredibly scarce in the bright sunlight.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ That silence has its effect, so too the brightness of Uriel's presence. He is naked in this awful, terrible light. ]

I... I was a knight, bound to serve a noble family.

[ He’d been a boy when he’d first arrived. He had wept from homesickness, but Lady Sinclair gave him tea and cake — and hugs. The family embraced him as one of their own. He flourished, treated with such kindness. They were precious to him, every one. ]

My job was to protect them. [ It was his life’s sole purpose. ] But they were murdered, all but the youngest daughter of the family.

[ His first duty had been to her; he should have devoted the rest of his life to her happiness. ]

I blamed myself for this, and fell into despair. I forged a contract with a creature called a Chain, from a world called the Abyss. My Chain promised me that if I sacrificed enough people to him, then I could change the past. I could bring back my Lord, and his family.

[ His fingers clench; his face colors with the shame of that awful memory. ]

Like a fool, I believed it.

[senseandcecilbility]

[The angel heaves a deep and weary sigh. He should have known. Evil always preys on those who need it the most. He also knows how this story ends.]

In the end, you lost yourself as well. And more importantly, you lost the little girl.

[A little girl with a little doll.

"Lady Emily is someone else."]

...But this time, you knew there was no return.

[He gently covers the empty eye-socket with his warm hand.]

Who has given you this mark?