Open RP: Evil Missions and the Great Pie Hunt

[usethepoker.livejournal.com]

Susan and Shaun had been cobbling together a guidebook to Hogwarts when the WART broadcasted. The idea was to put together something that would help ease Liz’s transition, whenever she arrived; both of them knew that Liz was definitely not the sort of person who would take some of the weird shit here easily.

“Well, theme music,” Shaun said, looking up. Composition was not his strong point--like many people who are erudite enough in speech, he had a hard time when it came to setting it down on paper, and the carpet around his chair was littered with discarded balls of crumpled parchment. “That’s a bit of all right.”

Susan, who didn’t recognize a single song, nevertheless nodded. “I still don’t fully understand this ‘Halloween’ thing,” she said. Though she’d been at Hogwarts last Halloween, she couldn’t remember it now, and thus the point and significance of the holiday were lost on her. Shaun had tried to explain it, but why something that was more or less the Day of the Dead should inspire people to dress up and get drunk, she didn’t know. Then again, in her experience quite a lot of people would use almost anything as an excuse to dress up and get drunk, so…

Shaun didn’t get a chance to try to explain again. Something odd was going on in his head--something he’d never really felt before, or at least not in this magnitude. The adrenaline-fueled desperation he’d experienced when they’d been besieged in the Winchester slammed back full-force, but this time the fear had been replaced with…something else. Memory of him threatening to gut David with a broken bottle if the man came any nearer his dying mum overtook him--the sheer rage he’d felt in that moment, only now it was amplified tenfold. Shaun was not a violent man--at least, not if you weren’t a zombie--but something in him suddenly wanted to be.

He looked at Susan, who had gone very still herself. A change seemed to ripple over her features--her already pale skin whitened to near transparency, her hair coiling down into something limp and passive, and when she looked up at him her eyes would have scared the life out of him, if he hadn’t been so changed already himself.

They were black--solid black, unbroken save for a tiny, remote pinprick of arctic blue at the center. She smiled, and her teeth seemed…sharper, somehow; sharper, and a good deal more sinister than any smile Shaun had ever seen on her.

They looked at one another. Both suddenly had an inexplicable urge to go do something very unpleasant to someone else, but the two of them were allies--there was an unspoken understanding that they’d do nothing awful to one another.

…LET’S PLAY, Susan said, and the Voice had taken on strange harmonics it had never before held--there was a note of malevolence beneath it, a gleeful, vicious sort of malice that promised all sorts of unpleasant things. She paused. AND THEN LET’S GET PIE.

Shaun picked up his bat, flipping it from hand to hand. He returned her rather disturbing smile. “Play, then pie,” he said. “Gotcha. Shall we?”

They didn’t even bother to use the door--Susan just grabbed his hand as she went straight through the wall, taking him along with her. Neither one knew where they were going, or what they would do when they got there, but both were in silent agreement as to the type and amount of damage they wanted to do along the way. Odd thoughts of dominance were firing through Susan’s brain--the need to overpower, to crush, to overwhelm. Shaun, whose mindset was echoing that, was more than willing to help--they’d get rid of any and all zombies once and for all, intelligent or not.

And then there would be pie. Because dude, every evil would-be villain needs pie, dammit.

((NWS warning: Stephen and Susan's thread eventually devolves into attempted murder, and thence into smut. Yeah, we don't really know, either :P))

Comments

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"On the contrary, I expect Dr Suresh -- that is his name, Dr Mohinder Suresh -- should welcome the opportunity. He was most emphatic that he could not accept the assistantship in potions unless he were able to continue his own research as well. I can arrange an introduction if you find that easier."

Though he could not see her smile, her little sounds of contentment were enough to assure him she was in fact not ill-pleased with what he did say and what he did not.

"I have no idea what a Sonky might be," he said candidly. "I understand persons nowadays use various rubber contraptions that did not exist in my time. Some protect the cervix, others the membrum virile. They are Muggle contraptions, not wizarding; the wizarding world tends to rely on potions for everything; but the wizarding world has not seen anything like you." His fingers ran along the tendon in her neck, and up into her hair. The tone was clearly affectionate. "No one has ever seen anything like you."

[usethepoker.livejournal.com]

"I think I'd like that," she said. "I'm interested in what he might be able to come up with." How in the world one might test anything to do with genetics, she didn't know, but clearly it must be possible.

Susan snuggled closer to him, her fingers stroking lightly along his back. "A Sonky is a rubber contraption, as I understand it," she said. "Theoretically I know how they work, though to tell the truth they sound like they'd wind up both messy and uncomfortable." Perhaps she'd have to ask Camilla--Camilla, having grown up in the Muggle world, would surely know about more options than either herself or Stephen.

Her eyes drifted shut as his fingers trailed up into her hair. Out of everyone she knew, Stephen was the only one who had ever made her feel, even for a little while, that her differences were a good thing, rather than something freakish. "I think perhaps that's a good thing," she said, and she actually smiled as she said it. "The world doesn't need another creature like me. I think I confuse it enough as it is." Lightly she rested her chin on his shoulder, and added, "You know, it's probably a mercy I was an only child, and that Granddad only ever adopted my mother. One such accident is enough, I think."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"I should not call the workings of nature accidental," Stephen answered. "Would you say of a platypus that the world does not need another such creature? yet the platypus is marvelous in its eccentricities."

Stephen really thought platypus(es?) were awesome.

"That you choose not to reproduce is your own choice, and sure there are children enough in this world already that no one need feel obliged to add to the number; that you choose not to burden a new creature with what you find difficult to endure I can only count as laudable; yet, dear heart, you are to consider not everyone would see your gifts as wrong or unpleasant."

He frowned unconsciously in the dark as he tried to articulate what needed to be said next. "What happened before this -- before we went to bed tonight -- that was not wholly our doing. I seem to recall I had some plan of exploiting your gifts in order to depose Napoleon, and you in turn wished to take his place and conquer Europe, or some such nonsense. That was some manner of Hogwarts madness, some new god at play. Yet what we said and did was also true of us, reflective of some part we cannot wholly disown. I do wish to see Napoleon destroyed, though I do not wish to torture his men in pursuit of that aim. You for your part do harbor violent tendencies. I have found them disquieting before this."

[usethepoker.livejournal.com]

No, some people really wouldn't see them as wrong, but they were mostly people who wanted to use them for some (usually unpleasant) end. Certainly none of those people ever seemed to stop and think what it would be like to live with them, every day for the rest of your life.

Susan turned his words over, warm in the darkness, lying close to him. She knew something had to have happened, to turn her into that thing she had been; she just didn't know what--to her memory, all such magically-induced madnesses were usually connected with food, which neither she nor Shaun had eaten.

"I know that I do," she said at last. "I've been trying to find ways to work with it--Shaun made me take yoga with a woman named Molly, and I actually half enjoyed it--but I still don't know just what to do about it. I want to learn to control it, as much as I can, but who knows how long that will take." Both Molly and Cooper, whom she'd also seen in the class, seemed so very at peace with themselves, and she wondered yet how they'd managed it.

She found herself burying her face against the side of his neck, her arm tightening around his waist. She knew it, all right--had had it demonstrated to her in no uncertain terms, earlier. If Stephen found them disquieting, Susan now found them downright frightening; while she didn't know just what had taken the lid completely off that aspect of her, it had disturbed her beyond measure to see the true depth of what had been revealed. "Stephen, I almost killed you," she said, the words muffled against his skin, and just saying them aloud made her shudder. "I almost..."

Susan's words trailed off, and she shook herself. "I almost did, and I don't know why." He'd hurt her, yes--hurt her immensely--but what had been behind that sudden, almost insanely murderous fury, she couldn't say. And that...worried her. Immensely.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

There was nothing Stephen could say to that. Obviously sudden death seemed a rather disproportionate response to caddish behavior. At the same time, he could not sort between what was induced by the latest Hogwarts madness and what was genuinely Susan, only that he was sure elements of both had influenced her action.

"You stopped yourself," he said instead. "That is worth something."

[usethepoker.livejournal.com]

"Only because whatever influence was on us broke," she said, words still muffled. "I don't know about you, but for me...it was like I woke up all in an instant, like something in my mind snapped and quite suddenly I was myself again." It was an almost unbearably near miss, and she had no more idea how it had broken than she did of how it had come to be in the first place.

"You know I killed Teatime," she said at last. "I did, but at the time I had no choice--it was him or the rest of us. Gods know I've gotten angry enough in my life, but until now I've never even come close to trying to murder someone. And especially not someone so close to me."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"I should think, then, that the outside influence had enabled you to act on that urge in the first place, if the removal of said influence also removed your impetus to act. It did not create the wish to kill, any more than it instilled in me a hatred of Napoleon; it bridged the gap between wish and deed."

He held her closer, wrapping his arms around her, knowing she needed the comfort in it.

"I am no priest. I cannot claim to plumb the mysteries of the soul. I cannot help you here, dear heart," he said softly. "I only know you need some manner of control you have not yet developed, and I understand now how very difficult it must be for you to maintain any kind of control at all."

[usethepoker.livejournal.com]

"And it's not like there's any kind of manual, either," she said, going for light and not quite succeeding. "I'm trying. The problem is, I know it's impossible to change one's nature--it's not something I will ever be able to really get rid of. All I can do is try to control it, as best I can, once I figure out some decent method of doing so."

Susan shut her eyes, focusing with an effort on the warmth of Stephen against her, on the steady beat of his heart beneath her cheek. "Molly--the woman who taught the class--said that you can't change what you are, but once you know why you're that way, you can work with it. She's an unusual woman, and I can't help but think that maybe she's on to something." Which meant, in effect, that she had to figure out just where all that excess of anger came from. If she didn't have impetus to do so before, she certainly did now.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen thought that at the least Susan now saw the need to control her violent impulses, which was more than he could say for her before. Even her boggart encounter in DADA class had not sufficed to drive the lesson home, as far as Stephen could tell. If it took his own near-death to prove it to her, well, it was an ill wind that blew nobody good.

He continued to hold Susan close, stroking along her back. Her skin fairly thrummed beneath his fingertips, that enhanced tactile ability still racing through him. "Perhaps she can be of some help to you, then," he said, being optimistic for Susan's sake, "this Molly." If it were the Molly Stephen had met, Jack's onetime amour, Stephen rather doubted it, but would not for the life of him say so. "Perhaps you shall find other means. I only know I am not the one to do it, may God forgive me." Stephen had his own problems with short-temperedness.

"I wish I could," he added, thoughtfully, sadly. "You need things I cannot give you, honey-love. One thing I can give you, though, is sleep if you want that now. There is a bottle of Dreamless Sleep Potion somewhere around here ..."

[usethepoker.livejournal.com]

"Nobody can really help me with it," she said, quiet but resigned. "It's not something for which there could be any comparable situation. Plenty of people have terrible tempers, but none of them are what I am. Maybe, if I can discover where it comes from...well, that might do me some good. The bottom line, though, is that this is something only I can do."

Susan was right, and she knew it. What she had to do, she had to do alone, and there was really no way around it. "Just...be my friend again, Stephen," she said softly. "I need a friend. While I've discovered it's possible to get by without our old comradeship, life is much more preferable with it." It would make this damnable task easier, too, or so she hoped.

She curled up against him like a cat, still thoughtful. Dreamless Sleep potion was going to be imperative, she knew--she might well need it for years, if not the rest of her life outright. "I think I'd like that," she said, after a moment. "And...I might need to take some with me, for later."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"I should think so," Stephen agreed. "I should think you ought to take regular doses for the next month at least, and if that goes well you may consider reducing the dose by small degrees." As careful to avoid disturbing her as he could, he got up and retrieved the bottle in question. He knew his way through the room without needing light, but required a quick Lumos to measure out a dose of potion for her precisely.

After he'd handed her the glass and returned the room to dungeon-blackness, Stephen settled beside Susan again, glad of the bed's warmth and hers. "Sweetheart, of course I will be your friend, as much as ever I may. I cannot say how sorry I am we have been less than friends. Perhaps we will do better now."

He did not expect much by way of cogent reply. The potion worked quickly.

[usethepoker.livejournal.com]

The potion did indeed work quickly. The most Susan was capable of was a small, formless murmur of gratitude as she snuggled close to him, buried in a cozy coccoon of blankets. Rightful order could be restored to the world now--now that it had gone temporarily so very insane, it could pivot back to something resembling normality. While everything was certainly going to be miles away from easy, at least now it all had a hope in hell of turning out all right.