Henry (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cruelcurse) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
smashacademy2014-01-11 08:59 pm
cruelcurse) wrote in smashacademy2014-01-11 08:59 pm
003 ♦ [action]
[SOMEBODY'S HELLA SICK. Henry's avoiding his dorm to keep himself away from his roommate while he's sick. At first, he also tried his best to stay away from everyone else. But when the fever intensified, he forgot why he had to put in the effort.
It's because his magical talents tend to go a little haywire while he's ill.
He can be found stumbling about in a feverish daze while classes are supposed to be going on, but he's obviously not attending. When he's not doing that, he's asleep somewhere. Wandering around all the time exhausts him. While he's sleeping, he can be found sleeping in an appropriate spot, such as the sofa in the common room or leaning over a table in the corner of the library.
Uh... He can also be found sleeping in a completely inappropriate spot, like the middle of the floor. It happens.]
[WHAT THIS ALL MEANS is that Henry can accidentally curse some characters without meaning to. YOUR CHARACTER WON'T EVEN SEE IT COMING. Contact me here if you want somebody to get cursed. We can discuss details and your character can be appropriately upset.]
It's because his magical talents tend to go a little haywire while he's ill.
He can be found stumbling about in a feverish daze while classes are supposed to be going on, but he's obviously not attending. When he's not doing that, he's asleep somewhere. Wandering around all the time exhausts him. While he's sleeping, he can be found sleeping in an appropriate spot, such as the sofa in the common room or leaning over a table in the corner of the library.
Uh... He can also be found sleeping in a completely inappropriate spot, like the middle of the floor. It happens.]
[WHAT THIS ALL MEANS is that Henry can accidentally curse some characters without meaning to. YOUR CHARACTER WON'T EVEN SEE IT COMING. Contact me here if you want somebody to get cursed. We can discuss details and your character can be appropriately upset.]
no subject
I'm sorry to say, but you'd never be able to enact your vengeance on anyone who killed me, no matter what the method.
[There was a long, heavy silence as Naoya mulled on the sorcerer's second option. He wondered if Henry really understood how possible it was, in a literal sense. Yet the smallest of smiles crept across his face, despite this utterly idealist notion.]
Waiting... I didn't take you for a romantic.
no subject
Romantic? Hee hee, nah... I'm gonna die someday, too, and when that happens, I'll...
[Henry cut himself short. Of course he couldn't get revenge. Maybe Naoya was completely immortal!
The dark mage already made these wild guesses about the nature of Naoya's curse before with what little he knew. At this point, his guess was this: Naoya is immortal, and his body doesn't seem to age. Nobody could have a curse like that and still be so young, and he said he knew God somehow. (There was still something else to his curse that he didn't know about, though. It had to be set on him by God, he assumed, but Naoya said he suffered. So it was punishment, but how?)
That's all he knew. And his vision wasn't real, Naoya said. So he couldn't have died there... It really was his fever making him stupid, wasn't it? Henry successfully tied himself in knots over this in a matter of five seconds. His visions were usually so accurate! What was all of this about? Why did Naoya die in his vision, only to walk into his room alive?
Naoya had to be immortal. Maybe the fates favored him and protected him from the vision he saw. That was Henry's guess, so of course he couldn't get revenge on Naoya's killer. Because there couldn't be one, right?]
...Whoops. I can't see you when I die, can I...? You're immortal, aren't you?
[FEVERS, MAN. He didn't even remember that they were speaking hypothetically about Naoya's death. Things just weren't making sense anymore.]
no subject
No, Henry. I won't be there when you die. But not for the reasons you think.
[He glanced away again, this time staring forward with his mind wandering in a distant place. Naoya wasn't sure why he was speaking, but... he hoped the words would fade from Henry's memory once sleep came for him. Disguised as a fever dream, or like his vision - just a slipped moment of truth that lingered at the very edge of knowing and being forgotten.
In the dead tongue of ancient Akkadian, Naoya spoke the words: One cursed with eternity. Then, in a low murmur, he continued:] I live, I die, and I am reborn in a new incarnation. My body is different each time, but my soul never changes. It never forgets.
That was the punishment given to me by God. Do you understand now? I'll have no rest, no peace or damnation... only the eternal memory of my sin.
no subject
[Henry had to take a moment to make sense of what Naoya told him. Naoya was right to assume that his mind was a frazzled mess when he was feverish. It was that much harder to try to remember what information Naoya clarified to him.
He set the bowl of soup aside and, luckily, wasn't out of it enough to miss the bedside table- he'd eaten some of it, but not all.]
So your body dies... But not you. ...
[Naoya's body could die, but he'd be- what did he say, reborn? And he never forgot his past lives. Immortal, in a sense. But not in the way he thought. Henry truly wished he wasn't so sick so that he could keep track of all this and ask the questions he wanted to ask, but he couldn't be bothered to keep track of his own questions. He much preferred to cling to what Naoya had to say. What bittersweet luck he had.]
No wonder I had such a vision... 'cause you can die~...
no subject
Oh, I've died plenty. At the very least, I'll admit God did me one favour for this eternity of humiliation: whoever kills me, vengeance will be taken on them sevenfold.
[He slowly opened his eyes again to watch Henry from the corner of his vision.]
So you see... There'd be no one left for you to kill.
[In other words, there was nothing more Henry could do for him. Forget that romantic notion of meeting again in the afterlife, or even the satisfaction of revenge. Naoya's existence simply meant that he would persist until the end of time, with Henry lingering on long after death as a memory to him that would never fade.]
no subject
The thought actually made Henry uncomfortable. Uncomfortable. He fantasized about death. That's how he was raised, was with the dream to die. The pain he'd been through was what drove him to such fantasies. He always had the comfort that it'd be over someday.
Naoya would be able to witness Henry, unable to control his expression for a number of reasons, make perhaps the most raw face of distress he'd been able to make in a long time. How do you live? would be a question he'd ask, but the answer was simple: Naoya had no other choice. It was more painful to know that Naoya couldn't die at all than it was to know that he'd died in that vision of his. This was definitely worse.]
I could help you get rid of that curse...
[He forgot that he'd already offered when they first met, only to be turned down. The difference was that he knew what Naoya's curse was now, and that he had a fever to make his memory less reliable.]
no subject
Lifetimes would pass Cain by without anyone to divulge in or share his lot, save for perhaps the company of a trickster god who delighted in toying with him. But for all their mutual interest, Cain's heart was still that of a human's - anyone else he held dear, it only hurt more to lose.]
I sincerely doubt you could. God's far too strong for you. And besides...
[There was a keenness in his eyes again, like a dark, sheathed blade. The promise of its vengeance was the focal point that kept Naoya's mind honed and sharp.
His voice was so tired, but if he didn't have his hate, he would've gone truly mad a long, long time ago.]
I need it. All this knowledge I've gathered, all this waiting... it's all to use against Him.
no subject
[Henry felt like there was some great injustice when dealing with gods. They were so temperamental from what he knew, but people everywhere looked up to them. What comfort did they find in worshiping an entity who could curse a person to suffer through eternity without release? And why?
He wasn't even sure there had to be a reason. Gods never needed reasons, as far as he was concerned. They did nothing but bring pain. Suffering under the watch of God was entirely why he didn't believe in them. And talking to Naoya about it made his feelings on the matter dip strongly in his favor. Embitterment rooted itself stronger within him, as Henry was the sort easily influenced by the beliefs of his close company.
Thinking about gods was a dizzying topic for him like this. For the moment, his conclusion in his head could be simple: he didn't like what God did to Naoya. He didn't know why he did it, but he didn't like the thought of it.]
What do you get from it...? When you defeat God... Do you get to die?
no subject
Satisfaction.
[Whether he'd actually die or not was unknowable. To Naoya at least, the concept was almost a novelty. He didn't particularly care for fantasizing about his end either - so long as God suffered, Cain's soul would happily accept any fate that followed after.
That was all Henry needed to know for now - perhaps at a later time, if the fever passed and he retained enough of this conversation, the sorcerer would continue to shower him in questions. What he learned just now was already more than enough to occupy him. It wasn't a subject that Naoya relished speaking about anyway, that much should've been obvious.
For that Henry was a pest though, there was one quality that made Naoya appreciate the younger man - his potential to be moulded. It was useful, in a pawn. He would do what Naoya wanted, he would be what Naoya needed. If he nurtured a hate for God in him, the cursed programmer was certain it would take root.
Just use him, he reminded himself. That's all.
He opened the box of medication and punched out two pills. They'd help ease the symptoms, and the drowsiness would hopefully put Henry back to sleep. Extending his skinny, ten year old arm out to the mage, Naoya told him:] Swallow these with some water. It'll help with the fever.
no subject
His head was throbbing. It was hard to stick with that line of conversation, and besides, he wanted to hold onto it all. Naoya wanted to keep his curse to get back at God for satisfaction... The final thing he didn't know was what Naoya did to deserve his curse. But that wasn't something he was feeling up to asking right now. It felt like such a heavy questions to ask, and he was lightheaded and wanted to set his head down. But he didn't.
If he wasn't going to ask about Naoya's curse-stuff, then there was something else that suddenly occurred to him. Without thinking it over much, he decided to say it.]
Do you... do this for your little brother?
[His smile was back, but it was gentler than before. He lost the energy to keep up a false face, so his smile was a mixture between his genuine feeling of contentment with Naoya being here with him and that practiced smile he usually wore.]
no subject
Kazuya...
Kazuya was many things. But he wasn't Henry's business. And, so long as he was back home in Tokyo, what Kazuya wanted to do with his life was none of Naoya's, either.
They could've walked down that path to wage war with God together, but he chose otherwise. His little brother turned away from all that potential, and the possibility of truly understanding how he felt.
Looking back at it retroactively, maybe their childhood together was nothing more than a delusion. Naoya had simply lost himself to the illusion of being a family again.
So he didn't answer. He turned towards the door and walked. What was there to say about his relationship with the young man who housed Abel's essence?
He loved his little brother. He killed him. He made him soup when he was sick. He used him.]
...That's none of your concern.
no subject
Besides, Naoya left him with plenty to think about. Plenty to catch up with in his mind, and so much to try to store away. He almost wanted to write it all down before he forgot, but he didn't think he had it in him to get up and jot it down anywhere. He'd have to rely on a less-than-reliable memory for all of that and hope that Naoya wouldn't have to repeat himself. Because Henry was fairly certain that he wouldn't.
He hoped that vision wouldn't haunt his dreams anymore. What was that about, anyway? The danger felt gone to him, so whatever it was, it didn't happen. Somehow. In his head, Henry hoped he could get better soon so that he could get his stupid curse off of Naoya and so he could find ways to help Naoya get what he wanted. He said he could help on his birthday...]