magic_fratboy

How I wish I could surrender my soul;
Shed the clothes that become my skin;
See the liar that burns within my needing.

====================

“You’re sure you wanna do this?”

Tommy looked into Martin Mackenroy’s eyes, frowning in confusion. “I thought this didn’t mean anything?”

“It doesn’t,” the older man replied slowly, “but it’s not without its own inherent risks. It’s like pledging yerself t’ any seeker’s path. It’s that apple Eve gave Adam: once you take a bite, ya never really get the taste outta yer mouth. Ya can’t un-bite it. You understand, son?”

He hesitated, split with indecision and certainty. He knew it was a heavy burden he was about to take on, yet some part of him he’d never been aware of until now was restless and ready. His fingers were itching for the gleaming silver cuffs totally against his will.

Give me my chains.

He didn’t know where the words came from, but they felt right. Swallowing hard, he nodded, and extended his hands.

( “Let me have ‘em. I’m ready.” )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 722

Current Mood: awake

“Focus on the sound of the slot machines. Take what you need from there.”

Shutting his eyes, Tommy obeyed the softly spoken command. It was surprisingly easy to do, pulling that all encompassing blanket of sound around him. Then again, he realized with a grim sort of humor, maybe not so surprising. After all, he’d learned this lesson before…

The digital clang of bells and chimes, the cheery blip of reels turning, it all blended into a storm of noise that washed over him like cool rain that raised goosebumps on his arms and made the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. It was an ocean of sound and sensation that moved with its own tide. It ebbed with heat and promise, held a current of icy despair and desolation and balanced both in a precarious dance that could send the waters surging in either direction.

( In the eye of the storm, the air bubble in the water…he walked forward. )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 403

Current Mood: accomplished

I got lucky. That’s all it was...right?

My first night at the Magic Castle, and I’m checking out a wing the general public never gets to see. Fraternity only, y’know? Relics of the masters humans will never get to touch, much less see, and here I am running my fingers over Dai Vernon’s favorite pack of cards. I’m leafing through volumes written on Kellar and Cardini penned by Brothers for the Fraternity.

( A brush with Houdini... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 683

Current Mood: anxious
Current Location: my apartment
Current Music: LONG WAY BACK FROM HELL - Danzig

[Can I dodge the bullet tonight?...]

Current Mood: nervous
Current Location: Black Saber Studios
Current Music: Are You Gonna Go My Way? - Lenny Kravitz

His hands were shaking and the cold sweat had already started on the back of his neck, creeping down his body and soaking through his clothes. That’s what it felt like, at least, like his shirt weighed ten pounds with bodily fluids and fabric. It was all in his head, he knew, but the way his hands were shaking was a good solid mirror of the weakness in his knees, which threatened to give out on him at any minute.

The small club was full. This was a test…he couldn’t fail.

Locking his knees into place, he reached up with one trembling hand to grab the mic, closing his eyes. Maybe if he couldn’t see…

“Eyes open, Tommy.”

Swallowing hard, he forced himself to open his eyes. Wide, straight ahead, boring into the first face he saw. It wasn’t as shapeless or dark as the one on the Bringer that had shot him that first night, but through the haze of raw fear gripping him it could have been Satan himself come to claim his soul.

He was going to pass out.

Behind him, the first guitar riffs rang out.

( See the cycle I`ve waited for... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 1,055

NOTE: Lyrics are from "It Ain't Like That" by ALICE IN CHAINS.

Current Mood: scared

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying...

In her arms, he understood. In her care, he would be whole again.

He didn’t understand about the blade that cut into him days before, the poison that lived in the metal forged by the Darkness itself. The young warrior with the uncorrupted heart didn’t know he’d been infected with the essence of human isolation, nor that it was killing him from the inside out.

She had to call him home for healing before it was too late...regrettably, he was in a public place and had no idea what to do as she pulled him from the world. When he realized it was her touch he felt, however, he was no longer afraid...perhaps the others had explained to him that she knew about her keepers, the ones who fought so hard to protect her.

She was more than an idea, just as the Darkness was more than evil itself.

Even in his confusion, he laid himself at her feet. He calmed his heart, relaxed his body, and fell into darkness to find her. With words he wouldn’t remember later, she explained how close he was to death. He told her in thought what had happened that night and she smiled on him...so skilled with his power, he thought to help himself by healing himself with magic, not knowing he was closing an infected wound.

He gave to her perfect love and trust, and so she gave to him his life again. With her touch, the poison left his soul and in his mind she put the things he’d need to survive his next fight without her direct intervention.

Tommy Karras was going to be a fine soldier against all those the Darkness had at his disposal.

And Hope would make sure that her newest fighter would live to see enough battles to make the Darkness fear her for many generations to come.

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 315 (w/o lyrics)

NOTE: Takes place about three weeks before Tommy starts becoming aware of his abilities.

“You’re aware this is insane, right? Not part of the dare or anything.”

Tommy swallowed hard, then nodded as he toed off his shoes and stripped off his shirt. “Yeah, I know...but you never said I couldn’t up the stakes on my own.”

“Just...are you sure about this?”

Totally unsure, Tommy nodded and tossed his t-shirt aside, hands moving to his belt buckle and working it free. “Yeah. So you got the stuff or what?”

( Naked Dares and Houdini... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 495

Current Mood: satisfied

“It’s gonna come, Tommy…the moment you stop being who you were.”

( That moment was now, in the noxious jet pits that served as eyes in the face of the man before him... )

Muse: Tommy Karras
Fandom: Original Character
Words: 590

Current Mood: cold

He wasn’t ready.

Flat on his back with the muzzle of the gun not fourteen inches from his face, Tommy knew he wasn’t ready to go. He could see his loft, filled with work he had to finish. His desk at the office, stacked with proposals and a handful of jump drives filled with images his co-workers wanted opinions on. He had projects, art...he had a concert to go to with Jay and Benji come the weekend.

There was heat under the chill of cold sweat on his skin. The pulse beat in his ears like a jackhammer, too fast and too hard. Still, it beat...blood flowed, glands worked, and his stomach churned as muscle contracted.

As the shot rang out, his hand came up...and for a moment, Tommy was sure he’d died. His body exploded in pain, the heat under his skin rushed out as he tried to move with an abruptness, a speed and desperation he’d never known.

No.

It was more than a thought, it became a law of nature. The force of it sang inside him like a choir of angels, only instead of a sonorous melody, they were all screaming in unison. His life was about to be taken, and he wasn’t going to give it up. Even as he bled, even as he died...he wasn’t going anywhere. Not yet.

He had only moved his arm. Something tore, broke, bled...every nerve was wailing in agony.

And ecstacy...he’d never felt so alive in his life.

By the time the snowy white haze faded from his vision, six seconds had passed between the time the mugger had knocked him flat and the gun had gone off.

His arm was up. His fingers were frozen in a fist, nails digging into his palm with painful intensity.

Something hot was burning him. The gun went off, and he was still alive.

It took him a full five minutes to recover after his assailant ran off to lower his arm and open his hand to find the bullet meant for him clutched in his fingers.