Revenging Angel - The Rise and Fall of Harvey

[ss_buttcrack]

Who: Crichton (Harvey), Lt. Tayrey, Dr. Watson, Arthur, Cassandra, Erin, literally anyone is welcome to jump into this mess
What: Here's what you missed last time.
TL;DR: Harvey stole some revenge-loving daggers that were in Tayrey's care and used them to murder Valdis. He made Crichton watch. This is the place to play the fallout directly after.
When: Sep 30 for the murder, Oct 1, and forward for the fallout. Will include later dates in Oct, as well.
Where: The Brig + Various locations stated in the starters posted below
Warnings: Blood, Death, Gore, Violence, Mind-control, mention of Drugs/Alcohol Addiction, will warn for more as necessary


This is a nightmare. This is his worst nightmare come to pass. Valdis...frell. Is she going to come back in three days? After watching her die like that, he's terrified she might not. It's his fault. It's all his fault. He should have known Harvey would still be plotting behind his back. Why did he ever let himself believe it could be safe? He should have stayed locked in the brig.

God... help him.


In The Brig - Guard Duty - Open
This is where he belongs. This is where he should have stayed in the first place. This time, however, he can't stand to be alone. He's begged anyone and everyone he knows to, essentially, play guard duty on shifts. He can't let himself fall asleep unless there's someone there to watch him. Even then, it's hard. The dark circles under his eyes grow more purple by the day as he constantly starts to nod off, only to jerk himself awake again in a panic.

It will go on like this for days. He'll refuse to take one step out of this cell, not even to go get food. Not like he has much of an appetite anyway. Besides, he knows if he walks out of here the first place he might wind up is in front of a bar. He's let Valdis down enough already... he can't risk it.

Find him huddled up in the corner of the brig under a blanket once again like a sick case of deja vu. If it's your turn to watch him, he'll point to his pulse pistol sitting over on a chair outside the cell and say, "Use that on me if I try to leave."

[ooc: feel free to handwave Crichton asking for your character's help.

Rise & Shine
Harvey is dead. Crichton had to die with him. Now, three days later, only one of them is back alive.

At 6:00 a.m. sharp, Crichton takes a deep breath in. His eyes fly open and he sits straight up in his bed. Is it done? Is he gone? Is Harvey really gone?

Crichton searches his mind, trying to access that place where he and his mental clone used to meet. He can't. It isn't there. Harvey isn't there!! The weight of him is lifted. For the first time in so, so long, Crichton is alone in his own mind.

"YES!!" He jumps out of bed and dances in place right there on the carpet, with a few more excited whoops and hollers for good measure.

"He's gone! HE'S GONE!"

Crichton might be so distracted by his own celebrating that he may or may not notice if he has company in the room with him. But, the more the merrier today. He's finally free!

----

The celebrating doesn't stop there. Good God, he's so hungry. People brought him sandwiches while he was down in the brig, but he'd only picked at them half-heartedly. Not much appetite. Well, guess what's back now?? He could eat a whole cougar.

Find him spread out in the buffet later that morning with five plates in front of him, greedily shoving every type of breakfast confection into his mouth like he's worried they're going to vanish off his plate. They are, but they're vanishing into his stomach! Food has never tasted this good.

Wildcard options open: Let me know what kind of starter you want and I'll make it happen. Keep in mind this will be the last chance to participate with Harvey. He'll be perma-dead at the conclusion of this plot.]

Comments

[Text to Watson - Closed to Watson and Ari]

[ss_buttcrack]

I think Lt. Tayrey is hurt. Please go check on her in her cabin. I'll explain later.

[lightconductor]

Acknowledged. Be there shortly.

And indeed, Watson shows up at Ari's cabin quickly, doctor's bag in hand.

[astrogator]

There's no answer when he knocks, but the door is open. The room is in disarray, clear signs of a struggle. Tayrey's dividing screen has been pulled aside, and on the far wall some shelves have had their contents dumped on the floor, and there's a hole in the wall itself behind them.

Tayrey herself lies curled on the floor, unconscious. There's a fresh, nasty-looking open wound on the side of her head, blood pooling on the floor around. Next to the giant crystal in the corner lies a bloodstained bowling ball.

[Text to Erin - Closed to Erin and Co. ]

[ss_buttcrack]

Please help me. I'm in Valdis's cabin. Valdis is dead. Harvey killed her. I'm sorry.

After sending this message, Crichton slumps to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut. Pulling his legs up to his chest, he sits and waits, burying his face into his knees so he doesn't have to look at Valdis's body still lying lifeless on the floor at his feet.

[crushed_pearls]

Tell that brain bitch that I'm coming for him.

It's still over six minutes before Erin pounds on the door. Even through the thick steel it's obvious that she's breathing hard, and her voice is ragged with pain. "Crichton, I am in a towel and pants, my wings came back in and everything hurts, you've got forty seconds to open this door before I unhinge it."

[ss_buttcrack]

Now would be the worst time to make a joke about her keeping her shirt on, huh? Oh. He's reached inappropriate humor levels of shock. And he's self-analyzing like he's looking at himself under a microscope. Yeah, this bodes well for his sanity.

"Okay! Don't bust it in!" He scrambles to his feet and yanks the door open. And, since she warned him, his eyes are aimed way up high, nearly to the ceiling.

"Jesus... did that just happen?"

[The First Night - Closed to Arthur]

[ss_buttcrack]

He should be in the brig right now. He should be behind frelling bars. But, he needed to get cleaned up. He still had... blood... all over him. He stands beneath the spray of his shower watching it circle the drain like squid ink, mesmerized and horrified. He tries to shampoo his hair but all he can manage is a few jerky movements before the lethargy of shock overtakes him again. A sob rises in his throat and he tries so hard to force it down. Does he have the right to cry over her, when it was his own hands? HIS OWN HANDS!

"NO!" He punches his fist against the wall hard enough for the pain to radiate all the way to his elbow. "FRELL!"

[theotherright]

Their cabin smells like blood. It's a red tint on the stale air that Arthur breathes as he comes in and closes the door behind him. Not overwhelmingly strong, but strong enough. And there's the sound of the shower running, the smell of soap and hot steam.

It doesn't send Arthur's thoughts anywhere good. He breathes in to call Crichton's name-- and then stops himself, as the horrible thought occurs that it might not be Crichton who answers. If it's Harvey in that bathroom...

"Shit," he says quietly, under his breath, with the question whose blood is this? seared across his mind, and he starts to cast a vote on whether to barge in-- but he's interrupted by a miserable sound, by a cry, an impact, a shout of pain.

It sounds like Crichton.

More things than Crichton have the ability to sound like Crichton.

It's decided, and he reacts with emotion rather than with logic. And by complete coincidence, though he doesn't know it yet, the decision is made correctly.

"Crichton?" Arthur calls urgently. "What's happened?" There's a moment while he looks for the bathroom door, and then the bump of him finding it, before the handle starts to turn.

[ss_buttcrack]

The bump at the door is the first thing to break through the haze of misery and pain. Crichton turns in a blind panic, still clutching his throbbing fist while looking around for where he set his gun.

Wait. No. That's... Arthur's voice.

He sags against the wall, shivering despite the hot steam of the shower. It's taking all he has not to slide to the floor.

"I... I... Valdis... she's... frell... Harvey fucking killed her."

[Harvey's Demise - Closed to Valdis (Tiamat) and Cassandra]

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton is lightly dozing sitting up against the wall when the sound of someone entering the outer room of the brig makes him start away. His eyes go wide when he sees who it is. "V-Valdis?" It isn't. It just looks like her. It's someone much, much worse.

[redlightgreenlight]

It's incredibly frustrating to be in this situation. That damned woman. Both of them actually. Tiamat didn't actually believe that the names could affect her, and she was right, but they did affect her host. It's time to end this mess before someone figures out how to end her. She steps in the brig, eying Crichton as she enters. It's fitting that she's wearing white as it will be far more dramatic in the end.

"Hello, John," she says, coming up to the bars.

[ss_buttcrack]

"What are you now, Valdis the White?" Ha ha, Lord of the Rings joke. If he only knew...

He gets to his feet but doesn't come away from the wall yet. "I owe you another apology."

Guard Duty

[ablativeholopleather]

There had been a notion in his head that after everything that had gone wrong, that he shouldn't interfere anymore. He doesn't want to make it worse, doesn't want to cause undue stress to Crichton or the people around him, doesn't want to continue paving this road to hell with his good intentions, so to speak.

And yet, as soon as he received the message that his friend was back down in the brig of his own volition, and that he didn't want to be left alone for very obvious reasons, Wayne is there, axe and guitar both across his back.

The pistol is picked up and regarded, then tucked into the hammerspace that serves as his collection of Things, falling neatly into the Pistol category just as his first non-Gesture weapon had. And then Wayne sits, outside of the bars, arms crossed atop his knees, facing the man in his self-imposed jail, quietly observing.

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton is huddled in the corner with the comforter from his cabin over his head like a hood so that only his bloodless face is visible. If not for how his red-rimmed eyes stare unfocussed at a fixed point on the floor, he looks like he could be asleep. He can't sleep. The idea of falling unconscious now terrifies him too much.

After an eternity of silence, Crichton seems to stir. He blinks and looks up as if he's only just realized his friend is here despite acknowledging him earlier.

Crichton's first attempt to speak comes out as little more than a scratchy cough. He clears his throat and tries again. "W-Wayne? Is that you?"

[ablativeholopleather]

He wouldn't have necessarily blamed Crichton for not speaking up past that initial missive. The last few days have been worse than anyone could have imagined. Wayne had remained on the sideline, trusting in the process that others more adept than him were putting together, trusting in the rage of the unnecessarily slaughtered. Now, he could do something. Maybe.

Wayne might have fallen into a doze where he's sitting when Crichton speaks up again. He blinks himself awake and looks back at his friend, letting his legs fall in front of him to splay across the gap between wall and cell.

"Yeah."

[decohere]

"I came to apologize," Ava begins flatly, shadowy fingers wrapping around the bars of the brig as she peers through at the miserable man. She had to come see for herself.

"But now perhaps I shouldn't."

[ss_buttcrack]

"Come to kick me while I'm down instead?" he asks her bitterly. "Be my guest. Gun's right there. Take your shot."

[decohere]

"If that's not the most pathetically self-pitying bullshit," Ava narrows her eyes. "I actually brought you a sandwich."

Guard Duty

[professionalriot]

Why is he here? He doesn't really know. Whatever his reason it's likely not very healthy. He doesn't even know this guy. Maybe that's why he showed up to find out who he is and why he did what he did. Or he's just keeping himself busy because he doesn't like how he feels when it gets quiet and he's alone.

Ash throws the plastic wrapped sandwich at Crichton. Some kind of meat and cheese. He didn't bring one for himself, instead he has a drink. It's not the first and it won't be the last.

"You should eat, look like shit."

[ss_buttcrack]

The sandwich bounces off his forehead and flops to the ground like a dead fish. Crichton eyes it warily for a moment, before looking up to inspect the face of this newcomer. He is, unfortunately, hit with the scent of alcohol moments later. Oh, God, he could go for some of that. It takes every ounce of will he still has not to immediately demand whoever this is to hand over the bottle.

"...Do I know you?"

[professionalriot]

"Nope." He takes a drink. "Kinda sucks meeting like this. Erin has great things to say about you." Well his ass. He can't recall her saying anything about him as a person. That's good, he doesn't want to think of him as a person. Or human.

Rise & Shine

[theotherright]

Arthur also wakes up at 6am, and for once he stays quiet, resolved to stare where he judges the ceiling to be and not disturb oh wait Crichton is already awake.

The sudden exclamation of triumph makes Arthur jump out of his skin. "What?"

Like there's an obvious person for 'he' to be, but this is sudden as hell, how could he possibly-- what the hell did he miss--

"Wait. W-what?" He's half confused, half stunned, half excited.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Tiamat, that crazy bitch actually did it. She ripped Harvey out of me." Sorry, Arthur, he doesn't know she killed you, too.

"Wasn't exactly gentle about it but, frell, I don't give a rat's ass. He's gone. Harvey's really gone!"

rise and shine, buffet.

[abhorrently]

She's in the buffet this morning to collect breakfast when she notices him. Part of her is immediately suspicious, remembering what Tayrey had said about him, about the extra being in his mind. But she also has to investigate, and he's also inhaling food like he's been lost in a cave for days, so Fever wants to see if perhaps that other being could be caught out. Found, before he hurts more people. No way to do it unless she gets closer.

"You're remembering to breathe, right?"

Said carelessly while she holds her own plate. Meant to be a little silly, but she's still watching closely.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Hey, Fever! Wanna join me?" He stacks a couple of his empties away to clear a spot for her. "Yeah, I know. I'm chewing, I swear. Just been a bit since I had a square meal. God, it's good to be up out of the brig."