tvklogs | There were times in my life

Who: Albedo, Gaignun (

namedforcat) and open.
Where: Everywhere.
When: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during Dark Hour.
What: Jr. and MOMO have vanished and the loss of both of them has taken its toll on Albedo's sanity. He deals with it the only way he knows how: by fighting until he can't fight any more.
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, violence, blood, mutilation, references to and implications of suicide, character death and abuse of Shakespearian quotes.
Notes: PLEASE let me know what day you're encountering him if you tag this. His sanity will be continuing to slip up until his death, so it makes a difference. Also, let me know if you're willing to let your character get injured, otherwise I'll assume no.

Rubedo's number was gone from the listings. MOMO's was gone with it. Some might expect that second point to come as good news to the man who seemed to despise her, but he cared about her in a strange, twisted way. With them both vanishing at the same time, Albedo's already delicate sanity was beginning to crumble in ways that he found distressingly familiar. Oh, he was functional, could even pretend to be as sane as he ever was. But he was slipping, and he knew it.

During the Dark Hour, that changed. It had always been the time when he'd allowed himself to disregard the social pretenses required to manage in the city and act on his more violent nature. Now he had an ulterior motive. For three nights, he would roam the streets alone, avoiding his remaining brother however he could. For three days, he wouldn't be going to the book store or the theater. For three nights, he would be collecting injuries that did nothing to pierce his haze of rage and pain. For two days, he would be hiding the extent of his injuries from his brother. For three nights, he would be nearly as hostile as the Shadows he cut through and was mutilated by.

The third night, he would die.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Third guess is the charm. Because of his designation as the URTV 'Executioner' he was designed to be the last one of them standing at the end of it all. However this does not mean that he'd like it. The prospect frightens him more then he will admit. It is the thing he fears most.

Still, hearing Albedo's admission makes him soften a little. Insanity was always a real prospect with Albedo, even before he'd discovered that he had been the only immortal one. He just felt things too strongly, and so easily could take them too far.

"But how is dying now going to change that?" This small, desperate question was also tinged with curiosity. As much as Albedo understood how Nigredo thought, that did not necessarily mean that the reverse was true. In a lot of ways Albedo had always been a mystery.

"Even with the promise of return, death has a way of adjusting one's perspective."

His eyelids drooped and he shuddered. It was getting cold...but he couldn't die just yet. Now that Nigredo had started this conversation, he needed to see it through. This was too important to leave for his return. Too important to interrupt. He raised his eyes again, tired but forcing himself to focus. In truth, he didn't always understand his brother perfectly...but the realization that Nigredo was terrified of being alone gave him something to sympathize with.

"I'm calm now, Nigredo. Perhaps some of it will carry over to when I come back."

There you have it Albedo, Gaignun's greatest secret. The secret, that while not quite as life changing as all his others, was the one that he kept locked deepest within his heart. As much as you thought him different from you and Rubedo, he really never was. Seeing Albedo shudder, Gaignun pulled him close, letting his brother's much heavier body rest on his own.

Many responses flutter through his brain, ranging from 'it had better you stupid bastard' (which suspiciously sounded like Rubedo in his head), to 'you've already died once before, wasn't that enough'.

"Don't..." Don't do this? Don't talk, save your strength? Don't leave me here? All of these were certainly things he wanted to say and would say if he had all the time in the world, but even now he knew that time was one thing that was not on his side. This was not a play where time would stop to allow the dying one the entirety of his speech.

No. Best not let that floodgate open, no matter how much the waters are straining at the pin hole leak.

"I'll still be here when you get back." Assurance. Assurance he could still give at least, old habits dying hard.

For once, Albedo allowed someone else to support his weight. He was too tired...to drained to stay upright on his own. Somewhere, vaguely, he registered that he was getting his blood all over Nigredo. So much blood. It was odd, to think that it was all his. He'd never bled this much before, not all at once. How much blood could he lose, he wondered, before he was no longer coherent? Or before his body simply shut down? Not much more, he expected. Already it was getting difficult to think, to speak. He wanted to tell Nigredo that he had better still be here, but he was too tired.

"I'll be certain to return quickly."

He hoped, anyway. As much as he enjoyed antagonizing Nigredo, now that he knew of the fear they shared, the idea of leaving him alone for longer than he needed to weighed heavily on his chest. Guilt was an almost entirely foreign emotion to the albino sociopath, but in cases like this...he could truly and honestly understand what he was putting the other person through. He knew how painful this was for Nigredo. If he could do anything to control how long he was dead, it would be as short as possible. Not for his own sake-he would rather stay dead, if the alternative was living without Rubedo-but for Nigredo's. Ultimately, his brothers came first in his mind, even if he wasn't always entirely right about what was best for them. But now, maybe, he had some idea what Nigredo wanted.

All Nigredo had ever wanted was to be with them. It didn't matter that he was a bit of a tag along, it didn't matter that he'd been literally designed that way in order to keep watch over Rubedo's control over his Red Dragon abilities. They were still his brothers and he'd already proved that he'd go to unprecedented lengths in order to not have them all be separated.

"Take your time, I know how you hate being rushed." Glib words coming to his rescue once again but there was no assurance that they would last, and even they had no control over the shaking of his hands or the tightening of his fingers on Albedo's body that betrayed the maelstrom that was raging inside.

The humor did help ease Albedo's mind, that sharp tongue he'd come to associate with his brother lending an element of familiarity to the uncomfortably personal conversation. It was superficial, he could tell from how tense and unsteady Nigredo's body was, but it was something. It was enough to hope Nigredo would be okay while he was gone.

"In that case, perhaps I'll take a long nap."

He closed his eyes briefly.

"To die, to sleep..."

Opening his eyes again with a relaxed sigh, he forced himself to support some of his own weight to press a kiss to Nigredo's cheek, leaving behind a smear of blood from his lips.

"Goodnight...Nigredo."

And with that, he slumped down, resting his head on his brother's shoulder as his heart finally gave out.

"I'll see you in the morning Albedo." He answered softly.

And so with the passing of Albedo, Gaignun...no, for this he was Nigredo truly, was the last of the line. Being 669th of 669 children was now reduced to being the last. One. The state of being that all of the URTV feared.

Only when he felt that great heart stop did he allow the words that he had held at bay pass his lips. A whispered prayer that he hoped his brother would not hear.

"Don't...don't leave me here by myself...anything but that." And with those words finally spoken he sat there for a long time, surrounded by nothing but blood and the cooling weight of the only other of his kin left on this plain.

"Anything but that."

There were times in my life

Alas

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject