Night in the Forest

[mogget_cat]

Yrael comes down the outside bypass stairs, not wanting to have to take the time to pass through the bar. In there, he might be stopped or questioned before getting to retreat to the relative quiet of the forest at night.

He strides out into the trees, his bare feet silent in the grass and moist soil, on rock and tree root.

He wants... he doesn't know what he wants.

Comments

[ten_of_swords]

Ruin laughs, the sound rough with pain, but he exerts enough of his own power to heal the worst of it.

"It's about time you saw the truth of the situation. I knew you weren't so stupid as to believe it when it's right in your damn face."

[mogget_cat]

"You will never be able to convince me not to help Jason in whatever ways I can, Ruin, even if I cannot save him in the end. You are not so powerful as all that," Yrael growls.

"Even if he is no longer really the Jason I knew, loved and considered my brother. That Jason is not completely dead yet."

He has seen glimpses of him, these past few weeks.

[ten_of_swords]

"Not yet."

He remains alert though, muscles coiled.

"But well on his way."

[mogget_cat]

"It is not altogether certain that he will, until he does," Yrael insists.

He holds out hope.

"Given the right trigger, he can turn aside, even up until the last moment."

[ten_of_swords]

"He can only save himself, Yrael," he says with a wince. "It's his choice. It's... always been his choice."

[mogget_cat]

"Yes," he says. "I know."

"But if I can still seem glimpses of my brother in him, there is a chance that he will be able to."

[ten_of_swords]

Ruin straightens up, though he groans briefly, and shakes his head.

"For his sake, I hope you're right."

[mogget_cat]

"You sound like I used to." Yrael exhales a quick, unhappy laugh.

"It's for my sake, too, you know. I'll sleep better when I know he can smile and not make me cringe with how false it rings."

[ten_of_swords]

"I know."

And he does.

Ruin leans against a tree.

"Your sleep, though, is going to be as restless as it has been for a while yet."

[mogget_cat]

Yrael growls in frustration, but it's only partially directed at Ruin.

"Tell me something I don't know."

[ten_of_swords]

Since Yrael asked...

"JD's Bar-B-Q has great ribs if you're in the mood for pork."

[mogget_cat]

Yrael eyes Ruin in a way that says perhaps Yrael doesn't have time for Ruin's crazy, today.


Then the curiosity strikes.



"Got an address?"

[ten_of_swords]

"Woodstock, Georgia. Great place."

He laughs, the sound tired and worn.

"It's my job, Yrael. Nothing more. It will end, one way or another, soon enough."

[mogget_cat]

"I'll see if I can find a door there," he commits it to memory.



"I understand," he says. And he really does. He just doesn't feel pity for him. "So don't take it personally if I feel the sudden need to play skip-rope with your small intestine if I catch you looking at Jason the wrong way."

[ten_of_swords]

Ruin smirks, shoving off from the tree.

"If I look at Jason the wrong way, it's due to a choice he's made that's invited me to do so."

He sighs. Ruin doesn't want pity. Understanding is all he's ever wanted. He was a part of a greater whole, just an unpleasant part.

"It's what I do. I can do nothing but be what I am."

Trudging through the forest, away from Yrael, Ruin tries to focus his energies, repair what damage Yrael's teeth and claws had done.

[mogget_cat]

Yrael knows about unpleasant but necessary parts of wholes.

It has never meant that he must like them.

He heads in the opposite direction, towards the far side of the lake, and the beginning slopes of the mountain. A light burns among the trees there until morning.