daybreakacademy | Forget You

[It's a close call but she's got good balance and a fair bit of speed. She takes the marker from Cliff, uncaps it, and starts to draw the rune as she remembers it-- memorized it, truth be told. A curve, a hook shape, a little more details... it's just as she finishes it that she cries out.]

¡Ay, no! I forgot! I forgot I don't have anything to charge it with! I need some mist or- or a candle's power or--

[Something moves past her. It's a skeletal hand, cracks and fractures run through the fingerbones. It presses to the rune, and then, it seems to light up in sparkling gold. The rune follows suit, lighting up, charging, and then with a final spark, it's done. The hand drops and the skeleton man stands there panting like he ran a mile and even has lungs to strain.

She looks up, utterly frozen otherwise. She doesn't breathe. Her mouth moves but no sound comes out.]

[Cliff had resigned himself to keeping this door shut by himself for another hour at her dismay, which had even drowned out the sound of someone approaching. Because of this, he jerks out of the way when the hand, skeletal and fragile, pushes past them to the scribbled rune. As a boy that can turn into a wolf at the drop of a hat, he’s pretty confident in saying that...this isn’t something you see everyday. A hand is moving to hover protectively above Coco’s shoulder before he even thinks about it, but as his wide eyes take in the odd person(?) in front of him, his defenses start to fall. It isn’t hostile, it seems, and it had recognized the rune enough to help. And...

Unpersoned arm, huh?]

You...?

[They got the key to him. That’s what this had to be, right?]

It’s — it’s okay? [He thinks???]

The skeleton turns to look at Cliff. There's no recognition for this boy, no familiarity. Then he looks back to Coco. And he repeats Cliff's words to her, confirming.

"It's okay..." He says softly. He starts to reach out, hands shaking with how afraid he is that she might be afraid of him. "It's okay, mija... It's me... it's--"

"YOU!"

He comes from behind the curtains. Coco cries out, pulled back roughly. She barely has time to register De La Cruz before the switch-knife is lifted to her throat.

"Stay back! Stay back, all of you!" Ernesto snarls at the gathering group. "Not one of you move!"

"Pa...Papá..." She breathes, her eyes welling.

Héctor moves forward as if tugged. His hands are raised. (In the background, there are extra filming cameras. There are the buttons there that will let the cameras record what is happening now, putting it on screen for all to see. Just the job for a tech woman and her fellow chaos causers.)

"Ernesto, please..." He begs. "Not her, don't, don't..."

"You left me no choice, Héctor! This is your fault!" Ernesto snaps. He steps back, further and further, carrying Coco along. She looks around for some solution, some escape. "You couldn't leave it alone! I've worked too hard for this! Too hard for you to throw it away!"

"She's my daughter, Ernesto!" Héctor cries out. A flicker goes over his bones, making him seize and stumble.

"It was her to start with too! That's why I put you out there in the first place! Buried under the dirt you belong in!" Past all the backstage equipment, they reach the balcony. Ernesto's hair is taken out of its polished styling and adds to the wild look that's portrayed in his eyes. "One way or another, you couldn't make the sacrifices you needed to. Do you know what it's cost?! Do you know what I have sacrificed?! You could have stayed out of the way but here we are. The last person who remembers you! And once you're both finished, it'll be just as easy to make sure she's forgotten next."

"No. NO!" Héctor lunges forward. Maybe others move with him. Ernesto's hand is faster. It doesn't go across her throat, that's too messy. But the knife still finds purchase behind her, drawing a choked gasp. One that's cut off further as she's thrown.

Coco sees the world tilt. She sees her feet and her skirt go up as her body goes back over the edge.

In that very same instance, Héctor drops, a puppet with its strings cut.

"Bastard!" Sherlock snarls, an inhuman growl coming into his voice, eyes flashing a hellish crimson glowing like torchlight before his pupils expanded swallowing up fire into black right as the scent of fresh blood hits his nose. Fangs bared as his form morphs into shadow, losing human shape and into something that was close to a creature that once hunted in foggy moors as he stands over the fallen man, hackles raised.

[Jailbreak steps back into the shadows the moment the knife comes out, circling around, looking for an opening.]

[And on the smartphone clipped to her waist, she taps two buttons, and it starts recording. Three more, and the recording begins livestreaming to the concert screens outside.]

[As she watches tensely, waiting for a moment to get Coco away from him- as Ernesto rants- as the knife comes down-]

[The crowd is watching, too.]

Kokoro has a phone out to record another angle, just like they planned -- perk of the loss of the Veil. When Ernesto makes his move, she doesn't cry out; she tenses slightly, but keeps the film going. Someone has to.

So this is what fate decides.

"Take us in closer."

[Like many times during this, that darker part of Adriel starts screaming at them when Ernesto takes Coco hostage. Ranting about his dreams, his sacrifices, won't someone think of him for once?! He had to kill this man, he has to hurt this girl.

He has to make the world forget and fuck that!

They don't give into the urge to curse Ernesto to death right there and then. But when Coco is thrown and the man drops, Adriel moves faster then they ever have before - they drop off the girls and kick off the ground to fly again.

Down and down without stopping, even if something tears at them. They have to reach Coco, they have to--!]

[Over the balcony he goes, falling after Adriel. It may be the stupidest move of his entire life. He shouts out a spell to himself, bringing out ethereal hands to clasp at Coco and slow her down--she's too heavy and falling too fast for him to do more than that.

And he screams out loud from the strain, forcing the morph to go even faster than the last one. Taking the reins and focusing on bird anatomy, porous light bones and front legs that must become wings before he also splats into the ground. The sound coming from his mouth is a hellish cross between a wolf's howl and the distinctive red-tailed hawk screech...]

[As ready as he thought he was to protect her, and there she's grabbed by the worst possible person anyway. The sight of the knife keeps him frozen in place instead of reaching to grab her, but it's only partly because he's afraid that any movement will make Ernesto act. The rest is the plain, simple fear of a boy out of his depths and faced with the very real possibility he was about to lose his closest friend. Finally he understands what it was Coco had felt a month ago when he hadn't come home, seemingly vanished without a word.

His hearing is better than that of a human's, but somehow everything seems muffled. Then the skeleton near him is falling, because Coco is falling, and his heart is falling into his feet as he takes a jerky step forward in a vain effort to make all of it stop.]

Coco!

[Two large canines that aren't him make their respective dives, but he doesn't have the stomach to follow them. Instead, he wraps his arms around himself in a tight hug and backs up a few steps. Please be okay. Please be okay, if she's not okay, then... God, he feels sick. What is he supposed to do?]

"Don't worry," Ernesto says smoothly to Sherlock, fixing his hair and suit. "In a moment, you'll all forget why you even came here."

Just like that, he steps past, walking out to the stage. He throws the curtains apart and jumps through them, arms upraised, charming smile settled into place.

Then the booing begins. He falters.

"Mi familia--" He starts and something is thrown onto stage. Those aren't even allowed in theaters anymore. He steps back in confusion, then smooths the smile back. It's fine, he can more than handle this.

He draws up his charm on the audience, stronger than he has ever done it before...

The lights are on, but the stage goes dark, the entire world enveloped in inky black.

"You can try and win them over all you like," the violin player says to Ernesto, his voice low, growing deeper by the end of the sentence, "but I've been able to see the Contract on your soul from the start."

A pair of glowing yellow stars burn to life in the dark and grow closer to Ernesto, the darkness peeling away just enough to show Avery's disguise falling away as he casually spins the glamour necklace he was wearing around his finger.

The shadows cling to his face, leaving only his eyes and a glowing too-wide grin visible.

She hears shouts, her name, animal noises. The wind pulls at her braids. She wants to scream, but she can't. She wants to cry but that's out too.

Papá. He was right there. And her friends...

One set of hands catches her, slows her, and then another. She feels herself being lifted. She stops falling. She feels herself being set upon wood floor again, and she winces and whimpers a little at the pain in her back.

"Coco, Coco...!" Is that her father? It sounds as though he's in tears. She can see him, vaguely, under a big black dog, flickering wildly and trying to move. He begs, "Ekkehardt, please...!" And then, when he can't seem to get to her fast enough, "Sherlock..."

For the first time since this all began, even making his deals, even pulling off a murder, Ernesto registers fear.

That horrible violinist from Daybreak is much, much more than that. A daemon. Another daemon. He should have known.

"St-stay back!" He shouts, but this time he doesn't have a hostage to keep him safe. He glances around the shadows for escape. No, no. There's nowhere to go but backstage. Maybe he can outrun the daemon, he can still get out of here...!

Hurriedly, he flees back to where he came. Back to the angry group by the balcony.

His first instinct, in a flash of burning fury, is to stab Ernesto and be done with it. But he hears Coco calling out, her father begging him by name, and he turns his attention back to his newest patient.

"Just breathe, miss Rivera," he advises. His voice is steady. "You'll be fine."

He kneels, placing a hand on her back as he works quickly to reverse the damage the blade has done, to seal the wound and stop the bleeding and make things as they should be. It's not the worst injury he's ever healed, but it's one of the most important treatments he's ever had to do.

He can feel, through his magic, the slight warp that means there will be a scar there, small though it is. He leaves it; later, she can decide what to do with it, if she wants to touch it at all.

He nudges the skeleton giving a soft little whine for Hector between his growls, before whipping his head, snapping bright ivory fangs at Ernesto, the only thing breaking the sheer blackness of his form.

As the lights went out, and Avery revealed himself, he threw his head back, letting a deep, baleful bay before stalking towards the man once Ekkehardt had Coco in hand.

"You go nowhere, monster." Kokoro, safely landed, holds up her recording phone with one hand, the other drawing out a bottle of what he'll surely recognize as holy water. "In more ways than one."

[There is a distinct, metallic little click- a noise that has absolutely nothing to do with the supernatural, and everything to do with humanity being an inventively vicious, bloody-handed species in its' own right.]

[And the fact that a sufficiently creative woman can conceal a small pistol down the back of her prim and proper little secretarial button-down shirt surprisingly well, if she has a good holster.]

Best time to cut your losses was a while ago, buddy. [Her tone is sweet, cheerful, and entirely without mercy.] Second best time is now.

[As the lights went out, Puella switched from a hat to a fox mask to see. Which just makes everything better for what she had in mind.]

[She rushes in before Ernesto runs too far, suspecting that he was going to try to make a quick escape somehow.]

Oh no you don't-! [She swings the umbrella like a bat towards his legs, in pitch blackness. Attempting just to trip him over but won't complain if it does more damage than that, he deserved it.]

[Success. He did not go splat and neither did Coco. A few moments to catch his breath down below and he heads back up, his normal hawk self, flying into the cloud of darkness... he may be the most blind of the group now, but he does manage to find the floor of the balcony, where he decides he'll stay. Quietly. At least until someone turns on the lights, for pity's sake.]

[As events unfold, entirely too much to be able to keep track of even half of it, he thinks dimly, he's taken a few more steps away. The distance doesn't help the grip on his lungs get any lighter, so he sits instead, still holding himself but otherwise giving in to the exhausted ache in his legs and his chest. His nails were short, but they still bit into his arms from his tense grip. The others, it seemed, were intent on punishment, justice, revenge... Good. They could handle that -- it seemed like something they all had experience in. He just wants to know about his friend, and watches Ekkehardt cast his magic with his heart hammering away.

Once accepting that Coco will be okay thanks to the doctor, Clifford draws his legs in so they aren't sprawled out weakly anymore, and drops his head against his knees. Fuck... This has been A Day, and he's content to stay back here and let the rest unfold without him until it's time to get back to a bed. He desperately needs one.]

[The child is safe, in the hands of someone who can take care of her. And Ernesto makes the mistake of coming back.

The darkness lights up with a burst of roaring flame. Adriel's fingertips burn badly but they continue to let the fire sweep through the air, only restrained by their careful control. Adriel casts the flames forward to cut off some possible escape routes before stepping forward.

In the darkness, Adriel does not look like the angel they normally do. Their expression is twisted with barely contained fury. They are...very, very angry and their voice is a low growl.]

You better have a damn good reasons for your actions here.

The shadows stretch past the curtain. He can just make out the shapes, faint details, the glow of many eyes (some animal and one pair completely red) and the rising sun. He flinches back from the black dog and from the woman with the gun. His gaze snaps to the one girl, then the other as the wretched thing whaps her umbrella at him causing him to yelp and stumble back.

And then the angel illuminates the nightmare. He cowers now. Behind him, that shadow still lurks.

"I... I had no choice. I had to..."

The charm hadn't worked. Killing Héctor hadn't worked. He's about to be killed by a collective of monsters.

But no. No, no, there's one option left, one option that brings his expression to twist, but there's no choice.

He doesn't draw on the charm for this. This time, he draws on his other power.

A silvery light dances over him. He's never done so much so fast, but in his panic, he must.

One by one, bit by bit, the group will start to remember the skeletal man they protect. In the same instant, they'll start to forget who he is. Only one person at a time and were he any less in his own head, he might think the daemon had planned this from the start for its own amusement. Forget your hostility. Forget him. It's a dizzying feeling. It should work, but Héctor's eyes still settle on him with a strange look in them. He doesn't recognize it. Is it hatred?

"They'll hunt you," He says, and there's something cold there. "The moment you let them remember, they'll find where you are. If you try to touch my family, they'll know. If you do anything with the songs you stole from me, they'll know."

Ernesto's eyes flick over the group and then back. He forces the power harder and Héctor's eyes narrow.

"Are you trying to make me forget too?" He asks. "Oh, Ernesto... You attacked my little girl... you murdered me... I'll never forget you."

With a panicked noise, while the group is still addled by the shifting of memory and their resprctive powers are thrown, he runs.

His head snaps up, a sharp pitched noise escaping as black receded from his eyes, crimson turning green as he shook and pawed at his nose as a strange feeling rose up in his throat, everything pitching inside his head.

Nausea... that's the feeling, how long has it been since he felt something like this? What... focus, his head is swimming as he tried to make sense of what just happened.

Memories fill.

Memories fade.

He had come all this way due to an instinctive hatred of... someone. And there was Héctor's daughter and...

And Héctor.

How long had he forgotten Héctor?

Why can't he remember who was right in front of him just then?

The darkness fades and Avery groans, lowering his head and rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palm.

Edited 2020-10-27 03:27 (UTC)

It's a strange feeling, to be caught between remembering and forgetting. Part of him wants to chase that feeling of fury, to chase the man even now running away, to hold onto the memories out of spite.

But Héctor has gotten himself into trouble once again, so reflexes take over.

"It seems your daughter has just as much of a knack as you for getting into troublesome situations," he says, kneeling to offer him a hand. "She's no less brave and reckless than you, for a start."

There's no bite to the words, though. He just seems faintly amused, and it's just like it always was.

Forget You - End

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