@highheelsinblood and I RP a couple of OCs... Here is some canon RP that happened in FB messenger. Its a little choppy to read because it was back and forth while we both worked our day-jobs.
This is not a masterpiece written by a single writer. Its an Excerpt from a scene.
This deserves a bunch of content warnings but its mostly psychological, emotional and physical abuse/torture.
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She goes downstairs towards the kitchen, and James can hear soft, whimpering prayers in a woman's voice, begging for mercy. Lizzy walks in behind the cowering Rover. "Grab her, Noah,” she orders, still using his middle name as his first.
He stands there, processing He had already eaten. She's so young and innocent. she’s not running or fighting. . . just praying.
Lizzy side eyes him, lets go of his hand, and leans over to whisper, "If you want that collar off in the next month, you'll grab her."
James groans audibly and stiffens a moment in thought.
"I’m sorry," he whispers to the young lady as he grabs her firmly by her forearms. He lifts her from her crouched position, holding her firm to try to keep her from struggling too much.
She's only crying now, James catches the end of her prayer to the Lord Commander as she's pulled to her feet. Lizzy's got a knife out, and approaches them both. "Chin up, darling,” she coos to the freckled woman. “At least you're not being eaten alive.
"Eliz. . . ELizabeth. . . ." he stammers as he catches the end of her prayer. “We . . . I. . . She’s of my faith." He passes truly pathetic and concerned eyes back and forth between the women.
Elizabeth just stares at him. "What do I care?" Her hand twitches, and her knife flies across the woman's throat. The brown-haired woman gasps, leans against James before collapsing to the floor, choking on her own blood for air.
"NO!" James howls as he sees the blood. "Please! Elizabeth help her! Please! I’ll wear the collar! I'll bleed for her! Let me bleed for her Elizabeth, please!" He lays the girl down so he can apply pressure to her neck wound. He can first aid her with the collar on, but that is the extent of his capacity while this horrible “tourniquet” cuts him off from his divinity. "Please God. . . I. . . "
She's still alive, choking, blood is bubbling up from her wound, she's grabbing at Dire with tiny, desperate fingers, begging with her big doe eyes for help. She can't be older than Hope.
"Would you have cared if she was Darwin? Seasons? Faithless?"
Lizzy kicks James in the head, hard. James falls sideways with the hard kick, it knocks him into a slight daze, interrupting the aid he was trying to give the girl. However, he just scrambles back up to try and help her again, shaking.
"No. I wouldn’t have. . . I wouldn’t have cared. But I’m a priest, Elizabeth. And a Nation. She’s my responsibility!"
"No, she's not." Lizzy grabs him by the edge of the collar and drags him back away from her, out of reach. She can feel the spikes inside the collar twisting inside the muscles of his neck as she pulls.
He howls in emotional agony. He tries to claw back to the Rover. "Elizabeth! Please! I’ll bleed for her! Let me save her!”
Lizzy pulls on his collar again, and forces him to look up at her, green eyes to empty ones.
"You forget who you belong to, pet. Remind me."
James scowls at her. His fear turning to anger. He was mad at her. "Does she DESERVE this, Gatekeeper?”
"She might,” she says without flinching at his snarls. “You don't know. But she's a witness."
He’s still pissed. "Fix. Her."
She's grinning down at him as he tries to make demands of her, hovering within headbutt distance of his face. "Are you bartering?"
"No. I’m not. Fix her! Now!" It's a flashback? He hasn’t been demanding in the 50 or so weeks he's been there. He's been so subservient, worried about his own hide and religious experience. Worried about Elizabeth and her well being. . . but not now. He was obviously ready to be a shit.
There’s a moment of silence as Bambi continues to struggle to hang onto her life. ". . . You'll owe me. Are you ready to accept that?"
He doesn’t hesitate. "Yes."
Lizzy undoes the pin, and releases the collar off him without mercy for his wounds. "Fix her yourself," she says, letting the spiked collar swing in her red fingers.
Removing of the collar used to put him under for minutes. But these days it’s turned more into a blinding head pain. His vision is flooded with white hot searing agony. He screams as he’s freed. Blood spurts in tiny streams down his neck chest and back. He scrambles to the rover, crawling and nearly blinded in his pain.
He had lost track of time. James wasn't sure if he had time for first aid. He needed to call her. His vision and mind slowly returned. Blood dripped from him and onto the young Fallow. He had a feeling if he called, he may not be allowed to pray afterwards. He hoped it wasn't true.
"If it is the Lord’s will, you shall be healed"
A floodgate's worth of white static flows out of his hands, over her body, her neck. It stitches closed her skin, returns to the color it was. She starts to hyperventilate from the shock of it all, but she's alive.
She clings onto his pant legs, crying, thanking God for him. He pulls her to him. Embracing her as she sobs. "I’m sorry, child. The Lord sees you. The Lord loves you."
He only gets a moment before Lizzy speaks again.
"Come here, child." Lizzy's voice is cold, even. James doesn't let go. He's scared. The Rover doesn't want to let go, but she does stand up, shaking more than a newborn fawn, holding onto James. "You realize how lucky you are?” Elizabeth coos at her as she shakes. “A Priest of your God was here. He's going to suffer greatly for what he did." The Rover hasn't stopped crying. "Now, go upstairs and clean up. If you run, you'll regret it. If you try to hurt me, you'll regret it. You'll have money each week for doing as I say, without question or comment. Understand, child?"
”. . . Bambi.
"Lizzy cocks her head to the side. "Is that your name? Bambi?"
"Yes, mi-miss."
"Fine. Bambi, go clean. Say goodbye to your Priest."
James hugs the young Fallow almost immediately, trying to shield Bambi from Lizzy’s cold rage. "If you don't cause trouble, Bambi, everything will be okay.”
She nods, trying to smile for him; there's still so much blood on her.
"Move it," Lizzy snaps at James’ back. Bambi reluctantly leaves, going back upstairs, hugging her blood-soaked clothes. Lizzy watches her go, and then turns to look at James. "There's a bonesaw in this kitchen. Find it."
He nods, his air of submission returning. He begins by scanning with his eyes. Making sure it's not just sitting out. Then he moves, opening drawers and cabinets. It's not hiding from him - it's tucked in with a bunch of other kitchen knives. It's seen better days, but the blade is still sharp. He imagined all the harm that could be done with a simple saw.
He was tired but he feared he’d earned no rest. James grabs the bonesaw, turns, and returns to his captor. She takes it from him, pushing him back towards the table, where remnants of cake and ice cream still rest. Putting her hand on the back of his head, she smashes him into the wood, knocking the food off the table.
"Errrhmgh." He moans as he leans to one side. His wings flap out as his knees threaten to give way. Wobbling from pain, his head felt like it was splitting.
She pulls his head back, and clamps the collar back around his neck, forcefully. Spikes slide into the meat of his neck, two large ones pinching against his spine. "I don't want you to fix what I'm about to do to you." Lizzy hisses in his ear, and she slams his head on the table again.
His eyes widen with fear and confusion as she locks it on again. The previous holes from the spikes still faintly trickling as the flesh is ripped again. He wails from the pain but only for a moment before his head is slammed a second time.
James consciousness fluttered as his upper body rested against the table. His vision blurred and darkness crept in from the corners.
Once he settles, Lizzy pulls out the bonesaw, and grabs his wing at the base, yanking on it hard, nails digging in. He moved with her force, clinging to the table edge. He lies tense, his forehead resting against the wood."Honestly, you don't really need these if you're going to act in your best interest over your Gatekeeper's."
He speaks between sobs as he feels her manhandling his new appendage.
"You, you think that’s what happened?" His head feels like it was crammed full of broken glass. It felt like splitting and cutting when he moved his eyes. His vision still wobbling, threatening to make him motion sick. He slams his eyes shut. Trying to ease his symptoms.
"You have a different viewpoint?" She starts to saw into the fragile bones of his wings, feeling them crack and splinter under her fingers. His feet begin flail as gives her short yelps of pain and groaning between long bouts of held breath. He speaks but the tone sounds like begging. "You weren't sure if she deserved it! I wanted to protect us all. Please Elizabeth, I just didn’t want you to kill a Fallow! " More shock and pain floods his voice "You’re doing God’s work!"
Elizabeth has nothing to say to James as he screams and hollers. Wings are delicate, and she finally starts to rips one away, pulling flesh and muscle with it as she tears the wing free. Long tendons pull free as she yanks on his wing. It feels like the tendril of white fiber was pulled from deep in his back muscles. Horrific pain had him arching and wincing, But she was only half done.
The wing flops onto the floor, where Bambi's blood was starting to dry, and Lizzy leans over James to speak in his ear. James' eyes well. He doesn't know if the severing hurts more, or the intent. She was so upset with him. She thought him undeserving of his blessing. Perhaps he was. Mostly he credited this mess to his behavior in regard to Credence, Bambi’s previous employer. If he had just stopped. . . there would be no crime. no witness. no corpse in the dining room upstairs.
"Consider this the beginning of your penance to me," Elizabeth whispers, showing the bloody saw in her hand. His face crunches up in fear and pain as she comes close to his face, He leans his head away, trying not to sob at her.
"I'm sorry I killed Creedence, Gatekeeper! I'm Sorry!" He blubbers "I shall repent. Take penance from my flesh!" His voice is hitched and wet.
Elizabeth scoffs at him. "Credence was a dead man as soon as he pulled a gun on me. That's not your sin, James." The saw makes one long, agonizingly slow stroke across his other wing. "You're pathetic."
The chatter of the saw's teeth against his hollow bone is so different than how it felt on his other bones. He could feel them splintering. When the blade makes a crack in the bone, he can feel the fracture spread up his wing like breaking glass.The crunching and cutting has him squirming. he can’t hold still for her, and James tries to plea instead. "I don't understand Gatekeeper! Please! She's of my faith, I can't abandon her! It's in my blood!”
"Some stranger prays to your God and she's suddenly more important than me,” Elizabeth hisses. “I understand, Dire. I fucking understand." She saws again, and again, ripping serrated blade through flesh and bone, tearing it away from his body. His scream sound more like sobs as he curls up, his second wing ripping away slowly. He doesn't know what to do with his hands so he puts one gently against her without looking. Hes feeling her with tense fingers, occasionally griping at clothes, releasing and moving elsewhere to pat at her.
"I'm sorry! I understand! I understand now, Gatekeeper!" His head still wanted to explode, the pain pressing hard inside his skull. His back was soaked in his own blood, warm and slippery. "Allow me to correct this!" He's desperate.
He doesn't want to spend more days with her upset at him. It makes everything so hard. She had just stopped starving him, but he suspected she would go right back to it considering the events of the day. "I'll, I’ll kill her! I’ll do it for you!"
"No you won't. She's gonna stay here now, and I'll work her, and use her as I see fit." Lizzy pauses her work - she's almost done - to grab James by the chin chains and tug. "She's going to see Hell itself and it'll be your fault."
He manages to open his eyes and look at her as she yanked his scruffy beard and chin chains. Hes silent - listening. his brows just furrow pathetically. Once she lets go and moves again, he pipes up, "NO PLEASE! I made a mistake, I see now!"
Lizzy isn't listening, but the saw goes through one last time, severing his wing completely. It bleeds profusely, and she tosses it away."How about you just lay there for a bit, pet." There's venom in her voice.
James whimpers at her, his crimson painting the kitchen red. it pools and drips in long dark strings. Even with his eyes tightly closed, he can feel the room spinning. He didn’t have any strength to argue another word."Yes, Gatekeeper." He replies weakly, trying to relax his shuddering body. He wished for angels. He prayed, to the only entity with more power than the Gatekeeper, to give him mercy. . . He knew God Wouldn’t. God was firmly in Elizabeth's camp.
Lizzy lights a pair of candles, puts them aside, at the edge of James' vision.
"You're not entirely grasping the situation here, are you?" James doesn't say anything. He slightly shakes his head. He never really did grasp anything. He couldn't imagine how she felt, he must be so infuriating. "You decided that your duty as a Priest was more important than my safety. That's the situation." She's holding a knife over the flame, letting James watch.
He wanted to argue, to articulate his thoughts but he could feel himself giving up . . . what good was it really? He wanted to just lay there and take it, or die, or whatever he deserved. . . but, If he did, she might think that's how he saw it. That he didn't care about her safety. It wasn't true and she needed to know it. "Elizabeth. that's not how I saw it. . . " he speaks in barely more than a whisper, "You're strong, and brave, this house has so many locks. I’m here. . . I’m here to protect you if she had returned. . . She wouldn’t return Elizabeth. She wasn't going to try to save me, she just wants to go hom--"
"You don't know that!" Lizzy slams her fist into a puddle of blood on the table, screaming. "Dead people don't tell secrets, if she had gone home and told somebody, how many more do you think would have come back? How many people do you think want to stick a knife in me?!”
"Elizabeth. . . no one cares about us." He blinks at her with wet eyes. She slams her fist on the table again. And again. The knife is in her hands, and she's standing back over James, pushing his collar into his neck even further with her free hand.
"SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"
James feels the spikes digging deep as she pushes. Grinding the collar deep and pushing his head into the table. The knife stabs into his wing holes, hot and burning as she goes, screaming and making more holes in him. He tenses wildly as the knife finds him. over and over.
Thoughts are melting away from him, stolen by pain and grief. He grips the edges of the table as she plunges the knife into him. The burning of the blade slows the pace of blood-loss, but the flesh is seared. He feels fluid forming in his left lung and he rattles a cough, letting the blood leak from his lips
Lizzy screeches and flings the knife away, letting it bang on the wall of the kitchen, and she lets go of James. "Fuck you! You don't know anything!"
"I. . . " He coughs again. It's painful in the collar. He buries his face between his own shoulder and the table, his grip still tight on the table. ". . . care, Elizabeth." He doesn't figure she could hear him, he's not even sure he said it out loud. He wept from pain and exhaustion into the table, traces of blood tasted like bitter copper.
She doesn't seem to hear him at first, and slams her fist on the table again.
"IF YOU CARED YOU WOULDN'T HAVE LEFT!" James flinches as she bangs around, he doesn't jerk much though, he just doesn't have it in him. He lifts his head a bit when she screams. His head wobbles as he tries to look back over his shoulder at her.
"When?" He asks with empathy in his tone. Lizzy's grabbing her hair now, getting his blood on it, and curling up in the corner, sliding against the wall of the kitchen, screaming and sobbing. "You left you left you left!" James comes to a slow realization. He lowers his head back down. She had done this a few times before. He hated that when he bit back at her it sent her into these episodes. He didn't hate it for the reasons others might. . . he hated it because he was suddenly the reason she suffered.
She curls up and stays there on the floor, crying into her arm, holding her tattooed wrist so tight she was losing circulation in her hand. "Come back, come back. . . please. . . please, I'm sorry."
James rests a moment, then slides off the table, looking more like jelly than a person. He can't quite stay standing so he slowly melts to the floor and crawls to her, his hands and knees slipping around in his own blood. Red palm prints mark his path to her.
Once he gets there, he reaches out slowly. Trying to ease her to his touch, he goes lightly for her shoulder. She flinches, slaps his hand away in shock, yelling again. "Fuck off!"
James flinches significantly as she swats him, but he doesn't run. "Elizabeth, Please. Let me console you." Even though his sense of self-preservation screamed at him to leave her be, he couldn't help it. The pain in him - the empathy- had him reaching out a second time.
She didn't shove him off this time, just cried for Joseph over and over, cutting into her wrist with her nails. James takes the opportunity and slides on his butt next to her. He works hard to keep his back and stumps off the wall, they were burning him up. He half wraps himself around her, half pulls her to him. He’s being firm but not squeezing her. Raising his chin Dire prays to God on her behalf.
Lizzy's curling up under his arms and crying, asking why Joseph left her, why she was alone, why she was damned. Her knuckles were bruising and bloody. James kisses the top of her head. Her hair always smelled good. Clean. like expensive soap.
"As long as I live, Elizabeth. . . you will never be alone," he whispers into her scalp as he rocks her slightly. "I'm sorry that Joseph is gone. . . But I won't leave you." hes slow and patient with her. He's not in a hurry for her to dry her eyes. James just holds her to him.
Lizzy clings onto him, burying her head under his chin as she cries for her missing husband. “I'm a mess, I'm awful, I don't know how. . . I miss him so much. . . I just. . . I can't. . . "
He nods against her head. "I know. I know." he whispers, content to stay there as long as she needed.
