Introducing: Mercutio

[bymyheelies]

Mercutio is lying on a very plush couch. It is not where he was, that is clear enough. This is nothing like a tavern, certainly nothing at all like Verona. Even the lights are strange-looking, not flickering or dancing like flame. Is it some kind of faerie-land? Without doubt, it is not any sort of heaven or hell he has read of, though he knows well he should be dead. The lingering blood on his extremely thin, gauzy shirt is proof enough of that. Strangely, he is no longer bleeding, but that only makes it easier to rise from his bed and proceed to look about the room.

Eventually, he makes his way through the house, poking in various rooms until he finds his way to the main foyer. He opens the door and stands in the entrance, examining the gardens and forest beyond; before deciding that it is unreasonably cold outside. There's more proof, then, that this is not Verona, it had been the middle of summer when he had been fighting Tybalt. He shrugs, and proceeds to rifle through the papers at the table, not exactly reading or retaining anything on them. Clearly there are inhabitants, but he hasn't seen any of them yet. A queer faerie-land, indeed.

Comments

[bymyheelies]

"Oh --dull, for the most part. Unless blood is running hot 'tween the Montagues and Capulets."

[ninth_cavalier]

"If you want dull, try living on a desolate rock with nobody but like 200 nuns and a fuckton of skeletons," says Gideon. "Who are the Montagues and Capulets?"

[bymyheelies]

"That does sound dull," he says solemnly, tilting back in his chair some. "They are two families of Verona, alike in dignity and wealth, and yet they feud over the smallest things. My friend -- Romeo, he is a Montague, and the one that slew me, he is a Capulet."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon raises her eyebrows. So other places do have Houses like she's used to, though it sounds incredibly cramped. "Two Houses trying to run the same city? No wonder they're squabbling all the time. Why doesn't one of them leave?"

[bymyheelies]

He shrugs. “They do not want to, I would imagine? I am not of either one; so it matters little to me.”

[ninth_cavalier]

"Fair enough," says Gideon. "I guess I just don't understand being locked in a war like that if you can just leave." Being locked in an eternal war with someone when you can't leave, specifically with the person not letting you leave—now that, she gets.

[bymyheelies]

"It is their home," he says. "And perhaps it is tradition? I do not know."

[ninth_cavalier]

"You don't seem too pissed that their tradition got you killed," remarks Gideon.

[bymyheelies]

"O, I cursed them roundly when I knew I was a grave man," he replies, shrugging. "I can do little else, here."

[ninth_cavalier]

"Some of us are trying to find a way out," Gideon confides, meaning mostly herself and Tress. "Maybe you can go back and haunt the shit out of him."

[bymyheelies]

He laughs and leans back a little further in his chair, teetering on the back edges. "Ay, so I could! That might be fun."

[ninth_cavalier]

"What would you do, if you were a ghost?"

[bymyheelies]

"Oh, certainly haunt Tybalt. Also Benvolio, but in a friendly sort of way. Perhaps I might even go to Rome and haunt the Pope. If one might travel that far, of course."

[ninth_cavalier]

"What's the Pope?"

[bymyheelies]

"Oh. Ah...." He considers this for a moment, how to explain to it all to a young lady from a very different time and place from his own. "The -- head of the Church? He doth not live in Rome, but very near to it; and leads priests and cardinals and such and makes the rules and laws they abide by." It's complicated. But, he hopes, that was a good attempt at breaking it down simply.

[ninth_cavalier]

"Gotcha." There was no real centralized head of the Church of the Emperor Undying, except, well, the Emperor Himself, but Gideon's getting the sense that a lot of people's Earth gods aren't just guys you could ostensibly talk to if you ended up on His spaceship. "And you want to haunt the guy? Not a fan of the church?"

[bymyheelies]

He shrugs. "I just thought it might be fun."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon considers this. "I do have a pretty good time bullying the angel here."

[bymyheelies]

"Oh?" He grins, all mischief now. "What hast thou done with him?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"Mostly needled him about his boyfriend's useless dick, which was more fun before he was his actual boyfriend," muses Gideon. "I should really step up my game. Any suggestions?"

[bymyheelies]

"Mm." He taps his chin thoughtfully. "I shall think on it, but I've nothing at the moment."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon nods, and pushes herself off the counter. "Keep me updated," she says. "Enjoy your eternal stay." She gives him a little salute, and wanders away.