Enter and Die. Charity’s brow furrowed as she stared at the door, shut stuck so tight it might as well be a wall. The message that had been written there was gone now, but it still weighed heavily on her mind. She wasn’t getting in by normal means. Nothing short of a bullet could get through even the windows, and making a hole big enough to get through would take more bullets, skill, and time than she had. “Well, then.” She straightened up, closing her eyes for a moment and savoring a long draw from her pipe. “Alright, house. You want to kill me? Kill me. Just let me in.” She loosed her main pistol from her belt as she spoke and let it fall to the ground, four bullets still in its chamber. It was followed by its empty twin from her bag. She glanced down at the twin infinity symbols glinting in the little light left in town. Cocking her last gun, she raised her head in time to see the door swinging open.
A strange sort of calmness broke over Charity like the sun. She was warm, even in the chill of the night, and worry smoothed from her face. Even the constant ache in her old wounds melted away, and she strode forward with only a hint of a limp, her back straight. For the first time in almost a year, Charity Rose looked young again. She wasn’t tired anymore, and with each step the weight on her shoulders lifted. She knew exactly what she had to do.
She was smiling as she stepped inside the house. The door creaked and rattled as it attempted to slam closed on her, but by the time it managed to move, she was already well inside. The warmth inside of her grew, even as her breath rose in clouds from her mouth. It swelled inside of her until she was grinning, tears pricking at her eyes as the power shook her bones like a plucked harp. Liquid light pooled on the floor – stronger by far than that weak flicker she had summoned not long ago. Plaster fell towards her from the ceiling, but shattered to dust before it hit. As she entered that dark kitchen, the knives rattled and flung themselves toward her. All swerved or fell short, and she didn’t even blink when one buried itself in the doorframe next to her head. The house couldn’t hurt her now.
Down she went, back through the hidden staircase in the cabinet that swung open at a light touch. The light wouldn’t let the house work against her. Even as the floor ripped open beneath her like a mouth, her feet always landed on solid ground. She didn’t have to look – the power watching her now was something even this house could not overcome. Down to the basement that smelled of water and rot. Back through the door where the cold furnace loomed like a sleeping dragon, large enough to swallow her. Charity opened the cold door and reached inside, pulling from the long-dead ashes a beating, black heart.
Only now, with it pulsing sickly in her hand, did she start to feel the cold, and the tears on her cheek, and the familiar ache in her leg and gut. But even that couldn’t dampen Charity’s serene smile. Even as the light rushed from her, into the black, hellish thing, faster and faster. Even as her body grew weak and shaking, and her lungs struggled to draw breath, and her own heart battered fitfully at her ribs, her expression didn’t change. She was at peace, now, and the black heart rotted through with light. And she fell.
“Hey, Cap.” Charity opened her eyes, peering up bemusedly at the figure leaning over her, offering his arm. “You going to sleep here all day?” She laughed and shook her head, grasping his hand in her own – her own left hand, she noted – and pulling herself to her feet. She looked around the ship, smiling at the familiar faces of friends no longer lost before turning back to her first mate from so many years ago.
Posts: 274 Location: Northampton, MA Joined: 23.09.07
Posted on 11-02-2009 19:36
Truly, she died for great justice.
"This will be of fine service for you, you bag of the scum. I am sure you will not mind that I remove your manhoods and leave them out on the dessert flour for your aunts to eat."
- 36th Chamber of Shaolin
Posts: 58 Location: Northampton, MA Joined: 09.02.09
Posted on 11-02-2009 19:37
The Lord never knew a truer servant.
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
- Langston Hughes
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Joe, formerly Lin Fuqua, formerly Will Sawyer
Posts: 43 Location: Northampton, MA Joined: 05.04.09
Posted on 11-02-2009 19:39
I wish everyone was as nice to me as Miss Charity was. I had strong muscles... but she had strong... um... heart-scles. She would have said it better...
Joe, formerly...
Will Sawyer, who gambled with fire
Lin Fuqua, who fought for great justice
Father Joe, who saved every soul but his own
Cam will walk up to the roses and set down a blanket there she will pull out food and have a picnic. She will chatter at Charity like she is right there seemly hearing answers to her questions nodding and smiling. Cam will finish her meal and smile " Bye Charity ill be back tomorrow, then we will talk all about how the sky should be purple"
A little after sunset, Mariah walks up the hill. She looks around self consciously, and satisfied no one is around sits among the roses. "I was always raised to pay my debts. We've got debts to you that I ain't got no way of repayin', but here's one I can..." She takes a new $20 bill from her pocket and tucks it among the roots of one of the rose bushes. "Thank you, Charity Rose."
played by Kate
---
formerly Mariah, annoyance extraordinaire
Tom 09/08/2010 21:14 hope is also quite comfortable in greenfield these days, in a largely gamer (and thus deadlands) safe place.
Mio 09/08/2010 15:49 I wish the forum were like Facebook. I want to "Like" everything. I would never have to have a genuine thought again.
Jorge Mantoya 09/08/2010 13:33 Hope dangles on a string, like slow-spinning redemption. Winding in and winding out, the shine of it has caught my eye...
Bish 09/08/2010 13:26 No distance is ever safe enough. The only distance that is remotely safe is six feet, and THAT if only chased by two bullets.
The Gentleman Masher 09/08/2010 13:21 I think so. That may almost be a safe enough distance.
Gidim 09/08/2010 12:11 Doesn't she live in Rochester now?
GM Doppelganger 09/07/2010 23:04 Per player request, Hope will be present at the start of Manhattan, how long Hope survives is up to you.
The Gentleman Masher 09/07/2010 17:48 I love tumblebleeds. They're some of the nicest of the things Deadlands can throw at you.
GM Doppelganger 09/07/2010 14:40 If the existence of tumblebleeds in the new town is enough to shatter your hope it wasn't going to last long anyway
Tom 09/07/2010 11:24 ..and it's over. So that's what hope felt like, I always wondered.
