*** BlackHat has joined 333.07.333.06 <BlackHat> ^J help <BlackHat> help <BlackHat> J <BlackHat> Official business with Black Hat only. Don't waste my time.
[And breathe into Black Hat, Flug does. Even if that scarlet glow were possible to see, the doctor's attention is wholly taken up by every shared signal between their bodies. He nearly swoons into the kiss, so raw, so passionate, even at his mercy Black Hat is just that overpowering. It's such a rush, Flug has no choice but to throw everything he has right back at him to match, it's nearly draining.
The arachne gasps at the demon's claws breaking through the fabric against his back and eagerly scrabbles to do the same. Claws on skin, tongues and teeth, it's exhilarating! Dizzying!..Really dizzying, in fact. Wow.. he's.. starting to feel a little woozy actually. The claws Flug had dug into Black Hat's shoulders, give one last futile attempt to keep their grip before beginning to slip. It's getting harder and harder to hold them up, like he's weakening somehow.
The kiss hasn't ended but he's starting to gasp for another reason.]
[The slackening of Flug's grip is lost to him, so caught up in his hunger that this kiss is soothing. He draws and draws and draws breath, holding Flug to him. The satiation he chases is a familiar one, and yet so very, very new. It's a fire, slowly spreading through him, invigorating him with each passing second.
Black Hat's eye snaps open, the crimson ring around his pupil brilliant. But his vision is unfocused and distant, boring through Flug as he drinks him in. The gasping goes unregistered - instead, Black Hat pulls Flug even closer, pressing their bodies together in a crush that would snap a lesser being's ribs.
The kiss trails off on Black Hat's end, but he keeps his mouth firmly pressed against Flug's, open and devouring. This hunger will be fed.]
[The hunger will be fed. And fed. And fed. Dr. Flug had thought once about dying happily in the midst of one of Black Hat's kisses but even he never expected to find himself drifting out of consciousness entirely, as he seemed to be, this very moment.
It happens so fast, there is no time to even fight it. He already gave too much up, too freely, surrendered his chance to resist before the struggle began. Even if Black Hat were to stop now, it was too late. The arachne's arms fall entirely slack, his spidery appendages mildly buckle and with one final sigh the fire in Dr. Flug goes out. The light leaves six once alert eyes.]
[And with that, the hunger is satisfied. Black Hat breaks away from the not-kiss, leaning his head back with a sigh. The fire has spread throughout his body, burning intensely for a brief, white-hot second, before slowly fading to a steady glow.
As Black Hat’s mind comes out of the haze, he can’t help but wonder what else Flug has in store. This is, after all, only the preview of the main event. And he’s thrilled to continue. So thrilled, indeed, that it takes him a moment to detect that the weight on him is rather… limp.]
Flug. Flug.
[Still very much in the mood, Black Hat snaps his fingers near Flug’s ear. There’s no response, and a spike of irritation shoots through him. He can’t believe this.]
Bloody hell, is that it? Get a mere taste of dominance and you’re done for the evening?
[He growls and gives Flug a shake. How dare he bow out after getting Black Hat all worked up, his heart thundering and blood rushing? Unacceptable!]
Wake up, finish the job you’ve started. I don’t care how you go about it so long as- Flug?
[He grabs Flug by the shoulders and props him up, off his chest. Realization slams into him as he stares into those vacant, empty eyes. The hunger, the desperation, the satiation, all of it pointing to the result of an incredibly base mistake.]
Shit!
[He’s an idiot. A damn fool idiot. Was he so broken by the impossible that he couldn’t read his own body?! That wretched arboreal harlot, her roots still so intertwined in him that he lost control of himself!
Black Hat gives Flug’s body another vicious shake, as if it might awaken the spider from his empty state. He should’ve fed more. He should have been stalking the streets each day, seizing whatever human crossed his path and gorging on them, to counter the yawning void his return to life had left.
But he didn’t. He locked himself away, brooding, a miserable shadow of what he is, all because of a tree. And now he’s devoured the soul of his closest ally. His minion. His partner.
It takes some maneuvering, but Black Hat finally writhes his way to his feet, leaving Flug’s body limp on the bed. He stares at it for a long while, cursing Y’doethe and snapping at himself. He is Black Hat. He doesn’t make mistakes - and when he does, he fixes his errors. Somehow, he will undo this.
But first, he’ll deal with the more immediate (and pressing) issue at hand. In a flash of fire, Black Hat is gone, leaving the spidery husk alone on the bed out of some modicum of respect.
Sometimes, when one’s minion falls down on the job, the villain has to finish the matter up himself.]
[As stiff as stiffs can get, the technically alive parts of the arachne prevent rigid mortis from fully sitting in, meaning when Black Hat returns he will find the spider even more slumped forward than before. The awkward angle causes his head to loll unpleasantly, the rest of him doesn't look terribly comfortable either, and that isn't the only scenery change...]
[And return Black Hat does after a time, reappearing in a burst of fire as he does up the last of the buttons Flug had so wickedly opened. His evening, one looking to take a sharp turn into the enjoyable, has been thoroughly ruined, and the presence of a certain entity in his bedroom does not help matters.]
You!
[The final button remains open as Black Hat hands drop and he snaps at the thing slowly clipping its way through the wall. Flug's started calling it Jammingway lately, but Black Hat refuses to dignify it with any name. He snarls and hurries forward, waving his hand at it.]
You bloody well could have shown up earlier and stopped this [He waves at Flug, slumped over on the bed.] from happening. Useless lout....
[The quadrilateral as always does not answer. It remains a single stagnant color—or rather it doesn’t, shifting so imperceptibly slowly that by the time Black Hat were to blink, it would register as a vaguely different one; a hue that was best categorized by one word: wrong.
It pleasantly smells of blueberries of toast.
It heeds not Black Hat’s tantrums, the only inclination it may be reacting to anything at all is the way it’s rectangular base remains stationary as the demon scolds, while it’s outer polygons continue to reach closer and closer to the slumped over the spider, with all the sentience of void-matter jellyfish, growing spikier as they stretch.]
[As always, he's completely ignored. Black Hat glowers as the thing stretches, having half a mind to set it alight if he didn't already know that was wholly ineffective. One of its spikes reaches Flug, and passes through his body as if it weren't there. Then another, and another, and suddenly the majority of the shape is moving through the arachne, as if it had simply shifted to be there.
And then it stops.
Black Hat folds his arms and gives it an almighty death glare.]
What are you up to, you little vermin? Give him a little push? You can't push anything around, you know.
[He knows it's pointless to address the thing - it never responds, not in any intelligible way. But snapping at it gives him something to be angry at aside from himself or a soulless husk for now.]
[And there Jammingway remains, seemingly set on not drifting further from that spot, glitching out of the immobile minion. As the demon stares it down he may get the impression that it's staring back. After all, for something that existed in constant shifting motion what else could a lack of action entail? A faceless face to face in...what? Could it be judgment? Probably not, but there is one undeniable truth impossible to escape from no matter how one tried to view it.
You did this, Black Hat. You and no one else and passing the blame around won't fix it.
Any silence that stretches on only accentuates the barely there sounds of what should be a corpse. A soulless husk, sure, but one that nevertheless still draws in quiet breathes. Not alive but hardly all the way dead. Can it really remain in this state? What should be done…?]
[He did this. Black Hat did this, and he was an idiot. He knows the thing can't judge, has no sentience to speak of, but the way it simply exists there, quietly undulating and tying tiny knots in his stomach, drives him to action. Black Hat reaches to the top of the bed and grabs a pillow.
He throws it at the reality break, catching the top of it. It seems to stick, for just a moment, before the pillow continues its trajectory with a part of Jammingway clinging to it.
It stretches again, as if trying to pull Flug's motionless form along with it, before a ripple runs across it and it pops free, merrily being carried towards the wall by the hurled pillow.
There's nothing to be done, though. The only option forward is to hide this event from all prying eyes, cover for Flug's apparent absence should the need arise, and await the Fog's return to reinstate Flug's soul into his body. A simple plan, one with an easy execution that lasts only a day before the first hiccup arrives in the form of an inquisitive little robot, and is put on hold entirely when a strange dust sweeps into the lair a few days later, and Black Hat himself joins the slump, limply sagged in his favored armchair, mind elsewhere entirely. Some place fair. Well, not entirely.]
[The fog, inevitable as always, takes a week to roll in but roll in it does. As the cursed winds blanket the peninsula, bringing with them their life altering gift, the doctor at last takes in a deeper rattling breathe as his soul finds it's way back to the mortal coil. Flug sits up coughs briskly.]
"Mnngh, sssir? I-- hnhh -uhhnn."
[Ugh he feels so stiff, how the hell was he sleeping like that?.. Why was was he sleeping like that? It's too soon for this many questions. His mouth feels dry and his head is pounding but Flug forces himself to his feet.]
"Boss? I don't feel... so..." [The spider mashes a hand against his face, eyes refusing to stay open. Flug makes it precisely five steps across the room before his legs-- all of them-- give out and he smashes his head against the door to slump against it, as his body joins the rest of the unconscious amnesiacs in a delayed slumber; a remnant of faerie dust breezing in through the ventilation.]
[There it is. The portal, just as promised. Black Hat wastes no time, throwing himself through the rift, fueled by the thoughts of what he will be doing to Flug for this transgression. Wring his neck, perhaps? Restrain him and force him to watch as his beloved little bear is torn asunder over and over for days? Slaughter all the guests he'd invited, and pin the blame solely on Flug? Such possibilities! His fury is a comforting blaze, and, oh, how he will spread it when he returns-
-to jolt up suddenly as he awakens, as if from a dream. It's the only way he can really think to describe it - the fury from Fairwell is still very much present, but tempered by the return to Ryslig. Of course Flug couldn't be responsible. Once again, a bloody inconvenience plaguing the midmonth in this hellhole of a peninsula.
Black Hat growls and works the stiffness from his joints as he stands. Very little has changed since he sat down - has any time passed at all? But it only takes a glance out the window to see that the Fog has arrived.
The Fog... Flug.
In a burst of flame Black Hat is in the room where he's left Flug's body, only to find that it’s not there. A sense of… something runs through him, something he can’t quite place. A mixture of positive and negative, that the fog has indeed done its duty and Black Hat is absolved of his error, but now Flug is missing and that cannot stand, so he spins on his heel to go and find the lost scientist and oh wait there he is.
Black Hat stares at the body slumped against the door for longer than he should, seemingly dumbfounded at how Flug has moved a grand total of five feet without resurrecting. Did someone break in? No, nothing else is disturbed.
He grabs Flug’s bag and pulls it off, expecting those empty eyes to stare back at him again - but now they’re closed. They weren’t before, he knows this, he watched Flug’s miserable meat sack closely enough to know this is change, that all he would do was blink subconsciously.
Something changed while Black Hat was in that memory-wiping simulation. And Black Hat is no scientist, to test and prod and poke to figure out what has happened. The fog has returned, but Flug is still gone.
It is possible, he supposes, that Flug was pulled into that town as well - but surely they would have crossed paths, would they not? Although perhaps it’s for the better that they didn’t; the embers of rage Black Hat was nursing while hurtling himself through the portal ‘home’ would have been turned to killing Flug.
Again.
Frustrated, Black Hat gives Flug’s body a shove, pushing it over.]
Why do I even bother? You’re more trouble than you’re worth.
[Seven days was the limit given in Farewell, wasn’t it? Black Hat escaped before that time went up. That’s it, then. He’ll keep on as he had been prior to that mess, pretending Flug is simply away while puppeting the man’s body as necessary.
And so the routine begins again, monitoring Flug, arguing with his body, watching him, grumbling at him, scanning for signs of consciousness, and, once a day, possessing his form to keep it fed.
[When Flug comes to, his consciousness is BRIMMING with panicked excuses. Not there enough for actual thoughts or words for communication but the dulled responses of a second person joining the previously dormant body, emerging to jointly invade the vessel all the same.
Flug's vision centers, funny, he never closed his eyes when passing through the portal, and the slight dryness in them makes it feel as they were already open now as well, nevertheless he takes in his surroundings with more clarity and sees... a meal; tastes it too. Right. Right, back in Ryslig.. this is real isn't it? No.. if it was...Why.. why can't he move..? No! Actually he's moving but Flug is NOT the one dictating it?! WHAT IS THIS? Some form of sleep paralysis?!
Without motor skill or enough comprehension to fend off the body snatcher, the arachne's body buzzes alive with physical cues. Black Hat will feel a sudden boost in adrenaline; a rapid increase of heartbeat accompanied by heavier shorter breathes and possibly the light wheeze of actual vocal chords likely intending the echo of a scream.
Of course a skilled demon could easily override these latent impulses if they so choose...]
[A skilled demon Black Hat is indeed, and the second something shifts in the body he's currently occupying he instinctively clamps down on his control, forcing the physiological responses back under his will. At least, that's what he would do - but the echo of a scream comes with a very audible (in a sense) mental one.
He's halfway through downing a piece of muscle when it happens, and the sudden presence of another being crying out in the body he's controlling alarms him into accidentally inhaling - and then a dark shadowy cloud erupts from Flug's back as Black Hat relinquishes his hold, coalescing behind the arachne with his wings flared and claws raised, fully prepared to attack whatever invaded his puppet.]
[Choking..! HeisCHOKING!! A lurch forward and several hefty coughs later and the arachne manages to dislodge the meat, but not without pathetically falling onto his back and just deciding to lie there and catch his breathe after.
He clasps his hands over his face-- both to soothe the instinctive need to hide it and another to block out the sheer EVERYTHING bombarding his thoughts-- prone in position, but so very very alive.
Too much. Let him just. It's too much. What was Black Hat even doing?! He can't think. Is this what multiple realities converging feels like?]
"I-I thought you were going to kill me." [He wheezes, hysterical with shock and relief. Stupid of him, right? Unprompted anyway. He still believes it...How did he even get to this table? One question at a time. Absolutely nothing right now is making sense.]
[Black Hat holds his pose, ready to strike hard at the intruder up until the body continues choking. He stares, slightly relaxing as the meat is dislodged, and Flug falls backwards in a pathetic display that removes any lingering doubt in Black Hat's mind that his scientist has finally, finally returned to him properly.
The flames die in his hands as he folds them behind his back and steps forward to loom over Flug, putting on airs of a man who definitely did not devour his partner's soul in the midst of intimacy.]
I was. But I didn't, and here you are.
[It's... it's sort of true, really. He was going to kill Flug in Fairwell, that desire had been very real!]
Let me guess: trapped in a quaint little town, told you had seven days to make a kill and free yourself, your memories of the last year lost?
"THREE for ME!" [Flug complains shrilly, with an angry flop of his hands. Seriously, what gives?! Why did everyone else get an unrigged chance at survival?! At least it's something he can direct his attention on. The arachne sits up with a worried scowl.]
"So it was real." [At least that meant his night terrors hadn't transcended into being any worse than usual after all. So when he murdered that lackey... Hm.]
"I completed the objective fine enough. Expected a little more, to be honest. There hadn't been a moment to waste after that. A-all I could think about was you ringing my neck or being so late."
[But he hadn't. And he won't. Not here. Still, it's hard to believe Flug didn't run into his master in the midst of all that. Had he really missed Lord Black Hat being there? Something doesn't add up…]
[Only three? Well, the fog is present now - that must mean Flug revived and immediately got sent to Fairwell. But if Flug isn't going to make that connection, well, Black Hat is very happy to not bring it up himself.]
I did spend quite a bit of time thinking the same. But I didn't need the full seven days, what do you expect of me? [He sounds a bit indignant at that.] I was out before the deadline arrived, and found you in a sorry state.
[Black Hat crosses his arms.] You should be grateful. I've been keeping your miserable meat sack fed and tended to while you toddled about in that little fantasy land.
[Normally that would be enough for the scientist to backpedal with small apologies, were it not for the bombshell of:]
"You FED me?"
[The arachne throws an utterly aghast look at the remaining portion of the meal Black Hat had APPARENTLY, charitably been supplying him with. Flug would hardly believe it, had he not woken up while the man was doing just that!]
"Black Hat.. you know I can go a few days without eating, right? I used to all the time." [He always had his suspicions that his employer had no concept of what basic needs a human being had, but..!]
"One or two days asleep without food wouldn't have killed me."
[He needs to be sure you know this. Has Black Hat done this before? For how long?! Then again.. it is hard for Flug to say when he last ate. Why doesn't he remember what he had after drinking tea?…]
[It's on the tip of his tongue, to snap back that of course he fed Flug, had to keep him from starving! He almost spills that it's been quite a bit longer than a mere two days, but catches himself, turning instead to the lifeline Flug has unintentionally given him (or so he sees it.)]
And if it had been longer? I returned to you slumped against the door; would you rather I left your body to slowly waste away with no knowledge of when you might come back to take care of matters yourself?!
[Have a little more faith in Black Hat, Flug. He knows humans can go some time without food - that's why he's been doing this for more than two days. In fact, he's been doing it near on a week now, barring the interval in Fairwell. And that alone means Flug had gone without a meal for more than two days - Black Hat hadn't been around for almost four!]
But if you insist, next time I won't be so generous!
"No, nonono! I-I'm grateful, really! I'm just surprised. I wouldn't think you would have bothered--"
[Buuut he is only going to annoy Black Hat further by keeping on this level of conversation.]
"A-anyway y-you're right! I'd be much more exhausted if you hadn't."
[He did still feel exhausted of course, extremely so. It's obvious in the sluggishness of Flug's movements, despite the animated manner of his speech. Properly cared for or not, no one bounced back from death 100% right out the gate, even a death said victim is unaware of. He attempts to rise, grasping quickly for the table to support himself.]
"Heh. I don't even remember the last time I ate. We.. came back from the tea gathering. You wanted me to work on the oil and then we..."
[For a brief moment a look dashes across Black Hat's face. Alarm? Mortification? Something... parallel to the guilt he can never feel? But then it's gone, because he's still clinging to the desperate chance that Flug doesn't remember. Still, he wants to steer the conversation away from the direction it's going, and cuts in briskly.]
Yes, the oil. You should refine it some more. Learn more about its properties.
"Suppose I should check up on it." [Flug manages to get to his feet, only to stumble a few times down the hall, each limb taking turns locking up to impair his mobility. It's a rather noisy traipse; miraculously the doctor avoids knocking into anything.]
"At least it's only been three days." [A flick of the switch.] "Any more and it might be harder to work wi--"
[And yet here the oil is. Congealed in a state that would have taken far more than three days to reach. Not impossible to salvage, sure, but the sight stirs the discomfort that has been steadily building in Flug's gut. The sense of something being off he hasn't been able to shake.]
"..We were on the bed." [His memory still feels fuzzy. Why does it feel so fuzzy?]
"We were on the bed and I pulled you in close. And then you… you.....oh my god." [He slowly turns to look back to where the suspicious demon is standing.]
Behold, the greatest evil to ever exist, standing stock still and wrestling with what may be one of the most embarrassing missteps of his life. His face is twisting again, and this time he's not able to get the expression back to stoic before Flug is facing him and well, he's going to have to face this head on, isn't he.
"You DID!!!" [Yeah, if anything that excuse only convinces the scientist faster. Flug balks in horror at Black Hat's fakest face yet.]
"You actually ate me!"
[Ohhhh of all his years of faithful service! All the dangers he evaded, tantrums he appeased and THIS is what did him in?! Flug yells in his hands, wandering aimlessly before whipping back around.]
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evilopportunityemployer) wrote2019-04-25 07:38 pm
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The arachne gasps at the demon's claws breaking through the fabric against his back and eagerly scrabbles to do the same. Claws on skin, tongues and teeth, it's exhilarating! Dizzying!..Really dizzying, in fact. Wow.. he's.. starting to feel a little woozy actually. The claws Flug had dug into Black Hat's shoulders, give one last futile attempt to keep their grip before beginning to slip. It's getting harder and harder to hold them up, like he's weakening somehow.
The kiss hasn't ended but he's starting to gasp for another reason.]
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Black Hat's eye snaps open, the crimson ring around his pupil brilliant. But his vision is unfocused and distant, boring through Flug as he drinks him in. The gasping goes unregistered - instead, Black Hat pulls Flug even closer, pressing their bodies together in a crush that would snap a lesser being's ribs.
The kiss trails off on Black Hat's end, but he keeps his mouth firmly pressed against Flug's, open and devouring. This hunger will be fed.]
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It happens so fast, there is no time to even fight it. He already gave too much up, too freely, surrendered his chance to resist before the struggle began. Even if Black Hat were to stop now, it was too late. The arachne's arms fall entirely slack, his spidery appendages mildly buckle and with one final sigh the fire in Dr. Flug goes out. The light leaves six once alert eyes.]
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As Black Hat’s mind comes out of the haze, he can’t help but wonder what else Flug has in store. This is, after all, only the preview of the main event. And he’s thrilled to continue. So thrilled, indeed, that it takes him a moment to detect that the weight on him is rather… limp.]
Flug. Flug.
[Still very much in the mood, Black Hat snaps his fingers near Flug’s ear. There’s no response, and a spike of irritation shoots through him. He can’t believe this.]
Bloody hell, is that it? Get a mere taste of dominance and you’re done for the evening?
[He growls and gives Flug a shake. How dare he bow out after getting Black Hat all worked up, his heart thundering and blood rushing? Unacceptable!]
Wake up, finish the job you’ve started. I don’t care how you go about it so long as- Flug?
[He grabs Flug by the shoulders and props him up, off his chest. Realization slams into him as he stares into those vacant, empty eyes. The hunger, the desperation, the satiation, all of it pointing to the result of an incredibly base mistake.]
Shit!
[He’s an idiot. A damn fool idiot. Was he so broken by the impossible that he couldn’t read his own body?! That wretched arboreal harlot, her roots still so intertwined in him that he lost control of himself!
Black Hat gives Flug’s body another vicious shake, as if it might awaken the spider from his empty state. He should’ve fed more. He should have been stalking the streets each day, seizing whatever human crossed his path and gorging on them, to counter the yawning void his return to life had left.
But he didn’t. He locked himself away, brooding, a miserable shadow of what he is, all because of a tree. And now he’s devoured the soul of his closest ally. His minion. His partner.
It takes some maneuvering, but Black Hat finally writhes his way to his feet, leaving Flug’s body limp on the bed. He stares at it for a long while, cursing Y’doethe and snapping at himself. He is Black Hat. He doesn’t make mistakes - and when he does, he fixes his errors. Somehow, he will undo this.
But first, he’ll deal with the more immediate (and pressing) issue at hand. In a flash of fire, Black Hat is gone, leaving the spidery husk alone on the bed out of some modicum of respect.
Sometimes, when one’s minion falls down on the job, the villain has to finish the matter up himself.]
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You!
[The final button remains open as Black Hat hands drop and he snaps at the thing slowly clipping its way through the wall. Flug's started calling it Jammingway lately, but Black Hat refuses to dignify it with any name. He snarls and hurries forward, waving his hand at it.]
You bloody well could have shown up earlier and stopped this [He waves at Flug, slumped over on the bed.] from happening. Useless lout....
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It pleasantly smells of blueberries of toast.
It heeds not Black Hat’s tantrums, the only inclination it may be reacting to anything at all is the way it’s rectangular base remains stationary as the demon scolds, while it’s outer polygons continue to reach closer and closer to the slumped over the spider, with all the sentience of void-matter jellyfish, growing spikier as they stretch.]
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And then it stops.
Black Hat folds his arms and gives it an almighty death glare.]
What are you up to, you little vermin? Give him a little push? You can't push anything around, you know.
[He knows it's pointless to address the thing - it never responds, not in any intelligible way. But snapping at it gives him something to be angry at aside from himself or a soulless husk for now.]
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You did this, Black Hat. You and no one else and passing the blame around won't fix it.
Any silence that stretches on only accentuates the barely there sounds of what should be a corpse. A soulless husk, sure, but one that nevertheless still draws in quiet breathes. Not alive but hardly all the way dead. Can it really remain in this state? What should be done…?]
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He throws it at the reality break, catching the top of it. It seems to stick, for just a moment, before the pillow continues its trajectory with a part of Jammingway clinging to it.
It stretches again, as if trying to pull Flug's motionless form along with it, before a ripple runs across it and it pops free, merrily being carried towards the wall by the hurled pillow.
There's nothing to be done, though. The only option forward is to hide this event from all prying eyes, cover for Flug's apparent absence should the need arise, and await the Fog's return to reinstate Flug's soul into his body. A simple plan, one with an easy execution that lasts only a day before the first hiccup arrives in the form of an inquisitive little robot, and is put on hold entirely when a strange dust sweeps into the lair a few days later, and Black Hat himself joins the slump, limply sagged in his favored armchair, mind elsewhere entirely. Some place fair. Well, not entirely.]
4/17 A narrow miss
"Mnngh, sssir? I-- hnhh -uhhnn."
[Ugh he feels so stiff, how the hell was he sleeping like that?.. Why was was he sleeping like that? It's too soon for this many questions. His mouth feels dry and his head is pounding but Flug forces himself to his feet.]
"Boss? I don't feel... so..." [The spider mashes a hand against his face, eyes refusing to stay open. Flug makes it precisely five steps across the room before his legs-- all of them-- give out and he smashes his head against the door to slump against it, as his body joins the rest of the unconscious amnesiacs in a delayed slumber; a remnant of faerie dust breezing in through the ventilation.]
some time after that /waves hands vaguely
-to jolt up suddenly as he awakens, as if from a dream. It's the only way he can really think to describe it - the fury from Fairwell is still very much present, but tempered by the return to Ryslig. Of course Flug couldn't be responsible. Once again, a bloody inconvenience plaguing the midmonth in this hellhole of a peninsula.
Black Hat growls and works the stiffness from his joints as he stands. Very little has changed since he sat down - has any time passed at all? But it only takes a glance out the window to see that the Fog has arrived.
The Fog... Flug.
In a burst of flame Black Hat is in the room where he's left Flug's body, only to find that it’s not there. A sense of… something runs through him, something he can’t quite place. A mixture of positive and negative, that the fog has indeed done its duty and Black Hat is absolved of his error, but now Flug is missing and that cannot stand, so he spins on his heel to go and find the lost scientist and oh wait there he is.
Black Hat stares at the body slumped against the door for longer than he should, seemingly dumbfounded at how Flug has moved a grand total of five feet without resurrecting. Did someone break in? No, nothing else is disturbed.
He grabs Flug’s bag and pulls it off, expecting those empty eyes to stare back at him again - but now they’re closed. They weren’t before, he knows this, he watched Flug’s miserable meat sack closely enough to know this is change, that all he would do was blink subconsciously.
Something changed while Black Hat was in that memory-wiping simulation. And Black Hat is no scientist, to test and prod and poke to figure out what has happened. The fog has returned, but Flug is still gone.
It is possible, he supposes, that Flug was pulled into that town as well - but surely they would have crossed paths, would they not? Although perhaps it’s for the better that they didn’t; the embers of rage Black Hat was nursing while hurtling himself through the portal ‘home’ would have been turned to killing Flug.
Again.
Frustrated, Black Hat gives Flug’s body a shove, pushing it over.]
Why do I even bother? You’re more trouble than you’re worth.
[Seven days was the limit given in Farewell, wasn’t it? Black Hat escaped before that time went up. That’s it, then. He’ll keep on as he had been prior to that mess, pretending Flug is simply away while puppeting the man’s body as necessary.
And so the routine begins again, monitoring Flug, arguing with his body, watching him, grumbling at him, scanning for signs of consciousness, and, once a day, possessing his form to keep it fed.
As he is doing some time later.]
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Flug's vision centers, funny, he never closed his eyes when passing through the portal, and the slight dryness in them makes it feel as they were already open now as well, nevertheless he takes in his surroundings with more clarity and sees... a meal; tastes it too.
Right. Right, back in Ryslig.. this is real isn't it? No.. if it was...Why.. why can't he move..?
No! Actually he's moving but Flug is NOT the one dictating it?! WHAT IS THIS? Some form of sleep paralysis?!
Without motor skill or enough comprehension to fend off the body snatcher, the arachne's body buzzes alive with physical cues. Black Hat will feel a sudden boost in adrenaline; a rapid increase of heartbeat accompanied by heavier shorter breathes and possibly the light wheeze of actual vocal chords likely intending the echo of a scream.
Of course a skilled demon could easily override these latent impulses if they so choose...]
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He's halfway through downing a piece of muscle when it happens, and the sudden presence of another being crying out in the body he's controlling alarms him into accidentally inhaling - and then a dark shadowy cloud erupts from Flug's back as Black Hat relinquishes his hold, coalescing behind the arachne with his wings flared and claws raised, fully prepared to attack whatever invaded his puppet.]
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A lurch forward and several hefty coughs later and the arachne manages to dislodge the meat, but not without pathetically falling onto his back and just deciding to lie there and catch his breathe after.
He clasps his hands over his face-- both to soothe the instinctive need to hide it and another to block out the sheer EVERYTHING bombarding his thoughts-- prone in position, but so very very alive.
Too much. Let him just. It's too much. What was Black Hat even doing?! He can't think. Is this what multiple realities converging feels like?]
"I-I thought you were going to kill me." [He wheezes, hysterical with shock and relief. Stupid of him, right? Unprompted anyway. He still believes it...How did he even get to this table? One question at a time. Absolutely nothing right now is making sense.]
"I h-had the weirdest dream."
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The flames die in his hands as he folds them behind his back and steps forward to loom over Flug, putting on airs of a man who definitely did not devour his partner's soul in the midst of intimacy.]
I was. But I didn't, and here you are.
[It's... it's sort of true, really. He was going to kill Flug in Fairwell, that desire had been very real!]
Let me guess: trapped in a quaint little town, told you had seven days to make a kill and free yourself, your memories of the last year lost?
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"So it was real." [At least that meant his night terrors hadn't transcended into being any worse than usual after all. So when he murdered that lackey... Hm.]
"I completed the objective fine enough. Expected a little more, to be honest. There hadn't been a moment to waste after that. A-all I could think about was you ringing my neck or being so late."
[But he hadn't. And he won't. Not here. Still, it's hard to believe Flug didn't run into his master in the midst of all that. Had he really missed Lord Black Hat being there? Something doesn't add up…]
"You said you had the full seven days?"
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[Only three? Well, the fog is present now - that must mean Flug revived and immediately got sent to Fairwell. But if Flug isn't going to make that connection, well, Black Hat is very happy to not bring it up himself.]
I did spend quite a bit of time thinking the same. But I didn't need the full seven days, what do you expect of me? [He sounds a bit indignant at that.] I was out before the deadline arrived, and found you in a sorry state.
[Black Hat crosses his arms.] You should be grateful. I've been keeping your miserable meat sack fed and tended to while you toddled about in that little fantasy land.
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"You FED me?"
[The arachne throws an utterly aghast look at the remaining portion of the meal Black Hat had APPARENTLY, charitably been supplying him with. Flug would hardly believe it, had he not woken up while the man was doing just that!]
"Black Hat.. you know I can go a few days without eating, right? I used to all the time." [He always had his suspicions that his employer had no concept of what basic needs a human being had, but..!]
"One or two days asleep without food wouldn't have killed me."
[He needs to be sure you know this. Has Black Hat done this before? For how long?!
Then again.. it is hard for Flug to say when he last ate. Why doesn't he remember what he had after drinking tea?…]
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And if it had been longer? I returned to you slumped against the door; would you rather I left your body to slowly waste away with no knowledge of when you might come back to take care of matters yourself?!
[Have a little more faith in Black Hat, Flug. He knows humans can go some time without food - that's why he's been doing this for more than two days. In fact, he's been doing it near on a week now, barring the interval in Fairwell. And that alone means Flug had gone without a meal for more than two days - Black Hat hadn't been around for almost four!]
But if you insist, next time I won't be so generous!
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[Buuut he is only going to annoy Black Hat further by keeping on this level of conversation.]
"A-anyway y-you're right! I'd be much more exhausted if you hadn't."
[He did still feel exhausted of course, extremely so. It's obvious in the sluggishness of Flug's movements, despite the animated manner of his speech. Properly cared for or not, no one bounced back from death 100% right out the gate, even a death said victim is unaware of. He attempts to rise, grasping quickly for the table to support himself.]
"Heh. I don't even remember the last time I ate. We.. came back from the tea gathering. You wanted me to work on the oil and then we..."
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Yes, the oil. You should refine it some more. Learn more about its properties.
[You should go do that right now and get to work!
Maybe that's a bit too quick a response.]
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"At least it's only been three days." [A flick of the switch.] "Any more and it might be harder to work wi--"
[And yet here the oil is. Congealed in a state that would have taken far more than three days to reach. Not impossible to salvage, sure, but the sight stirs the discomfort that has been steadily building in Flug's gut. The sense of something being off he hasn't been able to shake.]
"..We were on the bed." [His memory still feels fuzzy. Why does it feel so fuzzy?]
"We were on the bed and I pulled you in close. And then you… you.....oh my god." [He slowly turns to look back to where the suspicious demon is standing.]
"Oh my God you ate me..?"
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Behold, the greatest evil to ever exist, standing stock still and wrestling with what may be one of the most embarrassing missteps of his life. His face is twisting again, and this time he's not able to get the expression back to stoic before Flug is facing him and well, he's going to have to face this head on, isn't he.
...Not without one last weaseling attempt.]
Ate you? Why would I eat you?
[Even he can tell it's a horrible deflection.]
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"You actually ate me!"
[Ohhhh of all his years of faithful service! All the dangers he evaded, tantrums he appeased and THIS is what did him in?! Flug yells in his hands, wandering aimlessly before whipping back around.]
"How long has it really been?"
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