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Post by Erik on Sept 29, 2008 18:12:22 GMT -5
"And you came down here to protect him?" Erik mocked, his voice incredulous. "You are a bigger fool than he. And what would you have done," he began, his voice weaving silken strands about his prey, "had I sought to make him disappear, hmm? What is he to you?"
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Post by Bryan Fury on Sept 29, 2008 18:22:29 GMT -5
Bryan coughed, finding no purchase in the wall behind him. Normally, he could find it in himself to over power someone, but at the moment, he was not thinking clearly. ((not that the big brute ever did))
"Ah... uh... well..." he sputtered, trying to come up with something, anything, to give the shadowed man. "Get help?" he offered feebly, wondering where he'd dropped his manhood trying to think. Absently, he drew his face back a bit, trying to get more air. In doing so, the plated mask unhinged itself from the last of its joints, sliding off Bryan's shoulder and landing with a soft, metallic *clink* next to his feet.
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Post by Erik on Sept 29, 2008 18:28:12 GMT -5
The blue glow of Fury's eye revealed, the intricate workings of the man on display (however dimly), Erik took a step back, letting go not out of surprise or fear but curiosity. He was a mere fool, a dimwit clearly, but now this.
"What manner of man are you?" he demanded.
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Post by Maleo Basilio Addams on Sept 29, 2008 18:30:36 GMT -5
Indeed, the fireman's new reveal was something Maleo marveled at as well, especially at what he could see of the metal in the light of the man's eye. It looked like a brassy skull, from the gleam of things, but that might just have been Maleo's imagining too...
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Post by Bryan Fury on Sept 29, 2008 18:35:39 GMT -5
Bryan sneered and stooped, keeping his eye on the man who, a moment ago, had been holding him against the wall - now he was getting that feeling... that same feeling that made him angry with Jira when they'd first met. The curious stare, like he was some goddamned miracle...
"Ain't no manner of man you ever heard of," he growled, feeling his anger rising. "So just quit gawkin'..." he said slowly, finding his mask in the blind darkness, dusting it off hastily so he could put it back on. "Ain't no marvel, ain't no real man... ain't jus' a machine..." he panted, shuffling backward on his feet. If he could make an escape, then he could leave - maybe Jira was right - he didn't need the job this badly.
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Post by Erik on Sept 30, 2008 11:33:29 GMT -5
Without warning, Erik began to chuckle. It was a dark sound, full of private mirth and threatening, somewhere at the very top, a flight into hysteria if left alone long enough.
The whole thing was really quite absurd.
Here he was, teaching a man with pointed teeth in a basement, with another metal-man following. His ruse as Opera Ghost had once set him apart from the rest of the world, and kept him secure. Now, his Opera was inundated with oddities.
"Think you you are the first man to tread the line between worlds?" he said at last.
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Post by Maleo Basilio Addams on Sept 30, 2008 11:48:10 GMT -5
Maleo found himself a bit surprised to hear his teacher's amusement. Yes, he had picked up on a bit of amusement and some disdain when they first had met, but this... was a tad absurd.
Of course, if the man was really what he said he was, then he should feel right at home in a place of ghosts and vampires.
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Post by Bryan Fury on Sept 30, 2008 11:58:07 GMT -5
"Huh?" Bryan hastily pulled the mask back over the rest of his metal face, wondering what was just so funny that even the shadows had to laugh. So, in his linear way of thinking, he actually verbalised his thoughts.
"What's so funny?"
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Post by Erik on Sept 30, 2008 12:19:22 GMT -5
((Characters who think things, and then say the exact same thing, always make me laugh. That, and literalness.))
Erik's chuckling receded further into the shadows, then ceased.
"Nothing you would understand." But the man had amused him, and he would not kill him. Not yet.
"You have a chance to get out of this alive--or intact, if that's the word. You have merely to provide me with two convincing stories: what you are, and why, in fact, you are here."
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Post by Bryan Fury on Sept 30, 2008 12:38:20 GMT -5
((That's Bryan for you. One-track mind. He's...not a bright boy, I'll give him that.))
"What I am is a man put back tagether..." he grumbled, sliding the iris shut over his glowing eye. "Don't ask me how, I duneven know that. Some ungodly method'er somethin'..." gruffing a bit, he tried to calm himself down so his accent wasn't so thick. "And I already told ya..you... that I was lookin' for him. I didn't think he was actually meetin' someone down here. And I ain't got a back up plan if he did disappear..." Thus revealing that he did just hurl himself into the cellars after everything he had heard and been teased about. No plans whatsoever.
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Post by Erik on Sept 30, 2008 14:25:28 GMT -5
The story was so absurd, Erik could not discount it. He had never seen anything quite like this machine/man--close, but not exact. That fascinated him. And it seemed clear that the man himself had no answers--Erik sensed no dissembling in his tone or expression.
He already knew the man was a fool.
"Not a very sound policy," he said. "By now, you must have heard what happens to stragglers in the cellars--to venture down after a man you don't even know, with no plan, is suicide."
His voice, though not his body, traveled forward to whisper in Fury's ear.
"Aren't you frightened at all?" he intoned with menace.
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Post by Maleo Basilio Addams on Sept 30, 2008 14:39:02 GMT -5
Maleo stood still where he was, though a small sneer met his lips. He didn't need anyone looking after him - Marlow was more than enough, otherwise, he took care of himself. However, he managed to keep himself from lashing out against the mechanical man, and shifted from one foot to the other, arms folded over his chest.
The man was too stupid to be used as a spy - not that he gave Carlos that much credit, but who was he, really?
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Post by Bryan Fury on Sept 30, 2008 14:44:59 GMT -5
"I've heard. I've heard a lotta things..." he said, smoothing out his dirty workvest a little. He tried to compose himself - which wasn't very easy with a disembodied voice in his ear - and faced the one person he could still make out of the dark - Maleo - and answered as if the soprano were the one doing the asking.
"Ghost stories never frightened me. An' this whole Opera Ghost thing ain't done more than piss me off," he grunted, thumbing a line of dirt off his mask with a squeak. "The rumors sure as hell haven't done me any good." He would refrain from playing the pity card over his own condition, but what he just said should stand on its own; anyone who had taken a good look at his face could tell that even the enameled mask was a phony part of his face.
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Post by Erik on Sept 30, 2008 15:43:15 GMT -5
"They aren't meant to," Erik said frostily. "Your welfare is immaterial to the Opera Ghost's aims."
He paused, as if considering.
"But he shall remember you. And be watching. And if you breath a word of this--or Senor Addams' lessons--to anyone, there will be far more dire consequences in store for you than some talk about your face."
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Post by Maleo Basilio Addams on Sept 30, 2008 15:53:23 GMT -5
"Especially El Castro!" added in Maleo, feeling himself speak before he realized it. He grit his teeth and kicked himself mentally for his haste in speaking, but it just... came out.
"Or anyone, for that matter..." That was a feeble cover for his slip, but it still had some purpose.
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