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 Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:49 pm
Deimos blinked and his eyebrow wings arched. "Oook then.." He mumbled. That woman was a wierdo.. Not like he didn't get enough of those already.
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:16 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:18 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:19 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 2:20 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:06 pm
Background Check, part V
"Rise and shine, ******** door was blown off its hinges, landing heavily on the floor of the cheap motel room. Lethe, The Piper, and Jean-Michel stormed in, guns raised. There was no opposition to their forcible entry - from the look of it, the room was empty. The Piper looked around carefully, finger resting lightly on his gun's trigger.
"Lethe, check the bathroom - Jean, th' other bedroom. ******** got no where to hide."
Lethe nodded silently and trudged through the trash-strewn floor, eyes sweeping the shadowed corners of the room, seeking out her prey. She kicked the bathroom door open, the cheap plywood smashing under her heavy boots. An awesome stink hit her in the face, making her gag slightly. Flicking the light switch, Lethe looked around, trying to hold her breath.
"Oh, gross...."
Kingston lay dead in the bathtub - a baggie of white pills clutched in one hand. He'd been dead a couple days, by the look of it. Lethe shook her head and shuddered, stalking back out.
"He's in th' bathroom, Piper. He's dead," she said, pushing her mask up and wincing as the stink of the dead body hit her again. The Piper gave a loud curse and stormed past her into the bathroom, and opened fire on the body.
"Every goddamn time I help one o' these lowlifes, this is the thanks I get!" he shouted, emptying a clip into Kingston's body. Storming back out, he snapped his fingers at Lethe.
"Go find them eggs. Go on."
Lethe nodded again and stowed her gun in the holster under her shirt. The room was larger than she'd thought before - a small hall lead to two separate rooms, one presumably the second bedroom. Jean was busy ripping it apart, and gave Lethe a cold look as she observed. Returning it with ire, she opened the second door. It was a closet. Switching on the light, she gave a breathed curse of surprise. Eggs like jewels lay cracked and broken on the floor of the closet, hollow and fragile. Picking up a shell, she poked her head in further, only to jerk back out in ******** stream of water had hit her square in the eyes. Rubbing them dry and cursing, she pulled her gun out again and kicked the door open.
"Alright, jackass, out of there NOW!"
"Jaaaak-assss?"
Lethe drew back, confused. That sounded like.... like a kid. Grabbing blindly in the shadows, her hand grasped something cool and slightly wet. Yanking her arm back, she gave a screech as a child tumbled into her.
"Holy s**t!"
The blue boy looked up at he curiously.
"Shiiiiiit?"
Jean-Michel gave a nasty laugh behind Lethe and the child. She turned to give him a venomous look, and he drew back slightly.
"Hey, PIPER!" he called, looking dour as he saw the broken shells.
"What? You find my money?"
Lethe lead the boy out, uncertain what to do.
"No, man, but I found a kid. A water-kid."
The Piper stared at the boy furiously, and gave a loud curse.
"Dammit, they hatched! What I gone do now? Goddamn things hatched!"
The boy grabbed at Lethe's arm, frightened by the Piper's anger. She looked down at him uncomfortably, and gave him a pat on the head. He smiled brightly at her, leaning into her touch.
"s**t!" he chirped happily, hugging Lethe's leg. Lethe tried to shake him off, but as he clung to her, she gave a resigned grunt and picked him up.
"Damn straight."
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:57 pm
Background Check, part VI
Three years later.
"Lamar, wake up. We gotta go."
Lamar twitched and rolled over, squinting.
"Lethe, do you even know what time it is?" he asked sleepily, looking cross. The only reply was a sharp cuff to the side of his head.
"OW! Dammit, what was that for?"
Lethe was a shadowed figure, tense and fidgeting in the dark room.
"Don't talk. Get up. Move. NOW."
Lamar gave a mutter and whistled for Rhedyn. The creature scuttled out from under his bed, bouncing around in manic energy. He quieted her with a look, stretching and stumbling out of bed. Lethe was buzzing around packing everything in sight. He caught her by the arm, looking angry.
"What the hell. What's going on?" he asked, grabbing at the light switch and flicking it on. He gave a cry as his eyes adjusted to the light, and stumbled back.
Lethe was missing an eye.
Bowing her head and tugging her hair over the bloodied socket, she shook her head urgently.
"No time. Take Rhedyn and go. I'll be out in a minute."
He nodded numbly, dragging a shirt over his head and rebuckling his jeans. As the now fully-grown Lamar left the room, Lethe collapsed on the floor and gave a rattling sob, fingers gingerly touching the eyeless socket.
That son of a b***h Jean-Michel would pay for what he'd done. She'd make sure of it.
---
Living on the run was not something Lethe was used to. She and Lamar moved from town to town, one motel to the other, living on the fringes of society. She'd picked up a couple more stragglers here or there - bizarre little robots called Sprockets, a little two-headed snake, and that damn jade tiled skull. She didn't care if they slowed her down, though - they were company she needed desperately. More often than not they kept her sane and from hunting down Jean-Michel.
It was the middle of July when Lethe decided to move them to Durem. They lived in the poorer blocks for a few weeks, before abandoning the city in favor of travelling outside Gaian borders.
"Lethe, I dunno if going over the desert's such a good idea," Lamar said mildly as he steered the beat-up rental car through the city.
"What if we break down or something?"
Lethe gave him a cold look with her one eye.
"Shut the ******** up and keep driving." she snapped, taking a long drag on her cigarette. Lamar shook his head and complied, laying on the horn a couple times to get flocks of people out of the way.
Laying her head against the cool glass of the window, Lethe made a choked-off sound. Lamar glanced over and leaned back off the wheel, looking worried.
"It'll be okay. I promise." he said, reaching over and taking her hand.
Lethe nodded mutely, squeezing his hand in return and scratching at the bandages that covered her shot-out eye.
"Why did he shoot you, Lethe?"
Taking another long drag, she exhaled the smoke slowly.
"I found out what he was tainting my heroin stock with. Remember all those junkies that started ODing all over the place in Aekea? That's what the papers said - ODing. Jean was putting ******** rat poison in what I was selling - he was setting me up, trying to get favor from the Piper over me. The b*****d knew I knew what he was doing... he ******** shot me in the head." she spat, tossing the cigarette out the window.
"He shot me!" she shouted, beating the dashboard with her fists and raging.
Lamar said nothing more, but just let her work it out.
He didn't want to tell her that what went around came around.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:57 pm
Background Check, part VII
Lethe rested against the side of the car, looking at the abandoned building with something like appreciation. Lamar stood beside her, looking worried. The sunlight that glared off the flat, featureless desert didn't seem to touch the place - it was though it was cloaked in a gray haze.
"It doesn't look very stable."
Lethe gave a shrug and lit a cigarette. Taking a drag, she exhaled a plume of smoke through her nose.
"It's a fixer-upper. It'll be a good place to squat for a month or two."
"It gives me the creeps."
Lethe laughed for the first time in nearly four months, shoving at his shoulder playfully.
"Please, you sound like a worried old woman. It's perfect. What could go wrong?"
---
Lethe grew to regret speaking those words.
Her last clear memory for a very long time was being stabbed through the heart, blackness, and a voice... a name...
Ivan? Isolde? Ifor?
....Yeah. That was is.
Ifor.
Now, everything was pain. She couldn't bear the light of day in her current condition - the possession had mutated her body so badly, even the most flawed Ulathae was better off than she was. Everything hurt so, so badly...
"Lamar," she gasped, curling and writhing on the cold soil in the complex's basement.
He'd gone long before, after her death - there was no one left to take care of her, to comfort her.
She was alone again.
---
How the Marquist found her, roaming as she had been the streets of Durem in her demon's body, half-starved and nearly insane with pain, Lethe never recalled. Her mind had not been in the most stable of conditions at the time anyway - she was fairly certain she'd tried to kill the poor woman five or six times. But she had found the girl, and taken her back to the workshop. The memory of hours of torment at the end of the Marquist's tapper were fresh in her mind. Her arms, face, and back were raw with stinging pain from the tightly packed needles' repetitive touch.
The ink still burned on her skin as Lethe crawled up the steps of the giant cathedral. It was near dawn - there was a thin line of pink that broke the velvet blue of the fading night sky. Every time she tried to focus on something, she grew severely dizzy - she'd gotten used to the loss of depth perception. Having two functioning eyes was difficult to readapt to.
Making it up the stair at last, Lethe pounded weakly on the thick wooden doors.
"Please....please help me," she croaked, huddled on the stone stoop and shivering. Her fingers trailed down the wood as she passed out, leaving long gouges behind as her freakishly sharp nails lightly scraped the surface.
It was hours before she was discovered and brought inside.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 7:31 pm
Background Check, part VIII
"I made you some tea."
Lethe started and looked up, smiling slightly. She took the cup from Brother Lentham's ungainly hands, bowing her head in thanks.
"Drink - it'll make you feel better," he said kindly, patting her lank black hair gently before quietly withdrawing from her room. Lethe sat on her cot and sipped at the spicy tea quietly, enjoying the flood of warmth. Leaning against the rough cut walls of her room, she looked around again, taking pleasure in seeing with two eyes again.
The monk's cell was hardly what one could call luxurious with its spare furnishings and bare walls, but the sunlight that streamed in from the little window turned the stone walls to gold. It illuminated everything, that little window, from the crucifix hanging above the desk to the little cot. She loved the feeling of light on her skin - it made her feel clean and whole, something she hadn't felt for a terribly long time.
Picking up the book she'd been absorbed in before the priest had entered, Lethe turned the reopened it carefully, trying hard not to let her claws tear the pages.
---
The cathedral was Lethe's home for a long time. She turned eighteen there, sleeping in a borrowed monk's cell and whiling away the hours reading. The priest who had found her never tried to make her speak - indeed, Lethe had not said a word in months.
She earned her keep sorting out the donations of clothing, claiming a piece here or there for herself. She moved like a shadow through the vaulting halls, running errands for the priest inside the building. She hadn't set foot outside in months, and she made no indication of ever wanting to leave. The priest was the only one she ever showed any emotion towards, the only one she interacted with - she avoided the other priests, nuns, and the throngs of worshipers like the plague.
She was afraid of them, in a way. Afraid of what they would think if they saw her, with her animal's eyes and claws, her long, inhuman shadow, and the coal black tattoos that spiraled and whorled over her body.
The priest was the only one she trusted not to judge her.
---
"My dear, will you come with me? I've something I need to discuss with you."
Lethe followed the priest to the roof of the cathedral with complete trust, trailing behind him like a shadow. The climb up the steep stairs was arduous and made her pant for breath after awhile, but still she followed him. They stopped on a little platform after twenty minutes long climbing, and he pushed a door open. Light blinded Lethe for a second, but she let herself be guided outside as the priest took her hand and lead her forward.
Blinking as her eyes watered against the bright light, Lethe gave a gasp. They were on the cathedral roof - she could see for miles in all directions.
Including a black patch in the desert outside Durem's walls, and a faint outline of an island.
"Beautiful view, isn't it?" Brother Lentham said easily, taking a deep breath and exhaling in a happy sigh. Lethe nodded eagerly; it had been a long time since she'd been outside.
"You see there?" he said, taking her hand again and pointing off into the distance. "That's the town where I was born. A little place called Barton. You'd like it there. Lots of friendly people."
Lethe squeezed Brother Lentham's hand, her sharp eyes able to pick out details in the distant walled town. It looked like a pleasant place. She smiled brightly up at him, her fangs glinting in the sunlight. Brother Lentham patted her head with something like affection, pointing out in the distance again.
"You see that place? That's called Aekea. Do you know it?"
Aekea....the name was vaguely familiar. Lethe nodded slightly, trying to recall....
"The b*****d was putting rat poison.... trying to win the Piper's favor over me....he shot me!"
Oh, yes. She remembered. She looked away from the city, shivering and clinging to Brother Lentham's arm. Silent tears welled in her yellow eyes, and she gave a mute sob. Brother Lentham hugged her, knowing he'd accidentally upset her.
"There, there. It's alright...Lethe."
Lethe jerked in surprise and twisted away from Brother Lentham, shivering more violently. Why had he brought her up here, if only to stir up awful memories? She glared at him, tears still running down her face.
Brother Lentham smiled kindly, a bit of sadness hinted in it.
"I know you're name, child. You've a reputation in the city that precedes you."
Though his tone was still gentle, shame flamed in Lethe. He knew what she had been - it shamed her to look at him. She bowed her head and fell to her knees, shoulders shaking with the force of her silent sobbing.
Brother Lentham knelt beside her, tipping her head up carefully.
"I do not begrudge you the guilt you feel - it is rightly felt, I fear."
Lethe winced and tried to bow her head again, but Brother Lentham held her head up. His soft eyes seemed to bore into hers as he looked at her.
"But I also do not begrudge you the penance you have served, nor the price you paid for your past crimes. Lethe, you did terrible things, and the retribution was equal to the deed. But now... now, all is new and forgiven."
Lethe shook her head - he didn't understand. Nothing could ever make right what she'd done before.
"Nahalethe Haderka, stop that, now." he said softly, releasing his hold. Lethe blinked uncomprehending for a moment - she hadn't heard her birth name in a long time.
"I know a bit about you, Lethe." he said, smiling at her surprise. Lethe regarded him curiously, a faint smile echoing his. He brushed a thatch of her wild hair back, a fingertip tracing the thin tendril of her Marque that creeped down her face and ended in a tight spiral.
"The burdens and gifts given you are part of you're redemption, or penance, or whatever you want to call it," he said quietly. "I know what has been taught me from the Church. I've told you before why I entered the priesthood, yes?"
Lethe nodded, listening aptly.
"I wa once like you, in a way. I did terrible things. And I paid for them. I chose to come here because serving God, or gods, or whatever there is that knows us and oversees us, because the military could not give me purpose. I am a man of the cloth - but I learn, know, and accept God in all forms and incarnations."
Lethe nodded again, though she was beginning to wonder what it had to do with her. Brother Lentham took her black-clawed hands in his, her pale skin looking dead white against the grenade-mutilated scar tissue of his ruined left hand. He looked up at her again, pensive.
"I was chosen to study God and follow the Will as my studies and soul dictated," he said after a time. "I believe you are chosen to carry a burden, a terrible, difficult burden. You carry it well and without complaint. It is seen and known." he paused to touch the facial whorl again. "Lethe, there are things chosen for you I cannot see nor guess. Some are dark and will lead back to echoes of your former life - but some are so beautiful, it uplifts my very soul to think of them."
He stood, pulling her up with him. She rose and clung to him, shivering again slightly. He pushed her away, regarding her seriously.
"You came here to this land a fugitive. You remade yourself as a powerful, dangerous criminal. You were remade not by your own hand, and carry the mark and power of it still. How will you remake yourself to fit your new life, Nahalethe Haderka?"
Lethe pulled away gently, thinking on Brother Lentham's words. She wandered out towards the edge of the church, smiling at the breeze that blew across the roof top. Birds perched on the steeple and on the railings called out to each other in rough, raucous voices. She watched the inky black birds with pleasure, thinking still.
It was a long time before she turned back to Brother Lentham.
"My name is Crow," she said.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:13 pm
Background Check, part IX
Lethe, or Crow, as it was, sat out on a sidewalk curb, a backpack beside her. The church was a few blocks away - she hadn't gotten the nerve to wander out of eyeshot of the place. Digging into the pocket of her army coat, she pulled out a battered pack of cigarettes. Patting herself down, looking for a lighter or matches, she gave a huff of annoyance as she failed to find anything. Chewing on the cigarette's filter, she leaned back on her elbows and looked up at the dark night sky.
She hadn't seen the stars and moon for so long, everything looked new.
Smiling at the thought, she pushed herself back up and stood. Looking around the deserted street, she shrugged and called out anyway.
"Anybody got a light?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:20 pm
Charlotte had been walking down the street fairly slowly, admiring the city. She traveled in silence, having nobody to talk to in any way, shape, or form.
It was then that she saw the girl on the sidewalk...or, rather, heard her.
She followed the voice and approached the girl, standing a few feet away in an attempt to maintain her personal bubble. People tended to shy away from her if she wandered too close anyway.
"That stuff'll kill yah, yanno," she said with a faint Vavvian lilt.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:26 pm
Chewing on the filter again, Crow eyed the girl with interest. Well... she had to start talking to someone outside herself sooner or later. Might as well try to start while she still had the courage for it.
"Yeah, I guess." she replied, taking the cigarette out of her mouth. Digging the pack back out of her pocket, she made as though to stuff the butt back in. After a moment's consideration, she crumpled the two together and tossed them away.
"Always meant to quit, anyway."
Picking up her bag and slinging it over her shoulder heavily, she took a couple steps forward, bright eyes taking in the girl. It was nice to have company outside a priest for a change.
"So. Where you headed?" she asked.
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:31 pm
Charlotte shrugged, completely amazed by the girl's reaction. She had certainly not expected any company on her trek into oblivion.
"I'm just...walking," she gave a small, close-lipped smile, "Feel free to join me, if you'd like." It took her a moment to realize that they hadn't been properly introduced.
"M'names Charlotte," she stuck out her hand for the girl to shake, "They call me Rabid."
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 9:37 pm
Crow returned the smile, giving her gloves a tug to make sure they were on properly before shaking Charlotte's hand.
"Pleased to meet you. My name's Le- ....Crow. Crow Ezili Adyamaur."
She felt pleased with the middle and last name - the syllables were fun to play with. She finally had a cool name.
"So, Rabid. Off wandering where ever the wind blows then, huh?" she asked, already liking the idea. "As long as you don't mind me taggin' along, I'd like to," she added, looking hopeful.
"I need a good change of scenery, anyway."
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