December TL -- A Triptych

[stoneoftherose]

Who: Pyotr Stamatin and players like you <3
What: Open post for those who would like to meet Artemy and Daniil's castmate!
When: December
Where: See below
Warning(s): Depression, alcoholism, and suicide ideation, including references to a successful attempt pre-game.




Panel One -- The Oak & Iron

A new ghost has come to Pumpkin Hollow.

His heart may beat, his skin feels warm, but he is a ghost all the same, one with clenched jaw and burning, agonized eyes. Coming here was a mistake; he'd opened his veins in anticipation of oblivion. Finding himself in a mundane office instead so bewildered Pyotr that he'd participated in the following conversation by rote, agreeing to everything the strange woman said so he could get away. And now he's stuck here, in a place where he can't die.

Nothing could be worse -- except for the fact that he's also sober. No, even worse than that: he feels healthy, in a way he hasn't since boyhood. Steady hands, clear eyes...if he cut himself open he'd probably find his liver fresh and regular in color, free of the cirrhosis that used to fret Andrey so until he rejoined Pyotr in architecture.

His thoughts follow one after the other in steady procession, without interruption or pause. Agonizing. Intolerable -- and he knew from long experience that wine would not be enough to soothe his soul, but it would make a fair enough anesthetic. If he could just stop thinking...

A ghost in the shape of a man sits down at the bar at the Oak & Iron, looking no higher than the level of the counter as he orders a bottle of wine.

Panel Two -- The edge of the woods

Eventually the noise of the bar gets to be too much for him. All those people coming and going, and even when they do him the courtesy of ignoring him he struggles to do the same. There was a reason he always avoided the Broken Heart...

No surprise, then, that he eventually walks out in search of a little quiet. He winds up on a track leading west out of town, through a thin patch of wood that opens out into farmland. There by a wooden fence, an interesting sight at last: a fallen kite, built in the shape of a bird out of colored paper and sticks. He turns it over gently and finds one of its wings crushed beneath the body, its bones snapped in twos and threes.

"Don't be sad," he tells it softly. "A bird can live quite well without its wings, so long as it takes care to avoid the cats."

Panel Three -- The Temple

The Cathedral was a loathsome sight, a great dead block of stone with neither love nor the will to seek it. He'd never understood Eva's infatuation with the cursed place; he'd boarded up all the windows in his flat that faced that side of town, so he wouldn't see even a speck of it by accident. The Temple...is not like that. Even standing outside, he can tell: this is a building with a soul.

Possibly four of them, if you listened to the locals.

It makes him sick, the way these people talk about their goddesses. Like they're people who can be just walked up to and touched --! It's not the first time Pyotr's wondered how much simpler his life might have been -- if he'd born one of the Kin, for instance -- but now the question burns him like a stomach full of coals. If he'd been born in a world like this...

What is he even doing here? Do these goddesses long for death? They could have satisfied themselves with Burakh in that case; he's the experienced god-killer. Pyotr Stamatin's talents lie more in the area of divine maiming. And besides, his useful days are over for everyone. What did they bring him here for?

Supposedly, he might be able to just walk right in and find out. Supposedly...

Fuck it, he's freezing his balls off out here. Pyotr pushes the heavy door open ahead of himself, passing through -- and immediately loses his nerve, sitting down on one of the nearest pews. This is fine.

The Frame -- Wildcards welcome

Comments

[lordoftheozarks]

The gruffness is unintentionally adorable, but Erik keeps that thought to himself. As a man with his own pride, he understands.

"I don't mind hearing it. I know already; I put myself in that position intentionally. I'm not saying I disagree with your actions. The words he spoke to you all but begged for violence. That is what bothered me. Killing him would have played too much into his machinations for you. Forgive me, but I felt the need to spare you a blemish on your reputation."

[medekh]

"You are too kind to me, but I already know what it is to have a blemished reputation." In fact, it's sort of what Artemy is used to. This whole, being loved thing... that is what he is less used to, "I do not know what is wrong with that raving lunatic. Pyotr. He was mild enough in the Town-on-Gorkhon, perhaps being high on twyrine kept his anger in check."

He sighs as the two continue along the road. There is more to be said. And Artemy trusts Erik.

"That's not it though, is it? More likely, it has to do with what he said about me being some sort of god killer. Not that I remember anything of the sort, but even mine and Dankovsky's memories are entirely different from each other's, and it seems Pyotr has seen even more of the Town's demise than I have..."

It's so much to take in.

The Haruspex feels a headache coming on.

[lordoftheozarks]

"I have had kindness given to me when I did not deserve it. Consider this as me passing that burden on to you. Your reputation here has been positive so far. Tonight won't change that. Don't throw it away so easily when things can be different for you here."

Erik thinks of how he was when he first arrived. He was filled to the brim with resentment. Here he was, finally somewhere new but it wasn't alone. People who knew his dark past were here alongside him. Some wanted to murder him on sight. Some accomplished that task. And he did deserve it. He just didn't realize that yet. But people here gave him a chance. They listened to his story and they cared. They made him want to become part of something more. Artemy could have that, too.

"Time can work very strangely here. I met a young boy on the island a long while ago who was from my same world but very far into my future. I struggled for some time to comprehend how that could be. I'm still not sure I know."

[medekh]

He has a point. Artemy cannot deny that. Once a good reputation is built up, keeping it can be rewarding.

And he's enjoying being well liked here. Not that he wouldn't give it away if needed be. For the greater good. But if he doesn't need to.

Artemy gives a nod at his words. They carry some truth, but it's not just the past and future that the Haruspex worries over.

"I wish it were that simple with me and Dankovsky. And perhaps even Pyotr... But I am getting ahead of myself. Before I came here, the town that intrinsically ties the three of us together. I was born there. Raised. Dankovsky was simply a visitor, Pyotr a transplant, from the capital- similar to Dankovsky, but his duration of stay was longer. The Town-On-Gorkhon was seized by a plague, you see, the sand pest- However, me and Dankovsky remember those few days entirely differently."

Artemy does his best to stress the importance of this next bit as much as he can.

"According to Dankovsky, I was one of the first taken by the Sand Pest. However, in my own memory, this is not true. Me and the veritable Bachelor worked together a good nine days before I succumbed to a death that was separate from the plague- and the events that happened during the plague? Different. We remember everything entirely differently. It's as if... two worlds. Different but similar enough that I knew Dankovsky as soon as I spotted him and I knew him to be my own."

Those words, slipping out in a moment of his own fevered passionate ranting, almost go unnoticed by him, but once he does notice them, the unintentional slip, his face does blot pink. He ignores it and continues on.

"And I fear this may be the case with Pyotr. But even worse, perhaps. Maybe he will not listen to me. Perhaps he is too upset with- with whatever I've done..."

[lordoftheozarks]

"Hmm," Erik hums in a brooding tone. "I think I understand. It very well may be that you are from different but closely similar worlds. I've heard of that, too, though I thought it was rarer."

His own? What an interesting way to phrase it. Telling, one might call it. Especially since they are en route to that man's very front door. He ought to give Dankovsky his card, too, in case both of them need some education.

"That man at the bar, Pyotr, worries me. He seemed to know just what to say to provoke you. It's even worse if he is upset with you for something you never did. The you that exists here, I should say. Once I've seen you to safety, I plan to go back and see about him."

[medekh]

"Indeed." Artemy agrees. With everything Erik just said, honestly. "And Pyotr as well, similar, but different. Perhaps I do become a god killer. Perhaps not. But to him, that's what I am. That is the most pressing part of it."

He nods. "I was hoping you would." Artemy confesses, "I would prefer to examine him myself, as a doctor, but I fear that I may try to gut him again upon seeing his spineless face."

[lordoftheozarks]

"To him it could be true, but that does not mean you must accept it for yourself. If you are from different worlds, then you are not that same man." Erik doesn't want to see Artemy taking blame for something he's not done. That unacceptable.

"Don't worry. My vampire blood has healing qualities. Any wound it touches will instantly be healed. I'll make sure he survives." He doesn't know the irony behind this promise just yet, but he will by tomorrow. "The only reason I do not use that skill more in town is because there are quite a few other doctors here who find it offensive to them."

[medekh]

Artemy does want to remark that just because he hasn't done so doesn't mean he isn't capable. If a version of himself has done it that means he himself is just as able to. And that in itself is a cause of concern.

But what Erik says next is of much more vital importance to him.

"... Have I spoke to you much of my work, Erik?" Artemy asks, "I brew tinctures, eastern medicine, backwaters brewery and the like. Most think I gather herbs, grind them up, and put them into a stew, but I am in need of more difficult to acquire materials as well." He says, plainly as possible. He's not ashamed of his work, though he knows he must speak of it gently, he trusts Erik's discretion, "We are getting well into the winter months, and I admit, I am nervous about my reserves. I certainly do not have enough to treat everyone if a major epidemic were to break out, or an accident, or anything of the sort."

[lordoftheozarks]

"No, I don't believe I knew that," Erik starts to say cautiously while he puts the pieces together in his mind. He's familiar with that type of medicine, too, though he hasn't encountered it in decades.

"May I venture to guess that these materials are the kind obtained from corpses? I pass no judgment if they are." But he can see how that would become a problem in a place that no longer keeps its corpses in the ground.

[medekh]

"Indeed." Artemy states cooly.

It's an organ that one body doesn't need, and it can be used to soothe another so they might have a painless death. Artemy will choose this route everytime. The means justify the ends.

"I can already see you understand the problem with such procurement in a place such as this." The Haruspex goes on, seeing that lightbulb behind Erik's eyes. "I have one volunteer but it is a messy affair indeed, and it yields very little results considering that he is mortal. I am looking to procure in much greater numbers if possible."

He sets his intentions out very clearly. Right out in the open. It certainly isn't time to dance around, and you'll find that when it comes to saving lives and the business of doctoring, Artemy is rather brutish and straight to the point.

[lordoftheozarks]

"Yes, I believe I do." Nothing about his tone has changed at all, they may as well be talking about the sale of bread for all the impact it has on Erik emotionally.

"Even given your current source's willingness, that can't possibly be enough. I see how much this means to you, and I will gladly help. I'd like a little compensation, however. What would you say to my current going rate? My body is my livelihood, after all."

Brutish at times, Erik will concede, but straight...? He thinks not.

[medekh]

"Oh, I would hardly accept you to give up your organs for free." Artemy agrees. Even if Daniil does so for free... their arrangement is. Different. "I believe we can come to an agreement that is suitable for both parties."

[lordoftheozarks]

"Yes. I'm confident we can." He squeezes Artemy lightly around the waist. "Let that ease some of your worries for now. I'd like to focus on getting you safely settled. We're almost there now, please point me to the correct home?"

[medekh]

"Business can be attended to later." Artemy agrees, "It's that one."

Artemy points to one of the more decrepit looking farmhouses. No crops planted properly. No farm animals as of yet.

Everyone has to start somewhere.

shall we have Mezu join the tag order now?

[lordoftheozarks]

Erik is really trying to give the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe it's just that he hasn't had the farm long and is still getting things cleaned up. Truly, he hopes so, or come spring it's going to be... sparse.

"All right."

He walks Artemy right up to the door and then reaches out to knock harder than such thin hands seem like they should be capable of. And he waits.

no mezu bc we got excited and already threaded them meeting up, daniil comes to the house later

[medekh]

After a few moments of no one answering the door, Artemy shrugs with his shoulders and opens the door. From what Erik can see, the furnishings inside are pretty bare, and no one's home at the moment.

"It's fine, I will wait here." Artemy reassures Erik.

There's a bed that's much too small for two men, a small wood stove, and not much else. Artemy takes a few pieces of wood that he chopped weeks prior and squats down in front of the stove to start a fire.

"Daniil won't mind. I will be fine in the meanwhile, though your company has been much appreciated. I would offer you refreshments before you leave, though nothing here is mine to offer."

no worries XD

[lordoftheozarks]

Comfortable waiting in each other's homes? So, they're that kind of close, are they?

"All right. I'll leave you to explain, then. Don't fret over refreshments. The only kind that will work for me is blood, and I am not quite that desperate." (Besides, he's going to get a snack soon >:3)

"I'll see myself back to town now. Take care, Artemy."