*Nightwhisper
"And guilty I may be, but don't give up on me... We will still be thick as thieves."
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Post by *Nightwhisper on Oct 22, 2021 20:32:48 GMT -5
Anya had no problem having Callum join in. If fact, she was a little surprised the man had agreed to follow along at the offer. Well, Cami had left little room to argue, but he still could have said no. But she welcomed his company and followed Kyra.
The group had managed to find drinks and an empty table in the mess hall, including a bowl of water for the dogs as well. Then, once they were seated, the flow of questions started. While there was nothing in the meeting she was ashamed or regretted saying anything, but she wasn't really the kind to talk about herself. So she answered the questions as humbly as she could, leaving Kyra to add in the embellishments of her lecture to the Council.
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Heterosexual
✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧
"You never have to prove yourself to anyone who doesn't accept you for who you are."
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Post by ✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧ on Oct 22, 2021 21:05:58 GMT -5
Callum remained mostly quiet during the little get together. He only spoke when spoken to, unless he was pestering Kyra in some quiet, offhand way. He was polite with Anya and Aidan, and a typical big brother with Cami, though there weren't many interactions between them. His sister was too busy asking endless questions in an effort to learn every detail.
☆~☆~☆ It didn't take Morgan ling to get to his room and have a quick shower. Once he was dressed in clean clothes, he went and hunted down Anya. He tried her room first, then Cami's. He found Cresseida there, and she directed him to the mess hall.
He spotted the group almost immediately. Hero saw him first and came over to say hi. Or, more accurately, to see if Seth was with him. He wasn't, though Aidan still asked as soon as he noticed Morgan walk up. "Where's Seth?" He looked anxiously between Morgan and the empty space beside him.
"Still in the training room," Morgan answered. "He's fine. Calmed down some, but he wanted a bit of alone time to shoot his bow." He looked at Anya. "But I think he could use some company now, if you want to come check on him."
☆~☆~☆ Seth felt lost.
Not in the physical sense — his sense of direction was too good for that — but… in every other sense. The physical pain he felt was not enough to distract from the empty feeling inside.
It wasn't even that everyone here hated him. He could handle hate, and had been doing so for longer than he cared to admit. It was the fear and the grief, the uncertainty of it all, that was getting to him. His own, and everyone else's. They hated him, but they had good reason. Everything Anya had said in that room was the truth, but it didn't make him feel better about the choices he'd been forced to make.
He'd told Morgan he was going to shoot, but now he didn't feel steady enough. He wanted to hit something. Hitting Morgan had helped — taken the edge off, as he'd said — but it wasn't enough. He wanted to hit something, without the constant fear of hurting them making him hold back from truly giving it his all.
He strode over to the corner farthest from the door, where a shed had been built. He yanked open the doors and immediately saw what he needed.
Instead of a target, he pulled out a dummy. Human shaped and sized, made of tough material. He could whale on this. Maybe even make his knuckles bleed. Anything to distract from the crippling ache inside him.
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Heterosexual
✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧
"You never have to prove yourself to anyone who doesn't accept you for who you are."
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Post by ✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧ on Oct 22, 2021 21:24:26 GMT -5
Morgan told her, and was about to offer to lead her when Aidan slid from his chair. "Whoa, hold up, buddy." Morgan placed a gentle hand on his head to stall him. "I think you should wait here, let Seth cone to you. He needs... grown-up talk right now."
Aidan turned wide eyes on Anya. "But I want to go now."
☆~☆~☆ Seth moved the dummy to the center of the closest mat. He gave it an experimental hit to see how steady it was. It wobbled precariously, so he adjusted it until it was steady. When it gave beneath his touch, then bounced back, that's when Seth rolled his shoulders, squared up, and hit.
He quickly lost track of how long he fought an imaginary battle with the dummy. It was basically just practice — he blocked, dodged, and deflected as if the dummy was hitting back. But when he was hitting it, he didn't hold back, not one bit. It felt good, great even, but…
It still wasn't enough.
Seth paused, fists still raised, breathing heavy, as he glared at the dummy. He took a moment to breathe, planning his next sequence of moves. Just as he was about to start again, someone spoke.
“You still shield your right side too much on that left hand swing.”
Seth froze, going so still he could have been a statue. That voice… It couldn’t be…
Seth spun. And there, standing on the edge of the mat just like he always did when Seth was training…
Was Nick.
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Heterosexual
✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧
"You never have to prove yourself to anyone who doesn't accept you for who you are."
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Post by ✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧ on Oct 22, 2021 21:37:45 GMT -5
Aidan blinked up at her. "What's that?"
Morgan sat down beside Kyra, watching, just as curious to know what Anya had in mind.
☆~☆~☆ Seth’s head went quiet. He even stopped breathing, too shocked to remember even that.
Nick. It was Nick. Unless it wasn’t. But if it wasn’t Nick, how did he know about Seth’s right side? And the expression in his eyes… it was so familiar, yet foreign. Seth was sure he would never see that look directed at him again. That all-seeing, take no nonsense stare of his mentor, edged with the amusement of a friend and the pride of… a father.
Seth’s heart hurt. Literally, physically hurt in a way he knew, logically, was impossible. But logic took a long hike off a short pier the moment he turned around and found Nick staring back at him.
Nick’s teacher face faded into a sad resignation. “Hello, Seth.”
The sound of his voice jolted Seth’s mind enough to give him words. “What… the hell?!”
Nick slid his hands into his pockets, and that action almost shocked Seth more than his presence. Nick never put his hands in his pockets. It was a liability, a second of delay if ever you needed to raise your hands to defend yourself. Nick would always wack anyone on the back of the head if he caught their hands in their pockets around him. It hadn’t stopped the habit entirely, but it had made each of his students more aware and, nine times out of ten, they were able to get their hands out of their pockets before Nick noticed.
Yet here Nick stood now, his hands in his pockets. Maybe he really was an imposter.
As if reading his mind, Nick said softly, “It’s really me, Seth. I know that this will be hard to understand —”
“No.” Seth backed up a step, falling instinctively into a fighting stance. “No,” he said again. “This isn’t… You can’t… You’re dead. I… I killed you.” His voice broke on the words, but he kept going. “I killed you.” He whispered it this time. “You can’t…”
“Seth —”
“I killed you!” he shouted, reclaiming that step he took back. “And if you’re alive then that means how I feel, what I’ve been through… what you put me through, has all been for nothing!”
Seth was breathing hard now, fists clenched. Nick stood still, quiet, taking everything so Seth could get it out. Just like he always had.
For some reason, it pissed Seth right off. Yet he continued talking anyway because, damn it, Nick was right. He needed it out.
“You let me kill you. You probably let Genevieve find you too, didn’t you? Didn’t you? You orchestrated that whole damn thing. That woman wasn’t really your wife, was she? And the kid…” Here he faltered, but he forged on. “He wasn’t really yours. It was all a lie, a perfect little set up. And for what? So Genevieve could find you and send someone to kill you?” Seth took a step toward him. “Why me? Why me, dammit. Why would you make me do that? You always said I was better and then you made me do that! How could you do that to me?”
The lost feeling was back, threatening to drown him. This day was becoming too much. Seth could handle a lot but this… Ghost, his family, his friends, and now Nick, back from the dead… Seth was at his limit. Something in him was on the verge of snapping, and dammit, it would not come in the form of tears.
He blinked them back furiously and shouted, “Answer me!”
Nick didn’t answer. He took his hands out of his pockets and stepped onto the mat.
Seth snapped.
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Heterosexual
✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧
"You never have to prove yourself to anyone who doesn't accept you for who you are."
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Post by ✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧ on Oct 22, 2021 21:55:44 GMT -5
Aidan hesitated, torn. He really wanted to see Seth, but the idea of being useful, of doing something to help Seth... His shoulders slumped, but he nodded. "Okay."
Cami leaned over and gave him a little hug from behind. "It's okay, bud. Come on. Let's get Seth some food. I can teach you all his childhood favorites."
Aidan nodded and started to follow her to the buffet, but paused and spun back. "Anya," he called before she could go. "Take Hero. He'll make sure you don't get lost."
☆~☆~☆ He lunged across the space between them and unleashed all his pain and fury on Nick. Nick was ready for him, and he took it. He took it all and gave it right back. Their fight was fast and furious, complete chaos. Nothing like the mock battle Seth and Morgan had engaged in. This was messy and painful, bloody and… cathartic.
That didn't stop Seth from going at Nick as if he planned to kill him. Again.
The fight ended when Seth spun, hooked a foot around Nick's ankle, and yanked while simultaneously thrusting one hand into Nick’s throat and shoving. Nick went down, but he grabbed a handful of Seth's shirt and took him down with him.
Nick landed on his back with a grunt. Seth landed half beside and half on top of him. He quickly rolled so he was fully on top of him, one knee digging into Nick’s chest, one hand still around his throat. And Seth punched him. They had exchanged many punches during the last few frenzied minutes of fighting, but now that Seth had Nick pinned beneath him, he really saw the results of all the punching and kicking and hitting.
Nick made one attempt to get up, but Seth kept him pinned and hit him once more. “You’re a bastard." The words burst out of him unbidden. "A right freaking bastard!" It didn't occur to him until later that that was exactly what he'd said to Sebastian earlier as well.
Nick wrapped one hand around Seth’s wrist. Instinct told him to get the hand off before Nick broke it, but at this point he didn’t really care what else Nick broke in him. “I know,” was all Nick said. “I know.”
Seth wanted to hit him again and again, however many times it took to make the hurt go away. Instead he gave a wordless shout filled with all his pain and fury and shoved himself away. He scrambled to his feet and moved as far away from Nick as he could get without leaving the mat. He stood, chest heaving with every angry breath, and glared daggers at his mentor.
Nick got to his feet slowly, his eyes never leaving Seth. He had taken quite the beating — they both had — but Nick looked ready to go another round if Seth needed to.
And Seth was tempted, yet instead of engaging, he asked, “Did you let me win to make me feel better? Because it didn’t freaking work.”
For a second Nick looked like he wanted to reprimand Seth for swearing. He didn’t. “No, Seth. I have never cheated you in a fight. You won, simple as that.”
Seth snorted. There was nothing simple about beating Nick Wilder. The man had been damn near undefeated during all the years Seth knew him in the YRP. "Are you going to answer my question or not?" he snapped.
Nick spread his hands. "Yes, Seth, you killed me." His words had Seth sucking in a breath, but he went on unimpeded. "That wasn't a trick or illusion. I died. It wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last time. But I am back, alive and well. And yes, I know that was hard for you, that everything after has been hard. If I'd had another choice, I would not have done that to you. But it needed to be you, Seth. It needed to be you, because you are better. You and I both know Genevieve didn't tell you to bury me and leave it at that. Did she?"
It took Seth a moment to realize Nick actually wanted an answer. His thoughts were swimming, his emotions in a riot. His breathing was choppy, but in his confusion and inner turmoil he answered automatically. "No. She wanted you beheaded and burned."
Nick nodded. "Exactly. And anyone else she sent would have done just that. Then I really would be dead, irrevocably. So you didn't truly kill me, Seth. You saved me. Just like I believe you will save many more before your mission is over."
"Mission?" Seth repeated numbly. He gave a humorless laugh. "Exactly what mission is that?"
Nick met his gaze, and in that instant before he spoke, Seth knew exactly what he was going to say.
"You need to defeat Genevieve."
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*Nightwhisper
"And guilty I may be, but don't give up on me... We will still be thick as thieves."
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Post by *Nightwhisper on Oct 22, 2021 22:15:14 GMT -5
She hated not letting him go with her, but she knew Seth wouldn't open up as much if Aidan was there. If only to spare him of any negative emotions. She smiled, though, at the suggestion to being Hero with her. "Will do," she said, scooping up the puppy.
Then she again set out to find Seth. It took a minute to navigate, but she eventually found the one Morgan mentioned. She was just reaching for the door handle when she heard the shouting. Concerned, she opened the door and quickly rushed inside. Only to stop a few steps in. Seth wasn't looking in the best shape, and she was gearing up to step in for his defense. But one look at his "attacker had her frozen in her spot. Looking just as poor as Seth, if not worse, was Jan, or Nick. Eventually she would have to get used to referring him by his actual name. The two were focused on the conversation at hand, so she said nothing right away. Instead, she listened as her mind struggled to interrupt the scene before her.
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Heterosexual
✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧
"You never have to prove yourself to anyone who doesn't accept you for who you are."
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Post by ✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧ on Oct 22, 2021 22:27:50 GMT -5
There was a moment of silence, and then Seth laughed. "Are you off your rocker, old man? I can't defeat Genevieve. She has an army —"
"So do you," Nick cut in, with a wave at the general Rebel occupation.
Seth snorted. "I most certainly do not. These people would sooner see me hang than follow me into a suicide battle."
"They'll change their minds," Nick said simply, as if he actually believed that.
Seth could only stare. "Gods," he said after a minute. "You really have gone crazy. That from lack of oxygen?"
Nick just gazed back, deadpan. Seth wanted to fidget under that stare, like he always ended up doing growing up. It pissed him off, and he clenched his fists, refusing to cave.
Surprisingly, it was Nick who looked away first. "You shouldn't loiter," he said toward the door, his tone stern but with a hint of amusement. "It's rude."
Seth's gaze shot to the door, his breath catching, as it always did, when he saw Anya. No words came, though, as he stared at her across the room.
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Heterosexual
✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧
"You never have to prove yourself to anyone who doesn't accept you for who you are."
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Post by ✧☽ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅᴏᴇʀ ☾✧ on Oct 23, 2021 8:11:37 GMT -5
Seth went into her arms easily, lacking the will to resist. His mind was still caught up on Nick. Nick alive. Nick here. Nick telling him to defeat Genevieve. What the hell was that about? No one could defeat Genevieve. Many had tried; none had even come close to succeeding. Seth knew he was good, probably better than most of Genevieve's would-be assassins, but he was certainly not better than Genevieve. She had years more training and experience. Seth wouldn't stand a chance, even if he could get her one-on-one. Nick was bloody crazy.
But that didn't sit right either. Nick had always been the smartest person Seth knew. Always thinking, always planning, always watching. Nick was a legend. Untouchable, his fighting skills unmatched. Why couldn't he defeat Genevieve? And if he couldn't, how did he expect Seth to? None of it made any sense.
Seth sat up, pulling away from Anya. He had wrapped his arms around her and hid his face against her neck at some point. Now he ran a hans through his hair again, making the sweat and blood soaked strands stick up in all directions. "I need answers," he stared, a little desperately. "I can't just sit here and think. It's going to drive me crazy."
He went to get up, but winced and fell back with a hiss at the sudden pain in his arm. Sitting as he had, his muscles had all tensed up, and the adrenaline had faded, making him abruptly aware that he hurt, everywhere. His knuckles were bleeding, and there was a cut on his cheek from a well placed hit. But his body hurt more, from all the hits he'd taken or blocked. Especially his damn right side. Nick had gone after his weak spot relentlessly, the bastard, until Seth finally got his guard up where it was supposed to be.
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*Nightwhisper
"And guilty I may be, but don't give up on me... We will still be thick as thieves."
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Post by *Nightwhisper on Oct 23, 2021 20:02:07 GMT -5
"You don't have to apologize," Anya told him, just standing there with him for a moment. "I should have toned it down in the meeting, but my magic had gotten away from me. I didn't mean to make you as upset as you were." She tilted her head in a way that she could kiss his cheek without losing contact with him. Some part of her face, whether it was forehead, cheek, nose, or lips were always on him. Sensing the will to fight was gone, she figured he would prefer the physical touch more, even if it was small. "And I'll always be here, Seth."
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