moreincommon | 014 ☺ Video ☺ Is it hard understanding I'm incomplete?

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014 ☺ Video ☺ Is it hard understanding I'm incomplete?

[The feed is dark, silent and empty until a hand strikes a match; the communicator is propped up to focus on three unlit votive candles on the chapel altar, Mark's voice narrating from offscreen.]

We've all been through some horrible things lately, things I'm sure we'd rather forget. But there are some things in Silent Hill that are worth remembering.

Zev Bellringer deserves to be remembered. [He touches the match to the wick of the first candle.] Dr. King Schultz deserves to be remembered. [He lights the second candle, blowing out the match after he does.] They were both our crewmates, fellow passengers who touched us, inmate and warden alike. Not all of us were close to them, but none of us are unaffected by their absence.

Everyone in Silent Hill deserves to be remembered, especially those we had to leave behind. [He lights the third candle off the second and places them in their neat, sturdy little row.]

Where I come from it's customary to honor those we've lost with a moment of silence and reflection. Please join me, if you'd like to.

[The feed records nothing but the three little candles burning in the darkness and silence for a full minute before cutting off.]

[OOC: Someone tell him about Kael'thas]

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[Is that.. Is that an altar? Candles on an altar? What the...]

What kind of superstitious nonsense is this? Stop it! She doesn't deserve having her memory sullied this way.

[Anya shows up a little while later, her hands still bandaged, a small bottle of LiCl salt abrasive from maintenance tucked in her pocket.]

Hey, Mark. This is...nice.

[Mark hasn't exactly been in the chapel; instead he's leaning in the doorway, thoughtfully watching the candles burn down. When she speaks, he turns around in surprise.]

Oh, hi! After what everyone went through I didn't think it was a good idea to do anything too involved, but... They deserve a memorial, no matter how small.

[None of her victims ever had a memorial, she thinks. And now she's here for a shadowpuppet she refused to kill.]

Yeah. It's. They do.

[She takes a slow breath, holds up her damaged hands awkwardly.]

Would you mind lighting one for me? We didn't lose anyone in our party, but...there was someone there I couldn't save.

[ After a couple of days, a visit from Merlin, some bonding with Chris... Megamind's pretty ready to leave his room come Friday. ]

[ This was a damn good reason to get him come out of it, too. He padded up, had a brief stop off by Edward Nygma's door (Still there, showing the correct door and lock... but still no answer from the man) and then head up to the chapel proper, where he limped a little down the aisle toward the altar. ]

You didn't know Zev, did you?

[ Gentle, but still. ]

She had-- a thing... about faith. Religion used for hateful purposes. But she wouldn't have been offended at a single light in the dark, as it were. At least, I don't think so.

[ He knew her, and very well, and standing here looking at little flickering candles hurts his heart a little more. He's still only getting to the anger phase of grieving now; shock and denial has been worked through, and now he's just... unhappy. ]

[ She deserved better than that place. But he doesn't know how to articulate any of that right now, so just stands there, hands clasped behind his back, uncertain. ]

[ He wonders if Chris has lit any candles for Frank D'amcio, and squashes that thought hard. ]

Hey, jackass. Cool it before you hurt yourself.

[The world is ending. Chris is defending Mark]

I'll calm down when he stops insulting her memory!

Hey.

Christ, would you relax for two seconds? No one's insulting anything.

...Aside from me calling you a jackass just now.

Just. What's up?

he has bad history with religions. I understand where he's coming from but please calm down, Rassilon, and take the gesture as intended.

Awesome. Ducking the hell out of this conversation. Wardens, do your thing.

Try an' be kind, lovey. Zev were important to 'im.

I was BEING kind! God! You handle it! Sorry I said anything at all!

Him and me've only just managed to stop tearin' each other's 'eads off over the network, I'm trying to tread careful.

Fine. You tread. I'm out.

I don't care how it was intended, it is insulting! And I'm not the only one with a... history with religions. She had one as well. And considering everything it has done to her and those important to her, to her whole universe, using it this way is doing nothing but sullying her memory.

[This is Iris glaring, narrow-eyed and unfriendly, out of her communicator and then taking a deep breath.]

Tell me this. If she were standing 'ere and you'd been lost, and Mark lit a candle for you, 'ow d'you think she'd've reacted?

I should think she'd stop him, because there could be hardly anything more insulting!

[He's glaring right back. And really, this should be obvious. Who in their right mind wouldn't be offended?]

[She breathes deeply again; he can't see her hands clenching on the cushion, out of camera range, and Iris, when she really wants to, is capable enough of forcing calm into her face and voice.]

Was Zev in the habit of berating people she 'ardly knew in public for inadvertent offenses? You've got every nanospan you spent in 'er company right there behind your eyes. D'you see that 'appening once, outside of a flood or the rabies?

[He rolls his eyes.] I'm not Zev. I don't see the need to be nice to people who offend me.

But fine, I'll berate him behind a filter if you'd rather. It's still insulting and he should stop doing it.

I know you're not.

[She wishes you were, because Iris still thinks you're an ass.]

Weren't she good at dealing with people, though? Remember 'ow everyone she spoke to come away feelin' better?

[He's had a very long time to perfect being one.]

So I should make him feel better for being offensive?

[He's getting that wrong right? At least thinks so. Hopes so.]

It's not for me to tell you what you should or shouldn't do. I'm just inviting you to think on 'ow Zev would want you to 'andle this. 'Ow she'd 'andle it 'erself. 'Ow everyone on this boat's lost someone beautiful and valued and loved, and the comfort a harmless ritual might bring 'em.

[One day Iris will tell him she was an actual priestess from Karn just to watch the tableflipping. Today is not that day.]

There is no comfort to be found in this. And even if there was, it shouldn't be more important than the insult done by it.

Not for you, maybe. And given that this 'as nowt to do with any religion that's ever touched you or Zev, is it actually necessary to consider it an insult?

Religion is religion. It's a tool at best, when one knows how to use it, but never good. How could it not be?

[Iris is visibly distracted now by something else on the network.]

...Oh bugger. Look, this isn't even religion, you pillock. This is a religion-shaped building on the bloody Barge, shaped this way to comfort the ones that take comfort from it. And that comfort's a real thing for a lot of people. I know you can argue till the heat death of the universe, sweetheart, but I'm needed. Take a deep breath. Find your comfort your way and let other people find it in theirs. I'll catch you later.

[Their comfort doesn't come before her memory, he wants to say, but considering that she apparently has to go, that seems pointless.]

[Plenty of victims don't, and plenty of victims never will. At least a few will get the recognition they deserve, today.

When Anya holds up her hands Mark frowns but nods, reaching into his (remarkably purse-like) bag to retrieve another candle.] Of course.

Would you like to say a few words?

I didn't, no. We only spoke briefly.

Yeah... Now I understand that this maybe wasn't the best way to remember someone, but the symbol it stands for...

The idea that someone around us could illuminate things for us, or could bring warmth – that's worth remembering and it's worth celebrating. I even had a quote about it all ready – [He digs in his pocket for the notebook that doubles as his warden item, flipping to a specific page.] "How far that little candle throws its beams; So shines a good deed in this naughty world."

When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

[ His lips twist. ]

But she didn't die. She was trapped. In a box.

Again.

[ It sits... very poorly with him. ]

Somewhere, she's a prisoner. Dead would be different. Dead would be free. Dead would be ended. Everything dies, Mark. But Zev Bellringer is not dead.

[ He ducks his head, and bites his lip. ]

Sorry.

Sore subject.

Um, I think that's a different play...

I didn't say she was dead, Megamind. That's not a conclusion we should jump to. But she's not here, and... And she and Dr. Schultz and the people and symbols still there in Silent Hill are worth remembering.

We shouldn't forget, even if it hurts to remember them.

That's all I wanted to say.

Yeah, I know. I was going Julius Caesar.

[ But he nods a little, lips pressed into a thin line, tip of his tongue caught between his teeth just behind them. A bad habit, something he did when stressed. ]

It just bothers me. The last really rough, bad port we went to, back in November, it was the Overlook. We-- we hid in a room and I taught her to make origami animals out of a Bible we found in the nightstand and-- we kept each other safe and sane.

Not going back there, and ripping that place apart -- by hook or by crook, magic or mad science... I don't like it.

[ He paused, and put his hands on his hips, dipping his head. ]

Huge downer, aren't I?

Edited 2013-06-01 06:59 (UTC)

[It surprises her, and she isn't sure why. It's been a long time since she was part of any kind of ritual, really. She bows her head and shuts her eyes, but it's more defensive than serene, like she can't face and say it at the same time.]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I did to you, and what I couldn't do for you. I'm sorry I thought of you as an enemy, and a tool. I'm sorry I didn't let myself see them failing you. I was never all that different from them, but you were. You were kind and loyal and trapped, and you deserve so much more than you got. If I graduate, I promise I'm going to fix it.

[She takes a shaky breath, opens her eyes.]

Is that...will that do?

Prince Kael'thas. Do you ...have another candle?

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014 ☺ Video ☺ Is it hard understanding I'm incomplete?

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spam

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[textjack]

[textjack]

[private/Chris]

[private/Chris]

[private/Chris]

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[doesn't bother with text because rage]

FINE

SORRY

<3 <3

<3 <3

Re: <3 <3

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i'm sorry he's such an ass about this topic

I'm not XD

<3

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i am v sorry for lateness