wrfmlogsarchive | we are each our own devil...

Who: the usual gang of suspects
What: making deals with the devil - never a good idea.
Where: in a dream, somewhere in Olympus Coliseum
When: Friday night

He was on that damn ship again. Wonderful. Well, at least he wasn't in the hold. This time, he was standing near the helm of the deserted pirate ship, which sat in the middle of the black ocean. He frowned, trying to figure out why this place looked so familiar. He couldn't distinguish the sky from the sea, both full of stars. Was this in one of those movies? He hadn't really paid much attention to those pirate movies before, and was regretting it now.

He sighed. "Alright, Calum. Where are you?"

An amused laugh came just forward of the helm, and a man appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Despite the fact that it was much darker than it had been before in this dream, he could make out the pirate lord's features a bit more clearly. Not enough to recognize him in full light later, but enough to make Josiah raise an eyebrow. "Well? Why are we here this time?"

"You tell me, boy," came the easy reply. "This is, after all, your dream."

Josiah didn't know what to say to that. Last time, he had been without his memories. He didn't know who was in control of these dreams, and figured that if Calum wanted to, he could easily gain control if he wasn't at the moment. That irritated him to no end, not knowing when the other man would use his powers to render him helpless. Well, maybe irritated was putting it lightly. "Really pissed him off" worked too. He crossed his arms and tried to ignore the dream-headache that threatened to develop.

"Since when has that ever mattered to you?" he asked, leaning against the railing and glaring down at the shadowy figure below who had turned to look at the starry void of sea and sky. "You treat my mind like some sort of playground to accomplish... whatever the hell you're trying to do." He paused at that. "What is it that you're trying to do? I can tell you right now, if it involves taking over the world and being a stereotypical video game villain, the Trinity and the Refs might have something to say about that."

Calum didn't say anything for a long while, but Josiah had the feeling that he was smiling. When the other man finally did answer, there was a note of amusement in his voice. "I've told you children that it doesn't matter. But, if you'd really like to know..." He turned his head towards Josiah, and his eyes flashed in the faint light beneath his hat. "I plan on killing most of the people you know and destroying your world."

That.

That he hadn't expected.

He stared at Calum, and then sighed. "Seriously?"

"Well, isn't that what you wanted to hear?"

Dream-migraine. What the fuck. "The truth would be awesome. Really awesome, in fact."

There was that silence again. But this time, there wasn't any amusement in it. Calum turned back to face Josiah, his face carefully blank. That unnerved him - he was used to the pirate lord taunting him, being elusive about answers, being a downright bastard... he didn't expect him to actually take him seriously and tell the truth. That was enough to make him grit his teeth in exasperation - he wondered if Lilith had the same problem with him. Or had discovered that problem when the man obviously went off his rocker and betrayed the Brethren Court.

He paused, and closed his eyes at that. Lilith. He didn't know when it had happened, but he had come to (reluctantly) care about the demon, despite the trouble she caused. If this was hurting her worse than it hurt him (and damn, he had almost forgotten that stupid soulbound)... this was a nightmare. Worse than those zombies, the weather, the earthquakes, the illness. Dammit, this was all turning into a crisis faster than he could comprehend. Weren't they supposed to get some sort of happiness, some sort of peace after saving all the known worlds? What in the world was going on?

"I'll make a deal with you."

Josiah frowned, shaken out of his thoughts. "A deal? I usually don't go around making deals with pirates."

"I don't believe you would have much of a choice, boy," Calum drawled, turning halfway to look out over the sea. "And I have neither the time nor the patience to work out the details with you."

This screamed trap. Josiah pinched the bridge of his nose wearily. "What the hell do you want, Calum?"

The pirate chuckled. "One week."

"One week of what."

"Do you really have to ask that question?"

He scowled. "Yes, I have to ask that question when someone doesn't clarify what-" He stopped. Oh. Oh. "Hell no."

"Before you give me your final answer, think of it this way. Your friends are currently up against dark magic that they can't even begin to comprehend, magic that dabbles in animating corpses. The world's spirits have been cut off to you, and the worlds themselves are plagued with disease, strange weather phenomena, and earthquakes. Chances are these will only worsen in time until many of the "saviors of the universes" are dead or dying. And that leaves the rest of the worlds where exactly?" The pirate began heading towards the starboard side of the ship, his head lowered in thought. "You know I have the knowledge to counter most of this, and you also know that I will refuse to give that knowledge unless you agree to my terms."

"No."

Calum stopped. "No?"

"You heard me. You can take your terms, and shove 'em." Josiah shook his head. "Giving in to that means I don't trust the others to deal with this. And I'm not going to just sit back and let one of the threats against them just walk free. Sorry, not happening." Besides, Lilith knows as much about the grimoire's magic as you do, so it's not like I'm entirely in the dark here. He sighed and turned his back to the captain of the Tempest. It wasn't even an option. The game was true, and therefore, so were all of its sayings and morals, and that meant they couldn't give up.

"That's truly a shame," Calum said, and his voice was so close behind him that Josiah spun around in surprise, only to see the captain leaning against the wheel of the Tempest. "Then again, I suppose if you had agreed, it would make things less interesting for me." He gestured, and the chain holding the strange talisman around Josiah's neck snapped. With that action came a lancing pain through his skull that drove him to knees, with barely enough breath to spit out a curse.

The talisman floated into Calum's hand and he examined it quietly before sliding it into his pocket. "It really is all about control, Josiah. And whoever has the most magic." He stepped away from the wheel, a cool smile on his face. "But the dark magic keeps growing in these worlds. It's impossible to ignore, and you, more than anyone else, should realize that."

Josiah wished he would stop talking. Or die. Dying was good too. Or just staying dead was even better.

"I will fix it. I can guarantee that," Calum murmured. Almost inaudibly, he added, "And she will be by my side when I do."

now sleep

He had enough time to realize this was very bad and barely react to grab from something before the splitting pain and the dark magic ripped his world apart and into cold, numbing darkness.

And when the man opened his eyes in one of the coliseum's spare rooms, there was a glint there that did not belong to Josiah at all.