by Endesu » Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:55 am
He had no doubt that the irritating man would not be returning anytime soon, but he remained in his position at the blackboard. He most certainly did not want to return to his seat, make himself comfortable, and find himself forced to deal with an unwanted guest once again. He was aware of the existential absurdity of waiting for time to pass in a space where such things did not exist... but no matter. It was the principle of thing. There was no sense in second guessing his actions at this point. If he intended to stand and wait like a fool, he was damn well going to do as much of it as he liked.
Once he was satisfied with the amount of (non-existent) time spent on this one player waiting game, he finally allowed himself to return to the table he had been sitting at previously. With nary a flicker of hesitation, a bottle of spirits was hefted into the air. A portion of its contents were poured into a waiting glass receptacle, and the contents were downed. This action repeated itself once... twice... thrice. He had room for more, to be sure, but he had discovered an unfortunate side effect by way of a bit too much of this solo imbibery...
"Astrynax, Astrynax, Astrynax... haven't I warned you before not to drink in excess? Your mind and soul can still be poisoned in place of your body, after all."
He sighed. Naturally enough, here she was. Somehow, his miserable drinking habits had brought about... hallucinations? Alcohol-induced daydreams? Whatever the case, his poisonous habit was capable of conjuring up an imaginary Enlil to harangue him over his current failings. Never in a particularly harsh way, mind, but in that well-meaning, almost-but-not-quite-passive-aggressive tone she had been capable of weaponizing. A silver tongue that could wound its target better than any physical weapon or spell...
"You'll excuse me if I don't take your advice to heart, Enlil." He always responded readily enough, in spite of knowing how pointless such an action was. He never cared to think about the how and why of it, but his own personal loneliness was an obvious factor. That and as irritating as her insistent moralizing always tended to be, she had been one of the people he earnestly respected. He was, ultimately, incapable of ignoring her words, imaginary or otherwise. "I don't really have much else to spend my time on beyond poring over the same old forbidden tomes. A bit of liquor always did help when it came to dealing with accursed knowledge."
From her seat opposite his, she gave him a mildly patronizing glance before sighing and shaking her head. "You say that, but it's not as if you're short on tea to drink. Your enclosed space holds more than books. The only thing keeping you locked into this cycle is your own personal desire to not move beyond it. We both know you're capable of doing better."
Astrynax scoffed. "It's easy for you to say that. You've always been the moral paragon. Acting above vice was second nature to somebody like you. I know you're not trying to peer down upon me too condescendingly from your ivory tower of virtue, but..."
Before the mage could go off on a caustic spiel, the hallucinatory celestial held up a hand to shush him. She sighed. "Please calm yourself. I am not here to start an argument with you over something like this. Astrynax... I know you are lonely. I know you are filling the void in whatever way you can manage. You think me to be nothing but a creation of your inebriated mind, but... I am far more real than you think. I've come to give you some solace after so many years of isolation. Company. A new direction. All you need to do..."
Her hand opened up and extended towards him. "... is take my hand. You can leave this place behind, and return to a path of spiritual healing. I will be there with you, my friend."
Something stirred within Astrynax's heart, and it was with no hesitation that he seized her hand... and almost immediately regretted what he had done. Far too late, he realized that none of his previous hallucinations had attempted to physically interact with him. They had remained as obvious figments of his alcohol-addled imagination... this one, however, had a physical hold on him. An all too real sensation... and the reasoning for this became clear as 'Enlil' sloughed off its fake skin. A girl barely half his height had taken her place. A ludicrous-looking child with pale skin, red highlights, and a flowing robe that was clearly far too big for her. By all rights, this should have been a sight of mockery... but something within this child was off. There was no humanity to be found within the shell in front of him. Something much more monstrous raged there instead, and merely beholding it was enough to terrify him.
So it was that his immediate reaction was to pull up a technique he hadn't considered in nigh-on a decade.
***
The girl knew she was alone, so she allowed herself to stomp on the floor. Stomp, stomp, stomp. She wasn't trying to create a hole or anything... she just wanted to let some of her frustration out. That was where everything had gone wrong. The mage had blown himself up. She had been caught offguard by such a stupid move, and while it hadn't hurt her, it blinded her long enough to give that bastard a chance to escape.
Now he was gone, and she had no idea as to where. This was what she had wanted, sure... she didn't want any of this to be too easy for her... but something about how this had turned out did not sit well with her. She stomped a bit more, knocked over a random bookshelf, and finally tracked down an extra copy of that mage's robe, tearing it to pieces with her bare hands. For a moment she remained standing there, glaring at the tattered remnants of red cloth... before she sighed and shrugged. "Fine. FINE. I've got other things to do anyway."
She disappeared from the ruined space, leaving silence in her wake.