Duncan + Lorelei || Nightmares and boys
Who: Duncan and Lorelei
When: Saturday, Sept 24th
Where: Golden Hour, Duncan's office
Ratings & Warnings: PG - hints of death and dream gore
It got easier to watch people die the more you did it. Duncan stood calmly by as the subject on the table breathed his last, while Meg scribbled down notes beside him. Mari stood hunched over the table, cheerfully working a needle and thread through muscle and skin in an attempt to sew up the gaping hole that exposed the patient's innards from lungs to intestines.
He turned away, going to wash the blood from his hands. A shuffling noise stopped him. He turned back to see the man stand up from the table, Mari's stitches to no avail as his guts spilled out of his open torso. There was no blood, just trails of intestines like worms as he began walking toward Duncan. How strange, Duncan thought, that his kidneys didn't fall out too.
He stood there, frozen, as the dead man approached. The room had become empty now, nothing but a blank white slate containing the two of them. The corpse's hand, pale white, covered his mouth as he found himself up against the wall. "What other horrible things are you keeping from me?" it asked, in Rayna's voice, but as he looked again he saw Melagrana's face, and her knife being raised in its free hand. She stepped forward again, her foot making a sickening sound on top of her large intestine.
Leaning in toward him, she whispered in his ear, "You eat them or you put them in the ground." And then she started humming, bringing the knife closer to his throat--
And then something was shaking him and his eyes snapped open, his first instinct to get as far away from the danger as humanly possible. He fell out of his chair, one hand going automatically to the hilt of the dagger he wore at his side ever since the incident with Melagrana.
It took a few seconds, but as he lay there sprawled on the ground, his breathing a shallow, quick mess, he eventually focused his gaze on what had actually woken him and it resolved into Lorie's halo of gold hair surrounding her familiar face.
"Lorie," he breathed, taking his hand away from the dagger. Just Lorie. Not Melagrana.
It was his office. He'd fallen asleep at his desk. No one was trying to kill him. A minor comfort, as echoes of the nightmare still flashed through his mind.
As Duncan fell and flailed about, Lorelei stood there, not knowing what to do. It was kind of funny to watch, really, her brother's frantic actions, almost causing her to giggle at him, but she was also concerned about what was wrong. Fortunately for him, it was enough to stave off her gigglefit. She hadn't even noticed him going for his dagger.
She stared down at him, tilting her head to the side. "You shouldn't sleep in your office," she said, giving a smirk and then moving to kneel beside him. "You okay?" He didn't look particularly okay, whatever nightmare he'd had having scared him half to death, but she was a teenager. She tugged at his arm and tried to pull him up off the floor, though what little strength she had would surely not be enough and it ended up with her just... tugging at his arm. "Get uuuuuup," she muttered, not quite a whine.
"Yeah," he said, "yeah, I'm fine." Occia's tits, having nightmares at his desk. This new addition of Melagrana to them, he was not down with that. Shambling corpses he could handle, he'd been dreaming about those for years. Crazy bitches who tried to kill him in his sleep, not so much.
Lorie, you weren't really helping. He grabbed the edge of his desk and pulled himself up, reclaiming his arm from his sister. "You need something?" he asked.
"You sure?" Lorie asked, eyeing her brother. "I could get you some tea or something." She sounded more put-off by the thought but if she'd do it if he wanted her to. "Do you have a lot of bad dreams when you sleep here?" Why was he even sleeping at his desk? Gosh, Duncan, get a sofa or something.
"Umm." She'd come here to ask him something but had totally forgotten what it was in the commotion. "Not really." She paused. "Unless you know any way to make boys stop being stupid. You're a boy, were you ever stupid with Rayna?"
He shook his head at the offer of tea. No need for it, he was wide awake now. "Don't worry about it," he said, answering both questions at once. She didn't need to know how often he got bad dreams. It wasn't important.
He settled back into his chair, ankle crossed over his knee, idly rubbing the bridge of his nose. That stupid song was still in his head, why was it so unsettling?
He paused at Lorie's question, looking sidelong at her, his expression shifting to a mix of disbelief and amusement. "I'm still stupid with Rayna," he answered. If the fact that she still wasn't talking to him was any indication. Lorie probably hadn't noticed. "What's the problem?"
"Okaaay~ Just remember I don't make offers like that for you often." Lorie gave him a smug look. She pretended to be his errand girl a lot, but most times he didn't even know she was using his name. Stalking through the library for some medical text book he already had and pretending he'd sent her for it was an easy way to get out of sweeping.
She settled against his desk, arms crossed atop it, peering at the notes he had scattered out. She didn't really care what they were about, though. Medical stuff she couldn't understand anyway, she figured. "Dominic's stupid. He avoids questions and talks funny and doesn't seem to care what I think." Lorie frowned. "None of the other boys were so complicated."
Dominic? Was that his name? Come to think of it, she'd never mentioned her suitor's name before; he had no idea who the kid was, aside from being a civitas. "He's probably nervous," he responded, shrugging one shoulder. "Cita knows I get stupid when I'm nervous."
He folded his arms, flashing her a sardonic smile. "I'd be nervous too if the girl I courted was related to a--" killer. His voice faltered, so did his smile. He recovered quickly. "--a pair of siblings like me and Missie."
Lorie snorted. "He hasn't even met you yet! Though he met Missie when we went riding and he kept talking about Others like exotic creatures or something." She frowned again. Though Duncan's mention of Cita did remind her, "He left the Citadel and I told him he shouldn't go back and he got mean even though he thinks they're murderers." What kind of guy wanted to live with murderers? Unless he thought the murder they did was okay.
She sighed. "If he'd just answer things simply instead of being all weird about it I'd actually know something about him. He won't even visit here even though Hollis did."
OH LORIE THE IRONY INHERENT IN THAT THOUGHT. He turned inward, his face dimming in a subtle sort of way. He tried to force a normal expression, but it was half-hearted, lackluster. He tried to think of something to say, something that could explain to her why somebody would defend people they thought were murderers, but it wasn't worth it, he decided. He couldn't say anything that got the point across without telling her outright what he did. What he was.
"Do you want me to talk to him?" he asked, because it was the only thing he could think to say. He couldn't give her suitable advice without knowing the details, he couldn't try to explain motives (and didn't want to, let's be honest, this kid was not somebody he wanted to make excuses for).
Her head turned to look at him, ignoring the paperwork on his desk. "Would you?" What would he even say to the boy? Thinking about it, Lorie didn't really care what he said. Either it'd help or ...Well, it couldn't really make anything worse. "He won't come here, though. He wouldn't when we asked anyway. But he's been to the house so he might come there again?" She paused. "Or you could talk to him on the ledgers but he doesn't say much on there."
"I'll talk to him in person." Easier to intimidate, that way. Well, maybe not, Duncan didn't cut a very formidable figure... Still, easier to gauge a person face-to-face than through text. "Take him out drinking or something. That's sufficiently brother-in-law-esque, I think." He'd done it with the second-youngest sister's husband, anyway. That was how they'd ended up friends.
"Okay." Wait, did Dominic even drink? Oh, no, there was that one ledger mention of him ...drinking and kissing some girl. "Just make sure there's no pretty girls around," she huffed, pushing herself back from the desk. She wound up eyeing her brother, though. Boys were all the same, right? Had Duncan ever gotten drunk and kissed some random girl, before he'd met Rayna?
He blinked. Why was she eyeing him like that? Did she really think he'd take Dominic out with a girl? "...What?" he asked, utterly bemused.
Lorie shrugged. "Boys do stupid things when they're drunk," she answered. Like when Duncan had made a scene at a royal wedding. But bringing that up again would just start another fight with him insisting he'd done the right thing to protect his sister and her grumpy about just wanting to dance and ugh.
Instead she smiled, and said, "Thank you, big brother," as she hugged him around the neck. Duncan would look out for her! ...Maybe he'd get into a fight with Dominic while they were drinking. It'd be funny in that case!
He sat through the hug, still completely confused. "You're...welcome?" Did she think he'd do something stupid if he got drunk around girls? But Rayna--
Oh, never mind. There was no fathoming Lorie's mind.
When: Saturday, Sept 24th
Where: Golden Hour, Duncan's office
Ratings & Warnings: PG - hints of death and dream gore
It got easier to watch people die the more you did it. Duncan stood calmly by as the subject on the table breathed his last, while Meg scribbled down notes beside him. Mari stood hunched over the table, cheerfully working a needle and thread through muscle and skin in an attempt to sew up the gaping hole that exposed the patient's innards from lungs to intestines.
He turned away, going to wash the blood from his hands. A shuffling noise stopped him. He turned back to see the man stand up from the table, Mari's stitches to no avail as his guts spilled out of his open torso. There was no blood, just trails of intestines like worms as he began walking toward Duncan. How strange, Duncan thought, that his kidneys didn't fall out too.
He stood there, frozen, as the dead man approached. The room had become empty now, nothing but a blank white slate containing the two of them. The corpse's hand, pale white, covered his mouth as he found himself up against the wall. "What other horrible things are you keeping from me?" it asked, in Rayna's voice, but as he looked again he saw Melagrana's face, and her knife being raised in its free hand. She stepped forward again, her foot making a sickening sound on top of her large intestine.
Leaning in toward him, she whispered in his ear, "You eat them or you put them in the ground." And then she started humming, bringing the knife closer to his throat--
And then something was shaking him and his eyes snapped open, his first instinct to get as far away from the danger as humanly possible. He fell out of his chair, one hand going automatically to the hilt of the dagger he wore at his side ever since the incident with Melagrana.
It took a few seconds, but as he lay there sprawled on the ground, his breathing a shallow, quick mess, he eventually focused his gaze on what had actually woken him and it resolved into Lorie's halo of gold hair surrounding her familiar face.
"Lorie," he breathed, taking his hand away from the dagger. Just Lorie. Not Melagrana.
It was his office. He'd fallen asleep at his desk. No one was trying to kill him. A minor comfort, as echoes of the nightmare still flashed through his mind.
As Duncan fell and flailed about, Lorelei stood there, not knowing what to do. It was kind of funny to watch, really, her brother's frantic actions, almost causing her to giggle at him, but she was also concerned about what was wrong. Fortunately for him, it was enough to stave off her gigglefit. She hadn't even noticed him going for his dagger.
She stared down at him, tilting her head to the side. "You shouldn't sleep in your office," she said, giving a smirk and then moving to kneel beside him. "You okay?" He didn't look particularly okay, whatever nightmare he'd had having scared him half to death, but she was a teenager. She tugged at his arm and tried to pull him up off the floor, though what little strength she had would surely not be enough and it ended up with her just... tugging at his arm. "Get uuuuuup," she muttered, not quite a whine.
"Yeah," he said, "yeah, I'm fine." Occia's tits, having nightmares at his desk. This new addition of Melagrana to them, he was not down with that. Shambling corpses he could handle, he'd been dreaming about those for years. Crazy bitches who tried to kill him in his sleep, not so much.
Lorie, you weren't really helping. He grabbed the edge of his desk and pulled himself up, reclaiming his arm from his sister. "You need something?" he asked.
"You sure?" Lorie asked, eyeing her brother. "I could get you some tea or something." She sounded more put-off by the thought but if she'd do it if he wanted her to. "Do you have a lot of bad dreams when you sleep here?" Why was he even sleeping at his desk? Gosh, Duncan, get a sofa or something.
"Umm." She'd come here to ask him something but had totally forgotten what it was in the commotion. "Not really." She paused. "Unless you know any way to make boys stop being stupid. You're a boy, were you ever stupid with Rayna?"
He shook his head at the offer of tea. No need for it, he was wide awake now. "Don't worry about it," he said, answering both questions at once. She didn't need to know how often he got bad dreams. It wasn't important.
He settled back into his chair, ankle crossed over his knee, idly rubbing the bridge of his nose. That stupid song was still in his head, why was it so unsettling?
He paused at Lorie's question, looking sidelong at her, his expression shifting to a mix of disbelief and amusement. "I'm still stupid with Rayna," he answered. If the fact that she still wasn't talking to him was any indication. Lorie probably hadn't noticed. "What's the problem?"
"Okaaay~ Just remember I don't make offers like that for you often." Lorie gave him a smug look. She pretended to be his errand girl a lot, but most times he didn't even know she was using his name. Stalking through the library for some medical text book he already had and pretending he'd sent her for it was an easy way to get out of sweeping.
She settled against his desk, arms crossed atop it, peering at the notes he had scattered out. She didn't really care what they were about, though. Medical stuff she couldn't understand anyway, she figured. "Dominic's stupid. He avoids questions and talks funny and doesn't seem to care what I think." Lorie frowned. "None of the other boys were so complicated."
Dominic? Was that his name? Come to think of it, she'd never mentioned her suitor's name before; he had no idea who the kid was, aside from being a civitas. "He's probably nervous," he responded, shrugging one shoulder. "Cita knows I get stupid when I'm nervous."
He folded his arms, flashing her a sardonic smile. "I'd be nervous too if the girl I courted was related to a--" killer. His voice faltered, so did his smile. He recovered quickly. "--a pair of siblings like me and Missie."
Lorie snorted. "He hasn't even met you yet! Though he met Missie when we went riding and he kept talking about Others like exotic creatures or something." She frowned again. Though Duncan's mention of Cita did remind her, "He left the Citadel and I told him he shouldn't go back and he got mean even though he thinks they're murderers." What kind of guy wanted to live with murderers? Unless he thought the murder they did was okay.
She sighed. "If he'd just answer things simply instead of being all weird about it I'd actually know something about him. He won't even visit here even though Hollis did."
OH LORIE THE IRONY INHERENT IN THAT THOUGHT. He turned inward, his face dimming in a subtle sort of way. He tried to force a normal expression, but it was half-hearted, lackluster. He tried to think of something to say, something that could explain to her why somebody would defend people they thought were murderers, but it wasn't worth it, he decided. He couldn't say anything that got the point across without telling her outright what he did. What he was.
"Do you want me to talk to him?" he asked, because it was the only thing he could think to say. He couldn't give her suitable advice without knowing the details, he couldn't try to explain motives (and didn't want to, let's be honest, this kid was not somebody he wanted to make excuses for).
Her head turned to look at him, ignoring the paperwork on his desk. "Would you?" What would he even say to the boy? Thinking about it, Lorie didn't really care what he said. Either it'd help or ...Well, it couldn't really make anything worse. "He won't come here, though. He wouldn't when we asked anyway. But he's been to the house so he might come there again?" She paused. "Or you could talk to him on the ledgers but he doesn't say much on there."
"I'll talk to him in person." Easier to intimidate, that way. Well, maybe not, Duncan didn't cut a very formidable figure... Still, easier to gauge a person face-to-face than through text. "Take him out drinking or something. That's sufficiently brother-in-law-esque, I think." He'd done it with the second-youngest sister's husband, anyway. That was how they'd ended up friends.
"Okay." Wait, did Dominic even drink? Oh, no, there was that one ledger mention of him ...drinking and kissing some girl. "Just make sure there's no pretty girls around," she huffed, pushing herself back from the desk. She wound up eyeing her brother, though. Boys were all the same, right? Had Duncan ever gotten drunk and kissed some random girl, before he'd met Rayna?
He blinked. Why was she eyeing him like that? Did she really think he'd take Dominic out with a girl? "...What?" he asked, utterly bemused.
Lorie shrugged. "Boys do stupid things when they're drunk," she answered. Like when Duncan had made a scene at a royal wedding. But bringing that up again would just start another fight with him insisting he'd done the right thing to protect his sister and her grumpy about just wanting to dance and ugh.
Instead she smiled, and said, "Thank you, big brother," as she hugged him around the neck. Duncan would look out for her! ...Maybe he'd get into a fight with Dominic while they were drinking. It'd be funny in that case!
He sat through the hug, still completely confused. "You're...welcome?" Did she think he'd do something stupid if he got drunk around girls? But Rayna--
Oh, never mind. There was no fathoming Lorie's mind.