[ The spirit is indeed true to his word — a trait clung fiercely to in life (some attempt, amongst so many others, to remain a true and good man, a noble man in every sense of the word) and simply solidified in death. In part, it's how a thing like him functions: there is no need to lie, but he is also bound to truth itself. Just as much as the souls he comes to are demanded to speak candidly if they shy away from the concept, Mordrake will speak candidly in return. Concepts like secrecy and shame are not.... absent from him, not wholly, but they have been smoothed and numbed down over these long years beyond the veil. He's only the shadow of what a true person is, anymore.
His cane has vanished somewhere along the way, gone now for the moment, so as to free his hands. Now both of them come to rest on the table surface, folded together as he sits there attentively and listens. When she brings up her father again — compares them — he's freshly curious, the crystal of his eye sparked with intrigue. ]
Is your father also helping to remedy this... situation?
[ He has to wonder, or if it's a task she's taken to on her own, on the 'outside', as she says.
Quietly, he watches her, staying silent and unmoving like that for a long moment. The parameters to what he is means that he is not, in fact, a killer. ....Not without reason, at least. A life must be taken to acquire a soul, that much is fact, and he loathes it each time. (He loathes it, but it's still done with a flourish, with a grand sweep, with a flash in his eye and a pull to his mouth as sharp as the edge of the dagger that rests against his person now. Can he claim the demon to have infiltrated him fully during these times?)
Outside of that stipulation... he does not target the living or harm them. (But he can, and he has, if they stand in his way. On rare occasion, some have. To protect their fellows, to stop him from proceeding. They will know... punishment, in those cases.)
If he vows to protect the girl (who may not be authentically one of his monsters, but she is one of his kind and therefore his protective wing casts itself out to her), then he vows to stop any that might harm her. Her world.
And, of course, he can't risk losing contact with her just yet. She threatens to leave without him, to carry on her way, perhaps to find another dark thing to help her with her task, and he is not quite ready to part ways with his new beastly little companion. Neither is The Other, Its eyes narrowed dangerously by the mere concept; when It makes connection with such a dark soul, It latches onto that energy like a sucking parasite. ]
I shall help you. [ He concludes, finally blinking again, as though he's only remembered what it is to need to blink. ] You will seek them out in that way, then? On the "outside?" How long can you remain beyond the borders of your Christmasland?
no subject
His cane has vanished somewhere along the way, gone now for the moment, so as to free his hands. Now both of them come to rest on the table surface, folded together as he sits there attentively and listens. When she brings up her father again — compares them — he's freshly curious, the crystal of his eye sparked with intrigue. ]
Is your father also helping to remedy this... situation?
[ He has to wonder, or if it's a task she's taken to on her own, on the 'outside', as she says.
Quietly, he watches her, staying silent and unmoving like that for a long moment. The parameters to what he is means that he is not, in fact, a killer. ....Not without reason, at least. A life must be taken to acquire a soul, that much is fact, and he loathes it each time. (He loathes it, but it's still done with a flourish, with a grand sweep, with a flash in his eye and a pull to his mouth as sharp as the edge of the dagger that rests against his person now. Can he claim the demon to have infiltrated him fully during these times?)
Outside of that stipulation... he does not target the living or harm them. (But he can, and he has, if they stand in his way. On rare occasion, some have. To protect their fellows, to stop him from proceeding. They will know... punishment, in those cases.)
If he vows to protect the girl (who may not be authentically one of his monsters, but she is one of his kind and therefore his protective wing casts itself out to her), then he vows to stop any that might harm her. Her world.
And, of course, he can't risk losing contact with her just yet. She threatens to leave without him, to carry on her way, perhaps to find another dark thing to help her with her task, and he is not quite ready to part ways with his new beastly little companion. Neither is The Other, Its eyes narrowed dangerously by the mere concept; when It makes connection with such a dark soul, It latches onto that energy like a sucking parasite. ]
I shall help you. [ He concludes, finally blinking again, as though he's only remembered what it is to need to blink. ] You will seek them out in that way, then? On the "outside?" How long can you remain beyond the borders of your Christmasland?