[PRP] siren's call (rabbit & jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

It was not often that Jeremiah went looking for Rabbit but today he did, also with some books for Nev and Sy. While the Charter, it's deconstruction and reconstruction, was on his mind so was the fact that the old Sigil.

The worst case scenario was that someone-

He shook his head, raised a hand and knocked on the door.

Smerdle

(let's just set this before jeremiah had an accident, so he is not a walking bruise)

 

[Smerdle]

Neverain answered the door, already smiling after having looked through the peephole. He seemed cleaner somehow, not that the sirens were ever really dirty, it was just difficult to keep tail feathers looking shiny and bright when they were constantly dragging on the ground, not to mention attached to a child. It was clear that Rabbit had gone overboard with the grooming today.

It was also clear the boy hadn't been told about his potential demise.

"Hello, Jeremiah!" Nev said, bouncing once on his toes. He had yet to look directly at the books, but through the miracle of Gift Radar, he knew they were there. "I'll get Dad."

"I'm here." Rabbit stepped out of a room at the back of the house and strolled down the hall. He stopped behind Nev, squeezing the siren's shoulders and leaving his hands resting there. His expression was mostly open, if tired, though there was just enough get the hell off of my porch to raise suspicion.

"How've you been, Jeremiah?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Years of working as a cop and being a hooligan when he was growing up had taught him how to read expressions and posture. Jeremiah knew that look, even with the tiredness. It was enough to put him on alert but his posture purposely relaxed. Everything in his posture went to I am not here for a fight, I am not a threat.

"I actually came by to talk to your dad but also drop off some books for you and your sister," a pause, "and you are certainly looked very nice today," he said to Neverain with a smile before looking to Rabbit.

"If you've got a few minutes? There's something important I need to talk to you about." The words were said while the books were pulled out, more in the ABARAT series that they had gotten before. Except that instead of offering to the siren, they were offered to Rabbit to inspect before given to the children directly.

Not a stupid man here.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Rabbit sighed, ruffling the little plume of feathers that sprouted from the crown of Nev's head with his breath.

"Yeah, sure. Give me a second."

The books were accepted without comment, though the siren looked as though he wanted to say something more as he was ushered inside, the door shut behind him. Five minutes passed, during which there were happy chirps over the promise of new adventures starring Candy Quackenbush, warnings to stay inside near p***k and Uncle Jim, and an unusual number of hugs. When Rabbit reappeared, nothing had changed, except now he was wearing shoes.

"They asked me to thank you. I said they couldn't do it in person 'cause you were sick, which you would be if you came here to kill them, so I guess it's not far off." He finally looked up at Jeremiah instead of staring at the front door he had taken too long to lock. Another sigh. "Sorry. I shouldn't jump to conclusions." Especially since he'd had the perfect opportunity to get rid of Neverain and Jeremiah hadn't taken it.

azuredreamz

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah stood stock still, honestly looking struck. "... are you bloody ******** kidding me?" The idea was so- His voice dropped. "I am not here to try and kill them. I was, in fact, coming to talk to you about them and tell them they may need more protection."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Because of what they are, how they came to be." His hand dropped. "They're children- they're-" A sigh. "Would you come with me to Court, Rabbit? This doesn't need to be discussed here and I can ensure you get the truth."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Jeremiah's reaction was a mild comfort, even if it felt a little like getting slapped. Rabbit wanted to believe the man wouldn't do such a thing, but he couldn't be sure of anything anymore, not in a world where he had a corpse for a servant and he'd hatched his children and he spent his days casting spells on computer fans. Or maybe he was just being naive. He'd been warned about this, after all.

"They do." If enough people came for them, he was under no delusion that he and his nonmagical sister would be able to do anything about it. That was the only truth that was important. He nodded anyway. "Let's go."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I'll need to step closer for a moment," Jeremiah said, waiting a moment to make sure Rabbit understood and then did so. There was a cursory glance around, verifying that there was no one else presence and no one looking out curtains. Satisfied that this was the case, they disappeared.

It was like breathing for Jeremiah and simply a blink of his eyes for Rabbit. They were within the space of Court, the hallways that never seemed to end, and the pair of double doors that lead to the Mercer Library - the domain he shared with Algie.

"We were working on devising a new method of consent," Jeremiah said, his hand flicking and the doors opening up, "so I actually have something that will make this easier to discuss and let you know truth." It was the same wide space that Rabbit had been in before, a ballroom sized area with bookshelves everywhere. Yet in the middle of the room there was a work space, paper and other objects used for magic everywhere.

Stepping away from Rabbit, he moved towards the table.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He had heard that Jeremiah could teleport from a couple of different sources, but it was the kind of power that he had put in the 'yeah, okay' column right up until the moment he closed his eyes in front of his house and opened them again in the Court. Rabbit followed dumbly after that, his feet floating just off the ground in his preferred form of otherworldly locomotion. When he landed again near the table, it took him a few seconds to catch up.

"Consent? As in agreeing to the Charter? For Odal's letter?" He rubbed at his smooth left thumb. "How is that going to let me know the truth?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah looked to Rabbit as he was rubbing his thumb but then his gaze flicked to his face. "Yes, for the new Charter. One of the testing methods was the creation of an item that, with my method of consent given, allowed the person using it to use a particular power of mine."

He looked to the table and then paused, holding his hand out over it as a small ornamental box dropped in it. Jeremiah had forgotten he had stuffed it away as a just in case within the pocket space he had use of. "In this case, my ability to make people answer my questions truthfully."

His fingers closed around the box. "Not that you can't simply use the Noble geas to achieve the same end but this is less ..." A shake of his head, unable to find a word to explain the direness of the Noble geas being used. "Your children, Nev and Sy, are descended from birds that were fed crossroads dirt and Renard's blood, as well as taught to mimic an air raid siren in the event that he came close to freeing himself of the cage."

Which was where the siren part came from most likely.

"I assume the magic, over the course of the thousands of years that the cage has been in existence, changed them and gave them the shape they have now. Regardless they are considered part of the creation of the original Sigil - the cage that binds us all - and that is something that needs to be undone if we ever wish to be free." Jeremiah let out a breath. "That means that others may consider their deaths a necessity when that is completely and utterly unacceptable. It's reprehensible. I was coming to tell you because they made need more protection in case others with less morals learn of their origins and that we must look for another solution, another way to break the cage open that does not involve harming them or anyone else, for that matter."

He rubbed at his forehead with his free hand before letting it drop, the item, which was frosty looking to the touch and actually fairly cold, in his hand offered out towards Rabbit. "So if you want to ask me questions, learn my intentions, hold this in your hand and directly ask me. I'll be compelled to answer truthfully as my own magic is bound up with it."

Smerdle

word barf go

 

[Smerdle]

He couldn't help himself. Rabbit laughed, an airy, sarcastic snort that ended in a couple of sharp inhalations and a shake of his head.

"You do know that there's no way for me to be able to tell that this thing'll do what you..." He grabbed at the box, and as it chilled his hand he could have sworn he felt hair? Surety. A sense of pride. Jeremiah's magic in a net of power and purpose. His fingers lost their grip and the box fell to the table. That was new. The thing did something, but he couldn't tell what. He swallowed.

"Use your magic on me. The same thing the box does." He had a thought that needed confirmation.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Alright." Jeremiah raised an eyebrow but nodded.

"What," he said slowly, his eyes glowing brightly, "is the worst crime that you've committed?" The moment he finished asking, Jeremiah's gaze on Rabbit would become unnerving; an uncomfortable weight that would not leave but left him with the impression that if he answered it would. Even the closing of eyes or looking away would not rid Rabbit of the feeling. It was not entirely unlike when the geas had been used on them during the conference.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

While similar to the geas, this differed in that Rabbit felt that he could fight it. The outcome might have been the same, but where the geas had induced a hazy, unyielding serenity (you want to do this more than anything you've wanted in your life), Jeremiah's magic had more of a kick. He was going to answer, but he wasn't going to like it. Maybe the magic of the Court had been that way because he had been caught off guard. He supposed it didn't matter either way.

Rabbit did fight the question, though not intentionally. There was a B&E that hadn't made it onto his adult record, a couple of warnings for public intoxication, a criminal mischief charge promptly dropped with another warning when security footage revealed he had only awkwardly held his can of spray paint while others did the dirty work. And, of course, buying GHB for Temperance, though that had been a necessary evil. He barely even thought of it as wrong, considering how things had turned out. No, the worst crime he had committed had been something he couldn't have controlled.

"Not being with my father when he died."

He wasn't really surprised when it worked, though he pushed the subject aside for now. Rabbit picked up the box again and nodded, more to it than Jeremiah.

"So. Crossroads dirt and Renard's blood. And now they're kids. That's not a question, I'm just... I have to want you to answer, right? Should I not hold it if we're just talking?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah was not entirely surprised that that was Rabbit answer. After all, he had not specifically laid out what kind of crime. It could have been anything from something unlawful to whatever Rabbit considered a crime.

Which had been the case.

There was an uneasiness to someone else having the item, to the feel of the power on himself. The questions, however, were not asked in the right way. "You have to want me to answer it and it needs to be direct. The more specific the better, as you've just seen." With what Jeremiah had asked and Rabbit's answer. " If you don't do those things, it can be shrugged off or another answer given that satisfies what was asked- and, yes, I would not be holding it while simply talking. Just pluck it up when you reach the question you want to ask me."

A breath escaped.

"Crossroads dirt and Renard's blood to attune them to the purpose they were going to serve as, essentially, a security system for the cage, the Sigil they created."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He didn't want to hold it. Rabbit wanted to trust Jeremiah, he did trust him, just not in this. He knew what he himself would consider if the tables were turned, and it really ruined any belief he might have had that things were going to be all right. He put the box down.

"And we only overwrote that sigil." It seemed obvious now, but he'd had no clue about consent and destroying and frameworks and whatever at the time. "We didn't actually break the cage so they didn't do anything about it." The sirens had also hardly been six weeks old when everyone had jumped into the void. He wasn't sure they had known their purpose then. He wasn't sure they knew it now, even though he'd done his best to tell them. But maybe they didn't have to. If they had been specifically created to do this one thing, maybe they wouldn't be able to help doing it when the time came.

Barely three seconds had passed before he picked up the box again. Rabbit stared at Jeremiah, his eyes and the ends of his hair momentarily brightening with faint sparks of light.

"If there was no other way, if we looked and looked and killing them was the only chance to stop the cycles, would you let it happen?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"We did not overwrite it," Jeremiah replied, "we simply created another sigil that allowed us to find a world that, perhaps, better serves our purposes of escaping the cage. We built it on the broken pieces of the old sigil." It was what he had learned after all. That this world was not simply another reality but an entirely new one.

"There was, during the void, heard by some the sound of air raid sirens. Take of that what you will." Though he knew the sirens had been little then, not so in this new world.

His shoulders rolled, eyes reflective in the light that sparked from Rabbit's hair, as the question wove itself around him. The weight was heavier but perhaps that was the question, the nature of it, the fact that as he searched himself and found the answer he knew it to be the only truth. "No," he replied, "I wouldn't. I would stop it. We've spilled too much blood and I cannot condone breaking free if that means killing children. We built too much on the innocent and I am not going to be free at the cost of their lives."

It was, in all honesty, a horrible truth. The one thing he could not bring himself to do in the face of whatever it took to see them all free of the cage. Jeremiah Mercer could not kill Sev and Ny. Perhaps if he had not known them, perhaps if he did not look upon them fondly, perhaps if he saw them as kind and not kin.

5merdle