logs | d | a november catchall

[D follows Dimitri's eyes down to the piece of stone tapped by a boot. It... gives him a strange feeling, seeing the discarded bit of stone. A bit of uncanny valley. Like the broken subject is seeing through him.

Maybe Dimitri doesn't need to understand Art so much as feel it.]

I don't...

[Well, he was going to say he doesn't know outside of the general "an artist," but the shout causes him to lift his head toward the distance. He exchanges a glance with Dimitri, and then begins walking. It seems like there are more broken statues along the way.]

[ The rows of shattered statues leave him uneasy; they're almost too exact, too lifelike, and it's nearly like stepping through rubble corpses. Even as they hurry along, he finds himself stepping around the broken stones rather than grinding them under his heel.

The noise leads them to a cave, where piles of demolished stones sit at the mouth of it. But the sounds don't match a patient, silent gargoyle, perched and waiting for prey.

It's very obviously a man. Dimitri lowers his voice before they tread in. ]

It doesn't sound like a gargoyle to me. ...Let's be cautious.

[ Dimitri, prepared to ignore his own directive, ]

[Likewise, D steps around the shards of statues as they go. However, his may only be partially out of unnerved respect and more out of caution.

No gargoyle awaits them at the cave. It would have almost been better that way, letting them run into a monster they can kill and be done with. But this sounds like the raving of a man.]

Mm.

[They can both agree to follow a directive neither of them will actually follow in the end. He steps on through with Dimitri. What waits for them really is a disgusting little man holed up in a cave full of art materials.]

[ Why are they the same. The two of them proceed to throw caution to the wind and walk inside the cave, which is actually a twisted atelier. There are canvases leaned up against the stone walls and wobbly easels, more sculptures dashed to the rocky ground.

There's one statue that's still whole, though. In the dim light, it could almost be mistaken for a living, breathing, stunned-still human before it suddenly goes tumbling down, cracking loudly as a man stands stooped over it, demolishing the thing with fervor.

Wow. ]

Sir, calm down—

[ The artist man does not calm down. He whips around and stares at them like he's chugged energy drinks for the past 30 years to stay up and get his symposium project done in time. ]

[Okay. Wow. (d voice) are all artists unhinged?

He does not grab Dimitri, but he does stretch his arm out to level his hand in front of Dimitri's arm and chest. Do not engage the insane artist, not after the look of that last statue which went toppling.

There had been no mistaking the sound of blood and heartbeat in D's ears before it was swallowed up in the silence of nothing.]

They're alive.

[Were alive.

Which suits the whacked-out artist just fine. All he yells is, "I must create art!" It's strange--D can't hear that same blood and heartbeat.] He's not, [he says quietly.]

[ While D holds him back with a soccer mom arm, Dimitri just watches the man as he raves over the remains of the statue, unnerved but holding still for now. ]

...What do you mean?

[ Though even with his normal ears, something about the broken statue is... off. Its eyes look wet with fear, like rain darkening granite, as though such a thing could be possible. More than stone, it's more like a human that's been frozen solid and broken apart.

But this man seems real enough. ]

What's happening, then?

The statues are people.

[Or Restless rather. They’re alive!! This dude really just broke a whole person. All he keeps yelling is something about creating art.]

He doesn’t have a heartbeat.

[Which might pose a problem for them when they make an attempt to stop this dude. He lowers his arm.]

[ He doesn't really understand how D came to this conclusion, but for some eerie reason, he can easily believe it. It shoots shivers down his skin, and the cold sensation is like a bucket of ice water.

Something loud inside him snaps. Suddenly, he's grabbed and thrown an unformed chunk of sculpting marble at the raving man. It strikes with enough force to smash against the cave wall in two—because it sails right through the artist himself.

He recovers with an irritated click of his tongue. ]

...A ghoul, then.

[ The artist exists as something, more than a ghost, present enough to cause harm. But not corporeal enough to hurt. ]

[Dimitri's rage really shouldn't surprise him, but it does. He's not startled. He watches without doing anything as Dimitri hefts up the chunk of marble and tosses it with true violent intent at--nothing? At... an image.

It explains why there wasn't a heartbeat.]

It's a hologram.

[Again, D looks around the room, this time with more focus. Searching. There are plenty of broken pieces of marble statue, sure. There are also lots of portraits of... people who look extremely artistically familiar. He frowns.]

He's painting them. We'll have to stop him another way.

[ He's a little surprised at the violence too, frankly. His self-control feels like a well-worn cloth here, easily torn through when he meets someone as loathsome as this.

He can devote some time to dissecting what happened, but later. This "hologram" needs to be dealt with first. He crosses his arms, taking a break from glaring at the artist—who has been looking at them since Dimitri's outburst, wide-eyed and observant—to frown towards D. ]

But how? He's barely communicative—I doubt we can convince him to stop through words.

[...

WELL. He just kind of looks at Dimitri for a moment, then he looks back at the artist who is now paying them quite a lot of attention... and the grumbled marble on the other side Dimitri had thrown.]

We have his attention now.

[Unfortunately.]

What made you throw the stone?

[ The attention—and the question—quickly unsettle him; the anger that'd kept him lofted up slowly deflates. And ordinarily, he'd try not to dive too deeply into this subject, but he can see where this is starting to go. ]

I just... became angry and had the sudden impulse to do so.

[ The mage's simulacrum looks nearly lucid as it watches them, though its attention is flagging now. ]

A—darker impulse.

[Well.

D watches the irrational, consumed man who is watching them. His lips thin into a frown.] He's reacting to it. [The darker impulse.]

The other voice inside of you, the one that's in the rest of us. Have you been listening to it?

[This isn't mean to be a call out, but listen. He's getting to his point.]

[ It feels a little like a callout. But Dimitri can tell where this is leading, so his reluctant silence breaks after a few uneasy seconds of consideration. Quietly, ]

I've been trying not to.

[ When he has a chance to wrestle with his shadow, he's usually been winning. It's just that sometimes it's as quick as flame to kindling; less of a fistfight and more of a gunshot. ]

But sometimes it is... sudden. Like it was now.

[No judgement. He has also been trying not to listen to his own. Sometimes... the Shadow just happens. He gets it.]

I believe we're going to have to listen to that voice if we want to get through to him.

[It seems to be a hologram, though, so... He's wondering if it can be distracted or subdued, and the real person can be found. It's difficult for him to tell, though, with the marble. He can't hear their blood or their hearts. Everything is stone.]

[ So if they indulge their shadows a little—or a lot—this spirit might dispel itself? He crosses his arms. ]

...It seems to be the only way to get his attention.

[ As much as he hates to agree with D's hypothesis. ]

Can you— [ he pauses, discomfited by even having to ask ] can you hear yours?

[Looks at two of the world's worst people to indulge in their Shadows. Nods. This will go well surely.]

...Yes.

[He doesn't know if Dimitri means just now or all the time, but the different probably doesn't matter. The answer is yes regardless. The Shadow might not ever truly go away, if he considers it long enough.]

We'll go one at a time. Together is too dangerous.

d | a november catchall

the name of the person who sent them out here

imagine.. being able to read

you taking this person's name from them like yubaba in spirited away

apps yubaba

NO?

damning me to femblem hell forever..

yeah you won’t ever play anyone besides dimitri

ENOUGH demotes you to d's player for real

WOW

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