He wants to say his name, but the words won't even leave his mouth; becoming a strained breath on the empty air. Darling stares at the young man, wondering if he's even there or just another vision conjured to torture him in this Dark Place. His eyes are sunken and shadowed with fatigue, their hues dull and lifeless as if all the light has been squeezed out of them.
His fault, he's reminded.
He stole this young boy away from everything he'd ever known and moulded him into this: The Bureau's Prisoner.
Darling wanted to tell him that he'd tried to reach him when he'd been distributing the HRA's. How he'd pleaded with the guards on duty outside the great, heavy doors leading into P6's Cell to wear the HRA's and pass one on to P6.
Everyone had thought he was crazy.
Everyone had ignored him.
Was there even a Bureau left now? Down here in the dark, he hardly knew. He always introduced himself as "formerly of the Federal Bureau of Control", but what context did that hold if it was non existent.
He was cast adrift.
Alone in a vast sea.
It was nothing less than what he deserved.
"I-...I'm sorry..." he murmured, looking between those darkened eyes. "I'm so sorry."
"I said I was coming back!" he chuckled, his voice light and warm as he clambered back under the covers and kissed his temple.
Nuzzling back against him, he looked up at him with a soft, adoring look in his eye. Lazy mornings like these were his favourite. Nowhere to go, no one to bother them except the children and as much time with each other as they wanted.
"Essi was fine, by the way...she just dropped Star down the side of her bed and couldn't reach him," he explained, resting his head against Caesar's chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart against his ear. "Of course, I acted as though I was saving him from a deep cavern and she heralded me as hero of the hour! And now she's happily playing again as if nothing happened..."
He looks up at him. "...so, I think I bought us at least another half hour of snuggle time before she decides she's hungry for breakfast or Leo wakes up."
He pouts. "Forgive me for abandoning you, my love?"
She knows that the cameras are watching her. That there are Agents sitting up in the observation area carefully monitoring her every move as well as his. Rangers, poised at any moment to strike. Scientists with their fingers hesitating over the button, raring to placate their prisoner. They live on a knife edge.
She takes a deep breath, quelling her rising anxiety. "I'm not trying to tell you that you shouldn't hurt...or how much or how little you should feel. I'm...trying to tell you that you should be able to hurt and grieve and feel these things for as long as you want. Y-You should be allowed to feel."
Lyla can almost sense the Rangers readying themselves, ready to pull her away from him. She was speaking off script, but she doesn't care how much they've "prepped" her. P6 is still a person, even if no one treats him like one.
She braces herself, unafraid. "Scream at me...if it helps. Or...throw something at me-" Now the Rangers were definitely listening. "- you decide when you're done."
"You broke him when you disappeared, you know?" -from Johannes about Caesar ( @roisdevivre )
bittersweet reunions (accepting) || @roisdevivre
Of all the barbs Johannes had thrown at him tonight, this was the worst.
It felt like a javelin of ice had slammed into his chest, stealing his breath and freezing him to the spot.
Anger and hurt and anguish churned behind his one, cool blue eye as he stared into the furious face of his former friend. The friend who had abandoned him when he needed support; though, it was no less than the Poet had deserved.
"Oh, I broke him, did I?" he snapped, his voice breaking and his eyes brimming with tears he stubbornly refused to let fall. His body shook furiously, his left hand resting on the head of his cane to steady himself. "You have no idea what I went through, Joha..."
Johannes cursed under his breath. "It is always about you, isn't it? Never thinking of anyone else but yourself-"
"Thanks to you, I only have myself to think of-"
"Thanks to me?!" Johannes pushed himself closer, the silver spokes on his wheelchair glinting in the orange lamplights illuminating the cobbles streets of Covent Garden. "You are the one who got everyone killed!"
There it was. Johannes had never directly blamed him before now. Their last meeting had been in the hospital after the accident, when Johannes had implied that the accident had all been the Poet's fault and cut ties with him, but now he'd said it.
"And me like this!" Johannes gestured to his missing leg. "And you like that!" He jabbed an index finger towards the Poet's eye. "And now Caesar is destroyed because you pretend you are dead!"
"You could have told him I wasn't," Poet hissed furiously. "Why didn't you?"
Johannes jaw tensed and he turned his attention to a darkened alleyway to their left. The look on his face was damning. A test that he'd passed, but not in a positive way. He'd seen him. He had seen Caesar. Recently, by the shadowed guilt in his expression.
"When?" he snipped.
"What?"
"When did you see him last?"
"Why are you caring now?"
"Just tell me."
Johannes licked his lips, running his top teeth over his bottom lip. "I see him regularly. After you are gone, someone had to be keeping an eye on him. You know how he gets."
The Poet scoffed, his heart reaching a new low within his chest he didn't even know was possible. "Right. Of course...because you're the best of friends, I suppose. Perhaps even more."
"I cannot be babysitter to you both, perkele!" Johannes barked, taking several breaths to steady himself in the muffled silence between them that followed. "He is missing you more than anything. Sometimes, you are all he is thinking of even though he is doing other things...and even if I fucking despise the ground you are walking on, if you have any sense left in dumby head, you will collect ticket from Rock Garden box office tomorrow night. He has show there."
The Poet shook his head. "I can't, Joha..." he mutters, his shoulders slumping. "Everything's changed. He's famous now and I'm-...well, you made your point earlier about what I look like. I'm just...not part of his world anymore and even if I was, I'm a failure. He-...he misses Aatos...and that boy is long dead now."
Johannes stares at him for a long moment, takes an incredulous sniff and cast a glance to his surroundings. "Offer is there. Take or leave."
And without another word, he pushes himself past the Poet in his wheelchair. As he watches him leave, the Poet feels as though the ground beneath him has caved in and he's acutely aware of how compelling gravity is. He stumbles, his palm hitting a nearby wall to stabilise himself.
He can't breathe. His chest hurts. He feels like he might pass out.
This was not the reunion he had envisioned.
He hadn't envisioned a reunion between them at all.
And yet his offer lingered in the back of his mind.
More Scar Interactions || ALWAYS accepting || @roisdevivre
[Trace] Trace my muse’s scar purposely
The sensation of fingertips against his injured cheek instinctively made him flinch, jolting in shock as he turned towards Caesar with wide eyes. His pulse thrummed in his neck, feeling as though it might beat out of his chest as all the air in his lungs escaped and his chest constricted.
He turned to him, swallowing thickly. His touch was...gentle. And he wasn't looking at him with repulsion or fear, he was looking at him with a soft affection he'd thought long gone for so long. Warmth began to blossom in his chest and he leaned into the touch, eyes closing as he allowed his walls to come down just a fraction.
"I-I-..." he murmured. "Sorry, I'm-...I'm not used to-...uhh..."
❛ do you ever feel like there's something missing ... like a piece of your heart is somewhere else? ❜ -from Luca @roisdevivre
yearning.
@roisdevivre
she's not good at this.
she never has been.
artemis a. crock is her father's child. she's brash, feels intense feelings--- but refuses to verbalize them. it comes to her naturally, the urge to bury all non-surface emotions is one she feels for all things. positive--- negative--- somewhere in-between. they are all buried deep down in her gut, only allowed to come out in bursts.
normally, a question like this might make her shut-down.
normally, she might make some deflective comment. change the subject to something that was easier for her to swallow--- but not tonight.
tonight, huddled by the fire, artemis shifts uncomfortably. pulling her blanket tighter around her shoulders, as she considers the question. yes, of course there were pieces of her heart missing--- but she's not sure it's in the way he means. the intimacy of his question leads her to believe that he was a romantic. she's not sure if the something missing was something she would ever be able to obtain.
"yes." her answer is firm, quiet. it takes a moment for her gaze to find his;; an uncomfortable, sad smile painting her expression as she finally does. that's the most she can answer for herself--- not without acknowledging the growing pit in her stomach. but it doesn't stop her from being curious about him.
"do you?" briefly, her mind shoots to the image of someone she thinks would fill that part of luca's heart. ---someone soft, she thinks. someone kind. all of the things she is rarely capable of being. her gaze snaps away from his for a second, glancing at the storm outside of the window behind him. ---another image of someone sweet and untamed passes through her head, making her chew on the inside of her cheek as eyes once again find his. "---i mean, do you want there to be?"
that '70s show prompt / accepting / @roisdevivre sent . . . "If you don't get caught, everything is legal." -from Tanith
❝ No, no . . . it's still illegal, you just didn't get convicted of the crime. If I shaved my head without telling anyone, isolated myself until my hair grew back, & returned to my friends — I still shaved my head, even if they wouldn't know. ❞
Perhaps an odd hypothetical to use as a comparison, but Eddie has had experiences with shaving his head. Usually it results in regret, & wanting to hide from everyone. Just how he also has experience with doing illegal activities.
He lets out a hefty sigh.
❝ I think it'd be more accurate to say you can ignore any rule as long as you don't get caught. ❞
