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 Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:21 pm
Ei caelaes cyr bai modi, thys eir ailesaer eisi aezer ail saes aer.
A healer holds no side, for all injured are equal in their eyes.
The DSG Healing Centre, is one of the more modern buildings on the Dark Sakura estates. It was rebuilt in 163 A.A. after it burnt to the ground in a preternatural accident. After the fire, a new location was picked, and the Centre was combined with the Vol os Thosi.
The original Infirmary was much smaller and offered a less diverse array of treatments. It majored in Herbology and healing magicks. Anyone seeking a different kind of care was deferred to the Hospital in V'enir. However, non-humans are not welcomed in V'enir and the care offered by the hospital there was found to be insufficient and even neglectful. The prejudice outlook of V'enirians was even blamed for a case of one patient's medical sabotage.
tbc
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:23 pm
Types of healing available to patients:
At the DSG's healing and treatment centre, there are three kinds of staff. There are the Shori Tandraer and the Barer Caelaes, the White Mages and the Natural Healers.
Overseeing all Healing staff, is the High Priestess and Chief Healer, Reiyvian.
Reiyvian Says:
'We'll have you fixed up in no time!~ <3'
Shori Tandraer:
You will recognize a Shori Tandri, by their white healer's robes. The white mages are the staff members who posses white, holy and healing magicks and are able to manipulate the physical self through magick's and promote healing or completely repair physical damages. Some have also trained in the art of Potion making.
Barer Caelaes:
The Natural healer's can be identified by their dark green robes of healing. These healer's are the ones who practice traditional non magick-based methods. They are healers who use homeopathy and practice Herbology. Many of them have training as apothecaries and tend to posses extensive knowledge in the area of herb lore. Some have knowledge of modern medicines and sciences. They are schooled in first aide and traditional practices such as setting bones and suturing cuts.
There is also the Aestyrolar Caelaes, the Emotional Healers.
Aestyrolar Caelaes
The Aestyrolar Caelaes can be spotted for their pale grey-green healer's robes. They are a team of Empaths and Telepaths. These are the healers who deal with mental and emotional trauma and anguish. It is their job to tend to the heart, spirit and mind while the other healing branches watch over the physical vessel. It is not unusual for members of this branch to also have some bardic qualifications.
General Abilities
Myl os Myrol (Song of Soothing)
Taelydia os Paes (Melody of Dreams)
Caes sai Caes (Heart to Heart)
Tystysol Syl (Comforting Thoughts)
Masaer Val (Shared Pain)
Thasaerdaer sai Thaes (Farewell to Fear)
Masaer Mol (Shared Sight)
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:30 pm
MAIN FLOOR
Key Features
Entrance
Main Foyer
Reception Desk
Waiting Room
Hallway to Healer's
Ground Lvl Teleport-station
SECOND FLOOR
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:38 pm
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:23 pm
--- RETURN FROM AEKA ---
The gate opened and lay Sun, sprawled out on the ground in front of the infirmary, seconds later, Aiysin followed behind him.
The healer who had been set as a watch, hollered to the medical team indoors. The higher-ups of the fourth squad had watched the complete video feed the Gate Keeper had relayed, and had alerted the healing unit to be on standby.
Aiysin stood between Sun and a very Angry Roiysin.
Before the irish woman could even say a word, Aiysin stopped her short.
"Patch him up first, then you can chew him out Healer."
The shorter woman glared up at her and then shoved a stubborn finger in her face.
"SHUT UP! I'll deal with YOU later, Gatekeeper."
She rounded away from Aiysin angrily and directed the other healers in loading Sun onto a stretcher and carrying him indoors to an operating room.
Aiysin sighed and smirked. She really couldn't blame Roiysin..."N-Wait-O...OW! Hey! Don't punish her! S'my fault!" Sunstrike struggled to escape the grasping hands. "Would you please let me...HEY!" Red leaked and spilled on the floor. He must have been half delirious from shock, but he reached out for the gatekeeper anyway. "Aiysin, tell them it was my FAULT! Roisyn! Ask them!" There was a note of desperation in his voice now. He'd fight til he would know they'd be alright or probably die trying. He didn't want to go, he hated infirmaries, hospitals. Sun started to shiver, panicking over where he was going and his friends getting into trouble. The guards who had also been alerted after the 4th squad had seen Sun's impressive display of power and ability, moved as if they would wade in and pull everyone apart. But Aiysin held up a hand.
"SUNSTRIKE!"
She yelled to penetrate his near-panic and shock, then her voice softened.
"It's okay. Roiysin doesn't have rank on me, she just wants to lecture me about how someone's well being is more important than gathering intel... isn't that right Healer?"
Roiysin looked livid but nodded.
"There... see? I'll be fine. Now relax, stress kills."
She winks at him, clasping his hand as it reaches out to her and gives it a little squeeze. Kneeling beside the stretcher she asks softly,
"Would you feel better if I stayed with you?"Black had clouded all but soft pinpoints of orange in Sun's eyes. The truth was that he just didn't have anything left to put into a fight. He looked hazily in Aiysin's direction, blinking slowly. It was still way too dark. He knew, in a detached sort of way, that his body was just shutting down, sinking deeper. The hand clutched at the gatekeepers and he swallowed, trying to rewind and think straight. "Aiysin, I....I'm sorry, I didn't know, I swear..." He whispered softly. Her hand slipped from his and he closed his eyes, leaving her unanswered but for the apology. She smiled sadly, the beautiful face that had been so full of life, was so bloodied and weak. It was her turn now, to kiss his forehead. Had she betrayed him? All for the sake of her job? Had it been her, who doomed him to this pain and suffering? Such thoughts clouded her mind. And as they came, systematically she began to close them away. Now wasn't the time.
"Shhh... Sun. It's okay. You're safe now, everything's going to be fine."
She held his hand fast, whispering soothingly even as he was carried inside. She didn't look at Roiysin as they shuffled past, she couldn't.
An apprentice healer held a stats sheet that GUARDIAN had sent over, with some of Sunstrike's info scrawled on it. "Prepare eight pints of O type for transfusion!"
Sun's naked body was washed, the drying blood and grime cleaned away as wounds were flushed and prepped for suture.
A young, fair haired man held a mask with anesthesia and smiled down at Sun reassuringly.
"Breathe deep when I give you the mask Sunstrike, when you wake up you'll be all patched up. For now... I need you to relax and rest for me, okay?"A shuddering breath would pass enough for a deep one, he could barely hear the soft order. Claustrophobia warred with unconsciousness as the mask came in, but finally, a few shaky puffs of air and he relaxed into sleep, his other hand uncurling when the pain and the cold drifted into warmth and comfort. Aiysin clutched Sun's hand protectively as the healers swarmed around the sleeping salamander. She debated whether or not to send for Shin, but figured he would be a basket case seeing Sun like this, and decided against it.
Reluctantly she let go of the now, relaxed hand as a healer put an two IV's in his hand, then moved around to do the same to the other. One was a pain killer, the other three were all blood packs. All four set to a fast drip. Other drugs were being administered as the healers worked, using a combination of science and natural healing.
Muscle, severed blood vessels, tendons and ligaments were all being realigned, grafted and fused together, much like his bones. The bones that were too shattered to fuse together replaced with plates and pins, the skin sewn whole over it.
All the materials used during the operation, had been charmed against any kind of destruction without a very specific spell to deactivate them, a spell reserved for removing stitches and that was about it. Everything else was pretty much permanent, until Sun's reptilian DNA decided to start regenerating lost or ruined limbs.
A few of the wounds had draining tubes, but after 11 hours of surgery, and a grand total of 14 pints of blood transfused into his body, to replace everything that had been spilled... Sun was bandaged up moved to bed in the ward upstairs. He still had two IV's in his left hand, one was an anti-biotic and the other something for the pain.
He had been covered head to toe in salves to stimulate the skin's healing and help lessen the swelling and bruising. Broken limbs were cast and nearly everything else was swathed in bandages.
He had been their biggest challenge yet.
A being who was so innately magickal and yet could not be healed by it. It was about 6:18 am when Sun was settled into one of the spare beds. It would be late afternoon before he would wake up, and even then he would hardly be coherent.
Aiysin stayed by his side until they moved him upstairs, it was then that they finally let Shin in to see him. He'd been waiting outside the surgery since he'd found out what had happened hours ago.
Shin stayed with him, holding his right hand and stroking what little of the red hair wasn't covered with bandages, praying. Praying to whatever gods would listen, that Sunstrike would be all right.Sunstrike had dreams of helplessness. They couldn't be avoided, were not something he could run away from. They just were the truth. He stumbled over them as they twisted through his mind, dug at his imagination, distorded his being, and made him back into what he actually was. He had dreams of other people, other places, situations that dare not be repeated in his own will. Sometimes, rarely, she'd wait for him. She'd sit in the pool of her own skirts the colour of all the depths of the ocean, and smile that sad smile and ask him if he was alright. 'Of course.' It was always such a cold answer, a fear filled one, she devoured his mind faster then the power that ran behind it. In his sleep, if she appeared, his body would even grow frigid, as if he'd buried the heat down deep enough to shut her out, to shut his own desires out. It never worked. Helplessness. He couldn't move, his limbs wouldn't work, eyes wouldn't open, Sun was tired and afraid to be. Like this, he couldn't get out of his own head, and was subject to all the horrors it had to offer. Somehow he'd managed to retain her smile, he saw it whenever it reflected off a surface or in a mirror. He couldn't erase it or what it meant. Then, just past the point of breaking, light would hit his eyelids, and he found he could open them. Someone clutched his hand, someone pushed fingertips through his hair, but it wasn't...her, and that was alright. Helpless. Sunstrike took a shaky breath and blinked at the dark haired man. Shin. He didn't want to speak, he was too far gone, too tired, but he didn't want to go back to unconsciousness, didn't want to sink back into memories of a fate that wasn't avoided. His hand squeezed the elves softly and he fell, not being able to keep up the fight his body had over his mind. Help.Shin moved to sit gently on the edge of Sun's bed. He would be so heavily drugged that, as Shin sat the redhead up carefully, his injured body frail weak, He let sun lay against his lap and chest, wrapping one arm around his bandaged shoulders comfortingly and protectively. The other arm reached around to hold Sun's hand gently.
Kissing the top of his head, he whispered softly to the Salamander.
"I'm so sorry Sun... I won't leave you, so rest. I'll keep you safe 'til you're well... You're not alone now."A young woman in healers robes came in to change an IV some time after. She'd been monitoring Sun's vitals and had made note that every time her patient lapsed into sleep, his vitals fluctuated as he dreamed. She hooked him up to a herbal infusion and smiled at the dark haired elf as she did so.
"It'll stop him from dreaming, and spare him the terrors of his mind. It's something we give to most of our trauma victims. Not all of them need it, so we wait to observe first... I'll fix another dose later when I switch the other IV's."
"Thanks..."
Hours passed. IV's changed... somebody thought to bring Shin some food when they hooked Sun up to his supper via IV. Aiysin came and checked on them from time to time. Neither she nor Shin could meet one another's eyes...
The night shift healer peeked into the room around 1 in the morning and spotted Shin still awake.
"Uhmm... Sir... Rest please? I don't want to be admitting you for exhaustion....."
"Huh? Oh... I'm fine..."
"Shin please! You won't be able to protect anyone if your body shuts down from lack of sleep, It's not your fault..."
"Enough... It IS my fault. Don't you have other patients to check on?"
The healer bit her lip as a matter of fact she did. She had just been paged to help downstairs. Lysira had was on her way with Vahn.
She shrugs and exits the room, pausing for a moment to add,
"You'll be useless to them both if you keep on like this... you're acting like a greenhorn Shin, you know better... if you don't sort yourself out... The enemy won't have to kill you, you're killing yourself."
"Look I--"
"It's always been this way Shin. Sierra... now Sun... Why do you think you're commander of the Guild Guard and not in charge of one of the GUARDIAN squads?"
"....""Sleep. It'll do you good."
"Hmph."
Was all he said as he leaned back against the pillows, holding Sun gently, and let sleep take him.
He hadn't slept since the first night he had stayed with Sun in his room... He curled his body around the Salamanders and slept.With the administering of the new medication, Sun found himself drifting deeper into his subconscious, engulfed in a peaceful and blessedly warm darkness. He could still hear the thump of Shin's heartbeat, but it was from very far away. In a small way, things were more clear for him at this level, without the dreams to get in the way, he set about repairing internal workings while his own body worked on the external. ========== Return of Vahn It was a little before one in the morning when Lysira touched down in nearly the same spot Sunstrike had appeared, followed by Aiysin... in front of the Dark Sakura infirmary.
The petite woman appeared cradling Vahn against her chest, laid in her lap as as she called out for a healer.
"Hello? This is GUARDIAN Fourth squad officer Lysira!"
"Lysira?! Are you hurt?"
"No, but this man needs medical attention, get a healing team out here!"
"Right away ma'am!"Healers swarmed the pair and Vahn was lifted out of the woman's arms and onto a stretcher. She followed behind the healing party as he was carried inside to an operating room.
Vahn's wounds were tended to, but in a different manner then Sun's.
The devil was susceptible to magickal healing. Healers who dealt in white magicks, worked their energies on Vahn's broken and exhausted body. Bones realigning and muscle tissue, veins and flesh meshed itself back together. They wouldn't heal him perfectly, but they would set and fuse his bones without the use of metal like they had for Sun, And his cuts were closed without stitches. Lesser scrapes were left to mend on their own. Like Sun, Vahn was covered head to toe in salve to sooth and help heal his inflamed skin as well as reduce scarring. Finally at about 4 am, Bandaged and hooked up to IV's... the devil was placed in another room on the opposite side of the building from Sun, in the upstairs ward.
Lysira sat quietly at his bedside, humming softly.========== Dropping In... Everything wasn't fine. Tomorrow's flight through the air was cooling to his face, the sweat dripping down it mingling with the rainwater that surrounded him as gravity took hold of him and pulled him from the clouds to send him hurtling down, back to earth. There would be a whislting noise, like that of a shell flying through Normandy air - before a massive thud, a dustcloud erupting from outside the compound walls, the ground shaking as Gaia accepted the son of Odin back to her. As the rubble and dust settled around him, John clawed his way out of the crater of dirt, his hand gripping the grass to pull himself out. His hair was matted, his clothes torn and slashed. A massive gash went across his broad chest, blood oozing from it still, staining his dirty shirt and spilling along the ground as he pulled himself closer to the compound. Each pull pulled the wound open, exposing the cleaved bones and the nicked heart and lungs within. His arm had been sliced clean at the shoulder, the blood pumping weakly from the open score. The wound looked burned, as if he'd tried to cauterise it with fire - but he hadn't done a very good job. Crimson liquid squirted from the wound haphazardly - his life-blood draining. It had been worse an hour ago - the blood had poured from the wound like a neon arc across the sky. His skin was pale, clammy, cold with sweat and bloodloss. His massive body, usually burning with power, could now barely drag it's sorry weight towards the doors. He'd been defeated. Again. He had challanged Maximos, not by honour, but by personal reasons - he'd called him a coward for not fighting, for not doing what came natural to him. And Maximos had cleaved his left arm off as simply as a man would slice a loaf of bread. But it hadn't been Maximos. It had been something else. Something that John had never seen before, something...eternal. And, be it lack of blood, be it the sudden and sharp realisation that he had no place acting towards Maximos like he had, forcing his ways upon him, be it the fact that he had been defeated so utterly - John Tomorrow was scared. Scared of death. He'd looked it in the face many times before, had even died - but he'd never actually seen what death looked like. And it frightened him. "...Am...ber..." He groaned, pulling himself forward once more, the trail of blood and dirt on the grass leading behind him growing larger. He needed to see her. If he died now, if he expired before seeing her, her and his children... It was the only thing that was keeping him going.
One of the guild's scouts spotted the incoming Tomorrow as he plummeted half dead to the earth.
He went to tie his belt above the wound to act as a tourniquet, but to his shock found that the arm had been cleaved clean from the shoulder.
Shouting for a guard, the two men lifted the massive man and stumbled to the Infirmary, a trail of crimson left in their wake as they carried the wounded warrior.
======
It seemed that the fates did not see rest in the future of any of the Dark Sakura's healer's.
Patient after patient was streaming through the doors of the infirmary these days, most of which seemed to be critically wounded.
Some of the field healers and relief workers had been sent for as the regular staff were ready to drop from exhaustion. There was even one or two who had been admitted themselves after they started showing signs of mage shock.
First Sunstrike... then Vahn... now Tomorrow.
It had been a hectic week to say the least. It had only been a couple of days since the Avatar of Flame had been carried through these doors.
Now the Avatar of Thunder and Lightening was on their doorstep, bleeding his life blood all over the earth.
They had been alerted by a scout as to the tribal's situation.
A stretcher was waiting as a healing team relieved the scout and guard of their burden and ushered them away to clean off the tribal's blood that was already drying on their skin.
A familiar face peeked down at Tom, as he might recognize one of the healers who had patched him and his wife up the last time he'd shown up at their gates, with their children in his arms.
"When are you going to drop by for a visit, in one piece and not full of holes John?"
She winked at him and pressed a wad of gauze over the bump of mangled flesh that used to be his arm and then quickly replaced it as it only took a moment to become saturated with arterial blood. It was a miracle this man, even if he was a god... wasn't dead.
Inside he would be knocked out with anesthesia. One he was put under, he would be given a stimulant to counteract the shock his body was experiencing
White mages would tend to closing off the severed vessels and veins, smoothing the hacked off bone protruding and coaxing muscle and flesh to weave over the gaping open sore, while others closed the gash in his chest and hooked him up to IV's for blood transfusions, antibiotics and pain killers.
After hours of work, smelling like slave and bandaged... Tomorrow and his IV's were wheeled upstairs to a room in the back of the upper level ward. His missing arm would be healed over, a nub of shiney new scar tissue to mark where it had been severed. And a faint pink scar lay hidden under bandages across his chest. As with the others, minor bruises and cuts were left to heal on their own accord, with only the salve to speed their process.
Amber would be sent for, and a guard was posted outside the sleeping giant's room.
No self respecting healer was letting Tomorrow out of bed for at least a week.The woman's words fell on deaf ears as John simply stared at the moving surroundings. Death craned over him as the people fought vainly to save his life, as his grip on the world slowly sank into the depths of shock and nightmare. It had never been like this. Never this bad. Even in Durem, as buildings tumbled around him as he fought a sinister evil with the power to destroy a city, had it been this bad. Her face flashed over his eyes. Alita. The psychic with the power of a god. He remembered her taunts as he was tortured, projecting images of a future she would steal from him into his mind as her little minion toyed with his internal organs. She had been beautiful as deadly, the only marr being john's own burned hand print into her face when he'd tried to stop her, so long ago. That face stared at him now, grinning cruelly and cackling at his predicament. But then it would change. Her brown hair turning the darkest shade of black, her clean pink skin turning an ashen white, her maniacal eyes boiling into two colors of black and white. Her thin lips twisted into a sneer as Maximos lifted his sword and cut into his chest, cutting deep, carving out the thick, dense flesh and muscle before gripping his palpitating heart with his white hand, black fingernails stabbing into the muscle and causing him to scream out in pain. Maximos pulled back hard, the arteries of John's heart stretching like rubber bands before snapping off the red pump one by one, pop pop pop pop! Maximos grinned menacingly at John as the white hand melted, revealing the shining metal gauntlet beneath, the razor-sharp points digging into John's heart, squashing and slicing it as his voice rang out into John's ears, cold as ice and like freezing poison for John's soul. Iiiiii'll come forrrrr yooooou... It rasped, like rusty razor blades over John's skin. Iiiiii willllll take yourrrrr sooooul...Suddenly the darkness surrounding them faded, to bring them both - back to the Dead Forest. John's clothes were tattered and worn, his arms normal. Sweat was pouring down his face as he watched Maximos present his sword once more. Maximos Thor, God of Destruction and Thunder, you are in violation of the 1st mandate, of Judas Act, grand divine interference. As well as the 3th and 8th mandate, assuming a mortal avatar, voluntary unnatural extension of a mortal life. How do you plead? Then things moved so quickly...so quickly...and Maximos was upon him, his oh so sharp sword singing out to slice off John's arm before taking his head off at the neck, John's massive body becoming covered in the blood that spurted from his severed neck as his head watched from the ground as Maximos danced among that red rain... John was trembling so badly when he awoke that the entire bed was shaking. Sweat poured from his body, soaking his bandages and bedsheets. His eyes were wide, not because he was in shock, but because when he closed them the light was shut off - and he lived in the darkness... A healer who had been monitoring John's vitals stepped into the room when she noticed he'd woken up as she passed through the hall. She wore green robes, the mark of a natural healer and not a white mage. Smiling at John softly, she picked up a cloth from beside his bed and dipped it into a basin of cool water. Dabbing at his forehead she spoke softly, her voice soothing...
"Welcome back to the land of the living... you had quite a close call there."She busied herself with changing the sweat soaked top sheets and plumped up his pillows before fetching the herbal infusion that would eliminate all dreaming and allow him to heal in peace. The same infusion they'd given to Sunstrike.
Hooking the packet up to an IV drip in his remaining hand.
She left the bedside lamp on and exited the room quietly, leaving the tribal to heal in peace.
No more dreams, just warm, drifting sleep.Amber was going stark crazy, like a caged animal. With Amelia and Adamus in tow she had searched for her partener. The wound on her shoulder had been healed completely and was now only a little stiff, but her confidence remained in tatters. Why had John left without saying anything? Had he just abandoned her? Her twins could sense something was wrong and they had become clingy and whined almost constantly. It was a sound Amber couldn't bare to hear and so she nuzzled and nursed them, filling their waking time with love. At the time John crashed back down to earth a small brown mongrel dog, with a sleek and curly coat was sniffing around the gardens. Her ears pricked at the whistling sound and her body became poised. A short and sharp bark eminated from her throat and from within the bushes where they had been playing two even smaller puppies came scruying out to greet their mother. In slow motion, and with gritted teeth the larger mothering dog transformed back into Amber. The two puppies wagged their tails and blinked up at her as in a crackle of lightening which surrounded the two small figures they too returned to their chubby little toddling forms. " Mama?" Amelia blinked up at her mother with a confused expression on her face. The two were devloping quickly. Amber smiled, that was the canine within them, and probably something to do with their tribal heritage as well no doubt. The smile faltered as one of the DSG staff approached her with the summons. Colour drained from the woman's face as tears welled up in her eyes and she scooped her precious litter up into her arms and ran towards the infirmary. ------------------------------------ Amber hadn't been allowed to see Tomorrow straight away. She summoned a rune-pen (a special spell she had designed to keep her broad safe, much like a play pen) around her children and created a ball of glowing energy for them to play with. The two children growled and chewed at the ball to their hearts content, perfectly unaware of what exactly was going on. By the time Tomorrow came around and it was okay for Amber to go in the twins were curled up asleep in their mother's arms having grown tired of playing.
Slowly and carefully Amber stood up, making sure to try her best not to wake her babies and walked into the room where John lay. Amber hated hospitals, they reminded her too much of the research centre where she had been kept. As the machines around John hummed, whirred and beeped, doing their jobs, Amber couldn't help but twitch and growled involountarily.
"You jerk..." she whispered tearfully at the figure who lay in the bed. Even with the magic potions, John's minds continued to whirl when he slept, bucking and rolling like the roaring ocean. Horrible images, monsters he'd slain, people he'd fought, thing he'd witnessed, kept playing over and over in his head, as if to magnify the futility of living. His face was constantly contorted with pain, sweat dripping from his brow as his remaining fist balled tightly. But then her voice, like a beacon of light stabbing into a black, black place, came out to him. When his eyes opened, she looked like an angel surrounded by a halo of light, their children tucked safely into her arms, sleeping the sleep of the innocent. It took a few moments to register that the light was only the room-light behind her...but for a few moments, he really did think that he'd slipped into Valhalla. "...Amber..." He groaned, his normally booming voice weak, as if something had sucked the life from him. The right arm moved, lifting slowly, dragging IV drips and machine tags along with it. The hand was limp, the fingers sluggish, as he brushed the finger gently over Amelia's sleeping cheek - before the hand dropped without warning, hitting the bed hard. He was weak. It had been years since he'd been this weak. ==========
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:48 pm
Wake.
The single word echoed out, the steady drop of some unseen liquid resonating within the darkness.
Wake.
Repeated, the word seemed strengthened, more forceful, purposeful even. The darkness seemed to swell now, as if the eyesight was being strained. Staring forward, into a single yellowed eye, the familiar face staring back. A gaping pit stared back from his left socket.
You goin' to sleep the whole day away? Not gonna even bother to ask what the hell happened?
The grin that matched the sarcastic tone was met with the a nearly confused silence. The one eyed figure was completely vertical, standing on the ceiling... or was he the one on the ceiling?]
The surrounding area was not entirely visible, let alone recognizable. Perhaps he just didn't care at the moment.
You really had me goin', ya know. This whole-- 'I don't want to fight anymore' spiel. You really know how to get a guy goin', eh?
Laughing loudly, the figure reached and grasped both sides of Vahn's face, pulling on the cheeks. As both hands touched, the flesh seemed to pale, becoming stricken as if the mere act was causing a severe strain on his body.
This was probably due to the fact that there was a extremely thin and nearly translucent yet apparently powerful barrier separating the two. A world of blackness with no light to see with. A world devoid of anything that could resemble life.
You got lucky. For the both of us.
Letting go, the figure flung Vahn backwards, arms becoming encompassed by the barrier once more, and the sardonic laughter echoing out into nothingness.
The negative energy built up from the encounter with Tzenidaar was just enough for the Chaotic Fracture to become apparent once more-- the warnings given by the old Priest coming to mind.
Falling backwards, as if right through the surface of a black lake, light flooded his vision.
Halogen lights to be exact.
Back in reality, the ethereal realm of the mindscape left behind... along with the Other.
And with one firm grip, Vahn yanked out the iv's, already sitting up on the bed, head pounding and a ton of questions needing to be answered.
Lysira blinked as Vahn sat bolt upright. The man looked as if he'd just seen a ghost... One fine brow arched as he tore the IV's from his hands. Shaking her head she reached a hand out and flicked him in the center of his forehead.
"Binding art number thirty-eight."
Vahn would find himself paralyzed as he would fall back against the pillows. Lysira crossed her arms and stared at him studiously, as if she were weighing what she saw.
"I didn't save you, for you to get out of bed half recovered, idiot."
Unlike most people, Vahn reacted to what was done to him, without disregard for acknowledgment.
If she had struck him with some method of binding, then struck he was. He wasn't able to ignore or pretend it never happened, simply because he didn't like it.
However, he was genuinely confused as to where he was, since he could vaguely recall the forest never being this clean let alone having the comforts of a bed and linen.
"Where the hell am I?" He growled out.
"Relax please, and my spell will not strain you so..."
Calling in a healer to carefully replace the IV's, she plumped his pillows and sat down on the bed's edge.
"You're in the Infirmary, at the Dark Sakura. Welcome back Vahn...."
Pushing her bangs out of her face she smiled softly.
"If you promise to stay in bed and not tear out your IV's... I'll answer what questions I can. I'm sure you have a lot of them yes...?
"I'm going to tear out your vocal cords and wrap them around your face if you don't let me out of here right now. I've had my fill of unwelcome hospital stays."
Memories of the treatment received from Yaits and the resulting baggage came to mind.
Lysira blinked, her eyes a little wider than was normal... Watching his sleeping face, she'd nearly forgotten the rumours about his temper. Vahn was like fire... unpredictable and destructive.
"I'm afraid that I can't let you do that... I'm not really into pain y'see... But if you'd just relax, then I can answer your questions and I can take you to see your friend..."
"Friend?? You still haven't even told me where I am..."
His list of friends weren't exactly long.
Lysira would simply sit in silence, with her eyes closed while he ranted and raved and refused to listen to her. Twice she had told him where he was and twice he hadn't heard her... or the more rude, had simply ignored what she told him. It was like talking to a wall, and Lysira didn't lower herself by talking to something so unintelligent. The man had been here before, he knew the Guild's mistress well... she had no doubt that he could make the connections, all he had to do, was settle down and open his ears.
Whenever he decided to address her civily, she would deign to acknowledge him. Until then, he could yell, cuss and threaten until he realized his barbarish manner was getting him nowhere.
He seemed to finally shut up, muting himself as he stared away and to the side.
A low growl seemed to be kept within his throat, as he looked away.
"As I said... You're in the care of the Dark Sakura."
Lysira leveled a look at him, her face seeming to say 'Are you quite finished now?'
"I never asked to be brought here. It's the last place I should be in after all."
He gnashed his teeth, neck straining upwards as he motioned with his head.
Whatever arcana binded him was slowly waning, control of his body returning little by little to him. Perhaps a bit of slight from his left eye as it gently began to eat away at what was present.
"Releasing level four restriction..."
Vahn would feel his body being pressed back against the bed by an unseen force as the restriction doubled in potency.
Lysira shook her head and shrugged.
"Not my decision Vahn, I just follow the orders passed down to me. And that was to bring you here. Apparently there's need for you once more..."
Lysira hadn't been around back then, but she'd heard stories of the Princess' shinobi...
"I've got more than enough pressing matters in my hands than to be worrying about broken obligations!!"
He could feel the added pressure, and was only growing more and more sour by the minute.
"If it's about your damned leader, then you've got the wrong guy!"
It was at that moment that Kimiho chose to make her entrance. The feline woman didn't even look to the other woman, her feral gaze was all for Vahn.
"Leave us Lysira."
The younger girl nodded, bowing to her Oracle and exiting silently, her expression solemn.
Kimiho's piercing yellowed eyes met his sour expression with seriousness as she rebuked his statement.
"On the contrary Vahn, you're exactly the man I've been looking for."
She crossed her arms as here eyes bore into him.
"You were the last one with Sierra before she vanished... I was there. I felt the power coming from your room... and I want to know what happened."
It was more of a demand than a request...
"I've nothing to say to you. Let me go or be ready for when I'm ready to get out. And I guarantee you it won't be pretty."
He growled softly again, not feeling comfortable at all with talk about what happened on that night...
"Vahn I'm only asking nicely out of consideration. You're important to Sierra, not me. To me, you're someone who shirked his responsibility and took the easy way out. Now... you have the chance to do right by her, help us save her and you're telling me you have nothing to say?!!"
Her eyes narrowed at him as a low growl resounded in her throat.
"UNACCEPTABLE! You call yourself a man?! All I see a coward hiding from his mistakes!"
Kimiho was intentionally pushing his buttons, but at the same time, she believed what she was saying.
"You can tell us and help us of your free will, or I'll have it ripped from your mind. This isn't just about getting Sierra back anymore... Ra'kar is dangerously close to ascension and she's allied herself with you brother of all people. I don't have time to worry about YOUR hurt feelings and fragile sensabilities!"
"....."
No other words came from his lips, yet the strain on his face was apparent.
"Just what the hell do you think you can do with anything I know? She's gone, she left-- and I'm trying to track someone down who's practically disappeared off the face of the planet."
"Tch."
She looked at him and shook her head.
"Face it, you need us as much as we need you Vahn... maybe even more so."
She scratches the back of her head before slumping against the wall.
"To be honest, we don't know if anything you know can help us or not, but there might be some hints in it. Only way to find out, is to hear what happened."
She closed her eyes and sighed before continuing.
"As for your brother, we have an idea about where he is... and we're already assembling our forces."
She looked at him now, and her look said it all.
"You're either with us or you're against us Vahn."
"How very heroic of you."
He closed his eyes and breathed.
How did it end up like this again?
"Your either with us or against us!"
It was always the same with his brother.... like they were meant to be at each other's throats since the day they were born...
"Your lady took her leave. Permanently. Ra'kar is leading the show and she left with my brother. I told Sierra that I couldn't love her. And she left.
She just left."
"You... you told her what?"
Kimiho just blinked at him in disbelief. Vahn had just affirmed Sunstrike's suspicions.
"What made you tell her that?"
"None of your goddamned business."
He bit his lower lip, causing blood to dribble down a bit.
"Now let me go, or do you treat all your patients this way?"
"Nah, you're the only one getting special treatment."
She glared at him.
"It is our business, whether you like it or not."
She pushed off from against the wall.
"I guess Sunstrike was right..."
"!?"
He arched an eyebrow in visible surprise, hearing her utter that name.
"Did you say---"
"What do you care what I said?"
She looked at him and the made an 'oh I get it' expression.
"OH I SEE... You just have selective hearing. How typical."
"Look, the last thing I was doing was trying not to get the crap kicked out of me by some freak with a fascination for raw meat.
Now I wind up wisked away and practically held captive against my will simply because you people dropped the ball with whatever and want to hold me accountable.
Either let me go so I can do what I need to do, or keep mouthing off and twiddling your damn thumbs while being angry at me."
"Then you deny your part in this little instance of cause and effect?"
She turned away from him muttering, under her breath in frustration.
"For a hero you're pretty dense... idiot."
Running her hands through her hair and eying whirling around to face him she stands with hands on her hips and blinks at him.
"Ohhh? And what is it that -you- have to do Vahn? Tell me... do you have a plan? You don't even know where Victor is--"
She scoffed at him.
"You can't even get out of bed yet, don't lecture me on being useless Vahn. We've been working around the clock on locating your blasted brother and making sure all the players were kept safe. Hmph, After all, if it wasn't for us Sunstrike would be dead and you'd have been left for the birds."
"What do you mean?! He was perfectly fine when I left him, and he can more than take care of himself."
He was really starting to feel more and more in the dark, as if he wasn't being told everything. And probaly rightly so.
"I'm going to get her back, and I'm going to stop my brother. It's not a question of trying or needing to--- I have to."
"You can see Sun after we've talked, he's recovering in another room. He had an encounter with a reaper class. Aiysin brought him back however, and our entire medical team pulled out all the stops to rebuild what was broken and ease his discomfort. He'll be fine, eventually."
She watched him closely, the reactions that played through his features anytime something about Sun was mentioned. Shaking her head she crosses her arms over her chest and just stares at him. Where the hell was this boy's head at?
"Well I'm glad to hear that you intend to do something about this Mr. Hero, but even heroes need help sometimes. You're going to have to face it Vahn... this is BIGGER than you. And all your go-it-alone attitude is going to get, is people hurt."
Something she intended to tell Sunstrike, before he got any more notions of going off on his lonesome to try and rescue damsels in distress.
"We're tracking your brother and Ra'kar as we speak... they reappeared on the radar not too long ago after a black out.... We NEED you Vahn... and as much as it might stick in your throat... the fact that you need us, is something you're going to have to swallow."
She sat down on the bed's edge and looked at him seriously.
"Will you work with us?"
She didn't tell him that Sun had already agreed to help in any way he could. She didn't want to sway his decision. This needed to be his choice...
!
He stared at the ceiling for the most part while she spoke, mobility was kind of limited with the seal placed on his whole body. One which he was beginning to tire of easily now.
"A reaper? What the hell is that?"
He didn't even know what anyone would want to harm Sun for...well he could think of a few people... namely Victor... and Victor... and...
"You people are getting involved in a blood feud several decades old now. Victor's family. If there's any... possible way to... fix him..." He spoke as if what afflicted the other were a disease... showing the basest of childish emotions...
"I have to be there... and if the only way thats going to happen is by letting you guys tag along, then so be it. I've tried playing for a team before, and got severely screwed over."
He lifted his entire right arm up, crackling of unseen energy and the flexing of unnaturally lean muscles.
"I'll explain about the death god later..."
She had planned on filling Vahn in about Joshua from the start, about his hunt for Vahn and his teammates... but right now, they had to come to an understanding about a couple much bigger fish.
A compromise was in order.
"S'not how we play here. No knife in the dark, and if we were to ever come blows for whatever reason, friends stab you from the front not in the back."
She looked at him and her eyes seemed to die and yet burn intensely with life all at once.
"Victor is yours. We won't ignore him, but we'd rather kin took care of kin. We're just back-up and clean up crew s'far as he's concerned... Our target however is arm in arm with your brother... Do you remember Vahn? GUARDIAN's true purpose?"
Those cat like eyes bore into him.
GUARDIAN's true purpose.
The reason Sierra had formed the organization so long ago....
"Sierra's worst fears were realized... you take care of Victor, we'll handle Ra'kar."
She had assembled, Her own death squad.
"Do whatever you have to."
His eyes never left hers, even as he talked.
"Now, let me out of this bed. I think I'll heal better on my own."
Things were coming to head. All the past encounters, all the people ever met, actions ever taken--- everything was coming to fruition.
It had been Babel that enabled Victor to reach Eden, and it was because of Sorrow's Keep that, Victor had learned of Eden as well as destruction to begin with.
The images of Nocturne, matching the images seen in Babel's very own walls as well as within Sorrow's Keep.
The encounter with the shadow-like beings who looked so much like the very figures depicted in those portraits of Nocturne and something else.... something darker.
It was as if, ever since the two of them had been born, they were meant to unravel and begin a series of chained events which would eventually all lead to this one something.
They were all players and the audience was watching and waiting for the end result that was to come. Much like Antharas had told Vahn in Babel...
It doesn't matter what the hell everyone thinks we're supposed to do... I'll do what needs to be done.
"You won't interfere when the time comes?"
That Vahn wouldn't attempt to stop them from killing Ra'kar/Sierra weighed heavily on her mind. It was imperative that they eliminated the threat that she posed... if she ascended-- no, Kimiho didn't even want to think about what might happen. They wouldn't let it, they'd kill her before she could. But at the same time, was she that disposable to Vahn? He certainly put forth that attitude. Perhaps he'd been bluntly honest after all, he didn't love her. It was possible...
With a sigh she eyed him with a considering expression.
"I'll let you out of bed, but if you don't take it easy and let your body finish recuperating, I'll personally put you back in it."
"Trust me... I'll be fine without the kind of help you seem to offer."
He was tired of being treated like a child, even if deserved to, and was quite sore enough as it was.
There was too much to do, and seemingly fewer and fewer moments left to do them in.
He had to see Sunstrike for himself, and find out who or what had broken him.
Maybe another of Victor's thugs.
He had avoided her question.
"Well, when someone threatens to wrap my subordinates vocal cords around her face... I tend to treat them like a rabid dog whom can't be trusted. You done foaming at the mouth? 'cause I'd much rather handle this like adults."
The look she gave him wasn't friendly. The DSG's quality of care was renowned and amongst the best. He was the one who hadn't wanted to play nice. And now he had the nerve to insult them? Hmph.
"You're going to have to get used to the help we 'offer' I'm afraid. It's our job to make sure that all of the players in this thing are healthy and physically fit. That means physically and in the case of two others, mentally... "
She was of course referring to Lazenca and Hono. Who would be joining them over the next couple of weeks.
But one thing that the Dark Sakura's healers were known for, was their no tolerance policy for patients compromising their bodies before they were healed.
Even the mighty Vahn Kyonuske was going to have to observe the doctor's orders this time.
"We have a suite for you in the palace, already prepared. You'll be rooming with Sunstrike once the healers give the okay to move him. For now, I would like to have you stay in Sun's room here in the infirmary. We'll roll in another bed after, if you don't mind that is?"
She didn't think he would complain about rooming with the Salamander. Why should he?
The only reason they hadn't stuck them together from the start was because Kimiho had needed to talk to Vahn in private, without Sun's presence to influence his behavior.
That and the healers didn't want them seeing each other at their worst, that would have added another stress that could have undermined the healing they were trying to accomplish.
Once they were done butting heads, she would call the younger woman back in, so that she could release the binding that held Vahn bound to the bed.
"Lysira, you can come in again."
She keeps calling us players... as if this were all just some big show...
He offered no vocal resistance to the first part of her talking, merely scowling and looking to the side.
"Just get me out of here already. I don't need healing, just food." He hadn't been wounded or severely injured in the fight with Tzen after all...if anything, his injuries had been self afflicted.
"I don't need to room with Sun."
He said the last part quietly, looking up at the ceiling. "The last thing he needs is to start worrying over what I've been doing." He couldn't help shake the feeling that there was something else bothering him as well...
"You don't need healing in the sense that your friend needed healing, but your body needs some serious rest. Rejuvenation... ahh... the um, alleviation of the strain your body has undergone over the past months. Even a small amount will be beneficial to you in the upcoming battles."
She had no way to know that the word 'player' was grating on Vahn's nerves. 'Player' was a GUARDIAN term that indicated an individual who was tactically essential to a strategic play. Nothing about this whole mess was amusing to Kimiho...
"Ahh of course... we've been supplying your body with nutrients via IV... but it's hardly the same... Would you like to eat before or after you see your friend?"
She looked at him closely as his focus ventured upwards to the ceiling.
"The reason I would like you to stay near Sunstrike is purely a practical one, I have no interest in your relationship to the Salamander. His eye, the healers asked if I would authorize to move you both into Sierra's recovery ward..."
Scratching the back of her head she provided their reasoning.
"It's an a fire based field worked into a large room. It would be like giving Sun's batteries a giant jump start and it would allow him to recharge at an accelerated rate. He's an elemental like Sierra, the fire will fuel him. And if his eye is closer to him, it would be less of a strain on him, as that bond wouldn't be reaching out so far and expanding energy he needs to conserve."
Lysira, who had been just outside the door, listening discreetly, re-entered as Kimiho addressed her.
She bowed slightly to them both and made her way over to Vahn's side.
"Sorry..."
She blushed slightly as she pressed her thumb pad into his forehead a moment and closed her eyes. There was a snapping sound as the binding audibly 'broke' and Vahn would feel a weight lifted from him, movement and motion returning to his form.
"Quite right."
And as soon as that weight was gone, Vahn sprung up and out of the bed, as if his entire body had been waiting for that one moment.
He landed on both feet, clearing the bed entirely before giving something of a small bow.
"And now I take my leave, adios."
And going right out the window.
"Lysira."
Kimiho said plainly, she had been expecting this sort of stunt.
"Right."
She replied as she vanished from the room. Kimiho watched from the window as Vahn tried to make his get-a-way.
silvery pink tendrils would overcome the would be escapee as he made his mad dash for freedom. If he checked over his shoulder, she would just suddenly be there, Hands placed on his shoulders even as his eyes befell her.
The words left her lips in a montone line,
"Binding art 72..."
She smiled at him. It would be a repeat of the bedroom scene, except his body would be forced to kneel and frozen in place.
She smiled at him, that sweet little girl faded and in that instant Vahn would see something very scary within that cute rouse of a 16 year old.
Like her sister, she wasn't widely versed in skills. But the few she did posess, were immense in their capacity and power.
"...Kneeling Submission."
There had been a specific reason Kimiho chose Lysira to assign to Vahn.
The silvery tendrils wrapped around his paralyzed figure, fanning out from behind her like arms grasping at him. In the blink of an eye, they were back in the infirmary room, and he would find himself kneeling before Kimiho.
"Let this be the day, that you almost---"
He had extended his arm out in a broad sweep, staring up to where he'd jumped from--- only to find himself forced onto his knees with a heavy grunt.
"...the goddamned Vahn..."
"Back so soon?"
She asked as she smiled down at him, satisfaction clear as day upon her features as she crouched in front of him and forced his face up to look at her by placing a finger under his chin.
"If you can't stand up to our little Lysira here, what makes you think you're ready to face your Brother and Ra'kar hmmm?"
Letting his head fall she rose back to her feet.
"How much more time do you plan to waste by giving us attitude eh?"
"You can't blame a fellow for trying."
He responded evenly enough, although he was quite cross to being captured a second time in a row.
"Right then... let's get this over with then. Take me to see Sunstrike, and get me some clothes."
"There's some of your old things still here, seems the lady didn't have the heart to throw them out..."
She eyed him observationally now and mused aloud, taking visual measurements and comparing them to her memories.
"But it seems you've started aging more... I doubt they'll fit."
Turning to Lysira she nods. The young woman exited and a moment later returned with an armful of clothing and set them on the foot of Vahn's bed.
"Draeza was happy to have another to make clothes for this week. You and Sun have become her favourites she said..."
There was a pair of black leather pants that with more straps than was necessary. It belted around the thighs with two criss-crossing straps, and two more straps that circled just above the knee's to buckle on the side of the legs. A proper belt was laid out to secure the waist band, a runic symbol for fire decorating the polished buckle. The shirt was a white peasant's shirt with detached sleeves. The sleeves themselves were puffed and fastened to the shoulders with two straps that held the shirt together, buckling around the wrists twice. The collar of the garment opening into a V with criss crossed lacing that would give way to glimpses of tanned flesh.
Lysira visually sweat dropped and sighed.
"My apologies, she gets a little over zealous at times... I'll request some plainer clothes be made."
It was an exact repeat of when she'd made Sun's new wardrobe. That Draeza... >_O;;
Lysira laid a hand on his shoulder and lifted the binding for the second time. Smiling softly she gave him a slight bow.
"Your boots are by the door. As fun as playing tag with you is... please don't make me chase you anymore. I'm hungry too."
She smiled and walked out of the room to let him get dressed. Kimiho, remained and simply tugged a curtain partially closed so he had some privacy. But she wasn't chancing a third escape attempt. Too much was riding on this man's cooperation.
"Yes... I can.. see the love and devotion in each thread."
He picked through each piece of clothing, sniffing each one and giving them a good stare. He raised an eyebrow, looking to the giddy woman and then back at the offered clothes.
(Cue Jack's theme)
"Can't say much for taste though." Turning his head to the side as he mumbled that part a bit, he started undressing from the clinic gowns. He gave a last cursory glance as Lysira exited, before putting on the new clothing.
When the shuffling sounds of a body getting undressed and redressed stopped, she placed a hand on the curtain.
"Decent?"
She asked as she drew the curtain back and glanced over the new duds, making a conscious effort not to grin or laugh.
"Right. Food now or after you see Sun for yourself?"
"As long as its not peanuts."
Standing there now, in the full garb of what was given to him, he brushed back a bit of his hair, before moving forward.
"I can't imagine the kind of shape the bugger is in, or why someone would want to even put him in it in the first place."
========
On the other side of the building's upper floor, a healer had left and come back with a huge tray of food for Sunstrike and Shin. Laden with cheeses, fruits, biscuits and honey and jams for dipping, it was set on the bedside table along with two glasses of steaming tea. Honey Lemon with Ginger.
Running his fingers through Sun's hair, the dark featured elf grinned and reached out for a hunk of cheese, offering it to Sunstrike.
"They're going to move you to another room soon, I think you'll like it."
He was referring to the fire field they'd created for Sierra when she was more critically hurt. For someone like Sun, it would be ideal. Or so they were hoping...
"How're you feeling?"
"Like Antharas sat on me..."
Came the slightly monotone and soft reply. It was a gentle hand, though, that pushed the food away. Propped up with pillows, Sun felt a little too noble, and the offerings of food was pushing things a little. He was having a hard time really bringing himself to eat or drink anything. Where Vahn constantly resuplied himself, Sun became the opposite, staying away from most foods until he was whole again.
Bandages covered his body, and were firmly wrapped around most of his hands. When he'd finally woken up he'd snarkily said that he was surprised not to have been embalmed as well, which earned him a dirty looks from all around.
They'd taken off the oxegyn mask for now in the hopes that Shin could persuade him to eat something that didn't flow through an IV, and the elf was losing the battle.
"You're all pampering me like I'm glass or something...I'm sure I'll be okay wherever you put me."
He was still a little out of it, the painkillers they used were surprisingly effective, so the room blurred a little around the edges and most voices sounded like they were shouted through water.
The machines softly pattered away in their droning music. There were less of them now, which meant that once he put his mind to it, Sun could probably get up and putter around a bit, or so it'd be easier for them to move him, whatever came first.
Sun blinked at Shin and smiled a little crookedly.
"At least you've not shackled me to the bed, you sure you can trust me not to run off?" He wiggled his toes for effect.
"Like Antharas sat on me..."
"That good huh?"
Shin retorted over-enthusiastically, pretending for a moment that Sunstrike had spoken as if he were in tip top shape. But something in Sun's face would make his would make his playful-grin falter. He quickly recovered however, taking up a mock 'don't hurt me' expression.
"Well, if it's any consolation... the healers are really impressed with how well you're recovering."
"You're all pampering me like I'm glass or something...I'm sure I'll be okay wherever you put me."
"Oh, they know that... I think what they're trying for now, is how can they aide you in healing faster without all the magick presto they can do for a lot of others. Since you're a fire elemental like Sierra, they wanna' see if setting you up in a fire field would help charge the ole'batteries faster."
He grinned as he explained, eating the hunk of cheese himself.
"At least you've not shackled me to the bed, you sure you can trust me not to run off?"
Shin drew back in mock horror gasping, trying to keep a serious tone and expression.
"And incurr the wrath of Roiysin?!!"
"I think we've incurred enough wrath between the three of us to last her the year." Sun chuckled and looked away. "She should be bright and sunshiney to everyone after what I did."
His fingers began to pick imaginary lint out of the blankets, he was thinking, which meant he was trying to add one and one to get to somewhere around ten.
"I probably should speak to the person I was supposed to meet before all this happened. Or is it an environment that anyone can come into?" The way they were talking, Sun was starting to assume they were going to put him in something like an oven for a while, til he was baked.
He wiggled his toes again, pleased that both were still there. Sali hadn't managed to save much, but the leg got to be reattached. From the ashes and all that nonsense...
"Heh, Hell hath no fury like a healer disobeyed... the fact she's a woman just kicks it up to the 'enth degree."
He chuckled and hugged Sun lightly.
"You're lucky, the fact that you've been recovering so well has placated her some. But she's even MORE determined now, that you be more or less in one piece before you get any more hair brained ideas and leave her care."
He picked out a slice of melon that looked particularly sweet and handed it to Sun.
"Not everyone, no. But Lady Reiyvian isn't 'everyone'. She'll be able to see you there."
Sunstrike winced.
"It wasn't hair brained! I just..." He looked down at the blankets that covered his legs, and the melon in his hand. Very gently he placed the food back.
Sunstrike 2, Shin 0.
Sun was sulking and knew it, didn't really have any explination for it other then he had been certain he'd felt what he'd felt. He was beginning to believe it had been a simple coincidence that he'd been jumped...a loose end that had caught up with him from HoH.
"I don't know, somethings really wrong. But there's no time left now to bury myself in it. Has Vahn come back, yet?"
Shin frowned as he watched him put the fruit back on the platter.
"You have to--"
He was going to say something like 'you have to eat something, regain your strength.' But fell short. Sunstrike really didn't need to eat anything all that often at all, or at least he remembered reading something like that in his file. Shin was forcing his mother-hen ways on his friend and the realization took him aback a little. His hand fell limp at the bedside and he leaned his head back, resting against the headboard as he stared at the ceiling. Being behind Sun, was advantageous as the Salamander couldn't see the confusion playing on his features.
"I don't know, somethings really wrong. But there's no time left now to bury myself in it."
"Well find out what's weirding you out Sun, but as a team, not you going alone to face gods knows what odds. It's not just because you can help get Sierra back I--"
There was a 'thunk' as his head bounced off the board lightly in frustration.
"Oh hells Sun, you're my friend... if you meant what you said the other night. And I don't like seeing my friends hurt."
"Has Vahn come back, yet?"
He sat in silence for a moment, and then sighed and nodded at nobody in particular.
"Yeah. He was brought in two nights ago, lost a day to sleep, came 'round today. While you were sleeping Aiysin dropped by to tell me her sister was back and Vahn was with her."
Sunstrike hesitated when Shin trailed off. Feelings of remorse made him reach over and take the hot tea in a compromise, nursing the heat in bandaged hands.
"I'm sorry Shin, I don't...I'm unused to the concept of sharing the load. My teacher wasn't exactly apt at it either. And I did mean what I said the other night. I need friends, they tell me when I've been horribly stupid and put up with me when I'm more then a little..." He scowled and took a sip, finding it really nice actually, his ear wiggled a bit and he lightened up.
"Stubborn."
When Shin told him about Vahn he stared into his mug, stroking the sides of the glass with idle thumbs. Part of him had known exactly when Vahn had entered the grounds, and how long the darker man had been there, he was really just asking to confirm what the back of his mind was telling him. That was unsettling.
"What happens now?"
Shin couldn't help but smile as Sun took the tea, even if he was only humouring Shin, the elf felt a little better.
"I think he's with Kimiho. She'll want to talk to you both separately, as not to let one's decisions influence the other. Kimiho knows you've agreed to help us, but won't want Vahn to say yes just because you did. He needs to have some degree of conviction if he's going to be any real use against them."
The 'them' was unspoken, but there would be no doubt whom he was referring to. Victor and Ra'kar.
"Then she'll probably bring him here."
He tried not to let the last be anything more than a simple answer, to a simple question. But nothing in life was ever really simple--
"I imagine that in a couple days, you'll both be in discussions with Lady Reiyvian, and part of the planning process as to what our best course of action is."
His fingers drummed along the sides of the cup, this time a little anxiously.
"It's gonna have to be faster then a few days, Shin, I hate to say it, but I've got a terribly bad feeling about things. The kinda feeling that tells me to find a hole to crawl into."
More then that, something had happened when he'd been asleep, a dream that weighed heavily on his conscience. He shook his head to clear it, that wasn't ready to be spoken of or even thought of yet.
He sighed and leaned back, trying to relax.
"I don't know what to do anymore, things were so clear cut to begin with, now the waters are all muddied."
Shin, knew the feeling. He was growing more and more worried about everything the past few days. Too much intel had come in that was ill-boding for all concerned parties.
He held Sun, not as a lover. But as a friend. Just another person, trying to survive this crazy world. The reassuring embrace and contact of skin and the silent knowledge that as bad as it all was and might get, they weren't alone.
He just nodded and held Sun, one hand running absentmindedly through soft red locks of hair.
"I'll see what I can do..."
He murmured gently.
========
"I'll explain over supper then. S'probably better that you understand what happened before you see him anyway."
She would lead him downstairs and out of the infirmary. Fresh air would do him good. A seven minute walk and they were at the Cafeteria. Inside Vahn would find anything and everything he wanted to eat on the menu.
"Order whatever you want, You're on my tab. S'the least we can do."
Wow. She actually felt sort of bad? Hard to tell really. But whatever, the gesture was made and no food tasted as good as free food did.
"What d'ya want today Kiiiimi-girl?"
"Ahh... Hit me up with a steak sandwhich and some milk please."
"You got it doll. What about your friend?"
"Whatever he wants, my tab."
The cook flashed her the thumbs up and turned to Vahn.
"Well sir, what'll it be?"
Meanwhile, Kimiho walked over and grabbed them a booth away from where anyone else was eating so that they could talk comfortably in private.
"Well, you plenty of time to explain away then."
He ran a hand through his hair and followed after her. He hadn't worn anything in this style since horses were still considered a viable means of transportation.
It's not like he hated it... would just take some getting used to.
"And while your playing the role of the grateful hostess, be a good girl and get me some proper boots. I've been wearing these clunkers for too long."
The greaves were nice and all, but he'd like to feel what normal footwear was like for just a little while.
He stopped and looked at the proverbial menu of life itself, and just shook his head.
"I'll have some green tea, cooled to the touch mind you, and whatever pieces of bread you have lying around that can pass for a croissant."
The cook made a face as if 'That's all? Hm. Alright then!'
"Will do, I'll send it over."
With a grunt he disappeared into the back.
Kimiho had made herself comfortable. Sitting with one leg tucked up beneath her, she leaned forward against the table. When Vahn joined her, she looked up and asked in reference to the question of footwear,
"Soft or hard soled, shoes, boots or sandals?"
Now that the ordering of food wasn't the most imminent thing on her mind, she could give the rest if his 'grateful hostess' request honest thought. Fingers interlaced, she rested her chin on her hands, elbows propped up against the booth's table.
"Anything that will last. I suspect I'll have a lot of a** kicking to do."
He got up, having hardly touched his food. A single dribble of blood ran its course from under the lid of his left eye, which was soon wiped away even as he turned to the side.
He felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise a bit... feeling like he was being watched.
Apparently the food had come and they'd eaten... or not. Whatever.
Kimiho just nodded and polished of the remainders of her food, enjoying her milk one moment and the next-- Her senses bristled, a sharp jolt ran through her limbs. Someone had breached DSG security from afar.
Her eyes widened and then narrowed as she eyed Vahn cautiously. How could she feel this? Kimiho was created as part of the Dark Sakura's defenses. One of her guardians, and as such she was directly in tune with every line of defense and would tell instantly if something had been tripped.
:: What happened?! ::
:: A breach, s'far away though.::
::Track it and raise anti-scrying defenses. NOW. ::
Seekers were released, and the anti-scrying barriers were activated. The hospital ward and any of the DSG estate would fade from Victor's vision. Sighing, the woman shook her head an looked to Vahn.
"What was that about, any ideas?"
"Eh?" He turned at the question, wondering what she meant.
He had felt just something akin to a gut reaction, or something superstitious. He had no real way of knowing if something was really going on or not.
He just gave her a quizzical look and turned away, waving a hand about. "I'm not that hungry... just keep getting headaches is all..."
She just kind of blinked at him dumbfounded for a minute and then realized that he thought she was talking about the food. Sighing she finishes her milk and gets to her feet. If he didn't know, then she had no reason to tell him just yet, that someone was trying to spy on them.
She had her suspicions of 'who' had been checking in, but wouldn't know for sure until the seekers returned.
'Seekers' were spirits who had been consigned to track energy trails. Handled by GUARDIAN scout classes, it was their generic ability.
"Let me know if you want something later then."
She rubs her head, not quite wanting to talk about things in such an open area now... but their defenses had been activated. Logic told her it was fine, but her gut and her senses were still on edge.
Nothing screamed 'intruder' to her however. So she decided to proceed with their conversation.
"Vahn, what do you know of Reapers? Death God's?
And why would Joshua, the captain of the team that called themselves 'a** Tear' at this years Heaven or Hell tournament be after your teammates?"
"As far as I know, there is no such thing."
He had said it matter of factly, without even realizing he had said it. To my people, there was no such thing as the "after life". You simply lived, and you simply died.
So I had no reason to really ever wonder or care about... anything concerning that. It would have certainly made a lot of us think twice during fighting..."
He squared his jaw, before looking towards her again now. "Joshua... I can't say the name rings a bell. But I do feel like I've met the guy before..."
He remembered seeing his elimination match with the Judge on the jumbo screen, at the same time Sun's was playing out.
"Figures a guy like that would be with that other monster...." He was referring to Tzen of course.
"They are quite real, let me assure you."
She waited 'til they were back outside before continuing in a hushed tone.
"It concerns me that two of Team A.T. have attacked you and Sunstrike both and both within close timing of the other. What concerns me more, is that Joshua more than once implied and then straight out said, he was coming after ALL of GLACIER. He was using it to try and get Sunstrike to unleash Sali, but there was no hint that it was a bluff."
Rubbing the back of her head awkwardly she pressed forward with the story's telling. It wasn't casual, rather serious and matter of fact. Joshua had been an unseen enemy, and it was unsettling. It was going to be hard enough dealing with Victor and his ilk, now they had someone else throwing a spoke into their wheels as well.
"Joshua used you and your teammates against Sun, Sun went ALL out."
Shrugging glanced at Vahn,
"He tried to murder Sun... and nearly succeeded. I don't know-- if Tzen and Joshua are working together or separately, but they are a very real threat to you four. Victor and Ra'kar are our prime objective, but keeping you and Sunstrike in one piece is part'n'parcel to that... So we can't afford to ignore this development."
Kimiho stopped walking and turned so she could see Vahn's face.
"What's your stand on it?"
He took in this rather surprising development with silence, head lowered in thought. His right hand involuntarily clenched tightly, even as he started remembering what Tzen had been jeering at him through their fight.
"....."
Looking up, he dismissed her with a hand. "I don't need a babysitter. Just tell me what I have to do."
"Let us see what happened that night so that we can try and understand what it was within our mistress' mind that broke."
The woman was very serious, very grave and all business. Yet there was something about the determination in her eyes. She would exhaust every other option before she excepted the decision she knew had already been made by Sierra long ago.
"If there's any chance at all to save her... we have to try..."
Brushing the hair from her eyes as she smiles and turns to Vahn mid-step, she adds carefully.
"We are at war Vahn, it hasn't been declared yet, but the Dark Sakura is holding her breath for she knows will surely come."
They were heading uphill now, back towards the infirmary. She had to finish up this talk quickly, then she would take him to see Sun. While they caught up-- she intended to call a meeting of powers.
"What we need from you, is an alliance. We need you to work with us, not as an underling but in a position of authority.... We want you to reclaim your title as the first GUARDIAN...."
She didn't say anything more, just waited for the protest or explosion that she was almost certain was bound to follow.
It had been a long, long time that Vahn had been expelled from GUARDIAN. Although, the decision seemed mutual at the time. Kimiho suspected that he would have left anyway...
No doubt it had left a bad taste in his mouth.
"What--- you mean let you muck about in my head?" He arched an eyebrow, even as he shook his head. "No way. There's been too much of that done for me to even pretend to liking it."
He kept his arms against his body, trying to be as relaxed as possible, even as she continued on talking.
"I'm not looking for war or anything of the sort. Things can still be salvaged and contained. There's still time left---- "
Memories of finding the ruins of what was once the Kyonuske Clan in Guldor... "And there is no way I am going to assume responsibility or leadership of anyone. I already tried and failed. I won't allow a repeat."
His jaw was squared as his tone of voice was firm, even as he stopped walking completely and faced her.
"Reiyvian is more skilled at plucking specific thoughts from a person that I have ever met, I believe it's due to her remarkable respect for privacy of the mind's inner workings. She will not go 'about' in your head like a wanderer..."
She attempted to interject while he was shaking his head. She'd rarely met a person who DID like someone puttering about inside their thoughts and memories. It was too easy to come across things that no individual should have to suffer another person seeing... But Reiyvian was the best.
"She would simply see what happened that night... nothing else. She's that specific in her skills as a voyeur."
"I'm not looking for war or anything of the sort. Things can still be salvaged and contained. There's still time left---- "
"You sound so mu--"
'So much like her,' was the unfinished thought as Kimiho shook her head sadly. So desperate to save everyone or to die trying-- Her fist clenched as she pushed the sentimental thoughts from her mind, an image of a pale, red haired woman chased to the recesses of her mind for the moment.
"I wish it were so Vahn... but your brother is already assembling his forces. If we wait too long, we won't be in a position to do anything about it. Every moment we leave them alone, they get stronger."
She placed a hand on his shoulder and gripped it lightly.
"You can't let your inner demons stop you from doing something. That is the past, this is the present... and if we want a future then we need your help. You do not have to lead very many, work with the other commanders and take merely one division. We will handle the rest."
She held his eye as she added softly,
"This time... You have nothing to lose and everything to gain Vahn."
"It seems more and more like your not giving me the option of having options at all." He growled the words out even as he followed her.
"I left for personal reasons and its those very same reasons that everythings gone to s**t right now. I shouldn't... have said those things to her that way, and I didn't realize it would hurt her so much..."
He was in absolute refusal that anything could be made right with his involvement. It was starting to look like the opposite.
"And take me to Sunstrike already."
Kimiho raised a fine brow at him. She would let the subject alone for now, no sense in beating a dead horse so to speak. Let someone with more skills at things like persuasion have a talk with him. It wasn't Kimiho's forte.
"---I shouldn't... have said those things to her that way, and I didn't realize it would hurt her so much..."
She blinked at him in surprise and then quickly pulled a mask of composure and neutrality in place.
"You realize you're referring to the most loyal and dedicated person I've ever met... and an empath no less. Sensitive doesn't quite begin to cover it."
She almost said 'after being raped by your brother, being left behind and going through her pregnancy alone, only to have her children taken from her.' But she didn't. Brownie points for her. Fighting the urge to shake her head she turned and started walking back up the path. Just what HAD he said to her... 'in that way'? Something about not being able to love her... Kimiho had a sinking feeling about the events that had transpired that night. If only she had been faster... if only she hadn't failed her, not reaching that floor until it was too late.
"This is the second time I've had to watch that b***h walk off with her body."
Her fists tightened and her jaw clenched. Ra'kar was going to pay. She was going to pay dearly for what she had done. Sooner than later if she had anything to do about it.
"....."
He didn't really say anything after that, not really having anything to rebuke or defend.
The fact o the matter... and the truth he had been hiding from everyone... were the reasons why he had rebuked Sierra that night... after having that talk with the enigmatic James Black... Vahn had the fortune... or dismay of being visited upon.
By Mari herself.
And he had been warned...as he had been so many decades ago... to forsake the bond with the female... to sever ties as he was only hers and hers alone. The soul bond that had formed between Vahn and Sierra had been a direct violation of the promise made between both deity and mortal, which had been cemented in nothing short of actual bodily connection.
And yet again when Mari had spared Vahn's life.
In order to be able to topple his brother, and end the cycle of this cursed bloodline... he couldn't have relations with any woman, that would result in the bloodline being continued.
Mari had opted to take away the children in place of the broken accord, but Vahn had pleaded, not willing to bear what had happened to the child he had with Kanashimi all over again.
Or the one with Ashe.
What he had done... had probably been mistaken by Sierra, by everyone...yet Vahn kept quiet. The less they knew, the better for him... the more that became involved with his past... the more risks were being taken in that the future would be lost.
The children were safe... but the new deal made...
"Take me to Sunstrike, please." he asked yet again, this time with a hint of subtle force.
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 2:05 pm
They reached the infirmary and Kimiho held the door open for him before leading him upstairs, but instead of turning to the right where he had roomed for the past two days, she went left and lead him to Sunstrike's room. When she arrived, she stood blocking the door, unmoving for a moment as her brow twitched in frustration.
'That damned elf!' she had a moment to think as she tried to back out of the room, pulling the door closed behind her if she could.
"Sun---!"
Having grown just about tired with the questioning and accusations, he pushed the woman aside and kicked the door open with a single swing of his foot.
What he found waiting for him on the other side certainly didn't match up with what he had been told.
Shin's head turned slowly to the door as Vahn busted in, his emerald eyes resting on the other man and took him in, as if weighing what he saw. And what he saw... didn't measure up. Plain and Simple Shin just did not like Vahn.
"Some things never change."
He said flatly, his arm tightening around Sun's shoulders, but not enough to hurt him.
It had been a long time since he'd last seen Vahn. He didn't like him then... and he liked him even less now. He completely ignored Kimiho's presence and casually said,
"It's been a while, Vahn."
Sunstrike nearly jumped out of the bandages and his own skin at the abrupt entry. He sat, blinking a little owlishly at the other man, surrounded by blankets, machines, and Shin, before breaking out into a huge grin.
"Vahn! We were talking about you! Are you alright? Did the healing...go...um..."
He trailed off, wilting a little in the sudden tension that erupted within the small room. The grip Shin had on him was a little too close, and the look in Vahn's eye...Sun looked down at the blanket. Picking threads he started talking again.
"I know, it's a bit of a mess, I kinda lost the fight. But I'm sure in a little bit I'll be alright enough to help out. Um...maybe...maybe I should get up."
That look burned all the warmth out of Sun, leaving him nervous and suddenly very cold. He knew what this must look like, and he was even more helpless now then when he'd been bleeding on the floor.
There was a slight twitch to his right eye, as if some unseen muscle spasm were happening, even as he felt the tingle run up and down his right arm. The slight rise in heat, a sign that the seal there was absorbing the impact of negative energy....which was a result of the well of jealousy and hatred that sprouted into bloom.
"Well, I have to say--- this is the strangest hospital I've ever been too. Who do I have to ******** to get a happy ending as well?"
Turning on his heel, he went right back out, leaving the door to shut behind him and not caring for any other words to come out of the woman's mouth.
Part of why he had left this damned place to begin with--- and it was happening again.
Kimiho clenched her fists and fought the overwhelming urge to yell.
"Get out. NOW."
She commanded Shin sternly. She hadn't raised her voice, the worst sign possible when dealing with Kimiho. It meant she had totally skipped over being pissed and had opted for unbridled RAGE. She was keeping A tight lid on it, but Shin knew all too well that he was going to taste it afterwards, out of the public eye.
Shin's gaze met hers eloquently as he stood his ground.
"I have done nothing wrong."
"Get. Out. Just get out before you make this any worse."
Shin's eyes narrowed on her angrily. Gently he slipped out from behind Sun and rose to meet the smaller woman, glaring down at her.
"Do not blame me for his ill-tempered manner. I will not endure such a burden unduly."
"Shin... don't make me fight you over this. Just get out and maybe we can repair the damage."
"We don't need him."
"NO. You don't want him. That's exactly why you were left out on this detail. Because you can't detach yourself from your personal feelings and simply treat this as business. We need him, Sierra needs him... and that pisses you off. Either deal with it, or don't. But if you don't... then stay out of our way."
A low growl had trickled into her voice. Shin turned around and smiled weakly at Sun.
"S'pose this is where you tell me, it would be better if I left, huh?"
"I'd rather you stop arguing and help me, people are going to need explinations in a moment."
Sun had already taken half the needles out, ripping the disks off his chest, along with most of the bandages that held them in place. The machines started to make a hell of a racket.
"I'm going to try and catch up with him,"
He swung his legs carefully off the bed, having to physically move the left one off. The rest of the needles were removed and placed aside.
"Keep track from a distance and if I fall on my arse pick me up so I can keep walking. I should be alright if I get enough momentum."
Sun stood, wobbled, and then steadied himself against the table as the world turned upsidedown for a moment. The bedclothes he made of white linen were cool and comfortable and looked harshly pure against the injuries that showed through the ripped pieces of cloth that bound his upper body.
"If I let him get any further thinking thoughts like that, he's just going to end up doing something daft."
No accusations, no sadness, Sun just didn't have the energy to completely lose it, not yet anyway. It'd take all he had just to catch up.
He limped heavily to the other two and paused when reaching them, a hand bracing on the taller elf's shoulder,
"Shin...thank you."
Then Sun moved through. What he'd said to Shin was heartfelt, and he hoped the other man understood. He felt very ill, and tired, but he'd rather that then stay in bed while Vahn was upset. What Sunstrike felt didn't really leave a lot of room for what other people wanted out of him.
"I'll talk to him."
The door slammed open, and he was moving in the direction that felt the most heated. It hadn't taken that long to remove everything, he'd already begun once Vahn started speaking. It was just a matter of whether or not the other two would let him do this.
There was a very purposeful raven haired man stalking down the halls of the infirmary right now, making his way away from the room as fast as possible.
The thoughts from HoH still swirled in his mind, moments of trust coming to question and a need to discover what the hell he was doing with his life and actions.
And all the while, several thousand miles away.... a city was under attack.
Shin stared at Sun's hand on his shoulder for a moment, then looked to the redhead, gaging something in the other man's expression. It took all the courage he could to do what he did next--
"Go get 'im, tiger."
He grinned lopsided and let Sun pass. Kimiho made a move as if she would grab Sun's arm and stop him, but She turned wide eyed with anger and surprise as she found Shin's hand gripping her wrist tightly.
"Sunstri--!! --- SHIN?!!"
Shin's head was lowered, masking his expression as a mass of ebony shadowed his features.
"Let it be."
Her other arm moved as if to punch, but his moved first and she stood staring up at him in shock, both arms held fast.
That rage she had been keeping a tight lid on seethed into her voice,
"I will not fight you here Shin... but be assured I will make you bleed for this."
"Do what you will Kimiho... but I won't let you interfere."
She stopped and stood staring at him for a moment, opened her mouth to say something and stopped, because at that moment a young healer girl ran into the room and stood in dismay staring at the noisy machines. She looked panicked before she turned to Shin and Kimiho.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?!! WHERE'S THE PATIENT?!!"
=========
Said patient was carreening down the corridors in persuit of a very single minded, raven haired, seething mass of anger. Cursing every last aching bone in his body, Sunstrike even managed to jog.
He caught up to Vahn on the outside, just as the stairs started to curve their slow way downwards towards the portal rooms. A few upraised platforms were broken up only by the outcroppings and some railings. The view was beautiful, as they all were within the DSG compound.
"Vahn! WAIT!" Trailing bandages and coming to a skidding halt behind the other man, Sun was nearly doubled over, trying to get more of a breath. Blood leaked like sweat down the inside of his leg and along his torso.
"Would you...just....hear me out! 'Stead of....running so bloody much..." Completely ignoring the fact that only Sun himself had been the one running.
"To what? What do I have to listen to? Do you know how much crap I've been through-- just to come back and see you relaxing and enjoying more than your fare share of hospitality!"
He threw his arms out to the side, even as he exploded.
Sunstrike blinked at him, panting to regain lost breath.
"If I were relaxing it'd be in a nicer place then the infirmaries close watch ward, Vahn."
He moved forwards, taking advantage of the open arms to place bandaged palms against his darker companions cheeks. And that was it, just a small touch before taking both hands away.
"The thing with Shin is, that's the closest I can get to, avoiding myself, without betraying your trust," A bark of a laugh and he looked to the side. "I don't think it worked...I never was very strong against dominant personalities, and...I wanted to be friends."
There was such a hopeless look as he put his hand around his neck in embarassment. By now a few of the bandages showed up bright red around his upper arms, which was why he hastily put it down again.
"I'm sorry, Vahn, I know it sounds like a lot of excuses...but there's only one person that's dominated my mind for the past few days. If you can believe or trust anything, at least do that...please?"
"..."
He just stood there, listening to the redhead passively. There wasn't much he could do anyway, being cornered like this. However disgruntled he was... he knew he was being selfish... at a time like this...
"What happened... after the tournament was over...."
Well, Vahn wasn't running away, that was a plus. He was still pissed off though, and that was a definate minus. Sunstrike took a step closer, trying to catch the other man's eye.
"I got into trouble. Everyone left was rushing in to take their piece, I held them off as best I could and then..." Sun went slightly paler and straightened, looking down the steps to the portal room.
"Aiysin saved me and brought me here."
He paused, before looking at the dark haired man again. He lightly touched Vahn's shoulder, moving a tiny bit nearer.
"How about you? I've been pretty out of it, and no one likes to really explain anything around here."
"That hardly explains anything..." Growling softly he turned his head to the side.
"I had a run in with with that Tzenidaar guy from the tournament. The same guy that took apart Athan."
"I saw, he wound you up like a tinker toy..." Sunstrike got more of a grip on the shoulder, turning Vahn to face him.
"Tried to get Silver dragged into the mess, you did right to get the guy out of the stadium, Vahn."
Sunstrike looked his friend over, thumb running across one of the many scars that were left after healing. They'd fade with time, it was a good healing. His other hand rested on a shoulder so that Sun stood facing Vahn completely. He leaned in closer, whispering.
"This place...grates on you, for whatever reasons. Those are your own Vahn, and I won't force them from you." He squeezed softly against the skin.
"But we should set things right with your brother, with the demoness. The choice of whether or not to do that alone, together, or with a group is yours now." Finally Sun let go of his grip, starting to move away.
"I think...I probably need a lie down..." The world tipped and he was suddenly sitting on the ground, looking at his feet.
"...." He kept his mouth shut, letting Sunstrike talk. His thoughts were a whirlwind of other thoughts, and he seriously was starting to think it was better for him to just drop everything and go vanish into the forest or something...
"I'll have to think about it." He finally responded, setting both arms at his sides as he turned a bit. "We both need to come to terms with where we want to be right now."
Sunstrike waved a hand absently. The ground was really nice right now, and staying still.
"Do what you want."
He snorted, blinking a few times to get his vision back. "You know where I want to be, else I wouldn't be dragging your arse back."
Sun looked up, sideways, at the man staring down at him. "Come down here for a second..." He held his hand out, waiting.
"......" He stared to the side for a bit, whatever thoughts ran through his head at the moment wouldn't be voiced. He hated showing the emotional side of himself, thateven then only a few people had been privy too.
"Feh..." Sighing after a bit, he slid down the wall and sat on the floor next to the redhead.
Sunstrike chuckled.
"You're being too nice, I'll have to ask for permission now..."
The back of Sun's hand brushed the fringe out of Vahn's face, touching the skin. Slowly, carefully, he turned his friends face towards his own, studying it, and looking at his reflection in the damaged eye.
"I should deck you, you know. Letting everything build up like that. You should really know better...hell I probably should have told you, not that there's been much chance of that."
Sun's voice was calm, almost soothing. A thumb slipped down and traced the edges of Vahn's scar and under the lower eyelid, there wasn't anything threatening about the touch, just a light brush before he did the same to a lower lip.
"Should we lighten the load...just a little?"
Leaning in, Sunstrike kissed Vahn, setting off the runes drawn in his own blood over the other mans face, along his shoulders and finally through his hand as he placed it right over his friends heart.
It would be exactly as Sun said, the eye wouldn't be gone, but there would be a very large release on the growing pressure, caused by the magical build up. Even if the eye drained Vahn, and any surrounding area of magic, it still needed somewhere to go. It might leave the darker man a little dizzy, as his headache was abruptly gone for a few moments.
When it had been Sun, he'd use small amounts, to cut the edge off, or divide it into sections. A good portion maintained the salamander.
Vahn didn't have the luxery, but he did have Sunstrike, who desperately needed whatever accumulated in some form or another. If nothing else then to sacrifice to the other being inside his mind. As long as she was trying to heal herself, Sun would be constantly drained and weak, exposed to all kinds of problems.
Healing magic still wouldn't do the job, it would just slide through like water. Unfortunately, like a certain bloodtype, the magic had to be recycled into some kind of firebased form. Now the bleeding and the pain would stop, and begin to slowly heal properly, with a lot of sunlight and heat, instead of like wet tissue paper.
Despite the lengthy explination, the kiss would be brief, as well as the feeling of lightness, because the eye would begin to work again as soon as it was emptied, but the strain would be gone, and that was what was important, at least to Sun.
He leaned back, not knowing quite what to expect from the quiet man.
He blinked at the contact, still doing his best to seemed annoyed, when all he was actually, was confused.
"It's not like there's an off switch..." He mumbled the response, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the inspection.
"I'm fi---" He started protest, but was cut off as Sun leaned in and kissed. He expressed surprise, but felt release come, and he slumped slightly, as if the pent up stress were gone... as if he...climaxed...?
The lightheaded and blurring of vision seemed standard, as he gripped the side of his head.
He simply lowered his head, quieted and diminished in dispute or protest. As if he were nothing but a lump of clay that could be molded.
Sun's breath caught in panic. He moved himself around to face the slumped figure, hesitating before gripping a shoulder. Sunstrike tried to peer at the face under the hand.
"Vahn? I'm sorry, I should have given you a little more warning...I guess."
If Sun had realized what the release was akin to, he'd probably be a warm, little, curled up, ball of embarassment. As it was, Sun was just worried about whether or not he'd broken his best friend.
"It's...fine..." He said with stolen breaths, even as he tried to stand up.
He couldn't really believe what just happened... or try to understand why it had to happen like that... it had been both a mixture of pleasure and pain... resulting in something of an orgasm for a male.
The sweet release of all that pent of arcana...
Sunstrike blinked and watched Vahn trying to get up, he felt as though he might be missing an underlying joke. Realization was slow in coming ((giggles)), however. Though the thought was making it's way through his mind enough to turn the tips of his ears slightly pink.
Nahh....couldn't be.
"Lets get back to the others before I end up in more trouble then I already am, then..." This wasn't going to be easy. Carefully he braced himself on the floor and levered himself up at about the same pace as Vahn, wincing at his injuries.
He limped a few paces, happily high with fire magic, when he realized how this felt and stopped abruptly. The shade of pink darkened and he began to frantically try and regain whatever innocence the realization had torn apart in his mind.
It was a fairly lost cause.
He whirled around to face Vahn and carefully poked his fingers together, debating what to say in the way of some kind of apology. You'd better get used to this.... No, that just made him blush deeper. I'm really really sorry... That just seemed a little redundant.
"Did you want a minute to, um, settle first?"
"I'll be fine..." He waved a hand about, grunting as he lifted himself up off the ground. He was doing his best to gather his wits about himself and act normal again.
Moving forward, he ran a hand through his hair. "I think you should start by telling me why this...reaper thing attacked you."
He was wondering where his guide had gone, and trying to put as much though away from Shin as possible.
Sun opened his mouth, and then closed it again, before making his way back up the infirmary steps. Someone was bound to come down soon and lead them out, he had said keep watch, and they were also probably well aware of a large magical transfer...Sun blushed again, so when Vahn asked him about the reaper, he was jumped just a little, as if he'd been thinking something else.
"I...I met him during HoH, he was a** Tear's captain. It's like a branch of death that deals with people that kinda, break the rules of the hereafter." Sun thought about that for a moment.
"Though Joshua seemed to be a little wayward for what he was, more human then you're stereotypical death dealer, but a long way off from actually being mortal."
Sunstrike shrugged and moved on. "He wanted to fight me, so I fought him. Apparently he's after all four of us, and from the sound of it I was first on the list. That's the long and short of it..." He bit his lip, messing with a dogend of one bandage.
"Those guys must all be mental then..." He frowned, writing it off as just a random thing...same as with Tzenidaar.
As it was, there were too many obstacles piling up and not enough motions being made to keep the way clear.
"Look... I left this place because of a promise I made. I left all of it...because at the time, my duties were to the Kyonuske and I couldn't stay with Sierra.
When I saw her again in Babel.... all those memories... I just couldn't ignore her. I had to save her... to be there for her... like she had asked me too all those years ago. I wasn't bound by the Kyonuske anymore. I was free to do as I please.
And I swore I would get her back... these people--- they want to kill her. They don't know what I've seen... I know Sierra is still out there somewhere. But if Ra'kar is killed... then there's no chance."
Sunstrike looked down in thought, not just because he was mulling over what Vahn had said, but also, whether or not he should build up his friend's hope over the matter. He decided that he'd explain as best he could, Vahn wasn't simple, after all, just strangly naive when it came to magic.
If it weren't for the fire magic, and the somewhat whimsical need for Vahn to wander off and do his own thing, Sun would have called him vaugly "earthy" in nature.
"Aiysin must not have told them what I said then. Vahn, as long as the girl hasn't cut all ties to this world, we can save her...."
The other man had the supply of magic that he'd need, and Sunstrike had the skill or at least the right spell, to transfer the spirit.
"What I wanted to talk to everyone about was the fact that Ra'kar is far too connected with her sister spirit for the demoness to risk outright killing Sierra...she'll be put someplace safe..."
What Sunstrike would have no way of knowing, was the fact that Sierra had "wandered" off, thanks to another, more peaceful, retired reaper. And that most of the work had been done for him.
"All we'd have to do is find the place she's being kept and force, or mould her into a new form, and hope that her mind stay's with the spirit," Sun was pretty sure that would work, it had before, and Sierra was a stronger mentality compared to Tijae. And the only differance between this and what he'd done with Vahn was that he'd be tying a soul to a completely new body.
The next part wasn't going to sit well with Vahn though, and Sunstrike wasn't too keen to tell him, or anyone else for that matter. It was dangerous, invasive for all concerned, and downright suicidal. But if Vahn was as pressed to save her as he was his own brother, then there was hope that Sun could pull this off.
"The only problem is getting close enough to Ra'kar...to actually recognize and follow the link or trail back to Sierra...." He played with the end of the bandage some more, not meeting Vahn's eyes.
"For that...we'd need help. Victor follows you, obsessed. This has blinded him to ones that fall outside his need, but not by a great deal, he's far too good a manipulater to be completely blinded. If you distract him enough so that the focus becomes a lot more narrow, I can sneak in the back way."
"After what you've already been through?" He growled at the redhead, even as he turned his head to look. "What your suggesting is that I basically serve you on a silver platter to my brother."
He stopped completely, considering something. "If Victor's...really using Ashe' spell, then it might be impossible to even fix things... that kind of magic... ancient magic, is something only passed through blood. I used whatever remnants were in me to begin with to seal your eye. Victor has full use of that spell... which is probably how he binded Ra'kar as the dominant persona... "
"You have to admit, if things keep going the way they are, we'll all be in a lot worse shape regardless."
He paused, just as Vahn did, and simply looked at him for a few moments. For the quiet man to admit that Victor might be over the point of no return, would be devistating for Vahn.
It wouldn't show on the surface, but it would be like the only link the other man had in this lifetime, to the past one he so cared about, would be gone. That was a hard thing to admit to, and worse to get over.
"And you now have full use of the eye, fire chaos incarnate. Just none of the knowledge...it's like throwing a flaming brick at a library shelf."
Sunstrike grinned, pointedly not asking what Vahn was thinking about and giving him something else to mull over.
"Boom in a big way. But you've got me, so I'm not just a pretty face anymore." He grew more serious reaching out to brush a finger against all the loops in Vahn's ear, making a strangely musical sound when metal hit metal.
"We're going to have to take some risks, but...Vahn, remember that I would do, what you yourself would do, in my position. You want to rescue her, you don't want her to die, that's enough for me, and I'll help you in any way I can. We might not be able to stop Victor, but we can try and pull something for us from the ashes...."
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:33 pm
"Blooded inheritances and ancient magicks. Sounds like you boys are in need of some divine intervention..."A soft, honeyed voice said from behind them. The sun was at her back, making her form nothing but a dark sillouhette for the moment, but if Vahn and Sun squinted, they might catch a glimpse of white and gold...He arched an eyebrow at Sun, wondering what exactly he meant when he said 'fire chaos incarnate'. It was true, Vahn had taken it upon himself to seal away most of Sun's ability, but he certaintly didn't have any knowledge on how to...tap it? Or even make use of it... aside from simply doing his best to keep it from devouring him as well. It was like a literal void in his head, and everything that was Sun would fall into it. He was about to interject on Sun's last few words, when another voice saw fit to slip in. "...?" He turned to face the speaker, not sure who to expect next. Sun turned as Vahn did and blinked in the light. "Divine intervention is the nice way priests say "godly meddling." He said it before he could stop himself, but you couldn't really have existed in the divine without knowing the little quirks. He blushed, a little ashamed at the remark and looked off to the side, a barely noticable touch to the back of Vahn's arm, probably an uneccessary move to say, Careful. "My apologies, lady, my mind is not what it was..." That wry grin and sideways glance, it made one question the sincerity of his remark, nor did it really give an indication that what was said before was of any real importance. Flat soled boots made of white leather and bound with gold cord, made no sound on the concrete steps as she stepped up towards the pair. The roof's overhang shading her, they'd both be able to see her clearly now. Head to toe, she stood at a petite five foot four, and smiled up at them with impossibly rich, amethyst coloured eyes. Her hair fell in foaming waves of honeyed gold, down to her thighs. Taken back at the sides in braids and tied at the back with a purple bow. She wore ornate robes of white, accented with touches of lillac and gold. A pendent hung around her neck, sitting heavy at her breast, and gold decorated long pointed ears. Her body looked more like that of a girl's, not quite developed, but her face was mature despite it's youthful glow. Even for an elf, she looked young.
Her hands were held clasped in front of her as she smiled brightly, her golden brown tan contrasting to the white of her robes. Even out of the sun, she seemed to glow. "No apology is needed... but I don't think the gods themselves need to be bothered for this. A representative who is equal in power to Ra'kar'shei'lian, however and of an opposite nature, may be quite advantageous... especially one whom is of ancient blood and bred of magick... much like the power it sounds like your brother, has stolen."".....I don't need help from a kid who's still flat chested." He was still wary as hell of anything 'divine', considering the last run ins he had with a certain emissary from Mari. He always found it amusing how they went about choosing their forms and what not. Sunstrike had to hide his sudden grin behind his hand, there was no sense in encouraging Vahn when he got like this. Either the warning of careful had been taken in and blatently ignored or had just gone over the other man's head. Either way, Sun would enjoy the show, least til he could find a way to a warm bed. Figures though, that Vahn would just rather pick a fight with some kind of elven angelical figure. "Oh I dunno, Vahn, considering how all the voluptuous people are trying to kill us...maybe we need a bit of the opposite?" The girl glanced to Sunstrike, ignoring Vahn's snide remark for a moment with a look that said 'He's really not too bright, IS he?' in regards to the other man. Grinning, she turned to Vahn and retorted calmly."For someone who was bound in a child's body, you seem to have forgotten very quickly that looks are decieving. For example, you look more adult now, but you still have the mind of an adolescent."She would give as good as she got."I'll chalk it down to all braun and no brains shall I?"She raised a fine brow at him as she teased playfully. It wasn't said to be insulting, but in jest. A shot equal to the one he had taken at her, even if HE had meant what he said."Oh I dunno, Vahn, considering how all the voluptuous people are trying to kill us...maybe we need a bit of the opposite?" She turned to Sun and replied pleasantly,"A curvatious figure would be wasted on someone such as me. Being celiabte, that kind of attention is unwanted."Casting a distasteful glance to Vahn she added,"Besides, I've yet to see anything worth breaking my vows for."Waving her hand dismissingly she stepped up the last of the steps so that she could look at Sun directly. Despite the fact that he was towering over her figure, the girl's stature seemed to make you forget that she was so short.Over her shoulder she tossed," 'sides.... Not everything is about you Scion. Perhaps the people here have given you the wrong impression? I was on my way to see Sunstrike.""Har har." He replied sarcastically even as he moved away, waving a hand around. "I've had my fill of women for the day." He was still walking away, shoulders slumped and both hands digging into the pockets of his pants even as she continued talking. "I'd much rather everything in the world didn't revolve around me anyway..." He was going to find himself some fresh air. An index finger caught itself around the back of some pants, and Sun's arm extended almost completely before he locked it, stopping Vahn's progression for a small space of time. It wasn't a grab or anything, just a silent request for the other man to stay. If Vahn really wanted to get away, all he had to do was keep walking. "Everything I am, is about him, too," He blinked those strange eyes at her, not looking behind him, but saying the words loud enough for both to hear. It was a quiet truth that Sun couldn't really avoid anymore, nor did he really want to, when it came right down to it. "Besides, what's the point of telling the same things twice, if it's something important we're ALL involved, not just picking and chosing as we like what we want to hear and what we don't." He grinned and waved his hands in the air a little, loosing Vahn if the hold was still there. "I've gotten a lot of unwarrented attention lately. Too many people are starting to know more of what I was, instead of what I actually am. That's a little creepy from my perspective..." His eyes slanted to the side, an expression of sadness crawling through the grin. "You shift one bloody continent and look what it gets you." The girl courtesied towards Vahn and grinned somewhat victoriously."Then you acknowledge me as a woman."She winked and straightened, Vahn didn't quite loom over her height wis, not the way Sun did, but he still towered heads above her, enough so she had to look up to meet his face,"I don't want to pick fights Vahn, my apologies. While it's true I was on my way to see Sunstrike, I need to speak with you also."She smiles at Sun and nods. The priestess had to wonder if Vahn realized exactly what the Salamander had just said... either way, Reiyvian did and silently she applauded Sun's courage. "There is much truth and wisdom in your words Sunstrike."As Sun spoke to her remorsefully about transforming a once frozen landscape, and the consequences that coupled with it, namely notoriety... the elven woman listened and when he was done, she replied gently."You're in the right place Sunstrike, here you need not hide nor feel shame or guilt. Besides, that extra special something about you, allows you to stay by his side through the dangers that surround you both."The last was said for Sun's ears only, with a reassuring smile to accompany it. In that moment Sun would be able to tell that Reiyvian held him no ill will for his feelings or his relationship with Vahn. He was in all meaning of the word, accepted by her. He wasn't going to force Sun's hand, but he wasn't going to be content being made to stand around for this. He really was tired of dealing with these divine types, and he just wanted to get back out there searching. He listened quietly, arms folded across his chest as they both spoke. "Yea, yea..." Sun visably relaxed when Vahn decided to stay, as if a strain were gone, though he did blush at Reiyvian's whispered words. He cleared his throat hastily to get back on track. "What was it that you wanted to talk about? Is it alright if we find someplace more out of the way?" He said it in such a way that the words came out but the meaning was different. More comfortable. In reality Sun was still feeling as though a tree had fallen on him, and Vahn didn't exactly look like his patience would hold much longer. Some place out of the way would mean they'd get a small portion of time to actually plan something feesible and to find out more about what was going on in the outside world. There would be some drastic matters to attend to. Smiling gently she nodded in awknowledgement of Sunstrike's words."Would your room inside be satisfactory? I get the impression neither of you would relax much on temple grounds let alone inside the cloister, am I right?"Her face was open, warm and genuinely trying to make them feel at ease. The woman didn't seem to want to inconvenience them any more than she had to, as such... she had come to them. But WHO had come? She'd yet to introduce herself, and nobody had been expecting her..."You should really be resting a spell longer anyway Sunstrike... Unless you were discharged, which I doubt."She winked at him playfully. So he had made a jail-break huh? Why, Vahn probably judging by the tension present between them both. Ah well, she wouldn't pry.
If they had no arguement with returning to Sun's quarter's then she would climb the last few steps and hold the door open for Sun and Vahn to enter."Well, there were motions to transfer me to a new room, I just took the more mobile route..." He looked hesitatingly in Reiyvian's direction. "Um...there might still be a lot of people rushing about, looking for me in there..." Truthfully he didn't want to walk straight back into the mess he'd just managed to avoid by the skin of his teeth...again. The ties to Vahn were still unstable, shaky, without any real firm grip for Sun to hold without either going to one extreme and strangling the guy emotionally, or letting them go and ending up losing Vahn all together. He needed to have more faith in the darker man, and stop being so damn spastic, so he turned to his friend. "What do you think? New room sound good, I think we have the time.. It was supposed to be the place they set up for..." He paused, looking uncomfortable again. "Other fire elements to heal." "Whatever works." He waved a hand dismissively as he delegated himself to simply following the other two. Let them have their talks, to each to their own area of expertise. He'd wait until something needed to be beat to submission. Stepping past the two men, she gripped the door handle and pulled outwards, the door opening on silent hinges to allow them passage once more."In that case, if you'll please follow me, I'll take you to the Vol os Thosi."Smiling brightly at them as she ushered them inside and then stepped through the door behind them back into the main foyer of the healing center.
(( And that brings us up to speed with happenings at the Healing centre, now on with ze'story! ))
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:30 pm
There were several green robed healers running around in a tizzy, searching for something-- searching for--
"SUNSTRIKE!"
When all of the machines had started making a racket. Someone had alerted the Head healer on watch. Due to the exhausting week the staff had faced, only three were on duty today while the others recovered. One had to stay at the watch station and the other two had started checking all the rooms for the missing patient.There was no sign of Kimiho and Shin amidst the chaos. They were still upstairs... The young woman had blond hair, wound into tight curls that bounced as she moved towards the group as they entered. It was the healer who had burst into the room looking for the missing patient.
"There you are! You--"
She was about to continue when their shorter escort stepped out from behind them after closing the door. The young healer faltered--
"I oh, I didn't know you were with Lady Reiyvian!"
Reiyvian smiled at her bemusedly.
"Tell your shyr that both patients are fine. I'm taking them beneath to the Vol os Thosi."
"Y-y-yes m'lady, of course!."
She would lead them straight past the main desk, down a hall and to one of the teleport devices. Once everyone was standing on the circular platform, she selected the sigil for the floor she wanted. It was very much like magickal elevator, 'cept you 'poofed' to the next floor.
The floor she brought them too was further underground. Fixed magelights gave off a soft yellowed glow, illuminating the stone walls. Runes were etched into the surface of the smooth grey rocks and a series of glowing sigils ran around the wall like a decorative border. In the center of the far wall, a large double door was set into the rock's surface. Blackened steel with gold runes scrawling over the darkness in bright, glittering contrast.
She would lead them over to the door and in the center of the door was a hole to insert some kind of spherical object, sort of lock. Reaching into her sleeve the elf drew out a small orb that seemed to dance with every shade and colour of flame, like the fire was trapped within.
Setting the orb into the socket, the door creaked and with a cloud of dust, parted for them to pass into a dark cavern.
Overlooking the darkness was a balcony and in the center of the balcony, a lift.
"This is the way to the Vol os Thosi. Down here you should be able to heal at an accelerated rate."
She would usher them onto the lift,
"Kyl Pyrn."
'Going down' she spoke into the darkness as the sigil on the floor of the lift was suddenly illuminated a bright crimson. With a groan it began to move, lowering them down several levels. The cavern walls were illuminated with runes that seemed to glow brighter the further down they descended.
The darkness began to recede, a fiery glow flickering beneath them, the temperature increasing steadily. If they peered over the guard rail of the lift, they would note that cavern was edged in a mote of magma. Fires seemed to burn everywhere at once, colouring the room in brilliant shades of golds, reds, oranges and yellows, even some purplish blues and hues of green.
The lift landed on a rocky outcropping with a stair case. Helping Sun down the stairs, Vahn and Sun would be able to able to see a spell circle, glowing crimson much like the runes and sigils they had seen on their way down, etched into the enireity of the floor's surface. It was immense and the ancient magicks it had been formed with were thick on the air. The cavern itself was circular, so the magma bordered the walls and the spell circle was edged by the magma.
They had entered the Vol os Thosi, the Ring of Fire.
Closer inspection would reveal that the walls were comprised of fire stone. Nothing that wasn't of flame could survive down here for long.
Reiyvian's face looked slightly pinched with discomfort, as she was expending a good deal of her personal resources to not spontaneously combust in the presence of guests.
Reiyvian was not an entity of Fire, and only the blessing of her goddess and her adept ability at shielding kept her from going up in flames.
"How do you feel?"
She was hoping that the chasm would be able to synchronize with them as it did with Sierra. The theory was, that any entity that was a fire elemental, could merge with the flame held captive in this chasm and become one with the immense energies stowed here, drawing strength from the raw element.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:16 pm
Sunstrike followed wordlessly when Reiyvian took the lead. He had no idea what to expect, and Vahn's obvious nonchalance left him a little unbalanced. That wasn't paticularly unusual, Vahn was the only person that left him that way. The only one he couldn't slip by with sweet words and an easy smile.
The other man was irritated by the slow progress, and the inner walls chafed something silly within them both. Sun because it was new, Vahn because it was old.
By now, he could limp down the stairs without a great deal of help, though when the healers had confronted them before he'd almost instantly hidden behind his stoic friend, trying to stay away from the questions, and was secretly relieved when Reiyvian took control of the situation. Still earned him a few dirty looks as they left.
His hand traced along the wall as they made their way down. Sticking a little back he spoke to his friend.
"Something happened, when I was asleep, I'm not sure how literally to take it, felt hella real..." It bothered him, and he took a deep breath, surprised at how comfortable he felt in the large cavern.
"S'a volcano!?" He asked it happily, openly taking a deep breath in and enjoying the over all atmosphere.
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:48 pm
"Great... I always wanted to be cremated."
It took a little conscious adjusting, but he was still somewhat uncomfortable in the environment. What most people forgot was that he started out as a regular Gaian. His encounter with Efreet and the fact that it had been imprisoned within the flesh of his own left arm was the catalyst to begin changing his entire physiology from the ground up.
He wasn't a pure fire elemental in this case, more of a hybrid in technical standards, and it was his will power that had enabled him to survive the process of having Efreet's blood transfused into his own bloodstream.
Maybe with a few more years... or decades of training, he could survive in a place like the Fire plane with ease--- but he was still vulnerable to high heat, or higher than his body could output*.
So the remedy for this was to simply wrap his body in a type of personal heat shield, protecting him from whatever he couldn't outright bear on his own. This would be seen by a thin red 'aura' outlining his body.
"You had a nightmare you mean?" He stared towards the redhead now, amused by how entertained he was at the moment.
Sun was a different story altogether. He was practically home.
*As noted in the Kraun vs Kasuga fight, where a gate into the Plane of Fire had been ripped open
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Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:05 pm
Sun had been grinning like a fool, but he became far more serious at the question, pulling closer and throwing an arm around Vahn's shoulder to be near, keeping his voice to a minimum.
"Worse, I think I was somewhere else for a bit. Someone "borrowed" my soul. I hate that sort of thing..." He scowled, then shrugged it off, looking towards the woman, who'd traveled on a little further.
"It was a fairly simplistic sort of message. If we get half a chance, I think I'm going to have to root out a group of..." He hesitated to say people. "Beings, who I've tried to help in the past. They might be pretty far underground by now, but what I saw would be worth digging, at least for an explanation. And maybe a solution."
He looked at Vahn and leaned closer, actually brushing his forehead against the side of his friends head so he could whisper. "There was a conflict involving these creatures. In Barton, it ended as violently as it began, with divisions in all directions."
Sun closed his eyes and stopped, leaning heavily against Vahn as if pausing for a rest on the stairs. Cinnamon, ash, and blood were sharper the closer he came, in some ways the tall man never really changed.
"I'm tired Vahn, desperately so, and if what I saw was a possibility of a repeat performance on the Shades part, if we get pushed between the Forsaken and your brother, I worry of our chances, even Henry could not have bargained for such darkness on Gaia."
He let that settle for a moment, keeping close enough to actually lean the rest of himself against Vahn, before leaning away, grinning again.
"Then again, what else is new. If the odds were ever in our favour, we'd end up getting lazy..." He thought about that.
"Well...lazier, in my case."
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:44 am
It felt odd being this close again after so long... but it felt right in the same vein of thought. He growled softly anyway, showing his usual disapproval for how aloof Sun was being in his attitude and mannerisms.
"Group of beings...not too ambiguous I guess."
He listened quietly as the redhead began whispering, before blinking at the sudden added body weight and staring down. He felt himself swallow what he had left in his mouth and breath out again, his chest rising a bit.
"Shades?"
Again, that name.
He had been sent out to Ariel, and still couldn't forget the wanton destruction of the place, let alone the odd and deadly creature he had encountered. It had been akin to fluid shadow, and incredibly intent on killing.
He had seen them again when he had been sent to try and retrieve a sample for his benefactor, but failed to do so. Destroying the mining company completely had been a worthwhile second place prize though.
"Forsaken...?" Now that would be the first time he had heard that word used in conjunction with the shades..."And Victor...?"
Just what the hell was going on?
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:51 am
Sunstrike stared back at his friend, almost missing a step and stumbling. He caught the rail for support with a small irritated sound. The frustration was still in his voice when he answered the last question.
"The Forsaken could be considered a god, I suppose, if you're into that kind of thing. Mind, if you're into it, you'd better not expect to get out. That's the impression I got from my friends. At some point, I think all the Shades might have been beings with souls, but they've been warped and shaped into they're current form."
He paused, but kept looking ahead.
"That's what happens when you rip souls out of things, the leftovers don't know what to do with themselves, so you have to fashion them into something...efficient. Else you just get little shadows following you around." Sunstrike grinned, though there was no humour in it.
"I can see how the power might appeal to your brother, good or bad our souls are what drive mortals, an evil soul is just as valuable as a good, because it's still a soul. But if you're brother...if Victor, wants to wipe out everything that makes people be evil, ripping souls out of bodies would be a way to go. Then you can make them into whatever you want, he could make...."
Sunstrike froze and made a strangled sound, forcing himself to stop talking, trying not to look too guilty or obvious about it and failing. Vahn didn't need to hear that, didn't need that kind of...thought.
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:57 pm
"Could make what."
His voice rung out hollowly even as he stared to the side, waiting for the inevitable answer.
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