One o'clock Madness

[Denskith]

(( The aftermath of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] . . . ))

The bell in the distant clock tower chimed once. Just past midnight.

Denskith was out of breath for the first time in a long, long time. Ever since the encounter with Owen, the music teacher had been practicing himself what most would consider half to death. Managing to find what could easily be assumed the most deserted corner of the castle, he had gotten to work perfecting the command technique. It was at first exhilarating to sing all he wanted! but, that was easily seven, eight hours ago. Eight hours of anything grows tiring.

The sheets covering the various furniture had long been ordered up, over, and around the entirety of the room. Several wooden chairs were also stacked into a neat pyramid, as well. Several times.

Denskith's bare chest raised and fell with the exhaustion; beads of sweat dripped down his pale face and stinged at the never-healing scars trailing from half of his face down his shoulder and arm. He glared at a nearby sofa.

"Degraded sofa, turn at a thirty-seven degree angle towards me, lifting slightly up from the ground as not to scuff the flooring below, then landing softly back down onto the floor."
The sofa obeyed seemingly to his voice, landing exactly parallel to where Denskith was standing. He wiped the sweat from his brow.

The commands were working, just has they always had. He he to think about them too much, though. Back in Windor, he was so accustomed to the heat of battle, to responding automatically. He had lost that.

"Damn it," the teacher swore, something that he did not often do. "I have to get faster. . . !"

[Esha]

Esha was asleep, in statue form in the corner of the room with a sheet fully covering her. The reason she was in the room was because she was tired and it was a strange experience to sleep lying down. She usually slept upright and didn't need a massively oversized paperweight in her room. It was uncomfortable and strange to sleep that way.

She got roused from her slumber when there was cursing. What in the world? She was posing like a statue to blend in, her pocket watch dangled in front of her face- it was about one in the morning.

Keeping still for a while longer, just getting used to waking up. How long had he been there? she was a heavy sleeper so she wasn't really sure. What was he wanting to get faster at?

Waking up wasn't her specialty, and neither was shifting back while she was still half asleep. She whipped the cloth of herself a little too aggressively and narrowed her eyes, not turning back to flesh until she knew who the person was.

[Denskith]

Once the music teacher caught his breath, he stretched his arms out in front of him, ready for Round 2. Or, Round 7. He had kind-of lost track at this point. Round 8? Round eight sounded right. He was starting Round 8. Yes. With new-found determination on his face, Denskith prepared himself for the next string of command. He tried to only give himself a second, then starting in a rush of A natural scales, aiming at the first thing he saw in the corner of his eye. . . A statue. Perfect.

"Statue made of stone, lift up 2.3 feet from the ground, coming towards me in a timely but not rushed manner, completing a proper 360-degree flip along the way and landing directly in front of me and gently onto the ground."

There. That was pretty immediate.

(( The 101 on Den.'s skills: while his commands are not suggestions, rather orders, one can resist. However, resistance takes conscious effort; it doesn't happen automatically. If one does not resist, you are Denskith's to order. : D ))

[Esha]

She narrowed her eyes, why didn't he have shirt on? She wasn't caring but he was warm, training perhaps? So many question whizzed through her head...But they all seemed to dissolve once he stated singing.. Why couldn't she only focus on his voice?

Esha tried to resist,but it was actually hurting her very soul not to, she resisted for less than a second and that was all she could manage. She knew she couldn't float in the air, but she wanted to try to complete the instructions any way she could.

She stated to walk to wards him slowly, completing a handstand as slowly as was possible and landing softly on her feet, still as a statue- awaiting fresh orders.

[Denskith]

Denskith grinned despite the exhaustion, wiping off a bead of sweat as he stared proudly at his work. Well. That went surprisingly well, considering. The statue was rather pretty, too, once he got a good look at it. The time for admiring was over, though:He took another silent yet deep breath in; something more complicated this time. . . .

"Beautiful yet still stone, rotate around me, barely an inch away from my body yet never scathing or touching, ending the rotation by landing directly in front of me once more."

An order that put himself in danger, as well; good. Maybe a life-threatening situation was just what he needed in order to break this block he was having.

[Esha]

The man before her grinned widely and looked ready for round two, She looked forward, in no particular direction, didn't matter anyway because she didn't have any pupils. She had no expression on her face, the only thing on her mind was his voice.

She walked around him lightly, making sure to stay close- exactly an inch away.

The statue completed the circle and was directly in front of him at the distance of one inch, a breath away. Esha gazed dazedly, all sounds tuned out except orders and commands.


(Esha would be very susceptible to Denskith's powers because every cell in her body has 'stone' properties- all he would have to do is ask the cells to turn to stone and then she would obey his every command, like an object)

[Denskith]

Denskith watched the statue carefully as it walked-- wait, walked? He couldn't make a statue actually walk-- that wasn't even in the command! He clearly said 'rotate!' So, how--
NO. No, it couldn't be-- it had to be-- oh, crap, crap, crap.

The music teacher hurriedly dashed towards the opposite side of the room, away from the seeming-statue. His guard was completely up now, both arms raised for any needed protection, his eyes dead-locked onto his presumed opponent.

No. This wasn't what he wanted when practicing. He wanted inanimate objects, something safe to command, not . . . this. Anything but this.

"Who are you?" he demanded, voice raised in both alarm and anger. He could have easily hurt this person, scarred her, made her do something completely degrading and disrespectful to herself; why hadn't she resist!? It was human nature to!

[Esha]

Esha suddenly snapped out of the trance and stumbled a bit to get her balance. She was confused at first, but the memories came back and she was confused, "Why...What.." but that quickly turned to anger upon realizing what he'd done "Why would you do that to me!" She almost screamed, but her voice cracked at the last word.

She had never felt so violated in her whole long life. He had taken her free will away, something that she believed couldn't be compromised. It didn't sit well.

She slammed her foot down, making every object in a 2 meter radius of her shake. She clenched her fists, shaking in anger. It was very out of character, but she was furious. "You!" She seethed, hissing. "bas***d!" She finally decided as she stalked closed, glaring.

"You don't have the right to be angry at me, after what you just did! Ignorant pig!" Picking up the closest thing and throwing it at his feet. She didn't have it in her to hurt anyone, even at this angry. Although if he pushed her...

[Denskith]

Denskith watched in horror as the statue-woman erupted into rage. The room shook . . . That wasn't good, was it? Especially since this was the third floor. Would the floor give in? Would the two of them fall to their untimely deaths, plummeting down in an infinitesimal darkness? That wasn't good, he certainly didn't want to die, and this woman (thing?) didn't have any right to be mad at him-- okay, well, all of the right in the world-- not all of it, but you get the idea-- she was violated, she had the right to be angry, but that didn't give her the right to send them plummeting into an infinitesimal darkness!

"I didn't know you were alive!" Denskith informed the statue once a perfectly good bit of furniture crashed onto the floor-- although, once he said it, it wasn't a very good defense. She still didn't appear to be alive, and yet she was moving. . . . A golem, perhaps? Did those exist, alongside every other possible creature?
"Besides, one can resist the commands! You didn't HAVE to obey!" This, too, sounded better in his head than when actually spoken. 'Oh, I have completely violated your free will, but you had a choice in whether or not to be compromised.' It was true, but didn't sound that way. He was so screwed. . . .

[Esha]

Esha's whole body shook as he rattled off his first excuse, then at his second she lost it, snapped. "So I had a choice for my freewill to be molested and bent? Blaming it on me?" She picked up the nearest object within grabbing distance, a light box. "If I was able I would've!" She roared at him, throwing it. Who would wait around to be ordered? She would've stopped right at the start, not followed the first order. Esha hadn't been this angry in years.

Maybe she would storm out- he was right beside the door, although she wasn't sure that being around other people at this point was safe, on them.

She stamped her feet harder than before, the nerve of this man, blame her. NO! she wasn't going to be blamed for what he did, never never never. Esha threw the box directly at his bare chest, being the biggest target.

Despite being over 100 years old, she still needed comforting and still had slightly childlike tenancies. Like a child's anger, the bulk of her's had also burned out quite fast- she was still formidably angry with but more upset now, but she still kept the glares coming the tall man's way, she couldn't allow him to see her in a state, thank goodness she couldn't cry in stone form. That's what she would be doing if no one else were here.

[Denskith]

He knew she'd be upset.
"It's probably the truth, though!" Denskith shouted over yet another earthquake, holding onto a nearby abandoned dresser for dear life. The 'probably' was there just so that he wouldn't kill her-- could she die?-- but such a word couldn't help. No one wanted uncertainty in these situations, they wanted confidence. Confidence Denskith could never give, else risk a command.

As the earthquake faded away and the box was thrown at him, the music teacher responded automatically. "Miss!" The box's trajectory verred off to the side, and the object crashed into the opposing wall. That . . . was close. This was what he needed, though: a battle.

His thoughts whirrled with the realization: he shouldn't provoke the possibly-nice stone-lady, but he needed the practice. He could be killed! but, that was always a risk in battle, and something he needed to learn once more. This golem could be the solution he was looking for-- what was he thinking! He couldn't use her for practice! He'd be manipulating someone just for his own benifit-- not the first time-- the commands are different-- how? Are you somehow detachted from them?-- shut up, shut up, shut up--

Due to the massive conflict in his mind, Denskith merely stared at the statue woman, only half-paying attention to what she was now doing.

[Esha]

She shot him the dirtiest look possible, and was tempted to stamp again to see him squirm and lose balance however decided that it would become a cheap trick, over used and predictable.

"I couldn't, If I could- then why would I obey in the first place?" She toned down the shouting to just a raised voice as she presented the question, but still kept the edge on it. She wanted him to say sorry even though she knew it wouldn't fix a thing, not what he was saying now! Her,her,her. She made some steps closer, and to another peice of floor, that one might've been weak after the beating it took.

Everything he said was pointing blame else where, Suppose now a wizard made him command her to do things. "I was just sleeping here and did nothing to provoke you- YOU did this." She pointed at him accusingly, her hands were not shaking anymore, but she was just as wound up as before. "Unless somebody made you direct me?" She asked him aggressively.

Her confidence was shaken, even in her strong form somebody could still interfere or have the means to hurt her. She wasn't running away, she wasn't fast by any means as a a statue. She could shift to skin and run, but then she would be pretty defenseless.

[Denskith]

"I don't know," he told her honestly, thinking the whole thing to be physically impossible. Anyone could resist, so long as it was alive!

'Direct--' Did she honestly think that he sought her out? Denskith didn't even know she existed, up until five minutes ago!

". . . I think this is just one big misunderstanding," the teacher concluded, raising his arms up in a surrender and backing into the opposing wall carefully, keeping his front towards the statue-woman at all times but leaving the door free. He didn't want to fight-- he never wanted to fight. At best, it was good practice for the commands, but if someone was going to be this angered about it, then he wanted no part in it. Angering people was something he never aimed to do. He aimed to please.
Still, it was such a waste--

"I was just practicing my technique," Denskith explained while carefully choosing his words. He took a step back. "I went up here for some privacy. I never meant to command anyone alive tonight--" Whoops. "--this morning." Another step . . . He took one more to gain a good two-yard distance from the golem--

CRACK.

The flooring that had sustained so much abuse up until now had finally had enough.
The left of Denskith's long legs protruded into the flooring, making the music teacher stuck. The floor boards ominously creaked underneath his body . . . The rest of him was soon to follow after the leg. It was just a matter of seconds.

He glanced up at the golem-woman. Pleadingly.
"Help?"

[Esha]

Esha jumped back at the music teacher start to disappear into the floor, out of surprise. She had no right to be considering she knew about the state of the floor. Her weight was close to 200 kilograms, but she didn't think of that at the time. She could switch back to human form, but she would still weigh the same.

She started towards him, but was greeted by an unhealthy groan of the nearby floor boards, and a small snapping noises. Reaching out, Esha put too much pressure on one foot and- Snap, it sounded thunderous as it echoed through the large room. The other man may have only broke a plank, but she had broken one of the beams. The statue screamed as she fell through the floor board to mid thigh. She reached out with both hands, everything before that point forgotten.

"Grab my hand, I can counter weigh you!" She gasped as she the ceiling on the floor below was feeling the strain, she held back the information that it would only be for a minuet at most, but it would be enough to get him out. It would probably be more like an elephant getting on a seesaw with a cat, unless it was a very fat cat. She had no idea if he would help her out after that, he had all rights to say no and she could accept that.

[Denskith]

The music teacher watched in horror as he one hope for getting out of this just fell, too. That infinitesimal darkness was quickly becoming a reality. He almost wanted to look down just to get a good look but resisted-- the slightest shift could sent both of them hurling to their deaths! He didn't get to apologize to the golem-girl, either--

Counterbalance?

"Yes, please," Denskith muttered faintly underneath his breath; in an instant, he grabbed onto the statue's arm. Life-and-death situations were known for enemies helping-out one another-- although, they weren't really 'enemies,' per say. 'Got off to a rocky start,' perhaps-- pun-- not the time or place.

Although Denskith could attempt to pull himself up, he wondered if he could even risk such a thing; was it safe? Was it wise? Fear began to disable him-- this was why he needed to practice up here-- so that he'd be ready for things like this. He was, once. Now . . .

[Esha]

Something under Esha's feet cracked- She didn't look down or want to know what- and she started slipping, if he wasn't going to pull himself up then gravity and their unequal weight balance would. She wanted to say sorry for what happened.

She was observing his eyes get glazed and- wait? was he freezing up with fear? "Snap out of it! If you get scared we're- sorry you're going to die." She rolled her eyes, she had an idea to get them out of this situation but if he wasn't going to listen... but the plan would only work for the next minuet or so.

"Now, on a count can you get out of the hole you're in, lay flat and..." She looked behind him "loop your foot around that table leg" a table had lots of objects on it, so it would be reasonably stable and heavy. Esha would have a limited time window to get out of her broken section of floor, before they both went down into the floor below.

In theory the floor was breaking because of weight, if they had equal height distribution(by laying flat) they might not go through it. Esha didn't actually plan for after, if that worked. She wasn't all that confidence in it herself.

[Denskith]

Denskith stared at the golem for a little bit in confusion. Die? No, he couldn't die. She said she couldn't die, either. They both couldn't die-- there's a difference between you and her. You are mortal; she probably isn't-- I don't know that! For all we know, she's normal-- normal? A statue is normal?-- that's not what I meant-- it's exactly what you meant-- no, I-- are a liar-- no-- murderer-- no!-- and all for the sake of blood-- NO! I DID IT TO LIVE!

Then what are you waiting for. Live, already.

His blue eyes were finally in focus. After such a long time . . . he was actually not over-thinking.

So. The battlefield . . . It was good to be back. The rush of adrenaline, the pumping of his veins-- but, there was no time to dwell on that.
"Thanks for that," Denskith smiled, doing as the statue-girl had previously ordered with hesitation. His body laid flat on the ground, and the free long leg easily wrapped around a nearby table leg. The floor creaked hesitantly . . .

"What now?" he asked warily, his scars itching on the splinters below.

[Esha]

She sighed in releif, his part had worked, but they weren't out of the woods yet. In a minuet the table would be sliding because of her weight. She could feel it already. "Now I see if I misjudged the weight of the objects on that table." The statue took a breath and straightened her legs, trying to feel for another beam to push off of. She ignored the fact that the table was moving towards her as she wasn't being counter balanced.

She finally found something solid and kicked off, getting right out of the hole in the floor and onto her stomach. Esha wasn't ever going to sleep in this room again, but there were other store rooms. the floor creaked, but it was less fragile in the spot she was currently in.

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding and my reaction, but since I came up with that plan you can think of something to get us to the door without standing" She smiled and laughed, just happy to have gotten away relatively unharmed. She decided to make some small talk, but then had nothing to say so she shut up.

"How does your power work?" She asked him. paying attention to his answer, recalling how he had told a box to miss, and it obeyed.

[Denskith]

He watched the golem work, surprised. An apology, just like that? It was like all the grief from the last five minutes or so was entirely forgotten-- which was fine with him. Right? Right.

His power . . . Denskith shrunk back a little at such a question. He had told so many people already about his power-- well, just one, but still, one was a lot. And, what had the Resistance leader said about their abilities? Not to tell anyone unless absolutely necessary. Telling your teammates was fine, but no one else should know. The moment someone knew, the moment any possibility of surprise disappeared. The real question was . . . Was this a 'necessary' point?

He took a deep breath in. . . . Sorry, Resistance leader-- Wolfgang. He was never good at obeying orders.

"It's called 'command,'" Denskith told the statue-woman, making himself hopelessly flatter as the floor ominously creaked. "I can give orders to things when I sing." Well, that was the horribly-short version, but it would do. "I could use it to get out of this room . . . but, I can usually only order one thing at a time." That was a lie. He could easily order more things around, but if he got their separate orders mixed-up, problems could occur. As in, problems had occurred. That . . . was a long time ago.

He really didn't want to say this next part. What other choice did he have, though?
"I could order myself out of the room," Denskith blurted out. "That could save me. But . . . What about YOU?"

[Esha]

She nodded at the 'command' thing that denskith had. "I didn't get anything cool like that, or remotely useful. If I got a choice I would never have known what to pick" Esha said. She never got a choice as to receive the powers or deny them, she didn't even know the stone was enchanted before accepting it. Another instance where her free will and choice had been brushed aside. Maybe that's where her fear started from.

Some people had compared it to a deal to the devil, her brother had gotten the upside, she had gotten the downside. Her brother had received the advanced vision, the greater healing factor, the strength (although she was quite strong too, nothing compared to him).

Most of the things I'm good at have nothing to do with my ability, she thought. If he took an interest in what happened she would tell him, after all he had shared his story.

She didn't want top be influenced as she had before, but wasn't going to deny that it was the only thing she could think of that would be easy... She shrugged, maybe he would add two plus two and guess the only way to do this.

She shifted her weight, wincing as the floor whined in protest.

[Denskith]

"I don't think it's 'cool,'" Denskith gravely informed the statue-woman, pausing in the conversation as the floor continued to creak. There wasn't much time left. . . . A decision had to be made. "The commands are . . . I think they're twisted." A soft rumble started in the flooring; they were going to go down soon, regardless of preparation. This wasn't the time for debating beliefs-- but, he couldn't just let her not choose!

"Please hear me out," the music teacher pleaded, his eyes meeting hers as best as was possible. He wanted to be straight with her-- as straight as one could be to complete stranger-- creature-- monster-- so are you-- stranger. "I can command the two of us to escape from here completely unharmed. Only if you're okay with it, though."
He wasn't going to command someone unwillingly when she couldn't even resist.

The floor made a definite creak--
"Are you okay with me commanding you once more?"

(( The floor will probably give-in during your post. ))

[Esha]

So it was rather twisted, but still. She would rather have that than what she was given. But the grass was always greener, she supposed.

At he worst possible time she started hyper ventilating and shaking, not being used to near perceived death experiences. Esha screwed her eyes tight shut as the boards underneath her began to bend.

"Do it!" She wheezed as the floor was bowing, and had reached critical state. She was lucky she was on a beam she wouldn't go down a floor for a few seconds, however she couldn't get a word out in her panic to warn the man that he wasn't. With her weight on the board, the whole section was bowing, with her a the lowest point. She looked up to his eyes not wanting to look at how much old, brittle wood was keeping her from descending without the use of stairs.

The boards around her were making snapping noises, everything went slow in her head. Esha could hear every snap and crack and it was like a countdown. The end her feet were resting on suddenly snapped, the end with her face and neck splintered. Upon opening her eyes she could only stare at the wood slowly as her weight bent the wood. It broke into shards and splinters as it came apart at the only point it was still attached, revealing how weak the wood really was. (The end her bottom half of her body is on a free hanging beam, the part next to her face is slowly snapping with her weight. The whole things going to snap off with her on it.)

"Now!" She mouthed with urgency, scared even her vocal cords vibrating would disturb the two hazardous looking cracks developing either side of the tall man.


(hmm..I would give the floor about 4 seconds more.)

[Denskith]

(( 4, 3, 2 . . . 1. ))

The scene around them was something akin to one of those really bad apocalypse movies everyone talked about seeing someday on the silver screen. The floor began to crumble, and, due to the two protagonist's weights, despite all of their efforts to make it otherwise, the heroes fell to their untimely deaths. Things almost went into slow motion . . .

The battlefield. Again.
Despite all things . . . it was good to be back.

Chaos enveloped Denskith's surroundings. Furniture fell all around him and the statue-woman, along with their accompanied white sheets. They almost seemed like ghosts, just floating about. The bad Halloween kind, not Aisling. A grandfather clock nearly grazed the teacher's unscarred arm as floorboards went everywhere, their sizes varying from splinters to full-on two-by-fours. Unnecessary hazards.

The battlefield. His element.
How did he forget that?

All the while, Denskith locked eyes with the golem, making sure that his command would not be confused with anyone or anything else. Her first, then him. Probably. Things were starting to speed back up rather quickly . . .

"As you fall, you slow down in your decent just long enough to reach the ground safely!" he hurriedly sung, then turning inward towards himself-- but, there wasn't going to be enough time to do a proper command, the floor was already too close, he wasn't going to make it-- there was one thing he could do-- the one thing he shouldn't do-- do, you can-- not while others are here-- do you think she's even paying attention to you--? good point.

Denskith took in a final breath . . . and screamed.
Or, at least, that's what it sounded like to the rest of the world.
It was something the Resistance leader helped him come-up with, something that he tried not to use often and was actually forbidden to do in excess: command himself. Possible? Yes. Dangerous? Very much so. Usually, he was partially immune to the songs, for the sake of practicality. Singing to himself meant taking off all of those safeguards and control himself directly. All automatic functions stopped as soon as the song began.

In reality, the screaming was multiple choruses ordering himself to keep blood pumping through his chest, keep breathing, keep dividing cells-- essentially, keep living. Because he forgot how to as soon as the music began.

He was also floating in mid-air now . . . That was nice. Rather prevented the untimely death schtick.

(( I NEED TO DRAW THIS. ))

[Esha]

Esha listened to his commands and focused on his voice, to be sure it worked. Despite the floor cracking as far as she could see in the room -she felt calm.

The objects in the room were sliding towards them, the larger ones at a lazy pace but putting more stress o the section they were on none the less. The smaller things like a globe on wheels, a grand piano the the sheet just fell off. All calm would be lost if she wasn't tranced out because a large mahogany amoir full of oil lamps and unnamed bottle was teetering. It was quite close and it looked as if it would stay put, but the floor became unstable underneath it.

The statue let go not sticking around on this floor to see what would happen. The floor below had large windows, the whole room was illuminated by moonlight. Slowing down as she hit the floor and landed on her feet, she looked at the ceiling, she noticed most of the plaster was on the floor, dislodged and cracked off with all the action on the upper floor.

She was surveying the ceiling with vigilance to see if the floor it's self would hold, and she found that the whole area was being supported by one large log sized piece of wood the was broken in several places, where as before there had been three. The large oil lamp holding amoir crashed down with a large hollow sound and the bottles shattered within. She flinched at the sound.

She ran and grabbed the floating music teacher by the waist, and ran. On the verge of being out of the way of any collapses, the remaining support gave up and released the whole section of floor. As Esha turned away to tun to the door, she wasn't fast enough and the roof fell on her. As she fell the last thing she did was throw the teacher in a direction away from her. Maybe a bit harder than was meant, he was lighter than she though.

Her vision of what happened next was blocked by falling pieces of wood, debry and brass lamp bases.

[Denskith]

Denskith's own vision was clouded by various fallen objects, time now seeming to speed-up rather than the previous slow-down. He preferred when everything was slowing down . . . although, it wasn't like he was paying attention to any of that. Breathe. In out in out-- PUMP HEART-- cell divide, divide, divide. Repeat. It was hard to stop the process. He simply had to continue the mix chorus/ scream as the two landed below . . .

(( To be continued! in: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ))

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