vatheon | Yes, it's me knocking at your door

Entry tags:

Yes, it's me knocking at your door

Who: Rinoa, Johnny, and Sola in the beginning
What: Johnny's hermit mode has gone on long enough. And Rinoa wants A Talk
Where: Johnny and Sola's home
When: Tonightish
Style: Going with brackets but I'll match you guys
Status: Closed

[Patience wasn't something Rinoa was fond of. Yet patient she had been, at least for a few days. She'd been hoping Johnny would come around, with more than an anonymous text. So she waited for him, checking her SFC often, hoping to see something from him.

Nothing. Quite frankly, now she was just fed up.

Since contacting him probably wouldn't work, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

And that's how she wound up in front of his door, pounding on it with barely contained fury.]

Johnny! Johnny, open up! We need to talk! And don't think for a minute I'm going to go away if you ignore me!

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[You couldn't stop me even if you tried.

It hurts because it's true. Because no matter how hard Sola had been trying, he can't protect Johnny if he keeps running and refuses to be protected. It hurts and he's angry that it hurts.]

So what if he owns you!? You'd come after me if Master Ganondorf took me ever so I'm not letting Barry take you! I don't care if he hurts me again because nothing he'd do would be worse than letting him take you so stop being an idiot right now!

[He doesn't cry, for once, but his fists are balled so tightly that his knuckles are practically white with the tension.]

[Golden eyes traveled from Rinoa's tear-stained face to Sola's angry one and then back down to the sheets he was perched on.

His head was buzzing...he honestly didn't know what to do or what to think.

This is why he'd never had friends. Barry only ripped them to shreds if he tried and they only got hurt because of him. He was a monster who got people hurt, so he stayed away..and then he'd come here and people had already been hurt because of him; people he would die for a thousand times over.

There was no other option! But...Rinoa would get hurt..and Rinoa knew Serph who knew Ky. Sola would get Fai and everything...everyone...he'd lose everything. And that seemed to be the outcome no matter what path he took.

-He stayed hiding, Barry would grow impatient and rip everything apart.
-He turned himself in, his friends had the potential of doing something stupid and being ripped apart.
-He gathered said friends and led them to the slaughter all in the hopes of replicating a near-impossible scenario

A scenario that had gotten him killed once already...who else would die if this happened?

The vampire's eyes prickled and he shut them, teeth clenching tightly. Still, he couldn't stop that foreign liquid from escaping past his eyelashes. Once the first one broke, there was no stopping the rest of them. He just...didn't know. Everything felt hopeless and he was completely useless in doing anything at all.

The walls were closing in around him, crushing him, and he felt small and insignificant beneath them.]

.......I-I'm sorry...

[Sorry he couldn't be the knight he had been, couldn't be the vampire lord he supposedly was, couldn't be the friend he'd hoped to be.

Sorry he couldn't protect the only things that really mattered to him.]

Edited 2012-12-10 06:35 (UTC)

[It was like instinct. The moment she saw the tears, she immediately threw herself forward and hugged him. Her arms were tight around him, like they could hold back the pain and despair that seemed to leak from him.]

Don't be. This isn't your fault. You... you're not the one who brought him here.

[They could not send him away, this much was true. But something had to be done.

It took everything she had to not let her own arms shake, to let him feel her worry. She would be strong for him, somehow. Because he deserved it, and needed it right now.]

He has to have a weakness. What can be done to stop him?

[Sola wants to do the same, to wrap his arms around his matesprit, to somehow make everything be alright. His chest aches, the feeling somehow far more painful than anything Barry had dealt him the day the demon had arrived. He knows he must be strong too, has to stand straight and stick to his convictions. And he'll fight again, he will, he'll face death for the man sitting huddled against Rinoa on the bed. Again and again if he has to, until Johnny is free.

He knows it's not what Johnny wants, but he can't let him fall into Barry's hands. He can't. He would honestly rather die.

He can just imagine the look on Johnny's face if he were to voice that and his stomach twists uncomfortably. So he stays silent, fists clenched, anger draining from his face into fear and worry and a helplessness he tries to fight but can't help but feel.

Yet he knows he'll fight regardless. They all will, because Johnny means something to each of them, is precious to each and every one of them, and they won't let him come to harm.]

[He felt like crying forever, but only spared himself a few minutes before shoving it all back down and corking it.

He didn't pull away from Rinoa, instead he almost melted against her, not minding that it was against what his mind was telling him to do--who cared?

But, at her question, he shook his head. Of course there was, there's a way to stop just about everything except God and the Devil...but it didn't matter.]

I can't tell you...and before you get at me about being difficult- I mean it: I can't tell you.

I wasn't just being dramatic when I said Barry owns me.

[That small, humorless, smile that so often accompanied self-degrading comments the vampire made re-purposed itself for the moment and held the company of an equally humorless laugh.]

It really is hopeless.

[Her heart sank at that. But it made sense. If Johnny could tell them or do it himself, he likely would have done so by now, instead of hiding. This was going to be a lot more difficult than she realized.

But it didn't matter. Some way or another, Barry was going to be stopped.]

It's not hopeless. Just... a little harder. Is there anything you can tell us about him, something that might help?

[The wheels in her mind were already churning, trying to come up with solutions. She knew nothing about incubus or vampires - save for the one week she was one - or any of that. But perhaps someone else did.]

You said he was an... incubus? What is that exactly?

[Suddenly, she looked over her shoulder at Sola.]

You confronted him at one point, right? Or at least you met him. Did you notice anything?

[Rinoa's question startles Sola out of his thoughts and he blinks a few times at her before he's able to process the question.

He wishes she hadn't asked it. He'd avoided telling Johnny much of anything of the encounter other than to say he'd successfully kept Barry away - as much good as it had done considering the demon had invaded their home not long after regardless - and remained intact. He'd left out the part where he'd had to drink several potions and spend a good long time at the coral to even be able to make it home.]

He-...

[...you're not as important as you think.]

He can look a-and sound like someone else.

[He'd worn Johnny's face.

Do you really think I could love someone like you?

Sola suddenly finds his feet to be the most interesting things in the room, voice barely audible.]

...he's really good at it...

An incubus is like a vampire, except it feeds off sex instead of blood.

[Small>[Johnny was thinking about elaborating...but Sola's response froze the blood in his veins.

He wasn't stupid. He knew Barry and he knew Sola's mannerisms...he could already work out what had happened. Barry had used Johnny's image to hurt Sola.

The memory of Barry taking on Chris' appearance while he ripped into Johnny and took what he wanted of the vampire flashed in his mind and he felt sick.

Why hadn't he thought of that before? Barry could, literally, use him to hurt his family.

It was almost enough to make him initiate his idea right now.

Quietly, he reached out and took Sola's hand. He wanted to ask, but just because Johnny was comfortable with spilling his guts to Rinoa didn't mean Sola was, he'd wait.]

[It didn't take much for Rinoa to piece it together, either. Perhaps not as fully as Johnny, but she had an idea of what had happened. And she knew Sola had been hurt...]

Sola...

[This was not the time nor place to push that matter. And if he didn't want to talk now, she would be okay with it. Not that she didn't want to know, to help, but... there was a time and place for everything.]

I didn't mean to - I just, hoped you knew something.

[Sola and Johnny had been hurt. More would be hurt before this was over. Which is why she wants to move quickly. At heart, she's already resigned herself to the fact that she'll likely be hurt in some way as well. Emotionally or physically. Maybe even both. But so be it.]

So he can disguise himself. And he feeds off of... sex. I guess castrating him is out of the question...

[It's meant sort of as a joke. A bad one, but one nonetheless.]

I can start asking around, see if anyone knows anything about dealing with his kind. Someone has to know something.

[His smaller fingers threaded between Johnny's piano-long digits make Sola feel a little more at ease, a little less afraid. So Barry had said some things. They're just words. They weren't true. At least he can tell himself that right now and believe it, with his hand in his matesprit's.

He'd rather endure all the physical torture imaginable then hear those words in earnest.

Speaking of words however, Rinoa just used one he's not familiar with.]

What does castrating mean?

[Does it hurt? If it hurts, they should totally do that to Barry.]

[The castration comment actually gets a laugh out of him.]

Trust me, I wish. Sadly, they'd just grow back.

[Sola's question catches his attention and, if it were any other time, he might have been more gentle with his explanation-]

Castration is cutting off a guy's balls.

[-And then his attention was back on Rinoa.]

The less people know...the less involved, the better.

[Oh, right. Sola's sort of like the Embryon, in that many things were unknown to him. Whoops.]

It was... kind of a joke, Sola. He might deserve it, but I don't think I'd want to try that.

[She's never even seen a penis. She'd rather not make her first time with the intent of cutting them off.

Rinoa shakes her head at Johnny. He's not the only stubborn one here.]

I'm at least going to ask the Embryon. The Defense Force should know that Barry is dangerous, too, although I'll leave that up to Serph.

[She WILL tell him, no matter what Johnny says. Her family needs to know, especially since a few of them know Johnny.]

[The replica falls silent again, ear twitching uncomfortably at the very idea of someone cutting off that very sensitive piece of anatomy. After a moment Sola finds himself slipping onto the bed and leaning into his matesprit's side just a little as he listens to him and Rinoa talk back and forth.]

[Johnny was silent, keeping a hold of Sola even as the younger man leaned against him. Everything was slipping out of his hands.

Numbly, he nodded. He couldn't argue that people needed to be warned about Barry. He just wished it wouldn't lead to what he was imagining.]

Okay..

Johnny, don't worry. We got a lot of tough people here.

[With a heavy smile, Rinoa reaches over and cups his face.]

I won't let anyone go on some massive manhunt for him or something, okay? For now it's just a heads up and trying to get some ideas. Like I said, I'm sure someone knows something.

[He leans into the hand, bringing a hand up to hers, eyes averted to the sheets.]

I hope so. And...yeah, no manhunts. It'll just end badly.

Just promise you'll keep yourself safe.

[He squeezed Sola's hand, almost assuring himself he was still there. It was hard enough trying ~~and failing~~ to protect the people he lived with.]

[Sola simply burrows closer into Johnny's side. He can tell Johnny is tired, beyond upset. He's making that face Sola hates to see and makes his own chest painfully tight. He has to do something to help, has to, or else what good is he?]

I won't let anything happen to Rinoa either, okay?

We'll all protect each other. Sola will protect me, and I'll protect him. And all of us will protect you.

[Because that's how it's supposed to be.]

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Yes, it's me knocking at your door

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