How To Save a Life [Tock]

[Gale Austin McCenry]

60th of Summer, 512 A.V.
World's End Grotto
Midnight

As usual, a young blonde male trudged his way along the streets, heading out of his hometown to the forest nearby. Taking his time getting to his destination, the depressed artist walked with his head low, watching his feet walk separately from one another. It seemed like he can connect everything he saw with how he felt.

In this case, his feet were two halves of his heart that were no longer one. Always moving away from each other with only brief moments where they were together again, but then being taken away again. It had been a long while since Gale had felt like he was himself. Like he was one person still. It had been weeks actually. Part of him had gone down into the ground along with his wife. A part of him that was never to be returned unless fate was generous in letting him be with her once more.

He had been sitting by her grave, losing track of time. How long had he been sitting here? Maybe it was only a few chimes. Maybe a few bells. Gale wouldn't care if it was even for a few days. The grave gave him what little comfort he could hold onto in his life. But now it seemed like the visits were more of a bother and a hassle then comforting anymore. Now it was more of a chore that he had to do daily.

Sitting and looking up at the trees, Gale gazed thoughtfully between the branches above. His forearms placed on his knees which was covered by his basic, old, bedraggled pants. His white shirt seemed to bring out the sadness and loneliness in his soft blue eyes. If only fate were kind to him once more...

Even the comforting discussion he had with a man named Hadrian didn't seem to comfort him any longer. Everything started to grow dull and lose all of it's pleasure. Not even a few mugs of Kelp Bar beer couldn't drown his sorrows temporarily. His life seemed to be paused in a still picture of sadness but he can't get it to move any longer.

Gale figured he was alone in the world. No one really cared did they? Everything was just an act and he was part of some show for the Gods. Except he was the only one that was being controlled by the puppeteer of loneliness. Everyone was able to cut their strings and move on but he. He was left behind by the world to mope in his depression.

After pondering what was left to live for, Gale stood up, making a decision. Walking back with the same expression as he had when he left the city, Gale slowly made his way around the crowd and back to the World's End Grotto, in which he called his home. At least he used to. It wasn't more then dead space to him now really. He hardly spent any time there during the day. It was just gobbling down the money that he had earned.

The room didn't do much good to him these days. Except now. He would use the room one last time as a place where he can share the last moments of his dreadful life with himself. When it got late, and everyone had gone to their temporary slumber, he would join Hana in a slumber that was permanent.

Not having an appetite, Gale didn't even leave his room for food. He sat on his bed, his head turned to the side to watch as the building cast it's shadow slowly on the building next door. Watching blankly, only the depression showing in his light blue eyes, the sun fell under the horizon and the friendly moon showing it's face in the clear sky.

No longer hearing the constant motion and bustling of the streets around the Inn, Gale decided he would seize this moment as his chance.

Pushing himself off his bed and over to his window, his hands held the frame firmly. His shadow being just as long as his face was in the starlight. Looking at the ground below, Gale gripped the frame harder, his knuckles turning white. It was a long way down. A painfully long trip from where he was and finally being with his deceased wife again. No trip however could be as painful as the one he had already taken without her...

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock had had an... interesting day. She had spent most of it training her new apprentices, which had entailed climbing some tall buildings, studying a lot of architecture, and trying to learn how to be a better supervisor for them. It had also left her really pondering the meaning of her life. Lately, she had been feeling more and more lost. For a long time, she had been wandering. When she left Sunberth four years ago, she hadn't known who she was. She had made up a role for herself, that of a strong, determined woman. A woman with a goal, to build the magic city of her dreams. And while she was now actively pursuing that goal, by making her magic babies that would help her build her great city, she felt like there was something else missing. She had no family. She had few friends, and deep down she was just waiting for each one of them to abandon her. She felt out of place here in Zeltiva. She felt like she didn't belong, and like no one would accept her until she changed. Became someone else. Someone less rough, less crude, less... foreign. And the thing was, part of her wanted to change. Part of her felt like the person she was just wasn't good enough, and she could be better. Yet another part of her didn't think she should have to change. What business was it of anyone else, who she was, or how she wanted to be!? Whenever in her life people had tried to FORCE her to change, she had rebelled. She had resisted it every step of the way, stubbornly refusing to change who she was for anyone. Except now, she wanted to change for herself. She had sat on her roof for a time, staring at the buildings across from her, thinking about her place in life. Her place in the city. After awhile, she had climbed down, and started wandering the city. She needed to see things from a different perspective. See the world through someone else's eyes. As night fell, she found herself climbing up onto another roof, some house or another. She sat there for a time, looking out over the darkening city, until she got bored. Nothing about the dark buildings below was inspiring her. She gazed at the stars for a time, but the stars just made her think about Satevis, and that just put her in a foul mood. She climbed down, wandering the streets for a time, until she found a taller building, the World's End Grotto. It wasn't one of the tallest buildings in the whole city, but it was quite a landmark. It was special. Maybe it would inspire her. She worked her way up to the roof, climbing slowly, bracing her feet in outcroppings of the stone exterior, and pulling herself up by her hands a few inches at a time. Soon she hauled herself up onto the roof, noting that they needed a few shingles replaced. She'd have to talk to Jacques about that, and see if her boss wanted to ask the inn's owner about making repairs. She shifted herself towards the edge of the roof, sitting on the edge with her legs dangling over the side. She leaned back on the angled slope of the roof, folding her arms under her head, and letting out a soft sigh. She didn't even know what she wanted to see from up here, but the inn was situated atop a foothill, and thus had a high vantage point from which to look down over the city. Even though the building itself was only a few stories tall, she was able to get quite the view from up here. After she had sat there for a time, she heard a noise below her. She sat up, leaning forward, and looked down to see a man's head sticking out of the nearest window. He looked familiar, but she couldn't be sure unless he looked up at her. Uncertain quite who it was or where she knew him from, she just watched for a moment, wondering what he was doing.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale took a deep breath. He just needed to relax a bit. Everything hurts less when you relax, just not think about it. Maybe he could replace the feeling of plummeting to his death with the vision of himself flying to a better place. At least that's where he hoped to go anyway. Just to be rid of it all. Finally have the satisfaction of everything being gone. No longer tearing him apart. Even if it meant he would be still and move no longer.

Lifting a hand to brush away some hair, the young man wasn't aware of the set of eyes observing him from above. He didn't think anyone would be on the roofs at all let alone at night. So Gale mustered up all the courage that he had within him.

Closing his lonely blue eyes, Gale stood there for a moment. Two. Three. As nice as it sounded to be done with his portion of the Gods' plans, to rid of all his troubles forever, Gale thought for a moment about what he was about to do.

It was murder. Suicide was murder. Even if it was himself that he killed off, it was still murder. Gale never thought the day would come that he would make a corpse out of somebody. But he wasn't somebody. He was only half of a man. A mere shadow of what he used to be. Nothing more.

Not that anyone would miss him. He didn't have anybody. No family. Friends were nothing more then a distant memory. Much like his joyful self. The days where he was filled to the brim with happiness. The days where he couldn't ask for more. That wasn't him. He simply wore the clothes of him. He'd never be the same. He'd never feel as happy as he once was when he had a wife.

Still looking straight down, Gale watched as two tears dripped from his cheeks and fall the two story distance between him and the ground. Wiping his face with his hand, he looked at his palm and finger tips for any signs of others he had missed. Glancing back at the ground, Gale curled his slightly wet, thin fingers into a soft fist.

In one quick movement, his hand opened to grip the frame and pull him through the space in his wall. There was nothing he could do now.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

OOC : NoName, as I said in the PM I sent you, if you've read it, this is a private thread between myself and Gale. You can only openly post in threads that have an "OPEN" tag in their titles. Please review the Welcome Message that was PM'd to you when you signed up, and read the Starting Guide for more information on how to play. Then you can find some Open roleplays to join once you've gotten everything together. In the meantime, since this is a private thread, I'll be writing my post as if yours weren't there. Tock didn't know what the man was doing. Maybe he had drank too much and was feeling sick. The fresh air could be good for a sour stomach. Though she didn't hear any sounds of retching. Still, if he DID throw up, she didn't want to be around to smell it. She was about to move away, when suddenly he was pulling himself from the window. Her eyes went wide, and on instinct she pulled Grippy into her hand. The long-practiced moves of extending him were so natural to her by now that it was like using her own hand. She touched the handle to shoot the arm out, and closed his metal claw on the back of the man's shirt. Then she lurched forward, the sudden shift from halting the man's momentum threatening to pull her off the roof. She braced her feet against the eaves, trying to stop herself from falling, but the man weighed more than her and she started to fall. She slipped and went over the edge, her left hand maintaining a grip on Grippy, while her right reached back to hold on for dear life. Handy, strapped to her right wrist, mimicked her motion and grabbed the roof along with her. She hung suspended there for a moment, holding on with 'both' hands, straining to keep her grip, and looking down at the man who had foolishly just jumped out a window. She should have just let him fall... it was his own stupid life to lose, and she was no hero. She had her own problems to worry about. She quickly did the math... her grip on the second floor roof was a good thirty feet up, but dangling like this, her left hand holding Grippy was only about twenty five feet off the ground. If she extended him to his twelve foot max reach, he'd be thirteen feet off the ground. Since she was gripping his shirt near the shoulders, his feet were another five feet below that. So if she released him like that, he'd only fall eight feet. Painful, but not remotely lethal. He probably wouldn't even break a bone, though a sprain was likely. She extended Grippy as far as she could, then hit the command to release the claw. The man fell below, and Tock heaved a sigh of relief when the weight was gone from her arms. She retracted Grippy and raised him to clamp his claw on the eaves she was clinging to, and started trying to figure out how to get herself to safety now.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

It was finally going to be over. He was going to finally be able to cut the strings and just be free and not deal with anything anymore. He would finally get it over with and be with-

Gale gave a soft grunt when he suddenly stopped from someone catching him.

What the petch? Why did he suddenly stop? Who was holding onto his shirt? How did they even grab his shirt?

Gale looked up to try and see who was holding him, but lurking down again when the person slipped off the edge and grabbed the ledge again. Gale jolted when they fell again briefly since it was unexpected. Obviously it was someone smaller then him, so it probably wasn't a guy since most guys were larger then him. A girl? What was a girl doing on the roof? What was going on exactly? Gale was awfully confused at this point now, trying to get things straightened out.

Looking down, Gale jolted once again. Whoa! That was pretty high. Wait- what? A moment ago he wanted to fall into this gap. Why was he fearing for his life now? He couldn't have suddenly just changed hi-

Gale was let go and he landed with a loud 'oof'. A strong sharp pain rushed to his ankle before dulling to a harsh ache. Gale curled his lips to keep his yells of pain to a loud groan. Gosh that hurt. He clearly was going to have some healing to do after this. Gale curled his fists and clenching them tightly to try and steer his focus away from his sprained ankle to his hands, which hurt as well from the impact but clearly didn't hurt as much since they weren't sprained. His palms had small scraps but he forced his fists to push him around to look who had saved him from drawing his last breath.

Her? The weird redhead from the pool party a while ago? What was she doing here? Why did she bother saving him? It's not like she knew him well or anything. At least it clears up the long reach. He never understood her mechanical hand, Grippy, at all. Until now he thought it was rather pointless to have a third hand. He never thought about it much though, not giving it a second thought until now. At least it had some significance now.

Gale blinked in shock for a moment at the realization of his rescuer. But after shaking the shock away, he grunted painfully to stand up, and hopped slash hobbled to the wall again. He might have wanted to take his own life but he did want another to lose theirs from trying to save him from himself. But how would he help? Unless she fell he supposed he could catch her but he'd probably fall under her weight from his new injury and she'd probably acquired injuries just as bad as falling on the ground. But she did have three hand from what he knew of. Even if one was an animation. She could get up on her own, right?

Wobbling slightly from standing on one foot, Gale watched, trying to come up with some sort of solution. He didn't have the best balance so he used the wall for support once or twice. Thank goodness she wasn't wearing that ridiculous skirt. That would just make this nightmare all the more horrifying. He didn't need to see a girls undergarments as she's dangling off a building. He only saw a girl in her undergarments once and he didn't intend on seeing it again any time soon. Especially from someone who he barely knew.

Gritting his teeth inside his closed mouth, Gale attempted to ignore the throbbing sensation in his ankle. He hadn't broken any bones before so he wasn't sure if it was broken or not. If it wasn't then he really didn't want to know how breaking it felt. It probably wasn't broken though. It wasn't that long of a fall so it would be pretty pathetic if he did break his ankle or something from falling eight feet. Ugh! Enough with the pain! He wasn't the one in danger anymore! He had to focus on Tock now, in case she needed some rescuing of her own.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock took a moment to assess her situation. She was dangling by a three-handed grip from the roof of the inn, with the petching fool she'd just saved doing the Gods knew what down below. It was too far to lower herself down safely, since she didn't have the luxury of another person above her to add that extra few feet reach. Though maybe she could lower herself to a ledge, and then climb down. She shifted to hold Grippy with both hands, and hit the control to extend him. Her body lowered, and she planted her feet on a ledge. Then she grabbed hold of the window, getting a firm grip before she released Grippy's claw and retracted him. Then she shifted and climbed down, hooking Grippy onto another outcropping, using him to lower her further, walking her feet down the wall to keep her balance. She proceeded climbing down like this until her feet were on the ground. Then she immediately stepped up to the man and smacked him as hard as she could upside the head, Handy on her wrist adding a second smack. She shouted, "Whatcha wanna go an' does a dang fool stupid thing like 'at fer!?"

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale watched as she got herself to a ledge and made her way down. Phew. At least she got down. That could have been a-

Gale's head jerked to the side as he was slapped not once, but twice. With his mouth open in shock, he blinked several times. Shutting his mouth he rubbed his cheek and turned to here with irritation.

"Don't you get mad at me. I didn't ask for anyone to save me." Gale told her.

Gale didn't want to be saved at all. He would have been happy if he were dead right now but nooooo. This girl had to save him then slap him. Twice. What was that for? Yes, it was probably a foolish thing to do but it was close to his only option. It seemed like the better option. So what anyway? Why did she care? No one cared really until now. What did she expect from him? He was a lonely widower with nobody to call a friend. Why was she upset about this? It wasn't her business anyway. Gale had so many questions. He didn't even figure out why she was on the roof yet!

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

"Oy, ya didn't ask, izzat it?" she demanded in an irritated tone. She smacked his head again, then jabbed her fingers into his shoulder, pushing him back and advancing on him angrily. "Think fer ya what gonna go jump offa buildin', an' what makes everythin' better? Huh?" She shoved him again, staring him down angrily, taking it all personally for some strange reason. "Ya think what yer problems is so bad, does ya!?" She shoved him out into the street, ignoring the stares of the few passerby that were in the area. "Think what as everybody else ain't wanna end it sometimes? Huh!? Bloody selfish dirty 'orse petchin' no good WANKER!" She shoved him again, as hard as she could, clenching her hands into fists. It wasn't like she'd never thought about it. Never considered ending her own life. But she had work to do. Obligations. Responsibilities. A full time job, a sick little boy to watch out for, and a house full of magic babies to take care of. She couldn't put an end to her pain and her misery, not with so many obligations on her plate. So it wasn't fair for this bloody fool to take his life, if she couldn't!

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale blinked as he was slapped once again and grunted painfully when he was pushed back, walking on his new injury. Why was she being so protective? Gale was pushed over, falling with a thud and a groan. He glared up at her and decided to get some things off his mind.

"What's your problem?! You're here yelling at me for being a selfish petching fool yet you don't have the decency to think about what you're doing!! I wouldn't have attempted to murder myself if it weren't for people like you!!" Gale pushed himself up with a groan from his throbbing ankle. "If I had someone who understood then I would be in a better position then I am now." Gale kept his balance on one foot, glaring at the redhead. "You saved me but instead of trying to convince me to not trying to do it again and trying to help you decide to make things worse by blowing up in my face!! This is exactly why I don't want to be here anymore!! No one cares for anyone and when they do care enough to help they turn around and lash out at you like you're some sort dog begging for food!! Who do you think the fool is here?! The person who tried to kill themselves or the person who helped them get to that point when they could have turned their decisions around?"

Gale completely snapped. His temper was the blazing. If he wasn't so angry with her he would be in a crumbled heap on the ground soaking his face in tears. With her lash out and his state of mind, his emotions busted. His thoughts wouldn't stay in his head and the pain in his ankle dulled from his yells and frustration.

"I know I'm not the only one that has a problem." Gale said, his tone softening as he choked a little. "I just thought that I would get rid of something that was just wasting space. It would have saved both you and me from all the trouble. No one wants to deal with a depressed, meaningless man, so I was going to save everyone the trouble. It would have made everyone happy. You wouldn't be here yelling at me and I would finally be in a place where-" Gale cut himself off and curled his lips. His eyes watered at the thought but he shook his head as he looked down, closing his eyes briefly,"You know what? Just go. Both of us have something better to do then yell at each other over something completely pointless." Gale turned to start limping away. Gale didn't want to get yelled at anymore for his suicide attempt.

[Minerva Agatha Zipporah]

Tock kept yelling, and even kicked him when he fell down. "Oy, fer people like me, eh?" she shouted, her face red with rage. "People like me what 'elps folks in 'is bloody city? Ya should be bloody GRATEFUL, bloke!" she held her arms out to the side, glaring at him in anger. When he got back up she grabbed him by his shirt and shook him. "Yer nothin' but a dang fool cowards," she screamed, spitting in his face. When he tried to walk away, she refused to let him, dragging him into an alley, out of the view of witnesses. "Dun wanna be 'ere no more?" she asked in a hiss. "Think yer jus' takin' up space?" She pulled the dagger off her belt, and shoved the blade under his throat, the tip just pressed against the skin on his neck. She glared at him, staring him down with mad eyes, and told him, "'Is whatcha want? Aye? Want I should bleed ya out right 'ere inna alley? Leave yer dang fool corpse 'ere, rottin', where ain't nobody'll find ya fer days? Izzat it?" She was breathing in sharp gasps, totally ready to do it. Ready to take his life, just like he wanted. He would see no doubt or hesitation in her eyes, as the blade dug into his skin, drawing a single drop of blood that slid down the iron until it fell down to the ground below.