Deathly comes softly...

[his_own_will]

Who: Anyone near or in the Phantomhive Estate (Sector 6)
When: Around 1:00 AM, December 1st.
Where: The Phantomhive Estate (specifically the library)
Summary: Godstiel decided the abomination had to go and while Oz went softly, Jack had other ideas. This is the aftermath when the library is in ruins and Oz's body is found. It can be assumed that the destruction of the library and later bird rage was visible/audible from the street for people to rush in and investigate. Household shenanigans may or may not include the following: raging bird syndrome, abuse of dead bodies, tears, darkness monsters invading the mansion, and various other miscellaneous things.

Warnings: See the above shenanigans. General abuse, normal hideousness and minor description of gore. Will add to the warnings as or if squicks are used.

The library is in a shambles, books strewn everywhere and half torn to pieces. Salvaging it will be a nightmare but no more so is the body sprawled across the floor, a slowly trickling pool of blood seeping from underneath. Godstiel had been wounded, but not nearly fast enough to save the boy.

He was dead, and his lifeless eyes stared out into the darkness, waiting to be devoured.

Comments

1/???

[psychopath]

[there's a jack in the library. there's a shaking mess of a jack in the library, eyes wide and terrified and unseeing.

he'd been too late.

he caught the tail end of it, the entire thing, with the bloody black rabbit screaming and with Castiel dealing one last blow, with him trying to control his chain and trying- just trying- to give him enough power to live-]

[psychopath]

[he'd failed.

a contractor always knows when their chain had died, faded away, shattered like that body sprawled across the floor and it hurts, it fucking hurts like nothing else, and jack tries to calm his breathing down enough to start crawling towards oz. the darkness starts to seep in, he can hear yelling from outside, but right now there is nothing but him and the chain made for him.]

[psychopath]

[he crawls over, tears streaking his face, and lifts a hand to brush blonde hair away from Oz's face. his face. stupid little brat of a chain, that's his body, he was just borrowing it, what was he thinking--!]

Oz, wake up.

[he cups the body's face.]

Wake up. I'm ordering you right now.

[psychopath]

[why is he so cold?]

Wake up.

[jack crawls over him and backhands Oz. hard. he's starting to hyperventilate, because he knows somewhere in the back of his head that there's nothing he can do to bring Oz back to life.]

You bloody mess of a bloody chain, Black Rabbit, wake up!

[done]

[psychopath]

[--and he'll just backhand oz again and again, climbing to his feet to kick him, even, in a fruitless and desperate attempt to wake him up and just-

jack is the king of delusional. someone stop him. and someone bring the darkness shields up, because the shadows are starting to move.]

1/4

[retraced]

[As far as Gil knows, Oz went to bed hours ago.

He's been puttering around the house here and there for the last few hours, cleaning, baking, making sure that everyone's had enough to eat and has settled in for the night. Dishes have all been put away, the laundry is folded and stacked properly, and overall, everything seems to be as peaceful as an evening in the darkness can be.

But as peaceful as it is, the last few weeks have been just as stressful as usual, so he's gone out onto the roof to have a cigarette, a comfortable spot accessible from one of the balconies in the attic and far enough out of the way that most darkness creatures don't find their way up here, even in the dead of night. He's nearly finished when he hears the first crash, and just barely has enough time to crush the cigarette against a roof tile before he feels pain shoot through his left hand.

B Rabbit's seal has been restrained - violently.

Oz.]

2/4

[retraced]

[He's quick to jump down onto the balcony, throw the window open and make sure that it's locked to keep the darkness out before running for the staircase. He winces again as he senses the Chain's power, feels the ground shudder beneath him. He runs past Oz's room, but it's clear that even though the door is closed, he's not in there. The sound is coming from downstairs, the other end of the house.

He's pretty sure he calls out Oz's name as he runs, but his own voice doesn't reach his ears. It's only the echoing call for his master inside of his head that he can really hear, begging him to stop, to not tempt the hand of his seal to move forward and carve another year, day, minute out of his life and into his skin.

His hand is already at his thigh as he dashes down the last flight of stairs, gun easily in hand, Raven's name on the tip of his tongue.]

3/4

[retraced]

[But that's before the ache in his left hand disappears.

The seal gone. Unneeded. Empty.

Dead.

Oz...?]

4/4

[retraced]

[He doesn't feel his feet continue moving, he doesn't hear anything past his painful, deafening heartbeat. He doesn't feel his hands grab hold of the banister or shove past a stray vase in the hallway or throw the library door open so hard that it nearly recoils back into his face.

He does, however, see what's been left behind while he was too slow to arrive. The wreckage of a fight, his bloodied young master lying lifelessly on the ground.

An empty doll.

He steps in closer, spines of books bending and cracking beneath his boots.

A moment was all it took. A single, stolen moment out of his sight and Oz was gone. Gilbert doesn't need to check his pulse, feel for any trace of his heartbeat. The seal is gone, his master is gone.

He's failed, entirely.

And at the moment that he realizes this, the Raven is summoned and all of the windows in the library explode in a fiery blast that consumes the surrounding, creeping darkness.

The only thing louder than the explosion is the sound of Gilbert's piercing, miserable screams.]

1/3

[maddeninghatter]

[ One of the (many) regrets Break had had, upon finding himself at Siren's Port, was that he had no talismans, no remembrances of Reim Lunettes; not even a notebook or a pen. Nor any of the candies Reim plied him with (he always ate them straight away, and tossed the wrapper aside, on purpose to make Reim grumble, which he did).

He'd been operating under a misconception at the time, but even so: the lesson had been learned.

Which is why he is now sitting in Reim's (former) bedroom, giggling at one of his notebooks. Reim, ever the workaholic, had taken pains to lock them away; but even the stoutest desk lock is no match for Xerxes Break and a set of picks. Reim's handwriting is tight and neat (of course), and outlines in painstaking detail, his care of the Phancyhive rabbits.

Thursday, November 1st. Rabbit #1, herein referred to as "Mopsy." Rabbit-holding commenced at 12:04 pm. Ceased at 12:17pm. Fur-brushing completed without incident. Weight, length, and average food consumption noted in table below. Rabbit #2, herein referred to as "Flopsy"...

Such pointlessness; such hilarity; and such painful-- ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ --he feels it, suddenly, in his heart. Oz's twisted existence flaming bright - and going out. He jerks out of Reim's desk chair (it falls over) and stands. And then he's out the door, running, running....

...but not before tucking the precious notebook away in a pocket (along with Reim's fancy pen). ]

Re: 4/4

[maddeninghatter]

[ Running, running - through the house, and into the library, following this awful sensation to its source. ]

Gilbert!

[ He feels Gilbert's agony and Raven's fury, even before he sees them. Vision is still a bit of an afterthought; he'd touched Reim's notebook for some time (and even smelled it) before he ever thought to read it. ]

Gilbert, you fool! Stop it!

[retraced]

[He doesn't turn to look at Break, he barely even hears him. While Raven fully materializes, chains flying out to impale themselves into the floor and out into the yard visible through the now ruined wall, he drops to his knees and grabs hold of Oz's still warm hand, staring in wide-eyed shock at his bruised, ruined face.

Raven screams for him.]

1/3

[maddeninghatter]

Gil--gahhh!

[ He leaps, just in time to avoid a flying chain, as it shatters the floor. This is bad, this is an awful situation, and it is precisely what he's been predicting all along.

Raven's power paired with Gilbert's weakness of spirit: it's the disaster that has been waiting to happen.

What he's got to do is grab Gilbert, choke him with his cane, drag him away from Oz's corpse, scream sense into his ear. But - that blue flame. It's hot, it's bright, it's the power of the Abyss incandescent, and it can burn him away into oblivion.

Which - has a certain appeal. He could just walk into it, and end his guilt (why did he, of all people, deserve a miracle?) and his loneliness (why did Reim, of all people - utterly unimportant and completely irreplaceable - have to be taken away?) in an instant... ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ ...


No. No. He was dragged down into the Abyss once before; he won't leap into it, not pointlessly. Hatter beats against his chest.

Well, there's no helping it this time, right? ]

As you wish, old friend.

[maddeninghatter]

[ WHOOOOOOOOSH!

A dark cloak unfurls behind him, its blackness obscuring Raven's light. Amid the clinking of chains, the great hat appears, its placards proclaiming love and peace. ]

My dear Giiiiiiiiilberrrrrrt!

[ Break's eye is wide with Hatter's infectious madness. ]

I know you're upset, but it's time to see reason!

[ It's a footstep closer to death, every time he uses his Chain. And yet, in that moment, he feels so alive. ]

[retraced]

[He gasps sharply as he turns to look upwards at the familiar, ominous sight of the Mad Hatter. Raven responds in kind by screeching and waiting for its master's command, but Gilbert is in no state to give anything sensible. All he knows is that whoever has done this - no matter what the reason - that person will die. This power that he's worked so hard to gain in order to protect the one thing that he cares about, he'll harness it all to destroy whatever is in his way.

The Hatter is a threat.

No matter if it's Break, or anyone else, whoever stands in my way is a threat.

And a threat has to be...]

AAAAGH!

[He leans over and curls his body protectively around his master's as Raven breathes blue flames at the Hatter.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ What Hatter would like to do is destroy Raven completely, he exists to deny existence...

HA! HA! HA!

It's so tempting to give in, to succumb to Hatter's laughter and nihilism... ]

Come away, come now.

[ He presses forward (Hatter's cloak shields him from the blue flame), reaching for Gilbert's shoulder. ]

Stop acting like a spoiled brat! Or you'll destroy everything you've got left - even your own daughter!

[retraced]

He's dead! This place killed him!

[He pauses to gasp for breath as Raven struggles against the Hatter's power, chains rattling.]

I don't care - what I have to destroy!

[And if he manages to actually grab hold of that shoulder, he'll soon find himself with a gun pointed directly at his chest.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Pull the trigger, pull it, pull it, pull it, pull it! Because he's going to die in this place, he can feel it, he's going to die pointlessly, it might as well be now--


...


--who's being a spoiled brat now? ]

Shut up, Gilbert. Honestly.

[ He can move faster than Gilbert can pull the trigger, so he does, dodging out of the way, with his cane thrust at Gilbert's midsection, as hard as he can. ]

[retraced]

[It's not the first time that he's pointed his weapon at Break, but this time is different. This time there's nothing left to go back to, no promise of hope or light. The creeping darkness outside may as well crawl inside their home and turn the entire thing to ash for all Gilbert cares.

The wind picks up as Raven grows weaker, and without Gil's full concentration the Chain begins to fade beneath the overwhelming negation of the Hatter. Gil's finger sweats on the trigger, but just as he had before, he hesitates. Though his head aches and his distant memories cry out kill! kill! he only stares into the single eye of his superior and questions this reality. This world isn't real...this moment can't be real.

But what's wrong with not being real?

The minute that he dodges, Gil also instinctively attempts to maneuver around him, but just as he had before, he's caught with a cane to his gut and the breath is instantly stolen from his lungs. The gun clatters to the ground, Raven disappears in a flurry of thick black feathers, and Gilbert collapses to the ground to gasp uselessly at Break's feet.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ In this moment, now that Gilbert is at his feet and no longer a danger to himself or his household, Break gazes at Oz's lifeless form. He remembers how coldly he had wondered aloud, that day, whose time would run out first...

In then end, what you may find is not always hope.

Somehow, between that day and this one, Oz had become... amusing, irritating, surprising... endearing? This boy should have been no more than a tool to him, a means to an end. And yet...

In this moment, Break grieves.

But it doesn't last more than a moment, because it can't. Though Raven is gone, the windows have blown out and the books are aflame. Fire and Darkness monsters might be too much, even for Gilbert's astonishing healing ability - particularly now, when he's lost all hope. ]

Get up. Let's go.

[ He speaks with a clipped voice, with authority, even as his heart is sinking. Because there is no way Gilbert will leave his master's body. Well - perhaps he'll just drag Gilbert away, as he did in Sablier, choking him with his cane, he has just enough strength to do this, Mad Hatter's toxic energy is still coursing in his veins, extinguishing all pain (that will come later).

He bends down, swinging his cane around, intending to catch Gilbert just beneath the chin. ]

[retraced]

[Depleted of oxygen, Gilbert wonders for a moment if that's what Oz felt before he'd died. Regardless of how the person had even gotten in, how did they do it? Did they stab him? Choke him? What sort of horrors had Gilbert let happen due to his ignorance and insufficiency? What gave him the right to regain breath, to feel pain, to attempt to focus his hazy vision on the smokey ceiling above? To see a world that Oz couldn't...

This isn't the way that things end, it's not!]

Nggah! [He gasps as he's pulled upwards by the throat, hands reaching up to grab for the cane and try to peel it away from his neck as he continues choking, stumbling on weak legs.]

Break! Stop! Oz is--!

[littlest_lord]

<sub>[It's not the clattering of chains that gets him, nor the sight of Raven's ghastly face. It isn't the beaten body he can see from a distance or Gilbert's shrieks of agony or even the state of his library. No, it's the flame, burning hot and blue, curling round and through, kissing the frame of empty windows, glass shattered and scattered amongst the floor. It's the fire that causes Ciel's step to stagger and his knees nearly buckle, throat tightening in an instant. It's a damming scene to witness, the flames bright and blue - a hellish sight if Ciel had ever seen one. Many always pictured Hell as burning amidst red and orange fire but Ciel thought otherwise. There was nothing hotter than blue flame. If he was going to burn it'd be in fire like this.

A window burst, glass exploding and it was enough to startle Ciel out of his stupor, at least enough to get him to turn on heel and run. Where he was running, he wasn't sure. He simply had to get away. Far, far away from that horrific blue flame that was going to smite him and turn him to ash.

Unbearable panic has gripped his chest, feet stumbling over one another as he presses against a wall, sinking to the ground in the middle of a corridor. There was nowhere to run. Outside the Darkness was surely approaching and the flames, if they weren't put out somehow would engulf everything, wouldn't they? Where would he run? Where would he hide?

He had to find Madam Red, to find Alois and leave. The ship was sinking and it was time to abandon it. Run, run, run was the constant message sent to his brain, but he was stuck on the floor gripping his head, trying to breathe. He wants to call for Sebastian, to scream his name and order him to take them far, far away. But words die in his throat and are impossible to squeeze out.

All he can do is pull his hair and will his lungs not to suffocate.]</sub>

[inthejunk]

[The explosion is impossible to miss. It pulls Yosuke instantly from sleep, bolt upright and on his feet before he even knows why. His muscles contract on their own, and his body moves without his consent. Something is wrong. People keep exploding around here, and something is wrong.

He shivers, half from the chill -who had time to stop and put actual clothes on when the world was ending?- and half from the fear and adrenaline that were fighting for dominance even in the thick fog that sleep had cast over his mind.

It doesn't even matter at the moment. He gets there on autopilot. There's no missing the flames in the library, or the clashing of giant monstrosities, or the smell of blood that tickles the back of his throat sickeningly as he approaches.

Gilbert! ...Oz. Shit. No, shit. That's...oh, shit. That guy. That crazy, screwed up, evil guy. But what would he even want with some kid? Oz is just a nice kid. It doesn't make sense. Oh, gods, the blood-

And then Allen shows up, and Ciel bolts past in this blur of frilly panic, and it's all too much for a second. Yosuke closes his eyes and takes a few calming breaths, trying to figure out what Souji would do, but there's smoke. Thick and toxic and painful. He chokes on the first lungful he gets, so hard it nearly makes him sick. But it's enough of a stall that he doesn't have to decide anymore.

Allen has Gilbert, and Break has whatever is left of Oz -oh gods don't think about that right now- which just leaves Ciel, who is running around like a headless chicken in a burning building. Jiraiya can't put fires out, he'd only end up making things worse, here. So it's obvious what needs to be done.

Yosuke swipes at his watering eyes, cursing the smoke in his head, and turns to follow in the direction that Ciel's headed. It doesn't take long to catch him up, the way that he's so terrified and confused. It's a problem, yeah, but it's tough to blame the guy. Yosuke sort of wants to curl up in the corner and cry at the moment, too.

Instead, he stoops down slowly, trying not to startle Ciel any worse. These days he knows how bad it sucks to be approached unexpectedly when you can't get out of your own head. He's shirtless and barefoot, wrinkled, ruffled, and sleep stupid. He probably has the imprint of the bedspread on the side of his face, even. Nonetheless, Yosuke tries again to channel Souji -heaven help him- and exude that calm strength.]

Hey, um. Ciel-kun. We have to go, alright? You can't stay here right now. Okay? C'mon. I'll help you. Okay?