Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20170421205142/@comment-5543592-20170425020722

Night settled on the Royal Wasteland. Somewhere out there Kheiro and his army were moving, the Masked Man's plan unfolding. While they were desperating trying to gain an advantage on him, Kheiro held the upperhand of not have to do anything, while the prophecy completed itself. Whatever he wanted was still ambiguous, but it was pobably a good thing they were trying to complete it on their own, as to prevent him from getting whatever he wanted. Failing that, killing him was always a safe option.

The palace was quiet, and safe, the beds warm and soft. There were no strange smells, no rotting garbage in the corners, no dangerous characters planning to rob you in your sleep. Despite the strangness of Mercer Island, in a way it was how the world was supposed to be.

William has the dream again, but then a second one after. It feels vaguely sinister, compared to the first one, but why it provokes that feeling is unclear.

The boy is eight. His parents are worried about him. He has no friends. They ask if he is bullied at the schoolhouse. They ask if he needs help. The boy tells them he has a friend, and it is the only friend he needs. His parents ask if they can meet his friend. The boys says they can’t, his friend is a secret.

His parents watch him. The boy leaves the farm sometimes for hours. His father tries to follow him when he leaves. The boy loses him. His mother tries to lock him in the house. The boy escapes every time, no matter how difficult she makes it, as if he knows the house better than her. His father tricks him once, letting the boy think he escapes, before following him to the cave.

His father hides in the weeds and watches as the boy sits down at the mouth of the cave, staring into its dark nothingness, and does nothing. He just sits. His father watches longer, expecting something to happen. Nothing does.

The father comes out from the cattails and confronts the boy. The boy turns around, unsurprised. His father asks what he is doing and is met with silence as the boy says nothing.

I said what are you doing, son. The older man repeats, and finds himself frightened by the boy’s silence. The boy still does not respond. His father reaches out and strikes him, snapping the boy’s head to the side. The boy does not react: he does not cry, shout, grow mad. He is unaffected. His father is both ashamed for striking his son and deeply concerned at how it illicited no reaction. He takes the boys hand and guides him home. The boy does not resist.

The family eats dinner together. Sarah, the boy’s sister, is doing well in school, and is the subject of conversation. The boy eats in silence, eyes on his plate. His family talks around him, but all take discrete, worried glances in his direction.

That night, the father goes out to the cave with bricks and mortar to seal the opening. He finds it eerie at night and wonders what so entrances his son about this hole in the earth. The cave is closed off, a brick wall lain over it, and the father goes back home, relieved.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language: EN">The boy heads out to the cave the next day and finds it sealed away. It does not matter. The boy sits down in front of the brick wall, and stares at it.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language: EN">He can still reach his friend.

Morning came as soft blue light thrugh the drapes of their windows. Tim had an important day ahead of him. Meeting with the Crimson King, a learning what he could, would likely define how they would take the next steps in chasing Kheiro, and possibly decide an encounter with Hades.