OOC: i'm going to begin this post where Fold first shows Luci to Mad, and move it to a little after that point.
I took a few liberties with actions and dialog, the biggest discrepancy being in a little action near the End. even broken, mad is still madadric. and he couln't let all this go by without a little defiance. And i couldn't stop him. /OOC
He stops breathing. he stops thinking, He stops seeing anything but Her. Apart from the whirling subconscious that prevents Mad from staying to still, and letting Dischord obliterate him and everything around him in a whirl of Creation/Destruction, Everything about Madadric stops.
And sees her.
There, right in front of him.
Luci! here? how did he know about her? of course he knows about her, he 'read' it. picked it out of my memories and actions. but does that mean she didn't die? or she DID die, nd he brought her back to use me? or she's still dead, and this is an illusion? God, she's RIGHT THERE.
"Lu...luci...?!?"
Still frozen to the spot with shock, Mad battles with trying to fit this new development into his self, and flits from one emotion to the next. confusion, Hatred at Fold for toying with him, with HER like this, anguish at seeing her just lying there, lines formed on her unconscious brow from worry or pain or terror, or all three. Then the hatred and anger comes back. what is he DOING to her? WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING TO HER?
Fold snaps his fingers, and then she is falling. when she hits the ground, Mad is finally broken from his shock, and he leaps to her, once again dropping the guitar. Falling to her side, he reaches to stroke the face he remembers, the face he loves, and it vanishes, leaving the ghost of a touch on his fingertips.
NO!
Once again, Mad is on his feet, whirling to face Fold, the guitar once again flying from the sand to his waiting palm. A snarl of pure rage distorts his features slightly beyond human range as Dischord energy thunders out into the area, warping and changing the surrounds in ever so slight, but still fundamental ways from one second to the next.
"Fold! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?!"
"She is safe... for the moment." Fold says, stretching out his right arm for Mad to see. A rune flashes on his inner tricep.
An image of a face swims into mad's mind, and a memory of a voice his ears had never heard. A boy. He'd grown up surrounded by misery and death, and had died young, pointlessly, at the hands of a man who had lived pointlessly. Sandora.
Death.
"Now, I can't have you causing me any more trouble, Adric. So I have linked your precious woman's life to my own. Should anything happen to me, she will die, painfully." Fold loweres himself to the ground, face to face with Mad. "I found your strings, and now we shall see you dance."
"Fuck!" Mad sobs, as he falls to his knees in the sand. he drops Dischord again, and punds his fists, because it is either do that, or launch himself at Fold. Something he can't afford to do, now.
Mad gfeels himself yanked in two directions by his wanjts and desires. Part of him wants to just leap at the man before him, tear him apart for what he has done. Another part wants to stand up, forget his love and everything else, and just BATTLE. Fight like he has never fought, for ever and ever. Howling and raging, and Sharing an eternity of battle with this man, perhaps worthy of such conflict.
but there is another part. The part that held the dark-haired girl in his arms the night just past, the world just past. The part that remembers all those fond, bittersweet memories of them together. The part that worried and hurt when her mind became damaged, and she hurt herself, and him vicariously and directly.
This part, his compassion, his humanity, the part that had come out of the swirling madness and buried all the dead, This part made the decision.
"...what... do you want me to do...?"
The words feet like bile in his throat. he wants to throw up. He wants to die, he wants to kill, he wants to BURN THE WHOLE OF EVERYTHING INTO SMOULDERING PAIN.
But, he just kneels there. The unbreakable Free spirit, caught, and broken.
well, broken edges are Jagged.
As Fold talks on, Mad listens. But there is a part, somewhere that he doesn't see, that even his boarders, the spirits of the runes don't know exists. it whirrs. It spins to it's own tune, similar to Dischord, and just as unreadable and unpredictable to any and all that may see it.
"These are your friends, Adric. Your comrades."
Mad's eyes pass over the reflective gates, looking but not really seeing the images. hopelessness and disintrest warring for dominance, now that he had been caught.
it's over. The run has ended. I'm just caught again. it all means nothing. i'm Trapped, and i can't see the way out.
"You are to pick one. Only one. Any one."
Mad looks dully at Fold, seeing the obvious delight in his face, a sadistic humor curling his lips.
i suppose he wants me to say something, so he can enjoy whatever it is he has planned. You are getting predictable, Fold.
"Yeah? And?"
Mad sees the delight written all over the man's face as he turns to face him.
you can read me because of your uniqe perspective, but i can read you because i'm learning how you think, how you feel. You are trapped in the patterns of yourself, just as i am trapped by my love for her, and your sadisim. at the thought of Luci, a rush of cold goes through Mad.
"And kill that one."
Something flares up in mad. disgust, outrage, but not surprise. He'd seen it coming. But he isn't ready to just give in yet. Nopt killing Fold is one thing, but killing the others, Fold is going too far. no way.
"What was that? I didn't hear you..."
"I said you'd have to do better than that." He stands, but turns his head away. if he looks at the sadistic bastard, he might not be able to stop himself, and he can't affort that. "Just because killing you is out for the moment, doesn't mean I will hurt any of the Expatriates...."
"I thought you would say that." Fold sighs, and his eyes glint when Mad sees the other flashing rune.
no...NO.
"you wouldn't." Madadric holds onto his temper by a thin thread, Dischord bubbling so close to the surface, so close to breaking out, and taking everthing withing sight and tearing it up and distorting and changing and destroying and creating at an unfathomable triphammer pace.
"Oh, but I did. You see, Franklin was just itching to be used. Pyromaniacs can't seem to grow tired of their obsession, even after death. So I put him to use." The smile on Fold's lips is almost the undoing of Madadric, and quite possibly Fold. He may have access to the world Outside, but there is still a great part anchored here, and if HERE was wiped out, then that part would suffer some consequences.
And then, as had happend a number of times before, everything inside madadric shifts, and he goes cold inside, A cold, fierce anger, with no outlet, but at least some control.
"I simply linked him to Luci... and another Expatriate. So long as that person lives... she suffers."
Again, Mad's emotions go through a polar shift, bouncing him back and forth like a ball, trown too hard under a school desk. "Which one!?! TELL ME!!"
And then Fold too explodes in his characteristic rage, throwing his words at the red-haired man still standing-STANDING!- before him.
"You have NO RIGHT to demand of me!! You want her suffering to stop?!? YOU FIGURE IT OUT!!"
His anger vented, Fold goes back to enjoying his pwer over this wilful man, no, this wilful collection of WORDS, and drawls into the ChaosBard's ear; "Now, dear boy... what is your answer? Will you take one of the portals, and kill off one of your pitiful friends?"
Mad clenches his fists, his eyes slit, as the familiar, hot rage comes back up. He has to do something to stop him from exploding, literally. he squeezes his eyes shut for a second, feels it all slipping away, out of his grasp, and opens his eyes.
Madadric swings, and plants his fist right on Fold's cheek, laying the man flat on his back.
"Yes... Master."
Mad turns, and walks toward one of the portals, not looking which, hounded by Fold's mad laughter as he lays in the sand, holding his bruised but healing face.
OOC: The target for Mad's treachery has been selected, and talked to about it. The scene and outcome isn't fully written, but it has some form.
I'll let that person start off the meeting with Mad. just end your next post with the character coming upon Mad who is sitting somewhere ahead as they travel. if you want more detail, PM me.
T'ings are hottin' up in 'ere, ey?/OOC
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