Muahaha! It's fine. I'm plotting too. For here and Together Again!
I close my eyes, tell us, why must we suffer? Release your hands for your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us, where must we wander? How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?
To all of my children in whom Life flows abundant, xxxxxto all of my children to whom Death hath passed his judgement, the soul yearns for honor and the flesh the hereafter. xxxxxLook to those who walked before to lead those who walk after. Shining is the Land's light of justice, xxxxxEver flows the Land's well of purpose. Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe... xxxxxThe Land's alive so believe...
Smiling at how she seemed adamant about making him feel better, Sheik opted to let her do just that though he'd fight her tooth and nail if she truly ever blamed herself. Bumming others out was like a secret ability of his after all. Instead of starting up any extra topics that could start turning sour swiftly, he merely nodded while tapping the toe of his foot against the floor to the tune she was now humming. Instead, his only comment to it was, "Is it I'll never give up, oh~ I'll never give up on you or is it I'll never give up on- I'll never give up on you? It sounds more like the latter to me, but the way it's sung kinda throws me off. It happens with lip-reading too. It looks like one thing, but it doesn't match what they say. Perhaps my brain's inputting the words in my head based on sentence structure though. The brain is pretty odd with how it works."
"Actually, it is. It's odd for the-this present day unless you're a.) into cosplay, b.) working in a renaissance fair, or c.) a soldier of the fey. Other than those three, there's nothing even remotely close to your current attire anywhere. I'd know 'cause I spy on things and people for a living," Ephraim responded with a flicker of a smile only to scowl when a shadow hand smacked him upside the head. Shooting a glare at Tasso, for it could only be his doing, the informant crossed his arms over his chest. "Like, seriously, dude? What's your deal? Do you just like hitting and annoying people?"
Giving a heavy sigh, a mass of shadows made a quick run over both Tasso and Ephraim. When they departed, both were dressed in a form-fitting garb of dark purples, reds and blues adorned with designs that seemed to be linked to the tree of life or something similar to it. The only difference was that Ephraim got what appeared to be dark metal plates here and there whereas Tasso got thick leather patches, each of them covering vital areas of the body. "I hate stupid and naïve people is all. You're still in the dark, or light for us in being blind, on your own kind so shut it, pipsqueak. Our people had armor like hers and this is an example of it. Each armor type was based on what skills you had and behavior type. It covers your blind spots, the openings you leave in the midst of a battle. The people of the light took that factor as the people of the dark being warmongers when they only wanted to protect themselves. The one you currently wear is actually really light for a guardian class berserker due to your skills as the assassin and informant you are. Mine is a little heavy due to my in-your-face attitude and pure recklessness, whether I be an assassin class warrior or not. Her rituals are not unlike our own peoples, but unlike her, we don't need to look like Joan of Arc to put on a spar or whatever," he corrected only to step back with one foot and shift to the side slightly just for a knife to hit the wall behind him. "Damnit. The hell is his issue? He shouldn't even remember that time if he was just revived. I'd retreat, but the jackass can follow me."
"He can run through the shadows?" The question from the two younger shadow users almost sounded defensive by how quickly they said it though they were mostly dumbfounded, but Tasso merely nodded in response. "How?"
"Don't know. I tried to use them to my advantage in our skirmish, but he always seemed one step ahead of me. Even worse, he traversed the roads and kingdom there better than I did and I spent most of my life in there. Perhaps it just seemed like that since I was a bit... emotional at the time, and emotions can make or break you in a battle."
"I can't see you being emotional. Snarky or irritated, but not emotional. What caused your concentration to slip? And by the way, you kinda just said what you told him not to say."
"Nunya business. And I have a reason for all that I say and do, Tyvinida Harashï. Someone has to drive ya up a wall, Iris. Everyone has that someone. Just try to behave and remain aware of your surroundings or something worse than being broken up may come to pass. While the truth is I honestly don't care what happens to eighty-eight percent of you, I'm personally obligated to do damage control if you affect the remaining twelve percent. If you keep dawdling, I'm going to kick you out into the yard to deal with this căţea. She's like a three year old throwing a fit so I really don't get why you're so unnerved." Alright. He'd admit the jabs at Rissa were actually to get her fired up enough to deal with Vivaldi swiftly, but the reason for why he was rushing it would remain his secret.
"I wouldn't mind it if it were for you, but that doesn't mean I would stop my training. Besides, you kinda need to back away from the spirit realm at the very least if you're going to be keeping up the exorcist-hunter thing. We're both sensitive to that side so we're already like huge beacons in their dark world and there's some really bad stuff that lingers there too. Something bad possesses your body or follows you back here, you'll be putting your friends and family in danger. Either way, it's fine that you're a hypocrite 'cause I am too. I think most of us are actually. And, once again, I feel I'm supposed to be dreading this chic arriving, but I'm still not picking up on it. It's weird," Lucian shrugged before hugging her back, his hand still intertwined with hers yet set between them in said hug. When she gave his hand a squeeze, he lifted hers to his lips just to press a kiss to her knuckles and then give it a quick lick. He was a werewolf after all. She should be glad he hadn't gone into his wolf form and done the whole territorial act as of yet. "I'm sure things will go swell outside. We tend to aid each other if things start lookin' rough after all. Just be careful, Rissa. What was once a good depth perception from me has been thrown out of whack with this vision thing so I don't wanna give bad medical reports and treatments 'cause of it."
Nodding slightly, Watari gently brushed his thumb against her arm in a comforting manner. "Thank you. I really don't want anything bad to happen to you," he whispered softly as he noticed her breathing shift as she drifted to sleep. Poor girl. She obviously didn't like the idea of staying out of the fight what with all of the worry for those remaining on the front lines, but she had to recover and refrain from pushing herself too hard and so she said she would for him. Was it selfish of him to tell her to push her worries down just so she could recover, or was it selfless? He couldn't really tell as both seemed to describe it quite well.
Having nodded when Lianna offered him talking to her if something bothered him, Hayden drew serious ever so briefly when she wasn't looking at him with his hand brushing against the already fading scar on the side of his head. By the time she was handing him a towel, he was stretching his back by raising his arms over his head with a calm serenity to him. Accepting it graciously, he did a quick-dry with it over his head before tying it around his waist. It was then she opted to wrap her long arms around his neck and pulled him into a warm embrace, her forehead to his shoulder. "I'll let you know if I start getting bothered by something. Promise. As for your question... Mm... Not that I recall you ever saying aloud, but I feel as though I've felt you saying it internally or that you did at some point that just isn't clicking," he answered as he gently returned the hug and placed a kiss atop her head. "You're the same for me... I don't know why you've come to like such a horrible person as me, but I can't really say I know much of anything so it seems kind of redundant to say."
Giving a soft snicker, the thick, inky creature solidified then shattered with relative ease. "How cute you are with your little tantrums. You remind me of her. She'd never take no as an answer and still won't to this day. It's kind of amusing. Almost as amusing as you actually thinking I'm this fey child in truth. Allow me to repeat myself for you, căţea, 'cause I honestly want to know," Fedelta chuckled in a not-so-Fedelta way as he turned in an about-face and hooked a hand on the back of Vivaldi's collar and snatched her backwards just to step back in front of her and set the end of his sword on the ground. Within a moment, Fedelta's body hit the ground whereas a strawberry blonde male with dark eyes and mocha colored skin remained in place. While he appeared dressed as some kind of tribal man from the desert, it was apparent that he was inhuman based on the long tail wrapped around his upper thigh and the leathery wings tucked against his spine. "Are you such a coward that you would hide behind a bunch of insulting Frankenstein type beasts so easy to break down it isn't even funny anymore instead of actually using your own skills to reach your target? Or is it that you're too weak to do such a task? Oh. Right. It's rude not introducing one's self. You may just call me Tex. Everyone else does. Unlike you, or most people in general, my mind can't wrap around stupidity and normality so as I previously said, I'm genuinely curious."
By the time Kansei would catch up with the serpentine male, he'd be sitting on an overturned tree where the gate should have, and once had, been. "Yes, he did take my brothers. I wouldn't lie about them, especially now... It's my fault they even left the Terenuri de Sarpe to begin with," Basilisk responded softly while rotating a marble-sized orb in his hand every now and then. Holding it out to her, his hesitation rather apparent in what had been such a fluid grace beforehand, he nodded slightly. "But yes, your comrades and I shall be on neutral terms at that point. As for you in particular, that's not my decision. While I may be able to commune and manipulate all serpents to my will, there is only the closeness of the snakes I grew up with the humanistic family I have that I take personal. She was the third to approach my brother Diaratte, the middle child in the set of triplets that Wataru is hiding from me, so the choice for forgiveness in killing her is his, not mine. Once he decides, the other two will fall in line and I will do my utmost to protect them. It saddens me to think that I was able to protect them all the way up until those places. Now all I know of them is what Wataru tells me and I don't trust his word. He's yet to follow through on the first promise he made after all."
Now open your eyes while our plight is repeated. Still deaf to our cries, lost in hope, we lie defeated.xxxxx Our souls have been torn and our bodies forsaken, bearing sins of the past for our future is taken.xxxxx War born of strife, these trials persuade us not. Words without a sound, these lies betray our thoughts.xxxxx Mired by a plague of doubt, the Land, she mourns. Judgement bind all we hold to a memory of scorn.xxxxx Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die,xxxxx helpless in our cries?
Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth Life flow, yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die and know.
Posted: Sun May 21, 2017 9:45 pm
Dantes river
ehehehe the plots thicken~ i've got plans for both too. hope you're ready for a field trip~!
I wanted to forget how you swallowed me whole I wanted to suggest we let the s**t go I overstayed a while and let you beat on my soul I never could digest how you were so cold Concealed behind a smile with teeth as sharp as they show The bullet in your hand, it had my name on I'm gonna run and hide, I'll disappear for a while
I feel so dead inside,
"I've always thought it was the first, although I could see the second one being just as usable. Songs make it hard to tell what's being said. You should hear Rissa singing sometime. Half the stuff she does is by ear," Kana chuckled as she turned back to the pantry and began rifling through it until she found a few packs of tea. "I know it's not the greatest stuff, and some of you are particular about your tea, but if I mixed up a berry tea do you think they'd try it?" She asked softly, glancing over her shoulder to him.
"Well, maybe in this world it's normal, but I never said I was from this world, did I~?" The blonde purred, going on her toes to kiss his noes. Glancing over to Taz, she rolled her shoulders briefly before mocking a punch at him. "Ease up a little, I know it can be a bother when people are ignorant or naive but snapping at them only results in everyone getting on edge. We don't need anymore fighting than what's already going on," she breathed, shoulders slumping as she glanced to the window again. This was going to suck. But how else to deal with a thorn than to pull it out?
"Honestly, it doesn't surprise me much to hear that Hades can use the shadows. Perem and Adra had access to them, although they preferred asking before entering since they weren't born within," Skylar drawled, stretching his arms above his head as a few specks of sand fell into his lap, making him glance down. So, he was still keeping tabs on them.... guess he was worried.
The nervous laughter that escaped truth when he brought up being possessed made the redhead slap a hand over her mouth, eyes shifting to the floor as her cheeks flushed. "I might have already had a few accidents like that.... among other stupid decisions....." she mumbled, twisting the bottom of her shirt in one hand. There was a reason she'd had a seal tattooed on her body. But now that it had burned away, it was only a matter of time before she was found. The lick didn't really bother her too much, she'd grown used to the fact he was a werewolf when they first met.
"No need to worry about me, lulu, I heal pretty fast on my own," Rissa chimed as she finally headed towards the door.
In her sleep, Krystina found herself face to face with herself, as if looking in a mirror that could change her clothes, and make her hair grow long and wild, not to mention the slight differences in body type. "What is this?" Even her voice seemed strange, like an echo of what it should have been. "This is a calling. You've been chosen as one of the Awakened, Krystina Herzen," the woman smiled, offering a hand to Krystina. "Awakened? What? No! I can't just leave! My friends need me! And what about M-" "if you do not come now, you will be claimed in time, it's as simple as that. You are one of Haralda's three grandchildren, and Nightshade will send for you," the woman interjected, causing Krystina to start. "I was only permitted to do it this way, so that our brother wouldn't be forced to watch you go through the trial. You know the pain of watching someone do that, do you want to force that on him as well?" ".... Aaricia? So... it's true then..... she really did save you," the blonde mumbled, tugging a hand through her hair. "I already told you, I can't do it. I refuse. I want to stay here, with Maso and Skylar and the people I care about. I can't join you." "I'm afraid you don't really get a choice"
Smiling up at him, the half drow went on her toes to kiss him softly. "I don't think you're horrible. I think you're a good person who's been put in a bad situation, and I know I'm going to stay by your side no matter what," she smiled, drawing randomly on his shoulder as she just enjoyed being in his arms. She was going to try and make the most of moments like this, where they didn't have to fight and could just be alone. Not that she minded fighting, but rest was a necessary part of life.
Eyes narrowing when the halfbreed became someone else, the brunette's body shifted so she was standing at the ready, a deep red aura beginning to surround her. "I'm no coward. It's as I said, I won't waste my time on someone so weak," she breathed, unfazed by his taunts. With a flick of her fingers, Tex was swallowed by an airtight ball that began filling with an almost untraceable hallucinogenic gas meant to invoke nightmares in the real world. "Vivaldi Kroven!" The shout from Rissa was enough to make Vivaldi jump, despite her previous calm. Turning to look at the child her goddess had become, she swallowed a lump in her throat at seeing Rissa in such an outfit, Eris's great sword pointed at her throat. "You stand accused of breaking the balance I've set out to keep in an attempt to regain power you once had on multiple occasions, going so far as to mutilate demigods into monsters for your own advantages, and desecrating the sacred grounds of my family. Had this been your first offense I would have let you go with just stripping you of your powers and status," the blonde drawled, a flicker of a smirk on her face at seeing how scared that alone made the woman. "But this marks your eighty fifth attempt at creating a rift in my mental stability. I'm afraid that with Lavender, Coco, and Iris as my witnesses, I'm going to have to declare your life forfeit."
Coming to a stop in front of Basilisk, the panther tugged a hand through her short hair and looked around quickly to make sure no other rifts were opening, and that no one had gotten through. "You didn't see a Shikaori- er... a guy who was partially bat around here? or anyone with bronze tattoos come through did you?" she asked softly, the hair of her tail fluffed out as she continued to look around. Looking back when he spoke of her needing to earn the judgment of the snakes, she nodded and shrugged briefly. "Honestly, i'm fine either way. Even if they don't decide to call it even, I'd be alright. It's not like i'm really needed by anyone anymore."
and it's all your fault
But you don't feed me now No longer hold me down You'll never watch me drown I hope you figure it out No longer sickened with doubt You'll never watch me drown
Poor plot. It didn't do anything to you. ;c Lol. Field trip!
I close my eyes, tell us, why must we suffer? Release your hands for your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us, where must we wander? How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?
To all of my children in whom Life flows abundant, xxxxxto all of my children to whom Death hath passed his judgement, the soul yearns for honor and the flesh the hereafter. xxxxxLook to those who walked before to lead those who walk after. Shining is the Land's light of justice, xxxxxEver flows the Land's well of purpose. Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe... xxxxxThe Land's alive so believe...
Giving a soft chuckle, the Sheikah male couldn't really disagree with the fairer haired female. "Yeah. Accents, the actual music and all of the electronics involved with songs tend to throw you off," he hummed as he just let his subconscious mind continue with the cooking. At being asked about the tea, he paused long enough to turn towards her with a slight smirk and direct a wooden spoon her way. "They don't exactly got a choice. Shayde hasn't been keeping up with the shadow tea and we're currently out of sweet tea. You want it done right, it takes time and I'm pretty positive that the food will be done before the tea has steeped in a pot long enough to actually make it right. Their choices will be green tea with or without extra flavoring, water or the berry tea you're making. If anything, you can count me in on drinking it." That stated so very bluntly, he returned to what he was doing whilst shifting slightly to check on the rice. So close...
Ephraim smiled at Rissa's responses, his fingers twitching slightly by his side, but he knew this was something she had to do. "I'll be here for you," he murmured softly under his breath before glancing at the window. Why couldn't there be a single moment of peace? And there went Tasso rolling his eyes to the words she'd directed towards him. Actually... "Hey, Taz. Earlier on, you referred to this Xian Kian Feng fellow a few times. You then changed your statements to say he refers to himself as Wei Fong which is my master's name. What's with that?"
Blinking a couple times as the words settled in, Tasso's jaw drew taut. "I really don't think you'd like the answer, Ephraim. That's not an opinion or theory either. It's a simple fact that you wouldn't be able to look at anything the same," he answered carefully after a long, silent moment before shifting his gaze back to where his once-was ally and his girlfriend were located. As if sensing the younger male was going to press for more answers, however, he gave a heavy sigh and pointed towards Hayden's and Lianna's current location. "Wei Fong is Xian Kian Feng. He just changed his name because of this lovely little thing called time and history. The man you know as your master, your sensei, isn't a real man. He's the beard of the real man that despises Rune for whatever reason."
"The... Beard?"
"It's a mask, a facade, a distraction. You've never heard that before? Like ever?"
"No, but it does kinda make sense that beards throw people off a bit. And I don't really know what you're talking about with Master Wei Fong. He'd only been in the brotherhood for twenty-five years when I met Trevor and the tweebs."
"Incorrect. He'd been in the brotherhood for about fifty years when I met him and after the academy incident, he ran off. The next thing you know, Wei Fong entered the picture and shortly after, he took control of the future generations of assassins. Children are easy to trick, easy to manipulate as they are impressionable. He needs allies though I'm not entirely sure as to why."
"That's a lie. Master Wei Fong isn't like that. He's not that kind of man."
"As if. I've given you no reason to think I'm a liar. Besides, I'm like fifty years older than you according to these grey area years. I think I know what I'm talking about. You were the perfect opportunity for him to create a personal bodyguard. He didn't have to kill off your family and make you hellbent on revenge nor did he have to kidnap you. No, you were placed on his doorstep like the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Xian threatened your livelihood which unleashed the beast from its cage, your berserk survival skills, and you can't even remember it. And that's the expression I expected to see at hearing the truth. Told you that you might not like the answer. Thank you, by the way, for not overreacting over the Romanian traversing the shadow paths like they did, Skylar."
"I thought he was up to no good... So why do you keep glancing at the general direction of our infamous assassin, Taz? Worried about something," Trevor questioned earning him a half-shrug from the shadow walker.
"No surprise. Two reasons: he's aimed at me a few times so he could just be trying to lower my guard, and I'm curious as to why he hasn't left yet. Back at the academy we went to, he used to talk in his sleep when he actually slept. Dude can't sleep peacefully unless he's dead. Either way, some of the things he'd say weren't full of rainbows and sunshine. Even when I was like Shayde there, it felt like my heart was breaking for him the more I heard him sleep talking."
Sighing heavily, Lucian scratched the back of his neck before pressing his thumb between Truth's eyes for a minute. "This is why you've gotta be super careful when delving into the spiritual arts. As far as I can tell, you've got a protective barrier around you 'cause of your great grandmother's earring that your dad gave you, but that doesn't make you impervious to the stronger spirits. I'm calling for a cease and desist on you dealing with that side altogether until we can get you purified from the bad things. I don't want anything bad to happen to you," he partly scolded the redhead. She really needed to make some better choices now that she was realizing how much danger could be brought back with her to those she cared for. It was pretty stupid of Rissa to tell him not to worry 'cause he was still gonna worry about her as she was now part of the family.
As Krystina slept, Watari tried to keep up the soothing aura around them but it eventually shut itself off as a stray tear rolled down his cheek. Stupid embodiment of time. Why'd she have to drag that thought to the surface? "I'm sorry, Krystina. I can't let you get involved in the fight anymore. The only good things I've ever found in life are in this second life I'm living now, and I don't want to lose one of those good things so please let me be selfish just this one time," he whispered softly after kissing the blonde on the forehead. Brushing away the tear, he took a deep breath only to then brush her hair behind her ear.
Giosué, going unnoticed due to his newfound silence, merely watched from the doorway. The poor boy was so kindhearted it would likely kill him one day, but for now he'd let him hold onto this girl. If need be, he'd break Sheikah law once more to take away his hurt. Watari had suffered enough in his life and anything more traumatic would kill him.
Having lowered himself a little for Lianna to be able to reach his lips, the Romanian returned the kiss ever so softly. At her words, however, his gaze became sad for a moment only to gently graze his thumb against her cheek as she drew on his shoulder. "If you only knew," he murmured softly before that innocent cheer returned oh so swiftly with an air of confusion. The confusion came with him scratching the back of his head as if that would do anything. "Hm? I blacked out for a second there. Weird. I don't think that's ever happened before, but I can't be positive. Did I... Do anything weird?"
Her first retort to his curiosity drew out a heavy sigh from the incubus only for him to lick his lips as the ball formed around him. "Ooh~ Kinky. And here I thought Enaia jumped the gun in our relationship. I'd normally wait until we've gone out for a year or so before going this far, but may I consider this foreplay," he purred in a flirtatious manner just for Rissa's words and Hei's claws to cut through the ball. Feigning to dust himself off, he turned to face the elemental only to stick out his tongue. Having done that, he hefted Fedelta up like a bag of potatoes just to head towards the house. "Well, you finally made it. You people love your theatrics, don't you? Rhetorical question. All timelines, all worlds, love all of the drama. I could use a good bottle of vodka to get rid of the taste of bile in my mouth for talking to a waste of space like that. I'd enjoy a higher level of intelligence with my pain and misery next time please. This hallucinogen, however, has me slightly aroused. If only, if only... Tch. Rune, put a damn barrier on the house, and I don't have enough energy to pass through it. Well, at least it requires an invitation. So which one of you guys wants to invite me in?"
Almost seeming to sneak up on Aerith, a cloaked figure with dirty blonde hair tapped him on the shoulder before pushing his glasses back up his nose with his middle finger. Squinting slightly, the marksman glanced around though he had one of his handguns already in hand. "Um... E-excuse me. I realize it's kind of a bad time to ask, there being a giant Franken-beast thing and a cult lady here and all, but can... may I ask you a question," he asked in something of a low tone as if shy or perhaps a little upset about having to ask for anything. Clive's words started off hesitant, his gaze with a bit of squinting turning towards the monstrosity in the yard when speaking of it ever so briefly, and it was obvious he was more than a little uncomfortable having to be so close to anything living in particular seeing as the hand with the gun kept twitching slightly now and then. "Sorry if I scared you, by the way. It wasn't intentional. But yeah, I could use some h-help..." Ugh. Those were the most difficultly horrendous words he ever uttered, but he got through them without putting his own gun to his head. But hey, maybe someone here could answer his questions without being weird about it.
Blinking, Basilisk directed a finger to where a partial bat figure still within view lay in the grass with only the faintest hint of breathing. "I did actually, but they aren't going anywhere anytime soon," he sighed before standing back up. After stretching his arms up over his head then dropping them back down to his sides, he glanced back up at the feline woman. "Don't give up on life so easily, kitty. Everyone needs someone, and my brothers aren't unreasonable. As far as either of us knows, should you find them for me, they'll be so grateful that they may forgive you for not knowing. Either way, they need you. It's strange what desire will make foolish people do. Think about it... Wataru?!"
Smiling darkly from a nearby tree, the head of some bat-like creature in hand, the dark haired figure that was Wataru licked his lips. Narrowing his good eye at Basilisk, he dropped down from the tree only to vanish then reappear beside the serpentine man. "Tsk, tsk, little snake. You weren't supposed to show this part of you to them. It was supposed to be our secret. Even worse is that you helped them. Do I need to remind you of how you failed your little brothers when those little ninjas showed up? How I've been nursing them back to health for you," he almost seemed to purr as he gently brushed his bloody fingers against the other's face. Smacking him for some foreign hiss directed towards him, Wataru turned back to Kansei and tossed the head of the creature at her as if saying he took care of it for her. "Do keep this and anything else he's slipped up and told you as our little secret. Like he said, however nauseating it may be, your friends and family need you. You shouldn't dismiss your own life so easily. If you do, it would be a waste of time actually killing you."
Pausing as if he'd heard something other than Basilisk hissing something that was apparently hostile seeing as a set of fangs had appeared behind his teeth, Wataru grabbed him by the neck and tugged him back down to his level. "Are you calling me a liar, Basi? That is what they call you, right? I love your anger, but I love how you know you can't kill me without getting them back first. Maybe, if you behave yourself, I'll let you see them. If one happens to be injured, just know that you're to blame for my temper. You swore your allegiance to me until the end of this one simple task after all, and it was never completed due to that reaper boy. When the job is complete, you get your brothers back. And you, kitty, never saw us. Make sure you struggle properly the next time we come for that disappointing little butterfly," he almost seemed to growl before releasing Basilisk and starting off in a brisk pace back into the trees. Briefly rubbing his neck, the serpentine male gave a brief flick of the wrist as if to say farewell then took off after his comrade. As he left, a folded piece of paper remained on the log he'd been seated upon. There was a few simple sentences on it with an intricate circle drawn in the center. His people search for him. Beware their temper. B, it read simplistically.
Now open your eyes while our plight is repeated. Still deaf to our cries, lost in hope, we lie defeated.xxxxx Our souls have been torn and our bodies forsaken, bearing sins of the past for our future is taken.xxxxx War born of strife, these trials persuade us not. Words without a sound, these lies betray our thoughts.xxxxx Mired by a plague of doubt, the Land, she mourns. Judgement bind all we hold to a memory of scorn.xxxxx Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die,xxxxx helpless in our cries?
Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth Life flow, yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die and know.
Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2017 12:20 am
Dantes river
So, planning a wedding, even when you're not the one getting married, is a real pain in the arse.
I wanted to forget how you swallowed me whole I wanted to suggest we let the s**t go I overstayed a while and let you beat on my soul I never could digest how you were so cold Concealed behind a smile with teeth as sharp as they show The bullet in your hand, it had my name on I'm gonna run and hide, I'll disappear for a while
I feel so dead inside,
Kana gave a snort at his response, setting the teas to steep as she turned back around. "Well, something is better than nothing," she hummed, peeking around his shoulders at the rice and nodding lightly. Not long now. Her stomach growled as the smell of food hit her nose, making her cheeks flush slightly. "Guess I've worked up something of an apatite..."
Truth gave a smile and nodded at him, hand going up to entwine their fingers together. "I'll be careful. A break from the spirit world might actually be nice," she hummed, blowing her bangs from her face as she looked around the room. It was unusual for so many of them to be on the sidelines when there was a fight going on. Even if many were still recovering from injuries.
Looking up when Taz spoke to him, Skylar gave a shrug and scratched at his neck. "He could hear the shadows that were talking to Adra when Veda was here, so it didn't really surprise me much to find out he could travel them too," he mumbled, rolling one shoulder to gather a bit of sand in one hand, staring at it a moment and frowning. "Where's my sister....?" Perem wasn't making any sense with his report, what the hell did he mean she'd been talking to Aaricia?she was killed as a child.
Curled up in his arms, Krystina's skin grew clammy, as if the strength she'd had was being pulled out of her. And it was, in a way. The magic power she stored within her was seeping out through her fingers, causing the air to spark and swirl with power. For a brief moment, the woman from her dreams flickered into view, and then Krystina woke up. "No....." she whined low, curling tightly into his arms as she tried to pull some once of her magic back to her. But the spell had been cast, there was no undoing what Aaricia had started. And she had no idea if she'd make it through the trials. "We will send someone to collect you" the last words her sister spoke rang in her head as the blonde clung tightly to Maso's shirt.
Lianna shook her head, smiling softly at Rune as she pulled back a little. "We were taking about how we both felt lucky for having each other, and then you got distracted looking through the floor. Did you sense enemies enter the house or something?" She murmured softly, ringing the last bit of water from her hair as she watched him.
Aerith blinked as he was approached, nodding only to jump as the great beast that the elementals had been fighting fell hard to the ground. "I'm used to people sneaking up on me. My closest friend is king of the alley cats, after all. Things seem to be wrapping up, so I don't see why not. What did you need help with?" He asked, spinning his sword so it turned into a staff that he leaned on. The kid looked out of sorts, was he bothered by something?
Brushing a blood covers hand through her hair, Lavender leaned on her axe and gazed down at the monster who had once been her dear friend. "Rest in peace, friend. May your father protect your soul forever more," she breathed, placing a hand against one dragon's thick copper scales.
"You both deserved better than this. May you find joy in your next life," Coco murmured, kneeling beside the franken-beast to carefully brush a hand across the rich orange scales. "Join the stars in eternal slumber, and return when you are ready." The farewell was brief, as both elementals swallowed their grief to join Rissa, although both looked torn and tired at this point.
"Tex, please come in" Iris chimed from the porch, a thin silver staff in hand. Shifting her gaze over to Vivaldi, she let out a deep sigh and then looked to Rissa. Would she be able to do it? Kill someone who had been a close friend in her last life?
Giving a shaky breath as she glared at Vivaldi, Rissa couldn’t deny how much it hurt to stare at the woman the brunette had become. She’d been someone so smart and free willed at one point. She’d been someone her past life could confide in before things had gone haywire. “Vivaldi.... You’ve become a shadow of the person you used to be. I think you lost sight of what I was supposed to represent, and what that used to mean to you....” she murmured, eyes flashing red as a spark of magic traveled up her sword as it punctured Vivaldi’s heart. “I’m sorry it came to this, but you should’ve been dead a long time ago...” she whispered, laying the woman in the grass and sitting beside her as she tried to calm the warring emotions inside her. On the one hand, she was free from the fear Vivaldi had brought in this life, but on the other, she’d just killed one of her closest friends from her previous life.
"You're a sore sight, ya cyclops. Why don't you just bugger off?" Kansei frowned, growling low in her chest as she watched them both start to leave. Reading over the paper left behind, she nodded and tucked it in her pocket. Looking up at the sky for a split second, the panther shifted her eyes to the corpse of the Shikaori man who'd come through the portal. "Find peace," she whispered, throwing a lit match on the body before turning back towards the house. She had a feeling this was only the beginning of what Vitri would send at them....
and it's all your fault
But you don't feed me now No longer hold me down You'll never watch me drown I hope you figure it out No longer sickened with doubt You'll never watch me drown
I honestly wouldn't know, never even been to a wedding, but I wouldn't think it'd be such a big deal and yet somehow it is. I'd think a wedding with only immediate family and a couple close friends, and a simple white dress is more than enough. You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on a one day event. It's just too much effort.
Either way, I'm sorry you're dealing with that whole thing.
Bump!
I close my eyes, tell us, why must we suffer? Release your hands for your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us, where must we wander? How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?
To all of my children in whom Life flows abundant, xxxxxto all of my children to whom Death hath passed his judgement, the soul yearns for honor and the flesh the hereafter. xxxxxLook to those who walked before to lead those who walk after. Shining is the Land's light of justice, xxxxxEver flows the Land's well of purpose. Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe... xxxxxThe Land's alive so believe...
Smiling at her snort towards his response, Sheik nodded while glancing over his shoulder to see her looking over at the rice. Like her, he could smell just how good it was going to be. Even worse was how shortly after her stomach growled, his did too. Chuckling softly, he gave her a second nod. "I think we both did, or my stomach is just talking to yours. Can't really be positive on which it is."
Curling his fingers into the girl's much smaller hand until his fingertips touched the back of it, Lucian nodded his approval before smiling at her again. "Good to hear. I worry about you," he told her in a low, gentle rumble that could almost be considered a whisper. He may be in the occupation of an assassin now, but he'd been a medic for much longer so the health of others were still something he thought of often.
"Well that means zip. He used to see and hear things that weren't there since before I met him," Tasso snorted softly to himself before waving it off. At the question, Shayde and him both pointed to the opposite side of the house. Shortly afterwards, Tasso lifted the slightly smaller shadow walker by the back of the shirt making him squeak and flail for a second. "The hell was that? Watari was trying to remove her from all the stressful drama so he took her that way. It's rare to see him mad, but apparently Iris struck a nerve with him. Go ahead and check on her. I'll babysit the pipsqueak for ya."
"Up yours. I don't need a babysitter and I'm not a pipsqueak. I'm almost as tall as you," Shayde grumbled irritably before briefly giving Sky the go ahead for checking on Krystina.
"You're absolutely right. My mistake. A pencil has more muscle mass than you, beanpole. Don't stress about it though. I'm going to be giving you some advice for future reference. It's not as rigorous a training and dietary regiment as my own mind you, but it'll help bring you into your optimal positions for combat. As you are, you'd be dying trying to follow my exact methods, but you're going to need to help your non-assassins get into better shape too and this one will work with you on that. You'll need to be stronger, faster, and smarter for whatever is supposed to be coming so be glad I'm trying to help."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you all are lacking in strength, speed, and wit, and you are too nice about things. Feel free to have emotions, everyone has them, just don't let it affect your work. Shut that s**t down until after the battle."
"Are you calling us stupid and weak? And how does one do that exactly?"
"That's for you to figure out, Shayde. I can't give you all the answers nor can anyone else 'cause everyone's different. As an even friendlier gesture, I'll let you know a little secret about this training. Runealis Sareila, your buddy Hades, created it for me shortly after we sparred for the first time due to being as you are now."
Watari felt the shift in the air around him and Krystina, but remained silent. He feared that if he spoke, his voice would betray his thoughts to her now she was awake again. After a few calming breaths with her held so close, he gently kissed her on top of the head whilst stroking his thumb against her shoulder. "I'm here," he murmured softly as he tried forcing all negative thoughts and feelings deep down inside. Unfortunately for him, the words passed his lips before he could stop them. "There's nothing I can do to stop this or help you, is there? I'm not good at magic and even if I was, something tells me I can't do anything about it..." Don't cry, dammit! You're supposed to be a man, not a child!
Scratching the side of his head, the dark haired Romanian closed his eyes with a rather serious expression as if thinking hard about it. "I remember the conversation, or most of it at least, but there's a few blank spots. I think there's something, but I don't think it's necessarily malicious, just familiar. And I don't recall responding to that comment of yours either. Mm. I'm uncertain if I should worry about it or not," Runealis finally responded as his dark eyes opened. Sighing, he gave a slight shrug and shook his head. Kicking his old clothes to the side, he tapped the earring on his left ear for a set of more casual garb to appear folded up on the sink. Tapping on the right earring, he seemed to be going over everything stored in it before a second set of clothes appeared beside the first. "Clean clothes. I don't have any undergarments for ladies so you might have to use a half-tank and a pair of boxers, all included there. Considering what I've got stashed in my earrings, I'd say I'm overly prepared for long travels, many aliases, and losing a lot of knives."
After giving Lianna something of an embarrassed laugh, he picked up a tank top that seemed to be cut short. He then threw on his boxers and began strapping on the sheaths usually hidden by his shirt, or shirts in some cases, and filling them with multiple knives. The way his hands worked with the blades and sheaths just spoke how familiar all these motions were to him that it required no real thought behind it. Pausing with the blades, he slicked his hair back out of his face only to stare at the floor where the front of the house was. "And it's bothering me now that there's a new ping of familiarity that isn't quite clicking. That's gonna get annoying quickly," he breathed out as he clicked the last knife slightly larger than the rest into the sheath on his lower back. After throwing a wife-beater on over his half-tank and hopping into a pair of pants that had one leg halfway down his thigh, the other reaching just above his knee, he started with the sheaths on his legs. Even if he wasn't entering a war zone, it certainly appeared that way with how thorough and meticulous his methods were.
Just as Aerith had been about to respond, or what he thought was happening past his glasses, that stupid Franken-beast had to hit the ground making the handgun quickly shift in it's direction though the finger had stopped halfway to the trigger. Taking a deep breath, Clive lowered his hand back down to his side before removing his glasses and tossing them on the ground. Emptying a clip directed towards where he thought his glasses were, he reloaded the handgun with a new clip only to slide the gun back into it's holster on his thigh. "Completely missed them," he sighed heavily only to start scratching the back of his shaggy, dirty blonde head. "I don't know what I'm gonna do, and I don't know how exactly to word my question... Or questions? And I really don't like having to ask for help in the first place. Sorry. I'm trying to put thoughts together." Taking a few breaths whilst tapping his fingertips together, he crouched down and squinted his eyes at the ground as if trying to see where his glasses were. He did kind of need those back after all. Not getting anywhere, however, he began poking the ground with one hand and leaning his cheek against the palm of the other hand.
"So um... I'm sure you heard earlier that my name's Clive, I'm thirteen and I do odd jobs as an occupation. Nice to meet you. So I've had my glasses upgraded -or is it updated?- for close range twelve times in the last five days, but I'm still squinting to see once I get them back, and then they're useless altogether a few hours later. That's kinda why I threw them down and tried shooting them just now. At first, you were a defined blur I recognized as you from earlier and now I just have vague colors instead like I wasn't even wearing my glasses. It's super frustrating when I can tell you that within two klicks from here is a rift being opened yet I can't even tell where my glasses went right in front of me. Is that weird, or normal, or something else entirely for a demon marksman like me?" Standing back up, he wiped his fingertip against his pants just to remove a rifle from his back and aim it at nothing in specific though his hazel eyes seemed to be focused in on something and pulled the trigger. After a small explosion about a kilometer or two away went off, he began fidgeting with the spot on the back of the gun meant for a scope for the rifle. "That's my first question. I don't really understand why my glasses used to work, but they're not now. Elrick said that the glasses I have now is like looking through the lens of a microscope, but my nearsightedness is just getting worse and he's getting frustrated too. He tried putting a charm or whatever on my glasses to get them to automatically correct the lenses so I could see up close two days ago, but it was -and I quote- destroyed, annihilated, or simply erased or overwritten altogether by nothing. I don't really get Elrick's words on that either so I just assume he meant the magic didn't take. Other questions may or may not follow based on answers given. Your turn... While you find my glasses please? I seriously don't know where they went and I didn't hear my bullets hit them so... Yeah."
Flashing a smile at Iris, the half incubus stepped up on the porch and set Fedelta down against the exterior wall of the house. "Thank ya kindly, Miss Iris. If I knew the next embodiment of time was as sexy a beast as you, I'd have gotten in better touch with this half sooner so being flirtatious wasn't as foreign as using text-talk. Pity... Ugh. He's doing it again and it's making me sick. Now that that's over with, I can get back down to business. Unfortunately for both sides, I wish to discuss something with you all before I act on that which initially called me here. You may give the ladies a little time, but do bring Rissa back inside soon. It's something that will affect most, if not all, of you, and I don't want any bitching, moaning, and/or complaining for complying with a request. I don't have the patience for that crap and won't hesitate in shutting that s**t down no matter the method," he started off a little flirtatiously as his tail flicked beside him playfully. Unfortunately for him, it died out almost as swiftly as it came and he drew serious once again. It wasn't necessarily even anything cruel directed at anyone, just an obvious sign that Tex was too tired to put up with anything unnecessary. Heading into the house without much regard for anything not directly affecting him, he flopped down on the couch and snapped his fingers a couple of times at Trevor. "Drink. Now. This lovely group of yours and I need to have a serious discussion about something almost all of you are oblivious to at the moment. It's not exactly the greatest of times, but I'm feeling conflicted about the reason I've been called here and I'd like to hear some personal opinions from a third party."
"Are you serious? You just waltz in, flop your arse down, and then go demanding things? You can't do that. We're not your servants, Tex," the redheaded man snorted in response. What started off as his denying what he was told to do soon turned into him tensing and taking a step further from the halfbreed. Tex, on the other hand, had just turned an unamused gaze towards the Sheikah. There was no hostility to it, just an arduous stare. Within moments, Trevor had scurried off to the kitchen and crouched down by the door.
"Hm? Trevor, what's with you?" Sheik asked as he glanced at his elder brother.
Taking a breath, the older man stood up and jutted a thumb towards the den. "The fricking icebox genius is here. What else gets me running for the hills? He doesn't need hostility to him at all. That cold stare gets to me. Knowing that he's both smarter and stronger without actually needing physical strength just adds to that," he told the younger male before removing a cup from the counter and glancing between the two preparing the food. It was there, hidden beneath the calm and humor, but he wasn't going to say anything. "He thinks he can just waltz in demanding things from us like he owns the place... Food smells good."
"I know it does. And yet you jumped to because he gave you an unamused stare. You know he's not good with people and emotions. Tex spends most of his time with his nose in a book. If he doesn't have someone reminding him he needs to feed, or if Enaia isn't dragging his attention elsewhere, he can hardly take care of himself. His pallor? Tone?"
"Pretty pale with a blank yet tired tone of voice."
"See? He hasn't fed for some time, and even worse, he's borderline deep sleep," Sheik sighed while taking the cup from Trevor and filling it halfway with water. Flicking his earring, a small jar and what appeared to be a test tube of a deep red liquid appeared on the counter. After mixing up an odd concoction of the red liquid and several pastel colored tablets from the little jar in the cup, he held the glass out to his brother. "Enaia's not with him anymore, for whatever reason, so he doesn't have anyone taking care of him. You have to treat him like a child when it comes down to his health, Trevor, like you would your own kids."
"If he's incapable of taking care of himself, how's he survived this long? He's spent centuries away from the vampire kingdom and Enaia."
"I think it's because Ru-Hades took care of him, but I don't have any proof. Tex has moved around quite often, and who better to move around with than an assassin that's constantly moving around for centuries without ever truly being able to die? Unfortunately, if my theory's correct, Hades would have had to have been alive around Cleopatra's reign in Egypt; around 50 B.C."
"And he can't really say if he was because he can't remember that far back. Giosué and Leviticus tried to look before the time he met Adra, but something's blocking them too. Even worse, neither the hourglass nor Iris knows anything about him because he's outside of the rules of time and space. It's a pretty good theory, but one with no real evidence to back it up."
"Precisely. Even if we asked or had dad and Giosué look, Tex would never reveal his past not open to the knowledge of other people. He's capable of shutting even the Sheikah out of his head, and what has me curious, he can read Veda's formulas."
"What? How do you know he can read that crap?"
"His seals to lock away his magic and keep people from finding him are like the circles Adra used earlier on Veda's instructions. They're odd pictures and symbols with no origin. The way he sees the world and has explained it to us once before, it's all how Veda's explained how he sees the world. Question is, why doesn't Tex have the stigmas or a variant of them if he sees things like Kharl and Veda?"
"You evil little genius, you. I didn't even think of that, but you're right. That's super freaky. Either way, I better get this out to him before he tries eating someone. Thank you, Sheik. Don't let the food burn," Trevor smiled before taking the cup and running off to the living room. Sheik, of course, panicked over having left the food for a few minutes.
After delivering the drink, one which got Tex to make a rather unhappy expression before taking a swig of it and shuddering, he sat down and simply watched him. "You really don't like having to feed either side of you, do you?"
"No, I don't. It's incorrigible."
"You and your ten cent words. It must be hard to be a genius."
"Shut up."
Popping up beside Kansei, or more like stepping out of a tree, Hei glanced around only to tip his head to the side. "What's up? Things have settled down quite a bit. Why'd you call him a cyclops? Is it 'cause he's got the eyepatch he doesn't even need?" he hummed while leaving the topic of her closeness to the now burning body behind them. "What'd he leave you?"
Now open your eyes while our plight is repeated. Still deaf to our cries, lost in hope, we lie defeated.xxxxx Our souls have been torn and our bodies forsaken, bearing sins of the past for our future is taken.xxxxx War born of strife, these trials persuade us not. Words without a sound, these lies betray our thoughts.xxxxx Mired by a plague of doubt, the Land, she mourns. Judgement bind all we hold to a memory of scorn.xxxxx Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die,xxxxx helpless in our cries?
Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth Life flow, yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die and know.
Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:54 pm
Dantes river
It was fun, once we got down to it. I think part of what made it crazy was the theme. Steampunk/Fairy. The whole bridal party had wings!
But, now that that's over with, let the drama begin!
I wanted to forget how you swallowed me whole I wanted to suggest we let the s**t go I overstayed a while and let you beat on my soul I never could digest how you were so cold Concealed behind a smile with teeth as sharp as they show The bullet in your hand, it had my name on I'm gonna run and hide, I'll disappear for a while
I feel so dead inside,
Kana hummed and nodded as she stirred the rice, checking the middle to make sure it was cooking before closing the lid again. "Probably a bit of both, I'd think," she hummed, turning to land a kiss on his cheek before heading over to the cabinet to pull out plates. The hum of magic lingering in the air made her skin tingle as she moved, leading her mind to wander. It couldn't be... who would open a portal here?
Smiling, Truth's cheeks warmed in a light blush and she tucked some hair behind one ear. "I'll do my best to ease your worries, then," she hummed, thrumming her fingers against his hand. At seeing Tex, the ginger blinked and frowned at how he ordered her father around. "Well aren't you grumpy," she mumbled, tucking her free hand behind her to fidget with her hair.
Iris gave a smirk as she followed Tex in, watching him closely before sighing. “You’re going to run yourself ragged if you keep at it like that,” she murmured, eyes narrowing on the halfbreed. He was still an enigma after all this time.
Maso's words felt like a stab as she realized how much this hurt him to watch. "S-sorry.... I-i wish I could stop...." she tried to explain, voice cracking as she lifted a shaking hand to his cheek. Ugh, just that movement alone sent a jolt through her body. This was going to suck.
Lifting himself from the ground, Sky brushed his jacket before raising an eyebrow at Shayde and Taz. "That's an interesting theory, but often it's the emotional ones who prevail in a battle, using it as fuel for their fire, so to speak," he hummed, waving at them before heading off down the hall. "You two play nice with each other!"
Following the trail of magic back to its source, Sky’s shoulders fell as he saw Krystina curled up in Maso’s arms. “h-how is she....?” he asked softly, fingers wrapping around the glass flower in his pocket tightly. He could feel it, the magical void his sister was becoming. She relied on that strength to keep her going. “....It was her, wasn’t it?” at the slight nod, he sighed and walked further into the room.
“This is gonna suck,” he sighed, wings flaring out as the dark feathers faded to white, primary feathers gleaming silver. Taking his sister’s hand, he pushed his magical strength into her, the glass flower between them seeming to gain a brighter hue. In a spark, the flower pelted a cloud of magic into the air and created a portal that settled against one wall. Through it, one could see a grand altar made of black marble, long enough to lay on, with rows of seats and thick blooming plants beyond. Two figures stood on either side of the altar, blurred by the magic of the portal.
“So, you’ve decided to answer our call, have you?” The voice on the left was thick and rough, older. Wiser. Calm. The owner stepped through the portal slowly, two large white and silver wings trailing after him.
“Shut up. Fix what you’ve done.” Sky frowned, blue eyes glaring into rich brown.
“Fix? Mmm,” the man murmured, scratching his thick beard for a moment as his eyes drifted down to Krystina, who was barely holding on. “Nothing to fix, I’m afraid. This is just a part of the natural cycle,” he drawled, stepping out of the way when Sky lunged at him. “I never expected you to be so violent. They told me you were against that!”
“Brynjar. Stop wasting time,” The second voice chirped from across the portal, ending a shiver down Krystina’s spine.
“Aaricia...”
“I think I’ve got spares...” Lianna mumbled softly, fidgeting with the necklace she still wore as a set of women’s undergarments appeared on the counter, along with a blouse and a pair of tight capris pants. Glancing to the side, she smiled at him and quickly counted up the different holsters. “It’s good to be prepared,” she hummed, tugging on her under layers before stopping to observe again. “I don’t think I’ve seen you use even half of those,” she murmured, tilting her head slightly. Even she only carried around two or three knives at a time. Four at max.
Seeing him start thinking about that mystery thing again, she stood from the edge of the tub and placed a hand on his cheek. "we'll figure it out, I'm sure," she murmured softly, pecking his cheek before pulling on her pants and tugging the blouse over her head. Unlike how his holsters were under his clothes, hers were built into the lower portion of her pants, leaving room for up to six knives on each side. Lastly, the faerie gave a hum and tugged her hair up into a quick ponytail, the purple and black locks cascading down to her waist.
Nodding slowly to Clive’s words, Aerith scooped up the kid’s glasses from the ground and spun them in his hands a moment, observing them carefully. “I... Honestly, I only know a little about demons myself. But I’m fairly familiar with magic. I can see the outer markings on the glasses still, but it’s like the inner portion of the circle itself was erased,” he mumbled, scratching his head before taking the kid’s hand and setting the glasses back in them. “Your eyesight problems are a little peculiar to me, I’ve heard of it happening in reaction to backfired spells and a few plants, but based on your introduction earlier you’ve had nearsighted issues since you were tiny, right?” he asked, grabbing the bag off his hip and digging around in it until he pulled out an oversized and overused book.
“I might be able to find something if you’ll give me a bit to do some short research,” he breathed, ears twitching at the sound of someone singing beyond the vine barrier the elementals had built.
“You’d been a good friend in my past life. May you finally find peace,” Rissa mumbled, fingers twitching as a fire lit from Vivaldi’s blood, stopping shortly after the body had burned away.
Shaking as she stood, she slowly made her way over to the two elementals, setting hands on their shoulders as she looked at the monster that had been dragons. “I’m sorry. Dune and Birch were never meant to face this kind of pain. I’ll talk to their father and see if there’s a chance to save them still,” she whispered, placing a hand on the monster and sending it through a portal to another world.
“He’s not going to want to see you,” Lavender murmured, looking up at Rissa slowly.
“I know. He doesn’t trust me. But there are things he and I need to talk about that have been building tension between us, and it’s not good. I never intend to return, but I can’t leave things as they are. It’ll only cause pain later on...” she mumbled, tugging on one of her curls as she thought about seeing her family again. It sent shivers down her spine. How many still held a grudge?
Taking the rice off the burner, Kana’s eyes shifted towards Trevor and Sheik for a minute, listening quietly. Once Trevor left, she rose an eyebrow. “I’ve never seen him act like that before....” she mumbled, spinning to grab dishes out of the cupboards. “But, food’s ready. Or at least, the rice is. How’s the curry?”
“Honestly, Tex. If you won’t get it for yourself, take some of mine. It’s bad to keep going like this,” Iris mumbled, a frown on her face as she leaned against a wall.
Looking up when Hei showed up, she smiled slightly and leaned on a tree. “Doesn’t need? Hades threw a knife in that eye,” she questioned, eyebrows scrunching in confusion before glancing down at the note. “It’s nothing. Just a deal being struck,” she shrugged, tucking the note into the knife holster on her hip. “What’re you doing out this far, anyway?”
and it's all your fault
But you don't feed me now No longer hold me down You'll never watch me drown I hope you figure it out No longer sickened with doubt You'll never watch me drown
I close my eyes, tell us, why must we suffer? Release your hands for your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us, where must we wander? How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?
To all of my children in whom Life flows abundant, xxxxxto all of my children to whom Death hath passed his judgement, the soul yearns for honor and the flesh the hereafter. xxxxxLook to those who walked before to lead those who walk after. Shining is the Land's light of justice, xxxxxEver flows the Land's well of purpose. Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe... xxxxxThe Land's alive so believe...
Heaving a sigh of relief, Sheik flashed the fair haired feline a smile before stirring the curry one last time and shutting off the stovetop. "That's the power of one Texenius Ashiwar, most preferably called Tex. His mere presence can change a man," he stated quite seriously only to give a soft snort and shake his head. "Kidding. Well, kind of. Tex is complicated, and Trevor gets unnerved around him if he so much as glances at him. Truth of the matter is, that loon that is my older brother is unnerved by certain people to different extents in which he shows it in a different way. He immediately went to the retreat stage with Tex after the little bookworm gave a dismissive wave to a small army and they all... simultaneously disintegrated in a matter of seconds. For someone that requires others dragging his nose out of books to eat and sleep, he's quite the formidable opponent. His intellect is so vast, and his skills with magic so phenomenal, it's creepy as fxck. It's like he knows what you'll do and when you'll do it so he already has counters and assists set up in advance. What's scarier than that, however, is how little time it takes for him to use it. He mostly means well, unless you piss him off mind you, but he's entirely socially awkward so his words tend to sound like he's looking down on you. I've only seen Enaia piss him off to be honest so I don't believe it's easy to do." Giving her a slight shrug, Sheik gave her a thumbs up. "But yes, it seems that the food is complete. Should we make everyone sit in the dining room so it's easier to serve?"
Glancing over at the ginger female, Tex lightly ran his finger a few times around the rim of his glass before shifting his gaze towards Iris. "Run myself ragged, eh," he mumbled before shaking his head slightly. "I must concur, Miss Iris. Unlike others that actually keep track of time, however, I tend to lose track of it when I get absorbed in the contents of libraries in general. If not for others, I'd be in a far worse condition than I am now. It's just how I am. I'm not good at being a vampire nor am I good at being an incubus... Either way, I'd been meaning to eat, but there were some unexpected things, unavoidable events if you will, and I'm currently trying to recover from it in order to lower myself to such deplorable acts of depravity."
"Dear lord, man. Use smaller words. We know you're a super genius so you don't have to flaunt it," Trevor sighed heavily only to shake his head when Tex seemed to be thinking over what he'd said. For such a brilliant man, he sure could be stupid.
"Is that what I'm doing? Mm... Ross did say I needed to work on lowering my vocabulary quite substantially for the sake of others. I am trying to use smaller words, but I suppose I'm still slipping up on the bigger words. Such a pain. Well, not as much a pain as to what's lurking in the trees in wait of the puppy and the Romanian to step foot back outside. Siblings are much worse, and he's got at least two litters of were-siblings that're pissed about a sister that was wounded several years ago or something. At least they only just arrived so they missed that nuisance and her ilk meaning they're unharmed. I know, family first and all that nonsense so he's likely to be worried, but that's something to be happy about."
"What? Why would they be here? Sister...? Eliana? She's awake? That's good. We were worried she wouldn't wake again with the injuries she had," Lucian started off confused before sighing in relief about his sister. Unfortunately, the confusion returned when he recalled his mentioning they were angry about something yet opted to lie in wait outside. "They're mad at Hades? What for? It's not like... He didn't, wouldn't have hurt my sister. That's not in his nature, especially since she's my sister."
Glancing at the lycan, the incubus shook his head sadly. Even Trevor's soft snort at the thought of Hades hurting anyone close to Lucian earned a heavy sigh from him. "Deal with it later. I just want this conversation involving illogical reasoning over logical thinking over and done with."
"And I'm not touching Skylar's commentary on emotional fighters with a ten foot pole. Runealis can deal with that debate. My emotions got in the way of a real fight and I almost died because of it. Sheik did too by trying to protect Kana. There's your life lesson, Shayde. Let emotions in during a battle, you die early in life... or get away with a near-death experience if you're lucky," Tasso smiled at the younger shadow walker which seemed to make him shrink back from the older one. Emotions were bad on a battlefield, and he'd been taught that for some time. Why'd he let Sky try to sugarcoat him having them in the open during fights?
Brushing his fingers through Krystina's hair with a sad smile, Skylar basically being ignored, a tear rolled down Watari's cheek. He couldn't help it. No matter if he was supposed to be an adult now, his heart was breaking at the negative energy surrounding him as if it were a hollow void. When the voices of Aaricia and Brynjar registered in his head, he hurled a knife at them with a sharp glare. The gentle kindness he once held now a hostile anger. "Fix. It. I don't care who the hell you think you are or what you think you're doing. You'll figure something out to fix it or I'm gonna hunt your asses across all dimensions, all worlds, all motherfricking realms, to kill all of you dickweeds. It isn't fair! All you assholes ever do is take, and take, and take. When are you ever gonna actually give anyone anything? I've got nothing more to give, she has nothing more to give, so fxck off and call on someone else," he snapped as he carefully lay Krystina down, his wings shifting into a dark grey instead of the snow white they once were. Valkyries, angels, gods, he didn't care. He was tired of losing anything he let enter his life, and he wasn't going to live in misery for the rest of his life. Marching straight up to the larger man, he pointed a new knife at his chest. "And if you think I'm kidding, you're so far off the mark it ain't funny. I'm done with trying to play nice for the sake of others. So tell me, ya selfish widgets, would killing you stop this selfishness or does it go above your pay grade? You both scream lackeys or minions to me, but I've been wrong about that before so I just want to make sure."
Giving a light smirk to the faerie's comment on being prepared, Runealis glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. She was definitely right about that. The mention of never having seen him use half of the knives on his person, he blinked then gave a soft snort. "Better to be prepared, da? Besides, you didn't see how many I lost in that mini-war outside... Why'd I say that? Weird. Either way, I certainly hope so. I get annoyed quickly with familiarity that doesn't quite click after so many times," he breathed out, his hand flicking his bangs back out of his face. Glancing at a different part of the house, he gave a heavy sigh and slid his feet into a pair of boots that had seen better days. "And now there's a lot of negative energy over there. Geez. I should just avoid any me-time 'cause it's just gonna get interrupted anyways so there's no real point to it. Alrighty. Time to settle things back down on the ground floor before someone gets killed." That said, whatever was left of his belongings vanished and he headed out the door with his hands slicking his hair back as it had been when he'd been covered in blood. Upon reaching the ground floor, his gaze skimmed over those in the living room before glancing behind him at the faerie.
Blinking, Trevor pointed at the Romanian. "Thought you said you were friends with him, Taz? Actually, why didn't he react to Tex either? Lianna! Hon, I need you to come here for a minute. Tex here wants to have a small chat with some of us for a third party's opinion on something."
"We were. I don't know why he isn't reacting though. Distracted by something else perhaps? There's a lot of negative energy from where he keeps glancing," Tasso breathed out as he deliberately set Shayde down between him and Runealis, his gaze behind his sunglasses elsewhere in the room. That brief moment of eye contact with the Romanian had terrified him and yet he didn't seem concerned in the slightest. "Creepy fricking Romanian. He's gonna gimme a heart attack."
"Hades really terrifies you, doesn't he? He's not that scary. Creepy, yes, but not scary. It's the smile that throws you off," Shayde muttered before briefly patting the older shadow walker on top of the head. This earned him a good smack to his head and a sharp glare.
"That's because you haven't actually seen behind this façade he's got going on with y'all and the bird," Taz growled back making Tex chuckle.
"I would have to agree with Tasso there. You're only witness to a mild temper tantrum from being stalked at most, but once he snaps, you'll understand," Tex snickered whilst briefly directing one long finger towards Tasso. Setting his chin in his hand, he began a faint humming though his gaze seemed focused on Lianna. "For how long will you try? How long until you walk away? Your façade can't disguise the fact that you're in misery.~"
"You're one strange incubus, Texenius Ashïwar. One strange mofo indeed." Stiffening when he felt two small points of pressure on his lower back as the figure of the incubus sitting down faded, Tasso shifted his gaze with the tail now swishing in front of him. It only took another second to realize there was a hand wrapped around his neck. How the hell did he do that with absolutely no energy? He was like a zombie a second ago and yet now he was like some kind of predator taunting it's prey.
"Let us avoid using that name lest heads be removed from their shoulders," he purred in the shadow walker's ear before dropping back to the ground and stepping around him, fingers already sliding Tasso's sunglasses onto his own face. "On a more serious note, Mr. Kim, I stopped going by that name a long time ago. If you want to talk to Texenius, you'll have to wait. Understand?"
"No! That doesn't make any kind of sense. You're just referring to yourself in the third person for whatever reason."
"Whew. Lightheaded. Guess I moved too fast, and this migraine doesn't help. And we're sitting again."
"He's complicated, Taz. Don't try to figure him out. Our minds, even as a whole, can't really piece together all of that within this guy," Trevor explained simplistically for Tasso who still seemed to be trying to wrap his head around Tex's words. When he stressed the word that he just made a wave of his hands in a circle in front of Tex as if it explained something.
Nodding slightly after a brief twitch of his freehand when something grabbed it, Clive squinted at his now returned glasses only to sigh heavily at just seeing blurs of color. "That's like what Elrick said. He also said he attempted replacing the interior of the circle, but it did the same thing a little while later. But yes, that would be correct. I've had issues seeing up close ever since I can remember. The farther away, the clearer things have always been," the boy answered as he folded up his glasses and set them carefully inside a little case he carried around for them. "Do what ya gotta do. I can't do much at the moment other than snipe people for you. Depending on how things go in the house, it might be a good thing I came back to ask about my vision problems."
Removing his handguns back from their holsters on his thighs, Clive's gaze shifted along the vine wall carefully. "Werewolves can be so stupid sometimes. Unlimited gun works, puppies," the boy stated ever so clearly just for something to hear only to glance back at Aerith from the corner of his eye. "I'm the cousin of vampire royalty through marriage... So step-cousin really? I don't know how that stuff works."
"Checking in on the kitty, of course. Things have calmed down a bit so Hei came to see if the kitty was alright," the elf responded with a toothy grin before stretching a bit. Dropping his hands back down to his sides, a somewhat dark and knowing smile replaced the most innocent cheer his cannibalistic features held as if his clarity had returned. "But you see, it's healed already and he can see just fine. The healing of those from the Land of Wind and Shade is unique in and of itself much like those from the Land of Snakes. You've never been so you would not know, but it is what it is. Both lands are far more treacherous than any the humans have made so their people require... more. Basilisk, for example, has the scales and eyes of a basilisk, but the fangs of some of the most deadly lesser snakes." Flicking back over to the innocently crazy cheer, he hopped up to catch a tree branch overhead and swing back and forth upside-down a few times. "So the kitty seems fine, but is she? Nothing on the inside?"
Now open your eyes while our plight is repeated. Still deaf to our cries, lost in hope, we lie defeated.xxxxx Our souls have been torn and our bodies forsaken, bearing sins of the past for our future is taken.xxxxx War born of strife, these trials persuade us not. Words without a sound, these lies betray our thoughts.xxxxx Mired by a plague of doubt, the Land, she mourns. Judgement bind all we hold to a memory of scorn.xxxxx Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die,xxxxx helpless in our cries?
Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth Life flow, yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die and know.
Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 12:24 pm
Dantes river
it was fantastic~
and now back to our regularly scheduled dramababies
I wanted to forget how you swallowed me whole I wanted to suggest we let the s**t go I overstayed a while and let you beat on my soul I never could digest how you were so cold Concealed behind a smile with teeth as sharp as they show The bullet in your hand, it had my name on I'm gonna run and hide, I'll disappear for a while
I feel so dead inside,
“Well that’s cheerful,” the feline snorted, pulling down plates from the cupboard. “Sounds a little like the kid Adra took charge of, from your description. Think his name was Veda?” she chirped, spinning on her heel to get at the silverware in a drawer beside Sheik. “Dining room might not be a bad idea, it sounds like Tex wants to talk to everyone anyways and it’d give him a place where we can all gather with relative ease”
“I’ve told you before that if you ever need to feed you’re welcome to stop by my place. I’m sure any one of my priests would be happy to service you,” the embodiment offered, spinning one of her curls between thumb and pointer.
Glancing up when the lycan spoke, she breathed a low sigh. “Things aren’t always as they seem,” she shrugged, eyes shifting to the redhead on his arm. How much could he handle, now that he had some semblance of sight?
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” the redhead mumbled, rubbing her thumb across the back of Lulu’s hand. There was a slight buzzing sensation in the back of her skull, something felt off and she wasn’t really sure what to make of it. Migraine? She’d never had one before, what would cause one now?
“Well we did have a small war in the backyard a little while ago,” the faerie drawled as she followed after him, tying a silver ring on a chain around her neck. Looking up when they entered the room, she turned her attention to Trevor when he addressed her and blinked. “okay....?” she chirped, fingers lacing into Hades’ hand as she stepped further into the room.
“Take it easy, Tex,” Iris murmured softly, placing a careful hand on his shoulder.
~*~*~
Brynjar didn’t even flinch at the knife pointed at him, calm brown eyes staring down at Maso. “I don’t have a choice in the matter. You think I want to do this to my granddaughter? Damn her to a life of killing and sacrifice her right to a family?” He asked softly, sorrow flashing in his eyes. “So if it’ll make you feel better to blame someone, go right ahead, but it’s not going to stop this. Either she becomes one of us, or she dies.”
“M..Maso... please.... they- they’re trying to help,” Krystina whimpered through pale blue lips, pushing herself up to grab the fabric of his shirt. Tears welled in the blonde’s eyes as she used the last of her strength to pull herself up and wrap her arms around him, hugging him as she cried. “They’re the only family we have left,” she mumbled, shaking against him. Everything ached, and she could feel a tingling sensation in her fingers and toes like they’d fallen asleep.
“The more you fight us, the less of a chance she actually has. Stop this before you kill her,” the woman on the other side of the portal spoke as a single hand extended through, purple bones painted along the outstretched fingers. “Please, don’t let my little sister suffer more than she has to.”
~*~*~
Aerith’s fingers tapped along the edge of his book as he read, silver eyes shifting up to Clive every so often before back down to his book and sighing. “They’re waiting for the lycan inside and my sister’s boyfriend to come outside....” he murmured, pulling his hair into a tight ponytail and slowly standing up.
“I’m not finding anything in my books, sorry,” he sighed, tucking the book back into the bag before picking up his staff. “Is there anyone else I could talk to about this?” he asked softly, eyes shifting to where his so-called brothers were. They wouldn’t really miss him if he just vanished again. He hadn’t been part of their little family anyways.
On the other side of the yard, the three elementals were engrossed in a private conversation, short words whispered in an unearthly language, tones curt and quick. Soon, Rissa stepped away and shook her head. “I can’t. You know why. I’m sorry, but I just can’t go. And I’m not bringing him here, so please, just take my pendant and bring it to him. He’ll understand more than you realize,” she breathed, waving a hand as a portal opened underneath her cousins, closing quickly after they fell through.
Walking back to the house, the blonde stopped at the door and hesitated a moment, head still swirling with clashing emotions. Taking a deep breath, all emotion fell from her face as she stepped back inside, tucking her sword on the sheath strapped to her back. Crossing her arms, she leaned on the wall just inside the living room, keeping her gaze away from the group amassed around the couch. The weight in her chest was beginning to feel like she was suffocating.
“you were checking on me?” she sighed, smiling softly at him as she tucked the blades he’d made into the holsters on her back. “I’m fine. Really,” she hummed, fingers tapping on the side of her leg as her head tipped and eyes closed in a smile that looked a little forced. Letting out a breath, the panther shifted her feet and spun to catch a rock that had been aimed at her head. Pulling a piece of paper off of it, she gave a frown and shook her head. “well.... you may get to meet the others after all, Hei,” she sighed, tucking the note in the same holster as she had the other. “we’d better head back, there’s a lot going on and if I add more to the mix I’m gonna feel guilty” she breathed, starting back towards the house at a slow pace.
and it's all your fault
But you don't feed me now No longer hold me down You'll never watch me drown I hope you figure it out No longer sickened with doubt You'll never watch me drown
Bump! QUENYA (Present Elven) * “Pende sad ar ereb hinya. Aerith, tye maure ana nimeár- him vamme ana keep au- -o other nórë. So should care- friends, his her- titta nosse.” - "Poor sad and lonely child. Aerith, you need to tell him not to keep away from other people. He should make friends, his own little family." SINDARIN (Ancient Elven) * “Cín smile na- a dilthen forced, kittui. Let ammen estel hain ceri- ú- let ha back ed- if mín govannon-.” - "Your smile is a little forced, kitty. Let us hope they do not let it back out if we meet." * “Im'm sorrui, kittui. Im'm so limb trast- an cin.” - "I'm sorry, kitty. I'm so much trouble for you..."
I close my eyes, tell us, why must we suffer? Release your hands for your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us, where must we wander? How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?
To all of my children in whom Life flows abundant, xxxxxto all of my children to whom Death hath passed his judgement, the soul yearns for honor and the flesh the hereafter. xxxxxLook to those who walked before to lead those who walk after. Shining is the Land's light of justice, xxxxxEver flows the Land's well of purpose. Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe... xxxxxThe Land's alive so believe...
Giving Kana's words a chuckle, Sheik waited for her to draw near for the silverware before giving her a kiss on the lips. "Indeed. But it is what it is," he hummed gently as he briefly brushed his fingertips through her hair only to give her another gentle kiss. "I'll go get them in there then as you set the table." Giving her a slightly mischievous smile, he stepped around her with his fingers pulling open the silverware drawer for her.
Continuing on towards the living room, he stopped in the doorway just to slightly lean against the doorframe and glance around the room. At hearing Iris speaking to Texenius, he gave a soft snort. "Food's ready and being set on the dining room table. It'll be more beneficial for most of us to talk and eat in there seeing as most of us haven't been able to refuel in a while. Shayde, do you mind letting Kansei and Watari know?"
"I'll get the cat, you get the birds. And try to-," Tasso responded before Shayde could only to have both of the younger shadow user's hands slap themselves over his mouth.
"I know, I know. Quit repeating it," the younger male snarled before dropping into his own shadow. Tasso just had to keep picking on him simply because he was older and more experienced. The older male simply glanced at Runealis before dropping into his own shadow like it was a natural method of transport.
At Iris stating that she'd told him before about her people servicing him, Texenius involuntarily made a slight motion with his body albeit was hard to tell what exactly it was until he opted to speak up. "Ugh... I really want to stop talking about feeding my two halves what they need. Besides, it'd be weird for me since... Quit snickering, Sheik," he mumbled as he leaned back in his seat. At feeling a hand on him, his eyes shifted to where he could see Iris as she told him to take it easy. Shifting his gaze elsewhere in the room where no one was occupying space, his toes curled inwards though his feet were still directed towards each other.
Raising a hand, Sheik opted to speak up to the succubus. "I don't think that's -"
"Alright. Why the hell not? It's not like I've got anything to do besides reading the newer books that came out, and other people can stop bxtching about me holing up in my library. After this chat with my key players here, we can do that. Just make sure they understand that I'm not easy to please," Texenius finally sighed in response with a slight shrug before picking up his empty glass. Such a response seemed so bizarre to Sheik and Trevor, one might believe the strawberry blonde Sheikah had wound up having a heart attack where he stood based on how still and taken aback he was. Holding his glass out to Trevor, the Sheikah jumping on the motion of taking it only to furrow his brow, the incubus gave a soft yawn. Why the heck was he acting like this bookworm's servant?! "Just a nice glass of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, or Cabernet Sauvignon instead of that disgusting concoction you gave me please. Anything but another glass of that."
Glancing from the glass in his hand towards the incubus and then back, Trevor pointed at the doorway with it. "You sure you don't want me to fetch you a Madarin or Shiraz, ya priss?" It had slipped and by the stare he received for it, he could see the annoyance plainly in Texenius's eyes. "I'm sorry."
"Damn right you're sorry. And don't play innocent to owning wines. You know all about it, and you own some of the best kinds out there." Almost seeming to sulk about being scolded, the red headed Sheikah male made a brief gesture to the cup then to the kitchen and, finally, the dining room. As if his motions made sense, Texenius stood up and started slowly making his way towards the dining room with a hand faintly tracing anything solid that he passed by whereas Trevor headed into the kitchen to rinse out the glass.
Nodding slightly, Lucian lifted Truth up off of the floor. "Right. It's a bridge we'll cross when we get to it. Just uh... let me know if I'm too close to anything. This whole sight thing is still throwing me off, but I'm hoping I can simply move like I how I memorized the house earlier," he smiled lightly before starting to follow the incubus to the dining room. Key players? It seemed a little odd to the werewolf for a complete stranger, someone he'd have to say looked younger than himself now that he could see, to say. Actually, how old did he look himself? His mom used to always say he still had his puppy face, but he was pretty sure that wasn't really the case. Either way, it was strange this guy knew who was here and who he wanted around without ever having met them. Even worse, his best friend was avoiding... well, anyone who wasn't Lianna at the moment. Even now, she had moved further into the room and yet he'd remained by the door with his gaze elsewhere. Even if they were to worry about him, however, he'd give that apologetic smile for causing worry and that slight shake of the head that said it was nothing and he's alright. Stupid Romanian just couldn't be honest. At least his hand, or fingers really, had gently curled around the faerie's hand. Lucian wasn't going to overwhelm him with his presence as his memories weren't fully there though.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Swinging out of Watari's and Krystina's shadows, Shayde gave a heavy sigh only to frown at what he'd stepped into. Holding up his hands in a time out to the small group, he stepped between Watari and them just to pry the knife from the fallen angel and point to Krystina. "Her first, crybaby." Turning back to face the duo as Watari lifted Krystina back into his arms, he shook his head slightly and pointed at them with the knife. "And you two, watch what you say and how you say it. The guy's as soft as the clouds. Now, if you're gonna be a d**k and kick him when he's down, however, we're gonna have to get a surgeon to remove my foot from your a** and your head outta her a**. So here's what's going to happen: you two are going to be kind to this marshmallow trying to act like a rock if you intend to stand here simply to help him get through this trial whether she survives it or not. This isn't about you, or Valhalla, or an eternal war, or whatever else is happening anywhere. No. This is about what's happening to her and how it will affect them. People live, and people die. It's an inevitability he knows quite well, but that doesn't make it hurt any less when you get attached. Even better, just talk to him about it since he knows he can't do anything to help her. You can't just pop up and say, well, she's either gonna be one of us now or die. That's like someone on one of those role play websites giving a three worded post reading, The girl sighed. to someone else. Who's this girl? Why'd she sigh? Was anyone else there with her? What time of day was it? Where was she even at? Was she looking at anything in particular? You've gotta explain things using very simple questions you learn in elementary school: who, what, when, where, why, and how? We obviously know the who, the when, and the where. That leaves you three questions to answer: what is happening, why's it happening and why now of all times, and how is it happening? Remember to be nice about it. Your turn. Go." Giving a small clap in front of them, he turned towards Skylar and set a hand on his hip. "Fate has it's own design, and like it's been stated before: there's no changing the design, only delaying the inevitable. Are you alright, Sky? She's your sister after all..."
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
He could feel eyes on him from all around, but it was the ones that seemed to come and go several times that was starting to unnerve him. This interior nervousness made him readjust his hands on his handguns. Giving a soft snort when first addressed, Clive shifted his gaze back towards Aerith even though he couldn't really see him too clearly. "I know that, but the art of war is so very fickle. If I were to guess, they originally came to collect the puppy and set some horrible stuff aside for Rune simply for something he may have done to piss them off. He does that to people for some reason whether it be intentional or not, and I'm pretty sure the people here are no exception," the teen muttered before snatching his hand up in a specific direction just to fire a single shot. Giving a soft tisk, he shifted his gaze along the wall again. "Warning shot, assholes! Stupid mutt starting to get too close... You're not too knowledgeable on said art of war, are you? The war between vampires and werewolves are embers at the moment, but if the cards are played just so, those embers will reignite into a full out fire that will run wild. Unfortunately for the world, both sides are equally stupid. The lycans actually have a solid excuse for hating the vampires, but if they reignite the flames of war by killing me as a message to my cousin, Nikki, there's going to be a massive amount of civilian casualties and eventually, it'll turn into a war between humans and non-humans. It's like how halfbreeds sometimes get denied simply for being half of something else, and you don't want to be one of them when that second war kicks in 'cause if you so much as have a hair of anything that isn't human in your blood, you're gonna be labeled as a non-human whether you agree with them or not. Does that make any kind of sense to you? I'm not real sure it was coherent, but I'm not sure how else to put it..." Sighing heavily, he lightly scratched the side of his shaggy dirty-blonde head with the handgun he hadn't fired yet only for his shoulders to slump.
"You've gotta be kidding me... Great. I'm gonna be able to see Japan, Germany, Mexico, and Brazil, but forget about America." Heaving a tired sigh, Clive quickly flipped up his hood as if it were of some comfort to him. That wasn't exactly wrong, but it wasn't right either. He was used to its presence enshrouding him, and he honestly felt like people judged him as some kind of child runaway trying to play the role of an adult. It probably didn't help that he a.) was still an adolescent, and b.) didn't care enough to make himself presentable to others. It wasn't like he usually interacted with them too often after all. "If that question was directed towards me, I'd suggest the bookworm inside, but he might just give a low chuckle and call me a poor baby in Czech again whether I'm standing there or not. I don't know. Maybe he's trying to make me get close to other people. Whatever his reason for avoiding the question, it isn't funny and I have someone I'm close to... She just happens to be in the hands of some rather annoying cannibalistic elves at the moment," he grumbled, hands shifting around his guns again. Firing another round off in what seemed a random direction, he let out a low growl. "Stupid mutts..."
"Cannibalistic elves? You mean blood elves? Well that's stupid. If she's been taken by a tribe of blood elves, she's either being eaten or has already been eaten," Kibum snorted softly from where he was sitting. At getting a sharp pain in his leg, he gave a sharp hiss before an actual gunshot could be heard from the smoking gun currently directed at him. "Ow! What the serious fxck?! How the hell did the sound of the gun come after the bullet hit?"
"I'm getting so sick and tired of hearing that. It's getting so obnoxious I apparently shot you without realizing I moved my arm. Either way, I know she's fine and she's leaving me clues. The problem is, I can't see up close enough to find them."
"Pende sad ar ereb hinya. Aerith, tye maure ana nimeár- him vamme ana keep au- -o other nórë. So should care- friends, his her- titta nosse," Kibum sighed in elvish making Clive furrow his brow in the shadow of his hood.
"What'd he just say? Did he just call me sad and say I needed friends? Do I need to shoot him again for insulting me and how I've been living up 'till now?"
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
"But of course. If something were to happen to the kitty, Hei would have no one to talk to... And no one that really understands. Mama worries about Hei, especially when the other comes out, but she doesn't know and can't understand because of it. She knows it too so she does what she can to take care of me and keep me happy when she's around. I don't usually interact with others this much, and yet here I am talking with you. Hei appreciates the kitty for taking the time to be involved with him," the elf started out with a grin only for it to start fading out the longer he spoke. At her own smile, he flashed a flicker of a smile back before his gaze shifted towards where the rock came from and he said in elvish, "Cín smile na- a dilthen forced, kittui. Let ammen estel hain ceri- ú- let ha back ed- if mín govannon-." Blinking at her mentioning that she would feel guilty over adding something else to the current situation as they walked, the elf seemed to slow down even more than their current pace just to lightly rub his hands together briefly. Was he a problem for the group with his instabilities? No, he already knew he was and biting Giosué only proved that. "Im'm sorrui, kittui. Im'm so limb trast- an cin."
Hopping out of the shadows of the trees, wires tangled between his fingers and spread out in front of him to catch Hei's metallic claws, Tasso flashed a smile at Kansei. "Sheik's finished cooking and requested that I let you know. Now that you've been told, please get your little elf guard here to calm himself before he goes all Keruberon on those in the area. Stress and violence are triggers for it after all which is why he seems so apathetic in the midst of a fight," he hummed perhaps a little too cheerfully for the sudden shift in scenery. Using his own foot to block a kick from the elf, he wound up hopping a few feet back with the same foot he'd used to block slightly raised behind him and his hands readjusting the wires held fast between them whereas the elf was shifting one clawed hand as if in wait of something. "Cheap move, elf, using Rune's hidden foot blades. I'm trying to be nice by not using iron on you, but keep pissing me off and you're gonna be eating it"
"You're only saying that 'cause you didn't think of it yourself. Or were you simply unable to wield them?"
"U-gh... I got nothin'. The only comebacks I have only play in your favor for the simple fact of either having just as quick a retort or you'd actually do it. You really do need to remove the clawed gauntlet things though. I'm not here to hurt you or your kitty, but to deliver a message. That's it. The wires are just to keep you from killing and eating me."
Now open your eyes while our plight is repeated. Still deaf to our cries, lost in hope, we lie defeated.xxxxx Our souls have been torn and our bodies forsaken, bearing sins of the past for our future is taken.xxxxx War born of strife, these trials persuade us not. Words without a sound, these lies betray our thoughts.xxxxx Mired by a plague of doubt, the Land, she mourns. Judgement bind all we hold to a memory of scorn.xxxxx Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die,xxxxx helpless in our cries?
Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth Life flow, yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die and know.
Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:31 pm
Dantes river
So, literally the day you posted for together again, I got a migraine of my own & that lasted all frackin week. neutral timing was amusing, in its own way.
Translations: Quenya (Aerith) - Don't be mean, can't you tell he's trying? And you of all people should know the blood elves don't just keep people for food. She could mean something to one of them.
Sindarin(Kansei)- You're no trouble to me, Hei Drow(Kansei) - should anything happen, know I will be there
I wanted to forget how you swallowed me whole I wanted to suggest we let the s**t go I overstayed a while and let you beat on my soul I never could digest how you were so cold Concealed behind a smile with teeth as sharp as they show The bullet in your hand, it had my name on I'm gonna run and hide, I'll disappear for a while
I feel so dead inside,
Nodding, Kana waved him off as she began humming to herself, setting out plates for everyone along the table and counter, placing a cup with chopsticks in the middle so everyone could grab it. Tail swaying behind her, a series of winds lifted the food off the counter and set it on the table, her hips swaying in time to the song in her head again.
Looking up when Sheik tried to warn her of something, she smiled softly and shrugged. “We can talk more about that later, Tex, for now just do what you came here to do,” the succubus hummed, fingers pulling away as her tail curled behind her, a slight smirk on her face.
“I do believe the young lady has a few bottles of wine stashed in the bottom of her pantry, you might find something nice there, Trevor,” the succubus added, tucking some hair behind one ear as she shifted her gaze towards the elemental who’d not moved more than three steps inside the door. So, she did remember them.
“And I’ll be with you through it no matter what,” truth sighed, blinking when he picked her up once more. Wrapping an arm around his neck, the girl couldn’t help a peek out the window, looking beyond the wall of thorns to the forest. What could they want?
Turning to Hades when he hesitated at the edge of the room, the faerie stopped and stepped back over to him, brushing some hair out of his face. “Everything okay?” she asked softly, calm green gaze on his face. “Do you still need some time to readjust to everyone?” she asked softly, the hand that’d brushed his hair away resting on his shoulder in an attempt to be comforting.
=-=-=-=-=
"It sounds to me like there are four questions we need to answer. We have no ties to Valhalla or Odin. We may call ourselves Valkyries in honor of those we descended from, but we are no longer tied to those gods, or their realm," Aaricia breathed, stepping through the portal so she could face her siblings, deep sapphire eyes looking painfully down on her little sister. "We're not usually a biological race, though. But it does happen, and the few who carry Valkyrie genetics are prone to short lives unless they become one of us. So far Krystina has survived off her own magical strength, channeling that into her body to keep her going, but if not for our brother she would've joined us a long time ago..." the woman explained, brushing a careful hand against her sister's forehead.
"He's been giving her his magic to support her, and used the majority of his strength to open a portal to our home so we could commence the ritual," she breathed, taking out a little tin of pale blue paint and drawing a series of symbols and flowers on her sister's face.
"She's reached the end of her rope, that's the best we can explain why this is happening. Her strength was slowly drained away from all the changes her body has gone through these last few months, and then the illness she's been fighting on and off, it was the final straw, she could fight the pull no more," the old man breathed, watching Aaricia continue painting marks against Krystina's skin. "She's being called by our gods, from our homeland, to join us. We'll be casting a spell that will draw her spirit to a special fold in the between where our ancestors rest. There, she will face her trial and be judged. Should all go well, she'll come back and be granted wings, should she be judged unfit, they will cast her out." He sighed, spinning a braid in his hand before going over to Krystina and carefully weaving a braid in her hair that combined both blonde and blue, tucking a small silver feather into the end as he tied it off.
Skylar blinked at his name, head turning as he registered Shayde was there. "Hmm? I uh.... I don't know...." he mumbled, leaning on the wall as his gaze kept scanning his sister's face for some sign of hope. She looked worn, as if something had eaten away at her from the inside. He recognized the paleness gathering in her fingers. "It's hard... I've been where she is and I know what the trial is like. getting wings isn't as easy as we've made it out to be....." he mumbled, fingers twisting around the braids he wore. "Brynjar, you'll look after her in there, won't you?"
The old bird gave a tired smile at Sky's question and shook his head. "I'm not her champion, unfortunately. If I were, this would be a breeze. She chose to do it alone, didn't want to risk one of us," he sighed, leaning on the partisan polearm he'd been carrying.
"That's ridiculous... she should at least..." Sky squawked, pushing off the wall to grab his sister by the shoulder. "Krystina, if you won't take one of us, at least take Maso. He'll be able to help you, he's smart and strong, and I know it'll make him feel better than just sitting here waiting for you to either die or come back. And it'll make me feel better," he sighed, glancing up at the dual haired ninja. "Please, go with her, keep her safe."
=-=-=-=-=-=
“War is only something I’ve really tasted in a previous life, I may remember glimpses and brief moments here and there, but nothing solid. Certainly, I’ve been in a few battles, but nothing that comes close. The lycans and vampires are nothing new, they’ve been at each others’ throats for longer than my six lives, and I’m not surprised to hear it’s coming to a head now. The lady Odessa trying to take over the vampire kingdoms would put anyone on edge, especially a group of people who descended from their slaves,” the elf breathed, tucking a stray hair behind one ear.
“There’s only so much I can really do with my limited knowledge of biological magic. You asked for my help and I’ll do what I can, but understand that my abilities lean more towards enchanting and battle magic. I’d need time to read up on not just the spells of the field, but whatever species you’re a mix of,” he mumbled, tugging on one of the crystals tied into his hair as the topic shifted to blood elves. Why was it always blood elves?
“Care- vamme n- faica, pole-'t tye nimeár- so's trying? Ar tye -o ilya nórë should sinte i blood elves don't faila keep nórë an food. Se could faica qua ana er -o tien,” Aerith drawled, pulling a bandage from his bag and offering it to Kibum. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t shoot him again, it’d be a pain having to explain to his uncle and my sister what happened,” he breathed, tugging on his ponytail once more.
“.... you’re an illusionist, that’s why the bullet hit before the sound, isn’t it?”
=-=-=-=-=-=
“Cin are baw trast- na nin, Hei,” Kansei breathed, placing a hand on his head and smiling softly at him, sticking her tongue out at speaking his language. She made no comment on her smile being forced, golden eyes scanning the trees for a moment. Turning back when she realized Tasso and Hei were nearly brawling, she stepped between them and rose an eyebrow.
“I wouldn’t let him do either, Tasso, so please put the wires down, and then Hei, will you please take off your claws? We can handle this without causing more bloodshed, even if I might be all for that after the shitstorm we just had,” she hummed, holding out a hand for Hei to take. Maybe Sharron had been right about them getting along well.
But you don't feed me now No longer hold me down You'll never watch me drown I hope you figure it out No longer sickened with doubt You'll never watch me drown
Translations: * QUENYA (Present elven) “Tye esta- i trying? So’s onlime speaking ana tye an his her- gain. If -yes was vamme an his sight, so would n- elsewhere. Ar if -yes’s i tribe ni’m thinking -o, te tanca ve cúma indóme drag nórë cor ve a precaution. Hei has spoken -o tien yenya, always eques te aren’t ve an- -o their nostale. So’d sinte best since so’s lived amongst tien an- -o his coiv-“ = “You call that trying? He’s only speaking to you for his own gain. If it was not for his sight, he would be elsewhere. And if it’s the tribe I’m thinking of, they sure as hell will drag people around as a precaution. Hei has spoken of them before, always saying they aren’t like most of their kind. He’d know best since he’s lived amongst them most of his life.”
“Stai departe... Te rog, stai departe... Te rog, stai departe... Te rog să înțelegi că încerc doar să te protejez...” = “Stay away... Please, stay away... Please, stay away... Please understand that I’m just trying to protect you...”
I close my eyes, tell us, why must we suffer? Release your hands for your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us, where must we wander? How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us?
To all of my children in whom Life flows abundant, xxxxxto all of my children to whom Death hath passed his judgement, the soul yearns for honor and the flesh the hereafter. xxxxxLook to those who walked before to lead those who walk after. Shining is the Land's light of justice, xxxxxEver flows the Land's well of purpose. Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe... xxxxxThe Land's alive so believe...
Trevor and Tex had both given the same hand motion as a sign they heard Iris and appreciated her words before the first went on about getting the incubus his drink. Tex, however, had turned back to face the succubus and leaned his shoulder against the doorway.
“Iris? In this current state of the embodiment of time, and this is just a side topic, can you make a flame freeze in time yet still be usable? In theory, I’d think so, but I’m missing a few variables in the equation to clarify whether or not it’s possible,” he questioned whilst using his hand to lazily write out some strange symbols in the air as if it were a mathematical equation. In certain spaces, however, there was a simple x in place as if it were an unknown piece of information. “Depending on your answer, I may explain why I asked.”
Passing by the succubus, Sheik hesitated momentarily beside her and muttered softly, ”Be kind to him, Iris. Odd as it may be for an incubus, even if only half of one, Tex has only ever been with one woman. Fights aren’t uncommon between them, but apparently this one in particular is the actual end for them. That’s the only explanation as to why he’d agree to your offer.” And with that, he continued on, brushing past Tex to get to the dining room. The incubus had briefly followed him with his eyes, but swiftly returned back to Iris as he seemed to be watching her carefully.
Smiling down at Truth with a rather noticeable tinge of worry, the werewolf gave her a nod. “I’ll appreciate your being there. Should my family become hostile, however, I don’t want you to get hurt so do retreat if they do. They don’t play nice at all. I mean, I was the smallest pup in my mother’s last litter, not to mention blind, and I have scars from fights with them. Weird as it may sound, they don’t mind hurting each other, but God forbid someone else do it,” Lucian breathed out smoothly. Apparently, as he got close to the incubus in the doorway, the demon opted to gently direct him away from him yet not so far as to hit the doorframe. Well, that was nice of him.
As Lianna approached him once again, her fingers brushing the stray hairs that had dried and separated from the rest out of his hair and fell into his face, the Romanian blinked quickly a few times before her question seemed to click in his head. Giving her an apologetic smile and nodding slightly, he took in a breath. “Sorry. I know them, and I know I do, but the dots just aren’t connecting. And for some reason, I‘m mad at the one guy that dropped into his shadow whilst that one’s making me anxious,” he answered her, his finger briefly pointing towards Tex near the end. As if sensing that brief motion, Tex glanced over at him from behind Tasso’s sunglasses just for Runealis to immediately shift his gaze away from him whilst he gently set his hand on hers and gave it a slight squeeze. As if sensing something else, he glanced towards the window nearby and slightly furrowed his brow. “I’m sorry. I just can’t... Sunt speriat...” Removing her hand from his shoulder, he turned on his heel and hurried back up the stairs.
Leviticus took a moment to step over to Lianna and set a gloved hand upon her shoulder as she’d done to Runealis only with a minor warning not to follow him. “It would be unwise to follow him at the moment, but do not worry too much. Give him a little time to himself. He’s been surrounded since he wakened and is getting overwhelmed by his senses, likely his memories trying to make themselves known too, at the moment. There’s currently too much for him to digest, and he’s beginning to get frustrated and angry. It might not have been the best idea to revive him so swiftly just to bring about bad news. If anything, he just needs the activity to slow down a bit and some one-on-one interactions,” he said coolly before his own gaze shifted up the stairwell. “Should he remain as he is, however, he could turn hostile towards even you. I can feel it in the air, and I can sense it from him even from here. I’ve felt it before from him, when I was in his head. It’s not... not a good sign.” Having removed his hand from her shoulder, he wrapped his arms around himself with his eyes closed only for them to twitch slightly and his fingers to dig into his sides. Giosué reached for his brother, but was brushed off with a slight sway of the hand and a stern shake of the head. “I’m alright, Giosué. She needs to know though.”
“Then sit back down, Levi, and don’t delve too deep into what you know. We don’t need you relapsing back into those other memories,” his brother growled lowly before tapping Lianna’s arm then pointing to various knives centralized around where Tasso had been before he ran off. “He might not be aware of it himself, but those knives are his and he was sending a very hostile aura down here when you were upstairs. It’s still here, but he’s keeping you from picking up on it. The one called Taz, the one he said he’s mad at, was subjected to that part of him and can now sense it himself. It’s likely why he’s been watching over him from the shadows. He claimed he was trying to help Runealis by taking away some unnecessary stress, doing damage control, but it seems more like he’s trying to protect the rest of the world from the darkness lurking beneath that which you know. It might not be something you want to hear, but if his hostility remains, we may be forced to kill him again just to wipe the slate clean.”
Having seated himself on the edge of the couch, Leviticus started rubbing his thumbs against his arms as he focused on the floor. “Stai departe... Te rog, stai departe... Te rog, stai departe... Te rog să înțelegi că încerc doar să te protejez...”
“Levi?” As soon as the word passed Giosué’s lips, a dark blur swiftly passed him by. It solidified briefly as the Romanian slapping a hand over the bicolored eyed Sheikah’s mouth and lifting him up, a sharp glare making contact with Giosué’s gaze, before it vanished just as quickly. “Motherfxckin’ Romanian! Can’t trust the little fxcker. That right there, the angry and dark blur that just took my brother, is your goddamn boyfriend. Go to the meeting, I’m gonna try tracking them down.”
“Don’t bother, Giosuéani Hetaeffa. I’ve got a close eye on Runealis, and he’s not going to hurt Levatein Casuë. They’re just having a little chat on what he said. The words he spoke rang a bell in his head, but he doesn’t know what it is specifically about them and yet part of him doesn’t want it out in the open. Your brother knows what all was in his head all the way up until sometime after his interactions with the fey so whom better to ask why they’re so familiar when part of him knows she doesn’t,” Texenius sighed heavily, his hands swiftly pulling his hair back in a clip just to keep it out of his face.
“He just shot me a friggin’ death glare and you expect me to just let him do as he pleases? I’ve seen plenty of dark things in his head even if they were brief glimpses, and I wouldn’t trust him with the very air he breathes,” the Sheikah snapped before his body stiffened and he started moving rather mechanically towards the dining room. “The hell kind of magic are you using to bypass my barriers, demon?”
“Then you should also know he does that quite often. If he gives you a death glare, that’s one of two reasons. The first is the obvious knowing that he’s gonna kill ya. The second is a silent warning not to cross him. It doesn’t matter if you trust him nor does it matter if you trust me. It’s a matter of do as I say before I make you a permanent marionette. My feelings won’t be hurt either way. Consider that my warning, little Sheikah, as you won’t get a second one,” the incubus smiled a bit more darkly though his tone was a sultry purr, his fingers making a brief sway at his side. So it seemed as if he was protecting the assassin. At least he had an idea on what their relationship was now. He avoided answering the question of the type of magic he used, and the barriers used to protect the Sheikah against magic weren’t by any means weak. “Besides, you moron, he said sunt speriat beforehand. Sunt speriat is Romanian for I’m scared. He’s starting to panic by his senses being overwhelmed like how Masao’s mere presence was confusing him on whether he was alive or dead. There’s too much activity for him at the moment. You’re expecting so much of him without even knowing you’re doing it, and he’s wanting to meet those expectations, to remember so much for you all. The problem is, he’s just as fallible as the rest of us. Even worse, he’s a broken man and lives a life full of deceit and death. How much did he actually tell you about himself? How much was lies? And there it is; astonishment and horror intermingling with each other inside that space between your ears. Now quit stalling, beautiful, and get your little twinkle toes in a chair at the table.”
What. An. a**.
=-=-=-=-=-=
At Aaricia’s opening words, Shayde set his hands together in front of him as if in prayer and pressed them against his lips as he drew in a deep breath. Dear Lord, please grant me the strength of patience with these people before I say something I will likely regret. Releasing his breath and turning with the fair haired male, he glanced briefly at Watari just in time to see him trying to blink away tears. Linking his fingers together in front of him, the shadow user nodded slightly. “Go, Watari. I’ll inform Sheik of the situation and he’s sure to understand. Right now, she needs you more than we do,” he said with a light smile. Shooting Aaricia and Brynjar a quick glance, he returned to being serious again. “Be sure he makes it back to us if things go south.”
Nodding slightly a few times, Watari sniffled as yet another tear streaked down his face. “I wanna be with her as long as I can. You’re not leaving me behind, Stina. That’s alright, isn’t it? I can go with her?” The way his voice wavered, the very openness of his emotions made Shayde’s gaze shift to the floor and his feet slide away from the group just a little. Emotions, even now, still unnerved him. Even worse, this was more of a familial issue that he’d stepped into, and the last member of his adoptive family was now gone. His real family, well, he never even got to meet them and he didn’t even know if any of the other boys and girls in the tombs, not to mention Tasso, was related to him. Great. Now his mind was once again asking how one could shut emotions off in the midst of a fight as Tasso had been saying a short while ago and if that was even possible with family.
=-=-=-=-=-=
“Tye esta- i trying? So’s onlime speaking ana tye an his her- gain. If -yes was vamme an his sight, so would n- elsewhere. Ar if -yes’s i tribe ni’m thinking -o, te tanca ve cúma indóme drag nórë cor ve a precaution. Hei has spoken -o tien yenya, always eques te aren’t ve an- -o their nostale. So’d sinte best since so’s lived amongst tien an- -o his coiv-,” Kibum growled irritably as he pressed the bandage into the wound. Giving a low hiss, he tapped his freehand against the ground a few times. Making a swift tie of his own bandages around his leg and using small wads off gauze to cover the entrance and exit of the wound, he started to wrap the wound which had apparently gone through cleanly. Once he’d finished tying it off, he shot Clive and Aerith a sharp glare before tossing something at the latter. “I wish it was just the work of an illusionist. It’s as real as you and me.”
“Mm... No. It’s hard to explain what I do exactly. Others have opted to call it the unlimited gun works,” Clive started to explain rather hesitantly before removing the clip from his handgun and holding it up for the fey to see it was void of ammo. “Said ability, or skill or whatever, brings about guns of every kind - sniper rifles, assault rifles, light sub-machine guns, heavy machine guns, handguns, et cetera. I actually own the real things thanks to my dad leaving them behind when he died as I carry at least one of each on me at all times, but still... It comes with what some might call unlimited ammunition too, but that’s not exactly right. I want to say it’s pure energy from me or the surrounding area, I guess, that becomes solidified if anything. The bullets of illusionists vanish or they simply imitate the wound without the bullet or they won’t use the sound, but I can’t do that. It’s quite real for me albeit these bullets don’t take on the little signature groove marks from each individual gun so it can be traced to said murder weapon. From how Tex explained the delayed sound effect, your brain’s already registered the sound of the gun firing, but your body’s already sent signals of pain to it making you focus on those signals instead of that gunshot. He never explained how those not hit don’t hear it until afterwards though. Either way, after the initial set in of pain has passed, you finally hear the sound. I suppose you could say my bullets travel faster than sound, and it seems to make your brain respond just as fast to it making contact before it can register that I pulled the trigger.”
Snapping the clip back into place, he shifted his hand once again just to pull the trigger and narrow his hunter green eyes from within the shadow of his hood. Before the sound seemed to go off, a yelp came from a ways off as he slid his gun back into it’s holster. “I gave you guys my warnings so it’s your fault for getting shot. I’ll try not shooting the elf again for you. And just do what you can for helping with my sight. I understand entirely that you need to do some research and everything. I tried researching demon marksmen throughout time back when my glasses were working, but there’s so little information that I have no choice but to ask those who - or is it whom? - may have had experience with one or two. That’s all I ask of you. It’s not like I can do much besides keeping some puppies under control at the moment. Afterwards... I’ll have to figure something out. And I know all about Odessa from Koail. The woman’s a nightmare.” Tapping his fist into the palm of his hand, he turned his gaze back in the general direction of the blue haired elf. “I’m not sure how helpful it is, much less if it’s true, but I heard once that my father’s grandmother may have been a phantom. And what is he saying? I don’t like not knowing what’s being said especially if it’s about me.“
=-=-=-=-=-=
Giving a soft snort, Tasso’s fingers shifted the wires a bit though his gaze shifted over to Kansei. “Yeah right. Last time I heard those words and lowered my guard around someone, I nearly died and, apparently, I spent forty years in a coma within the tombs. Forty years. It took seven years afterwards just to track Rune down again and I have the shadows to work with. I only found him because of Marilyse Sareila’s minor screw up in using him to earn the Sareila clan’s freedom. Imagine trying to find a shadow within the shadows or a light within the sun. I’ll put my wires down when he removes the claws,” he responded as he finally set his foot back down on the ground. Frowning slightly at the toothy grin directed towards him from the elf, he opted to add, “and puts a muzzle on.”
Hei, unlike the shadow user, simply smiled gently at Kansei as she spoke to him in elvish and set a hand atop his head. The feline even stuck her tongue out at him for actually being able to speak Sindarin making him snicker softly. Such a silly kitty. Upon Tasso’s refusal to lower his wires until he removed the metallic claws, Kansei now between them, the elf flashed the other male his predator-like teeth with a grin.
“Only because you asked, kitty,” he hummed as he removed his clawed gauntlets and attached them to one of the belts around his waist. After they were attached, he gently set his hand into the outstretched hand. Ignoring the brief shudder that ran down Tasso’s spine as he began lowering his wires, his playful and mischievous smile returned to the feline now holding his hand. “But of course I am, kitty. Hei is bad with the other in him and people get hurt even when he’s just trying to help. He’s always been problematic. First to daddy, then to the others, then to mama and Kiki, and lastly, you all. I killed the shadow human because the voices told me to and I’ve bitten the Sheikah man when he was just trying to be nice. But the kitty’s been very nice to me even though I’ve done these things, and I believe that she will follow through on her word. If the shadow boy does anything to hurt her, however, all bets are off.”
“That still weirds me out, but whatever. He’s behaving now so I’ll take what I can get. Let’s see if I can’t get you to the house faster without actually traveling through the shadows or getting him inside. That’ll be the death of us all,” the shadow user sighed heavily as he allowed the shadows of the woods swirl around their feet. Upon making a slight swipe of the hand, the trees and underbrush seemed to speed by them yet stop abruptly at the edge of the yard within the vine wall. “There ya go. I’m just going to float around out here, but I’ll still be listening. My Agent Orange is acting up being near Rune after all these years. Agh. I thought it’d be a lot less stressful meeting him again with his lack of memory, but it’s not and part of me is screaming for me to run and that he’s pissed yet he seems more overwhelmed than anything else.”
“You probably did something to anger him then, shadow boy. I uireb er is not a bad one. Most just can’t understand. No. No one can understand what he’s already been through and what he will go through in the future. He is, quite literally, alone even when he is not.”
“I’m pretty sure that killing a guy that never dies after he went on a murder spree in an academy of civilians will piss said guy off. When you should’ve died with that guy but didn’t, that’ll probably piss him off even more. He’s on the border of doing the same thing on you guys at the moment. I can hear it in how he talks, see it in his eyes, feel it all around me... The shadows want me to run from here like they kept telling me fifty years ago, but I can’t just leave y’all with him like this and I highly doubt it’d do much good even if I did. Thing is, I only have the one chance at protecting y’all if he snaps. If he does and I fail, I might not make it out with just the damage I got back then.” That being said, Tasso briefly raised his hoodie up to chest level just to expose various jagged scars that originally would’ve done massive damage to him when received before dropping it back down and smoothing it out. “If you can retrieve my sunglasses from Tex too, I’d greatly appreciate it. The light out here is hurting my eyes. Just get them near a shadow and I’ll retrieve them from you. That incubus scares the hell outta me too, but who knows. He might surprise us all by helping out if Rune goes all schizophrenic psycho on you guys.”
Now open your eyes while our plight is repeated. Still deaf to our cries, lost in hope, we lie defeated.xxxxx Our souls have been torn and our bodies forsaken, bearing sins of the past for our future is taken.xxxxx War born of strife, these trials persuade us not. Words without a sound, these lies betray our thoughts.xxxxx Mired by a plague of doubt, the Land, she mourns. Judgement bind all we hold to a memory of scorn.xxxxx Tell us why, given Life, we are meant to die,xxxxx helpless in our cries?
Thy Life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment, from the Land doth Life flow, yet in one fleeting moment, for anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die and know.
Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 6:24 pm
Dantes river
Translation for Aerith: if it's them, what are the chances we can help him?
I wanted to forget how you swallowed me whole I wanted to suggest we let the s**t go I overstayed a while and let you beat on my soul I never could digest how you were so cold Concealed behind a smile with teeth as sharp as they show The bullet in your hand, it had my name on I'm gonna run and hide, I'll disappear for a while
I feel so dead inside,
“Your arms are my castle, your heart is my sky. They wipe away tears that I cry~! The good and the bad times we've been through them all. You make me rise when I fall! 'Cause every time we touch, I get this feeling~ And every time we kiss I swear I could fly! Can't you feel my heart beat fast, I want this to last, Need you by my side~” kana hummed, tail swaying as she set the last few plates down. Looking up as everyone began entering, she smiled and took a seat, making room for sheik to sit beside her if he so pleased.
Staring blankly for a minute at Tex’s question, the raven-haired woman smiled and nodded. “I suppose it could be done, though it would give off no more heat or light than when it was frozen. I’m curious why you asked,” she purred softly, following the group into the dining room.
Giving a sigh at his request she hugged him tight and kissed him, Truth smiled at the lycan and pulled out two chairs for them to sit at the table. “You’re so selfish, wanting to keep me out of harm. I care about you, and I’m selfish, too. If they hurt you they’re going to have to deal with me.” She mumbled, smiling softly. He hoped he understood her teasing.
Seeing Hades run off, the faerie’s shoulders drooped and she let out a breath. It was hard to see him like that. “I’m sorry...” she mumbled, jumping when Levi put a hand on her, turning to look. Picking up the knives, she slid them into empty positions on her thigh holsters before looking to Giosué. “Leave him, please.... you heard them... they both need the space” she whispered softly. Looking back towards the stairs and where Hades had disappeared to, she sighed and wrapped her arms around her middle. “Hades. Rune. I’m fine if you want some space to adjust. Just know I’m here for you, and if you find you want to talk, know that I’m willing to listen,” she spoke softly and gave a light smile into oblivion. “I love you...” with that, she turned and headed for the dining room.
Lifting her head from the ball she’d curled up in when it grew much quieter, Rissa rubbed some tears from her face and stood slowly. Her legs felt like jelly under her. Using the wall to balance herself, she took a few steps, the armor she was wearing fading away to a red tunic and tight black pants. “Ugh.. too much drama....”
-=-=-=-
Krystina gave the slightest of nods, opening her eyes to look up at him and smile. “Of course.... I want you by my side, no matter what...” she whispered softly, voice cracking slightly. “Aaricia...urrgh...” she managed to get her sister’s name out, only to have to rest her head again, pain clear across her face.
Aaricia nodded slowly, looking up from her sister to Maso for the first time. “Alright... but promise me you won’t get yourself hurt trying to keep her out of harm’s way. She’d never forgive me. Understand that where you’re going, everything that’s about to happen will affect your bodies here,” she tried to explain, dipping her fingers back into the paint she’d used on Krystina. Looking up at him, she paused briefly before looking down at her sister. “Forgive me for invading your personal space.” And with that, she drew a series of symbols on his face, matching those of Krystina.
“Well, best get on with it. We haven’t got much time.” Brynjar drawled, setting two candles in front of the couple and lighting them. Kneeling in front, he began chanting a spell as the smell of incense swirled around Maso and Krystina, smoke beginning to wrap around them.
Grabbing Shayde by the arm, Sky looked away and bit his lip. “Please don’t leave,” he whispered softly, looking back with tears stinging his eyes. “I-I’m... I’m not sure I can stand being alone with just them right now.”
-=-=-=-
Aerith let out a low sigh and shook his head as he looked at Kibum, tapping his fingers on one of the bags he held. “If -yes's tien, mana are i chances emme pole- aid him?” he asked softly, biting his lip before glancing at Clive again.
His explanation seemed a little odd... did he fully understand what he was doing? Creating something from nothing, and then having that disappear again was an impressive talent. Especially when it created an actual effect on the material plane.
“Demon marksmen...? I’ve heard of the German Freischütz, but not of Demon Marksmen. I have an idea, but it kinda... requires a drop of blood....” he mumbled softly, putting his first book away as he began digging through his bag again. Pulling out a book with four gems embedded in the cover, he opened it and bit his hand, smearing it across the first page. Watching text start spreading across the page with information on an ancient king, an image of a man with blue hair showing up beside the text. Satisfied, he sighed and flipped to the next page. “Well, it still works...”
Looking up at clive he sighed softly and scratched his head. “This book is kind of a genetic compendium... In most cases, it tells a person who they’re a descendant of, what races they belong to and so on. In the rare case where it doesn’t, it instead shows who the person was in a past life,” he shrugged lightly.
“Hm? Oh, we were discussing the possibility of which clan of blood elves had taken your friend,” he added as an afterthought, having gotten so sidetracked with his research he’d missed the kid’s question.
-=-=-=-=-
“No to the muzzle. I’ll step in should he try and bite someone again,” Kansei frowned at Taz, tails flicking behind her before she turned to smile at Hei, albeit a little sadly at his words. He really had it harder than she did. At the shift in locations, her tail began twitching once more and she frowned. What had she missed? The air here wasn’t nearly as lively as it had been.
“Mmm something’s going to snap, and I’m not sure who it’s going to be,” she mumbled softly, tail wrapping around her leg as she looked to the house. At his request for sunglasses, she pulled a pair of aviator glasses out of one of her pockets and shrugged. “Use these, for now, I’ve no guarantee on when I’ll be able to get your glasses,” she mumbled softly, squeezing Hei’s hand as she stared at the house. It worried her, that feeling in the air.
and it's all your fault
But you don't feed me now No longer hold me down You'll never watch me drown I hope you figure it out No longer sickened with doubt You'll never watch me drown
I close my eyes, tell us, xxxxxwhy must we suffer? Release your hands xxxxxfor your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us, xxxxxwhere must we wander? How can we carry on xxxxxif redemption’s beyond us?
Sheik smiled lightly at Kana’s humming as he dropped into the seat beside her. After taking the time to stretch his arms and back out, he leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Need you by my side,” he hummed softly before starting to rotate his hand by his side as if compelling the others to move faster. “I swear. I’m gonna be dead by the time they get in here.”
Mostly ignoring Sheik’s comment, Tex slowly meandered over to the chair beside Sheik only to flop unceremoniously down into it and pull his legs up so they were crossed under him. “It’s not overly important why I asked about the fire. I was mostly just filling in the blank spots of what the embodiments can do and the full extent of what you cover. I wouldn’t want to damage time and space with anything I may or may not do. Besides that, I can’t use too much of my magic at the moment when I may have to protect these amateurs from my siblings at any given point in time. Physically, they’re superior, but my family delves deep into the wellsprings of mana. Magic is something they’re of limited experience, including the ladies and Skylar. Not that I’m saying they’re weak, mind you. My family just has more experience is all. Elementals do not count as magicians or sorcerers so don’t even think it or so God help me, I will slap your a** into another dimension just so I don’t have to look at you. Elementals are, in the simplest of terms, the essence of nature given human form. Fire, water, earth, air, light, shadow, spirit, science, chaos, balance. All of it is a part of nature, oh so very beautiful and intellectually stimulating as it is, but it is natural. Magic is the unnatural, the things that shouldn’t be but are created and put to use,” the incubus responded after finally opting to tell the succubus why he’d asked her such a question in a vague manner. Before anyone could even speak, he immediately held up a long finger and shut down the very notion of an elemental being there. “Point is, my family, as a whole, is better at magic than all of you combined. I, however, am magically superior to them and all of you... I just have to finish removing my seals of self-restraint from when I was a child so I’m not entering a deep sleep every time I level a city the size of Shanghai.”
“That’s the second nicest thing you’ve called us, Tex. I think I’m gonna cry,” Trevor smiled as he handed the sandy haired male a glass of red wine. This got a dismissive wave whilst the incubus took a swig, shifting the liquid around in his mouth for a moment before swallowing. “They’re different? And is that better, Tex?”
“Correct. And this is much better.”
Giving a soft snicker at Truth’s response, Lucian flashed the girl a toothy grin. “That’ll end up in a never-ending cycle of you getting hurt trying to protect me and me getting hurt trying to protect you. I suppose we’ll both have to try our damnedest not to get hurt,” he responded to the redhead before cautiously moving his hand towards the table with the faintest signs of worry and confusion. He’d have kissed her, but his previous confidence in finding things without his sight was now replaced with the lack thereof with what he’d heard others saying was incomplete vision. There was supposed to be dimensions, a depth, to this new sense of his, but it seemed he was lacking the third dimension not to mention colors. It was all in black and white. Then again, it could be that the greys were to be his sense of the third dimension, but it was hard to tell and it wasn’t like anyone could really help him figure it out because they were born seeing the third dimension through the first. God, he was going to make a mess trying to eat. Closing his eyes wasn’t helping him reattach to his confidence of finding things on his own, only making him that much more aware that he had a new sense most were born with. Oh crap. What’s going to happen with all of my other senses now that I have a form of sight? My directional abilities are already suffering from this kind of change. The thought made him frown slightly as he stopped inching his hand forwards once it made contact with the table’s hard surface. It was like he was a puppy all over again, scared of venturing out too far from the walls of the cave.
“So softhearted for someone so dark,” the incubus muttered as he glanced briefly in Rissa’s general direction. As everyone was seating themselves, Texenius leaned back in his chair with a yawn. Glancing up at the ceiling, there was a brief flick of his tail and hand placement for that of a flute, one of which formed as soon as he inhaled. With a brief tune one could recognize from the band Enigma, Hayden suddenly appeared in a curled up position on the floor behind him without so much as a twitch. “Let’s just take a little nap before you pass the point of no return. See, naughty little Sheikah man? I’ve been keeping an eye on him. The conversation he was having with Levatein Casuë was taking a turn for the worst so now he’s gonna take a nice calming nap whether he wants to or not.”
His lips curled up in a slightly mocking smile before he readjusted himself a bit and set his fingertips together in front of him. “Either way, now that almost everyone’s settled down, I came to ask about the moral high ground of erasing memories. Is it a dependent on the reason or simply a yes or no answer?”
“Depends who it is and the situation at hand. If you were asked to erase some memories from someone with too many memories to sort through like Runealis, relieving them of some may do more good than letting it be,” Trevor responded a little hesitantly as he began shifting the curry he was putting on the plates around a bit in the pot. Glancing back up at the incubus, he raised a brow. “Were you asked to wipe someone’s memories? Or were you more specifically asked to erase one or more of ours?”
This was met with a slight shrug only for Texenius’s tail to flick again and his gaze to shift around those at the table that remained to answer. Sheik seemed to be gauging how serious he was about it all whereas Lucian was a bit more preoccupied with his new ability to see yet still unable to decipher the depth of things around him. The latter, of course, was working on figuring that out with his hands quite obviously though so he wasn’t going to rush an answer from him.
Moving over to Rissa, Ephraim held a hand out to her. He wasn’t sure what exactly he could do, if anything, for her. The elemental had obviously taken certain things badly considering she’d been crying, but it wasn’t exactly like he could sympathize with her. Vivaldi didn’t seem very nice at all for the moment he knew of her existence, but neither had Rissa’s past life from what he’d picked up on from Tasso’s intervention. For now, and however long she’d let him stay, he’d simply be there to support her even if in silence.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Smiling at Krystina’s response, Watari could only give the faintest of nods to her. Upon hearing Aaricia, however, he gave a soft snort. “We’ll see,” was all he said before she drew on his face with the paint. He then gave Krystina’s arm a gentle squeeze as a way to reassure her that he would be there for her no matter the cost.
Shayde twitched slightly at the sudden hand on his arm, but then only frowned at Skylar’s soft plea at staying. Glancing to the side, he gently set a hand upon the winged male’s hand. “I’m not going anywhere, dummy... I was just giving y’all a little space. You know how opening up makes me feel, and this is more of a personal matter than anything else. We’re simply intruding on your family matter because of either a selfish reason or someone asked us to do so,” he responded softly, his voice seeming slightly more timid than before. Dang it. Stupid Sky was always seeming to make him feel so vulnerable and stupid lately. Glancing back at the light haired male, he sighed softly before sliding closer to him with his face growing a shade darker and giving him a gentle peck on the cheek. “In case you don’t remember, the shadows had to drag me back into them then knock my a** out ‘cause I was getting pissed off that they wouldn’t even let me tell you they snatched me unwillingly for reasons I still don’t know. Like then, I’ll have to be dragged away ‘cause I wanna be sure you’re alright. I can’t really say I know what’s happening or if things will be alright or even if Sheik’ll wanna kill me for letting Maso do whatever, but I do know two things about the past ten minutes, give or take. The first is that chic Aaricia and that dude Brynjar really need to reconfigure their word choice and actions better around Maso so I don’t have to promise a surgeon being necessary to remove a foot from someone’s a** and said someone’s head from the other’s a**. As obnoxious as his brittleness is to me, he’s our little snowflake so I have to defend his feelings from anyone that isn’t me. Only I’m allowed to bully him and that’s mostly ‘cause I’m just trying to thicken his skin. It was short-lived mind you, but he showed that somewhere inside of him is a tough cookie. It’s just a matter of drawing it out. As for the second thing...”
He paused for a moment, gaze shifting down as he took one of Skylar’s hands into his own. “Well, that one should be more obvious to you of all people. I’ll be here for you through as much as possible. Sometimes the shadows can be a bit of a dxck by snatching me back for whatever reason, and sometimes I’ll feel so out of place I’ll keep a bit of a distance, but I’ll still be here for you. I mean, I could say no until I’m blue in the face to you and yet I’ll still cave in to whatever you ask of me as soon as I make eye contact with you. I’d do anything for you, Sky, and no one but you.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Practically nonexistent. These guys are masters of fxcking with people, and even if this little girl has left this kid signs, they’re just fxcking with her too by letting her think he’s coming for her. If anything, they likely have him running in circles thinking he’s gonna find her and, should they simply be keeping her alive for Andraste knows what reason, she’s eventually going to give up on him entirely. She might as well already be dead ‘cause you’re not gonna get her back. Ever. If she does live, she’ll have turned on you for failing to protect her. It’s human nature,” Kibum answered in a tone of finality, his hiding the conversation by using the elven tongue no longer in play. Glancing at the demonic child, he gave a soft sigh before standing up and stepping a bit closer only to stop as he noticed Clive’s hands tightening on the two different caliber handguns on his thighs. “I’m sorry, kid, but that’s just how it is. The only way you’re ever gonna get close is if you had Tyvinda Evenstar tracking them and no one can so much as track him down.”
“Says an elf that can’t track jack shxt, and can’t so much as heal a normal human tapping into the dark arts,” Clive retorted sharply making Kibum flinch even though he knew the child was likely just lashing out because he didn’t want to believe his words. Not really looking in either fey’s direction, the boy seemed to be rubbing his thumbs against the side of his two handguns. Truthfully, he was playing with the safety on them, but they didn’t need to know that. Furrowing his brow slightly at the words coming from Aerith, it was apparent he was trying to let all of it settle. “That’s not... A genetic compendium? So it can, quite possibly, give you an idea on how to fix my glasses for the times I have to be in close quarters with other people and/or things?”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Frowning slightly at Kansei’s responses, Tasso let out a soft sigh before finally accepting the aviators. “You might regret not putting a muzzle on him at a later date, but I won’t argue as it’s not my place. Thank you. It’s only mildly better, but better nonetheless,” he muttered softly before glancing around the yard and then to the house. “What you’ve missed out on is not really a lot, but it seems like a lot. Rissa, now under the rules of the shadows, is currently in a bit of a rut now that she’s killed Vivaldi. Her past life was involved with her after all so there’s that whole personal feelings crap people go through, and I can understand it. It’s not easy living with a conscious past self hovering over your shoulder at every twist and turn, and it hurts losing someone you or said past life cares about in some way or another. Even worse is when it’s you who took them out. Unfortunately, she’s now kinda sharing that depression with Ephraim albeit I doubt she realizes it. In order to get him back in control over his shadow self and her to control her past self, I attached them to each other. If she loses it, he’s gonna lose it, and it won’t be fun for anyone. Then you’ve got Krystina, Watari, Shayde, and Skylar on that side of the house. There’s some valkyrie shxt going down over there so just avoid it at the current moment. There’s nothing you can really do for them anyways as it’s beyond our jurisdiction. Then we’ve got Clive over there trying to figure out how to fix his glasses for close proximity use and why the self-correction spells he’s had on his glasses keep getting partially erased every time he puts them on. Aerith is trying to help him and Kibum’s killing whatever hope he has in finding a little human girl that was living with him without remorse. Leviticus, the real one mind you, is trying to readjust to just his thought process instead of getting reabsorbed into the memories of others. He’s trying to help Runealis, the guy y’all call Hades, who is reacting negatively to his surroundings albeit he’s doing his damnedest to make sure Lianna can’t pick up on it. He’s still mortal in a way, requiring time to rest and heal like any normal person, but because of who he is people have high expectations of him. He can’t be weak even if you tell him it’s fine to have those weaknesses. If he continues down the path he’s on... I don’t want you guys to see him in a bad light because he’s not a bad guy. And then there’s Tex, the weird halfbred incubus gathering key people to ask their opinion about the moral high ground on wiping memories for reasons he won’t explain. He’s also attempting to remove seals he’s had on his body for some time though it seems the mass amount of magic he’s releasing by doing so is physically taxing on him. He’s likely trying to attempt a mass removal of the remainder of the seals so he can sleep it off in one sitting. Iris was just here to help Serai with her husband, but now I don’t know why she’s still around. Oh! Sheik and Kana finished cooking up some curry too. Be warned, Rune’s probably ruined food for y’all with his culinary skills. Ever since he cooked meals for me back then, food just doesn’t taste the same.”
There. Kansei was now updated on the current situation even if bits and pieces were vague. Even though he was defending the Romanian as well, his hand had subconsciously shifted up over his chest as he could feel the ghost pain of a physical injury alongside a sharp emotional pain.
“He really isn’t a bad man. I wouldn’t have let him leave the fey realm if he was, especially in one piece. What’d he do to make your chest hurt,” Hei started off in a hum before glancing over at Tasso. “You appear somewhat ill. Will you be alright, shadow boy?”
Flinching slightly at Hei’s words, the elder boy tightened his grip on his sleeveless hoodie while taking in a deep breath. Exhaling heavily, his grip released and he shoved his hands in his pockets. “He did this before, back when I was younger. Early 1900s before World War 2 to be more precise. I still can’t believe I’ve been asleep for almost a flippin’ century... Rune seemed calm, normal for an assassin, but I suppose I was too absorbed in my own world to realize he wasn’t alright. Back then, I was like Shayde, shutting everyone out and hating the world outside of the shadows. He introduced me to a girl, made me help her with stupid stuff and apologize when he thought I was being too mean, and even take her to the academy’s masquerade ball. By the time half of a school year had passed, I wasn’t hiding in the shadows as much and I was spending more time with her than I had with anyone. She was the Skylar to my Shayde.”
“Was?”
“Yeah... Halfway through the second semester, he just lost it. The normalcy, the calm, just vanished entirely. It was the shadows that woke me up that night, kept telling me to run. I couldn’t seem to understand why they were telling me to run away, and when I realized he wasn’t sleeping restlessly in his bed as per usual, I actually felt worried about him. The brotherhood had been scared he’d go AWOL since he hadn’t woken up from his death sleep and freak out like he normally did, but a few days of letting their reminders sink in, he seemed perfectly fine and was following instructions. The walk I took through the school grounds only made that fear worse what with all of the blood and bodies.” Taking another deep breath, he merely shook his head. “I couldn’t figure out how that many people were slaughtered without disturbing my sleep any until... It wasn’t anything one would expect what with his obedience to the creed whether he went AWOL or not. I finally found him in the school gardens covered in blood with this far more eerie kind of calm you’d get from some kind of serial killer and the one person I felt I could trust in this world at his feet. My job was to kill and reset him if something went awry over the next four years we’d play the part of civilians and so I did just that albeit I’d felt it on a more personal level at the time. In that fight, I can remember him telling me that I might not understand it then, but I would one day and I would eventually come to understand he did what he had to do. It ended up with him dying, the faintest of smiles on his face and a message I still don’t know he was trying to tell me, and me apparently spending the next century hidden amongst the shadows in a catatonic recovery from what should’ve been fatal wounds and reliving every second of that night. I still don’t understand quite honestly, but after getting to know him for those two years we spent together, I know he’s not a bad person. Something compelled him to believe something bad was happening in that school that required him to act, and I was so stupidly juvenile and irrational to think of nothing but myself at the time. Rune has never really thought of anything selfish besides wanting to know who he really was and to be able to simply relax for a day or two every once in a while, but I let the hurt I felt at the time get to me. I became irrational instead of trying to understand what was going on in his head.“
Thy Life is a riddle,xxxxx to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer,xxxxx to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment,xxxxx from the land doth life flow, yet in one fleeting moment,xxxxx from anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment,xxxxx thou must live, die and know.
Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2020 1:56 am
Dantes river
this thread, it liiiiives!
I am a nation, I am a million faces Formed together, made for elevation I am a soldier, I won't surrender Faith is like a fire that never burns to embers (Who's gonna stand up, who's gonna fight?) The voice of the unheard (Who's gonna break these chains and lies?) Love is the answer I gotta speak it, believe it, that's how I feel inside I can't, can't sit here quiet You can take my heart, you can take my breath
Kana smiled and took his hand, kissing his cheek. “Not without paying the toll, you’re not,” she breathed, tail wrapping around his waist. She wasn’t about to let his comments upset her, she knew it was his way of coping. And if she let every little one hurt her she’d just be miserable the whole time.
Iris opened her mouth to comment and then stopped, smiled and leaned on the wall. He was right. Her abilities flowed with the natural order, even when she messed up royally. Even so, it was amusing to listen to him brag about it so.
Truth smiled and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “You ok? You look like there’s something more on your mind....” she whispered softly, rubbing her thumb across the hand she still held.
Seeing Rune appear behind Tex, Lianna jumped slightly and took a step towards him before stopping and curling her arms around her waist. “I’d very much say that’s a depends-on-the-reason type of thing....” She then grew very quiet, absently picking dead skin off her lip with her teeth.
“The not answering Trevor’s question is concerning,” Kana frowned, looking up at him. “But yeah, definitely a dependent situation.”
Rissa gave a smile and took his hand, pulling him into a tight hug as she tried to ground herself in the here and now. “Sorry if I’m making this hard.... I still have memories of her from my last life and I don't know if I should be relieved that she’s gone or upset that I killed her. But it happened, and there’s nothing I’m going to do to change that,” she whispered into his chest, taking a deep breath and focusing on him and her. Slowly, tension was releasing from her body as she focused back on the present.
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
As smoke from the candles and Brynjar’s chanting continued, the couple’s heads dropped and their spirits were sucked to a far off part of the spirit world, a part connected to Krystina’s homeland. In this section, there were more than the usual handful of spirits. In fact, here it seemed like there was a good crowd of them. Lost souls wandering around, many wearing the same markings on their faces as Maso and Krystina now did.
Krystina looked around solemnly and held tightly to Maso’s shirt. “So this is what it’s like..... Sky always told me this place was overwhelming...” she breathed, slowly pulling herself out of his arms to stand and take his hand.
“Here I’m not frail.... not broken or weak,” she smiled, a strength to her she hadn’t had in years. “I can stand with you as a partner instead of someone you have to worry over and protect,” She hummed, pulling him into a tight hug as tears began to fall. While the newfound strength was great, she was worried about what might happen here, scared that she’d leave him alone. Scared he might leave her, too.
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
Sky gave a smile and kissed Shade back, wrapping around him. “I know you’d fight to stay with me. Thank you. I’m just... scared? Worried? I-I don’t know,” he sighed, glancing up at Aaricia and Brynjar, and the empty forms of Maso and Krystina.
“I understand your frustration, but they’re not used to our language enough to know what words to say or how to say it without it coming off pretty blunt and assholic. I guess I got used to it,” he shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “I should introduce you properly. Aaricia is my eldest sister. The one my mother tried to kill as a baby. Our grandmother sensed her dying breaths and performed the ritual you’re seeing now. It was an unprecedented case and she instantly joined the Valkyr. The man performing the ritual is my grandfather by marriage, although he is not blood-related to me. His wife, Haralda, is the leader of the Valkyr, the high priestess, and he is the Champion of our god,” he breathed, nuzzling into Shade’s hair to try and keep himself calm.
“The last time I saw any of them was when we freed Haralda from our mother’s grasp. I was shot, bleeding out, and Haralda performed the ritual for me. I.... barely made it.... I’m not fond of this rite, and what it forces us through, but I understand it’s significance.”
Settling herself on the floor beside Brynjar, Aaricia’s shoulders relaxed slightly and she looked up at Sky with a sad smile. “I know it’s not easy, but have faith in ou- your sister,” she breathed, tugging a knee up under her chin. “She’ll make it through, just as you did. She’s strong, she just doesn’t remember it.”
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
“You’re cruel, Kiki. You didn’t have to be so honest with him about it,” Aerith sighed and then glanced up at the kid. “Possibly? My magic is more based in genetics than anything. I’ll admit I’ve been out of my depth since you asked the question, but I want to help if possible....” he shrugged and looked back at the book. “I figured if I had an idea of which demon tribes you belong to, I might be able to pinpoint if there was an underlying power or ability doing this to your glasses and work from there....”
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
Kansei gave a shake of her head and scratched at an ear. “I hate muzzles. They’re a horrible thing. I wouldn’t force one on him even if it means losing an arm.” she huffed, stopping in her tracks to listen to his story. “You don’t think he’d kill Lianna in that type of state, do you?” she asked after a few seconds of silence. She knew Hades cared for the girl, but it sounded like he had another side to him that had unknown reasons. “....i am sorry you had to live through that....”
When you pry it from my cold, dead chest This is how we rise up Heavy as a hurricane, louder than a freight train This is how we rise up Heart is beating faster, feels like thunder Magic, static, call me a fanatic It's our world, they can never have it This is how we rise up It's our resistance, you can't resist us
“That is super vague and concerning, Tex. Your being here to ask such a question would make us think we’re your target,” Sheik finally breathed out, his thumb brushing against the back of Kana’s hand he’d subconsciously gripped with his own. This earned him a raised brow making him wrap his feet around the legs of his chair. “But yeah, I’d say it’s something that is depending on the reason...”
“So if erasing some of yours would give you more time, you’d jump on board,” Tex teased in response making the blonde Sheikah stiffen. As if picking up on some thought passing through the room, his wry grin became serious once more just for him to shake his head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even made a joke like that with you. As Iris here would tell you, even if I wiped your whole slate clean, you’d never get a single grain back. What you have in the hourglass is all you have left to spend with your family and friends.”
At Truth questioning him, Lucian stiffened slightly before relaxing again and rubbing a finger slightly against the surface of the table. “I’m just trying to figure out this sight stuff, and wondering how it’s going to affect my other senses. I’m not feeling as confident in finding my way around anymore as is, and it just feels like I’ve reverted back to my puppy days. I was terrified back then, clinging to what I already knew was safety as if it were my lifeline for the longest time. Eventually, I did start venturing out on my own so I wasn’t always doing what my siblings called the creepy crawl back to the den, but it was still intimidating. It wasn’t really until I met Hades that I actually felt confident in the things I did. Everything just seemed more prominent then, but now it’s like I’m so focused on this new sense that it’s throwing everything off. I’m scared all over again,” he murmured softly as he began rubbing his feet together under his chair. Glancing briefly over to where he figured Hades was lying down, his brow furrowed. He seemed like a complete stranger now that he could see him. “I’m back at square one, and we still got enemies somewhere out there.”
“Poor, puppy. It’s finally sinking in that until he gets used to having the sense of sight, he’s not gonna be able to do much to help since he’ll be clinging to someone or something like he did when he was real itty bitty,” Tex snickered only for it to turn into laughter when the werewolf covered his face with his hands. How humorous it was watching the people around him. Of course he’d stop when swatted by Sheik, but it was still amusing.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It wasn’t hard to figure out he was outside of his body as it merely felt as if he’d been there before. Maso supposed having died once before would only make it feel that way though. Watching the wanderers didn’t even seem strange to him, his blue-green eyes shifting cautiously over them. At hearing Krystina’s words about it being overwhelming, he merely curled his toes under him and gently gave her a peck on top of the head.
Gently setting his hand in hers albeit not really putting any weight into it, the bicolored haired male stood up and gave her something of a sad smile. “That’s not going to stop me from worrying about you and wanting to protect you. When it comes to the people I care most about, it’s just who I am,” he breathed out to the girl as he returned her hug with a hug still as gentle and as firm as he usually did. Gently rubbing his fingertips against her back, another tear streaked down his face though he quickly swiped it away with his other hand. “Don’t you start crying too. We can’t both just stand here squalling like children. There’s some trials and whatnot, right? We should hop to.”
That’s right. He just needed to focus on the positives rather than the negatives.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
“Understandably so. Things could go bad at the drop of a pin, but I’m supposed to be the only Negative Nancy here so you gotta get that super peppy spunk back and let me do the worrying with an auto-response of f-ck you,” Shayde smiled lightly into the warm embrace of the fair haired male that always seemed to make his heart skip a beat. Glancing out of the corner of his eye at Aaricia and Brynjar as if only just recalling they were there, he could feel his face heat up from having started off as an ice cold silhouette promising more than just a little pain to other people into the soft, gooey caramel center of a piece of chocolate. “Well, they need to start studying up on it before they piss off the wrong person. I suppose it is nice to learn a little more about you and your family though.”
Gently rubbing his fingers against the hand Skylar had scratched the back of his neck with, he gave a slight nod. “They’ll make it back to us. If you made it back, they will too. I’m sure that they’re as strong as you when they’re together since they’re motivation for each other. Even she believes Krystina’s strong albeit I don’t think she really has much of an opinion on Maso’s strength because of how distraught he was at the mere thought of losing your sister. You, however, have to stop doing this to me. I keep getting caught up in your touchy-feely pace to the point I lose focus on where I am and what’s around me.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Wrapping his arms around Rissa as soon as she was close enough, Ephraim merely shook his head. “It’s fine. I can say quite honestly that I have a general idea of what it’s like albeit I’m like Shayde in not being very fluent in deciphering emotions. If you don’t remember, Master Wei Fong and the other boys he was training with me were the closest thing to family I had. When I had to hunt my brothers down for the sake of the Brotherhood and I killed some of them when I lost control of myself, I felt like my insides were twisting and churning and there was a boulder just crushing my chest. And when I got those seals, even though it made me feel ill and out of sorts, I wanna say I was relieved in the fact that I wasn’t gonna die for something I couldn’t control and I wouldn’t hurt what I considered my family for it, but it hurt that I was like a scar in their memory that would never go away and I had killed brothers that hadn’t deserved it,” he murmured softly, his gaze sad as brief glimpses of what had once been brothers flashed through his head. He’d never see them again not that they’d likely ever want to see him again. Gently pressing his lips to the top of her head, he gave her a gentle pat to the back and then smiled down at her. “Whether it is the same or not, and even if I can honestly say that I don’t know what I should be saying to or doing for you right now, I just want you to know that I’m gonna be here for you.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Shooting Aerith a sharp glare, Kibulÿm crossed his arms over his chest. “Well I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, and it’s not like I can lie. Reality’s a cruel mistress, and it’s better he accepts it now before it’s more than a little girl he hardly even knows.”
Giving Aerith an uncertain glance, or at least where he believed him to be, Clive bit his lip in hesitation before finally seeming to agree to work with Aerith’s method of trying to help him. Removing a small knife from the side of one of his holsters, he nicked his thumb with it just to return the knife to its home and extend his arm out in front of him. Leaving it to Aerith to get the blood to where it needed to be, he merely tipped his head slightly to the side in wait of what would be shown to the fey.
“Did it work,” he finally asked after what he felt was a long enough duration for the book to work its magic just to follow it up with licking the cut on his thumb. Unbeknownst to him, all the book would have on its pages was that of a hooded masculine figure with a rifle in hand next to a partial woman wielding a halberd, and the three wise monkeys at the center of a strange symbol. Beside the cloaked figure read Tijebol Kroszis, aka Talfin the Silent Huntsman. Hunter class demonkin. Mute, farsighted. Beside the woman, however, were the words Rishene Czechaa, aka Rhomnithe the Hospitable Slayer. Phantom crusader. Deaf, nearsighted.
“What in Andraste’s name is that supposed to mean,” Kibum questioned as he leaned over Aerith’s shoulder so as to take a look. That having been said, the demonic teenager furrowed his brow in a mix of confusion and dissatisfaction. “Ah. Right. You can’t see up close. Tybalt, can you copy this and show it in this direction for the kid?”
“I could, but that doesn’t mean I will,” the cait sidhe responded after popping up over the two fey males upside-down.
“Human grammar Nazi. I’d be in your debt, cat, so do it,” Kibum growled irritably only to give a huff at the lack of change from the feline. “Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
“Stay. I was pondering, Kiki, over the pros and cons of revealing this information. It’s called thinking. Don’t hurt your brain trying to figure it out. I’ve decided to do it under the payment of six favors from you. Be prepared, my two-legged friend, for the day I will call on you,” Tybalt sighed heavily before casually placing a hand on the page of the book. A moment later, Clive had jumped a bit just to seem to start examining something some distance away. “Anything familiar, kitten?”
“N-no. Nothing much besides the monkeys and guns lining the edges of the page. Is that it? I’ve never even heard of a hunter class for demons. And I guess I really do have phantom genes in me,” Clive answered softly as he began fidgeting with the safety on his handguns again. “Does that make my last name Kroszis then?”
“It is indeed all there is. It’s strange how there’s only one page of vague description for your lineage though,” Tybalt answered just to drop back down onto his feet and step back in front of Aerith and Kibum. It was then that a simple statement wrote itself out on the opposite page just for the fey to read. He’s either not telling you something or he’s unaware of it himself. “Add ten more favors, Kibulÿm. I’ll see what I can dig up on our curious little kitten here. Hell, if you add fifteen, I’ll see if I can’t find this little girl he’s searching for so desperately.”
“Ugh. Fine. If there’s merit for you in what you find, it goes down to five at most.”
“I’ll take your words under advisement. See you gents in a bit,” the feline purred just to vanish once again.
“He’s back to normal I suppose, asking for various favors from you in the place of him only doing one. That’s probably why you can’t get outta debt from him, Aerith, aside from him clinging to debts like they’re his lifeline. It bothers me that he seemed hesitant about revealing this information to the boy though.”
“If they’re like his lifeline, he might as well be living in the Undying Lands at this point. Tybalt has so many fey owing him so many favors, it’s not even funny anymore. At first I thought he was just wasting time, but as time went by, I realized that he seems to be prepping for something by keeping people indebted to him. He’ll just give you that toothy grin of his that makes him look so vicious and ask, oh really? if you ask him about it though,” Fedelta’s voice grumbled as he sat upright only just to give a brief shudder. “Ugh. I did not like that experience at all. Frickin’ demon popping up in my head and possessing me. I thought there were rules at play before full out demonic possession, but he bypassed that like it was nothing and now I just feel violated.”
“He’s not like other demons much less like other halfbreeds. Tex is in a category of his own, and he’ll be much more terrifying once he finishes removing his seals. Seda is too. They’re strong and smart, but their honesty can be brutal to those without thick skin. Example: Tex called my cousin Nikki a slut when she claimed to be in love with a handful guys at the same time,” Clive snorted slightly before tapping the toe of his boot to the ground.
“What? How does that even work? The last thing that is.”
“That was my question. I mean, they say there’s a lotta different kinds of love, but I’m kinda... lost on most kinds. According to the Greeks, there’s eight types of love: Agape, Eros, Philia, Philautia, Storge, Pragma, Ludus, and Mania. Agape, is the unconditional and selfless love. It’s what Tex called an altruistic kind of love that is most often considered the purest form of love. Eros, is the romantic love and love of the body. It’s the one based solely around lust, and one of two kinds of love that succubi and incubi are usually centered around. Philia, is the affectionate love or best described as the love you feel towards your parents, siblings, cousins, and close friends. It centers around loyalty, companionship, and trust so it’s completely platonic. Philautia, is the love of oneself. It’s linked with your confidence and your sense of purpose so it can come off as narcissism and arrogance. Storge, is the familiar love and love of the child. It’s how parents love their children and it creates bonds, kinship, and familiarity. Pragma, is the enduring and long-lasting love. It’s a love that’s built over an extended period of time with both sides working to make the other happy. Ludus, is the playful love. Tex calls it the tease as it’s a love that’s temporary and based around the initial high of being in love where it’s flirtatious and uncommitted. He says it’s the second type of love that succubi and incubi are usually centered around. And then you have Mania, the obsessive love. It’s the kind that makes you act like a lunatic and get jealous at the drop of a pin. Real life example is Odessa’s feelings about Koail. Not only does she want to possess him, but she doesn’t want anyone else close to him. Well, she doesn’t mind Lurtz being near him since he’s usually stuck on his default mode of being attentive with zero personality. He’s like an extremely dangerous LEGO brick.”
“That’s not answering the question, kid. Focus.”
“Ah! Right. Sorry. Nikki’s very... loose yet needy I suppose. Some of the guys she says she loves are ones she has kids with, but the others have just been strung along and hurt. Even then, one of the fathers to her children was just as shattered as the ones without the children. The only good part of their relationship with her is that she didn’t kill them off like her mother and grandmother has done all of their husbands. Then again, she’s never actually been married. Overall, she’s just like her mother in being unable to love yet always claiming she does. It’s why I don’t like associating myself with her in general.”
“I’m gonna assume that Elrick was the one you said was hurt even though he has children with her and that’s why he seemed down when you came around. That’d make your cousin the reason for some of your misfortune. It must be hard having her misdeeds hanging around you all the time. Ow,” Fedelta muttered as he swiftly redirected his gaze towards the trees. Upon getting punched on the arm by Kibulÿm for bringing up the previous topic, he puffed up his cheeks in a pout only to scratch the back of his neck when he noticed the demonic teen had tugged his hood a bit further in front of him. “Sorry.”
“It’s not like that. He doesn’t associate me with her since I avoid her as much as possible. If anything, he doubts I’ll ever find Pilika again like this dill hole you call a brother but he has the decency of keeping it to himself. That’s saying something since he’s probably spent more time in the Underdark as a drow than you’ve even been alive.”
“Quit making me out to be the bad guy for not getting your hopes up on some little human girl being the girl you knew if she’s even still alive! You have to face reality. If she’s truly alive, she won’t be the same way you knew her. This isn’t a normal tribe of blood elves you’d find anywhere. Have you ever heard the saying, Shut that sh-t down? These guys invented it by shutting down the very fabric of hope and joy, and it’s obviously already been some time. You’re clinging to a pipe dream because you don’t want to face the facts. Pilika is dead. Gone forever. Whether it’s just who she was or if she’s literally been eaten, she isn’t coming back,” Kibulÿm barked angrily, his fists clenched taut by his sides. At having a fist swung at him, he sidestepped it and shot Aerith a pointed look. “There’s no coming back from this, Aerith, so don’t keep getting his hopes up. I wish it wasn’t true, but Hei’s had experience with them at some point and even he’s adamant about this particular group. It’s a sick and twisted game they play just to liven things up a bit. If it’s the same thing on different day, they’ll get hostile with the wild elves and other tribes of blood elves for absolutely no reason at all.”
After a few more swings that were dodged rather easily, Kibulÿm made a few swift motions to remove Clive’s cloak and toss it to the side yet refraining from touching his guns. “Do you want to keep swinging wildly at me even though you know you can’t see me? If so, at least remove all of your guns so you don’t hurt yourself,” he sighed heavily. When Clive obliged by removing the leather strapped harness holding all of his guns in place, he gave a second more tired sigh only to swiftly jump back several paces. Clive followed suit at a somewhat faster pace than he’d been moving. “Are you kidding me?! This isn’t normal in the slightest. What kind of marksman has close-quarters combatives down to this extent when they’re incapable of seeing up close?”
“Me, a** hat. I figured I’d need it because I’m farsighted so I took some lessons from Cloud, Elrick, and Cirdan. It took a while since I had to observe from afar before attempting it in close proximity with them, but they seemed pretty happy I asked them to teach me self defense as a precaution someone might attack me in my blind spot for something as stupid as being related to Nikki. And I don’t just carry all of those guns around to cover all ranges I may need to cover. It’s years of building up my strength and speed for situations like these,” the teen retorted as his fist skimmed by Kibulÿm’s face. Just as quickly as it’d passed by, he snatched it back so his hand could catch the elf around the back of his neck whilst his foot kicked his feet out from under him.
As soon as the elf hit the ground in shock at the speed, the teenager spun slightly on his foot just to drop his weight down on the opposite knee so he would land squarely on Kibulÿm’s torso. Fedelta had stepped in at that point just before he could land the blow, however, and dragged the boy away from his brother in which he got a quick uppercut to his jaw.
“Ow. That’s one helluva punch, kid. Ya gotta calm down though. Calm down! By Andraste’s might, you’ve got more energy than me. There. Kick all you want, but you’re not gonna get very far,” Fedelta growled as he fought briefly with the demonic teenage boy until he finally got his arms pinned down by his sides. Once unable to use his arms, he’d stomped on Fedelta’s foot just to be hefted up far enough his toes could barely touch the ground. Blowing a stray hair out of his face, the elf shot Kibulÿm an unamused look. “Let it go, the both of you. You two simply can’t have any kinda conversation about it without someone getting hurt.”
“Yeah. Me. I don’t even know how to comprehend his abilities ‘cause he’s defying the rules and statutes of limitations. He’s as aggressive as you are when you’re on your blood frenzies. And it’s not my fault he’s in denial. You might wanna get his feet entirely off of the ground. For all we know, he can use what little contact he has against you.”
“Kinda hard for me to do when he’s so frickin’ tall. Frick. Quit fighting me,” Fedelta retorted before tightening his grip when the boy opted for trying to use his feet to push himself away from the fey as he pulled his upper torso forwards. When that didn’t work, he took a deep breath and head butted the halfbreed making him release the demon and cover his nose. “Agh! You little fudger.”
“I’m not in denial, you obnoxious little pretty boy. And I’d prefer it if you don’t try pinning me down again. I’m already aware that she may be different, and I’m sure she’s gonna be mad at me for not being there when they showed up. That doesn’t mean I have to automatically assume she’s dead. I’m not gonna let myself fall under the impression of the world simply being a horribly depressing place like your prissy arse. You’ve got siblings, people that care about you, and you’re a bigger Negative Nancy than Cloud is. I got psychotic distant relatives, acquaintances and clients I’ve met through Sam, an inheritance of a cabin in the middle of nowhere and an arsenal of guns so do forgive me for trying to have something that actually makes me the tiniest bit more motivated to get up in the morning.”
“For someone who claims to want to refrain from the doom and gloom thought process, that’s pretty doomy and gloomy. Ow! That wasn’t an invitation for kicking me! Damnit. Someone needs to control this twerp.”
“Then shut your trap and gimme my stuff back before I kick your a** across this yard,” Clive barked albeit he hadn’t shifted out of his close combative stance as if he expected the elf to try taking advantage of both the situation and the boy’s kindness in not just continuing to beat the crap out of him.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Turning his head slightly to face the panther, Tasso could only offer up a shrug to both her decision and her question. “I couldn’t say with absolute certainty what he may or may not do. The Master of the Brotherhood at the time said it was like his version of a panic attack, like the wires in his head didn’t connect properly so he’d just freak out. Stories about these sporadic events say a lot of different things about what he does ranging from simply going missing for a period of time to mass murder of fellow brothers in the business, and the few short tales of him being the one to kill his ex-lover, Masao. How many stories they have about him that are true, I can’t even tell you that. The shadows don’t seem to have records of him in general, and my Seer self from my last life says that all of which follows in his path is pain and sorrow, suffering and ruin. Nothing good ever seems to be in his general vicinity for long though so one can only guess,” he answered as honestly as he could, his gaze shifting to the sky momentarily. As if something had captured his attention, his gaze snapped back down towards the house. “What the Hell was that? Tex, what the heck did he just say?”
“And there’s the correct questions to be asked. The area is becoming distorted in both time and space because of our little Romanian demon here. Runealis finally said something truly selfish and it’s reached him to where he’s barely even whispered it in his forcibly distressed nap. He asked Adramalech to come back and help him. It was some time ago that the Brotherhood put Runealis in containment so he couldn’t go running off to be a pirate again or whatever it was he intended to do. They couldn’t have that, but he refused to stay. They even attempted to reset him, paralyzed him by hitting his spine just so before they could actually succeed mind you, but his decision to leave remained even though he couldn’t recall why he didn’t want to be there. They’ve attempted replicating him through cloning, all of which died before ever reaching a stable stage still within their tanks, and transplants. Whilst his life and limb have quite literally saved the lives of many, they’ve been unable to achieve results... until ten years ago. Hayden Sa’Lazarei, changed to Hayden Sareila so as to live with his aunt, Maryse Sareila, in the assassin estate specifically for the Sareila clan, was one of those Rune’s life has saved. It even came with the revival process. That’s what they thought at least. Runealis actually set an attached state of himself in the boy so he could train him and attempt finding out where his real body actually is, the path in which he’d seek out his real body being a dangerous after all, and it actually stuck. Unfortunately, he’s too much for the boy to handle. Quite honestly, he’d be too much for even me to handle. Hayden here is gradually losing sight of himself, starting to confuse himself for Rune the longer they’re connected... A few months ago, I finally received a message from him through Koail that asked me to remove the attachment and wipe out any part of his presence that may hinder him. The training and cooking he could keep, but not much else about Rune,” Texenius finally seemed to answer whilst running the tip of his finger around the rim of his wine glass. “He asked me to even erase all of his own memories if I could reach them through his attachment. From what I can tell, I’ll be able to touch all of them up until I hit his first awakening in Buscheta centuries ago. If I tried going past that, I’ll hit that seal again and I don’t have the capability of getting past that right now. It’s part of the reason I’m removing all of my magic limiters. By doing this task, it will leave it to where Hayden and Lianna can continue on as they have without the reanimation coding in his genetic makeup and overwhelming horrors called memories that aren’t his. If he dies, he dies. No redo from that point on. If I remove all of Rune’s memories in the process, Rune will start all over from square one with nobody to turn to and nothing to work with besides strangers that will continuously torment and kill him in order to save the lives of their comrades. To them, he’s simply a never-ending supply of blood, organ, and limb donations that meshes well with all blood types now that he doesn’t want to be their pawn anymore. Adra, Koail, and myself will all become strangers to him as well where no amount of sharing our memories of our time together will ever let him recover those memories. I don’t mind helping the boy, he doesn’t need to be put through the same kind of Hell as our gentle giant of an assassin, but Runealis is a different story. He’s completely selfish in the art of being selfless.”
“He’d rather suffer alone with no memories at all than drag anyone else into it,” Trevor breathed out only to set his hand on top of Tex’s head when the incubus nodded. “But you know he’s actually scared of being alone all over again, don’t you? I’m taking it as you’re wanting to find him before you do any removals and memory wipes.”
“And if I try using a tracker spell on the attachment he made to the boy, it’ll alert my brother and his apprentices. They’ll throw on a cloaking spell, I’ll have to uncloak it, and the other brother will have reached my location before I get a read on his location. The shadows won’t help because they’ve always been scared of him, and any light divination tactics will only follow suit. Embodiments can’t get involved with him either since he’s outside of their jurisdiction. Even Wennin, the biggest rule breaker of them all, won’t get involved though he always seems to be unhappy about it... And breaks more rules in succession than separating them as well as offing bad people ahead of their time to take out his frustration. From what I‘ve noticed, it’s only the unnatural parts of the world, the real kind of magic, that are able to help locate him. It’s the only way I could find him before this Brotherhood did this to him.”
“See? I told you he wasn’t a bad guy,” Tasso smiled sadly before glancing over at Heine who’s expression had shifted to a rather lucid frown. No. Nothing good could come from a half-crazed wild elf with an even more feral contaminate in him. “You’re contemplating a solo manhunt, aren’t you? They won’t play nice with you just because you’re the elf that helped bring him back to them.”
“Good ‘cause I won’t play nice with them either. Even if I have to let the Other out, they’re not gonna keep him hostage. I didn’t help him escape from the fey realm just to be trapped by the rotten humans in this realm,” Heine responded as he started a march towards the house. Unfortunately enough, he stopped before making it onto the porch and began tapping the toe of his boot into the ground.
“He’s too scared to even enter a house so how does he intend to try tracking him through over half of the Brotherhood’s locations if Rune’s in one of them?”
“As a side note for Sheik: have you asked her?” At seeing the other tense up, he gave a heavy sigh. “I see. You can’t keep stalling now that the wheels have been set into motion... Fine. Since you can’t bring yourself to ask it, I’ll do it for you. Kana, whilst we cannot tell you what this question is about, and I’m pretty sure I already know the answer-“
“No,” Sheik barked rather suddenly making several in the room jump in surprise. At seeing the just as sudden distress as plain as day on his face, Trevor moved over to him and gently pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Don’t ask it... Please don’t ask it yet, Tex.”
“I can’t do that. No matter how much you try to prepare yourself for the answer, you’re never going to truly be prepared to accept it,” Tex responded coolly as his finger yet again began to trace the rim of his glass. “Kana, the question is will you do it for him when the time comes? As I’ve said, none of us that know the outcome of both sides of the coin can tell you what it is we’re asking about, only ask for an answer of yes or no from you. Even after hearing your answer, we aren’t allowed to tell you what you’re agreeing or disagreeing to, only tell you that you’ll know when it takes place. The longer you two stall, the more changes you’ll make to the future, and the more people, places, and things will be erased from the fabrics of time. So? Will you or won’t you do this task for him when the time comes?”
“I suggest going with your gut rather than your heart and head for your answer. The answer you give can drastically change what happens before and after. Even I wouldn’t want to have to choose the answer, and we cannot give you much more than a personal opinion of which one would be perhaps the lesser of two evils,” Serai murmured with a slight glare at the table rather than anything else. “And you won’t get any clues from him on which to choose either because he’s been too afraid to even ask the question because he doesn’t want to hear the answer. He wouldn’t leave his room for about two weeks because of what he saw on both ends of the spectrum.”
