( closed ) i'm the wound you tried to hide

[breweries]

Who 🍷 shylock and certain people
What 🍷 shylock's affliction from the moon comes back with a vengeance.
When 🍷 anytime this month
Where 🍷 anywhere they wanna be
Content Warnings 🍷 shylock's heart is literally going to be on fire. it's not pretty. the rest is tba since owen will be here and will be saying some fucked-up shit inevitably.


art credit | plotting comment

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[worldbent]

Do not patronize me, Shylock.

[Matoba's head knocks against the wall behind him, gripping his hand with straight-faced suppression, jaw locked. Now they are both in pain, and where has it gotten them? At least he got to see something interesting.]

[It is interesting, at least. He isn't bored. The wizard does not die, for as long as he is burned alive. It was a magical fire, but what could put it out, if not magic? Matoba's watery eye watches the flames lick and smoulder over Shylock's shirt, until at last the flames begin to recede inward like a dying fire, and soon there is only the glowing light glittering at his chest, no acrid smoke.]

[Ayakashi were such sturdy things that could endure such amounts of torture; normally that was understandable, as their forms were hardly fully corporeal. But for a flesh and blood spirit such as Shylock, it was surprising that despite the pain, he simply persisted.]

[After a long while of them sitting there, Shylock's heart down to embers and Matoba nursing his pain with a surprising amount of stoicism, he looks upon the wizard again.]

Just what did you do... to earn the hatred of the moon? This calamity of yours.

[breweries]

[ shylock shakes his head. ]

No one knows. The Great Calamity has been attacking our world for... more than two thousand years now. And as you can imagine, getting close to it is no easy task. Your soul will be shattered and scattered into the winds and you will be reduced into a blank slate.

[ he breathes in and out, greatly relieved that the pain is no more for the time being. ugh, he'll need another full day to recharge and fool around and that means closing hemlock for the time being. he definitely needs new help... but that's a thought for another day. ]

It gets stronger as years pass. We'd lost one-half of our comrades just last year, and the ones who had survived had nothing to show for but this affliction. [ he lets out a huff. ] Interesting that your mystic arts don't work on these flames in my heart, however. Did seeing me like that excite you, Mr. Matoba?

[ in what way? oh, you know. he continues to have that kind of gall despite the hardship he'd endured somehow, but his priorities are borked as always. ]

[worldbent]

So long and you haven't yet been destroyed?

That's impressive enough. That you still have the sacrifices. [Matoba's mouth curls up unpleasantly. But resources would run out eventually, wouldn't they? Even if there were young wizards like that knight, if these old ones with the knowledge ceased to be, they would surely be in trouble.]

[In a way, it was not unlike the decline of exorcists, but their deaths were not so flashy.]

[His head tilts up again to shoot Shylock an exhausted, unamused look at the tease- but it changes again, as he seems to consider something, into his own teasing smile.] "Excite" me? I think that is not the word I would choose. Rather than excitement, I felt a calmness and pleasure in watching your face twist up in pain.

It felt like an eventuality. The ever-unaffected Shylock brought to his knees... Who would not at least be fascinated by such a sight?

[His eye holds on Shylock's. It was impossible to tell with the man, whether his eye glinted with the light of predation or the light of passion. It was merely interest, either way, like a cat.] There is power that can destroy you wizards. Knowing that is enough for me.