Dun and Eudi

48] Dun would escape the monotony of the square's idle chatter with a steady crunch of his black sabatons against the rocky, snowy slush that adorned the mountain, puffing away on his corncob pipe as he did his best to clear his head with the progressive plodding of his footfall.

Yet, as he reached the mountainous peak to meditate, the warlord sensed in the distance a void not much unlike the blackness of space, a siphon of mana amongst the sparkling, ethereal shimmers and shades that flickered before his blindness view.

A smile curled upon his face, what had once been an intimidating, draining sensation was now one of tugging familiarity. It meant she was here.

His partner in crime. A duo act like no other.

Slowly plodding up beside Eudocia as he puffed away on his worn, old pipe, a last gift from Drake Dunstant before his retirement took him to the high seas, settling down beside the woman as he chuckled lightly to himself.

Removing his mask witha tired, practiced motion of his calloused palms, the warlord's visage was offered in full display to Eudocia without the usual plastic. The same brutal scars carved up both sides of his head like a devil's horns, his missing toothed grin was spread ear to ear with joy.

And his hollow eyesockets, void of occupation, stared blankly forth upon not merely Eudocia, but the aura of her presence.

"Ah, looking especially beautiful today Eudi, I like what you've done with your hair~"
(Dun)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[20:56] Dunstan. It was Dunstan. There was no t at the end. Eudocia didn't know that, though; that was all before her time. Judging by the snow coating her cloak, odds were she had been up on the mountain for a long time. Maybe she even had one of those temporary 'deaths' of hers up here a few days ago. Nobody had seen her since the meeting, at least - though nobody could say for sure where Eudocia spent most of her time.

Her abyssal gaze shifted to Dun as he approached, and she gave a small tilt of her head at his words before saying, slowly, "I haven't done anything with my hair." And then, as if realizing the issue here, added: "you blind asshole."

She looked in front of her, to the small snowman in front of her. To call it a snowman, though, would be a disservice; it was something grander than that, the work of a true artist. It was coated in a bit of extra snow due to what was most likely a sudden coma, but the figure was unmistakable: a gigantic lizard stomping through a tiny village made of snow, shoveling tiny snowmen into its mouth.

Too bad Dun was blind.
(Eudocia Mimés)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[21:06] Dun would offer Eudocia a shit eating grin as he shrugged his shoulders innocently, as if he couldn't possibly be put to blame for such a gesture. The clown warlord would slap his plate lightly with an ambient cacophony of his black plate, the idle gale of the mountaintop an accompanying string chorus to the carefree tune.

"The blind asshole, thank you. The one and only, I can guarantee that while there might be warlords, clowns, and blind men on this continent, I am the only one that is all three. Heheheheh…"

The blind man would sigh lightly, perhaps even contently as he glanced over Eudocia's aura, visualizing to the best of his ability what she'd looked like before with surprising success. He was never great with faces, but then, few had held his attention quite so often as the black star witch.

He'd set his calloused palm down lightly upon the woman's shoulder, both to ground his senses (or lack there of), and because despite the parasitic quality of her touch to mana, he enjoyed being close to her.

"Besides, your hair could quite literally be sticking up in spikes of starfire, impaling small critters as their life force was siphoned away to glut your appetite for mana. I'd still think you were beautiful, I can see a lot more without my eyes."

The clown would gesture idly to what he presumed to be the work of snow architecture, whistling lightly to himself with mild revelation.

"...Though I see a lot less too. Were you....practicing making snow men? I'm...touched."
(Task)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[21:17] All Eudocia could really manage in response was a small grin; the only time she was ever able to muster anything more than that was in battle, and though Dun had likely never seen her in real combat before it always looked just a little bit off - like she was just pretending. She never bothered to pretend among friends.

"Unless another exists," she said, "Which may be an interesting journey. Finding one, I mean. So we can kill him to once again re-establish you as the one and only." The clown's touch supplied her with mana as it always did; complications from their mine trip, however, had made the massive burden on Dun's mana circuitry significantly worse than usual - and yet the mana actually returned to her was much, much smaller than usual.

If Dun's new 'vision' worked by seeing mana, Eudocia would be one of the smallest blips on the radar possible. Some things didn't change, however - her apathy and her grand ability to always, without fail, miss the point. "No, why would my hair do that?" she asked. "I have enough people willingly feeding me their mana now that feeding on animals like a peasant is beneath me. But-"

Her head tilted again. "These are not snowmen, strictly speaking, but yes. I am making sculptures out of snow. I don't usually make things, you see. It's an interesting exercise as a result."
(Eudocia Mimés)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[21:32] It was clear Dun wasn't bothered by Eudocia's eccentricities, perhaps in truth they were exactly why he was drawn close to her. He'd spent a lifetime pretending he was happy, pretending he was good, pretending he was normal...and bit by bit that façade had worn him down to the bone.

It would have killed him, eventually. If he hadn't found freedom in an offered dagger, and the promise of entertainment. How time flew.

"...Ahahahaha, yes, you're right! Just killing him would be too simple though, no, I must without a doubt defeat my doppleganger in all manners of trial to establish my blind clown dominance. Pie throwing, combat juggling, balloon fencing, and naturally a death match with rubber chickens. This is the way of things, after all."

The warlord was conscious of the increased sense of drain that could be felt from Eudocia's form, but this would not prompt him to release her shoulder as he smiled fondly at that small blip of mana that manifested about her. It was oddly fitting, all things considered.

Great things oft came in small packages.

In response to Eudocia's gravity of absorption, Dun would simply lean in close as he snapped his fingers, grunting briefly as with a bit of pointed effort, a brilliant blue shroud of ethereal, pulsating mana would manifest about his person. To the average on-looker, it would likely appear the same as the warlord's usual aura of mana. Yet, for one such as Eudocia, it would become apparent that the sheer density and tenacity of the gathered mana was far beyond Task's former limits. It was apparent he had reserves to spare, and to share in regards to the woman's needs.

If Eudocia was a tiny blip, Task was a solar flare.

He'd place a palm on his face as his fellow jester once more, with legendary ability, missed the point.

"You know Eudi, for being one of the brightest minds in the whole continent, the simplest things go over your head. It's part of your charm, I think. Adorably terrifying."

The clown would nod firmly, glancing at the sculptures of snow with a degree of confusion. This was where not having eyes would be difficult.

"I don't usually makes things either, and I can't see shit. Clearly that means the two of us will make a goddamn masterwork of snow. Stands the question though, any reason you don't usually make stuff?"
(Task)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[21:48] "And even then," she said, "I don't think any self-respecting clown would be upset to be bested in a rubber chicken duel. Like..." she trailed off for a moment, "It'd be the honorable thing. So there'd be no guilt. If that's a thing you'd feel, killing a fellow clown of renown." She gave a shrug at that; guilt was a nebulous thing, and when it came up it always confused her.

Eudocia's mana remained but a small blip, even as she kept siphoning the warlord's mana in dangerously massive quantities. Previous experience suggested her 'well' of mana should have been more than full by now, but the mere act of simply surviving was draining off almost as much as she brought in. It was no wonder she had one of her temporary deaths up on the mountain; the amount of mana she could take in up here wasn't nearly enough.

"Oh," she said with a small shake of her head, "But nothing goes over my head, not really. I think it's funny to act as if it does," she said, "Or it deflects. I have been told my style of communication is, sometimes, childish. That is when my growth stopped, I suppose, so it is altogether fitting."

She looked back to the scene she made with the snow again and let out the tiniest sigh, a hint of that odd... humanity shining through? Not that Dun could see it - just like he couldn't see when she had that exact same look when she talked about her mask.

"My nature is to destroy," she told him, "Or, more accurately, to consume. There's no room for creation there. You see? It'd be acting against my nature."
(Eudocia Mimés)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[22:04] "Clown honor....a rare and pungent vintage truly. Only an egocentric clown would find trouble with such an end, and in possessing the former, they weaken the mantle of the latter. Clowns are humble by nature for a reason; it is our place to question tradition, not create it."

Dun would nod steadily with a cheerful grin as he clicked his teeth, puffing away on his corncob pipe as his hollow eye sockets fell once more upon Eudocia. Even without his sight, there was a sense of contentment in settling his visage roughly upon where he perceived her to be, in no doubt aided by his contact with her shoulder in spite of the perpetual consumption of his own mana.

Though her gluttony for mana appeared to have only increased since their time in the tyrium mine, so to perhaps had the clown's tolerance for such things. He'd seen her lifeless upon the floor after the blob had severed her connection, and the only thought that had come to mind in that blind, frenetic moment of absolute fear was a revelation.

He did not care if he lived or died, and yet somewhere within the depths of his psyche, he was in that moment certain that, beyond all doubt and potential strife, he wanted her desperately to live.

Clowns were weird like that.

"Ohohoho, it's a good act then. An effective form of deflection for my flirtation, or at least it was until you showed your hand. Shall I respect the ruse of your cluelessness, or the depths of your intellect then?"

Dun would chuckle steadily, blowing a cloud of minty smoke up towards the distant horizon of Theria as his hollowed sockets fell upon the snow. Only rough outlines were apparent to him, a sort of mana echo-location with far less effectiveness, but he could at least see the product of her works through a filter of grain.

"Physically, sure, you might have stunted growth. But mentally? I don't buy it, don't think you do either. Just because we're carefree, like a bit of hyper activity, and actually have FUN, it doesn't mean we're kids. Just means other people are boring."

The clown would nod firmly, smiling as he raised his palm to the falling snow, gathering a bundle of flakes progressively into a clean mound before shaping it idly with his mana and calloused fingers, the snow crunching steadily until at last a questionably detailed flower would emergy from the man's palm, placed lightly with a gesture atop Eudocia's head as he returned his hold to her shoulder.

She might be draining, but something about being with her made the blind, half mad, certified clown warlord a bit more whole.

"And...I don't think that's true either Eudi. You wanna know what the best part about making a cake is? Eating it, knowing the quality of your handiwork as you destroy it. As long as you destroy what you create, there is a sense of balance isn't there? You can have the cake and eat it too."


(Task)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[22:18] She was much the same; life, death, it didn't much matter. Her philosophy that nothing actually mattered extended to herself, too - unlike so many other cult leaders and villainous ideologues, she actually lived by the things she said. She wasn't hypocritical; in many ways, she was one of Esshar's most trustworthy figures. Odd. Very, very odd.

In response to the first point, though, she only said: "Yes."

The mathematician's answer. Brilliant. A true 300 IQ play - nobody could ever hope to compete. She went on, though, not dwelling on the answer for too long - that was the joke, see, and letting it hang in the air much longer would've just made it dull. "No, no, that's the thing - like... when someone doesn't get to enjoy their childhood," she told him, lifting her hand up in a meaningless gesture, "They tend to be more childlike as adults. They make up for the lost time. That's what I mean."

She saw Dun's flower first, bringing one of her claws to brush up against it on her head, before her gaze returned to the giant-reptile-terrorizing-city sculpture, then realized what it was missing; in a moment her decaying hands were gathering up a suitably massive ball of snow. She finished it and held it aloft, chucking it down at her creation - a meteor striking the entire thing to wipe it all out. "I spent... much of my childhood in a hospital bed," she told him, "Clinging to life before I discovered that the only way to put sand into my hourglass was to take it away from others."

It was no big deal - but it was one of the more formative things that characterized her. "Balance, though - no, no. I don't believe in that sort of thing. When you consider my physiology," she said, "When you consider what I am - I don't think creation is typically in the cards. Does that make sense?"
(Eudocia Mimés)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[22:50] Dun would snicker in response to Eudocia's answer, shaking his head with genuine amusement as his missing toothed grin spread ear to ear at that. To both accept the façade, and yet to know dually that Eudocia understand everything he said, now that was an act worth contributing to.

Even if she played it off, she at least knew what he meant. That was enough.

"Mmm. Making up for lost time, huh? ...I don't much like telling this story, I'd tell most folks to fuck off if they asked. But...well, you're different Eudi. We're honest with each other."

The clown would take a long, thoughtful drag from his corncob pipe, blowing a pensive cloud of smoke up towards the distant horizon as he mulled over the past to himself for a brief time.

"...When I was a kid growing up in Sudsbury, I was the oldest of seven siblings. Most days, wasn't enough for everyone to eat, my ma and pa drank up most of what we had. I wentout to do odd jobs, anything to scrape a few coins together, anything...that could help my family, ya know? Back then, that was all that mattered to me. Being useful."

Dun would sigh deeply, his features dropping as he shut his empty sockets to take a deep breath, the harshness of the memory returning to him like a frigid tide.

"Must have been nine, ten at most, when one night I was walking through the slums to head back home to that noisy hovel, clinking together ten bits I'd gathered from a hard day's work of jobs. A coin here for shoe polish. A coin there for a sign holder. The works."

The clown would ash his corncob pipe, his grip tightening unconsciously upon Eudocia's shoulder as he leaned a bit closer, feeling all of the sudden far too cold in spite of their surroundings of snow.

"I'd almost made it back before they cornered me. Gang of bigger kids, three of them I'd reckon. They knocked out three of my teeth, blackened my eyes, and took all the coin I'd gotten. A city watchman found me, gave me some food, wiped up my nose, and told me chin up kid, things will get better."

The clown would frown.

"When I got home empty handed, my mom slapped me when she saw the cloak over my shoulders, tore it off of me. My dad saw I'd come home empty handed with no coin for his booze, and broke my nose then and there."

Dun would ball his free fist lightly, gritting his remaining teeth with a degree of emanating bitterness Eudocia could no doubt sense. It was obvious that despite the usual joviality of the clown, this memory filled him with nothing but malice.

"So I followed the watchmen around whenever he visited Sudsbury. He showed me the ropes, gave me food, and as the years passed, he said I could enlist with the constabulary for some coin, really help my family out. No matter how much they'd hurt me, I still just wanted....desperately to be useful. To be fondly regarded, I suppose."

The clown would flip a coin with his thumb, teeth gritting deeper and deeper as he recalled the moment that had changed his life.

"I came home with my first day's pay, a hundred coins. More than I'd ever had before. I was so excited, you know? So overjoyed to finally have something real to show them. I'd imagined it day and night, my parents would finally hug me tight and say they were proud, that I was finally doing my part for the family."

For a moment, the entire area grew colder. Though Dun had no eyes with which to stare, his glance appeared to portray nothing less than absolute murder.

"I walked in with the cloak, and my mother threw a bottle at my head. She screamed and screamed in repulsion, that one of her own would enforce the law. The screaming woke up my father in a rage, and before I knew it half my teeth were scattered upon the ground with thespilling coins, blood dripping over it all."

Taking a deep breathe, Dun would turn to Eudocia before offering a missing toothed smile, sighing lightly as he gestured idly in the air.

"Perhaps we were fated, then, to find the mirth of childhood in our adult pursuits together. We were both weak, once, and we're both strong now. That's what matters, not what anyone else thinks or says. We do what we want for a reason, and that freedom is worth fighting for, yeah?"

Dun would nod firmly, chuckling lightly as he watched the snow crumble down with a light sigh.

"You say it's not in the cards, I say fuck the cards. Fuck fate, fuck expectations, fuck regime, fuck standards. Fuck all of it. I see your physiology, and I don't see an impediment. I see a challenge for a brilliant mind capable of achieving anything she puts her wits too. One whose made and destroyed a snow castle, I might add."
(Task)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[23:05] The blackstar witch, still seated on the ground, pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them as Task spoke. What would have normally been endearing - maybe cute - still looked mildly unsettling. No matter what Eudocia did, she just looked off; she was, at the end of the day, a moving corpse. She wasn't undead, not quite, but the line was so blurred that such a claim could be called just semantics. Her expression never changed, other than a small quirk of her eyebrow. The mood change was noted, but the largely empty Eudocia didn't change to match it.

Then again - she probably matched it already. There was always something a little bit morose about her, no matter what she did. "It takes too much energy to be dishonest," she said quietly. "That's something people don't understand. But-" She gave a shake of her head. She couldn't understand Task's point of view, not really; she followed the story and understood the words, certainly, but she could not grasp why someone would just... accept things like that.

And she'd say so, of course.

"Well?" she asked. "Why didn't you just kill them? It's what I'd have done if my parents were awful people." She glanced to the ruined snow-village in front of her, one long finger reaching out to topple the last house left standing from the snowy meteor's devastation. "I was... not 'nobility' - that's for Osrona. But I was one of the most wealthy and privileged in my village," she told him, "And if not for my parents' love and efforts I'd be dead right now. They made the mask, you know."

...There it was again - that odd nostalgia, that odd sense of pain she never quite knew before.

"But if they were anything like yours, I wouldn't have hesitated to slaughter them. Did you kill them, eventually? If not, what stayed your hand?"

She paused.

"If not - want to?"
(Eudocia Mimés)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[23:25] Dun would at last take a proper seat beside Eudocia as his story was finished, huddling close beside the Blackstar witch in spite of her perpetual drain on his mana. Whether the idle suction on his mana pacified him to a degree, or whether he simply wanted to ensure that Eudocia didn't fall over dead on him spontaneously, it was unclear what the large clown's motivations were for getting close to her, even less when he set his calloused palm down upon her shoulder once more for support.

Perhaps, in this strange, eccentric manner the pair manifested, this was the nearest Task had gotten to real closeness in years, starved of warmth as he was.

"It's true, lies bore me unless they're grand and theatrical. Only one who possesses fear in their heart for reality deals largely in fiction, I find the truth oft brings out far more entertaining reactions from my quarry."

Though it was clear Dun's mood had dropped from the tale, Eudocia's voice eased its fall to a degree. It was difficult for the man to be unhappy around her, it had been this way since the day he'd first donned the mask and met one Jingle Jangle at the gala.

Even then, it felt as if she understood him.

The clown would stare into Eudocia's visage for a time, mulling over her words for a while as his jaw dropped, lightly. Yet, after a time, he'd begin to bark out in a genuine, merry cacophony of laughter that, all of the sudden, seemed to warm the surroundings with light as his shroud of mana sparked just a bit brighter.

"I didn't kill them then because I was too weak. Skin and bones...foolish and friendless. I did my best to forget about them...immersed myself in the constabulary and built myself up again as a new man. I forgot about that boy I was, shoved it away for years and years..."

The clown would crumple some snow in his palm, leaning lightly on Eudocia as he released a deep,tired sigh.

"Back then, I also considered the law sacred. I assumed if I held the mantle of justice tight to my bosom, it would free me of those chains that had bound my heart as a youth. But all it did was tighten them, add more burdens to bare while I stewed on the bile within..."

Dun would at last blink as he turned to Eudocia, clicking his teeth together thoughtfully once more as he couldn't help but smile. It was such a ….her thing to say, and yet in that way, it was the closest he'd received to genuine consolation and care on the matter.

"And since becoming a warlord, I have not revisited Osrona. Turned my back on it, did my best to forget about them...well, until today. I...I don't know why I didn't kill them Eudi. I genuinely don't. I don't think I have any good reason at all, not now."

The clown would blink lightly, though he had no eyes to blink.

"You'd....you'd accompany me to kill my parents? ...Why would you be willing to risk yourself for me like that, in the depths of Osrona? You're...worth a lot more than I am Eudi, you don't need to go out of your way for me..."
(Task)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[23:43] She was the perfect parasite - and with Dun nearby, she was completely and utterly in her element. Slowly but surely, her mana was actually coming close to topping off; it was depleting at a rapid rate, sure, but the perpetual supply of Dun's mana was doing a fantastic job of keeping her at maximum capacity for the time being.

She was never happym nit reakky. She was never unhappy, either - until recently. It was a deep sort of apathy, one not easily affected one way or the other. She never matched Dun's mirth, and she couldn't match his misery either - in many ways it may have made for a good 'anchor' to bring him back. Maybe it was that odd innocence of hers, too; she was unquestionably sinister, a villain through and through, but there was also that childlike bluntness - and the continued belief that the easiest solution was always the best one.

"While they were sleeping, then, maybe - that would've been the best time." She shrugged. "But I guess lawmen wouldn't see that option like I would. As far as diving into Osrona goes," she said, "I've hit the church before. You weren't there for that, right? I don't remember you being there - but it was a good time. Osrona just... isn't scary to me. Sudbury doesn't frighten me," she told him, "And it shouldn't frighten you, either."

She gave a thoughtful hum. "When you want to sever the chains of the past," she said, "And destroy all of the painful things, I'll go with you. You've done me a good turn - a few good turns - and, like any good devil, I do so enjoy exchanges."
(Eudocia Mimés)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[23:54] It was a macabre symbiosis, in truth. Dun had more energy than he could spare, his life was filled with absolutes of emotion he had difficulty at the best of times suppressing. Prone to excessive rage, overwhelming joy, crippling depression, and all the while holding himself together, it was oddly poignant, if in a grimly fascinating manner, that a parasite like Eudocia completed him.

With her, he was grounded. His energy was sapped, certainly, but with his excess, it almost allowed him to think clearly without the overwhelming...instability of his emotions. Where he was mirthful to her glumness, here she was coaxing him up from his misery. The duo act fit together like a nightmarish puzzle, something Dun was growing more fond of the strangeness of each and every passing day.

"Sleeping wouldn't be good enough....I wanna see the look in their eyes when they die. It can't be without fear, they have to see it coming....like I did them when they hurt me. They don't get the easy way out...."

Dun would think thoughtfully to the raid on the church, nodding steadily as he recalled it.

"Yes, I wasn't there, poor scheduling on my part. I don't fear Osrona, Eudi, I fear losing you. I fear having to live in a world after discovering you where I'd have to live on without your companionship, and for all that I am fearless of things, that prospect gives me pause. You mean a lot to me."

The clown would nod slowly, firmly as if with acceptance. She was right, after all.

"But you're right. If you're not afraid, I shouldn't be for you. Our combined might can take on anything that gets in our way, we'll make a bloody show of Sudsbury that night, pave the stone with the viscera of pretenders..."

Dun would rise from the snow at last, sighing as he accepted the end to a genuinely relaxing evening with the only woman that really got him. He offered hishand to Eudocia to help her rise, would she accept it.

"I guess we're in it together, then. When I break those chains, nothing will ever hold me back again. And we'll go wherever the winds of chaos take us, for better or worse. Still need to have that dance one of these days~"
(Task)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[23:56] Task says, "I don't....think of it as an exchange though. I don't expect things back when I help you Eudi..."
[23:56] Task says, "I do it because I believe in you."
[23:57] Task says, "No....that's wrong. Well, it's right, but not...not like that."
[23:58] Task says, "It's not blind zeal or anything."
[23:58] Task says, "Ugh...I'm awful at this. I do it cause you matter to me ya tiny DORK."
[23:59] Eudocia Mimés says, "These are not things I understand. If you take me, however, I- believe I may take a trip to my own home someday, too."
[23:59] Task says, "I'd like to come with you, when that time comes..."
[00:00] Task says, "If you'll have me."
[00:00] Task says, "And...sometimes you need to figure things out steadily before you understand them. Least, far as I've seen."
[00:01] Task says, "You show me things, maybe I'll show you them too."
[00:01] Task says, "Who knows. "
[00:02] Eudocia Mimés says, "...One step at a time. Sudbury first, in any case."
[00:02] Task says, "Yes, Sudsbury first."
[00:02] Eudocia Mimés says, "That Veles or whatever her name is aims to go after Messaris - a shame. That would've been an ample distraction."
[00:02] Task asks, "Now, I won't keep you any longer. You have enough energy to make it back?"
[00:02] Task asks, "And...yes, it would have. But perhaps more trouble for us will make it more fun?"
[00:03] Eudocia Mimés says, "By /far/."
[00:03] Eudocia Mimés says, "...But, in any case."