Ruinous Fortune

Ruin sat as still as he could while Skill tsked. The needle hurt like fuck as Skill sewed up his shoulder. He couldn't breathe, either, his nose was so swollen.

His ribs ached, his stomach was mottled with deep bruising, and his cheek felt like it was on fire.

And, goddamn, his shoulder hurt!

Skill sighed, cut the thread, and stood back, admiring her work.

"Boy, you get in more scuffles than most a fraction of your age in the schoolyard."

Ruin snorted -- as well as he could, and the sound came nowhere near what he'd intended it to be -- and wiped his shirt over the last of the bleeding from shoulder. "Yeah, so you keep saying," he muttered.

Mary Anne isn't home yet.

This makes things easier.

Moon walks up the stairs to the bedroom, where Ruin was currently lounging. She slams the door open, and even though she was a small, compact woman, she seems to take up the entire doorway. Ruin looks up from his book, pales a little, then sets the book aside before standing up.

"Dear sister, you look to be in a mood."

"You're very lucky we're immortal, Ruin, or else I'd kill you," she snarls. "He is mine!"

Ruin crosses the room, folding his arms. "I didn't do anything."

"You almost killed him," she says, exasperated.

"Almost. Remember that. Almost. Besides, he could've called you, or he could've walked away. Draco rose to the challenge I placed before him. That isn't my fault," Ruin insists.

Moon glowers. "It is your fault. Don't meddle!"

Ruin smiles slowly, deliberately. "You mean, meddle like you've done?"

"They weren't yours to begin with, Ruin. You were just using them for sport." Moon walks towards her brother until they're standing only a hand's space apart. "I put a stop to your sport. This isn't that. This is more important. This is his life, Ruin. A chance. I let you do what you wanted with Gorlim, now let me do as I need to with Draco, and stop fucking with things!"

He'd never heard her utter that word.

And so Ruin stands stunned into silence, staring at his petite sibling with her flaming green eyes.

"I see I have your attention," she continues. "Now. You will go back to the bar. You will apologize for baiting him. You will promise to leave Mia alone, because she isn't in your sphere of influence yet, which means you have no business poking her. And you will, without complaint, offer to teach him how to use a sword, or else I'll be shoving a sword so far up your backside, you won't walk right for a month!"

Ruin clenches his jaw.

He debates arguing with her.

But one look into those furious eyes and he knows it's useless.

"Fine," he spits out.

Moon nods, her lips white and in a thin line. She turns away from him, but pauses in the doorway again, still looming there despite her size.

"Thank you for patching him up," she offers. "And if you ever do that with him -- or Miniver, for that matter -- again? I will cut off your arms and legs and head, shoving them into different sealed boxes, and scatter them about the worlds. Let Mary Anne go and fetch you so you can put yourself back together."

With that, she disappears into the shadows of the fading afternoon sun.

"Can she really do that?" Mary Anne asks from somewhere behind her husband, her voice tinged with just a bit of worry.

Ruin stares at where his sister had disappeared and quietly answers, "Let's not find out."

He's asleep.

Sleeping the sleep of the once-truly drunk.

His left arm is slung heavily over her stomach so she's held tightly against him.

Ruin, newly married and still very much passed out, is blissfully ignorant of their previous activities.

It hadn't been much of a walk from their alley to the doors of Caesars Palace.

Where else would Ruin stay?

His arm around Mary Anne's waist, he checked them in (signing everything R. Perte) and they were escorted to their room. After tipping their escort, he closes the door and looks around the massive suite. He tosses their bags onto a nearby sofa, then pulls her into his arms.

"The Tower for the Queen," he murmurs before kissing her.

He had thought to let Moon retrieve her.

Just meet them at the castle--

(castle... what respectable anthropomorphic personification lives in a damn castle with battlements? None, that's what I say...)

but Moon had given him a Look before she went off to prepare things at home. Choice would be doing the actual deed. Only the Major Arcana could, and Choice made sense. Hell, Choice always made sense.

Now, he stood outside M16, wearing loose trousers and a tunic--

(gods of the multiverse, I look like a debauched poet whose been at the absinthe too long, what the hell was Moon thinking -- oh, yeah, that's right, she DOESN'T...)

--hand poised over the door. This wasn't something he'd personally done for centuries. He hadn't even been there when Sorrow or Misery were created. The only card's creation he'd ever bothered to be present at was his own. He was sure Mary Anne was expecting something painful, but Ruin didn't remember pain. All he remembered, really, was the loss of his humanity. Of course, to be what he was, the Ten of Swords, humanity was a hindrance, not an asset. For Mary Anne, just like Sorrow, it would be a positive attribute.

Ruin takes a deep breath and knocks three times, swiftly, schooling his features into an expression of disinterest.

Ruin stops him as he passes between the past and the present.

"You are an idiot," he states blandly, leaning against the cold greyness of the path Námo walks. "Here he went through hell, death, and rebirth to keep me from you, and here you are. Walking down a path that will lead from my daughter right into my arms."

The Vala's eyes narrow. "I will never come to you."

"Yes, you will." Ruin pulls the Three of Swords, Five of Swords, Nine of Swords, Queen of Swords, and finally, the Ten of Swords. "You've been up to the Queen, god. Only one more card in your spread if you don't take the Queen's advice. Don't be stupid."

Námo's gaze darkens and his fists clench. "I am not. I am trying--"

"Let me tell you something," the card says in a low, dangerous voice, snarling up into the god's angry face. "You have a lover who gave everything he had to protect you. You, you foolish, blind creature. She was already dead. I couldn't do anything to her. Children are beyond the cards, so your kids were safe. But you? You, god-who-has-never-tasted-ruin, you were fair game. He shielded you. He protected you. He loved you. He died for you. And now... now he lives for you. What the fuck more could you want?"

"Everything!" he bellows at Ruin, shoving him aside. "I want what I see all of them having. Mortality. Shortness of life. An ending of life. To be what someone lives and dies for. To be what someone desires and misses. To be what is longed for, coveted, taken and given. I want to be what consumes and is consumed."

Ruin leans forward, his voice a hiss. "Then stop running away and demand he give you what it is you want! But don't blame him for not being able to give what he doesn't even know you want, though I can say from first-hand knowledge, he does give you all you want." He snorts. "You're just too blind and selfish to acknowledge it. You deserve to come to me. I would rip your virginal spirit apart with relish, I think. Show you things you can't even imagine. I could be your hell, Námo, so I'd be careful about where you tread."

Námo watches as Ruin begins to walk away, feeling his anger drain in a tired whoosh.

Then the card looks back.

"Also? One's enough. He won't be lonely. Gorlim doesn't want you to have any more with her, anyway. With anyone. You're not making them out of love for a partner. You're creating life because you think you have to. It lowers his opinion of you, this using of a woman. Stop."

Then the card was gone.

Anything in red comes with this blanket warning: mature content ahead. Those threads can contain one or more of the following: explicit sex, explicit violent, mild sexual themes, mild violent themes, torture, extreme sexual torture. Do not read those threads if you cannot handle them. We won't be held responsible for you clicking on a link that has been clearly marked. Thank you.





It began eight months ago in Ascension of Swords, a dream in which Gorlim's character development reaches a new height. He moves from the realm of fear and nightmares into the realm of ruin and hopelessness.

Then, in April, a new member of Milliways Bar arrives, and he is mistaken for Gorlim by Eilinel. Eilinel informs her husband of this curious shift of events, but Gorlim, not-so-wisely, doesn't think much of it. Until Ruin shows up next to him for a chat. It's love and hate at first sight. After a lot of teasing threats, they strike a bargain. A very DANGEROUS bargain. After that, Ruin has a chat with his siblings, who do not approve of what he has chosen to do where Gorlim is concerned.

Gorlim, meanwhile, goes to find Námo and confesses to him this agreement he's made, and of his double's arrival. Alas, their loving scene is broken up by Ruin, who has come to claim his end of the bargain. Afterwards, Gorlim returns to Námo's room. Námo cleans him up and puts him to bed.

Then, Ruin meets Mary Anne, who first mistakes him for Gorlim. Ruin plays on the assumption until he grows tired of it, then reveals himself. He tells her of the bargain, that Gorlim forgot her, then Gorlim rushes up between them, ultimately reworking his original bargain with Ruin to keep him away from Mary Anne. Mary Anne was NOT happy about this. Gorlim also speaks to Ramon, who is decidedly NOT pleased to have been included in Gorlim's deal, along with Random. Gorlim and Ramon go back and forth over it until Gorlim changes the topic to Ramon's own troubles. After Gorlim leaves, though, Ramon finds Ruin and they have a little chat about Gorlim, bargains, and intent.

Gorlim meets Moon, who instantly puts him at ease with her quiet guidance. She shows them how people can tell Ruin for Gorlim, though it requires the baring of some skin. She gives him a tarot reading, offering what insight she can, then gifts him with three days of prophetic dreams.

After Námo finds out about the new deal Gorlim's made, he broods about it with Strength, Wheel and Roäc. It leads to Námo's decision to pay Ruin a visit, finding his own way of helping Gorlim by offering Ruin a counteroffer to Gorlim's earlier deal. Ruin accepts. After leaving Ruin, Námo finds Gorlim in the bar and tells him of the new arrangement. There is some emotional gratefulness, then they settle in for what passes for normal for them.

Ruin gloats at Mary Anne over his deal with Námo. There is discussion of Gorlim's mental health, from Ruin's point of view at least. He reveals to Mary Anne how to tell the two of them apart, other than their lovely personalities. Minor mocking of Moon, because Ruin really dislikes her meddling, then Ruin gives Mary Anne her own tarot reading. Ruin questions why Mary Anne is still sitting with him, and she has to admit she feels a challenge. Then, Ruin offers to let Mary Anne stab him, but they are in the bar, so they move outside. There is a sword/knife fight. There is blood. There is more bargaining. There is kissing. After his massive thread with Mary Anne, Ruin and Gorlim share their second night. Following the completion of their second night, Námo cleans Gorlim up, they spend time with the baby, and then there is sleep.

Moon and Mary Anne have a small discussion about what the tarot means, and Moon gives her a warning to never let Ruin run the game. Gorlim and Mary Anne also talk, only briefly about Ruin and then Gorlim kindly changes the subject.

Gorlim spends day three of the bargain fighting big, nasty spiders. What follows is everyone involved descending on the Man in shock. Ruin and Mary Anne spend some time together where Ruin goads her into more violent behaviour with him. While that is going on, Námo cleans Gorlim of the spider guts and his own blood.

Námo sits in the bar with his children, and Ruin swoops down. This leads to a confrontation between Ruin and Gorlim where Asar-Suti finds he must restrain Gorlim. Gorlim soon follows Námo from the bar where there is arguing and apologizing, but it soon leads to an outing.

Gorlim and Námo pay their dual debt to Ruin, and when their humilation and torture have completed for the time being, Námo runs to find Malcolm Crowe, who tends to the physical wounds Ruin has left behind. The next afternoon, Námo checks on Gorlim before retreating to the seclusion of the shower.

The tarot cards meet briefly in the bar for heading to their home, where a meeting occurs between what family happens to be there at the time.

Mary Anne and Ruin finally go to Ruin's room where Mary Anne loses herself in the violence of intimacy with Ruin. During one of the trysts, Ruin gives Mary Anne quite an offer.

During the night, Gorlim and Námo wake from four days of healing rest and bathe. A gift is given from the Vala to the Man, and then they slip back into sleep. A few days later, while Gorlim is still recovering, Námo pays Ruin a visit and terms are renegotiated. Shortly after that visit, Ruin casts the cards and is bothered by their prediction.

Still suffering from his torment by Ruin, Námo spends a quiet night in sad reflection.

Mary Anne finds Moon and questions her about what it means to be a tarot card. Moon then drags Mary Anne to the home of the tarot where she meets Ruin's daughter Sorrow, and a few of the other cards. She learns about the family, about their interaction, and that they are like any other large, disfunctional family.

Night five finds Gorlim in Angband with Ruin as his tour guide, showing him, vividly, what the Man has always feared had happened to his wife while in Melkor's prison. He leaves Gorlim in the bar where Námo, Strength, Guppy, and Mary Anne all pay him a concerned visit. Mary Anne then finds Ruin, but Ruin turns the tables on her. He takes her to Angband, shows her Gorlim's demise, then shares with her the outcome of this whole ordeal should Gorlim do as Ruin hopes he will. Mary Anne is then sworn to silence, and she carries the burden of knowing and being unable to act.

The sixth night with Ruin isn't so much a night as a forfeit on Ruin's part. Gorlim arrives to find Ruin with Gabriel, who has been mistakenly handed off to the wrong look-a-like by Nerdanel. They have a hell of a fight which neither can win because they are identically matched. It ends when Ruin tells Gorlim about him and Mary Anne in Angband. Gorlim takes his son and leaves, claiming he doesn't need to stay any longer tonight because Ruin broke his word when he took Gabriel. This leads to a Gorlim in the bar with a frightened Gabriel. Gorlim and Námo have a small conversation about this, and then Gorlim has a nasty altercation with Nerdanel where hurtful words are spoken between both parties.

Gorlim visits Námo, who makes a comment that probably shouldn't have been voiced, and Gorlim walks out on his lover. He then finds Mary Anne and gives her a what for about snogging over his corpse and then returning to Ruin's room, finding it a betrayal of sorts between best friends. Mary Anne then takes Gorlim to Vietnam where Gorlim has a revelation.

After they return, though, Námo is waiting for Mary Anne. They have a nasty argument where Námo nearly breaks Mary Anne's jaw, and tries to leave her like that. But, he knows how upset Gorlim will be if he does, and he angrily returns to repair the damage, despite the sickness it will bring upon him. After that, he returns to his room and waits for Gorlim, who he hasn't seen since the Man left with Mary Anne. When he does come, there is their own form of argument regarding Gorlim's decision to leave without a word to his lover. Later, following an evening with Ruin where the card showed Gorlim a horrible future for their children, Námo tends to Gorlim while still upset about the Man leaving, about not being needed or trusted enough, and although he is given a small hope, Námo knows that Gorlim will still continue to go to others when in pain. He allows the topic to drop and brings the Man their children, comforting him in a way Námo cannot after such a vision. Later that night, the sickness attacks and Námo has to confess what he did to Mary Anne to Gorlim. And while Gorlim and Námo sort out their troubles, Mary Anne goes looking for more herself.

The next day, Mary Anne and Námo gave a much more civil chat while Gabriel gets to know his wren-Aunt.

A few days later is a night for Ruin, where he surprises Gorlim as Andres and makes love with the Man before smashing the illusion cruelly. He stumbles down to the bar a few hours later where Malcolm Crowe finds him and brings him the infirmary. Mary Anne visits, offering him quiet comfort. Her visit is followed by Námo's, and this ends badly with the Vala yelling at his quiet, withdrawn lover before walking out on him. He and Mary Anne have a small confrontation where she puts some things into perspective; Námo then returns to Gorlim's side where he sleeps beside the Man. At some point, both Guppy and Eilinel visit, offering their love and support for the broken bird, but the one that has the most impact is Random, back from his long hiatus from the bar. Random's presence offers Gorlim a sense of love and much-needed friendship, even if Námo, later, resents it.

Later, Random shares his thoughts about Ruin to Fiona (who has already met Ruin by this time), and then expresses them to Ruin himself. There is also a small discussion with Gorlim about a future that Námo allowed Gorlim to visit in order to give the Man hope.

Night eleven finds Gorlim forced to endure eleven separate experiences of betrayal and death. What Barahir and his men felt as they died was gifted to Gorlim by Ruin. What they thought. What they knew. Knowing it was him, and knowing they were done for. Their pain, what was done to them. Their last words, and who they yearned for as they died. After that nightmare, Gorlim seeks out Námo. Wheel also has a chat with Gorlim about the situation, as only a tarot card can do. Mary Anne later joins Gorlim, and they discuss Random's dislike for Mary Anne now that he knows Mary Anne is sleeping with Gorlim's tormentor. Later, at home, Random throws a
fit, hurt and angry; he and Ramon have a discussion about what Mary Anne is doing to Gorlim by sleeping with Ruin.

First, Julian and Mary Anne have a talk about the offer the cards have made to Mary Anne. Then, Random and Mary Anne have a very brief conversation where Random tells Mary Anne just what he thinks of her. Following that, Ruin shows up and they talk civilly, with Latin interjected here and there. Ruin makes an odd offer, asking Mary Anne back to his room solely to be held and sleep. After she goes with him, Námo shows up at Ruin's door to have a small discussion with Mary Anne about what is coming before Ruin returns to the room.

The next day, Random and Námo have a long overdue conversation about Gorlim.

On the twelfth night, Gorlim comes to Room 321, the end of his debt nearing. Námo and Random have a brief chat, but Random and Julian have a much longer one. Later that day, Mary Anne discovers through Námo what Ruin has done to Gorlim. Later, Námo finds Gorlim in the stables and they go for a ride. Sometime later, Mary Anne comes to explain to Gorlim that it wasn't really her who watched Ruin torment him. Only an illusion.

Ruin has an interesting chat with Rupert Giles, and is then visited by Strength's lion, who speaks honestly
with the card.

The thirteenth night with Ruin is a special one. Ruin, and his room, look like Námo and Námo's room. Ruin, looking and acting like Gorlim's lover, forces himself on him. Afterward, Ruin and Mary Anne have a talk about several things, including the thirteenth night and what happened on the twelfth. Gorlim goes to Námo's room and asks to go elsewhere. They go to the cairn by the lake where they talk about what had just happened. At the same time, Julian ends his relationships with Mary Anne. After that, Mary Anne goes to her room and hides in the shower, but Ruin finds her and she finds some comfort in not being alone that night.

The final night. Night fourteen finds Gorlim unconcious and in a cell, beaten, blood, broken, and tortured. He is then forced reenact his betrayal and death. While this happens, Mary Anne and Námo venture to the Halls of Mandos to await an ending they've both known about for some time. They pass the time in a poignant manner, dancing in the gardens as Gorlim had danced with Vairë some months back. Near the end, though, what they had been waiting for happens, and Námo seeks out Gorlim's spirit in the Halls, refusing to abandon him as he had been abandoned in the past. A decision is made, one that alters much, but Námo doesn't dwell long on what this means ultimately for himself or the ways of his own world. They all return to Milliways, and Námo bestows the same gift on Eilinel that he had given Gorlim, leaving the couple to themselves while retiring to his own room with Gabriel and Kelly.

Gorlim, at some point, leaves his room, but as he comes back, he finds Ruin waiting for him. There is a brief, very brief, exchange.

Later that night, as Námo lays in bed, Gorlim comes to his lover, his saviour, and lays down beside him. There is an emotional release in this, and the last two and a half months are finally put to rest.



Anything in red comes with this blanket warning: mature content ahead. Those threads can contain one or more of the following: explicit sex, explicit violent, mild sexual themes, mild violent themes, torture, extreme sexual torture. Do not read those threads if you cannot handle them. We won't be held responsible for you clicking on a link that has been clearly marked. Thank you.

This.

This place.

It is Angband.

It is Angband.

Not an illusion.

When Gorlim wakes, he is in his cell. Beaten. Bloody. Tortured as he was, starving and thirsty, dizzy and exhausted, as if the Bar had only been a dream of possibilities and nothing more.

Screams ricochet over stone.

Flesh is rended.

Blood flows and drips steadily as the moan (so close now) ceases.

Heavy footsteps cross the sticky, stained floor. Brutal breathing, the sound of a creature whose mouth and nose are misformed, that must breath in a thick, mucousy manner just to live.

It was time.

Gorlim comes to Room 321, the end of his debt nearing. Upon entering the room, he sees Mary Anne seated on the sofa, smirking ever-so-slightly. While Mary Anne watches, Gorlim is stripped and physically tormented with a knife and hot metal. He is bound to the bed where again, Ruin brags to Mary Anne about staining the white sheets crimson. There is quite a lot of verbal abuse to go along with the physical, all made even harder to bear because Gorlim's best friend, Mary Anne, is watching.

When Ruin tired of the physical pain, he sheds his own clothing and takes Gorlim cruelly. He brings about arousal in Gorlim, forcing the joining to last as long as possible while Mary Anne gives her own cruel comments about the situation. When Ruin finishes, and Gorlim's body peaks, he parts from him, unbinding his arms, and tossing his clothing to him. He is told to leave so Ruin and Mary Anne can now bed each other, hinting that the sheets would not be changed.

Gorlim proudly dresses, his eyes distant and sightless, and then leaves the room.

It is only after Gorlim leaves that Ruin dismisses the illusion of Mary Anne, smug that Gorlim believes the worst of his best friend.

Somehow, he manages to arrive at Námo's room, and is quickly taken care of by the Vala. Bathing, bandaging, and quiet speaking happens, and then Námo takes Gorlim to bed, wrapping his body protectively around Gorlim's.



[OOC: It was while double-checking how many nights Gorlim was to spend with Ruin that I realized we're missing two days. Let it be assumed that those two days were not memorable enough for Gorlim to be too harmed mentally or physically by Ruin and passed by without notice by any but those closest to him. As of now, Gorlim only has two nights left with Ruin.]

Ruin is outside Milliways.

On the roof of Milliways.

Bane is sprawled out beside him as he looks up at the moon, pondering things.

When things have been set into motion, the catalyst still feels swept up in the whirlwind, regardless of being the one who created it. Everything was going as his vision had shown, excpet for one thing.

Mary Anne bothered the piss out of him.