A Social Experiment Pv Flash & Kazuo Closed

Flash was crying. It was distracting to Kazuo but less so to Selim so from a tactical perspective, it was a slight improvement. He continued to move closer, watching as Selim bandaged the wound he had made, though his focus seemed to be elsewhere.

He wants to hurt you, Jack, to drive you away and he is convinced that the only way to do that is to hurt the people you care about. He wants you to believe he's too far gone to be saved. I don't think he'll believe you if you promise to stay away from him. Besides which, I'm not sure I want him to know I'm communicating with you right now. Can you honestly say you will just stop caring about him because he wants you to? If thoughts could have a tone the way a voice did, Kazuo's thoughts would sound strained. Usually, when attempting any kind of dialogue with other students, he had the time to think things through but Selim's instability and obvious intent to do harm had his thoughts racing. Also managing a second conversation was a new level of difficulty.

Kazuo's head tilted at Selim’s words and he nodded, a faint smile ghosting across his lips. "You don't want to hurt anyone. Not really. You hurt others because you were hurt. You cope with your own pain by unleashing it on others. Were you taught to do that? You don't have to be anything your father wants you to be. You don't have to do anything for your father, anymore. You have-" Kazuo paused, considering his options. He knew that his parents had been working a deal of some sort but he didn't know if they had succeeded. Was it too early to risk saying something? Did he really have a choice? "You will never have to go back there again. My Dad will make sure of that. "

He watched the conflict that seemed to be warring inside Selim, placing his right hand on Flash's shoulder. It seemed a pointless gesture given how in over his head he was but he hoped it could convey some comfort, some hint that Kazuo was not going to abandon Flash.

"To watch... I think you brought me here because that small sane part of you is hoping that I would stop you. I'm not Jack, I don't have the hang-ups he does about emotional attachments. I can see what he can't."

He wanted to slap that tray across the room but he was wary of taking any action that might be perceived as threatening. That puppet voice returned and the words Selim spoke gave Kazuo pause. It drew more pieces together, more tiny hints at Selim's trauma. It was not something he could pull at yet, not exactly, but he kept it in mind. The vivid red line drew his gaze momentarily and he hated his inability to stop it. Was it cowardice that kept him from escalating? He hardly wanted to end up sharing Flash's fate, he could be honest about that, and he didn't think he could take Selim in an actual fight, even with the older boy not at his best. Fighting wasn't a skill he had ever had reason to cultivate. Might be a good idea to change that.

He’s already slammed me up against a wall and taken my wand. He didn’t bring me here because he trusts me. He doesn’t trust anyone. If I can grab one, I will but my chances are low.

Even as he thought it, an opportunity arose. As Selim dropped the scalpel and stared at the shadows Kazuo quickly swiped one of the blades, palming it in his left hand.

"It doesn't have to be this way. You have choices, even if you can't see them. Insanity is not an inevitability. You are trapped in hell, a hell made for you by your abusers but you don’t have to stay there. If you try to face it alone, as you have so far, you will be trapped. But there is help if you just reach out." He resumed speaking, once again attempting to both distract Selim from Flash and reach past his insanity to speak to the boy who needed help. “And just as you have choices, so do we. Who or what we choose to put ourselves at risk for, that isn’t for you to say. You can pull away. You can choose not to associate with Burnett but you can’t make that decision for him. Or for me. Unfortunately, I’m the stubborn type. Not very good at following orders. Especially when they are the opposite of what I want to do. And what I want to do right now is help you.” Kazuo offered Selim his right hand, palm up. “これを止めてください。” (Kore o tomete kudasai - Please stop this.)

@Selim Faust @Flash Holmwood

Just as quickly as it had been thrust in, the scalpel was removed, another short cry choked out before he could feel the wound being bandaged. He didn't fight back this time, his hand hurt too much to move the fingers anyway. Even though there was so much talking going on around him, none of the words flowed together and made sense. There were sparse moments of clarity-- something about Azkaban, something about Burnett helping. The two of them were talking at length, Flash's outburst in attempted flight had worn him thin, and his wing had been pierced through. Whatever Kazuo was doing, it wasn't restraining Selim, that much was clear. His warning would go unheeded, his begging unheard.

When the scalpel touched him again, he tensed. Clenching his body and holding his breath in anticipation of the pain to follow, the end of the line brought with it the gasping of air. There was not much more he could do now but try to endure it. He removed himself from even attempting to comprehend his situation, tried to objectify himself, and reason with the signals of pain. Even in the mind there was an escape, and he had used it before many times. My body is a shell... pain is a signal... I'm not there... it's only a shell... the signal cannot be stopped... the signal... pulses with the heart... count the heartbeats... He would coach himself into analyzing the pain, rather than exhausting himself further. Fighting back had achieved nothing, and staying cognizant was living hell.

He'd looked zoned out, distant. He wasn't angry or sad, just empty. His breaths were short and shallow, his complexion would show he wasn't far from hyperventilating and passing out. Anyone looking right at him or talking to him wouldn't stir much of a reaction, as he was somewhere else at that point. All things considered, he was useless without his allies around to protect him. Just a marionette, it didn't matter if he was carved up. Nothing mattered. Life was such a joke.

"I have become insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."
- Edgar Allan Poe

Selim's gaze sharpened at his Kohai's next words. He looked over, the fire of the torches dancing in his amber hues. "He will die."

The words were vague, and the unhinged boy didn't seem to feel like elaborating on them. He growled lowly as the new information returned his mind to a state of unfocused chaos. He walked quickly toward the wall, running his nails around it as he aimlessly circled the room.

"Tick, tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick." He jerked heading back to the table and staring down at the boy trapped there, watching his eyes slowly grow dull. "The light is dimming. He's learning, learning what has been done." Aku spoke, smoothly transitioning to Selim's voice that continued the thought process only the two of them could see. "Learning what others know. Learning what the damned do to the lost souls."

The Puppet and the Puppeteer spoke as one. Voices merging into an unsettling singularity.

"It's engraving itself into his mind."
"It's engraving itself into his mind."

Selim let out a long, drawn-out hiss. "We must make it perminent. We must-"

"Save him the pain."

"-of going through it again."

His head jerked up like a cat catching sight of prey. The sound of faint metal on metal echoing in his brain. He was silent for a while, before looking back at Kazuo as if seeing him for the first time.

"But we aren't making the choice for him." He said in voice that lacked any personality. "He will be making the choice himself."

"The results of the choice are up to him."
"The results of the choice are up to him."

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick tick tick, tick, tick, tick.

He looked back to the boy on the table, watching him disassociate. Watching as the light faded in him, if only temporarily. He jerked slightly, muttering to his constant companion, a string of words. "Just like the fox, just like the fox. He addresses me as if I am whole as if I am the sum of all the pieces. He asks a single sliver of the mirror for the view of the world, expecting it to reflect all answers to him despite its size."

"He ignorse the other pieces that reflect more."

"He asks for something to speak, despite not understanding what it says."

"One in the same as him."

"Why did we assume he would be different?"

"We tried to hope."

Selim paused in his conversation... his eyes half-lidded. "We should stop doing that."

"Indeed it's-"

"A waste of time."
"A waste of time."

With that the boy brought the blade down again, once, twice, creating a deep, cross-shaped picture on Holmwood's torso, welling red. He spoke, tone hissing with the sparks of loathing trapped in his mind. "Forever blessed."

"Forever cursed."

He drove the scalpel into the untouched hand he was standing by. Muttering in Latin as if casting a spell, though he was merely speaking words that he wanted no one to hear. His eyes flashed up to his kohai, blazing with the red glow of the flames lighting the room. "You started a path by grabbing that blade. So follow through."

"STRIKE US WHERE WE STAND!"
"STRIKE US WHERE WE STAND!"

His voice roared with the unpredicted influx of pure rage. Eyes primal with the light they once held while trapped in a room as his peers walked into the belly of a beast they weren't prepared to face.

"STOP US IF YOU VIEW THIS AS WRONG!"
"STOP US IF YOU VIEW THIS AS WRONG!"

He shouted. Tearing the blade out of his victim and approaching the younger boy with an intent to harm if he so pleased.

"Stop the shadow. Stop the madness." Aku said in a sing-song tone. A pice of a puzzle that no one chooses to see.

"Cut through flesh as we do."

He stepped closer, free hand gripping the younger boy's shoulder, the strength behind it enough to bruise. He leaned closer.

"Walk the path you have chosen."
"Walk the path you have chosen."

He jerked his hand off his kohai, taking a few steps back.

"Or watch in silence as another child bleeds."

Hand outstretched, ignored. The more he tried to reason with Selim, the further away the older boy’s sanity seemed to slip. The words Selim uttered made less and less sense. The scalpel he had nabbed felt heavy in his hand, a tool he had no idea how to use without escalating the situation. The more Selim spoke the more Kazuo felt a growing sense of defeat. He had waited too long. He had taken too long. Whatever his family managed to accomplish, it couldn’t help him now. The words he had spoken had meant nothing to his mad senpai.

Flash. Nothing serious yet. Back-up? Who? Who the hell could Jack find to help them? An adult? That could doom Selim but at this point it felt like an inevitability.

As Selim refocused on him, he shifted his gaze to Flash, also noting the way Flash seemed to be trying to distance himself from what was happening to him. He gritted his teeth in frustration, the feeling of uselessness growing sharper. “Selim, you need help. Whether you want to admit it or not, however you think we see you, what is happening to you is not normal, not sane, not healthy, not sustainable. Put down the scalpel and let us help you.”

Useless words. Selim didn’t want to hear him. Didn’t want to hear Jack. Selim was so lost in his own mind, in his own despair, he didn’t want help - at least not the kind of help they were offering, not the way he seemed to perceive it. As Selim brought the blade down Kazuo tried to grab for his wrist yet he was too slow. “Stop!” He yelled, moving to circle the table, to confront Selim. The older boy was forcing his actions, taking his options away. “Selim!” Too slow to stop another cut.

"You started a path by grabbing that blade. So follow through."

Selim had spotted his theft. His left hand clenched tightly around the handle of the scalpel as Selim approached, all fury. He stared up at Selim as the older boy yelled at him, lips curling into a snarl. “Not the path you think. You don’t decide my fate. You don’t decide what I choose to do with this.” He spoke with resolution, lifting the blade as Selim took a few steps backward. He drew the blade across the restraints that bound Flash’s nearest hand, dropping the scalpel in the bound boy’s hand. “Holmwood!” He snapped then threw himself at Selim, attempting to wrestle the scalpel out of his senpai’s hand.

HURRY THE FUCK UP

@Selim Faust @Flash Holmwood

Though fading, Flash knew it was just going to be a matter of time before he was attacked again. Delerium and distraction could help with the lingering nausea and pain, but the cutting itself would not be a distant sensation that he could ignore. It was freshly horrid every time, and would still bring forth excruciating yelps and groans, sounds the other two in the room were likely used to by now and could tune out if they felt like it. All of his remaining energy and consciousness were being devoted to staying awake, at least for the moment. If he were to pass into void, he couldn't be sure he would ever return. The pain was noise, he could barely feel the hand that Selim had wrapped up, cold, cutting, bleeding had all become crossed signals in his mind. It was a heavy blanket of suffering, the cowl of death scratching a bony finger across his chest as he strained to pull away, barely recognizing his body's automatic response as his own.

Even their yelling brought sickness to his stomach, the pain to his ears nearly as revolting as the pain in his muscles. He simply was not going to be able to process what was happening any more, it was too surreal. He was in shock. If anyone could see color in that barely lit room, they'd see his fingers and lips taking on a blueish tint, the blood in his body had stopped circulating properly. Now that cuts on his chest were exposed, even his rapid breathing would sting as his lungs tried to expand. Deceptively deadly, given that Selim's previous captors were likely far more aware of how shock could cause organ failure than he was. Bandaging wounds and stopping him from bleeding out were not going to save his life, as his body was now inadvertantly killing itself.

This was the state Flash was in when one of his hands was freed, something freezing cold dropped into his hand. It would not be grasped, it couldn't be. Sliding down into the bed, the unforgiving metal started aborbing what little heat he still had on his side. He still drew his hand back to him, loud sounds of a struggle nearby. He was gathering back some sense of space and some sense of urgency as a bit of blood returned to the limb.

His hand found the scalpel, but his fingers refused to close around it. He wanted to be free, he needed to try, but the tendons could not be convinced. Attempts begat only shaking, and fresh waves of repugnant aching. Giving up, though, didn't feel like an option. He tried to slide it up the side of his torso, bracing his quivering hand against his fluttering ribs. At an upsettingly slow pace, he finally got the weapon to his diaphram, and lurching forward, he snatched it with his teeth. It worked, though it required his chest to twist and contort, pressing fresh blood to the surface of his newest wound.

It was too much. He was going to faint. The edges of his vision were becoming gray as his brain craved oxygen it wasn't getting. He tried to force it, turning to his side to attempt to get his other hand out, but it had been too late. Kazuo had waited too long. The scalpel slipped to the floor, and Flash slumped back into the bed, unconscious.

Unconscious unless reawoken
@Jack Burnett @Erin Ryan @Selim Faust @Kazuo Shimada

The dropped scalpel had barely settled onto the floor in a metallic clang when a redheaded boy with his wand out rushed through the doorway, pausing at the threshold to quickly take in the scene before him and to try to make sense of it. As soon as his eyes alighted on the brilliantly crimson cuts and stab wounds on display, he released a cry of panic as he had only begun to feel at Kazuo's last telepathic message sent to him.

Jack rushed toward Flash, vaguely aware that Kazuo and Selim were also in the room and engaged in a tussle for...what? A weapon? He couldn't see it clearly just then, but in a burst of adrenaline, the Welsh boy aimed his wand at the duo and cried, "Immobulus!" True, there was a chance that it could have hit Kazuo (as the random bot generator decided, but it's up to Kazuo to decide whether the spell hit or not), but if so, he doubted Selim would attack him then, defenseless as he would be. If Selim did, however, Jack had a number of retaliations planned in response.

In the meantime, the redhead frantically snatched up the scalpel that had fallen from Flash's possession and immediately set to work freeing his peer from his bonds. Once all the restraints were cut, Jack gently but precisely tapped his wand to each place he saw drawn blood and even a place on his neck where he seemed to be bruising. Each time he tapped, he spoke the word, "Ferula," in order to perform the Bandaging Charm and hopefully magically relieve some of Flash's pain. Not that Flash seemed to be conscious any longer.

Expression stormy, he raised his head when he'd finally finished bandaging Flash up, carefully and gingerly doing his best to lift Flash off the table he'd been spread upon.

"What have you done, Fangs?" he asked, his voice hardly audible from breathlessness due to running and the rage that coursed through his veins. "What have you done and why? Neither Flash nor Shimada had anything to do with what was between you and me. Why did you drag them into this?"

@Selim Faust, @Kazuo Shimada, @Flash Holmwood, & @Erin Ryan

Abilities: Prodigal Charms Learner; Binding Mark
Stats: Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 7 | Strength: 3 | Wisdom: 10 | ArcPower: 7 | Accuracy: 7 |

She knew her way through the basements, it was in a way like a second home to her. There was a way to avoid getting lost, the corridors twisted too much. Her eyes sometimes lied but her fingers did not. She would follow the walls with her hand, always following the wall even around dead end corners. It was how she avoided getting turned about. It was how she would find her way back home when everything was said and done.

The dungeon had a way of turning unaware travelers around, a straight line becomes curved. They would find it eventually, the chamber in which Flash was kept. The journey was otherwise awkward, there was no small talk to fill the the emptiness. There was nothing to say. Nothing to learn. They were here for a reason, to recover what Jack allegedly most-favored -- Flash Holmwood. Little did she know that they had met before, only once of course during a morning jog. He knew her as many did, but she did not know him. Like so many of her exchanges with her peers, there was an objective purpose and then an immediate end to the exchange.

Her gaze however was not on the walls or the dungeon, but rather Jack's posterior. It was a physical, carnal distraction. The lies would not overcome biology, but they would be enough to allow the girl her reason. Can look, just don't touch that fine piece of fake ass. Soon this would be over, he would have what he sought and it would be another year before their paths crossed again. It was a truth she had come to terms with, come to accept even prefer.

The cell where Flash was kept would be stumbled upon. She did not know exactly where he was hidden away, just where he might have been. She was not looking in the room where the noise and the human scent came from, this chocking stink of humanity that turned her stomach as she entered the room. Distracted by lustful impulse, her awareness would be torn from that sweet piece of ass with a call of power uttered by her false paramour. "Immobulus!"

He would immobilize the small Asian boy and rebuke Selim for his trespasses. "What have you done, Fangs?"

"Wat?"

Oh yeah, she was not supposed to be walking him walk. There was this thing. The Flash thing.

"What have you done and why? Neither Flash nor Shimada had anything to do with what was between you and me. Why did you drag them into this?"

Erin would cock her head like a curious bird and scan the scene left before her. Was there some sort of fight? Sweat... and blood. "Because Flash was the favorite," Erin answered for Selim. She recalled their reasoning. Shame Selim must have gotten into it with Shimada, what a weird name. The bloodied boy had Jack to keep him company, while distracted by her hormones she had not forgotten the mission statement -- get Flash.

Well, the person she presumed was Flash. It was actually another case is mistaken identity. She went to the paralyzed (presumably) youth, Kazuo. "While Jack has it out with Selim, I will get you outta here Flash," she proclaimed as she attempted to pick Kazuo up. Her goal simple - carry 'Flash' back to their common room and leave Jack to work things out with Selim and the weird named bloodied fellow that must have gotten into a hell of a scrap with Selim before they intruded. "For whatever reason, you seem to be something special to Jack."

Attempts to carry Kazuo (Flash) to safety.

"I have become insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."
- Edgar Allan Poe

Selim's gaze sharpened with irrational anger at Shimada's declaration, his belief that he needed help. A feral growl rose from the back of his throat, bestial in nature. "Who do you think can help me, kohai? Who do you think can fix the screwed-up mess in my head? Adults? Those are the ones who caused this, they've claimed they would help only to hurt. And you think I'm going to let anyone approach me offering 'help' after how many times they've proven that they will, in fact, not?" The boy hissed, "And if not them you? We are children, they choose whether they should listen to us or not, and more often they don't."

"I never planned to be sustainable once I realized I had fallen off into the deep end. No, I decided I'd waste away in peace, for once." He dragged the scalpel he held across the metal tray, and ear-splitting screach resonating from it like nails on a chalkboard, but ten times worse.

"We have walked the path we have chosen." Aku commented in a dark, harsh tone. "And, we will not stop walking it until we rot."

"It's better for everyone that way." Selim spoke, the growl from before still there, but softer.

The boy's next words made his eyes narrow, he watched passively as he tried to cut the near-unconscious boy on the table free, futilely trying to get him to escape and run.

Selim would've scoffed had he not been distracted by his kohai lunging at him, hands reaching for the scalpel in his own talons. Selim easily evaded the attack thanks to his high-strung instincts, slapping the boy's hands away mid-lunge and using the boy's momentum against himself with a palm to the small of the Hufflepuff's back, throwing off his center of gravity, and therefore, his balance.

Following up he kneed the boy in the same spot, both of them falling, one more controlled than the other. Thanks to the laws of physics the localized pressure of his knee smashed into the boy's back. It would be surprising if the air didn't end up knocked out of him.

When he was stable Selim drove the scalpel down, slicing through the boy's outer ear and leaving a shallow cut on his cheek millimetres below his eye. The small blade embedded itself in a crack between stones. slightly bent and vibrating ominously.

Bending down Selim let out a whispered hiss of charming commentary about the whole scenario.

"Weak." His tone was flinty and cruel, "IN the end, your words meant nothing, they stopped nothing. Here's your first lesson, kohai, choose wisely when you think words will be more helpful than actions. This... was not one of those times."

When the door slammed open, Selim stood slowly, blood spattering his ragged cloak. Not-very-usefully, the redhead that rushed in shot a spell... likely meant for him, after swiftly observing the situation.

Somehow he failed spectacularly enough to hit the Hufflepuff on the floor. Selim stared at the pointed wand disdainfully... that, is why Selim would never choose magic as his weapon of choice... at best it could effectively be used as support.

He watched with a detached, uninterested expression as the Fox set about freeing his test subject. He honestly didn't care if the surface wounds were treated by someone else's hands. In fact, he doubted bandages would save the boy on the table at all from the shock his system was going through. If Holmwood perished... so be it, just another body to add to the growing tally of them he had etched into his brain.

He observed as one Erin Ryan walked in, and gave her a nonchalant wave. He had nothing against the girl, she had effectively left him alone, and honestly, that put her mostly in his good books.

Jack let out an emotional, if breathless cry, his words having no effect on the effectively dehumanized boy. Erin's response made a faint smirk of amusement pass over his lips, it was short-lived.



He rolled his eyes, walking over as the almost-corpse was removed from his workstation. Grabbing a damp rag he began wiping down the bed-table monstrosity of a creation, frowning at the now-useless cloth cuffs. "Those took weeks to make." Aku commented despondently.

Selim nodded in agreement, his mind much clearer now that its craving for bloodshed had been more-or-less sated. Despite this, not a trace of regret lingered in his warped mind. "Yes, and it's troublesome to find the materials for binds as well..."

He blinked as Erin walked over, shifting so he was out of her way. He, of course, didn't bother stopping her from grabbing Shimada. Her comments while doing so made him rube the bridge of his nose. Such a dangerous being, made harmless by the simplest of situations... he wondered how long that would last though.

He didn't correct her about the identity of the boy she was grabbing. It was hardly his concern.

He let out a sigh, grabbing the scalpel from where it had been embedded in the ground by his kohai's head. Then, he set to work cutting the demolished cuffs from the examination 'thing'. After cutting off the first one, he actually answered the enraged boy's demanding questions.

"My kohai seemed so eager to fix me, I decided to give him a chance. So I didn't really drag him here against my will, he chose to follow the starving lion into its den." He cut the other bond free, "As for Flash." He looked up, amber hues boiling with that glint of instability they gained over his months of isolation, "To get to you, of course. To... prove a point."

He threw the last strip of thick fabric away. "All my other attempts were failing. So really, this was a last-ditch effort before I resorted to more... damaging means."

His voice was oily with loathing, menace."Look. Burnett, I'm giving you a choice." He reached into his cloak, pulling out a rolled-up piece of parchment. Uncaringly, he threw it on the 'table' where it unrolled, showing familiar writing.. signed by two names. A piece of paper fluttered down beside it, holding different handwriting, and two blanks. One was already filled with Selim's signature.

"I'm not one to terminate contracts without the other party's approval unless it's absolutely necessary." His tone became cold and flat. "But I'm giving you the chance to end it mutually. I'm giving you the chance to break free of your perceived responsability of me. I'm giving you the chance to walk away Scott free, and live a normal life, with relatively normal relationships that don't include one person trying to murder the other in fits of insanity."

His body language showed no signs of continuing the violence from before. This was one of his periods of horrible sanity, the clearest it could get, and Selim had been waiting for it. He had been waiting to make the decision in his best state of mind.

"You have Ruka, Flash, Shimada, and probably more people that I don't know about, that you care for." His nails curled against the fabric of the structure below. "You've tried to protect me for so long in the name of this contract. Now it's my turn." He hissed, a bubbling swell of hate packed away into the simple noise, "Leave me be. In the end, it'll do more damage than good if you continue like this."

His eyes narrowed. "The scars we share say enough about how decayed our bond is... so.."

"Break it."

He gestured to the unconscious, severely injured boy in his arms.

"End it."

He leaned closer, amber hues seeming glow with the intensity of their glare, the desperation echoed unspoken inside his mind.

"Once and for all."
"Once and for all."

Wrestling with Selim, Kazuo wasn’t aware that Flash had passed out. He knew he was just buying time, had only ever really been buying time. Selim didn’t want help, as the boy’s words had made clear, didn’t even believe that Kazuo could help him. “Not every adult is like your family, Selim. I’m not asking you to let anyone help you. I’m asking you to let me help you!” Kazuo shouted as he attempted to grapple with the older boy. He might have been more successful but for the interference of Jack.

”Immobulus!”

Firing at two boys fighting, a panicked attempt to stop Selim that failed. The spell hit Kazuo instead; as Selim drove him to the ground Kazuo was unable to move. As he hit the ground, Selim’s knee drove into his back, forcing the air out of his lungs in a yelp. As he wheezed and gasped, trying to catch his breath, the sharp sting of the scalpel seared across his ear and along his cheek. He let out a hiss as the pain flared across his skin but the spell Jack had cast kept him from responding.

He could hear the chaos. Jack was yelling at Selim. Another voice had joined in, a girl he didn’t recognize. Then he was being hoisted into the air - or rather the arms - of said unknown girl.

”I will get you outta here Flash.”

Seriously? She thought he was Flash?! This was Jack’s backup?! Yet he couldn’t even correct the girl, frozen as he was by Jack’s spell. Why did he have the overwhelming sense that things might be going from bad to worse? He could hear Selim responding to Jack and he wanted to shout. He couldn’t speak to Erin or Selim but he still had the link with Jack.

Don’t do it.

@Jack Burnett @Flash Holmwood @Selim Faust @Erin Ryan

Did...did Erin just call Kazuo 'Flash'? And what was with everyone calling Flash favorite and special? Favorite of whom? Special how? Jack eyed Erin skeptcially, but eventually decided against saying anything to correct her misunderstanding. At least she would be able to get Kazuo out and safely away from further danger. "Thank you, Ryan," he called after her, hoping she would hear him. Meanwhile, he could concentrate on taking care of the real Flash.

<Sorry about that Freezing Charm, Fey.> he apologized mentally. <I hope you get better as soon as possible. I'll undo the spell when I get out of here if someone hasn't done it already by then.>

"You invested weeks into this?" Jack asked upon hearing Aku mention how long it had taken the binds to be made. His expression contorted with something that might have been a mix of disgust and outrage; something akin to revulsion. He continued to take in what Selim was saying before responding again.

"You couldn't have simply proven your point to me verbally instead of dragging Flash here to suffer?" he snarled. "What point could you possibly have to prove this way, anyhow?"

Then his dorm mate told him he was giving him a choice. Jack clenched his teeth, staring the Japanese boy straight in his amber eyes. When the parchment was brought out, he glanced toward it briefly, but he didn't need to scrutinize it to know what it was. The unfamiliar paper that settled next to it, however, gave him pause.

He listened, still and silent, as Selim explained what it was. Apparently it was an agreement to mutually end their contract. The names that Selim spoke, one after the other, caused Jack to tense and he clenched a fist at his side, his other arm still protectively on Flash.

End the contract?
Break their bond?
Leave Selim to rot, stewing in his own percieved helplessness and insanity?

<Don’t do it,> Kazuo's telepathic voice urged in his mind.

Jack studied the paper a moment. Then he threw back his head and laughed joylessly.

"You think it's that easy?" he asked Selim and his puppet, tone derisive. "That I could just sign a paper and write you off? Do you really think I would fear friendship and attachments as much as I do if it was as simple to get rid of them as that?"

He waved his wand again, this time in the shape of an arc. "Accio Flash's wand." And then, when the wand was summoned to him, again. "Accio Shimada's wand." Once the pair of wands were safely in his possession, he stuck them in his robe pocket. Then he attempted to maneuver Flash onto his back so he could carry him fireman-style.

"I have no reason to break our contract, Fangs," Jack told Selim seriously as he worked. "If you want to break it, I can't stop you. But mutually broken or not, it won't keep me from caring about you. That's not something I could stop even if I wanted to - no matter what you do." He nodded pointedly at Flash's bandaged wounds.

"Good try, but emotions don't work that way. I never 'felt responsible for you' or tried to protect you because of the contract. Any responsibility or need to protect you came directly from me. So I'm sorry, but whatever you may have intended, it seems like your efforts here have been for nothing."

@Selim Faust, @Kazuo Shimada, @Flash Holmwood, & @Erin Ryan

Abilities: Prodigal Charms Learner; Binding Mark
Stats: Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 7 | Strength: 3 | Wisdom: 10 | ArcPower: 7 | Accuracy: 7 |