Choices

Choices

Postby Dulcie » Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:14 am

Josie had returned to the Rememdium, but there was no spring in her step this time, no assured confidence of love that had been won and vanquished from some fairy queen. There was no fairy queen. There was no love, there was nothing. Nothing but a child growing in her womb and magic that practically felt like it was going to explode from her fingertips. She had been so sure she had wanted to know the truth, that everything would be exactly what she thought it was going to be, and now there was nothing to hold on to anymore. She clutched her little basket of things, the few things she had left in the world. There was no father for her child, and now there were parents that would have no more of her. A ruined reputation and no place to live, or go, or turn to. There was little in the way of hope, except perhaps here in that little hospital room.

She passed by the other rooms as she thought about her decision. She didn't owe this man anything, and he didn't owe her anything in return, but perhaps they could help each other. The love that she thought was there, the imagined, horrible illusion gaped like a hole in her heart. How quickly she had needed to grow up from her girlish ideals. How quickly they had been stolen from her.

She reached the door to Guiseppe's room then, though this time she'd tap on it lightly before pressing it open and stepping inside. "Guiseppe right? I asked the nurse and that's what she said your name was. I feel like a real fool, for the way I acted, the things I said. I know you're not... we're not..." She stammered over the words slightly, embarassment heating her cheeks to a soft pink.
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Re: Choices

Postby Glenn » Sun Oct 07, 2012 12:45 pm

It had been a hard two days for the withered, burnt former assassin, former first and foremost because he could barely move, let alone serve in his chosen role. The fever was worsening. He had held on for a good long time, had even woken up, but his body was failing finally. There was a limit to the medicine of the remedium. There was none of Catch's blood to restore him now. Days, they thought, days at the most before his body would give in to the cumulative damage and that would be the end. A life of wickedness and rationalization about to come to an end.

Then came the old woman, and now Giuseppe could feel the magic around him. The deal he had made, though it wasn't so cut and dry as that. Instead it was a story he had let her write him into. This could all be a hallucination but even as he looked at poor Josie as she walked into the room, his eyes were blurry. His head hammered. "Wasn't your fault." He hissed, eyes shutting only to open again weekly. "I wanted .. .well, there just wasn't much i could do to help. I wanted to help." It was true on some level. "And.. well, Bella" he smiled weakly. "I'm not even entirely sure that you're real. I'm not sure any of this is." An escape at the last second. That wasn't like him at all. He let out a little laugh. "It felt nice for someone to care for me so, even if it was not real. It's a nice memory to make up one of my last." And he gave her a wane but sweet smile at that.
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Re: Choices

Postby Dulcie » Tue Oct 09, 2012 11:32 am

"I'm not sure of what's real myself anymore." She admitted, swallowing nervously as she went to set her basket of things down on a side table, pulling up that same chair that the old woman had sat in not that many days ago. She'd settle herself down on it, taking a minute to smooth out her skirt as she looked back over at him. "I think we've both been tricked by alot of things. I don't even know..." She touched a hand to her belly and shuddered a little, thinking about what the old woman told her about not -who- the father was, but -what-. Myrken-born as she was the idea of the unnatural child frightened her more than the idea of being cast out in the streets by her parents. There were other options of course, but Josie's gentle heart couldn't even consider those.

Those weren't the only words the old woman had told her however and Josie steeled her nerve and reached out to try to take one of Guiseppe's hands. "The old woman came to see me too. She gave me a gift and a curse all at the same time. But I think maybe we could help each other." If he had let her take his hand she'd move to try to gently brush her thumb across the back of his hand. "I don't think it would have to be your last memory. I think maybe I could stop you from dying. I.." This whole thing was all so new to her. "I've never healed anybody before, and I can't explain it, but I feel that I can heal you. That I'm supposed to heal you."
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Re: Choices

Postby Glenn » Wed Oct 10, 2012 12:46 am

Giuseppe was a man of little guilt. He had tried to be bigger, better, stronger. He had tried to make a life for himself and turn his back on his family's legacy of darkness and grime. It had fallen apart and with it, certain moral rectitude. Such things could never be put back together. He could be a cruel man in the moment, yes, but this was not the moment. This was something else entirely. Oh, he had maneuvered this situation into being on some level, but that would not guide his hand now. That is to say, it was not guilt that moved him now.

His hand was coarse, even before the burns. Such work this man did. "I would help you, bella." Simple and straightforward, with a raspy voice, the voice of a dying man. "Would that I could, I would. If you see to it that I can, then I will. I am a man of no small means, of no little talent. There are things I can offer you, and things i can never offer you, but.. we are both drowning, yes? If you pull me to shore, I will pull you the rest of the way."
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Re: Choices

Postby Dulcie » Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:18 am

"Both drowning.. yes, I suppose that's one way to put it. I don't need much.. I just, yes, that's best to say it that way, I just need a little help to go the rest of the way." Anything would be better than being out on the streets having to fend for herself, dealing with whatever it was she was going to have to deal with on her own.

"I suppose I should get on with it then shouldn't I?" Although what she was supposed to do exactly was still something of a mystery to her. She could feel the magic crackling there in her fingertips, practically urging her to get on with her task. She looked at them briefly with the suspicion that any Myrken girl might have, knowing that she really should have listened to her mother long before she got into this mess. Glowing men were a sure sign of magic, and look where magic had gotten her now! She glanced over her shoulder at the doorway, assuring herself that no one would see what she was doing (though it'd be difficult to explain to the doctor how Guiseppe had magically healed.. but she could cross that bridge when she got there!). She'd reach out and follow the urging of her fingertips, her hands coming to settle along where his injuries were the worst.

Almost instantaneously upon touching his skin, the bright sparks of magic would leap from her fingertips, moving to sink into Guiseppe's skin, where the glow would be almost blinding. For Josie the experience felt little more than something great and powerful being bled away from her body, slowly, but for Guiseppe it was entirely possible that the process could be painful, as the magic worked and tried to knit together seperated flesh and bone. From outside of the room it would be very, very obvious that something wasn't quite right, the flashing of lights being the strongest indicator of such.
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Re: Choices

Postby Glenn » Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:13 am

Belief.

Giuseppe knew about giving himself away, whether it be wealth, or power, or to an ideal. He know about letting go and living with what would come, with the consequences of his decisions, with the costs and the pain of it all. He knew what it meant to work for his family, to work for Reinstadler, to work for Burnie. He knew what it was to watch a dragon be hired to kill innocents for the basest of reasons, for money, to drink the blood of a magical madman in order to fight a wretched demoness for little reason at all, for power and pride, to battle an unbeatable foe in a burning tavern when other solutions might have been found, for everything there was.

And yes, to accept this, at the very end of his life, to extend that life unnaturally... and why? Was his work unfinished? His grand work, those ideals he found long after he had lost all else? Was this a noble gesture, to protect this poor victim and her unborn child? Or was he just afraid? It was one thing to face death with blades in hand, with fire and wine and powerful words. It was another to face it, broken, in a hospital bed. Courage and adrenaline served one poorly in a burn ward.

So then, at the end of his life, he would trade away what was left of his soul, the stretched, contorted, unnatural thing ripped in two directions by demoness and mythic holy beast.. only in Myrken. He would trade it away for life, all he had to agree to it. All he had to do was believe. To believe in it, the magic that swirled around him now, that story that the old woman had crafted for him. His new life. All he had to do was believe. A wry grin came over his face even as the magic burst agony through him, even as it made him whole. Irony. So much irony. As the lights flashed and his future became mapped out for him, he revelled in the irony most of all.

All he had to do was believe.
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Re: Choices

Postby Dulcie » Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:52 am

It was difficult to say how long the healing process would last. For Josie it felt like long slow minutes had passed, her eyes barely able to watch the way the bright magic worked in the man that lay there before her, though it was the look of agony in his eyes that was most disturbing to her. No one had prepared her for watching that sort of thing and sent a shuttering fear down her spine. What if she had been tricked again and was doing more harm than good? But Josie too had belief. The old woman had promised her something, the ability to heal this man in return for her hearing the truth. It had seemed such an easy exchange, but now that she had heard those words there was no undoing them, no undoing their reality.

She watched as those twisted expressions of agony began to fade, keeping her hands there upon him until the very last sputter and spark of light faded from her fingertips, only drawing away when she felt that every power within her had been spent. She sagged back into her chair, her hands falling instinctively to rest over her belly, and she closed her eyes for but a moment, exhausted from the process. She'd stay like that, counting minutes in her head, afraid to look and see if she had been truly successful in her efforts, though something inside of her assured her that she had been. That same something that made her know exactly what to do.

Belief was a powerful thing indeed.
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Re: Choices

Postby Glenn » Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:58 am

She knew what to do. And now, he did too. It was a quiet whisper inside of him. Just a quiet whisper.

Magical healing generally worked in very reasonable, understandable ways. Alistair Savoy, when he lived in Myrken, would heal through a very specific means. Catch's blood likely worked through another. It was magic but it was classifiable, understandable. This? This was something else. It was storybook magic. The stuff of fairy dust and the evil eye and wishing upon a star. This was the sort of thing that would fade to nothing if questioned, that would slip right through your fingers. So she didn't. He didn't. It meant giving himself up completely to the magic, but considering the alternative? He took a leap of faith and at the end of it...

at the end of it, his feet were upon the ground. He had landed. Atrophy? No, he was restored. Burns? None. A few more scars than before perhaps. They should have healed like everything else, but belief was funny that way. His self-image had them and his body would keep them. Perhaps because of that there was something slightly more angular than before. This was a man long past proper human behavior and while this was a new chance of sorts for him, who he was remained. Now it was evidenced in his features as well, were one to look close enough. Something was just... off. You'd only notice it out of the corner of your eye, but there it was.

He wiped the pain off of his face with an arm across the brow, taking sweat with it best he could. "Come on." He went to put his arm in hers, a gentleman's action or just something to steady him? "We need to get out of here before anyone notices I'm gone." Then, perhaps as an afterthought as his eyes lit up with something indiscernible. "On the way, you can tell me about yourself. I'd very much like to hear your story."
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Re: Choices

Postby Dulcie » Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:21 am

Relief made it's mark on her young face, and when he was whole and on his feet she'd finally smile again, He offered his arm to her and she would take it in return, her smaller hand carefully wrapping out his newly healed arm. There was something a little off about him, but then magic did those sorts of things didn't it?

She finally breathed the breath she had been holding in and gathered up her small basket of things. She agreed that this wasn't a place she wanted to be found in. There would be no way of explaining it that would benefit either her or Guiseppe.

He asked about her story and she'd look back at him and smile warmly this time. "I think it'd do me some good to tell it. But I'm not sure you'll believe it all."

She'd be on the beginnings of her tale as they exited the Rememdium, leaving behind their pains and sorrows. This was a chance for a new life for them both.
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