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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Jun 10, 2013 1:05:00 GMT -5
"Well, technically I'm bi, so's Dare," Michael said. Like it really changed much of anything. "I met Dare heading into the Forbidden Forest and we talked and he tried to kiss me. I kind of freaked out, but then, you know, things happen. I also technically still had a girlfriend at the time, it got a little weird there for a bit."
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Post by Skylar Constantine on Jun 10, 2013 1:09:07 GMT -5
Skylar was quiet for a moment at all that. He took a drag off his cigarette and let the smoke out slowly, then flicked the ashes into their crystal tray. "Well," he said. They'd turned off into things he didn't need to know, but he'd asked for it, hadn't he? "So you've really only... been with one person?" That seemed safe enough.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Jun 10, 2013 1:19:27 GMT -5
"I'm the weird one like that," Michael said, nodding. "There were some issues and stuff and it just never happened with anyone else." That was the very simplified version of things, but even now he didn't exactly feel like going into detail about his sex issues. What he did feel like, though, was taking another sip from his glass.
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Post by Skylar Constantine on Jun 10, 2013 1:25:53 GMT -5
Some issues and stuff. Skylar decided that if he ever made it into a Society function again, he was dumping a whole flask of whiskey in the punch just to see what happened. "And then you married him," he said. "Is that a Muggle thing?" He knew it wasn't done in the Wizarding world, but Michael had used the word husband a couple times, right?"
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Jun 10, 2013 1:31:20 GMT -5
"We had a partnership ceremony here, by the forest, actually," Michael said. "Then we went to Spain and had a little wedding, just us. Here, technically, we're just partners." He didn't really care, though, as he much preferred husband. "You ever get married?" He still didn't know much about Ember or her mother.
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Post by Skylar Constantine on Jun 10, 2013 1:46:37 GMT -5
Skylar leveled his gaze across the table. "Once," he said. He tapped off his ashes. "Never again." He finished off his glass and reached for the bottle to pour another. Michael seemed to be doing fine with his own. "I killed her. Then I killed my father." He finished his cigarette in one long pull, then stubbed it out.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Jun 10, 2013 1:50:30 GMT -5
Michael stared at Skylar for some moments at that. "Bloody hell." That was about the only thing that came to his mind. He stared at Skylar for a few moments more before he managed to talk again, leaning forward in his chair and resting his elbows on the table. "I mean, I came close a couple of times, but I never...what happened?"
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Post by Skylar Constantine on Jun 10, 2013 2:06:00 GMT -5
Skylar set down his glass to light another cigarette, then let it burn a little after all. "Took her and the new baby home to meet my parents. She was gorgeous like a f~ing dream. She had to be Pure, right?" He let himself remember her smile as he took a drink. "They'd never heard of her, so Mother did a little Legilimency." Michael could probably figure out the rest from there, but it was coming, so he let it come.
He leaned forward on his arms, and his brows knit. "My father comes to me that night and he tells me she's got to go. They've both got to go. If I can't do it, someone else will." He rested his cigarette in the ashtray and curled his fingers around his glass.
"I told him no," Skylar said. He looked across at Michael, face set with fury. "He wrote me out of his will and I told him I'd send her and the baby off, no one had to know. He'd already told the others." Skylar's lip curled into a sneer. "Insurance, he said."
He looked away again, and one hand rose to rub at his temples as he closed his eyes. "So I went in, and I asked her if it was true. Does it matter? she asked me." He gave a humorless chuckle. "Yeah, it mattered. It mattered, and if I left it for someone else to do, they'd have tortured her first. They'd have made me watch them kill her and the baby, and they'd have given me a couple new scars as a reminder.
"So I killed her. Quick, clean Avada Kedavra so she didn't have to feel it. She was still so beautiful..." His cigarette was burning itself out, and he picked up his glass to throw back the contents rather than let the tears fall.
There was silence for some long, indeterminable minutes while Skylar gave his cigarette some attention and refilled his glass. "My father pulled me away from her, burned the new will and told me I was forgiven. It's blurry then, you know? All I could think was how much I hated myself and how much I hated him for pushing me. I told him I was out of the Death Eaters and he tried to get that damned burning will back. Killed him the same way I killed Charlotte..." He choked a little and gave his eyes a hard rub before looking off into the kitchen.
"I went back to see if she was still there, and she wasn't. The elf had taken the body away. They probably looked for Ember in the nursery, but Charlotte didn't like her to be that far away. She was in the bedroom the whole time. I took her and I left. I emptied my Gringotts account and we left for Spain that night, stayed in Madrid with fake names until I could figure out what to do."
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Jun 10, 2013 13:52:33 GMT -5
Michael wasn't sure how to react to that. Even if his brain had been fully and properly functioning he likely would have been unable to immediately decide what to say. He raised his glass in some form of a cheers for the lost wife and Ember, then took a long drink. "That's harsh," he said. "Eros said no one really knew what happened, that everything was kept quiet."
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Post by Skylar Constantine on Jun 10, 2013 13:59:06 GMT -5
"They must've hoped I'd come to my senses," Skylar said. He stared into his glass as though it had any solutions for him besides a few hours of forgetfulness. "After a while they'd have hoped they could just declare me dead, but that's seven years." He looked across at Michael. "They'll make exceptions a lot of time, but not when there's an estate tied up in it." He'd looked into that much.
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Jun 10, 2013 14:39:12 GMT -5
"Do you think your mother will let you come in and take it?" Michael asked. If Skylar's mother had been involved in the cover-up, then she knew what had happened. "I mean, will she be glad to see you?" He didn't know enough to guess on his own. Plus thinking was a little difficult, anyway. He absently ran a finger along the edge of his glass.
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Post by Skylar Constantine on Jun 10, 2013 14:49:08 GMT -5
Skylar swore. "She's the b~ who told my dad about Charlotte," he said. "If I thought she'd let me do anything, I'd be there instead of here." Not that here wasn't good, but his goal in coming back had been getting what was his without getting Ember killed. "I was raised to be a Death Eater. If I don't go back as one, I better have my sh~ together." And he wasn't going back as one. "Ever played darts?"
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Jun 10, 2013 15:14:56 GMT -5
Michael shook his head. "Never, I never really played a lot of games," he said. He wasn't even sure he knew what darts was. He wasn't in the mindset to play games, anyway, his thoughts were still trying to wrap themselves around what Skylar had told him. "Am I going to learn how to play a game badly now?"
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Post by Skylar Constantine on Jun 10, 2013 15:28:46 GMT -5
"Yep." Skylar stubbed out his cigarette, then pushed back his chair. "I'm going to hit the can, I'll be right back." He almost tripped over the dog in the hallway, but found Ember still on the bathroom floor. He usually put her to bed before drinking, but he'd been distracted. He scooped her up and made a brief trip into her room. There was some low murmuring, and he finally headed back to the toilet.
When he returned, he dug something else out of one of the kitchen boxes. This was a small mahogany cabinet which he fixed to the kitchen wall opposite the living room. If any darts went astray, he'd prefer they keep out of the hall. Inside the cabinet was the dart board and a drawer full of darts. This he slid out and brought back to the table.
"The point," he said, picking up a dart, "is to get as close to the center as you can. It's just like throwing a spell." He took aim and threw; his dart made a sharp thwack and stuck in the green area that ringed the red center. "I won't keep score, so don't worry if you're crap at it, just watch the tips. They're sharp, and a b~ to get out of your shoe if you drop one."
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Post by Michael Blackwood-Hardt on Jun 10, 2013 21:59:05 GMT -5
Michael nodded and stood, then picked up one of the darts. He eyed the target, wondering just how it was like using a spell. Throwing the dart was easy, hitting the target was easy, he managed to do that. What wasn't easy was making the thing stick. The dart hung limply for a moment before falling. "Damn, of course," he said, reaching for his glass rather than another dart. "Eros always got us doing drinking games at parties."
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