Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-30622263-20170114021322/@comment-30622263-20170221014350

Dread, anxious dread settled into West's veins before that stranger even ducked beneath the bus-stop overhang. Breath caught in his throat. He swallowed.

He could not move, however-- the rain outside picked up, and West did not wish to take his chances. Hand tucked themselves into pockets, clutching faintly at a handful of sulfur, powder digging in beneath his nails. There was a certain danger in the unknown, and people had not been kind to him in years past.

It was only when she drew closer, when she came into the shelter beside him, that West was capable of passing judgement, of scrutinizing the girl. He almost wished he hadn't.

The tin prosthetics were an immediate tip-off to her identity-- the fact that they were tin, in lieu of the galvanized metals and wood which West was under the impression characterized most of the enchanted artifices of Ever After. Even so, he was aware enough of Ozian gossip, particularly news as old as Nick Chopper's adoption of children from among the Winkies. There was no doubt in his mind that he spoke here to the daughter of the Tin Man.

Someone else from his story.

No, he corrected himself. Their story. The story which belonged to all of Oz. The story which he had long since rejected.

"One does not refuse to sign the Ozian Storybook lightly," he answered, licking faintly at his dry lips. He pursed his mouth, and with a grim cadence, "There are those who would wish me dead for what I did. There are those who have tried to make me dead for it."

And then, as if he'd realized something uproariously funny, he released a low, dark chuckle-- edged with madness, perhaps, but he could no more change his laughter than he could change the color of his skin, or the way he would melt in the rain. Darkness was in his marrow, witchcraft in his blood, and he had given up on preventing it from ebbing into his laughter long, long ago.

"I suppose you could say... I am dead serious," he at last finished. "Perhaps more literally so than most."