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

[brushoff]

Who: Dorian Gray & OPEN
What: settling in
When: all throughout the month of March
Where: Milton, with a focus on the community hall, the church, and the outskirts

Content Warnings: drug use, smut, body horror and gore in the form of Dorian's creepyass portrait, others tba

( catch all post for March! full of open and closed starters, dm me if you have an idea~ )

Comments

[brushoff]

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?

[castitas]

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.

[brushoff]

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.

[castitas]

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.

[brushoff]

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.

[castitas]

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!

[brushoff]

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.

[castitas]

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.

[brushoff]

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.

[castitas]

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.

[brushoff]

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.