(no subject)

[always_right]

 I think I have lost everything.

Comments

[dusk_to_night]

You haven't.

[always_right]

Who are you?

[dusk_to_night]

Anna. Who're you?

If you watch Teen Wolf, what's the latest you've seen? I don't want to spoil anything =D

[always_right]

Well, Anna, that's an interesting question at this moment in time.

{He doesn't even know if he's awake or she's just someone he's imagining. He tries to count his fingers and gives up when they blur in front of his eyes. Instead, he looks up at her.}

Stiles, I guess.

haven't seen any of it! But thanks so much for being considerate! Don't worry about me :)

[dusk_to_night]

I could call you Steve if you'd prefer?

[She just picks an arbitrary name, but it's as good as any]

I mean, what's in a name? Don't answer, that's a loaded question to some people.

Okay =3 Excellent.

[always_right]

Please don't.

{But, that gets a wobbling smile.}

Stiles is already a nickname. I could tell you about how much power names have in mythology and folklore, but you said not to answer.

[dusk_to_night]

What's wrong with 'Steve'? It's a perfectly good name!

[She wouldn't though because he's not really a Steve type anyway]

You could... and I'd roll my eyes because my god I have heard that lecture a millions times. Are you a witch?

[always_right]

Perfectly boring, you mean.

{He blinks and flinches back from the question. Then his hands wave in the air.}

No! No, witches here. I mean, are witches a thing for where you're from?

{He supposes that technically Emissaries, or Darachs miiiight be considered witch-y, but he's definitely not them. He's just pointlessly, uselessly human. A dying human, even.}

[dusk_to_night]

That's why some people like it.

[She raises an eyebrow slightly and tilts her head at the flinch and denial]

Well... yeah. Friends of mine are into that stuff. The shit I get lectured about. Ugh. You have no idea. Or you might. I'm not psychic.

[If she had been, she might not have died]

[always_right]

{He shrugs. He's never wanted boring for his life. Not even after it got too exciting.}

Werewolves. My friends are mostly werewolves with the occasional banshee or hunter thrown in.

{Maybe she can give him some pointers about dying. It looks like it's in his near future.}

[darker_black]

"That seems to be too common a factor in places such as this," Regulus says. He's very cautious about 'nexus' places where various worlds can connect, due to previous experience, but sometimes he just needs to get away from where he's been staying.

Are you okay with TWS3B spoilers? =3

[always_right]

"Yeah? I've missed that pattern. Generally, there's something else crazy going on. I haven't really gotten anyone's personal stories." Stiles forces a pleasant expression on his face and links his shaking fingers together. He hesitates a moment then drops the motion and sticks his hand out abruptly. "I'm Stiles."

Perfectly fine :)

[darker_black]

"I haven't been particularly social myself," Regulus admits, and will shake hands. "Black. Regulus Black." He's used to giving family name first, and his accent clearly marks him as upper class British.

[always_right]

Stiles nods, tucking his hands into his pockets when Regulus let's go.

"Stilinski's my last name, but Stiles is what I prefer." There's something outside the corner of his eyes, but when he turns his head it's gone, so he just swallows and tries to refocus.

"Probably not my business, but--are you in trouble, too?"

[darker_black]

The brief looking for things that aren't there reminds Regulus of an old school friend, but he'll push that thought away. There's a trace of a sad smile as he answers, "Not any more. I can't go back to my own world, because... well, I died there. There are other compounding reasons, but that's the most basic way to put it."

[always_right]

"Well, that sucks."

Stiles makes a face and scrubs a hand over his hair.

"If you want, I wouldn't mind hanging out for a while. At least, while I know you're here and can think straight. I'm apparently dying, or maybe even possessed and dying at home. Not sure how much of that is carrying over or not. Totally understand if you'd rather avoid this whole-" His arm swings encompassing his body in a wild motion. "-mess."

[darker_black]

"Yes, it does. But it means my family's safe, and that's what mattered."

"I wouldn't mind the company," Regulus says. "Is there nothing that can be done, then?" He means about whatever is going to cause Stiles' death. He knows about having to face that inevitability... even if it hadn't gone as he expected.

[always_right]

Stiles wishes he could make sure his dad, Scott, and Melissa were safe, but he doesn't even think he can fight whatever is inside of him long enough make that happen anymore.

"Nothing I can do. I don't even know the difference between being awake or asleep anymore. I could be imagining you and I wouldn't know."

Scott might be able to do something, but at this point Stiles doesn't know what that could be. The bite is what a traitorous voice in his head whispers, but he doesn't know if that would cure the atrophy, and even if it did, what would it do to the monster taking over him? He'd be fighting himself on another front.

[darker_black]

"Rather reminds me of someone I went to school with, only... he wasn't quite that bad. He'd hear things that weren't there, sometimes, or forget what class he was supposed to go to. I don't think it was possession in his case, though."

"I really don't know much about possession, though perhaps I should have looked it up... I did get very near an object that could cause it, near the end." He hopes Kreacher is careful about destroying that thing.

[always_right]

Stiles blinks at Regulus mouth opening and closing a couple of times as his whole body kind of jerks and leans forward.

"Wait--so you know about-" more hand-waving "-supernatural stuff? Werewolves and kanimas, emissaries, that sort of thing?"

[darker_black]

The Ministry can't very well pester him for violating the Statute of Secrecy here, so Regulus doesn't mind answering that. "I'm a wizard. 'Supernatural' stuff, as you call it, was... is perfectly natural to me."

"There was a werewolf when I went to school... one of my older brother's best friends. I don't think I've ever seen a kanima or what it might be, and I'm not sure what you mean by 'emissaries' either."

[always_right]

"Most of my friends are werewolves. A kanima is like a werewolf gone horribly, horribly wrong, all scales and lizard like with paralyzing venom and--yeah, you don't want to meet one."

Explaining an emissary from Stiles's own limited knowledge base is difficult. "I think--Emissaries are like druids. They're the closest thing we have to wizards, so far that I know of."

[darker_black]

Regulus makes a bit of a face at that. "Yes, that does sound particularly nasty, especially if they're still contagious. I was concerned about my brother sharing a dorm with Lupin, once I knew what he was. But they'd shared a room for two years by then and he hadn't bitten Sirius or attacked anyone, so I didn't say anything."

He seems to consider that, removing his wand from where it had been hidden up a loose shirt sleeve. "It wouldn't be a surprise if there's some connection. I remember reading something once about wandlore and the old Celtic calendar... The wand chooses the wizard, you see, and while it's often based on compatible personality that sometimes matches with one's birthdate. I was born on May 13th, and that matches hawthorn for the Celtic calendar. My wand's hawthorn with a dragon heartstring core."

[always_right]

Stiles narrows his eyes at Regulus's description of werewolves at 'nasty' because even though he'd met some horrible ones, his best friend was the best guy he knew.

"Contagious? It's not a disease." And now he sounded like Derek Hale, but still.

He is absolutely fascinated by the fact that Regulus has a wand and that there is an idea of sentience, or at least the thought of systematic matching from the perspective of the magical tool rather than the wizard. It was exactly the sort of thing he'd end up research for a week and writing a paper on for the incorrect class.

"So you're saying where you're from there are schools for magic and being werewolves and all that sort of thing? There's a lot of wizards?"

[darker_black]

"Please don't misunderstand. I have nothing against Lupin. But lycanthropy is treated as a disease where I'm from, or rather like a curse that's transmitted by biting when the werewolf is in their transformed state. Most werewolves don't admit to their condition. I could have had Lupin expelled if I'd said anything. Which I didn't, because he'd done nothing to deserve that."

"The Ministry considers werewolves to be dangerous beasts - not the Ministry's only bit of stupidity. They have a class five rating, the most dangerous. But I think if they ever applied the same criteria to my cousin Bellatrix, she'd earn the same rating and she's like that all month. It's not really fair, but then... life rarely is."

"There aren't really a lot of us, I think, compared to... people who can't use magic, but there are enough for a few schools. I went to Hogwarts, like most from Britain."

[dusk_to_night]

[She really tries hard not to make a face at 'werewolves' and then gives up]

Ugh. Werewolves.

[idk, she's a bit of a hot mess at being dead. But hey, at least it isn't Boring, he'll have that to look forward to]

[deadsmiles]

You haven't. You've still got your life, don't you?