thebadnews | psl | percy + caleb

KILL THE PAST

[After the business with the Briarwoods, all Percy wants to do is put as much distance between himself and Whitestone as possible. At least he is assured by Cassandra that the city is safe in her very capable hands, so he feels less terrible about departing. It's not nearly as bad as leaving Vox Machina behind with nothing more than a goodbye note. He knows that if he had to face them in person to tell them that he wants to leave, he will never be able to do so.

And he needs to leave. The Briarwoods may be as good as dead, their plan thwarted, but Ripley got away. He has to be better, stronger, smarter. And even though Orthax no longer has any power over him, Percy still fears of what could happen if he loses control again. He hurt his friends and he needs to ensure nothing of that nature happens again. Not to mention, if his paths should ever cross Ripley's unintentionally, he would rather not let his friends get caught in the crossfire. Again. This is his business, they need not be involved.

He isn't sure how long it took him to get to Rexxentrum, or how the idea came to him to venture here in the first place. What he does know is that it's far away from Whitestone and has at least one place he can visit to seek out more knowledge. The problem, of course, is that the city is a lot larger than he anticipated and he has no idea where to even begin to ask for assistance. After wandering around aimlessly for what feels like an hour, he finds himself in the Shimmer Ward. It feels strange to think that now with Whitestone back under the care of his lineage, he technically does have a place with the nobler folk, yet he still can't shake all those years he's spent with barely a coin to his name.

Finding a place to stay for the long haul seems like a good idea, and so he starts looking around for an inn, or any place with rooms available for rent. Paying more attention to the signs on each buildings than where he is going, it's only a matter of time before he ends up either colliding with someone or tripping over his own two feet.]

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[The sudden appearance of the tabby cat takes Percy by surprise, and he jumps back with a yelp. When he recognizes it as a cat - at least by its initial appearance - he relaxes a little, though shoots Caleb an inquisitive glance, curious as to how he managed to sneak such a creature inside the inn without anyone noticing.

A beat passes before Percy realizes that Caleb is asking him about his weapon design and so he remembers the point of this secretive meeting and returns to the matter at hand.]

It's a ranged weapon. You load it with bullets and gunpowder, and when you press the trigger, it creates a sort of chain reaction so that the bullet is fired out of the barrel with such speed that it lodges itself into its target.

[He realizes he probably is not making any kind of sense, but a proper demonstration would be a bit difficult to do here in this room.]

[He looks over the plans while stroking that cat's head and down its spine, free hand to his chin in thought. It's interesting. New. All mechanical and not magical in the least. Not Caleb's expertise at all.]

The potential to be quite damaging.

[Percy takes it as a win when Caleb doesn't make an excuse to leave, or immediately try to talk him out of this. He knows it's crazy, to want to make something even more dangerous than before.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, apparently.[

Very. That may be the point.

[The List might be destroyed, Orthax might not technically have a hold on him anymore, but he feels like there's still a cloud around his heart, like a hand is still clenched around him, pulling the strings. Or maybe the darkness had been within him all along and Orthax merely gave him a push.]

psl | percy + caleb

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sorry about the delay, life happened

absolutely no problem, i hope everything is okay!