|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 10:47 am
These nights, they resonated in him with timeless grace.
Even though he saw these cityscapes a thousand times before, in a thousand different stages of light, with a thousand different faceless people, it never diminished the private, almost intimate connection with the night. No amount of infighting or ambushes could quell that realization. Even if the White Moon assaulted him with their trite charades and decadent sense of honor, it would not sway him from the good graces of darkness.
For even the moon was a part of the night. Even the stars.
Ultimately they were no different than him.
And on this night, this night that spilled stars with its acuity, Bischofite surveyed his only borrowed domain. Though he could not advance as far and wide as he previously could, he became acutely aware of the strength that the uniform provided. He could now walk with less labored effort, and sustain a larger measure of pain. Perhaps these realizations only revealed themselves in light of prior injury, rather than the heat of battle. Perhaps the feverish excitement borne from the night air had clouded his thoughts.
Clouded thoughts on a cloudless night... how ironic.
The cold ledge supported him without complaint and offered him an excellent view of the Destiny City hospital. Lulled into slumber with only the night shift bustling about, the building appeared almost too serene. It was a shame that humans were typically diurnal; right now the patients could've been milling about in the refreshing summer night. No matter; he could liberate them in his own way. But how? He could only sketch the outside of the building from this angle, and he possessed no means to gain entry. Without the blueprints, how could he hope to attack the place?
Maybe he should've picked a better location. Hospitals maintained their own level of protection as well, and an unknown number of generators proved difficult for cutting the power. And without any simple way to traumatize the citizens therein, how could he hope to draw the White Moon Court to the scene?
Maybe he needed to step away from it. Maybe he wasn't looking in the right direction. Maybe he should go for something bigger.
Like-
The sudden skin-melting sensation of an order being caused him to twitch and sneer. he had company; this proved a foul night indeed.
Without further hesitation, he slipped from his ledge and took to the streets. If this White Moon schmuck insisted on following him, then he wasn't in the mood to entertain this stupid fop with his ability to fight. He'd rather crush their spirit and move on to more important matters once more. If the order scum wanted to follow, then fine. He'll play that game. He'll play it and win. He always wins.
And the alleys were crowded tonight. Crowded and dark.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 2:24 pm
Oddly enough, Ida felt the night as keenly as the Negaverse officer did, filling her with a sense of expanse... of expanding to encompass something far larger than what she could perceive as she tripped along the ledge of a rooftop. The sounds of night life, of traffic, did little to penetrate her revere right now, and if anything, seemed muted and far away.
Her purple and gold heels clicked softly as she went, the senshi's tread soft, but not silent. Her senses stretched wide as she 'listened' for something off, something out of place in this seemingly-normal stretch of city. Nights like this, she was hunting for trouble, looking for youma to dust or just maybe an officer to foil. It felt sometimes like she was asking for trouble, but each night the feeling lessened. Was she becoming jaded? No... not yet. She still wondered sometimes about her role in all of this, if she were doing the right thing and if the war was really as clear cut, black and white, as it seemed to be sometimes. Not that it would have an easy resolution if it were black and white... at least not one she really cared to think about.
An oily sense against her consciousness, a ping of energy with an ominous feel, pulled Ida around as she reached up to brush her dark purple scarf out of her face. Brown eyes wide in the darkness, she glanced about with a small frown, a line between her brows as she took a step forward. Yes... there was something there, and it metaphorically stank like the Negaverse. Looks like it was time to get to work... and as the signature moved, so did the senshi of Orchids, jumping down from the building to look down a crowded alley. Poised at the mouth of it, she almost glowed in counterpoint to the darkness, the white of her fuku a beacon in the night.
Whomever it was, she was not going to let them move unhindered in her city and she stepped bravely into the dark.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:45 pm
The one night in a thousand where he didn't seek out mayhem, and he found himself tailed to the streets. Must irony pursue him relentlessly? He lacked the patience for such brazen measures of approach.
The wretched darkness proved mild in comparison to his prior deeds. Perhaps he couldn't hide in shadows anymore; his absolute black still heralded a stark contrast to the muted gloom. "I can feel you, Senshi. I am not in ze mood to deal wis' you. Leaf'e." His exasperated golden gaze focused on the silhouette loitering at the entrance to the alley. Still somewhat illuminated by the sickly yellow light, he could only determine that the assailing senshi was, in fact, a she, and that she donned a hood. "Don't pursue me, or I'll turn zis placid night into somesing far more harrowing." Once he'd concluded his warning, he started toward the opposite end of the alley.
Considering his recent injuries, his limp proved impossible to conceal.
Bischofite understood with absolute certainty that he couldn't outrun the girl, nor did he want to; any attempts to evade her could be construed as weakness, even cowardice, and Bischofite was no coward. He'd faced bleaker odds than this; in fact, his own machinations led to the reopening of his leg's stitches. Was she interested in seeing such depravity? Is that why she intended to hunt him down? Or was she simply acting on some outmoded principle that good must fight evil, and that she must stand up for all who cannot protect themselves? Regardless, her motives proved irritating at best.
However, the alley was full of deterrents. Perhaps he might spin this situation to his advantage. He didn't intend to set up a scene as grandiose as before; he lacked the time and means to orchestrate such an event. However, that didn't preclude the fact that he could easily seize a civilian as collateral. In fact, due to the amount of individuals milling about the alley, he might easily do just that. In fact, he spotted a scrawny girl dressed in a Meadowview cheerleading outfit not too far from him. She looked lost; did she normally wander the streets at night?
It didn't matter; she would forfeit her life soon enough. Especially if that bought him valuable information.
He closed the distance to her while she was preoccupied with studying her phone's GPS, no doubt trying to puzzle her way out of the alley and into her home. The black-haired captain seized her by the messy blonde ponytail and pressed a hand to her throat, silencing any potential protests. After all, in a busy alley like this, it was bound to attract attention. But fortune favored him tonight; most of the occupants busied themselves with their own devices and cared little for the machinations of others.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 8:54 am
The sick sinking feeling in her stomach should have hinted who this was before she'd even set eyes on him, but it was the accented voice, the one that had scared her out of a nightmare more then once, that told her who this was.
The orchid senshi paused with a concealed shudder as old and recent fears resurfaced, but she forced them down and a confidence into her walk that she didn't feel. Bischifite held a different place in her psyche than Painite did... Painite was the boogie man, the monster in the shadows who waited to tear her apart... He was the monster she had stood face to face with, had fought on almost even terms, but who had literally managed to hold her life in his hand. Both scared her to her core, but the fear he caused was so much more personal and intimate...
Her almost exaggerated care as she slipped like a piece of moonbeam down the alley gave her the sort of grace she could only hope for in normal situations, but she hardly noticed, she was so intent on her target.
A jolt of adrenaline froze her in place as he grabbed someone... Was that? Oh gods, it was. What was Sarah doing out here so late? Ida knew her in passing at school, had shared a class or two with her... Seeing her here, seeing her civilian life bleeding over into her senshi life was almost too much for the young girl and she shuddered down to her core. This... It wasn't supposed to like this. Ida had known, sort of theoretically, that the people she knew were in danger, but this was the first time one of the victims had been and acquaintance.
"Stop!" She cried out in voluntarily as she jumped, landing just out of arms reach of the man and his captive. "Stop... Just let her go. We don't have to do this." Her hands raised palm up, she felt too much like she was pleading with him, but right now she felt helpless to do anything else.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:55 am
Bischofite watched his new audience with absolute curiosity. She acted so. passionately. over his use of a simple civilian. This girl, did she mean something to the senshi? Was she an old friend, a lover, a distant acquaintance, related by blood? Did he simply stumble upon a golden opportunity, or did fate favor him tonight? The reasons behind his surprising fortune mattered little; tonight he sought the pain of connection. This slip of a girl would demonstrate her emotional writing over this tenuous strand he held in his hands. And he would-
wait.
He recognized her.
Yes... That same fragile little thing encountered him not long ago, beckoned to his orchestrated scene. And with some dumb luck or careful planning, she solicited the help of another to save another faceless victim from certain doom. She was the benevolent one, his antithesis. By destroying her, he might destroy himself, in a senseless mockery of matter and its counterpoint to antimatter. Perhaps that was a little too romantic an ideal - surely by corrupting her mind with the Gift* of adversity, he may yet twist those strong morals. She would prove an excellent, most beautiful companion to his cause.
"What you are asking is beyond my intentions, little girl," he chided while he examined her relentlessly. That hood, the bows adorning her sides, that dark complexion... Yes, the very same. "You cannot hope to understand me as we are now. We, ze product of ze fall of Babel. Ze ceaseless echos of war atop zese concrete mountains. I'f' endured greater trials zan you, girl. Ida, correct?" The black-haired captain paused to lean more heavily on his captive. In response, her legs quaked beneath the added weight. "Let's see just how dedicated you are to saving ze dregs of humanity, eh? Maybe you can convince me it's wors' preserving." For the breadth of a moment, his gaze belied his misanthropic tendencies; he appeared almost solemn.
It vanished as quickly as it arrived. "Follow me if you can, senshi." With an iniquitous grin, he vanished from sight, as did his captive.
Bischofite reappeared atop the roof, just above the milling alley. For a moment he released his victim, and she expelled her better half across the pavement in a bout of crippling nausea. Despite her please for escape, her ceaseless prattling for just one more moment, please, I need to breathe, he wrenched her from the ground by her hair. The girl belonged in his grasp. She was his Machiavellian tool, a fate impossible to escape.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 12:55 pm
Pleading with him had been an act of desperation, and even though the flower senshi knew that it would do very little to sway him... She had had to try. Maybe one day her stock of karma would sway evil to take pity on her, but this was not to be that day.
Hearing the roll of an accent in his voice, one she had heard murmuring in more than one nightmare, told her exactly who this was. She sent an apology skyward to whomever she had wronged to deserve this sort of karma. She knew first hand how he dealt with his victims and hada small glimpse into what he was capable of. Her heart jumped in her chest and she had a sinking feeling she knew where this night would go.
"Please..." She murmured in her dusky voice, but it was hard to say if it were to him or to whatever gods watched over little half-breed girls who played at being a super hero. Mind racing, she took a step forward as he disappeared and her eyes flew about wildly as she searched for the officer and his captive.
He seemed to hardly have reappeared before she was in motion, tensing her lean legs and launching herself into the air to soar like a bird up the side of the building. Purple petaled shoes touched down with exquisite care on the ledge of the roof and for just a moment, Ida paused to try and reason with him again.
"Let her go, Bischofite. I can tell you're weaker than before, if you fight me now, I won't need back up and it could go badly for you." She was in fine shape, she had to have an advantage over him in a straight up fight now. Maybe if he could just see that, he would back down...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 7:33 am
Bischofite huffed, though it was more from exhaustion from irritation. Teleporting demanded a great deal of energy, but he had no other choice. How was he to parse out his victim from the crowd when he lacked the ability to physically separate her? His leg refused to bear much weight, as it couldn't even take the full brunt of his own, much less that of another person. Lethargy would set in shortly, but... He hadn't lost a fight he didn't start.
Despite this chance encounter disrupting his plans, he might yet salvage the fruits of the night. Especially the flowers.
"Listen to me." His tone remained bereft of its normally impish nature. "I didn't intend to cause any harm tonight." Though harm was relative. "I can't, not wis' my injuries. Surely you'f noticed. But it's easier to mof'e like zis, don't you agree? No longer do you need to worry about ladders, as you'f just demonstrated .No need to waste time on sidewalks, where you might run into undesirables. But... You wanted to pursue me, and zis is ze result. You forced me toward defending myself, didn't you?" Inwardly he smiled; yes, this night might turn out quite nicely. "It's a shame, really. Such a shame. As delicate as you are, as full of beauty and life and misguided morals..." It was difficult to concentrate.
"If you're so intent to fight me, I will show you what side you're truly on. In fact, you hurt humans more often zan I do." He smiled, albeit weakly. "But go head, girl. Ida. Fight if you're so inclined. Show me zat I'm an easy win for you now." Little did she know that he had the ability to turn the tides in his favor, without calling for one of his own. He didn't need babysitting due to prior injury; he possessed the knowledge and cunning to craft his own exit plans.
While gripping the girl's shoulder, Bischofite carefully slipped his hand beneath her skin and into the cavity containing her starseed. The girl gasped; whether it was out of sheer pain or shock, he couldn't guess. He'd only been in this position twice before, and that unconscionable agony birthed even more rampant curiosity toward the more depraved side of the human mind. "You remember what zis feels like, don't you?" His feverish gaze regarded the fair senshi feverishly.
Oh, how he wanted to see her squirm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:06 am
Ida frowned when accused and words of denial sprang to her lips.
"You're wrong! I have never hurt an innocent person! If you hadn't grabbed her, I wouldn't have followed you! I can't let you go while you have her, so turn her loose!" Passion made her voice waver, but her stance was firm and ready. He lied and teased... Taunted her. Nothing he said could be trusted, even if it seemed true... That just covered hidden meanings and agendas she wanted no part in. It seemed like all of the Negaverse was like this... She had never met one that could say a straight word.
"No!" Suddenly, Ida's heart squeezed painfully in her chest and she jerked forward, seeing him plunge his hand into the girl's chest and hearing his cruel taunt. Time seemed to freeze and speed up at the same time, and like another time, the senshi of orchids acted with out thought, following only the desperate need to save and protect.
"Beautiful Petal Darts!" She cried out as she cast her hand in a sweeping motion before her, magic calling up petals that glowed like stars in this gruesome night. They sprayed forward like so many needles, but with none of the sharpness one would have expected. With the civilian in the way, a scaled back attack had been in order.
Behind the attack, the senshi moved with her increased speed to rush him and his captive, using the distraction to get in close. Distracted or not though, she was swinging for him when the needles fizzled out like dying embers, a desperate move from a desperate girl.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 3:59 pm
"And I wouldn't haf' grabbed her if you didn't ******** stalk me, idiot! But you can't leaf' well enough alone, can you? You haf' to raze ze world under your pointless banter of protection and justice! You're no better zan ze Christians wis' zeir holy crusades! Ze Spanish wis' zeir inquisition!" He would've continued, but she exhibited little patience for his heated explanations of his corrosive views. Those words fell on deaf ears - few beings in his lifetime paid him any heed; why should he expect any receptive minds now?
Bischofite innately understood that he had no chance of winning this fight. He might even the odds through the birth of a youma, but all iniquitous tricks aside - he could not fight in his condition. Knowing this, he powered up, and knowing this, he would meet defeat. However, he would not succumb to her blows without first exacting as much pain as he possibly could.
And that started with the horrific transformation of some hapless little girl, secured in his clutches.
The moment he recognized the beginnings of an attack, Bischofite seeped blackened chaos energy into the girl's soul, both expending vast amounts of energy and overloading her admittedly fragile starseed. Afterward he pushed her limp body toward the attack in hopes of deadening its effect. Inwardly he hoped the process of a human evolving to an established youma took little time, as he didn't know how far he might tango with the girl before he desperately required a rescue. The senshi was fast and in top physical condition. He remained hindered by a deep injury and expended a great deal of energy by simply teleporting. This whole stunt... It hinged on her passive nature, her need to refrain from violence until it was too late.
And it backfired.
Every attempt at dodging met unmitigated protests from the stitches in his leg, and he found himself fighting a battle on two fronts. As she charged, he tried to employ what little nimbleness he had left, but his effort proved moot. She struck him easily, in his tired and gimped state. He let out a strangled cry and stumbled backward, though his mind already started on his options to avoid death.
And in some meager attempt to defend himself, he summoned chakrams to his tired grasp and attempted to strike her, knowing full well that his efforts would yield little benefit. She understood it too - she said as much.
Verdict passed - battle lost. He just couldn't let her win quite yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:03 pm
It all happened in moments that passed like sparks in the night, bright explosions of life that fizzled out all too soon. She had been attacking as he shouted at her in anger, swinging at him with blows she had learned through hard experience as he struggled to keep up with her. Some small part of her was pleased at her advantage, while another was horrified that she should find any pleasure at all hurting someone who was obviously handicapped by injury. And then space separated them as she jumped back, finally realizing that in her desperate move he had released his captive.
A flood of relief and vindication flooded the senshi as she cast about for the girl, but the feeling soured when she saw the crumpled form. She hadn't seen what he'd done, but she knew something was wrong when the girl, Sarah, no longer fought to get away. Instead she lay like a broken doll and an eery feeling crawled up Ida's spine like icy fingers. A quick glance told her that he didn't hold a starseed, but then what was wrong? Had she been knocked unconscious? She had used a lesser attack in an effort to distract, rather than harm. It shouldn't have really hurt her, but...
Keeping her guard and hands up, she shifted closer to the victim with slow, even steps placed delicately for purchase. Ida had to be sure this girl, this piece of a normal life, was okay... there was no way she could fight without knowing the fate of the cause of it. Whether it was his fault, in the end, or hers... as long as this one girl got out okay, it didn't matter.
Reaching down with one slender hand, her brows furrowed in concentration, she felt for her, touching hair and sliding down to find her throat, and hopefully, a pulse.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 8:58 am
The worst part of this desperate endeavor was that she had total control over his life momentarily. In the breadth of that assault, she could've easily ferreted out his injury and busted his stitches with minimal effort. However, she did not, and that was possibly the most humiliating experience of his admittedly short powered life.
He was shown mercy by a senshi.
Bischofite let out a seething sigh as fresh blood trickled down his chin, tumbling to the floor. It only took his tongue to identify that she split his lip, and the throbbing pain only confirmed it. He would've winced, but with pain on opposite sides of his body fighting for superiority, they canceled each other out. Instead he hurt systemically, almost, and that remained marginally more bearable. Still, he sought to stifle the bleeding using the back of his sleeve.
Though he wanted to scathe her for her momentary lapse of self-control, chastise her for her impatience, he said nothing. He only watched in practiced stoicism while she searched for the girl he held moments before. Surely she would realize her folly. The girl, now dead, might've succumbed to her own attack; the senshi had no way of knowing that Bischofite shattered her starseed, did she? Perhaps she might identify herself as the cause, and shoulder the burden for years to come. Resigning to lay down her powered life and try to find some semblance of forgiveness in whichever religion she chose to covet.
But that would be too easy, wouldn't it? If anything, Bischofite realized that his experiences were fraught with challenge, possibly because he could handle those challenges. He'd demonstrated such resilience before. So, if she still determines he was the cause of the girl's demise, properly so, then he would need to prepare himself for the greater fury of a girl wronged through half her beliefs.
Finally his leg gave out, and with a pained groan, he salvaged the fall. Luckily he hadn't damaged the stitches, but... now he remained as suicides lay, prostrate over the train tracks and fully aware of the coming train, such fury unrelenting in its indifference toward human life. Might she assume that role now? To die at the hands of a senshi... Now too tired to teleport, he inwardly berated himself for a lack of foresight. Rather than demonstrating the evolution of human to youma, he should've reaped her starseed as a means to escape.
The girl was dead, completely devoid of any signs of life. Even the minor twitches were easily written off as death throes, as minute spasms while every synapse in her head drew to a stop. But Bischofite understood that one must first die to achieve absolution, as life was fraught with faults.
And soon they might witness that pinnacle of perfection.
But... Nothing happened. Why wasn't she turning? Did he misunderstand the procedure? Was he to die for a failed experiment? Surely she might have no patience for him now; perhaps that was the beauty of it: kiilled by something beautiful. By overreaching the extent of his knowledge, his abilities.... That hubris spelled the death of him. But perhaps she didn't have it in her to murder her adversaries. She still wore that innocence like a shroud, did she not? Perhaps she was the type to believe that showing someone mercy might change them in some way.
Now that'd be convenient.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:46 am
Silence reigned like shroud over the rooftop, broken only by the sound of Bischofite collapsing and pregnant with horror that seemed to grow and expand till Ida's heart seemed to stutter to a stop.
There was no pulse under her fingers, no breath from the lips. Her slender hands visibly shook as she jerked them back. The girl... No, Sarah was dead, and with her a measure of her innocence went with her. There was very little of it left now, replaced instead by anger, horror and sadness for what she'd lost. The horrible part of it was that she would never be completely sure that it hadn't been her interference, her attack, that had snuffed out the flame of her life. Even if she placed the blame solely on his shoulders, Ida knew that she had failed to save her as she had promised she would. That promise had bee important, it had been the very backbone of her life as a senshi.
She started, shaken out of her shock by something falling on her hand, and when she reached up, she realized her face was wet with tears that rolled silently down her face. Ida hadn't even realized she was crying, but realizing it brought with it a deep sadness and loss. Failure was a heavy weight that bowed her shoulders and she climbed stiffly to her feet.
The face that turned towards Bischofite was stark and staring, the whole of her slender body trembling with emotion.
"She was a person!" She shouted at him, her voice cracking. "She was alive and she had friends, family, a future full of possibilities! Are you really so far gone that you... You feel nothing, for having taken that all away from her? You are a monster!" The venom in her voice was only mostly directed at him. A good dose of it she kept for herself and her failure.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 12:00 am
He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or to scream. Who was she to think he possessed the ability to relate, to read people as a wealth of potential? The very creatures who haunted the earth, preying on weakness as readily as any horrific nightmare, yet she defended that which destroys without a second thought.
So he chose to laugh.
And laugh he did; a cold, mirthless rattle that rose from his throat like bile. "Don't be ridiculous, little girl. Of course I can relate to her. I can relate to ze twitch of her fingers, ze beat of her heart, zough now... I suspect we're a little farzer apart. But... you forget zat she still has a future, and possibilities. And a new family, one I suspect holds far less tension zan a broken American home. Surely you can relate, oder*? She's better off now. No lack of parental attention, no school gossip, no fights wis' boys. She doesn't haf' periods or broken hearts or broken legs. Her life is now streamlined, wouldn't you say? Eat or be eaten. Kill or be killed. Obey or be destroyed. Why is zat so. utterly. foreign. to you? Hmm?" And he offered her a sincerely blackened smile, replete with his utterly violent intentions.
Perhaps he should've struggled to his feet, fought the exhaustion and desperate pleas for a respite, but he remained where he sat. He calculated his odds. He measured his lengths of luck and purposeful manipulations. He might yet survive, on the tides of clever machinations bearing the flotsam of chance.
The girls' body twitched and writhed, almost languid in its disposition. Her transformation to her greater self rolled smoothly, despite his initial reflections on the topic. No bones snapped, no joints popped. It was like her body liquefied, formed an amorphous solid, before it expanded to the mass and shape of her new evolution. Her face elongated, her torso thickened, and her legs formed thick, knotted masses underneath her stocky body. She donned the beginnings of a youma, still undulating in its formative period, and still venturing into this harsh new world of sight and sound and taste. Especially taste.
But how long does it take for one to garner an appetite? He didn't know, so he sought to stall.
"Do you want her to suffer or evolve past hate and despair and disappointment? Because we are all plagued by such baggage, senshi. Even you and I. Zough I suspect you sink I am beyond such emotions already..." He smiled once more, albeit sardonically. His gaze angled toward the ground as he spoke; if her attentions lingered on him, the growing monstrosity might engage a proper ambush. Still, a fledgeling youma... "You want to know somesing, senshi? When I was young, I lived in zis small town in Germany, where zere wasn't much to do besides play in ze woods or check ze sidewalk cracks for spare coins. Nossing bad really happened zere, no murders, no rapes, not even dog bites. But...
"Train tracks ran by our house, a few doors down, and sometimes I'd follow zem out a ways and play by ze creek out zere. And one day I walked past ze creek, into a long field where ze only landmark for a solid mile were zese train tracks, right? So I kept near zem. And finally I saw somesing on ze tracks, looked like a sack of sorts. I got curious, so I walked toward it, and it took a long time for me to realize it. Finally I sought I was looking at a child, right? A child wis' a long blanket trailing behind him. But as I circled around to ze front, I realized I was looking at a man. But somesing was absolutely wrong wis him, like... His spine was too short. His legs were too short. He looked wrong. His spine, it..." He faltered. "It's like it collapsed into itself. Compressed into zis stocky tube. And ze look on his face - I can't even articulate it. Even in German. You can't frame it wis' words - too haunting, too ... devoid. I don't sink I'f ever been able to connect wis' someone since.
"But ze shocking sing is... I ******** lied." And he grinned.*Or.Bluefire Dragonz Sorry about the delay. Left my laptop at work yesterday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 7:59 am
His works rolled over her like oily black smoke, leaving her feeling soiled by their passage. Part of what he said was true... She would never have to deal with the pain of life again, but that also meant she would never feel the joy of it again either. No birthdays, no friends, or family, or kissing a boy for the first time. Ida suspected he didn't even remember how those things felt, if he'd ever had a chance to feel them. It would have been sad, but she was far to angry now to pity him.
Even his tale of home and childhood couldn't draw her in. Whatever he had been, once upon a time, he wasn't any more. He was a worse monster than what he commanded, because at least, like an animal, they did it out of necessity and not some sick, twisted reasoning.
Some sound or sense pulled her around as his monologue came to a close and she started as she saw what had become of Sarah. Eyes wide, she stared in horror as the body twisted and reshaped itself, loosing any sense of humanity. This... This was a youma! This was how they were created? It was only by a sheer force of will and a hand clapped over her mouth that Ida avoided losing the contents of her stomach. This was horrible. This was worse than seeing her dead...
There was only one response to this abomination, only one thing she could say to him and to the thing that had once been a girl she knew.
"Beautiful Petal Barrage!"
The super attack had far more force than what she had shown him thus far, more than enough to dust a fledgling youma before it was properly awake.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 11:22 pm
Bischofite watched out of sheer exhaustion, his eyes bereft of emotion. He was far too tired to provide any caustic wit, any acerbic critiques in her fighting form or her admittedly unimpressive attack. What power did she command as a senshi? That of petals, or gloriously delicate flora? What a waste. She was made for a meat grinder like him. And maybe that was why he bore a modicum of affection for her. Even as she summoned her attack, she advertised her grace effortlessly, even absentmindedly. Was she even aware of herself anymore?
As expected, her attack connected with the fledgeling youma, though he hoped the beast might sustain more than one hit. Considering how easily she banished it, all his efforts to draw her attention while it regained a hold on its senses were wasted. The entire creation of the youma was devoted to buying him an escape route, so he would still live to see another iniquitous plot in motion, but she eviscerated those plans as easily as the youma, which whispered away in tongues of dust.
"Now you understand. Youma are posthuman. Zey... transcended humanity. No longer are zey plagued by hate and anger and sadness, feelings of lof'e and loss, friendships and vendettas. Life is simplified now. Eat or be eaten. Kill or be killed. It's so much... better now.
"But I know what you're sinking." Slowly he laid down; he couldn't walk far in his current condition, and teleporting proved an impossibility. "Zat isn't true. Life is beautiful, life is great, don't expend humanity in such a clandestine way. But you and I bos' know zat talking won't convince anyone here. If you want me to stop, zen kill me.
Just don't blame me if you turn into a youma for it..." He laughed weakly; his sides heaved with more energy than his voice. "It would be a shame; I'd like to see zat pretty face of yours contort into somesing greater." When he mentioned her countenance, he gestured toward it by swirling his index finger before it finally dropped to the concrete.
He should've stolen the girl's starseed; all these demonstrations held little sway over her. Did they even have an effect? Did she even acknowledge them? Or were senshi so set in their trite values that they neglected to see the more unorthodox side of their endeavors? Did they simply rationalize away all these bizarre nuances he labored to demonstrate? All his actions amounted to nothing - as surely as he rose in a storm of inspiration, he was still dirt.
And since his actions meant nothing, he was free to act as he pleased. So maybe birthing a youma wasn't a wasted effort - he still exercised his freedom to make his own decisions, and reap the fruits of his labors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
