megatheorem: (027)
palamedes THEE sextus ([personal profile] megatheorem) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2021-12-08 10:25 pm

semi-closed

Who: Palamedes and associates
What: a librarian loose in the city (closed starters)
When: early Dec
Where: Around (tm)

Content Warnings: necromancy stuff, possible mentions of violence and suicide

plotting comment is here if you would like to go wild with pal 😌
hectup: (77)

🥺 pal!!!!

[personal profile] hectup 2021-12-10 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
[you can take the girl out of the sixth house, but you can't take the sixth house out of the girl. or: in a world in which absolutely nothing makes sense, camilla, naturally, finds herself drawn to the one place that should—only to find that it doesn't. of course it doesn't. cam takes one step inside this strange building, glancing about the entryway while breathing in the dry, dusty air, and cam instantly knows this library (if it can even be called that) is a serious shitshow.

but the alternative is—what? continuing to poke about the city on criminally little sleep? better, she thinks, to hunker down here for the evening, searching for answers she's fairly certain she won't find. at least she can pretend to be productive; at least she can somewhat amuse herself as she weaves through crooked aisle after crooked aisle, imagining what, exactly, palamedes would think of such sights. books sitting on the floor! the floor. all that priceless information and priceless paper, treated so, so poorly...

...it still hurts, on some level, to think of pal, though cam knows that he isn't gone. not really, given all that he has—they have—to do, and yet there's a stark difference between listening to excited extrapolations and watching fingerbones flex.

and there is an even starker difference between watching fingerbones flex and spying a tall, thin, all-too-familiar figure pop into view.

well, first things first: cam doesn't do surprise. she tenses, yes; she turns; she stands stock-still as she takes in the sight of a dead man standing at the end of this aisle, but there is no outward emotion as she calmly assesses the situation. what little she knows of this world is—it makes this plausible, she supposes, though highly unlikely. unless this is... something else entirely? river-related, perhaps. a necromantic trick.

except that pal smiles at her, his face lighting up in that heart-achingly familiar way—and cam's shoulders drop, tension eking from her form. i knew you'd come. if she's honest with herself—if she admits that she is human, that she allows herself to hope—then there is very simple reason she'd made the library a priority stop:
]

I knew you'd be here.

[in a different form, perhaps, but here he is! here they are—and as cam is still cam, as she takes a few steps forward to better see the person she hasn't seen in months:]

You're covered in dust.

[listen: she will have a dry comment or two in a few seconds. she will. she's just currently Going Through Itâ„¢ in a very understated, cam-like way, sir, so please understand.]
Edited 2021-12-10 00:18 (UTC)
hectup: (62)

i'm BACK

[personal profile] hectup 2021-12-23 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
[let it be known that cam would give pal a noogie, if she weren't, like, so happy to find him? so happy to find him hale and hearty and fleshy, which—oh, you know. it is weird, on some level; cam remains well aware of pal's sacrifice, just as she remains well aware of all that was expected of her afterward, but...

...well. fingerbones scurrying up her forearm can't possibly compare to pal's stick-thin arms wrapping around her; she allows herself a second—just a second!—to appreciate the fact that he is, as always, taller than her, arms wrapping about her waist with ease, before she grants a perfunctory pat to his stick-thin ribs. of course pal found a way to come back? of course he did. not that cam wants to think about squids; she would, in fact, prefer to forget that portion of their existence, but: pal is here! pal is back.

and that comes with, like, many a gross Thought, so: she isn't going to think about it! necromancers will do whatever necromancers believe is necessary; cam is merely along for the ride, hence her deep breath as she comes to terms with a) pal being back, b) the ninth being involved, and c) god floating somewhere in the background. sure! sure. anyway, as she accepts that she is, in fact, covered in book dust:
]

Maybe you're too tall.

[she's just sayin! and she's also right—but, with one last pat to pal's too-sharp shoulder blade:]

What do you mean, the Ninth? [hmm!] The Necromancer?

[last she saw of gideon, you see... well! you know! shit happens!!]
hectup: (32)

besties back at it!!!!!!!!

[personal profile] hectup 2021-12-23 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
[let it be known that cam would like nothing more than a high five—but, like? priorities? or: cam attempting to piece everything together as she imagines short king™ god (what does he look like, anyway?) with gideon, with harrow, with—lord! lord. there are too many players on the board; cam finds herself wishing, for the umpteenth time, that this (re: everything) was simply a matter of the sixth house and the seventh house solving every mystery known to man...

...but, you know. squids. one reason, at least, she squeezes her eyes closed before pulling away from pal's strangely reassuring warmth. why couldn't they simply disappear into the stacks o' books and ignore everything else? a real question, even as she thinks back to, like. all of canaan house.
]

No, but it's very fitting.

[she remembers the bones littering the hallway to the ninth's quarters, when she had to go check on gideon that one time? shit sucked, honestly, so:]

If the cavalier is back— [maaaan, she is NOT the person to understand/explain this.] What's the last thing you remember, Warden?