FRANK DAMASCA
Banshee
Posts: 127
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Oct 18, 2024 17:04:31 GMT
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Post by FRANK DAMASCA on Apr 11, 2023 21:42:12 GMT
At the waggle of the bottle in front of him, Frank spread his hand over the top of the glass. It was still cold against his fingertips, the ice that had been replenished on his third – or had it been fourth? – pour still clinking against its sides. There was a half inch of watered down rum and coke in the bottom of it. He lifted the glass, squinting gritty feeling eyes closed as he necked what remained of it. Cold bloomed in his throat, spreading down into his stomach instead of the burn of the alcohol, definitely a bad sign. He sniffed, put the glass down on the bar and nudged it forward as he looked back up at Kit. ”I’m gonna get some air … I’ll be back …” When he’d sobered up a little.
Fuck. When had he gotten so damn old that he couldn’t handle a handful of nights of moderately heavy drinking? He’d left his jacket back on his stool – like it would stop anybody from parking their ass on it when the place was this busy. Frank swallowed hard, bringing a forearm up to bull through the crowd when it seemed to surge towards him from the dance floor. The place was crowded, the music cranked just a notch too high – there was a squeal from the speakers under the heavy beat, barely audible, but enough to have him staggering slightly as he reached the incoming stream of week night partiers.
They were young, unlined, excited faces streaming past him like balloons. Bobbing there in the dark in his peripheral vision, their voices unable to penetrate the squeal that had stuck with him. He’d been like them once upon a time – in those distant days that were pre-explosion, pre-the-team, right back when Westpoint had felt like the mountain he had to climb to have the world he wanted to conquer spread right out at his feet. He’d made it, but he hadn’t made it easy on himself once the instructors had started letting them off base. He’d claw his way back to some decent state by the time he had to roll out of his bunk the next morning, but there were times it had been a close call. Who woulda thought that he’d be right back there fifteen years later. Drinking like his liver magically generated too, trying to keep it up so Kit wasn’t left alone to sink back into the hole that’d left him fucking up in the first place – not that he was gonna say that out loud. Bro code, you leant a shoulder, you shut your mouth around those ‘I told you sos’.
The cool slap of night air as he slipped past the new bouncer didn’t do half as much as he expected. Frank drifted towards the car corner of the building, tipping his head back to let his breath plume into the air. He scrubbed one hand over his face as he walked, blotting out his view of that star strewn velvet sky. The other fumbled in his pocket, trying to find his pack of smokes. There’d still be a couple left earlier, the doctored one tucked in behind the foil, a little mindlessness rolled in filmy white paper. For later. On auto pilot he continued to drift, his finger and thumb working their way into his eyes, trying to work that sandpaper feel out of them.
No amount of coffee was gonna make tomorrow morning any easier. He’d crawl down the hall towards his office looking like something the cat had dragged in, the degree of devastation marked by the width of Roxxi’s smirk. Worth it though.
Frank sniffed in a deep breath, dropping his hand as he came to a stop. He flipped open the packet of cigarettes, fishing in the foil for one. It was tucked between his lips as he dipped back in for the lighter. The flame barely lit up the ground at his feet, let alone the alleyway that spread out in front of him. Usually by now there were a couple of drunk college kids either heaving up everything they’d downed, or getting real well acquainted in a way he understood all too well. What happened in those grim pockets of shadow tended to stay there, unlike what you took home to the bed you had been sharing with your girlfriend.
He held the lighter to the end of the cigarette, drew in deep like it would scald the thought from his brain and the cold from the pit of his stomach. Smoke plumed out on his exhalation, taking its sweet time to clear. That noise was still there, only seeming to intensify as the smoke drifted away on the air – towards the wooden stairs leading down from the building that rose up overhead. Frank turned, glancing back over his shoulder. How far had he wandered? Fuck. He was gonna be lucky if his jacket was still there, let alone his seat.
There was only a single light on somewhere inside the building, a pale wash illuminating the porch that ran the length of the building. After summers spent drinking out there with Theo or people from the department, he would’ve known the place even without it. Campbell’s. Already closed – or closing – up for the night, unlike the club, which would be pumping out music and staggering drunks for a couple of hours yet.
Drawing on the cigarette again, Frank went to turn. The cherry red end of it was enough to reveal a shadow on the bottom step. Some poor sap who must’ve been further in his cups than he’d gotten on the rum. As he took a step back, the guy slumped forward, the dead weight of his head lolling dropping it forward between his knees. The hiss in his ears increased, voices drifting up out of the mess of noise with enough clarity and familiarity to have sweat breaking out down his back. ”Hey man, you OK? You need a ride home?” Not that he could give one in the state he was in, or that the guy would need it if he was …
He’d felt heavy legged before, but now Frank was stumbling back, not stopping until he hit the wall at his back. Light splashed out across the porch, some door overhead illuminating the figure walking out, turning back towards the door. Dark hair, shoulders broad enough to carry assholes like him out of the firing line. A military bearing that you didn’t lose, even if standing up straight hurt like a bitch some mornings. ”Raik?” Confusion clouded his words like a blood clot, breaking into pieces as he dropped to his knees, the scream that had been torn out of him twice before ripped its way free again. Hazel eyes fixed on the body, staring as the sound rolled away, taking those whispering voices with it.
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RAIK DURMAZ
Human
Posts: 124
Age:
36
Occupation:
Bartender
Status:
Single
Played by:
Jodi
You’re as sweet as maple
Last seen Nov 13, 2024 20:00:54 GMT
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Post by RAIK DURMAZ on May 10, 2023 20:30:28 GMT
Figuring out someone had a bit too much to drink wasn’t rocket science, at least if they were human. The supernaturals were a whole different ball game. He’d witnessed Remzi down a bottle of vodka and walk in a straight line afterwards. There was one guy who appeared to go from zero to hundred in the space of an hour. Raik pushed a glass of water across the bar towards him, in a weak attempt to try and sober the man up. “I’ll order you a cab.” But the man mumbled something about living close by and he was fine to walk home. He slid his ID across the bar as prove, confirming he only living a few blocks away. “Okay. Well go outside, get some fresh air and I’ll be finished in five minutes. I’ll walk you home.” The guy was big enough to look after himself, but there would be vampires leaving the bar soon looking for a snack. It was fucking wild. A small town like Mystic Falls where it wasn’t safe to walk home at night unless you possessed super human strength. Raik only had a few steps before he was inside his apartment, but others had to navigate the dark streets, whilst something was lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce. In LA he had a good chance of fighting off someone, but here he’d lose. He’d already lost one fight, unable to fend off a pregnant woman as she glided a blade across his throat. There’d be no nasty surprises for him the next time he died but maybe he’d actually find peace rather than spending months in a cold and lonely alternative reality. Damn, he thought he’d develop PTSD after watching his best friend get his brains blown out in front of him or trying to put together dying children after a bomb went off but it was dying that had pushed him over the edge. Now everything felt so fragile, knowing how easy it was to get killed. One laced menu and sharp blade, he’d be gone again. On the other side he didn’t have to sleep, he stayed awake for days on end but now he was human his body needed sleep. Some nights he drifted off into a dreamless state, other nights he’d relive his murder. There was no one around him he could speak to either. Remzi had died, but he was snapped back to life almost instantly, plus the idiot had no idea he’d even died. Phoebe didn’t experience emptiness either, sucked back to reality just like Remzi. He didn’t share too much information with Ayla, yet she was only the person who immediately made him feel better. She didn’t even need to speak, she could just look at him and suddenly everything felt okay again. She made his problems disappear with her sweet smile and bubbly personality.
“I’ll catch you guys tomorrow.” He announced to the other staff before stepping outside. His warm cosy bed was calling him, but first he needed to escort the drunk guy home. He was relieved to step around the corner and see the stranger sitting on the porch, but his eyes immediately shot over to Frank. “Hey man.” Before he could step forward and bring his friend in for a hug Frank had dropped to his knees. He winced, bringing his hands up to cover his ears as Frank let out the most deafening scream he’d ever heard in his life. He’d heard people scream before, coming into the medical tent with their limbs hanging off or those parents who turned up to the school shortly after the bomb went off to find their child dead. Those were real screams that pierced the heart, but the sound that came out of Frank was something else. “Wha… what the fuck was that dude?” He slowly removed his hands from his ears, ready to shoot back up if Frank decided to go for a second round. FRANK DAMASCA |
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FRANK DAMASCA
Banshee
Posts: 127
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Oct 18, 2024 17:04:31 GMT
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Post by FRANK DAMASCA on May 27, 2023 21:12:57 GMT
The fourth time wasn’t the charm anymore than the third time had been. Screaming over the body this time no easier, although this time he wasn’t alone when the scream boiled up out of his throat, probably announcing himself to everybody in town. With Theo and the woman in the woods, he’d been alone when he’d come to just seconds before he’d screamed. There was nobody there to see awareness strike with the viciousness of a rattlesnake, or to see him fall to his knees. At Whitmore, when the janitor had tumbled over the roof, hopefully dead from the heart attack before he’d even hit the ground, one of his students had been right there. He’d tried to explain in halting words what had happened to Fionn – before the sheriff’s people had shown up and they were both taken aside to explain exactly what had happened. Was this going to need the same sort of explanation?
Frank stared at Raik through the blur of eyes that burned. Kit had been the one staring back at him after those first two times, concern in his eyes, his voice holding him the one together. What had happened that night with Katja and during the implosion of Kit’s relationship with her after wouldn’t have stopped him from getting here if he heard it over the blast of music at the club. Brotherhood didn’t wither that way, even if it took on a different shape for a while. Kit had to know that if the roles were reversed, when they were reversed and that need ran the other way, he’d be there, the same way he had been when Kit had been released from jail.
Drawing in a breath, Frank tried to get his feet back under him, but he wavered there on his knees, huffing out a breath. His gaze had dropped away from the man sitting. Now it swept past that too still figure to the man silhouetted behind him. Raik’s hands were slowly dropping away from his ears. His own were ringing, but he couldn’t blame that on what he’d drunk back at the bar either. Nothing that had happened since he’d left there was to do with the alcohol, it was the fucked up shit he’d apparently inherited without having a clue about it. Theo had held all of this so close to his vest that neither one of them had considered it was something they might share until that night in the clearing.
He planted a hand against the ground, levered himself up. Upright, he still felt a little unsteady, but he dragged his hands over his face without tipping back over on his ass. ”Hey,” he croaked. Any minute now someone might arrive, the cops, Kit, someone who’d take that scream for the announcement of being something supernatural that it was.
Pressing his tongue to his upper lip, Frank tried to approach. He’d been too close to too many bodies at this point to want to lay hands anywhere the cops could scrape his prints up from. Theo had been handling this for decades, but it didn’t seem like he’d ended up under police suspicion at any point. Would finding four bodies within a couple of years, including his own brother, who’d magically come back from the dead afterwards, put that spotlight on him? He didn’t want it to, he didn’t want any of this. ”We should move away from this,” he croaked. There were probably cameras on the building somewhere, if they were lucky it would’ve caught what’d really happened out here.
Wrapping a hand around Raik’s forearm, Frank squeezed, trying to emphasise the need to move. He swallowed hard, purposefully not looking back at the body, although he was sure Raik would want to check on the man – it was just who he was. ”He’s dead … we probably shouldn’t be here if anybody decided to call the cops. I mean, if they don’t, I will, but … this isn’t the first time, and it’s not gonna look good.” His brows drew together, his stomach twisting in a way that should’ve screamed no more alcohol, but it felt like he needed something. ”Is there anybody else in there?” He lifted his chin towards the bar. If there was then all of the subterfuge he was trying to put together until he could sort this out in his head would end up being for nothing. They’d rush out, the cops would rush in, and he’d be right back in the middle of it all again.
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RAIK DURMAZ
Human
Posts: 124
Age:
36
Occupation:
Bartender
Status:
Single
Played by:
Jodi
You’re as sweet as maple
Last seen Nov 13, 2024 20:00:54 GMT
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Post by RAIK DURMAZ on Jun 20, 2023 15:24:22 GMT
He’d found himself in this man’s position a few times before, albeit not for a few years. Cut off at the bar and struggling to navigate his way home. Usually Remzi would be there though and the pair of them would somehow make it home. Most of the time it was the blind leading the blind, except the one time Remzi led himself into a swimming pool. Some would say it could have happened to either of them, but realistically it was always going to be Remzi. The chances of him dying of old age were low. It was like he was adamant to die at a young age by doing something stupid. However, the chances of Raik being murdered? Near zero percent. This man was going to make it home okay though. Raik was certain about that. No wandering off into deep water, too wasted to paddle himself to the top. Tomorrow morning he would wake up in his own bed, nursing a headache. However, Raik was the one hit with an instant headache when Frank let out a blood curlingly scream. It ripped through him with force causing him to reach for his ears, fearing he was about to lose his hearing otherwise. He went to step forward to offer a hand to Frank, but he had already pulled himself upright. The scream had clearly taken it out of him too. Dead? Raik almost let out a laugh, like Frank was trying to wind him up or something. A stupid joke that wasn’t funny, but there wasn’t a trace of humour on his face. “What do you mean he’s dead? I’ve just spoken to him. He’s fine.” Doubt crept in though as he peered past Frank and looked at the man, who was slumped forward, “Bro… wake up. We gotta get you home.” He wanted to move past Frank and shake the stranger back into reality, but he couldn’t. Fear held him back in case Frank was right. “We can’t just leave him here if he’s… dead. We gotta call someone.” There was a lovely chest freezer in the bar that could hold one adult size body though. “Wait… this isn’t your first time? What’s that mean?” He couldn’t just turn his back on the man, leaving him curled up until someone found him in the morning. His eyes scanned the area, feeling uneasy knowing there was probably a reaper lingering nearby. If it was Leah she would have announced her though. Even if there wasn’t a reaper, the man’s ghost would be there, listening to them. “Nah it’s just me.” He’d pulled the short straw, having to lock up at the end of the night and boot all the drunk stranglers out. Either way, Frank still hadn’t answered Raik’s questions. “What was that scream? It wasn’t... natural.” FRANK DAMASCA |
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FRANK DAMASCA
Banshee
Posts: 127
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Oct 18, 2024 17:04:31 GMT
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Post by FRANK DAMASCA on Jul 11, 2023 17:31:02 GMT
In those times between he could almost convince himself that all of his supernatural shit was a dream. It was probably their version of sticking his fingers in his ears, screwing up his eyes and singing loud enough to block out what was happening around him. Childish and ineffective, but God, he would’ve given anything to go back to before that first scream had ripped out of him. A time where he’d been truly blind to the things that happened in this town. No dreams of Theo’s still, limp body lolling against his lap. No memory of the stiffness of his brother’s blood on his hands as it had dried. No screaming himself awake from the memory of it all. Frank almost laughed now, the sting in his throat aborting the sound. Who would’ve fucking thought he’d take nightmares of explosions and Chaco’s fixed staring eyes over anything else.
Years of training left him prepared for those threats. He knew how to defend a stopped convoy, how to cover his people and call for help. He had permission to shoot and end a threat there and ways to protect the people he cared about. This was different, and God, he was tired of stumbling through it all, of looking another friend in the eye, feeling like he was going to have to have to tear their lives apart with this thing that welled up in him, tearing him apart every time.
His fingers were shaking as he drove them hard against the ground to work his way up to his feet. Frank held them out in the air towards Raik as he lifted them towards his face, a silent warning not to get too close. They still weren’t entirely steady as he worked his way towards the man who’d saved his life so that he could be here for this nightmare. He kept his grip on Raik’s arm, staring at his friend instead of at the body. ”He’s not fine … Raik, Raik, that’s not going to work. He’s gone. You don’t want to see…” How. He didn’t want to see how either. The fact that he’d been drawn here to shriek out his death knell for the guy meant that it was something far worse than alcohol poison or a heart attack. There was a smell in the air, one that left him feeling sick enough to swallow convulsively, blood, at least enough to lend the air that coppery stink that would cling to him for days now.
Please. The plea to head inside dried up in Frank’s throat. They would call someone, when he was far enough away from this that the cops wouldn’t realise he’d stumbled over another body. How the hell did Theo manage that? How many bodies could you find before they started whispering about you being some sort of serial killer? ”We will … alright, just not from here.” His gaze snapped up towards Raik’s, a plea in their shimmering depths. ”It means I’ve done that before … I’ve found people before. That means they’re gonna recognise me if we call them here and they see me standing over another one, alright?” It wasn’t alright, not in any way, but it was all the explanation he could give for the second. He didn’t want to sit out here, just feet away from a dead body and reel out the nightmare he’d ended up snared in.
Shifting his grip to Raik’s elbow, Frank tried to guide him back towards the door into the bar. He felt bad about leaving the dead man out there alone, but he couldn’t stay out here, couldn’t keep breathing the stench of death in. ”I’ll explain inside … God I need a drink.” The laugh was short and sharp, choking him until he swallowed it back. ”It’s … not something you talk about just anywhere. There’s things going on in this town that aren’t natural.” And while he would do everything he could to shield his family from it that just wasn’t possible – Theo was just like he was, Freyja was a psychic, Hazel had unfortunately taken after a dad, Kit was a werewolf, Katja, God, they were all something and that was inescapable.
Frank shuffled close to the door, feeling a little better when the glow of the porch light above them left the body just another blob of shadow in the darkness beyond its reach. He finally let his hand fall away from Raik’s arm and drew himself up slowly. ”You ever heard of a banshee? A wailing … woman, they’re always a woman in the legends.” And that was bullshit, just like the garlic and vampires thing. A shudder ran down Frank’s back at the thought, scarred muscles twitching hard in response. Maybe that’d been what had happened tonight, although if Raik really had just seen the guy a few minutes ago that would’ve been fast – God, he didn’t know enough to even know if that was possible.
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RAIK DURMAZ
Human
Posts: 124
Age:
36
Occupation:
Bartender
Status:
Single
Played by:
Jodi
You’re as sweet as maple
Last seen Nov 13, 2024 20:00:54 GMT
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Post by RAIK DURMAZ on Jul 28, 2023 20:02:15 GMT
Did death cling to him? Follow him around? It felt like it. In the military he chose to put himself in that position, surrounding himself with the injured who sometimes didn’t make it, no matter how hard he tried. It was all part of the job. He’d stepped away from that life though, hoping he’d stepped away from seeing people die, but apparently not. He couldn’t understand how the man had gone from being okay inside the bar to being dead in the smoking area. Frank was planning on leaving the scene and making the phone call from elsewhere, like he had something to hide. Raik couldn’t do that though, he’d been doing shit like that for Remzi for too long. He even lied to the cop when they first arrived in town, convincing them Remzi wasn’t to blame for some murder despite deep down thinking his brother was to blame. He lied through his teeth to the cops. “From where then?” The man dropped dead, so why did they need to run somewhere else to make the phone call? The bar had CCTV, they’d see Raik speaking to the man minutes before he was found dead. “What’d you mean you’ve found people? Dead people? Nah, they’ll do a whole autopsy thing and see he died of natural causes.” There was a trace of concern in his voice as he rushed through the sentence. His eyes flickered towards the dead man for a second. No signs of trauma or foul play. Sometimes people just died, with no explanation. That wasn’t a good enough reason to bolt it. But that’s what they were doing. They were leaving the poor man alone in the darkness, for someone else to potentially find him, but Raik wasn’t focused on that anymore, he was focused on Frank and the awful sound that came out of him. He was concerned the cops were gonna find him with another body yet he just screamed loud enough to notify the whole of Mystic Falls. Reluctantly he let Frank guide him back towards the bar, his eyes darting over towards the man every now and then until he was fully out of sight. A strong drink wasn’t going to wash away what he’d just witnessed though. “Natural.” He repeated, a little slower. Frank wasn’t delivering fresh news to Raik. Raik knew of the unnatural things that lurked in Mystic Falls, his brother being one of them. There were no bite marks on the man’s neck though which ruled out the idea Frank was a vampire. That put Raik at ease, as part of him started to worry Frank was the one to end the man’s life. Raik’s brows knitted together as Frank mentioned the word banshee. “Siktir.” He muttered quietly as he started to unlock the door to the bar. He needed a drink. “Briefly, yes… and let me guess you’re one of them?” He sighed lightly, pushing the door open and heading straight for the bar. “We need a drink… I need a drink.” His head was spinning. Remzi was a vampire, Kit was a werewolf and now he was finding out Frank was a banshee. He lined up to two shot glasses, pouring out near whiskey for them both, “I know all about the things that aren’t natural. My brother is a vampire.” He picked up his shot glass, knocking the liquid back before pouring himself another one. FRANK DAMASCA - translation: fuck |
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FRANK DAMASCA
Banshee
Posts: 127
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Oct 18, 2024 17:04:31 GMT
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Post by FRANK DAMASCA on Aug 21, 2023 19:29:58 GMT
There were reasons he’d decided to teach history instead of science – the main one being that he didn’t want to be the one figuring things out anymore, relying on his judgment to change the world. Science came with expectations, research, discoveries that had lit Theo up like a kid on Christmas morning. What he was doing would maybe mean no kid had to go through life deaf or blind, or he could cure cancer. It was miraculous. After all that he’d been through Frank was sure he’d never be able to do the same. Those pivotal decisions would weigh on his shoulders like lead, choking the air out of him until panic set in and brought the fear that’d never quite left him with it. Nah, it had been easier to be the guy looking back at the past, at everybody else’s decisions. All the lives that could’ve been lost in what he taught were already gone, he couldn’t save a single one of them and that was fine with him. Theo had changed all of that.
In that split second before the scream tore out of him there was always that devastating burst of hope that maybe he could change what was happening. Theo had told him the chances were tiny, but it could happen. He could do for them what he hadn’t been able to do with his team. Each time he failed, it took a little more out of him. Frank wondered how many more he had left in him before he just cracked as he tried to break it to Raik as gently as possible that there was no chance. This had to be hitting the medic harder than it was him. He knew, this was like a fresh slap to the face for Raik and he wasn’t gonna be the same after that blow hit – he hadn’t been.
”I don’t know … a pay phone somewhere … just not here.” Not where he’d have to give a statement, reeling out exactly what he’d been doing all night – getting drunk, preparing to maybe get a different sort of buzz on to try and support a friend through all the shit that was going on, to try and get a handle on his own issues. With his name already on a couple of reports involving dead bodies it was only so long before someone tried to drag more answers out of him.
Frank kept his gaze on Raik, practically pleading with him to just understand for now. He swallowed hard, shaking his head, not wanting to follow the direction Raik’s gaze skittered in. ”It’s not gonna show natural causes. If I’m here it can’t just be a heart attack or some blood vessel blowing in his brain. That’s not how any of this works … Raik, there’s blood …” Given the way the guy was sitting it wasn’t from drunkenly falling down the stairs either. This had been something violent enough that Frank was sure he could almost feel the sticky traces of the violence in the air, clinging to his skin in a way that made him want to claw it from his bones.
Shoulders tense with the feel of it, Frank guided Raik back towards the bar. There was a chance they’d hear a normal scream, a human scream, while they figured this out but he doubted it. People didn’t go wandering down back alleys in this town after dark, he wouldn’t have done if it wasn’t for the voices in his head that dragged him around as if he was wearing a damn collar and leash. Raik’s echo of his word drew a sigh out of him, his throat working again as the sound seemed to try and draw the liquor laced contents of his stomach up out of him. Natural had seemed like a gentle way to go with it.
Siktir – fuck, indeed. Languages had always been one of his strengths, but Turkish was one of those he’d only picked up a handful of words of – mostly the obscene (soldiers were soldiers after all). Frank shuffled inside after Raik, closing the door all the way. He didn’t want to leave the guy out there, but they couldn’t have this conversation bathed in emergency lights. ”I am … and so is Theo. I didn’t know before. It’s not like the colour of your eyes or how big your feet are gonna be, you don’t always find out the minute you’re born.” It could be a switch in your head that got flipped on at any time – like when some son of a bitch kills your brother. ”I could use a bottle,” Frank admitted wearily. Not that he probably needed more alcohol, no matter how much that scream seemed to have sobered him up.
He sat down heavily on one of the stools in front of the bar, reaching for his shot the moment Raik set it down. Frank tossed it back, fumbling the glass so it skittered across the bar as Raik hit him back with his own shotgun blast admission. ”When?” Framk croaked, swiping the back of his hand over his mouth – it wasn’t shaking any more at least. ”B-before? How long have you know about all of this?” Had Raik known when Kit’s supernatural healing had meant that he seemed to walk away from the IED? Had he known when they’d run into each other in town and Raik had said he was on some sorta road trip with his brother?
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RAIK DURMAZ
Human
Posts: 124
Age:
36
Occupation:
Bartender
Status:
Single
Played by:
Jodi
You’re as sweet as maple
Last seen Nov 13, 2024 20:00:54 GMT
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Post by RAIK DURMAZ on Aug 23, 2023 20:41:36 GMT
A payphone? A fucking payphone. Raik couldn’t believe Frank, of all people, was standing there and suggesting they leave a dead person to be found by someone else. They hadn’t committed any sort of crime, so it didn’t feel right running from it. Maybe if the cause of death was Remzi’s fangs he would have been more willing to bolt. But Frank was chipping away at Raik’s moral compass, especially when he pointed out the blood seeping from the stranger. Raik had already been dragged into the police station for questioning before about a murder, thanks to Remzi. By a wild stroke of luck they were released. Frank’s words weren’t making any sense either, like the whole reason he was standing there was because the man was dead. Raik wanted to edge closer to check where the blood was coming from. They didn’t always go for the neck. The man had been outside for a few minutes, but he knew how fast those vampires moved. A few minutes was long enough for one of them to dart in, drain the human and leave. He didn’t creep towards the man though because deep down he didn’t want to know The other staff had already slipped out of the bar by the time Raik and Frank made it inside, which meant they were open to discuss matters, such as the fact Frank was a banshee. Raik didn’t even try and process that fact because what was the point? It wouldn’t make sense, just like nothing in the supernatural world made sense to him. It just kept spitting out more and more species and the amount of people he knew connecting with the world was insane. He was starting to feel like he was the minority being a human. “How do you know that dude out hasn’t died of natural causes?” Grabbing the bottle wasn’t a great idea, but both men needed it. He reached up to the middle shelf, bringing the bottle of whiskey down. He placed it on the bar. “How’s it work?” The only knowledge he had of banshees was whatever was portrayed in movies and TV, but he knew now the media's take on supernaturals wasn’t accurate. For starters, vampires could eat garlic. Raik managed to grab the shot glasses before it flew off the end of the bar. Yeah, the bottle wasn’t a good idea, but whatever. “He was turned before we came to Mystic Falls. Dumb son of a bitch drowned with vampire blood in his system.” He let out a quiet laugh. At the time there was nothing amusing about the situation, but now Raik would find himself smiling about it sometimes because it was so typical of Remzi to get so fucked up he forgot how to swim. He paused, staring down at the shot glass, playing with it in his hands. “I know Kit is a werewolf too… found that out when I died and they kept my body in the freezer at the Ruby Slipper Club.” Fuck the shot glass, he reached for the bottle taking a large swig before pushing it toward Frank. FRANK DAMASCA |
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FRANK DAMASCA
Banshee
Posts: 127
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Oct 18, 2024 17:04:31 GMT
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Post by FRANK DAMASCA on Sept 16, 2023 17:44:51 GMT
By the time Theo had explained everything to him, he’d been handling all of this for years. He’d been a teenaged death magnet, familiar enough with the MPs on base that, it seemed, they hadn’t questioned how he was managing to find people. Maybe their parents had known, either chalking it up to just another strain put on Theo (as though being born deaf wasn’t enough of a curse), or they’d known what it was and for the sake of their other son had downplayed the whole thing. Either way he’d never known just what Theo was going through – or what might be coming his way.
The learning curve had been brutal, the points marked out on it still haunting his dreams. Tonight would too, the scream echoing in his throat as he bolted out of sleep. He’d see the guy slumped in the shadows, perhaps joined by the woman he’d found the second time, or Theo …
If he didn’t wash the taste out of his mouth soon then there’d a scent worse than blood filling the air as everything he’d drunk tonight rushed back up to splatter over the bar’s newly cleaned floor. Frank kept trying to swallow it down, but there was only so long you could do that for to distract yourself from what was really happening. ”You’re a medic,” Frank said hoarsely. ”How many natural deaths do you know about that come with bleeding? You think he had the world’s worst nose bleed?” He shook his head, glancing down at the bottle. ”It’s always violent deaths. Every single one I’ve been to has been something violent … and supernatural.” Not necessarily that someone supernatural had died, it went the other way around too.
He shifted his weight uneasily from foot to foot, trying to work the remaining twitchiness out of his system. It had taken hours before, but surely you were meant to get used to it in the end. You didn’t fight the voices the same way, you tolerated it at least. ”It’s not schizophrenia,” Frank warned, before Raik heard the word ‘voices’ and thought he was crazy instead of just cursed. ”But there are voices. Sometimes you hear them first, just whispers, stuff you can’t make out. Then it’s like you lose all motor control of yourself. Whatever this is guides you right to the body and you … well, you saw the rest.” His jaw bunched, his teeth grinding before he glanced back up at Raik. ”I was at the club with Kit. I’d had a few drinks, went to get some air and then I was out there.” Yanked by those invisible strings. Outed to a friend he hadn’t wanted to drag into the sort of world that involved getting furry on the full moon or a dead (not anymore) brother he’d ended up screaming over.
Maybe he shouldn’t have bothered to worry about that. Raik had already known, dragged into that world by his own brother – wasn’t that a fucking kicker. Dark brows rose, Frank’s hand settling uneasy on the bar. ”So you knew about all of this when I saw you in the square.” Fuck. Sympathy filled Frank’s eyes as he stared at Raik. Dumb son of a bitch or not, he knew that Raik was close to his brother, and that shit had to hurt, the same way losing … nope. He wasn’t going down that rabbit hole, not today.
”You died?” The word cracked as it left Frank’s mouth. How fucked up was the universe? How many good people did it need to take – and how were the ones got who got to come back picked? He knew how hard that weighed on Dom, and if there’d been a chance he could’ve arranged something for his fiancé the same way it had been for Theo, or apparently Raik, he’d have done it. ”He didn’t say a fucking word. Kit was the one who came running the second time I screamed. The first time too … the p-police called him when my brother was killed. He … he came back too. How did you?” Frank gestured at him with the bottle as he took it, his eyes watering as he took a couple of gulps that burned on their way down.
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RAIK DURMAZ
Human
Posts: 124
Age:
36
Occupation:
Bartender
Status:
Single
Played by:
Jodi
You’re as sweet as maple
Last seen Nov 13, 2024 20:00:54 GMT
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Post by RAIK DURMAZ on Oct 5, 2023 20:26:18 GMT
At least he was in the bar now where he could drink something to take the edge of everything. It was a surprise he hadn’t hit the bottle sooner with all the shit which had happened. He’d always prided himself of being built a little tough after all he spent years in the military and saw some horrific scenes go down,, including watching his best friend get shot, but recently he felt like he’d been pushed to his absolute limits. As if one more thing would tip him over the edge, descending into behaviour that mirrored Remzi’s. Thankfully they only shared some DNA or there was a chance Raik would have jumped on the addiction train by now, riding alongside his brother. Raik holding a case of beer and Remzi holding a blood bag. Raik shrugged in response to Frank’s response, “What I mean is it could have been an accident.” But Frank shutdown that argument immediately. Raik didn’t get close enough to the man to check out his injuries, but from afar it didn’t look good. “So something supernatural managed to kill that man in the two seconds it took me to lock the door… this town just gets better and better.” Fuck, he thought Detriot was unsafe but it was goddamn paradise compared to Mystic Falls. At least at home the only thing he had to worry about was someone pulling a gun on him, not a vampire ripping his throat apart. It begged the question, why had Raik stuck around for so long? The only reason they came to town was to find Remzi's ring and that had been placed on his finger a long time ago. Except they didn’t leave afterwards, partly because of Leah, even though Remzi would never admit that. Now Raik didn’t want to leave because of Ayla. There was no chance he was going to abandon her with Remzi. Raik still wasn’t convinced his brother wasn’t going to lose control and bite Ayla. On paper it sounds like some kind of mental illness, but Raik knew better. This supernatural world he was unwillingly a part of didn’t conform to the norms, for example people out there drinking and surviving off human blood. “So you scream to let every person within a ten mile radius you’ve just found a body?” Sounded pretty bleak. There were fleetings moments where he wanted to ask his brother to compel him into forgetting everything. That night in LA where Remzi died, Katie’s death, his own death. But he couldn’t decide whether that would make matters worse. For starters, Remzi would need to find some way of explaining to his older sibling why he wasn’t growing old. Raik couldn’t trust Remzi to come up with a good enough excuse. Plus he didn’t want Remzi to feel alone after compelling his brother to forget everything. “Yeah man.” They’d only scratched the surface of the unknown though at that point. All Raik knew about was vampires, witches and reapers. Frank’s reaction was the same as everyone else. Kit, Ayla, Phoebe. Shocked that he’d died but was now breathing again. “Yup” The liquor burnt like a bitch travelling down his throat, but it was something to focus on. “Your brother died too? But now he’s back?” So finding a one way ticket back to life wasn’t that rare. “Um.” He reached for the bottle, knocking back multiple mouthfuls before wiping the excess from his beard. Raik placed the bottle back down, his eyes fixed on it. “I was killed by these two assholes… slit my throat and choked me out… some kind of supernatural sacrifice to gain more power… it’s fucked up man.” His voice cracked towards the end. There were apparently logistics behind why he was chosen, such as they thought he was Remzi, but Raik didn’t let it slide. It took a special kind of fucked up person to kill another. “And you brother?” He pulled his gaze away from the bottle, looking across at Frank as he offered the bottle again. FRANK DAMASCA |
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FRANK DAMASCA
Banshee
Posts: 127
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Oct 18, 2024 17:04:31 GMT
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Post by FRANK DAMASCA on Nov 16, 2023 19:56:26 GMT
Raik had spent as much time in battle as he had, as Kit had. He’d dealt with the worst things you could possibly do to the human body and had come face to face with some of the people who’d inflicted that damage. People close to him had been lost to all that violence and still Raik could look at the body of someone he’d seen alive only minute before and believe that their death had been entirely natural. God, he wished he could go back to that level of naivety, but Theo’s death had made that an impossibility.
Frank raked his teeth over his lower lip, shaking his head. He hated stripping that innocence away from Raik too. There were already too many of them trying to keep themselves afloat in the quagmire of the darker side of this town. His gaze ticked up from the bottle to Raik, the corners of his mouth pinching in the grimmest of smiles. He wasn’t wrong about Mystic Falls, unfortunately, but there was no way he was gonna leave here. Theo and Freyja and the kids were here. Kit, Kace, Katja, Dom – even though sleeping with him had left him running for the hills – were here. The screaming and the bodies should’ve sent him running too, but they were home and he wasn’t bolting away from that.
It was different for Raik. He had family elsewhere – somewhere up North if he remembered rightly. Maybe his brother would fight him a little when it came to leaving, but they could go without a second look. In time Raik would forget about the smell of death again, the tingle between his shoulder blades that crept in when things seemed to be going south, the hiding and lying and … that was wishful thinking again. There was no unringing the bell for either one of them.
That high pitched mosquito whine cut in as he strained his hearing for some sign that the voices would rise again. For weeks after each scream he was on edge, any unexpected noise cranking his anxiety levels. Even with the alcohol those levels weren’t likely to drop too far tonight. ”I guess,” Frank said, shrugging. ”Means that someone’s acknowledging their deaths I guess.” Maybe there was some small measure of comfort in that – he was making sure people didn’t just disappear, their lives as unacknowledged as their deaths maybe.
Frank huffed out grim amusement that faded almost as soon as the sound did. He’d spent all this time trying to shield the people around him from the worst of the shit, not wanting the stink of it to rub off on them. Now it seemed like Dom was probably the only one without a clue about what was out there, despite what had happened to his fiancé.
Raik had died. The sick feeling swam up his throat, leaving him gulping at the bottle as he tried to wash it away, like there was gonna be enough booze to do that tonight without him ending up passed out somewhere. Frank had to swallow twice to stop the liquor from rushing back up. He set the bottle down on the bar, nudging it towards Raik with the backs of his fingers.
”Fuck,” Frank croaked. He stared at Raik, sure he was gonna throw up all over the damn bar. ”I’m so fucking sorry.” As though sympathy could do anything now. There were people in this town more screwed up than any of them could imagine and right now one of them might’ve been lurking outside around the guy they’d killed. Reaching across the bar, Frank squeezed Raik’s arm, the only comfort he could think to give in the moment. ”He was stabbed at Whitmore, killed by someone who thought he’d murdered a kid. Someone who realised that it shouldn’t have happened brought him back.” Telling Raik about reapers felt like sinking another inch into the darkness. Without Cory nothing would’ve ever felt right again.
Slipping off of the stool, Frank fumbled for the lid of the bottle and screwed it back on. It was the same for the dead man’s family, if he had any. The minute the news reached them, nothing would ever feel right again. ”There’s a pay phone down the street,” he muttered. ”We should make that call. Lock up here. They’re probably gonna want to speak to you when they find out you were working here tonight. Tell them what you can, but all of this stays between us, alright?” Frank stepped back, shifting anxiously until they had the place locked up and they were heading up the street. The guy wouldn’t be alone for long, the sheriff and her people would come and they’d do the right thing by him.
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hope to see you in the discord! 
