forum The League (small-ish group) (open, no need for a writing sample)

Started November 05, 2021 by Deleted user

tune

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She scoffed. “Well, I think I’m far from perfect. I want to change. I would rather die than live as the monster I am.” If she was being honest, she wouldn’t mind if she died at this very moment. At least that way she could see Jonathan again, even if she would be watching him in Heaven while she was in Hell. She followed him inside, putting her parasol away.

Dorian regained his composure, and settled into a bullet ridden chair. “Well, now that my house has been thoroughly demolished, I suppose I have no choice. I’ll pack.” he told the group, exiting the room in order to gather his things in some suitcases, then mark them each as his own as he knew many did with their luggage in trips to foreign lands. He came back after twenty minutes, carrying two suitcases of clothes and other necessities and two full of what looked to be a chemistry set and chemicals. “A man can have his hobbies, Mr…”

“Rainsford, sir. Sorry, sir.” the man in question looked down and away from Dorian.

Sherlock had been silent as he studied the goings-on. He had been unable to hear Dorian and Mina's conversation, which was a shame; he would have loved to hear the information they gave, even if most of it wouldn't have made sense to him. Tom still looked weirded out, his pistol in hand as he studied this strange, motley group.

Mina waited with the others. It was quite awkward, as a few of them were making glances in her direction. Efraim had fallen silent again, flipping through the notebook. The sketch of Dorian was gone, replaced by burned, blackened paper. Thankfully the fire hadn’t spread beyond the one page, but Efraim still silently mourned.
Quartermain was one of those who was giving weird looks. Multiple things about this didn’t make sense to him. They quietly put their pistol away, his attention moving to Dorian’s chemistry set.

Dorian shrugged. “Well? Will one of you big, strong, handsome men pick up my things and help me to your… boat wouldn’t describe it, I take it? I know about your mission, more than you do.” he chuckled, throwing a bag of clothes at Tom. “Including our next destination. To the home of the infamous Mr. Hyde, all the way in France. I take it the Nautilus can take us?”

Tom caught it out of reflex, nearly dropping his loaded gun in the process. "Don' throw your clothes at me!" he snapped, setting the bag on the ground in order to unload the pistol. "I coulda shot someone, an' then what d'you think will happen? Not everyone here can withstand bullets like you apparently can." his accent was thicker than ever, spurred on by anger and disbelief that Dorian would wilfully do something so unsafe.

Dorian shrugged. “Don’t worry so much about it, sweetheart. Honestly, Americans and their guns.” he laughed, and jumped off the balcony to the ground below. There was a crunch of bones, then a sound of them snapping back in place, and Dorian stood up unscathed, bags in hand. “Well, might as well get going then.”

Tom cursed at him, throwing the bag straight at his head. "I'm not carrying your damned bag." he retorted. "Not when you don't give a shit about everyone else's safety." the gun, now unloaded, was tucked back into the holster, the ammo in a separate pocket.

Mina wordlessly lead the way out, down the stairs and through the front door. As the others followed, a thought occurred to Efraim. They quickly wrote in a new page in the notebook. Deciding to show it to Sanger, the notebook read, Is this Mr. Hyde fellow the clue M. mentioned? How does this man know, if that’s the case?

“If you’re wondering,” Dorian began, peeking over Efraim’s shoulder, “M himself told me. I promised that I’d at least deliver the information necessary for you to continue on your mission, and if you could convince me to join, I’d come along.” he said, dragging his bags behind him. “But yes, Mr Hyde, and his lovely counterpart, the famed Doctor Jekyll. I’m surprised their story cycled out of the news so quickly, I would have expected it to be a legendary tale.” he chuckled to himself.

Efraim flinched. Mina’s gaze slid over to Dorian. “Oh, it hasn’t. I suspect it’s just Efraim here who hasn’t heard of them. Do you know about Hyde and Jekyll, Efraim?”
At first, they shook their head, then realized they wouldn’t be able to see. No, I don’t, they wrote. I don’t read the paper.
Truthfully, it was just that they were too poor to read the news. Sure, they could easily steal a newspaper, but their convictions and beliefs kept them from doing so. Reading the news wasn’t necessary for survival, after all.

Sanger shook his head. “I may be American, but I’m not stupid. Who are these people?” he asked, feeling like he was way out of his depth. He had never heard those names before, admittedly he’d also spent several years of his life trapped with some murderous psychopath. “Oh, don’t you worry. I’ll tell you.” Dorian said, and he began his explanation.

“Doctor Jekyll was a respected man, well to do, all that sort of thing. But deep down, he had dark desires. And so, with a potion so vile only the most evil could consume it without bursting into flames, Jekyll made his desires flesh in the form of evil alter ego Mr Hyde.” Dorian began.

Mina was quiet, letting Dorian tell it in his own dramatic way. She didn’t know everything, after all; she had been in Romania up until this point, and only learned about the infamous men while reading the newspaper on the train. She took a moment to clean her spectacles.
Efraim listened to Dorian attentively, but was also feeling an echo of embarrassment. Of course Sanger wouldn’t have known anything, he was American, but even then, it was pretty obvious to them now that M. would have told Dorian about where they would go next.
“Oh good gravy, another… interesting character to meet,” Quartermain muttered. They were also listening, as he had also never heard of Jekyll or Hyde.

(Lol cool. Never heard that song before but I’ll give it a listen!)

(Nice! It’s very good, SIAMES is a favorite band of mine)

(Highkey I am so tempted to make a group DM with y'all–)

(Do it coward, I love to write with you!)