[1v1] Relax my Beloved (Tuck/Freya)

[Nio Love]

She was actually looking for the ladies room.

When Freya opened the door in the hallway of the reaper dorms, she fully expected to walk into the public showers. She'd never used them before, but her own tiny little shower had broken, and she'd already been ready to get in when she realized it. So she wrapped her towel around her body, and crept quietly through the halls. The first unknown door she saw, she ran through it. Her hands tightened around the knot holding the towel up, but her hair flung wild and free, catching on the door as she closed it. It snapped her head back when she walked forward, and she had to turn and pull it loose.

"Ach.. yeh stupids.. piece of.. LET GOES OF ME YEH DAMN DOORS!" She yelled at the inanimate piece of wood, as if it was purposefully holding her back, and trying to keep her from moving forward.

And maybe it was.

She stumbled back when her hair finally slid free, storming backwards until she turned around and slid to a halt. This was.. definitely not the ghouls showers.

Or was it?

"HALLO?"

Dark, damp, dingy... maybe it was just so unused, nobody had fixed it up in a while. Which meant it was probably empty. That was a good thing.. she guessed. But it still felt like she was stuck in a horror movie for some reason - and an unsettling sense of familiarity was starting to settle in. She'd been here before, a couple of times. This wasn't the ghouls bathroom at all, was it..

She started to regret calling out like that.

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

Now, Theodore wasn't entirely sure what he'd been expecting when he'd made his way to the haunted house. Part of him was hoping to exhaust himself beyond the realm of mortals. He was tired - his insomnia had gone from bad to worse in recent days - and Tuck hoped that this was just what he needed in order to find a good night's sleep. Hell, he'd work with even a few hours of sleep.

Anything.

Herryk was on high alert as the pair moved from room to room, the jumbled innards of the house leaving the both of them feeling confused and uneasy.

Tuck heard someone call out, or at least he thought he did, and the Moon hunter moved towards the sound. Herryk rested in his unsummoned form on Tuck's right hand, a simple runed band that sat on his middle finger.

<Be careful, Theodore.>

I usually am, dude.

<Be more careful than Theodore usually is, please. There is something... off... about this place. Herryk does not like it.>

We came here for practice, didn't we?

Herryk's response was a loud, disgruntled rumble.

"Hello?"

Hell, why not.  

[Nio Love]

A voice. A man's voice, in fact - Freya knew that should have been enough to make her run. She turned to find the door she'd come in on, but when she looked for it, it was gone.

"Figures.." She whined, slinking out of the room and walking very carefully through the hall. Everything was so dark, here. She knew where she was now, and she knew exactly what was waiting for her. But there was only one thing she really wanted to avoid.

So when she turned a corner, and saw that flash of coat, she instantly hopped back behind the safety of the wall, holding her breath. A moment passed, before she found the courage to peek her head out again. But what she saw wasn't that one thing. Sure, it was a hunter. That much was obvious. But it wasn't him.

And he wasn't armed.

Should she try to kill it? That was the logical answer. It was also, very likely, beyond her capability. What other options were there? Were they all like him? Would they all sooner spit on her and put their foot to her face as soon as look at her? The curiosity itched within her, begging to know. Were all hunters her enemy? Or just..

"Stays back." Freya called out, still peeking carefully from behind the corner. "I has.. friends here. If yeh comes any closer, we'll-" Her voice cracked pathetically. "We'll kills yeh! ... What does yeh wants?"

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

The strangely spoken threat was enough for Theodore to summon his weapon, Herryk's runes gleaming bright in the low light of the strange rooms he wandered through. Herryk's entire demeanor shifted suddenly, the runes dimming across the face of the weapon.

"What's wrong," Tuck whispered under his breath, an old habit he struggled with. Sometimes it was easier to speak aloud to his bonded, and every time he did it he felt utterly foolish.

<Theodore should leave.>

We aren't leaving.

Tuck moved forward with a more forceful purpose, his footfalls light despite his large size.

The runes flickered again.

<Herryk does not like this place.>

"We're lost," Tuck spoke the half-truth easily, fingers tightening.  

[Nio Love]

Freya saw the sudden glow and gleam of a weapon forming in the man's hands, and she pulled herself back to hide behind the wall. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and her hands reached out to summon her own weapon. The axe grew its length and solidified, her fingers curling around it and tightening until her knuckles went white with strain. She scoffed at his answer, crying out from where she was without looking.

"JA, I can tells yehr so lost that yeh needs teh calls a weapon teh helps yeh finds yehr way, hah? Yeh thinks I am stupids or something, mister? I said stays where yeh are! There is no answers for yeh here!"

And, apparently, no answers for her, as well. She sighed, pressing her head against the flat of her axe.

"Please," She whispered quietly. "Goes away."

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

<Please. Theodore. Leave.>

Tuck ignored Herryk's pleading, instead moving towards the voice that cried out at him. It was decidedly feminine, the voice, and had the oddest accent he'd ever experienced.

<Theodore.> Herryk's voice took on a pleading lilt, almost as if he were bargaining.

I think she's just up there around that corner.

<Please. It is just a ghoul, one who is not attacking. Leave, Theodore.>

We are not leaving. I told you. This is practice.

Herryk fell silent, vividly annoyed and frustrated with his bonded.

Tuck crept up the hallway, silent, and moved towards the location of the female's voice.  

[Nio Love]

No sound. Freya knew this meant one of two things. Either he left, and she'd just been given her wish, or he was sneaking up to attack, and she was going to have to be ready. Either way, she needed confirmation. So she gripped her axe even tighter, took a deep breath, and leapt around the corner. An instinctive warcry was stifled, as she came face to face with the hunter himself. An unknown, just another face. He looked nothing like Jeremy - in fact, he looked so different, she almost hoped -

No. There was no more room for hope in her heart.

"I thought I says yeh stays back," She growled, holding her weapon defensively in front of her. Her eyes were trained on his face; focused and searching. "I am not yehr little playthings, anymore. Yeh goes back teh yehr friends and yeh tells them that. Yeh tells them Freya is not goings teh lays down and takes it anymore. YEH TELLS JEREMY THAT, YEH PIECE OF SHITS!"

Her wings flared out behind her, but entire body was shaking, and she silently cursed the fact she was wearing nothing but a towel - but she did not care what this scummy hunter saw. If she had to fight him, she would fight this time. Win or lose, she promised herself - she would fight.

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

<Maybe next time Theodore will listen to Herryk.>

Instead of sounding smug, the draugr sounded oddly disjointed, confused, baffled. There was a brief flash of something - a grasp of a memory forgotten, something nearly there and then gone. The action left Tuck feeling off, and he took a step back as the winged creature stood her ground.

There was no denying the fact that the blonde-haired female was impressive to look at. Her wings were massive, the axe larger than his own, and Tuck couldn't help but feel as though he'd made a terrible mistake.

Bracing himself, Tuck took yet another step back. A sudden chill settled over him as he heard the faintest voice calling out to him. He snarled softly, Herryk becoming more alert, and lifted the axe in the air, readying himself for impending battle.

"Come on, then."

Quote:

Rolling a 2: ALL DAMAGE DONE BACKFIRES ON THE CHARACTERS THEMSELVES (ie if you do 6 damage to the opponent, you take 6 damage). All your log seems to take second place as a voice calls to you, vague, agitating. It pressures you to attack relentlessly, brashly, without caring about your own wounds or damage done to your allies.

 

[Nio Love]

Freya growled, her body heaving in shallow, quick breaths. She had to fight, now. She had to do it, because it was her only choice left. She could win, if she really tried. She had to try, so she could walk out of here with more than just her life intact. She needed all that pride that she'd lost the last time she was in this room with a hunter. She needed something to fill the void inside of her, this time around.

Maybe this large man had just done her a favor. Him and his puny axe-

The moment wrenched itself to a halt, as soon as her eyes rested on the axe itself. Freya straightened up, her eyes glassy as she stared at the runeshanging between its blades. The skulls on its hilt. The gleam of metal that reflected her own frozen, shocked face. But her mind pulled her back from the swell of insanity, rejecting the reality that she was facing. Her head tilted to the side, and she stared, wild eyed, at the axe in his arms. She did not wield hers. She did not attack.

But her eyes reflected the cusp of madness, the ledge she was about to fall over.

"Yeh.." Her broken whisper offered the only alternative to the truth that her warped mind allowed her to believe. Maybe he was their hero, now. This weapon, perhaps, was a sign of how he'd changed them all.

"Yeh knows my Herryk..?"

But deep down, the whispering voices promised her that she was wrong.

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

:l fergot 2 roll  

[bipolar bee]

pinchmonster

The runes flickered across the face of the axe, shimmering and flaring. Herryk felt confused, completely baffled, and Tuck could sense Herryk's reluctance to attack. Tuck widened his stance, his posture defensive, and merely stood his ground.

Herryk's runes picked up speed, pulsing in disbelief.

The ******** was no response, merely a loud hum that resonated in Tuck's skull.

"Your Herryk?"

Tuck shifted on his feet. He recognized the madness in her eyes, had seen it before in the eyes of his brothers-in-arms. The whispers made it difficult to believe that it was not a ruse, and Tuck tightened his grasp on Herryk's hilt.

<Herryk does not know.>

"What are you talking about?"

 

[Nio Love]

It wasn't a no. But it was confirmation that her one chance of getting through this without breaking was wrong. Her eyebrows furrowed deeply, and her lower lip jutted out, quivering pathetically. Her eyes flickered from the human's face, to his weapon, over and over. She reached out, delicate fingers stretching towards the face of the axe, though she was nowhere near close enough to touch it.

She wanted to believe.

"My Herryk." She murmured, with just a twinge of possessive force edging on the first word. "One of yehr kind.. she took him away from me. She took him.."

Her hand fell long before it came anywhere near the weapon. And all of the strength she had built up to fight the hunter, now went into trying to deal with the cold, painful truth. But she'd promised herself she would fight. She promised she'd be strong. Perhaps this was what she promised herself she would be strong for.

"He's gone, isn't he."

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

Tuck tamped down the chilling whispers that echoed in his ears, forcing himself to focus on the realization that the creature that stood before him knew his weapon - and from the sounds of it, knew his weapon before his weapon had become a weapon.

He watched her slender hand reach out towards Herryk, watched the runes ignite and pulse as if they, too, reached out for her.

Do you know her?

<Herryk cannot ... Herryk cannot remember.>

Foggy, half-formed memories flashed and abated, weighted and confused.

Tuck lowered his weapon slowly, bafflement etched on his features.

"He .. Herryk, I mean.. he says he doesn't remember you."

Tuck shook his head, looking pained as he sorted through the avalanche of emotion that rocked him.

"He wants to. But he can't."  

[Nio Love]

Freya's lips parted as her jaw dropped when the hunter spoke as if Herryk was there. With them. She knew that her kind were turned into weapons. She knew that, and she knew she'd lost Herryk forever. But she didn't know they, in some sense, remained.

"H.." She couldn't even say it. The sound just came out in a soft, shuddered breath, that was quickly sucked back in. Her hands covered her mouth, and her eyes were now locked on the weapon alone, watching it pulse in response to her.

She didn't realize she had started crying until the tears rolled off her hands.

She whispered, desperate for understanding, but even as she asked the hunter how it worked, she couldn't pull her gaze away from that weapon. "Yeh can hears him? His voice?" Her eyes narrowed, doubt clouding her vision. "What does he says? What.. what exactly does he.. yeh tells me his words.." The growl in her voice disappeared when she spoke to Herryk. "Can yeh.. hears me baby boil? Is.. is me. Is Freya."

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

There was a distinct sense of raw yearning that Tuck couldn't tear himself away from, and though Freya didn't look at him, the emotion contorted his features. A yearning to recognize who she was, a yearning to reach out and touch her, a yearning to understand what was happening.

"He can hear you. He can see you, too - he's.. upset."

Herryk was incapable of forming coherent words, instead relaying by emotion alone. Tuck watched Freya silently, the pounding in his head making it difficult to speak - let alone realize that he was speaking to someone who could be considered an enemy.

Herryk's emotion overpowered any thoughts of worry or danger, mingling with the unbidden whispers that taunted Tuck.

"I can't describe it. It's just a feeling of raw emotion. He talks, usually, but. He's upset."

Tuck lowered the weapon, driven by the powerful urge to console his bonded.

"He doesn't have any clear memories, really. It's too vague. He's confused, too."

The trainee cleared his throat.

"He wants to know how you know it's him. How you know he is who you think he is."