avalononline | voice; un: stranger

No.

I never got sick.

My body was not human before. I was immune to illness, I had no need for sleep nor any sustenance beyond the dying screams of my prey.

I was a manifestation of...of...

[A loud sneeze.]

Bah. Forget it.

Edited (accidentally a whole word) 2021-04-19 02:03 (UTC)

Well, you get sick now, so I would suggest finding a healer or someplace that offers, what? Medicine for a cold, is it?

Don't tell me you were out in the rain too long.

[ Of course, Caesar sounds like he finds that possibility hilarious rather than worrisome. In all honesty, he understandably isn't worried about Yuber's general health, so. Yeah. ]

I was only in the rain for a few hours. Is that really all it takes?

[A low, sickly hiss.]

...Humans are so pathetic.

Yeah, yeah, so you keep saying, but if you want to live to get out of here, you do need to at least understand the limits of human health.

[ See? He's helping. He did say he would help, doesn't this count? ]

Standing in the rain or freezing cold or even high heats too long will all do you harm. Now, I don't actually care if you do yourself harm, but I imagine you really don't want to be sick the entire time you're stuck here.

I don't.

But I don't want to hide from the weather like a frightened rat either.

I'd tell you to go expand your wardrobe to include an oilskin or two but you probably don't know what that means, either.

[ Or he'd go slaughter some innocent tailor for one, which would be bad. ]

Where are you staying?

The hotel, Room Two Hundred Seventeen.

...For now.

Alright. Don't leave yet, okay? And don't make me regret this.

[ Not that he'll be showing up at Yuber's door immediately. He has to suffer the rain himself to track down a herbalist's store or something and then offer to sweep some floors and put stock away in return for cold medicine for his "poor, sick friend". Is Yuber worth his effort? Probably not but maybe, in some slim possibility, he can tame the psycho into someone a little more palatable for their stay here.

Would Chris approve? Nope. That's why he won't be mentioning it to her.

But about an hour later, room 277 will be getting a knock on the door. ]

[The door opens with a creak and Caesar will see a wolf-sized skeletal dragon drop down to all fours after having apparently pressed it open.

The creature regards him with ember-like eyes that are somehow beleaguered. Someone has laid waste to the room beyond. Pictures and mirrors are torn from the walls and there are piles of splintered ruin scattered around the floor from what was once furniture. The bed is intact and most of an arm chair.

From the adjoining bathroom there is a loud sneeze and Yuber stalks out wearing a thin bathrobe with the hotel logo emblazoned on the shoulder. He stops mid-stride as he passes the door and stares at Caesar a long moment before speaking.]

...Silverberg?

What are you doing here!?

[ Wow, alright, that's... a look. Caesar goes from staring at the skeletal dragon — seriously considering turning to run at the sight of that but it doesn't attack, so, he stands his ground — to the ruined hotel room behind the poor thing to, of course, Yuber. In a bathrobe. Not a look he was expecting and also not one he ever wanted to see.

Unsurprisingly, he makes a face at the entire situation he's arrived at. ]

Typically, when someone asks where you're staying, they mean to drop by at some point.

[ Since Yuber continually reminds him that he has no idea how being a person works here. His gaze drops back down to the dragon. He stares at it a bit longer this time, then drops into a crouch before it and holds the little bag he brought with him out to it.

If this familiar is as obnoxiously clever as his own, it probably understands him. ]

For his fever and the rest. Mix one sachet of the stuff with water and make sure he drinks it every six hours. There should be enough for three days. It won't cure anything outright but it'll make the symptoms more bearable.

[ It'll also make him sleepy. Caesar leaves that out. It can be a fun surprise for later. ]

[The bone dragon stares up at Caesar's eyes, then at the bag, then at Caesar again.

Eventually it nods and takes the bag gently in its teeth.

Yuber watches these events with a scowl; fever, exhaustion and confusion buzzing between his ears.]

What?

[His familiar carries the bag past him to what used to be a nightstand.]

What is this?

You two are conspiring against me, aren't you!?

Oh, calm down. It's medicine.

[ With the familiar taking the bag, he's free to stand back up and dust himself off. Not that it helps. He's a little damp from the rain, not dusty, but it's an automatic motion, a habit. ]

Just follow the directions I gave your weird bone dragon and it'll help with your illness. See, that's the thing about mortals. Sure, we're weak to a lot of stuff, but we've also figured out ways to survive all of that same stuff, like colds, for instance.

Even a mortal child can manage one of those with less whining than you've done.

[Yuber glares down his nose at his familiar, not immediately reacting to Caesar's words.

He hears them as if from worlds away.

Through the thick veil of sickness he gets the impression that he's been insulted. Should he respond to the insult? It's a Silverberg, Silverbergs are among the more respectable humans, but...

...But he feels a lurch in his chest, followed by a tightness as if an impossible talon equipped with eight wicked claws had suddenly seized his heart and begun crushing it.

Kill him. Shred him to pieces.

No, his True Rune can't speak anymore. Can it?

Yuber is not sure if it's a memory, a hallucination, or the Eight-Tasseled Rune coming suddenly alive but it's painful all the same.

Killing, killing is the only thing that will end the pain.

He roars and violently lunges at Caesar, hands reaching outward, searching for the boy's throat.]

[ This is what Caesar gets for dropping his guard. Being sick hardly makes Yuber less dangerous. If anything, it makes him like a wounded animal, cornered, terrified, and vicious, and it's a hard lesson to learn but learn he will when he fails to duck back fast enough. The hand closes around his throat before he can dodge away and his own hands immediately fly up to grab at the demon's fingers, trying in vain to pry them off.

Don't panic, don't panic, wow, it is really hard not to panic, but he is still a Silverberg. It's not as though he'd never anticipated this might happen, even if he'd been foolish enough not to consider it for right this moment.

He does struggle against the grip but he doesn't waste his breath trying to talk. Not verbally, anyway. Instead, he lashes out with his mental voice, trying to push something, anything, useful out of these cognitive powers he's been granted. ]

Let go!

[ At first he does sound scared, even in his own head, in Yuber's head, but when he tries again, he looks up to meet the demon's gaze, and this time, he shoves the idea of letting him go at him with every ounce of magical strength he has. Not much, admittedly, right now, but what else can he do? ]

I... said... let go of me, right now!

[Yuber glares wildly and squeezes, feeling Caesar's throat twitch in his grip. It would be easy to snap the frail bones...

Let go of me, right now!

The voiceless words burst into his mind so suddenly he's not sure if he's the one who thought them or not.

The squeezing grip goes still.

A faint curl of obedience wriggles its way up his spine and into his hand. It's the same obedience he'd felt for Albert and Leon. For a few heartbeats he mutely stares forward then his fingers part from Caesar's neck and he steps back.]

[ And as soon as those fingers part from his neck, Caesar stumbles back and away a few steps before grabbing ahold of the doorjamb to keep himself from falling over foolishly on his rear end. His other hand flies to his throat, making sure it's still there and wholly intact... it is... a relief.

But the whole time, he's staring right back at Yuber, trying to make sense of what just happened. It worked? That worked? Or had the demon simply decided against killing him right here, right now? ]

You... actually listened. Huh.

Yes.

[Yuber slouches back over to his bed and sits on the edge of it as he pulls his robe a bit more tightly around himself.]

I still need you.

Funny way of showing it...

[ He grumbles, still rubbing his neck. ]

Look, just take the medicine. I already told your familiar how it works. Or don't. Honestly, it's up to you how much you want to suffer.

[ And with that, he isn't going to stick around much longer. Caesar turns to leave, stepping back out into the hotel hallway. ]

voice; un: stranger

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: mentions of murder

no subject

cw: choking

no subject

no subject

no subject