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randomplaces2013-03-13 08:35 pm
mosaic_archive) wrote in randomplaces2013-03-13 08:35 pm
Entry tags:
Nexus: The House: That Night
((Happens on Jan 15th (same night as the Black Dog Wish Incident).))
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *watching the moonlight through the window. Or, well... it might be moonlight. He realises he hasn't actually seen the moon in this place, and from some of the things he's heard it could just as well be a glowing space whale. Either way, he's sitting on the floor in a room, avoiding his new sleeping bag and sleep in general, and watching the light come through the window, hitting the occasional dust mote on its way to make a square of slightly brighter floor.*
Lizzie: *is that soft door creak, and then a tiny head peeking inside as she comes looking for him after going to check on her amaryllis, which has thankfully stopped blooming and making the entire house smell like flower*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *had left the door slightly open so the latch wouldn't be a hindrance... he knows how much trouble doorknobs can be. Smiles at Lizzie, but the smile is faintly sad*
Lizzie: *comes scooting inside, tugging on the tiny silk kimono that one of the puppets gave her for Christmas, and that she uses for her nighttime outfit*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *hasn't even thought of the possibility of turning on the lights at night, so has just been sitting in here in the dark* This has been a very strange day.
Lizzie: *hesitates as she reaches him, instead of snuggling up like she'd usually do and burrowing under his arm* *looks up at his face* -That's puttin' it lightly.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: This... *meaning his current form, as he looks at his hands* It brings back memories. That is both a good and a bad thing. *misses the snuggling right now, but says nothing about it*
Lizzie: *tiny sigh* -I know how that kin be. Um... I jes' realized yer a bloke now. D'ye still... Um. Dolls're usually fer girls...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *laughs, but tries to do so quietly so he won't wake the others... if any of them are having any more luck sleeping. Then he'll reach to carefully pick Lizzie up for a cuddle, if she'll allow it, holding her in much the same way as he had earlier that evening at the Black Dog* I am still myself...
Lizzie: *happy to be picked up. Turns those slightly faded brown eyes toward his face* -Yeah. But I'm useta yeh bein' wood 'n cloth 'n gunk.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *quietly* It's what I am used to, also. But in all the ways that matter, I am still myself. Or as much of myself as I have been since we arrived here.
Lizzie: -Wottrya mean?- *leans so she can try to see his face*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We are puppets, not dolls, Lizzie. You know the difference, ja? Puppets... have strings. Even if you cannot see them. Right now our strings are broken, and so are we... not because of these forms, but because we have lost the person we trusted to hold those strings.
Lizzie: *wriggles till she's gotten down to sit on his knee so that she can lean back and look up at his face from the shadow of her bright blue fake fur wig* *quietly, confused and sad* -But Shade..?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He is a cat. He has been a great help to us, but... *reminded of something said by someone who, from his expression, it frightens him a little to think of* What strange creatures that would make us.
Lizzie: -Buh?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: There is much that we have not said, about what we are, about what it means for us to be that way. I would not want you to be afraid of us. But you deserve to know... if you want.
Lizzie: -I know in some places yer horror movie props.- *impression of raised brows, though hers don't move*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It is deserved, believe me. *slight shiver* To start at the beginning would be a long story... but I am not sleeping anyway. It frightens me.
Lizzie: *scoots down and hurries over to the door, then returns with both her own tiny plush toy and the little teddy bear that she stole the cowboy hat from and which has since become Jester's*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *bit of a smile again* Ja, I suppose those might be needed...
Lizzie: *stops and holds the little cream coloured bear up by one ear. It's a little bit shorter than her, so this sort of works* -He ain't really big enough no more.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Nein... but sometimes, you have to make do with what little you have.
Lizzie: *snerks and offers the toy*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *will give it a cuddle, or as best as possible given the size*
Lizzie: *climbs up and leans against him* -Don't believe yeh could be scary, Jes'. Not on yer own.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Alex Whittaker would disagree. Carolyn Bramwell would disagree. Their friends would as well, I think, if any from those times were living. But that is getting ahead of things...
Lizzie: *impression of a frown as she lays back and looks up at his face, her plushie held absently close*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *decides the best place to start... is at the beginning. Or at least what was the beginning for him.* I first met the Toulons when I was nine years old. They had moved to Berlin, where I lived with my mother, and she would take me to their puppet shows.
The puppets I saw then all had strings... normal ones. Herr Toulon had given up practicing magic, because it had hurt him too badly.
Lizzie: *intent, though still seeming to give the impression of that quizzical and confused frown*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I didn't know about the magic then. I did not know about a lot of things, like the reasons behind my mother's absences. They became worse as the years passed. I stayed with the Toulons often, and not just for the shows. Sometimes I would help. They were - and are - like a second set of parents to me.
As I got old enough, I learned that my mother ran messages for people who opposed the things the Nazis were doing. The Toulons were involved as well. And, eventually, so was I.
Lizzie: *softly* -'O course.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The Toulons would travel sometimes, the puppet shows were an excuse, and this way they could make contacts the others could not. I started to travel with them when I was fourteen, acting as Herr Toulon's assistant. Herr Strauss - Pinhead - is from Poland, and I met him on one of those trips.
Despite the difference in ages, we were good friends even then. It was hard to find friends one could trust, when one was involved in the things that we were.
Lizzie: *gives her stiff little nod, but then turns her head slightly as she thinks she catches the faint, far off sound of a snore* -Speakin' 'o Pinhead.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *faint smile* I suppose not all of us are having trouble sleeping. *is not so much having trouble as is afraid to even try it*
Lizzie: -He's huggin' Shade like a teddy bear.- *rubs her face on her plushie, and then looks up again attentively*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *a sigh and he continues* In 1934, when I was 22 years old, my mother was arrested while I was away with the Toulons on another trip. She was just gone, and we never saw her again. This happened... often.
I managed to avoid suspicion and took over her communications, but with my own adjustments. I worked as a bookkeeper, and so I was able to hide information in code among the papers I handled every day.
Lizzie: *over to the crook of his arm so she can snuggle as she lays and looks up at him. Pause to examine his shirt and poke it, liking the texture of the thick, old fashioned flannel*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I managed for a while... but in 1936, a month and a few days after my 24th birthday, they came to arrest me.
I could not let this happen. I knew too much that could put too many others in danger, and the Gestapo had their ways to be persuasive. So I tried to flee...
Lizzie: *looks up, suddenly holding her plush in a death grip* *Jester will feel a very very faint thread of distress that isn't his own*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *trying to be reassuring about a topic that just... isn't, and his expression is a bit distant* It didn't hurt. I felt something hit my back... and I was falling... but I never even felt myself hit the ground.
Lizzie: *snuggles, hiding her face on him as she silently grieves for that long ago young man*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I had told Herr Toulon once about a dream I had. One where I was helping with the puppet shows... but where I was one of the puppets. It had disturbed him, and his wife, and at the time I did not know why.
I found out then... waking up and finding myself in the form you are more familiar with.
Lizzie: -They weren't ready teh say g'bye.- *face still hidden*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Nein. And neither was I, or it would not have worked. The magic cannot force someone to live. There was a point, as I started to wake, when I could have refused it. But I had unfinished business... the records in my office. If the code was cracked, then my death would have been for nothing.
Lizzie: *looks up at him again, the grip on her plush still firm*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I remember that, at first I did not really think of myself as alive. I wasn't sure what I was, and I didn't think about it. The task was what mattered. The first night after I became Jester, I went back to where I had worked... and I set it on fire.
Lizzie: *soft sound of a mental gasp*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I think it was realizing that I did not want to burn up with everything else that made me decide... I must still be alive, or I would not be afraid of dying.
I escaped easily enough, since I had left the window open, and I returned to the puppet theater.
Lizzie: *impression of lifted brows urging him to continue*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: After that, I helped with the shows... and occasionally with messages and sabotage. Herr Toulon told me anything I wanted to know about... how it was that I had been changed.
A month and a half later, Herr Strauss visited. He had heard word of my demise. I allowed him to see me. Not on the stage, where Herr Toulon could use the excuse that I was some motorized automaton... but out in the open, or as open as the workshop was. We trusted him.
Lizzie: *bit of a seeming of a wibble. Softly* -Hard not teh.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *a nod* He was a truck driver. For the resistance, he would smuggle things - and sometimes people. A few times, when it was safe enough and I was not needed in Berlin, I would go with him.
I was the only puppet like myself for over four years. Then, in 1940, I accompanied Herr Strauss on another of his trips.
His preferred assignment... he would smuggle food to the Warsaw Ghetto. It was impossible for an adult to get in and out past the guards, especially a big scary guy like Herman Strauss.
What was done was that a place would be found in the walls where the fence was loose, or the wall had boards that could be moved to make a small hole, or there was a drain... anything that would work, and the children would be sent out.
They sent four year olds, because if they were older they would have had to wear the yellow star, and younger and they might not follow instructions.
Lizzie: *soft snerk* -Scary.- *snerk* *listens to the snore again, and then once more looks up*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *bit of a smile* To those who do not know him, and who are foolish enough to judge by appearances, ja.
That time, while Herman was removing packages from the truck, a guard found the way the children were getting out.. a gap barely more than a foot in size where loose bricks had been chipped out, in a wall facing the alley we had parked near. Herr Strauss returned to find the guard taking aim at one of the children... so from behind him, he broke his neck.
Lizzie: *tiny mental squeak, and again the soft rush of grieving*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Unfortunately, the guard was not alone. There was a second on the same patrol. Herman was between them and the children, and he would not move until they had scrambled back to their side of the wall.
I picked up a piece of broken glass in the alleyway, but I was not fast enough... The guard managed to fire before I injured his ankle and... when he fell down, made certain he would not be shooting anyone again.
Lizzie: *shaky mental sigh and snuggles. Still feels of that sadness and mourning*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: At first, it seemed all I could do was stay there, with Herr Strauss, until... until what would come. But he said... he asked if I thought he would be any good at theater. It was the last thing he said, and I knew what he meant. And Herr Toulon had told me what needed to be done.
So I found a cleaner piece of glass, and took the syringe that was kept with... my food. And after that... I managed to contact Herr Toulon so he could retrieve me from Poland.
Lizzie: *quietly* -I gotta give 'im a hug when 'e wakes up.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *bit of a smile* He will like that.
Since Tunneler already told how he and Six-Shooter joined us later that year, that brings us to 1941, and four living puppets in a theater in Berlin. A theater ran by André Toulon and his wife Elsa...
Lizzie: -'N no bloomin' Punch 'n Judy in sight.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Well, we did have a stringed Hitler puppet, but he was more punching bag than Punch.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *watching the moonlight through the window. Or, well... it might be moonlight. He realises he hasn't actually seen the moon in this place, and from some of the things he's heard it could just as well be a glowing space whale. Either way, he's sitting on the floor in a room, avoiding his new sleeping bag and sleep in general, and watching the light come through the window, hitting the occasional dust mote on its way to make a square of slightly brighter floor.*
Lizzie: *is that soft door creak, and then a tiny head peeking inside as she comes looking for him after going to check on her amaryllis, which has thankfully stopped blooming and making the entire house smell like flower*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *had left the door slightly open so the latch wouldn't be a hindrance... he knows how much trouble doorknobs can be. Smiles at Lizzie, but the smile is faintly sad*
Lizzie: *comes scooting inside, tugging on the tiny silk kimono that one of the puppets gave her for Christmas, and that she uses for her nighttime outfit*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *hasn't even thought of the possibility of turning on the lights at night, so has just been sitting in here in the dark* This has been a very strange day.
Lizzie: *hesitates as she reaches him, instead of snuggling up like she'd usually do and burrowing under his arm* *looks up at his face* -That's puttin' it lightly.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: This... *meaning his current form, as he looks at his hands* It brings back memories. That is both a good and a bad thing. *misses the snuggling right now, but says nothing about it*
Lizzie: *tiny sigh* -I know how that kin be. Um... I jes' realized yer a bloke now. D'ye still... Um. Dolls're usually fer girls...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *laughs, but tries to do so quietly so he won't wake the others... if any of them are having any more luck sleeping. Then he'll reach to carefully pick Lizzie up for a cuddle, if she'll allow it, holding her in much the same way as he had earlier that evening at the Black Dog* I am still myself...
Lizzie: *happy to be picked up. Turns those slightly faded brown eyes toward his face* -Yeah. But I'm useta yeh bein' wood 'n cloth 'n gunk.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *quietly* It's what I am used to, also. But in all the ways that matter, I am still myself. Or as much of myself as I have been since we arrived here.
Lizzie: -Wottrya mean?- *leans so she can try to see his face*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We are puppets, not dolls, Lizzie. You know the difference, ja? Puppets... have strings. Even if you cannot see them. Right now our strings are broken, and so are we... not because of these forms, but because we have lost the person we trusted to hold those strings.
Lizzie: *wriggles till she's gotten down to sit on his knee so that she can lean back and look up at his face from the shadow of her bright blue fake fur wig* *quietly, confused and sad* -But Shade..?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He is a cat. He has been a great help to us, but... *reminded of something said by someone who, from his expression, it frightens him a little to think of* What strange creatures that would make us.
Lizzie: -Buh?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: There is much that we have not said, about what we are, about what it means for us to be that way. I would not want you to be afraid of us. But you deserve to know... if you want.
Lizzie: -I know in some places yer horror movie props.- *impression of raised brows, though hers don't move*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It is deserved, believe me. *slight shiver* To start at the beginning would be a long story... but I am not sleeping anyway. It frightens me.
Lizzie: *scoots down and hurries over to the door, then returns with both her own tiny plush toy and the little teddy bear that she stole the cowboy hat from and which has since become Jester's*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *bit of a smile again* Ja, I suppose those might be needed...
Lizzie: *stops and holds the little cream coloured bear up by one ear. It's a little bit shorter than her, so this sort of works* -He ain't really big enough no more.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Nein... but sometimes, you have to make do with what little you have.
Lizzie: *snerks and offers the toy*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *will give it a cuddle, or as best as possible given the size*
Lizzie: *climbs up and leans against him* -Don't believe yeh could be scary, Jes'. Not on yer own.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Alex Whittaker would disagree. Carolyn Bramwell would disagree. Their friends would as well, I think, if any from those times were living. But that is getting ahead of things...
Lizzie: *impression of a frown as she lays back and looks up at his face, her plushie held absently close*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *decides the best place to start... is at the beginning. Or at least what was the beginning for him.* I first met the Toulons when I was nine years old. They had moved to Berlin, where I lived with my mother, and she would take me to their puppet shows.
The puppets I saw then all had strings... normal ones. Herr Toulon had given up practicing magic, because it had hurt him too badly.
Lizzie: *intent, though still seeming to give the impression of that quizzical and confused frown*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I didn't know about the magic then. I did not know about a lot of things, like the reasons behind my mother's absences. They became worse as the years passed. I stayed with the Toulons often, and not just for the shows. Sometimes I would help. They were - and are - like a second set of parents to me.
As I got old enough, I learned that my mother ran messages for people who opposed the things the Nazis were doing. The Toulons were involved as well. And, eventually, so was I.
Lizzie: *softly* -'O course.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The Toulons would travel sometimes, the puppet shows were an excuse, and this way they could make contacts the others could not. I started to travel with them when I was fourteen, acting as Herr Toulon's assistant. Herr Strauss - Pinhead - is from Poland, and I met him on one of those trips.
Despite the difference in ages, we were good friends even then. It was hard to find friends one could trust, when one was involved in the things that we were.
Lizzie: *gives her stiff little nod, but then turns her head slightly as she thinks she catches the faint, far off sound of a snore* -Speakin' 'o Pinhead.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *faint smile* I suppose not all of us are having trouble sleeping. *is not so much having trouble as is afraid to even try it*
Lizzie: -He's huggin' Shade like a teddy bear.- *rubs her face on her plushie, and then looks up again attentively*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *a sigh and he continues* In 1934, when I was 22 years old, my mother was arrested while I was away with the Toulons on another trip. She was just gone, and we never saw her again. This happened... often.
I managed to avoid suspicion and took over her communications, but with my own adjustments. I worked as a bookkeeper, and so I was able to hide information in code among the papers I handled every day.
Lizzie: *over to the crook of his arm so she can snuggle as she lays and looks up at him. Pause to examine his shirt and poke it, liking the texture of the thick, old fashioned flannel*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I managed for a while... but in 1936, a month and a few days after my 24th birthday, they came to arrest me.
I could not let this happen. I knew too much that could put too many others in danger, and the Gestapo had their ways to be persuasive. So I tried to flee...
Lizzie: *looks up, suddenly holding her plush in a death grip* *Jester will feel a very very faint thread of distress that isn't his own*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *trying to be reassuring about a topic that just... isn't, and his expression is a bit distant* It didn't hurt. I felt something hit my back... and I was falling... but I never even felt myself hit the ground.
Lizzie: *snuggles, hiding her face on him as she silently grieves for that long ago young man*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I had told Herr Toulon once about a dream I had. One where I was helping with the puppet shows... but where I was one of the puppets. It had disturbed him, and his wife, and at the time I did not know why.
I found out then... waking up and finding myself in the form you are more familiar with.
Lizzie: -They weren't ready teh say g'bye.- *face still hidden*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Nein. And neither was I, or it would not have worked. The magic cannot force someone to live. There was a point, as I started to wake, when I could have refused it. But I had unfinished business... the records in my office. If the code was cracked, then my death would have been for nothing.
Lizzie: *looks up at him again, the grip on her plush still firm*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I remember that, at first I did not really think of myself as alive. I wasn't sure what I was, and I didn't think about it. The task was what mattered. The first night after I became Jester, I went back to where I had worked... and I set it on fire.
Lizzie: *soft sound of a mental gasp*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I think it was realizing that I did not want to burn up with everything else that made me decide... I must still be alive, or I would not be afraid of dying.
I escaped easily enough, since I had left the window open, and I returned to the puppet theater.
Lizzie: *impression of lifted brows urging him to continue*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: After that, I helped with the shows... and occasionally with messages and sabotage. Herr Toulon told me anything I wanted to know about... how it was that I had been changed.
A month and a half later, Herr Strauss visited. He had heard word of my demise. I allowed him to see me. Not on the stage, where Herr Toulon could use the excuse that I was some motorized automaton... but out in the open, or as open as the workshop was. We trusted him.
Lizzie: *bit of a seeming of a wibble. Softly* -Hard not teh.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *a nod* He was a truck driver. For the resistance, he would smuggle things - and sometimes people. A few times, when it was safe enough and I was not needed in Berlin, I would go with him.
I was the only puppet like myself for over four years. Then, in 1940, I accompanied Herr Strauss on another of his trips.
His preferred assignment... he would smuggle food to the Warsaw Ghetto. It was impossible for an adult to get in and out past the guards, especially a big scary guy like Herman Strauss.
What was done was that a place would be found in the walls where the fence was loose, or the wall had boards that could be moved to make a small hole, or there was a drain... anything that would work, and the children would be sent out.
They sent four year olds, because if they were older they would have had to wear the yellow star, and younger and they might not follow instructions.
Lizzie: *soft snerk* -Scary.- *snerk* *listens to the snore again, and then once more looks up*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *bit of a smile* To those who do not know him, and who are foolish enough to judge by appearances, ja.
That time, while Herman was removing packages from the truck, a guard found the way the children were getting out.. a gap barely more than a foot in size where loose bricks had been chipped out, in a wall facing the alley we had parked near. Herr Strauss returned to find the guard taking aim at one of the children... so from behind him, he broke his neck.
Lizzie: *tiny mental squeak, and again the soft rush of grieving*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Unfortunately, the guard was not alone. There was a second on the same patrol. Herman was between them and the children, and he would not move until they had scrambled back to their side of the wall.
I picked up a piece of broken glass in the alleyway, but I was not fast enough... The guard managed to fire before I injured his ankle and... when he fell down, made certain he would not be shooting anyone again.
Lizzie: *shaky mental sigh and snuggles. Still feels of that sadness and mourning*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: At first, it seemed all I could do was stay there, with Herr Strauss, until... until what would come. But he said... he asked if I thought he would be any good at theater. It was the last thing he said, and I knew what he meant. And Herr Toulon had told me what needed to be done.
So I found a cleaner piece of glass, and took the syringe that was kept with... my food. And after that... I managed to contact Herr Toulon so he could retrieve me from Poland.
Lizzie: *quietly* -I gotta give 'im a hug when 'e wakes up.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *bit of a smile* He will like that.
Since Tunneler already told how he and Six-Shooter joined us later that year, that brings us to 1941, and four living puppets in a theater in Berlin. A theater ran by André Toulon and his wife Elsa...
Lizzie: -'N no bloomin' Punch 'n Judy in sight.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Well, we did have a stringed Hitler puppet, but he was more punching bag than Punch.
no subject
Then one day, Lieutenant Eric Stein attended one of the shows. He sat in the back with his camera...
Lizzie: *emotes an :(*
Jester: After the children had left, he stayed behind. He asked some questions, and made some threats. Herr Toulon always tried to claim we were motorized, but I guess Stein did not fall for it.
After he left, we had dinner... and there was a crash out in the alley. There was no one there when Herr Toulon went to look... but we learned later that Lieutenant Stein had peeped through a window and taken photographs.
Lizzie: *mutter*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Blade told us later... Stein reported back to Major Krauss of the Gestapo. Dr. Hess was there when he came in to report on this.
*hesitates, and sighs* I don't want you to think badly of him for it, working for the Reich then. He really had no choice that he knew of. And, at least he did not want us hurt. He knew Krauss would cause problems, and so he tried to go over Krauss's head and call General Mueller.
Lizzie: *seems to be frowning intently as she listens now*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: All he really managed was that he accompanied the others when they raided our home. During that, André was arrested... and Elsa was shot. When she spit on Krauss, he shot her again.
Lizzie: *grieving again*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Six-Shooter and I were left in the puppet theater, but Pinhead and Tunneler were put in the car with Herr Toulon.
We stayed out of sight and listened, so we would know where they took the body. We did not have the chance to do anything else.
Pinhead and Tunneler killed the guards in the car so Herr Toulon could escape. As soon as he had the chance without immediately being caught, he came back.
Lizzie: *wibble wibble*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We could not stay there, but he gathered us up, and certain needed supplies. One of these was a present he had made for Elsa. He'd shown it to her because she was frightened by Stein's earlier visit. It was another puppet... one made to look like her.
Lizzie: *little mental peep of sad*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We hid in a pharmacy that had been closed... and then I went with Herr Toulon and Pinhead and we broke into the morgue. There was one doctor there, peeping at the bodies like some pervert... but Pinhead took care of him, and I unlocked the door for Herr Toulon.
We kept watch while he took care of things... I found a scalpel on a table nearby, in case there was trouble. And there was... someone else came in. He tried to call on the phone, but Pinhead pulled the line out of the wall, and I stabbed the man in the leg so he could not bother us. *remembers something, and smiles slightly* We actually didn't kill that one. Our business there was done and it was time to leave.
Lizzie: *looks up, is totally caught up in the story*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Once back at the pharmacy, we began to make our other plans. With all of us, those directly responsible for our deaths had not survived. Now it was Elsa's turn... but it would have been very rude to start without her.
A weapon was... a matter of improvisation. The pharmacy had leeches. I do not know enough about medicine to know if they actually still used them, or if they were a curio the owner had kept.
Lizzie: -...No clue.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We started with Stein. He was Major Krauss's driver, and he was servicing the car when we found him. I climbed up so that when he lowered the hood he saw me sitting on the toolbox.
While he was staring at this, Pinhead hit him in the ankle and then in the face with a heavy wrench. Leech finished the job, and we left.
Lizzie: *shudder*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We hid in the cellar of a ruined building after that. Some spying followed, with myself and Pinhead taking turns... but he was the one lucky enough to catch General Mueller leaving for a meeting, and to catch the address.
The meeting turned out to be in a brothel. Six-Shooter took care of things, but he was injured and returned with only five arms.
We did not have parts or supplies for Herr Toulon to fix this at the time... but we were not alone in the cellar. A boy named Peter Hertz was hiding there with his father. He had been to our puppet shows before, and Six-Shooter was his favorite. We didn't prompt him to do anything. Herr Toulon told him to listen to his father and stay safe... but he snuck out the next day to get the supplies that were needed.
Lizzie: -Oh rot...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It's hard to keep the story straight, since we heard so much of it later from Blade. By then, he would have had a... falling out with Krauss. They had found Six-Shooter's arm while investigating Mueller's death. Krauss's reaction was to put a very large reward on Herr Toulon, and tell Dr. Hess in no uncertain terms that he intended to have André shot if he could find him.
Dr. Hess, in turn, called Hitler a 'tin god', among other things he said. It's a wonder Major Krauss didn't have him shot right then, but he wanted him to continue working on his project... under a guard.
Lizzie: *mutters something very inventive and insulting, though not crude in any way, about Hitler*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Dr. Hess managed to convince his guard he needed to go out. He searched the puppet theater... and he found Peter.
Lizzie: -Yee!- *clutches at his shirt*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He managed to convince Peter he meant no harm... and he also managed to get the guard to stay away. He's said that might be because he asked the guard if he wanted to volunteer for an experiment. *chuckles* So the guard was a little scared of the 'mad scientist', ja?
And so, Peter led Dr. Hess to us... It would have been an easy kill, but he said he wanted to talk, and we let him. I am glad we did.
Lizzie: *totally riveted to story again*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We could not blame him. He only wanted to know... what we were, how we were. He meant no harm.
We talked, or rather he and Herr Toulon talked, for about an hour. Dr. Hess knew what he was doing by being there. As soon as Krauss knew, he would want him shot... but he felt that would happen anyway. Either Krauss would kill him, or we would. It wasn't a matter of choosing a side he could live with... he didn't expect to. It was a matter of choosing a side he could die with and still feel he'd done something right.
Lizzie: *softly* -Awwww.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Herr Toulon told Dr. Hess a lot of things... including who we were. I let him pick me up as well. It's one of the best ways I have to show if I trust someone.
Six-Shooter's arm had been fixed and Herr Toulon had showed Dr. Hess a new puppet he had made. In appearance, it was based on Major Krauss... but he'd made the design as we are, as a precaution. Things were very dangerous, and André knew he could die, or Dr. Hess, or even Peter...
Lizzie: *gives her sorta nod*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Peter's father returned, and.. he was upset. He wanted Peter to leave with him, immediately. Dr. Hess was immediately suspicious, but Herr Hertz insisted no one had seen him come in. This was a lie. We learned later from Peter that his father had betrayed us to Major Krauss. Peter's mother had been arrested, you see, before they went into hiding... and Herr Hertz thought they could make a trade.
Lizzie: *face palm. Click!*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *has to agree* He was not a smart man... but he was a desperate one. And I know too well that desperation can cause people to do very stupid things. I no longer hold any blame for him.
When the SS started to come in, Pinhead hit the first one with a brick and Dr. Hess took the man's pistol. Tunneler put a hole in the next one's leg... *decides not to go into detail* We had to arrange a retreat around the back, and just barely made it.
Lizzie: *meeps again, once more focused on his face*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The SS continued to pursue, but we did what we could. After Six-Shooter shot one of them while we were hiding, Dr. Hess reacted on habit and ran out to check on him. The man managed to stab him before he died.
Lizzie: *quiet little mental hissing sound, and more grieving*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We had known him a very short time, but... he was one of us, and we knew it. We fled as soon as Herr Toulon had taken care of necessary steps. And, after avoiding pursuit, we went to one place we felt they would not immediately think to look. We went home.
Lizzie: *absently* -Works sometimes.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It fooled the SS. *slight smile* It didn't fool Peter.
Herr Toulon had fallen asleep on a bench. He woke when Peter came in and found us. Peter's father had been shot by Major Krauss... he'd fought with him in order to give Peter the chance to escape.
Lizzie: *more wibble*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: So, Peter was there when Blade joined us. Of course, we didn't let the boy come when we went to confront Krauss. Some things children should not see.
Lizzie: *impression of a nod*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: ... even children who have already seen more than they should have to.
I cut the phone line, and then let Krauss see me after he found the phone would not work. He tried throwing things at me, but eventually he had to come around the desk... I think he planned to shoot me. He didn't get the chance, once he was in position for Blade to... say hello in his own way. I won't describe in detail what we did to him, only to say that we made certain he got what he deserved.
Lizzie: *shudder* -Ew...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *twitch as he tries not to grin* It was not so 'eww' for us, though it might have been for the cleaning staff later. *back to being oddly serious* It was a war, and I think... it is easy, perhaps too easy, to become used to killing.
Lizzie: *sober snuggle*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: After that, there was no more reason for us to stay in Berlin, and every reason to leave. A forger that had worked for the resistance helped with passports, with Herr Toulon travelling under Krauss's identity. There would be a little while before the news was out. Peter came with us, and we boarded an express train to Geneva.
no subject
Lizzie: *still snuggling* -Accourse.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: As it turned out, members of the military had a project hidden in a restricted section of the train. If one could call it that. They had discovered and robbed a very ancient Egyptian mastaba.... the sort of structures they made long before pyramids.
Lizzie: *quiet* -I know what they are.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We could hear what was in there. It was... something like us, but not. Something that was sleeping, but his sleep had been disturbed.
We tried to tell Herr Toulon, but he could not hear us so easily. Peter, we managed to get to hide in other parts of the train. It was too dangerous for him, and the Nazis had already seen Herr Toulon's fake passport and invited him along as if they wanted the company.
Lizzie: *shivers*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Blade... was impulsive for being so new at being one of us. He followed Herr Toulon to the dining car, to listen and to guard him. The rest of us had stayed in the baggage compartment where we could watch the crate.
During dinner, Blade was seen. He held still, and was looked at by an Egyptian the Nazis had with them as an advisor. A man who called himself Ahmed Bey. Blade didn't hold as still as he should, and 'accidentally' cut one of Herr Bey's fingers... but Herr Bey didn't bleed.
Lizzie: -Eeek!-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It disturbed Herr Toulon as well... but at dinner, Herr Bey just handed Blade back as if nothing had happened. Things went very quickly after that, once there was more privacy. He had his need for that as well as we did.
It was a fight, at first... and for all the wrong mistaken reasons. Herr Bey thought he had found a Nazi in control of magic they had no right to... and Herr Toulon thought the Egyptian was a servant of Sutekh, from whom the magic had been stolen decades ago. Sutekh's followers are often mummified... We would learn more about that later.
Lizzie: -Oyyy.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We were on Herr Toulon's side... and on Herr Bey's were what he called homunculi. They were not like us... they had no will of their own, only his. He controlled their actions and could see what they saw. They had been hiding in the crate to guard its contents. Herr Bey was actually waiting for a good time for them to escape without causing unwanted questions.
Lizzie: *eeked and hiding again*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He wanted our help, once he knew we were not with the Nazis. Herr Toulon was suspicious at first, because of Herr Bey's... condition. But he was no servant of the Dark Pharaoh. Very far from that.
Lizzie: *peeeeek*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: What the Nazis had stolen, and now slept in the crate, was Anubis. A real creature on which the Egyptian myths had been based... as Sutekh became Set. Anubis was not evil, but he was... more animal than human. His nature was that of a guard, and the Nazis hoped to fully awaken him near the German border and decieve him into their cause.
Lizzie: *snort*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Killing Nazis on a train is not so easy as when there are more places to hide and more possible suspects. Things became difficult quickly... but the homunculi were able to alert Herr Bey to this. In order to 'prove' to them that he was really Major Krauss, Herr Toulon had to shoot Herr Bey in front of witnesses. But they set this up, both knowing a bullet would not kill Herr Bey.
Lizzie: *bit of amusement at that*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Not all of them were convinced, and things soon fell apart anyway. But by the time they did, Herr Bey... or perhaps I should say Osiris, was right where he wanted to be.
Lizzie: *perk*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It was all the seams that gave his identity away, and we overheard... one of the Nazis was suspicious and tried to take him apart again, only to find the bullet had not even really slowed him down... or the homunculi... or us.
Lizzie: *head shake at Nazi stupidity*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: But they captured Herr Toulon, and Leech. We got her out of a cage easily enough, but they planned to sacrifice André to Anubis when they finally woke him, and we were nearing the border.
There were many things we had to do, and all at once. If it had just been us, we would never have made it. It was decided to separate the cars from the train. Some of us went to do that, and some went to try to rescue Herr Toulon. And Osiris acted to counter the Nazis when Anubis woke. Luckily for us, he trusted his father more than he trusted strangers who tried to feed him people.
The rest of things could be easily described by saying to take any werewolf movie you have seen, substitute Nazis for all the victims, and have the werewolf be more of a werejackal in a linen kilt and gold collar.
Lizzie: *giggle. Can't help it*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *giggling as well, but gets it under control* All we really had to do was stay out of his way
Lizzie: *hides face on him again*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Peter Hertz made it to Geneva with the rest of the train, and much later from there to safety under the name Eric Weiss. We had to escape the rest of the train crashing, a few miles from the Swiss border. And... the others returned to Egypt, by some way of their own. All we found after the wreck were footprints that... just vanished after a short distance.
Lizzie: -Cheaters.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *chuckles* At their ages? They probably just did not want to walk that far.
Lizzie: *snerk*
no subject
He had mentioned some little of this to me, long before... and Elsa had been there when it happened, but the story was new to the rest of us. And I had not heard most of it.
Lizzie: -'E saved 'is bloomin' 'ead?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I think you have noticed that Herr Toulon has a little trouble with goodbyes...
Lizzie: *thinks about that* *softly* -Yeah...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Many years before, in 1902, when he was 25 years old, Herr Toulon and his friends ran a puppet theater in Paris. The Cyclops puppet had been one of the rod puppets they used for their shows.
One night after a show, there was a mugging in the alley outside. This had been interrupted by a young woman who had been in the audience, and she ran to the puppet theater to get help for the man who had been injured. The young woman's name was Elsa.
Lizzie: -Awwww...- *tiny bit of squee*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *chuckles and nods* Perhaps not the most romantic way to meet, but...
The police came and went, and probably planned to do nothing. The old man was brought into the theater. One of Herr Toulon's friends said if he woke up soon he'd recover, if he didn't he wouldn't...
He did, when André was the only one around.
Lizzie: *little shiver and an inkling of what this old man gave to Herr Toulon*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The old man introduced himself as Afzel. He claimed to be three thousand years old, and a sorceror who had stolen a secret from the servants of an 'elder god' called Sutekh. But now Afzel was dying, and he intended to pass this secret on to Herr Toulon. The secret needed to be protected, he said, because the 'old gods' like Sutekh bided their time... but when they decided to return in a hundred years or a thousand, that this was meant to stop them.
Lizzie: *was right!*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Herr Toulon's opinion, both on Afzel's sanity and on whether or not he wanted this, were considered irrelevant by Afzel. And he at least proved himself no fraud, when he made the rod puppets from the theater move on their own. They were not like us, though. Not then. It was the same method as Osiris used with the Homunculi.
Later a beggar who used to stay near the theater steps, and was a friend of Herr Toulon... was found dead there. This was right after Afzel had insisted on placing protection glyphs on the doors... and yet the sorceror was outside of the theater when Herr Toulon found the body. He didn't have suspicions about that until years later...
Lizzie: *tiny feeling of growl*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Afzel insisted Herr Toulon needed to practice what he had learned. And, under the circumstances, he could not have refused. Afterward, Afzel collapsed before Andre could ask too many questions... and the first puppet ran off and hid in the theater. ... He must have been terrified of what had happened. It is confusing enough when you know you are safe.
Lizzie: *sympathy for the poor puppet*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Elsa came by during this, to ask how the old man was doing... and to see André. *smiles a bit, after all, this is technically a romantic story... just one with dead bodies and mummies* They were interrupted by men hired by Elsa's father. He was not pleased she had snuck out of the Swiss Embassy again, and was found in the company of a man, unchaperoned. Herr Toulon found out very little then, because after a brief meeting, Elsa's father had the hired guards beat Herr Toulon up and dump him in the woods.
Lizzie: *wibble!*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: When he recovered, he returned to the theater... and he found...
Servants of Sutekh had been sent after Afzel. When Herr Toulon's friends had arrived while he was gone, one of them had accidentally knocked the protection glyph from the door, and this allowed the servants to be able to enter the building. They were all dead.
Lizzie: *mourning again*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: As I said, Herr Toulon has trouble with goodbyes. He did the only thing he could think of, using the puppets they had each used for thier shows. With Afzel, he used one of his own. The one that had been hiding came out when the others woke. He knew then that Herr Toulon had meant no harm.
One of them carved the protection glyph into Herr Toulon's arm, as a precaution against the servants' magic, and they planned to track the creatures down before they could return to Egypt.
Lizzie: *eek eek and rubs her arm (against him, since she can't reach it herself)*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *a chuckle* Ja. I suppose you could call this story 'Things André did when young and stupid'. Getting a 'tattoo' only reinforces this.
Lizzie: *startled look, and then giggles* -Yeh know how Shade's always kissin' you lot?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja?
Lizzie: -Fairy kisses're protection from dark stuff.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: That might be a good thing. We have the protection glyph inside of us also... as puppets, I mean. Herr Toulon did that as an added precaution, even though we are already immune to many of the spells used by Sutekh's followers.
But, to get back to things... he and his friends did not have to track down Sutekh's servants. With the glyph not on the door... and Herr Toulon had forgotten to replace it... they had sensed the magic being used. And they knew then there was another besides Afzel who knew the secret. So they returned. This went badly for them... in the form of being hit with a very large and heavy chandelier.
Herr Toulon planned to leave Paris after that. There were a lot of bodies piling up, and he did not think he could explain that.
Lizzie: *giggles about the chandelier, but then sobers again*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: While he was at the train station, he fell asleep and had a dream... about a train. And about Sutekh's servants. They had kidnapped Elsa, and were sending him a message in this way. 'Your life for hers, Puppet Master.'
Lizzie: -Eeek!- *embarrassed to have actually said that*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He was able to exchange his ticket for the right train and... they handled the problem. He and Elsa then eloped... straighening everything else out was more difficult, but at least her father could not force her to return if they were married.
Ah, one detail I forgot to say... the servants were all mummified. This is why Herr Toulon had difficulty trusting Bey when they first met.
Lizzie: -I figured.- *nestles down there in the crook of his arm, absently wrapping her plushie in one of her kimono sleeves*
no subject
Elsa's father wanted Herr Toulon arrested for kidnapping, the murders were noticed... there were problems. But Elsa claimed they had eloped that night, and they also said that Herr Toulon had not been back to the theater after being left in the woods. Elsa's father was then a suspect for a short time... but no cause of death could be found, and no sense to any of it. Worse, when one of the bodies was found to be an unwrapped mummy that was thousands of years old. Eventually the whole case was dropped from sheer confusion.
Lizzie: *slight head shake*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Herr Toulon then began to study medicine, specializing in anatomy. His reasons... the puppets he had transferred his friends into to save them were not meant for such use. He wanted to do better for them.
Lizzie: *thinks this is good*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: A few years passed in quiet, but... something was wrong. The puppets were tired, more and more often... except for the one that was once Afzel. Herr Toulon expanded his studies, trying to find an answer for this as well.
Lizzie: *sad for the puppets*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: You see, the way he knew then to do things... did not involve what you call 'gunk'. The puppets were not designed that way, they could not feed... even if he had known of something to feed them.
Lizzie: *big wince*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *nods, sadly* It is not like starving is for humans. It is more like... clockwork running down, or dead batteries. I do not think they would have died... they would have slept, as we had, but with no way to ever wake them. Perhaps that is not so different. Perhaps it is worse.
And... Afzel, he had his own solution to this problem. One the others had no interest in. He could 'feed' in the way we saw the Totems later use... draining the energy from... something else.
Lizzie: *shudder and growl*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *nods* Herr Toulon did not approve either. He insisted Afzel restrict himself to feeding on animals. ... I wonder if part of it was because Afzel had been a sorceror, but Herr Toulon seemed to have so much less influence on him than we would notice later. He was, however, able to force that issue at least.
Herr Toulon continued to look for answers, but he didn't even yet know the whole problem. The older team... they had returned to avenge their own murders, and to prevent Herr Toulon from being killed as well. That task was done...
Lizzie: *feel of a sober nod*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Between that, the feeding problem, and their disgust at Afzel's solution... they felt it was time for them to leave.
When Herr Toulon found this, he carefully stored them away, on the chance they were just sleeping... and that he would be able to fix this. Meanwhile, he transferred Afzel into a newer form... one designed to accept some sort of elixir as food, when he should find the right formula.
He designed the puppet after the demon from Faust. Mephistopheles, though they called him Mephisto.
Lizzie: *snuggling and listening*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Herr Toulon became a doctor... but he continued to travel, and put on puppet shows, meeting in different countries with herbalists and alchemists. Mephisto allowed himself to be used to test things, but... when it did not work, he would feed in his other way.
Ten years after the events in Paris that led to him first being called 'Puppet Master' by one of Sutekh's minions, Herr Toulon managed to develop a formula that would work as he wanted. The last secrets he learned during a trip to Cairo that year. Somehow... with us, it always goes back to Egypt.
Lizzie: -It ain't that bad 'o place. When Osiris ain't goin' dotty over Shade.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *pictures this of Bey, and snickers* I cannot imagine... ... then again, the Egyptians were very fond of cats.
But to return to the story... It took some time to make certain of things, and that Mephisto was not sneaking around instead, and then Herr Toulon planned to try to restore the others. But... the first world war began, and the building he had stored them in was bombed.
All he ever found was Cyclops' head... and he knew enough by then to tell he was beyond recovery. I think... perhaps he held on to it in the small hope he might someday find the rest of them, and if they still could not be saved, at least properly laid to rest.
Lizzie: *feels like she's thinking deeply*
no subject
They lost him on a trip to Cairo in 1925, the year I turned 13. The year before I started travelling with them. The puppet theater caught fire, but Mephisto was not injured badly enough to explain his collapse. Herr Toulon... he said he felt the sorceror was still manipulating him somehow, even by choosing to die.
Lizzie: *acrid and pointed comment on Mephisto*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I wonder sometimes... I have seen psychics who could catch glimpses of the future. Mephisto wanted Herr Toulon to keep practicing the magic. He didn't want it lost and considered it more important than any lives that might be harmed by it.
Perhaps he had seen what would become of me... but only if he was not there.
no subject
Lizzie: -Yup.- *feels like a grin*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Such a wonderful place... and it was beautiful then. We would sneak around whenever we could, finding secret passages, feeding the koi in the ponds. We were happy there.
It was autumn by then, and America was still not involved in the war. So... there was nothing to keep the Gestapo from following us. I don't know how they found us, but they did.
Herr Toulon was not well. Our adventures had made him seem so much older in such a short time, as if he were already fading away. He had started work on a puppet for himself - Decapitron - but transferring oneself was something that would be problematic. He couldn't do it in his usual way while alive... and of course he couldn't do it while dead. So he had to try something based on theory of what Afzel had told him all those decades ago. That what exactly was used to make the transfer was not so important... He did things in a way he hoped would work... something like a rubber band breaking, in that if something happened to him the rest would - snap, automatically.
Lizzie: *intently listening again, her eyes on his face, but then she squeaks and clings as someone cries out somewhere in the house*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *to his feet in an instant* Leech? *since they're not used to sleeping, doesn't immediately think of the possibility of a nightmare*
Lizzie: *startlement and worry fade* -Shade sez she's dreamin'.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *had started for the door, hand on the knob, pauses and nods* Ja, she would have reason for nightmares. *door already a little open and notices movement... Blade and Torch heard the brief scream as well*
Konrad Hess/Blade and Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *both holding bottles, and were heading to investigate*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *opens door the rest of the way* It... It is all right. She is having a nightmare. Decapitron will be able to deal with this.
Lizzie: *mental squeak* -They're bloody drinkin'!-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: It's gingerale.
Konrad Hess/Blade: I am not going to get Torch drunk.
Lizzie: *pause* -Jes' wants a bottle.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *faint smile at Lizzie* And this is your decision now? *tho.. does want one, now that it's mentioned*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I'll go get one. *heads back the way he and Blade came*
Konrad Hess/Blade: *stays there for a bit* You're not sleeping either, ja?
Lizzie: -If they like it, why shouldn' you have one?- *stifled giggle*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *just shakes his head in answer to Blade, and tickle-pokes Lizzie*
Lizzie: *looks up and hides knowledge of a funny secret*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *returns with the bottle, but before he hands it over looks to Blade* I just want to go on record as saying I think giving Jester anything with a high sugar content is a bad idea.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *makes a silly face at Torch*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *hands over the bottle*
Konrad Hess/Blade: *started to respond to Torch, but ends up muffling a burp*
Lizzie: *giggle*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Now I'm not sure I want any after all. *chuckles*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *just shakes his head and starts to leave, to Blade* You coming?
Konrad Hess/Blade: In a moment.
Lizzie: *looks at Blade* -Try bouncin' on yer feet.-
Konrad Hess/Blade: I think not, you little imp. *decides to leave whatever he was going to say until morning* I'll see you later... *starts to leave to rejoin Torch*
Lizzie: -Awwww! An' I ain't no imp!-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *heading back into the room* He was a doctor, did you really think he would fall for that?
Lizzie: -No 'arm in tryin'. But I ain't no imp.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *bit of a smile* No, you are not. *sets the bottle to one side and reclaims his spot on the floor*
Lizzie: -That's good stuff.- *points to the bottle with one little hand*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: And from how it affected Blade, very fizzy. I think... I will save it for just a little while. Soon enough, I may reach things that I will need to take a break for a short time. The story has been long already, but... the hard part is only starting.
Lizzie: -Ohhh...- *snuggle*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *tries to remember where he was* Bodega Bay Inn, California... in 1941. A place with its own small history of magic, and a lot of secret passages... one of which was very useful to us.
You see, the Gestapo found us. And Herr Toulon... he couldn't run any more. He had made his own preparations... and then he made ours. There was a hiding place in one of the room's walls, big enough for us in our puppet case, and the box containing Decapitron and anything we would need to complete the process of finishing him.
Lizzie: *oh yeah. Shivers and snuggles. Tense part coming for sure!*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Blade was outside when they arrived. He barely made it to our room in time. We were packed away... it was so dark. We didn't want it to have to be that way. We were supposed to protect him, not the other way around... at least not like that. It... *pauses to keep himself from crying*
We could hear them knock on the door... and then, we heard when Herr Toulon shot himself. They would never have the chance to make him reveal anything about the magic, or where we were.
Lizzie: *hands to her mouth with shock and grief as she stares up at him*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It took us by surprise... not what he did, but the effect on us. It was the first time our 'strings' were 'cut' in such a way. It was like falling, everything draining away, going dark....
And we slept.
Lizzie: *eeeps and clings*
no subject
It was 1989 when he woke us, and we had no idea what had happened in the time between.
Lizzie: *despite herself* -Weird 'air.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *snerks, needed that though* Ah, yes, the 70's. I'm actually glad I missed those.
Lizzie: -Nope. Eighties 'air wos worse. Clothes wos too.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *oh so tempted to follow this new discussion, forget Gallagher, forget what they became...*
Lizzie: *laying there in the crook of his arm and giving him an expectant look* *then turns her head as she catches the faint sound of the recliner downstairs buzzing as its massage feature works*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *actually jerks at the sound, then places it and just shakes his head* *after a moment, softly* We had never really noticed the strings before. Herr Toulon... he had known all of us before we were puppets. He wanted us to be ourselves.
Lizzie: *focused again, and slightly alarmed*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Six-Shooter and Decapitron... were not with us. We did not know where they were, or if they had been destroyed. Gallagher claimed he never saw them. He claimed a lot of things... He could be very convincing... charming, when it suited him. And since he had woke us... we were his. We had no choice in that decision.
Lizzie: *tense and seeming to hold breath that she doesn't need*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He didn't know we used to be anything else, and he didn't really care. He didn't really care at all, but he fooled us so well. He said what he wanted was so he would never have to leave us as Herr Toulon had. He wouldn't hurt us, he would keep us safe... *stops to wipe away tears*
Lizzie: *wibbles and hugs*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *just hugs back, carefully, has to stop for a moment* *then, makes himself continue* We noticed changes in Leech first, but I'm sure we were all affected, just that... with her it was easiest to see. Neil Gallagher... did not think much of women, or rather he thought certain things...
Leech... began to display the sort of behaviors Gallagher expected of a female. She could stifle them, she couldn't understand why she was acting that way... toward all of us. Blade... he put it down to some mental strain due to grief.
Lizzie: *hides her face* -Poor Leech.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *shivering slightly* Gallagher studied the magic, and for his next 'trick'... he killed himself. He shot himself just as Herr Toulon had, but... he had taken certain steps so he would not stay that way.
And he had told us... he had enemies that would be a danger to him, and to us. They would arrive soon.
Lizzie: *eeee!*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He was right, that they came. Megan, Neil's widow, she met them. They didn't know he was dead... of course, Megan didn't know he wasn't. Four psychics who had once worked with Neil Gallagher. There was Frank Forrester, Carissa Stamford, Dana Hadley, and Alex Whittaker.
Lizzie: *hiding against him and listening*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Megan invited them to stay the night, and Neil would be buried in the morning. I spied on them. During dinner, Dana Hadley became a bit drunk, and she asked Megan if it had occured to her that Neil married her for her money. Megan was offended, and Dana told her... Neil was despicable and greedy, and they had come to settle scores.
Lizzie: *meep. Still hiding*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Megan left the table and Alex went after her, so I followed. He explained that they were all... magicians of a sort. They all had psychic ability. Neil Gallagher and Frank Forrester had worked together and uncovered stories that the Egyptians had ways to give life to inanimate figurines. Dana Hadley had helped track down references to... they called him the 'last true alchemist of modern times... the famous Puppet Master of the 1920s'. Herr Toulon. Carissa Stamford could see things about the past of something by touching it. And Alex Whittaker had dreams of things to come.
Lizzie: *absently, as though to herself* -Jaime does 'at.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We had our orders. It was the maid, Teresa... she was first. She was a very nosy person, and Gallagher was worried she'd stick her nose in the wrong place. *he sounds a little colder as he speaks, thinking back to a time when even his thinking had been... altered*
She was tending the fireplace. I distracted her with the piano, but she never saw me. She'd put the poker down to look. Pinhead picked it up. She went back to her work, reached for the poker... and he gave it to her, right upside the head.
Lizzie: -Eeee!-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *quietly, a mix of fear and sadness overlayed with an unusual anger he's using to keep them in check* She had done nothing to us. She did not even know of us.
Lizzie: *small sad sound*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I continued to spy. I watched Megan as she checked on Neil Gallagher's body... the funeral had been at the hotel, and he was there in his coffin. Upstairs the others were settling in. Frank Forrester said that if he found the secret, he would use it to rule the world.
Later, he and Carissa Stamford were... occupied. Tunneler and Leech killed them.
Lizzie: -That's icky 'n I didn' need t' know it!- *still hiding*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I am sorry... I am leaving out many of the details... *still trying not to cry, and shaking slightly*
Dana Hadley... they called her the White Witch. She had a taxidermied dog named Leroy.... candles, herbs. She thought she could stop this by fanning around cedar and dragon's blood and... She knew. Somehow. Maybe that's why she drank so much.
She fought so hard. Pinhead broke her leg right from the start, but she got away from him, and from Blade... *is crying now, rocking slightly as he holds Lizzie* But they found her again. She was beaten, and her throat was... ... She didn't want to die. She didn't deserve to.
Lizzie: *has lost track of the story in her efforts to comfort Jester. So much hug!*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I remember the elevator she had tried to take shelter in; the doors opening so I could see her body from where I was sitting on a table. And I remember being... so... pleased. It wasn't just that he made us kill. He made us like it.
Lizzie: *hug!*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *just hugs her and cries for a while*
Lizzie: *hug and try so hard to comfort*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *gets himself under control to continue* Only Alex Whittaker was left, and Megan Gallagher. We didn't have any exact instructions for her.
Megan went to Alex Whittaker and woke him. I followed, but... they went to Herr Toulon's old room. It was all torn apart from the supposed renovations. She'd found Herr Toulon's diary.
I ran away. I didn't want to be there, to face what we had been and what we'd become. I joined the others downstairs, in the dining room, and found a place on the table. The room was full of candles, and... the bodies were at the table, sitting where they had been at dinner. This was Neil Gallagher's work.
Lizzie: *manages to sound muffled* -Creep.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Tunneler was sitting by the stuffed dog. Blade and Pinhead were near one of the walls. *speaking almost calmly now, as if he's gone somewhere past being scared and is just reciting something he's relived over and over in his mind*
When Megan and Alex came into the room, Neil Gallagher stepped out to meet them.
Alex wanted to know why he'd done all of this. And he... he said it was because he wanted to live forever. All life ends in death, but for him there would be no end now. Alex said there would be no natural end.
Gallagher said he'd killed the others because they were all joined by their thoughts, and sooner or later one of them would know he'd found Herr Toulon's hiding place. He'd killed Megan's parents and experimented on them. He'd seduced and married her to get access to the the hotel. It was all to get to us, and to the secret. He called it a small price to pay to live forever. He was tired of experimenting with silly little wooden puppets. He threw me. He was going to kill both of them. And... none of it made sense any more.
Lizzie: *horror as she remembers him telling Mouse he'd been thrown*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It had never made sense at all, but... now he was distracted, and he had made the first move in rejecting us... it weakened his influence.
Lizzie: *looks up at him, and despite the unchanging nature of her face the bland little smile and faded brown eyes seem almost fierce*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: They tried to run, but... he had made Teresa a guard to keep them from the doors. They tried to fight... and when Alex managed to kick Gallagher off him and into the elevator... Pinhead shut the door... and...
Lizzie: *eek!* *hides again*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: There is only one way our strings are ever really cut, at least that we know of. What he was made that difficult... but it was nothing compared to what he had already done to us. This time, our anger kept us awake even after he stopped moving. Megan was crying, and Alex was trying to comfort her... and... we just... tried to disappear.
With Neil Gallagher's influence gone, Teresa just... died again. Until dawn... Alex and Megan tried to keep distance from us, watching as if we would still attack. And we... worked on hiding the bodies. There was a cemetary in back of the hotel. We buried them there. Neil Gallagher would have been last, but... before we got to him, Megan got over some of her shock and... I think she was as angry as we at being used as she was. She had read the diary, and some of Neil Gallagher's notes, and... she gathered some of the fluid in the elevator and put Gallagher into Dana Hadley's stuffed dog... Leroy.
Lizzie: *it is clear that she is going 0_0*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I suppose she could claim temporary insanity. Or maybe she just wanted to punish him more for what he had done. We could understand that.
Lizzie: *mutters and looks for her plush, which has fallen to the floor*
no subject
And time passed for us too. We grew weaker. Alex left to go back to the east coast... We stayed.
We would do things... flowers, breakfast in bed. We stayed out of sight because that was what she wanted. Megan. We tried to... maybe if she had wanted us, if she could have forgiven what we were. She had read the diary. We tried... for a year... but the connection was never there.
One day, I heard her on the phone. She planned to sell the hotel. She said she didn't care if developers tore it down, and - she must have been talking to Alex and he must have asked... she said - the puppets could take care of themselves. The place was out in the middle of nowhere. We had nowhere to go, and no way to get there if we did. She was the only person around, and she didn't want us.
Lizzie: *sad and grieving little sound of sympathy*
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Then we went to the cemetary behind the hotel...
Lizzie: -Bbbbbbb.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We thought if Gallagher could bring himself back in such a way, maybe even with Decapitron lost to us that Herr Toulon would be able to come back and help us. We never should have tried.
Lizzie: -Oh rot...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It took us some time... and... he wanted to return to the hotel, he said to get our things. We thought we would have to be careful. We didn't want to frighten Megan any more. We... did feel more like ourselves, but... there was something wrong. We were confused, and things seemed clouded. We thought this was because of his condition and he said it would get better and that he knew what to do.
Lizzie: *shiver*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We found Megan in the foyer, dead. While we were out, someone had come and gone. We don't know who... but since the magic was used, I suppose it could have been one of Sutekh's servants. If so, Megan had ended up taking the blame for Neil's work and what we had just done as well as her own use of the magic. We did not bury her ourselves. The police were called anonymously by... *cuts off, then angrily* I don't want to call that thing Herr Toulon, even if it thought it was... *chokes back the hurt anger, and thinks of what to call that.. creature*
Lizzie: -Chucky?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *brief chuckle, then nods* Very well. 'Chucky' called the police and we hid. Since Megan had had no heirs, the estate was abandoned, and we took up residence in some of the attic space.
We felt strange. Memories seemed to fade in and out. What we would know on any day was... a complete toss up. That we had not fed made things worse. Herr Toulon tried to improve efficiency with designs, so I was the most affected, being the oldest.
'Chucky' knew the right herbs, supplies were gathered... it took time, and he kept reassuring us things would be ok.
Lizzie: -Yeah, right.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We wanted so much to believe things would be ok.
So, when he started to... request ingrediants that we knew were not part of the formula, we humored this. We thought at first... it was... a 'glitch'. Herr Toulon was getting a bit senile near the end. He also started to work on a new puppet, and the work did look like Herr Toulon's... at least then...
Lizzie: *impression of brows lifting as she snuggles and listens and seems to scowl*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It was 1991 then. I stayed in my little chair most of the time. I was so tired.
And then we were not alone. A government sponsored paranormal investigation group came to the hotel... they had come because of Megan's unusual death, the 'disappearance' of the psychics... and the rantings of Alex Whittaker, who had been committed to an asylum with uncontrollable visions and seizures.
Lizzie: -Eee...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: At first there were four, but a fifth soon joined them... a psychic named Camille Kenney. She had become lost on the way to the hotel. The others were Lance, Wanda... I don't think we ever heard their last names, and I've not asked...
... and there was also Carolyn Bramwell... and Carolyn's brother Patrick.
Lizzie: -...Torch.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja.
Lizzie: -'N 'Chucky' killed 'im 'n used 'im ta threaten yeh.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *softly* Tunneler killed him.
Lizzie: *shakes her head* -Tunneller wos th' tool. 'Chucky' done it.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It.. it was Camille that went first. She had seen Leech and Blade talking, and screamed and ran for the others.
Lizzie: *listening again, the plushie held close*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I was feeling a little better, so I went with Pinhead. We tried not to hurt her. He - 'Chucky' - had said that we couldn't let her leave and tell stories while we were so vulnerable. Pinhead knocked her down and I gagged her and we tried to hide her. But... that was not good enough.
Things started to feel so wrong, but... we couldn't think clearly enough to know what was wrong. It was like looking at an optical illusion and trying to not be fooled. We know now that, whatever else was wrong, that thing - 'Chucky' - was insane. But we had trouble seeing it because... so were we.
Patrick had a drinking problem. He could not handle it at all. It was the evening after Camille... they had been calling all over trying to find out where she had gone. Patrick was drunk and was going to sleep it off. Tunneler put a hole in his head.
Lizzie: *mourns for both her frends*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I suppose it was his military training. He thought... if he followed orders, maybe everything would start to make sense. He was caught on their cameras... and Lance beat him unconscious with a lamp
They dissected him, studied him. When he didn't return by dawn... 'Chucky' went downstairs to find out why. He gave an alias and claimed to own the hotel. At the same time... he had almost finished the new puppet, but... he didn't know what he was doing. And we had been targeting animals on a farm nearby to deal with his... delusions.
Blade and Leech went to where they had put Patrick's body... both knew what needed done, but... we couldn't remember why, we couldn't even remember who we were... who we had been.
Lizzie: *hides face and snuggles, trying to comfort him*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: They made sure the right materials were there when 'Chucky' returned to tell us of what happened to Tunneler. 'Chucky' decided Torch was to replace him. He would have just used the formula he had tainted with bits of animal brains... it wouldn't have worked. But instead...
Lizzie: -Meep.- *shiver*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Blade has said that, according to his old studies, there is some initial reversion to immediate pre-death behavior. Patrick was falling down drunk. The fluid was still tainted with animals... and Torch woke to insanity.
Lizzie: *says a word she usually scolds people for. It's not crude... nowdays*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He didn't know who he was... and we couldn't tell him. We didn't know he was anyone other than Torch, or that we had been anything else... not by then. Not... not most of us...
Camille's son arrived, and agreed to stay over the night... they were still looking for her.
And Leech, Blade, and Torch were sent out to hunt. They went to the farm, but... we were running short of animals there, and Torch was an uncertain variable. It's reasonable when you're small and wooden to be afraid of the crazy guy with the flamethrower.
Torch was slow... I suppose because of the weight of all that metal. Blade and Leech got there first, staying ahead of him so they could talk safely. Leech knew something had gone very wrong.
I'm not sure which was worse. Gallagher made us enjoy what he made us do. With 'Chucky'... part of us knew things were not right, but... we kept going on anyway. We kept hoping, deluding ourselves...
Lizzie: *as big a snuggle as a little doll can do*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The couple that lived in the shack on the farm... the man died easily enough, but the woman... She caught Leech and threw her into a wood stove. Torch then caught up and returned the favor. Blade convinced him to use a poker to retrieve Leech, but... she seemed beyond repair and... she was left there.
Lizzie: -I wanna go 'ug 'er.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *nods, and will stand up and go to the door, then follows the sound of the music*
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *as they get closer, can be heard talking to Decapitron* It isn't what I'm used to, not any more... but with Richard and Susan gone, how else can we prevent... *looks over as Jester comes in, carrying Lizzie*
Lizzie: *little squeak as she turns and holds out her arms*
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *reaches for and is handed Lizzie* What's the matter, little one?
André Toulon/Decapitron: *sad smile to Jester* So many having trouble sleeping tonight.
Lizzie: *cuddles close, hugging Leech for all she's worth* *quietly, sounding weepy* -Jes's tellin' yer story.-
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *hugs the little doll, looks to Jester*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *quietly* I had made it as far as... as Torch's first kill. *avoids mentioning the woodstove*
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *stiffens and then shivers slightly, nods*
André Toulon/Decapitron: *pulls Leech close and hugs her*
Lizzie: *in the middle, still hugging as hard as she can*
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *was hugging, then blinks, and squirms slightly* Lizzie...
André Toulon/Decapitron: *puzzled, loosens his hug a bit*
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *trying to keep Lizzie from, well, getting stuck...*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *turns pink and quickly decides not to look*
Lizzie: *sounds slightly glum* -Well yer always tryin' teh get me in a dress...-
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *laughs* But not mine...
Lizzie: -No. That's fer Opa.-
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *blushes, but not at all offended* Yes, it is. And you need to be more careful about avoiding... booby traps.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *just facepalming, but has given up on trying not to laugh*
André Toulon/Decapitron: *just chuckles and shakes his head*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: And people wonder how I ended up the way I did...
Lizzie: -So glad I don't got anythin' like this.- *grumble grumble. Squeak! Just nearly tipped onto the floor and showed both Decapatron and Leech the fact that she's stuck a small, shiny, yellow smilie sticker to her bottom over top the paint that she insists is 'bloomers'*
Elsa Toulon/Leech: *catches her and goes to hand her back to Jester*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *quiet, to Lizzie* I think we are being very subtly kicked out...
Lizzie: *pouty as she's handed over* -Jes' 'cause they wanna dance more.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *snicker, but no comment to that* Good evening... *turns to head back for his room*
André Toulon/Decapitron: Good night, my friend.
Elsa Toulon/Leech: I hope you have better luck sleeping... *but expects this will be a long night for all of them*
Lizzie: *leans against Jester and seems to be scowling into space*
no subject
Lizzie: *absent little gagging sound*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja. Sometimes... I am surprised she managed to hold on, during the time he was lost to us... but I think she never gave up hope that we would get him back somehow... Except for then, because it seemed like we had but he was not himself. *softly* And it was worse when we finally had him back, and she was gone.
Lizzie: *quiet dismay at the thought* -Oh no...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *nods* But that is getting ahead again. ... *thinks to where he was as he returns to where he'd been sitting*
Blade and Torch returned alone. That left so few of us. Decapitron hadn't even been finished when lost, Six-Shooter had not been seen in decades. Tunneler was gone as well. Of the ones from before, there was Blade, Pinhead, and myself... and I was very ill by then.
With each of us lost, we seemed to become... more confused. As if, as a whole, there was less of us to remember how things should be. We were fading into madness...
Lizzie: *clings to him and to her plushie at the thought of him ill*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He would put us back in the puppet case sometimes, which we thought strange. I was so tired, but... I think Torch found the diary during that time. Not that it would have even helped us to read it, with our minds in the condition they were.... but...
When we were let out early the next morning, Blade tried to show Torch around the hotel... the passages and things we could use to keep hidden because of the cameras the researchers had set up in some places. The... 'Chucky'... had gone out as well, to the beach. Blade returned, without Torch. He said Torch had been watching Carolyn through one of the vents, and... had then decided to go on a walk. He would not return for several hours.
Lizzie: *nestling movement, but no sound*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: With both gone, Blade took the risk of trying to make untainted food for us. I do not think I would have lasted much longer if he had not. Pinhead helped, for the things that required having hands.
Lizzie: -...Wos 'e a good cook?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *chuckled* 'Chucky' came back and caught them, but... luckily did not tamper with anything. It worked. I was more awake for the rest of things... not that that was very pleasant. But at least... things started to clear up a little. Our suspicions became... easier to grasp.
Lizzie: *sigh of slight relief. Yes, she knows he's fine now, if too big and soft. But she comes from a time when verbal stories were something you listened to and lived along with the teller*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We started trying to... get our thoughts to organize properly, but it was like there was some key we were missing that would unlock everything.
After Torch returned, he did not want to talk to anyone... I went with him and Blade the next time we were to go hunting. Blade was concerned about making Torch feel like part of the group... especially now that he had sobered up.
We targeted animals again. 'Chucky' was pleased when we returned from what looked like a good trip. He said it was good we were patient and took care always to... to harvest from humans and not animals or the already rotting dead. 'What strange creatures that would make you', he said. Torch was shocked by this. He did not realize we were being disobediant in this. Blade managed to get him to be quiet about it... and I started to wonder if... with what he said... maybe Herr Toulon had just been dead too long. Of course, it was worse than that, but... I do think it was a part of it.
Lizzie: *little mental urp sound*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The fifth night that the researchers were in the hotel, orders were given that the rest of them were to die... except for Carolyn. Blade went after Lance and Wanda... and Torch was sent to deal with Michael Kenney. He had stayed around and was interested in Carolyn.
Lizzie: *winces and mutters about stupid brothers sometimes*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Blade finished his work quickly... but Torch managed to set a bed on fire and still miss the target. He was then sprayed and hit with a fire extinguisher.
Lizzie: *head bonks despite her sadness and sympathy*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He said later that wasn't such a bad thing. Getting knocked out for a second cleared up some of the static for a bit... and he remembered. He started to head back to the attic, but you know he is the slowest of us.
Lizzie: *quietly* -Yeah...- *leans on Jester as she snuggles her plush*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Michael was heading upstairs as well. You see, Carolyn had decided to search the rooms up there, thinking 'Chucky' was out again... but he came back. Pinhead and Blade both tried to stop Michael, and I was in the dumbwaiter.
Pinhead was thrown into a few walls, and Blade got thrown down the shaft of the dumbwaiter... I was using it to move Camille again. We kept doing that so the body would not be found... there didn't seem much point in that after tonight so I thought taking her to the attic was a good idea. I didn't really know what we were supposed to do with her.
Lizzie: *sighs*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: When we returned to the room in the attic... things had reached a level of insanity that made the rest seem like nothing.
Lizzie: *stiffens* -Eeek...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Carolyn had been tied to a chair, and 'Chucky' had these two giant dolls... Even then I thought they were a bit crude compared to Herr Toulon's usual work. But we could think more clearly then... You see, we had found that missing key. When Blade and Pinhead were almost knocked out, it had similar effect as it had on Torch... and to snap me out of things and also to keep ourselves from slipping again, we went back to using our old names for a while. We knew where the strings were now, and... that reminder, it is as if it helped us put a barrier between ourselves and 'Chucky's' influence.
Lizzie: -Yer name's who 'n wot yeh are.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja. And 'Chucky' had proven he did not know who we were. His reaction to what happened to Leech made that clear... as did the situation then.
He believed Carolyn was Elsa.
Lizzie: -WOT?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *just nods agreement* We found this out right after he drank some of that puppet food and braaains cocktail he'd been making, and cut his own throat to put himself in a giant doll. It was like waking up and wondering where we were going and why we were in a handbasket.
Lizzie: *flail*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: And he intended to do the same to Carolyn. Well, that was the last straw. *mutters* The last straw should have been so much sooner...
We did get one amusing moment, though... he found out we'd brought animal brains because... *fighting giggles* he started making pig noises.
Lizzie: -......- *hands to mouth as she giggles too*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We were so busted.
Lizzie: *sobers and snuggles*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Unfortunately, it did not last. He tried to force Carolyn to drink some of that slop, and she wouldn't. Michael was trying to beat the door down... and finally found out how to open it, idiot that he was.
When 'Chucky' was distracted by Michael coming in, I stole the rest of the tainted puppet food. Pinhead grabbed 'Chucky's' leg and knocked him down...
'Chucky' knocked Herman... Pinhead... away, but Michael got Carolyn untied and they fled. According to Torch later, they ran right past him without even looking. Blade and Pinhead had managed to do some damage by the time Torch came in. For a second we didn't know what he would do... but we didn't even have to try to explain.
Lizzie: -Wot a stink...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: 'Chucky' fell out the window after he was set on fire. And Torch... he just said we should go down and make sure he was dead.
Lizzie: *shiver*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Now that we could think more clearly, we could explain some things to him. He was still very confused, and had problems... most of those faded in time. But then, we were in a very bad spot. As soon as Michael and Carolyn reached town, we expected there would be police, there would be problems... They even had film this time. They would tear the hotel apart looking for us. We had to get out.
Sometimes I think we should have let them take us... but at least the next mistake we contained, mostly on our own...
Lizzie: *seems to frown as she lays back and looks up at him*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We needed someone who could drive, and we still had the giant doll that 'Chucky' had planned to use for Carolyn. The animal matter hadn't seemed to slow 'Chucky' down all that much, and even Torch was recovering, so... ... Our options seemed to be either Wanda or Camille. We thought - Camille was psychic, we had at least tried not to hurt her, and I'd already moved the body to the attic...
Lizzie: -...- *hides her face on her plushie, which looks up at Jester with a google-eyed expression*
no subject
Except for speaking somewhat slowly, she seemed about the same as she had been, so at first it was not so bad with Miss Camille.
Lizzie: *lowers plushie to peek, feeling so sad for her friends and that woman she never met*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We left the hotel, she bought some supplies, and a big van... We were going to go back to putting on puppet shows. We did get lost a few dozen times... but we went to a place called the Balderston Institute. It was a place for juvenile delinquents. Camille said if anyone saw anything suspicious, no one would believe them.
Camille was... ditzy, but she had been that before. She was still using the same credit cards. We did not think of this, because those things had not existed before we were at the hotel. She was leaving a 'paper trail' all over the place, and her son Michael was the one who ended up getting the bills.
Lizzie: -Oh rot.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He managed to track us down... and he brought Carolyn. They had broken up by then, but... when he'd told her we were involved... *sigh* They wanted answers, and probably revenge. And, in the middle of it all, Camille snapped.
Lizzie: *hide behind the plushie again*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We didn't know how badly at first. Since we had never really accepted her as a Puppet Master, she had no real connection to us. And Torch... he was sneaking away often. When it did get out of hand... when they quit trying not to be spotted by us and also the other way around, as if everyone was spying on everyone else... it went bad quickly.
Camille had decided she wanted to be human again, and that Carolyn's body was acceptable. By the end of it, she had killed her own son... and was fried by Torch.
Lizzie: *plushie flies as she flails*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *tries to catch it* *as he hands the plush back to Lizzie* Carolyn seemed to suspect something. I think... when Torch was sneaking away, it was her he was going to.
We left the two of them alone... but... I have never really understood the results of that.
Lizzie: *hugs her plushie and hides her face against him* *quietly* -Is it nearly over?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The bad times? Nearly, ja.
Torch never wanted to talk about it, and Carolyn... she did not talk to us, and we couldn't have asked. She just... she returned Tunneler and Leech to us... Leech had been found and put in a bag when the areas around the hotel were searched. The only thing she ever said to the rest of us was that she would make sure the rest of the evidence was destroyed. Then she drove us all back to the hotel, and left us there. I remember Torch looking out the window as she walked away. She never even looked back.
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Hans Seiderman/Jester: *wipes at his face and nods, will get up and go looking for Torch*
Lizzie: -There's a TV up here. 'Re they could be in the kitchen by the fridge.- *turns head*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I will check the kitchen first, since they had those sodas. *heads that way*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *by a window, with a gingerale float... it's easier than the bottles when it comes to trying desperately NOT to wish it's something alcoholic*
Konrad Hess/Blade: *faceplanted on the table*
Lizzie: *startles* -Blade??-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *snerks* He got brainfreeze and konked out.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: How did you get him to do that to himself? I know we're not used to this any more, but he was a doctor...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I think he was already too sugar buzzed by the time I thought of showing him how to make ice cream floats.
Lizzie: *looks at the quiet looking little man with his face on the table, and then laughs till she cries*
Konrad Hess/Blade: *snores lightly*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *snickers, to Lizzie* I can't get over what he looks like, either.
Lizzie: *sobs, and then tucks her plushie into Jester's hand and reaches for Torch*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *reminded, and holds Lizzie out* She was wanting to hug you.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *blinks at Lizzie, then holds out a hand for her* Why? *isn't used to holding dollies*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I was telling her stories and, I upset her...
Lizzie: *quietly* -'Istory.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *doesn't understand what Lizzie just said, and is a little suspicious* That doesn't explain why she'd want to hug me. *uncertainly holds Lizzie close so she can hug if she wants, but is clearly not experienced in holding little dollies*
Lizzie: *big hug*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I was telling her about... things before we came to the Nexus. *doesn't really want to upset Torch by bringing this up*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *isn't stupid, and has at least a half-guess of what Jester might have been telling Lizzie about* You should have stuck to stories about after Rick was around.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *sighs* She deserves to know, if she's going to be around us.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *faint attempt at a smile that doesn't really reach his eyes* Sure you're not just trying to scare her off because of what she said earlier?
Hans Seiderman/Jester: No... *blushes* No, it has nothing to do with that...
Lizzie: *mental snort* -I ain't leavin' you lot, so suck it up.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: See? So there's no reason to mentally scar the little dolly.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We should not keep so many secrets, not from those we trust.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Some secrets are better off that way
Lizzie: *bitty bap for Torch* -Yeh think I'm some kinda delicate flower?- *growl*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *quiet chuckle* And now you have insulted her
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *to Lizzie* No... but anyone can break. And you're a 'kid', even if you're older than us too
Lizzie: -Loik heck I am!-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *softly* You are usually about a fourth our size, and you are not designed to look adult. It is.. difficult to remember you are not a child, because you look like one to us. Because if we were all human, that is the size you would be if you were a child. I know it is just a scale issue, but it confuses me as well sometimes.
Lizzie: -So I don't got no boobies! That don't mean I look loik a kid!-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *is rather pink now*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I guess it's a little hard to explain, since you weren't ever human. There are a lot of... cues people use in regard to age. It's not just the lack of boobies.
Lizzie: -I don't dress loik a kid, do I now?- *feathers so ruffled!*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: No... but that just makes you register as jailbait
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Torch!
Lizzie: -WOT!???- *actually makes an irate tiny squeak with the force of her shock and ire*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: You haven't been drinking, have you?
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Just the gingerale... *sighs* Sorry, Liz.
Lizzie: *baps him again. And then hugs him* -Jerk.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *sighs* Apparently I don't have to be drunk to be that sometimes. *patpats Lizzie*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The only others we have ever been around, besides ourselves, were things like the homunculi or the totems. Scale and design differences are a new thing. I just try to think of you as being... short.
Lizzie: *sighs* -Les' jus' hear the rest 'o that story.- *still hugging Torch*
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Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja, thank you...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *he starts to fix one... one-handed due to Lizzie* How far did you get with that story?
Hans Seiderman/Jester: To... when your sister left us at the hotel.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *slight frown, and nods* Better finish it then, it might help her feel better.
Lizzie: *not even trying to accidentally add herself to the float. She must be feeling low*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *sighs* There was no one in the hotel. The police had come and gone, and no one owned it then. Even if there had been people around, we did not trust ourselves after all that we had caused.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Translated, they were all being really emo. *sets the ice cream float by Jester, who's taken a seat at the table, and sits down to sip at his own*
Lizzie: *quietly* -Yeh blame 'em? Wosn' you, too?-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *sad look for a moment, thinking back* Yeah... but not enough to want to shut myself up in a box in a storage room.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We looked around the hotel a little, while... making decisions. We even considered that it would be better if we did not exist at all. At least then we could not hurt anyone else. But we found Six-Shooter and Decapitron hidden away. Even if we were gone, they would still be there... and they would not know the things we had learned about... strings.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I think of it more like drugs. I mean, they don't call those 'mood altering substances' for nothing. And whatever the Puppet Master's mood is, we get stuck with it. You guys never noticed with Toulon, because if he was upset about something it was probably something that would have bothered you too, anyway.
Lizzie: *turns to look at Jester, but is still snuggling Torch*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja... but this does not explain why it would be that way. I have thought that.. the process means we take on some aspect of the form we are placed into.
But... to get back to things... We could not have stayed awake forever. We had pushed our limits without a master, or at least I had. I passed out on the others...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: They hid Jester away with Decapitron as 'insurance' of sorts. He knew all of the others before they were puppets, so they hoped if anything went screwy they could try to wake him themselves and see if he could snap them out of it. Six-Shooter and everyone else except me and Blade went into the puppet case. We'd moved it to an attic storage room. The zombie creep had managed to put the key to the thing somewhere, and we never found it, but I don't think the others cared.
Lizzie: -Keys're jus' a pain in th' arse.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *sips at the ice cream float, willing lets Torch handle this part, since he'd slept through it*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I think it was about two years... time can get hard for us to grasp when there's no 'Puppet Master'. Worse when there's not much to mark it by. There was just me and Blade, and we didn't talk a whole lot... mostly my fault there. He tried. Someone eventually picked up the hotel cheap, what with the condition it was in and the reputation. Honestly, I think they were running it as a tax write-off. There's no way they were making any money.
Lizzie: *seems to be frowning as she listens*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I guess they still didn't want to be robbed, though, so they hired a caretaker for the off-season. They couldn't have been paying much, so... they got someone who wanted a place he could work without being cooped up in a lab and having people looking over his shoulder all the time.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *bit of a fond and sad smile*
Lizzie: *perk*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: We watched him. He'd set up a lab in one of the attic rooms so Blade wanted at first to make sure he didn't get too close to the others. Then he started to like the kid.... fellow mad scientist and all that.
Lizzie: *can't help giggling* -Oi know who 'hat is.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *chuckles* Ja. Rick Myers was researching artificial intelligence.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Blade eventually let Rick find him, but pretended to just be some old doll. He ended up a desk ornament, and sometimes Rick would talk to him... Of course, Rick didn't know Blade was listening.
Lizzie: -Awww.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Sometimes Rick's girlfriend Susie would come around, but we didn't see anyone else. Then... one evening she was going to come over, and there was a bad storm moving in. Rick warned her that she might end up having to spend the night *snerk* I think he was hoping for that result.
Lizzie: -Yeah. Storms kin be scary.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: The hotel's out in the middle of nowhere, too, and the roads weren't in the best shape. Its days as a popular spot were way in the past. Susie brought company with her, which Rick wasn't too happy about at first. Cameron and Lauren. Rick had gone to school with Cameron, and the guy was a complete jerk. And Lauren...
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *giggles and almost chokes on ice cream float* Dear Auntie Lauren... our very own early warning alarm.
Lizzie: -Huh?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Lauren is a psychic. She specializes in channeling, but... she also has this tendency to scream if anything evil is anywhere nearby.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Or anything that's even had passing contact with anything evil, which... is a lot of things.
Lizzie: *brb, overcome by giggles*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *giggling as well, then sobers a little as he wonders if Lauren is safe...*
Lizzie: -So she's th' burglar alarm with boobies.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Totem alarm, but close enough.
She found Blade downstairs and picked him up. *snerks* Thought he was cute. By then... I think he just wanted the others back, and eventually the two of us would have konked out too. And Rick seemed like a good person... but Blade had had a little trouble figuring out how to get Rick to the puppet case without moving around and possibly freaking him out.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *giggles* Which just shows Blade didn't know him as well as we would just yet.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *nods* Lauren was an... opportunity, so Blade started 'yelling' at her. It took a while before she started asking Rick questions about where he'd found Blade, where was the box the puppet was supposed to be in... Rick showed her where he'd found Blade, but Lauren knew that wasn't right, so Rick told her she could go look in the storage rooms if she wanted.
She found the puppet case, touched it... screamed, and fainted.
Lizzie: *seems to o.0* -You lot ain't evil.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: You know how the fire alarm can sometimes go off when you make toast? It is something like that.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Susie had to take her out of the room. She was completely terrified. Cameron didn't care. It just made him want to get the case open even more. He never cared about Lauren. And Rick... well, he was curious. Eventually he used acid on the lock and a hammer. I'm pretty sure if Cameron had tried to wake any of the others, he would have had something sharp come into contact with his ankle... but it was Rick that figured out what the green stuff was for. Six-Shooter had missed everything since the early 40's... Tunneler had to be helped up. I guess he was still a little woozy from...
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *awkward silence, since Tunneler had been dissected by Lance... right after killing Patrick*
Lizzie: *snugga Torch*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: He woke Pinhead up too. Blade was still watching, and I was still peeping out of secret passages. He didn't even know about me... just in case. Lauren was still scared at first, and Pinhead and Cameron almost got into a fight... but things started to actually work out for a change.
Lizzie: -'E wos fightin' wit' Pinhead??-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Pinhead was startled and grabbed the front of Cameron's shirt when he woke, and Cameron was going to hit Pinhead with a wrench, but Rick broke it up. No one got hurt.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Everyone was still... very defensive.
Lizzie: *impression of a nod and a slight frown*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The others brought me to Rick then. It was... very different. You know jigsaw puzzles, ja? It was like... finding a piece that fit.
Lizzie: -Wot'dryeh mean?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The strings... were not strings with Rick, as they had not been with Herr Toulon. Instead of something that controlled, that was not part of us... he was.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: He thought we were some kind of AI, but... he wanted to know everything about us, not force his own impressions. It probably helped that he was sane, and not a sociopath like Gallagher... or delusional like that zombie or just plain nuts like Camille.
Lizzie: -Aww.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He had things in common with us... not in terms of the bad things we had done, but with who we had been. Like the puzzle piece, he fit... do you understand now? It is a very rare thing to find. Far too rare.
Lizzie: *simply* -Stayed wit' Shade fer a reason, I did.- *more quietly* -'N hang out wit' you fer th' same one.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *turns a little pink again, but at least that distracts him from trying not to cry from thinking about Rick*
Rick had his own ways of running tests, and he was curious. So... he was playing laser tag with Pinhead and Tunnneler when a package was delivered.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Didn't help that Cameron was busy pressuring Lauren into trying her channeling to find out more about the puppet food. He wanted to one-up Rick and find out everything first, and he didn't care that she was scared and going on about how she sensed too much evil around to do something like that.
Lizzie: -Evil?- *snuggles close to Torch*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The box contained a Totem. And when Lauren was pressured into using her abilities, we think one of Sutekh's followers intercepted the 'call' because the result transported two more of them into the hotel.
Cameron and Lauren fled, but Cameron was killed when he locked Lauren out of the car and himself in with one of the Totems.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: The car wouldn't start and he wanted her to push it. In the rain. Really nice guy, huh?
Lizzie: *bonks head on Torch*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: By that time, we knew we could trust Rick... well, most of us did. And we knew that Sutekh was involved.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I stayed hidden longer than the others. I'd just managed to get all the extra static out of my head, so I wasn't too keen on anything that would mean having anyone else up there in any way.
Lizzie: *hiding now, but listening closely*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *has put both Lizzie's plush and his bear near his ice cream float for now* It was time... so, we brought Decapitron to Rick.
Lizzie: *turns head to look at him, total attention now*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Lauren had run back inside, but during all the troubles one of the Totems tried to drain her. Later, that would leave her in a coma for a few days.
Tunneler put a hole in one of the Totems, another was destroyed when Six-Shooter lassoed it with electrical wire and fried it, and Susie dumped acid on the third and Decapitron finished it off.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I still don't understand why Lauren tried to hide under a table from a two-foot tall demon thing.
Lizzie: -...Wot?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *chuckles* Ja, that was not good strategy. She has gotten better, though. And she does not scream at quite so many things as she once did.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *to Lizzie* Lauren tried to squish under an endtable to hide from the Totems. Right down on the floor, at perfect attacking height.
Lizzie: *can you nearly hear the sound of a tiny wooden brain breaking?*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *shakes his head, bit of a bemused smile* Lauren's just... one of those people who needs someone to take care of them, because they can't quite manage that on their own.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We all know what that is like, so... we do not hold against her for being something of a ditz.
Lizzie: -Wow. I'll keep one on 'er when I see 'er.-
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Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I'd quit hiding before that, before they even called for help for Lauren. Everyone else was sure about Rick, and I knew I couldn't avoid it forever. And... it wasn't that bad.
Lizzie: *hugs him again* -Aww.- *sounds sad as she thinks of yet another fight*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Blade escaped from evidence and got in Susie's bag when she came to pick Rick up after his bail was paid.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: And Rick's old boss decided he wanted to get his mitts on us. Like Rick did at first, he thought we were some big AI breakthrough and the key to the whole 'Omega Project' and he'd be rich... I think you can guess the kind of person he was.
Lizzie: *bonks her head on Torch by way of facepalm*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: He'd hired some idiots to come poke around the hotel and pick up anything that looked like a puppet.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: And Blade was trying to get Rick to the hotel to get the rest of us out. Plus... Sutekh was not done. He did not send more normal totems, or even any of the mummies we had heard of...
I am not sure of some things, but as I understood it... Sutekh had been banished from Earth, into another dimension. Normally, he could not escape this, but he had found a loophole in the use of the totems. They were made in the place he was banished, but since they had not been part of the spell and not technically banished themselves, they could go to Earth, ja?
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: So he linked himself to a big totem with even freakier abilities than the average one.
Lizzie: -Ugh. That trick.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Susie came looking for Rick... and Decapitron had fallen asleep on us. Part of this was because Herr Toulon had not worked all the problems out with the design in time. The puppet food doesn't fuel Decaptitron's weapons. He needs electricity for that.
I think also that the news of Leech had something to do with this. Rick managed to wake him again, and with the news of Sutekh's involvement he stayed with us. Rick was told that he needed to take Susie and escape. We could not risk losing him. The Sutekh-totem had already killed the ones that... what was his name, Jennings? Ja, I think so... that Jennings had brought to the hotel. Even the one Pinhead and I had knocked out and stuffed in a corner to try to keep him from getting into trouble.
Jennings... did not want to leave. He wanted us. He knocked Rick out and came back.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: We met him in the hallway when he came up in the elevator. To keep it short, he took a tumble down the elevator shaft.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Rick and Susie made it outside, and we were left to fight Sutekh. *shivers slightly and takes a sip of the ice cream float*
Lizzie: *wriggles around and reaches for him*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *doesn't mind offering her back*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *accepts, and cuddles Lizzie* We are at least partly immune to his spells, completely immune to some of them.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: And it wasn't the other way around. Plus, the totem had to be small for him to send it through I guess, because it wasn't that much bigger than the others.
Lizzie: *quietly* -Yeh'd be totally immune now.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: At the end, he tried to escape back to where he had come, so he could transfer back to his other body and wait to try again. But... the portal reacted badly to Decapitron's electrical attack.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: By 'badly' he means it exploded.
Lizzie: *silent sniggerfit. Can't help herself*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: The portals seem to be connected to electrical storms somehow, or cause them, so they can be disrupted in this way.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: After that blast, none of us were going anywhere. We weren't in any shape to.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: But Rick came back for us.
Lizzie: *hugs him, saddened again as she recalls their situation at the time*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *nods* He fixed everyone up... even Leech after we told him about her.
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Patrick Bramwell/Torch: With his background in robotics, it was easy for Rick to pass us off to people as an animatronics project. Enough to where no one said a thing at the wedding...
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Even when Leech was the flower girl
Lizzie: *small chuckle*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: They had a house in town, and during the off-season Rick would go back to being the hotel caretaker. I'm kind of surprised the owners let him, after the problems that had happened on his watch.... but I really don't think whoever owns the place cares about it at all.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Perhaps it is surprising we do, with what we have been through there. But... some of it, it is like the hotel went along through it too... Torn apart by Gallagher when he was looking for us, bloodstained and neglected...
Lizzie: *quietly* -Places kin gain lives, in some places, jes' like things kin.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *snerk* Maybe the hotel considers us part of the furniture...
Hans Seiderman/Jester: By now, that would almost make sense.
Lizzie: -If it kin think. Yeh don' gotta be somebody teh be alive.- *snuggle*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I think I would like to go back there one last time, after the rest is settled...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *nods* I guess it would be appropriate.
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There were problems sometimes with the remainder of the cult that has served Sutekh, but eventually that seemed over. And then we got a letter... it was very cryptic, but mentioned some interesting things. And it said that if we knew who the writer was, to send back a note proving this. That was easy enough for us to figure out... it was Peter.
Lizzie: *impression of brown eyes widening*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: He had changed his name to Eric Weiss, and... had become a bit paranoid in his old age.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Rick arranged for this Eric Weiss to be the caretaker that year. Rick and Susie wanted some alone time for their tenth anniversary, and he thought that would give the puppets some time to catch up with an old friend. I was packed off with the rest, even though I didn't know the guy.
Lizzie: *gives him a sympathetic look*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It was early evening, on the 16th of December. We had been dropped off two days earlier on the 14th, which was a Saturday... and we were to be picked up the next Sunday.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: He was gone. Just like that. We could all feel it. It was like having something in your mind just... break.
Lizzie: *gasp*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We did not want to believe it. We fought... but it was as bad as it had been with Herr Toulon. Like falling... like dying all over again. ... we couldn't move, but, we tried to hold on...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: And six hours later that @#$&%@ showed up.
Lizzie: *hides her face*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: She knew about us... too many things. She said at first it was a robbery, that she wanted to know about us. She threatened Peter... He tried to tell her he didn't know, that Toulon had never told him the formula.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: There wasn't even any with us... we weren't supposed to be gone that long.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *wipes away tears, though his expression is angry* Peter even told her... she would be looking for the 'collector' that had Toulon's diary, and he had the address and would give it to her. I would hope he meant that as a distraction... that he was not being like his father.
And she said... she... *breaks down and cries*
Lizzie: *hug! Crying with him in her silent way*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: She said "Yeah, I know that man. I killed him six hours ago, and the diary's worthless."
Hans Seiderman/Jester: She had much to say about... how evil we were, all the people we had harmed and killed. Peter tried to distract her and, eventually, he got the drop on her and shot her. By then... even with her there, we were having trouble... we did not have the will to move, to go on like this. Blade recovered somewhat, just before the woman died.
Lizzie: *little peep as she continues to grieve for him and the others as well as for the woman with the gun*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: She was weird at the end, too. She told him she wasn't here to know what made us live... she wanted to know how to make us die. Permanently.
Lizzie: *rubs her face on his sleeve, as though wiping away tears that aren't there*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It made no sense. She acted as if we wanted her to do this.
Lizzie: *starts to speak, but then just hides*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: We had no reason to want to die, not any more... until she gave us one.
Lizzie: *sighs* -Set.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Sutekh? He was dead. His cult was destroyed. We had run out of unfinished business, but with Rick and Susie... we didn't mind waiting a little while. Either we would find something... or in time we would all leave together, ja?
Lizzie: *subject change attempt* -Is 'at all th' story?-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I still can't figure out what the crazy @#$&%@ meant, saying we'd sent her.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *slight nod* Peter wanted to leave before the police would show, so we were packed in the puppet case and he headed for the airport. There was... some turbulence, and we were here - scattered around the Nexus.
Lizzie: -'N we found yeh.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja. I am not even sure how long we have been here. Time is slipping so easily. Then other things will slip away, and we will sleep. We cannot allow that. Shade has managed to keep this from happening, I think, but... We have one thing to do now. To return home and to find out who really sent that woman.
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Hans Seiderman/Jester: *curious but worried look at her* Lizzie...
Lizzie: -Wot?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Whoever is behind this... they will not ignore you. The rest of us... *isn't sure how to tell her this* We do not expect to return from this.
Lizzie: -I know they won't. S'why I need more joints.- *wriggles toward the table*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *puts her down on it* Even if we succeed... there could not be anyone who could take Rick's place. There will never be another Puppet Master. And we cannot survive without one. It is too much of a risk...
Lizzie: -Wrists, 'n better elbows 'n knees. 'N a tilt fer me head...- *looking at herself critically as she muses*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Listen to me, please! I don't want you to die too.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *staying out of this...* *just goes to put his glass in the sink*
Lizzie: *snaps a look to Jester* -Yeh think I'd live without yeh?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I don't know... I don't know how it works for you... *wiping at his face, not used to tears*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *thinking of the last note he'd handed Carolyn... telling her to stay away from them*
Lizzie: *stern, though her voice trembles* -I'm a doll, Jes'. Made teh love. 'N you 'n the rest 'o th' lot're mine teh love.- *turns and walks away behind Jester's glass* -No point livin' if yer not here.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *rather than think about that, turns his thoughts back to the assassin's words after Weiss had shot her... she'd been rambling about experiments in soul transference, about the zombie, and he guessed about Camille as well... and what had almost happened to Carolyn...*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *quietly* We know no other way... not one where we could be sure we would not harm innocents again.
Lizzie: *just leans on the back of the glass with her forehead, her bright little kimono falling off one scuffed brown shoulder*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Jester... do you remember exactly what she said? Something about it's bothering me...
Lizzie: *quietly* -"I'm not here for the secret of what brings these puppets to life. I wanna know what makes them die. For good. @#$&%@ fool... I was sent here for the secret by the creatures Toulon left behind. The immortals. Souls trapped in wooden bodies, living every day in agony. All they want is revenge on their puppet master. And now that's you. Congratulations on your legacy."-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: How did you know that...?
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *looks stunned, but not because Lizzie knew... it's because, after going over the whole history as he had, he knows what seemed off... and knows another possible meaning for those words. One that's absolutely horrifying*
Lizzie: *doesn't look up* -Shade.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *shaking his head* No... she could not have meant...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: What is it?
Lizzie: *sad sounds from behind the glass* -Yeah...-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: But... they are dead. *to Torch* The earlier puppets, the ones Herr Toulon had before the first world war, from when he first learned how to do this... but... Cyclops' head is still in the puppet case...
Lizzie: -Remember when I took mine off last fall?- *and ran around with it in her hands*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja, and Gallagher pulled Pinhead's off once also, but...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Maybe she was like that Carissa Stemford you guys told me about...
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Stamford...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Yeah. Maybe she found them and saw their history picking them up, and just thought they weren't dead. She was pretty loony.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: If she did find them, in whatever condition... we have to get them back. But... I do not think Herr Toulon should be told of this. Not until we are certain. It hurt him so much to lose them before... three times, really... I don't want to put him through that again without proof
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *nods* Besides, some of it has to be delusion. She claimed they were trapped, and we know it doesn't work that way.
Lizzie: -Dyin's scary, teh some.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *slight nod* Ja. I... *catches himself, shakes his head* There are things that are worse.
no subject
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *just blinks at that idea* I... *blinks, then shakes his head* Even asleep, time still passed. The world I was human in doesn't exist any more, it was too long ago.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: You're what, about three years younger than I was, really. It doesn't bother you, all the things you didn't get to do?
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *shakes his head* I gave up on those things that I could not do. They have no meaning to me now.
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: Can't even remember your 'bucket list'? What about finding someone and starting a family..? None of that?
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *laughs* The situation I was in, I did not even think of that before I died.
Lizzie: -Not time fer 'at stuff in a war, when yer fightin' under th' radar.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Ja, you start talking to a pretty girl... and you find her father's in the SA, her older brother is in the SS, her little brother is in HJ, her mother's in the NS, and her little sister is in the BDM...
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I... didn't understand a bit of that.
Lizzie: -Lucky you.- *not sarcastic, just absent and sad*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Various Nazi organizations...
But... Torch... ... Patrick, we made our peace with this long ago. We accepted it. I know that... some part of you never did. Maybe this is something you should think about, for yourself. *yawns, and looks puzzled when he does, not used to things like that*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: ... And maybe you should think about getting some sleep.
Lizzie: *decides to get off the table by using the method that Jester and the others hate her using. LEAP!*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *flails and totally fails to catch Lizzie* *fell over, and knocked the chair over in the process* Oww...
Lizzie: *sits up and stares at him* -Wot'd yeh do that for?-
Konrad Hess/Blade: *sleepy and confused, but awakened by the clatter*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: I was trying to catch you...
Lizzie: -... Yeh hurt yerself.-
Konrad Hess/Blade: Are you all right?
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *getting up, and righting the chair* It's nothing...
Lizzie: *gets to her feet and comes over to Jester's foot, getting tangled in her kimono and leaving it behind in the process. Has the bits of duct tape that form her day clothes underneath*
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *quiet now, just going to put the other empty glass in the sink... at least Jester didn't break it and fall on that*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *crouches to offer to pick her up, and picks up the kimono*
Lizzie: *into his hands, and then looking at hers and looking around*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *to Blade and Torch* Good night.. and Blade, try to make it as far as the bed this time? *chuckles*
Konrad Hess/Blade: *rubbing at his face* Ja...
Lizzie: *muffled as she leans over the edge of Jester's hand to look at the floor* -Want an 'ug?-
Konrad Hess/Blade: *a chuckle at that* With the... size difference now, you'd look like you went splat.
Lizzie: -So? Still ben 'uggin' ever'body else.- *spots the toys on the table and stops searching*
Konrad Hess/Blade: *thinks about it half a second longer and smiles* All right, then.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *hands Lizzie over to Blade, and then picks up the plushie and bear*
Lizzie: *snuggaBlade!*
Konrad Hess/Blade: *chuckles and pats her blue hair*
Lizzie: -...D'I look like a kid teh yer?-
Blade: You look... like you were designed that way, but you're older than we are.
Lizzie: -Wot's jail bait?-
Blade: *blinkblink, turns pink*
Lizzie: -...-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: *decides since he introduced her to that term, he should be in the hot seat when it comes to telling her what it means* It means a girl that dresses and, in some ways, acts like an adult woman but is... under the age of consent.
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It really means when they are... attractive, or try to be. But acting on that would get you sent to jail. Hence, they are the bait, ja?
Lizzie: *small grumble as she tries to look at herself* -Really gotta git 'at upgrade.-
Patrick Bramwell/Torch: I think Jester's worried you make him think he's a dirty minded old man... and you'd be the one cradle-robbing. *is teasing now*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *very pink*
Blade: *trying not to snicker* Torch, that is enough.
Lizzie: *manages 0.o? very well even without being able to tilt her head or change her expression*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *just shakes his head, to Lizzie* Torch is just teasing... because of things said earlier this evening.
Lizzie: -STILL need upgraded.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *turns to leave and go back to his room* If you insist on coming with us... we will do what we can to protect you.
Lizzie: -Still need upgraded.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: It... won't hurt? I don't understand really what could harm you.
Lizzie: -Don't matter if it does. I need upgraded.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *as he approaches the sleeping bag with still some reluctance* It does matter. *lays down, placing Lizzie carefully on the pillow near him*
Lizzie: *turns head to look at him with a frown that doesn't show on her face* -Wot for?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *softly* Because... I do not like to think of you hurt.
Lizzie: -Then I need upgraded.- *takes plushie as it's handed to her and absently tucks it under one arm*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *sighs, still slightly trying to avoid sleep, but knows he won't be for too much longer* What is it like... to be what you are always? For us, what we were is part of what we are, and always will be. Some things, we still react as if we were human... and, even with what I said to Torch, this is also who we are. If it wasn't, then our old names would not have had any effect on us...
Lizzie: *turns her head and looks at him curiously* -Feels normal.- *thinks* -Frustratin' sometimes, though it weren't so bad oncet I got these joints.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *slight smile* I should be glad Herr Toulon studied has he did. There is some difference in how I can move, but it was nothing that was too much of a problem. Doorknobs out of reach were always worse. And, at first, I had to relearn some things... like what would hurt me. I got petrol on my hands setting fire to the office, and did not know it would strip the paint off. I would have if I had thought of it... I just didn't think about that.
Lizzie: -Losin' paint hurts yeh?- *not wearing very much paint anymore. Looks like someone took a black sharpie to her feet and legs below the knee at some point*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: No, it... actually didn't.. or not very much. I didn't even notice until I was back at the theater. I think it is like getting a little scrape would be for a human... ... but that would make no sense to you.
Lizzie: -But they say 'at 'urts.- *patting the plushie* -Yer eyes're startin' teh look baggy.-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: Not enough to distract me from what needed to be done. *chuckles at that* Ja... I really should sleep.
Lizzie: -Then quitcher jawin' 'n do it.- *stern little dolly is stern*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *mock serious right back* Yes, ma'am. *then smiles* Good night, Lizzie.
Lizzie: *sternness gone* -'Night, Jes'. Yeh want me teh stay 'ere by yeh?-
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *eyes closed, quiet* If you want to... I... I do not want to be alone.
Lizzie: *is a tiny movement on the pillow, and then she's little hands and knees on his chest before she lays down and pats him*
Hans Seiderman/Jester: *already out*
house: *falls silent but for the soft chatter of the tv in the basement*
***CREDITS POST***
whitedove01s - André Toulon/Decapitron, Elsa Toulon/Leech, Hans Seiderman/Jester, Konrad Hess/Blade, Patrick Bramwell/Torch