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 Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:43 pm
And then she woke up.
In a sense, she woke up. Her red, bloodshot orbs opened to the darkness of a quiet room. Under her was a bed. Over her was a canopy. To the sides, red translucent drapes.
Who was she? Where was she? Why was she? Was she a she? A he? An it? No, she was Riyo. She thought she was Riyo. No, Riyo was dead.
She was dead.
She had felt herself die. No, Riyo hadn't died. Riyo had become empty. An empty husk of metal. A tool for the hands of humans. Something worse than dead.
She was empty.
You could see it in her eyes. There was a vast emptiness inside. A void of emotions. Broken glass. The pain still seized her. The feeling of every fiber being torn apart and reconstructed.
She couldn't deal with it.
So she simply didn't. Wide eyes stared up at the canopy until it was acceptable to sit up. On the inside she was tearing herself apart, searching for what she should be now. Who she should be, but on the outside there was nothing but a shadow of what had once been. Riyo didn't want to take anything in, so she didn't. She just didn't. They were only objects around her. Not antique furniture. Not cat scratching posts. Not feline comrades. Just things. She was just a thing too. Her body was just a thing. Her hands were simply things.
Just things...
For a creature so driven by emotion, it was amazing that she could feel this numb.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:07 pm
Death had not come on swift wings for Titus. He had endured the torment until the final blow silenced him. The demon expected to wake in the nurse's office or a FEAR clinic but he woke in neither. Instead he found himself staring once again at the patterned ceiling of his room. Had anything he had just seen really happen?
The pain was too real to forget, a ghost of the sensation still washing over him making him bolt upright to examine his surroundings and his leg. It was fine, whole, and not mangled. The muscle was intact and not blown to pieces, the bone was not broken leaving his leg in an odd angle. He was fine. Wasn't he?
Eyes darted around the room again and Titus realized now he was drenched in a cold sweat. He was searching for any signs of his team but why would they be here? This was his room, that was such a foolish notion. It had been a dream. A nightmare. But it had been so real. A fabrication of the mind driven deeper than Titus had ever managed to do with a nightmare.
Screams normally delighted the demon so but somehow he had a feeling that the one he had heard from the blonde demoness would haunt him. Wait....Riyo. Had she really been turned into a weapon or had it been a dream? Was it just an illusion?
Suddenly Titus found himself getting out of bed before he realized what he was doing, immediately prepared to hobble but reminding himself that his leg was uninjured. With haste he dressed in simple jeans and a button up shirt before leaving his room without even putting his shoes on. It wasn't like he was leaving the building but he wanted to know..Had to know. There were also questions, hundreds of them looming in his mind. Would Riyo have the answers? Titus had no clue but it was worth a shot.
He found her room relatively fast, hesitating for only a moment with his fist held up before he finally banged on the door. "Hey are you in there?" The twinge of concern he might have felt, the worry that lingered like a fly, was well hidden under his almost annoyed tone like he had been waiting for the feline to get up and she was late.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:39 pm
The feline's head turned slowly as a noise broke the deafening silence. Words were spoken. What had they said?
Was she in there? Who? Was who in there? Something was certainly there.
Ten long seconds lingered before there was a THUD on the other side of the door. The hard surface beneath her bruised her knees as she greeted it with the lack of grace and vitality she usually held. It was cold. A cold surface. Did that mean she was warm?
Ten more seconds went by until the sound of scraping picked up. The ghoul scooted across the floor in an effort to investigate the noise that had been made. The noise and the words. But now there was an obstacle in the way.
Using the door handle to lift herself up, the ghoul mechanically undid the locks. It took her a little while to get them quite right, but when she was certain they were all in the right place, the door creaked open.
When the ghoul couldn't hold on to the door anymore, her claws dug into the frame, legs awkwardly positioned as if she might fall. Her tail was dragging behind her on the ground.
What was this? This strange thing in front of her? It had a strange smell.
Her dull eyes stared up at him, unblinking. Head slightly turned downward. This was familiar, as everything else had been. All these things around her.
The cats in her room seemed disturbed by Riyo's actions, slowly approaching and sitting around the ghoul, looking up at her in confusion. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:31 pm
There was nothing but silence for what felt like the longest time and then finally the sound of a thunk. It was the first sign of life and it was enough to give Titus that slight feeling of relief that Riyo was in fact here. Raising his hand he decided to knock again after a bit of a wait. What as she doing? Crawling her way over?
"You mind answering the door, Princess?"
He heard scraping now and pressed an ear to the door trying to get an idea of what it was. What the hell was going on in her room? It sounded close.
And then the lock was being undone....no wait....locks. Lots of locks. How many jack damn locks did this ghoul have? It seemed to take her an eternity to fiddle with them all to pry the door open. Titus took a moment to stare at the door frame expecting far more locks than there actually were. Then his eyes finally settled on Riyo and his brow quirked at her state. So strong and yet so fragile. Like a glass cannon.
"Good to see you're in one piece...so to speak." He looked her up a down for a moment. His relief was real to find the blonde demoness and not an object, but that expression on her face. It just wouldn't do.
"From you're rather disheveled state I am assuming you participated in the same dream that I did and it wasn't all me." Still, Titus was resolved to go back to his previous commitment and Never. Sleep. Again.
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:56 pm
Disheveled indeed. The ghoul's top was jostled in an odd angle as if she'd been tossing and turning all night, and there were dry stains where many tears had flown from her closed eyes. Not to mention her blonde hair was a mess in and of itself. But Riyo didn't seem to notice.
As he spoke, the ghoul just watched his mouth move. Sharp. That was the first word she thought of when she saw his teeth. Very sharp. He had things sticking out of his head. And another different kind of things on his back. He was a weird thing.
Familar. No, something about being familiar screamed to turn back. Dream? What dream? Riyo dully tilted her head to the side as he finished talking. Her expression didn't change. The ghoul's unoccupied hand started to reach out. To touch him. To see what he felt like, but a jolt snapped through her brain almost immediately, causing her pupils to focus and dilate, then a small muscle spasm.
No. She shouldn't touch this.
Instead, she turned around, back to the silence of the room. The ghoul began to walk away, but found it hard to balance when her tail was pretty much dead weight. She ended up slamming into a wall as she tilted to the left, and slid down like a bird that had just flown into a window.
That had hurt. She had felt pain.
The cats practically jumped at the loud sound of Riyo hitting a wall, nervously pacing as they watched their owner stumble all over the place.
Instead of standing back up, Riyo simply let herself curl inward into a ball on the floor. Why get up anyways? What was the point? No, no need to get up. It was cool down here.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:16 pm
Titus paused when Riyo's hand started to reach out toward him unsure what she had in mind. His brow quirked curiously but he didn't move. It didn't seem he had to because she eventually recoiled back as if realizing it was a bad idea.
He then watched her attempt to move back into her room only to fumble and run into the wall. "Have you been drinking?" The demon huffed moving into the room and shooing the cats away in his path. "Back up rodents." They were close enough to rats.
Crouching down beside the feline he looked into her expressionless face. "Oi, You realize you're in the waking world, ya?" He reached out to poke her forehead. "If you're going to let what you saw and experienced drag you down then you really are a failure."
That was one thing Titus knew about, despite the pain, agony, failure and defeat he could never let it slow him down. And Titus knew a lot about failure. His father would never let him survive if he let every injury or death he had endured hover over him like a bad storm. Instead the demon decided to take it out on others. It was a good compromise right?
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:27 pm
The cats gave a hiss in unison as Titus dared to walk into their room. It was like a chorus of mad children as step by step he closed the gap with their master. It was almost like they could feel his negativity. Though, being rational creatures and having no desire to be stepped on, they retreated from his way as he continued to move forward.
The thing was following her. What should she do about it? The thing wasn't threatening her. Perhaps they could just... Coexist. But something about this particular thing bothered her. Maybe it was the tone of voice, or the appearance, but when that finger touched her forehead, something inside her snapped like a rubber band being stretched past its limit.
Failure.
Worthless failure.
A surge of unwelcome memories charged into her head, the subconscious stampede ripping the placidity right off her somewhat peaceful face. Chaos. She was back there, in the shattered world of dreams, stuffed into a little cylinder crying and sobbing and screaming as her body dissolved into millions of FEAR particles. Jack there were so many things left undone. So many experiences she had wanted but never got around to.
The ghoul yanked her head away from his reach and writhed in agony as the psychological pain set in. It was so acute. So real. Worst of all, the people she cared for were watching. Seeing how much of a failure she really was.
Her hands clung to her hair tightly, frightened eyes clenching shut to avoid seeing what she was becoming. Empty. She was becoming empty. Losing everything that made what she was. But did it matter that she was losing those things? There was nothing worthwhile about being Riyo. Not a single thing. Not her body. Not her mind. And certainly not her attitude.
While there were certain things someone could say to truly upset the feline, but in the end, she was her own worst enemy. "I..." she squeaked, her eyes filling up with droplets of tears. "I am a failure."
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:11 pm
The noisy chorus of hissing didn't seem to phase Titus. Instead he sent cold glances over his shoulder at the flour legged creatures as if silently warning them to stay back. He had no time for meddling creatures.
Turning back to Riyo it seemed she had....somewhat snapped out of it? Though Titus wasn't entirely certain if this was a step forward or a step back. "Keh, Jack damn it all." He sighed a bit running a hand through his hair. Crying was so annoying. That and Titus wasn't the best at comfort. He had never done it before.
Moving closer Titus wiggled his arms underneath of Riyo and started to lift her off the floor. "Yeah yeah, failure. I get it. Have you never ******** failed before? It's not the most uncommon feat in the world." He stood then with the feline in his arms and headed back toward her bed where he intended to unceremoniously deposit her. "If you want to melt into a puddle of self pity you can do that on your own." Oh yes, Titus was the highest of the caring sort.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:57 pm
Never failed before? That was the problem. She seemed to fail a lot. Failed other people. Failed herself. Failure all around like she was a bar and failure was on the house.
But for the short few moments Riyo managed to pay attention to her surroundings instead of how pitiful she was, the feline realized she was off the ground and in the boil's arms.
Hadn't there been something... About this? When she was about to change, hadn't she regretted not having more of... This? Whatever this was. What was this to her? The ghoul felt like she had been so sure in the moments before her demise.
Perhaps if it had just been death, there would've been more thoughts into what she was doing. But this had been something exponentially worse. Which was why there was no hesitation when Riyo reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, and she held on like he was the only rope over a bottomless pit.
"I'm sorry." The ghoul mumbled, resting her head on his shoulder. "I know... You don't want this... But... I think I need this right now." She wasn't sure. She'd never wanted anything like that before.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:06 pm
And now she was latched on like a jack damn koala. What was he supposed to do about that? White eyes glanced down trying to read whatever he could get. If she was looking for a therapist she was looking in the wrong place.
"I don't know if you know this or not but let me tell you a little secret....I'm not very nice. I don't do this whole comfort thing." Tears and self pity where he was from were not permitted. In fact, they often got you a solid beating.
Despite how much he wanted to dump her on the bed when Titus got close he simply sat with the ghoul in his lap. What else could he do at the moment. She was attached. What did they do in the movies to make situations like this better anyway? Titus tried to think. The only thing that came to mind would be to pat her on the head and say 'there there everything will be okay' and then she would be right as rain yeah? Somehow he doubted it.
"So what exactly is 'this' that you need?" Titus decided to ask just so he had clarification.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:24 pm
"I know." Riyo sighed, her ears falling back. "You're a Jack damned a*****e who enjoys watching people writhe under your thumb." That, at least, was clear to the ghoul. Titus was... Titus. That was a fact that seemed truer than the pumpkin sun in the sky. "I don't... Expect anything from you. I don't want you to stop calling me names or making me angry." She forced herself to stop crying. Choked the tears down like she always did, if only to wait until he left. She knew he would leave. It was, of course, inevitable. But for now, in the moments passing, she could feel the fabric of his shirt in her grasp and smell the strange scent he gave off. For now, she wasn't alone.
At his question, she hesitated. A moment of quiet passed by, and the demoness decided that the silence was worse than anything that could come out of her mouth. "I don't know.. I guess... When I was alone... In that... Place..." Her body seized at the memory. "I realized how little I'd ever managed to come in contact with anyone. I'd been so focused in keeping people as far away as possible that I'd never thought about how much simple gestures really mean. So.." Maybe this was what Hel meant by living in the present. Being fully content to ignore past regrets or future worries for the sake of now.
Her arms reluctantly unraveled from around his neck and instead rested on his shoulders. "I just... Needed a moment. To be close to somebody for once in my life. By my own accord. That's all." Head lowered, she kept her eyes hung low as she leaned away to give him more space. She couldn't tell if she was satisfied or ashamed. Or both. Maybe both.
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:07 am
Surprisingly Titus listened quietly to what Riyo said without interrupting. Though the thought had crossed his mind. He stared down at the ghoul who was now closer to him than any ghoul had gotten and it made him shift a bit uncomfortably. What was he supposed to say or do? The demon had no jacking clue. He hoped to say something meaningful though not necessarily heartfelt. The human-huggers could keep their dainty feelings to themselves. But he could still say something somewhat comforting couldn't he?
"Ah, so you want to be close to me then. I knew you were coming on to me, Princess." Okay maybe he couldn't.
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:06 pm
Well.
Riyo had said she didn't expect anything out of him.
Ahd the ghoul supposed she really didn't. His actions were both constant and consistent. Negative? Yes. Perhaps. But that was how he was. Titus knew who he was. Without a doubt, it seemed.
The feline supposed she envied him in that respect. The nightmare demon appeared to know what he wanted. Riyo had never been sure. She liked to pretend she was, but it was just to fool the majority.
"What if I did? What if your unfounded half-assed assumptions turned out to be true?" Not that she actually was coming onto him. Was she? What did that really mean? "For someone who says such perverted things, you sure do seem uncomfortable right now. Or am I just imagining that? I could be." Perhaps, in his own sick and twisted way, he was helping her. Taking her mind off the devastation so she could focus on something else. Somewhat ingenious, really. And while it wasn't a magical fix to her problem, it seemed to drag a little of the feline's vinegar back out from wherever it had been buried.
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:40 pm
Wait....what? Titus swallowed hard trying to train his expression to stay neutral. He didn't want the feline to know she had effectively found the one thing that unnerved him. Pestering, picking, and irritating people. Titus could do that. Have civil relations with a ghoul? Not so much.
"I would say you might not be quite right in the head," Titus finally managed maneuvering Riyo so she could sit on her own bed and not on his lap. He was quick to get up then and gain a few steps of distance. It only seemed to solidify how uncomfortable he was but he wasn't willing to say so.
"I think your imagining things," Titus crossed his arms, turning to face the ghoul with his best poker face. Why had he come here anyway? Oh yeah...to check on Riyo. That...was going to stay his own little secret.
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Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 6:32 am
The ghoul flopped back on the bed as Titus left her in the dust. It took her a moment to process just how fast he'd moved after she insinuated that he was uncomfortable. Heh. "I think we're both well aware that not all the birds tweet quite right in the cuckoo clock I call a brain." Why deny it anymore? She had not only proven it to herself, but to everyone around her recently.
As she scooted farther onto the bed with her back sliding across her satin sheets, the ghoul reached up and grabbed one of her shiny red pillows. Imagining things? No, she was pretty sure at this point she wasn't. In fact...
It was actually kinda funny. The ghoul rolled to her side and curled around the pillow, deliberately covering up her mouth to hide the small smile she'd just cracked. It was hard not to laugh. Instead of being hard to laugh it was hard not to laugh. How was that even possible? "Oh my Jack..." Her voice was muffled behind the feather-filled object. "You're scared of it too, aren't you?" She wanted to laugh at him so bad. How had he even managed to kiss her on Scarentines? Not that she was any better, but the fact that he was so determined to flaunt and flirt until he was cornered was...
Cute? Cute. One word she'd never openly use to describe the boil. "Hey. That reminds me... Why are you even here?" It wasn't as much accusatory as it was curiosity. "Since it obviously wasn't to take advantage of me." Okay, she couldn't help but laugh at that. Looked like she wouldn't have to worry about him putting moves on her anymore.
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