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Tweak says, "Well excuuuuuuse me, princess!"

Bellum Anon (bellum_anon) wrote in bellumlogs,
@ 2010-05-18 10:00:00

Entry tags:

beast, black forest witch, javert, plot: riddles

Group H: Baba Yaga, Javert, Black Forest Witch, The Beast

The plaque on the wall says:

On this group of lovers four,
Fate has come and closed the door.
The wedding bells chime times two,
One chime for each two of you.
Obsessions all, obsessions one,
Share yours before the hour is done.
Should your confessions truthful be,
The wedding feast shall come to thee.
The confessionals are in the rear,
Go forth, if you have naught to fear.

One more caveat for you lot:
A double wedding this is not,
It's up to you who ties the knot.

The room resembles a bright, airy church, and the four people within it are dressed for a wedding. The pews are filled with faceless party guests, and while there is no ancient mariner who stops one of three, there is a cleric at the altar in black robes, which waits for them. Should all four approach the altar, they will be ignored and the cleric will not begin the service - nothing will happen.

The women are dressed as brides and the men as grooms. Any attempt to leave the church will result in entering the church again, over and over, ad infinitum.

1. All four guests must share their main, primary obsession in life in the confessionals - one in the role of the confessor, the other as the person confessing.
2. Lying will cause the cleric to continue to ignore everyone present when they approach the altar.
3. Once all four parties 'confess,' the wedding march will begin.
4. Two members must play the part of the bride and groom, while the other two must play the part of the maid of honor and best man.
5. Once the service ends, assuming the requisite kiss is given, the doors (located at the back of the main church aisle, open.

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labete
2010-05-22 06:33 am UTC (link)

Daniel sighed again, a sound more of frustration than capitulation. "I hate this," he said, clearly in an attempt to meet the request. Something instinctive kept his voice down, and his voice was now a fatigued, thick sound from the bottom of his chest. "This... being forced to talk about things. It's like what happens on the moon." He tucked his chin down in his chest, and by the sound of his breathing and the cast of his shadow, he was slumped into the corner of screen and booth.

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redhorse_tea
2010-05-22 06:50 pm UTC (link)

Well, she supposed there was nothing to do about the fact. She wrapped an arm around her waist, quietly watching the confessionals but not thinking on them in the least. "It is, I think, very little of our concern," Katya said softly, for as far as she was concerned, it wasn't anything to do with them. Or, better yet, anything to do with her. "Perhaps, though, you should be telling this friend of yours," she suggested. She wouldn't want to find herself in such a situation.

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sentinelstar
2010-05-22 06:54 pm UTC (link)

He watched the booth as well, a frown staying on his face. "Perhaps, if he doesn't." At this point, Luther didn't trust the man - simply because he wouldn't trust him. This betrayal towards Ella was too much as well, after she'd been put in such a fragil position. Sighing, he offered Katya his arm. "This might take awhile. Should we sit over there?" He motioned towards the pews at the front of the church.

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shebringscurses
2010-05-23 09:40 am UTC (link)

"So don't talk," she offered. Her voice was a low promise, whispered against the very screen of the confessional. Something that vibrated even with her low tone. She was there, she was close. She was just on the other side, close enough to be real or just part of his imagination. She swallowed, but it held an audible sound, and even that seemed to stretch the silence on.

"We can just sit in this dream, right now, forever." Who cared about the plaque? Who cared if this was real?

She sighed, her breath was warm and vanilla against the shaded pane. She didn't mind Daniel's silence. She ran her cheek against the panel with a loose exhale, relishing the comfort that came from their separation, but their same prison.

Finally, after so many beats of the heart, she said. "The reason I came back, the reason I'm here.. is you." Obsession? What obsession? She conveniently kept that word out of the conversation entirely.

"I just.. had.. to see you. Talk to you, it's all I could think about. I feel like.. I never said goodbye?" Even if she was trying to find Jane's voice, it was Vaughn's heart spilling the words.

"There was a lot I never said, and never wanted to, and.. you don't have to say anything right now. I just.. like talking in the dark."

And it was dark. The confessional was a haven of shadow, she enjoyed it and tilted her cheek against the side with a murmur of nothing at all.

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labete
2010-05-24 12:14 am UTC (link)

Daniel was never one for dreams of forever. It just wasn't in his nature to think positively, to get lost in the potential of present or past. He was a writer, yes, of fiction, and sometimes of strange fancies, but he never thought of himself as part of one. He listened to the things Jane said, the sounds she made when she wasn't speaking, and it hurt when he realized he'd never known what those sounded like before, not really. They just hadn't been together long enough--it had been letters and rushed moments and a lot of pain.

A short silence followed her speech.

"Jane, I--" he stopped, and tried to fight a blank slate. "Strange things have happened since you've been gone, and..." How was he supposed to explain the obligations he had, obligations to a woman she had never heard of, because of things she wouldn't understand? "I have to take care of someone else now. I want to be with you, at least long enough to find where we are--" (he thought of where she might have been, where he had been) "--but she needs me." A breath. "Do you understand?"

Maybe she wouldn't. Maybe he didn't. Daniel didn't think of intimacy and caring on the same wavelength. He could lose himself in Ain and care about Jane and still want Ella happy and safe. It made him a strange kind of coward.

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shebringscurses
2010-05-24 12:40 am UTC (link)

I have to take care of someone else now.

Had he ever taken care of her? Had he ever taken care of the real Jane? Vaughn did not think so, she would have known if he'd had the woman living with him. She would have known if it was anything more than too-little-too-late. He had not been taking care of Jane, Vaughn remembered that he'd been sleeping with the brat slut at that time. She thought on all of this, and now there was very little movement or noise from her side of the confessional. It was like she wasn't even there at all. She might as well have turned into a ghost, some part of her felt like one.

How long had they been in this confessional? The silences that begged between them were agonizing, they were entire lifetimes, she felt herself die and rise again during every minute that they both failed to speak.

And then, finally.. "I wasn't asking you for.." She was not sure of the words, she was balancing on somebody else's hurt. Someone she'd never known, but could imagine from some of the details in Boyd's diary, the things Boyd had told her. Jane had been a woman hurt, hurt so deeply she could not even live in the building anymore.

"I told you that you didn't have to say anything.." Her voice broke then, like so much delicate crystal that met with the brick wall of his honesty. But the sound was muffled, and if Daniel was good enough at lying to himself, he might even believe that she wasn't close to crying.

Abruptly, the confessional door shuddered with the snap of her wordless exit. She left him without a goodbye, and returned to the bright hell of the church. She did not raise her eyes to the other two who were imprisoned in this scenario.

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redhorse_tea
2010-05-24 01:09 am UTC (link)

They had just settled on the end of a pew, she and Luther, when Jane came from the confessional. Katya watched the other woman walk toward them, but she didn’t raise her head. She noticed a sort of depression about Jane, and she frowned. She wasn’t really curious as to what may have been said. It didn’t concern her, so she had no reason to wonder after it. Daniel was out a moment later, and he, too, looked depressed.

When they were all together, a conversation regarding who ought to marry was begun. There was fighting, and it became apparent quickly that Jane wasn’t marrying Luther, and Katya wasn’t marrying Daniel. Neither were Jane and Daniel willing to marry. Katya, unwilling to endure the awkward feelings that would follow should she propose herself married to Luther, suggested she and Jane wed. That was dismissed equally quickly.

Thus Katya found herself standing at the altar with Luther. The priest directing the ceremony had placed their hands together, and Katya stood there, eyes slightly wider than usual, trying not to shake. She told herself this wasn’t a real wedding, thus she should not have nerves, but the thought of marrying someone, even in pretense, to whom she was already attracted was horrifying at best. She was cold all over, goosebumps prickling her skin. She thought she might vomit. So she kept her mouth closed, a polite smile on her face, and she suspected she looked like a fool.

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sentinelstar
2010-05-24 01:44 am UTC (link)

Logical reasoning had pointed out this was the only option, but Luther remained uneasy as he was at the altar with Katya. There wasn't any other option and at least, he knew Katya. He'd been awkward about her - he trusted her somewhat, unlike Daniel and Jane.

It didn't prevent his hands from shaking or stop him from glaring at the priest every now and then. Luther could barely hide his own emotions, feeling only more antsy when he realized Katya's hands were as cold as his were and her skin was raised with bumps. Really, the dress gave him far too much of a view of that.

The words and vows were gone through quickly and though he had to, Luther struggled to meet Katya's eyes. He wasn't a fan of lying, but making vows that were considered the most important a man could make made him uneasy. He didn't want to promise something he didn't intend to hold his word to; it wasn't his style. Fortunately they were brief, not as bad as a few weddings he sat in on and his eyes darted to Daniel and Jane, before the priest gave the announcement to kiss the bride.

The look that crossed his face was of near horror. He'd forgotten that, he didn't sign up for that, and Katya was supposed to be just a friend. He looked to the priest, questioning, then back to Katya before swallowing. His mouth tightened into a thin line before his right hand moved to the back of her head. There was a small, muttered forgive me, before he kissed her.

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shebringscurses
2010-05-24 01:53 am UTC (link)

Despite her initially fallen expression, Jane was difficult to read when she stepped nearer to the wedding as it began to proceed. The deep fawn of her eyes was dry, but a little distant as the vows began to be spoken. Vaughn had been married before, and found that this ceremony was thankfully moving a great deal faster than her's had. The four of them would hopefully be out of this church in the next few minutes.

In distraction, she ran her hands down the pale satin of her gown, watching the peach of her fingers against all of that white. I DO's were exchanged, and finally her eyes lifted toward Daniel. A single look, impossible to read aside from the fact that her brows were drawn into a contemplative knit. But he was not looking at her, and Jane's attention fell back to the dress.

She missed the kiss, not that it mattered much to her. Nothing seemed to. Not even when the doors of the church peeled magically open after the strangers' kiss had completed, the woman barely stirred.

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labete
2010-05-24 02:04 am UTC (link)

Daniel didn't even have the energy to be grateful to either Luther or Katya for going through with the marriage in their place. He couldn't look at Jane, but he didn't really have to--his mind painted a vivid memory of how much pain he caused her anytime he got near, and the refresher of her soft voice and her hand in his was all it took to bring that back. During the minutes before the door opened, he stared off into space at the candles behind the altar until they were spots of hard yellow light among splotches of mahogany and blood red. The doorway off to one side changed, depicting the building lobby with such clarity it could only be real.

Daniel moved one step to the side, and without thinking he gently slid his arm under Jane's and led her out into the lobby like a proper groomsman, releasing her when they were clear of the door and vaguely looking back for the others, silent in his distraction.

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redhorse_tea
2010-05-24 02:19 am UTC (link)

Forgive him indeed. Katya had half a mind to pull away, but then she felt quite overwhelmed. Maybe it was the dress. Maybe it was the cathedral, odd though it was. Maybe it was something else entirely. But instead of pulling away, Katya set one hand on Luther's cheek. The other she tangled in the short hairs at the nape of his neck. She shifted closer, lifting herself on her toes to make the kiss easier.

Her lips parted under his, and somewhere in the back of her mind, Katya mused that it had been a very long time since she had last kissed someone. The hand on Luther's shoulder slid around his neck, and she found herself holding him close. His kiss was sweet, his body warm, and she felt the nerves that had accompanied her at the wedding ceremony gone entirely.

It didn't matter to her that this was false. It didn't matter that it was all a charade. None of that mattered, because here was a man who knew she was a fortune-teller, who knew she was odd and strange, and kissed her anyway. In her red slippers, her toes curled with delight.

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sentinelstar
2010-05-24 02:32 am UTC (link)

Katya's response surprised him, but he found himself swept up by it. The last time he'd kissed a woman, it had been routine - the regularity of an old relationship barely hanging together. She'd left in the end, unable to deal with him and what mattered to him, with barely a good-bye.

She felt different. Warmer, more vibrant, and unpredictable - the fact that her mouth opened was proof enough of that. The kiss was suddenly something that was hardly something to apologize for, more passionate and he moved closer. The hand behind her head got lost in her hair, more than likely messing her up do as he pulled her closer - the loose hand from before going to the bare small of her back. His mind couldn't keep up and he realized, somewhere in the blur of Katya, delightful, and closer that he was losing control.

Slowly, painfully, Luther moved away from her, regretting the movement before he did it. His breathing was heavy as he looked down at her, still close but at least with room to pass a hand between them. The hand moved from her back to her cheek for a long, still moment before he shook his head and pulled away. There was a forced laugh, more awkward and apologetic - he didn't have words to for the situation.

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redhorse_tea
2010-05-24 02:53 am UTC (link)

He laughed. She stared, stunned by her reaction to him. Slowly, very carefully, she extricated herself from his hold. Taking a step back, she swung her gaze around the chapel. The gray people were gone. The priest was gone. Jane and Daniel were also gone. She and Luther were alone in the chapel. Her gaze immediately went to her left hand, and she was relieved to see there was no ring there.

Returning her attention to Luther, she tried to form a coherent sentence. "I am..." She swallowed. "That is saying..." She shook her head, looking away from him, and swore in Russian. Her gaze met his once more, briefly, and she wore a panicked expression. Without saying anything further, she picked up the hem of her dress and ran from the chapel, trying to deal with the well of emotions inside her.

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sentinelstar
2010-05-24 03:13 am UTC (link)

His gaze followed hers, the awkward laughter fading into confusing quickly. Bellum made it so that he was less disturbed by the lack of gray people than he normally would have been - but Daniel and Jane had left without him noticing. Luther turned back to her, a hand carefully going to her shoulder, mind racing to say something better than the broken sentences that came to mind, but then she ran.

Luther's hand reached out for her moments too late; his reflexes seemed to be getting worse over the years. He remained standing there, still at the alter and in the groomsman's clothes until she went through the doors. One final look was cast over the empty cathedral before his face contorted into a grimace. He shoved the altar, letting it crash to the floor before trudging into the lobby.

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