Burning Lust

[GamingLord]

For a while, Thas or Eztli weren't quite sure what to say, trying to absorb everything that Sephiroth had told them.

”God has put you through many trials Sephiroth, and perhaps, there will be more to come. Thankfully, you've finally been able to see some of the fruits of your labor, such as freeing Fal'Jenul. All I know to say is to continue on the path you're on now, my friend, and God will reward you with His blessings.”

”I do have at least one question. Your birth mother. Have you ever wanted to know her? I know you're aware of Limbo's tradition of the soul festivals. Do you think you'll ever decide to meet with her in this current life?”  

[Rosemary Mori]

Rosemaqry let her arm drop to her her side and straightened her head. She looked at the guy next to her. Her normal mostly unconscious powers of leave me alone or stay away weren't working on this guy. Normally people didn't take up places next to her. "Zey used to be Baby Desert Eagle handgunz. Eef I'm zo accurate, vhat am I aiming at? I haf not hit ze bulzeye vonce."  

[GamingLord]

“No, but you have hit what seems to be little smudges made on the targets. I'm a bit of a mutation of my kind, I have extremely good eyesight. My name is Sylin. Your weapons interest me, I haven't seen anything like them. May I see them for a moment? Perhaps fire a shot or two?”

The man seem to radiate an aura of politeness, and despite having shown up the old men, he didn't seem full of himself.  

[Rosemary Mori]

Rosemary looked at this Sylin. She didn't really like handing over her guns to other people...especially both at once. She handed him one of them and said, "Numele meu este Rosemary. Zey're both ze same in design. I thought your kind vaz usually almost blind. You must haf got zome great new gene mutation."  

[GamingLord]

Sylin gave a thin smile as he extracted the magazine of the weapon and examined it as much as he could without disassembling the weapon. He had a bit of a thin, wiry build on him, his fingers bony and thin as they grasped the firearm.

”I was extremely fortunate. Half of my population are born excessively near sighted, another quarter nearly blind, and less than twenty percent what would be considered average vision. The only downside to my mutation is that I need to eat more often than usual because of my metabolism. Medical doctors think it's because my body is constantly repairing itself more often than most, and it shows greatly in my eyes.

“A universal ammunition modification. That must be extremely useful, to be able to practically use anything bullet-like as munitions.”

Bringing up another target, he reloaded, aimed, and fired the weapon... Or at least, tried to. He looked at the gun in surprise.

“Impressive. You must have highly above average strength to be able to pull the trigger.”

He gave it another shot, and after a long several seconds of squeezing the trigger, he managed to fire a shot. It was a couple inches away from the bullseye. Compensating, he took aim and fired again, this time making his mark. Sylin then unloaded the gun, and returned it to Rosemary with the safety back on, shaking his hand out from the effort required to fire.

”A beautiful weapon. Having it modified so it's so difficult to trigger the firing mechanism must be so you don't unintentionally snap it?”  

[Rosemary Mori]

"I had meant zat az a compliment."

Rosemary watched him as he examined her weapon and when he tried to fire it and then missed the bullseye she couldn't help but grin showing off some of her teeth. It was purposely built to not aim quite straight, but still looked like it should.

"Zat is part of ze reason... ze main reason iz zo zat others either can't shoot it or are unable to shoot it quickly und repeatedly. Vhat do you like to use?"  

[GamingLord]

Sylin scratched the back of his head, and simply shrugged.

"Most standard firearms, really. Sidearms, shotguns, rifles, both assault and sniping. I find I prefer rifles most, especially when accuracy is required. I miss my last set of custom weapons. They were pretty much sold underneath my nose by a less than considerate friend whom I trusted at the time. They were fully tailored to my needs."

He gave a faint grin.

"A weapon customized for oneself is a wonderful luxury. And an excellent self defense tool."

As they fired rounds of at targets, they both managed to give each other idle tips in shooting, trading methods of ways to increase speed and accuracy. Sylin had a few techniques that Rosemary hadn't exactly known of before, some that lingered into combat situations. He never said anything clear about it, but it seemed like he had been in firefights himself from the way he'd talk.

They then discussed things about the regulars at the gun range, Rosemary pointing out favorable people, and those to stay away from with sour attitudes. Finally, Sylin had to excuse himself.

"It's been wonderful discussing techniques with you, Rosemary. However, I must be on my way... I need to find my way to the Soul Fortress, I wish to see what it's like in the public section of it during the Annual Renewal celebration. Perhaps we'll meet again at this range?"  

[GamingLord]

"Oh right... Sorry, forgot about that."

Eztli was referring to the fact that Sephiroth's birth mother wouldn't going through Limbo's soul portals anytime immediately.

Thas seemed to think idly for a moment.

"I believe the fact that you question yourself there, means you still hold some grace and pity, and will quite possibly not give into a cruel sense of satisfaction."

Moments of silence passed, then Thas turned his attention to Rosemary.

"Shall I share my own life story now, or would you like to go first?"  

[Rosemary Mori]

Rosemary laughed at Thas and said, "You need to be more specific than that. We could be here for days if I did."  

[GamingLord]

"Well, for starters... Perhaps how you became a vampire, if that's not too much? And how you became an angel?"  

[Rosemary Mori]

Rosemary tapped her finger on her head and after thinking a moment said, "I expected the second question, but the first one I'll need to think about while I answer the second one...since I doubt a response of, "the usual way: bitten with intent to turn a person a few times over several nights in a short period of time and tasting their blood at some point," would be a satisfying answer."

She sighed and looked at her lap letting her hair fall forward. "Well it happened during that incident where the niearcim prevented anyone from teleporting onto our world from the outside of it. Heegh showed up too... It was the day Dieamos was freed too.

"The first time I meat Coatli, more like heard him, he tore into my mind and invaded it like it was nothing. It terrified me, it terrified me greatly. Living here us vampires are not used to people who can damage us so easily; until a couple years ago Veni and I have never been almost completely gutted, we have never had almost every bone in our body broken at the same time, we have never received so much brain damage, we have never received such sunburns, we have never received so many stabs in a second, and we've never been poisoned by anything that actually hurt or made us sick. We (vampires) are not used to creatures other than ourselves from tearing into our minds like it was nothing, we are not used to being beaten so much without dieing afterwards, we are not used to drugs that make us feel pain more than we normally do. He tore into my mind more easily than those hunters did who at the time succeeded in convincing me that I was a sociopath monster again. I now suspect that he too was a telepath of sorts before he became a mage and that's why he was most likely to do it so easily.

"Anyways... Coatli had come to collect me to bring back to Jiluzix. That whole incident was because of that....all those people died because of me..... Coatli came and told me to surrender and that he'd take my friends that was with us to be laborers rather than killing them. He gave me a taste of of what was to come with one of his own memories by making it seem like mine. Such disgusting wonderful joy of mutilating myself all for the better purpose of serving Jiluzix. At the same time something in my head had told me to stall...

"...I tried to stall, but in the end everyone else did it for me...I really didn't know what to do... All failed and after taking a poisoned Muerte blade in the side to shave Veni. Coatli pumped me full of strange poison and as he was about to take me home, Heegh interfered and we escaped to Barton Town.

"There I refused treatment because I wanted to recover myself and be immune to whatever it was in me. Then a cool breeze asked me to seek to be alone or maybe I wanted to be mostly alone. I took Black with me down to one of the hidden basements in the guild hall.

"She fell asleep in my lap and when she did I saw a shadow figure who sounded like me when they spoke at first, then friendly yet cold, and then familiar. When it revealed itself to me he looked exactly like I thought. Familiar yet not...it was like a ghost of xmas past that looks like everyone in Scrooge's past, but not entirely the same thing. I felt suddenly better.

"Tis isn't about us, but vhat you vant. What is it you want little vampire? I wanted you all to recover from that incident. I wanted to both be with my friends and not worry about Jiluzix hurting them if I was captured... I don't remember everything I said...but in the end my wish would require it to erase me from existence.

"It seemed like at that moment anything I thought would happen would happen. Like if I hid instead, I thought I'd be found eventually and they said that would happen. Then it informed my that I could be altered into something they no longer desire... lot of good that did on their homeworld... probably means something will happen that would make them not desire me.

"I was then informed that the angel of air was imprisoned and that if I took its place the current person with the position could rest. I hadn't known it was imprisoned because it was inane. Then it said she would be able to seek shelter in the safest places allowed by those in what you call heaven. The catch: I owe them a favor.

"I thought I was hallucinating...maybe dreaming. Vampire's can't pick up Bibles, go to church, or get through a door with wafer crumbs spread across the bottom. Now this familiar hallucination is telling me I can and it is like a new job? And that eating, sleeping, and avoiding the sun won't be a necessity to my well being? If I don't do that though it becomes stressful. And all I have to do is say yes and the job is mine?

"Veni wasn't too happy, but I think the day wore him out so much he would have agreed to almost anything. I came to the conclusion that I imagined it all and when I flew up to the ceiling to leave and glanced behind me...there they were." She left out that she hit her head on the ceiling and fell. She stopped there to allow them to comment before she continued.

 

[GamingLord]

Coatli. The name seemed to bring up negative feelings in the men around Rosemary. Thas and Eztli where disgusted by the pure evil the man had chosen in life, so faithfully serving Jiluzix until his mind became clouded and more horrific. Jacob had hatred for the Niearcim mage that not only caused much of his torment, but Rosemary's as well.

Eztli and Thas gave each other a slight glance when Rosemary mentioned the ghost like individual. A suspicious being, seemingly changing people's fate?

”Strange... that sounds like the Nathan guy a little.”

”Yes... Also the past angel of wind, though insane, wasn't necessarily evil. Just a bit... out of control, from what I was told recently. So they couldn't necessarily kill him. Besides, the mysterious order to wait came from high above. So... that's another thing that has my curiosity peaked. If I ever find out anything of interest about the past angel of wind, I'll let you know Rosemary. Hopefully it'll be information that is useful.”  

[Rosemary Mori]

Sylin just made it sound like he used more than 3, well now 4, guns in his lifetime contrary to what he said to the other regulars. She decided to not say anything. When he said his farewells, Rosemary said, "ze Soul Fortress's public section iz alvayz full of people und a bit crowded for my taste during any celebration. I can take you zere since zat's vhere I am going vhen I'm done."  

[GamingLord]

”I appreciate and accept your offer, Rosemary.”

Later on, Rosemary took him to the Soul Fortress. Sylin seemed to marvel at everything he saw there, from the plantlife, to the animals, to the intricate statues and sculptures.

”To be so very close to the source of... Where souls go to be led to their ever after. It is an amazing thing. And the tranquility here is.... is beyond measure. How do people tear themselves from such a place?”