A Murder of Crows

[John Henry]

John Henry sits quietly in contemplation, the setting sun reflecting in his sunglasses.

He looks up to the crows as they cry and chatter, raising an eyebrow, nodding as if actively listening with them.

Looking back to the darkening horizon, his look of contemplation turns slowly to that of the oft-seen and knowing smirk-- as if considering the fall of Sol a joke in and of itself.

[Madrigus]

Madrigus steps quietly down to the shore and breathes the watery air deeply. His right hand bounces a small, flat rock slowly, and his gaze is off in the middle distance.

He'd been away so long that he forgot how much could happen in one weekend. He felt small and inconsequential, like all the scheming he had done over the years was a pointless scramble for some scraps of imagined power. The souls he had gathered, the people he'd killed, the plagues he'd spread, THE plague he'd spread, his hut at Wailingford on the river Styx, could all be washed away so easily. He gripped the rock tightly, remembering the feeling of being dead, trying to concentrate those thoughts into the pebble, cramming the feelings of loss, terror, and pain into a thing too small to hold them, and right before his sanity snapped he threw the rock as hard as he could.

It sailed out over the water's surface, skipped once high into the air, and landed with an inaudible splash. Madrigus sighed and turned to walk away, but stopped short when he saw John Henry. He cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed.

"Ah, hello, John. How are you this evening?"

[John Henry]

Broken from his reverie, John Henry greets Madrigus with an amused smile. On a second thought: that is no smile. Wolves, coyotes, and foxes can sometimes be described as 'smiling', but we all know that we are just attributing human characteristics to what is really just a casual regard.

"I am..." John Henry starts to say and pauses, as if searching for a word. "...Satisfied." He cocks his head lightly to the side, ever so slightly, thinking, then nods again. "Yes. Satisfied, I think, is the right word. Though, truth be told, I can say I did not think that I would ever uttah such a phrase in its actual sense," he drawls in his curiously-articulated Georgian accent.

He speaks, as if not really to you, but as if he were some actor performing a soliloquy to some audience. The crows? You, perhaps?

Then, he *snaps* to attention. Unncomfortably perceptive, he looks to you as one would to a sudden noise, considering.

"-but I must apologize. I have forgotten mah manners," he says with his smirk, once again himself. "How are you, dear sir? I do not believe we have been formerly introduced."

[Madrigus]

"We did, actually. I told your fotune earlier this year. Although I've spent so much time studying I've missed a few of the more... Interesting times. I'm 'Madrigus,' although more recently I've started going by 'Gary' as an attempt for something a bit more normal."

His face turns towards the lake again in contemplation. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but why are you 'satisfied?' As far as I can tell, a lot of bad things, a lot of revealing things, have happened lately." He gives John a blank look. "If someone can find something 'satisfying' in all this, perhaps I could too."

[John Henry]

Mr. Henry's eyebrows raise at the mention of the name Madrigus, "Oh, oh. I am very sorry about that, sir. I am nothing but rude today. You called yourself something different and carried yourself equally so. For all purposes, I had thought yourself an entirely different person, despite your clothes." He shrugs, indifferently. "Mannerisms are like a scent to this old dog. You must admit, howevah, that judging things by their appearances is at, the very least, passe."

He pauses, once again regarding Gary, sniffs, then looks back to the purple sky that now showed the telltale spots of light that denoted the return of the night. Like a man searching for something and liking what he sees.

After a frustratingly long pause, he answers Gary's question with a question.

"Do you like who you are, Gary?" He says Gary with none of his customary and signature sarcasm. More like, he gives it the respect a name deserves.

Still looking at the horizon, he says, "Do you like this new person you have become?"

[Ariel]

Ariel, on a constitutional on this brisk November day, encounters this conversation and settles at a polite distance, wanting to listen but not wanting to intrude.

((This conversation is about things that greatly interest me, but I won't interrupt if y'all want your space.))

[Madrigus]

Gary chuckles and gestures at himself. "Do you mean the new me as 'Gary?' Here's the thing: I was never 'Madrigus.' What personality you saw beforehand was a façade for Ryan. I was acting. Now that he's dead I no longer have to pretend, and can take a more contemporary name, wear better clothes, and talk much more comfortably. So in that regard who I am now is who I've always been."

He sighs, and runs a hand through his hair. Hearing footsteps he turns to meet Ariel's gaze. He tilts his head in a 'come on' gesture and speaks to John again.

"However, if you mean the person I've become since coming to Whisper Hill..." Gary pauses a long moment before responding, giving himself a chance to really think about it. "I've learned that there are far more important things going on than my petty schemes. It's impacted me pretty hard. But, overall, I'll admit to enjoying the new perspective. Does that answer your question?"

[i don't mind]

[John Henry]

((Anyone can join in.))

John Henry nods amiably. "I applaud your new found freedom of expression, then."

"I have lived my whole life drifting around the world in self-loathing." His brows crease ever-so-slightly, "Make no mistake, I do not say that to invoke some pity upon myself. I had accepted that I did not like myself, the world, or anything in it. I was bored. An unending and painful boredom."

"The kill. Money. Blood spilled in the night."

He smiles his not-smile once again. fierce.

"This is how I spent my days. Brief moments of interest, taking me away for but a moment of small distractions. However, then they were gone and I drifted onto the next."

Crows chatter and laugh above him in the trees. Looking up at them and considering, he continues, "I did not enjoy the killing, nor the money. I have more money than I could ever use and the killing," He pauses. "The killing was something that had become habit. I did it because I was good at it. Very, very good at it."

Now, Mr. Henry looks Gary straight in the face. "That was who I was... and I hated him."

A deep breath, "Then I was drawn here, by some passion and interest that I could not explain from whence it came. For the first time - in a very long time - I stayed in a place longer than a contract required. I cannot express how unusual it is for me to stay in a place for a year, let alone a week." He smirks and chuckles, "Much to Young Mr. Walker's chagrin."

He holds his hands up now, a mocking gesture of supplication, reaching his arms wide, indicating the crows that crowd the trees above. "Now, Mr. Gary, I have reached a point where I feel sense of belonging amongst the beasts. I know now, that I kill not because I can, but because it is in my nature. I am not the abomination that I once thought I was, but a creature of my own."

John lowers his arms, his voice slightly hoarse, "There is a war comin'. It is, in fact, already here. It has begun and we all shall have to make the choice to be caught up in it as hapless bystanders, or to participate and be the warriors that we were always meant to be." Forgetting himself, John bares his fangs in an open and gruesome smile. "I shall rend, tear, and bleed all who oppose me and the Wild. If it comes to pass that I should die doing so, then it will have been as a creature with his nobility intact."

That smirk again, "That, sir, is why I am satisfied."

[kimp]

::there is the sound of measured footfalls a moment before Liberty comes jogging down the road. Noting the gathered group she stops a short distance from them and asks ::

Mr. Henry, I was hoping to speak with you at some point. May I approach?

[John Henry]

John Henry gives a welcoming gesture to Liberty.

"Why, a pleasure, madame. I find our conversations to be most stimulating."