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ryslig)
WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, DOCTORIZE FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 *** DOCTORIZE has posted an AUDIO MESSAGE. If you wish to listen, type LISTEN01. <USER> LISTEN01 AUDIO MESSAGE PLAYING... <doctorize> This is the line for Dr. Daniel Dickens. If you'd like to leave a message, please do so here. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible! | ||||
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What a relief it is to be July and not May anymore, frankly.
When he hears the knock at the door, however, he's immediately on high alert, something sharp in his hand here as he approaches. Very, very few people know where he lives, after all. Still, he manages a tone that could be called a polite inquiry... at least, by those who don't know any better.]
Hello? Is someone there?
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[He answers quickly and clearly. He knows that Danny is the type of person to answer the door with a blade in his hand. He doesn't exactly feeling like losing an eyeball, particularly now that he has eyeballs.]
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Well then, this is a little unexpected. What brings you here?
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He practiced it obsessively before arriving.]
I brought you a gift.
[He offers the box forward. Inside of it, Daniel will find two freshly removed eyeballs resting upon a plastic coated pillow. ]
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Thankfully(?) Daniel Dickens is not a normal person. He is quite fascinated with the gift in his hands here. No one has ever gouged out eyes and presented them as a gift before? ... Has he even gotten a gift from anyone in the last few years???]
You got this for me? [Hope you don't mind him removing one to examine here.] Where did you find these ones?
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His name was Herman Anthony.
[Sure enough, the ID confirms it. The attached photograph is a picture of his body -- before the eyes were removed, of course. He's been stabbed multiple times in the chest.]
I found him walking alone in West Bavan.
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[Danny places the eye back in the box so that he can examine the photo with interest.]
What a shame... you'd think that people would know better than to be caught walking alone, given the kind of dangerous things a person can run into here.
[And yet, he says it with some amount of fondness here as he admires Aunamee's work with the body. How considerate of him to make sure to take a picture of the body before the eyes were removed, so that he can see the lingering dregs of despair that were etched into those eyes before the human's death, and subsequent removal of eyes...
Danny steps back now, to allow Aunamee to enter.]
Thank you for the gift. This was really quite thoughtful of you.
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And he likes Daniel, too.]
I came here to make sure that you're well. You had a very difficult week, from what I've heard.
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Ah, are you one of the lucky ones that didn't get involved in that whole affair? I'm almost jealous.
[Or so he assumes, since he didn't spot the other man at all in that town. Or on that post with the anonymous fog followers.]
Your concern is touching, but I'm fine now.
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[For Aunamee, lying is as easy as breathing. He's not worried.
He cracks a tired smile. Slowly, he moves his hand towards Daniel's cheek. If he lets him, he'll cradle his face.]
Why are you 'almost' jealous? Are you relieved that I was spared?
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And if I said that I was?
[Is he really, though? Maybe when it seemed like the threat of permanent death was a thing, sure--he would be disappointed if Aunamee died during that. But in a way, he's also disappointed that he didn't see the other man at all. It might have been interesting, seeing his reaction to the situation.
But ultimately, he is a little relieved, if only because it would have been embarrassing if he had been caught being noticed during yet another fight with Zack, or while he had been panicking about the date on the newspapers.]
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Now he only needs to wait.
It's such a marvelous power, the gift the Fog God gave him for a job well done. He practiced it on dozens of humans before this moment, learning how to swallow his tells, how to hide the fact he's even using his ability in the first place.]
Flatterer.
[And then he feels electricity traveling down his arm and into his head, and then he sees it. He sees Daniel's worst memories.]
oh boy are you ready for AoD spoilers (tw: suicide, eye trauma, other acts of violence, etc.) 1/2
Rachel, turning on him. Choosing Zack over Danny despite all of the things he had offered and done for her because of some stupid promise she had made with that killer. She shoots him in the gut, watches impassively as his body is kicked a few times by Zack to make sure he stays down, and then turns and walks away.
Except, Danny does get back up. He manages to somehow stumble and crawl out of the room, make it up the stairs to the exit once he's started a fire to set the building ablaze to take everyone left with him. And yet, somehow, from where he's dropped down onto the floor behind a wall here, he sees that Rachel and Zack have somehow made it past the flames and are approaching the exit. There's no choice left... he has to keep going, he hasn't taken care of them yet. Danny raises a gun, points it at Rachel's back...
It all spirals quickly out of control from there.
It's a long, terrible story that led up to such events, but the further Aunamee dives in those memories, there are certainly glimpses of the things that could lead up to such an ending: Cathy and Eddie, his only other associates dead because of--Rachel, appearing on his floor with no memory of him, Zack attacking him just as Danny had started to make her remember him, the arguments and pleading with the Reverend to not do this, don't make Rachel a sacrifice, she's my last chance, don't take this away from me--
The monotony. The dull, soul-crushing emptiness, like a void opening wide and somehow spilling out to consume his entire being--no matter how many eyes he tears out and examines, over and over and over and over again, it's not enough. They don't keep that beautiful gleam of despair forever, they don't look like hers anymore--
"Your eyes are empty. There's nothing there. You're not satisfied, and you're looking for something to fill that hole--but that void is never going to go away. You're gonna walk around with those empty eyes forever."
A man--a convict, from the clothing, leans in far too close to Danny here, disgusting, I hate this man, I hate his eyes--grins, showing yellowing teeth.
"You already know, don't you? Someone with an inferiority complex like you can't be fulfilled by this warped, malicious world. All you can do is pretend you're fine, while on the inside, you're suffering 'cause of that bottomless void!
So I'm going to teach you a lesson, okay?"
He strikes Danny hard across the head, hard enough to draw blood and send him to the floor as he reaches out with filthy fingers to grab him by the back of his hair and force his attention back on the other man--"Your mere existence isn't wanted by anyone in this world."--and Danny just... sags, tired, he's not even being told something he doesn't already know. I've known that since the day I was born, since the day my mother--
"Oh, Danny, what happened! How did you get hurt? Don't tell me the other kids in the neighborhood did this again..."
A woman with long blond hair, hands gripping the shoulders of a much younger Danny, covered in bruises and dirt as he looks away and at the floor rather than at her. He brings his hand up to the eye-patch on his face, pulls it down and exposes the void burrowing into the right side of his face as he meekly asks about his missing eye, winces as the grip on his shoulders tighten...
His father, neighbors, other children--they argue, they whisper, they laugh, they question his mere existence and suggest he shouldn't have been born right in front of his own mother--he simply stays quiet, lets them say whatever they want as talking only makes them say worse--until his mother suddenly starts crying and screaming, breaking dishes, falling apart until she refuses to eat, refuses to even look at him most days. It's just the two of them, alone in that house now that Father has gotten sick of them and left, and he thinks This is all my fault. It's because of this eye. If only I had both of my eyes, but--it's okay, because Mother, her eyes are so much more beautiful than mine, so it's okay, I can keep going, as long as she's here, I can look at them forever--"
He pushes the door open, sees the tipped over step-ladder, and slowly looks up, his eyes meeting with hers; empty, lifeless, as if somehow she's staring right at him despite the noose around her neck and the sway of her feet that no longer touch the floor--]
also for that above link I would say use 17:40 as a stopping point
[And then suddenly, Danny of the present is frowning at the other man here. He may not be able to tell that the other man is doing anything suspicious, but he is a tad self-conscious of the way he's being looked at right now, while Aunamee's touching his face and not saying anything. He has to suppress the desire to shove them away, or the old habit of covering his right eye, the glass one that reflects nothing. But still, he wonders if he's being stared at because of it regardless. It's usually the first thing he's used to people staring at, after all.]
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There's no indication that he was digging inside the other man's mind. His expression doesn't change. His eyes don't widen.
He simply has all the information he needs.]
I was just admiring your beauty.
[The word choice is deliberate. He tilts his head to the side, waiting for the other man's reaction. ]
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Now who's being flattering here?