[GENESSIA] Inbox

[hellorhighwater]

NEIL BLAIR
Black Fire of the Night Dragon
Kingslayer
Dragon Mage

(Spillover for threads, muse contact, mun contact--circle all that apply.)

Comments

Re: text:

[hellorhighwater]

im sorry kiddo

come see me for something to help you sleep til we get you level ok

or hell crash in my room ill take the floor

i got your back ok

Re: text:

[thefirething]

I’ll be fine

I’m just going to read until I can buy bedsheets when the stores open

At least I know the fire extinguishers I bought work

Re: text:

[hellorhighwater]

[She gets a text with his room number.]

get over here and get some sleep jerk

the will of the gods upon my tongue

no dreams

no fire

just rest

i got you

Re: text:

[thefirething]

I don't like taking stuff to help me sleep.


[ There are some deep-seated issues in regards to why, but she doesn't know Neil from Adam at this point. She won't be saying anything about it. ]

But I'm on my way. My room smells like char now.

Re: text:

[hellorhighwater]

dont worry i use this stuff and in my line of work you cant afford to get groggy

itll just help you relax and bind your dreams for uninterrupted sleep

nothing stronger than a cup of herbal tea

plus it smells good so itll help with the char too

Re: text:

[thefirething]

It's not the groggy I'm worried about.

[ Knock, knock, dude. ]

text: --> action

[hellorhighwater]

[Muffled shout through the door]

Then what is it?

[Door opens--have a disheveled looking dragon mage with sleep creases still fading from his cheek, wearing gym shorts for pajamas, and sporting a ridiculous knot of tangled hair sticking out of the side of his head as he extends a hand to her, beckoning her forward.]

C'mon in, kiddo. Chop chop, time for bed.

action

[thefirething]

[ Charlie wants to run. There's that itch under her skin and that pressure in her chest that tells her to run away and don't look back, but it's too late. She barely has time to twitch between her knock and Neil opening the door, let alone high-tail it out of the building like she really wants to do.

The small, blonde teenager with big, brown, sad eyes and a look of uncertainty and curiosity on her face looks up at the dragon mage with a small frown. But it's not him she's frowning at.

She doesn't move from her spot outside the door for a moment, still debating running as far as her legs can carry her. Not really caring that she's in a tank-top and pajama bottoms with avocados all over the white fabric. There's a slow inhale from her, an attempt to steady her screaming nerves and then she steps in. And starts speaking. ]

Do you remember how I said I got my powers?

Re: action

[hellorhighwater]

...en ah lahb, righ'?

[Said through a yawn as he shuts the door behind her--with his foot, meaning the door doesn't catch and swings open a little. On purpose? Yyyyup.

Because the room is small, and he's sleeping on the floor anyway, Neil pads barefoot into the room a few feet, then just sits down on the floor. Stretching his legs out in front of him with a groan, he bends to touch his forehead to his knees with a sigh of relief, stretching sore muscles and tendons left over from bygone battles, and muffling his voice just a touch as he speaks again.]

Why you ask?

action:

[thefirething]

Because it's important and part of what I'm going to tell you.

[ Charlie flops on the floor nearby, sitting crosslegged and watching Neil carefully. ]

The people who ran that experiment...they didn't think it worked until I was born. And then, they thought I was their property. So they spent years watching my family and I, and then one day decided to try to kidnap me from school. I was eight.

[ Letting that sink in? Y e p. ]

action:

[hellorhighwater]

[Neil's head shoots up like a bullet at that, then he sits up slowly--with the slow, fluid grace of a predator poised to strike, but without malevolence.

It's not Charlie he wants dead, it's the people that belong the names he's going to get out of her. Before he hunts them down and flays them alive--his favorite method of making people suffer.]

They what?

Re: action:

[thefirething]

Keyword 'tried'.

[ Charlie isn't protecting The Shop. Merely trying to quell Neil's anger a tad. He can save that for later. ]

They uh...I was at school and dad was at work. He was an English Professor, in case you ever want to know where my love of books come from.

Mom was a stay-at-home mom and apparently they went to my house first to find me because...

[ You know what? She'll leave that implied as she gets distracted by her own horrible memory, shaking her head before continuing on. ]

School security was kind of bullshit when I was younger. All you needed was to say someone's parents sent you to pick their kid up so that's what they did. They said there was a family emergency and my parents needed me.

Dad found us a while later at a rest stop. I told them I had to use the bathroom and purposefully took a long time. Dad caught up to us and Pushed them into believing illusions. See, he did get abilities from the experiment, but...it was killing him. He'd get nosebleeds and really bad migraines, so they counted him a failure.

We spent a year on the road, running and stealing and lying to survive. And then they caught us again. They kept us separate for a year.

Re: action:

[hellorhighwater]

[...yeah, the anger isn't quelling. Having been the personal protector of a king, he wants to strangle whoever could be so lax with the safety of a goddamn child, the rage that flashes across his face for a moment is black, scary--flat out murderous.

Pushing it aside, he keeps his cool by beginning to meticulously plot out at least three different ways he's going to kill each and every individual responsible for this teenage girl's suffering as he rolls forward onto his knees, then stretches out on his side, propping himself up on his elbow so he's looking up at Charlie as she tells her story--so he's close enough to reach out if she needs it, prone and vulnerable if she doesn't and feels threatened.]

Ember's Breath, Charlie--I'm sorry. [His gentle voice doesn't betray his blood soaked thoughts.] Fucked up's an understatement.

Re: action:

[thefirething]

[ She probably won't be reaching out for hugs or anything any time soon. For now, she sits in a ball, her knees under her chin as she messes with her hair. Taking a moment to finger-brush it out of her eyes to put it up in a wild ponytail. ]

They're gone. All of them. They're gone because they tried to bribe me with everything a kid could want. They're gone because they kept me on some drug cocktail that kept me crying all day and night. They're gone because they sent someone to pretend to be my friend to get me to play along in the hopes that if I show them enough of what I can do, I'd see my dad again. And they're all gone because before I set them all on fire, the faces I saw and the ones I didn't who were just as guilty as everyone else there, they took my dad away for good.


I don't like sleep aids, no matter what they are, because of them. I remember everything. All of the tests, the bribes, the feeding tube because I decided I wasn't going to eat or comply, the IV's to keep me healthy. Everything.

Look...

[ Charlie can easily see where she's being wrong, but separating things and actually compartmentalizing them properly? It's not as easy, try as she might. ]

I'm...not going to say I'm fine, cuz there's no such thing. But I'll be okay just sitting up and reading for a few hours. I promise.

Re: action:

[hellorhighwater]

[Neil sighs, looking away for a second as he rolls his lips together. He can't blame her for it, not one lick--but she's a damn kid. She can't just avoid sleep the rest of her life, and she has to start somewhere. He's not going to let this go when he can help, and he can help.

He just has to figure out how.

With a grunt, he flops on his back so he's looking up at her, just upside down. He says nothing for a long moment, then gestures with one hand as he speaks, the other resting on his stomach comfortably as he draws his knees up to plant his feet on the ground.]

So...what if I can stop the dreams without a sleep aid? You sleep on your own--but no burnt sheets. Would that be okay?

Re: action:

[thefirething]

That sounds like a fair compromise.

[ Charlie can do compromises. They help her feel like she has a say. A choice. That she can be part of the process instead of a bystander. Where others aren't in full control. So she nods at Neil, offering him a small, tired smile. ]

I can do that. I'll give it a try.

Re: action:

[hellorhighwater]

[Success! Neil grins, then raises a fist in the air, angled in Charlie's general direction for a fistbump.]

All I ask.

[Don't leave him hanging, kiddo.]

Re: action:

[thefirething]

[ What? What is going on? She has no idea what he's doing, so there's going to be a lot of super confused looks at his hand and then at him before very tentatively returning the gesture and looking at him like 'was that right?' ]

Re: action:

[hellorhighwater]

[The oh so hesitant little fistbump gets a triumphant laugh--very good, you're learning, Charlie! Rolling over on his stomach with the grace of a cat, he used a push up to spring into a crouch, then up to his feet with a sharp little whistle.]

Okay! Into bed, chop chop. I got an idea, get comfortable.

Re: action:

[thefirething]

[ At first, she thinks he’s laughing because she did it wrong, but since he didn’t correct her after, that thought is pushed away quickly in favor of a small smile. She stands quickly, not quite as graceful as Neil and heads over to the bed, stretching out on her side and facing the door. ]

This is only a one time thing. If this happens again, I’ll sleep in my room. You shouldn’t be sleeping on the floor, Neil.

Re: action:

[hellorhighwater]

[Neil makes a show of sticking a finger in his ear, as if to clear it out.]

Huh? How's that? I'm sorry, I can't hear you--I see your lips moving, but it's just 'blah blah blah blah.' So weird.

[Grinning, he sinks to his knees next to the bed and gives her shoulder a fond little pat.]

You should've seen some of the places I slept on assignment on the mountain passes of Torrel--this floor's way softer 'n some of those rocks, sprout. Now c'mon--you comfortable? That how you sleep? Charm takes a little time to cast, if you get tired on your own while I'm doin' it, I don't want you to have to roll over and wake yourself up.