Ijou

WARRIOR epilogue

2009-10-30T10:10:27Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG
Characters: Caliginous, Jin'do'ran, Tsuide
Notes: The conclusion, such as it is.

Caliginous was asleep when the very persistent knocking on her door began. She stirred with a soft groan and squinted her eyes open. The hotel room was dim, but there were beams of sunlight cutting through the darkness, irritating her raw eyes. She wondered who could be outside her door, and tensed as the paranoid suspicion that it could very well be her son snuck into her sleep-fogged mind. The knocking did not let up even though she had made no sound of acknowledgment.

As she woke up more, Cal was able to admit to herself that it was highly unlikely that Coniosis would knock. He would just break through her wards and slip in as if he owned the place. She got up out of the bed and grabbed her robe off of the beside table. Her side twinged in protest with each movement. "Just a minute," she called out, pulling the heavy cloth on and tying it at her waist.

The knocking paused, happened twice more, and then fell silent. Cal was grateful; the sound had been beginning to ingrain itself on her brain in a steady beat that brought with it waves of pain. She shuffled to the door and leaned up to squint through the peek hole. Everything through it was blurry and useless. She could not tell who it was, and Jin was still unconscious in her shadow. With a small sigh of annoyance, she lowered herself flat on her feet again, braced one hand on the wall beside the door, and began unlocking it. The process took her almost a full minute because she had made sure to request a room with far too many locks to be healthy.

Opening the door revealed a young, male Genus with the bluest eyes Cal had ever seen on a human. He smiled brightly upon seeing her, and thrust a small, plain brown, cardboard box at her. "Package delivery for ya!"

Cal stared unblinkingly at it, immediately suspicious. "From who?" she asked, ears dropping back and frills folding neatly.

"Coniosis, of course," he answered easily, sounding a little bit confused as to why she did not know. "He said it's a gift, for... savin' his life?"

"I do not want it," she hissed, and leaned back to shut the door in his face. Except, he was faster than her and stuck his foot in the doorway, effectively blocking it. Cal glared, but she knew that she could not muster the energy to chase him off.

"It's safe," he said, reassuringly, "I promise."

"And I am to take your word for it?"

"Yea!" He only got a suspicious glare in return for that. The boy sighed, and pulled his pocket knife out from his back pocket, flicking it open. He held it up for her inspection when she flinched back. "Just gonna open it. If it's a trap, it'll blow in MY face, right?"

"...All right," Caliginous murmured, willing at least to see the farce out.

He flashed his smile at her, then cut the packing tape away. The knife was folded and deftly hidden once more. "Okay, make sure ya mourn my death, if somethin' happens," he murmured, half-joking, as he began to pry the box open.

Inside, there were faded green packing peanuts. Cal watched the human stick his hand into them. Abruptly, he made a pained sound and flopped around as if he had been electrocuted. She jerked away from the door, alarmed. Then, he began laughing. "Just teasin', sorry!"

"That... was not funny," she huffed quietly.

His good humor did not fade, but neither did he argue with her. He pulled a small green and gold computer chip, wrapped in plastic, out from the box and held it up for her inspection. There was a piece of paper taped to one side with Con's scribbled handwriting in black ink. "See? Nothin' bad," the boy said, and held it out towards her.

Caliginous stared at it, more out of confusion than suspicion, and wondered just what her son thought he was giving her. She knew only enough of computers to recognize what it was, not to actually use it. In her entire life, she had never once owned a computer, or given any thought to doing so. It was a very human thing. Cautiously, she reached out and plucked it from the boy's hands, almost as if she expected it to really electrocute her, which was a foolish thought because it was wrapped in plastic. "Thank you," she said quietly, and then really did shut the door in his face.

She locked only two of the locks, and leaned against the door, looking at the strange little package in her hands. The note read simply, "A life for a life. -Con". Cal scoffed at that, and moved back to the bed. The mystery would keep until she had enough rest to think clearly. She shoved the entire thing inside her pillow, pulled the robe off, and burrowed back underneath the covers to get some well-deserved sleep.

----- x -----

Caliginous woke from her deep slumber late that afternoon, just a few short hours from dusk. She felt quite refreshed, if still sore and badly in need of a shower. Jin brushed against the edge of her consciousness by way of greeting, and she smiled, pleased to know that they had made it through their little adventure mostly unharmed. She got out of bed, stretched out all of the kinks and soreness in her muscles. A glance back to the bed reminded her that she still had Con's little package to figure out, but it could wait until she had showered. She went straight to the bathroom to do just that.

No less than two hours later, Cal wandered out of the bathroom, freshly scrubbed and well satisfied. She went to the bed and pulled her bag out from beneath it to get some clean clothes out. As she was dressing, she asked aloud, "Shall we go see about some food, then?" Jin pressed a sense of agreement against her mind, so she nodded. "I think perhaps I would like to meet my esteemed pen pal. I hope that he will not mind the intrusion..." She quickly finished dressing and primping.

During her bath, she had decided that she would visit Tsuide. He was far older than she, and once an old enemy, but they had become pen pals after she had offered written apologies for her past transgressions against him. She had come to admire his wit and his writing skills. They had not seen each other since becoming friends, and that was a shame because it was largely her own fault for being too busy to make the trip. She picked up the pillow and turned it, dumping out the plastic-wrapped chip out on the bedspread. There was a more pressing matter to the visit, as well. Tsuide was knowledgeable in technology and would be able to tell her what it was, she hoped.

It felt important enough to give it to him in any case. She picked it up and tucked it carefully into her dress pocket. "I do not feel like traversing this city above-ground," Cal commented, glancing to the glowing red numbers of the alarm clock on the dresser across from the bed. "Would you be a dear and carry me?"

Jin'do'ran slid out of the shadows with a soft gurgle of consent, and bent to pick her mistress up as carefully as possible. Cal curled her arm around the shadowy demon's neck and closed her eyes. They disappeared into the shadows and moved swiftly. Jin knew the address from taking numerous letters to be delivered, and knew what color of aura to look for, from the traces left on Tsuide's return letters.

The demon moved so swiftly through the Shadow Realm that none of the dark things could keep up with them. Quite suddenly, they were out on the street again, standing in front of 001 Porter Bend. Jin set Cal down on her feet and backed into her shadow, disappearing from view before any hapless passersby could become alarmed at her presence. Cal dusted herself off, and then approached the gate.

The lights were on, shining merrily through the cracks in the curtains. She curled her fingers around the iron-wrought bars and pushed the gate inwards, pleased when it made only the slightest creaking noise. It was a relatively modern-looking house, but there was nothing trashy or cheap about it. The lawn was immaculately kept, and there was a wide, wooden porch with chairs and even a swing. She went up the stone pathway and right up to the door, and knocked loudly. The sounds of merriment inside came to a pause.

A few moments later, footsteps made their way to the door. Cal stepped back, holding her hands behind herself, and waited. The door swung open to reveal Tsuide, quite changed, yet somehow looking much the same as he had before. His expression changed from irritation to surprise quickly.

"Hello, Tsuide."

"Caliginous. How nice to see you," he responded, his words leaden, as if he really could not believe she was there. Tsuide pushed the screen door open with one wing arm and moved out of the way so that she could enter.

She ducked in and looked around the living room, noting that she had interrupted a gathering of sorts. There were no less than seven others there, including the brightly colored half-Fuiri boy she had helped to rescue in the process of meddling with the D'lea plot. "I'm sorry if I'm intruding..."

"No." Tsuide shut the door and looked to the group. "This is Caliginous, everyone." He gave them a few moments to call out greetings, and then cut in smoothly, touching her lightly on the shoulder, "Please excuse us, I need a moment to talk to her in private." He guided her to the kitchen quickly, going just a little too fast to be polite. She had little choice but to hurry along or else trip over herself. "What are you doing here?"

Caliginous smoothed her dress off and huffed a little at him. "I was in the area and thought we were friends of sorts."

He eyed her as if he did not believe it one bit for a moment, then moved away, opening the fridge. "Are you thirsty?"

"Yes," she admitted. There was a counter in the middle of the kitchen, with stools around it. She went to it and claimed one, tucking her feet behind the bars and her tail underneath the seat. "I have something I was hoping you could find the meaning of for me, actually."

"Hn." Tsuide produced a glass bottle of root beer, pried the cap off, and set it in front of her. "Do you want a glass?"

"No, this is fine."

He nodded and sat in the stool next to hers, bracing his arms on the counter top. "Well, what is it?"

She took a sip of the root beer first, savoring its flavor. It was one of the few drinks that she could enjoy without first adding an excess of sugar to. All too carefully, she set the bottle back onto the counter, as if delaying a few moments would make an explanation come to her mind easier. "I was given a computer chip," Cal said, taking it out of her pocket and holding it up for his inspection. "I am not well-versed in computers, however..."

Tsuide took it from her, turning it over in his hands. "I don't think I have anything to run this with," he admitted, much to her disappointment. "This note... Con? Your son?"

"Yes."

"I bet it's WARRIOR, then," he told her, holding it back out. "The last copy. Jou was pissed when he heard Meji was gonna trade copies of it off and made her delete 'em all."

"Keep it, then," Cal answered, reaching out to fold his fingers over it. She smiled. "I have no use for it, where I am going."

He looked faintly confused, lowering his hand and tightening his fingers over it. What he would do with the chip, he did not know. It could not fall into the wrong hands, however, that much he understood from Joumae's insistence that all the copies be destroyed and how far things had gone with the D'lea family. "And where are you going, Shiramine?"

Caliginous only picked up her root beer and took another long sip. "Shouldn't we go back to your other guests, my friend?" Her destiny was a story for another day, and all she wanted to do that night was relax and enjoy herself, just a little bit.

WARRIOR 6-4

2009-10-30T10:06:11Z

WARRIOR
Rating: M
Characters: Caliginous, Jin'do'ran, Coniosis, D'lea Family
Notes: A battle is won, or is it?

The pain was an ever increasing thing. It came and went in waves with each breath she took. There was a wet sucking sound and she could not seem to catch her breath. One of the bullets had gotten her lungs. Caliginous curled her fingers tightly around the bars of the cage, teeth gritted. She was aware of the screams of the Genus as they were slaughtered. Her demon was shrieking its rage, knocking everything that got in its way down. Crates fell and shattered on the concrete floor. Glass shattered, indicating that one of the spotlights had been destroyed. Somewhere in that chaos, Coniosis lurked, no doubt causing just as much damage as the demon, if only quieter.

What the demon saw filtered into her head, smothering her pain and reality with blood lust and rage. However, the more she sat there, the more aware she was that there was another cage. She had seen it earlier. Through numerous glimpses, Cal was able to piece together a picture of how things were in that cage. The only conscious one, a female Genus, had stopped pleading and was hunched down in the middle, away from the edges of the cage. The other two lay as still as they had before. There was no telling whether Con intended to free them. Or whether Jin would return to its senses. She could have called out to it, but the risk of Con stealing it and using it for his own deeds was too great.

Instead, she opened her eyes and spat out blood. Something needed to be done, both about the prisoners and about her injuries. She could have lain there until she bled to death and it would not have made a difference. Stubborn insistence that she could not die there would not necessarily make it true. It only meant that there was a good chance she would live -- if she seized it. The memories of Ketsueki she had recalled in her dream were of her worst moments. That pain had been far worse than this. She focused on that, tightening her grip on the bars until the knuckles were almost white. Her eyes remained open as she dipped the other hand down to the bullet wounds, seeking out the holes with her fingers.

"Justice preserve me," she muttered weakly, then dug her finger into one gushing hole. The pain very nearly blinded her, nearly sent her collapsing into blackness, was nearly too much. The first bullet had not gone in that deep. She rested a moment as she was, then shifted a bit, hooking her claw along the notched edge of the metal. Slowly, slowly, she edged it out until she could get a better grip on it and pull it all the way out. She let it fall with a clatter and had to fight not to vomit.

"What are you doing?" Coniosis asked from above her. He did not wait for a reply, slipping down off the top of the cage where he had been perched to watch the carnage. Rather than kneeling to help her, he merely stood, looking down at her with what might have been a mixture of disgust and pity. Cal was not able to look up at him to be sure. "You're not going to die here, are you?"

Her reply was to spit blood on his expensive shoes. She ignored his scoff in favor of putting her hands back to the wounds. The second bullet had sunk in deeper than the first. Without some sort of tool to get it out, it did not seem she would be able to, not without more serious harm to herself. Her head dropped down, resting against her upraised arm. Coniosis huffed, sounding almost put upon.

"Here," he muttered, holding out a sliver of his shadow made solid. When she did not move to take it, he bent, grabbed her wrist, and forced her to. "Stop dying." He would not save her, no, but nor would he stand idly by while she died at another's hands. His revenge demanded that he take her down at her fullest. Otherwise, he could have very well killed her then and gone on to live a productive, twisted life. "I have business to attend to," he explained easily, as if it mattered. Then he was gone, back into the shadows.

Caliginous snorted softly and traced her finger along the edges of the tool he had given her. It was like a scalpel, with a thin, rounded handle and a sharp blade at one end. There was a hook at the other, though. She wondered if he were going to watch her cut herself open to get the bullets out. No, it did not seem likely. Swallowing and tasting the coppery taste of her own blood, almost choking on how thick and cloying it was, she lowered the tool to one of the bullet wounds and eased it in, hook first. It was difficult trying not to scrape it against the sucking, wet walls of flesh when she could barely hold herself upright.

Her hand was shaking badly when she felt the solid form of the bullet. She had to will herself into stillness before she could do anything else. Her eyes fell briefly closed, but that was no good. The demon was still rampaging, and its emotions threatened to override her sense of self. What she needed was to focus. The sounds around her were fading, both because the carnage was almost over and because the steady beat of her own heart was overwhelming her senses. Her blood was roaring in her ears, slowing. Time was running out as surely as the blood that flowed from her wounds. No choice, then. Without Jin'do'ran there to split the Node's energy with, it would surely overwhelm her, but it was her only chance. She reached through her soul once more and threw the gates open.

Magical energy flooded her, making her aura visible even to those who could not normally see magic at all. It coursed through her body, searing and rejuvenating in one swift flood. The fog in her mind faded. She became oddly disconnected from her physical body, only aware of the heat that seared through her soul and outwards, leaking rapidly in a wide radius around her. Cal chose to ignore that for the moment. She hooked the second bullet and yanked it out quickly. Then the third and the fourth and the fifth, until they were all out, the wounds flowing freely. The shadowy tool was discarded as well.

It was time to test the extent of her abilities. She could heal, at the cost of her own health. In all her years of using this Corrupted version of Darkness to heal others, she had never once tried to use it on herself. It had seemed to be a moot point, after all. What good was trying to heal herself when she herself were going to be paying the price in pounds of flesh? She was past sloppy first aid attempts, however. Her fingers were folded over the wounds, and she lifted her head, focusing on the energy that threatened to overwhelm her. Focusing it down into points that would fill the holes. It burned worse than simply letting it flow through her freely. It burned as if she were willingly putting herself into lava and staying there. Her scream was soundless.

Jin'do'ran was there very suddenly, seizing the energy and diverting much of it away from her. Caliginous let herself fall forward against the demon's legs, gasping. It was the demon that closed the gates on the node, not Cal. All of her will went into staying conscious. The energy of the node petered away, leaving only a residue. A very powerful residue, but little more than that. She was aware that Coniosis was staring at her from across the room. He stood in front of one of the spotlights, his claws sunk into a fat, jowly man's neck. His surprise and hesitation gave the Genus time to pull his weapon and shove it against Con's gut.

Cal closed her eyes, relieved that the blood lust was gone from her demon. Only concern remained. Overwhelming concern and regret for not being there. The demon bent and curled itself around its mistress, crooning weakly. She pressed her fingers to its masked face, smiling faintly. The fat monkey-creature was shouting something Cal could not make sense of, but she knew it probably meant Con's face off with him had taken a turn for the worse.

"I live, but once again, we must save my foolish son. Go."

The demon hissed and pulled away, sliding into the shadows. Her body was shaking, but Cal had not clawed her way back from such a severe wounding to lay there. There were prisoners that still needed freeing. She dragged herself to her feet, using the cage to do it, and swayed there a moment. Her cheek rested against the iron, head turned towards where Con angrily stared down a man with a gun. She blinked. Jin flew out of the shadows, slamming into the man's side. The gun went off harmlessly into the dark as he went crashing down. Another blink and Con was moving in tandem with the demon to finish him off. Cal looked away as a spray of blood hit the pair of them.

In all of her life, Caliginous had endured many long and hard walks. This one ranked amongst the highest. Each step jarred her stomach which was in a roil, filled with what she thought of as the Corruption. It would be a black, putrid mess, and it would need to come out sooner or later. Her side was still afire. The wounds were not fully healed yet. Self-healing, it seemed, was something she would need more practice with. She bit down on the half-hysterical bark of laughter that wanted to come out, knowing that it would lead to the inevitable vomiting. Vomiting which must wait, if she intended to reach the cage.

Behind her, she heard Con's voice talking to... someone. A female someone? Perhaps the girl Jin had seen in the office. He did not sound especially friendly towards her. Whoever had been involved in whatever this was -- a kidnapping? -- would be lucky to make it out alive, Cal assumed. She reached the cage without falling and sank against it gratefully, breathing heavily. There was definitely a rasping whistle and an ache with each breath. The girl in between the unconscious dragons stared up at her fearfully.

"Who... are you?" Cal forced herself to ask, edging around the cage slowly and carefully until she was at the latch. Jin was returning by then, apparently having decided Con was safe enough for the moment.

"A... Alaine. Alaine D'lea." There was a dreadful amount of hope beneath that fear, until she saw the demon come out of the shadows and press itself against Cal's side. Then she flinched back down, letting the terror smother her again.

"And the others? Look at me, girl."

"Um. The boy's Arak... he's. He was my..." She could not bring herself to finish. Cal understood anyway. "The other... Her name is--"

At that moment, there was a short, female shriek behind them. All three of them flinched in surprise. Wearily, Cal turned her head to look back to where Con was, knowing what she was going to see. The woman he had been talking to lay dead at his feet while he adjusted his tie as if nothing were out of the ordinary. It turned her stomach. She had to fight down the bile. Better to look back at the Genus in the cage than remind herself, once again, that she had been the one to make Con into the monster he had become. "Who is she? The dragon."

"M-m-mejirah. Please... please don't... let him. Please."

"No," Cal said, agreeably and soothingly. "He will not. Shield your eyes."

The girl did as she was bid, ducking her head down and burying it in her arms. In the next instant, Jin's claws lashed past Cal, slicing the bars apart. They fell with a clatter that seemed to draw Con over to see what they were up to. She put her demon away before he reached them only because she was too tired to stop it from lashing out should he try anything.

"I came here for her," Coniosis said as if they were having tea and discussing the weather, "The big blue cow."

"What about the others?" she asked, looking down at the quivering girl and unconscious boy. He looked like a strange mix of Den'sturax and Fuiri, all bright colors and quills, with a strong jaw and a thick tail. Not displeasing to the eye, she supposed.

"That girl's one of them," he scoffed, "The D'lea. They kidnapped Meji and myself. That nurse, too, looks like."

"Please," Alaine whimpered, "I was... they made me."

"To protect him, yea, yea, I heard it before. Told you they were lying, too." He extended his shadow, forming large, rounded claws. Alaine almost screamed and flinched away, but apparently got herself under control just in time. Con was not interested in her anyhow. He gathered Meji up almost gently and pulled her to him, supporting her with his shadow rather than his own strength. "I am leaving."

Caliginous only nodded. Then he was gone, as if he had never been there at all. "Girl, you take this boy and get him help, and never..." She paused, raised a hand to her mouth, and wheezed a little, fighting the rising bile. "Never put him in danger again. Go." Then she was falling, back into shadow where Jin caught her. The evening had been too taxing, too trying, and too hard on her.

She fell unconscious immediately.

WARRIOR 6-3

2009-10-27T07:46:49Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Caliginous, Jin'do'ran, Coniosis
Notes: The final battle begins?

The trip through the Shadow Realm was quick; so quick that Cal was only faintly aware of it. They did not have far to go, after all. Jin'do'ran rasped a warning, and then leapt to the ceiling, right beneath the dull smudge of Coniosis's aura. Below them, the dark things milled around, hissing and snarling because they could not keep up with Jin to get at Cal. The demon snarled a warning down at them, then pressed its face to the ceiling, looking through the shadows to find a suitably safe place to come up. Cal closed her eyes as the things that the demon saw filtered through her head.

Amidst the crates in a dimly lit warehouse, the iron bars of an animal cage surrounded Coniosis in a wide open space. He was pacing from one end to the other, something that did not take much more than two steps. His hands were bound behind him in iron, rune-bound shackles, dampening his magic. Not far from it was another cage with two unconscious dragons in it, bound and gagged on the floor, and one restless female Genus begging for help. Several armed Genus prowled the edges of the open area, behind large, inactive spotlights, casting wary glances towards Con's cage as if they expected him to turn into some sort of giant monster and devour them all. Jin tried to pull her head back into the Shadow Realm and got stuck.

Cal opened her eyes. "They have it warded," she murmured, putting her hands to the demon's neck, "against Darkness. We must break it, my demon." Jin pressed acknowledgment against her consciousness and stilled, waiting. Cal murmured in draconic, "Forgive me," and then severed the demon's head from its body. They tumbled from the ceiling, falling quickly. The demon recovered just before they hit the ground in the middle of a crowd of the dark things, rolling its body to land on its back rather than on its master. Its head fell from the ceiling, freed of the wards. Cal held her hands out and caught it as the dark things closed in on them. "Purge them all," she murmured, looking into the lifeless head.

Her aura pulsed outwards and the demon's form twisted, boiling outwards, raising her onto its shoulder even as it stood again. The dark things flinched away as waves of Darkness washed over them. Jin lashed out with one claw, blindly smashing the creatures wherever it could find them. Cal sat serenely on its shoulder as it rampaged, smashing pests. She set the head on the neck and held it still as flesh re-knitted. As soon as it was reattached, it grew larger to match its body's size. The demon could see again, and gleefully set to finishing off the filthy creatures that had hoped to feed on its mistress.

"There, there," Cal said, patting Jin on the cheek, "That is enough, my demon. Why don't you put some of this rage to use breaking the wards?" Her energy would not last long enough to support such a rampage for long.

Jin lifted its head, looking up to the ceiling. The last of the dark things that had survived the onslaught scampered away. The demon raised its claws, splaying them on the ceiling. Cal watched as it sunk its claws in. It channeled energy upwards, through its arms, filtering it out through the shadows and into the wards. She felt the tug on her soul as more energy than she had was drawn. Without really thinking about it, she reached inwards and opened the gates to the Node, unleashing a torrent of energy. Jin snarled as the energy it was channeling became not just a steady trickle but a tidal wave. The wards overloaded and snapped apart. Jin yanked her claws from the ceiling even as Cal slammed the gate shut. Together, they fell back to the ground once more, this time with the demon landing gracefully on its feet with its mistress carefully cradled in its arms.

"Ah. That was dangerous, I know... Leave me here to rest for a while. I need you to put the lights out above." Jin rasped disagreeably, but set Caliginous down carefully. It drew a protective circle around her with its aura, leaving enough energy to warn any dark things away from trying anything. It gave her one last considering look, adjusted the skull on its head, and flung itself up and out of the Shadow Realm. Cal smiled at its departure and closed her eyes, letting the demon's sight override her own as she caught her breath.

Jin'do'ran slipped through the shadows so quickly that none of the mortals noticed it except for Con. Those who could have sensed it were busy worrying about the ward's failure and the huge burst of energy that had shorted it in the warehouse's office. It gave them only a passing glance as it searched for the source of the lighting in the place. There was a fuse box behind the desk. Blood splattered the floors and walls, hastily wiped at but not cleaned up. Jin hunkered down in one shadow, considering the scene fully.

Four Genus were in the office. One held an icepack to the back of her neck, siting hunched in one of the chairs as she complained senselessly. There was a big male talking loudly and brusquely, probably giving out orders. Two smaller Genus, both male, wrung their hands, chattering excitedly and worriedly. Their auras pulsed, indicating that they were the ones that had made the ward, as they were the only ones with sufficient magic to do so. They were the only threats to the demon. It looked over at the fuse box, debating whether it could get to it and cut it off quickly enough to avoid an attack.

Caliginous's thoughts invaded the demon's, suggesting a better plan. It could take out all of the regular light bulbs within the place. The Genus would not be able to get them replaced without great confusion and time wasted. They would be forced to use the spotlights, which could work out to their advantage. Jin'do'ran looked up to the office's ceiling, observing the two lazily turning ceiling fans and their dim bulbs. There was just enough shadow up there for it to reach through and smash the bulbs so quickly that no one noticed until it was dark. It moved quickly through the warehouse, coming out of the shadows only long enough to destroy the fragile lighting.

As planned, chaos broke out. Shouting erupted throughout the warehouse. At least one Genus spooked enough to fire their weapon blindly into the dark. The demon cackled with amusement, crouching on top of crates to see what they would do. Tiny beams of light penetrated the darkness. They had little machines that produced feeble lighting, something that Jin found even more amusing than their fear. Their obsession with light was pitiful. It slipped back into the Shadow Realm when the first spotlight flickered on.

"Hurry, before they get the others on," Caliginous told it, holding a hand out, "We must free Coniosis."

Jin gave a little half bow, and quickly picked its mistress up, carrying her up to the surface world. It used its own power to enlarge itself, not one to take any risks. It thought the Genus weapons were silly, but it knew that its mistress was mortal and could be hurt by them. It set Cal down next to the cage and loomed protectively over her, hiding her from sight.

"Mother," Con hissed from the gloom. His blue eyes were glowing. He had not come to the edge of the cage where they were, apparently preferring to keep his distance when he was clearly at a disadvantage.

"Coniosis," she returned evenly, feeling along the bars for a weak point. "Dare I ask what you have gotten yourself into this time?" Another spotlight was on, slicing through the darkness. The Genus were getting louder. Someone had seen something over by the cage, sending fresh waves of panic through the ranks. No one wanted to find out what it was, not without their magi to lead them. Cal found what she was looking for. "Here, my demon." She stepped out of the way as the demon slammed its claws through the iron, cutting it as if it were butter.

"There's someone!" a Genus shouted. Caliginous had stepped too far out from behind the demon. They opened up fire.

The bullets slammed into her side, sending her crashing against the cage's bars. Jin let out a horrifying howl of rage and spun around, dashing into the crowd of Genus to tear them asunder. Meanwhile, Con rushed forward, concern obvious in his eyes. Cal curled her fingers around the cage bars and smiled through blood. "Ah, the mistakes we make..." she rasped, then paused, struggling against the pain. It would not kill her; she could not die yet. Her body sank slowly to the floor even though she desperately wanted to stay standing. With the last of her strength, she called out, "Cut him loose, Jin!"

The demon snarled, zipping back through the shadows. Blood dripped from its muzzle as it came up behind Con. It did not bother being gentle as it ripped the shackles to pieces. Then it was gone as quickly, going back to destroying any of the monkey-creatures it could get its claws on. Cal raised her gaze to look at her son as another spotlight illuminated the place. He stood tall, rubbing his wrists slowly, with naked fury on his face. "Your demon had better save some for me," he hissed, then was gone as fast as if he were a demon himself.

Caliginous smiled and let her head fall.

WARRIOR 6-2

2009-10-24T07:31:04Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG
Characters: Caliginous, Ketsueki, Jin'do'ran, Coniosis
Notes: A restless sleep.

"Are you certain that what your god wants of you... will not kill him?" a soft voice queried, growing louder with each word so that it echoed off of the cavern walls, spiraling up into bright beams of sunlight high above.

She was standing a damp piece of rock jutting out over a murky pool. The light did not reach that far down, leaving her unable to see anything below her knees clearly. Cal's ears twitched, and she swung around, trying to figure out the source of it. There was no one in the gloom but her. Even Jin'do'ran's presence was far away, muted by the distance. There was nothing. "Why am I here?" she asked aloud. "Who are you?"

No reply.

Cal sighed and raised her gaze up towards the light briefly. It was so far out of reach. There had to be another way out of wherever she was. She looked back down, towards the water. It seemed to be the only way to go. She could swim through it easily and find some other shore through the gloom. A chill was creeping in, and there was mist rising up off of the water. Suddenly, going into the water seemed to be the worst idea she had ever had in her whole life. If she was forced to go in, she was sure that she would go mad. What lay under the surface? Cal took one step back away from the edge, cringing.

"GO!" Con's voice roared from behind her.

Hands roughly shoved against her back, sending her tumbling forward. She tried to scream but could not, slamming into the water and getting a lung full of it. Her body kicked in quickly, expelling it and drawing it into her second lungs before she could drown. Cal floundered in the wet darkness, unsure of which way was up. Cold pressed down on her from all sides, turning her blood to slush. She panicked, struggling harder. There was a flash of light from above. Her mind seized upon it, recognizing the sunlight, and she kicked towards it even as she was sure her limbs must be becoming ice.

The water around her became lighter and lighter the more she swam. It became warmer, as well. Her panic subsided after a few moments, allowing her to think reasonably again. She could not have fallen that deeply into the water, could she? No, her mind reasoned, something strange was going on. Cal did not dare to look back. Some instinct warned her against it. It was better to keep moving towards the light and the warmth than look back into the abyss. Her hand broke through the surface moments later. She pushed her head free of the water and took a gasp of air that she did not really need.

All around her was whiteness. She had come out of a small pond into a square room without decoration or furniture. Cal swam towards the white tile floor and pulled herself out of the water. Though she was dripping everywhere, the water seemed to disappear before it touched the floor. She took it, and her presence in a strange white room, in stride. Wherever it was, it was better than being lost in darkness. Her feet were moving before she was aware of it, and then suddenly, she stood squarely in the middle of the room. When she looked back, the pool of water was gone. The whiteness of the room was utterly complete.

"Where am I?" she asked aloud, though she knew she was still alone. The room faded away, revealing a starry sky behind it. Cal stood on what appeared to be nothing, but could feel solid floor beneath her. It was an illusion, then, or some other kind of magic trick. "Whoever and wherever you are, stop playing games."

The image shifted around her, becoming blurry. Then it was a memory she recalled vividly. It remained blurry because at the time, she had been in so much pain she had not even wished to be alive. It was dim, with only a few flickering candles to light the damp basement Con had kept her body in during her absence. Filthy shelves lined the walls, filled with random junk. Cobwebs dangled loosely from corners, as if he could not be bothered cleaning. It was a mockery of the cleanliness and order she had kept when she had been alive and well. The raspy, gurgling breathing she heard was her own. As was the low, keening whine.

"Steady," came Ketsueki's voice, then his face was all she could see. "This is the hardest part. Wait a moment..." Everything faded to black, but his voice remained. "Breathe, Shiramine, breathe... slow and steady. You will be back on your feet soon enough. Are you ready? I'm going to move you..." There was silence for a few moments, and then his voice returned, "This is... all I can do for you. You have to go out into this mortal world again and bear the weight of this. Corruption is spreading across the land, killing thousands of innocents. And when this world is cleansed, you must die." He sighed, sounding tired and sad. She remembered how he had looked in that moment, as if it hurt him more than anything that had ever been done to him.

"What? Why?" her voice asked, sounding shocked and angry. After all, the agreement to carry out his charade had been to save herself. Dying at the end of it would not be much of a saving.

"Because you must," Ket answered, "You should, by all rights, already be dead. This is a second chance to redeem your soul before it is too late... I need someone to fix what is wrong in this world. More than that, you must die to redeem both yourself and another."

"Who?"

"Your son. He must kill you to realize the folly of his ways." His words got quieter and quieter until they faded away into nothing, leaving Caliginous standing in the middle of blackness as if she were down in the Shadow Realm.

She closed her eyes because there was nothing to see, and listened to the sound of her own heartbeat echoing. "Why did you show me that?"

"Why does Justice shelter you of all people?" the soft voice from the beginning asked. "Why did he look so wounded when he told you that you must die?"

"I do not know..."

"I think you do. I think you've known all along."

Caliginous heaved a small sigh, feeling annoyed and tired. "Make your point already. Stop playing these games with me."

"Open your eyes, Shiramine, it is only yourself in this head of yours."

She did, and saw a plain, full-length mirror before her. There was nothing out of the ordinary with her reflection. It was just symbolism. All along, she had known what the voice had been trying to say because that voice had belong to her. "Why do I have to die?" she asked herself aloud, and the answer came immediately.

-----

She was awake, truly awake. It had been a dream. The words on her lips were not, "I have to die so that Ketsueki can." Caliginous sighed tiredly, draping her arm against her forehead as she stared up to the ceiling. Jin pressed worriedly against her mind, but she shooed it gently, wanting to focus on the strange dream before it faded into nothingness. It seemed important that she remember the thing which she had been denying all along. If Justice were planning to die when she did, who would take up the mantle after he was gone? She did not know the answer to that. There were too many pieces of the puzzle out of her reach. Perhaps in time she would fully understand, though she wondered whether she truly wanted to. For all the things Ketsueki was putting her through, she had become quite attached to him, and the idea of his death filled her with as much sorrow as her own.

"All right," she said aloud, getting Jin's attention. "Let us go rescue my foolish son so that my appointment with destiny is not delayed..."

The demon gurgled as it slunk out of the shadows to her side. She accepted its help out of bed, feeling the stiffness of a long day settled into her muscles. Jin was more than happy to rub the soreness away and help her dress. For once, Cal was content to let the demon do it, her mind wandering listlessly from topic to topic as she tried to wake up properly. It was only when she was set in front of the bathroom sink did she snap out of it.

"Ah, thank you, my demon," she murmured, and bent to wash her face. "Tonight, I fear we do evil work again... Innocents may be lost." As she toweled her face dry, she sighed. "May Justice forgive me. Take me to Coniosis." Jin bent, curling its arms around Cal, and carried her into the Shadow Realm. She closed her eyes and whispered, "Wait for me, destiny."

WARRIOR 6-1

2009-10-17T11:35:18Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG
Characters: Caliginous, Jin'do'ran
Notes: The start of the final PoV.

Caliginous watched the city grow ever larger on the twilit horizon, like some great, sprawling plague of glowing lights and concrete. She curled her fingers tighter around the metal railing of the ferry and willed herself to be calm. It was only a city. A city full of diseases and hatred, but a city all the same. It was her job to seek out the Corrupted individuals and cleanse them on this brief stop before she headed further south. She doubted very much that there would be much Corruption in the city. Juno was the largest port in the world; it traded with almost every civilized country, including Enciniaz, where her base of operations and the creation of the cure for Corruption had been born. No doubt it had traveled this far south in the form of draconic magi looking for a new place to settle down.

Still, she was there to barter her way onto a ship heading further south, so she might as well verify her suspicions for herself. Justice would not be pleased with her if she did not, after all the pleading she had done to get him to take care of Larendul himself. Her reasons had been valid: the humans would kill her on sight simply for being a dragon. That did not change the fact that, in a way, she had shirked part of her duties, and would not be allowed to do the same anywhere else. Juno must be checked. Her gaze dropped down to the water below, watching the prow of the ship cut through the waves. It was tempting to throw herself overboard and disappear down under the waves, though not because she was suicidal. The ocean was in her blood.

Her blood was also in Juno, reigning supreme from his throne built of lies and treachery, if rumors were true. Cal looked back up at the city sadly. Her son, the light of her life, now the thing that would scorch her from the earth if she was not careful. Her large, frilled ears dropped back, webbing folding neatly. While she was in Juno, she needed to be careful not to be found. As much as she desperately wanted to see him, if only to ensure that he was alive and well, he would not take kindly to it. He wanted her dead, and such a thing could not happen until her work was finished. It was in her best interest to pretend she did not exist at all.

The ship's horn blared out as they got closer to the shore. Caliginous retreated from the front of the ship, heading back down to the passenger compartments to retrieve her things. All around her, there was a bustle of activity. The draconic sailors hurried to ready the ship for making port, and the passengers were abuzz with excitement and relief to have made it. Only Cal remained quiet amongst them. She entered her room and shut the door quietly behind her, surrounding herself in darkness rather than activating the runestone that powered the lights. Her demon gurgled softly off to her right, questioning.

"I need you to find my son," Cal told it, holding her hands out. Jin immediately approached, pressing its slick black hide against her fingers. "I must know where he is so that I might hide... Go, Jin'do'ran." There was a soft rasp, and then, the demon was gone as if it had never existed. Cal felt it moving away from her, through the Shadow Realm and into the great city. She activated the lights and set about gathering up her things, but stayed in her room until a sailor made rounds to make sure all passengers were off the ship.

"Oh, hullo, miss," the sailor greeted amicably from the doorway, keyring jingling in his hands. "S'time to get goin'."

"Of course," Cal agreed, and picked up her bags. "My apologies, I wanted to stay out of the way until it was quieter..." She moved past him, out of the door, favoring him with a small smile.

"Course, course! No trouble," he called after her, for she did not look back as she went to the stairway leading back up to the deck.

Her first step onto solid land went by without incident. There were no immediate feelings of doom, nor any shadows rearing up to seize her, and no sign of anyone who cared who she was or what she was about. Cal strode away from the gangplank quickly, winding her way through the crowd with some distaste. There was a gate up ahead, with long lines of immigrants awaiting their turns to present their passports. The line for visitors, like herself, was considerably longer than the line for permanent citizens. Cal sighed softly and joined the line, steeling herself for a very long evening.

------

Almost two hours later, Caliginous sat, prim and proper, in a small diner not far from the gate. She had a light meal of fish and rice, with tea to drink, and was waiting for Jin's return. The demon's presence pressed furtively at the edges of her consciousness, becoming a stronger feeling as time passed. It was coming back to her, wherever it had gone off to. She paid for her meal and left the diner. It was time to find somewhere to hole up for some much needed rest. Somewhere private -- having a demon suddenly appear in the midst of civilians was rarely a good idea, after all.

There was a hotel down the street. She headed that way, tightening her grip on her bags as the evening crowd bustled all around her. Perhaps it was not such a good idea to stay so close to the docks, but Cal was loath to risk a taxi or wandering too far into the city until she was certain where it would be safe. She glanced up at the hotel sign and scoffed a little before entering. It was called The Stepford, an attempt at class that it failed quite miserably. Everything within was fake, from the plastic chandelier to the cotton table cloths. Briefly, she imagined the Manticore's reaction and smiled to herself, then went straight to the front desk.

"Good evening, ma'am," the desk clerk, a male Srille with golden eyes, greeted cordially. "How may I help you?"

"I require a room," she answered, suitably impressed that at least the courtesy was not fake. "Preferably where I might find some peace and quiet."

"Yes, ma'am. What will you be paying in?" The clerk opened a drawer and pulled a brass key attached to a gaudy piece of silvery plastic with a room number on it. He set it on the counter, just out of Cal's reach, and regarded her curiously.

"Will Enciniaz ingots be acceptable?"

"Of course. It will be three for one night. If I could just get you to sign here..." He pushed an open sign in book towards her. There was a pen laying between the pages.

Cal looked at it distastefully for a moment, then resigned herself to signing her life away for the evening. She produced three ingots from her dress pocket and set them at the top of the book. Then, she picked up the pen and very slowly signed her alias. Many dragons, such as herself, hid their true names. If they did not, they risked having their souls stolen, or else had some very powerful enchantments protecting them. Cal's own name had no such protections, nor was the deity of Justice able to take it to protect her. She could do nothing but call herself Caliginous and hoped those few who had known who she truly was would not speak.

"Caliginous," the desk clerk observed when she had finished. "My name is Tyrr. It is a pleasure to meet you, ma'am." He smiled and held the key out to her. "I hope you will enjoy your stay."

"Thank you." She took the key, and her things, and turned away from the desk. The elevator got only a passing glance from her. She was a dragon, through and through, and technology had little interest to her. It was not that it was not useful so much as that she felt perfectly capable of living her life on her own power. That included taking the stairs instead of standing quietly in a box moved up and down by cables and electricity. Her room was on the third floor, and though she was middle-aged, she was not breathing any harder when she reached it. She was favoring her right leg, feeling a dull, growing ache in it.

On the other side of room 117U, Jin waited at the end of the bed. Cal smiled to see the demon and stepped further into the room to set her things on the dresser. The demon slipped to the door and closed it, preparing its own wards much more quickly than Cal could have. She would reinforce them later, when she did not so badly need to sit. "Tell me," Cal murmured, sinking into one of the chairs near the window.

Jin'do'ran gurgled and told her, though not in words. Their connection had always been on a much deeper level, and Jin did not speak common besides. Cal only spoke aloud because it allowed her mind to form the mental pictures required to communicate with Jin much easier. Through Cal's mind, memories of the things Jin had seen and done throughout the day flashed in rapid succession, relaying everything as if she herself had been the one to do it. There were streets and cars, shadows and darkness, people and animals, everything all pressed together in the city. There were things that stuck out more, like a sickly young Genus who could not get out of her bed while her body mutated around her and no one missed her, or a colorful Ain'laito whose aura shone so brightly that the demon had been blinded.

Then there was Callah Corp, the company Coniosis owned and maintained as his legal front to his shadier deals. His employees went to work and knew nothing different until the upper levels of the corporation. His henchmen knew he was missing. A well-dressed young woman with strong feelings for Con was worrying herself sick. Jin had been curious enough to nose around and find out more, which meant that it had snuck around Con's office and private quarters. A file detailing a missing Fuiri-Den'sturax mix lay in one of the drawers of Con's desk. The text had meant nothing to Jin, but Cal understood it straight away.

"A missing person," Cal said aloud, opening her eyes. "What would Coniosis care about something like that?"

Jin had no answer. It pressed more memories at its mistress. After it had finished rummaging around there, it followed the trail of Con's aura, an easy thing to do when he was the owner of the demon mirror, Nique, and his aura was what shaped the Shadow Realm itself, bringing blazes of color into what should have been perfect blackness. The demon had followed his trail all across the city at a breakneck speed, always staying in the shadows. It had ended nearby, beneath a different part of the docks.

Where the demon came out was a place crawling with guards, with large warehouses full of crates and no passenger ships in the port. Jin had ducked back into the Shadow Realm after verifying its location. Further on, Con's aura, extremely weakened, had been surrounded by numerous others in one of the warehouses. It had only gotten close enough to take a quick peek, knowing that Con could recognize it immediately and that its mistress did not want to be found. Coniosis had been chained and penned, with several armed mortals pacing outside of his cage. He did not sense Jin at all because his magic had been sealed by the iron rune-shackles.

"The docks?" Cal asked, frowning. She looked out the window, wondering if it were an elaborate trap. No, she decided, it was not. Con would never consent to having his power repressed. The question was, what to do about it? Did she close her eyes and leave him to his fate, or did she risk herself and pull him out of whatever mess he had gotten himself into? "Let us sleep on it until the dead of the night, my demon." Jin rasped an agreement and helped its mistress into bed. "What am I to do with him?" she murmured sleepily, and drifted off, her head full of Jin's memories.

WARRIOR 5-4

2009-10-12T07:59:01Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Coniosis, D'Lea family
Notes: IT'S A TRAP!

It was almost completely pitch black in the warehouse. The only light stretched from the doorway, revealing a concrete floor and wooden crates stacked high into the gloom. Coniosis squinted, ears strained for any sound, but there was nothing. His eyes were not made to see in total darkness, and he was not about to waltz into it blindly.

He left the warehouse door partially open and went back to his car, unlocking the trunk. There was a red toolbox and a car jack pushed all the way in the back. Inside, he found a plain black flashlight, buried under an assortment of other tools. He tested to see if it would even turn on, and was satisfied when it did. He shut the car trunk as quietly as possible, and returned to the warehouse.

Con stepped inside once more. The door was left open behind him because he had no intention of being caught if he could not get into a strong enough shadow. His flash light could help with that, but there was no guarantee. The darkness could very well make all of the shadows too insubstantial to be of any use. He kept the flashlight pointed low, not really wanting to be noticed by anything that might be in there without being aware of it first.

The wooden crates he had noticed first were stacked from one wall almost all the way to the other. There was a space of about three feet for him to get past there. On the other side, there were more crates. The warehouse had been stacked as if it were a labyrinth, but without dead ends. Con followed the winding path through the crates, feeling a growing sense of agitation. He kept glancing up into the gloom, expecting there to be something watching him.

Abruptly, the wall of crates ended. Coniosis ducked back into them quickly, noticing a faint glow from the office in the back. He turned the flash light off and leaned around the corner. Each warehouse in the section had a small office section, upraised so that whoever used it could oversee the shipment. The light from the windows did not reach the maze of crates, so Con was safe to look all he wanted. Half of the blinds were drawn, leaving him with very little to see. The windows that he could see through, he saw a woman's back. He watched her, wondering what she was doing.

She moved, disappearing behind the blinds. There was someone sitting where she had been facing. Someone with a black hood over their face. Con frowned, tightening his grip on the flashlight. He could not tell who it was, but he was certain that he had found where he needed to be. There was enough light in the office that he would not have to worry about shadows unless they knew enough about him to turn them off. The office was small enough that he could be certain of only two enemies. Things certainly looked to be stacked in his favor.

Something felt wrong about it, even so. He leaned back into the darkness, wondering what he had missed. Certainly, his car was out in front of the warehouse, in plain sight, and the door was wide open... As far as the guards knew, he was supposed to be there, unless they were on the D'lea payroll. He could not completely eliminate that possibility. His presence could be expected and the seeming quiet could have been for his benefit. Con glanced upwards again, but he could hear no one above. If there was anyone out in the darkness, it was likely to be in the gloom before the office, waiting for him to step into the light. He judged the open space between the crates and the steps leading up to the office to be about nine feet, with countless feet stretching out on either side from wall to wall. It was the perfect place for an ambush.

If he was going to get into the office, he was going to need to do it from the shadows. He felt along the flashlight's side, finding the button. Con took one breath, clicked it on, and shined it towards himself. He leaned backwards, and disappeared into his shadow. The blackness of the Shadow Realm was complete, but he could see himself and the glowing eyes of dark things in the distance perfectly. There was just nothing there but a black void. He looked up to the ceiling and was pleased to see the glowing outlines of the auras in the world above. The dark things would not stay away for long, so he had to move quickly, but first, he had to find what he was looking for.

Mejirah's aura was not there. Con frowned, ears dropping back. He had suspected that things would not be so easy, but it was still annoying. He studied the ceiling for a few minutes more. There was a bright pinkish aura, tinged with vivid yellow fear, probably the hooded person he had seen earlier. Next to it, there was a soft blue overlaid with gray, something he felt had to do with worry, but could not be sure. There were two other auras not far from them, each tinted with black and red, something he knew was not good. They would be his targets when he came out.

A dark thing snarled near him, and he flashed the light in its face. It shrieked and recoiled, giving him enough time to seize control of it. Its golden eyes turned to the shame shade of blue as his own, and it became oddly complacent, watching him as if waiting for his command. Con looked around, noting with distaste that all of the other glowing eyes had gotten much closer. He turned the flash light off and walked until he was beneath his target auras. His new minion followed, lumbering along. He could not tell what shape it was in the pure blackness, but its eyes were high enough off the ground to suit him.

"Here we go," Con told it, though that was entirely unnecessary, just like all the little witty lines action heroes said in the movies. He stretched his shadow upwards, and grabbed onto it, riding it up through the ceiling.

He came out of the shadow of the woman he had seen earlier. She was facing a middle-aged Khivet male and was not aware of Con's presence until her companion's eyes widened and he started to say something. By then, it was too late because the dark thing was out of the shadows as well, and it snarled and jumped on him. Con smiled and slammed his elbow into the back of the woman's neck, sending her sprawling. He turned to the sound of a gun cocking, and faced the very female owner of the blue-gray aura. The gun was shaking, but she had it clutched so tightly that he kept still so as to not startle her.

"M-make it stop!" she gasped.

Con looked over his shoulder to where the dark thing was feasting on the now dead Khivet. He shrugged one shoulder and looked back to her. The creature disappeared into the shadows with a hiss.

"You're..."

"Coniosis," he answered easily, not seeing any reason to hide it. His identity was hardly a secret, with how often he ended up in the papers.

"You shouldn't have come."

Con glanced behind her, towards the hooded figure. His ears twitched at the cocking of the gun, and he quickly looked back at her, raising a brow. "Why? This warehouse is registered in my company's name... I really don't appreciate being framed."

"No," the girl murmured, "It's a trap."

The lights flared outside of the office, temporarily blinding him. He raised his arm, flinching away from the windows. When he could see again, he was aware of all the shadows stretching out from outside of the office. There were rows of high-powered lights, and in front of them, too many figures with weapons of all kinds. Con cursed under his breath. "Why?" he asked the girl sharply, knowing that she was shaken from whatever was going on, which meant that she could not have been doing it willingly.

"To protect him," she answered, gesturing behind herself to the hooded figure.

Con frowned, but could make no retort. At that moment, a male voice called out, "Come out with your hands up, Coniosis. You can't escape into the shadows, we have it warded." Sure enough, he could not sink back into his shadow. He cursed again. "If you do not, we will open fire."

"Please," the girl whimpered.

Coniosis glared at her and shoved her out of the way. "You're pathetic. They'll kill him anyway." He strode to the door, flung it open, and leisurely made his way down the steps, hands held up only to chest level, palms turned out towards the group in front of the lights. He could not count how many there were. The lights were absolutely blinding.

"On your knees," one of them insisted.

He closed his eyes both because trying to see in that blinding light was killing his eyes but also because it was the most humiliating situation he could remember being in. They had known him well enough to block his access to the Shadow Realm so he could not get away, and he could not feel the leylines at all for any other sort of magic. There were too many, besides. Con bowed his head slightly and lowered himself to his knees. The minute he did, two of them moved up and roughly grabbed him by the wrists, yanking his arms behind him and cuffing him. He felt the cold burn of iron and runewords against his skin.

When he opened his eyes, a big man he recognized immediately as the head of the D'lea family stood in front of him. "Sleep tight," the man said, and then slammed the butt of his gun into Con's cheek. He went down like a sack of potatoes and knew no more.

WARRIOR 5-3

2009-10-07T05:33:17Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Coniosis, The Judge, Zeandra
Notes: Realization of just how dangerous things really could be.

"I got it," The Judge announced just as the sky was beginning to darken outside. She leaned back in her chair, looking at him as she held up a paper fresh out of the printer. "Whoever this girl is, you must really like her, calling her so much..."

Coniosis was up out of his own chair quickly, snatching the paper with a sideways glance at her. She had not put out no matter how distracting and charming he had been, and now she was making jabs at him for daring to have other girls. He scoffed a little. "Whatever," he muttered, looking at the paper.

It was a list of numbers, their owners, phone type, and their location if it were available. True to The Judge's word, his own cell's number was on the list quite a bit, but compared to some of the other numbers, it was nothing. Joumae called far more than he did, which made sense. At the bottom of the list, he found what he was looking for. "A payphone at the docks?"

"Is that what you were looking for?" The Judge asked, stretching lazily. "It's at the business end. Now, where's my money?" She narrowed her eyes at him, picking up Mejirah's phone and waggling it a little to indicate that he would not be getting it back until he paid up.

With a sigh, Con stuffed the paper in his pocket, and pulled out his wallet. He flopped it open, skimmed the numerous cards in there until he found the credit card he wanted, and flicked it at her. She caught it deftly and held it up to the light with a dubious expression. "Just max it out," Con explained, leaning forward to pluck the cellphone out of her fingers even as he put his wallet away. "It should have more than enough."

"Okay. I'll call you when I want the grub. Now get out."

"Yes," he agreed. Con did not bother saying goodbye or thank you, he just left through the shadows, dodging easily through the darkness of the Shadow Realm. The creatures lurking down there watched him pass with glowing eyes, but none made any effort to follow him. He came out of his car's shadow, noted with much distaste a new scratch along the side. "Fuckers," he grumbled, unlocking the car.

Whoever it had been was probably already dead, since his car had been rigged to suck anyone foolish enough to mess with it into the Shadow Realm. Perhaps that had been why the dark things had been too sluggish to give chase for once. He got in, started the engine up, and peeled out of there, making more noise than necessary in his haste to get down to the docks. As he steered, he drummed his fingers impatiently on the wheel, wondering whether he was going to find anything.

It was a fifteen minute drive to the docks, and then another ten minutes driving along until he found the gate he wanted. There was a long line at it. With a sigh, he pulled into it and flopped back to wait impatiently. The business section was closely guarded because all sorts of valuable merchandise and company secrets were down there. The gates were heavy iron affairs with electronic locks and bars, and there were always at least ten guards on duty. It was as good a choice as any other for places to hide out as a kidnapper, Con had to admit. He was going to have to come up with a good reason for him to be there...

His cell's ring tone interrupted his thoughts. He blinked, fumbled around until he found it, and flipped it open. Zeandra's number. Con sighed and answered in a less than friendly tone, "What is it?"

"Sir," she responded crisply, ever one for showing respect even when he was being rude, "Brackwater Tech sent over a top secret file. If I may ask, where are you?"

"Better not," he answered, eying the gate and nudging his car forward when a truck was allowed through. "Are you somewhere private?" Quickly realizing that it could be taken wrong, and that she would take it wrong if given the opportunity, he elaborated, "I need you to read the file to me. I won't be back for some time."

"Um. Understood, sir. Just a moment. Let me call you back."

Con spent the next five minutes doing a whole lot of nothing while he waited. He got to move his car once more, and there were at least six more vehicles ahead of him. He was all too glad when his phone rang again. "Welcome back," he muttered, leaning his cheek in one hand and pressing his cellphone against his other ear.

"Thank you, sir," Zeandra replied. "I am in your office, if that is alright."

"Yea, yea, whatever. Read the file."

"Yes, sir." There was a brief silence and the faint sounds of some paper being torn. Then her voice was back, "This is a police report, sir. A missing person, someone named... Arak. A nurse working for Brackwater Tech. Um... He was looking after someone named Tsuide, and was reported missing just today."

"How long has he been missing?"

"The report says he went to meet an old girlfriend of his for lunch and never came back. He wasn't supposed to leave Tsuide alone for more than a few hours at a time, so when he did not come back that night, or in the morning, this girl living with Tsuide called the law."

Con sighed, wondering what he was supposed to do with such pointless knowledge. The only thing important about the nurse at all was the fact that he had been involved in a very important project -- the cure for undeath. "No one has any idea where they were going, or who the girlfriend was?"

"They found out that he went to a cafe called Momma's, but he did not stay. The owners knew the girlfriend because the pair of them used to be regulars there, when they were together. Her name is..." Zeandra trailed off.

"What?"

"Alaina D'lea."

Coniosis blinked, ears curling down. "D'lea?" he asked slowly, not entirely sure he was hearing it right. He was aware that there was a large gap in front of him, and that he needed to move the car, but all he could focus on was the phone conversation.

"Yes, sir."

"As in, the D'lea family. Shit."

"Should we prepare for the worst, sir?"

"Fuck yes. Do it quickly and quietly. Get everyone from the top secure. I don't want anyone, not even Alex, wandering loose if my messing in this starts a war."

"Yes, sir. Be careful."

"Yea, yea, get moving," Con snapped the cellphone shut. He looked at it for a moment, and then dropped it in his pocket. There was a honk behind him. "Yea, whatever, dude, chill out," he snapped, glancing in the rear view mirror. There were no more cars in front of him. He got his car moving up to the gate, and rolled the window down. "Hello," he told the guard.

"Reason for visit?"

"Business, of course."

"Identification?"

Coniosis dug his wallet out, plucked his ID out, and handed it over. He had to fight not to fidget or tell the guard to hurry it up. Knowing that he was messing in what could very well be mafia business made him antsy. The D'lea family was not known for treating its prisoners gently.

"Coniosis," the guard read, raising his eyes from the card to eye Con up and down. "Callah Corp, correct?"

"Yes."

The guard leaned back in the booth and accessed his computer. A few moments later, he leaned out and handed the ID back. "There was a large shipment for your company last night, moved to warehouse 63R. I don't think you will be able to get it all in that hot rod."

"No," Coniosis agreed, not aware that there had been a shipment at all. No doubt it was something one of his lackeys had been taking care of. "I'm here to check it myself before I go blowing the money on trucks and movers. You know how foreign companies are, always trying to rip us off..."

"Certainly, sir," the guard agreed, grinning. "Well, go right on through."

"Thanks." He rolled his window up again and watched the gate slide open. On the other side, somewhere, there was a phone that a kidnapper had used. If he was lucky, he would be able to track the kidnapper from there and find Mejirah. He might find a few trigger happy mafia members, too, but he would take that over a dead end. Con drove his car through he gates and slowly down to the warehouses, keeping his eye on the numbers. "What did that thing say?" he muttered to himself, fishing The Judge's printout out of his pocket. He held it up against the steering wheel, keeping one eye on where he was going as he skimmed the list to find the number again. "...63R? What the..."

His ears flicked as he realized that it was the same number that the guard had said. He dropped the list and sped the car up a little. His mind raced as he mouthed the warehouse numbers, watching closely for the right one. Did the D'lea family own everyone in the business docks? Was it one great big trap he had walked into? Would he get out of there in one piece? Then, quite suddenly, he was there. Con slowed the car to a stop, and looked up at the foreboding black numbers on the warehouse's doors.

"Okay," he told himself, "No problem. Go in, tear a few heads off, and walk out with Meji thrown over one shoulder." He paused, frowned, and shook his head. "No, she's too heavy. Make her walk, even if she's bleeding over all... aw fuck, whatever." Coniosis growled at the thought of Meji being hurt, and threw his car door open, stepping out. He slammed the door, took a moment to look around, as if daring anyone that might be watching to try anything. No one immediately started shooting at him, so he went up to the warehouse. The door was not locked.

He pushed it open slowly and entered.

WARRIOR 5-2

2009-10-05T06:57:52Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Coniosis, Joumae, The Judge
Notes: Seeking The Judge and her lovely talents.

The cell phone began to buzz after lunch, when Coniosis was in his car, winding his way through busy streets to a place he knew could trace the number. He was quick to snatch it up and flip it open. "Hello?"

The voice on the other end was not the female one from before. It sounded like a male. Perhaps a middle aged one, with his voice beginning to mellow out and become feeble. "Uh... hello? Is Meji there?"

"Who are you?" Con asked, keeping his eyes firmly on the road. He was not worried about getting hurt in an accident. If something happened, he would just disappear into the shadows. The problem would be replacing his car, which he had become quite attached to since he had bought it. It was the sort of sleek sports car with far too much horsepower to be in the hands of just any smuck that gave him immense pleasure just to drive.

"Er... Torril. Meji ordered some parts from my shop..."

"She's not here. Call back another day." He snapped the phone shut, effectively hanging up on Torril, and dropped the phone in the passenger seat. "Fucker, wasting my time," he grumbled, hoping that the line would not be busy when, or if, the female voice called back. The street light ahead turned yellow, so he slowed to a stop just as it turned red. Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, he watched the traffic pass. If only this mess would pass so easily.

The jingling ring tone of his own cell went off, interrupting his foolish thoughts before they got too far. Con pulled it out of his jacket pocket, flipped it open to see the number, and then raised to his ear. "What is it, Joumae?" he asked, bypassing pleasantries. The light turned green, so he got the car moving again.

"Hello, Con," Jou responded, quickly, "Listen, I just got word from Tsuide, the inhome nurse he had disappeared."

Coniosis's ear flicked slowly as he wondered why his time was being wasted with something like that. "So what?" he hissed.

Joumae sighed a long suffering sigh. Then, in a tone that spoke volumes about Con's intelligence or lack thereof, he explained, "Meji and I have been working on curing undeath. Tsuide was the last one before the project was closed. Didn't you look at her computer at all?"

"No, it was all password locked," Con snapped, his mind racing with the possibilities. A cure for undeath? That sort of thing could have made billions. "You think this nurse's disappearance is tied in with Meji, then? That your...project... is the source of this because someone wants it?"

"Yes and yes."

"Okay." He fell quiet for a few moments, focusing on making the right turn to get to his destination. "Listen, someone called Meji's phone before lunch. They claimed Meji had a message for you."

"What?! Why didn't you te--"

"Shut up." The street he had gotten on was a much quieter one. It was residential, in truth, because the person he was seeking did not work on strictly legal terms. "I'm going to get the number traced, if I can, or see if the caller will call back and talk to me. You're the one that asked for my help. If they contact you, they'll just torment you and make you do something stupid. Do you want her found or not?"

"...Yes," Joumae answered quietly. "If you can't trace it..."

"I'll hand the phone over to you if this doesn't work. Now, listen, send the stuff about the nurse to my office. I'll look into it when I get back."

"All right. Be careful."

Then Joumae was gone. Coniosis closed his phone and dropped it next to the other. He focused on finding the right apartment building. It did not take long, and he pulled into the parking lot, well aware that his car stood out like a sore thumb amidst all the rust heaps and lower class cars that the creatures in the neighborhood drove. He turned his car off, but did not get out, intent on at least appearing like he belonged there. Con shed his jacket and tie, unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt, and rumpled his hair. A glance in the rear view mirror proved he looked less like a rich CEO and more like some playboy in the wrong neighborhood. It would do.

He snagged the cellphones and got out of the car, tucking them in his slacks' pockets. There was no one to be seen anywhere. They were probably all inside, inhaling whatever their addiction of choice happened to be. With any luck, they would stay focused on that and his presence would not be noticed at all. The less people that knew he had been there, the better. He kept his pace leisurely even so, not one to draw attention to himself by acting like he did not belong there. With any other task, he might have sent Alex to do it, since this was Alex's old neighborhood, but it felt like something he should be looking into himself. His lackeys did not need to be any more involved than the fact that they were associated with him. Whoever had kidnapped Meji clearly knew what they were doing.

Con entered the apartment building, glanced around to make sure no one was around, and headed up the stairs. The elevator probably did not work, and even if it had, he would not have trusted it. The building was old and ill-maintained. His ears twitched at each creak and groan of the steps beneath his feet. There was graffiti on the walls, trash and junk in the corners, and on one landing, a sleeping hobo, all piled up in his junk and ragged clothes. Con wrinkled his nose and hurried past it, onto the fourth floor.

There were a group of humans down at the end of the hall, but they went into one of the apartments quickly and slammed the door. He paid it no mind, keeping an eye on the numbers on the doors until he found 16B. He knocked only out of courtesy, the same reason he had made the trip above ground at all. If he had wanted to, he could have just slipped into the shadows of his car and stepped out in the apartment. Spooking a woman with a criminal record, he found, was never a good idea.

"Who is it," a muffled voice called out from the other side of the door. He heard the sound of several locks being undone, and then a sliding panel opened, revealing two golden eyes. "Oh. You." The panel slid shut, and even more locks rattled. The door swung open, revealing no one because she was behind it. "Get in, hurry up."

Coniosis obeyed, well aware of her paranoia. "It's good to see you," he commented lazily, watching her push the door shut and lock it up. For a lower class, geek of a girl, she had a nice figure, though she could do with some cleaning up. Her name, or rather, her nickname, was The Judge and she was a Fuiri, one of the few to migrate from Endeboden to Juno. She had become something of a technology addict, and made her living through prying into the privacy of others.

"Yea, yea, whatever," she answered, waving him off. "Whaddya want?"

There was no point in dodging around the point, he supposed, and pulled Meji's cell out of his pocket. "I need you to trace the source of the last ten calls made to this phone."

The Judge eyed him and he phone, her eyes narrowing slowly. She knew without asking that it was not his phone, and she also knew that it was probably better not to ask. "Fine. I want dinner and double my usual fee." She held her hand out for the phone, giving him a look that said that she did not have all day and he was wasting her time with such trivial nonsense.

Coniosis smiled, all too happy to oblige. "Of course," he agreed, holding the phone out. He watched her take the phone from him, and then followed her into the next room, where all of her fancy gadgets were piled on shelves, the floor, and a very small desk. While she went straight to the desk, he sorted out the mess on a nearby armchair, clearing a spot for him to sit and wait.

"You're gonna hang around here? This could take a while..."

"Well, perhaps I'll find some way to entertain myself..." Con raised his brows, amused when she snorted and turned away from him. In truth, he was not going to leave the phone alone with her, not when there was a chance that whoever had Meji could call. He was determined to find them, one way or the other. His mind wandered, pondering the chances of getting The Judge to put her skilled fingers to use elsewhere, while whatever fancy machinery she was running sorted things out.

WARRIOR 5-1

2009-09-16T21:44:30Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG
Characters: Coniosis, Joumae, Zeandra
Notes: Working outside of the law to get the job done faster.

Coniosis drummed his fingers impatiently on the table. It had been a little over an hour of waiting at the restaurant, and he was about to give up. So far, all he had done was nurse a glass of water and a basket of biscuits while he grew steadily more annoyed. He was not one to take being stood up lightly. His eyes narrowed as he glared at his plate, ears drooping back. It was completely unlike her to call and then not show up. She had sounded so certain on the phone. He wondered if she had gotten cold feet and decided to call off their deal.

"Sir," the waiter said for the fourth time, "Would you like to order?"

"No," Con snapped, and stood, "I am leaving." He dropped a few bills on the table and stalked out of the restaurant.

Outside, he looked around, making sure his date was not loitering around out there or just showing up. He saw no sign of her. Something was off about the entire situation. Con pulled his cell phone out and tried her number, to no avail. She had not picked up since they had made their plans, so he was not surprised, only annoyed. It was the worst time to decide to be unreachable. He scoffed and hailed a cab. "Take me to Callah Corp's main building," he told the cabby, slamming the taxi door with more force than necessary. He spent the ride glaring out at the streets. Bitterly, he mused that the gossip rags would love to hear about the head of Callah Corp had been stood up by a date.

He went to bed angry that night.

----

The phone was ringing when he woke up. Kou whined, his big droopy face in Con's. With a grunt, he ruffled the dog's ears and sat up, snatching his phone up and flicking it open. To his disappointment, it was not his date that greeted him. "Sir," Zeandra's voice said, "I have a message from Brackwater Tech that I believe you should see immediately."

"Spit it out," he growled.

"Mejirah disappeared yesterday, late afternoon. A ransom note was received this morning. Brackwater wants your assistance in this matter."

"Understood." He was out of bed in a rush, grabbing clothes and throwing them on. It bugged him to miss his morning shower, or to not enjoy breakfast and TV, but some things were more important. Con leashed Kou and headed out of his apartment. He met Zeandra on the second floor and handed over the leash in exchange for the message from Brackwater. "See to him," he said, scanning the paper for the details. "I will be out for the day. If I need to be out longer, I will update you."

"Of course, sir," Zeandra said with a half bow. "Good luck."

Coniosis smirked. He would not need luck--his enemies would. He left the Callah Corp building and headed out to meet Joumae at the designated location. It was a park outside of either of their territories. The small dragon was sitting on a park bench with two cups of coffee in hand. Con did not need to be close to see how distressed Jou was. "Hey," he muttered, flopping next to him and taking the offered coffee.

"They found her phone," Jou said, sipping his drink, "The number was traced to you." He raised his gaze, studying Con as if to discern the meaning of life in just a look.

"Why haven't I been brought in for questioning, then?"

"Because I know you two weren't enemies."

"Are you so sure?" Con was not entirely sure why he was pressing his luck like that, so he drank his coffee too quickly.

"Yea," Jou smiled slightly. "She liked to think I didn't notice you two trading back and forth. I don't think either of you LIKE each other, but... I need someone besides the law to find her."

"What do I get out of it?"

"I'm sure Meji wouldn't have called you if she didn't have something to offer."

Coniosis narrowed his eyes, wondering just how much Jou knew, or suspected. They stared at each other over the coffee cups wordlessly for several minutes before Con turned his gaze away with a grunt. "Fine. If she doesn't pay up, I expect you to cover it."

"Sure. Thank you." Joumae pulled a key card out of his pocket and held it out. "Access to her office. Everything's there -- her cell, laptop, all that."

Con took it and tucked it into his own pockets carefully as he stood. He did not say a word, still looking away. It was not usual of him to play hero, not for anyone. Still, Meji had proven to be a valuable ally, and a great lay. He was not ready to let someone else destroy her. On some deeper level, he had decided that she belonged to him, at least in so far as it being his right to decide when she died. "You know my number," he finally said, and left, tossing the half empty cup of coffee in a trash bin. He glared straight ahead. It seriously pissed him off knowing someone else had their claws sunk into something he thought of as his.

-----

Just before lunch, Coniosis was in Mejirah's office, hands in his pockets. He looked around uncomfortably, ears drooped. It did not feel right for him to be there, not in the least. The thought pissed him off more, so he stalked behind the desk and flopped down into her chair, as if to prove his thoughts wrong. The gesture did little to alleviate his awkwardness. With a huff, he began to rummage around in the desk drawers, as loudly as possible, as if he were hoping Meji would abruptly show up and tell him to butt out, proving that the whole kidnapping thing had been a scam. Nothing of the sort happened. All he found were useless things like pens, paper, and random computer gadgetry.

"What am I doing here?" Con growled to himself, slamming the desk drawers shut. He eyed the laptop that sat folded ontop of the desk, but knew very well that it was a dead end, at least for him. Meji would no doubt keep everything of value heavily coded and protected. She was a computer genius. He could use the laptop, but he would get no useful information out of it.

Absently, he stretched his shadow out until it covered the entire floor of the office. He spun the chair around to the window and took in the view, fingers drumming against his upper arm. His thoughts descended into growing displeasure, and he suddenly knew without a doubt that he would find nothing in Meji's office. Whoever had taken her was completely unrelated, unless they had snuck a spy into the ranks of Brackwater Tech's employees. He was just about to stand up and leave when he heard the sound of a cellphone buzzing. Con looked around for it, banging his way through the desk again. He found it in the top drawer, underneath a packet of papers, just as it stopped buzzing. "Shit," he muttered, glaring at it.

It began to buzz again almost immediately. Con snapped it open and answered it with, "Who is this?"

There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment or two. Then, carefully, a female voice asked, "Excuse me... Are you Joumae?"

"No. Who are you?"

"A friend of Mejirah's. And yourself?"

"Also a friend," he hissed, "What do you want?"

"Mejirah is here," the voice explained, "She has a message for Joumae."

His fingers tightened around the cellphone, and he bared his teeth. "Let me speak to her."

"I'm afraid not." The line went dead.

Coniosis very nearly threw the phone across the room, and restrained himself with great effort. The kidnappers might call back, looking for Jou again, if only the phone were intact. He pocketed it and slipped into the shadows, leaving Meji's office in favor of going to get lunch. There were no other leads but the phone call, and hiring someone to trace it could wait until after he had eaten. Perhaps they would call back before then and save him the trouble.

WARRIOR 4-4

2009-09-16T21:41:01Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG
Characters: Arak, 'Laney, Tsuide, Caelestis
Notes: An old relationship and uncertain allegiances.

It became something of a routine for them to spend an hour or two in the backyard, working through the most basic exercises dealing with magic. The yard was big enough that they penned off a section specifically for it, and Arak had made sure that the fence stakes around it had been engraved with runes that would not let any stray magic outside of their boundary. At first, nothing had come of the exercises. They sat in silence, side by side, and meditated, but nothing happened. Tsuide simply could not remember how to sense magic, much less stretch his soul out to channel it. Only when he was good and irritated did the dark purple flames make themselves known, flaring up along his limbs.

Arak was no powerful magi. He had been born to parents who possessed little to no magic, and had endeavored to overcome his weakness by amassing just enough skill to activate runewords. He knew dozens of runes by heart and could sketch them out faster than anyone else he knew, and he knew how hard it was to learn even the most basic concepts of magic when you had no natural skill. All he could do was gently coax Tsuide along and remind him of the basic theories.

"Dammit," Tsuide hissed, breaking the silence, "This is a complete waste of time!" He leaned back on his wing arms, glaring moodily at the grass as if it were at fault. "I feel nothing."

"What about when you're angry, dude? What d'ya feel then?" Arak asked, bracing his elbows on his knees and propping his chin in his hands. His tail tip twitched slowly. He was starting to feel frustrated with their lack of progress as well, if only because he had no idea where the problem lay and how to tackle it.

"It just happens, I told you. One moment everything is normal, the next, there's fire."

"Ya don't feel nothin'? Like buzzin' under your skin or somethin'?"

Tsuide shook his head. Behind them, Caelestis walked across the grass, carrying a tray with a pitcher of lemonade, glasses, and the phone. "Hey, boys," she called out as she got closer, with a small smile. "I though you would be thirsty... And there's a woman on the phone for you, Arak." She approached the edge of the 'training area' and knelt to set the tray down carefully. She passed the phone to Arak and then set to pouring drinks.

Arak eyed the phone dubiously before lifting it to his ear. He did not know of anyone that knew to call him at Tsuide's home number except Joumae. "Hello?"

"Hello, Arak," a familiar female voice greeted from the other end. "It's been a while."

He very nearly dropped the phone. Tsuide and Cael both gave him odd looks, and he gestured quickly to make it clear that nothing was wrong, then pushed himself up and walked a good distance away. "Uh, yea, hey. It's been a while, 'Laney. How'd ya get this number?"

"I hope you don't mind, but I asked your boss. You changed your cell..."

Arak coughed, feeling slightly annoyed. "Don't use this number again," he warned her, "S'not mine, 'n I don't think the owner'd appreciate me gettin' personal calls at his house..."

"I understand," she said quickly, "I just wanted to know if we could meet up for lunch today and talk."

"Talk? Talk about what?"

"Well, I wanted to try and be friends...and I have something that might interest you."

"Somethin'...?" he started to ask, but was cut off.

"I'll be waiting for you at our favorite place." There was a click, signaling that she had hung up.

Arak blinked, wondering what that had been all about. He turned the phone off and turned towards Tsuide and Cael. His ex-girlfriend had not spoken to him in nearly two years, though they had run into each other now and then. Now she suddenly wanted to see him, and show him some mysterious thing. It sounded shady, but his curiosity had been piqued. He wanted to know what was up. Slowly, he walked back to the other two and handed the phone back to Cael.

"Who was that?" Tsuide demanded, eyeing him.

"My ex-girlfriend," Arak answered, seeing no reason to keep secrets. "She wants me to go see her for lunch."

"Good. Get lost."

Cael giggled, and poked at Tsuide's leg, earning herself a sideways stare. She smiled up at Arak and held one of the glasses of lemonade. "I'll look after Tsuide while you're gone... I think we figured out part of his problems with magic, by the way."

Arak's ears perked up at that, and he paused with the glass of lemonade halfway to his lips. "Really? How's that?"

"She's psychic," Tsuide muttered, and held his empty glass out for more. He shot her a dirty look, adding, "She has been watching us and prying at my soul without asking."

Caelestis had the grace to look embarrassed as she poured out more to drink. Arak eyed her speculatively, suddenly realizing just how easy it must have been for her to manipulate him as she had during his stay. She gestured towards Tsuide, hurriedly explaining herself to get past her shame. "His soul is still not aligned, right? But also... He's got himself all bent out of shape, with lots of locks on things. Because he denies himself happiness for the sake of others."

Tsuide grunted. Arak stared. Then, he began to laugh. He could not have imagined such a selfish person could end up being so secretly selfless that he had gotten his soul all twisted up. For that, Arak earned himself a face full of lemonade. He was just grateful that there was no fire included in the mix.

-----

A few hours later, Arak sat in a window booth at an old-timey cafe called "Momma's". He and 'Laney had been eating there for years, and it had been their habit to take lunch there while studying for the next big test. He drummed his fingers restlessly on the table top, watching for her. Whatever she had to say and show him could be anything. It could have been good or bad, and it promised to be painful. He did not feel prepared to face it. His nerves were all jittery, as if he could jump out of his skin at any given moment.

A shiny red car pulled up to the curb. Arak watched as the driver's side opened, revealing 'Laney. She spotted him through the window and waved, gesturing for him to come out to her. He got up in a hurry, grabbing his stuff, and went out to see her.

"'Laney," he called, approaching the car. She had shut the door and rolled the window down. "What's up?"

"Come with me," she answered, smiling. "I'd rather no one else hears what I have to say... It's kind of private."

He glanced around, suddenly feeling more nervous than he had before. It had been a long, long time since they had been on the level of trusting each other, but... It was 'Laney. He would be okay, he was sure. "Yea, okay," Arak agreed, and went around the car, getting in before he had second thoughts.

'Laney waited until he was buckled in before speeding off down the road. "I know this is kind of abrupt," she said, "But I heard you were working on some top secret stuff over at Brackwater Tech..."

"Uh, yea." Arak eyed her shiftily. The WARRIOR project was something kept largely under wraps, and all sorts had been prying to try and find out more about it. "What do you know about it?"

"There's a cure for undeath, isn't there?" 'Laney did not look at him, instead focusing on weaving through traffic. He did not answer, so she continued, "My sources say there is, anyway, and now there's news that one of the CEOs have disappeared." She glanced over at him, tilting her head to the side. "You know about that, right?"

"Y-yea." He did not see any reason to try lying to her. She knew him too well to be fooled, even now. He had heard from Joumae about Mejirah's disappearance. Part of that telling had included a warning not to tell anyone anything, and to be careful. "What about all of this?" he demanded, "I'm not going to tell you anything."

"No, I know," she agreed, smiling gently. "I think I may have found her. The CEO." She gestured out the windshield. They were heading towards the business docks, the area specifically set aside for commercial shipping. It was a shadier part of the city.

"What? Why didn't you go to the police?"

"Ummm," 'Laney started, slowing the car and pulling into a parking lot. She shut the car down, unbuckled, and swung the door open. "We're going to have to walk from here."

"'Laney!" Arak hissed, grabbing at her. She did not pull away, but neither did she look at him. He squeezed her wrist lightly. "What's going on?"

"There's... I'm in a bad way, Arak," she admitted. "I can't go to the police. I thought I could show you, and you could get the help she needs..."

"...Okay. Okay." He sighed and let her go, then got out of the car. "Show me."

Breaking the Manticore (pt.2)

2009-09-08T04:22:12Z

RP
Who?: Maia (Mani / Aara) + X (Cal / Ketsueki)
Where?: MSN

----- ----- -----

----- ----- -----

X

"I don't know," was the only answer Caliginous could give. "I think not." She did not explain why she didn't think death would be the answer. It wasn't a thought she really wanted to share with Aara. "That was Ketsueki, the god of Justice, and my lord and master. I can only hope our dear Manticore does not take it in his head to challenge his authority..."

The Manticore's arrogance was breath-taking. Had the Sightless not been watching so closely, Ketsueki would have laughed it off and given him plenty of reason not to try him. Unfortunately, they were watching, and he had no way to make the Manticore realize it without giving away his ulterior motives. At least he could feel no remorse for what he had to do. The deity moved so fast that he did not appear to at all until he was in Mani's face. "Look," he breathed, and gripped the Manticore's face in his hands. His auric wings painted their surroundings in crimson, stretched out as far as the eye could see. The Sightless shrieked their displeasure at not being able to see any more. Ket curled the wings around them and their location changed. He shoved the Manticore away roughly, and drew his his soul back in, looking at their surroundings.

They were at a ruined house in the middle of the Blightlands. The harsh desert heat pressed around them, and whatever magic could be felt was...wrong. Twisted. The house's door swung in the wind, creaking eerily. "This is where Shiramine died," Ketsueki said. It didn't really matter where they were. The Sightless had lost track of them for the time being. "I am afraid you do not realize the gravity of your situation." His tail swished behind him as he moved into the shade of the house. "Upon entering this world, your soul became chained. You cannot leave, and the chains will tighten the longer justice is put off. You have already lost your ability to use magic, and sensing it will go soon. After that, you'll start losing parts of yourself. Most mortals go insane if left untended for too long. I could leave you like that and count it suitable punishment enough, but..." He smiled sadly, spreading his hands. "That's not Justice, is it?"

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara seems to accept this response, though she merely stares blankly ahead for a moment, than nods, and continues to follow Cal.

Mani has no time to react as Ket appears before him, and desire as he might to rip his face off, he once more feels weighted. He watches the world go red and when they re-materialize, he backs away from Ket, taking in the sights silently. Mani was standing for only a moment before the feeling got to him. Without wanting to, he falls to his knees, clutching his stomach, though the feeling goes much deeper than that. It is not the same feeling as his body rejecting mere food, but something else entirely.

The Manticore, who has gone his entire life without believing in any form of fate or deity, finds a question pressing against the back of his mind. However, he is still much in control of himself and he shoves it away. He pushes himself back up to a standing position as Ket continues speaking. He wishes to call Ket’s bullshit on his magic draining, but an empty feeling had been lingering around him since Ket’s appearance that could only be properly explained in that way. Mani’s mouth curves into a snarl again. “Well than?” he spits. “What would you have me do? What does your obscure world demand of me?” The sick feeling is ebbing away, though Mani finds himself much more uncomfortable without the pressing weight and sickness. For a moment, he wonders if Ket’s words are true. He looks again at the house and his lower back tingles, spreading across the top of his tail.

----- ----- -----

X

Ketsueki watches the Manticore with little expression. He had only moved to the shadows because he knew how hot the desert was and supposed that Mani would need some relief from it. It didn't effect Ket at all. He was there in his truest form, but that did not mean he had to give in to the weather. He wondered how long it would take for reality to settle in, and how hard he would have to push to break the creature. His comments were still far from the mark. "I asked you earlier, how far are you willing to go? I will break you, but whether I reforge you is entirely up to you. Shiramine shouldered her burden."

He turned his head, looking at the house. Even now, he wanted to tear it down. The only reason it still stood was because Shiramine had not chosen to destroy it. It remained as a reminder of her achievements. "Have you ever died?" Ketsueki asked, not sounding terribly interested. He could still clearly remember his own death. It had been less than he deserved. Cal's death -- and her rebirth -- were more than she deserved to pay for only twelve lives. For it, Ket would see to it that she would never go wanting again.

"Do you know the feeling of having flesh and muscle peeled from the bone? Of waking starved and with things crawling in your flesh? Of earning redemption and being forced to risk death again by uncaring deities?" He looked pointedly at Mani, ears curled back. "For twelve lives, that was her price. She knows the manner of her death, and she will sacrifice everything she has to save this world that will not thank her. And she would have taken your punishment ontop of that." He looked to the sky, though there was nothing but blue and the faded silhouettes of the moons. "Whatever did you do to deserve such devotion? Would you go as far? I could not stop others from interfering with her judgement, but if you speak quickly, you may make it in one piece before the High Creator seizes you from my grasp."

----- ----- -----

Maia

The Manticore can feel the magic seeping from his body. Perhaps it was going into the earth below, perhaps it was fading away. All he knew was the weight was growing heavier, and the little protection and safety he had felt was now draining out of him. The question about death seems rhetorical, so Mani chooses not to answer it, though the blatant answer would be ‘No’. Mani found the undead disgusting and had never dealt with them while he had a chance. Death was one of the many unknowns to him that he cared little to be acquainted with. Mani responded to Ket’s words with hollow looks of his own. He was not intimidated by the being. There was something… different about him, Mani would admit, though he would still not go so far as to consider him a deity. Perhaps a vigilante seeking retribution for all the wrongs done to him. Mani smirked. That would be ironic.

Mani narrowed his eyes at Ket once more.”The cares of nonexistent beings who do not rule my life mean little to me…” but as he trailed off, the thought that Cal had undergone all of this and returned… was something to be considered. He didn’t have any desire to meet this ‘High Creator’ or any other deities for that matter, though he would savor the thought of dragging Ket back into his own world and returning the favor. His smirk widened. His inner thoughts meant little to Ket, and he knew this. Ket would do as he wish and Mani would continue to believe as he wished. Their meeting was an unfortunate occurrence, but Mani would find the benefit in it… someday, perhaps. He turns away at the mention of Cal taking his punishment. It was none of Ket’s fucking business. “Do as you wish,” he spat, the back of his right hand moving along his lower back. “Seek your justice.”

----- ----- -----

X

Ketsueki wondered why the Manticore was being so passive. Did he think it was all over? No, the random smirking and the pulses of his aura gave that away. It was defiance, then. Mani thought he could get through this unscathed without putting any effort forward. Perhaps he also thought of things like revenge and his own imagined right to such things. It was kind of pathetic. But, as the Manticore *had* said to do as he wished, Ket did just that.

By shoving the Manticore very roughly out into the hot sand.

The diety followed out into the sunlight, letting his soul wings spread out behind him. "Allow me to illuminate the situation for you," Ket said, and pulled at Mani's aura. It wouldn't do to pull too hard, as the chains constricted against it, but he channeled it into an orb-like illusion in his hands. He let the aura go once he had his illusion, and held it out for Mani's inspection. It was a minature version of what his soul looked like, and it looked... dead. Dying. Rotting. Absolutely ugly. "This is your soul. Without your cooperation, I can break it," he demonstrated, and the thing fell to pieces, forming what looked like a sludgy lump in his palm, "but I cannot reform it. You will cease to exist." He puffed a breath across the illusion, and it blew away like so many leaves.

"Now, you will stop sulking around and tell me: how far will you go for your freedom?" Ket spread his arms, and the bloody wings behind him extended out even further, shading them in crimson. "Death? Torture? Damnation? Will you face all of these things down and claw your way back up?" His eyes narrowed, and he added oh-so-quietly, "Will you meet that tattoo's promise?"

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani snarled as he was shoved backwards and considered snapping off just one of the deity’s arms, but that would certainly not do. When Mani reached the bottom of his fall from Grace – a fall that had been going on for thousands of years, he would hit hard. Perhaps he would die from it, but it sounded as though he could be rebuilt and with it, he had no doubt he could regain his power… not the power he had bathed in and grown accustomed to, but his own power. There was a sick satisfaction in Mani’s mind revolving around killing Ket with no assistance but his own will and abilities. The feeling of his aura being touched felt… wrong… The sight of soul’s aura almost dropped him to his knees again. But a soul was not a tangible thing, he forced into his mind. He took a deep breath, calming his mind as he often did before performing his more difficult spells.

So far Ket seemed all intimidation and talk. A little magic here, a shove there and most ‘mortals’ he spoke of must be weak pieces of shit not fit to walk his earth or Ket’s. The words Ket chose rolled off him like water. What did Death mean to him? He had no sense of it? Torture was something he did on a regular basis, or had done, and it was not eternal. Damnation was nonexistent, for one would have to believe in the gods to believe in such a thing. The metaphor of clawing his way back up reminded him on Zenno’s Paradox on his wall back home. ‘No matter how high he climbs, he can only halve the distance he travels, therefore never reaching his destination…’ However, the near-whisper caught the majority of his attentio attention and Mani responded with an almost-snarl of a response, simple as it was. “Undoubtedly.”

----- ----- -----

X

"Very well then," Ketsueki said. A huge tome appeared before him in midair, as if on an invisible table. It flipped open and its pages turned rapidly for a few moments before it stilled completely. The thick, blank pages filled with all of the Manticore's sins in crimson ink. It was not written in common, but in the first language Ket had ever known, in his mortal life. "Justice will be done," the deity said, formally, "I am born of blood, and exact my toll. For each of the lives you have taken, you will suffer their pain."

His wings shot out, coiling around the Manticore. At first there was nothing, and then... White hot, blinding pain. Every thing he had ever inflicted on others. With it, came their memories. Not the memories of the Manticore as he lorded over his victims, no, but the victims' suffering. Their last moments were the clearest. Even as that was happening, Ket siphoned much of Mani's blood, leaving him only with just enough to live. Between the overwhelming pain and the blood loss, he would need healing soon. Whether he would get it soon enough would be up to Mani's ability to get through each of the punishments.

When it was done, Ket pulled his wings back and let him drop, waiting. The Manticore would either die and need to be reborn, or he would continue to live. Either way, the toll on his body was done for the moment. His soul would be next. If he died, he would remain tethered to the spot, unable to pass on, and communication would be a great deal more challenging for him. Not that Ket was worried about it. He lived amongst the souls of the dead on a daily basis. "Are you going to give up here?" he asked.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani was still in reserve over the whole thing when Ket’s tome appeared. He could see writing across the page, but it was too tiny to make out. For a moment Mani thought it might be embroidery, but than he realized it was merely shrunk… He recognized the first name on there, as it had been most recent – the name of the child within in the Kes-erae Clan who had cut Aara. With a sinking feeling, Mani wondered if the entire two pages were the names of all those he had killed. He knew the answer, but still he denied it.

As Ket’s wings wrapped around him, Mani reached up, trying to pry them off his neck when the shock of the images and the emotions and everything else rolled over him. Mani had understood they were all in pain, understood they were all suffering, but he had been almost like someone watching something distant and far away. Their pain was real, it pulled on him, rang in his head, burned the backs of his eyes. He scratched at his ears, trying to drown out the sound, but it only seemed to grow louder and louder, combined with the pain, he felt lost. He was no longer within himself, but somewhere else entirely, drowning in their pain, burning in it.

Mani felt another sensation as the blood began draining from his body and he tried to move through the voices and the pain to find the source and stop it, but was unable to. And than he was falling. The fabeled fall from grace, he found himself thinking, though he hit the ground sooner than he expected, the breath whooshing out of him. The searing pain was fading, but the voices remained, only diminishing ever so little at a time. He couldn’t shut them out, couldn’t get them out of his head… and than there was only silence.

Somehow, the silence seemed almost worse than the experience. He pushed himself to sit up, becoming acutely aware that while the voices and pain had passed, his body was not responding. He felt anemic and weak and his head was absolutely pounding from the simplest movements. He stopped moving when he was sitting, shifting his hands up ever so slightly to his temples as though it would relieve any of the pressure he felt. The weights pressing down on him felt heavier. Breathing still seemed possible, though, and so he glared defiantly up at the god of Justice. “You fucking wish,” he rasped.

----- ----- -----

X

Ketsueki closed the tome with a resounding thud. A beast the Manticore was, and one of the most tainted souls he had ever witnessed, but he was providing surprisingly resilient. He pushed the tome to the side and strode over, stopping in front of the fallen manticore. "I wish for a great many things, but that is not one of them," Ket pointed out, surveying the damage. He would live, it seemed. Not for long, but they would be back to the village in due course. The Sightless would find them soon. "Perhaps when we are done, you will understand how very little you know." Talking about the future was a futile thing, however, so he set it aside. He would tell the Manticore what he needed to know when his task was done.

"You know what you have done, and my toll has been taken," Ketsueki explained. His soul wings flapped soundlessly behind him, but otherwise, he moved very little. "It is time to break your soul and loose the chains." He gestured, and tugged just slightly at Mani's soul, knowing he would feel it. "You must choose something and focus on it, if you wish to survive this. I would not recommend any negative feelings because that will leave you worse off in the end." He smirked. "But I suppose something like you doesn't have anything else."

He didn't wait for an answer, and pulled at the Manticore's soul, pulling it free of his body. The chains went with it, rattling and constricting, but the body remained alive. Ket shook the soul out like a blanket and hung it midair. He waited for it to settle, and then extended his wings out and around it. After a moment, he exerted all of his pressure. The chains *snapped*, and that left the Manticore's soul to be crushed. If he thought the physical pain had been bad, he had never had his soul attacked. Ket pulled at the soul and pressed on it and pulled some more until he had it in a respectable shape, and every action would pain him and break his soul a little more. As he did this, all of its stolen powers and much of the darkness was shed. This action bonded it to him, just as Cal's was, though he had little intention of keeping the Manticore. No, it would merely be his way of knowing if Mani went back to his careless killing.

The rebuilding was much the same way as the breaking. The Sightless showed up just as he was putting the soul back in its body, tucking it carefully so it would not become dislodged. The pain of the soul would stay with him for some time, and the loss of powers would no doubt bother him like a missing limb, but he would just have to suck it up. Ketsueki had been as gentle as he could be, and it was more than the Manticore deserved.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani was actually feeling pretty superior. It wasn’t as bad as he expected. He had been certain some soul-shattering, mind-bending pain was about to take place. As he had thought, pain faded, though the anemia was causing him more trouble than he would’ve preferred. He watched Ket, though his eyesight was fading in and out of focus. He was debating trying to stand when Ket mentioned it was time to ‘loose his soul’. There was a brief moment where time seemed to slow down. He watched the faintest hints of a smile play on Ket’s lips, but could hear none of the words spoken. Something deep inside him tugged, sending agony through his body and he flopped helplessly on the ground. Inwardly he cursed himself for even thinking of the term ‘soul-shattering’, as it seemed the very worst he had believed himself to be put through would be a cup of tea compared to this.

He grasped at images – anything. Cal came up, Aara as well, but the images shattered from behind his closed eyes as his soul left his body. If Mani ever had any doubts about having a soul, he had none now. The pain was absolutely indescribable. There was nothing in his life he had ever experienced… venom… Mani found himself submerged in the dying memories of one of his victims. He had described Manticore venom as ‘soul-tearing’. He cried that it felt as though his soul was being torn from his body. Mani had laughed, knowing full well the paralyzing, mind-numbing pain his poison gave off. The memory only seemed a momentary stave and, despite the promise he had made himself, Mani screamed with every part of his body, until he was sure his lungs would bleed. There wasn’t enough air left in the world to ease them as they burned… but he couldn’t stop screaming.

Mani had assumed it would become so painful, it would meld into itself, but he was once more wrong. He felt every twist, every touch, every brush of air to his exposed soul, but it never grew easier. The only minor relief seemed to be that the weights were lessening, pulling back almost, though the actual relief was overpowered by the absolute debilitating outcome of his soul’s removal. His heart seemed to skip a beat and Mani gasped for the air he could no longer feel. He was going to kill Ket. Every fiber of his being screamed in protest, and his heart skipped again. For the strangest moment, Mani wondered if he was indeed going to die. An image of Cal flickered behind his eyes. No. He couldn’t die. This fucked up world of hers had done things to him. His lower back, now this. He was going to survive… But all other thoughts left him as his soul was shoved back into his body. There was relief – a relief he had never expected to feel… and an emptiness than made his entire being shake. Every shake sent more pain through his body in a neverending cycle. Mani couldn’t think, he couldn’t focus, it was all he could do to breathe.

He was uncertain how long he lay there. It could’ve been centuries for all he knew, or perhaps only a couple of minutes. Time lost all meaning to him. Somewhere along the way, he became aware of horrid noise. After listening for several heartbeats, it occurred to him the sound was coming from himself. He tried to sit up, only managing to flop over onto his side, but the movement was enough and he retched blood until he was certain there was nothing left of him.

In the moments that passed, Mani coughed words up. He wasn’t even certain how the words formed, it was more like a gutteral spewing. “Cal…” he rasped. “Survived…. This…?”

----- ----- -----

X

"It is done," Ketsueki told the Sightless. He watched them mill around, twisting together in a roil of confusion. Their dozens of eyes rolled in their sockets as they expressed their displeasure. The Manticore might be able to see glimpses of them in his weakened state. Ket watched them disappear, one by one, to report to the High Creator, until they were all gone. He would hear about it later, but if the Creator punished him for it, then the other deities would know him to be corrupt. He had only done his duty. It did not matter that the Manticore was an alien, or that he deserved a far worse fate. His judgement had been made and the sentence handed down.

He looked at Mani's slumped form, and donned his mask, obscuring his face. Things were not complete just yet. Elsewhere in the world, twilight was already deepening. In the Blightlands, the light didn't seem to be diminishing at all. The place was cursed, and day would seem to drag on for another hour or two. The heat would last the night. There would be no respite from it. Ket knew they could not stay there, but he still had a great many things to do, so he moved to the Manticore and crouched over him, his wings curling about them as they had in the jungle. They did not seal, however, as Ket was not quite ready to move them just yet.

"Hear me," Justice said, focusing his soul into the task of separating the creature from his pain and getting his whole attention. He would let it come rushing back later, but for now, he needed the Manticore to listen. "This is the last trial, and it will be the hardest. I have granted you mercy for Shiramine's sake, but it is up to you to make use of that," Ketsueki explained, "Your soul is bound to me now, but I will not keep you. Should you slip back to your old ways, I will know. Your physical immortality is at stake, and should you harm the Innocents, it will disappear, and your soul will claw its way back to me, whatever the price on your body. You may kill, but only sinners and in self-defense. Do you understand?"

Whether or not the Manticore responded, Ket continued, "That is the first task that you must live out for the rest of your days. Spare the Innocents." His wings thickened around them, but still did not seal. "I am not giving you the weight of the world as I have Shiramine. You are not my pawn. Still, I set this upon you: you will meet that
tattoo's promise. You will keep her safe and content to the fullest extent of your power when she is within your world." He didn't think it was necessary to tell the Manticore that, but he made it clear none-the-less. "Shiramine must not die until it is her time."

----- ----- -----

Maia

As Mani lay on the ground, his voice rasping in his throat, the blood still wet on his lips, his eyes looking up in the unknown sky, he tried to clear his mind. This turned out to be quite pointless. The pain was wrapped around the very essence of his being and whenever he tried to focus his thoughts on anything, all he could think of was the memories of the voices, or the white-hot pain, or the or the tearing and re-forming of the soul he believed he had lost many years ago. He kept waiting for the pain to diminish and go on its own way. Pain is only temporary, he kept repeating, only temporary. And than suddenly, he understood.

The pain remained acutely with him because of his immortality. Lady Death would not come to him and take his hand and lead him from his body, not for a great many, many years. It was the first time he felt the curse of immortality. Never before had he been in such severe pain, his natural healing abilities quelled (or in this case, stripped for the time being). The pain increased and it was his fate as an immortal to feel and remember every moment of it. He found that thought almost laughable. Than there had been some mercy in the way his victims eyes rolled up into their primitive skulls, or the way they shuddered and gurgled. Once the screaming stopped, she had them. She lead them to wherever else they went – out of the pain he had submerged them in.

With a suddenness that almost convinced him he had indeed passed on, the pain was gone. Mani looked about himself and found Ket’s mask firmly in place and the deity himself much closer than Mani would’ve ever preferred him to be. His words surrounded him, though he felt so anemic and out of breath, he could not summon the urge to scowl or snarl or make any move against his captor. Retorts built in his throat, but never parted past his lips, though he managed to narrow his eyes after much attempt. “I understand,” he barely whispered, unable to muster his usual hate-filled voice. The strangeness of all of this intrigued him, but as Ket spoke, he could feel something deep inside him responding… and that pissed him off to no end.

He managed to bear his teeth as he was once more reminded of Tenai’s tattoo. “I will meet that tattoo’s promise…” he said, trying to regain the authority that once resonated from his voice. “But I will not simply hand her over to you. It is not for you to decide when she is to die.” Something inside of him surmised that Cal’s decision to die would align with Ket’s, but he ignored it, focusing on trying to glare, though it was more strain than he was able to continue for long. He might not feel the pain, but his body and soul were in bad shape and he had lost almost all of his blood. The fire he usually carried in his words and being was still there, smoldering deep within, hidden. He took a moment to take a deep, refreshing breath – two, actually, savoring what it was like to breathe out of pain. He would hold the memory as his clearest for what might come next.

----- ----- -----

X

Ketsueki waited impassively. He pitied the Manticore. Even after all of the pain he had been put through, he still thought he was in control. He still thought he had any say. There was no getting through to him, not now, and not ever. It had been a futile effort. The beast would continue to blunder along blindly, only now, there was a noose around his neck that would tighten and cut off his air supply if he went too far. The deity could only hope that he had the sense to live long enough for Shiramine's purposes. All that mattered was her ultimate goal. Ketsueki had a great many other things to juggle, but when it came to this specific situation... No, he did not care one iota if the Manticore lived or died, but if Shiramine placed enough importance in him to offer to sacrifice herself for his sake, then it was clear he could not afford to ignore it.

He leaned forward, bracing his hands on either side of the Manticore, curling his fingers into the sand, and huffed quietly beneath the mask. "Give no quarter to anyone," Ketsueki told him, "Death is inevitable, and she must choose to go to it willingly. If I could have, I would have torn the stars down for her. She would never have known death at all." He scooped up handfuls of sand and let it slide between his fingers. "You blame me for these things, and wish to kill me, but I think you're being too narrowminded and blind. It does not matter. I will die in due time, but not by your hands. You are just a parasite caught in a web. If you live, it will be because Shiramine cuts you loose." The last grains of sand fell from his hands and he tilted his head to the side, considering the Manticore from beneath his mask. "If you wanted to save her from her death, you would kill the Fifth god and her wretched son. But... right now, you can't even hold your own against a child."

As if to prove that point, he let the pain go crashing back in on him. Ketsueki watched the results of that without reaction, and his wings sealed sightly around them. "You will stay with Shiramine for a time, and then she will send you away." He didn't know if the Manticore could hear him over the pain, and didn't care. "She will be very busy for a time, and you may not see her for a while. Best make good use of your time. I will be guarding her closely while she is distracted with your weakness." His wings withdrew, and they were on the roof of the building Cal and Aara had holed up in. He gathered the Manticore up as if he weighed nothing, and jumped down to the balcony, letting himself in.

Cal stirred from the restless doze she had settled in. "Does he live?" she asked quietly, even as she stood and motioned for Ket to set Mani down on the bed. The deity did so, and stood back, unanswering. Cal hadn't expected anything, not really. She began peeling Mani's clothes off, intent on getting him as comfortable as possible.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani continued to glare at Ket – it was all he could muster to do. Somehow, he was heartened by the idea that Cal must willing choose to go to her death, and for a moment, he selfishly believed he could keep her from it.. Of course, the very events that had just taken place had proved what Cal had hinted at for quite some time – that he was quite out of touch with the various worlds that touched his own. He narrowed his eyes even more at Ket’s mention of tearing the stars down for Cal. He wanted to call on the false deity’s bullshit, but decided against it. It would not suit his best interests.

Instead, Mani did something he always believed himself good at, but had never put to such a test – he listened. Mani did know himself to be narrowminded, but he was not so certain about about blind. Perhaps selective seeing or selective understanding. The fact he was even having this discussion with himself bothered him greatly. Of course, he had never quite experienced such a thing, and it was only natural he should begin to question more. Before all this, had he not grown bored with everything he was doing? Had he not sought a change? This was no change he would ever have asked for, but it was still an opportunity. He did understand, though, for the first time, exactly how much Cal meant to Ket. He had placed a lot of weight on her, it seemed, and, if he was to understand correctly… the main reason he was being kept alive or given this “second chance”… was because of Cal. Inwardly, he noted to discover who the Fifth God and her child were before he was mocked and the pain once more came crashing down on him. Mani was prepared for it,though and had sworn to himself he would not utter another sound for the rest of the trial, nor would he speak of it He bit his lip until blood flowed, than inwardly cursed himself for spilling more than he had available. His body continued to thrash and curl inward on itself, as though trying to protect, but he kept his word and no longer cried out.

Mani found himself fighting to hear Ket’s next words of Cal sending him away and being busy. Surely he could help, he was not the entire moron Ket played him out to be, and there was nothing in his realms for him anymore. The Academy could burn down for all he cared. The students had fled and it was not as though he could continue living as he had these thousands of years. The Fifth God and her son… he kept repeating in his mind as Ket picked him up and took him somewhere. He closed his eyes against the pain and the light, focusing on controlling his limbs again one by one.

Mani heard her voice as though through a fog, but he wanted to maintain as much control of himself as he could before he did anything. He felt himself set down and than felt his clothing being removed in pieces. Mani opened his eyes, slowly, seeing Ket first and than moving his face to see Cal. He could see Aara asleep out of the corner of his eye and was grateful. Despite that he had stopped twitching, he did not yet have the control to speak without screaming out, so he simply looked at her, as though it had been many years since they last saw one another. He felt the slightest tingling within his body and blinked against her for a moment. Her aura was so very bright in this world… He couldn’t help but wonder what his own looked like now.

----- ----- -----

X

"When you are done, we must speak," Ketsueki said quietly, and then disappeared. He would patrol the permiter to ensure that there were no slugs or other dangers until he sensed that she was ready for him.

Caliginous nodded absently, setting aside the last bits of clothing. She met Mani's gaze evenly, looking tired but no worse for the wear. She had not been the one to undergo judgement. No, her worst trial had been keeping both herself and Aara calm as they waited. The waiting had been too long, but no more challenging than anything else she had been pitted against. It was over now, and all that remained was to pick up the pieces and put the Manticore back on his feet. Again. She pulled an old, ratty ribbon out of her pocket, and pushed her hair back, tying it out of her face. Dully, she remembered when she had gotten that ribbon. She had failed her man back then, letting him go off to some foolish war. This time, at least, her man had returned, but she was not about to let him endanger himself again.

"Jin," Cal said, a little uneccessarily because the demon had already been moving. Jin presented a basin of water and rags with a quiet gurgle. Cal smiled a little, took them, and set about washing away the dirt and sweat. She could see -- and feel - his soul's pain, and she could see his aura, no longer cringing inwards like a beaten dog with too much load. It was still murky, and now it was dimmer than it had been before, but it was healthy. For once. She had never understood why he burdened his aura down with the weight of others, but it was good that it was gone. If the recovery went well, she would have to thank Ketsueki later. "You should sleep," she told him, her voice barely above a whisper. It wouldn't do to wake Aara, not now.

Whether or not he did sleep, Cal wiped every inch of skin down, and then took the proferred towel from Jin. That was another thing that was different than when in his mansion. The demon was always there, even if only appearing as Cal's shadow. It had always hidden, as if to let the Manticore think that Cal was nearly powerless. As Cal dried him off, oh so carefully, the demon paced soundlessly behind her, waiting for the next order. None came at first, as Cal seemed content to cover the Manticore with the sheets and to sit in the darkness with the damp towel in her lap. She pondered over her options, and, at last, decided, tossing the towel at the demon. "I will need your power," she told it, and then placed her palms flat on the Manticore's chest. Her aura pulsed as she concentrated, her right eye began to glow, and her tentacles spread out behind her. She could do nothing for the soul pain, but she could deal with the blood loss she knew he was reeling from.

The demon doubled in size, and flattened out, becoming a shadow that stretched across the walls. Its eyes changed, becoming the same blue glow of Cal's tentacles. It pulled away from the wall and surrounded Cal, becoming a part of her aura, darkening it. "Ah," she said, and cast the spell that would allow her to give some of her blood -- and her health -- to the Manticore. She couldn't give too much, but at least she could pull him back from the brink. When it was done, Jin pulled away and the glows disappeared. Cal pushed herself to the side, dropping ungracefully on the other half of the bed to catch her breath.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani listened to Ket and waited until he was outside before closing his eyes. It was strenuous and he could feel his stomach wretching again. He wanted to focus his strength on not throwing anything else back up. Perhaps it gave off a worse impression – him laying there without speaking, his breathing labored and barely moving, but, in his mind, it was better than the alternative version with him thrashing about, puking blood and screaming his lungs out. The pain had lessened considerably, but that meant relatively little.

Mani jumped a little as Cal began washing him down, and his eyes opened back up, despite her suggestion of sleep. Something rang familiar and his mind wandered to his last bed-ridden time, after dealings with Henna and the fight with Orich. He had told her such a thing wouldn’t happen again and yet here he was. His brow furrowed. Ket was right, he hated to admit, but why in heaven was she sticking around? Mani averted his eyes, looking behind her at Jin, who he had never truly looked at. He looked over at Aara every so often, who remained very asleep, than eventually back at Cal. He watched as she pressed her hands to his chest and opened his mouth to tell her not to when Jin – and her tentacles – expanded. His mouth remained open as he watched inquisitively, though as the sound escaped her lips and she flopped next to him, he turned toward her ever-so-slowly. He wanted to ask her why she had been willing to risk her life, and why she continued to help him now when he was so clearly nothing he had been in his world. Instead, he reached up and brushed her cheek with the back of his hand, wondering if he should thank Ket or kill him for the influx of awareness and emotions.

----- ----- -----

X

It had stopped occurring to Cal to wonder why she did the things she did long ago. She just did them. If the Manticore could not handle it, then that would be something he dealt with on his own time. She would continue to help him even if it killed her. It was not like she had much longer to live, in any case. She remembered when Ketsueki had told her she was dying and to find another way. The Nodes had staved off the inevitable, and made it possible for her to work more quickly, but it was not something she could use every day or count on to last forever. Her death waited patiently for her, just down the road, while she idled around and enjoyed what time she had left.

As she caught her breath, she kept her eyes closed and remained as still as possible. The transfer had left her dizzy and much more tired. In the morning, she would have to remember to eat plenty to make up for the loss. Ketsueki was waiting for her out on the balcony. She felt his aura pulsing around them, poking at her and encouraging her to get up. Cal did not move immediately, and lay there until she felt the Manticore touch her. She opened her eyes, looking at him from under heavy lids. The gesture was not completely strange, but it was out of the ordinary for him. She wondered how much change they would see him go through. "Sleep," she repeated, and sat up, intent on doing the exact opposite.

Cal scooted out of the bed, hesitated on the edge, and then forced herself up onto wobbly knees. The demon was out of her shadow immediately, supporting her before she fell over. Dizziness washed over her in waves, and she fought her stomach down. She glanced back at Mani to make sure he was not doing anything stupid, like getting up, and made her way out to the balcony to talk to her god.

There would be time enough for recovery, she learned, and then it would be time to return home. That was not why Ket had tried to reach her through Red, though. There were darker things on the horizon, things that would not wait for her to be well. Their talk would last only thirty minutes, and it would not be enough, but it was all she had the energy for before she fell unconscious.

Jin rasped angrily at Ketsueki, gathering her mistress up and putting her to bed. For extra measure, the demon rasped at Mani as well, as if it were his fault.

Then it disappeared into the shadows to wait for morning.

Breaking the Manticore

2009-09-08T04:21:23Z

RP
Who?: Maia (Mani / Aara) + X (Cal / Ketsueki)
Where?: MSN

----- ----- -----

Maia

The landing was smooth, as it usually was, and the journey had been fast. All things Mani expected. When he felt the soft indication that they had landed, the markings along the walls switched. Mani moved along the wall, following some of the markings with a finger, looking across walls to other markings, following a pattern Aara didn’t understand. After a moment he banged his fist against the wall and let out an aggravated sigh. Firstly, he had absolutely no idea when he had planted them, but more importantly (as he rarely knew where he ended up at first), it seemed the rest of his house had stayed in the Clan Lands. He was certain he had done serious damage to it in the move, perhaps enough for it to collapse in on itself and remove its own existence as he had done with the room. It would be more than a nuisance to need to search for his home, but first things first. He placed both hands on the door once more, taking a reading of the outsides. The temperature seemed bearable. Mani removed his shoes and socks, kicking them to a side of the room, than removed his jacket, tossing it absently at Aara – not in a protective gesture, but perhaps with the intention of throwing it on the bed, forgetting she was there. Aara, of course, took it as the kind approach and clutched it to herself, smiling a little.

“Well, it’s safe, for the time being it seems,” he began, turning to look at Cal. It was the first he had looked at her since he had moved to throw her back. Pointless as it was, he moved across the room, extending a hand to help her up. “However,” he said, not taking his explanation as a weakness. “I’m not certain where we are…”Moving toward the door, he waved his hand in front of it. The markings faded away and, with a shudder, the room seemed to actually touch the ground. He opened the door, allowing Cal to step through first than following, a forgotten Aara close at his heels.

----- ----- -----

X

Red did not stay in the house as soon as he felt Shiramine disappear. He slunk back into the shadows even as the magic began to move around him. He could not recall being so angry in a long time. She had slipped out of his fingers. He stalked quickly to where he had made a hole between worlds and let himself back into Ijou. There, he unpinned the Dark Things that he'd been using to power the portal, and let it slip closed. The Dark Things collapsed in on themselves, their energy too depleted to maintain their forms. None of the others lurking in the Shadow Realm would come near him. He was something too terrible for even their hunger. "K'suit," he growled, and headed off into the vast blackness to the meeting point.

Cal remained where she had been pushed until the Manticore helped her up. Her tentacles had retracted again, and she clutched at her dress wordlessly. Her soul was shaken to the core, and she could still feel the demon's pull until she made it out of the room as the command demanded. Her grip on the Manticore's arm was perhaps a little too tight. Outside, she blinked at their surroundings, wondering if it seemed familiar or if she were only imagining things. "Where are we?" she asked, and then, almost as an afterthought, "Is everyone well?" She glanced over her shoulder to Aara.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Outside, Mani blinked, looking around for some trace of something familiar. A plant, a species of Dragon, or a remnant of something he had obscured… This place, as far as he could tell, was one he had yet to touch. Not that he was so haughty as to think he had been everywhere there was to be. He was old, but not that old. When Cal asked her question, he narrowed his eyes at her, taking her in for a moment, being certain she wasn’t mocking him. Were they in such an obvious place that she would be so bold? However he took notice finally of how tightly she had his arm and felt uncomfortable to realize how bad her condition truly was. As she turned to look at Aara, Mani passed her arm off to the faerie, moving back into the room. Luckily, most of his house had changed to accommodate Cal’s oddities. He bent over, opening the third drawer under the bed and taking a bag of sugar out from it before shutting it and moving back outside.

Aara was looking frightenedly up at Cal. “Lady Cal, I’m so sorry… I for-forgot… He s-said he just wanted to talk, but I didn’t wantly want to tell him where you were… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” Her eyes brimmed with tears, but there was a determination in her eyes refusing to let them fall.

Mani set his mouth in a line, hearing Aara. “He was smart to use you to get to her.” He said diplomatically, holding the bag of sugar out to Cal and regaining her arm from Aara, who quickly moved to Cal’s other side, Mani’s jacket coat around her shoulders. She took a moment to look around herself, shaking her head. “I don’t thinkly think I know either… It is not a place I’ve read about or seen…” She sighed softly, bothered she was of little help.

----- ----- -----

X

Caliginous did not even protest in the slighest at being handed between the pair like an invalid. She was too tired and trying to reign her soul in. Ketsueki had warned her of this, once. She had "died", and her soul's attachement to her body was tenuous at best. She closed her eyes and focused, realigning her soul as freely as she might have rearranged her physical limbs. "Shhh," was all she said in response to Aara, giving a slight squeeze to the girl's arm.

There was a brief flare of magic, and her eyes shot open just as the Manticore presented the bag of sugar. The magic all around them was ordered too neatly. It was familiar, too. Cal took the bag of sugar and helped herself, even as she cast her senses down into the ground, seeking out what she hoped desperately not to find. The node waited for her to open the gate and let its power come rushing out.

"Oh, bravo," Caliginous said, and pulled away from the both of them, letting the bag of sugar drop to the ground. "Did you plan this?" Jin slunk out of the shadows, following her mistress closely. Cal picked her way through the underbrush and pushed aside several branches, revealing an absolutely massive trail with huge footprints. She looked back to them with some annoyance. "Well, you're here, o Manticore, try not to get stepped on." Whatever deferrence she gave him in his own home, it did not apply here. She did not wait for them, and stepped out onto the trail, looking around for some sign as to which way would take them to civilization.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara allowed herself to be shushed, focusing more along the lines of Mani – trying to locate anything familiar that might give a clue to where they were…

Mani was pleased to see she was not entirely lost as she started eating the sugar. He watched as Cal seemed to pass into a phase, searching. He could feel streams of magic, but they were as foreign to him as his markings had been to Red. Mani also felt… pressure, as though there was a weight pushing down on him here. He was certain it would affect his abilities, though he wasn’t about to go shooting magic about until he had some sense of where exactly they had landed.. It was Cal’s reaction as she moved aside the plant that finally settled things in his mind. A jackassy grin spread unknowingly across his face and he placed his hands on his hips. “We’re in your world, aren’t we?” he said with much more certainty than he had tangible proof of. He ignored her impertinance, enjoying allowing her to think that they arrived there on purpose. He nudged Aara forward, following after her.

Somehow, it made the transition feel easier. It was Mani’s life to learn the limitations and expansions of his abilities in new places. Given enough time, he was certain he could be just as powerful as he was anywhere else, though he recalled the strange rules applied to this area and grew wary. He wasn’t stupid. While her comment about being stepped on was meant in annoyed jest, Mani snagged a peek at the sky, startled to see that more than one orb hung in the air. “Interesting,” he said simply, shooing Aara forward so she wouldn’t fall behind.

----- ----- -----

X

Caliginous glared at the Manticore as he and Aara caught up with her on the trail. "Yes, we are." she answered, cooly, not amused by his apparent pleasure with the situation. She put her own hands on her hips, staring up at him challengingly. They weren't in his house, but in her world. He was the player in a game that he didn't know the rules of. She was about to tell him off and put him in his place when Jin made a rasping sound. She turned towards the demon. "That's good," she told it, and glanced over at Aara slyly. "You've been here before, Jin says. You're an innocent, my dear, and I shall need all of your help to keep our foolish Manticore from being hung for his crimes."

Her gaze went back to Mani, eyes narrowed. He had completely disregarded all of her warnings and somehow found his way into the world. It angered her more than she could say. It also made her stomach clench with something like dread. Jin rasped again, flitting amongst the tree shadows along the trail. Cal motioned for them to follow and turned away, heading down the trail. The demon had found signs of life, and with luck, it wouldn't be hostile. "We are in the southern jungles," she explained, more for Aara's benefit. "Unfortunately, that means we are far away from my home, and in Sandre territory." She stopped at the bend in the trail, and looked back. This Cal was all business, something that she kept away from the Manticore's home as much as possible. "With any luck, the Queen will forgive our trespass and allow us into Enciniaz. If I can get you two to my home, I can send you back."

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani, on the other hand, was quite thrilled. He unbuttoned the cuffs of his undershirt and rolled them up his arms. There was something… almost invigorating about this world. He couldn’t help but think of Faerie when he sensed the magical currents. No, perhaps it was simply that he had dumbed down much of what he was doing for so long that he had forgotten what it was truly like to be in a magically-bound world. He took in a deep breath as she rounded on him, but he could only grin more, approving of this more vicious Cal. It reminded him of the old her, and so he didn’t snap back at her, but enjoyed the aura rolling off of her.

Aara jumped as Cal made mention of her being there before and than quickly looked away and flushed. She looked at Jin out of the corner of her eye. That was right… Jin was a shadow creature. She would know about that… “Um, yes…” Aara said without much further explanation, though she saw Mani’s head swing in her direction. She was far too embarrassed to say that she had been visiting Red’s home, or she suspecting she had the last time she had come… Instead of saying any of this aloud, she simply nodded her head fervently, though many of the rules hadn’t been explained to her as well. She simply knew her aura shone brighter than most others. Blinding, she thought she remembered Red saying once.

Mani didn’t question how Aara had come before, though he desired to. Instead, he took in the bits of information Cal offered up. He didn’t recall anything about ‘Southern Jungles’ in her mentions, though he found himself dwelling on the wonder of these ‘slugs’ she used to mention. Perhaps he’d finally see this ‘Corruption’ as well. Mani found himself most interested in seeing her home, though he cocked an eye at how hurriedly she said she would send him back. For he was certain that when she said ‘you’, Cal was not entirely referring to Aara. “Sandre, eh?” he said, almost conversationally. “So they’re ruled by a Queen and we must request passage? How far are we from your home?”

----- ----- -----

X

Cal waited for them to catch up before she began walking again, staying just one step ahead of them and no further. She eyed the pair of them out of the corner of her eye. When the trail twisted again, she allowed herself to look more closely with her right eye, studying their auras and magic. Aara's already bore signs of having been there, just as Jin had said. Her soul had the makings of being able to use Ijou magic. It wasn't perfect yet, which meant the girl hadn't been there long enough yet, but it wouldn't be much longer until she had a knack for it as easily as she might in her own world. It helped that her aura was so bright and clean. The elements would come to her readily for the chance to bask in her glow. Cal smiled slightly and looked ahead of them, ears dropping back.

The Manticore was another story entirely. He could no doubt sense all of the magic running beneath their feet. Cal just wondered how dampened it felt to him. Would there be thick walls blocking him because his aura was dark and twisted? He would not be allowed to stay long enough to reshape it and learn the knack for Ijou magic. She would see to it that they made it safely out of Ijou, no matter the cost she paid for it. Ketsueki would be along any minute now, Cal knew, and she wondered whether her Manticore would know to keep his head down or not.

"Sandre," Cal echoed by way of agreement. "The Queen of Sandre is like a goddess to the Shelbian, and it won't do to offend her. Better to give her the courtesy of permitting us to leave." The trail began to lead them downhill towards the coast. Ahead, there was a small village. There were also absolutely massive dragons sunning themselves along the cliff faces, and more out in the ocean. "Sandre conquered the Ain'laito -- those big dragons down there -- some years ago," she said conversationally, a slight smirk on her lips, "Our dear Tenshu thought it better to allow it than to challenge the Queen's might."

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani continued to listen to the information provided. He kept up with Cal’s pace, wondering what sort of Dragons the Sandre were to receive the devotion of Cal’s species. He was also confused. He knew his way of living was heavily, heavily looked down upon, but certainly conquering an entire species to spite someone had to be looked down upon as well. He was thinking of byways and other ways to get around the inevitable. At the mention of the Tenshu, without meaning to, Mani stopped walking. It only lasted a moment before he became aware that he had stopped and started once more, though his tail prickled at the base of his back. It was rare he thought of the markings there and, in his world, had managed to dim them down to mere tattoos in his mind. He wondered what sort of nonsense they would bring in this world and found himself almost wishing he hadn’t taken his coat off. Instead, he focused on the village up ahead, managing to contain most of his emotions in lieu of his curiosity.

Aara drank in the words Cal spoke, looking down at the great Dragons sunning themselves and smiled sadly, thinking momentarily of Orich. Her head moved back and forth easily, taking in the scenes, trying to remember them, as this was far more interesting than any of the books she had read. “Is she like you…?” Aara asked, not entirely sure how to word her thoughts. “That is… if she’s like a goddess…” She fumbled her words and tried to regain them to no avail.

----- ----- -----

X

Caliginous stopped near the top of the hill, hands on her hips again. Jin was scouting through the shadows ahead, sensing for danger. In the meantime, she supposed that it would be better to make sure her two...guests weren't completely lost. She watched them both carefully, judging their reactions and emotions. Cal blinked at Aara's comment. For a moment, she only stared. Then, she chuckled and shook her head. "I'm flattered, but no," Cal murmured, looking away, "I'm no goddess." In truth, she hated to be in Sandre territory. It would be the Queen's right to demand Cal stay and live up to her heritage. The Tenshu would have to find some way to barter her way out of that, should it come up. "I am a Shelbian, but only a lowly one that abandoned her country and threw her fortune in with the Tenshu." Jin came darting back, bringing no doubts. The village was peaceful.

"Before we leave," Cal said, making sure that the both of them were paying attention, "I need to make this clear: while we are in Sandre territory, our lives belong to the Queen." She gave the Manticore a look that brooked no
arguements.

"Before you leave," a male voice said behind them, "I see the Red Wing did not fail entirely." Ketsueki materialized, blood splattering the ground and trees near him. He pulled his mask off, and looked the group over. His eyes narrowed at the Manticore. "What is he doing here, Shiramine?"

"My lord," Cal said, not sounding altogether surprised and not turning towards him. "The demon
caused this. Please--"

"I have heard you before," Ket cut her off, striding forward and putting one hand on her shoulder. He had never taken his eyes off of the Manticore. He asked him, coldly, "Do you deny your sins?"

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara flushed a little and nodded. She found it difficult to imagine Cal abandoning her country, but didn’t ask prying questions. “The Tenshu…?” she asked, feeling like she had heard the word before. Maybe not within Mani’s home but perhaps in Red’s…? She wasn’t certain, but it was familiar.

Mani did little more but cock another eye and offer his smirk. “You’re undermining my intelligence, Caliginous,” he said, finding himself loathe to call her Shiramine as he had before when she bothered him. He didn’t wish to threaten her in any way while he still needed information about this place and knew so little about his own powers. Still, he wrinkled his nose in response to his life belonging to some Queen he cared little about and turned his head away, as though he were bored. He felt something shift as Ket’s voice sounded and had to withhold a snarl, remembering he was at the losing end of this world. He narrowed his eyes, holding eye contact as long as Justice did. He stood his ground, only breaking their eye contact for a moment to watch as he placed a hand on Cal’s shoulder. His answer was a curt, “I do not.”

Aara looked from Mani to Ket and back again, including Cal in the viewing.

----- ----- -----

X

Caliginous kept her head down and lips pressed together. She did not even look at the Manticore or Aara. Things were out of her control. If she looked now, she might only shame herself with tears or pointless outbursts. Better to remain silent in the exchange. She clenched her fists and wished she had tried harder to bring Ketsueki around or to convince the Manticore that he did not want to come to her world. It was too late for that, and she hated it. Jin paced between tree shadows, reacting to her mistress's agitation.

The deity of Justice stepped away from Caliginous, his tail twitching behind him. The Manticore's answer surprised him. Ket had expected denials or balking at his authority. He made no immediate response, studying Mani's soul in silence. It would take some time to decide a suitable punishment. Death would be too kind. Neither could he fall back to the old ways and cast the Manticore down into the Damned. Red Wing had proved how very little that did. While he was still pondering over it, he glanced over at Aara, ears perking. "And you... you're an Innocent. Do you wish to return home?"

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani’s eyes remained locked with Ket’s, though he noted the change in Cal’s stature. There were many words he wished to say to Ket – that he had wished to say for a long time now, but he was at serious disadvantage and he was aware of it. It was not in his best interest to make snarks about Ket’s false religious views or the hypocrisy of it all. He remained where he was, poised and watchful.

When Aara was addressed, her heart rate quickened. She looked to Cal, who seemed to fervently be avoiding eye contact, and over to Mani, who seemed locked onto the being touching Lady Cal. Aara didn’t understand any of it. When he spoke, she clutched her hands to her chest, uncertain what to say. “The… Professor… and Lady Cal…” She looked to each of them in turn, uncertain what to do. For some reason, she felt as though Cal were safer than the position Mani was in, so she moved instinctively toward him. Mani raised a hand to stop her from coming forward, but was moved off-balance when she grabbed hold of his arm. Mani was half-turned, the tattoo on the top of his tail immensely obvious against his scales. He looked down at Aara long enough to imprint that she needed to let go of him and she stepped back as Mani returned his gaze to Ket.

----- ----- -----

X

Ketsueki watched Aara's display impassively. There was no expression on his face, and his eyes were difficult to read. "You can stay, if you want," the deity pointed out when she seemed to become distressed by the offer. He was not attempting to be sympathetic. His tone was aloof, as if he were reading facts aloud. "It looks like you can find your own way back when you're ready to leave." His eyes narrowed again when she went to the Manticore, but he made no comments. Caliginous seemed attached to the monster as well. It didn't really surprise him that he had others believing he was something worth keeping around. Even demons could do that.

It was the sight of the tattoo that sparked a real reaction out of him.

"That is..." Ketsueki said, striding forward and invading the Manticore's personal space as if he had every right to do so. He pushed at him until he could see the tattoo again. "You've met Tenairin'ko." He gave the Manticore an unreadable look, then glanced over to Cal. "This binds him to you. What is the meaning of that?" Cal only raised her head and looked at Ket wordlessly. The deity snorted, not annoyed, but amused. "You mortals and your games."

"I claim his sins as mine," Cal said, abruptly. "I will pay the price, and you'll cleanse his soul."

Ketsueki couldn't have looked more flabbergasted if he tried. He recoiled from the Manticore and stared at Cal. Surprise turned to pain because he knew what she was asking for. He would have to break her. "Do you accept this?" he asked dully, looking at Mani.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara did find him difficult to read. In fact, she could gather nothing from either his stance, facial expressions or even the tone in his voice. There was something… unsettling about this and she shuddered lightly, finding herself unable to form words. She wondered absentmindedly what he meant by finding her own way back, but simply remained rooted to the spot.

Mani snarled and swung his tail behind his back, though it did little to stave Ket off. His hands clenched into tight fitsts until the deity backed off enough for Mani’s comfort. He didn’t respond to his replies about meeting Tenai or the resulting tattoo. It was the passing phrase of him being mortal that stung the most. Mani’s snarl widened, and he clenched his teeth so hard, his jaw ached. Ket’s shock paled in comparison to Mani’s dropped composure.

His entire body went rigid, his eyes growing large, while his arms went slack. He regained himself, slowly, turning to glare at Ket as he asked what had to be the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. “Of course I fucking don’t!” he spat vehemently, rounding on Cal. “What rubbish are you talking?” He turned back to Ket, pushing Aara behind him, more because she was standing between him and Ket and he was about ready to rip his head off. “You would consider yourself a deity without either explaining your own twisted set of rules or allowing someone a chance at redemption?” The words tasted of bile. Mani wanted nothing to do with redemption, but he would take Ket to the very pits of hell if he intended to take his life and rub it all over Cal. Mani found himself so indignant and furious, it was all he could do to keep from allowing the heat seering on his back to rip him open.

----- ----- -----

X

Ketsueki was pleased when the Manticore rejected his chance of a clean get away. It spoke well of him that he could be influenced by attachment to Cal, even if the tattoo had something to do with that. Better still, it left him open to take the full brunt of his punishment. He let the creature say his piece, but put little stock in his words or his rage. It didn't matter. He was little more than a beast in Ket's eyes, one with a long line of skeletons in his wake. "The deities do not have to answer to mortals," he pointed out calmly, looking over at Caliginous. "That I haven't passed judgement or allowed the Sightless to seal your soul already should inspire some amount of thankfulness. You are on trial now, and the jury is watching. Your fate is as yet undecided."

Caliginous clenched her teeth and looked away again. The Manticore's refusal to take the easy way out frustrated her. "My lord cannot afford me," she said quietly, "The final punishment will be gentler if I take it."

The deity huffed and made no move to deny it. She had already been given a way out of her own crimes, and he had placed much of his hopes on her shoulders in the process. Without her, Corruption would continue to run rampant throughout Ijou. She had saved the dragons, but there was still much to be done. He would give no quarter, though, and would not tell the Manticore anything that was not necessary.

She saw that and continued to speaking, knowing that Ket would let her do what she liked. He always did. "The first law of Ijou is, 'Harm not the Innocents'," Cal told the Manticore, looking at the ground as if it held all the answers. "Whatever else you have done, you will be judged on this first, and the punishment is more severe the more lives you have claimed. I only took twelve lives and failed my son," she said, finally looking at him. "What did you do?"

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani could only grit his teeth as Ket responded. He had known upon speaking that his words would hold no more meaning than an insect in the eyes of a lion. Mani snarled slightly, fully understanding that, in this game at least, he was the insect. Mani found himself almost wishing Ket had entered his home and he could bestow his own judgement on the false god. He looked over at Cal, who still seemed intent on avoiding eye contact and trying to do some noble fucking deed.

When Cal mentioned it being gentler and simpler to take his punishment, he considered her chances. He was fairly positive she would not survive anything having to do with the cleansing of his soul. For many years, the Manticore had considered that he lost his, something he didn’t wish to test this very second. For someone who lived lavishly and basked in the bodies of those he had slaughtered, he could not bring himself to speak the words to bring his demons on Cal. He told himself it was his pride. “Remove the girl,” he said gruffly, looking over at Aara, still frozen in place. “Send her back,” he half-snarled, knowing he was in absolutely no position to make demands. He would figure out a way to send her back himself if he had to, but by sheer politeness, he made the request of Ket.

He asked this, because the moment the first law was spoken, Mani could do nothing but sneer. No matter how he stretched his profession, there was nothing remotely noble or “good” about it. Not all of the beings he had killed had been ‘innocent’, but nor had he ever cared either way. They had been specimens to him. At her mention of killing 12 “innocents”, he could do nothing but balk. That was all, was it? Perhaps he had built up her blood-thirsty image a little too much in his mind… or perhaps he had simply been alive much, much longer. Immortality was like that. He refused to answer her question, looking over at Aara and than back at Ket.

----- ----- -----

X

Ketsueki watched blandly while Caliginous made her attempts to soften the blows and to appease the Manticore's thirst for knowledge. He didn't interfere with it. As little as Cal's life should have meant in the grand scheme of things, the god of Justice had come to think of her as... his. One of his precious creatures. If he had any interest at all in females, he would have planned to claim her for himself. As it was, he could do little but spread himself thin and do everything in his power to protect her. He would tear the stars down for her if necessary. He wondered whether this Manticore would do the same, and doubted it.

The demands to send Aara away amused Ket. He tilted his head, regarding the Manticore increduously. "No. I don't think so," he said cooly, "Only she can decide if she wants to leave. I will not deny her that right." Ket looked to the girl, his long ears perked and his arms folded. "This will not be pleasant to see, but that is the way of trials."

Caliginous listened, watching the Manticore. She knew why he wanted Aara away now. The extent of his crimes were murky to her, but she had always sensed something wrong. Always closed her eyes and pretended nothing outside of certain areas of the mansion existed. It hadn't been her business there. Here, in her world, there was no help for it. The bodies would be lined up, and Ketsueki would make him pay for each of them. Cal wondered if she really wanted to know how deep the darkness went.

"My lord," Cal said suddenly, "If he will not take my help, then I am of no use here. If Aara consents, please allow us to go down to the village." She looked at Aara pointedly, hoping she would see the sense. "We can do nothing but distract and make things worse." In a way, she was abandoning the Manticore to his fate, but if he should survive it, then at least his secrets would remain in tact. They would be able to look him in the eye without flinching.

Ketsueki tilted his head in acknowledgement. "If that is your wish. Keep yourself available."

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara looked fearfully from Mani to Cal as she made her suggestion, her eyes filling with tears once more. She didn’t understand what this being was, nor could she think of anything useful to do. She knew nothing about soul-cleansing or cleansing magicks in general, and she was kicking herself for it. But Mani wanted her to leave… and she didn’t wish they should leave him… so that left the only option of… “All right,” she said very softly. She moved toward Cal as though her legs were moving of their own accord. She paused by Mani’s side, though, turning her head to look up at him. When he refused to meet her tear-filled gaze, she moved over, standing on tippy toes and tried to kiss his cheek. Being her height, she of course failed miserably, managing to kiss his chest, than scurried to Cal’s side. She shot a last look at Ket, than did not look back.

Mani held very still as Aara tried to give him a kiss, trying his best not to grimace or make any expression at all. He looked over at Cal, his face devoid of emotion, though a spark of something inexplicable lingered behind his eyes. He found it strangely ironic that he was so accepting of his fate, but, in the sickest part of his mind, it was long overdue. His father had been taken down easily and he had lived thousands of years longer, untouched, doing as he pleased. He held no regrets so he would not cower from his life. Pain was a figment of the mind and he was stronger than that. He would live through this, of that he was entirely certain, but the caliber of his life might be something… different… Mani realized his thoughts no longer had any form to them and so he turned his full attention to Ket, sneering at the god with his last breath. “And what would you have me do, than, to suffice your idea of justice?”

----- ----- -----

X

Caliginous did not look at the Manticore or Ketsueki at all. She kept all of her attention on Aara. She had made her attempt to cut the Manticore free, and he had refused. Now, all she could do was gently shoo the girl along the path down to the village. She offered no empty words of comfort. There was no sense in that. Instead, she would see to it that they found a place to hole up and wait, and perhaps find some comfort food.

Ketsueki waited until the females were well away, watching the Manticore in silence. He did not deign to respond to the comment, content to let things hang as they were. The Sightless milled around, unseen by mortal eyes, crying for his blood even as the confusion from Aara and Cal's devotion wore off. Ket ignored them. They were the bloodthirsty voice of the High Creator, and Ket had long ago come to follow his own moral compass. The justice that the Manticore received would be entirely his own.

"I am certain we both know the extent of your sins," Ketsueki said quietly. "The question is, what shall the punishment be? How far are you willing to go?" It was not of death he spoke of, and he knew the Manticore was expecting otherwise. To say so openly would give the Sightless something to report to the High Creator. Better to tread lightly and put off the inevitable confrontation. Things were much more complicated than he cared to say. It had been his dearest hope to never find this creature in Ijou, but for far more complex reasons than Cal's.

----- ----- -----

Maia

When they were far enough away, Aara looked up to Cal with a no-nonesense face. “Is he going to kill him?” She didn’t specify, but she stopped walking and it was clear she didn’t intend to put any more distance between them and the Professor. “What does that being want from him? What is he?”

The Manticore found himself bored with this game. As someone who regularly tormented creatures, he wasn’t
going to fall into a pit of fear as they did. He was playing this game until he could either find a way to escape Ijou, or until Ket decided their game of cat and mouse was over. Mani was not going to amuse him with ideas for his own demise, nor was he going to take them lightly. He was bested, for now, but whatever Ket had devised for him would not change who he was, and Mani was confident in his abilities – not simply the magical ones. He would learn more about this Ket – as he should’ve done long ago. He would learn more, and he would give back to Cal’s “god” times three what he received. He narrowed his eyes, sealing the promise deep within himself. “IIndeed,” was all he graced Ket with. “If we’re to keep up this bullshit, you would do well to explain yourself.” His voice lowered, though Aara was far from them now, it was more from habit. “I am not some petty mortal as you keep claiming me to be, and just because I am out of my element, does not mean you will be met with no resistance.” He regarded Ket warily, the partial snarl a permanent part of his face.

Red Invades

2009-09-08T03:38:16Z

RP
Who?: Maia (Mani / Aara) + X (Red / Cal)
Where?: MSN

----- ----- -----

X

Red: -nicks some of the brains and makes fancy brain buns out of them because baking is always the answer-

----- ----- -----

Maia
... /tries them. "IT'S SO SIMPLE AND DELICIOUS." /makes breinz part of staple diet!

----- ----- -----

X
X: -throws another apple, except it goes flying towards Mani's head-
Red: -watches it sail through the air- ....

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani: >_> /grabs it before it beans him in the face and crushes it, than continues drinking tea!

----- ----- -----

X

Red: . . . -stares at crushed apple-
Red: -flings a chunk of his shadow, shaped like a throwing blade, at the tea set, and thereby avenges the apple with the teaset's destruction!-

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani: "..... ....." /finishes his cup, sets it down gently on the table next to him, stands, and turns slowly....
TO THE DEATH!

----- ----- -----

X

Red: -folds his arms, not aware that there's any danger to be had because Mani looks like a puss to him-

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani: -recalls Red from walks with Cal and merely glares- "You owe me a new tea set."

----- ----- -----

X

Red: No. I am not thinking so. -glances away dismissively-

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani: /smirks. "You will be replacing it, as is proper and expected, or you will be replacing it with your life."

----- ----- -----

X

Red: -doesn't even deign to respond, apparently not at all interested in Mani's threats-

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani: "..." /shoo's Red out of his house!

----- ----- -----

X

Red: Are you to being fussing old lady? -squints at Mani and is not shooed-

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani: /considers and than breaks into a smile. "Am I to assume, perhaps, that you are entering unwelcome into my home, breaking my things and refusing to leave?"

----- ----- -----

X

Red: -eyes Mani sideways, wondering what he's smiling about- Is being open house. Like tourist trappings, just so.
haha.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani: /forgot to inquire how long these 'open houses' last from Aara and supposes they must be a "weekend" thing. "Alas, where are my manners than. I'm afraid you've wandered well away from the tour. My personal study is not within the limits of the 'open house'... Allow me to show you out."

----- ----- -----

X

Red: -is not in the study, sorry! HE BAKED BRAIN BUNS, REMEMBER? so he just sort of blinks at Mani like he's crazy and disappears into the shadows to find Aara-
Red: -slinks out of the shadows behind Aara, peering around at whatever she's doing and making not a sound-

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara: -has escaped and is actually outside in the woods, unlike him - HAHA!-
Aara: -has a little picnic lunch setup on a pretty little blanket-

----- ----- -----

X

Red: -clinks his tail blades together and moves out from behind Aara, eyeing her picnic with mild curiosity but not saying anything yet-

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara: -jumps slightly and turns- "Oh, hello, are you... wait... Red... ...?"

----- ----- -----

X

Red: Hn. Is being caringless, not paying attention to surroundings, yea?

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara: -flushes- "Um... I guess... It's just so prettily pretty outside... It's been raining so much, I just thought it would be nice to have a picnic..." ^^;;;;; /offers him a sandwich. "Mmmm... sandwich?" ^^;
Aara: -dances around the subject - yey! :D-

----- ----- -----

X

Red: -squints at her, and then at their surroundings. not seeing the pretty, he shrugs and takes the sandwich, careful that their fingers don't touch- Hn. Is a maybe. -pries the sandwich open and peers at its contents- Your school is being... hmmm, maybe filling with the crazies.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara: -giggles a little- "Yea, that was my idea, really... Professor Mani gets new students individually... I figured it would be simpler to just invite a lot of Dragonly Dragons at once, but I'm not certain if he likes it." /she looks behind her. "He's been up in his study for a while now..." -She watches him examine the sandwich- "Ham, cheese and some veggies. Oh! I have fruit, too!" /shows him
a little basket with some oranges, apples, grapes, etc.

----- ----- -----

X

Red: Hn. -lets the sandwich fall shut, not totally offended by it, but doesn't take a bite of it yet, watching Aara speak- Is thinking... maybe is professor that's being the crazy. -grins in an unfriendly way, but this doesn't last as she presents the fruit and he snags an apple so fast it's almost impossible to see him move at all- Many thankings. -hunkers down to eat-

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara smiles, used to others disliking Mani. "I would thinkly think one would have to be, maybe just a little, to run a school like that alone for so many years..." She blinks, only noticing there's a piece of fruit missing until he sits down to eat. She smiles more. "So what brings you so farly far out? And how's... um... Riley? And... uh... Eze... Is he still with you as well..?" She finds her memories shaky.

----- ----- -----

X

Red's ears twitch. He's never understood the appeal of teaching others, although he's had a hand in training Eze and is sort of working with Riley. He wrinkles his nose, peeling the crusts off of his sandwich. "Just so," he mutters, shrugging, "Am visiting, maybe. Also, is looking for someone... Having grudge settlings." He looks at Aara almost pointedly, flicking his crusts to the side. "She is being here, yea, maybe you is knowing." The questions about Eze and Riley are left unanswered. He doesn't want to talk about them, not here, in a place where he can sense something dark and sinister around them. Not that it really worries him, but it's almost like dirtying their names, in a way.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara tilts her head as he mentions having a grudge and purses her lips. She has a sinking feeling she knows who he means, having the vaguest of memorances of meeting Mani while walking with Red. "Oh? What's her name?"

----- ----- -----

X

Red tilts his head forward, remembering what he had been told. Her old name was not to be given out, whatever he felt towards her. "...No names. Is not mine name to being giving. Not knowing what is calling now. Mmm, is Shelbian lady with the demon sitting in her shadow."

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara forgot the weight everyone placed on names. She was certain her mother would be quite terrified knowing she hadn't guarded her own as well as she should've. She was almost entirely certain Red was referring to Lady Cal, but Aara felt reserved. If she remembered things she had overheard, Cal was not fond of Red. She also tended to use the Academy as a safehaven of sorts and Aara wouldn't have any part in removing that. She would be quite distressed if Lady Cal stopped coming around, little as she saw her now with school. "Mmmm, maybe," she said offhandedly, terrible with outright lies. "A demon in her shadow, you say? Can't you find her that way, than, since you doly do the same thing? Go into the Shadow Realm and see who it's following around...?" She took a few bites of her own sandwich.

----- ----- -----

X

The demon stared long and hard at Aara, his ears curled back. Someone like the woman he was looking for would not go unnoticed in a school. He had an inkling that Aara knew exactly who he was looking for and where to find her. "Is important," he pointed out, "Her demon, she is hiding well. Is like ghost, yea? Mine mortal eyes are not seeing, and... mmh, how to saying..." His words trailed as he looked for a way to explain. "Saying that mine soul are leaving mine body in searching, yea? Is so big, maybe being dangerous for others. Maybe swallowing her demon and not... realizing. Yea." Red nods, satisfied with his explanation, and devours his sandwich quickly before adding, "Is not here for warring and squabbling, only the talking."

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara finds herself absolutely torn. On one hand, she doesn't enjoy not helping someone in need - a trait from her father - and on the other hand, something just doesn't click inside her with the two of them together. Still, she takes his promise to heart that he only wants to talk. The question becomes... how to let Lady Cal know without tipping him off. She figures she might be hiding up in the Professor's bathroom, as the tub in there is large. She takes her time, taking small bites from her sandwich. "Mmmm.. Dangerous for others...?" She wonders how. "Dangerous she's around or her demon's around... or... dangerous for you to search?" She plucks a handful of grapes and begins eating them individually.

----- ----- -----

X

Red dusts his hands off on his pants, and then flicks at the crumbs until he's suitably satisfied he's rid himself of most of them. It's already apparent that Aara is going to dodge around on the subject and be as unhelpful as possible. He stands, half-eaten apple in hand, and regards her with something like disappointment. She could make his life much easier, and he could be done with it and away from this place, but something is keeping her from cooperating. "Is saying, unchaining mine soul is being dangerous," he explained, one ear flicking. "Hn. If you are not to being helpful, I am going." He took a loud, crunching bite out of the apple as he turned away and began heading back to the school. He could sense traces of Shira's magic around, but it was all muddled up, and hard to pick up besides because of whatever was wrong with the school in the first place.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Aara nods at the explanation. It makes sense to her. When he stands and sets about with the idea of searching himself, she's instantly on her feet. "Um... wait...!" She abandons her picnic lunch, sighing inwardly that she won't be able to finish it, but catches up with him, holding her hand out as though to touch him, though she doesn't. "Um... The Professor might get upset... Let me go look...first, ok?" She's flushed a deep red, upset with herself for disappointing him, but still not wanting to put Cal in any kind of harm. "Just... here..." She points to where he's standing, holding her hands palms forward, than turns and dashes toward the school. Once inside, Aara winds around staircases, up hallways and down others until she gets to Mani's study. She peeks in to find him absent and leans against his bedroom door. She can't hear anything within, so she raps lightly on it. "Lady Cal... are you in therely there...?"

----- ----- -----

X

Red watches Aara try and leave him behind, but does not remain where she wants him to. As soon as she isn't watching, he disappears into the shadows and chases after hers, catching a ride in it once he catches up. She didn't want to help him, so he wasn't going to play by her rules. He gets as far as the study door before he finds himself quite abruptly thrown out into the Shadow Realm. He glares up at the ceiling, long ears curled back, and sees Cal's magical signature all over the wards that had done it. It might keep him out for a little while, but now he knows her specific hidey hole. He backs away from them and pulls himself up into the hallway, squinting at the door.

Meanwhile, Cal sits up from the tub, hearing Aara's voice. "I'm here," she calls in answer, "I'll be--" and then she cuts off, feeling the flare of her wards. She hadn't been paying attention and had been daydreaming and soaking in salt water as she usually does, else she would have noticed Red's presence long before he hit the wards. It's too late to do anything about it. Her ward won't hold up long, not against a creature like him. She gets out of the tub, towels, and dresses quickly. She pushes the bedroom door open, and looks around. The Manticore is not there. It's only Aara. Cal looks to the study door as the ward flares again. "The Manticore is going to be quite cross with me," Cal says, with a great deal more calmness than she actually feels.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani had finally managed to round up the rest of the open house members when he feels the magic pulsating from up near his study. Not having much hand in it himself, he nods to his servants, and escapes a back way up to his study. He emerges, looking around. Nothing seems out of place, but than he feels the pulse once more and his face curls into a snarl. He opens the bedroom door, taking in Cal, than Aara's face. "Come inside and close the door," he says simply, his hand already on the door to the study.

Aara scurries in, shutting the door as a blue-green light emits from under the Manticore's hand. It climbs the walls and spreads throughout the room, covering it in glowing symbols and shapes unlike anything Aara is familiar with. Mani would be loathe to be held captive by anything in his own home and so he rounds on Aara. "What exactly, is it?" He voice remains calm, though it lowers.

Aara is somewhere near tears already, hating that she feels like she has to choose sides. As she seems incapable of a prompt answer, Mani turns to Cal. "What is it? Can we remove it? I can shift the bindings on my home if we get it outside the front gate." In Mani's mind, he's already choosing a more suitable location. This place within the Clan lands is too obvious as it was, and he was due for a move. Perhaps holding them in limbo for some time would be the best chance...

As Mani plots, Aara finds her voice. "It's a he, and his name is Red," she says softly. "And he says he only wants to talk to Cal." She looks sadly up at Cal, pain and apologies written all across her face.

----- ----- -----

X

The wards don't so much as dissipate in a neat little untying like a sophisticated magi might have done, no, they shatter from the sheer force of Red's aura pulsing outwards. The remnants of energy from the ward washes over her. Cal flinches at it, as if slapped. She backs away from the Manticore and Aara to perch on the end of the bed, listening to them talk even as her mind races. It's Red Wing, and she knows it even before Aara says anything. Hearing her say it only confirms it, although she's curious why Aara would say the demon only wanted to talk. "To talk? Truly?" she sounds disbelieving and incredulous, and she shakes her head slightly, clearly not buying it. "I'm not certain he will be so easily removed. This is..." She trails off, and looks at the Manticore, as if searching for some answer she knows she won't find. "My apologies, it seems my troubles have followed me again."

Red Wing strides into the study and looks around. He notices the new wards immediately, and approaches them slowly, not sensing any of Shira's hand in it. His eyes narrow, but he makes no immediate move to try the wards. Shira's made sense to him. These new ones are foreign, and he's not one to blunder through blindly. It could be a trap, for all he knows. His tail twitches, blades clinking together, as he ponders. They are eager to protect her, and he's not sure he understands why. He did say he came to talk. Aara must have given them different ideas. Or perhaps he should have knocked instead of breaking in. "Ding-dong," he says loudly enough for them to hear through the door. He's not about to knock now, not with those strange wards.

Cal stares at the bedroom door. Jin stirs in her shadow, and she fights to keep the demon hidden. She glances over at the Manticore in deferrence, waiting for him to decide what to do.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Mani reaches a hand out as Cal moves painfully back to the bed, but she seems all right, so he refrains, watching the markings pulsate around the room. Aara moves over beside the bed, her face still distraught. It doesn’t make any sense in her mind. He said he wanted to talk, so what was the meaning of all of this…? Mani takes a moment to close his eyes, focusing on the auras within his castle and narrowing them down to Red, lurking on the other side of the door. With his eyes still closed he asks Cal, ÒWhat're the chances he actually wants to talk?Ó His words are replied by the mock doorbell noise and his eyes open, looking over to Cal to find her looking straight back. He doesn't appreciate the way she refers to Red as 'her troubles'. He turns to face the door, and a flash runs across it, removing the sound block from their room. “Speak,” The Manticore spat. “That’s what you’re here for, right?”

----- ----- -----

X

Red tilts his head to the left at the Manticore's voice, remembering him from earlier that day. He knows Aara's probably in there, and he also knows for certain that Shira is in there. Two too many ears listening to the things he was sent to talk about. "Is for the lady's ears alone, just so," he says aloud, looking up and down the door as if to find some crack in the wards.

Cal speaks quickly, "Anything you have to say can be said in front of the Manticore," and she pauses, glancing over at Aara, considering. It's not a particularly friendly look. No, it's the sort of look she gives when considering her next move. The sort of look one might give a lowly pawn before sacrificing it. "...and Aara," she finally adds, deeming the threat to be minimal. Her expression shifts back to neutral, hiding that calculating side again.

The demon doesn't like the answer he gets, not one bit. He paces, tattoos boiling on his skin. "K'suit," he snarls, and his aura pulses outwards, causing a minor quake that shakes the entire room and rattles breakables. He had been given very specific orders, and he hates the deity that gave them more than anything. He hates that he has to leave Riley with Eze and has to leave Ijou to go chasing after a woman he doesn't like. He hates being forced to talk to her through the door. So, his temper snaps out whiplike, and his aura slams against the wards even as he roars, "Shiramine T'llhori! Is coming out NOW!"

The result is instantaneous. Cal's eyes widen, and her tentacles flare out behind her, pulsing more brightly than they ever had before. She staggers to her feet and begins moving towards the door as if dragged. Her hand shoots out and she curls her fingers into the Manticore's sleeve, as if that will stop the pull. "Stop me," she breathes, and there is real fear in her eyes.

----- ----- -----

Maia

Terror grips hold of Aara for a brief moment as Cal turns to look at her in a way unlike she has been looked at before. The Manticore had looked at her like that before, but she had never been so aware of it as she was in the small glowing room she wasn’t allowed in. She allows herself a shudder before Cal looks away and Aara begins convincing herself she hadn’t seen it at all.

Mani, on the other hand, is caught somewhere between his anger and curiosity. He watches Cal’s face, seeming to approve of her decision. While it is highly unfortunate Aara is along, he would not have left her outside of the room. His head jerks to the door as Red paces and than calls out to Cal, though the name he uses is part of the one he uses when upset. There is much more attached to this name and he feels the rush of it even before he hears Aara’s scream.

Once more, Mani’s head jerks to the side, his eyes growing large as he watches the state of Cal and an unbidden snarl rips from deep within his throat as she moves toward the door. At the same moment, though, Red’s aura crashes against his barrier. Mani feels pieces of it tear. He moves his hand up to the door to reassemble them when the second wave hits, shattering the patterns specifically along the door. Mani growls more for loosening them to allow the pointless speech. “I must say, mongrel,” Mani begins, hiding the strain. However, he’s unable to finish his sentence as his home begins shaking – deep tremors like those of an earthquake. Mani grabs hold of Cal and forceably throws her back against the bed, placing both hands against the do door, though he seems too late.

From outside of the room, the space around it seems to pull into itself and with a sharp pop, the room abruptly vanishes – entirely removed from the house.

Those inside it without even an aura trace.

WARRIOR 4-3

2009-08-30T16:45:39Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG
Characters: Arak, Tsuide, Caelestis, Esolie D'lea
Notes: Between reporters and parsley...

They sit on the front porch and watch the afternoon pass them by. Tsuide had been in one of his brooding moods and had not spoken much at all for the last few days. He was clicking and clacking away on his computer, supposedly working on some manuscript or another. Arak and Cael sat on the floor with a checkers board unfolded between them. She was the one that kept things bearable at all. If she noticed Tsuide's bad attitude, she seemed not to give any sign, and continued to be polite and friendly as usual.

"School's starting soon." Cael said, breaking the silence and moving one of her kings to take out three of Arak's pieces. "Will you and Smiley be okay?"

"We always are," Tsuide muttered. He did not even look up from his laptop.

"Alright."

Arak sighed at the checkers board. He was losing, badly. It was as if she could read his mind and knew what he was going to do even before he did. Just like everything else, really. She remained friendly, but since she had showed up, he had been unable to complete his job to his standards. Tsuide had become colder and less communicative, and she was always in Arak's way, barring him from prying. There had been no terse arguments or anything of the sort. Only her showing up just when Arak was about to ask after Tsuide's health and providing some distraction or another. They were only playing checkers because of that.

"I give," Arak said, leaning back on his hands.

Caelesis pouted. "Okay. Do you want to play a different game?"

"No, thanks."

She nodded, sweeping the pieces up into their draw sack and folding the board. "Alright. I'm going to put this away. Do either of you need anything?"

"No," they both answered simultaneously.

Cael looked between the pair of them thoughtfully, but only nodded, picked her things up, and went inside. Arak watched her go, ears pushed forward as he listened to her fading footfalls. He wanted to be sure she was really gone before he cornered Tsuide. He had to make sure everything really was all right. It was his job. If Tsuide were hiding negative symptoms and pretending nothing was wrong, it could prove to be far more disastrous than he cared to contemplate.

"So, Tsuide," he started, prepared to be casual about it and back off if Tsuide seemed like he wanted to fight.

"Hush," Tsuide said suddenly, snapping his laptop shut. He was looking past Arak, towards the front gate, his long ears curled back. The expression on his face was something less than friendly.

Arak turned his head to see what had sparked such a reaction. There was a female Genus in very official looking business clothes pushing her way through the gate. She stopped, waved, and then made her way up the walkway. Tsuide set his laptop aside and stood, heading down the porch steps to meet her.

"Hello," she said, holding out her free hand. In the other, she had a small briefcase. "My name is Eoslie D'lea. I'm with the Southline Inquirer."

"Hn," Tsuide did not accept her hand or even return her greeting. His tone was cold as he asked, "What do you want?"

"There have been rumors of a miraculous cure to undeath, and I'm investigating them," she answered smoothly, apparently not at all put out by his attitude. She gave him a once over, and added, "It looks like they might be true. I understand you were registered as an undead citizen, but I don't see any signs..."

"Do you enjoy prying?" Tsuide growled. "Get lost."

"Now, now, I only want to ask a few questions..."

Arak was the first to see the dark purple and black flames that sparked into life at the base of Tsuide's tail and blazed their way up among the spines to the base of it. He scooted off the porch quickly and grabbed Tsuide by the arm. "Chill, dude," he said with a winning smile, careful not to get too close to the flames. He had no idea what their property was, but fire was fire, and he was not going to stick his hand in it. "Listen, miss, now's not the best time..."

"What do you mean?" she asked, eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

While Tsuide had realized the flames were there and pulled away to beat at them, a slight look of panic in his eyes, Arak turned his winning smile towards the reporter. "I'm Arak, and I'm the guy that'll be callin' the cops if ya don't get outta here right now."

Eoslie D'lea looked between the two of them, saw that she had lost, and left in a hurry. Arak watched to make sure she got the gate properly latched behind her, and then turned... to find that Tsuide was stomping back into the house. He sighed aloud, aggravated that things always seemed to get between him and his job. Dragging a hand through his hair, he went to the porch and picked up Tsuide's laptop, then went into the house to find out where the man had gone. He checked the kitchen first, though he suspected that Tsuide would have gone to his room.

Cael was in the kitchen, making tea. She glanced up when Arak stood in the doorway, and pointed in the direction of Tsuide's bedroom. It seemed that she was finally willing to cooperate and let him see to Tsuide. Arak nodded silent thanks, and backed up, going through the door to his left. Tsuide was not in his room. Instead, he was in the bathroom almost directly across from the door Arak had entered from. He was leaning against the sink, holding his tail up in one hand, and inspecting it, probably for burns.

"Hey," Arak said, leaning in the bathroom's doorway. He held the laptop up. "Ya left this."

Tsuide glanced at him, pursed his lips, and then nodded. He dropped his tail and held his hand out. "Thanks."

"Sure thing," Arak answered, handing the laptop over. He eyed Tsuide's tail, and then raised his gaze with a shrug. "Didn't burn ya."

"No." Tsuide stepped towards the door, and Arak backed out of the way to let him through. He passed Arak without a glance and turned towards his bedroom. It did not seem like he was going to say anything else, but he hesitated, turning his nose downwards. "What was it?"

"Seems like yer soul's adaptin' nicely. You're gettin' magic back."

"Hn." He went to his study instead of his bedroom, and went straight to the desk. Having not been told to go away, Arak followed him. Tsuide set the laptop on the desk. "I did not call it."

"Happens."

"So you mean to tell me," Tsuide grated out, turning towards him, "That I traded the inability to control myself in death for unpredictable magic?"

"No," Arak shrugged. "How long have ya been alive?"

"Too long." He seemed to consider for a moment, then added, "I would hazard over two million years."

"That's a long time to go without magic, dude. Ya gotta relearn how to use it, probably. S'a good thing it showed at all. Means your soul at least is healthy. But as for your body..." He stepped forward, and tilted his head. "You and Cael've been puttin' me off. Why?"

Tsuide snorted and looked away. "There's nothing wrong. There's no reason for you to..."

"Yes there is," Arak interrupted, "It's my JOB! Joumae's gonna KILL me if I slack off."

The look Tsuide gave Arak was one of such coldness that, for a moment, Arak wondered if he had gone too far. He did not look away, though. He had faced down worse things. Tsuide was the one to break the gaze, with a soft snort.

"Fine," he said, relenting.

Arak grinned, relieved. He moved over to Tsuide and took his wrist, checking his vital signs first. "So, anything happen I should know about?"

"I might be allergic to parsley," Tsuide muttered, not resisting but not offering himself up freely either. Arak had to physically tug and shove to get him to do anything, even if it was only lifting his arm or turning.

"Parsley? Man, that sucks. S'from the alfredo Cael made the other night, right?" He pressed his fingers to Tsuide's side, checking to make sure the ribs did not stick out. "You went and hid after that, and she wouldn't let me check on you... Symptoms?"

Tsuide's eyes narrowed at the touch. He really did not appreciate being handled like this, though he knew Arak was only checking on him. He seemed to relax just a little when Arak's hands fell to his sides and he backed off a step. "Runny nose, trouble breathing, vomiting, stomach pain. I'm not entirely certain it was the parsley, but it seems to be the most likely source."

"Okay. Any trouble breathin'? Sleepin'? All that other good stuff?"

"No."

"Fine. Okay, let's avoid the parsley, creepy reporters, and maybe start workin' on the magic thing. I'm gonna get outta yer hair now." Arak grinned a little, nodded, and then left. He could have done a more in depth check up than that, but so soon after what had clearly been a stressful encounter did not seem particularly wise. He hummed a little and poked his head into the kitchen to see what Cael was up to.

stories -- tsuide (old)

2009-08-30T08:07:11Z

Forgetting

When he opened his eyes the next morning, Tsuide realized two things.

First, he could finally be happy again. Smiley was, or would be very soon, quite all right. Whatever fit of madness had possessed him had passed, and he would soon recover and go back to being his usual cheerful self. Their lives could be a semblence of normal again.

Second, he felt absolutely no attraction to Felorius. For the duration of the night, Tsuide had tried to humor the ghosts of his memory telling him he should feel something for the other, but he realized... He didn't. He could not possibly imagine himself involved with him in any way. He was not a chubby chaser, nor was he into morons. Tsuide had not been able to see anything about Fel that had once appealed to him. Had their great romance been some great obsessive puppy love on his part? He couldn't remember.

Out of courtesy, Tsuide would not simply throw Fel out on his ear. He owed the furry dragon more than that. It had been he who pulled Smiley out of his darkness, and so it would distress Smiley too much if Fel suddenly left again. Whatever lay between them, Tsuide had to keep Smiley happy. Theirs would be a distant acquaintanceship, very much unlike his relations with Tsugi or Outburst. He simply saw no reason to be anything more than polite. Fel knew too much about his past to be allowed any closer. Perhaps Felorius would lose interest in time and simply stop coming around. Smiley would, hopefully, forget about him.

By the time he had worked out his plan of action, Tsuide was already up and beginning clean up. By the time Felorius and the others woke, he had his study straightened and his will strengthened. By the time they'd eaten breakfast, he'd made it clear he meant to have Smiley and Felorius working outside, while he and Outburst saw to the interior.

It was the first day of his plan to forget about Felorius completely.

----- x -----

Smiley

He wasn't surprised when Smiley saw through it.

He wasn't surprised when Smiley questioned him.

He wasn't surprised when Smiley called him names.

He wasn't surprised when Smiley begged for forgiveness.

He was surprised when Smiley decided to go along with it.

He was surprised that he deserved Smiley's complete devotion.

100 prompts -- 101/100

2009-08-14T22:33:18Z

96. In the Storm

Delays stood before his father's throne, and could not believe that Ijou was finally over. No, he told himself, his father's Ijou was over. It was going to be Outburst's, soon. He would see to that. It made him a little sad, though, thinking about how their father was dead. He tilted his head forward, looking at the white tile floor thoughtfully.

On second thought, it was not so much the death of his father that was making him sad. The fact that it was so final was. Out of the Thirteen, only four remained alive. They had died, one by one, and their father had done nothing to help any of them. Delays knew this because he had killed three of them himself, Memory had killed most of the others, and Outburst had killed their eldest brother. They were still alive. Only No Lies had made it without partaking in the kinslaying.

He was lost in his thoughts and did not immediately notice when the door swung open behind him, admitting Distant Memory. Memory crept through the room, making as little sound as possible. His eyes were narrowed and a cruel grin was on his face. He had every intention of taking Delays out while he was alone and unprepared. He raised himself up behind his younger brother, extending his claws, and readied himself to lunge.

There was a sudden crackling of energy as a portal ripped open. Memory recoiled with a hiss. Delays whirled around, eyes widening. A massive teal creature pushed itself through the portal and landed with a thud between the brothers. It twisted its neck around at an impossible angle to peer at Delays, revealing a bright yellow smiling face mask. "Hello!"

"Er," Delays managed, raising one hand in an awkward half wave. He looked past the creature at Memory. "So you're here... I didn't hear you come in."

"Of course not," Memory rumbled, looking slightly put upon. He had missed his chance for an easy kill, and was not at all sure what to make of the thing standing between him and his target. "I'm the eldest. I've come to claim my throne."

"Like stars you will!" Delays objected.

The beast between them growled and turned its face towards Memory. It braced itself as if to pounce, and the spikes jutting from its back and limbs elognated. "Saving... orange!" it announced.

"How cute, it's a puppy. Shall I kill it for you?" Memory asked, chuckling. He had to dodge to the side when the beast lunged at him. The thing had a lot of spikes, and he had little intention of getting torn up by something so silly looking. He lashed out with one of his own claws, catching the thing along the ribs even as he looked over at Delays. "I'd rather kill you, to be honest..." The beast slumped beside him, wheezing, and apparently defeated.

"I'm not letting you take the throne," Delays declared, summoning up his soul weapons. The axes spun briefly in the air before he caught them and smashed them together. Sparks of magic flew out, forming his wings behind him. "This world's going to be Outburst's!"

"Hahaha, that's rich! Come, then, little brother, let's see if you're strong enough to back up such brave words!"

Delays charged to meet his older brother. He wondered if Outburst had kept his promise and kept the hourglass safe. He did not know if he would ever be able to finish his world now, but he did know that he was going to keep his end of the bargain.

------

At the Waygate, Outburst appeared, feeling a little dazed. He had left his physical body in Tsuide's care and had separated his soul to re-enter Jiou the mortal way to conserve his strength. Even so, it had been a taxing journey. The crowds of the dead bustled around him, pushing past him to the gateways. Some were going to Judgement, others directly to Limbo, and more straight into Jiou. He allowed the crowd to usher him along.

"Outburst," Itai called out from near the gateway to Jiou. He sounded extremely tired/ His movements were slow and a little wavering, as if he were seriously in need of a good night's sleep.

"Itai!" Outburst hurried over to his friend and threw his free arm around his waist. He was carrying Delays's hourglass under one arm, safely tucked away in a lock box, and did not want to set it down anywhere, not even for a moment. "I've missed you!"

The god of winter chuckled softly and ruffled Outburst's hair. "And I you. Come, I was told I was not allowed to come fetch you, but damn them anyhow. Time is of the essence." He pulled away and motioned for Outburst to follow, leading him through the gateway and to a softly glowing portal that was waiting for them. "Delays is already at the throne." He pushed Outburst through the portal, and then followed, shutting it behind him. They were at the Creator's palace, the place of Outburst's childhood. Itai did not waste a moment, and lead the way down the long hallway towards the throne.

"Why weren't you supposed to get me?" Outburst asked, hurrying after his friend.

"I was given the order to spread the warning. Snow as far as the eye can see."

"Oh..." He glanced out the tall windows to their right. Jiou's weather was the same as always. The sky was orange, the suns were out, and the temperature resembled spring. There was probably a gentle breeze out there, too. "Not here?" He would've liked to see real snow in Jiou. The only time there had ever been snow was when he asked Itai to make it for him.

"No," Itai admitted, "I don't think the dead care that the end of the world is nigh."

"Oh dear," Outburst chuckled softly. "Well, I guess that's--"

The palace shook, walls rumbling from the force of it. Outburst stumbled against Itai and caught himself by grabbing onto his friend's arm. They glanced at each other once before Outburst shoved himself upright and took off down the hall. He had recognized both of the energy signatures that had caused that magical explosion. There were two more before he reached his father's room, and the second almost made him lose his feet. He caught the doorhandle just in time to save himself from faceplanting, and then yanked the door open.

Inside, Delays and Memory were fighting. They were moving so fast that Outburst almost could not tell who was who. There was a large teal lump in the middle of the floor with purplish blood pooling around it. He felt like it was vaguely familiar, but he could not recall. He flinched as another explosion shook the room, and waves of energy washed over him. Behind him, Itai had caught up, and could only stare in awe at the sheer power.

"Here, take this," Outburst said quickly, shoving the lock box into Itai's arms. "Don't let anything happen to it." He didn't wait for Itai to agree, and rushed into the room. "Hang on, Delays, I'm here!" He pulled his auric wings out, summoned and jumped into the fray.

"Ah, little brother," Memory taunted, even as he deflected Delays's axes, "So you've arrived..." He lashed out, using his aura to shove both of them back, and landed easily on the ground. It did not seem like he was hurt at all. The truth was, he had spent a lot of energy ensuring that, and could not last much longer. "Perhaps it is time we discussed my ascension to the throne and put aside these silly games..."

Delays slid and thumped against the throne, panting harshly. Memory had broken through his defenses several times, and he was bleeding from numerous gashes. With great effort, he shoved himself back to his feet, swaying a little. Outburst bounced off the throne easily and landed next to his brother, putting out a steadying hand. He never took his eyes off of Memory. "YOUR ascension?" he asked, sounding incredulous. "I'll never surrender this world."

"No? Why do you want such a pathetic wasteland?"

"I have friends and precious people in it. I have to protect them!"

Memory only laughed. He never saw the teal thing moving until it was too late. Outburst would never forget the look of horror on his face, or the way his eyes dialated, when the monster tore his arm off with the last of its strength. Memory screamed and lashed out, shredding it. He fell to the side as pieces of flesh went flying. The yellow smiling mask hit the floor and rolled, finally falling over at Outburst's feet.

"...D," Outburst murmured, remembering. He knelt and picked the mask up, suddenly feeling more tired and sad than he could ever recall being. When they were little, he and Delays had found D crying, lost and alone, out along the river. They had taken him home as if he were a puppy and fed him. It had been so long ago that he was surprised he remembered at all. "This... I won't let you destroy this world. There's been too many deaths. I won't let them be in vain." He looked up, watching Memory mend himself. A glance to his side revealed that Delays had done the same. They were both too tired to fight much longer, and Delays was worse off. "Let me finish this," Outburst said, touching Delays lightly on the shoulder with a small smile. "It's my fight, anyway..."

"Not on your life," Delays said, grinning viciously, "We made a promise, and I'm not going to back down now."

"How cute! You fools think you can beat me?! I'll devour you both!" Memory roared and rushed at them, his aura fluctuating wildly.

Outburst flung D's mask like a frisbee, and used the hesitation in Memory's charge to summon No Eyes. "Okay, let's finish this!" Together, he and Delays went to meet Memory, to put an end to the darkness that plagued Ijou.

----- x -----

97. Safety First

In the heat of the battle, Snow had an odd moment of reminiscing. There really was not time, but he could not help but think about it as he crept through the ventilation shafts. Kreios was not there to get impatient and try to hurry him along anyway. He thought of when they had first met as teens, and of how afraid everyone had been of Kreios back then. They had struck up an odd friendship: the Snow Princess and the Shadow Master. It made Snow smile as he wiggled through a particularly narrow bit of the vent shafts. Through the grates, he could see soldiers milling around beneath him. They were all on edge, expecting an attack at any given moment. Snow's presence went undetected.

There was a fan ahead, and he stopped to inspect it. It was not spinning very quickly. He huffed softly to himself because it reminded him of another fan that had turned lazily one hot summer afternoon when their friendship had moved past friendship. Kreios had been more than a little shocked to find that Snow was not a male at all, but a female. In Larendul, female officers were not unusual. There was no gender differentiation in anything... except the magical scientists. Females were not allowed magic at all. They were sealed away. Snow's mother had been the one to put her through the trial of passing herself off as a male. It was something Snow was forever grateful for because magic, and working with Kreios, had proven to be the best things in her life.

She traced runes along one side of the ventilation shaft, and a soft greenish glow followed her finger tips. A steak of it shot out, following the metal to the fan, and went all around the edges of it. The fan froze in place. She slipped between the blades and let the magic go before anyone below could pick up on it. Her pace was quicker, then, because she knew that someone was bound to notice the trail of magic even if she tried to hide it. Her destination was the control center, where she would take out the surveillance cameras and open the gates to let Kreios and the others in. The goal was to take over the Central Gate with as few deaths as possible.

Snow remembered how Kreios had been oddly relieved that he was not gay. His attraction had not diminished because she was, as he had said many times before, his best friend in the whole world. He swore to stay by her no matter what. They could not get married nor have children because her disguise had to remain in place as long as the laws against female magicians stayed in place. Kreios had always planned to rebel against the government, even before he had a real reason to do so. Snow had always planned to be by his side. Things being as they were only made their convictions stronger. They would destroy their corrupt government and put together a better one. Humans would no longer be the shame of Arkanin or of Ijou.

She had reached the grate above the command station. There were only two guards down there. One watched the monitors carefully, and the other faced the door with a gun in hand. Snow traced her fingers along the edge of the grate, and leaned back as the magic exploded it outwards, sending it spinning. It hit the man with the gun as she dropped down through the opening to land on the other. She did not aim to kill, and was satisfied to find that they were both knocked unconscious.

"I'm in," she said into the mouthpiece she was wearing. She did not wait for confirmation that she was heard, and bent over the consoles to shut the system down and get the gates open. When it was done, she gave the go ahead, "Safety first."

----- x -----

98. Puzzle

No Lies's mind was a puzzle. There were dark, hidden spots that not even Khaezil could see into. There were nooks and crannies and long, twisting hallways that never seemed to end. Strange facts lurked everywhere, eager to be repeated. Throughout it all, there were bright, shining memories. As destructive as he had been throughout his life, No Lies did not seem to cherish any of the killing and battles he had partaken in. He thought instead of his father and of his siblings, but most of all of Riley and the years he spent protecting the boy.

It had only been a brief span of time, no more than ten years, but it seemed to have the biggest impact on him. Bigger than the other billions and billions of years he had existed. Bigger than even his own father's cruelty and coldness. Bigger than the kindness shown to him by Dream, Delays, and Outburst. Khaezil could not understand how a selfish little brat of a boy could mean so much.

Not being able to understand it ultimately lead to her downfall.

She lead No Lies to the palace he had been born in, and to the throne room where his remaining siblings fought. The building was collapsing from the force of their fight. Deities of all kinds clustered a safe distance away, watching in awe. They would not, and could not, interfere. The Thirteen had always had more power than any of them had ever dreamed of, safely locked away in their hearts until they needed it. Khaezil ushered No Lies towards the fight, urging him to devour his siblings for Riley's sake.

Only, something had gone horribly wrong. Koritsuka was there, standing between them and the fight. Ketsueki slumped against him, barely conscious. The deity of the White peered fearlessly up at No Lies, as if he weren't some terrible monster come to devour the world. He smiled. "You're Riley's friend," he said, serene. It was like they were in some other dimension, separate from the fighting and the rumbling of the palace around them. "I never got to thank you for protecting him."

"Riley..." No Lies whispered, some of the light returning to his eye. Khaezil was losing control of him.

"No!" she shrieked, clawing at his soul. The White's light was piercing the darkness, though, freeing him. She had not become strong enough to stand against Koritsuka. No Lies's aura pulsed outwards, and she went flying, landing in a heap far from him. She tasted bile in the back of her throat. "Why..." It was not fair.

"Your brothers need you," Kori told No Lies, and moved out of the way, half carrying Ket. He glanced over at Khaezil with pity. "I'm sorry."

Khaezil spat at his pity and bowed her head to weep. Her destiny had been to defeat Koritsuka, to overwhelm the world in Darkness. He always beat her, though, and then took pity on her and tried to help her back to her feet. She hated him for that. No Lies did not look back at her at all. He dove into the fray. Their friendship, if it could be called that, mattered less to him than a speck of dust. She had never understood the way to earn his loyalty, any more than she had ever understood why Kori continued to treat her as if they could ever be on friendly terms.

It was an unsolved puzzle that would haunt her last moments. When the palace's roof gave up the ghost and collapsed, she did not bother getting out of the way of the falling debris. She died bitterly, just as she had lived.

----- x -----

99. Solitude

Memory was alone on the battlefield. He was going to lose, just as Kainashii predicted he would. Still, he had proved to be a useful distraction. In life, he had been a good toy. In death, he would become his namesake. A distant memory. The Fifth god smiled as he maneuvered his way through the crowd of deities, unnoticed. That had been his gift, to go unseen until it was too late to dislodge him. He was a parasite that had sucked the world dry and left it gasping and twisted. The High Creator had not even known of him until the dawn of the Fifth Wheel. The other deities had not known about him until just recently.

Even knowing how dangerous he was, they left their defenses down. It was foolish. No wonder Ijou had been so easy to wreck havoc on. He found his targets off to the side. Ketsueki lay against a tree, his eyes closed. Koritsuka was at his side, watching the chaos of the last of the Thirteen fighting unfold. Kainashii was able to sneak right up to them without being noticed. They were alone. The other deities would not realize what was happening behind them until it was too late.

"I've finally caught you," Kainashii hissed, arching his long neck forward. His mouth split into a terrible grin, too wide and with too many teeth. Kori recoiled in surprise, staring. He really had not noticed! It was so rich that Kainashii had to laugh. "If you know what's good for you, you'll get out of the way," he told the deity of the White. Alone, Ket would be too weak to do anything at all but die. Still, if he was any judge, he doubted Kori could put up much of a fight.

"I won't let you have him," Kori hissed, ever one to face down impossible odds for the sake of those he loved.

Kainashii laughed again because his victory was inevitable. "You're protecting the worst hypocrite. His sins put even the Red Wing's to shame. He can never redeem himself except by death." He pulled his aura out, and it was not wings at all, but masses of tentacles stretching out behind him. Everything they touched turned black with Corruption and twisted, warping and changing. Some of the deities behind them were caught in it. The crowd scattered at the shrieks, and chaos broke out. "His death is mine."

"Only," a voice said off to his left, "You forgot somethin'."

The Fifth turned his head, eyes narrowing. Khin'ser and the deity of death, Mhori, stood side to side there. "What do you want?"

"Death is not yours," Mhori said, her voice barely heard above the screaming of the other deities.

"And chaos is where I thrive," Ser put in, grinning, "Thanks for summonin' me!" He nodded to Kori. "Don't let him near." And while the fighting in the palace was dying down, Khin'ser and Mhori put their lives on the line to stomp out the source of Ijou's corruption.

----- x -----

100. Relaxation

It stopped snowing a week after it had begun. The world was covered in a blanket of white. In Juno, Rembua dug her way out from the den beneath her tree and poked her long neck up through the snow to peer around. The sun broke through the clouds, and everything shone brightly. The snow pressed against her skin, chilling her to the bone and numbing her, but all she could think of was how pretty the world looked.

Way off in the distance, she noticed a group of creatures moving through the snow. She tilted her head to the side, uncertain that she was seeing clearly. No, she was not mistaken. Rem ducked back down into her den, eyed the snow packed entrance, and then set to clearing it out. By the time the crowd made it to her home, Hershey and Rinko were both awake and romping around above ground in the snow.

Rem froze in the entrance to her home as almost everyone she knew and loved tromped out from hip-deep snow, calling out greetings. There were only a few missing faces, and there were some she was not so familiar with, but they had all come out to see her. Ezetah, Smiley, Caelestis, and Riley had all brought their families and friends, who had in turn brought theirs, and it had ended up in a great big expedition to visit "Remmie" as they called her. They had brought gifts and food, and they were all frozen and soaked through from the snow.

"Oh dear," she admitted, "I'm afraid I wasn't expecting company." Still, she ushered them in and saw to it that they were all dried off and made comfortable and fed. The den was barely large enough to fit them all, but she could not have been happier.

----- x -----

101. Infinity

There were no endings, only beginnings.

-----

"I'm not ready to rule," Outburst admitted, leaning back against Delays. They were both sore and exhausted, but they would live.

"Didn't think so. Gonna fob it off on me, like always..."

"Sorry."

"Meh." They did not say anything for a while, each looking up at the orange sky above them. The fighting had destroyed much of the palace, and the roof had come tumbling down in the midst of the chaos. "Only for a while," Delays finally said, turning his head to look at Outburst. "You have to recruit new deities and help fix the mortal plane while you're down there."

"Really? Awesome!" Outburst used his last bit of strength to twist around and throw his arms around Delay's neck, grinning like a school boy. They overbalanced and ended in a heap, dust puffing around them. "You're the best big brother ever."

Delays rolled his eyes, looking back up to the sky. "I'm the only brother you have left. Don't kill me."

-----

No prisoners were taken in the Larendul rebellion. Seth Kreios and his ragtag band overthrew the government and proclaimed him the new Lord-General. Their government did not sprout up over night, but the first thing they did was release anyone that would not bend the knee to find their own place in the world. Kreios seemed to feel confident that they could deal with any attempts to retaliate in the future.

Or perhaps it was finally being allowed to claim his bride that blinded him, just a little.

It did not matter. The deities were out in force, protecting all they could find and preventing war and bloodshed. The apocalypse had been staved off. There was no need for any more chaos and death. They dismantled corrupt organizations and war bands alike. In time, these things would crop up again because the deities could not always maintain the peace, but not yet.

-----

The work was not done. Peace was not easily attained or easily kept.

The effects of Corruption still lingered even after Kainashii's fall. It was up to Caliginous to continue her work, cleaning it up. Not even the deities had her knack for righting it. She was truly the only one who could stop its spread and put an end to it. The effects of her magic finally showed results because there were no more slugs being created. No more new Corruption could crop up. As she found the sources and destroyed them, the Corruption of Ijou dwindled.

Red Wing's task changed from being Riley's sole guardian to becoming his personal trainer. He still had to look after the boy, certainly, but he also had to train him into becoming the weapon Outburst sought to keep the peace. In the future, there would be no corrupted deities like Kainashii allowed to run rampant. Riley would become Justice's hand, hunting down those who abused their powers. Red did not know what would happen to him after the training was done, but he was content in knowing that he no longer had to shelter Riley as much. There would be no more nightmares or desperate loneliness, only a drive to become stronger.

Ezetah, reunited with Koritsuka, did not take up the mantle of Hero of the White again. He stuck to his own path, knowing that, in the end, it did not matter. Kori would have him. His destiny was inescapable. He could live his own life until then, and it would make him stronger than chasing some unknown destiny blindly ever would.

Still others went on living their lives as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all. They would never realize that their world was changing right under their noses. The future generation replacing the old had been going on for billions and billions of years. It was only natural. The normal people would notice nothing out of the ordinary.

-----

"No ends, only beginnings." Those were the last words Twelve breathed as life slipped from him. His body disintegrated into dozens of sparkles. A swift breeze blew them away into the sky. No one would ever know he had been there, manipulating them towards their destinies. He was the unsung hero.

100 prompts -- 95/100

2009-08-14T07:01:56Z

91. Drowning

Caliginous dreamt that she was drowning.

She had been swimming in the ocean, free from all her cares. Her tentacles fanned out behind her as she swam deeper, illuminating the waters around her in a gentle blue glow. She had no duties to return to, no men counting on her to be there, and no sins for atone for. There was nothing but clear blue waters cool against her skin.

Then everything turned to red.

The water became as blood, and it filled up her water lungs, too thick to breathe. She was choking, and too far from the surface. Her land lungs sucked at the water in a desperate attempt to breathe, and she knew she was done. She floundered, struggling in vain. Darkness overcame her vision.

Suddenly, she was awake, staring at the Manticore's back. Cal had not so much as jerked, merely opened her eyes and took a sharp breath. It had only been a dream, after all. She sighed softly and closed her eyes, intending to relax again. Only, things never quite worked out like she planned. Jin screeched against her consciousness, and this time Cal really did jerk and sit up too quickly. A ward she had not realized was there at all was shattering. Everything was crimson, and she had a brief flash of panic, thinking that she was in the oceans of blood again...

"No," she wheezed, realizing. Ketsueki had left them to fend for themselves. It was part of his soul warding them from the attacks, and it was about to give away. It was time for them to leave. The Queen would have to deal with the insult of their departure without her leave. "Wake up, o Manticore," Cal hissed, and touched his shoulder. She knew he would wake with little effort. "We must get away before we drown."

----- x -----

92. All That I Have

"You took everything," the fox said, leaning in the doorway. He looked at Ketsueki's slumbering form, and his words were directed to the deity sitting in the window sill. "I used to be a stupid boy, causing messes and laughing it up."

Koritsuka said nothing. He only watched.

"I gave you everything, back then. I even marked you, so you'd never forget me." He raised his gaze, looking to Kori's ears where the red and pink brand was. He'd always wondered why Kori never bothered removing it when things fell apart between them. "When it was over, I thought to myself, 'Okay. I can go back to the way I was...' Only, I couldn't. You took that from me." He raised his hand, looking at the palm as if it held some secret only he could divine. "Ketsueki came to me. He broke me, and all I could think was that at least you weren't there to see it. And then after, I took pride in knowing that what he did with me, and what I did for him, those were mine. Mine alone." His arm fell limply to his side and he looked at Kori again. "Only, you took that in the end, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't you ever apologize," Khin'ser growled, "I'm glad. He's off my back, now, and it's your problem. The world's turning on its head because of you, and I'm going to revel in the chaos. You better take care of him."

"Of course," Koritsuka bowed his head in consent, smiling gently. "You don't plan to live."

"No. I'd rather be dead than watch you two be happy together."

"That's a shame... I'll miss you."

"Bull," Ser turned on his heel and stomped out of the room. It felt final. He was glad, really, even if it made him angry. Kori deserved the happy ending more than he did. Whatever had he done, except hide behind better deities? He would make sure that the chaos that shook the world did not destroy it. He could do that much, for Kori's sake.

----- x -----

93. Give Up

Kyrie Eleison sat on the back of a park bench, looking up to the sky. He watched the snow drift down slowly, his long ears curled back. In his hands, a cup of coffee was cooling. Coniosis sat next to him on the bench, looking greatly annoyed, as if the snow's presence offended him. It had begun snowing before dawn and had not quit. It was already piled so high that the streets were all closed. The snow plows had only just begun their work. Kyrie had called Con, excited at the prospect of seeing his first snow, and asked him to come for a walk. Con had grudgingly agreed, though he had not realized the full extent of Kyrie's excitement.

"Isn't it amazing?" Kyrie asked, smiling. He lowered his gaze to look at Con. He raised his mug and took a sip.

"Yea, whatever," Con grumped. It was cold and wet, and he could think of better ways to spend a snowy afternoon. Warmer ways. He took some consolation in knowing that Smiley was probably more bothered by the snow than he was. All of his plants, meant for summer temperatures, would be dying from the cold. The feeling was short lived, as it gave away to annoyance with himself.

"Why are you so down?"

"It's cold, wet, and you've barely said a word."

"Oh... Sorry." Kyrie chuckled sheepishly, "I'm just a little overwhelmed... I've never seen snow."

"You said that earlier," Con grumped, shifting around to try and get more firmly tucked into his coat. The cold kept creeping up from beneath and finding little openings to seep all of the warm out from.

"Well, what do you want to do?"

Coniosis opened his mouth, about to make a snappy comeback that would probably end their time for the day. Then, he slowly closed his mouth, thinking better of it. In truth, there was only one thing he wanted to do, but it was too friendly for his tastes. Too thoughtful. His eyes narrowed. There was nothing to lose. His reputation had never been something others could bank on. He did what he wanted, when he wanted, and did not care what others thought. Being nice would be no different. He chose his words with utmost care, "Snow reminds me of the winter celebrations... Do you remember last year's?"

"Oh! Yea! That was a lot of fun!" Kyrie especially enjoyed giving gifts to others, even if he did not really know them. He also liked how there had been lots of charities and goodwill going around. "What about it?"

"I have a friend that's probably in need," he answered, offhandedly, "and all this snow is putting me in a giving mood."

"Really?" the smaller dragon tilted his head, smiling as if at some private joke. "Shall we go help them?"

"...Yea." Con gave up trying to deny the fact that he did appreciate his friends, as odd as they all were. He pushed himself to his feet, and held his hand out to Kyrie. "C'mon. It's gonna be a long walk."

"Okay~!" Kyrie took the offered hand and hopped off the bench. Together, they set off through the snow. Their tracks would be completely covered up within five minutes, leaving no trace behind.

----- x -----

94. Last Hope

Nextus huddled under the tree, hands stuffed under his arms in a vain attempt to keep warm. It was snowing. Snowing! In the southern islands, where the temperature never dropped below fifty degrees. His ears drooped and he glared from beneath his bangs to the beach. Down there, Xajal was hooting and laughing with the others who thought the snow was the best thing ever. None of them had clothes suitable for the weather, but it did not seem to matter to them. Xajal was in shorts and nothing more, and the snow was already up to his shins. Nextus wished he had not gotten out of bed at all. The snow filled him with fear.

"Oi!" Xajal called, tromping through the snow towards him, grinning fit to burst. "Why ya all hidin' out here?"

"C-cold," Nextus hissed, his breath making swirls of fog in the air.

"Ah." That was all the Traelle said. He moved closer, and suddenly he was in Nextus's personal space. His grin never faded, but he had closed his eyes, as if afraid the elf would see something secret. His body was hot as the sands on the beach should have been, and he pressed close as if they actually liked each other. "Better?"

"Nnn," was all Nextus could think to say. He wanted to tell Xajal to go away, but could not bring himself to. The warmth was too nice. He leaned against it, cheeks coloring because he was supposed to hate Xajal, not get all cuddly with him.

Xajal hummed and shifted to lean against the tree almost nonchalantly. He watched the others as they stumbled upon the novelty of a snowball fight. "Yanno what they be sayin' 'bout snow, right?"

"No," Nextus muttered. He did not really care, either, but he knew Xajal would tell him anyway, so he said, "What?"

"It's the last hope," the Traelle said seriously. "If it keeps snowin', s'a good sign. Th'world'll be reborn into a utopia. If it stops... it'll rain blood 'n quake 'n all life'll die."

"Comforting."

Xajal curled his arm around Nextus, pulling him closer, and bent down to grin against the top of his head. "Don't worry, I be keepin' ya warm 'till it's over."

"I don't want you."

"I know." To his credit, Xajal did not sound too hurt by it.

Nextus sighed. "It's a little too late to find someone else, isn't it?"

"Ya."

"If the world ends," Nextus spoke slowly, looking at his hands. He remembered all the times he had fought with Xajal, hating him. He remembered all of the times he had been able to count on the Traelle to come through, no matter what. He remembered the night leadership had been passed to him, and their lady's death. Xajal could have left. All of them could have. They had stuck by him, Xajal most of all. "Promise you'll be waiting on the other side."

"Always waited for ya. Always will."

"Thanks."

They stayed pressed together under the tree, watching their friends romp about in the snow until the group noticed they weren't there and decided to bring the joy of snow to them. The rest of the pre-apocalypse afternoon was spent in a frenzy of snowball fights and breathless laughter.

----- x -----

95. Advertisement

For Ezetah, the apocalypse started like this. He woke to his alarm clock blaring the morning radio and Vhee's startled scream. Flailing and elbows in the ribs soon followed, and Eze had to wrestle Vhee down and make soothing noises at him until he stilled. It was the third morning in a row to be woken like this. The blared on in the background. They had slept in late enough to miss the morning show, and all that was being played were advertisements.

Vhee pushed at his shoulders to get him off. Eze sat up, tilting his head as he woke and focused a little more on what the advertisements were actually saying.

"HURRY, HURRY, HURRY! C'MON DOWN TO THE BIG R&R!" the radio blatted, "Bring a friend, get a room, and screw like it's the end of the world! But hurry! It really IS the end of the world, and this is your last chance to make a little loooooooove. C'MON DOWN FOR YOUR DISCOUNT PRICES!"

"Um," Vhee said hesitantly. "Why are they talking about... um. That."

Ezetah got out of bed very quickly and smacked the radio off. "Nevermind it!" he said, maybe a little too loudly. He slammed into the bathroom a few moments later, leaving Vhee to his own devices. "What the fuck?" he asked himself, finding his way to the toilet to relieve himself. "The end of the world...? And perverted commercials on in the morning?!" He leaned forward, bracing his arm on the wall, and thumped his head against it. "Arghhh, the gods are laughin' at losers like me who haven't been laid in a whole week!"

100 prompts -- 90/100

2009-08-12T23:59:59Z

86. Seeing Red

Ketsueki jerked from the force of the emotions flooding back into him. His eyes widened, and his body shook. Rage pulsed through his veins as realization dawned on him. Something had happened to Koritsuka. Ket was crouched on a roof in a Shelbian village. Within, Caliginous and her two visitors were slumbering, unaware of the world around them. The plan had been for him to watch over them until they could look after themselves. Plans change, though. He had failed to protect his most precious one in the past. He was not going to fail this time.

"Be safe," he murmured, and extended his soul, pulling off a piece and forming a protective ward around the house. Then, he was gone.

The deity of Justice materialized in the prison ward in a flare of crimson. "What has happened?" he demanded in a hiss, looking to his subordinates. His auric wings stretched out behind him, beating to the tune of his heartbeat, which was going much too fast.

"The High Creator is in with the pri..." but she was never able to finish, Ketsueki was already striding towards the cell. She cursed under her breath and hurried after him. "My lord, it's not wise...!"

"Open the door," Ketsueki growled, and used one wing to shove her back to her post. He ignored her grunt of pain and the sickening thump when she hit the desk. "Hurry up."

The door hissed open a moment or two later, and he entered. There was blood everywhere. The High Creator floated serenely at the far end of the room, watching him. "I knew you would come," he said. He had Kori's head in his hands, and he held it up towards Ketsueki. "You came for your heart, didn't you?"

Ketsueki moved quickly, suddenly appearing before his god, and took the offered head, cradling it to his chest. Kori's eyes rolled in the sockets. It was not too late. His soul was still there, clinging desperately. "Yes, my lord," he said coldly, "Thank you for returning it."

"Of course. But now, I must ask... why haven't you put my children out of their misery? Or his? Why do you defy me?"

The deity of Justice bowed his head, eyes closed to hide tears he could not shed. He could either destroy the High Creator now and send the world into chaos, or he could save his precious one. The choice, he realized, was much easier than he thought it would be to make. "Because, my lord," he said slowly, "Who would serve a monster faithfully? You are a child, breaking toys in fits of rage. You killed them. You have doomed this world. You are a failure, just as your father before you." And then his aura pulsed outwards, surrounding him in a haze of red. "Justice must be done."

The High Creator recoiled, whether from the pressure of Ketsueki's aura or because of his words, Ket didn't know or care. All that mattered was channeling all of his emotions and his power to saving Kori. If he died in the process, it would be the first time his life had ever mattered.

"What do you think you're doing?" the Creator asked, but made no move to stop him. "Do you think wasting your life away will make any difference?"

"Yes," Koritsuka answered, his body reforming. Bone, muscle, flesh, and blood reconstructed in layers, until he stood before the Creator as healthy as he had ever been. Ketsueki slumped tiredly behind him. "Your reign is done." He could feel the prison's wards pressing down on him, but he threw them off with a surge of his aura. The chains shattered around him, energy sparkling in the white light. "I am tired of being held. I am tired of bowing my head as children are born to blood and pain. I am tired of hatred ruling our world."

The High Creator only laughed. "So you can break free, but I am still the creator." His voice rose to a scream, "I made you! I can unmake you!"

"No," Ketsueki wheezed, smiling bitterly through his bangs. "This one, he's mine. I was never made by you..."

Koritsuka's aura whipped out, striking the High Creator so fast he had no time to react. He sank boneless to the floor, undefeated but surprised and weakened. Kori's auric wings floated serenely behind him. Before, they had only been pure white, bird-like, with traces of the rainbow along the edges. Now, there was blood at the bottom in long feather-like shapes, seeming to trail along the ground. Ketsueki had remade him.

"Justice will be done," Koritsuka said, and knelt before his fallen creator, gathering his head in his hands. "This world will no longer bleed out for you, my lord."

"No," the High Creator hissed, "I will not..." But he never finished his sentence because Kori twisted his head off as easily as if he were a fly. Kori did not hold it up, either, he let it drop and roll across the room. He was more interested in the Creator's aura, and pulling it free, shredding it into pieces. There was a horrible sound as he did it, like nails on the chalkboard. The worlds shook from the force of its Creator being destroyed, but did not shatter apart.

"It's too much," Koritsuka said after it was done, and stood, going back to Ketsueki. "You have to take yourself back. You're too much for me like this." He extended his auric wings around Ket, holding bloodied hands out. "It's too lonely this way, too."

The deity of Justice smiled weakly, and took Kori's hands. "I didn't fail this time."

"No," Kori agreed, pressing his forehead against Ket's. He pressed the parts of his soul that had been infused with Ket's against him, urging him to take it back. "But there's too much left to do."

"Yes," Justice murmured, accepting all the blood and power back. He wasn't surprised when he got his emotions back as well. There was no rage, though. Only relief and love.

He could live with those.

----- x -----

87. Food

"Hey," No Lies said, rattling the bars of his cage. "Are you there?"

"Yes."

No Lies bobbed his head, pleased. "I miss the taste of food," he told his captor, as if they were good friends and she would care about things like that. "When are you going to let me go? I want to see Riley again..." There was no reply. He had not expected one, not really. She tended to come and go, and only did what she wanted. If she wanted to set him free, she would. If she wanted to starve him, she would. It all depended on her moods. He flopped over on is side, tails twitching, as he waited.

"It's time," she suddenly said, "I will feed you."

"Really?"

"Yes."

No Lies pushed himself back up to his feet and pressed against the bars eagerly. "What are we going to eat?"

"I'm not. You're going to devour this world."

"Huh? Why would I do that? Riley's in it... And daddy's still alive, isn't he?"

She laughed softly, and opened the cage. "No, your father is dead. You're going to eat this world, and we'll make a new one for Riley."

"Oh. Okay." No Lies ambled out of the cage and squinted around in the darkness with his one eye. "You promise? Riley will be happier?"

"Yes."

"Good." He sighed when she pressed herself against his side. She was so small. He could not remember how she had captured him. All he knew was she was... there. Riley wasn't. In some part of his mind, he was aware that she was taking him over. He could feel the Darkness spreading through his aura, infecting him. He knew she wanted to destroy the world and didn't care what happened to Riley. He couldn't bring himself to fight her off, though. He was too hungry.

"Come, let us purge this world of all the liars."

"Yes," he agreed, his voice dull. He was no longer in control of himself. Just a puppet.

Khaezil smiled and stroked his fur lovingly. She lead him out of her lair and out into Jiou. "Soon, you'll be able to eat as much as you want," she told him.

----- x -----

88. Pain

Distant Memory jerked awake as the worlds shook. He lay very still until it passed, trying to make sense of what was happening and where he was. It was dark, and he was on some sort of mattress. There was a body passed against his side. He remembered. "Kainashii," he rasped, nudging at his bedfellow.

"I am awake," was the answer. "The worlds are breaking."

"My father's dead, then." Memory clambered out of the bed and threw open the curtains. He ignored the annoyed hiss behind him. Orange light filtered into the room, and he pushed the window open so he could stick his head out and watch the other denizens of Jiou panic. They were milling about wildly. "Pathetic. They're only just now realizing." He chuckled and turned back towards the bed. "I'm hungry... my little brothers should be returning home soon."

"Then eat," Kainashii answered irritably, getting out of the bed and shuffling to the other room.

"I'm going home," Memory called out, and gathered up his things. "They'll have such delicious pain... Even if they acted like they hated him..." He grinned. His siblings had all been weaklings and hypocrites. "You should be happy for me," he told the deity when he returned to the room, "This world is mine now."

"What are you going to do with it?"

"Tear it down, of course. It's worthless."

"Let me have Ketsueki."

"Only if we have one more round before I leave."

Kainashii snorted and was only too happy to oblige.

----- x -----

89. Through the Fire

The phone was ringing. Outburst opened his eyes, blinking blearily. Who would call at... He looked over at the alarm clock. Past noon. He groaned softly and sat up, sheets pooling around his hips. Next to him, Tsuide stirred but did not wake. They had both been up far too late. The phone was still ringing, so whoever it was really wanted to talk to him. He got out of bed and rummaged around in their discarded clothes until he found his pants. His boxers were twisted around uncomfortably, so he tugged at them with one hand as he walked from the bedroom with the pants.

In the kitchen, he fished his phone out of the back pocket, and flipped it open. The number flickered, changing to weird symbols. He pushed the talk button and raised it to his ear slowly, not certain he wanted to hear what was going to be said. "Hello," he greeted quietly.

"Finally," Delays' voice said, sighing. "I thought you'd never answer."

"Sorry. What's going on?" Outburst dropped his pants on a stool and opened the fridge door. There was still a half a carton of orange juice. He got it out and took it to the counter.

"Father's dead."

Startled, Outburst very nearly dropped both the phone and the juice. He fumbled and managed to save the juice, but not the phone. It clacked on the floor loudly. "Crap," he hissed, and set the carton on the counter hurriedly, dropping down to snatch the phone up. There was a crack in the glass, but the power was still on. "Are you still there?"

"What was that?" The voice was distorted now. The phone was damaged.

"Sorry, I uh... Oh dear. Just a second." Outburst pulled the phone away from his ear and concentrated, extending his soul to modify the phone's reality. He mended the crack and all the little pieces that had been jarred out of place in the fall. In the background, he was aware of the toilet flushing. Tsuide was up, then. "I dropped the phone," he told Delays, standing, "It's just... you're not... well, kidding?" He leaned heavily against the counter, facing the back of the apartment to watch for Tsuide.

"No," Delays said, "I'm not. The other two will make their move soon, you know."

"I know. It's too soon."

"Yea. Are you going back?"

"I'll be there soon."

"Okay. I'll hold them off until you get here."

"Thanks. See you." Just as he ended the conversation and closed the phone, Tsuide appeared in the hallway, looking rumpled and still half asleep. "Orange juice?"

"Hn. Please." Outburst fetched two glasses out of the cupboards and poured the last of the juice evenly into them. He tossed the carton into the trash even as Tsuide reached past him to snag one of the glasses. He sipped the juice, nodded his approval, and then looked more closely at Outburst, taking note of how tense he seemed. "Who was that?"

"Um." Outburst picked up his own glass, fingers drumming on the sides nervously. "Uh... my older brother."

"Hn. No good news, I take it?"

"It's... complicated. My father's dead."

Tsuide stared, glass halfway to his lips. His long ears curled back, and he slowly set the glass down on the counter so he wouldn't break it. "I see. You're leaving, then."

"Yea... for a while." He swallowed and kept his head down. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," Tsuide said, reaching out to touch Outburst's cheek, "Just make it safely back."

"Okay," Outburst lifted his head and smiled. Later, when he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Delays in a too white room, he would remember the way Tsuide looked at him. No matter what, he had a reason to protect the world, and to return home. He couldn't fail.

----- x -----

90. Triangle

Twelve watched as the triangle began to spin and collapse in on itself. He smiled sadly, looking out over the worlds his child had created. "Soon," he said aloud, tucking his fluffy tail around his feet, "It will all be gone. I wonder if any of his creations can delay the inevitable?" He had been manipulating them, lending them his strength when they needed it, and leading the Thirteenth's children astray.

D snuffled behind him, and then pressed close, shivering.

"Shush, little one," Twelve told him, and continued to watch the worlds as things began to unfold. His son was dead, and now all that was left was to wait and see what happened. He had freed them from his greed and anger. "Let them succeed," he whispered. Once, he had hoped for all of their destruction, but he had realized that some of them -- perhaps the most important of them -- held hope dearly in their hearts. They would never give up, and the world could yet be saved.

He watched as his grandchildren realized, one by one, that their father was dead. They would gather soon, and the fate of this world, this "Ijou" would be decided. Twelve noted that if he did not meddle a little more, those with hope would fail. "We must delay," he said, and turned his head to look at D. "I must put one last task upon your shoulders, my friend. After this, you may rest."

D pushed himself to his feet and stretched his neck towards his god. "Rrrr," he bobbed his head, stubby tail wagging as he waited for his orders.

"You must go to Delays. The memory cannot be allowed to reach him before his little brother is there to help him. You must keep the orange one safe until you see the green glow, do you understand?"

D nodded quickly. "Orange safe. Green means go."

"Yes. Go." Twelve watched his last loyal companion fade, and turned his gaze back to the worlds to watch the events unfold. He only hoped that D was able to hold the darkness off long enough. "Of all the things you have made, my child, these are the ones I hope will not fail. There must be something that you did right."

100 prompts -- 85/100

2009-08-12T05:20:11Z

81. Pen and Paper

The Tenshu was doodling on important documents again. Keidl sighed, looking over the day's signed papers with disappointment. As head of the scribes, it was his duty to ensure that all documents from the Tenshu's office were properly signed (or vetoed) and contained no unprofessional marks. His father before him had done this task, but had a relatively easy job because the 23rd Tenshu never did anything unprofessional. Unfortunately, the 24th got bored very, very easily.

The doodles were terrible. There was no artistic merit to them at all. They were colorful stick figures, illustrating just plain dumb scenes. Just looking at them gave Keidl a headache. Only the first few documents of the day would escape unscathed. After that, it seemed that Tenairin'ko's mind wandered and his pen followed on flights of fancy.

"Ugh," Keidl grumbled, and picked up the runestone that would pick up the ink from the paper and leave it as good as new. In the older days, they would have just made a new copy of the document and forced the Tenshu to resign it. Now, it was the duty of the scribes to clean up after their Tenshu and let him be lazy and unhelpful. "Why can't he do anything good?" he muttered under his breath as he worked his way through the stack. Halfway in, he found something that was good. Surprisingly so, in fact. "Huh."

He stared at it, uncomprehending. It was not a doodle. No, it was a poem. There were several scratches through parts of it, as if the Tenshu had decided certain words didn't work as well as others, but the end result was still charming. After a few moments, Keidl rolled the document up and stuffed it in his desk. The Tenshu would just have to sign a new copy of that particular document. He was not going to erase proof that their lord was not completely empty headed.

----- x -----

82. Can You Hear Me?

Something was calling him. The place Hershey had found was beautiful and peaceful, but it was not enough. Not yet. Maybe in the future, he could come back to it. He leapt from the ledge and spread his wings, soaring over the little island. He circled it just once with tears in his eyes, and then turned north to seek whatever was making his blood sing. He had to know what it was, and whether it would make things better. Living a lonely life in a beautiful place would never work.

His flight took him over miles and miles of ocean. He stopped to rest on whatever bits of land he could find, but never stayed long. Once, there was a terrible storm, but he was close enough to an island that he did not end up crashing into the ocean and drowning. His luck was good, for the first time in his life. Strange dreams haunted him at night. Dreams of far away places and creatures he had never seen before. Dreams of sunlight and red hair and a giant tree. Dreams of rainbows that never went away. Dreams of grass as far as the eye could see, and then ridiculously tall buildings that seemed to claw at the sky. Dreams of fear and of hope. He pushed himself as hard as he dared, eager to know what these dreams meant.

It was late afternoon on the sixth day of travel that he landed in vast grasslands. Hershey stared around, awed because he had never seen such tall grass, or so much of it. In the far off distance, he could see a single tree. Beyond it was an alien city scape. "I'm here," he breathed, and then dashed forward, his gait stumbling because he was so tired. His strength flagged as the grass thinned around him, and he sank to the ground, panting. He stared at the huge tree before him, disbelieving.

There was a ridiculously long dragon looped around the branches as if she were a snake. Her red hair hung everywhere like blood. She stared at him with golden eyes, apparently surprised at his arrival.

"Are you...?" Hershey started to ask. He wasn't sure what he was going to say. He was too tired to form coherent thoughts.

"I dreamed about you," she answered, uncoiling from the branches and floating down to the ground in a graceful spiral. "I didn't think you were real." She stopped in front of him, lowering her head to nose at him. "You must be tired. Welcome home."

Hershey smiled and let sleep claim him. He did not dream, which would be a relief when he woke again.

----- x -----

83. Heal

It was not the words that were said, or the looks that were exchanged between them that gave Tsuide his first real taste of bitter reality. No. It was the way Outburst refused to look at him. It was the way that the usually restless Shelbian sat almost perfectly still, with his head down and ears drooped. He was barely even breathing, and Tsuide had to restrain himself from reaching out to check for a pulse. The silence stretched out between them like a tangible gap, one that could never be crossed. One that he had put there himself, with his lack of control. It was his fault for pushing Outburst's affections away and then dangling hints just out of his reach. It was his fault for drawing Outburst closer and closer until something snapped between them like a livewire. It was his fault for eating Outburst and then expecting to be allowed back into his life with open arms.

Tsuide felt his throat constricting and he had to remember to breathe. It was still an alien concept to need to breathe, and now that he was presented with real panic, he felt like he was drowning. Drowning in his own failures. His eyes were stinging. He glared past Outburst, staring at one of the many aquariums that lined the wall of the apartment. He clenched his teeth so hard that his jaw began to ache, and willed himself not to give in to the urge to cry, to scream, to grab onto Outburst and never let go. He had made this terrible gap between them. He would have to bridge it. His heart was pounding so hard that he was surprised Outburst could not hear it.

Still Outburst would not look at him, would not say anything, would not live. "Outburst," Tsuide ground out, feeling his patience fraying. He flinched when Outburst hunched inwardly, as if expecting to be slapped. It was a punch to the gut, and Tsuide made a choked noise. He wondered if any of his break ups with Felorius had ever been as hard. They must have, if he had chosen the coward's route of forgetting about them. There would be no escaping this overwhelming pain, though. He was alive now. His memories would remain intact, haunting him until the day he died. He had to make this work. "Look at me," he demanded in a hiss, his ears curled back.

Outburst slowly lifted his head, his lime green eyes peering out from beneath his bangs. His mouth was drawn downwards, as if he would never smile again, and Tsuide had little doubt there were heavy bags beneath his eyes. They were a pathetic pair. Tsuide could not bring himself to say anything else. They just looked at each other, green eyes not quite meeting blue. It was Outburst that broke the eye contact, letting his nose drop back down. "What did you want, Tsuide?" he asked quietly, speaking at last.

"I have to fix it," Tsuide said suddenly, feeling a surge of panic. He forced the words out, too quickly and too desperately, hoping his words were not falling on deaf ears, hoping that he was not too late, hoping that he would not live his life with quite as many regrets hanging over his head. "You're my best friend... The only one I truly need. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I don't even have the words, and you think I would, but no, there aren't any words for this. I don't think I even deserve forgiveness, but... I don't think I can live without you. I need you to stop avoiding me, I need you in my life, I need you there to make sure I don't stray too far." He buried his head in his hands, fingers digging in the furry scruff at the top of his head. "I'm not undead anymore. I can't eat you. I did it because I couldn't risk you -- or anyone else -- like that. Not ever again." His voice was becoming more and more hoarse, and he whispered, "Please, Outburst..." He was humiliated for having said so much, and for having come off as such a desperate sap, so he kept his head down, not quite daring to look up.

"Tsuide..." Outburst's voice was quiet, almost awestruck. Tsuide heard him moving hesitantly, felt his presence right by his shoulder, but did not move. He was afraid that if he did, Outburst would flinch and retreat, and he would be left with what he was very quickly realizing was a breaking heart. The first touch was so light, Tsuide almost did not feel it. Just fingers skimming one of his ears in an almost soothing gesture. "It'll be okay," Outburst murmured, and ran his fingers down Tsuide's spine, curling his arms around his friend in a hug. "I just... I..."

Tsuide was alarmed to hear Outburst sob, and moved quickly to pull him close, fingers clutching at his shirt. "Shhh, shh... I'll do anything. Anything to make it better." He hated the feel of hot tears against his neck, and hated himself for being the cause of it. He hated the feel of his friend's body shaking with the force of his sobs, and he hated himself some more. He hated knowing that he was going to have to bend over backwards to help him heal, and he did not think he could hate himself any more.

----- x -----

84. Out Cold

The Sightless milled around him, pressing their bodies against him. They wept bitter tears from the dozens of sets of eyes that lined their bodies because they had failed him. The deity of Justice had escaped and done whatever he had done when they were not looking. They had nothing of use to report except that the sinner had been judged and was still alive. The punishment should have been death, not mercy.

The High Creator stared dully at the cold, white tile floor beneath him, trying to comprehend. It was clear that Ketsueki was up to something. What had he done to deserve to have so many traitors in his midst? Where had he failed? He could remember the day he had met Ketsueki, eons ago. They had never been friends until that day.

"I defeated my father for you," the High Creator said quietly, although Ketsueki was not there to hear it. "Should you not owe your life to me?" That Ketsueki had served him faithfully and without question since Ijou's creation never even occurred to the High Creator. He expected the lesser god to submit to his will until the end of time. "It is time something was done."

He pushed the Sightless away and laboriously got out of his throne, levitating across the room. He felt so tired, and so sad. Too many of his children had died, and none of them were even close to making their own worlds. They squabbled and wasted their lives pointlessly. His deities conspired against him and against one another in vain attempts to control a dying world. The High Creator opened his bedroom door, letting in a flood of orange light, and floated in the doorway for a few moments, looking out but not seeing anything before him.

"I will put his heart out. Cold. Dead. He will weep," the High Creator murmured aloud, "and wish that he had stayed faithful." He floated through a great many hallways. There were greetings and salutes and other reactions to his presence, but he ignored all of it, focusing only on reaching the plain white cell that held the rebellious deity of the White. "Cold," the creator repeated to himself as he waited for them to open the door and let him in. He thought of his dead children, and wondered why it was fair that the prisoner's child was still alive. The door hissed open, and he entered the cell.

"Hello, my lord," the deity greeted quietly.

The door hissed shut behind him, and there was silence.

----- x -----

85. Spiral

Riley woke screaming, with tears in his eyes.

Red jerked awake and blinked through the shadows so fast he was still blinking sleep off when he landed in front of the boy. "Wha-" he rasped, but was cut off by the sudden weight of Riley flinging himself into his midsection. He clenched his teeth at the desperate clinging, but forced himself to remain still.

"He's dead, he's dead, he's dead," Riley mumbled against Red's belly, hiccuping between the words. He was shaking from the force of his sobs.

The demon put his hands awkwardly on Riley's shoulders and waited. He did not murmur any soothing noises and did not pat him. He just stayed still. It was all he could muster up the willpower to do.

"Red, please, please, I didn't hate him that much... please don't let him be dead! Please... I wanted... I just wanted..."

"Who... who is being dead?" He thought it was just a nightmare, but he was feeling less and less sure the more Riley cried. The night terrors had never shaken him this much before.

Riley pushed back and looked up at him in the dark. His ears were curled back, and he looked so absolutely miserable that Red had to look away. "Daddy," he hiccuped quietly, and buried his face back in Red's belly. "I dreamt... dreamt he was... that there was this thing. Thing that thought it was, you know... a god. And it was angry. Angry with... um..." His fingers tightened against Red's back. "Justice. So he was gonna... do something. He went to this lonely white room where daddy was, and daddy didn't know what he was gonna do because he trusted him and, PLEASE, RED DON'T LET HIM!"

But Red could do nothing. If it were truth, he was only a demon. Only that, and nothing more. He was powerless. He could not go free Kori, anymore than he would ever see Jiou. In accepting his weakness, he overcame a different one, gathering Riley up and taking him to his own bed. "Shushing now," he told the boy, and curled around him, folding his wings over him protectively. "In morning, we are seeing what we are seeing."

Neither of them would sleep until dawn.

100 prompts -- 80/100

2009-08-06T06:31:28Z

76. Broken Pieces

Darkness and pain had been Josethis's constant companions for far too long. He had no sense of time down in the dungeons. There was not even a window. They had buried him so deep under the earth that he wondered whether they actually intended to hang him or not. He lay beneath the straw that made up his bedding, as far away from the door and his privy bucket as possible. The humans would have to hang him soon if they meant to. He was dying. They did not feed him but once a day, and it was stale bread and water. He bit his tongue, mentally cursing Exosin for the thousandth -- no millionth! -- time since his capture.

As if the thought had summoned him, his voice came out of the darkness, "Are you awake?"

Joseth jerked up too fast. Vertigo hit him with a wave of nausea. He doubled over again, clutching at his stomach and fighting not to vomit. "Y-you..." He heard Exos moving closer, and flinched back into the corner instinctively. "Stay away," he hissed, gritting his teeth. The movement stopped. Joseth listened hard, trying to discern whether it had only been a hallucination.

"Do you hate me?" Not a hallucination then. The voice sounded small, quiet. Guilty? Joseth doubted it.

"You betrayed me," he bit out.

It was growing lighter in the prison. Joseth wondered if he was imagining it. There was no light, yet the darkness was receding. He blinked, eyes watering and trying to adjust. When the darkness stopped disappearing, it was still dim. He could see a dark black ball of energy swirling above Exos's palm. Temporary displaced the darkness, then. He closed his eyes again and waited, wondering what Exos wanted. Wasn't it enough to know that Joseth was going to die? That his crew had been routed, all of them dead by now, and that his ship was in the hands of the humans?

"I made a mistake," Exosin said. "I didn't think it would bother me as much as it did."

Josethis opened his eyes again and really looked at the other male. For some reason, Exosin was wearing a Larendulian uniform. Had he been hiding amongst the humans? The question was futile. He did not really care. "A mistake?" he echoed bitterly, not quite believing his ears. "Is that all?"

"No," Exos admitted, and left the ball of darkness swirling midair as he edged around it and towards Joseth. "But it's all I'm going to give you right now."

"Did you... come just to..." Josethis coughed harshly, and clutched at himself in a desperate attempt to stop the sudden shivering that overtook him. He did not finish his sentence.

Exosin knelt in front of him and extended his hands. "I can only destroy. I am a force of nature, destroying everything in my path. In the wreckage, life must grow again." It, like most things Exos said, sounded stupid to Joseth's ears. He did not have the strength to say so. "I know it's stupid," he added, amusement in his voice. "But I will keep you in the eye of the storm, if you will let me. Do you want to live?"

"Not... going to... sell me... encyclopedias?"

Exosin's laughter echoed off of the cell's walls long after they were gone. The darkness slid back into place, and would not be broken again for a number of hours. By then, it would be too late for the humans to catch Josethis.

----- x -----

77. Test

It felt so fucking good just to move that it took Ezetah's breath away. His muscles were burning from his extertions, promising a worse ache later. He looked forward to it, and pushed himself harder, long legs stretching out to increase the pace. The city was crowding him in more ways than one, and it did not help that his head was so full of regrets and thoughts and hopes. The only escape was the school track, after hours when there was no one to tell him off because he was not a student. The wind whistled by his ears, and he knew he was really booking. He would have to slow down soon. His lungs were starting to light up and a stitch was working its way up his side.

He went for two more laps, and then slowed himself to a walk, stopping near the gate to hunch over and catch his breath. His blood was absolutely singing with exhilaration. All he needed now was some water and a warm body to sink into.

"Hey!" a male voice said off to his right.

Eze straightened, ears perked as he turned towards it. He had been so caught up in his run that he had not realized he was alone. "Hey," he replied easily, recognizing its owner. Still stinking of Corruption and Darkness, but it was not his fault really. Eze was supposed to have helped him, but he had been putting it off and Vhee had not pressed the issue anyway.

"Man, I'd hate to be running from ya," Vhee said. Unknown to Eze, he had been there a while, watching him run. It was surprising just how fast Eze could move. "Here," he added, pushing a cool water bottle into the Ain'laito's big hands.

"Haa, thanks," Eze responded, gratefully chugging the water down. He sighed with satisfaction. "What's up?"

"Wanna go get some food?"

Something was clearly on Vhee's mind. Before, their confrontations had been simply Vhee showing up out of nowhere and demanding something. Now he was making an effort to be somewhat friendly. Ezetah tilted his head, a little suspicious, but decided it could not hurt. "Okay," he agreed, and let himself be lead off of the school grounds and back onto the busy streets of the city. They walked close, probably closer than necessary, but it kept them from being split up as they hit the bigger crowds. Not that either of them would have had a problem with crowds in the first place. Vhee could just hitch a ride in Eze's shadow, and Eze was just too damn big for the crowds to do anything but part for him.

"Here," Vhee said suddenly, tugging on Eze's wrist a little unnecessarily and entering a small restaurant.

Eze's nose twitched, identifying the place as a small diner not far from Sunnybank. He could smell the scent of hamburger grease and it made his stomach rumble. While Vhee was getting the attention of the waitress, Eze went directly to the corner where he knew a booth built specifically for larger creatures, like himself, was. It was blessedly unoccupied, so he claimed it, careful not to bang his legs on the table.

"I ordered for us," Vhee's voice announced abruptly, so close to Eze's ear that the bigger male all but jumped away. The table rattled from the force of his knees hitting it, and he had to grab onto the edges to steady it. "Are you always this jumpy?"

"No. What'd you get?"

"The lady seemed to know who you are, so I just told her to get two of the usual."

The usual was an extra large chocolate milkshake, a large order of fries, and a double decker burger. "You'll probably need help finishing it all," Eze muttered, sounding slightly amused and not at all bothered.

"Maybe," Vhee muttered. He was not eating as much as he should have been even on his hungriest of days. "So uh, you remember what I asked you to do when we first met?" Ezetah snorted. Asking was a way of putting it lightly. He nodded, even so. The Faux grinned a little, not ashamed of how he had pestered Eze like a demanding little brat. "You said you didn't have the knowledge, so I went back to Enciniaz to find it for you."

"Yea?" Eze's ears perked with interest and he leaned forward. "Find anything?"

At that moment, the waitress showed up with their milkshakes, so Vhee refrained from answering until she had left again. He stared at the absolutely ginormous milkshakes, and realized that they still were not big enough for Eze. Without a second thought, he pushed his over to the Ain'laito, deciding he would ask the waittress for water when she made her rounds again. "...Anyway, yea. I have books."

"Books?" The Ain'laito paused in his gleeful slurping of ice cold chocolate ice cream to tilt his head, "Can you read them?"

"Yes, of course."

"Oh, good. Okay. Books. Where are they?"

"Well... they're kind of... stolen," Vhee muttered, nearly unintelligible. It was a good thing Ezetah was an Ain'laito and his hearing was fantastic. He got a snort and an annoyed mutter for that confession. "I wasn't caught! Uh... Red Wing kind of knows I was looking for you, 'cuz I asked him where I'd find you and uh..."

"Meh," Eze said carelessly, deducting before Vhee had even said exactly where they were, "So they're at my apartment?"

"Yes. Ah, the lady's coming back." They both quieted until the food was set out in front of them. "Oh, oh, wait, miss! Could I get a glass of water?" He grinned gratefully at her affirmative and watched her go before turning to look at Eze. The hamburgers and fries were of ridiculous proportions, just like the milkshakes were, but the Ain'laito had already demolished a quarter of the burger before the waitress had even made it back to the counter. "Geez."

"Mfff, Iff hungrff."

"Ugh, don't talk with your mouth full," Vhee exclaimed, and began picking at his own food. He was not that hungry for what he thought of as Daylight food. It would not do to collapse because his body did not have enough solids in it, though, so he made himself eat some of it. The waitress brought the water and he nodded his thanks. Otherwise, the two boys ate in silence, getting their fill. It ended with Ezetah, as predicted, finishing off Vhee's meal for him.

"Okay," Eze said, sounding satisfied as he licked his lips, "Were you planning on paying?"

"Uh..."

"Thought not. Oi." The Ain'laito rummaged around in his pockets, and passed a wad of bills over. He normally kept a lot of change in his pockets because the coins were easier to tell apart, but he had yet to have the bills broken down. "We're not stealin', so count that out and pay up. I'm gonna start headin' to Sunnybank."

Ezetah did not leave any choice for Vhee as he pushed himself up and exited the diner. The air outside was hot and heavy just like it always was, but it helped clear his head as he walked down the street towards his apartment. Maybe he could finally make himself useful and really help someone. It seemed like everything else he tried resulted in spectacular failure. Everything except Sunnybank's slow renovations. That was a sad thought, so he let it roll by and picked up his pace. Vhee did not pop out of his shadow until he was at the apartment doors, rattling the keys around until he had the right one to unlock the double doors.

"Yo," Eze said by way of acknowledging that he knew the Faux was back, opening and holding the door open.

"Hi," Vhee muttered and slipped inside. He had been there earlier, just briefly, but all the lights had been off and he had felt oddly... guilty about barging in. It was Eze's private living quarters. Some place private that he should have waited for permission to enter.

"Make yourself at home. You can turn the lights on if ya need 'em." The Ain'laito did not wait for a response as he headed through the apartment, obviously at home. The first floor renovations were almost done. He had just one last room to complete, and even it was nearly done. It was just waiting for Outburst to come back over and finish painting, really, and then all the furniture could be moved in. Eze had not pushed for it, since the room was not that important and he had picked up on Outburst's growing depression. He went to his bedroom and stripped, grabbing fresh clothes. The run had left him feeling dirty and worn out, and he padded into the bathroom. Vhee probably was not going to destroy anything if left to his own devices for a while.

Later, refreshed and dressed in clean shorts, Eze padded out to the living room. He found Vhee snoozing on the couch, and flopped down at the far end, near his feet.

"Mmf," Vhee grunted. "Hullo."

"Hey, sleepy head." Eze had already smelled the dusty old tomes on the coffee table and picked one up, testing its weight and carefully feeling it. Leather bound with really old parchment, nice. It was probably really dusty and he was going to be sneezing forever if he opened it. He suddenly did not feel like going through them that night. "You know what, screw this," Eze announced, setting the book back on the table. "C'mon." He grabbed Vhee around the waist and hefted him as easily as a sack of potatoes. He knew the Faux could disappear from his grasp if he really wanted to get away. "You can just stay here until we get this figured out, but I've only got one bed."

Vhee was a little too bewildered to put up much of a fight and could only gape like a fish out of water as he was planted in Eze's bed. He protested when the Ain'laito took it upon himself to pull at his clothes. "Wh-what!? S-stop... Really?"

"What, you're going to sleep in this? It's too hot for that," Eze argued, tugging at the rough garments Vhee clung to.

"Uh... No, I guess not," Vhee muttered, letting go and watching his clothes land in a heap on the floor. Uncertainly he turned back to Eze, fidgetting. "But uh... Aren't you worried about uh... the Corruption?"

"No. Should I be?" He had touched Vhee before and nothing had happened. In fact, if he recalled correctly, it had actually helped Vhee if Eze did touch him. He was essentially a weapon of the White, and those around him tended to be a lot healthier and happier. "No," Eze repeated, answering his own question as he threw most of the blankets off of the bed, leaving just the sheet. "So just get comfortable and deal with it." Even with those bold words, he waited, not quite getting into the bed. He was not really going to make Vhee that uncomfortable.

"Okay."

"Good." Eze settled on one side of the massive bed, careful of where he put his limbs so as to not crush his smaller bed mate. It was a tight fit, and they had no choice but to lay skin to skin. Vhee shifted around a bit, and found a comfortable sleeping position, half draped over Eze and quietly pleased to be so close to the source of the White energy he felt swirling around him.

Eze was beginning to wonder if it was such a great idea when Vhee murmured, "Thank you."

"Yea, yea. Go to sleep." He lay awake a long time after that, wondering if he really could fix Vhee's problems for him or if it was just going to be another failure to add to the growing list. It was a test of his patience to stay still and not disturb his bed mate because all he wanted to do was get up and pace. Ezetah did not get to sleep until several hours later.

----- x -----

78. Drink

The sweltering heat pressed down on them, and for some, it was too much. Wazir woke each morning to find one less Fuiri in their numbers. There just was not enough water or food to go around, and they were succumbing to sickness and death. He was sorry that the Plague Doctor had left them. She would have at least been able to slow their downfall. Without her, it would not be very long at all before there would be nothing left of them but bones.

"We need to hunt the Raxian," Wazir announced quietly to what remained of his scouting party as they huddled in the meager shelter of a stone outcropping. Six. It was a good number, but not good enough for a real scouting party. They were just all that was left as death surrounded them. As expected, they began to protest. He overrode them, pointing out, "Their herd will know where the water is, and we need the meat."

There was still hesitation amongst them even as he lead them out into the blistering Blightlands. He could not blame them. They had three water pouches, and only one day's rations. There was not enough of them to take down a full grown Raxian. The most they could hope for is to be able to find a herd at all, and with it, water. Wazir wondered what Plague was doing even as he picked his way through the sands and went to meet whatever fate awaited him. He hoped she had plenty to drink, both for herself and for their son.

----- x -----

79. Starvation

She opens her eyes to darkness. Her heart is not beating, and she cannot seem to breathe. Panic flutters hot and hungry in her breast, and she screams. Her voice is raspy from disuse. Something is crawling on her. In her. Her screams intensify, and she claws at the too close ceiling. Panic speeds her upwards, into cold earth. Dirt gets in her eyes and under her claws and in her mouth, and still she does not stop, clawing her way upwards to freedom. Her voice gives out just as she reaches fresh air. She pulls herself up out of the hole and collapses onto the muddy earth that covers her fresh grave.

The panic has given away to exhaustion, and she no longer has the strength to move. She lays there for a very long time. Long enough for the night to begin turning to day. Dawn brings no relief, only dull realization that she had been buried. Alive? No. Her heart still does not beat, and breathing seems an unnecessary chore. She is dead. There is no tombstone on her grave, no marker to remind her of who she was. She hadn't been important enough to remember, then. What a shame.

For what reason had she awoken?

For what reason had she crawled from death's grasp?

She is so very hungry, and so very hurt. The earth has torn her hands to shreds and is smeared all over her, hiding the worst of the rot. She has no clothing, no identification, nothing on her except mud and death. There is nothing for her here, in this cemetery. No sign of the living. Wearily, she stands and begins the long shuffle towards where she might find food. Food, and warmth, and hope. These are the things she craves desperately.

The past can wait until she is well again.

----- x -----

80. Words

Coniosis had become a man of many impulses. He did what he wanted, when he wanted, without any real care for the impressions it may leave others with. Some days, he did inexplicably evil things just to see what reactions he got, and others, he kept to himself and took up new hobbies. Part of this, he knew was because of the growing shadows within his heart. He was becoming something darker and cruler because he had bound Nique to his soul. It will not be long before he cannot remember humanity at all. To put it off, he tried to find new things to fill his life with. New hopes and dreams and loves. None of it stuck for long, but it was the effort of pursuing something, anything, that kept him from thinging overmuch about the future.

On one particularly foggy afternoon, Con wandered aimlessly for several blocks, keeping his head down. Something was tugging at him, leading him to some unknown destination. He was curious enough to find out what it was, and bored enough that he didn't mind the distraction. His path took him from the heart of the city to the western sector. The buildings were not shabby in that part of town, but neither were they the very best that money could buy. It was a middle class part of town, and Con was not at all impressed with any of it. But he recognized where he was. If he kept going west, he would be in Ezetah's neighborhood, which was low class. It was so low class that, in Con's mind, it would be better to demolish it and make new parking lots.

Those were thoughts for another day. His instincts were tugging him along to some place much closer that Eze's neighborhood, and he had no intention of ignoring them. He hurried along the sidewalk, not quite paying attention to where was going except to make sure he did not run into anyone. When he finally stopped and looked up, he stood in front of the main offices of the Happy Hearts charity group. Just like that, he decided he would give blood. He'd never done it before, and it would no doubt make for good PR if he did.

Con pushed his way into the building and looked around. The lobby and the adjecant waiting room were done up in cheerful yellow and white that made his nose wrinkle up in distaste. His gaze went to the counter, and really, he was not truly surprised to recognize the rainbow-striped figure behind it. What were his shadow instincts good for, if not leading him to people he liked to annoy? He smirked smugly and strolled up to the counter, hands in his pockets. The day had just gotten infinitely more interesting.

"What're YOU doin' here?" Eze growled, even before Con said anything.

"I," Con began, already pulling his wallet out of his pockets. "...Am here to donate, of course." He produced his ID and waved it in front of Eze's nose. He'd decided he would throw some money at the charity as well, since he was there. Why not? He was wealthy enough to feed a small country, if not more. Just then, however, he settled for enjoying the surprised expression on Eze's decidedly difficult to read face.

"You're shittin' me," Eze muttered. He snatched the ID and swiped it through a machine. It beeped as it processed. "Ya aren't gonna be one of those wusses that passes out from seein' a needle or a little blood, are ya?" He never missed and opportunity to take jabs at Con, verbally or physically.

Con only smirked. He had seen -- and done! -- far worse things than Eze would ever dare to think of. "Isn't it bad policy to be so unprofessional at work? I'd hate to see you fired, when this IS the only job that they felt sorry enough to hand you."

Ezetah growled and shoved away from the counter perhaps a little too roughly. Everything on it rattled from the force of the action. "This way," he huffed, stomping through a door to the right.

It was always easy getting under Eze's skin, Con reflected as he followed, but it never got old.

WARRIOR 4-2

2009-07-30T07:54:33Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG
Characters: Arak, Tsuide, Caelestis
Notes: The third wheel.

Caelestis was the first child to return home. Arak was sitting in the living room, playing Living Doom IV and wiping the floor with the mutated monsters that kept trying to eat his character. He was the first to see her because Tsuide was in the study.

"I'm home!" she announced, shutting the door quietly behind her. Then she stopped and stared, surprised at the stranger sitting on the couch with a game controller in his hand. Said stranger stared back, open-mouthed. Cael looked like a doll to him. A fragile, oh so cute doll. He wondered how long it took her to get into such elaborate dresses and do her hair like that. The game announced in forbidding tones that it was a game over, ending the impromptu staring contest. "Um, hi," Cael said, offering an awkward smile, "I'm Cael. You are...?"

"Arak," he answered immediately, standing up and setting the game controller aside. He grinned. "I'm on the job, lookin' after Tsuide till he's fully healthy."

Cael glanced towards the television, and the slight upward quirk of her lips suggested that she doubted his statement. "Okay," she said agreeably enough, "Where's Tsuide?"

"In the stu--"

"Right here," Tsuide interrupted, leaning in the doorway that lead to the kitchen. He glanced over at Arak and smirked at the nurse's surprised expression. His ability to be surprisingly sneaky had not diminished in the change from undead to living. "Hello, Caelestis."

"Tsuide!" Cael dropped her bags and went to him, throwing her arms around his waist. "You look different. Are you okay? I can feel your aura pulsing differently... Did daddy do a good job?" She pushed back from him and looked him over critically, not paying any mind to the fact that her words had probably been too fast for anyone to keep up. "How long till you're completely better?"

Arak settled back down on the couch and pretended he did not exist, all the while watching them out of the corner of his eye. Tsuide was not a man of open affections. He squeezed Cael's shoulders once, gently, but did not return the hug in full. But, neither did he push her away or quiet her. Where he barely dealt with strangers with barely reined in patience, with Cael he seemed to have limitless patience set aside just for her. Arak turned the TV's volume way down and reloaded the game so that the two could continue to pretend he did not exist.

Tsuide, however, seemed to have different ideas. "Arak," he said slowly, looking over at him, "Is in charge of reporting my health to your father. I've little doubt it will largely be up to him to decide when I am good to go."

Cael half turned towards Arak, regarding him with some curiosity. "Is he staying here?"

"Yea, sorry." Arak smiled a little uncertainly at them. "If I coulda, I woulda stayed outta your hair." This got a small smirk out of Tsuide because he had already come to accept his fate, to be haunted by a Fuiri-Den'sturax mix until the day he was announced to be ready to live without his hands being held again.

The girl only shrugged and beamed, "It's okay, as long as Tsuide's in good hands." She glanced over at the TV, and tilted her head. "Are you any good at games, then? They're all mine, you know, so we could probably play together when Tsuide doesn't need you."

"I don't have a lot of time to play anymore, so I'm not as good as I used to be," Arak admitted. He watched Tsuide go back into the kitchen without a word, something that Cael seemed to acknowledge with only a slight turn of her head. "I was told y'all had dibs on the TV, so feel free to boot me."

"No, it'll be fine," Cael said, and went to pick up her bag with a smile. "I'm gonna go put my stuff up and get something to drink, and probably harrass Tsuide, too, so go ahead and play. I might join you in a little bit." She paused near the hallway leading to the bedrooms, and smiled brightly. "It was good to meet you, Arak."

"You, too." He did not go back to his game, though. As Tsuide refused to use any sort of technology like heart monitors or even hand-held noise makers to help the nurse know when he needed help, Arak had put his magic to use. Tsuide had protested loudly at that, but had finally consented when Arak pointed out that he could not do his job without at least a little help. Each of Tsuide's bands had a rune drawn into them in black ink, all of them designed to monitor Tsuide's health and allow Arak to sense when he was needed. He could feel a sense of panic that was not his own. "Tsuide?" he called, heading into the kitchen.

"Hn?" Tsuide was standing in front of the fridge, with the door held open. His long ears were curled back, and his fur was bristling from whatever thoughts were troubling him. His eyes were not quite focused when he glanced over.

"What's wrong?" Arak moved to the counter and leaned against it, not quite ready to invade Tsuide's personal space until it was absolutely necessary. Food had been something of a problem for Tsuide. He either ate too much of it, forgot to eat at all, or had strange bouts of panic when he tried to figure out what he wanted to eat. Luckily, he could cook, so it was not a matter of Arak needing to oversee meals. It was more along the lines of regulating until Tsuide was able to get into the habit without any extra help.

"I... hn. What should we have for dinner tonight?" he asked, shutting the fridge door and turning abruptly to the counter. He extended his wing arms and pressed them on the counter top, leaning against them.

"Maybe ya could go out with Cael. Let her pick."

Tsuide seemed to consider the option, eyes narrowing slightly at the counter top as if it had insulted him in some way. Then, he nodded, satisfied. "That will work, for us." He raised his gaze and tilted his head, regarding Arak with near suspicion. "What of you? Shouldn't you stay near?"

"If ya want to visit with her alone, dude, it's fine," Arak explained, shrugging. "I can hang out nearby without bein' up in your biz. Like, get a sandwich and hang out in a park or something if I have to."

The look Tsuide gave him was long and calculating, and Arak had just begun to shift uncomfortably under it when Cael entered the kitchen in fresh clothes. She looked between the two of them, tilted her head just slightly, and made a beeline to the fridge to get herself a soda. "What's wrong, guys?"

"Nothing," they both answered at once. Tsuide shot Arak an annoyed look, but he only grinned.

"I'm gonna go back out to the living room," Arak added, "Lemme know what dinner's plans are, yea?" He left them to their visiting and went back to the game that was waiting for him. As he started it up and began to murder various monsters and rack up the points, he realized that he had not given much thought to how things were going to work when "the children" got home, or when Tsuide's friends -- if he had any -- realized he was home and started visiting.

As time went on, he expected to be like an unwanted shadow, something that had not been very obvious when dealing with the elderly. The lives of the elderly were already done and they usually only had a few relatives to deal with. Tsuide seemed to be at his prime, with children and maybe friends. Arak wondered if the kids had friends, too, and supposed the house was probably going to get very busy. Maybe he should talk Tsuide into taking it easy and limiting his social interactions as much as possible. The thought made him snort, and he was almost killed on the game. Tsuide seemed the asocial type. Not that he was going to point anything of the sort out. He quite liked his head where it was, and did not want to have his skin flayed off by a sharp tongue, either.

Arak decided that the only thing to do was to play it by ear, starting with that evening's dinner plans.

WARRIOR 4-1

2009-07-30T07:51:48Z

WARRIOR
Rating: PG
Characters: Arak, Tsuide
Notes: MEANWHILE...

Tsuide, as it turned out, owned a house. Not many undead could say that. In fact, not many of the living in Juno could say that. Even better, Tsuide's house was a single story building that had five bedrooms, two baths, and an absolutely massive yard. It must have cost a fortune. Arak stood at the gate, gaping in awe. Tsuide's file said that he lived with two younger dragons, making him the most humane of all of the undead he had ever worked with. It had to have taken a lot of will power not to hurt them when the hunger pangs had settled in. His respect for Tsuide had grown substantially since the operation, and he was oddly proud of himself for taking an active part in helping such a creature to a better life.

"Are you coming?" Tsuide asked, standing at the porch steps and looking more than a little impatient.

"Oh, sorry, dude," Arak grinned sheepishly and hurried up the walkway, "Got lost in the clouds, I guess."

Tsuide only nodded and lead the way up to the front door. He unlocked it and held it open, revealing a rather nice looking living room. It was not lavish, but it looked well lived in and comfortable. Arak hurried in and set his bags down beside an overstuffed couch, looking around. Tsuide moved past him to check the answering machine. The living room had two large couches and two matching armchairs, an absolutely huge entertainment center with a large TV and more game systems than Arak could count, a coffee table currently covered in mail, and the walls were lined with shelves that had rows upon rows of games, movies, and cds. Arak let out an appreciative whistle.

"Hn, nothing important," Tsuide muttered, abandoning the answering machine, "Come, I will show you where you are staying." He had left his things near the door, all except for his laptop, which he kept tucked under one arm as if afraid to leave it behind. Arak followed him into a hallway, where several doors lead off into bedrooms and a bathroom. Tsuide opened a door directly across from the bathroom, revealing a sparsely furnished guest room. "Here."

Arak went in and dropped his things on the end of the twin-sized bed, looking around. The walls were a tan color, and the curtains, rug, and bed coverings were all in different shades of blue. There was a large set of drawers along the opposite wall from the bed, and bedside table, but that was all.

"Unpack later," Tsuide said in a tone that brooked no arguements, "I will give you the tour and the ground rules now."

"Okidoke, dude," Arak agreed, shoving his hands in his pockets and following the dragon out of the room.

"Bathroom," Tsuide said, pointing at it, and then he pointed down the hall to the other doors, "There's an empty guest room on the left, but the two doors with posters and such on them belong to the children. Smiley and Caelestis are their names. When they come home, you will treat them with the utmost courtesy, as they will you." Without waiting for a response, Tsuide went back into the living room. Arak followed, secretly amused by how much of a tight ass Tsuide was being, but content to go along with it. "You may use the television and anything else in here, but the children will get priority on their use. Also, do not put your feet up on the table, or you may lose it."

"Cool, cool," Arak grinned. It was going to be an entertaining stay.

"Through here," Tsuide said, gesturing through a doorway to their right, "Is the kitchen. The back door is also there, and you will find the garden. Smiley will no doubt drag you through there in due time. Food will be served three times a day and only then. You can always find something to drink whatever the time." He did not look like he really cared if someone pigged out. Arak suspected he probably had enough money to keep the fridge stocked indefinitely. Tsuide did not lead him into the kitchen at all, but instead picked up his things and headed across the living room from the other bedrooms, into a long hallway. Arak followed, snagging some of Tsuide's belongings to help with the load and ignoring the glare he got for his trouble. There were four doors in the hallway, one, he assumed, lead into the kitchen. "Bathroom, study, and my bedroom," Tsuide said by way of explanation, making a beeline to the room closest to the kitchen. "My bedroom is off limits."

"What about emergencies, dude?" Arak stopped in the doorway of said bedroom, his arms full of Tsuide's things.

Tsuide did not immediately respond, setting things down at the end of a king sized bed. There was a lion-like creature sprawled in it, watching them with sleepy eyes. "Exceptions can be made," Tsuide muttered, and gestured for Arak to come in. "Put that in the closet."

Arak did as he was bid, and found the closet to be ridiculously huge, too. There were not many clothes in it, though, just lots and lots of boxes. The clothes that were there were all dark and plain. He slid the closet door shut and turned around, looking at the room properly. There was a set of dressers near the doorway, the massive bed, a huge trunk at the end of the bed, and a bookshelf. It was a relatively boring room, all told, almost like the guest room had been. "Okay, so far I got: play nice with the kiddies, eat when food's served and drink whatever, kiddies rank higher than me in the food chain, stay outta your room. I'm also guessin' I gotta stay the hell out of your business 'cuz you're picky about your privacy. Good so far?"

Tsuide smirked. "It will do, for now."

"All right, cool, cool. I'm gettin' outta your hair to go unpacked," Arak wandered out of the bedroom, and back to his own. He had tended to patients in their own homes in the past. That had been back when he had worked with elderly people, rather than the undead. Tsuide's house promised to be the most lenient one he had visited, and he had no real fear that Tsuide would have any relapses. So far, the complications had been next to none. Still, he supposed he would not be allowed to slack off too much. He emptied out his bags quickly, moving everything to the dressers.

When the topic of a nurse at home had first come up, Tsuide had balked, not wanting a stranger in his house. Arak had volunteered cheerfully, and had almost been rejected, but as it turned out, Jou was the more stubborn one and would not relent until Tsuide consented to at least having Arak over. If he had lived closer to Tsuide's neighborhood, he would have just commuted instead of imposing 24/7. Arak scoffed a little, grinning. "No way, this neighborhood's too ritzy for the likes of me."

His unpacking complete, Arak headed out into the living room to ogle all the different games and movies on the shelves. He was able to waste a good hour or two browsing. During that time, Tsuide settled on one of the living room's arm chairs and got started on the business of going through his mail.

"Hey, d'ya mind if I put a movie in?" Arak asked, holding one in his hands already. He knew Tsuide said he could use it freely, but he did not want to just pop one in and annoy him while he was obviously working.

"I don't care," Tsuide answered, not looking up from his letters. His right ear was twitching slowly, as if he were trying to keep from being outright annoyed.

The nurse did not say anything else, and went straight to the TV to put the movie in. He turned subtitles on and kept the volume down. He settled on one of the couches, tail curled into his lap, and half listened to Tsuide's annoyed mutterings. It was a lot of mail to sort through, but Arak was not about to butt his nose into Tsuide's business uninvited. As the minutes ticked by, the movie turned out to be a lot less entertaining than the things Tsuide muttered. Still, Arak considered the first afternoon that he stayed at the house a success because nothing went wrong, except maybe Tsuide getting a paper cut.

WARRIOR 3-4

2009-07-30T07:48:58Z

WARRIOR
Rating: M+
Characters: Mejirah, Joumae
Notes: And she chokes.

Joumae and Mejirah spent the week carefully setting out elaborate traps to catch the rat. Hidden surveillance cameras were added in unexpected places to narrow down the list of suspects. Anyone found following Meji or Jou with too much interest and not enough excuse to do so was looked into. Meji was better at manipulation and trapping, but it was Jou who had always been better at reading people and seeing every detail of a situation, right down to the finest hairs. Together, they made a nearly unstoppable team. They outed no less than seven spies from other companies over that week. Cutting them off and throwing them out in the street did not stop the robbery attempts. Someone was still watching and reporting.

At lunch one day, Mejirah and Joumae went down to the cafeteria. They never ate there. The food was more than acceptable, but they had always had it brought up to their offices because neither of them could let a good project rest when they were really working. Their presence alone caused their employees to stare openly in surprise. They got their food without incident and seated themselves at the table that was most in the center of the cafeteria, purposely making it possible to be heard from every corner.

"Hey, hey," Meji said abruptly, looking gleeful and speaking far louder than necessary, "I have something abso-fuckin'-lutely amazin' I'm workin' on. It's gonna make me a fuckin' trillionaire."

"Oh?" Jou raised a brow, leaning forward as if he were more than interested in what she had to say.

"Yea, yea, it's like this great thing that's gonna fuckin' make everyone's lives unbelievably awesome. I gotta keep it real closely guarded, though." She leered a moment, letting it hang in the air. Then, in a loud, conspiratorial whisper, she added, "Yanno how those fuckers tried robbin' First National, back when this shit started?"

"Sure, sure, of course."

"Well, the fuckers robbed the wrong box. I'm keepin' the secret six numbers down from that." Meji reclined in her chair and set to wolfing her food down, casually glancing around the room without turning her head. "Feel sorry for the fuckers, really, they ain't gonna be able to break into the market if they don't stop me..."

Joumae smiled and did not respond. He had seen the rat get up in a hurry and leave.

-----

The hired thugs caught him before he made it to the bathroom to make his call. By the time Joumae and Mejirah arrived on the scene, he was already black and blue and wheezing for mercy. His cellphone was deftly tossed to Meji. She snapped it out of the air, flicked it open, and scanned the list of saved numbers.

"Who is he working for?" Joumae asked, looking at the pitiful wretch huddled on the cold bathroom tiles. He had no love for Meji's thugs or their methods, but had consented that it was probably the only way to get the answers they needed. The only way to make it stop.

"Refuses to say, boss," one of the thugs answered, picking his teeth with a toothpick. Another gave the rat a kick in the ribs as if to remind him that he should say if he valued breathing.

"That's too fuckin' bad," Meji said quietly, ears curled back. Her tail blades clicked open and shut behind her. "I'm sure a trip down to the docks'll refresh his fuckin' memory." She tucked the cellphone in her pocket and turned away.

The thugs hauled the rat to his feet and were on their way out when he wheezed, "No, no, wait! I'll talk!"

Meji looked over her shoulder, bored, "But it's too fuckin' late."

The rat wept and blubbered and told them everything.

-----

"Slatehouse, again?" Jou asked again, sounding doubtful.

"Yea. What're the fuckin' odds? I thought we broke 'em already."

Neither spoke for a few minutes, looking out at the spectacular view Meji had from her office. Just as Meji was getting antsy and about to stand and rush off to go back to work or something more than just sitting there and worrying, Joumae spoke up, "I don't think he was the one we wanted."

"No," she agreed, grudgingly. It was too neat. "Or maybe he got told Slatehouse to throw us off."

"Exactly. I'm going to go look into it some more."

She watched him leave, and did not bother saying farewells. For a while, she just sat there, fingers drumming on the desktop. The intrigue was getting more and more annoying, and her patience was wearing thin. It had been fun, at first, to taunt them and to dangle the proverbial pie just out of their reach, but now... She growled and decided it was time to make her move before they did anything else.

Meji pulled her cell phone out, flipped it open, and dialed the number she rarely used. It was one that no one else knew she even had. She listened to the ringing with her lips pressed together tightly. There was a soft click, and the masculine voice on the other side answered, "Hello, lovely." That voice sent chills down her spine and heat pooling in places she wished it did not. She did not even like the man. He was just a tool of convenience.

"Yo," she muttered, phone pressed too close to her ear. "I have something you'll probably want."

"Mm," the voice agreed, "I assume you still want the thing we discussed before?"

"Yes."

There was a sharp intake of air, and the rustle of clothing. "Understood." Silence for a few moments more, and Meji wondered if he was going to say anything else. She waited impatiently, telling herself that she was not squirming in her seat. "Let's meet at 8, the usual place," the voice finally said, practically purring, "I would appreciate it if you wore that dress I like so much."

"Yea, whatever, fucker," she growled, slamming her phone shut. There was no way she was going to dress up for him. Even as she thought that, the phone buzzed, indicating that he had not quite been done with her. She turned it off and shoved it in her desk with a huff. He had really gotten under her skin, as usual. No matter how she tried to calm down for the rest of the day, she would not be able to focus and get any real work done.

-----

In the end, Meji did wear the dress. She just never made it to the restaurant to meet up with her date. They had planted a fake cabby to pick her up, and she had not realized she was being kidnapped until the taxi passed the restaurant up. The cabby smirked in the rearview mirror as gas filled the windowed off backseats. Meji's last thought as she fell unconscious was a garbled stream of expletives.

She should have seen it coming.

-----

Hours later, she woke to find herself bound quite imaginatively. Meji tested the bonds and groaned as pain radiated through her body. They had melted her sharp protrusions down, and they were still smarting. Her tail blades were the biggest source of pain. After the initial wave of nausea passed, she opened one eye and squinted down at her tail. They had not bothered to be gentle. The blades had been cut, and the edges were ragged and leaking, untended. The blood flow would not be enough to kill her, not quickly, but it would severely weaken her.

"I see you're awake," a female voice said off to the left of her head.

She flinched and grit her teeth. Each little sound reverberated in her head, until it felt like someone were actually stabbing a knife through her skull, splitting it. Dully, she wondered what the hell they had gassed her with. It had done a real number on her head. She made no sound except a low keening groan, fingers curling because her body could not due to the straps that held her down.

"I apologize for your discomfort, but I feel it was necessary." Meji heard the woman walking closer, and was aware of the shadow that fell over her, but could not open her eyes to look. Her headache had intensified with each word said. "You see, you are hiding something. Something that we want. And you are going to give it to us, if you value your life at all."

Meji would have laughed at that, if she were not too focused on not throwing up. Instead, she squinted her eyes open just a little and put on her biggest shit-eating grin, even though her teeth were gritted and it made the grin more of a grimace. "Pfft," she hissed, and squeezed her eyes shut against the light. She had been kidnapped once before, and had come away with more scars that she cared to count, but in the end, she had been triumphant. This time, she did not think she would be so lucky, not without help.

"Very well," the woman said, all brisk business tones, "Allow me to persuade you." Those words heralded Mejirah's realization that she had absolutely no idea what pain was.

WARRIOR 3-3

2009-07-30T04:33:36Z

WARRIOR
Rating: T
Characters: Mejirah, Joumae
Notes: The noose tightens...

The project Mejirah had been working so diligently on was, in fact, a robot. She did not remember that she had told Jou that she was not going to work on a robot until she was already at 15% failure rate prediction, and by then she decided it was too late to bother changing course. She was in the project's grasp and eager to see it done. If he got upset with her over that little lie, she would just point out how jumpy he was being and accuse him of not trusting her. Then she would ply him with dinner and dessert to soothe his wounded ego, and go right back to her nefarious scheming.

The robot in question would be a little larger than any of the other models Brackwater Tech had released. The Felix line was Brackwater's most commercially successful, and they were just a little larger than house cats. Meji had briefly considered the possibility of mass producing her first robot, the A.E.S.I.R.I.A.S., but had quickly realized it was too large to produce for profit. Too dangerous, besides. A.E.S.I.R.I.A.S. was a dragon, just a little smaller than a Venaesi, and had been designed specifically for Ezetah's protection. That the robotic dragon had never succeeded in its mission was not for lack of trying. Eze had always been self-reliant, even as a kid. Trusting civilians, or even private investors in wars, with something like that had been out of the question. That had lead to inventing many smaller robots for household use, culminating in the creation of the Felix models. The Felix models had different functions based on their models, but were primarily for pampered housewives.

Mejirah clicked and clacked away on her laptop, chewing a piece of gum. She kept close tabs on D.O.F.F.'s failure predictions and adjusted the code some more. She intended for this new robot to be similar to the Felix models, but aimed at a different audience. Where the Felix did household chores, this one would be for self defense. It would have no weapons, but ample shields. She imagined law enforcement would appreciate it the most, and planned to see to it that she gave them just enough to have them eating out of the palm of her hand.

Even as she worked, the attempts to rob her various bank vaults and secret stashes continued. Meji made sure to make at least one trip out every day to plant more traps. Not all of the thieves were caught or revealed to the public, but neither did they get anything of use. She even started leaving mocking notes just to rile them up. Whoever thought they could get away with trying to steal from her deserved to be mocked. They would not get a thing out of her, and she privately hoped they would get angry enough to start making stupid mistakes and leave themselves open for counter attacks.

When D.O.F.F. finally announced an acceptable failure rate, Meji made the move to the warehouse to begin the practical construction. Jou, of course, noticed, and followed her over to find out what the big project had been.

"A robot?" he asked, staring at the freshly printed schematics that Meji had pinned up on the cork board. "I thought you said you weren't doing one..." He did not sound accusatory, merely slightly confused.

"I was thinkin' 'bout another project when I said that, but this one wanted doin' first." She was glad she would not have to return fire. It was safe grounds. Meji hummed a little and walked the length of the warehouse, ensuring that everything was secure and there were no blinds open. There was still the chance that spies might try to steal the schematic and get it produced before she did. Not that she expected them to succeed if they did. The schematic still had many coded labels on it that only she could figure out.

"Oh." Joumae turned to watch her, and then shrugged. "Shall I get some security out here?"

"Yea, yea, whatever," Meji said agreeably enough, already digging around for the parts and tools she was going to need. "Keep 'em outta my hair."

"Of course. I'll be by later to drag you to dinner, though."

"Hmpf. Fuckin' tosser."

"Bitch."

They grinned at each other, and then Jou left. Meji watched him go, and listened to the locks clicking into place on the door. She was glad Jou seemed to have let the suspicion go. While she had been busy with the project, he had been busy dismantling WARRIOR. They had not discussed what was going to happen to all of the employees that had been involved. Jou probably did not want to think about it. Meji had already planned the basics. She was not going to have them all killed, not when they could still be an asset. No, she had other methods. She would call in her contacts and see to it that their memories were wiped clean, when the time came.

She set thoughts of the WARRIOR aside because it only lead to her thinking about the chips sitting safely in the deposit box, and that only lead to her wondering what, exactly, she intended to do with them. Doubts followed closely on the heels of those thoughts. What was she even wanting to keep them for, if she did not want to use them? "Fuck," Mejirah muttered irritably at herself, and dragged a box of various parts over to the work table. She intended to begin building the brain, as it was the least likely to explode, and would be starting with parts of the Felix models to save herself some time. There were several partial brains and even more complete Felix heads, and she pulled a stool up and began prying them apart.

The work consumed her until Joumae returned for dinner, as promised. He had brought oriental take out, instead of dragging her out, though, and Meji was grateful because she had made great progress on the brain and was loathe to let it out of her sight even for a moment. They settled around an unused work table. "Fuck yea, you got all the good shit," Meji said, grinning and digging in.

"Of course." Jou snagged his share of the food before Meji got to scarf it all. He glanced over at the other work table, ears flicking a little. "Making good progress?"

"Yep."

"Mm, good, good." They ate in silence for a few minutes, then, and then Jou broke the silence to ask, oh so quietly, "Meji... what's up with all the thieves?"

"Eh, yanno, fuckin' people'll always try to topple our monopoly," she answered, dismissively as possible.

Jou watched her carefully, clearly not buying it. "This," he gestured over at the schematics, "Doesn't seem like enough reason to risk life and reputation to try and trump you. You have something else, don't you? Something... really big, and someone knows about it."

Mejirah chewed her food slowly, thinking about all the responses she could give. His reactions were an unpredictable factor, so she did not try thinking about what he would do to any of them. It would not do any good. Finally, she swallowed, and shrugged, "Guess we got a fuckin' rat in our numbers, if someone outside of us knows anything. Question is... who, and what the fuck're we gonna do 'bout it?"

He was staring at her, probably trying to guess if she were just putting on a front or not. In truth, she did not quite know why so many attempts were being made. She was suspicious that there was a rat in her pie because after the first attempt, there should have been a lapse as the thieves learned not to underestimate her. Instead, the attacks had increased, as if they hoped to whittle her down until she just gave them whatever it was they sought. To add to the suspicions, they always attacked the very next day after she planted a trap, so someone had to be watching her every moves. In fact, she intended to transfer the current project from one warehouse to another whenever she had to leave it.

Joumae finally spoke, apparently satisfied with whatever he saw, "I guess we'll just have to catch 'em and find out who they work for." His expression was not at all nice. No, he was being predatorial, and it always made Meji grin fiercely when he showed that side of himself.

"They're fuckin' boned, with you after 'em."

The smaller dragon only smiled, with just a few too many teeth showing, and gestured to their food. "Let's just eat for now. We'll plan rat catching techniques later."

WARRIOR: 3-2

2009-07-29T10:39:24Z

WARRIOR
Rating: T
Characters: Mejirah, Joumae
Notes: Traps are sprung and nooses are strung.

The trap was sprung by the next day. Mejirah reclined behind her desk, watching the most prominent news channel on the largest monitor, while the others displayed the lesser channels as they struggled to keep up with the newest, hottest topic. The bank had called her first thing that morning, before it was even light out, and she had placed a few calls to get the tip dropped to the news mongers. Now everyone knew that Slatehouse Inc., had tried to rob her. To top it off, the vault they had tried to break into had been almost empty. All that had been in there were the gutted remains of a far outdated Felix prototype, something she had once jealously guarded but now had no need for. In other words, the fools had ended up with nothing of value but their lost reputation. She chuckled, pleased with herself. The fact that she could press charges over the incident was only an added bonus. Slatehouse Inc. might never recover.

There was a soft knock on her door. Joumae was the only one who ever knocked, and the only one who had access to her office. He could have just walked right in if he wanted to, but he had more courtesy than Meji. She was often grateful for it. At that precise moment, however, she had nothing to hide. Reaching over, she muted the television volume via her laptop. "Come in," she called, grinning, and watched her friend enter. He had a newspaper in hand, and he strode right up to her desk and dropped it in front of her. They had already printed an article on the robbery. Meji was impressed. The old school medias rarely kept up.

"What is this about?" Jou asked, squinting up at her. His long ears were curled back, and his arms were folded.

"Cuttin' out some of the fuckin' competition, Jou," she replied easily, pushing the newspaper back towards him and feigning boredom. "What's it look like?"

"It looks like you're up to something. Like you want the world to think you have something important." He paused, and extended his arms to lean on the desk, palms flattened. "Do you?"

Meji gave him a long look, contemplating her options. He was too damn smart for his own good, she reflected. Jou had a knack for picking up on her moods, and although lying had always been easy, it was still a close thing when it came to dealing with Jou. She ran her tongue along the inside of her cheek. He would not let her keep a copy of the WARRIOR under any circumstance. Not even if she swore in blood that she was never going to use it for herself, sell it, or let her enemies have it. "I might," she conceded, remembering that she did have a few projects Jou did not know about, "But I'm not ready to reveal. It ain't fuckin' done."

Jou's left ear flicked. In the broken shards of mirror that made up his scales, Meji glimpsed a dark shape moving, as if they were little windows and something was coming closer. It always happened when he was good and truly annoyed or angry. Meji had never seen him angry enough to know what that dark shape was, and hoped she never would. "Is it a robot or something?"

"Nah," she answered truthfully and shrugged at him. It was not the first time she had kept a project completely under wraps until she was finally satisfied and ready to trust anyone else to see it. Jou might have been her best friend, but even he was not exempt from her paranoia. Meji gestured vaguely, elaborating before Jou even asked, "I was procrastinatin' 'cuz it was evadin' me. Think I figured the shittin' thing out, so I was makin' sure to box a copy before I went any further."

"Right..." Jou lowered his head, green eyes seeming to stare through the desk as if it held all the answers. He straightened and stuffed his hands in his pockets. Meji could not get a good look at his scales to tell if his anger had truly passed or if he were just faking it. When he looked up again, he gave her what she thought of as his puppy eyes, and asked slowly, "Is that really all?"

Even though she was inwardly kicking herself, Meji put on her best, most innocent smile, "Would I fuckin' lie to you?"

Joumae just gave her a look, sighed, and picked up the newspaper. "Whatever," he muttered, "Sorry to have bothered you." He turned and left, raising his hand in a farewell just before he stepped out of the office.

Meji did not try to stop him. She sank back in her chair, feeling annoyed. What right did Jou have to make her feel guilty, she wondered, sourly. Her plan for the WARRIOR was not yet clear, but she had already taken a great many steps to ensure that until she knew exactly what to do with it, no one but herself would know about its continued existence. If Jou were not so set on dismantling the project, he would have been proud with how cautious she was being about it. She grit her teeth and shut the monitors off with a soft grunt. "Damn him," she muttered, more angry with herself than Jou.

She spent ten minutes doing nothing more than spacing out while her temper raged. It had been a good many years since she had been at the complete mercy of her anger. When the fire in her heart had died down, Mejirah pulled her laptop close and began navigating the complicated network of files. Everything was mislabeled and hidden so well, with multiple passwords, that she was the only one who could find anything of value on it. Having told Jou that she had some project underway, she was going to have to dig up an older project and at least show some of her work. He would get even more suspicious if she did not. The file she wanted was hidden in an extremely explicit video file that contained too many midgets and goats. She ignored the porn in favor of the extremely coded hidden file.

It was a word document containing codes for several schematics. The codes were written backwards, bottom to top and right to left. They were also coded from Draconic to Common, scrambled, with chunks of false code written in Freisc thrown in, and then finally converted to computer jargon. Meji hummed as she located the program to translate it, and soon had herself what looked very much like the nutrition facts for one strawberry cheesecake. Satisfied that everything was in order, she closed her laptop, stood, and left her office to venture to the next room, where the rows of computers waited her pleasure. She set the laptop at the one desk that had no computer, and went to change the keycodes on the doors. It would not do at all to have Jou barge in while she was working.

After that, Meji set about turning on all of the computers and hooking them up to her laptop. She would spend the rest of the afternoon converting the schematic over to the different computers and running various theoretical tests. Each computer had its own function. There was one that would convert the data into an actual schematic instead of just a bunch of well coded jargon, making it possible for her to print them out for redistribution. There was one that would take the schematic's data and begin constructing 3d models, and there was one that would animate that 3d model to show how it would ideally move. There was one that faced the door and did nothing but run pong and solitaire while running hidden programs that would calculate the probability of failure.

Meji was in her element, working on another invention that would no doubt make her even more filthy rich than she already was. If only she could advance past the initial planning stage and make something that would not blow up as soon as she tried to put it together. The computers could run all of their fancy tests and make all of the necessary images possible, but they would never be able to conclude whether it would really work. The only way to do that was to get a less than 5% probability of failure and to take the project to the warehouse where she put together all of the original prototypes. Her ears flicked with annoyance. The project was far from that stage.

"46% failure?!" she hissed, teeth gritted, "Fuck you, D.O.F.F!" Immaturely, she flipped the pong-playing computer off, and then set about adjusting the coding to see if she could improve her odds. Her tail blades clicked anxiously behind her because even if she was working, her mind kept straying back to the looks Jou had given her and to the hidden copy of WARRIOR. Her real next move had yet to be decided.