Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 14, 2021 0:28:27 GMT -5
Orpheus searched L’s gaze, then gave a small nod. It might be difficult to figure everything out when Orpheus eventually made it to L’s world, but it wouldn’t be impossible. L was the smartest person in the world, and Orpheus was more competent than he let on. They would be able to navigate this better than either of them thought, probably. “I think the cake is going to burn,” he whispered, a small smile touching his lips. He didn’t pull back from L. They couldn’t eat the cake anyway, so he didn’t really think it mattered if it burnt. Maybe then they would feel less sad about not getting to eat it. If it wasn’t edible anyway… Orpheus felt a soft laugh build in the back of his throat, and he rested his chin lightly against the top of L’s head. Something warm blossomed in Orpheus’ chest at the thought that L might be able to feel the vibration of his quiet laughter. “I think… if we get lost in each other this often, we might both need Watari to remind us to take care of ourselves,” he whispered, letting himself melt into the fantasy again. They could work out the logistics later. For now, it didn’t seem like much of a crime to dream big.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 14, 2021 1:02:33 GMT -5
“Oh, yes, probably,” L agreed, either not realizing or not caring that there was something they could do about that. Letting go would take a lot of motivation, and the fate of a cake neither of them was going to taste wasn’t even close to enough. The vibration of the soft laugh sent a warm shiver through him, and he breathed out, letting it echo through him. It there was nothing else like that feeling, he knew. Nothing like being close enough to feel every sound, as though somehow they came from him, too. “That’s not really our fault, though,” he added, letting himself forget the cake, and the room, and even the possibilities that this was dangerous. He could have five minutes of turning his paranoia off, couldn’t he? “At least, it’s not mine. It’s an unfair circumstance. You’re very easy to get lost in, you know.” Imagining it…being home, being in his apartment, being able to be safe in Orpheus’ arms for as long as they both wanted…he hadn’t known he could really long for something, before. He was very familiar with the feeling now.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 14, 2021 2:13:39 GMT -5
It wouldn’t’ take that much effort to pull away and take the cake out of the oven, but Orpheus had to admit that he couldn’t be bothered. If the House wanted to get mad at them for burning the cake… well, then maybe it should have given them more of an incentive to take it out of the oven on time. As it was, Orpheus found he would much rather stand there, wrapped around L, than waste time pulling apart to take care of a cake he couldn’t even eat. He let the thought drift away from him, instead melting into L’s embrace, letting himself be consumed by the moment. He found it hard to believe that L was even half as content as he was. He wasn’t sure that was even possible… he thought he may never have been this happy before. Somehow, every moment he spent with L felt like the happiest in his life. He knew logically that wasn’t possible, but logic didn’t have anything to do with it. “No, it’s not our fault,” Orpheus echoed, amusement in his tone. “You’re very easy to get lost in, too. I could spend my whole life here, with you. I wouldn’t have any regrets.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 14, 2021 2:34:26 GMT -5
Was the cake done? Had it already burned? L didn’t know how long they’d been standing there. It could have been five minutes, an hour, three hours…he could guess it hadn’t been much longer than that, but only because they hadn’t talked about nearly as many things as they would have. And, anyway, the cake wasn’t smoking, so he doubted it had been even that long. It was like closing your eyes when you were beyond exhausted. It was water when you hadn’t had any for days. Somehow, he always felt deprived of this, no matter how recently they’d blinked in together. It was too easy to mistake it for feeling sleepy, even though he felt wide awake now, because his brain didn’t seem to know what to do with being this comfortable unless it was because his body was rebelling by knocking him unconscious. “I want you to make it to my world,” he whispered, unable to stop the words. “I want to have this every day. I know you’ve never been there, but I can’t help feeling your absence in my apartment.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 14, 2021 3:35:06 GMT -5
“I know there’s no practical way for you to see my world,” Orpheus whispered, L’s hair tickling his lips as his breath pushed it lightly out of place, “but I wish I could show you it, sometimes. I don’t… really have a home anymore. And I wander around aimlessly most of the time, so it’s not like I really have anywhere specific to show you, but… I want to experience it with you. I want to see my world through your eyes. I think… I might appreciate it more that way. You see things so differently than I do. I wish I could see it how you would. I wish I could have you by my side when I decide to go somewhere new. I wish… I wish I didn’t have to wait so long,” Orpheus whispered, lightly squeezing L’s hand as he spoke. It would be thousands of years before he even found out if L’s world was the same as his own. They were both banking on a future that might never happen. “And I obviously want to make it to your world. I guess… it doesn’t matter where we are, as long as we get to be together.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 14, 2021 3:59:39 GMT -5
L listened, trying to imagine Orpheus’ world. He couldn’t, not accurately. He couldn’t begin to imagine what it was like to live the way Orpheus did, and he wasn’t sure he’d be capable of it, anyway. He was on his computer most of the time. It wasn’t that he wasn’t picky about food so much as it was that the amount of things he found edible and the amount of things other people found edible weren’t even remotely close to each other. At least his hatred for all shoes would probably still mostly work out… He had never been able to ignore possibilities he didn’t like. He knew that Orpheus could die and never show up in L’s world at all. He knew Orpheus wouldn’t even have to die for that to happen…people stopped blinking in all the time, even people like Orpheus, who’d been blinking in for long enough that it no longer mattered how much earlier L’s first blink had been. “I’d go to your world. If that was possible,” he replied, letting his eyes slip closed again. “I’d like to see it, I think. As long as you’re there, too.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 14, 2021 4:44:22 GMT -5
“I can’t imagine my world would be the nicest place for you,” Orpheus admitted, letting his eyes close as he held L close. The nice, sweet smell of the cake was beginning to turn into something a little more bitter, but Orpheus didn’t think he cared. It could burn into cinders for all he cared. The part of this room that mattered was L. The fact that they got to spend time together. The fact that they actually got to do something together rather than just sitting around waiting for the House to decide it was bored of them and blink them out, or fighting tooth and nail for both of them to make it out the other side of a room. “The sweets are all a little bit more savory. And we don’t have computers, so you can’t solve crimes as efficiently. And there’s no Watari.” There were any number of reasons it was probably better that Orpheus come to L’s world rather than the other way around, but that didn’t mean Orpheus couldn’t dream of showing L around his world. “I guess… I haven’t been there in a very long time, but I wish I could show you where I grew up. Maybe… maybe part of it still exists in your world. Maybe we could see it together.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Nov 14, 2021 9:46:29 GMT -5
L couldn’t quite imagine being in Orpheus’ world. As far as he could tell, it would be mostly like going back in time for him. Assuming Orpheus really was from his world, that was exactly what it would be. Still…he didn’t know what it would be like, in practice. To live every day in a world with nothing he’d come to expect from it, and nothing he depended on. He wasn’t sure he was really built for it. “Perhaps,” he acknowledged, breathing out quietly. “But I still would. I’d have you, wouldn’t I?” He wanted to see it. Even if there weren’t many places in particular, he wanted to see everything there was. “That’s possible,” he added softly, a note of hope tilting his voice up. “I suppose you don’t have any way of telling me where it is, but…perhaps if you tell me how far it is from the sea? Or something that happened there? I think I could find it.” He hesitated. “But…I wouldn’t want to go there. Not by myself. I’d like that to be something you can show me.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Nov 19, 2021 23:32:14 GMT -5
Orpheus breathed out, his forehead pressing against L’s hair as he hummed softly, listening to what L was saying. He wouldn’t want to make L come to his world, if only because he didn’t want to make L face something so unfamiliar. Their worlds weren’t the same. There were things in Orpheus’ world that would be strange and foreign to L, and he would be missing out on a lot of humanity’s greatest innovations. What kind of person would Orpheus be to make him live without the things he had gotten used to? Without the ability to save people as efficiently as he could in his world? No, Orpheus would never ask for L to stay in his world. Maybe a short visit… he pushed the thought away, not wanting to tempt the House too much. “Maybe… maybe you can find it,” Orpheus breathed, pulling back just enough to see L’s eyes, “and then you can plan out a way for us to get there. So that when I get to your world, we can go together. And I can show you all of the places that I enjoyed visiting when I was growing up, and we can see how they’ve changed together.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Dec 22, 2021 18:30:05 GMT -5
If they could visit, maybe, it would have been different. If they’d had the power of the House, if they could go wherever they wanted… The House didn’t give. What they claimed from it was never free. This was how it worked: how far would they go to secure its prizes? What would motivate them to go farther than they would have believed themselves capable of? Which meant, he knew, that if they ever did get to be in the same world, there would be a price. It wouldn’t happen. He knew it wouldn’t. Unless Orpheus was already from his world, there was no point in thinking it would. Even if the House ever had done it, he knew enough blinkers to know it likely wouldn’t happen to them. “I will,” he told him, dark eyes flicking you to meet the other blinker’s. “I’ll find it. And I’ll make sure nothing happens to it, more than what already has.” Maybe, he added in his head, he would buy a house there. It wouldn’t be what Orpheus had lost, but perhaps it would be an alright gift, anyway. Once Orpheus was there to enjoy it.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Dec 23, 2021 3:36:46 GMT -5
“How do you know it even still exists?” Orpheus asked, eyes wide as he looked at L. He didn’t want to believe that his home was gone, but it had been such a long time… it was hard to believe that anything could last that long. Anything tangible, at least. He had every reason to believe that love could bridge that gap. A body certainly couldn’t, though, so how could a place? How could a home? The ocean might still be there, and the cliff his home had been on, but he doubted anything remained of the streets or buildings he had known growing up. The streets and buildings that would still exist now if he were to go back to Thrace. Orpheus had to believe that he and L were from the same world. There was no way to prove it, of course, and it wasn’t like the House would be willing to tell them. Orpheus couldn’t promise to make it to a world that wasn’t his own. Regardless, he was going to do everything he could to try to make it there. “Maybe,” Orpheus breathed, not wanting to pull away from L, “We should pull the cake out before it burns down the entire House.” It was already starting to smell unpleasant. How long had they been talking to each other? It hadn’t felt like that long, but by the burnt smell coming from the oven… he pulled away just enough to reach over and press the ‘off’ button on the appliance.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Dec 23, 2021 22:45:53 GMT -5
“I don’t know what’s there,” L admitted, though he wasn’t sure how much it mattered. He was fairly sure not much of what Orpheus knew would be there, but the place itself…that had to be, didn’t it? Even if it was only the place he’d let the water of the ocean wash over his toes. L hoped, irrationally, that there would be a way to recognize it. He wanted to stand in the same place Orpheus had stood, thousands of years ago. He wanted to follow the poet’s trail, walking along the path he’d walked, as far as there was ground under his feet. It wasn’t possible, but he allowed himself to cup the fantasy in his hands for a long moment anyway, relishing the warmth of it. “I hope something is,” he added, and it wasn’t exactly what he meant, but it was as close as he knew how to get. The cake did smell sort of burned. L recognized that, but it didn’t feel very important. He made a small, protesting noise as Orpheus shifted, fully aware that he was being irrational and not quite caring. “The House wouldn’t allow it,” he told him, and turned, craning his neck enough so that he could rest his chin on Orpheus’ shoulder and watch him turn the oven off. “It has its own priorities to think about. It might let us burn to death, though. We are being sort of annoying for it, probably.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Dec 25, 2021 2:01:03 GMT -5
“I want to discover it together,” Orpheus admitted, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. “Whatever is there, I want to see it with you. I want to explore it with you, and try to figure out what’s still there and what has changed. I want to walk with you through town and point out where my favorite bakery used to be, and where I used to play as a child. I want to walk the ground that used to be my house and pretend it’s still there, so I can give you a tour. I mean… it’s not as fancy as where you stay, but it was still home, for most of my life. I travelled a lot with Mr. Hermes of course, but the one place I always came back to…” he trailed off, glancing at the cake long enough to make sure it wasn’t going to spontaneously combust. The cake was absolutely inedible. The edges and tops were all black, but Orpheus wasn’t sure he cared. He would have minded much more if it was a cake they were planning on eating, but the last thing he wanted to do was scare L again by taking a taste. “I don’t care if we’re annoying the House,” Orpheus admitted breathlessly, running a hand absentmindedly through L’s hair. “I like spending time with you, and I’m going to do that however I choose, no matter what the House has to say about it. We made the cake. I personally don’t care if it’s inedible. It’s not like anyone’s going to eat it, and now we won’t burn to death for overbaking it.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Dec 25, 2021 2:35:24 GMT -5
L listened, eyes half closed as he pictured it. He could see it, in his mind…walking through streets, over hills, along beaches. Here is where I fell asleep to the sound of the waves, here is where I made one hundred versions of breakfast, here is where I walked when the world was younger and the stars were only just learning the stories they tell now. Here is where I found the first flower of spring, here is where I traded eggs away to a stranger, here is where I was alive, alive, can you feel it in the air? Can a heartbeat be a ripple in the wind, echoing endlessly across time? Ruined. He was ruined. Poetry had taken root in his heart, and there was no escaping it now. He was eternally and irreparably changed, and he wouldn’t trade it for anything. “It’s only a cake,” he murmured, a tiny smile tugging at his lips at the feeling of Orpheus’ hand running through his hair. “It’s the House’s own fault, anyway. It knew what would happen.” He had no doubt that it did. Even so…he was grateful. And just a little bit amused by the idea of irritating it with how little he cared about the rest of this room. He half turned, so that he could see Orpheus’ expression better, dark eyes meeting hazel. “I think…I’d like to see it, whether it’s the same or not. I can’t believe there’s nothing there that is.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Dec 25, 2021 2:59:33 GMT -5
Whoever they had both been before, they were two completely different people now. L was just as capable at his job, and Orpheus was still a musician and a romantic, but they had fundamentally changed the way they both thought. Orpheus had a practical lens when he looked at the world, sometimes, and L saw things with more poetry in them. They hadn’t swapped the way they thought, but they had both incorporated more of the other’s worldview into their daily lives. Although Orpheus disagreed with the philosophers that believed that humans were once creatures with two heads, four arms, four legs, and one heart, he found that where he and L had been two completely separate individuals before, they were both now separate individuals who were an amalgamation of who they had both been before. It was impossible to know if they had picked up the best of each other or the worst, but they had both undeniably picked up traits and habits from the other. Orpheus wouldn’t change that for all the world. “You know,” Orpheus murmured, leaning a little closer to L, “I can’t help but wonder if it’s surprised that this happens every time. You’d think, if it were truly annoyed, it would have stopped us long ago.” There was a touch of amusement in his voice as he gently flicked a piece of L’s hair back in place. “The world can’t have changed entirely,” Orpheus agreed, letting his eyes close for just a moment as he tried to imagine what Thrace might look like in L’s time. “We existed. There must be traces of us. Even if it’s just in one footprint left undisturbed in a cavern.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Dec 25, 2021 3:26:32 GMT -5
L hadn’t known people could change each other that much. Experiences shaped you. You learned from mistakes, you improved yourself, because…well, because otherwise, you got more people killed. BB had changed him. He had learned, and he had changed, and now he was better. This wasn’t that. This was slower, subtler, less intentional. He couldn’t place his finger on when it had occurred, or even when it had really begun. He simply had, at some point, quietly stopped being merely L Lawliet, the best detective in the world, and he had become L Lawliet, the best detective in his world, seasoned blinker, as deep in love as it was possible to go and falling ever deeper. He liked to think of it as having grown around each other. They’d been around each other through so much…it had shaped them, but they’d been together, so when they’d grown, they’d grown together, like two trees close enough to twist and bend and carry each other higher. His smile deepened a little, and his leaned forward, resting a little of his weight against Orpheus. The other blinker was warm, and L gave a tiny, near inaudible sigh. “I suppose that depends on what it expects,” he mused, tilting his head up to meet Orpheus’ gaze. “If we’re its test subjects, it could just be giving us as many trials as it can. Who knows? It could be testing us to see how many times this is going to happen.” The thought amused him. Mostly because he thought he knew the answer.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Dec 25, 2021 3:35:01 GMT -5
“That’s silly,” Orpheus replied, amusement sparking in its gaze. “Surely it must know that if it keeps blinking us in like this, and it keeps giving us the chance to talk, we’re going to take it every time. If… if it doesn’t expect that, then it really doesn’t understand anything about love.” When you loved someone, you never ran out of things to talk about, even if your topics of conversation were silly and inconsequential more often than not. You never got tired of their touch, and you never wanted to pull away for longer than a second. Of course Orpheus knew that wasn’t the case for everyone, but it was the case for him and L. Sometimes he wished they really could grow into each other, so they never would have to let go. If Orpheus ever made it to L’s world, he thought it would take a miracle to pull him from L’s side. What would he do in a world where it was possible for him to exist in the same space as L, breathe in the same air, for forever? “I wonder,” Orpheus whispered, as though it were a secret, “if the House is jealous. If it wants what we have, because… what we have is rare, and precious, and… and quite possibly the most beautiful thing to exist in any world. There are so many people who fall in love, and so many who fall out of love, but that… that doesn’t make the love any more special. I don’t think you and I will ever fall out of love, but… but that’s not what makes it so beautiful. I know… I know we’re only here for a short time in comparison to the House. We’re not immortal. We only have our lives, and within that, we only have what the House decides to give us. But we pull every moment of joy and laughter and contentment out of the limited time we have. I wonder… do you think the House has ever felt pure joy? Because I would share some with it now, if it wanted. My heart is bursting with it.”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Dec 25, 2021 3:49:07 GMT -5
L wouldn’t have been surprised to know that the House didn’t understand love. He didn’t know if it did or not, but if it didn’t…well, it would explain things, a little bit. Maybe it didn’t understand what it had done. The depth of what it had made, intentionally or not. Without it, he would never even have met Orpheus. He didn’t know if it could understand the gravity of this, the gravity of a relationship that had only been possible because of it. He almost hoped it could. The idea that it didn’t know was oddly sobering. He left that thought behind almost immediately, though, as Orpheus continued, and L gazed into his eyes as he spoke, lost in every part of him. He never understood how Orpheus did that…as though he could paint a world into existence merely with his voice, as though he could create it, in a way so real L felt as though he could have touched it, if he’d known where to reach. “I hope that it knows, even if it doesn’t have it for itself,” he whispered back, too caught up in the moment to care that it could hear them. “I want it to understand what it’s given us. What it’s allowed us. I want it to know why we want to be as close as we can be, and why there’s no other place in the room with air that comes as easily as it does at your side. I suppose…I want it to have that. Even if it’s not even, I think if anything could make it become so, it would be that knowledge. Besides your music, of course.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Dec 26, 2021 2:34:50 GMT -5
“Do you think the House is capable of love?” Orpheus asked, eyes wide as he focused his full attention on L. It wasn’t something he had ever thought to question before, but now that the thought was there, he couldn’t help but wonder why it hadn’t occurred to him earlier. Orpheus believed firmly that every person was capable of love, even if it wasn’t romantic love. People who never experienced romantic love were just as human as those who did. The House… the House wasn’t human. It had certainly demonstrated that it was capable of curiosity. It had even shown that it was capable of mercy, in small ways. Nobody had ever talked to the House, as far as Orpheus knew, so he had no idea what else it was truly capable of. If it couldn’t experience love, that was undoubtedly part of the reason it treated them as it did. “I hope that it knows love,” he added, leaning into L and staring at the burnt cake they had made. “I hope that it has people it loves, even if they don’t love it back. And I hope… I hope it knows the strength of that emotion, and the beauty it brings to the world.” Orpheus couldn’t help but believe L when he said that understanding love might make the House even. Still… “If it had love, once… and it lost it… that could be reason enough for its cruelty,” he whispered. He didn’t want to admit that he could have become a cruel person after Eurydice’s death if L hadn’t been there, but… it was a possibility. There was no telling what sort of person he may have become. There was no telling what cruel deeds he might have rationalized through the pain of a broken heart.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Jan 1, 2022 0:32:31 GMT -5
“Mm…if you had asked me that a year ago…” L mused, his words slow at first as he tried to make his thoughts fit into them. It was a process that seemed to get harder with time, though he thought it was in the way games got harder as you got better at them, not that he’d gotten worse at it. “If you had asked me that a year ago…I would have said I didn’t know, but that I doubted it. The rooms are set up for us, the blinkers, and more specifically, for our interactions with each other. I have never met anyone who went through a room alone, and though it’s possible the House would keep its types of blinkers separate from each other, it seems more likely that the rooms are designed for us to complete with other blinkers. Besides, that’s true even if there are other kinds of blinkers.” He turned a little, allowing himself to brush by Orpheus for a moment as he reached for the counter. He couldn’t eat it, but he dragged the sugar container closer anyway as he continued. “That’s still true, now. But before, I thought it meant that the House didn’t feel the love it inadvertently caused. Before, I thought it was just a side effect, and the goal was something else entirely. Humans will find the ability to love in even the smallest cracks and corners, after all.” His eyes flicked up, meeting Orpheus’ again. “But maybe…it causes that love because it does feel it. Maybe it’s fascinated by our relationships, because it knows what they are.” He fell silent, letting that thought hang in the air for a long moment. His mind turned slowly to Orpheus’ words, too…he knew what the poet was thinking of, but he didn’t say it. He didn’t believe Orpheus would have ever become cruel. But he did think he could have stopped caring, and that could be even worse, sometimes. Then again, L had never lost his love. Not even in a room. “Do you think…it’s alone?”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Jan 14, 2022 2:01:59 GMT -5
It was hard to believe that the House wasn’t alive in some way. If it were just random, it would have been even. The reason Orpheus’ world wasn’t even was because there were gods that made it so. Gods that had complicated relationships with each other that impacted how the world turned because they forgot they could impact mortals that way. Gods that were responsible for changing the way humans thought in much the same way the House did (although perhaps not so directly). Eros shot plenty of young people with arrows that made them love people they would not have cared so much for otherwise. Ares turned men’s hearts towards war. How was the House any different? “The House is in our heads,” Orpheus murmured, tilting his head just a little bit as he considered that. “It’s proven that multiple times before. It knows our pasts and our worlds. It knows how we think and what we’re feeling. If it exists in my head even a fraction of the time I’m here, there is no doubt in my mind that it has felt the strength of my feelings towards you. I don’t know if that means it feels love, but I think… at least through us, it has a concept of what love would feel like, if it were to feel it.” Orpheus didn’t mention that his love for L wasn’t the only love it had experienced in the minds of his blinkers, but he didn’t think it necessary to. The love he felt for his friends burned just as strongly as the love he harbored for L. The House had partaken in that love as well, if it had even touched his mind from afar. “I think it is,” Orpheus whispered after a long moment, glancing at the bag of sugar and very lightly squeezing L’s hand. “I can’t imagine it would bother with us at all if there was anyone like it it could devote its time to.” Orpheus did have to consider that, if there was someone like the House, they may not like each other. Which was more or less the same thing as being alone, so it was beside the point (although something interesting to consider at another time.)
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Mar 17, 2022 19:12:07 GMT -5
- L blinked in, phone dangling loosely next to his ear and head tilted up to observe the cracks on the ceiling and see how many times he could trace them all the way across the room. The line went dead at the same moment he registered the change in what he was seeing, and he looked down, lowering it gently to his side as he took in the familiar room. He glanced over his shoulder instinctively, but there was no one there, so he dropped the phone on the floor and moved over to the bookshelf instead. It was mostly to give himself something to do until someone else blinked in, but he did like to keep an eye on the books in case the House ever decided to see how long it would take its guests to notice a change in them.
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Mar 23, 2022 23:40:27 GMT -5
A small boy appeared, no older than six or seven years old. He held a lyre that was at least his size, the tortoise shell clamped between his legs as he stuck his tongue out in concentration, trying to get the placement of his hands on the strings just right. He had been interested in music for longer than he could remember, but only recently had Apollo been willing to show him how to use the lyre. He wasn’t big enough to hold it until recently, despite practically begging to use it since he had first laid eyes on it. He was about to play a note when he realized he could no longer hear the soft strumming as Apollo tuned another instrument. His eyes narrowed and he leapt to his feet, scarcely managing to catch the lyre before it toppled over. He didn’t know if it could break, but he didn’t want to risk it. He didn’t recognize where he was. Everything about it was strange, from the weirdly soft ground to the small fires burning on the walls like torches, but… not. And even stranger was the man standing by the shelves, acting like this was perfectly normal. Orpheus squeaked, doing his best to hide himself behind the shell of the lyre. Seeming to think better of it almost immediately after he had done it, he stood up again, shoving the lyre behind him. In the grand scheme of things, it was worth more than he was.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Mar 24, 2022 13:14:51 GMT -5
L turned sharply as he heard the small squeak, searching to see who else had blinked in. He hadn’t recognized the noise, which meant it was probably - But there was no need to guess. He look in the lyre first, even though the child - and he was unmistakably a child - stood in front of it, as though shielding it from L with his own body. He would have recognized both him and the instrument on their own. Together, in this room, that expression on his face… “Hello,” he said, keeping his voice as low and soft as he could. He rarely thought of his appearance as intimidating, but now he hunched a little more, doing his best not to startle the much smaller version of the love of his life staring warily up at him. They couldn’t go into a room. L wouldn’t let him. He’d have to try to avoid letting him see it as an option in the first place…or should he? If he did that, what would happen if this Orpheus came here again alone, or with someone less trustworthy? Then again, that could happen either way…
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Mar 30, 2022 2:18:31 GMT -5
Orpheus blinked, eyes wide as the stranger turned out to be… friendly? It didn’t make sense in his mind. It wasn’t that he thought strangers were inherently unfriendly, it was just… the lyre was incredibly valuable, and Apollo had impressed on Orpheus exactly what would happen if it was broken because of carelessness. Well… he hadn’t gone into detail about what exactly would happen, but Apollo had started enough plagues that Orpheus knew better than to risk it. And he expected that most people knew how valuable the lyre was. He had a feeling that there were plenty of people who would take it and try to curry favor with the god if they could, throwing Orpheus under the bus to do so. But the man here was nice. “Hello,” he returned, hazel eyes wide as he looked up at L. He wasn’t used to people hunching like L did, though he thought he understood at least partly why. He was making himself smaller, wasn’t he? Orpheus had experience with that, though he couldn’t fathom why the man thought it was necessary here. “Do you know where lord Apollo is?” he asked after a moment, trying to make his voice sound stronger and more certain than he felt.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Mar 30, 2022 3:17:42 GMT -5
L couldn’t help the warmth spreading through him as he got a better look at Orpheus. He looked…wary, at least a little bit. That was good…especially if he was new here and didn’t know any safe blinkers yet, being wary of the House (and strangers) was always a good idea. Even if L hadn’t exactly been all that careful about doing rooms lately. He was getting downright reckless, really. How old was this Orpheus? He looked so incredibly young… “If you were with him a moment ago, he hasn’t moved,” he replied, resisting the impulse to move closer. He didn’t want to spook him any more than he had to, especially not when the only escape would be into the hallway. “You’ll go back, before too long. It'll be as though you never left.”
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Mar 31, 2022 1:10:49 GMT -5
Orpheus looked up at L, trying to figure out if he believed what the man was saying. It didn’t make sense. People didn’t just appear places and then go back to where they had been, at least not without some supernatural interference. And L didn’t seem very much like a god… he just seemed… well… Orpheus wasn’t really certain he knew what the difference between gods and mortals was. He knew Mr. Hermes and Lord Apollo were both gods, and he knew that he technically counted as mortal, but he didn’t know if there was much of a difference. Gods seemed just like mortals, except… more powerful. “Am I here because I’m in trouble?” Orpheus asked suddenly, his grip on the lyre tightening. “I promise I didn’t do anything bad. I mean… I… I didn’t go to sleep the other night after Mr. Hermes told me to because I wanted to keep trying to make the notes in the song work better, and I snuck an extra piece of baklava at dinner, but I didn’t… please don’t make me stop playing music.” There was a sort of desperation in his tone, building as his mind tried to supply some reason for why he’d been snatched away from his lesson.
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Apr 2, 2022 23:47:37 GMT -5
L could tell Orpheus was trying to figure him out. He also knew he wouldn’t succeed…he didn’t have any context for L, or the House, for that matter. Even his best guess could only be based off what he had knowledge of. His gaze widened a little as Orpheus spoke and he shook his head quickly. “No, you’re not in trouble. To be honest…I do both those things frequently, myself. I don’t think they count as something you did wrong.” His voice softened. “And…I couldn’t make you stop playing music, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t. This place…it’s not good or bad on its own. It’s not a punishment.” He glanced at the lyre again, fighting through temptation to ask if he could touch it. Would it feel like the strings of the guitar the House always replaced it with? Would he still know how to play those few chords he’d learned so long ago, if he tried?
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Transgender
strider
No mourners, no funerals
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Post by strider on Apr 3, 2022 0:16:55 GMT -5
It was true enough - Orpheus didn’t know what to make of L. He didn’t know if he was friend or foe, and as much as he wanted to believe him that he wasn’t in trouble, he couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t being told the whole truth. Usually when he felt like he was in trouble, he was. “What do you mean it’s not a punishment?” Orpheus asked, eyes wide, voice high and small. “I didn’t get to finish my music lesson with Lord Apollo. I don’t want to be stuck here.” He knew what L had said - he would go back and it would be like he had never left, but that wasn’t how the universe worked. You couldn’t jus appear somewhere and then appear somewhere else like no time had passed. Time passed, even for the gods. They couldn’t undo that. They couldn’t rewind the clocks any more than a mortal could. Orpheus followed L’s glance towards the lyre, and he immediately pushed himself once again in front of it. “You can’t have Lord Apollo’s lyre!”
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Post by ®Hawkpath® on Apr 3, 2022 1:01:45 GMT -5
“It’s unfortunate,” L agreed, even though he didn’t think it was. Not completely, at least. “But that doesn’t mean it happened because of you. A punishment is a consequence of something you did. This would have happened even if you hadn’t taken more baklava.” He couldn’t quite get over the fact that Orpheus was so small, and so…Orpheus. He thought he wanted nothing more than to settle down at his side and hear everything about his life so far, everything he had done that day, everything he would forget by the time it was L’s turn to meet him for the first time. But he wouldn’t push Orpheus. Just like Orpheus had never pushed him. Did the House realize how impossibly circular this all was? He blinked, pulling his gaze back to Orpheus as the child moved between him and the lyre, blocking it mostly from sight. He took a small step back, keeping his movements slow and even and his hands visible as he did. “It’s alright. Even if I tried to take it, I probably wouldn’t be able to. Usually, when you appear with something, it comes back with you no matter where it ended up. But, still…I won’t touch it. Not unless you say I can. I was just thinking that it was beautiful.”
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