Chapter II: Gravity

Completed chapters of the serial storyline are stored here after completion.
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Karl the Mad
 

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Re: Chapter II: Gravity

Post by Karl the Mad »

Preston's reassurances came in the form of a text, the same cryptic reminder he sometimes brought up with the young Marine: Butterflies, Three! Don't forget! He still had yet to explain this, however.
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IamLEAM1983
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Re: Chapter II: Gravity

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Three looked at Hauser's text, frowned in puzzlement for half a second, and then opted for some sort of personal interpretation. He smiled at Hauser, giving him a thumbs-up that didn't exactly radiate self-confidence.

In the meantime, Sam had indeed sussed out the overall nature of Meris' train of thought, which seemed to be reflective of his own feelings towards the open seas. His own small smile was as much a display of empathy as it manifested the yearnings that were his to carry. It didn't last long, however, and he moved to fish another rum bottle out of the barrel for himself.

"Well lads," feel free t'head t'yer quarters anytime," he said, "me men an' I are gonna take five an' then slip away inter the Shadowlands by half a step - quell down our crowin' some. That'll let ye get some shut-eye, and the help gets t'clean up. I'll take ye and yer friends out to shore tomorrow," he said, looking at Drake, "so's ye get a reconnoiter o' the Pit. On the martal plane's scale, we'll be gone an hour or two at the most. Might feel longer on yer end - but ye'll have plenty o' time to work on other stuff."

The warthog nodded satisfactorily. "Good. Unless there's a change in the program and Mary needs me, I'll also be using part of the day to try and deepen our logistics with Meris," he explained. The team heads might've shaken hands, I still don't know much about her people. It's at her discretion, though - wouldn't want to barge on her secret sources unannounced now, would we?"

Archie, in the meantime, stifled a yawn. "And I shall be seeing you bright and early, Neasa and Ciaran! Well, early in the current context meaning sometime before noon... Great Gadfrey, I could marry my mattress, right about now..."

The Clank trotted away, with the pinched eyes and small steps of someone who'd be likely to sleep like a baby.

Drake, however, was a bit too jazzed to consider sleeping. "I'd help unload the table if Gubbin wasn't liable to murder me for it, so I'll just head to the break room and score a few frags with my headphones on.
- Ooo, can I come?" asked Sam, which made Three arch a brow at Meris.

"Your captive beau's a reluctant Lovecraftian jovialist, your butler's a dog from Hell and one of your old friends is a gamer and a pirate... What do you do when you get to spend a few days with normal people? Tie them down while you're gratefully weeping?"

His question having been rhetorical and obviously teasing, he left without expecting an answer. They'd hear Drake ask Samigina if he had a PSN account - which of course he had, somehow.

Unsurprisingly, the Marquis Samigina was last heard saying that his account name was ShiverMeTimbers666 as he followed the soldier to the break room.
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Re: Chapter II: Gravity

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"You'll be meeting my people soon enough, Tom. I'll need to catch them up and find a time that's suitable for everyone to meet the other," Meris said, feeling the alcohol and time of night start to catch up with her. "For now, I will be returning to my roommate's home to get some shut-eye."

She looked to the canine batman. "I'm honestly relieved you have a means of transportation, Naberius. I flew here at the request for a grand entrance, but it doesn't mean I want to depart in the same fashion," she explained with a chuckle.

"The guys can play video games all they want... I'm exhausted," Aislinn murmured, feeling the day's events weigh upon her. She glanced over at Tom. "I'll stay here for the night. I figured that might be the case, so I brought a pair of pajamas with me."

Ciaran let out a yawn. "Same here. Sleep in and back to work tomorrow," he said to no one in particular, ambling his way toward the guest bedrooms and waving to the remaining group. Neasa told them good night and followed after her brother.
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Epilogue

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

Soon, unless you'd known to look for the glare of an HD TV set and the muted sounds of gunfire, you'd swear the mansion had been emptied. 

The dining room had been cleaned out and the TV set had been relocated to the basement by the Steward. Bagley and Gubbin had cleaned up house and then retired to their own quarters, while. Tom had no energies to spare on Aislinn's offered meditation techniques, so what had been heavy petting earlier turned into the warthog being too tired to even attempt to drag the roane down into his subconscious. They'd both sleep as well as could be within Holden Hall's plush confines, Magnus settling for the occasional snuffle of an exhale as McConmara's hair still managed to stimulate his nose. The warlock dreamed of tattoo ink and the smell of shampoo, his lack of more directed noise suggesting contentment.

Leonard, however, shared a communicating bathroom with Rhadamantus. The goat couldn't stop himself from peeping inside the Judge's room as he brushed his teeth and prepared for what he hoped would be a more restorative set of sleeping hours, the sight of the green-scaled creature simply standing there being mildly disturbing. There was something to the Judge's features that suggested he'd never get enough sleep, as if his age and guilt were burdens he'd forever have to carry. He'd sleep for days on end and would always wake up feeling as though he were missing just a few more hours - lethargy being an artfully constructed burden he'd been made to carry by the very same entity that now was trying to kick down the door to his psyche.

At the same time, the ramrod-straight posture and the way his arms were bent behind his back suggested vigilance. Rhadamantus might never feel truly energized, but there still was the sense that he was on call for something - as if one mention of his name would make him snap awake without so much as anything resembling a bleary-eyed look of disorientation. He'd simply raise his head and his drooping eyelids, instantly functional and instantly lucid. He hadn't been demonstrative, either, but he certainly had been grateful, immediately adapting to the situation and quickly finding out its offered benefits. Still, the demon's burden was obvious to him.

Naberius, however, hadn't suggested a burden so much as a dutifully-assumed role - the kind of professional pride he still sometimes saw in immortal career soldiers he'd needed to represent. Leonard briefly flashed back to a case in the early 2000s, one that had seen him defend a fanged World War One veteran from his insurer's spuriously-insisted claims of non-eligibility. Some immortals occasionally did this - use their big bucks to tap into Corporate Defense for civilian cases - and that had been one of his appreciated reprieves from the world of settlements and class-action lawsuits...

Class-Action. God, the very concept was tainted, now. All he could think about was Lambert, and all the mundane and supernatural threads that led to the mess he found himself in... As he'd done before, Ephesian sighed as he brushed his teeth and did his best to vacate his mind.

No lawsuit, no demons, no criminals - just the bed. Brush your teeth, then go to bed.

Ephesian had no background in meditation, but he did know how to center himself to a degree. He focused on the Now, on the threads of the brush as they slid over the half-omnivore and half-herbivore makeup of his teeth. Via hadn't completely altered Earth's biosphere when the anthros had come into being; vestigial remains of what came before clung to everything the non-human population had to live with. Ephesian had always had light trouble digesting meat of any kind, the whole process typically putting him out within half an hour of the offending meal. Leafy greens and the errant handful of nuts performed better with his gastrointestinal tract, but he'd be damned if anything ever stopped him from enjoying a Grade A steak...

His reflection winked at him. Cold fear clutched at his sternum, but the billy forced himself to disconnect from what he'd just seen.

He was safe. He was being taken care of. His case was being secured. Eventually, he'd go home and put this whole sordid affair behind him. He just had to.

Twenty minutes and thirty paperback pages later, he turned out the lights, trying to convince himself that he could afford to relax. It took some doing, but listening to the Judge's snores from next door over helped. There was someone who had so much power that the thought of going against the Black Goat in a courtroom joust only provoked a shrug.

"If a proper case precedent is built," had summarized the former dragon, "I could exile the Prince out of Hell entirely. The more solid the case, the more thorough my final verdict.
- You mean you're not scared of him?" had asked the goat.

Rhadamantus' smile had been old, bitter and wise, immeasurably sad - but also confident. "Why should I be afraid of someone who ignores the true power of Due Process? Justice, if properly served, can conquer all obstacles."

Just as Leonard's mind began to drift away, his own voice lightly sounded from over his shoulder.

A single, quiet and mocking chuckle.

Nothing was there when he turned around and flicked the bedside table's light on.

He didn't sleep much, if at all, that night.
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