RP:I Won't Let It Become You

From HollowWiki

Synopsis: After the Soiree Ball in Enchantment, Penelope wanders home to return to her clinical duties. As the snow falls, the woman barrels across the man she has been looking for--Linken. Realizing that the man wants to die on his own because he cannot bare the thoughts of his past life, the elf makes the human furious. The two feud about his life versus her own. Penelope admits that she has lived a simple life and has nothing to lose (no family nor children), and Penelope reassures him that she would die before she would let the entity take Linken away from his will to live, his children Aeric and Alexia. He finally caves in to her request.

Kelay Town Square

Penelope was taking the long way from the soiree ball, sure. Women asked men, but who had had time for that, anyway? The night was nice and the moonlight hit the snow on the streets just right. The herbalist knew she had to get back to the recovering man that rest in her hut. The battle was gruesome and he was damaged and recovering ever-so-slowly. Yerrel had suggested she take the night off and mingle with others other than injured and sick patients. As she obliged, she got swept off her feet by a stranger and got to stuff her face. What was better than that? The woman wanders the streets alone on this chilled night, plate of leftovers in her hand for the man who relied at the hut and who missed the festivities. Penelope is draped in her gown that is sophisticated. The gown was sheer in the torso with a lacy design. The color of icy, greyish-blue that shimmered. Her hair was tied back with messy strands falling in her face. Overall, save the detail, she looked to be like an icy goddess with that shimmered gloss on her lips and highlighter on her cheekbones. The woman was classy, but easily recognizable for her natural beauty. The workaholic seemed to be on a mission, though with heels clicking across stone in a scurry.


Linken's eyelids flickered with each fleck of snow that fell upon them, his empty gaze peering into the void of the night sky as cold orbs of white descended all around him. Snow had begun to collect on his shoulders and legs, having not moved from his seated position on the ground in some time. Was it days? Weeks? He had no sense of time. The voices, in their ever growing intensity, wouldn't possibly give him an honest answer. That's what the elf told himself, at least; The last thing Linken wanted was to believe -anything- he'd been told. In all honesty, his denial was the only thing keeping the elf from seekig a means to end his own life. Was he crazy? Did anything actually happen the way he perceived it? Was his the mind of a delusional psychotic? Perhaps all if this was in his head? Penelope might not even be a real- "Ooof- Hey!" The elf snapped back to reality as a passerby unintentionally kicked his heel on their way down the road; In their defense, his snowy camouflage left him hard to spot in this inclement weather, but he would not stand for such a disturbance, especilly with the danger he posed to others. Who knew what could trigger that... thing." Watch where you're going! Please, stay the hell away from me! You don't know what I can...Oh...Oh no." As Linken's gaze fell and leveled with the woman, she would not need to pivot on her heel more than a few degrees before the elf realized who she was; She was the only person he knew, he could pick her out of a crowd of ten thousand. "Oh, god, its -you-!" Snow kicking in every direction, the elf scrambled to his feet and booked it in a straight line towards the edge of town. He would have outpaced her, too, if not for the patch of ice he hit a mere seven feet from his starting point. "Stay away froooaaAAAHHH!*smack*" Landing face down in the snow, the entire front of his body took the impact hard, especially his face, with muffled groans of agony seeping through the cracks in the snow as he lay still in pain for a few moments before attempting to crawl away, head lifting from the snow just enough for his eyes to resurface and guide his sluggish escape. "Please, just...just go away... I'm begging you..."


Penelope kept clicking away until she bumped into the, what seemed like a miscellaneous, object in the road. The woman paces until she hears the familiar vocals. Heels stop in place and the painted girl turns around. “Linken?” The man is now running from her. Actually running. He was alive. Covered in frost. He was completely lost. The woman begins to sort of stride faster after him as he began to run, only to find herself cringing at his slip and fall. She blinks. “… Linken,” she approaches and hovers over him. “Don’t push me away. I’ve been looking all over for you. I’ve been so worried.” The herbalist finds herself kneeling down in her thick garb of dress. The girl is on her knees—careless about the smudge that would rest upon the shimmering, lacy fabric. She analyzed the man covered in snow before she begins to pull her brows together in what seemed to be anger when she realized the situation at hand. The woman was not aloof. She could easily place the puzzle at hand, for she was witty and had grown so over more time apart from him. “You’re selfish and a coward, Linken Darrius-Gustaf Johansson,” she was dead cold. The doe-eyed stare was nowhere to be seen at this moment. Anyone who knew Penelope Halifax would be shaken to the core. “What the hell do you think you’re doing lying here in the cold? Sven knows if you would have woken up after this snow tonight.” The old Penelope that used to become agitated was boiling at the surface. There was too much going on with her these days to keep her cool. Perhaps being hardened and stubborn would whip him into shape. “I don’t give a damn if you want me to go away or not. You’re coming with –me-. It’s your only damn option. I put up wanted posters for your stubborn ass,” she then stands up and the fabric of her dress falls. “You’re killing yourself out here. You selfish ass,” she spews the venomous words out of her mouth. “Your children… do you not want to save your own life for them? Know them or not, they need you."


Linken had given up on his escape the moment Penelope began scolding him, her cold, unforgiving tone shaking him to his core like a parent ready to discipline their child. His hands scraped up to his head to shield his ears, seemingly to block his ears from her harsh words, but this was not the case; An intense ringing began to swell in his head once again, this time stemming from his 'full name' being spoken. The names given seem to have pulled some sort of memory from the recesses of his mind, her voice drowned out by the high-pitched feedback in his head as visions of people and faces he didn't know flashed by his eyes. Linken began to grind his teeth as the migraine reached it's peak, a guttural growl growing louder and louder from his throat until it swelled into an aggravated scream, overpowering her harsh remarks as he flipped over in the snow, lurching upward from the ground towards her as he began to scream in response. "And what the hell are you going to do!? Take me back to those children so I can -murder- them too!?!?" His voice's echo resounded through the silent air for several seconds, choosing only to speak once more when the silence grew deafening itself. "...I don't know what you -think- is going to happen, but the reality is that I am a hazard to everyone, and everything around me!" The elf lowered his gaze to the ground, failing in his attempt to bite back his tears before gazing back up at Penelope through the corners of narrow eyes. "...Penny, you are the -only- person that I -know.- Possibly, the only person that I loved enough to even remember, and my first day awake here, I nearly -killed- you." The elf struggled to climb back to his feet and meet her eye to eye, tears streaming down his cheeks as he reached across his torso to brush the snow from his arms and chest. "I cannot let that happen. Penny, everything you've told me, everything I've done, I..." Linken stepped closer, reaching out to place his hands on both of her shoulders, lightly shaking her to add emphasis to the urgency and concern now in his tone. "I cannot keep taking from you. It has to stop. I'v already taken so much at this point, there's nothing left but your life. Penny, I need you to be honest with me." Linken's gaze fell to the ground in a brief moment of hesitation, before steeling himself and rising to meet her gaze once more. "...How sure are you that I can be saved? Have you even -considered- the possibility that killing me may well be the -only- way to stop...me? Could you actually do it, or would you spare me, and suffer the lives of countless others, possibly even your own, on the foolish presumption that someone as dangerous as me can actually be saved? If it were possible, then don't you think I'd have managed to find a way to do it by now, if I've lived as long as I've been told?..." The elf let an exhausted cloud of smoke slip through his lips, his grip on her shoulders relaxing and arms falling to his sides as he began to slowly backpedal. "....Penelope, whether you like it or not, you're my entire world. The only one that I have. And if anything poses a threat to that world, even myself, then I'd be going against my better judgement if I didn't to everything in my power to protect it. Aeric and Alexia will be in danger if I stay, and so will you." Wait, did he just...say their names? Doe's he even realize the significance of what he just said? It would appear his jarring memories have gone over his head, the personal safety of his only friend in this world being his primary concern. "So, you know what? Go ahead, call me selfish! Call me a coward! I am still leaving; I have no choice. I'm doing it to protect them, and I'm doing it to protect you."


Penelope was almost taken aback by the harsh echo of the word ‘murder’. The color of the herbalist’s face drains and the memories of their history together comes flooding in all at once. The woman could feel the sharp throbbing pain in her arm that holds the jagged scar where her brother once cut her. The woman remains still to absorb everything the man is saying to her before she nears closer to him in a fit of rage. “You don’t know that, Linken! You don’t know anything! That’s the point! I told you the worst of… well… us. It only gets easier from there,” perhaps it would not, but persuading would be a start. The woman knows that she is bitter towards the man, so she refrains her rigid tongue at the thought of that they were once in love with one another. “You think I care if you almost killed me?” The herbalist tries to hold her laughter, but she is in awe at the thought. “You have no idea,” she scoffs and for a moment it is hard to catch a breath. Her chest feels tight. Was this all a cruel joke? Bringing her ex-lover back in her life with no such memory at all. His hands clasp her shoulders in exasperation. “You didn’t let me finish my story from the other night,” she tries to push her phrase in. “You don’t only take from me, I take from you. I took pieces of you. Because I was so naïve, I put you in those situations. We were toxic for a reason, Linken.” The girl breathes out as she grips his arm to keep him steady. Her mossy eyes try to search his. “I would risk my life knowing that you still have one. I’ve lived my life. My simple, simple life, Linken. I don’t need you saying what is best for me. I’m here for you. It seems like the world wants me to be the one to help you… if you remember only me. Isn’t that a sign in itself? Let me do this, let me be the one to save you, Linken… like you did for me in the past… although in ways that should have been different… you saved me, Linken. Please, don’t do this. I can save you, please,” her eyes are longing for an agreement. After all, Penelope Halifax was alone. No family, no children. Just herself and work. At least Linken had children to care for. As he speaks, her head cants to the side at his words of his children. “I never told you their names…” she trails in thought. He continues on about being a ‘coward’ and ‘selfish’ still. “Linken,” she then yells and grabs both of his arms. “I –never- told you their names! You remember! Even if you don’t, you do!” She tugs him. “I can figure this out… I can find an herb, we can talk to a priest—anything! Just give me a chance…” Her hands slide down to his and in that moment, her mind slowly wanders to Lanara. The witch. Could she possibly help? “Please, Link. Let me help you.”


Linken had just turned on his heel to walk away when the woman snatched him by his arms, squeaking out a startled 'gyah!' as she whipped him around to face her. The elf's wide eyes blinked with every word shouted into his face, her words of revelations leaving him staring briefly into the sky as he thought back on what he said. Eventually his brow would narrow, eyes falling once more to the ground as the memory finally dawns on him. "...You're right...I did say their names....That's really their names?..." Linken looked perplexed, his cheeks puffing out as he deeply contemplated Penelope's offer. Not a single memory dawned on him in the past few weeks he spent alone, but as soon as he runs into her.... Could she really be the key? Could she really help him? His eyes would eventually tail up from the ground, his expression shifting when he noticed her hands still clasping his wrists, eventually setting on embarrassment when his eyes finally met the woman's as she pleaded with him. There was something about the way she was looking at him, the tone to her voice, that left him utterly speechless, the color red so fervent across his nose and cheeks you'd think he caught a cold. Her words made it seem like this woman genuinely cared about him, and the thought sent a sudden shiver up through his spine; With a quick shiver he'd avert his gaze, praying to anything listening that the cold would veil his embarrassment. "Oh! Ah, I- umm...." Oh, ah, I, umm. Real smooth, Linken. "I don't think...well..." Wait. What are you doing? "You see, I mean...Maybe, but what-" No, no. Don't do it, don't do it! Just leave! Turn around, and leave! His eyes snapped shut, mouth stretched from ear to ear as he ever-so-slightly shook his head in complete and utter disagreement with the choice he was about to make. "....Ugh....Well... Yesno." Yesno? Did you forget how to speak, too? "I mean yes no! No. No, yes! Wait!" The elf groaned, his tapping foot packing the snow beneath it as he pulled his hands free and covered his mouth, proceeding to slowly wipe over his entire face before clapping them together and turning to face her with a half genuine, half forced smile. "No, you know what? Fine. We'll do it your way. Let's do this. But you better listen to me...." The elf put on an expression of passive aggressiveness, lurching very slowly towards her with a raised fist and a single extended digit, aimed right at the tip of her nose. "....You are -not- taking me near those children. Not unless this works. If, and ONLY -if- it works. Have I made myself clear?" Even when he can't remember them, Linken is still overly protective of his children.


Hands keep a steady grasp on his wrists as she tries to stare sincerity into him. The girl had realized that she had dropped the leftover plate of food, from the ball, in a flooding temper. The woman would acknowledge the embarrassment that formed in his cheeks, but there were matters far worse being discussed that she would not let that stop her death-like grip. The girl was shut off in that foreign part of her brain. Her eyes were stone. As he sputters, her brows would raise expecting another answer. “Yes, Linken. Say yes. Let me do this for you,” she tries to force a ‘yes’ out of him with her mossy gaze. The woman was not scared of death—she never was. She watched people pass and go all the time, and did they find peace? She would never know, but she was a simpleton and the future was unpredictable. Kids? That was never in her line of vision. The door had not seen light in a long time. The herbalist was only scared of what would possibly take the elf before her. The last thing she wanted was the elven man to die by giving up. He pulls away abruptly from her grip and her arms stiffly swing back down to her sides. Her dress a mess from the mudded snow as she stared heavily into what would be a possibly grim future. As he agrees, her shoulders relax at his sense of fatherhood. “I would never let you step near them. Not after what I experienced the other night. They cannot see their father like that,” she steps to him reassuringly. “It will work. We will figure this out together. You’ve always been so strong. Just please, come back to the shop. Warm up, let me make you something to eat, sleep, and we can talk when you have gathered more of your thoughts.”


Linken's eyes shut with an exasperated sigh, his tense posture relaxing as his hand slowly lowered back to his side. 'You've always been so strong.' The things he's done have been terrible, yet every time Penelope speaks of his character, she makes him out as if he were someone out of a fairy tale. How could he possibly fill these boots? And yet, perhaps the key was in finding himself. After all, in his current state, he's barely managed to last two weeks, but if his old self survived as long as he did, then perhaps he knew something? As much as he wanted to deny it, there was only one way to find out. God, help her. "...As you wish." His eyes now opening with a newfound, if not possibly poorly-placed sense of determination, Linken offered Penelope a weak, yet reassuring smile, nodding his head in agreement as he circled around her to lead the way back to the shop. "Let's head back then... Wait." He'd come to a halt, lifting a hand to scratch at his chin as he cautiously peered from left to right. "...Uh...Which way was it, again?" Oh, boy.