red

[aunter]

R E D > You enter the door and find yourself in a glass box, suspended in the sky. Bright blue skies, white fluffy clouds, even birds pass by in the air around you. One look down and you see grass fields and sprawling lakes as far as the eye can see. Some wild horses running across the fields, some cows, just exactly what you'd expect. It's idyllic as fuck. Then the words appear:

Comments

[lost_first]

[ He can't help that it makes him swallow and, for a moment, step back. Then he's walking over to Peter to offer a hand to get up. ]

A sense of humor. Just what this place needs. I call you a 'many eyed' and it gives them to you.

[ He shakes his head and looks to Sebastian, and yes, there's a bit of alarm as he takes in the changes.]

sighs deep

[cutlery]

[ The first thing that Sebastian becomes aware of is the taste. Metallic and thick on his tongue, it's unmistakeable, but quite familiar. He runs his tongue over his teeth, thinking that perhaps this is some other punishment, that his mouth might just bleed, but no. It tastes too pleasant to be that. He almost wonders if this is supposed to be a strange "gift", but it truly is almost. The realization that his teeth are his proper one doesn't quite come either, but instead, a hunger.

The fact that he's lost his master, most of his hand, or even the burn of a new contract's mark on his hand, that's all lost in the haze of that deep, visceral feeling.

It's not the speed he's quite accustomed to, and certainly not what he would want to draw upon at the moment, but still. He closes the distance between himself and Peter quite quickly, and with a toothy grin right in his now eight-eyed face, Sebastian just gives a polite: ]

Excuse me.

[ One bloody, stubbed hand grabs Peter's face, and the other grabs his shoulder tightly to hold him in place before Sebastian bites hard into his neck and shoulder. It's not quite a soul, what his stomach is really craving... But just blood and flesh will do to stave off the worst, won't it?

The worst part is, unbeknownst to either of them, this is probably far closer to what Sebastian's real nature is. ]

[wheatcake]

[That's gonna leave a mark.]

[Peter wriggles to get free, desperately flailing with strength he no longer has. But- he still knows how to fight. Think seriously. Don't panic. He's got killer teeth, but he's still normal-sized, and if you just shift his momentum-... that will definitely burst an artery. He has to make this fast.]

[In a motion that's more skill than strength, he flips Sebastian off him. Blood erupts from his neck. And then he just has to be fast, and he's always been fast, even if he's not as fast as he was.]

[The wheel is on the ceiling? Peter climbs as quickly as he can on Sebastian's back, and uses it to push off the wall, where he barely reaches the wheel. Blood gets absolutely everywhere as it spins. And Peter just thinks, all my intelligence, all my experience, all my years of fighting, all my education.]

[He doesn't see where it lands before the blood loss gets to him and he collapses to the floor.]

[lost_first]

[ He sees the wheel land on his name even as he watches Peter collapse, and he practically shouts his gift, what he's going to give Peter, as he brings his hook down in an attempt to put it through Sebastian's neck, his eye. Whatever soft spot he can find

Take my curse: to live through any injury that you might suffer an eternity.]

[cutlery]

[ Sebastian is so singularly focused on sating that hunger that what happens almost doesn't process on a logical level. It's more a blur of blood and his own pain, and a sense of emptiness as Peter manages to escape his grasp. He stumbles back and loses his balance as he falls to the ground, and as he catches himself, there's a kind of wet crack as another knuckle falls away. No more fingers, he thinks distantly.

But it's hardly even processed, because before he can push himself up, a hook catches him in his eye. Whatever pain there was from the hunger, the fingers, that too is quickly forgotten. This is just a game of ignoring the previous pains by escalating to something new.

It's a white hot flash of it that makes him seize up, the vision gone from the eye completely. That elegant composure is gone, completely given way to the very feral instincts of a demon. Sebastian says something that might be language, but it's dark and guttural. He reaches up to attempt to grab Jamie's arm, but without fingers, he can't exactly grip his arm to pull it off. ]

[wheatcake]

[Peter thinks quickly as he falls. He only has so much time. The rules of this game are fickle. He could give up his life, but what would that matter when he's about to lose it? Hitting the ground, he thinks, the gift of escaping? Can he give gifts he doesn't have?]

[But don't all of them have the potential to escape?]

[Peter lets his vision blur. This is better than when he died last time. He feels warm. Almost comforted. Hazy with lassitude, like he could do anything, be anything.]

[Peter thinks, freedom is a gift. Have that.]

[lost_first]

[ Jamie's been a fighter for more centuries than he can say, more centuries than he even knows of. As a boy, he'd had his speed and his skills. He'd used his knife and he'd cut through pirates; the trick of taking a hand had originally been his, a way of marking one of his targets and giving them the chance he knew they'd never take to leave the island having only given it's inhabitants one piece of themselves.

For all that he's hurt, he's fought with injuries before, fought with them more often than he'd fought healthy and well given Peter's delight at seeing just how vicious he could be, how capable, how many little 'tests' his 'friend' had run him through.

That's why he takes advantage of the missing hand to get his boot into things, try to pull out the hook, and go for the throat this time.]

https://media3.giphy.com/media/PDSDKXxiCRP8c/giphy.gif

[cutlery]

[ He feels the impact of the boot, and he knows what must be next. The hook comes with little resistance, since there's little that Sebastian can do in the moment. Through his one remaining eye, he sees Jamie ready the hook, and through what little sanity remains, he can guess what's next.

And Sebastian's face splits into a smile.

It's all blood, some of his own, some of Peter's, but in a way? That feels right. If he's going to go through the inconvenience and insult of such an ugly, undignified, a human death? It might as well be with blood in his teeth and flesh in his mouth.

The hook catches his neck, and the only sound that comes out is a thick, wet gurgle. Reflexively, he half-coughs, but blood sinks out of the wound and down his throat into his lungs. He'll die. He's dying. His lips move, but what he says isn't really intelligible from the blood and the inconvenient teeth. It's only if Jamie can read lips that he'll catch it, really. ]

Humans really are disgusting.

[ Because that's it, right? This is how a human dies. It's how the human he'd bitten into is dying, if he hasn't already.

Ahh, he can't wait to go home. Won't it be warm there?

The weight on his hook increases as Sebastian goes limp. ]

[lost_first]

[ He doesn't care what the man says as he dies. He doesn't care, which is why he's pulling his hook out of the other man's throat and not looking at the mess that comes with it. He won't even take the time required to clean his hook on the body before he's rushing over to Peter.

rushing over to Peter?

Rushing over to Peter to pull him up, to try and get his arm around him and his hand over the wound to see if the blood is still flowing, if there's a chance of him coming back from this.

...he has a pretty good idea of what the answer is. He's almost glad he'd given his hope away.

But he'll do it all the same. Perhaps...

Perhaps something on the other side of things will help. Will make any of this right. Will-

Ha. Of course not.

But at least he'll be there to close the man's eyes and pray that he goes somewhere kinder.]