Wormwoman's Harvest

Wormwoman's Harvest

Postby catch » Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:13 am

He would push right through, if he had to. If there are appointments made, he did not make them; if there were an impertinent page left who would stand before him, then he would roll with impatience over them. He would burst into the Wormwoman Agnie's office, and it is evident that he is agitated, excited, the color high on his too-bred cheeks, his black eye sparking with fat stars. There is a full amount of triumph over him, every muscle of him quivering. Agnie must know what he had done, of course. After the fact. He wasn't certain that, due to the posters, she would still be on his side. But they had shaken on it, hadn't they?

He had endured the trial of the Worms to make it so.

"Miss Agnie," he says, remembering their deal, even in his current state. "Miss Agnie, I've g-g-got them - got all of the swain! -" A child's exaggeration, but there are so few times, lately, where the addled man may triumph. Forgive him of it. "In D-d-darkenhold, at a stupid, stupid party. Hrimfax will hold th-th-them, Miss, b-but they''re having such a g-g-grand t-t-time, no one will emerge f-f-for weeks. Now's th-the time. You c-c-can put your sword in her belly, for good and all."
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Re: Wormwoman's Harvest

Postby channe » Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:56 am

"Oh, hello, Catch. Is Rhaena there, too? It sounds delightful, but --"

Agnieszka's reaction to Catch is perfunctory at best, but what else would it be when she seems to be -- moving out? Yes, moving out -- of her office. She has well-dressed inquisitors and others wearing beautiful clothes carrying things out to a carriage on the road, and she's directing it from her center table. She's dressed nicely herself, with easy blue skirts hiked up in the fashion of Southern swordswomen, and jewelry on her hands and in her hair. Nothing around her neck but a pretty light blue embroidered ribbon. Not like the other frilly women, no, but certainly... nice. Oh, she's distracted over the state of some paperwork for a moment before she turns back to Catch.

"As I was saying, the party sounds delightful. But why on Earth would I want to put a sword into her belly? That's the most awful thing I've ever heard." A pause, and eyes shine dangerously. "It's also treasonous talk, Catch, so watch your mouth."
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Re: Wormwoman's Harvest

Postby catch » Wed Sep 04, 2013 5:09 am

There are many times that Catch has been struck; by fists, by boots both vicious and casual, by weapons, by magic and words. He remembered a few, and he forgot many, a muddling of injuries and hurts, physical and emotional, that formed the tight, little ball that was Catch.

Of them all - the ones he could remember - he was never struck so as he was, now, at the sight and the smell of the Wormwoman Agnie. For a moment, he could not breathe. He stared at her, snapped to rigid attention, as attentive as any foot-man settled at his master's knee, even if he was ill-dressed for it. Pages swarmed around him, carrying things, he he noticed nothing, nothing, save for the raging, red-edged vision of Agnie before him, sticky fingers crawling in her brains.

Delightful. Awful. Treasonous. Catch's breath rattled on the words, all the color drained form his face, a rope of the spittle of his former excitement dangling at his lips.

"You promised," is what he says, finally. Nothing about the party, a sham. A sham that he had risked much, threw away all, to give to her. "You promised. You promised."

We shook on it, like Gentlemen, he wanted to say, and though his words mouthed it, he could not force them from his throat. You said she never would. She never would.

With a single, inarticulate word, Catch would whirl. He thrust the movers away, the ones who intruded, not caring whether the things they carried scattered or not, broke or not. The worms-paths bled, and the worms kept within him screamed in anguished chorus, their host torn away.

Catch saw red. Not the crimson of Rhaena, but the red of blood.
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Re: Wormwoman's Harvest

Postby channe » Wed Sep 04, 2013 5:17 am

She sighs, and says -- "Catch," and then cries, "Catch," as she runs after him. "Stop. For the Lady's sake, stop. I don't know why I said those things, but I see I was wrong now." A pause, at the door, to hold it open next to the lovely-uniformed militiaman standing guard there.

"Let me take you to the Lady. She'll help you understand, just like she helped me. And then we can all go to the wonderful party you've arranged."
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Re: Wormwoman's Harvest

Postby catch » Wed Sep 04, 2013 5:27 am

She called him, a shouting of his name that was not his name. It dragged his head about, and she could see the feral savagery in his one, remaining eye, the once-soldier instinct of a beast that crouches, ready to spring, but with an eye that speaks of utter, terrible sanity.

"She'll not see me," he growls, low and terrible, a hard sound of bells clashing discordance behind. "You - your - you lied. You lied. You swore and you lied." He advances a step, one, terrible step, and in that moment, the militiaman was nothing. Catch knew, with a cold, terrible certainty, that he could reach out his fist, and pop the man's skull like a melon before he could move. Like a mole's skull between two stones.

She tried to speak to him, but the fingers, they wriggled and writhed. They demanded his eye, and he watched as they crawled - like worms - from between her lips.

"You were better with the worms. I'll d-d-do it myself. I hate you, you filthy bitch, you shit-faced, asshole liar, you whore. I'll d-d-do it myself." In his terrible rage, he took on Agnie's good, loam-worn words, her cadence, her accent, more of a mirror of who she was than the pretty-dressed thing that stood before him now. He had hated and loved her, fascinated by the worms, repelled by her horror. But they had shook on it. Catch holds up his hands, fingers crooked, his palms gnawed through with small, worm-mouth holes. It was only in his eyes, but the sacrifice he had made, a blood-letting to swear himself to Agnie, burned there as if it were real.

"You g-g-go near that party, and I'll t-t-tell Hrimfax to burn you to ashes."
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