open ☾ When people run in circles, it's...

[pplrunincircles]

[OOC: edging towards insanity. ;_; I know it's hard to tag and might be until she snaps out of it for anyone that decides to thread w/ her. Since I know it's confusing, there's only demon blood and it's on her hands and shirt and specks on her face.]

a mad world

I am an angel of death. You only see me before you die.An angel of death walks down a

Comments

;___________;

[thelightofgrace]

He sees her and he almost doesn't recognize her.

It takes him a second in the low light, but even if he doesn't recognize her right off the bat, he recognizes the look in her eyes. He's seen it on himself, during that time when he's been forced to look in the mirror and seen nothing but emptiness looking back at him. There are two years, lodged somewhere in his not-too-distant memory where there was never anything but emptiness staring back at him, and now, seeing the same look on Elizabeth's face scares him, just a little.

She's so young. So much younger than he is, and yet living in this damn city has shown her just as much. She didn't have to go to war or go away to find the brunt of her Calling, she found it right here in Chicago, and because of that, she's going to lose her mind so much sooner than she needed to.

It isn't fair. Life isn't fair, but this ... this seems a bit extreme, even for life.

He catches her before she gets too far past him, hoping she'll at least recognize her own name. "Elizabeth?"

FWAH Charlie ;__;

[pplrunincircles]

She turns at the sound of the voice. There's a part of her that recognizes the name- her name. It's her name. It's not just a name. There's a bigger part of her that recognizes person. Someone that could be dying soon, and she turns at the sound.

She looks up, meeting his gaze. There's a pause, a hesitation because there's seeing a person as a person and trying to look into their eyes and find their-- see their death. The latter makes it impossible to recognize anyone.

"You're... not going to die."

Not this week.

"Not yet."

But everyone dies eventually.

i ... couldn't not.

[thelightofgrace]

Everyone does die eventually. With a Calling like theirs, it's more apparent than most that everyone dies. You can't just live in the world and pretend that it won't find you eventually, because it stares you in the face every day. There's no denying death.

"No," he shakes his head. "No, I'm not. And neither are you, darlin'."

He could see it. He wonders if she remembers, that he's just like her, and he can tell.

i love it ;_;

[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth hasn't recognized him yet, barely recognized herself in the mess going on in her head. She closes her eyes and then opens them again when he says that. It hits her hard and it breaks through the angel exterior, the angel that wants to look for the dead.

Something about the darling. Something about the fact he knows too. Knows that she won't be dying but angels don't-- they do. An angel of death is not immune to death. It clicks like... gears.

"...Charlie?" And her voice sounds more like her own, lost and pained as it may be. "I don't know how-- where did you come from?"

I was so not allowed to not tag this.

[inventandforget]

She doesn't make it a habit to wander Chicago at night but sometimes she does. Sometimes something just grabs her and she has the hneed to wander, to walk up and down the streets, to explore the city she already knows so well.

So it's by sheer chance that she's out tonight, just a 'lucky' coincidnece that she happens to be turning down the street that Elizabeth happens to be on.

She watches her for a few moments, studies her because there's obviously something wrong and she's not sure what to make of it for half a second. But then she stops thinking and starts closing the distance between them instead.

"Elizabeth," she says, her voice worried but not nearly hinting at how much. "Elizabeth, you all right, sweetie?" She moves to take her hands, not caring that there's blood. A little blood never scared her, despite what others may think. She's seen enough of it spilt in her time that it's not anything to blink at anymore.

DAW Millie ;__;

[pplrunincircles]

She had been out helping someone die. It's been nonstop lately. She hasn't been able to stop it, doesn't feel right unless there's someone that she's found who will die. It's so intertwined into who she is that the line between angel and Elizabeth is blurred over, overlapping.

So there's that helping them in the future, in the near future. So she is doing what she is supposed to be doing in the end. It's all there is. It's what was meant to be. It's what she is, not who, it's what. She is an angel of death. That's all there is. This is an angel of death wandering the streets, finding those who are dying.

What is happening?

There's a pause as she looks at her face, looks into her eyes looking for it. The death. The dying part of it. She doesn't feel her hands being taken at all. She tilts her head to the side.

"I don't see it," she says, and there's no feeling in it, in the words, in her expression. There's not even recognition yet. "When people see me, they die."

I wanna pet them both. can I pet them both?

[inventandforget]

Millie keeps a hold of her hands, pulling her a little bit closer. She doesn't say anything at first, just holds the girl's gaze to prove to her that nothing is going to happen yet.

Only after a coule of minutes of just standing there, does she actually speak. "Some people see you and they die," she starts quietly. "Other people see you and they live. You see me and I'm still living. I'm not going anywhere, not yet.

She lets go of one of Elizabeth's hands and reaches into her pocket, pulling out a handkerchief. Then gently, she starts wiping away at the blood. She knows what's going on, knows what's happening. She's been friends with angels of death before, she's seen them spiral downwards. It's inevitable really, but there was a part of her tat hoped that maybe, just maybe, Elizabeth would somehow burn too brightly for it to get at her.

But it gets all of them, in some way it gets all of them.

"Elizabeth," she says firmly, as she's cleaning. "I want you to listen to me, okay? Can you hear me?"

petting is encouraged ;_;

[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth moves in where she pulls her. It's possible anyone could get her to move anywhere at the moment. It hasn't hit her yet that that is who she is. It's moving because of something deeper, something within her. The angel.

She stares at her as she speaks. You see me and I'm still living. How is that possible? How does that happen? She's needed for death, not for life. Death.

"You're living," she repeats it and it sinks in, it sinks in slowly, something painful twisting in all this inability to understand. Elizabeth stares at her hands on her hands. There's not-- there's so much blood there but then there's not much at all. Every time her hands have had blood on them, she's seeing it.

She looks up from her hands again, staring at this woman-- whose he hasn't realized is Millie yet. She hasn't quite realized she is Elizabeth yet.

Elizabeth nods, trying to work past the feeling. The feelings and the numbness and nothing makes sense at all. "I hear. I hear you."

[destroytheother]

It's all been a waiting game, really.

Josef demanded a long time ago that no expiration dates be placed on them, but deep down he's known, always known, and lately--lately. There's growing panic threatening to stumble its way out of his throat the later it becomes and Elizabeth doesn't get home. Normally, this is not a big deal. There are nights neither of them even get home, for their own reasons, for their own Callings, for whatever it may be that keeps them away.

It feels different this time, from the last time he saw her before, to knowing and lately--lately. He's been battling that feeling, the feeling that she might slowly begin to slip away until he just finally can't reach her anymore, and it's terrifying.

And she's never stopped, not once, never stopped helping people die, and he's known it and understood it and hated it, all at once. Josef looks for her where he thinks he might find her, an urgency to his steps that is completely rare for someone so collected

[pplrunincircles]

She stops walking when someone stops in front of her. If people only see her before they die, she needs to see them, see their death, see-- Elizabeth looks up at him at the sound of his voice. She looks. The angel is looking, searching his eyes for death but she finds none. "It's not there." There's no death in his gaze, not this week. It won't be this week, and it takes a little while longer for it to click into her head what he has said. It takes even longer for her to recognize him.

There's nothing in the world that will ever reach to her the way that Josef does without even trying, at every dark moment. It takes longer than it ever has before. She's just staring, and it's not at him for the longest time. It's pushing and shoving past screams and blood and screams and pain, but it's those words that pull through to her and pull her out.

Elizabeth, it's JosefSomehow it sounds more like her name when he is the one saying it

[destroytheother]

It's not there, she says, and somehow, he knows what she means. Every Calling, for every person, it's different but some things are immediately recognizable, and that--that look in her eye, the one that's all angel, that can't and doesn't know anything else, it's familiar to him. It's how he feels, how he looks when there's only the demon, and that's all there is

[pplrunincircles]

It's not there. There is no death. That is what the angel needs to do. It is what she is supposed to do, but there's more than that and Elizabeth is trying to push past the need to walk away, to walk until someone else is found. Because if it goes on like that, she will die in a few days if not sooner, wander right into death itself.

Like embracing a very old friend for the final time.

Hello again. This is the first and last time that we'll meet like this.

People, loving, sleeping, enjoying, eating, everything else falls away because she is no longer a person with needs, with wants, with desires. She is an angel of death, neither young nor old. The angel of death just is, but the angel of death is in a body that is far too human.

No, it's not there.

"But--" But people only see me when- She closes her eyes tightly, trying to push through it. It's like a fog. It's like so much screaming, and she takes in a sharp breath like she's been hit in the stomach

[allthesigns]

Sarah doesn't really understand.

She doesn't get it. She's been told, of course, Callings lead to insanity, and angels of death--angels like her--they get the shorter end of the stick than most. It's all been an abstract idea in her head, something she hasn't fully acknowledged, but there's a girl standing in front of her, looking as if she's adrift, and Sarah knows her.

She's not supposed to be out so late, but she can't get her feet to move.

A hand hesitantly darts out to grab at Elizabeth's hand, near her wrist. "What's--what happened?" she asks, sounding smaller than she means to.

[pplrunincircles]

It is impossible to understand until it's been seen or felt.

Elizabeth never understood either. Insanity wasn't something she saw or that she dealt with. For years, she never met another angel of death at all. She felt fine. She felt fine and then it started cracking through. Then she felt the edges--

Then it was nothing but edges everywhere, all over.

She freezes at the feeling of the hand on her wrist. Her legs stop walking, and she looks over at her, turning slowly. "You're-- you're not going to die," Elizabeth says, and it is quiet but almost confused.

There's a confused sound to her voice, and there's no recognition. "Not for a week." At least. Not yet. Always one day though, everyone does. Everyone dies, and she will too.

[allthesigns]

Sarah almost drops her hand back to her side.

They only discussed they were angels. They never discussed what kind of angel they were, and Elizabeth's words, the way she looks at her--Sarah has looked at people like that before, and she knows what Elizabeth is looking for before she says it. "No, I won't. Neither are you, or I'd--I'd see it too," she says quietly, and she's scared and sad and she doesn't know why.

"Let's get you out of here, okay?" she asks softly, standing in front of Elizabeth, willing the other girl to focus in on her. "You can't stay here."

She doesn't want to push too hard, but she also can't leave Elizabeth alone.

[pplrunincircles]

Elizabeth stares at her for a moment. She feels the hand, knows this is an angel. It is an instinctive knowing. It is something the angel would always recognize. "You're an angel of death too," she says after a moment like it's suddenly occurring to her.

She looks at her for a moment. Registers the question.

"Okay."

An angel of death. Of course. Maybe they're going to the dying. They can't stay here because- She closes her eyes and opens them again.

"Okay. Where-- where are we gonna go?"