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Post by Kasty Doherty on Sept 11, 2016 20:50:13 GMT -7
“Y-yes?” Kasty watched Tristan get up with some unease. He felt strangely tense himself, but why - he didn’t know until it hit him.
Kasty blinked and stared at Tristan, mouth agape, hand lightly placed on his spiting jaw. Stunned silence carried him all the way until Tristan had finished. The moment he did, a slowly building anger yelled the first thing that came to him.
“Because I didn’t want any of you to die with me!”
Kasty hazarded a glance to the door. He looked back at Tristan, lowering his voice but not losing any of the aggravation in it or his expression.
“The hell am I supposed to say? ‘Hey, I’m Blue Jay, I’m going to be dead in a few months because my sword and the one thing that keeps me alive in any kind of battle is going to turn on me, nice to meet you’?!”
Kasty sighed and rubbed his jaw. His aggravated neck injury throbbed more than the punch itself had - and it still didn’t hurt nearly as much as when Aurora had taken her fist to his face - but that he’d upset Tristan to the point where he felt the appropriate response was to punch him - he was on one part upset with Tristan for, well, punching him, but most of it was directed at himself. And at a decision that was damn tough to make, and he still felt like he had made wrong.
“Look, what would have happened if I had said anything? Someone would have insisted on coming with me, and hell knows I wouldn’t be able to stop any of you. This was not a small battle. I lost and I was fighting my hardest. Hell, the sword was actually working with me and I lost. What if one of you had been seriously injured, or killed? I’m not going to let anyone die for me or this goddamn sword.” He gestured harshly at the weapon, though his tone had shifted to be more of a huff than a rage. He felt tired, of being angry now and at this subject as a whole. Most of the raw emotion he’d worn down during the past week.
“So what if we do all come out of this battle okay, or you guys keep me from getting into it in the first place? The sword still wants me dead, you think it’s going to give up after one failed attempt? It’s just going to try again!” Kasty stopped abruptly, his eyes widening as something that should’ve been fairly obvious struck him and sunk in. “Fuck, it’s going to try again.”
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Post by Tristan Carter on Sept 11, 2016 21:40:42 GMT -7
Tristan gave Kasty the same courtesy that had been shown him and waited until he was done. The closing note struck him hard, although not nearly as hard as it clearly did Kasty. He was still angry, sure, and perhaps even insulted, but hearing that was still enough to get him to drop into the desk chair.
"Well, fuck."
He sighed as he thought about everything else Kasty said. It wasn't an ideal decision, to be sure, but he could see why it had been made. It still didn't make him feel better, but he wasn't the only one affected by it. He was likely the least involved person that was affected, probably, and he knew that. That was why, even if he was still angry, he was doing his best to calm himself down. Kasty had just narrowly avoided death. He didn't need some kid he barely knew freaking out on him.
"Listen," he said, a slight edge of irritation seeping through his otherwise calm voice. "I think I get it. You were in a bad spot, you did what you thought was best. You could've left a note or something, you know, but it's too late to change anything now. Now what's important is figuring out how to proceed, yeah? I still say you bring everyone up to speed, and if you go off to die without letting any of us know again you'd better hope you actually stay dead. If not, I'm going to strangle you myself." He smirked a little as he pictured it, pausing a second before he continued.
"Anyway, that's your choice to make, not mine. What I will decide for you is this: you're going to trust us to be as capable as we really are. I'm probably the least impressive person to step foot in this house, and I got shot out of a fucking dragon like a cannon and survived. I've watched myself be killed I don't even know how many times in bubble visions. I got to feel the joy of my insides being removed, sans painkillers, because of an entirely different vision. Hell, I'm dating. You wouldn't think it but that's horrifying, thinking about all the ways you could screw up and hurt someone emotionally because you weren't careful. At this point, do you really think I fear anything that a talking hunk of metal can throw at me?" He grinned, his earlier anger all but subsided.
"If I can go through all the crap that I have and still retain the ability to punch you in your stupid face when you're being stupid, I'm sure each of us can handle a sword that wants you dead. So, what's the plan, chief? How are we gonna collectively say "fuck you" to an inanimate object that lacks the capacity to flip us off in response?"
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Post by Kasty Doherty on Sept 13, 2016 23:28:43 GMT -7
By the time Tristan had finished giving his trials, Kasty’s expression was almost the exact opposite of Tristan’s. What even had this guy done to go through all of that? He looked down at the floor. All of the anger was gone from his voice, replaced instead with hurried honesty.
“I know, I’m sorry, I should have left a note. I didn’t know when the battle was going to happen, and I didn’t want any of you to find something too soon and try to-” He stopped himself and shook his head. “My excuses suck. I was stupid, and,” he swallowed and looked Tristan in the eye, “it won’t happen again. I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and I’m not going to keep this a secret anymore. You’re actually fairly late to hear about this; I’ve already told a lot of people here. And I’ll continue telling anyone who asks. And, when it happens again, I won’t keep it to myself. Promise.”
Kasty shifted to get into a more comfortable position. He looked down at his hands and, for a moment, let his face drop. He let out a light sigh. When he looked back up at Tristan, his expression was again serious. “But you’ve got to promise me one thing in return. Don’t die for me, okay? If you’re holding to yours of strangling me, if I wake up and find I’m not dead but you are,” he gave Tristan a smirk. “I’m going to find someone to drag your soul back into this world so I can strangle you again.”
He smiled at Tristan’s battle cry, albeit a hesitant grin. Strong or not, none of his given examples were exactly the battle he had had, save for the dragon, but even the physically weaker supers had survived that because of all the healers readily on hand. He didn’t underestimate Tristan; the guy was damn tough, he knew, but he didn’t underestimate the sword either.
“Honestly, I have no idea. Running from whatever it comes up with is probably not going to be an option, for several reasons, one being the sword follows me. Aurora has offered to try to break it, but,” he trailed off. That was a confusing mess he had even less of an idea about. “I can’t really say more than ‘I’ll tell you when it happens and we can come up with a plan then’, because I don’t have any clue how or when it’s going to try.”
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Post by Tristan Carter on Sept 15, 2016 19:34:06 GMT -7
Tristan chuckled slightly when he was told he was one of the last to know. He wasn't really surprised, honestly, for the exact same reason he had been angry that Kasty hadn't told anyone before the event. He was close with the other people in the boarding house, it was that simple. The two of them got along, sure, but it wasn't as though they had known each other for long or really fought alongside each other. The dragon counted, kinda, but at the same time it had been such a confusing mess that it really didn't.
"Your excuses do suck," he said with a sigh, "but it's understandable. Still really stupid, but I digress. You somehow managed not to kick the bucket, so you get to feel the full weight of your decision. I won't make it too much worse for you." He wasn't lying. He already felt like punching him might've gone too far, so he would refrain from trying to make Jay feel even guiltier.
Hearing how he'd be held accountable for his own death made him smirk. "Funny thing, I wonder if you'll have to. See, unlike some people I know, I'm not going to rush headlong into certain death. I'm much smarter than that, you see." He didn't plan on rushing into anything. Last time he got close, he got stabbed. After that, he learned how to play support really fast, and had no intentions of getting close enough to be killed anytime soon. It just wasn't worth the hassle.
When he heard there was no plan, though, the smirk transitioned into a frown of deep thought. "Well, if we don't know anything about the future," he said slowly, "maybe the best thing would be to learn from the past? You said you were supposed to die, that you felt like you had, yeah? Tell me about what happened, maybe I'll catch something important that you haven't noticed yet."
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Post by Kasty Doherty on Sept 17, 2016 20:33:40 GMT -7
Kasty chuckled and lightly rubbed his jaw with his fist. The weight of his decision wasn’t the only thing he’d been feeling. He did appreciate Tristan not taking it out on him - more than he already had, anyway. “I’d better not have to, because that’s not going to be cheap and I’m going to pass onto you whatever they charge me to bring you back.” He said with a grin.
Settling back, Kasty took a moment to try to recall the battle. “Honestly, the end of the fight is pretty blurry.” He placed a hand on his chin. The pain, at least, was hard to forget. “I got my neck snapped mid-air, hit the ground, and only got up because I was hyped up on adrenaline. Then, I think I attacked Gilgamesh again?” He was pretty sure that’s what had happened. “All I really remember was the world going upside down and then discovering what it’s like to get impaled by a piece of rebar.” Kasty wasn’t quite sure what might contain anything helpful, but he decided it was probably for the best to keep the details of that feeling to himself. “I’ve been knocked out before, but that time was different. Like, I’m pretty sure I’d stopped breathing by the time I passed out. Everything was fading, and I was really, really cold. It felt like I was, well,” he paused to search for a word. “Dying.” He shrugged. Wasn’t much else he could use to describe it.
“Next thing I remember is waking up, bandaged, and Disco was there. Apparently my sword had found her and showed her where I was.” He tried to remember any details she had mentioned, but the first few minutes of waking up weren’t apparently high on his mind’s ‘remember to remember’ list either. Not much came to mind. “It didn’t hurt quite as much then,” he mused, “which is to say I didn’t feel like immediately like passing out. It’d also gotten dark by then, and the fight happened around the time the sun started setting.” That’s all that had stuck out to him as odd. Kasty shrugged again, not sure what else to add.
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Post by Tristan Carter on Sept 18, 2016 22:52:14 GMT -7
The more that Kasty said, the more convinced Tristan became of an ever growing suspicion. Between the injuries sustained and the current condition of the man before him, not to mention what he knew of the sword, the teen had a very good idea of what had saved his friend's life. When Kasty was done recounting the relevant events of that night, Tristan sat quietly for a moment as he thought of any other possible answers. None seemed to make sense, though.
"I'm just going to say this outright first, and then explain my thinking behind it, okay?" He smiled slightly as he took a deep breath to prepare himself. Once ready, Tristan looked Kasty dead-on and grinned, giving him a thumbs up before speaking.
"You've probably got healing powers, man."
It was a simple statement, but it wouldn't be difficult to spot the nervous tension in his eyes. This was an entirely new situation for him, and likely a unique one at that. He doubted many people ever had the chance to possibly reveal that to a super hero that said super really was a super. He just hoped he could explain why he thought that without Kasty possibly freaking out our trying to laugh it away.
"Okay, so, here's my thinking: the three most likely cases for why you didn't die and are currently in such relatively great shape are as follows: somebody healed you, the sword healed you, or you're capable of healing yourself."
"Problems with somebody healing you: the people in the story aren't capable of that sort of thing. I've not heard of a super who could bring people back to life, and I imagine that would be a pretty difficult secret to keep. Also, it wouldn't really explain why you either weren't fully healed or are recovering at such a high speed with it being so long ago."
"The sword is even simpler to debunk: if it wanted you dead, it wouldn't heal you. If it had healing powers that would keep you alive, it wouldn't have bothered to try to kill you in the first place."
"Which leaves us with door number three. You've got a natural healing factor. Well, technically a supernatural healing factor, but you get the gist. Where you are in the healing process, it doesn't make sense any other way. You'd either be paralyzed, or capable of running off and getting yourself killed again. Especially if I hazard a guess that you've been a pretty fast healer since your teen years, right? Obviously nothing as flashy as walking the earth after being put to eternal rest, but knowing your life style I'd say it probably makes sense why this was your first time dying now."
His smile, already nervous, turned slightly more concerned as he turned and looked at the sword. "That also means," Tristan said quietly, "that your sword can and probably will try again as much as possible, but it won't succeed. Not unless it figures out a way to negate your natural talent."
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Post by Kasty Doherty on Sept 26, 2016 21:45:36 GMT -7
He was a super. Kasty returned Tristan’s direct grin with a stare, first of disbelief, then surprise, before, around the time he was finishing, returning to disbelief. He, of course, was in utter silence until Tristan gave his good an entire train of thought (and several moments afterwards). Finally, he decided on a reaction: smiling ironically, he closed his eyes, shook his head, and chuckled.
“No, there’s no way.” He said humorously. “What’re even the chances of that? Supers are what, one in a million? Several million? My aunt’s a super, there’s no way I could be one too.” He glanced out the window, chuckling and trying to dismiss the ridiculous possibility.
And, didn’t powers usually surface in people’s early teens? Up until he got the sword, he’d been probably the most normal person you could chuck a stick at. He didn’t have any of the weird signs parents are told to watch out for, or any waking up from nightmares to find a strange manifestation of something or another, and 14-year-old freshman Kasty had experienced a distinct lack of magical help when cornered by bullies looking for an easy target. But the next day...
“I have always recovered from injuries and stuff faster than others, but some people are just fast healers. It’s not super fast or anything.” He looked up and to the left. “I-I mean, it’s not that weird to heal a skinned knee overnight, right?”
Maybe not, but it was pretty weird that he’d pretty well healed a broken neck in a week. He was no doctor, but even he knew that kind of injury had the tendency to settle in and get comfortable for several weeks.
“Plus, the sword has had weird additional powers for other people before me.” He said hurriedly. “The person two before me could light it on fire. And, the sword’s abilities have been shut off for me for the past week, like those times when I’ve been knocked out and the sword stops working for an hour or two.” Or four days, on that one occasion with Unhallow. “A-and why would the sword pick someone who’s hard to kill?”
But that made even less sense for the sword to try to heal him, the voice of reason said in Tristan’s voice.
Kasty sighed in resignation. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to be a super himself or anything, it just felt weird to think about. He’d been pretty certain he was an unpowered who happened to get a lucky (or objectively unlucky, honestly) break by getting the sword. It was a slight change in perspective, trying to think of himself as an actual super, not as sharp as it would be for someone who hadn’t been living as a super for the past year, but it bothered him in much the same sense as though he’d been presented with an outlier datapoint he wasn’t quite sure how to make heads or tails of.
“Damn, my head hurts.” He muttered.
Kasty reached for the ice cream. “Bastard sword, would serve it right.”
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Post by Tristan Carter on Sept 26, 2016 22:48:58 GMT -7
Tristan sighed and leaned back in the chair as Kasty tried and failed to argue against the obvious. He took note of the counterarguments before looking the older guy in the eye.
"Honestly, the best argument you can make, as far as odds go, would be the chances of you already being a super and then being chosen by a sword that makes you even more of one. The odds of that are far lower than you happening to be close to a super and turning out to be a super yourself. As for you and your aunt both being supers, who knows, maybe certain bloodlines are more susceptible to it or something."
He thought for a moment before regarding what was said about it possibly being the sword. "For one thing, if the powers don't work, that only makes me sound more right considering how healed up you are. For another, I suppose it's possible that it searches out supers with relatively weak or otherwise undiscovered powers? I can't really say why it would, and there are probably all kinds of other explanations, but it kinda fits. Maybe it doesn't know the powers, either, but this is entirely hypothetical, obviously."
He smiled slightly, but he stared off into the distance at nothing particular. "Seeing as of how you don't have a death certificate right now, either we're missing a vital piece of info or you're a member of the "actually a super after all" club. I'd suggest dragging the gang in here for an impromptu welcoming musical number, but there's more reasons not to do that than there are otherwise. I'll leave figuring out whether or not your power becomes common knowledge or not up to you, also."
It wasn't like telling everyone he would be dying soon. Keeping that to himself would likely keep Kasty out of a sticky situation someday. Besides, if Tristan were to run downstairs and tell whoever was around that Kasty was really a super, he'd be forced to give a lengthy explanation that would be quite the waste of his time. Better to leave it to the other guy to figure out. He did have one other thing he wanted to be sure to say.
"Speaking of leaving up to you," he said with a quiet awkward chuckle, "if you want some time to yourself to come to terms, just let me know, but I'm also here to help talk you through it all if you'd prefer."
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Post by Kasty Doherty on Oct 18, 2016 14:41:06 GMT -7
Kasty grinned at Tristan’s counter. He appreciated the guy’s support and aid, and really, what he was saying made sense. About as much as one could expect with powers, anyway, and more sense than what he’d been saying, and honestly, not fully believing himself. He was smiling, but it was an uncertain one. He kinda wanted to believe he wasn’t a super, because that was a whole lot simpler than the alternative and just seemed to fit. He guessed. Maybe it was just deeply biased media representation (and a little personal bias), but powers had always seemed to him to manifest in the more eccentric of the population, and he saw himself as anything but. Just a totally normal guy, he was, besides that strange obsession with maps. Slapping powers on top of that felt like spreading ketchup on cake. Then again, Tristan was a pretty good counter to that point just in himself. Assuming he didn’t have a secret lab attempting to amalgamate rats and dolls or something.
After a long exhale, Kasty nodded. “You’re probably right.” He said, defeatedly. “It doesn’t make sense otherwise. But damn, that feels weird to think about.” He wasn’t looking at Tristan, but rather absently ahead, already half in it. Or out of it, rather. “Yeah, processing time would be good. We’ll have to do a musical number some other time. Give the neighbours another reason to think we’re the crazy house.” He chuckled.
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