Over the Stars [Zane, Malachai, and Danny]

Zane twitches, and lifts his head...the movement makes him roll almost onto his back...he's gutted himself. Winces and whines, putting his head back down. "Wasn't enough."

Danny goes pale and runs.

The metis goes ashen. He rushes forward to assess the damage. "Oh fuck, oh fuck, Zane, I told you I'd help you, why didn't you wait?!"

[Zane] hisses, blood gurgling through the gaps in his teeth. "Calm down...be quiet...my head hurts...too loud." Stretches, as if to make sure there's feeling in his legs still. Whines a bit, quivering. "Didn't think it would...didn't think you'd hurt. Said I didn't...deserve it..." Danny comes back down the stairs at a dead run, white case under an arm and carrying duct tape. The ahroun drops that at Malachai's feet, and goes to one of Zane's legs, gently hugs it, and through a sobbing voice, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

"Idiot," he chokes, "when I said you didn't deserve it I meant you hadn't done anything bad." While Danny is breaking down, Malachai is all business. He throws the case open, starts selecting tools. With those set out he rolls Zane onto his back - quickly supporting the exposed viscera - and starts working.

[...]

"Daniel, get a hold of yourself. You're the Ahroun. You need to be strong now." He scowls as he sews. "This is just great, Zane. I was just coming in to see if your eye healed up and you've damn near killed yourself. That did it. You're not to go anywhere on your own until I think you can be trusted not to pull this crap again."

This image...took a LONG time.

The scene is straight from a gaming session a while ago. Following a "Fire Talk" [basically, pack meeting] Zane was left to his own devices...with fairly bad results. Zane does NOT have good judgement, or a very strong sense of self preservation. Plus, he is a consumate [and insane] masochist, and really didn't think that pulling out his own intestines would be a problem.

This illustrates when Malachai and Danny arrived back at the house and found him. I did what I could to show perspective...though I think I sorta failed a bit on that. Decided to keep it greyscale because colour would be too...bright...too cheery for this.

The text is directly from JTHM: Director's Cut, and is (c) Copyrighted to Johnen Vasquez. In the game, "over the stars" has come to be synonymous with suicide...though with some irony, Zane's self-evisceration wasn't an attempt at his own life.

Danny [far background] is (c) Copyrighted to his creator; Malachai [near background] is (c) Copyrighted to The Wyrm; Zane [foreground] and artwork are (c) Copyrighted to Kettensage, 2005. What a way to start the new year...