Supernatural AU for Roland

[foundafamily]

[The little hamlet along the forest hasn't had a good time. Surrounded by magical creatures on all sides, they've decided to get a little... proactive in dealing with their problem. When night falls, hunters armed with crossbows and improvised weapons--hoes, shovels, and long hunting knives--come out to patrol.

This time, one of them's squaring off with one of the local werewolves. At this full moon, Firo's completely in wolf form, nearly indistinguishable from an actual wolf when he's not speaking.

The crossbow's been knocked aside, its string broken. The two circle each other, and then the wolf leaps for the hunter's leg to sink his teeth into it.

He's going to make sure that this hunter realizes it's best to leave the business.]

Comments

[ka_sera_sera]

Of course it's a dream.

[Once he sees where the werewolf is headed the castle is suddenly there, in the way of dreams, directly in front of them. There's a wooden door and, far above, a window of bright rainbowed glass.]

If your great expertise tells you I'm wrong, then what's right?

[He stares up at the window very steadily and, impossible as it'd normally be, the window casts a many-colored shadow over his face. And it is, if someone squinted out of the corner of their eye, almost a face. Where the color touches him looks almost like deeply tanned skin; when it touches those blue chips of light they look almost like eyes.]

What's the explanation for your cave over there? Where's the explanation for this?

[foundafamily]

[Firo doesn't have an answer, so he just glares back. He jumps a little when the castle's suddenly right in front of him, which he tries to cover up by pretending to carefully consider it.

As he steps inside, he looks back at his companion. Now his expression is merely curious.]

What are you? You can't be a ghost.

[He won't believe in that until he sees it.]

[ka_sera_sera]

That door's not for you.

[Firo isn't the only one here not answering questions. That one wouldn't have been answered even if it had been phrased as one because the shade has more important matters, suddenly, on his mind. His attention snaps onto the boy in front of him, and all that multicolored light, the hint of life on what might generously be called a face, is gone.]

Common folk enter into the Great Hall. It's over that way. East.

[foundafamily]

Common?

[Firo smirks. God damn, this guy is a dick.

He's never had a lucid dream before, but he's heard that some people can control their dreams--Claire, for one. Firo wonders if he can do that here, so, no matter the size of the doors before him, he reaches to open them, willing as hard as he can that they'll obey. He really wants to show this guy up.]

[ooc: Because it's a mindscape, if you want to have Roland 'hear' some of Firo's particularly emphatic thoughts, go for it.]

[ka_sera_sera]

It's not an insult.

[Impossible for words like this to have a tone, but his confusion's clear in them anyway. He watches the doors open, and makes no move to interfere.]

It's a fact. This isn't your home.

[foundafamily]

Sure it wasn't.

[Firo steps in to find a towering staircase looping its way up to an airy chamber at the top. He doesn't bother counting the floors--each with a single solid door on it--but there seem to be a lot of them.]

Duh. This place isn't somebody's house.

[He hops up the steps to the first floor landing. On his way, he looks back to see if this guy'll follow or not. He hopes he does.]

If you know everything, who do you think lives here?

[ka_sera_sera]

Pampered noblemen, their self important ladies, their wardrobes and legions of fawning servants to help dress them of a morning.

[As with all his answers in this place, that comes immediately and without thought. He doesn't need to think. He knows.]

A number of boys in the higher rooms. Plenty to steal, if you're too simple to worry about the punishment. Is that what this is? Why you insisted on coming in here?

[foundafamily]

[Amusement flickers across Firo's face, aaand it's gone. He narrows his eyes at the mention of stealing.]

You think just 'cause I'm common, I'm a burglar?

I never broke in somebody's house to rob 'em. But, hey, maybe I could give it a shot. You know about any good pickings here?

[He tries to peek through the keyhole of this first door. Nothing. Well, there's no punishment if it's a dream, right? He rears back and tries to kick it right next to the knob.]

[ka_sera_sera]

[The shadow does not look to see whether it opens before his shoe can touch it, or if his kicks are strong enough to break open a well made - if metaphorical - door. He's focused on what's inside. It seems unfamiliar to him, but even here this does not strike him as strange. He makes to move past, interested and not bothering with so much as an excuse me as he goes inside.]

cw: blood

[foundafamily]

Hey--

[Firo is instantly envious. Perhaps because it's a dream, though, the door pops open, and Firo stumbles forward after the shadow.

The room within isn't really a room at all; the walls and floor are stone. In the cave, a ring of wolves stands around a solitary human, a younger reflection of the one who's gaping beside Roland. The other Firo doesn't seem bothered at all, even when one of the wolves leaps forward and bites his neck.

Rather than shaking him to break his neck, as one might for prey, the wolf releases the boy and takes a step back. As the other Firo sinks to the ground, his hand flutters to the mangled mess of his neck. He pulls his hand away and looks at the blood on it. Waits.

In that kind of unexplained knowledge common in dreams, even in the cave the viewers can be sure that there's a full moon.

Firo doesn't know how it happens, but he's suddenly back in the stairwell when the memory ends, the door slamming shut in front of him.]

[ka_sera_sera]

Yours. Your making. Right?

[He was no more expecting to be suddenly back here in this hallway than the boy was, but he does not seem surprised. Probably because he isn't.]

You weren't born into it, then. You were chosen.

[foundafamily]

[Dazed, Firo looks at Roland for a moment as he tries to connect what he's saying to sense.

Chosen, though. He likes that. He straightens and plants his hands on his hips. His chest might even puff out a little.]

Yeah, I was. They're my pack.

[And now he's curious...]

What about you? Were you always like this?

[ka_sera_sera]

This?

[The shape that might be a head, might be a face, looks down for a moment at the rest of itself. The thin, translucent shoulders shrug.]

What else would I be like?

[Before he's finished saying it, a door on the other side of the hall rattles on its hinges. He stares at it. If he had a face, it would be frowning. He walks over to it.]

Those doors never shook like that. Not even afterward. They were made too well for it.

[foundafamily]

Come on, even you have to know you're not normal.

[He's interrupted by the door, though, and his focus shifts entirely.]

Seriously? You're gonna brag about doors now?

[Firo rolls his eyes and follows Roland over. He tries the doorknob.]

[ka_sera_sera]

Bragging? I wasn't-

[Under the boy's hand, the door swings open. It's a corridor, almost exactly like the hallway they were in before walking up the stairs. Almost, that is, save the tapestries on the wall, mostly burned away, the soot on the walls, the mold spreading from each corner.]

[There are footsteps, too, echoing off the stone. The hint of a hand, out of focus but there at the edge of vision, swiping itself across a large spiderweb blocking the way. The large spider who made it drops through range of vision and then out of it, and there's a familiar-sounding grunt, surprised and angry. The view swings down to a particular part of wall, a dark stain over it, very old blood. The footstep noise stops, replaced with a single shaking breath.]

[Then the corridor is new, and clean. The two of them are there again, themselves, in front of the same door they were before, except for the way the man-shaped shadow is moving down the hall without a word, away from it.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo stands by the doorway, wanting to see more, trying to pick out what might've been important in what he'd seen. It's only a moment later that he realizes his companion is taking off.]

Hey! Hey, wait!

[Firo scampers after him without even a look back.]

What was that about? Come on, tell me!

[ka_sera_sera]

About?

[The shadow stops and turns around to watch his approach, head tilted.]

I don't understand you, boy. What is it you saw that needs to be told?

[foundafamily]

[Firo overshoots a little when he catches up, and he whirls around to stand in front of Roland.]

Don't play dumb with me! I didn't recognize anything about that place--it wasn't like the first one.

[So not his memory, he doesn't think, which he supposes is some small relief. But what does it mean? This guy seemed to recognize what went on in the first door well enough, so surely he must know what went on behind the second door. Besides, there's nobody else for Firo to ask.]

[ka_sera_sera]

[The shadow stares at him. Or maybe behind him. Well, that stare's aimed at something, even if the lack of a face makes it hard to tell precisely what. Then he turns around and starts walking away.]

Didn't you? Wonder why.

[The walls around him are bare, they're clean, but he runs his hand along one of them anyway, even looks at his fingers afterward and rubs them together, as if anything there would stick to shadow as well as it would to flesh. Then he stares at his hand a moment more, wondering at the gesture, wondering at himself.]

[foundafamily]

You knew right away what was happenin' before.

[Firo watches him inspect the wall. Okay, that's weird...]

What?

[He blinks, then feels along the wall himself. Nothing. But it does remind him of what they just saw.]

...You think it's the same place?

[ka_sera_sera]

The same-

[His head jerks up quick, surprised. He'd forgotten anyone else, for a second, was here. It's a second more, maybe two, before he replies.]

I think there are more doors in this hall. I think there's no need to fixate on that one.

[foundafamily]

Huh? Yeah, but...

[But he asked. He turns around to look, and there are quite a few doors. Maybe they should keep searching, for whatever the heck it is they'll find.

Then Firo's head snaps back around.]

Hey! You're just sayin' that to distract me, right? So it was important!

[ka_sera_sera]

Was it?

[He puts fists on hips that were, until this moment, not much more than indistinct shapes leading to probably-legs. Now his edges are less blurred, sharp and narrow hips lent a little more bulk by the outline of something buckled around them. The shadow himself is too busy sounding annoyed to notice.]

In that case, why don't you tell me just what it is I'm hiding? You seem very sure!

[foundafamily]

[Firo blinks, confused by the sudden definition in the shadow. Is he doing this on purpose?]

You know something! You wouldn't get all offended if you didn't--I was just askin'.

[ka_sera_sera]

Just asking is not what you're doing!

[He bows his head, lifting a hand to rub his blurred fingers against a brow that isn't there.]

We need to keep going. Maybe that will tell us more about this curse we're under, if that's what it is. Do I have your permission for it, or would you rather keep interrogating me for knowledge I don't have?