No time for better words

[lord_wizard]

Who: Felix Harrowgate and OPEN
What: A Chimera meeting turns into disaster when some people’s stains begin to manifest
When: Afternoon of today, 4/13
Where: Chimera HQ, room 1919 of Gaudium tower
Rating: Probably pg-13 for mild gore
Notes:Open mostly to Chimera members or any people with magic, though curious interlopers are welcome. Felix’s stains will manifest near the end. You may have your character do so around the same time, at your option. Threadjacking encouraged. Please wait for sections.

It’s noon and all the doors opening onto the Chimera lobby are thrown wide open to let in the sunlight. For those of those familiar with the space, the large chandelier that used to hang in the center is still missing, having not yet been replaced after the damage from the earthquake.
The adjacent office has been rearranged to seat multiple people, and a cursory attempt at hospitality has been made, in the form of a desk covered in drinks (juice, tea, and sparkling wine) and snacks.

Felix himself is near the back end of the room, like a king of a very small court, though he wouldn’t exactly encourage the comparison. He’s picked up a slightly unfamiliar shadow in the form of his brother, but otherwise everything appears to be business as usual.

MINGLING/ARRIVAL | MEETING | STAINS

Comments

[lord_wizard]

"What?" he says, frowning. There isn't much for reflective surfaces, but the polished silver of the tea service makes for a decent replacement. He strides across the room and bends to get a look, unwittingly giving everyone in the room a full view of his back as the dark lines continues to etch themselves over it. The shadow of chain breaks when he moves but immediately starts to reform as he stops again.

All he sees for the moment is his lips. It's much more subtle than Phoebe's and difficult to interpret easily, so he at first seems more annoyed. "Oh, what now...?"

[kungfuwitch]

Phoebe gasps, clapping a hand over her mouth when she sees the lines across his back. Okay. Yeah. She could probably have been more tactful than that but HOLY CRAP.

Standing, she walks over to him, putting herself between him and the rest of the room as she quietly adds, "It's not just on your face."

[lord_wizard]

It's probably an excusable reaction. Even darkened, as the lines makes themselves known, they are in mass, all different directions and lengths, crossing over each other, from shoulders and all the way down to the tops of his thighs.

He stops and turns to her, frowning deeper, but carrying a trace of anxiety.

"Tell me."

[kungfuwitch]

She hesitates, not wanting to say the words. It just all seems too cruel. She bites her lip, frowning as she tries to find the right words to describe the horror show that his back is becoming.

"It's... it's..." She pauses, mouth opening and closing a couple of times before she finally says, "Lines. Lines that look like they were made by..." her voice trails off, eyes filled with sadness as she finds herself unable to finish that sentence.

[lord_wizard]

He doesn't need her to say the word of course. He almost says it himself - a whip. The scars he hid from nearly everyone. After all, what respectable nobleman had those kinds of marks?

Felix's shoulders hunch in horror and goes to raise his hands to his face and pauses midway. There's stains on his hands now too. Blood and dirt covering his palms that certainly wasn't there a moment ago.

"Oh my god..."

[kungfuwitch]

Phoebe lifts her hands to gently grasp his shoulders, trying to avoid the lines crossing his back. She might not be able to completely hide him from view of the rest of the room but she can do what she can to keep him at least partially covered.

Giving his shoulders a squeeze she lets go to pull her black jacket off and gently places it over his shoulders. It won't stop the stains from bleeding through but at the very least they'll be harder to spot. She'd do magic to cover them but the same magic hadn't worked on her so she has a feeling it would be pointless to try.

"Do you need help getting out of here?"