singillatim | open | i'll never die, i am a freak

The first day after he has his odd dream involving the Darkwalker, Dorian sleeps the rest of the day, sweating through his sheets and forcing himself through his fever. The second day, he staggers out of bed and forces some soup down his throat. The third day, he feels well enough to stand up and do a little bit of tidying, chit-chatting with people who enter the church—like Roberto! Someone who Dorian had never met before! Someone...who was really boring in Dorian's mind.

The third day, Dorian also accidentally kills Roberto. Whoops. Technically speaking, it wasn't his fault. All he did was grab hold of the man's arm! It was an idle gesture, nothing more. How was he to know what would happen, how was he to know what fantastic feeling would spread through his body as he drained that man's life?

Sure, he probably could have let go of Roberto's arm. But better he live than a boring little man like that. A boring little man that whoopsie, is an Interloper.

It's around 3am that Dorian's thoughts just flare up, broadcasting themselves to the various Interlopers in Milton. And unfortunately for everyone, Dorian's internal monologue is just that: a monologue.

I do wonder what the whole point of this sort of situation is. Obviously some of us are interesting. Exceptional. Best fit to survive in this type of environment. And the rest of us are just SO dull. I suppose whatever experiment is being conducted on such a grand, godly scale needs variables. After running the first round of tests, might as well introduce different rats to the Skinner box. Bigger rats. Smaller rats. Rats of all shapes and sizes, perfect for study.

Is that what we are? Rats in a box, just pressing levers, getting that sweet, sweet dopamine, that lovely little shot of cocaine or sugar water or what the hell ever. Rats being looked over by the Darkwalker, by that girl, raised and changed by our scientists so that we can have peak results. Whatever they do, they could have chosen their test subjects better. I'll spoil the results.

Dorian Gray, once again the plaything of higher powers. Story of my life.

This has been going on for fifteen minutes.

She hasn't been sleeping all that well to begin with. Sometimes it's... easier when Tim's there with her, but Tim's not always clambering into her window (with wolfdog in tow) every night. She still misses Goodsir, and Ruby's gone missing now too — and Kate's sick with worry for the girl.

Night time is just the worst. But she turns over and tries to get back to sleep — until the voice starts up out of nowhere. Kate doesn't speak up, at first. She's gotten used to the sounds of other Interlopers that can do the same thing as her, but that number's gotten smaller over the months. Mr Jopson is quiet and a rare occurrence, Rorschach is more frequent. And there's other voices too: Interlopers that have been here for a long time.

This voice is new. She doesn't recognise it. She's frowning into her pillow for several minutes — only the voice doesn't seem to quieten off. It's— constant. Kate groans in exasperation; well, there goes her chance of trying to get back to sleep.

So, like, why not?

Hey. It comes out a little more disgruntled that she means to, exhausted from the lack of sleep. She pauses, recollects herself. I'm guessing you just got this power. We can hear you, you know.

There's a veeeeery long pause as Dorian, in the middle of cleaning some of the windows in the church, just straight up drops his sponge out of surprise. Because there's someone in his head. He's very grateful that nobody else is in the building as, like a complete dope, Dorian looks around to make sure nobody else is around. He's all alone. That voice was definitely in his head.

And that is bizarre.

There's an awkward silence before the stream of consciousness ramble continues.

She can hear me? Lovely, whatever this is, I've a captive audience. Perhaps this is for the best. I've grown very tired of talking to myself and I make a terrible conversationalist—oh, wait.

You can hear me. So I can talk back. I can think back? Yes, I suppose I did just receive this power. How exactly can you hear me? You're here, in my head, but how much can you tell? How far can you go? Because if this is more than just surface level thoughts, I am going to have to give a very quick explanation of certain things.

Jesus Christ, he's still yapping.

Edited 2025-03-10 22:19 (UTC)

Wow... is he just. Talking about her? Like she's not even there? Kate grumbles a little because taking another moment. It's okay. She just needs to chill out. Be patient. Just a new Interloper picking up a power from Enola— it's cool.

Well, I hear you in my head. Just as you're hearing me in yours. She sits up in bed, wiping at her face. Uhh. So like. Your whole... stream of consciousness? Heard that all. Sometimes it's just, like, whatever your thinking in your head. And then you can talk like this on purpose, like you're doing right now.

Guess you spoke to Enola, then. And you had a dream? The one where you're in the sky and there's the Aurora all around you?

Oh. That's supposed to happen?

As he thinks it, Dorian instantly schools his mind back to normal, trying hard to keep any stray thoughts from being sent to Kate. Because he had a dream. And Enola (who he's assuming is that woman) was in the dream. But then things went...odd. Unexpected. That monster, the thing that Dorian now realizes is the Darkwalker, that wasn't supposed to be there.

Instantly, he knows he's going to have to lie his ass off. Whatever happened to him, whatever he did to Roberto in order to gain this...that wasn't supposed to happen.

His thoughts that he sends over now are hard, focused. I did. Truth be told, I was a bit under the weather—a rarity for something like me—so I just thought it was an odd dream. I didn't know something like this would happen.

I mean, you end up getting a handle on it eventually. Mostly. I still do it sometimes.

'Sometimes' meaning the town of Milton gets the occasional treat of Kate's bible study and readings. Or the odd hymn being softly half-sung or hummed in her head.

Yeah, the first time round it's always a bit of a wild time. You're kind of... going out on a limb, not really knowing what's gonna happen. I mean, I don't think we know what'll happen the second time, either. Or, well. I don't know how many times this'll keep happening. I'm sorry you're sick, though.

Although, there's one thing that makes her pause — how he's referred to himself. Something. Not 'someone'. It's odd, but like. Okay.

... You said 'something'. Are you, like, not a person? Which is totally cool, by the way. There's a lot of different types of Interlopers, here.

On the one hand, Dorian absolutely wants to keep quiet about his life, his immortality, all of that and then some. On the other hand, Dorian definitely wants to keep quiet about the fact that he killed a man and the body is currently downstairs in the crypt of the church. He barely knows how to control this ability. He's going to be cagey and circumspect no matter what. Better it seem like he's cagey and circumspect about the immortality than about the murder.

There's a long pause before he continues.

Before I answer that question, what do you mean by different types of Interlopers?

Well. Like. People from different worlds. One of my friends wasn't from Earth.

Ruby, she means. Although Ruby is actually Human. Was. Is? Kate doesn't know the answer. Ruby's not here anymore. But Kate's seen a whole lot of different kinds of people, even if she's not gotten to know them personally. It kind of comes with the territory of helping Methuselah out at the Feasts. You see all sorts.

And there's been ones that don't look Human. Or aren't. Someone I know is the Actual Big Bad Wolf. And, I'm... uh, pretty sure there's a boy who might be dead. He... ate a person, last year. He's okay now, though. I think. He kind of keeps to himself.

People whisper the 'zed-word' sometimes.

We've got a bloody zombie here?

Sorry Kate, any explanation about what or who exactly Dorian is will be put on hold for one teeny tiny second as he wraps his head around the fact that there's a zombie. Possibly. Look, 'might be dead' and 'ate a person' cover a surprising amount of ground, but if this boy was a vampire, she would say 'might be dead' and 'drank his blood.' He has to be a zombie.

And, unfortunately for both of them, Dorian still has a little bit of a problem sorting things out with the Aurora Call. He doesn't mean to think this next thought. He doesn't plan on thinking this next thought. But he thinks it anyway and broadcasts it to the both of them.

Urgh, I'm going to have to kill him, aren't I? That's just my luck with this sort of thing.

Well, I mean I hear people talk and— The next part actually makes her head spin and she startles from where she sits in bed. Like oh, crap. Is she gonna have to like. Tell someone? That this guy wants to kill that boy? It's time to panic a little and there's a couple of little sounds of flustering fretfulness before she's able to form words.

W-what? No—! You can't kill him! Like. He's actually kind of nice? And like it was one time he did it, and he was actually really sorry. He even stood up in front of everyone and said people should punish him for what he did and it's— it's never happened again—

Can we please not murder the zombie boy.

He's a zombie, Dorian thinks, his tone of voice coming through crystal clear. The fact that there's the damn undead here is reason enough to be worried—not that Dorian actually sounds worried. If anything, the thoughts radiating through his and Kate's head are more resigned. More tired. More 'well this might as well happen so I GUESS I'll fucking deal with it.'

The last time I dealt with the living dead, they tried to kill a friend and I. We had to fight through hordes of her neighbors, of people she knew before we could put an end to the necromancer that started that mess. I'm not going to let that happen here. Not when we've already got too much on our plate.

He's a nice zombie. Kate points out to him. Like she knows zombies are monsters, she knows the kinds of movies that Warren's into back home. All snarling and horrible. It's really not her thing, not at all. But she has an idea of what a zombie's supposed to be like. That Kieren boy isn't that.

Oh, God. She's gonna have to say something to someone, isn't she?

He's not a swarming horde though. He's one person. And he's really good at art and helps during the Feasts and carries firewood and stuff. Like I don't... think there's any necro-stuff going on here.

And besides, you can't just go around killing people!

He needs to keep calm. He needs to keep his thoughts focused. Dorian doesn't even know who the hell this girl is, the last thing he needs is someone here to be suspicious of him, to be worried.

And yet, a small part of him thinks, better she thinks you're an overzealous monster hunter than what you truly are. A damned man. A monster who ruins everything he touches. A depraved youth who sold his soul for something as petty as beauty.

Dorian tries to keep his thoughts steady. He tries to keep them in line. But one slips through. If he's one person, killing him should be simple enough. Easy enough to kill one person.

There's a brief moment before he realizes what he's done and sends back a quick, unintentional, Fuck.

The quiet makes her wonder if maybe he's considering it, rethinking his stance. And she hopes he is, a heavy feeling in her stomach as she waits. This is... honestly kind of scary. She doesn't want that boy to die. He's been here as long as she has, and he's had one thing like this happen?

And then he comes out with that and there's another little surge of panicked fretting. This could end up being a whole serious thing and she is totally not equipped to deal with this.

Please don't. she tries finally, softer. He's a good person. Whatever it is that it's like for you, back home? It's different here. You don't need to kill anyone.

There's another pause. By now, Dorian's stopped cleaning. He's leaning against one of the walls of the church sanctuary, focused entirely on the conversation that's going on in his head. She says it's different here. He really doubts that.

Still, he's smart enough to realize that going immediately into 'let's kill this guy' might not be a good look. A necessary action, perhaps, but something that might not make him Ms. Congeniality. Might as well get some information to see if that zombie's beloved by the rest of the community or beloved only by this silly girl.

I can't promise that I will or won't do anything. It's foolish to make promises you might not be able to keep. But I can promise I won't do anything until I talk with him myself.

Serious, he's okay. You'll see that when you speak to him. Him promising not to do anything until he sees that boy is enough, but doesn't completely settle down the nerves in her. But at the same time, if she says something... won't it just cause a whole Thing? Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

And like, we have enough drama right now in this place without. Y'know. Killing people.

I would ask how we have enough drama, but fifty people? Snowed in together? Some of whom can read minds? I suspect there's enough drama to make the soap operas look tame.

Dorian isn't an idiot. He knows this place, this situation, this entire scenario has the potential to be a powder keg of drama. If he's going to do anything, best to do it at a time when it can be overlooked.

open | i'll never die, i am a freak

closed to kate, forward dated a few days into the event

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