Darcelia 1x1 {meadow. & Teekl}

[Teekl]

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This roleplay is a spinoff of
The Queen's Court.

The Queen's Court (c) Teekl
Darcy von Eckhardt (c) Teekl
Cordelia (c) meadow.

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--1x1 between meadow. and Teekl
Lurk and stalk as you please but don't post.

warning: angst, emo, sad, woe,
anguish, drama

...aesthetic
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--

[Teekl]

𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓬𝔂
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This was the moment of truth.

After months--years even--of meticulous planning, of endless tweaking, of careful execution, all of his dreams were finally coming to fruition. He had done it. Perhaps he had crossed a few lines in the process, true, but in this case, he felt quite strongly that the ends justified the means. It was a morally grey area that he would worry about when he met his maker. For the time being, he was the maker.

He stepped forward, slowly, and ran the back of his hand across her cheek. Lying there on the metal table, brown locks strewn about her head like a halo, she looked so serene. He wished he could preserve this image, keep it fresh in his mind forever.

She was his creation. His masterpiece. If ever he had had a success, this was it. And gently, carefully, he leaned down until his lips were nearly level with her ear.

"Wake up," he whispered, the trace of a smile laced throughout his voice. As the scientist stood straight again, he noted the restraints on her wrists and ankles, and briefly wrestled with himself. Beforehand, he had determined not to release her until he was convinced she was not hostile. But now, looking at her, he couldn't fathom her first memory, her first sensation, being that of metal restraints. He hesitated for a few beats, before he finally succumbed and began to undo the cuffs.

When he had finished, he stood still and gazed at her through hazel orbs, waiting with baited breath for any sign of consciousness.

[meadow.]

CORDELIA!! but she doesn't know that yet

The creature woke with a gasp. She was shaking all over, and everything ached so terribly—

Her first urge was to scream, but even her vocal chords hurt. She clapped her hands over her mouth as she sat straight up. Her fingers were numb, her legs too, but slowly as she gained feeling she began to calm down.

The pain slowly eased as she took deep, slow breaths. She lowered her hands from her face and took a good look around for the first time. There was a boy, staring at her. Why was he looking at her like that? She met his eyes for a minute, then looked away.

She tried to stand up, use her legs, but just sitting upright for this long had made her weak and dizzy. She laid down again and covered her eyes. The light above her was so bright, it was almost blinding. Her muscles twitched and ached, and the creature couldn't help but feel that something was wrong, something about this picture just didn't fit or make sense. Of course, she had only instinct to tell her otherwise.

[Teekl]

𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓬𝔂
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Darcy took in every movement, every twitch, every spark of life, organizing them and cataloguing them in his brain to be documented later; but he couldn't deny that a part of his attentiveness, even if it was only a sliver, was motivated by the sheer excitement and delight at what he had done. Such a momentous occasion warranted all the tension in his muscles, the sparkle in his eye. He could not help but lean forward, just a little, when the creature gasped, and drew in her first breath of air.

Incredible. The word echoed over and over again in his head, until he felt that he had to say it aloud.

"Incredible." He made eye-contact with her, one creature gazing into the eyes of another, but she broke away, and he redirected his eyes towards the rest of her. For a moment, she looked as though she wanted to get up, but couldn't. The sight stabbed at his heart.

"Careful," he started to say, but she was lying back down again, covering her eyes. He quirked a brow and glanced up to find the source of the problem, the bright lights he had installed in his lab. The electric bulbs made it much easier for the scientist to work late into the night, but he hadn't considered that it might be an overwhelming sight to his creation. Cautiously, he approached her, stepped forward until he was mere inches from her, and slid his hand under her back to help her sit up.

Her mannerisms gave him the impression that she was scared, and reflexively, he found himself saying "It's okay." Even if she didn't understand the meaning of the words right away, he at least hoped that she would pick up on his tone and realize that he wasn't a threat.

[meadow.]

CORDELIA!! but she doesn't know that yet

The creature's eyes went wide at the feeling of another's touch, but there was something strangely familiar about the scientists hands. He coaxed her into sitting upright.

"It's okay," He told her. The girl had a feeling resembling recognition of the words' meaning, but she wasn't quite there yet. It was the feeling of being on the verge of epiphany, though there was a piece to the puzzle still missing...

She let out a huff of frustration, rubbing her eyes like a child who'd been crying for hours. She tried to let him know that she understood, she tried to nod her head, but the movement was awkward and clunky and might not have been seen as head nodding at all. Of course this just added to her mounting frustration. She just wanted to tell him how she felt, but it was all so overwhelming and she couldn't seem to figure out communicating with him. It was just so hard and she felt like it shouldn't be. She shouted out in anger and slammed her hands down against the table beneath her, causing a loud sound that frightened her into pulling her hands back to her chest.

"Yikes," she said, looking at him with wide eyes. She pressed one fist against her sternum and placed her other hand over it. She felt overwhelmingly apprehensive about her new surroundings, between the loud sounds and the bright lights and the business of the cluttered tables and open drawers. However, she felt no animosity toward the rooms other, taller inhabitant. As far as she knew, he was the only other person that existed. She thought that might be alright.

[Teekl]

𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓬𝔂
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Darcy resisted, with difficulty, the urge to step back when the creature slammed her hands against the table. Fear was contagious. He didn't want her to catch any of his.

"Yikes," she said, and he quirked a brow. Speech (sort of...) after only a few minutes? Did that mean she understood?

If he was reading her correctly, she was angry... no, not angry. Frustrated. He wanted to alleviate that.

He met her wide-eyed gaze, took in her brown irises, her pure innocence. He wondered what it was like to be so untainted, and whether he had ever been that way, once. If he had, then he didn't remember what it was like. Suddenly he was overwhelmed by a pounding urge to see the whole world through her eyes, a world that was new all over again. He wanted to explore every inch of it through her.

"Take it slowly," he advised, still supporting her back with his hand. Maybe he could help her.

Taking it at a sluggish pace so as not to alarm her, he began to move his hands until they were clasped around one of hers. He turned it over until he had her upturned palm cupped in-between his fingers.

"Look," he said. "Your hand." Gently, always searching her face for any sign of pain or discomfort in case he accidentally hurt her, he uncurled one of her fingers until it was straight. "Don't think about anything else. Just try to move your hand." Hopefully the motion would feel familiar to her. Muscle memory should take care of the rest.

He didn't show it, but his heart was racing, and his blood pounded in his head. He wasn't certain whether he was doing this correctly. It was like forging a completely new path through uncharted territory. No one had traveled this path before. How was he supposed to know if he was doing it right? What if this all went horribly wrong? Still, he tried to hold her gaze steadily, remaining impassive, remaining (outwardly) calm.

"Don't think about anything else."

[meadow.]

CORDELIA!! but she doesn't know that yet

Slowly, the creature began to calm down. His voice and demeanor made it easy, as well as his steadying hand on her back. She took a few deep breaths and her heart began to slow to what would be considered a normal rate. She watched his hand surround her own, and she relaxed into the oddly familiar touch rather than shrinking away from it.

He turned over her hand and said some words to her, most of which went in one ear and out the other without soaking in or gaining any meaning for the poor newborn.

"Your hand." She repeated, her speech a bit slurred. She couldn't figure out whether or not that meant something. She seemed to have very little difficulty with motor skills. She pointed as if she were counting on her fingers. One, two, three, four, five, slowly. Then she curled and uncurled all five. She looked up at the blonde boy in front of her, searching for some kind of praise or approval. Little did she know, this would soon become a very common theme in her life, and she would seldom find the approval she was looking for without committing a second degree murder.

The creature was vaguely but suddenly aware of a fizzing, ringing noise in her ears, that seemed to grow louder and louder. She blinked hard once, and turned her head to the side. "Hurts," she murmured, pulling her hand away from his and covering her ears. Her eyes watered in response to the earache that had ensued. "Ow, ow," she whimpered, shaking her head.

Eventually the fuzzy noise in her head became so loud she couldn't hear anything else, and black spots danced across her vision. She squeezed her eyes shut sight as the pain rolled over her in a wave. Slowly, just as it came, it faded. The creation's breathing began to stabilize, and she opened her eyes, though she refused to uncover her ears for fear that it would cause the ringing to return.

[Teekl]

𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓬𝔂
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Calm.

He felt the creature's muscles relax under his touch. She embraced his presence. It was as if she recognized him, in some strange and dreamlike way. And why shouldn't she? He had been with her all her life and beyond. He had been with her before she was born. There could be no greater familiarity.

It was a bond, and this was good.

Wasn't it?

"Your hand," she said, and his head snapped up. The delighted sparkle in his eyes was practically childish.

"Yes! That's right!" As he nodded, he inadvertently squeezed her hand in his excitement. His eyes dropped to her hand again as she flexed her fingers, and his ecstasy only mounted. "Yes! Good! Your hand." At 'your,' he pointed to her, and at 'hand' he took up her palm once more. His cheeks had lifted themselves in an unmistakable smile. In fact, he was glowing. For once in his life, he was truly and genuinely happy with a project. Little did he know that this project would later go on to kill two people, and second-degree murder would become a common theme in his life.

His ecstasy was dampened, not extinguished, by her sudden whimpering, and the apparent pain she was suffering. He knit his brows, examining her for a few moments. He couldn't properly communicate with her, or ask what was wrong, but the way she covered her ears led him to believe she might be experiencing a headache, or something like it.

With a soft rustling motion, he rose and took a few steps away from the table. At first it would appear he was outright leaving, but after a few seconds at the desk across the room, he returned with a glistening glass of water. He offered it to her, but would not let go until he was sure she had a firm grip on it. With one hand still holding the glass, he reached out with his free arm and attempted to coax her hand into his again, guiding it to the cup. "Water," he said, gazing at her earnestly. "I think you'll feel better if you drink it."

He continued to observe her, talking not because he expected her to understand in the slightest, but for the sake of getting her used to words.

"You might be feeling pain simply because you are under great stress, feeling anxiety," he explained, still relatively collected. "That can lead to your blood pressure crashing... You may want to take it easy or you'll find yourself fainting. Keep sitting there, or lie back down..." He remembered the bright lights overhead and shook his head. "On second thought... It could be something else..." A flaw in the design? He didn't say it out loud, but the possibility seemed real, and he wilted, just a little, at that thought. Nevertheless, it didn't mean the project was a failure. Naturally, he didn't expect it to turn out perfect right away. Maybe adjustments would be necessary, but nothing he wouldn't rebound from.

His one and only success would stay just that: a success.

[meadow.]

CORDELIA!! but she doesn't know that yet

The pain was mostly gone, but she still didn't uncover her ears. His voice sounded as if he were underwater, and the creature curiously uncovered, then recovered her ears. The way that motion manipulated the sound was interesting, but not as interesting as the new substance the scientist presented to her.

"Water?" She repeated, tilting her head to one side in curiosity. She took the glass from him, but she didn't really understand what he wanted her to do with it. She looked up at him for a moment, then back down at the glass. Hesitantly, she dipped her fingers into the liquid. She decided it was of no harm, and raised the glass to her lips.

It was a strange sensation, but not at all unpleasant. She immediately felt better, less shaky, cooler. Once it was empty, she handed the glass back to him. "Water," she said, pointing to the now empty glass.

As far as the girl knew there was nothing wrong with her. Of course she didn't know any better. She didn't hurt anymore. Aches and pains had come and gone in the seconds she'd been living, but at the moment she felt much better, though the fuzziness in her ears was still in the process of clearing up. Had she been able to know or understand what he was thinking, the idea that he anticipated any flaw in her design would have made her so sad. Even though she'd known him for mere minutes, she wanted nothing but to be good enough for him, to make him proud.

[Teekl]

𝓭𝓪𝓻𝓬𝔂
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Darcy watched, more curious than anything, as the creature lifted her palms from her ears, then covered them again, and then at last accepted the delicate tumbler from his hand. He hoped she wouldn't drop it. The last thing he needed was for loud shattering glass to startle and possibly cut her. But all in all it seemed to go over quite well. After a few moments of literally testing the waters, the creature downed the drink and promptly returned the glass to his waiting hand.

"Water," she repeated back to him, and another smile crept onto his face, the contagious kind that just flowers of its own free will, the kind of smile that happens when you see a baby laughing. Because, in a sense, she was very much like a baby, if a very fast-learning one. The way she didn't quite understand things yet, the way she approached this new world, was... well... adorable, for lack of a better word.

Now that she seemed to no longer be in pain, Darcy assumed it was safe to go on, introducing her bit by bit to existence.

"Do you think," he asked slowly, stepping back a few paces, "that you can stand?" He leveled his gaze with hers, trying to convey that she could trust him, that he only wanted the best for her. "If you can't," he went on patiently, "I will catch you." He set the glass back down on the nearest table. "And you can sit down again."