redrighthanded | IC; Duplicity Inbox

Because he lives next door to my new Dominant. Who also calls himself not 'human'. I have to go out of my door every day and be reminded of him when I had set myself to forget he ever existed.

[ She picks at a nail. This should be a happy thing. Jack makes her happy, she is so glad to be his.

But here he hung over her. Like a chokehold. ]

I am relieved to hear you say that. We made it abundantly clear to one another that we should never speak to each other again. So Chieftan Jack, my Dominant, he spoke to him for me. In their exchange, he made it perfectly clear that he would bring down every bit of power he could on any Submissive, especially if they were Uncontracted.

[ Hellboy doesn't like most of what he's hearing and doesn't bother hiding the frown that darkens his expression. But he's quickly discovering how little he can do -- how little any of them can do -- when it comes to this sort of thing, as unfair as it feels. ]

Fine.

[ Though it's not, which his tone makes clear. But he likes Gilia, as little as they've interacted outside of the festival, and doesn't want to make things worse for her if he can help it. ]

But if he decides to make the first move against either of you, I'm not gonna promise anything. Guys like him don't last long around me.

He wouldn't last long in a fight against either of us. I almost-

[Jacob pauses, aware that Gilia probably won't want the messy details, and Hellboy might not either for that matter. So he shrugs it off, wrapping an arm around the big man's shoulder. ]

He wouldn't be a threat. It's the authorities here that are the problem.

[ And there she stands, with big eyes. Absolutely horrified. The implication is more than enough to make her want to be ill. Of violence freely given? No. That did not happen, not in her world, and how sorely it showed with how pale she seems to go. ]

I cannot stop you if you must, but I beg of you, please, make it the last thing you do. I want no violence, and this all started because of my own foolishness.

[ Gilia's clear distress isn't something Hellboy enjoys seeing and he definitely doesn't like being the cause of it. He raises his hand off Jacob's leg and holds it out to her, palm up, offering it for her to take if she wants. ]

Hey, it's okay. We're not gonna do anything unless we have to.

[Jacob feels a pang, wishing he could do something to put her mind at ease, but his normal methods would be offering up violence. Clearly that's not something that Gilia likes. But Hellboy's seems to know what to say, his deep voice calming. It's all he can do to agree with him, trying to match that tone.]

We won't. We'll only do anything if we really have to, as a last resort.

[ When they reassure her - what else can she do, but believe it? Because contrary to anything anyone else might say she knows one simple truth to this all. They are good men, perhaps of a life so far away from her own. Not in terms of place, that seemed trifles to the real differences, in upbringing, understanding of the world. But this remained true to her, what she believed. They were good men. Even if the violence scared her.

With Hellboy's offered hand, she steps forward. Taking him carefully by the fingers, like she would any other.

But there, in front of them, she does the one thing that she felt needed to be done, said, acted upon. With her hand lifted in Hellboy's, slowly and gracefully as she can, she sinks to her knees in front of them both. Her coat and skirts pooling underneath her. A small ceremony, in turn, where she takes Jacob's hand as well, and then as reverentially as she dared, she kissed the back of his knuckles, then in turn, gave the same to Hellboy's own hand. Turning her eyes up, and the sincerity of everything she feels is painted in it, as she meets their gaze, Jacob and then Hellboy as solemnly as she could. ]

Thank you. Both of you. Thank you, from all I am as Queen and all I am not as a woman, you have honoured me twice over. For defending my honour as you have, for being willing to do so again, and listening to my request, even when I know I have neither right nor position to ask it from you. Were I still of my rank, I would shower you in gifts and position in my lands, but I have not but myself, and my own ardent thanks, and I can do no more, now than hope it suffices.

[ Having her come here to ask them to stay out of a fight is one thing, but when she starts to go to her knees in front of them Hellboy has to stifle a murmur of disagreement, torn between not wanting her to feel like she needs to do such a thing and wanting to let her do what she needs to in order to resolve whatever it is that's going on. He endures her actions with a faint air of discomfort, having never enjoyed people prostrating themselves in front of him, given how often it ends with the summoning of elder gods or worse.

He can't bite it back forever, though, squeezing her hand gently. ]

Hey, c'mon, you don't have to do that.

[ Hellboy isn't the only one uncomfortable with the young woman on her knees in front of them, although Hellboy's reasons are probably a lot more sensible than Jacob's. He simply doesn't like the fact she feels she has to bow down and give thanks, it's too much in exchange for too little, and it has him slipping off Hellboy's lap in order to gently take her by the elbow and ease her back up.]

Doesn't matter if you're a queen or a match girl to us, Gilia. You're a friend, and we don't need thanking for doing the right thing. [He pauses, reflecting on himself and then adding] Not like that anyway. Just a thank you, is fine. It is, really and truly, something we'd do for anyone.

[Although for Jacob it had been personal, not only because of her, but because someone who said that sort of thing would go after anyway who was in some way not human. Like Hellboy. Or Vrenille with his magic. Or Anduin with his.]

And you'd do what was in your power for us. So it's all even. All square. No more being on your knees or any of this I am a weak and feeble woman nonesence.

[ As much as they soothe her, she looks still seriously between them as she rises again. Watching their faces, like it might divine something for her about how the world worked that she could latch onto.

For her - this is no idle thing, no game, no half measures. The stakes were set the moment she was born and there was only ever one consequence. Victory or death and she would never pretend the world worked otherwise. ]

If... if you... if you wish it so. I ... [ She looks down at her hands, where Jacob holds her so lightly, so carefully. ] It still means very, very much to me. You are both good men. You are kind men, no matter what else might be said.

[ Left sitting alone on the bed, Hellboy's not sure how he can help here, half assuming adding his bulk to things won't be necessary anyway. He watches the two of them, reflecting on how young they seem standing together like that. ]

It won't be the first time I've heard the kinda thing he wants to say. [ He means it to reassure Gilia, though he realises as he says it that Jacob might need reminding as well that there's no need to take his part in any argument that might end badly. ] I won't let it bug me.

I've heard people say similiar. About all sorts of people.

[ All based on stupidity, fear, and closed mindedness. But Jacob knows that those fires are fanned by the people who should be trying to fight them.

He looks between them and then leads Gilia to sit down on the edge of the bed. ]

But for as much as he screams and shouts, there's a lot more people that know you aren't monsters.

[ She - hasn't. Caught somewhere between aghast and indignant and how much she has been so privileged in her life. It fixes somewhere so deep, and so unpleasant, in her heart.

She thinks of her mother. Hildegard would stomach not a word out of Tim Stoker's mouth. Her will so absolute and her words are unforgiving. Her mother never suffered a lesser man to speak so in her presence.

Because her mother always knew exactly what she was, before who, or how, or that which she felt.

They thought it was a maidenly shyness alone, and they were not wrong in some forms, it all reviled her, she knew she was sheltered, knew she was but the delicate daughter of greater family who had once been expected to do not much more than marry. That even now, thrust to another world, she treaded water on her expectations at the best of times.

But Tim had - hurt her. So terribly. A way she had never thought another person could do to another. ]

We do not. We do not use these words. No one, not ever, would ever dare challenge my family, they would never commit such blasphemy as what came from Timothy Stoker's mouth as was spoken to me. Because we are far, far worse than anything he has used to describe me. Some paltry creature lurking in the dark. Snaring a man for a wicked device.

You can kill a man, though I ought never to imagine such violence in your hands for surely I should weep to know what made you do so. I do not know if I could kill a man. I know what my people do when we go to war, in the stories of my founders time. We wipe cities from the shore. We drown tens of thousands. We crumble coastlines. When I rage, the ocean rages. We do not kill, we consume. Back to the place where life began, where you cannot live, but we are bonded in our very souls with.

It is not that I should think I could not. It is that I most surely could, but it would not just be Timothy Stoker. There will be no measure left, if it came that.

[ It's Hellboy's fears confirmed in the careful way she describes the power that exists in her beyond the simple reach of her hand, the concern that he had upon first speaking to her sketched out in her soft voice. But within that fear, he has to admit that she and Jacob would have every right to feel the same way about him, if they knew the full extent of possibility wrapped up in his right hand, and it's with a grim acknowledgement of their shared potential that he studies his two companions. ]

Then it can't come to that. Right? [ He glances beyond her to Jacob. ] We'll make sure it won't.

[Jacob nods, meeting Hellboy's look. Jacob's seen Gilia's power, the spirit of the sea that exists in her, part of her very soul. He knows it's powerful, knows it's deadly, but he doesn't fear her.]

It won't come to that. And as I see it? We can't be fighting each other when the city is against us. We keep each other safe, we watch out for each other.

[ She shakes her head, a simple aggreement to that. ]

No, I never want it to. My power is a gift and one I want to use for the good of those around me, never their pain. But I know I must never let any pain I feel be known, the consequences of it...

[ Far outweighed any slight or broken heart. ]

... I would much rather do as you say, and work with you.

IC; Duplicity Inbox

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

guess whose notifs got eaten again.....

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject