westwhere | the truth is in the gallows

Entry tags:

the truth is in the gallows

WHO: Wrath and YOU
WHEN: first half of August
WHERE: around Taravast especially Beacon/Necromancy District
WHAT: Learning about new magic, gaining disciples, plus whatever else.
WARNINGS: tbd. potential violence, dark emotions.

Necromancy District

Wrath spends much of the first half of August within the Necromancy District, interested in observing their more extreme methods of healing people, and especially interested in learning how to break a curse through magical methods according to what they know. Information is powerful, and he is well-informed about magic, which makes what he knows a commodity. Throughout the month, he slowly conducts lessons and gains three disciples within the district. Heard of his lessons? Want to join in on one?

If others are exploring the District, they may find him in any of the shops or rooms where healing/experimentation is happening that he has managed to trade his way into. He stays near a back corner, observing. Even with his mask on, he gives an aura of being off (otherworldly, angelically attractive, demonically predatory). He primarily observes, but sometimes asks questions, offers a hand in assisting if he has the chance.

He surveys the illicit potions, inquiring to the effects of each, hoping to find one that might cause incompetence. Emilia has many suitors, most of them hapless save for one. Wrath senses dark emotions that would make his brother Lust grin from ear-to-ear. Not trusting this suitor to know the meaning of a safe word, he is on a mission to find a potion that will take him out of the running and teach him a lesson. It is not murder he is looking to do. Yet.

Miscellaneous

You may find him at any of the following:

- Wrath spends time at the Beacon, visiting it several days, asking about it to locals, collecting information about it. It is warded and locked away like an ancient relic, like an item to be observed but never touched.

- Keeping an eye on Emilia di Carlo, but from an appropriate distance most of the time so as not to raise suspicion. Studying her suitors from afar and then being annoyed by their existence, especially when they are the ones who get to dance with her at the parties. Then being annoyed to find himself annoyed. This is fine, and he doesn't care at all.

- Wrath sometimes teleports into secure rooms within the two academies of magic when he thinks he can do so without being seen. This leaves the clear scent of fire and brimstone behind when he does so though he attempts to do so when no one else is around. Others might be sneaking into rooms that he teleports inside of. For the most part, he uses his influence and lessons of his own magic to study visions at the Attaryl school of magic, sitting in on lectures.

- He attends the parties with the air of someone who has been to many before. With ease, he speaks to the nobles around as if he has always been here, playing his role, performing miracles when asked to. These miracles include changing the temperature of the room, lighting fire with a few magic words, or even healing minor ailments. If he sees anyone struggling, he will assume they are part of the group and offer advice on how to keep up appearances if only so they will not be discovered. You are welcome.

[ ooc: hit me up with wild cards freely or simply contact me through pm/plotting post/plurk and I'd be happy to write something else. reminder there is always the potential for being near Wrath to increase angry feelings your character is having if you want to play with that. :) Wrath does not do this on purpose - it's just a side effect of being angry near him. ]

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Wrath feels Five before he hears or sees him. The dark emotion and offness of the magic within him is so poignant that it would be impossible to mistake him for anyone else at all. He has thought of him and his problem- his curse as they headed into Taravast. As a city of magic, it is the perfect opportunity for him to find the answers even Wrath does not know. However, as with everything else, it will undoubtedly come with a cost.

With what time he has spent in the Necromancy District already, he is aware of the extreme limits they will go to to solve a problem, to heal, to fight back death itself. If only they knew who he once was... Would they embrace him? Shun him? Want to learn even more from him?

Wrath does not so much as look up as he surveys the stock in front of him. The Necromancy District may very well have a solution to his problem. Is that why he is here?

The mask is not on his face either at the moment if only because he has made connections in the Necromancy District already. They know him beyond the mask. He knows a rare few of them beyond their own too. They sought knowledge in the very same way he has been seeking knowledge.

He turns his gaze toward the small human, and then the potion within his grasp. "...I didn't know you were so interested in potions," said casually himself as he slips the current potion in his own hand back on the shelf, but turns to have a closer look at the one in Five's hand as he waits for his response.

Five raises an eyebrow at the word 'potions'. Maybe he expected there to be a more scientific name for them, but that's asking too much out of a shop for necromancers. He hasn't been able to concentrate enough to figure out how it works for himself, and he hates to think how much further he'd be along if he hadn't acted so impulsively months ago. He would like to say he had a firm game plan for how he was going to solve his problem and could trust that he could undo anything he fucked up too spectacularly, but so far he's only admitted that there's an issue and taken the first steps towards trying to understand his options.

That's not the same case for the demon, who already looks right at home. He also doesn't seem all that surprised to see him again. Either he noticed he was being followed, or he expected Five to come around here looking for answers.

Even if he had the time to see what potion Wrath put back, he doesn't know enough about his motives to guess what he might be searching for. The bottle still in his hand is ornate, heavier than it should be for its size, and otherwise indistinguishable from any other on the shelf. It could be a cure or something worse than what he has.

"I don't know the first thing about them." He looks back with a sharp smile, keeping his tone conversational despite the tension surrounding him. He gestures with the bottle, holding it up for him to take. "You seem to though. Can you tell the real from the fake ones they sell to tourists?"

Wrath reaches out to pick it up from Five's hands, feeling its heaviness, seeing how ornately made it is. He pulls it in closer, and there is a hum of magic beneath his touch. Potions are less common where he is from. Magic spells and rituals are used first, but there are a few concoctions they can brew as well. He simply isn't certain how much crossover there is between the two.

"They are all real. The Necromancers are... passionate about their magic. I have no doubt many have side effects or costs of some kind. It appears to be the nature of their more... extreme practices and likely why these potions are illegal."

This is all information he has learned from speaking to the necromancers, from starting to gather disciples here within the district. They want to learn as much as he does.

"As for this one with its ornateness, I imagine it must be making a promise of some kind. Perhaps a creative cure to a disease - a disease, but not a curse." In case Five was wondering.

He watches closely as he takes the potion from his hand, mildly curious if he managed to pick out a weapon at random, because he really doesn't know. It's doubtful, but something had to lure Wrath back here. Five bypassed whoever would have tried to stop him at the entrance, so it could be that they're at least more potent than whatever the public can access in the front of the shop. Especially if it's supposedly illegal. — Fortunately magic hasn't humbled him so much that he doesn't think he can easily blink out of any situation that catches him off guard.

When they first met, it seemed like Wrath had a sixth sense about magic, and he was able to draw the truth out of him simply by being right about all of his assumptions. His comments this time are more pointed, made to show that he remembers why Five would be interested, and his smile tightens accordingly. No, his 'problem' hasn't been solved and he's forced to seek other avenues. It's painful how obvious that is. For his part, he can only downplay how much it weighs on him and try to find his leverage.

There's a few beats of measured silence before he responds.

"Well, they are necromancers. They're extreme by nature." Five doesn't ask what kind of cost it would entail, but it stays on his mind. He wound up in this situation by stabbing a cursed body, and there's a part of him that wonders if that's what it will come down to. They can fucking try. "You must be learning a lot if you keep coming back. What did you do to impress them?"

Wrath sets the potion back upon the shelf as he looks down at him, narrowing his gaze, as if trying to get a sense of what Five is attempting to do. It seems their conversation before must have made him paranoid about Wrath, which is only fair. People in his own world are well aware of how wicked demons are - let alone Princes of Hell, which he had all but implied he was when they last spoke.

Much of those stories are exaggerated for effect - to frighten children, frighten young witches especially. He has blood on his hands. He has committed horrible acts, but most of the stories are not entirely true. Some are made up entirely. But he is certain any world that has demons or Hell or the Devil within its vocabulary must have its own stories.

"Call it an exchange of information - much like the one we agreed to when we met, but add magical skill to it this time."

Of course, he has started to begin a following of very young, new Necromancers, wanting to hone their craft.

"They have skills I do not possess, and I have much to offer them in turn."

For as much as Five continues to test him, Wrath almost always answers his questions. There's a limit to how far he'll go, but given enough time he might be able to figure out exactly what he's hoping to accomplish. He's spent enough years with those who want to the world to end that he thinks he can pick up on the signs. At the moment Wrath seems more interested in learning all he can about magic, and the fact that he's here points to a specific subset.

Five can tell that deals are how he prefers to operate, and he does his part to keep from entering another. They're just talking. As lacking as he is in social acclamation, he's always done better when there's a comfortable level of detachment to the subject. On the surface, he can appreciate the familiarity.

"Skills like raising the dead?"

Wrath has quite a bit of experience with the dead. In fact, it is the reason he was originally created after all ~~or so all signs point to but it has yet to be confirmed~~. After he sold his soul, he became the one who transports souls to the Underworld after all, continuing his long history with death.

It's why he seems to scoff a bit at the question - almost amused at the very idea.

"No. I have no interest in raising the dead like they do."

He knows a spell that can bring someone back from the very brink, but he so rarely ever uses it because of the cost.

"They have far more magic at their fingertips than that particular skill."

The way he seems amused at his question raises the obvious. What kind of magic is he trying to learn from them?

"Is that so?" It might be narrow minded to think that necromancy mostly involves dealing with resurrection. But Five did spend weeks surrounded by the undead, that culminated in an all out assault by them, so it was a fair assumption that that was their primary purpose here.

He looks to the potions again that for the most part are unlabeled and don't appear to be organized in any specific way. There's no way for him to tell what got Wrath's interest.

"They can sense magic, like you." He doesn't need to mention how he knows. Their attention is one reason he's here to get an outside perspective. "What else can they do?"

Edited 2021-08-30 12:50 (UTC)

Wrath turns toward him again, narrowing his gaze at the response. No, he is not surprised that anyone magically minded would be able to sense the off-ness from him. It is unlikely they can also sense the negative emotion like he can, but they would know something was wrong.

"I imagine there are many people in Taravast, if they are in tune to magic, who can."

He doesn't know for certain though. There are some people who can do magic, but cannot necessarily sense it radiating from people or objects like he can. The question gives him a pause.

"Make potions for one, but that seems obvious given where we are standing. They have magical objects, which also have different properties like aiding in sleep. Wards would be another aspect of magic they know." Unlikely to be what he is asking about. "They are also interested in healing in general and are more willing to go to riskier, newer methods to solve the problem than say... a healer would be."

Wrath picks up another potion then, holding it within his hand, staring at it still as he asks: "Why is it you're asking me and not them?"

Five knows he's right, that other people can sense it, and yet he still reels from the idea of wearing a weakness on his sleeve that's visible for anyone who knows what to look for. He needs it gone, for more reasons than his discomfort of carrying an agonizing curse that went unchecked for too long. And yet the thought of letting a bunch of necromancers do whatever they need to do to remove it disturbs him enough to nearly lose track of what the demon in front of him is saying.

When he refocuses he remembers what he asked. Honestly, he's never made such a convincing child as he does when he talks about magic. If anything, his appearance helps him get away with those basic questions. Never mind that he learned how to manipulate time and space by inventing an entirely new branch of physics; magic is an entirely different language that Wrath is at least moderately fluent in. He probably thinks if he doesn't dumb it down to the simplest of terms it would go right over Five's head. It's only mildly infuriating to think that it probably would.

He wasn't expecting to hear exactly what his motivations are, but he does a fine job in narrowing it down to everything aside from raising the dead. Five has a cutting reply ready for him for implying he's afraid to talk to the others, but in that same moment his insides twist unexpectedly. A glimpse of movement from the front of the store catches his eye, and he's silent, lost in his thoughts until the distant figure moves on.

"...I can't imagine they'd be as helpful as you." The reply comes late and isn't as sarcastic or forceful as he wants it to be. He takes a few deep breaths, just watching Wrath examine the potions, before he finally shakes his head. He turns his back and starts pacing the cramped space, hoping the movement will get his nerves to stop acting crazy. "Besides, you have a head start. Do they have a secret demon cult that they asked you to join yet?"

Wrath remains quiet even as he lifts another potion only to set that down too. While he doesn't have the same reaction as Five, he does glance the figure's way, casually, calmly. He can feel the negative emotions radiating off of Five. He is frayed at the edges, paranoid, pacing, pulling in too much anguish.

This is what Wrath suspected would happen due to the mirror inside of him, the cursed object pulling from every source it can reach.

"They would be far more useful than me on a certain subject, but on others, most likely not. They do like to be paid for their information."

Hell works the same. He is used to it. Information is important He steps away from the shelf after he has picked out one potion, walking closer to Five as he paces.

"Hardly. A cult? ...really?" He scoffs with a dismissing shake of his head before his gaze grows more pointed while he surveys Five. "It's getting worse."

The plan to follow Wrath into such a confined space wasn't entirely well thought out. He's never trapped as long as he can teleport, but he can barely move around in here, and he's forced to make short strides along the narrow path between shelves. The anguish that spills out threatens to trigger too many memories, and he needs to force it back down. There's not enough room for it to help clear his head and correct whatever got thrown off balance.

He counted on having longer to collect himself, and he runs a hand through his hair, pulling at the ends when his thoughts start to get more erratic. He stills as soon as he sees Wrath coming near. That wasn't his best insult, but he still fixes him with a glare when he scoffs at him.

Anything he might have snapped back with gets caught in his throat the moment he's called out. Addressing the curse directly pulls too much to the surface, and he works his jaw while he tries to set his defenses back up.

"It's under control," he barely mutters, sounding pained and obvious. Stupid. There's only so many valid reasons he'd be standing here. "You think I should trust the necromancers."

Wrath does not bother to respond to the mutter beyond a raise of his eyebrow. His expression remains calm and collected. They both are aware of how obvious he sounds at the moment, and he has no desire to waste time calling him out on it. After all Wrath can understand why he would hate it beyond its effects on him - its becoming an obvious sign of weakness.

Wrath has long since learned to shield every last bit of his own. He gets the sense Five is similar, but this is not something easily hidden.

"No. I think it would be foolish to trust the Necromancers. It would be equally foolish to trust anyone else who offered you a solution as I imagine the other magic users would have their own methods. You can't trust anyone in this city, but you can make an exchange with someone you do not trust."

Wrath has been forced to do it so many times in his ancient life that his mind is always working toward strategy, toward air tight deals.

"They will want something for helping you. So long as you come through with your end of the bargain then you can trust in that."

Usually when he makes a deal with someone he doesn't trust, he has an exit strategy, or otherwise a plan to betray them first. This is different. Whatever option he takes, if he accepts magical help, he'll be putting himself in an extremely vulnerable position. He could ask Allison to rumor them into compliance, but that would mean telling her and then immediately putting her at risk. And if he happens to die halfway through some procedure, his siblings would be screwed out of their best chance to get home.

His issues aside, he doesn't know why Wrath is offering up his advice. It could be to get him to leave him alone, or distract from the actual reason he's in here looking at potions. Maybe he's just curious if he'll go through with whatever they propose so he can observe.

Five doesn't like any of those options, but so far he's only told one other person. Of them, this one actually knows how they operate.

"How many curse removals have you seen them do?"

"It is my understanding curses cannot be removed unless their requirements are fulfilled - if they have any." He leans back against a wall, casual, like he could be shrugging as he speaks these words and nearly is.

"Thankfully, it is not you that is cursed."

Of course, Wrath would like to see the process even if it is not quite helpful to him and his own curse. Curses, in general, fascinate him. He would prefer to find out, if he can, how to never be cursed again. It likely starts with having no weaknesses at all as he'd had before.

Obviously, he has no weaknesses now. Emilia certainly does not want him- did not choose him, and he must turn his own heart to stone once more to protect himself (to protect her). He would prefer to learn some type of magical protection against ever being cursed at all. They are teaching him wards, which he already knows but... warding a curse is a new set of information and skills that he doesn't yet have.

Just his luck that it isn't a common problem. He doesn't want to be talking about this while his symptoms are acting up, and he crosses his arms as a weak effort to hold in a shudder that runs through him. It doesn't help that Wrath seems so cool and collected. And now he knows too much, but that seemed true from the beginning.

He's tempted to blink right back out in a frustrated huff, except he was determined to make some progress. It's sounding less likely that the necromancers would already know how to cure him. They'd be guessing and experimenting on some magical solution.

"That's a relief," he says with a laugh, because he still can't believe he's in this mess. He's not cursed, there's just something cursed stuck inside him. Somehow that makes a difference. "Why don't I ask you to stab me now, save myself some money?"

So far that's the only way he knows that works. He's pacing again, glaring at the useless shelf of the potions while he thinks — when abruptly something clicks and he looks back at him.

"There's another cursed mirror, still intact. If it works the same way..."

It sounds like a question, so apparently he's expecting Wrath to follow his train of thought. Maybe another mirror could take out whatever he absorbed, if not the piece itself. Winnie never said what hers did. The Merchant seemed explicit that someone without a soul was the only one who should handle it, but there are risks in whatever action he takes.

Wrath's gaze is sharp then. Perhaps because of his own experience being cursed for decades without any relief but to see one soul after another delivered to Hell, to his brother. Even now the answer to end his curse is to deliver the woman he- He straightens his shoulders, stepping closer.

"It is a relief, because if you can remove the mirror, you can remove the curse."

He imagines the Necromancers can do that much. Healers may be able to as well as far as he knows. He is not left without option though. He is not left without choice like Wrath has been in his own curse.

It is something.

He stops as he sees the pacing, and Wrath's head tilts to the side, thinking.

"It is its own risk. If it works the same, it could absorb the anguish. It could absorb the mirror too but there is no guarantee of that. These mirrors are made to absorb emotion - not objects even similarly cursed objects. It is a large gamble which you are free to make, but it is its own risk." His voice is soft. It is not a horrible alternative solution, but it does require so many assumptions, guesses, hopes. And Five is already playing with fire in terms of how much he can handle. "Do you know where the mirror is?"

The need to find out Wrath's motives get thrown to the wayside as his issues overshadow anything else he hoped to gain. Five notes every movement, shooting glances and nodding when he speaks. Listening even when his own thoughts scatter and he tries to reel them back in. Trying to ignore the emotions that he knows aren't his, but he can still feel the burning and agony building on each other.

He's been carrying them around for months without breaking, he's not doing it now. They're close to something. Wrath at least seems to be insisting that it's possible, like he takes it oddly personally. He even makes it sound easy while Five considers several extreme paths available to him.

What felt like an epiphany a moment ago is thrown into doubt almost immediately. He doesn't know how any of the mirrors work, or what it would do if he tried to use it on himself. What he is sure of, is that he could convince Winnie to hand it over, since he's the only reason she has it. He didn't know anything about them back then.

"I do." Not the exact location, but he could track it down without much effort. He slows his pacing as he debates the probability of that working while Wrath runs down the risks. Even with all the unknowns, it wouldn't involve something as invasive as the other options. "It's a curse, not a disease. It isn't going to kill me, but you can't tell me they wouldn't."

Wrath pauses at those words, letting them weigh in the air between them.

"There are things far worse than death," he says in a quiet voice that is altogether as ancient sounding as he truly is. Madness brought on by a curse is certainly far more difficult to be rid of than death itself. "But the procedure would be risky. It would likely result in a cost to you of some kind. It is highly unlikely for that cost to be death, but it would be significant, and they are likely not to warn you of it. They do not feel giving full information is required before making their deals."

This is not a procedure that he is familiar with so he is only making assumptions of his own based on what he knows of such dark magic in general.

"If you know where the mirror is, it would be worth trying, but cursed objects are dangerous on their own."

So caution is prudent.

The tone of Wrath's voice lifts his head, and he stills enough to look him over, his expression questioning. He's not wrong, but the curse isn't what's worse than death. It's magic. There's nothing physically wrong with him, which is part of why it took so long for him to believe it's real. The apocalypse was real, and he lived every minute of it with the knowledge that he put himself there. That was real anguish. If it hadn't been for Dolores, he would have lost his mind long before now.

What would she say if he told her what he's considering? Who he decided to consult before his family? She'd be unimpressed, then tell him he needs to admit to his mistakes and find his own way out of this. ( That's what I'm trying to do ) — but of course she isn't here, and he doesn't want to argue with her.

He feels sick when the word 'procedure' comes up, and he chooses a nice spot on the floor to glare at. Wrath might not think death is on the table, but a significant unknown cost doesn't sit any better with him. The mirror is at least something he has control over. Five is the one who grabbed it from the vault, so it would almost be as if he had the foresight that he would need it later.

"You don't say," he bites out eventually. But he straightens and seems to have a better grip a moment later. Enough that he can go back to ignoring what the curse is doing to him and refocus on who he's apparently taking advice from. "I thought you'd be endorsing your new allies, not trying to warn me about them."

Wrath remains still where he is standing, lifting his eyebrows then at the biting nature of his response.

"I would not consider them allies," Wrath says after a long moment. They are sharing information. It is a mutually beneficial exchange of information, but it does not make them allies. He wanted an in within the District because he could tell it would garner important information- the things that aren't spoken of in other places. He certainly would not trust any of them nor call upon them in a moment of need, which is what he would view as more of an ally.

Their deals often have a great cost unless there is something of true value that can be offered in turn... like learning about other types of magic.

"And I feel strongly about presenting a deal in all its details even if they do not. You were asking me for information so I assumed it was something you wished to know."

It's noteworthy that Wrath seems to take every opportunity to disassociate himself from them, almost as if he's offended at the thought. Of course maybe it is all transactional for him. That's exactly how Five would prefer most of his interactions with the general public, so he can't fault him for that. Doesn't mean he's going to turn around and be grateful.

"Except you didn't really tell me anything." Let's not make this out to be an act of charity just because he isn't misleading him about their intentions. True, he'd actually told him more than that, but it's easier to be angry if he disregards anything he couldn't have found out on his own.

He rubs his forehead irritably, which is an emotion he's more comfortable expressing so it's an improvement. Eventually he smiles.

"Since they aren't allies, I don't have to worry about any of this coming up."

Wrath tilts his head to the side as he looks down at him with an all too calm expression after a long moment. He already gave his word he would not reveal Five's condition to anyone so he is mildly insulted, and thus does not feel it necessary to respond to that statement.

"You are so full of anger, aren't you?"

It is spoken like a simple Truth (and it is- Wrath feels it all from mild irritation to the true anger lying buried inside of him that makes him paranoid of everyone in the world). Wrath rolls his eyes, straightens his shoulders again, and starts toward the door, stopping before he heads through it.

"If I am so unhelpful, don't bother asking me anything in the future."

And then he's gone.

Maybe he had said it before, but it was worth repeating after the display he put on. All he did was demonstrate his lack of control and his uncertainty to someone who was already too aware. There's no real reason for Wrath to keep it a secret, except that he has nothing yet to gain by telling them.

Bridge effectively burned, Five says nothing as he watches him leave. That habit of his, reading him with unfailing accuracy, is painfully effective. Anger doesn't begin to describe it. All the unspeakable things he's done, just to end up here, in the wrong body, cursed, his family still scattered in the wrong timeline. If he could even call it that. Rage is all that keeps him going.

Alone in the shop, he rubs at his neck and has a very real desire to rip the shelves from the walls and smash everything in reach. He closes his eyes and pushes back the urge, letting the violence in him settle so he can go on functioning like everyone else. It takes him a minute, but he gets a handle over himself before he makes another mistake.

This isn't over. He can still fix everything, with or without help. What's one more setback?

With a heavy sigh, he shakes his head and blinks away.

Edited 2021-09-22 10:43 (UTC)

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the truth is in the gallows

/happily embraces every word :D

:>

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