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[It's honestly probably a very good thing that Alex had her phone in her hand otherwise there's no way in hell that she would have been able to hear it ring. When it does she just stares at it before she shouts over the din of the loud tech music:]

Hold on.

[There's the sound of her moving through the club, and finally out the door of it where the background noise fades to something more like crowd noise. Alex moves past that before she speaks, and she sounds a little drunk but not shitfaced.]

How the hell do you even know where Excessus is? And yes, Amalia is fine. Trust me, she's a very good Domme who is much in demand. I am fine. And Warren didn't even know I was there!

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Alex Reagan doesn't sleep under the best of times, never mind at times like now, and when she hears the knock on her door, Alex had grabbed the only thing that amounted to a weapon in the room: one of heavy metal candlesticks just in case it was Warren. But then it wasn't, at least she doesn't think so. "Richard?" Alex's voice is soft, and it's laced with concern when she sees him with the scarf over his face, when there's something wrong with the voice that she's loved so since before she'd even met him.

The grip on the candlestick loosens a bit, becoming less white knuckled as Alex just moves closer to him, but she doesn't let it go. Not yet. She has to be sure that it's not Warren first, because the last thing she's going to do is die in a stupid long dress like this.

But still, her eyes are wide as she stares at him, and the worry is etched into every single bit of her when she just asks softly: "what is it? What's wrong?" Because something needs to be. He wouldn't come in here looking like this and sounding like this if it wasn't.

"We have to get out here."

He keeps the scarf over his face. He can see her (he could see through anything) but he can see her and he wants nothing more than to be held. Except now. Now that could never happen again..

"Come on. I have to get you out of here so you don't come with us tomorrow. I have to...get your clothes. Get something warmer to wear. When we get out there'll be...there'll be a car. I think I got through to Nic you just - we have to go now."

"What? Richard I gave my word." Alex just frowns at him, and she sets down the candlestick as she steps closer to him, a frown on her face. "There aren't any warmer clothes in here. Everything is like this." Alex just gestures to the flowing and flimsy green dress she was wearing. "It's like she bought out every bit of 'Mother Goddess' like clothing that she could. Besides..." He had torn the laces out of the dress that she had been wearing, and it's not they could get put back together.

"What are you talking about? If I break my word, do you think that Tiamat isn't going to have Warren start hunting me down? He'd love to get the chance to kill me during an escape attempt. All it takes is a misfired bullet. Plausible deniability." It's probably no surprise to Richard that Alex has spent the time thinking of the worst case scenarios for what may happen, but she didn't realize that Richard would be the one who was telling her to get the hell out of there.

Then she just stares him down: "why are you wearing that scarf? Is this some sort of trick Warren is playing? Some sort of test that he or Tiamat have come up with or something? How did you get in touch with Nic? And why do you sound like that? What happened?"

"Listen to me nothing is going to happen to you. This isn't a test, you have to believe me-"

How he got ahold of Nic. Would you believe he reached into his mind? He'll pay for this. It's too much power all at once. Hands over his scarfed face he stands, "Don't make me make you believe me. Just - give me your hands. We'll walk out together."

And he'll go back, because there's nowhere else he can go now now that she wanted a form that was more his...

His throat works, "...Please. Please because you love me. Don't trust her I can't- please."

He sounds scared, desperate. She's probably never heard him sound this heartbroken before. She's never heard him this panicked, this scared. His hands tighten the scarf before turning his attention toward her, "We're going. Now"

The inhuman command in his voice rattles off the walls, "If Warren tries anything he's dead and his descendants shall burn in the fires below at my command but it's important I get you safe."

“What? What are you...?” Alex doesn’t think that he could ever make her believe her believe anything that she doesn’t want to. He’s never been able to before after all, and while he’s got a great deal of power at his disposal she didn’t think that he could. Until the command curls at her spine and propels her forward. Until the candle stick just slips from her grasp and her hands extend to wrap around his. “What. The. Hell.” It’s a question that’s grit out between her teeth as she looks up at him.

The anger at being forced to do something, magically forced to do something she doesn’t want to do overtakes her concern for him and the tone of voice that he’d used. Mostly anyway. Alex knows that even when he was at his worst, they were at their worst, he’d never sounded so scared. Never sounded so broken.

But Alex still can’t help but to say, “you can’t protect me from her. And she’s going to be completely fucking furious that you’ve done this. That I’ve broken my word. She’s going to kill me to punish you for this.” Alex doesn’t know why but it’s something that she suspects very strongly as she stares up at him and at the scarf on his face.

"Damn it! You don't understand! We're a monster!"

He swallows, "...She. she's a monster. Alex..." His hands hover at the scarf before he lets out a shaky noise that could almost be a sob, "There's no garuntee that you wouldn't be killed despite all of this she's a chaos goddess and she wants to destroy the planet."

His hands cup her cheeks and he's still warm. Not hot, but unnaturally warm, "She's burning me from the inside out. I'm scared there will be nothing left and I want to hold onto you. I love you so much..."

"I'll fight her. I...I..."

He lets her hands go, thumb tracing her cheek.

For a moment, Alex doesn't know what to say, but she's got a suspicion now, and Alex Reagan has never know how to not act on one of them when she's got them. "I love you, Richard." Her voice is soft and she means it, her eyes staring up at him as he wears the scarf. Where his eyes should be, and where she's starting to suspect that they aren't. She wants to ask what Tiamat is doing right now, how he could be here without her knowing, how this was working and why the goddess was so insistent that the two of them be alone.

But she has a terrible fear that the reasoning is why he's wrapped up in the scarf, what he means about it Tiamat burning Richard from the inside out. So before he can stop her, Alex just reaches up and snatches the scarf from his face before her eyes go wide at what she's seeing. Letting out a soft gasp, Alex's hand shakes but she doesn't pull away from him. "God, what has she done to you?"

His first instinct is to cover his features. It's so foolish. It's so damned foolish and vain but she wanted his body made to her specifications. You are strong. The fire I have missed - the fire that had burned out...

His unnatural blue eyes are even brighter with a reptile pupil (a dragon pupil) instead of his human ones. bright red and blue-green scales pattern the right side of his face.

His teeth are different, canines extended into fangs. There are horns - or the beginnings of horns, protruding from his forehead and when she looks at him he laughs weakly, fangs bared.

"...well she took my glasses for one thing."

A god has no need for such paltry human concepts.

The laughter turns to sobbing and he clutches at her shoulders drawing her in for a hug-before withdrawing.

"...I wish you hadn't done that. It is ...it's so foolish to be so vain but if she's done this to me I can't bring myself to think if she's- what she might do-to you-"

His throat works. He's still running warm.

"I have to get you away."

Alex just holds onto him, and her eyes just fill with tears when she traces her hand over the scales of his face. God, he’s so hot. He’s too warm and his eyes and she misses his glasses too. “We can always get you some hipster ones, love. Then at least you’d still have them to stare over the rims of them at me.”

Or not, because he wants her to leave. And for the first time in the history of their time together, he can make her go. Alex doesn’t like to be made to do things when she doesn’t have the option of not doing them. But she can feel his fear for her: it’s palpable around her. It’s making her heart start to beat faster.

“Richard.” Alex just starts softly, her voice soft. “She’s going to hurt you more when she finds out you’ve done this. You know that. I know that. She wants me and I have no idea why.”

Edited 2020-05-23 05:32 (UTC)

He wants to kiss her but he's afraid these fangs that are a part of him will hurt her. God what's he going to look like when she's done with him? When he's fully her vessel?

"I think this wore her out." His hand gestures over his face, "...For the evening. I don't know why she wants you I just know...There's something about possessing you that makes her triumphant. That controlling you makes us feel good and I don't..."

He's not upset now, his gaze is determined, "I'm not going to hurt you. Or control you..."

"My lord?"

A man in a flack vest and military fatigues appears, "Did you require-"

"Did you forget to fucking knock!?" He slides his body between Alex and his own, "How dare you interrupt us. Return to your post, or our lady shall hear of this transgression against usss."

He flees, slamming the door behind him and Richard's shoulders slump.

Don't be afraid. It doesn't matter what he is or what he becomes. As long as she's alive. As long as she stops this.

His hand reaches back for hers. His hands are still human.

For now.

"Alex, trust Nic. He has all my notes. We're going to Sumeria and you have to find Simon. There is...something that he has to do."

He turns around to look at her, "...I'm sorry I tried to hide from you."

"If you go to Sumeria to her temple or whatever with her," Alex's voice is soft, and it's shaky when he turns to look at her, and she's trying to put some of these pieces into place. Some part of Alex just twists because she'd given Tiamat the tools to control her earlier when she had kissed the woman. Was this her fault? It feels like her fault, and she can't help it. Maybe if she didn't, maybe if she hadn't done that or if Tiamat didn't feel like Alex was a threat then she wouldn't have done this to him.

"And she finishes this, Richard, you're not going to be you anymore. And I don't mean not looking like you, because how you look doesn't matter to me. But if she goes along with this wedding, you're not coming back. I know it. And I don't know what the hell Simon has to do with anything, but God, Richard." Alex tries not to let her tears fall, but they do, and she moves closer to him, and wraps her arms around him. When she kisses him, she doesn't worry about his fangs. She's worried about him and who he is and what the Goddess is already taking from him.

"I can't lose you." She just whispers it against his lips. "That's why I agreed to stay, because I can't bear the thought of losing you."

I can't lose you.

"...Alex I can't lose you either that's why you have to go. To find Simon and Nic. To save yourself that's why I want why can't you just - just this once listen to me?..."

He sounds wounded as he presses his forehead to hers with a sniff.

"I love you so much Alex Reagan. I'd believe in God for you. I'd pray for you."

He kisses her gently back, "But you have to go so I can keep you safe. Let me have this. Let me be the hero at least once."

Alex just lets out a little whimpering sound when he kisses her back like that. And she just shakes her head quickly. "If you become Tiamat and you open the door, I am so going to fucking kick your ass, Richard." Even if she knows it's impossible at that point, she'd still try. Because she refuses to lose him, not like this. Not to this.

And she kisses him again, and just begs so softly: "promise me you'll be safe, Richard. Promise me you'll still be you. Promise me that you're not just sending me away so that I don't have to watch it happen. Because if it's that then I won't forgive you." Alex means it. She's terrified that she's going to end up losing him and not even knowing it until she like sees the door open on the news. "Promise me that if I go, it's for a reason and not just so that I don't need to watch her marry you."

He is about to respond with tenderness, with affection - but there is a bell that rings in his head. Something...something he knew...

"Alex go find Simon."

It is so...strange to have fallen into belief so readily. It feels like years have passed, and he couldn't tell if they did or didn't.

"Trust me. Find him. He will know."

Alex just blinks at him again--she's never really known how to find Simon, he's always the one who finds her honestly. And Alex still doesn't even know for sure where she is. But she believes him, and she believes in him, which is why she kisses him good and hard before she speaks quickly. "Okay, tell me how to get out of here, Richard. And I'll go."

"Down the stairs. I'll walk you there."

He knows it's ridiculous to expect her to forget about him and that he doesn't want to reach into her mind - he doesn't want Tiamat to reach into her mind to destroy her memories.

He'll die before that happens.

"Nic is in a catering truck downstairs just-" He swallows, "Just trust him okay?"

Taking her hand, he stops - wrapping a blanket around her shoulders like a cape.

"I wouldn't trade any of this for anything. Know that."

“I always trust Nic. I just don’t always listen to him.” Alex just gives him a little smile, not quite the little laugh that would come with her making a bad joke, but she’s trying. God she’s trying.

When he confesses that, Alex’s voice is soft and small. “I don’t want to leave you here with her, Richard. I’m afraid for you.” They’re being truthful now and Alex is going to continue that tread of it. “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything either.”

Alex just reaches up and touches his face again very gently before she adds: “I love you Richard Strand. And I’m going to save you. I don’t know how yet but I am.”

Edited 2020-05-23 20:13 (UTC)

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