Call Out Meme: Version 5.0

[oathshackledbird]

Edit: Closing this one out for now. Please put all new threads here! Thanks!
Fifth verse same as the first... It's new 'Call Me Out" Time!




【the ❝CALL ME OUT❞ meme】 V
a roleplay meme to inspire muses.

♛ refer to the list above for active muses. ♛ post "calling" one of them out — you can do so by putting their name journal in the subject line! (I have too many Lancers to just go by name! X.x ) ♛ can be informal/formal/comment spam/crosscanon/explicit/whatever tickles your fancy! ♛ feel free to make up a scenario at the start, or wait to see where things go. meme code.

Comments

[oathshackledbird]

"But you... Do you want me to go away?" Diarmuid sits back from her slightly, hands coming up to rub at his face as if doing so might help him better understand what she is saying. "Don't you... Wait a minute, what do you mean your 'mistake?'" His hands drop again, and he gives her a concerned look. "What aren't you telling me? Please, just say it! There is too much I don't know, don't understand. Why are you a Servant? You should have lived the rest of your life peacefully with the children! What happened?"

[athousandcurses]

Grainne shakes her head and stands up, moving away from him. To put distance between them, and to keep Mac from growing bored enough to decide to slime her again. "You really don't know anything that happened after you died, do you?"

She doesn't want to answer those questions, and wonders if that promise not to run still is in effect now that he's told her his news. "Answering those things will only bring you pain. You've changed so much, and it's only been a short time since you found me. Please, for your own sake, just put everything behind you and make a better future."

[oathshackledbird]

"Answering those things will only bring you pain..." After being silent for several moments, Diarmuid finally breaks the silence by repeating her words. His voice is calm, dark, and sharply angry, the emotion in his eyes as intense as his voice is calm. The sudden change in his owner's attitude causes Mac an Chuill to whine uneasily from where he he had laid down next to Diarmuid while he and Grainne were talking.

"I will not deny that I have changed, but if you think I have become so weak that I need my truths filtered to me through a layer of cotton, you are sadly mistaken!" Diarmuid's fist strikes the ground near Mac an Chuill causing the dog to jump, though, before the hound has even finished the action, Diarmuid is on his feet pacing away from Grainne trying to get his anger under control.

He hates it...hates it when people keep information from him because they think he cannot handle it, that he will break like glass if he is told. Yes, Diarmuid has been fighting a lot, but he is still a warrior. He will not give and will not crumble. That at least has not changed and will never change about him.

"Tell me!" The words are just short of an order, "Tell me now."

[athousandcurses]

Grainne turns then, looking at him with some fear. The last time he had gotten so angry... Taking a deep breath, she starts, trying not to shake. "The children went to be fostered and learn the ways of war at my bidding, and they wanted to make war on Fionn. Only later I realized they would be fighting against the Fianna, who only got more powerful over the years. Fionn came to the house, and would not stop no matter what I said. He kept on until I was afraid he would do something... drastic. And all after I lost you and the baby!" The memories were faded, but she tries her best to remember, to remember how the people and times were. "I know you will never forgive me for what I had to do... but please understand, it was the best thing I could think of at the time. I married Fionn and forced him to make peace with the children, so they would not risk their lives. They took your place in the Fianna, and did well."

Pausing, her head fell, looking at the grass and flowers near her feet. This next part is so hard for her. Nothing but one bad thing after another, and even those actions had led to tragedy. "Fionn got worse as the years passed. The Fianna became tyrants, demanding ridiculous tributes and riding with arrogance. Fionn went so far to demand first night with a girl he had no business with, and that led to one thing after another. I-- I'm not too sure of the details, and the legends differ. It... ended in what they now call the Battle of Gabhra, and everyone but Fionn, Oisin and Caoilte died. Donnchad, Eochaid, and Connla..."

[oathshackledbird]

"You...lost the baby?" For some reason, out of all she tells him, that sticks the most and drains him of his anger. Diarmuid had realized his fate the day of the hunt and hadn't feared it, and while hearing the boys were gone saddens him like nothing else, if they died as warriors, bravely in battle--even if the battle had been caused by a fool--what more could they have asked for? It was surely a better death than bleeding out on a hillside during a hunt...

But the babe...the babe was innocent. He had not even come to the world yet. Why? And to pursue her again so soon after so much loss. Had Fionn truly lost his mind in the end?

And why had Diarmuid been so foolish to hope that his death might bring things to some kind of end?

It happens in the blink of an eye. One moment he is standing with his back to her, the next he is holding her as tightly as he can without hurting her.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I thought..." Diarmuid's voice begins shaking and he cuts himself of, forcing the emotions back. He wants to ask of their other two children, but is afraid. Had Selbsercach gone too despite not being as much a warrior as his brothers? And what of Druime who was as fierce and brave as her brothers? Had she died as well?

[athousandcurses]

If it's possible for Grainne's face to go any paler than it already has, it certainly tries as she actually does start shaking in his hold. Weakly, she tries to pull away, knowing full well she's no match for his strength if he refused to let go. "N-no... Please, I've told you..." Desperation to get away could too easily develop into panic, too confused by sudden changes to keep up; she defaulted to a desire for space not just as a comfort thing, but to keep unpleasant memories at bay. The fate of their other children is the last thing on her mind.

[oathshackledbird]

The shaking would have been enough itself to get him to let her go, but when Diarmuid hears the desperation in her voice not only does he let her go, he pulls away almost as if he has been struck. Confusion and worry fill his face, with just a tinge of sadness hiding in his eyes.

Did she think he was going to hurt her? Of course, after that anger and admission that he has changed, perhaps he shouldn't be surprised. Still, it hurts. Deep in his heart, the idea she is actually afraid of him hurts Diarmuid a great deal.

"What? What is it?" He fears she has worse news for him and he is convinced now, right or wrong, the rest of their child must have died, if not in that battle, then in some other way before her death. "What hell did I leave you in?"

[athousandcurses]

Putting several feet between them, Grainne looks up at him, confused. The feeling of impending panic recedes, but her confusion only grew. Still, she takes a deep breath and tries to gather her wits together.

There's still more to tell him, isn't there? "What... hell?" Is he asking her about her life after he died? She shakes her head, and tries to find something else to turn this, well, whatever it was, because it certainly isn't a conversation. "I'm not..."

No, she's stronger than this. Forcing herself to calm, she straightens up and looks at him, hands at her sides and fisted in determination. "That isn't everything. Fionn died shortly after that. He took Oscar's death so hard, and... he realized what exactly he had done, but it was already too late. Oisin disappeared, and the rumor is that a lady of the Sidhe took him with her. I had already left by then... so I'm uncertain." Now that she's going again, it's easier this time. "Selbsercach and Druime inherited everything and last I heard of them, they both married and had children. That is all I know of them."

Nothing about her or her own life, or her reasons for being here like this now. She's the last one to deny he had a right to know what happened to their friends and family, but they are supposed to be making a clean break. Her life was of little consequence to anything happening now. "Please let me go now."

[oathshackledbird]

Though it is only a few feet, Diarmuid feels like there are millions of miles between them. Or, perhaps, it would be more accurate to say thousands of years and one important stay in a horrible tower. They have both changed so much since they last knew each other that he isn't sure anymore how to react. She seems upset to see him as he is now, but he has worked so hard to get back here...

...and adding all this news on top is not helping. Oscar had died, probably at the same battle as his sons, but Selbsercach and Druime lived to have normal lives and families...

Diarmuid has so many more questions, but it is obvious she is in pain. He'd asked her not to run, but now...maybe space is for the best. To give them both time to calm and to process.

"Please...be careful. This place is dangerous even when it doesn't look it. I will find you so we can talk more later..." Might she try to avoid him? Diarmuid is sure she will from the look on her face, but if she doesn't remember now, she will remember later. He doesn't give up and he's not going to give up on understanding this.

He orders Mac an Chuill to sit and stay just in case the hound tries to follow her and then motions toward the exit of the floor, "Go...and be as well as you can be in this place. I am in room 2-16 if you need to find me."

[athousandcurses]

"Be... be well, my knight." A flash of gratefulness, and then Grainne disappears, shifting to spirit form and heading to the stairs. She needs time to think, and get over the shock of seeing him. Like a fool, she had acted and reacted in all the wrong ways, hurt him and upset him. The time will help, let her heal and decide how to handle things without being blindsided by so many emotions.

[oathshackledbird]

For the longest time, Diarmuid just stands there after she vanishes. He makes sure she is long gone though normal senses, through his enhanced senses, and finally by looking at the poor confused hound at his side. Mac an Chuill doesn't understand at all why things have gone like they have and Diarmuid really doesn't either. Maybe once his mind clears and he is able to start accepting some of what he has been told, but at the moment understanding is lost in the crush of emotions rushing over him. Too much. Too much.

He sinks to his knees. In the end, Mac an Chuill moving to his side is the only thing that keeps him from completely collapsing to the grass and curling into a ball. Diarmuid's arms wrap around Mac an Chuill, and he buries his face in the hound's wiry fur. After that, muffled sobs are the only sounds that fill the Meadow for a long time as Diarmuid mourns all that was...

...and all that never was.