CORY COLLIER
Reaper
Posts: 125
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:10:29 GMT
|
Post by CORY COLLIER on Apr 11, 2023 18:03:37 GMT
Like there were opening times for the club above, there was probably some hour they threw things open down here too. Cory had never seen them posted, or stopped to consider that the code to the keypad next to the door out in the alley was only available to staff. People were just always here, Hannya had always just been here.
He hadn’t even considered knocking. The front of the building had been all locked up, no lights shining through the thin seams around the doors and blacked out windows. That hadn’t meant there was no one downstairs though and so without even blinking, Cory had vanished from the sidewalk and reappeared down in the dark and - just as he’d dreaded to think – empty bar. No shuffle of feet, no sudden motion in reaction to a gawking figure appearing in their midst reflected in the curved glass of the bottles and that river of mirror behind them. No Hannya.
Cory dragged both hands over his face, fisted them in the close crop of his hair either side of his head. His knuckles pressed hard against his scalp, but it wasn’t stopping that little voice in the back of his head whispering that he needed to know. No, he didn’t, he hadn’t, needed to know. Leah had just wanted him to.
Smug words weeks ago. She’ll toss you aside. Hannya’s a demon. Leah had been aiming to get under his skin, as she always had done. Tired of him knowing exactly who she was Leah had tried to push the blame onto Hannya. Little seeds that should’ve been sterile, dormant, planted in his brain with the knowledge that eventually his conscience would shine enough light on them to have them germinating. They’d sprouted, remaining rooted there, no matter how many times he’d tried to tear them out.
There wasn’t a whisper of sound from the dark recesses of the club-within-the-club, but Cory started down the hallway towards the room Hannya had always taken him back to. The little sanctuary here where she’d held him together as the memory of Petyr’s first cry had him falling to pieces. Would she go there first? Finding a little peace for herself in this cess pit? Cory stopped in the hallway, legs twitching like he was still a little wooden boy with someone else pulling his strings. No. Why would she? This was Hannya’s place, the sense of her filling the space down here like her presence was as potent as perfume.
It felt a little creepy opening up the doors – those that would open – and peering in. This wasn’t his place and if he’d learned anything since he’d got back it was that they weren’t wrong about curiosity killing the cat. Trying to help only had the feral things you were trying to help swiping at you with claws while others, with motives far more malicious than the things just lashing out from fear. Leah was one of them – the sort who tied their problems in sacks and dumped them in the river. Now it was his relationship with Hannya she was trying to drown.
Hannya’s scent wrapped around him soft as silk as he walked into the dressing room. Other women probably got ready here too, but he could tell which was her space, everything else radiating out from that spotlight. She’d come here, he was sure of it, and they could talk, before the others got in, before anybody else saw the nervous twitch to his fingers as he sat down and settled them on his thighs.
An hour later he heard someone stirring out there. Maybe Hector surveying his kingdom, maybe one of the bartenders setting up. Hannya. A click of heels, like a metronome that set the rapid pace for his heart. His palms were sweaty, it only occurred to him as the door swung open and then he was brushing them down the thighs of his jeans. Cory stared at her like the truth was going to spill out without a word being said by either of them. ”Hi … I’m … s-sorry. I needed to talk to you. I know I keep doing this, showing up without asking...” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. He had to push the words past it, find the guts Leah swore he didn’t have. ”Leah told me you were a demon.” And worse. He’’d find that blade in his back one day, someone he would have called a … friend holding it.
Tagged: HANNYA * Word Count: 809 |
|
HANNYA
Demon
Posts: 157
Played by:
Julia
"Do you hate that you love me or do you love that you hate me?"
Last seen Nov 11, 2024 17:12:57 GMT
|
Post by HANNYA on May 10, 2023 15:34:10 GMT
 ━ make you beg for it, plead for it, until you feel like you breathe for it ━
She’d do something at the club tonight━upset someone, have glasses flying… there had to be some excitement. Maybe she’d text Joel and invite him.
Instead, she slipped on some lingerie and posed in her full-length mirror, then snapped a few photos and uploaded them to Instagram, sending out a broad invitation for everyone tonight. It meant she’d have to make an appearance upstairs, but whatever, and Hector would have to be happy that she was bringing in more business. Honestly, what would he do without her?
Suddenly, she felt a prickle on the back of her neck and frowned, stepping out of her bedroom to cast a look across the main area. No one was here, and yet she felt like someone was entering her space. The club? She checked the cameras on her phone━a security measure Hector didn’t know she had, one she didn’t plan on telling him about. Honestly, it was better that she had it━especially for times like this. Swiping through them, she spotted that familiar frame skittering his way through the club, broad shoulders taking up more room than most men she knew. Cory was big, but had the personality of a scared, orphaned puppy, and she loved directing him where she wanted. Apparently, she’d have another chance at that tonight.
But she’d make him wait first.
Whatever he wanted━another tune-up, maybe?━Hannya needed him foaming at the mouth for it first.
After an hour, she went to the club, wearing a long coat and dress over the blue lace. She strode through the basement long before opening (earlier than she usually arrived), heels clacking against the floor. The arm that held her unbuttoned coat together dropped as she pushed open the door, the flaps of it parting to reveal the skimpy dress underneath, her garters visibly dangling past the bottom hem. “Oh,” Hannya said quickly, drawing in a gasp at the sight of Cory like she hadn’t known he was here. “Hi.” She smiled, peeling off her coat and hanging it on a nearby rack.
Hannya began walking over to greet Cory, smiling brightly as she did, “Ya don’t gotta ask, sugar, just wish it was more often,” But before she could reach him, she stopped, her smile slowly dying.
That bitch.
Well, Hannya figured it was only fair game━they seemed to enjoy taking turns stabbing one another in the back. Cory, though? Ugh. He was so fun. Why’d Leah have to… actually, it could still be fun, couldn’t it? Cory wanted a damsel to save as much as Joel did.
“What would be so wrong with that?” She made it sound like a joke, though the laugh fell short, and she had a strained, sad smile on her lips. Tears welled in her hazel eyes, and she finally made it all the way to him, giving him the same kicked puppy look Cory always had on his face. Her hands gathered together nervously. “I… I ain’t. I dunno why she’d say that,” She sniffled, “We ain’t been gettin’ along lately. ‘Cause… ‘cause of what ya told me. I just can’t look at ‘er the same anymore.” Hannya reached out and gently took one of his hands in both of hers, guiding it up to press his palm to her sternum. “Reapers deal with… souls and stuff, right? Can’t ya tell I still have one?” It was Dolly’s but, whatever, it was still there, and she was hoping it’d work in her favour.
CORY COLLIER | no notes. |
|
CORY COLLIER
Reaper
Posts: 125
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:10:29 GMT
|
Post by CORY COLLIER on May 24, 2023 20:02:02 GMT
He wouldn’t blame Dani for having to leave town – if it had been the love of his life missing, taken by one of those things, he wouldn’t have stopped either – but not having her there had been like losing one of the anchors that held him in place in the sort of current that might’ve swept him away again. Up on Wickery Bridge, he’d clung to her, feeling for the first time in so long that he’d have someone there to reach out to whenever he needed it.
Cory puffed out a breath, felt something give a little in his chest at the thought that he did still need someone to lean on. He’d died, been brought back and plunged into all of this, it should’ve meant that he was old enough and smart enough to be able to brace himself against whatever torrent he found himself in, but death hadn’t changed him. Leah had yanked his feet out from under him, almost drowning him in the grief she’d caused when she’d attacked Destiny. Dani hadn’t been there to hold his hand through it, Hannya had.
Curling his fingers in slowly towards his palms, he frowned, trying not to remember exactly what it had been like as she’d held him. All warm skin, caring touches, soft … He cleared his throat as it went dry at the memory. That wasn’t what he was here to go over again this time, not when Leah’s accusations were tainting everything in a way that he wanted to be able to scrub clean. Leah was a liar, a bitch of the highest order, that tainting was what she’d been aiming at. Sour everything for him and he wouldn’t have anyone to hold a hand out to him the next him – just her and he’d rather have chewed his hand off at the wrist than have any part of Leah touch him now.
All those doubts snapped into stark clarity as Hannya walked in. If he swung a fist the right way, she’d shatter that ugly picture Leah had painted, would be rid of it for good. The corners of his mouth twitched up, then settled into a straight line as regret flooded his expression. He’d started her. ”S-sorry,” he stuttered again. ”I didn’t mean to scare you.” Cory bit down on his tongue before nerves had him spilling exactly how he’d gotten in here – as though that would be a surprise to Hannya or anybody. He hadn’t been hiding what he was from any of them, not when he’d believed he could trust them all.
Still wracked with anxiety, he shifted his weight from foot to foot, his gaze dropping to the hem of Hannya’s dress, the garters that dangled from beneath, daring fingers to dart out and trace the line of them. Cory forced himself to look up and focus on Hannya’s smile instead. She wasn’t playing him, she was smiling, she was happy that he was there. ”Sorry,” he echoed again before he winced. ”I never know when I’m gonna get dragged away. Things in town are … they’re bad, there’s a lot of people to …” He shifted his weight again, resisting the urge to look down. Too many of them had been headed that way, to maybe become … no. Hannya wouldn’t have done that.
Apology settled as a frown on his face. He shook his head as Hannya joked, his lips pursing. What was so wrong with being … with taking people the way Oliver had been taken? With hurting people for fun? ”It’s not all pitch forks and horns,” Cory said, like stupid Halloween costumes would’ve been the start and end of it. Hannya’s expression, the tears building in her eyes had another apology trying to boil up in his throat. Instead he curled his fingers in again, stopping himself from reaching out. ”I knew she was wrong. There’s something cracked in her, something that likes hurting people, I hate that she’s done that to you now.” But that was Leah all over, wasn’t it?
Hannya reached out in the way he hadn’t, taking his hand, pressing it against her … Heat replaced the cold that’d settled in his bones, not releasing his grip as he’d tied himself up in knots over this day after day as he tried to ignore it. Cory stroked his thumb in an arc over her chest, reaching out to her with his other hand. He settled it at her elbow, drawing her in. ”She’s put you in between me and her, and it’s not right. I’m sorry if I did it too.” Lips pressing together again, he nodded at her question, then tilted his head and shrugged. ”I think so,” he puffed. ”Even if I can’t, it doesn’t matter.”
His brows knotted together as he dug for that feeling he got whenever he took the hand of a soul to lead them off. There was something that felt the same there, he was sure. ”If there’s anybody who doesn’t have a soul, it’s Leah. She’s probably sold it for something. Nothing matters to her except hurting people. She was doing that with me, wasn’t she? Telling me you were messing around with my feelings just to get some sort of kick from it? You wouldn’t do that.” Leah would though. She’d known exactly what that scene at the warehouse would do to him, but she hadn’t given a shit that it’d broken his heart, that it’d torn two people apart who deserved to be able to hold their baby, to be a family.
Tagged: HANNYA * Word Count: 931 |
|
HANNYA
Demon
Posts: 157
Played by:
Julia
"Do you hate that you love me or do you love that you hate me?"
Last seen Nov 11, 2024 17:12:57 GMT
|
Post by HANNYA on Jun 12, 2023 19:17:20 GMT
━ make you beg for it, plead for it, until you feel like you breathe for it ━
Hannya didn’t respond, though, nothing more than a quiet “Oh.” And a gentle frown, waiting for him to continue. A demon? She’d wring Leah’s neck for this. But ah, it was all in good fun, and Cory hated his coworker. He loved Hannya. He’d do anything for her… just not if she was a demon. Her strained joke and awkward chuckle died at his response, creating another sad frown on her lips, fingers clasping together nervously. She stared down at her hands and sighed as though she was upset at herself saying it.
She shrugged, raising her hands again to wipe at her tears as a few fell over her lashes, and she smiled sadly at Cory again, giving him a half-hearted shrug. “Well… that’s just who she is, ain’t it?” Leah didn’t have shit on Hannya. She was the queen of tearing people down; Leah just licked up her crumbs.
Slipping in, she gave Cory the connection he always came here searching for, the one he seemed to be constantly hunting. A tortured childhood, clearly━those were always the most needy… and the most fun. He would feel a soul, she was sure, but it would be a safety blanket eclipsed by what he really wanted.
“Oh, sugar,” Hannya cooed as he brought her closer━just like she expected, “Nothin’ could come between us. I promise.” The hand not looped around his wrist slid to his other, guiding it from where it’d drawn her in and to her hip, planting his long fingers over the expanse of it. Her own slid up his arm to his elbow, then peeled off and found his cheek instead. Hannya leaned in slightly and smiled like she was the one comforting him now.
“‘Course not.” Hannya lied with ease, searching his pretty eyes. “But I…” Cory had to get some answer when he walked out of here. He likely wouldn’t ask for it━he was too gentle and complacent for that, scared of upsetting her further━but he needed something, otherwise he’d realize he still didn’t know what she was. It wouldn’t fill him with confidence when he was near her━not that he had any, but still. “I am… somethin’. A s-siren,” Her eyes skittering away nervously, fingers slipping from his cheek to his chest. Tears built and fell down her cheeks again.
Hannya sniffled and bit her lower lip as though she were trying to stave them off, though she knew Cory needed the spectacle. “So I dunno if you really like me for me, or if…” She sniffled, beginning to pull away from him completely━slow enough that he could stop her, though. “... If it's just like it is with everyone else. They only want me ‘cause I’m pretty, and I never know if they really want me. I thought you did, but I… I dunno. It’s okay if ya don’t.” Hannya slipped her arms in, gathering them close to her chest as a self-soothing tactic while her sobs increased in volume and ferocity, her body trembling with each one.
CORY COLLIER | no notes. |
|
CORY COLLIER
Reaper
Posts: 125
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:10:29 GMT
|
Post by CORY COLLIER on Jul 2, 2023 19:36:15 GMT
The recognition that should’ve hit when he said demon just weren’t there in the faint frown on Hannya’s face, or in her quiet response. He should’ve never doubted her, but Leah was a snake, slithering in until she could strike at the very heart of you. She poisoned your thoughts, left you festering in your doubts until you either lanced it all or let it eat you up. By now he should’ve known not to let her close. It happened time and time again though, leaving him feeling as though he was a complete idiot for not seeing that painted mask or catching the sugar coating to her words in the first place.
Cory wanted to kick himself, to let out a string of apologies. It only got worse as he tried to apologise, Hannya’s frown coming back, her fingers knotting up, her eyes dropping down to them. He could’ve dropped to his knees, pressing his head against the softness of her stomach the way he had done before, pressing his apologies there like that would make them penetrate deeper. ’I’m sorry for her, it’s all my fault that she came back in the first place. If I hadn’t gone to Death for her…’ All the power Leah had was because he’d believed her that first time, that meant that everything she did now came back on him. Guilt had Cory’s shoulder’s sagging. Instead of just bearing it silently, he was dropping it at everybody else’s feet, twisting them up, hurting them, all because he couldn’t just call bullshit on everything Leah said.
Swallowing hard, Cory shook his head. Hannya was smiling for him,, but the tears were already spilling down her cheeks. He’d hurt her with all of this. ”It shouldn’t be. She had a second chance … she didn’t have to use it to do all of this. I’m so sorry that I let her do this.” The guilt squeezed at his chest, left his heart beating heavy, his stomach twisting enough that he felt queasy with it.
The feeling melted away just enough that he could swallow the feeling back as Hannya drew him in. A part of him wanted to lower his head and just curl into her the way he had done before – the one being comforted with her fingers in his hair, her lips on his skin, instead of offering comfort like he was supposed to. Her sugared words didn’t make his teeth ache the way that Leah’s did. ”She won’t stop trying to,” he whispered. ”It’s like she can’t let anybody be happy, she’s gotta stomp all over it.” She had to tear it out at the roots, like she had done … Cory swallowed hard, feeling the choking feeling return, locking in his throat as Hannya guiding his hand to her hip. Her hand found his cheek and he looked down at her with eyes that burned.
He’d searched her face as she’d urged him to look for some sign inside of her that what Leah had said had to be bullshit, now Cory’s gaze rose to her eyes again, searching them again as Hannya reached his. Breathing in convulsively at her but, he expected the other shoe to kick him in the gut. But didn’t have to be bad, did it? He squeezed Hannya’s hip like he was reassuring her that it was alright, but he was probably soothing himself just as much. Cory’s brows drew together. ”Like a mermaid?” he asked. It was easy to picture Hannya draped over a rock, her blonde hair covering her … covering her, a shimmering tail swishing gently through the water. Like the Little Mermaid. ”It’s alright … that’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re not evil, not like demons are and that means everything.” Demons weren’t capable of feeling guilty or hurt, they were the things that made others feel like that, tormenting them until they broke and the fun was over. Demons were like Leah.
Lifting his other hand, Cory brushed the backs of his fingers lightly over Hannya’s cheeks, trying to soothe the hurt he’d inflicted with Leah’s hand on the metaphorical knife he’d twisted in Hannya. ”Of course I do,” he puffed lightly, pulling her back in as she tried to draw away from him. The ssssh slipped from him lightly. Shaking his head, Cory shifted, wrapping both arms around Hannya to draw her in to him. He pressed his lips to the top of her head, her temple, as he pulled her into a hug. ”That doesn’t matter to me. I like you for you. You’ve always been so kind to me. Pretty too, but good, I’m lucky to have you as a friend. Leah’s not gonna change that, and neither’s anybody else. We care about each other, don’t we?” And that was why Leah had done it. Understanding hit the pit of his stomach like a lead weight, hollowing him out. It was jealousy. She hadn’t liked that he’d gone to Hannya before, that the two of them were close, and so she’d tried to tear it to pieces … and had failed.
Tagged: HANNYA * Word Count: 855 |
|
HANNYA
Demon
Posts: 157
Played by:
Julia
"Do you hate that you love me or do you love that you hate me?"
Last seen Nov 11, 2024 17:12:57 GMT
|
Post by HANNYA on Jul 23, 2023 18:15:02 GMT
━ make you beg for it, plead for it, until you feel like you breathe for it ━
Hannya was evil. She liked it that way. It made it so easy to draw in sorry saps like Cory, who came to her to be soothed, and instead ended up fighting to make her feel good. She drank in what he offered, gorged herself on it, and uncurled her arms to wrap them around him, like a snake sizing up its dinner.
“You promise?” She whispered, trying not to snicker as he said she was kind to him. That was so fucking adorable… in the same way you ripped the legs off of bugs. “‘Course we do. I do. Care ‘bout you.” Hannya turned her head slightly, nuzzling into him, her nose finding his neck. “I don’t want her to change nothin’ ‘bout us. I don’t wanna lose you, Cory━‘specially not over some stupid shit Leah lies ‘bout. It ain’t worth it.”
Slowly pulling back to look at his face, Hannya smiled at him, her eyes still glossy, and leaned in, pressing her lips to his. He was just too damn easy. Leah, though… Hannya would fuckin’ get her for this. She’d probably use Remzi to do it, too, and then Leah would really see what it was like to fuck with somebody.
CORY COLLIER | (soz for the water closet) wrap soon? or here? idk |
|
CORY COLLIER
Reaper
Posts: 125
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Sept 30, 2024 19:10:29 GMT
|
Post by CORY COLLIER on Aug 17, 2023 20:34:12 GMT
Like the little bobblehead toy his dad had bought him that one time they’d gone to a baseball game, Cory nodded repeatedly. That thing had still been on his nightstand a decade later, memories of that day rattled loose every time it burst into life, a smile as tentative as the one he wore now appearing until it eventually stopped. He wished he could make Hannya smile as easily now but Leah had made sure that wouldn’t happen. She’d stuffed the lies into his head, letting his own fears do the rest of the damage for her. Turn him against the people that really did care about him and she could carry on trying to twist him up.
”Promise,” Cory whispered, his frown fading slightly. ”I’m a reaper, people can’t affect me like that. It’s part of what we are.” The little voice in the back of his head warned him that Leah had told him that bit of information too. He’d have to ask Elias if that was true – if there was one person among them who’d know and wouldn’t lie it’d be him. In an echo of Hannya’s watery smile, Cory managed to grin back at her. ”I like you all on my own account. Who wouldn’t?” People who’d never cared about anybody in their life – just like Leah.
When you knew how short life could be, you held on to all those small measures of love you were offered. He’d tried to teach Leah that, not that she’d have recognised the lesson if it smacked her between her eyes. She’d killed her own brother, killed a baby. That took a monster and monsters were nothing like him and Hannya.
Pulling Hannya close, Cory could feel that mutual affection radiating from her like the sun. He basked in it, hoping that Hannya was feeling the same from him. Puffing out a breath against her hair, he smiled. ”Promise, cross my heart and hope to die,” he murmured. Maybe he should’ve peeled a hand off of Hannya’s curves and actually drawn the cross right there between them, but he didn’t want her thinking he was letting her go. ”See, that means it’s gonna be all alright between us. Leah can say anything she wants, but we know the truth and she can’t change any of that.” As though Leah had ever been powerful in her life. She had to control every situation, getting the claws she no longer had in, trying to tear people apart just for fun.
His hand smoothed up and down Hannya’s back, comforting her far more than he was comforting himself now. It was always easier that way, like he didn’t have to acknowledge his own fears and issues then because he was helping. ”I’m not going anywhere, I swear, and I’m not listening to Leah anymore. We’re gonna be alright. Eventually she’s gonna choke on all those lies.” Just not soon enough.
The tears that had burned in his eyes had faded as his smile grew. Cory’s hand slid up to Hannya’s neck, holding her gently, as though she really was a china doll, when she kissed him. His thumb brushed over the shell of her ear, settling under the angle of her jaw. Leah would maybe choke at this, both of her toys out of her grasp now. She could throw as big a tantrum as she liked, he meant what he’d said, there really was nothing that could change this. Slowly, he folded down on the chair he’d been sitting on when Hannya had walked in, drawing her with him, kissing her again as they settled there, safe in the promises they’d made to one another.
Tagged: HANNYA (The End) * Word Count: 614 |
|
hope to see you in the discord! 
