AND YOU SHALL BE THE MONSTER YOU ALWAYS WERE~

[thelastgunslinger]

That was what it said before he put two bullets into the thing's head and blew out it's brains to the sound of laughter. A cold wind blows across the desert and Roland does not see - instead he feels it hit his lungs and his chest like a punch to the face. Always the first - he can't let anyone see or no how hard it was to take out the creeping lizard, the demon across the desert.

Tak. He muttered. It called itself Tak.

It hits him halfway out of the cave, a kind of creeping burning at the heart of his chest. He excused himself from dinner - ignoring the shouts from friends and disapproving looks from his family. When Alain tries to stop him he nearly shoves him into the wall. Through the wall. The burning in him is anger - Anger it took so long, anger at them all...

And even then he knows it's not right. It takes three steps, trying to crawl to his room before he realizes something's wrong. Fucking demons...

Can you hate the world you were born in? He hates it then. He can hear footsteps behind him, his nostrils flare (Cuthbert.) before he climbs his way into his room and slams and locks the door. He can ride it out. Even as he feels his spine re-arranging itself and falls forward on his hands.

He'll sleep it off. Sleep and pray yes, perhaps. Or perhaps when his hands contort (not his hands.) and he can see an almost lupine snout in the mirror in his room before he smashes it to bits. He'll jack off. Yes, and then crawl down to the banquet and make a meal of all those pathetic mealy mouthed human beings...

He growls at that, but it's no typical expression of teenage angst, no cry of anger. It's deep in his chest and inhuman even as he paces, alternating from two feet to four before stripping off everything. Let it come, let it come then he'd run and figure this out.

Until the damn knocking on the door.

"Go away Bert!" Outside when Roland speaks his voice is several octaves below normal, "I swear to you you'd best go now!"

Comments

[ka_mai]

"As though that'll send me away!"

Bert rolled his eyes, leaning against the heavy wood of the door. He presses his face against it, the wood cool against his cheek.

"You fucked off in the middle of dinner, no word of explanation! You threw Alain halfway cross the room!" Hyperbole, but Bert's prone to it. "Now you're either ill, possessed, or going mad. Mayhap I can have a hint, so I know what to expect when I break down your door?"

Though mostly he's only assuring Roland that he's not about to leave. He doesn't want to have to break the door down - though with his strength he'll just wrench out the damned hinges if he must.

[thelastgunslinger]

Possessed sounds about right to Roland. He knows it because the encroaching sense of other in his head. He bites down on the inside of his cheek, "Damn it Bert! Why can't you just cease your curious nature for once!?" The once is growled low in his throat. He can't even grip his guns anymore.

Crossing the room there are thuds - suspicious thuds and when he looks in the remains of the mirror he destroyed he's covered in fur, ears, his human features vanished completely.

At least I can talk still.

"You're Welcome to try breaking down the door if you can and suffer the consequences." Yet all the same - going out the window? Not an option. The closet? The bed?

The closet.

Roland barely fits, but the door's only open ajar.

[ka_mai]

"It's not curiosity, you daft prick, it's concern!" Bert frowns, pressing his ear to the door. What in the name of all things holy and good? It sounds as though some great animal has found its way into Roland's room.

Alright, not sommat Roland's prone to doing, but Bert knows he's kept a number of odd and not-suitable-for-pets critters over the years. Oftentimes locked in his room.

"What are you keeping in there? Man alive, you're really going to make me ruin your door, aren't yeh?"

He begins patting his pockets, wondering what he has on him he can use as a lever. Blast Roland to a thousand hells, if Bert didn't love him so very deeply he swears he would have abandoned the fellow by now.

[thelastgunslinger]

"Only way you wouldn't would be if you went away!" Roland growled at the door, snarling - before he sighed.

"Bert please. It's difficulty. Real difficulty and if I open this door you'll regret it! I'll regret it! so Go!"

The last part is a roar - loud enough that a servant carrying candles down the stairs looks up sharply.

Just as roland realized that the remains of his clothes as well as the broken mirror were across the floor. Padding out of the closet he tried to move about as quickly as he could, picking up items...and dropping them. Clawed paws were no use as hands.

He could however use his teeth. He begins doing that.

[ka_mai]

Bert pauses, listening, his heart starting to beat very rapidly and his mouth feeling dry.

He presses himself against the door again, and when he speaks his voice is quiet and concerned.

"Roland? S'alright, I'm not trying to get in. Just...talk to me. Sommat's wrong."

It's not a question. Bert doesn't need to ask anything, he has ears, he knows his brother.

[thelastgunslinger]

Roland swallows hard and heavy. Just talk to me. he says. Like it's easy. Like I shouldn't go down and apologize to Alain like, I'm allowed to be hurt. By all the beams I love him.

But what a nosy little shit. I should rip him apart. I should open the door and kill him and hang his body down...

There's the sound of a violent shaking before something moves to the door and there's a scratch at the door. And then a thud.

And silence. Seeping silence. Dust motes through the air.

"...Bert. I'm going to open the door. And you have to swear on the things that matter most to you in this life that you won't scream or shoot me. For your father's sake.

For my...father's sake." The word me is growled low in Roland's throat.

There's another sound of frantic pawing at the door.