[Envy] Instruction for a Life

[jmlevitt]

A new time rising up on us.

He slipped away while they were fighting, while the mad pirate shot at them. He was injured. Slow. Exhausted. Bringing them down. Burdening them. He was sure of it. Better to leave. Better to hide. Nobody else to slow down with his pain and his tired.

It's all going to shit.

Another cycle end and another cycle begun.

Comments

[in_verbatim]

That he's afraid he's dying doesn't even cover it

[4_20_100]

And into this scene from another direction, without a hazmat suit or anything, comes a figure in yellow, looking about with a look of growing apprehension. Hastur is finding this place stranger and stranger, and he really does not like it.

He's human-looking again, and clean, but his wild look and tattered robes do not do anything to dispel reminders of The King In Yellow at all.

[mrseysidescousr]

Gabriel is with him, also without a suit. He keeps up a thin teke shield which keeps out the spores for now. Habit.

"I think we're safe if we don't interact with any of them," he's saying to Hastur as they get closer. "They seem harmless, but everything so far has had a dark side." And hey, he sounds sane.

[Why wouldn't you want to talk to them, though? It might be helpful to know what to expect from the people that live here.]

You think so? They look like zombies, only without the rot.

[Never mind that. Look ahead. Isn't that Kint, from the Nexus?]

And so it is. With the man who had been selling food [is he part of this, you think? he and his wares to attract the un-a-ware?].

[Stay on your toes, Gabriel.]

Of course.

To Hastur he asks, "Do you think they might have something to eat? My stomach's a hollow stone."

[nthelizard]

Novak is also wearing a yellow suit. It's pretty funny-looking. He is not used of being yellow. He's normally green. Even so, with his tail wrapped about his tail, he trudges on with the meat bag and Hannah. There was also the problem of getting his arm-in-sling into the suit, but he's got his pressed against his chest, the sleeve it is supposed to be in limp. "How charming." he says dryly. "I really hope everyone there wasn't all fucked up like this. Did you ever read a Wrinkle in Time?"

He squints at the figures, though. "......yeeeaaaaah, that looks like Soze and Jeff. Only they're totally in the central central intelligence." Then, the landscape suddenly gains a yellow streak, and despite how nice Flavius is, Novak can't shake off that King-in-Yellow feel. "And.. that's Flavius looking kind of King-of-Yellow over there. Great. Fuck me with a rake goddamnit."

It's then that he hears the rumbling. He glances over his good shoulder and sighs. "I fucking hate the Nexus,"

[jmlevitt]

He feels the Other come before he sees. He closes his eyes and smiles. Other becomes Self, bit by bit. Memories of guns. Drugs. Money. Death. Memories of names. So many names. memories of fear and hate and power. Memories of a wife and children. Once Other's, now his.

Ours.

Mine.

He sees his house through two different sets of eyes, sees himself call to his wife. Food. Water. Things for the bleeding and the pain. He smiles to himself and sees himself smile, reassured and reassuring. "Don't be afraid," he says to the fear inside his own heart. "Welcome home."

[in_verbatim]

"Welcome home." He looks around, because he can be the eyes and ears. He can be the well-oiled machine, as long as he learns to divide himself up and take care. He learns to take care.

Four people, two different places. Take care.

He lets his other eyes know.

"Look," he says. "They've come."

[nthelizard]

"Not a good idea," Novak grumbles, but he follows her anyway. Novak's always felt close to Hannah, and he feels a little like it's his duty to protect her. He notices the bloodshot eyes, the jerky movements, the way they're somehow in with everything else just like she does - whatever the fuck is here has got them. Though Novak never liked Soze, he was fond of Jeff, and he feels a pang of sadness watching him hopeless in this little shithole of a nightmare.

Hannah talks to them, and Novak is on a hair trigger to pick Hannah up by her waist and run.

[4_20_100]

A murmur to Gabriel. "I don't know if I'd trust the food, here... I don't know if I'd trust anything here."

As Hastur draws nearer to the small group, it's clear he's trying to keep his ambient power under control the way he usually does, but failing.

This place is wrong. It's too perfect. It's emptied out and filled up with something entirely ... discordant. Forced.

He looks almost panicked by the time he reaches Novak and Hannah. Jeff and Soze are not a comforting sight in the least.

"What is wrong with this place?" he mutters. "It's wrong... the whole place is wrong, and--" he stares at the two happy gardeners. "Dear gods... what's happened to them?"

[mrseysidescousr]

"Don't know... their a bodie is healthy, though." Pause. Wait, what?

He feels itchy, not physically but mentally. He's not entirely sure what he's saying, either. As if he's standing outside of himself and listening.

He scratches his neck. [Don't listen to them.]

"It's this place. It's... the slow fall."

[jmlevitt]

Red eyes turn to newcomers. Two eyes to the ones in soft skin like the Mans from Below. But one brings a present. Smile for the present! He knows this voice. He knows this name. Hannah is the voice. Hannah is the name.

"Hannah," the body that was Jeff says. "No, Hannah, it's--"

"--good to see you," the body that was Keyser says, smooth as if it came from one mouth, one thought. It did. "It doesn't suck."

"It's wonderful," agrees the Jeff-body.

"It's happy."

"I'm happy." Two bodies chorus two words. Two smiles. One mind

[nthelizard]

"Come on," Novak says to Hannah, steeling himself against the sadness. He's lost a lot of friends in his time, and this time is just another one. Damn, even in his peaceful world, the Nexus fuck him up. "Come on, Hannah. This is all fucked up and I just want to get out of here before something real fucked up happens to us, like we end up like them." His eyes flicker to Soze, Jeff, and .. his wife.

He is tired, though. It'd be nice to sit down, take the suit off, but he knows he has to push through. If he survived that bullshit back there, he can shake off a little fatigue. "I don't want to know what's next, but we better find out."

[4_20_100]

"You're ... you're going to leave them?"

Hastur doesn't take his eyes off Jeff and Soze and the blank, artificial wife. He can sense the tiny invaders inside their minds, the infection that took their soulbond and pulled it together until they were as near to being one person as was physically possible.

"They're happy... they're happy, but... this isn't right, this is too much like before...."

Jeff was happy with the dreams and the visions. He knew beauty and wonder and joy like no-one else had. And others had found it unnatural, tried to stop it, to put an end to it and when it all went wrong, they pointed fingers at Hastur himself, blamed him, lashed out at him.

He backs up a step, shaking his head.

"No... no... no, if it was wrong then, it is wrong now!" he gasps. "Where are the fearmongers? Where are the spiritwalkers and the half-baked mystics? Where is that gods-damned Carter?! Why is no-one lashing out to put a stop to this now, as they did then?!" He points forcefully at the group on the perfect lawn. "I lost

[mrseysidescousr]

Gabriel is hit by another wave of yellow-flavoured mental energy which knocks him off his feet and then it
s u c k s b a c k i n t o i t s e l f, snapping back likerubberstretchedtoitslimit--

foomph

this happens between one beat and two
oneandahalfbreaths
inhale
exhale
inhale

"Here! Mans from below! Yellow! No, no no noooo." He fights the insects in his head as the world becomes two tiny suns and two hearts/one mind.

fragmenting