EVENT: MELPOMENE ▒ HOME

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: Corridors in the belly of the Tranquility
WARNINGS: Creepiness, disturbing imagery, violence, etc.
SUMMARY: Characters discover slices of sanctuary deep in the maze.
NOTES: Open to all! Covers Stage Four of the plot & Escape.

You've been running and fighting for what feels like weeks now. Exhausted and desperate, you find another door, stumbling through into— You're home, finally, far away and safe from monsters or spaceships. You're not alone, someone here who's been waiting for you, and they're so happy to see you. Relief overcomes you; you just want to rest, and there's no reason to believe anything here isn't what it seems, is there?

Comments

[doggedly]

[Don't fight him, Edgeworth says, but everything in Sirius is straining to do exactly the opposite of that. Fight him, because there's no way this is going to end peacefully, with everyone going their separate ways. He hasn't got a choice. Not if he wants Edgeworth to come with him, not if he wants to get him out of here.

So even before the thing wearing the face of Edgeworth's father makes its move--Sirius was ready even before that, his wand in one hand and the fingers of his other hand curled into a fist. He doesn't look around at Edgeworth's plea, even if he feels some minor mark of success at having gotten him to come around at all--

And then the creature moves, its face ugly and twisted, and it looks so much less like it did mere seconds before--less like the face it was wearing and less like Edgeworth as well, and that makes it easier to try and get away from it--as its hands close around his throat, Sirius grabs for one wrist with one hand, jabs his wand toward the thing with a strangled shout--because what choice has he got, because in the moment, he only reacts, without thinking of what Edgeworth had just asked--don't fight him, but he has to get free--]

Stupefy!

[jurisimpudent]

Dad -

[It's idiotic. This is just a monster with Dad's face. It's nothing more than that. Just a monster that wears his face, and speaks like him, and smiles like him - an echo, a ghost. But Edgeworth...It's completely irrational. It's utterly irrational. But since the moment when he stepped into this house, he's lost all rationality and has been thinking with emotion alone, and emotion keeps him from being able to see Dad's echo hurt.

So the moment Dad goes for Sirius, Edgeworth goes for Dad. He grabs for him, tries to pull him away - not even thinking about using his ability right now, using hands alone - But in the scuffle, in the melee, he half gets in the way of Sirius' wand. And so that spell mostly hits the monster, but Edgeworth's right side goes numb -

Before he falls, he lurches forward, using his full weight to bear Dad to the ground. Dad's glasses are knocked off and go skittering to the side, and without them, his face looks strange, foreign - Edgeworth turns, bites out - ]

Run -

[But as it turns out, Dad's not just going for Sirius. For all that Dad's stunned, he grabs onto Edgeworth's wrist with incredible strength - Edgeworth tries to pull away, but he can't break that grip - ]

[doggedly]

[At first, he can't work out what's happened. One second he's all set to Stun the thing wearing the face--only it's wearing less and less of it, as if with each second that goes by it's forgetting to hold to it--or perhaps that's only more of the confusion of the moment, perhaps that's not it at all--but in any case, Sirius is set to Stun it and get it out of the way, and then all at once, Edgeworth is there, in the bloody way, and Sirius tries to direct the spell away but it's too late--and Edgeworth is down on the floor of the kitchen with the thing that looks less like his father, less like him--

And it's got him, and Sirius hits that white-hot moment, where nothing else matters, where caution is thrown aside for acts of sheer dumb bravery, and he doesn't run, he leaps across the short distance between them and goes to kick the thing in the face. No matter what it is, it can't do much with a kicked-in head.]

[jurisimpudent]

[But again, Edgeworth gets in the way - this time not by accident. A stunning spell, fine, perhaps, but real violence done to this thing, to this echo of his father, to even this corrupted memory - he can't. He forces his arm up to shield Dad's head; he gets half the force of it once again, and he winces but doesn't make a noise, because even in the midst of this he doesn't want Sirius feeling bad -

The kick does catch Dad's arm too. It has enough force that it knocks that grip just a little loose, so that Edgeworth can wrench his wrist free. He's still wobbly, still reeling from that spell, can't stand - scrambles backwards.

Don't you want to see her? There's savagery in Dad's voice. Don't you miss her, Miles?

Edgeworth says nothing. He just uses the counter behind him to lever himself to his feet.]

[doggedly]

[The intensity of the moment is such that Sirius just feels that kick connect and counts that as a success--sees Edgeworth wrench free and counts that as a still greater success, and he jumps back with his wand at the ready, backing away so he's standing beside Edgeworth. He ought to give him a hand up, maybe, but all his focus is on the creature on the floor, and as it snarls at Edgeworth, Sirius sneers right back--]

Oh, shut up, you poxy-- Incarcerous!

[That's meant to tie it up, at least--shutting it up will come second, once he's certain that it won't wrench free and go for Edgeworth again.]

[jurisimpudent]

[Ropes materialize and bind Dad tightly. Dad's on his back, and his expression is...It's insane, filled with rage, like Dad's never looked in his life. His neat hair is scattered across his forehead, and his button-down shirt and apron are rumpled; his face is red, and his teeth are bared, and he struggles against the ropes and at once there's a little popping sound, like the ripping of fabric - the ropes are tearing under his strength.]

We have to -

[Edgeworth pushes at Sirius. But instead of going, foolishly, idiotically, he stops, and he bends down, and he picks up the pair of glasses knocked free from Dad's face. The process takes a full second before he remembers himself, and he pushes Sirius again.]

Just run, just run -

[doggedly]

[The crack of the rope is startling. Magic isn't meant to be overcome so easily--but then again, Sirius was never meant to be standing in Edgeworth's childhood kitchen after tying up a creature wearing the face of Edgeworth's own father--so the standard of what's acceptable and what isn't has sort of fallen by the wayside.

Sirius doesn't run from fights, not for anything. But there's no harm in seeking higher ground when there's no other option open to you, and that's what this is. He leaps back, grabbing for Edgeworth's arm, intending to drag him with--Edgeworth ducks to pick something up off the floor and Sirius grabs at him, trying to pull him away--]

Come on, we haven't got-- come on!

[The door out to the garden isn't an option. Back into the corridor, then, and Sirius goes for it, wand clutched tightly in his hand--]

[jurisimpudent]

[But it's wrong. It was a simple sort of journey into the kitchen: from his front door through the living room, down the hallway with the dining room off to the right and windows to the left, into the kitchen. Going the opposite way should be just as straightforward. But the hallway is suddenly wrong: suddenly, they're standing before the stairs up onto the next floor, up where his and dad's rooms are, and the study, and the laundry room - ]

This is - wrong, we need to go -

[But there are hard heavy footsteps behind them, and nowhere to go to their right or to their left. Edgeworth shoves Dad's glasses into his pocket, and he takes a breath - it's the ship, the ship's forcing them the way it wants them to go, but it's not as though they have a choice -

And so he looks over to Sirius, just a moment, and then pushes up the stairs.]

[doggedly]

[And Sirius follows, without second-guessing Edgeworth--because he trusts him, because even unspoken commands get a response out of him, when the chips are down. His wand still in his hand, he follows Edgeworth up the stairs, turning back only once when a particularly loud bang comes from behind them--the kitchen door, he thinks, and then they're up, second floor, and Sirius faces off with the steps, ready for whatever tears up after them--]

Which way?

[He could collapse the stairs. Probably he could manage that. He could collapse the stairs, blast a hole in the wall--]

Quick would be good.

[jurisimpudent]

I don't know, I -

[His room, he decides. And he dodges for it at once, and then realizes how foolish that was. It ought to have been something with less sentimental value - the laundry room, he ought to have picked the laundry room, how the hell could you get sad about the laundry room -

It's still recognizable as his room. The bed's his. There are some changes - the books are different, and there's a computer, and he has two diplomas framed on the wall, awards, a few trophies in a case - and he hates that, hates all of them, those trophies for moot court victories and damnable flute competitions...But if Dad and Mom weren't going to weaken his resolve, a bunch of meaningless awards certainly aren't.]

Here -

[He throws open the window. The air out there is fresh and warm.]

[doggedly]

[The stairs groan in the corridor, as if straining under some great weight, and Sirius slams the door shut behind them without looking, firing off a few defencive spells to seal it shut. Not that it will matter, not with whatever that thing is.

He gives the room a cursory glance--Edgeworth's room, he realises, and does not ask for confirmation of that. No time, no time to study all his odds and eds, book titles, knicknacks. Serious fucking danger, right outside, and the doorknob turns slowly to the left as Edgeworth goes to the window--]

What, jump? What's beneath us? [A beat; he tires to map out the house's layout, from what little he's seen.] We're not going to jump into the bloody garden, are we?

[Where your mother isn't. He doesn't say that. Whatever is there, it can't be good.]