Obsessed. [PK]

[.. 26]

Amalric was a mystery to many. Few had ever seen him. Fewer knew his name. He just seemed to appear one day, always lingering in the shadows, just out of sight, just behind his employer. And he died just as quietly as he lived. He never lived to see his 18th birthday. It is surprising to some that he lived to see his 17th. Indeed, Amalric, though a quiet sort, lived an extremely dangerous life. He spent every waking moment surrounded by beasts and monsters, demons and devils, clowns and queens. Power was always within reach, but it was not his to have. He didn't want it. Indeed, he spent all of his life advancing others to their goals. Where did this loyalty get him? In pieces.

Pieces..
Morgan can remember the blast. The cannon fire, the volleys that impacted all across Yong Ping. She was just trying to help. She was just trying to be useful. Where did this need to be useful get her? In pieces. The shrapnel tore her limb from limb, cut through her organs and her flesh, diced her apart. She was never supposed to survive it. When an alchemist plucked her mangled body from the wall and carried it away, she was not conscious to see what he did. Til the day she died, Morgan was never sure if she'd have rather had him just leave her. It would've been less trouble, for everyone. She wouldn't have had to do what she did.

It'd be a lie if Amalric said he wasn't the vindictive sort. He didn't think he was. So many people had wronged him, but he never gave it any thought. But no matter how many days and years passed, he could not let go of what Karl Amador did to Morgan. His employer, so many times, had told him to stay out of Haense to avoid conflict, but many days were spent sitting. And watching. Watching Karl, watching Petra and Sigismund. And Karl... He had moved on from Morgan. He had gotten himself a wife, and children. A wife. And children. It made Amalric sick. Had Karl forgotten what he'd done to Morgan? All the suffering he caused to his first kiss?

Kiss..
In truth, Morgan never expected it to go this way. Karl was never on her mind romantically until that very night they kissed. It was funny, almost. When she was a beggar on the streets, her eyes followed Petra Emma. No one noticed her, the way she stood back and observed Petra and Karl talk. She wanted to approach, to ask for food, or for a friend, but she was shy, and words were trouble. But it was Karl who approached and put food in her hands, and declared himself her friend. She so desperately wanted friends. Someone to follow, someone to give her meaning. She found it that night in someone else, someone who'd lead her astray, ultimately. Someone she'd fall in love with. But Morgan fell in love with so many people. A crush on Karl. A crush on Sigismund. A crush on Petra. A crush on Hesperia. At the time, Karl was the only one who returned her romantic advances. She was so sure they were meant to be. Foolish.

He didn't intend to cause such a scene. But he enjoyed every moment of it. Walking into that tavern, reminding Karl, and everyone, of who Morgan was. What he'd done to her. It felt good to be vindictive. To finally make someone scared and regretful. He wanted to punish Karl for forgetting Morgan, for getting her killed. No one knew who Amalric was. They couldn't. He didn't exist, he wasn't a person. He had no paper trail. He liked it. He liked that he seemed to be a ghost of Karl's past, coming to haunt him for all the wrong he'd done. Wasn't that exactly what he was? He was a ghost. A memory forgotten. And of course, Karl being Karl, all he could think about was the assassins.

Assassins..
She never wanted it to come to this. Morgan didn't ask for this. But she enjoyed it. She was.. vindictive. Karl never noticed her. He ever even saw her among those who came to kill him. How could he have? She was dressed in armor like the rest. It was all his fault. He had caused so much trouble. From those who wished to do her arm to the ones she lived with yelling at her and demanding to know who she told. Who had she told? Who did you tell? She didn't tell anyone, none but Karl. No one else knew what was required to get her back onto her feet. He said he wouldn't tell anyone. She trusted him. She loved him, but he denied her and spread word of her condition to all who would listen. The rumor came from Haense. It had to have been him. 

It was not Amalric who sent the assassins. He was more subtle in his maneuvering. He was a private person, he preferred man to man talks, in secluded locations. His revenge was quieter, the way he stalked Karl and Petra and Sigismund. Attended their balls. Watched Sigismund dance. Watch Petra and the boy she courted dance. He even tried talking to her at the time, his mind not so bent on causing suffering. He just wanted her to be his friend again. He wanted to have that tea..

Tea..
Morgan and Petra were supposed to have tea. She was going to have a friend, despite how disfigured she'd been made. Karl abandoned her, Sigismund called her a wretch, but Petra spared her those small kindnesses. She never got to have the tea, because of Karl. Morgan cried about it often, though she'd tell no one. She wanted so desperately a friend, she'd lost everyone. And she would continued to lose. Her sense of self, her identity. Her name. Her appearance. To avoid those who would hunt her, who would ask questions on her appearance, they fixed her. They made her acceptable again. They made her..

Amalric didn't have any friends for some time. When he came back from that ball, so upset that he'd been invited and then ignored by Petra, so enraged at the success of Sigismund and Karl, he was told by Hesperia to never return to Haense, for it only caused him pain. But he was obsessed. He'd put so much time and emotions into the trio, he cared so much about their lives, that he returned anyways. Every month, to watch them, to follow them, to listen. Who was he if not for his attachments? Was he a person? He'd been a person. He'd been several people, in fact. So many names, so many faces. And for what? Was this not what being a person was? Caring? Trying to make friends? Being hurt and hurting in turn? Was that not humanity?

He'd spent 10 years in the service of Hesperia Von Drakenhof. He loved her. He was obsessed with her. Every second at her shoulder. If he knew her location, then he was there, whether she invited him or not. Amalric was her eternal servant. He changed his name for her. He changed his appearance for her. He lived for her, and he would've killed for her. He would die for her. He did die for her. He'd given everything up but her. He lost his friendships, those he'd known. He agreed to marry her, because he thought was what she wanted. He did everything for her. Though, in the quiet hours of the night, he would know in his heart that he did it for himself. 

It would take years to unravel the thing that Amalric was when he died. It would take longer to unravel the circumstances of his death, and his relationship with Hesperia Von Drakenhof. Only she could truly tell the complicated and tragic story of his life, and even she didn't know him completely. 

And this is how he ends. An unfinished story. A mystery unfounded. A tragic ending to a tragic life of a tragic child. 

 

[TheBigBubbles 651]

What was Amalric to Hesperia? What was he really? She had used many names for the boy, seen him with many faces. Though... what was he?

 

Hesperia would tell you he was a friend. Hesperia had told people he was a servant. When Hesperia peered into his deep brown eyes, she felt no warmth, no spark... She felt a pull, she felt a hungry emptiness.

 

What would she tell herself? "I should have known... I should have known." Should she? She was a mere child when she met Morgan, a child that had never seen a good example of kindness. A child who had be raised to behave in a way she couldn't emotionally comprehend.  From the moment she showed Morgan her darkest behaviours, there was no escaping her, she had latched on like a barnacle. Morgan was what she thought she needed, someone so mouldable that her father would have no choice but to accept their friendship. I think, somewhere inside her Hesperia thought she was doing good by plucking a child of her same age from the **** and the dirt and making her into something, but you cannot make a person. You cannot mould someone into your image. This would be the start of a horribly long abusive friendship, and yet... Somehow Hesperia did not realise what it was until much later. A girl so intelligent lacked one thing at her young age, emotional intelligence.

 

Amalric, Morgan, Sanctity, these people, this person, they were the last remnants of her father's influence, an influence that had brought nothing but pain into her life. Though, this festering wound is not one she could bear to cut out. Instead she tried to appease it, please him. Somewhere she hoped that she could fix him. She would only make him sicker.

 

Perhaps not willingly, but the wound had to he purged else the sickness would spread. Amalric died a festering wound... never to enact change in the word. Never to prove himself quite the character that he was. Hesperia von Drakenhof would never be the same, and she would never make the same mistake again. It was a childhood mistake that haunted her into the cusp of adulthood, one that she would forever blame herself for whether she was truly at fault or if it was the work of some sadistic force beyond her control.

 

He would be remembered for her whole life, but not as what he was, no, instead he would be remembered as a sum of his worst parts, a patchwork of obsessions and cruelty. He died a wound and he lived on as a scar.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Reckless Banzai Screamer 11530]

Deep underground in his lab, an Oyashiman alchemist would think of "Mouse" and "Crow" from time to time and in particular what became of the former after the pirate assault on the Jade-State.

 

He also wondered if Juniper ever found an answer to his question.

[Phersades 1164]

For many years, Lilia Velu'Asath was nobody. A child stuck in the large shadow of her clan and one that spent her days hidden away in a manor, though by her own volition. 

 

She lacked personal connections in her life, the lack of children in Stygian Hollow made that part difficult, as did a busy family. She hid her lonely emotions through anger, and bitterness.. snarky remarks, rude comments and the harsh preachings would make the lonely girl even lonelier. 

 

...Until, just before her 18th birthday, she met Amalric. A quiet and reserved boy her age who, in Lilias mind, was the loveliest of people. She thought his quiet way of speaking and his gentle and careful actions around here we're to melt for. They weren't friends for long, but for Lilia it felt like forever. He was someone in her life who she felt was long overdue and in that year, his time and care had made her a better person. The child who once preached absolute purity among her people, though feeling like she was turning her back on that ideal, developed her first crush albeit a bit quickly. She knew about Hesperia though, and despite this would do her best for him regardless. 

 

That was until this all happened, she saw amalric crumble beneath his obsession for Hesperia. The fear and the pain of Amalrics actions. Lilia no longer saw the boy she had originally met, though tried her hardest to deny what she had saw. She couldn't though. Lilia needed a break. and upon her return back, she would have found out the truth about his death from Hesperia. 

 

Lilia felt true heartbreak for the first time in her life. In truth, she had many gifts she planned to give them both on her return back... That of which over time Hesperia would be the one to receive. Lilia felt guilty for the pain she felt from the boys death, and if anything Hesperia should be the one with the right to mourn. She had lost her childhood friend regardless of the circumstances.. and from there on out, Lilia would promise to herself that in any way Hesperia might need her, she would be there for the human, losing one friend and gaining another. 

[AnimeWolf0080 1493]

Kin sat down on the beach of the farm house as he looked out the waves, "Mouse" crossing his mind as he felt the sea air. Wishing Amalirc and Morgan peace with in their after life.