(Untitled)

[raventonbeauty]

He starts, violently, eyes wide, panicked, scared. Dark eyes, dark and lost--like holes through time--and a face of excrutiating beauty, cheekbones like razors, and he starts, gazing around with wild terror

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[beauty_addicts]

One of them kneels next to him, pressing his cheek against the ground next to Ashley's head, his own unnaturally red hair spilling and mixing with Ashley's like two vintages of wines. He smiles. "He's still so beautiful."

The other has leaned his head on Ashley's arm, brushing his cheek with one finger, and he smiles as he notices the tiny shudders Ashley makes. "I missed him," he muses. "I think he was my favorite yet."

His brother giggles. "Ash-ley," he sings, tapping him on the bridge of the nose. "Time to wake u-up."

[raventonbeauty]

He shudders again, waking violently, his dark eyes wide, voice somewhere between horror and relief. "It's you."

[beauty_addicts]

"It's definitely us." The redheaded twin kisses him, right below the lips.

"We missed you." The blonde tangles his fingers in Ashley's hair, traces the curve of his ear. "And we're desperate to know if you missed us."

[raventonbeauty]

"Of course I missed you." He reaches out and clings to the redhead. "I loved you."

[skullproprietor]

He nearly chokes, and had he not already been close enough to dead, Arkady would have felt his heart skip several beats and his lungs contract.

Ashley. It's Ashley. He can hardly believe what he's seeing, but his brother is hail and whole and he falls. After a moment of hesitation - is this real, or is it simply an illusion, a hallucination caused by endless nights of dreams and herbs - he rushes forward, falling to the ground on his knees beside his brother.

"Ashley?" he asks, hardly believing his eyes. He remembers the skull - the skull that he kept - and yet here is his brother. Very much not dead.

[raventonbeauty]

"Arkady!" Ashley looks at him first with love, then with horror, drawing back slightly. "Is this your doing?"

Typist note: While Arkady's describing Ashley, he mentions that he didn't resurrect Ashley because "Ashley didn't want to come back." So I'm using that to assume that Arkady tried--and Ashley is going to have some memory of it.

[skullproprietor]

"I...I tried once, Ashley, only once," Arkady says, his voice nearly cracking on the word 'tried'. "But you didn't want to come back. I tried, but you wanted to stay...so I didn't. I didn't bring you back, Ashley. This...wasn't me."

He wants to embrace his brother, but he is unsure if Ashley is ready or willing to let him do so.

[raventonbeauty]

"Arkady..." His hand reaches out, fingertips brushing across his brother's cheek. "Why didn't you come back to me? Why didn't you keep your promise?"

[moonmarauder]

Are you alright, sir?

[raventonbeauty]

"No." His voice is a choked sob, his fingers pulling uselessly at his hair. "I should be -dead-."

[moonmarauder]

He smiles, a little wryly. "You'll find that many people are here who are supposed to be dead. Mostly, I consider it a good thing."

[sugarsyrup]

She watches him, maybe a little pitying, but level, calm. "The other Mister Raventon, I see. Welcome."

[raventonbeauty]

He lifts his head slowly, considering himself for a long moment before he considers her. "Are you acquainted of my brother?"

[sugarsyrup]

"Not as well as my grandson does," she says, a little coolly. She tilts her head to one side, examining. "You really are the beauty of the family, aren't you?"

[raventonbeauty]

"So it is said." He looks away, then, letting his hair fall across his face like a curtain.

[permanent_blur]

and rosencrantz stops to look, leaning and balancing a bit on his toes -- friendly and casual, easygoing as anything. perhaps he has an apple, perhaps he offers a bite. "i had a bit of that problem myself, i think. death's funny, sometimes, isn't it?"

[raventonbeauty]

Ashley laughs, a beautiful, warm laugh, frozen in crystal. "You fool. Death is easy."

[permanent_blur]

rosencrantz smiles like someone who doesn't mind being called a fool (and he doesn't). "oh, i expect it is. i expect i could die right now, if i felt like it -- but -- well. living's easy, too, isn't it? and sometimes staying dead isn't easy as it ought to be ... it's funny."

[raventonbeauty]

"Laugh, then. Or die. Die laughing. I don't care. Just leave me."

He retreats into his hair like the curtains falling shut around an actor, long burgandy strands hiding his eyes.