The PPC Roleplay Board - Latest posts

The lament was Celtic in flavor, each high, mournful note unspooling with aching slowness from the throat of the man singing:

The tears I feel today
I’ll wait to shed tomorrow,
Though I’ll not sleep this night
Nor find surcease from sorrow.
My eyes must keep their sight;
I dare not be tear-blinded.
I must be free to speak
Not choked with grief, clear-minded.
My tongue cannot betray
The anguish that I know.
||: I’ll keep my tears till later;
But my grief will never go. :||

Derik could rarely bring himself to sing anymore, but he still had a clear, near-perfect upper register. Even off-kilter as he was now, with his sound further disturbed by the ambient Halloween music in the room, it was an uncommon soul that could fail to be moved by it. Even Gall listened quietly, her expression slack.

"For your brothers," said Derik. "For Skepnadth. And for us." He looked around and chuckled. "Normally someone would offer a toast at this point, but I'm already toasted!"

Gall rewarded him for the terrible joke with a punch on the shoulder. "You maniac. Eat your, uh, I think that blob thing is 'Fried Ecto Cooler'."

For the moment, Jenni stood quietly, contemplating.

(( "Song for Petiron," from the Pern album Sunset's Gold. Derik may have taken it just a hair faster than the recording. Oh, and yes, fried Ecto Cooler is a real thing. Don't ask me how, but I heard of it on Brad Tries at some point.

(( ∗checks off RP Goal: Get Derik to Sing∗ Woot.))

"Halloween isn't as big in France as it can be in say, America, so I never gave it an actual try as far as I remember. Dunno how big it is here in HQ, but... Willing to give it a try? If so, dibs on candies with red berries flavor or caramel."

"You'll do it without me, then," Marina said. "I got more than enough of that back home. Comparing inadequate disguises to the real deals far funnier for me now... When Halloween isn't a just a job night. I'll continue to enjoy that party."

"Alright, then. I won't be sorry." He shrugged, and turned to Thoth. "Do you want to tell her?"

Thoth shrugged. "She will find out sooner or later if she really wants to, anyways." He turned to the nurse. "The fifteenth legion's story is not a happy one, and our doom was neither quick nor painless. We were accused of sorcery, the Wolves sent to our world to bring us back. As to whether the judgement were just... that is not for me to say."

"The orders were changed, telling the Wolves to destroy us. Our own primarch found the judgement just. He did not inform us of what was coming, lowered our defenses." He looked down again. "We tried to fight back. At first, it went well. But they had brought the Sisters of Silence with them. And as the battle wore one... more and more of my brothers succumbed to our defects."

"They called it the flesh-change. A menace accentuated by our psychic talents. Those who succumbed became... something I'd rather not think about. Death was preferable. And as our city burned and our brethren and citizens lay slaughtered in the streets... our primarch made a pact to save us. A pact that gave us our lives, and but cost us our pride and our freedom. We were taken to a new world, our powers amplified - and we had become servants of the Architect of Fate, choice or no."

Thoth looked down. "As the flesh-change grew worse... a group of us made an attempt to fix it. They failed, the ritual going horrifyingly awry. Most of our number were turned to dust, their souls fractured and trapped within their armor, becoming little more than mindless automatons, doomed to eternal torment." He looked back up, still seemingly distant. "I saw my brothers fall around me, cursed to a fate worse than death. A fate I myself narrowly escaped. That is what happened to me."

"Dunno—we never had anything like this back home, so I'm not really sure what to expect. I've heard all about trick-or-treating; is this what you meant when you were talking about tricks?"

Derik swung around to glare at Tom. "Don't be sorry." He sneered the word. "Nobody be sorry for me."

"I'm not!" Gall chirped.

Jenni shot her an angry look, but this went ignored.

"Thank you," Derik said profoundly, flourishing an arm in imitation of a bow to his partner. "That's what I like about you. You're rude, and annoying, and selfish—but you're not sorry. And you brought me food. ... What is this?" He held up something that looked like a cocktail wiener, but its sauce had somehow been turned a noxious shade of green.

"Um, I think the sign said 'Alien Guts'? Gimme one." The two of them bent over the plate.

Jenni shook her head, gave a sniff to clear her sinuses, and took a step toward Tom and Thoth. She couldn't help but observe the Astartes' withdrawn silence, and the nurse knew trauma when she saw it. Her work was never done. "Hey, big fella." She gently rapped a knuckle against the back of his armored hand. "You want a turn in the sharing circle?"

"Well, that will need investigating, but this does not seem like an appropriate time." There was, after all, some sort of party going on.

He pulled out a small notebook and opened it up to a page near the back, which was almost entirely black from the various notes that had been written there. "Halloween - World One sources?" he wrote somewhat diagonally (but surprisingly neatly, for diagonal text) near the margin.

"We were, after all, doing, ... uh, doing, going ... why are we here, anyhow? It had something to do with candy, I think." he said, having gotten a bit sidetracked by the whole discussion.

"And actually, playing up with the tune could be something really interesting to do, so maybe you could try that?. In any case, I'll be sure to be there if there is really such thing for winter, and nothing stops you from giving it a shot at this moment," Richard said. He then began to look around. "Anyways, why don't we look for something interesting to do? Come on, it's Halloween, tricks are part of the fun. Or failing that, well something else!"

Marina shrugged slightly before looking at Dax, "Well, you heard him. Any idea?"

"Gods and demons... Derik, I'm sorry. We've all lost friends, but... I couldn't imagine..." He trailed off.

Thoth merely stood silently. His focus didn't seem to be on the world around him, or anywhere close.

"Just morph my vocal cords to that of a siren, and then everyone's falling all over themselves to say how great I am." She grinned unabashedly. "Maybe they'll have it at this year's winter holidays party."

But she allowed Matt to lead her back to the others.

Charlotte had a very concerned look on her face."I dunno, Izzy. I'd love to try it, but not that much... It would be interesting, yeah, but I don't really want to risk it."

The fact was, her partner didn't really live up like that, unless he was facing an interesting game, story or something else catching his interest, or if a mission or something else was really driving him up to wall. Not really for other people.

"A pity they don't have a karaoke. Nobody would disagree if I was stealing the scene rather than do the same to their hearts. Unless they dn't care abut the tune, but hey, that's karaoke for you."

At least that was in character alright.

((Trying to suggest the idea that with a mask on, Richard is pretty much showing a rather different side of him than the usual subdued one.))

Izzy started fidgeting and gesturing around. "Worst case scenario, you implode and get stuck in the Speed Force, where you constantly relieve every moment of your past, your present, and your future, to a point of absolute insanity... But that only happened once, and the Flash did it on his own free will... Or..."

She extended her hand. It started vibrating incredibly fast, letting out small sparks of red electricity.

"You get a boost of super-speedyness. I don't know for how long, though."

~~~

"Come on, new best friend." Matt grinned gesturing over to where Izzy and Charlotte were. "Let's see what our ladies are conspiring about behind our backs."

In other words, reply to Thoth's original post instead of down here, since we're starting to get crunched up against the right side of the screen.

~Neshomeh

She glanced down at Derik, who'd sagged in his seat and turned away to stare into the middle distance. Pressing her lips together, she resolved to speak further. "On the other hand, Sybok had a point about dragging it out into the light. What you need to know about Pern," she said, returning to the point, "is that the dragonriders have an indelible telepathic bond with their dragons from the moment of Impression at the dragon's hatching until death. A total sharing of the psyche—a constant companion who knows the depths of your soul and loves you unconditionally. There's nothing else like it. Nothing comes close." Tears welled in her eyes, and she blinked them away. "If that bond is broken, it shatters you. Riders rarely survive the death of their dragon, and even if they do, they're never whole again."

"Then there's the whole freaky Phantom of the Opera thing," Gall added, swiping a couple of chocolate-covered pretzels, decorated like bats, and crunching loudly. "Don't forget that."

(( One of Gall's jobs as the insensitive jerk character is to keep everyone from wallowing in angst too much. {= )

(( DroP IS good, but more for the worldbuilding than the actual writing, in my more informed mature-adult* opinion. Characterization is not McCaffrey's strong suit. But I love Pern, and if you can get past the occasional cringiness of the text, it's an awesome series. ... Well, up until Skies of Pern, anyway.

(( *Hahaha, mature adult. Pffff. {X D ))

For the first time, she allowed herself to smile.

~ ~ ~ "For some reason, that number doesn't exactly fill me with confidence." Charlotte frowned. "Would this exploding involve fire? Because if it doesn't, it'd just be a temporary setback for me."

"Socially Awkward Fist Bump?" He smiled.

~~~~

"I don't suppose hooking you up to machines in Medical or FicPsych after gulping some of my blood comes into play, does it?" Izzy asked. "It would give us the best results, but regular observation of your behavior will be good as well. I can be about..." Her eyes quickly glanced upwards, "seventy percent sure you won't explode."

Ix scuffed her toe against the floor. "So, er, not very long at all, I'm afraid." She coughed. "And I'm... not too great at talking to people, either."

~ ~ ~

"What kind of test do you have in mind?" Charlotte asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"I guess I did let my inner fanboy take the reins for a moment there... Heh..." He scratched the back of his head. "To be fair, I have no idea how to hold a conversation. Let's see, let's see... How long are you here?"

~~~~

"So it's settled then?" Izzy grinned with excitement. "We're good for a little controlled test? Please give it a though or two."

"Give the guy a break—what's better than having some time to just attend a party with new friends and take a load off from work?"

"Heard of it, vaguely. It's on my to-read list. I mean, from what I can tell, it looks good..."

Thoth looked down at Derik. "I can understand. I too have things that I would... rather forget. I did not become who and what I am with minimal pain. Those are not good memories, but I cannot be rid of them. I would cease to be."

((I think Thoth might start to channel Apophis* when he's drunk. Just a bit. Not a deliberate thing on my part if he is, though...

And yes, it is a weird thing to say. The in-universe reaction was entirely appropriate. I just wanted to check.

*Apophis: the protagonist of Confessions of a Wayward Son, well known goodfic about a Thousand Son who decides that The Imperium was right. Available at https://m.fanfiction.net/s/6226554/1/Confessions-of-a-Wayward-Son))

(( I'm playing one myself, after all. It was a weird thing to say, though. "So, person I just met tonight, tell me about your house. I could just break in and see, of course, but I'm told I shouldn't." Right? {= ) ))

Gall planted a fist on her hip. "I'm from the filmverse, and it's awesome. It's not just one movie, either, it's two going on three, and a show, too!"

"Technically," Derik put in, stumbling over the long word a bit, "you're from a badfic in the filmverse. I should know—I recruited you. And I've regretted it ever since." He was obediently doing his best to consume some ballast to the booze in his stomach, but it was slow going.

"I love you, too," Gall sneered.

"I don't regret it," he rambled on, seemingly oblivious to the contradiction, "but you're a constant reminder, you know. You and Fellrazer." He swung his gaze up to Thoth. "Bleeprin doesn't work for me," he said, "because the memories that hurt so much are the good ones. I can only forget those when I'm unconscious, so that's why I drink like this." He said this matter-of-factly, as though relating a simple universal constant.

Jenni, however, looked pained on his behalf. She squeezed his shoulder again and filled in softly: "Dragonriders of Pern continuum. Know it?"