pc: richie

[sacredpath]

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weekend zero

[sacredpath]

[well, very soon after the new locations are made available, shadowheart can be found at the clothing store. it seems to have been her second stop after the bar, where she picked up a glass of something to go. she's still wearing her long white sexy angel costume, but she's perusing the racks and pulling out anything that looks goth.]

That will do, I think. Much better.

[gutterbound]

[the sexy angel costume....:flushed:

Anyway Richie is not wearing his. It has been jettisoned. For the interim he'd nicked the first sensible shirt and pant samples he could find and send a prayer up to axl olotl in thanks for the end to indecency. Now he's just fishing for the good shit. Good thing he's not going to have to fight for it: the pretty gal who'd sauntered in after him is angling to be the fifth member of Vixen.]

It's a low bar to beat. Can't say I've enjoyed the extra eyefuls I've been getting. Or giving, for that matter.

W0 MONDAY

[gutterbound]

[They can be at the cave. Show me the world Shadowheart.]

...Huh. [Looking up at the pink clouds, hands in pockets.] Not quite what I expected, but when has that ever been the case here?

[sacredpath]

[she's definitely a little nervous being in this cave, she's watching the tide. but.]

...It's beautiful in here.

W1 MONDAY

[gutterbound]

[They're at the bar with a Hipster's Paradise and a Don't Wig Out. You must pick one.]

Cheers.

[sacredpath]

[i was going to do mustache but then i considered the possibility of party city wigs.]

Are these safe to drink? The chocolates at the market... don't eat them.

week 1; thursday

[sacredpath]

[well she knows where richie winds up i guess because she was helping haul his ass but where exactly is he. she will check on him and make sure he's bandaged and won't bleed out.]

[gutterbound]

[I've been punting him to his room and pretending claude is a vapor spirit who dissipates whenever i have to PC in here

Anyway he smiles upon seeing her, weak and dizzy as it is. I will be nice and give you lucidity for now]

Never thought I'd be grateful to be dead again. Do you think I count as half the man I used to be, or only three-quarters?

W1 FRIDAY

[gutterbound]

[Perhaps it's ill-advised for him to be moving around so much but whatever, he already spent the night in the spa. Rather grateful for it once morning comes and the news hits. Richie hasn't gone far at least, just to the mansion lounge for a different set of cushions to wallow in. He sits with his head in his hand and offers a weak smile when he sees Shadowheart come by.]

So much for heavenly peace, huh?

[sacredpath]

What do you think? Were both of these deaths also one-off events that are no cause for concern?

[this sucks! purple and black smoke-like bruises are starting to blossom on her skin as she scowls.]

W2 MONDAY

[gutterbound]

[A LOOSE CHILD.

A very tiny, very buck-toothed and thick spectacled Richie Tozier is here. He's wrassling one of the living croquet mallets, which is almost as tall as he is.]

C'mon, hold still already! Ow! [It has pecked his shins and is now making a break for it, running directly towards Shadowheart.] Shit! Fuck! Catch it!

[sacredpath]

[how old is he right now?

shadowheart is here, enjoying the flowers - or, seemingly, lying out among the flowers on the ground. but she'll sit up as the croquet mallet comes towards her.

trying to grab it by the neck so it doesn't bite her is definitely a distraction. it's not all that easy to do.]

Are you sure you want me to catch it? What will you do once you've caught it?

W2 Wednesday, post mingle

[gutterbound]

[incredible that comment 100 was her leaving him to die.

Some hours after their rousing debates and everyone is quite done with turning into babies, Richie will be making his way out of the mansion to grab a bite to eat. He doesn't expect to almost bump into Shadowheart halfway out the door.

He takes a step back, expression flattening as he regards her. There's an awkward half a second, the space where something might be said.

Then he simply moves to slip past her, eyes averted and jaw locked tight.]

[sacredpath]

[she just got done being baby so she is already kind of already completely out of sorts. very much mr krabs energy.

she has probably also been avoiding richie a little, to be frank. but they're right here and he's looking at her that way, so she can't avoid him right now. instead, her face falls.]

...I wish I could explain.

[but she doesn't know why she did that. or, well, she does, but she's not sure why it feels bad, why it hurts that he's angry at her.]

W2 FRIDAY

[gutterbound]

[Voids you

Richie is no longer married, now aping Shadowheart's tactics for dealing with depressing bullshit. His drink of choice is beer though. There's a six pack beside where he's taken a seat to come down from the news.]

...I'm sorry.

[HER ROOMIE]

[sacredpath]

[she's hungover, but shout out to everyone who didn't believe in her, because she lived. she'll drink again, though.]

...We weren't particularly close, but she was very kind. Poor girl.

w2 SATURDAY

[gutterbound]

[hi so this is the fucking worst.

He's already got a bottle of Hennessy in hand, sat outdoors in this fine void where sense continues to elude him. He's got a hollow ringing in his ears. Tinny. Maybe he should check with one of the doctors.

Or maybe that's just the blood swishing between his ears and the stunned silence. A spell broken by footsteps.

He looks up, lethargic.]

...Hey, Shady Lady.

[sacredpath]

[the outdoor void is the nicest one. she does feel set at ease by it. the wide open sky, the air. she'll wander out over to wherever he is.]

You look like a mess. Want company?

week 3; monday

[sacredpath]

[hello i'm throwing us right into the thick of it. cw: for eye stuff but the video that's linked censors it.

The funhouse mirrors take you down a path that seems to grow darker as you walk. What is reflected in the mirrors is a hazy landscape, all in grays, with swirling thick darkness that looks like smoke all around. Everything in this land is dead, everything. The ground is cracked and patched. No plants grow here, except for the odd glowing foliage of the underdark, which is adapted to darkness. There are no living animals, but there are beings in the dark. Undead corpses of animals with glowing eyes animated by some evil power, dark shadow shapes, even the corpses of people from time to time, ones who wandered in here and fell.

Other mirrors show flickers of the story of this land. A century ago, this was a thriving and lush landscape ruled over from the nearby castle, Moonrise Towers. There was a market town and many people who lived in the rural areas. But a curse was placed on this land by the goddess Shar. Everyone who once lived here either died or fled, because no life can thrive in the shadows. The shadow curse eats away at anyone who travels through it before they join the armies of undead.

Shadowheart is traveling through this land with her companions, Gale, Karlach, and Astarion. A blessing protects all of them from the worst of the shadows, allowing them to explore, to look for others who have wandered out into the shadows and become lost or missing.

By an abandoned cemetery, they find a little tiefling girl named Arabella. She’s found some magic in her that also offers her protection, even lets her control the shadows - the only reason why she could be out here and still be alive. There’s an inn, not far away, that would offer protection, and many of the other tieflings have taken refuge there, but she refuses to go.

Arabella is looking for her parents, who went missing during an ambush on the group they were traveling with. She recognizes Shadowheart and the party as people who have helped her before and asks that they help her again to find her missing parents. Shadowheart asks Arabella to go to the campsite where the rest of the party is; even if she does have magic of her own, it’s dangerous out here, and she’ll be protected there. Arabella agrees, as long as Shadowheart and the others promise to help.

(Another memory appears on another wall; a cruel woman threatening the girl with a poisonous snake, before Shadowheart intervened; a man and woman who look much like the little girl crying and holding her, expressing gratitude for her safe return, gifting one of their only possessions, a small magical locket, as thanks.)

The path through the mirrors leads to the town’s hospital. The “House of Healing,” a Sharran house of worship. Unlike the rest of the town, it hasn’t been completely abandoned. Inside, undead nurses with headdresses covering their eyes still attend their duties.

Inside one of the hospital rooms, Shadowheart and the others find one of the nurses tending to corpses, gently sponging their heads and feeding them medicine. In the operating theater, the party finds the undead doctor in charge Malus Thorne, who performs surgery on patients who seem to have been kept alive just for this purpose with the help of the nurses.

(Here is video, it’s kind of fucked up but the worst part is censored on Youtube. The dialogue at the end is a little different.)

“Step forward, sister” Thorne gestures to Shadowheart, over the body he’s operating on. “I can see the love of Shar darken your eyes. Be welcome.”

Shadowheart greets him politely, praises how gracefully he speaks the words of Shar.

“Long have I basked in her embrace. A vessel of Shar I will become. Tell me,” he says, his tone teacherly. “What is the guiding principle of the goddess?”

“Absence,” Shadowheart answers, as easily as if she’s attending a lecture.

“Precisely! No other word captures her essence so completely. It is the scalpel led journey that leads from pain to peace.” He begins to stab his scalpel into the skull of the body lying prone on the table, again and again, blood splattering in his wake, and then gestures to show that he has cut out the patient’s eyes. “See? What is the light of eyes but the cancer that causes one to witness the curse of being? If light is the symptom, then darkness is the cure, for in light there is presence, but in darkness there is absence.”

Shadowheart’s companions react to this appropriately, as though something very fucked up is happening here, but Shadowheart just watches, angry.

(Another path has opened up, one that journeys deeper into the hall of mirrors. But it’s pitch black, and whatever ugliness is plain before them in this place of healing, there’s something much uglier down that way.)

The doctor smiles at Shadowheart. “But you, look how the succor of Shar eludes even you. One who walks faithfully in her shadow. See how painfully present you remain.” His voice becomes sympathetic. “Oh sister, we do not wish to see you suffer. Let us cure you.”

Shadowheart responds calmly. “Your nurses are not ready for that. They have been insufficiently trained. How can I trust them to deliver Lady Shar’s mercy?”

“Their incisions are, as yet, streaked with imperfections, I admit,” Thorne says. “How to steady their hands, I wonder?”

“Perhaps they need a better subject to practice on,” Shadowheart suggests. “Not a student, but rather the master.”

He watches Shadowheart for a long moment, and then nods. “...I see now. By example, I must edify and quell the light that blinds us.”

He stabs the patient on the table through the heart with one messy stroke of his scalpel, and shoves the body off the table. In the body’s place, he lies down on the operating table himself.

“Come, sisters. Soothe me!”

The nurses surround Thorne, take their scalpels, and all at once begin to drive the blades into his body, again and again, until there is nothing left but an unrecognizable bloodied husk. Once this is done, the nurses, with no one else to tend to, turn on them, but Thorne was the most dangerous entity here, and without him, the party makes quick work of the nurses.

The undead doctors and nurses are no more, but in one of the hospital rooms, they find bodies that belong to Arabella’s mother and father. There’s no way to recover them; they’ve been operated on and were being tended to by the nurses.

That night, Shadowheart finds Arabella, waiting near their campfire. She tries to tell her that they were unable to save her mother and father, but the girl screams at her that she’s lying and flees into the dark.

(Another dark path opens, down another hallway, something shrouded so that it’s impossible to know what lies there, but you don’t have to take it. This memory can be over now, if you want it to be.)

[gutterbound]

[things keep happening on mondays.

Richie isn't thrilled to be jettisoned here again. He's had enough already, on every front, but the way out isn't so easy to find. And once he sees it's Shadowheart? His chest cinches tight. Goes up another notch in the belt in fact, once the kid shows up. The place is a grim fantasy to be sure, but the basics he can follow.

Or so he thinks.

It's funny. The one person here he's told about his sensitivity over eyes is the same one whose memory gifts him another dose of horror. Richie makes a sound he's not proud of when the mad doctor pierces them, withers, hand groping for the mirror opposite to stay upright as his own peepers sear in sympathy pains.

(cookie crumbs sticking in the unblinking ball—

tentacles seeping over the pipe, pulling the wet, bloodshot boulder closer—)

It's over soon. Quicker than he thinks, and still not quick enough for his liking. His skin is ready to crawl off his body at the grisly massacre, both deserved and undeserved. His chest pinches off another inch when they find the girl's parents — when Shadowheart catches her again and delivers the bad news.

He shouldn't look any further. It feels invasive. Is. It's none of his business and he's apt to lose his lunch if he has to see more flesh rent.

So why is it his feet are picking up, plodding forward, hand trailing along the glass for support as he follows the darkness down? What happens to her? he wonders, wetting his lips with a sandpaper tongue and blinking hard behind his spectacles. What happens to that little girl?

Richie takes the bait.]

w3; friday

[sacredpath]

[well this is a horrible morning. she's glad to see their curfew still alive, but still looking at the updates in dismay.]

Two again. And Elysia, of all people. [maybe that's cruel to say, but god. you'd have to be crazy.]

[gutterbound]

[Richie is looking rather grim at this. Pretty deflated.]

Yeah. [Drawing in a breath that goes a little ragged.] As much as I want to blame possession and the like, that...I can't imagine why you'd pick her.

[A beat. Then:]

Shadowheart, did you wake up with any injuries?

W3 SATURDAY

[gutterbound]

[hopital

Eventually coming to and clutching at his throbbing head.]

Jesus...fucking Christ...

[sacredpath]

[she probably has just been hanging out around here, though partially because she's in a miserable mood and unconscious people make good company.]

It's not generally advised to throw yourself at two armed men having a marital spat.

[here have ice.]

w4; monday

[sacredpath]

[makes for you since you're making cyoa 4 me.

anyway she will meet him at the bar, and will hold up a drink for a toast.]

To surviving another week.

[her mood is sad, still, but she's doing better, honestly. it was a rough weekend, and seeing the other side of it hasn't dispelled her worries, but she's trying to make the best of it.

anyway she thinks this is the drink honoring elysia but it's not, it's hanaki. so taking a sip and immediately coughing.]

Sorry? What is that?

[gutterbound]

[returns shaking to this]

Amen to that.

[Richie's drinking the same. It's no fun to learn your lesson, so down the hatch it goes. His mood is also a lingering malaise. You don't let go of a light that bright so easily, and he's glad for company that understands it while keeping eyes for it.

He also chokes. Putting his drink down hard and rushing to cover his mouth (again, emotions of missing having two hands), trying to keep from letting anything out as he fights whatever is in his throat. Hoarsely:]

God, is that... [Snatching a napkin and letting the thing fall into it.

Stares at this flower.]

...What in god's green earth?

w4; thursday

[sacredpath]

[would he come see her in hopital, despite how she reacted earlier? if so, she's there. if not, tell me and i'll have her text him or something.]

[gutterbound]

[no he would come. He's seen enough people act bizarre — acted it himself even, that he can soothe his frazzled nerves enough to try. It's just different, you know? Between it being her, and them coming out as kids, it's...well. A little touchy. Hard to stomach on a week where you can feel everything your peers do.

He'll come to hopital, look around until he finds where she's laid up. Cautious, he knocks lightly on the door frame.]

You accepting visitors?

W4 SATURDAY

[gutterbound]

[Helping walk her home...her poor legs. The vibes are rank. Everything was bad.]

Do you think Anders is going to be all right taking care of the kid?

[Kaworu. Our CHILDREN. OUR TEENS ARE IN A MESS.]

[sacredpath]

[thank you for the help walking home she went on a beach investigation and then it turned out there were ten different possible locations.

smiling a little, sadly, at the question.]

I'm much less worried about Anders now that he has something else to focus on. They will be alright.

W5 MONDAY

[gutterbound]

[We can go to the Old West car. She can find Richie....in the stocks. Which looks stupid because one hand-hole is empty.]

I don't know what I did to deserve this.

[sacredpath]

[help! i see. she will wander over.]

I wonder whether I should let you out.

week 5; wednesday

[sacredpath]

[after the movie party, still hanging out at the tavern, getting a drink.]

A lot to think about, isn't it?

[gutterbound]

Indubitably.

[He grabs a drink as well.]

It reframes a lot of things. Frankly it sounds too good to be true, like they could be compensating to keep us off the apple tree, maybe. But who knows.

...What's your take?

week 5; friday

[sacredpath]

[still in the neighborhood, probably outside by the gazebo now. she'd be looking for him, though. it's bad this week, fam.]

...I can't believe it. Not Yves.

[gutterbound]

[he's definitely out here, smoking. Taking no pleasure in it, and so he'll split from his desolate lean on the gazebo when she comes closer, pitching the cig and crushing it underfoot so he can reach for her arm. Soft touch, just connectivity on a dark day.]

I nearly chucked my phone out the window. I didn't want to think it was true.

W5 Saturday

[gutterbound]

[He's walking her home...or maybe to the bar, wherever she wants honestly]

...I saw some fucked up memory of his, before. He insisted it wasn't real, didn't happen. He'd slaughtered two people in it.

[sacredpath]

[bar is fine.]

I saw a memory like that, too, but it was his mother and father, and he told me it was to protect his sister from them. [so like, she was not going to judge him for that exactly.] But... he seemed very confused about the specific details.

w6; monday

[sacredpath]

[ah, she will come and find him after punching wis'adel out and dragging her off to mini-cyoa.]

Jiaoqiu is really so very popular. [he is truly so familyzoned to her so this is bemusement.] I suppose you didn't follow the rules last week?

[gutterbound]

[she's so valid, i hope they survived without horrible gooping or spaghetti dunking.

Anyway Richie's ears go a little red. He laughs, humbled and a bit boyish.]

That I did not, Miss Shadowheart, that I didn't. I didn't feel I've done much worth copping to, but apparently that was not the case. [A beat.] It was one of the drinks, you know? Felt like I couldn't back down from a challenge, is all.

[Playing gay chicken with a queer furry is a foolish endeavour.]

W6 Wednesay - DELIVERY

[gutterbound]

[Before we head into hell weekend, Shadowheart will find at her doorstep.......

A fruitbasket! Just as she said she'd accept some time ago. There's also a bouquet of flowers, and a card addressed to her.]

They're fresh ones, not just the hand-offs from Laurence last week. I thought you deserved something all your own.

Our time here is short and the good times even shorter, but you make the highlights all the brighter. Dig in, Gorgeous.

- Rich.

[sacredpath]

[hello?

well, honestly, she loves getting gifts in general. something about being raised in a fucked up cult where you just aren't allowed to have things of your own.

anyway, she's going to knock on his door! what do you think you're doing, dropping that off and running off.]

W6 THURSDAY

[gutterbound]

[we'll be cute again shortly but for now we're in the hospital. Laid up terribly low.

Richie's foot is suspended in a cast, or whatever our crack team can put together in lieu of one. There's bandages awkwardly spun around his face to corral the diagonal slash, and he's blanketed, heavily. Still shivering though.

Not enough to miss who's next to him with even deadlier damage. He croaks out, throat gone ragged.]

...Shadowheart?

[I think that's right?]

[sacredpath]

[fine then i'll do my au effect to you, too. shadowheart is asleep for now, but she's been bandaged up. the wound she had is not a very good or safe one, and besides that, she's bruised to shit, but she's waking up at the sound of her name.

squinting right back at him. Aren't you...

and then she blinks, like a little clarity came back. she'll sit up, as much as it hurts to adjust - she at least, stabilized, seems fine for that.]

Oh, Richie.

W6 Saturday

[gutterbound]

[mobile ate my first attempt at this but it was the first four lines of how you remind me by nickelback so perhaps it is for the best

Anyway with Lowe's freshly granted permission Richie actually has brought Marcoh a pillow as he slumbers in the church. Hobbled over sadly on one whole crutch or something.]

I hate to say it, but letting him sleep might be kinder.

[sacredpath]

[i'm humming it in my mind. she's in a cross mood, too, but she would help move him.]

If only it were 48 hours. Though you know he'll be dragged out there tomorrow and allowed to wreak his bloody vengeance anyway.

week 7; monday

[sacredpath]

[well, let's stick to the neighborhood, this is after dead return and also after she and anders are back from being forced to play the game of life but with a bunch of rules we made up.]

There you are. Let me...

[reaching out to touch his arm and some blueish green light will appear and she can heal his injuries. not the arm, that is a separate spell that she does not have :( maybe someday.]

[gutterbound]

[I will have to set this before his cyoa otherwise mizu and taair really let this man fight blob monsters on one crutch and a dream.

Richie opens his mouth to say something, but then she's already getting it going. He watches the glow with scarcely disguised fascination. His face, foot, and all else besides knit back together, good as new.]

...Well I'll be damned. [Lifting his foot, flexing it. There's an elated bubble leaking across emotionshare, and he laughs a little.

Then grabs her and spins her around in a hug.]

Aren't you just a wonder! How could I ever repay you, Shady Lady? That kinda miracle can't come cheap!

W7 WEDNESDAY

[gutterbound]

God pulled through in a major way.

[Attached: picture of Richie holding up a peace sign with his left hand. He's got the camera in his right. c: ]

[sacredpath]

[gasp...]

You did not even have to join the rat collective. How wonderful!

Where are you?