(Petelgeuse) Peter (1)
Fresh raindrops fell on warm skin. His outstretched hand stopped just shy from pushing the cast iron gates. Pitter-patter was the rhythm of drops over plated armor. Cloth rustled and a cold grasp held his wrist.
Subaru stared down his self-minted guardian. A light smile tugged at his lips for the dour man's concern.
"Getting cold feet?" Subaru asked impishly.
The wiser of the two retorted. "Getting too cocky?"
"Oh c'mon, Gil" rolling his eyes, Subaru maintained his gentle tone. He realized in the past months how much more impactful a calm attitude meant. But he wouldn't admit that to his hardass teacher now. "If you trust me, then you can also trust Peter."
The old man's green hair slumped under the freezing drizzle. "The issue exactly." He seemed unbothered.
"Man of few words tonight?" Subaru dropped his hand, releasing it from Marcos' grasp. Tugging on the thin coat around his shoulders, Subaru turned to regard the captain of far-off-lands. "Playing it too safe now is more dangerous than good. 'Don't do that/Don't go there/Sit here'? What good am I if you don't let me do anything? You're not giving me much to work with."
"As neither are you." Steadfast.
"And that can be solved if you'd open up to me some." The boy kneaded his hands and blew over his fingers. The early winter chill turned the little exhaled warmth in mist. "...great. Now cold and wet…" He blinked away the inconvenience. "So?" and turned back to observe his 'ally'.
"Depends on you." Hardass.
Right. Never got off first base of communication with the guy. Not that I haven't tried, but I feel there's just about so much a highschool schmuck like me can do to get through a-... I think captain(?) he said? Yeah. Obviously there's some distance here I'm not covering. But results should speak for themselves and I can bet it's the only way to get through his boulder dome. If he'd let me even work out the results that is!
"Well?" Subaru nestled his alabaster fingers in the crooks of his armpits. His feet slowly bounced from heel to heel. "Got anything on the complaints list for me? Preferably to name before my soul freezes first?"
"Everything." Grumpy too.
"If all this is about the abbot, then I told you already. Pete' knew on point how to deal with the freaks pouring out in the city. Freaks from your world, by the way. So he sure as hell gotta know what to do against the Greed incel."
"The Greed Sin Archbishop." Completed Marcos for the titulature indifferent boy.
"Yeah-yeah!" Subaru gulped down his breath, shivering under his hasty getup of indoor clothes and simple jacket. "You want him dealt with like the rest, no? Because they're monsters."
"Correct." Gildark's armor scraped, plates sliding in their slants once he took a step.
A kingdom's rock barred the abbey's gate.
Captain Marcos stood in Subaru's way.
The boy felt tense. And not from the drizzling sleet. His voice came out tinted with doubt. "And we agreed to get some info on dealing with the white haired dickhead. So you can punt him six feet under."
"Not my exact words." Maros didn't grimace a muscle beyond the minimum required for speaking. "…Correct."
Subaru gulped in dry. "So we both agree." he tried to scoot around Marcos.
"Yes."
And though Subaru stretched a hand again to push against the cast iron fence, the gates would not budge. A cursory glance at Marcos' palm, firmly clenching on the intersecting gates, explained it.
"Scared to enter hallowed ground?" Subaru tried laughing. But felt so pressured he only mustered a hoarse giggle. An awkward silence deafened his words. "Unless you didn't turn from captain to some cheap Hollywood demon, you should be fine. Uh… C-could you, ya know? Could ya scoot? You're of the larger size and I can't squeeze by."
"This Peter you've kept contacting…" Marcos began, the heavy and bulky armor he wore strained under his flexed back. "Why here? Why so readily trust him?"
"For one: beee~cause I'm pretty sure he believes in some higher force? Sounds European with that name and spiel he's got. But if you're asking specifics about it, heh, you're asking the wrong guy here. All I know is this place checks out for the background. Some Portuguese came around and built it a long-ass time ago? And I think Pete' squats here because of that."
*Rattle*
The gates groaned under Marcos' sudden jerking.
"Do not dance around the subject!" The stern man hissed in a subdued voice. He looked awfully large to the boy, and awfully pissed. "Why trust him?" His tone demanded answers. "You know what I mean; what I always mean; but choose to play dumb."
"Did you ever consider I really am dumb?" Subaru tried to disarm the tension with a smile and banter. A piss poor attempt.
"You keep proving to be in passing days." Marcos harrumphed and let go of the entrance. Only to exchange his grip on the now choked guffaw of victory Subaru bit in his throat. The burly man manhandled the boy with all the respect angry parents showed when dragging their spawns from school.
"Who-wow-wait! What're you doing!?" Feeling his shoes glide over the slippery cubic stone, Subaru used his free arm to slap at the leading figure. "Peter's the other way, metalhead! If we go back now then we won't get to stomp Regina's ass!"
"–Regulus."
"WHATEVER! He's too forgettable! Let me go, Marcos!" Pulling against the mountain face that was Gildark proved as useful as imagined.
"–" Marcos kept silent.
"I said let go! Marcos, we're losing time this way! Greed's going berserk in the city and you're not helping!"
"And you would?!" harsh. Cutting. It was rare for the old man to raise his voice in shouting. Rarer for him to be mad with the kid.
"More than you with keeping me in the dark!" Struggling one last time, Subaru snagged his arm free. Though he doubted it was due to his strength. "You don't like Peter, fine, I get it." Marcos retracted his hand. His fingers held like rigor mortis were wrapped around empty air.
Great! Now he's probably more angry! Fucking sweet. Fucking damn it, Gil! Screw it, I can't waste time anymore. With or without Gil', I need to learn from Peter about the Greed bishop. Maybe after that I can get a hold of Marcos and get him to listen. I'll take his boring lessons in piles later if it means we get this over with.
"That thing isn't who you think, boy." Marcos grumbled with a gurgling tone.
But Subaru already turned his back. His shoes squeaked over the wet cubic stone. His trailing breath faded after him.
Marcos squeezed his teeth. A pop sounded from his jaw. A corner of his nose pulled up along with a cheek. "You pursue a dead end, Subaru!"
Marcos uncharacteristically stuttered forward.
The boy pushed past the rusted gates, cast iron hinges groaning in his wake.
"Listen to me!" Marcos yelled after him. His hand reached out with hesitation towards nothing. This wasn't like himself. And he knew. He realized. Like all the things that weren't like him for so long. Like his station. Like his title.
"Subaru!" Gildark could respect someone's decision. That is what his code taught. He couldn't force someone into coercion; not an innocent; not a kid.
But it was exactly this that rubbed him the wrong way. Something he shouldn't have possessed in so many years. A station he willingly renounced. An identity he walked away from and step into a dream of ages. Only after years to wake in a strange new world, confused and uncertain.
Cheated.
Tricked out of free will.
Coerced by something else into a purpose he denied.
"...kid. Be careful."
Marcos, doubtful of what he was meant to do, of what he ever did - stood in silence outside the looming abbey.
Suddenly. Bells tolled in the cold night.
The pews laid bare that night. He gripped tighter the leather covered tome in his fingers. It took some time to carefully consider what pages he should ponder on. He was used to obsessively recite 'sacred texts' by heart, but recently he found himself struggling to read a word. He liked to hide behind the pretext of language barriers. A nifty concept he was sure to latch onto as soon as Subaru taught it to him. It was too much of a shame though how that excuse flew out the window with the passing months.
The pages swept like bladed edges. His skin wrinkled at their touch from trepidation. He clung to the same old life. The same old habits. The same old… the same. Just with a different mask.
He should say.
But no. He couldn't. All because of jealousy. And cowardice. And unwillingness.
"Why is it only now… you show me a life so different…?" His cracked lips trembled a question to the silent altar. Silence and candlelight met his question.
The dry pages dispassionately stopped at random. No guiding presence in their movement to cease above the perfect passage. Nothing like the stars above and their predicting cycles. Nothing like the unseen mana intelligently revealing his 'answers'. He met nothing but uncaring silence. Something greatly more damaging than any condemning response.
An indifferent treatment to someone so slothful.
No readily given solution. No beckoning explanation. No predetermined answer. No nothing. Just a silent treatment forcing him to action. And every stumbling step taken lead to damning himself.
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going."
His throat felt raw and stiff. Looking over the shoulder assured him of his intimacy. No hovering platinum anywhere around.
Wasn't it cruel how conviction in this world degraded him. He thought it was punishment. "Still wrong…" he knew it was punishment.
"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much."
His narrow mind seemed amusing in retrospect. Petelgeuse had time to reflect over himself ever since arriving to these strange shores. He certainly was the most dedicated of all the Sin Archbishops to ever exist, there wasn't a doubt about that, but to go so far as he did was… well, he wasn't sure there existed a word to completely sum his insanity. Regrettably, he was personally indebted to the vile witch, to a degree which demanded his servitude, it being offered willingly or not. He was a spirit, it is his nature. Though the bonds of servitude already chained him deeper than any nature could. His deeds proved everything.
But that could all change in this life. This strange new life away from the great Od and away from the terrible Witch. Petelgeuse would see to the end of his fellow Archbishops, see that their corrupting elements are shattered, reach the culmination of all the gathered Witch factors, and hold that misery again in his hands.
The life he wasted then in Ellior when holding in his palms the same 'thing' he now planned towards… overlapped with the future he imagined.
"What will I do then…?" Petelgeuse's voice bounced off the stone walls inside like meek whispers. The candlelight trembled at random. The dark inside was deep and impenetrable. The cold found purchase in his bones the same way it did that day with Fortuna.
Funny. All this struggle away from the past and Petelegeuse found himself longing for the moment schemed at hand. He wanted to be there when each of his 'comrades' breathed their last. To see how each one lost their passion and mad light from their eyes. Leaving him for last… He truly learned nothing and changed nothing.
But it would be alright. He had hope. Hope in the form of a reckless, naive but goodhearted kid. Subaru, for as clueless as he was to the larger picture, would understand what was necessary. He would have it no other way. Yes. He would do everything to see the boy overcome the dogs the Sin Archbishops were. Himself kept for last.
Abhorrent. Indeed, Petelgeuse knew that. Rebelling against the will of the Witch… For a spirit as him to plan on oath breaking and readily after chase redemption by designed plan was – utterly horrible; antithetical. It was to go against himself and everything he ever knew. But it was alright, the boy, Subaru, would see that too. If anything, this should help clue Natsuki on what to do. Surely after realizing the circumstances the boy would turn to hate him. And in tow with him was that brute tower of the kingdom, captain Marcos Gildark.
*squeak*
The peeling wood of the pews creaked under him. A subtle shift of weight and the hollow dark interior echoed with the itchy noise.
Petelgeuse looked towards the altar and pulpit. His muddy eyes searched for anything in the dark. His head pounded with a deluge of haunting thoughts. And a fear deep inside him nestled.
His fingers hovered over the skimmed pages. It just didn't feel the same. That old trick was dead and gone now. But it didn't mean anything bad, quite the opposite. That was obvious.
He stopped right at the well used bookmark, the noise of rushing pages gradually faded. No ominous feeling of a knowing presence poured from the script these days.
He was glad.
And sad that it happened this late in his life.
"..." Petelgeuse wet his lips and gulped down the soreness in his throat. He murmured in a meek voice how he heard repeated from others in this strange land. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day."
He paused to look around. His eyes blinked furiously and trepidation nearly forced him to bellow in fear. But she was nowhere around. Petelgeuse continued.
"For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen."
His breath hitched. From his back a weight uncoiled. A weight so terrible that it was invisible.
"For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
And nothing happened.
The weight over his shoulders faded; silence yet reigned undisturbed; the candles burned away with the same dim light; and the early winter chill enveloped him as earlier.
"When would've I expected silence to be so punishing?" Mumbled the man to himself, supporting his back in the pew. "Why did I go so wrong?" He directly spoke to his unreachable past.
"Peter? It's an emergency! Time's wasting and I gotta get back to Marcos with something on beating the white-haired rat face."
Petelgeuse turned to the entrance, from where night city light and a boy's voice broke the calm sanctum. It was a disheveled brat, as if plucked from bed, calling out loud enough to wake the dead. Though there was something endearing about his rude character. Certainly, no wayward punk would even attempt to seek for him. Or, at least no one should.
"I can't really call it a good evening, but hy, Pete'!" Subaru rushed past the wide open doors, the sleet and light behind him framing quite the dramatic shot. "Please tell me there's something in your bag of tricks for another bishop freak."
"Of course," he nodded slowly, putting the book down on the pew beside him. "Now calm yourself, and recall everything you know about the enemy. Don't overlook the essential details. Who is it?"
Subaru smacked a hand to his chest, holding it there and clenching. His haggard breaths steadied. A shiver ran down from his crown to his feet. And, like on autopilot, moved in the pew in front of Petelgeuse. Leaning with his hands against the backrest, Subaru spoke while holding the spirit's gaze. "White hair; stark white. Long robes, torn at the rims, but the rest immaculate, impossibly so, probably a clean-freak. Thin, about average height. Ugly as all fuck, so kind of like the rest bastards. Oh, and he speaks for so goddamn long! I swear, if he doesn't shut–"
"Aaaand, that last part described everything needed to know, nothing else needed." Petelgeuse closed his eyes and lowered his head to hide a bitter smirk. Looking back at Subaru he impishly continued. "For future reference, always start with the trait they annoy you the most with. Really now~ Guess I expected too much from them to keep quiet or cover their identity."
"You sound pissed with this one in particular." Subaru hopped with his knees on the pew before Petelgeuse. "Got history with him?"
The man's face soured and sighed. "Even if I'd try to hide the bad blood, it still spills. Yes." The unnaturally young face of 'Peter' gazed back at Subaru. "You wouldn't be wrong to say I carry a vendetta against him."
"Can't blame you," the boy readily agreed, his face puffed and snarling. "That dickhead just leveled a block for no reason and kept blaming every bystander around. If not for Marcos, he would've kept killing for no reason. …not like now he's cooled off."
"Regulus," Petelgeuse popped his jaw without flinching, his eyes empty. "Is a tough creature to deal with. You can't reason with him and you can't harm him. Truly, a vile thing."
Subaru clenched the pew's rim. It was a novelty to see and hear Pete' so thoroughly averse of someone. Yet Subaru could understand this little, he hardly could see Regulus, or any Sin Archbishop, as a human.
"And to hear his 'prized' clothes were damaged? Hmh. If not an emergency, I would savor mocking him. But," Petelgeuse rubbed his cheek. "It surely proves he's been around this place for a while now. Likely crawling under a sewer or in a hole until he restored his power."
Subaru perked at that. "Now that you mentioned it… beside him not getting hurt, his clothes didn't tear either. Don't get me wrong, I'm not into that type of action! But neither does it make a lot of sense when Marcos steamrolls you through tons of concrete and your trinkets are all industrial-cleaning-service-perfect."
"Yes indeed. Greed's power lets him maintain invulnerability, both over himself and anything he deems worthy of it. Magic? Brute force? Any combination in a contraption? Useless against him." Peter replied. "But of course that is under conditions. It isn't a free boon."
"How did you figure him out?"
This was the part Petelgeuse had to censor out of his explanation. Like many other times. A repeating event which worried him. Worried him because it became increasingly easier to execute. Yet he could do nothing else. He didn't reveal the boy, or anyone, his true name, much less his exact past. It was not the time.
Yet.
Slouching forward and resting his chin over folded hands, Petelgeuse mused in passing over his youthful appearance. 'How treacherous. To be brought here as if after a bad dream.' His green ponytail slipped past his shoulder. Mindlessly he twirled the green locks in his fingers.
"Greed likely arrived here stripped of much power. Probably better off than a simple man at that time, true. But nowhere near the threat he is now if Marcos couldn't deal with him. Something obvious if his belongings were compromised." The spirit under flesh closed his eyes and flicked the hair he twirled. Last time he remembered doing this was in days he now had no right to even remember. "Now it just means he stockpiled hostages somewhere far off from his path of destruction. It's how he operates."
"With hostages?" Subaru raised a brow as if he were a cartoon. "I think I understood after a while that these guys are unreasonable. Both in character and abilities. But what does this mean?"
"It means he needs innocents in order to get stronger. We're talking about Regulus, so even in a different world I doubt he'd change himself. Rotten as always. Thus meaning he absconded a number of women, beautiful ones if he had any say," he really sounded bitter about this guy, "and trapped them somewhere where he deigned 'secure' and now stalks around."
"He stalks around? Possessive? Kidnaps women? Wh-what, he thinks himself a mythological lion?" Subaru scoured the floor with his concerned eyes.
"Hah!" Peter snorted with a cynic smile. "He wishes." Breathing in deep, the tall and slim man pushed himself off the pew. His footsteps blared in the cavernous space as a silence hung over their heads.
Peter folded his hands behind his back, his eyes still empty, stared outside through the open doors. "The details would be meaningless if what you stressed about time is right, Subaru."
"Yeah… the shoreside got really wrecked by that guy's – whatever – it was. He just swiped a hand and threw dirt. Despite the chaos he made I'm not sure he's called it quits tonight. Even after putting some distance between us. Not when he casually kil-murdered people around."
Petelgeuse let that barb sting for a long moment. "Back in my home, upon the sands of Augria, at world's end, there are still carried the cries of millions wiped by a power no different to Regulus. And they all call for one thing only."
"Meaning…?" Subaru joined Pete's side, watching him for any response.
"Meaning we only need the essentials. Only the precise desire matters. The rest will follow. Now tell me," Peter turned his dour face to Subaru, a visage haunted dry of any trait the boy memorized him for. The meek, reclusive but understanding man looked dead. "What ails you? What about Regulus, is it you want? Precisely."
Natsuki placed a hand on the wooden divider, lost for conviction for a moment. When it rained, it poured. And tonight, Subaru had to survive a hurricane.
"Marcos… warned me of something I'm walking towards that I'll regret. Not for the first time either. Today… today I'm afraid he was right. Because I can't keep on joking away what I saw that monster do in the city…" Subaru struggled to find his words and lost much of his attitude. He felt cold beyond just the physical terms. "I've kept depending on Marcos, luck, and you, Peter." His lips trembled, staggering to shape his words and Petelgeuse flinched at hearing his fake name. "I can't even force myself to understand you two. You and Marcos… are from somewhere so far away that it doesn't make any sense. And I can't even begin to start on the bishop freaks!" At the end Natsuki thundered with fear.
How astounding, felt Subaru. To be so firm from fearing so deeply.
He looked carefully in the stern face of his trusted friend. Subaru breathed and blinked away the stress. "But if anything useful from you or Marcos stuck with me? …Is I – need to do anything I can. I don't want my mom… my dad… to know what I know. I don't want them in danger. I don't want anyone at all dragged in this." He spoke softly.
Peter let the boy have that rest, waiting for him to finish, after which Subaru stepped closer to outside, eyes clear and sure. In them reflected the rising smoke from fallen buildings, rushing sirens, skyscraper lights and suburban plains.
"I need your guidance, Peter. I can't win without insight against those freaks."
Petelgeuse stared at him, and Subaru seemed to refuse to convey any kind of surrender at his discouraging odds. Pete' knew he became aware of the unsaid truths behind his proverbial encouragement.
'Such conviction' pondered the man from over the waterfall's fantasy world. Though it all played towards the greater end goal, and as such Petelgeuse felt reasonably at ease.
"If that is all you require?" the spirit asked. "For better or for worse, nothing in our pact has changed then." Petelgeuse smiled wryly, his face strangely mixed between appreciation and expectant dismay. "Vexing. But awfully like you to make no progress from a set point."
"Wow!" The good in that exchange resulted in Subaru cracking a more honest smile. "Low blow from you, of all people. I expected that type of treatment from Gildark, not from the humble Pete'."
"...hm~h. You assume much of me with that joke." Geuse' face turned downwards, some sleet flakes whirled about enough to stain his features, freezing over his skin instead of melting like it would on bare stone. "Assumptions I would much prefer to the truth."
Subaru sneaked a side glance to the man in cassock, his mien pulled in an unreadable likeness. "Aren't they true though? Even if I'm joking, I can't be that off from the truth." Subaru's confusion sounded crystal clear.
"Unfortunately, you are."
"Marcos kept pestering me about this. About who you are. Even though he can't recognize you from your true world as anything dangerous. He still goes on about it." Subaru cluelessly kept his airy pout towards the man. "But nothing between you sounds like bad history. Nothing like with the monsters we keep fighting, at least."
"Ah. The captain did his best to look out for you. To be in his position, you can't do so without being ever vigilant. Please don't turn away his advice. He has all the right to be suspicious." Petelgeuse held a pensive look when bringing a hand to rub his chin. Stubble. He needed a shave.
'How long has it been since I looked in a mirror?' The spirit of another realm thought. 'Yet Subaru, Sir. Gildark or any other citizen here hadn't been struck mortified after seeing me. I can only assume I… have my face back. Or as much as it could be… mine.'
"There's a lot you haven't dealt with yet, is it, Pete'?"
There he went again. Subaru, using his fake name in such a carefree and friendly manner. Dangerously attached to someone so dangerous. Petelgeuse felt like laughing. Burst out in a fit of choking guffaws with a burning itch compelling him to do so. His scalp burnt just by thinking about it. His nails heated up from anticipating the blood below his skin. His brain…
His brain…
There was so much on it. Subaru perhaps didn't know, or maybe knew just enough. Enough to be right on the money.
"...Yes."
"And you also know I will help you with it, don't you?"
Just knew? – he hinged everything on that. Everything.
"...Yes."
"I'm not trying to sound optimistic about it. I kind of got it from both of you. You and Marcos, I think… you made it clear enough this won't end well. I got that." Subaru spoke sincerely.
"Ah." Petelgeuse clenched his hands around another behind his back. Though posturing steadfast, he was anything but.
"So: let's just do our best to get as far as we can. And deal with what bothers us at a time?" Natsuki gingerly took the first steps outside the abbey. Freezing rain crushed itself against his skin. "For now, tell me – what do I do against Greed?"
Petelgeuse followed Subaru outside, on the stone porch. Turning smoothly, he closed the door to the sanctum behind them. The reinforced wood snapped shut in place like a goodbye from its safe confines. They were outside their sanctuary, and inside the larger cage of the prowling lion named Greed.
A set of iron keys twisted the lock. And soundlessly the chain was tucked away in Petelgeuse' cassock.
"Peter?" Subaru spoke bewildered. Ever since discovering Peter, Subaru never saw him tread beyond this land's domain. "A-are you sure? No offense, of course, I mean I'm not a fighter either but… you? Are you really sure you want to go?"
Geuse turned to Subaru with a distant gaze and empty, small, smile. The question almost made him laugh. Almost.
"To do what you have chosen, Subaru, you need time and an opportunity. The hostages I mentioned to you; you wish to save them, yes?" With a step at a time, the tall man slowly descended the stairs, causing Subaru to follow after.
"Of course! Wasn't that always our objective? Get all the bystanders out of those bastard's sights."
"And that is why you will require a hand of help. Or rather, a number of them. Something to balance out the odds against the unseen powers of Greed." Petelgeuse maintained a subdued smile and calm air as the two of them passed the entrance gate.
"Well…" Subaru looked lost before continuing. "I can't say I don't. But that sounds good on paper. Where would we even find all this help? I don't see any way this works out."
"Subaru," Peter looked to Subaru with a knowing simper. The two looming at the city's edge, along a hill's lengthy rim pilled in sleet. "Have faith in what you can't see."
Petelgeuse clenched his hands.
I'm looking to find my way with characters having a way to verbally spar in order to engage them when reading. It's a whole lot of experimenting until I strike the right balance.
So far we've been seeing characters work their way in Subaru's world, but if you have any ideas on directions to go towards, feel free to tell me. Needless to say, I do look forward to what you want to see.
Thanks for reading.
