will you hold me when the curtains close?
Clemente Belcourt
Apprentice

Age: 23 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 12 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 13 - Luck: 16 - Int:
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#1
Clemente
Feet tap against sun-baked wood as Clemente goes bounding up the walkway to burst into Nate and Sunjata's house, eyes bright with excitement and chest full of joy. It's amazing what a few walls and a ceiling can make him feel. The rotted, condemned apartment his childhood had revolved around had been deplorable at best, and the memories of it had been tainted by finding his mother dead of an overdose on the living room floor. After that, any idea of home or belonging had been burned and sacrificed in favor of surviving the streets. Then Rexanna had offered her old house, and though it had been a kindness and expression of care he hadn't anticipated, the empty rooms and his lack of physical requirements like sleep had made it a lonely, rarely used structure.

But this? This is the closest thing Clemente has ever had to a home. A room if his own, an assurance that someone will always be there sometime during the day. A place to belong, to return to when he needs to hide away from the sun. A promise that he is loved and wanted here in this area the two men could easily and rightfully claim as their own territory. Instead they had invited him in, permanently. Assuring him through actions - something far more meaningful to Clem - that he is not intruding when he comes crashing through the entryway.

It gives him a confidence of spirit and youth that had been buried and dead for years. Allowing him to holler for Nate as he goes running for the bedroom after the other rooms come up empty. "NATE! Nate guess what I met a mermaid!" he screams excitedly through the hallway, throwing open the door with glee written in bold strokes across his face. It shatters moments later as his gaze falls upon a bandaged face, a listless form, and his entire world breaks apart like an old mirror. "Nate?" His voice trembles, betraying his emotions immediately as his eyes spring forth sudden panicked tears.
Your mother started drinking like the whole world died
And You've been waiting for a miracle all your life
Nate Wrenzaok
the Lone (Free) Ranger
"Doctor" / Guildmaster

Age: 37 | Height: 6'1" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 55 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 50 - Luck: 46 - Int: 1
PEMOTA - Mythical - Starwhale (narwhal) RAMOTH - Mythical - Dragon (Biopulse)
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#2
- NATE -
there's a great unknown from you to me
& when your prayer's unheard and you don't believe
In all the time that Nate has spent indoors, in the increasingly paranoia inducing walls of the ocean side home, he’s learned nearly every sound the house could produce. Wind coming off the oceans, the slight sounds of the neighbours, Sunjata leaving, coming back. Everything seems so quiet, so far away. A surprisingly suitable soundtrack for the wasteland of bland numbness he trekked through whenever he was alone.

Footsteps thunder through the house, a clear, loud path thundering in through the door, and around the first floor. It should worry him, it does worry him, a little bit. Not enough to move. There’s something too familiar about it. And as soon as the shout rattled up the stairs, up the halls, the familiarity is explained. Of course, it’s Clem. He came and went as he wanted, but this is the first time he’s come since...

Fuck, it’s Clem.

There is a part of him that screams to move, to sit up and square his shoulders, to shrug into one of the faces he wears so well. The rest of him balks at the idea. He shouldn’t hide what’s happened. He can’t hide what’s happened.

He can push himself up though, the movement stiff, unnatural. ”Hey kid.” A smile even tries to cross his face, though it looks more like a grimace, and it falls away into nothing when he sees the shine in the younger ascendeds eyes. That, more than anything, has him gritting his jaw, a hand stretching out towards the other. ”Don’t do that. I’m fine, c’mere.”
so put your faith in the devil and the deep blue sea
put your trust in the light that you cannot see
Clemente Belcourt
Apprentice

Age: 23 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 12 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 13 - Luck: 16 - Int:
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#3
Clemente
It's awful. Clem doesn't know much about wound care, has always patched himself up whenever a pickpocket or tire jacking would go wrong. But this is so much worse than anything he has ever seen. Grotesque, scarred over and yet still ragged and open in a way a human's skin would not have frozen in time. A strangled noise claws its way up his throat, unsure of what it was meant to be. Words and reactions completely burned away to a cloying ash that makes it hard to breathe.

The extended hand has him stumbling further into the room, grasping at the offered hand like a lifeline sent to save him from turbulent waters. The tears crest and fall in agonized lines down his cheeks, unable to look away but wanting nothing more than to hide from what that wound implies. That somebody had hurt him. Intentionally, or so he assumes. He knows this world is dangerous, but its dangers are so different from what he's used to, so distant from his daily life. It's the worst kind of realization that this is so much closer to home than Clemente had counted on. "W-What happened?" he manages to mumble out through his tears, glad he does not need breath any longer or the sobs surely would have robbed him of any potential for speech. He curls in closer to Nate, climbing atop the bed and getting as close as he can, clinging like a frightened child to his side.
Your mother started drinking like the whole world died
And You've been waiting for a miracle all your life
Nate Wrenzaok
the Lone (Free) Ranger
"Doctor" / Guildmaster

Age: 37 | Height: 6'1" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 55 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 50 - Luck: 46 - Int: 1
PEMOTA - Mythical - Starwhale (narwhal) RAMOTH - Mythical - Dragon (Biopulse)
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#4
- NATE -
there's a great unknown from you to me
& when your prayer's unheard and you don't believe
Somehow, the idea of telling people other than Sunjata hadn't crossed Nate's mind, hadn't penetrated his mental haze. It leaves him far less prepared for this moment than he'd thought he'd be, staring up at Clem with a roar in his ears. At least the other takes his hand, Nate pulling the smaller man in close, arms wrapping around him and his head held high, to spare Clem the shock of looking at his face longer than necessary.

It takes Nate a long time to answer the shaking question, his mind chugging slowly, while his hand rubs a smooth circle along the younger ascended's back automatically, trying to offer comfort however he could. "I... was attacked." He settles on finally, still sounding a little unsure. Attacked made it sound planned, premeditated, but he couldn't fathom a reason for it. "A girl pretended to uh... to be injured, and when I went to help her..." A shudder runs through his hands, the briefest memory of the pain flashing through his mind.

"I'm okay." He murmurs, squeezing Clem tight. Nate had no idea what else to say, not matter how intimately he knew the other's pain. To see your family suffering, in pain, and to be completely helpless in the face of it is awful, and he's just as lost on this side of it. "I'm going to see the Voice, and she's going to fix me up. Right?" No matter how he tried, the last word came out more of a plea and less of a reassurance.
so put your faith in the devil and the deep blue sea
put your trust in the light that you cannot see
Clemente Belcourt
Apprentice

Age: 23 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 12 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 13 - Luck: 16 - Int:
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#5
Clemente
Attacked. Of course, it makes sense, and yet it doesn't. Can't. It can't compute in his mind, because...because Nate is everything good and kind int he world, comical and charming and charismatic. Who would want to hurt him? Of all his kin, why Nate? Clemente could sooner see someone slashing up his own face for being a mouthy bastard, but it just...doesn't make sense. It's what makes it so difficult to stop the tears, to calm down. This vague, formless lack of understanding, of fear.

"I'm sorry," he babbles, tears thick on his lips, on a tongue that can't taste. "s'not...I don't understand...why?" Had Nate been flaunting something expensive? Was it just a mugging gone wrong? Then why the extensive scarring? "W-Was it a kid? I can find them, I can!" Scrambling up as if to immediately set out to find one of the urchins he has taken beneath his experienced wing, to demand justice.
Your mother started drinking like the whole world died
And You've been waiting for a miracle all your life
Nate Wrenzaok
the Lone (Free) Ranger
"Doctor" / Guildmaster

Age: 37 | Height: 6'1" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 55 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 50 - Luck: 46 - Int: 1
PEMOTA - Mythical - Starwhale (narwhal) RAMOTH - Mythical - Dragon (Biopulse)
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#6
- NATE -
there's a great unknown from you to me
& when your prayer's unheard and you don't believe
The apology breaks something in Nate, coming from the last person who should be offering it, from someone who he wants to protect. How is he supposed to protect anyone like this? Hands tighten around Clemente, squeezing him as tightly as Nate can muster, like if he simply held the younger for long enough, he could stop the darkness of the world from really touching him.

It's a nice thought. But it doesn't work that way, not with the reminder carved into his face.

"I don't know why." Nate says softly, wishing he had something more to offer, wishing he had the answer himself. "There was a girl, and she was... no, she pretended to be injured. And I went to help her." And she had screamed, even now the sound just a blur in Nate's ears, though he knew it had been words in the moment. He shakes his head, trying to clear it. "Her blade must have been heated, or magic, or something."

Clem tries to rise, to pull away, and it only tightens Nate's arms around him, refusing to let him move. "Not a kid. Someone a lot more dangerous." Though he tries for stern, there's a tremble in in his voice that betrays a fear, beneath every tough facade he tries. "Sunjata is looking for her. He'll find her, and he'll take care of it."
so put your faith in the devil and the deep blue sea
put your trust in the light that you cannot see
Clemente Belcourt
Apprentice

Age: 23 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 12 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 13 - Luck: 16 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
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Posts: 134 | Total: 6,168
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#7
Clemente
Nate's embrace is the only thing keeping him from floating away, of that Clem is sure. He shakes apart in the man's grip, trying to get control of his systems and the haywire messages his mind keeps sending. A mimicry of humanity that he has long had stripped from his body. The explanation does nothing to soothe him, to help sort the tangled, fraying edges of his thoughts. It doesn't answer why. And why Nate? Why not him? Clemente wishes it had been him, would trade places with Nate in a second if it meant sparing the man from such an agonizing injury. The tears don't stop coming, no matter how he pleads for them to stop.

"I-I'll help," he offers, blurting it out on a thick tongue that stumbles in a way he would normally despise. "I know the alleys, I...I can help, I wanna help." Desperation tingeing every word. He needs to be useful, he needs to fix this. Unable to shake the feeling that this is somehow his fault.
Your mother started drinking like the whole world died
And You've been waiting for a miracle all your life
Nate Wrenzaok
the Lone (Free) Ranger
"Doctor" / Guildmaster

Age: 37 | Height: 6'1" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 55 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 50 - Luck: 46 - Int: 1
PEMOTA - Mythical - Starwhale (narwhal) RAMOTH - Mythical - Dragon (Biopulse)
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#8
- NATE -
there's a great unknown from you to me
& when your prayer's unheard and you don't believe
A heavy hand smooths along Clem's back, trying to soothe the shaking, trying to hold the both of them together. Nate's already struggling with just himself, but he can keep it together for the younger, he can be okay, for a little bit, so he can try and hold the other together.

"You don't need to help." Nate says quickly, sharply, the first thought in his mind Clem, alone, attacked in some back street without the benefit of a crowd of people, of someone right there. It terrifies him. "You should stay here for a little bit. Through Longnight." He doesn't notice it, but his arms get tighter, and he pulls Clem closer against him. A cloying, greedy protectiveness, put up like a wall.

How easy it is to forget how it feels to be on the other side of this. How he'd been told there was nothing he could do, how he'd fought against it, thrown everything away for it. How different things look, sitting in the bed, wanting to shield someone so badly you'd do anything, say anything.
so put your faith in the devil and the deep blue sea
put your trust in the light that you cannot see
Clemente Belcourt
Apprentice

Age: 23 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 12 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 13 - Luck: 16 - Int:
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#9
Clemente
The denial may be quietly accepted for now, a docile nod of the head against Nate's chest where he hides away from the world that has finally revealed itself to be cruel. A different sort of cruelty perhaps than what he grew up with, but he had....he'd begin to hope that maybe it wouldn't be the same, here. That happy endings could happen outside of fairy tales, that they could happen to him. But as he capitulates, concedes, there are ideas forming in his mind.

"Rex said Dante came back, so I gotta go see him. But...but after. I wanna come back, for good?" Tentative gaze peering up from his fringe, terrified to ask even when he has a room of his own already. But he wants to stop his transient shifting between Rexanna's empty old house and this true, warm home he is forming with Sunjata and Nate.

He cuddles closer, feeling small and wanted and safe for the first time since he was a baby. And regardless of his vague, wordless assent, Clemente knows he will not hold true to that. "I'll fix it," he whispers to himself, vowing to scour Torchline's seediest places before he departs for the Grounds. Maybe it will be cutting it close, tempting fate that he has been reminded so many times not to during this time of darkness, but to Clem it's worth it. He's fast after all, Amun has told him so.

There's enough time. And Nate will never know what kept him behind, so there's no harm done. Come spring, Clem will see him once more. This is only a temporary goodbye.
Your mother started drinking like the whole world died
And You've been waiting for a miracle all your life
Nate Wrenzaok
the Lone (Free) Ranger
"Doctor" / Guildmaster

Age: 37 | Height: 6'1" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 10 - Strg: 55 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 50 - Luck: 46 - Int: 1
PEMOTA - Mythical - Starwhale (narwhal) RAMOTH - Mythical - Dragon (Biopulse)
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Posts: 2,792 | Total: 4,183
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#10
- NATE -
there's a great unknown from you to me
& when your prayer's unheard and you don't believe
Relief courses through Nate at the quiet agreement, the promise that Clem won't go poking where he doesn't need to. It drowns out the suspicion that maybe, this was too easy of a conversation, too quick of an agreement. He can't lose more family though, can't have it be because of his failure to do something, again. Can't have it happen to Clem especially.

There's more pressing issues to focus on though, more immediate worries to latch onto. Nate has lived through Longnight in the Grounds, barely, and he wants to say something about that first, but he's frozen by the eyes that peer up at him, the second half of the statement. "For good for good?" His voice is soft, knowing this is a big decision. A big step for Clemente, a line that Nate's never tried to force, knowing how much that independence can be worth. To have the open offer accepted though?

It has a smile breaking across Nate's face, even before the answer is given. "You're family Clem. You'll always have a place with me, with us, for as long as you want it." He hopes the distinction is clear, between this kind of family, and the greater ascended Family. He hopes his love is clear, his own trauma set aside to quietly celebrate this moment.

If only Nate could leave it there, could end on the high note of Clem staying, filling the room he had with life, with pieces of him until it's not merely a gesture, but a home, a place to grow and be protected. If only it was happening sooner than after Longnight, a week made longer by all that it contained within it, ceaseless night tricking the mind into thinking this was forever now.

It's where he'd first met Clemente, where he'd first taught the boy to whittle, nothing but a little knife and some murmured words between them, Nate falling asleep where he sat, waking only to offer encouragement and tips. It was not where he wanted anyone to be during the darkness though. He wants to insist the younger ascended stay here, with them. He already has the room. They're already prepared. It simply makes the most sense. But something stops him.

Perhaps it was the realization that he's been harsh before, with his first request. Perhaps it was the fact that Clem had so quickly agreed, no argument, no complaints. And his conditions come over the younger's whisper, Nate not noticing the sound. "If... If you're going to be safe about it. Get there early, don't go near the doors. Stay close to Rex, alright?" There's a little huff of humourless laughter, because even if the Queen hates him, he can trust that they agree on at least one thing, he can trust that she'll keep Clem safe.

"You tell Rex I'll have words for her if you get so much as a splinter, okay? I mean it." Nate tries to pull a commanding voice, his doctors sternness, but the trick doesn't quite land properly, comes off more stressed, more worried than anything else. There's so much that can go wrong, but he wants to, he does trust the other to be safe.
so put your faith in the devil and the deep blue sea
put your trust in the light that you cannot see
Clemente Belcourt
Apprentice

Age: 23 | Height: 5'9 | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 12 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 13 - Luck: 16 - Int:
Played by: Brit Offline
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#11
Clemente
After asking such a monumental question, it's all Clem can do to nod at Nate's clarifying inquiry. Terrified even now of rejection, of mockery and cruelty though Nate has never exhibited it before. Too badly burned by years of getting kicked off stoops and out of shops, chased out of libraries and alleyways. No better than a mangy dog in the eyes of most living souls. And just like that mangy dog, he lights up all the same the instant kindness is extended, that his place is solidified in this family he never anticipated finding. His smile is wide and bright, transforming his face into the childish crinkle of euphoria that wipes away the weight Clemente carries with him everywhere. It fills his chest with soap bubbles, until he's sure they'll come pouring up his throat and out from between his lips in a swathe of ephemeral joy.

For Clem, there's no worries to be had about the Temple. He is still so young, his trust in those he has latched onto as strong as his disdain and wariness of those he hasn't. All he knows is that Rexanna and Bastien will be there, and to him that is an assurance of safety. Like a child with their mind full of fairy tales, family to Clem is an impenetrable shield, a fortress that keeps him safe from all evil and wrongdoing. His faith alone quiets any anxieties another may have felt over LongNight. Leaving him only to coast on the golden feeling of acceptance and love that Nate has inspired in him with a handful of words.

The sternness is comedy more than command to Clem, who laughs brightly and grins impishly back at Nate. "I'll tell her, ya big worry wart." Then he leans back in, clinging close for a moment, stealing what comfort he can in the dwindling hours that remain available to them. "I love ya. I'll see ya soon, okay?" Love exudes from every pore, flaxen eyes alight with purpose and affection as he reluctantly pulls away and gangly limbs search for the floor from stop the bed. He squeezes Nate's hands, reluctant to let go of this physicality he has so missed from his life. Their fingers part in one last goodbye, and Clem bounces back out of the room with a smile. Heading out into the fading sunlight with a mission in mind and Nate's love like a cloak of protection over his shoulders.

- FIN
Your mother started drinking like the whole world died
And You've been waiting for a miracle all your life


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