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 Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:53 pm
"Both you and I, we are the same." Came the quiet reply. Actually, Melediana wasn't exactly certain what branch of Kyuuketsuki Lula was part of, but that should come in good time when her gifts properly manifest... Drawing the child closer, she whispered: "Don't worry...it's nothing to be afraid of...our kekkai genkai is just...a bit different from the ones you have seen thus far." And she reassured the girl, a soft smile on her pretty features. "Nonsense. They will not hate you. The Senju Council will be surprised, certainly...they do guard the royal family very jealously...but see, Lula, our line has...a certain understanding with the royal family. Because it is they who constructed the shield that guards our village...it...interrupts how we go on about our days..." A soft pause. "But there was no other way that would defend against the greatest possibility of assaults on the village, so instead they have contracted with our line."
Her fingers clenched tightly around the ruby-red pendant. Even though there was no light in the room, her eyes could make out the glittering links of the silver chain. She only wished she didn't have to be the one telling Lula that she had to...well...take Haru's blood once a week... The boy was kind enough to make it as less awkward as possible, offering a secondhand feeding alternative but still...it was...well, awkward...
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Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:12 pm
Lula squeezed the woman tighter. "I... I like it..." Blood... She wasn't disturbed by what she'd done... "But we can survive on other people? On other things, even?" Lula was a child... She may have... Adult... Tastes (and some inhuman ones, too,) but she was still a child... She took to change rather well. She was more focused on survival than her morals. What few she might have had. "I'm..." She was grasping for the word... It wasn't hunger... It wasn't thirst... It was definitely a craving, but it wasn't lust, either... It was... Much more primal... "I think... I'm..." There wasn't a word for it... It was different... She couldn't name it. She sighed, frustrated...
Was she already thirsty? If so, then that seal must have only slowed her vampirism, not suppressed it. That would explain her many habits... The need to satisfy a craving that couldn't be met.
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Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:37 pm
"It is a natural reaction..." She nodded. "Yes. The Closing Seal temporarily blocks the rune markings. Because the young of our line would command less jurisdiction over the kekkai genkai so early on...instead that seal is placed to suppress the...instinctive urges. Though there comes no great necessity...to...feed, until the limit itself awakens, to which would break the seal." A soft pause. "Once the seal breaks...the "change" comes... Lula, be careful of exposure to sunlight for prolonged periods over the next few weeks. It...well, none of the ridiculous tall tales but...well, it won't feel pleasant. It won't hurt, physically no..." She chewed out the words thoughtfully, quickly contemplating a way to explain exactly what effects the sun had on the High Twilight walkers...
But then again, the different branches have different reactions. Suzaku branch, very notably...they react nearly the opposite... "Though I should probably say this will not be true to all within the family... To your other question - yes, and no ." A soft pause. "In actuality, it isn't the blood itself...it's the lifeforce - what the shinobi world have preferred to term as the spirituality in the essence of chakra - we draw that out from chakra...generally, we'll be able to get along fine drawing a little excess bit from all those around us, so that those around us will feel no detrimental loss. However...the Senju clan's shield does exactly just that, it interferes with collecting unwarranted chakra - chakra that does not belong to the shinobi itself - there are other aspects too that they will not say, but these are that which pertains to us..."
Melediana looked a bit uncomfortable. "Thus all in all...we rely on chakra-feeding from living humans particularly to thrive. Animals work too...but to a barely effective extent. Untrained in the wild, they are incapable of producing chakra wide-scale, afterall. As for plants...well, there's the differences between the chakra produced by animals and plants... Since the shield disrupts that, the royal family offers to be the...well..." She didn't want to say 'sacrificial lambs'. And then more quietly. "Alas, also because the royal family is the only one that can." A soft pause. "You have figured it out, right, Lula?"
Her tone was gentle, but there was a cruel truth to the reality of her words.
"Because they are capable of directly producing the very essence of life. Thus, if it comes down to a singular sacrifice...they are even more fitting than the shaman families who traditionally had been sacrifices..." But what could she mean? There are no shaman families in Konoha...unless...she did hint to it before, just a glimpse, of exactly how extensive this 'family' was...
Melediana said nothing however, of the price the royal family pays for their prized gift of creating life. Lula...did not need to know something so cruel yet...
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Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:55 pm
Lula thought about it for a moment... And she decided that she never wanted to find out what the sun did to her... "If it's alright... I'd rather not know what happened in the light..."
"So... We don't have to have blood? Well... Then... Why do any of us choose to live in cities? Instead of living where people think..." She didn't need to finish that sentence. Everyone knew how people thought of something as inhuman as vampirism, let alone those who practice it. "Living in a city... We could pick our meals unnoticed... But with so many people, whether or not we need blood... We'll get noticed..."
With enough time... Everyone gets noticed... Wait... "Wait... How long do we live?" She was just born, and already she was beginning to take some small, sick pride in her new potential family... I mean, we drink blood, right? Can they really judge me?
"And just how big is my new... Family?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:51 am
"Yes." Replied Melediana. "We generally can thrive on second-hand feeding alone anywhere else - though direct feeding had proved to be more effective, here really there isn't much other alternatives. Thus generally, those we are around fail to notice...though...there is one slight problem to this..." A small, mysterious smile lit her features. If one stayed around a certain group of people long enough and don't age, that is guaranteed to bring up problems...
"Shall we say larger than you can imagine? There are five branches." A thoughtful pause. "Our family are single elemental wielders but we take that field, along with the Sealing and Genjutsu arts, to unseen directions. Among us stand the Suzaku branch; they are the fire wielders and foreign Fuuin seal destroyers...I am of the Ceres branch, the Earth branch had developed techniques for large-scale healing and constraining enemy Fuuinjutsu...the Fuuton masters of the Artemis branch space and gravity...the Genbu Suiton branch works along often with the Ceres branch - they are not quite healers, no, but they have the remarkable ability of poison nullification and purifying things with poisonous substances, as well as blood manipulation..."
"Finally we have the Tenshin branch. They are the weapon masters of the clan, and often choose swords or close to mid-ranged bladed weapons of all types. They are the first Lightning manipulators to combine their talents with kenjutsu. All in all...five branches, but we live across the world."
"Tenshin branch originally lived in Kumo, but the majority moved to Iwa after the great avalanche. I heard that some chose to head to the Water Country and reside there; that place after all is famous for its sword masters. Artemis branch once resided in Kusa, but they moved to Yuki to avoid the Second Great War. I am fairly certain they remain there, though some might have moved out. Genbu branch...I am not quite certain there, but I believe they remain in Water Country to this day. The Ceres branch have always lived all across the world...as proud medics, you could say it's duty in a way..."
A lengthy silence.
"...the royal family would go to such lengths...because..." Her voice trailed off. "Because the Suzaku branch's priestesses and the Ceres branch here's medics were the first they had encountered in this village's infancy." A soft pause. "When they came, all the individual clans had heavily divided the state...a bedlam place torn by civil war...the indigenous Suzaku branch tirelessly aided the Senju in their efforts to unite this place, visiting and making treaties with each clan so that this village can be born...and...ah..."
"The royal family were quite a strange one...hardly something you can call a clan. Oh yes, they had the numbers...numerous enough, but their individual talents couldn't be more different. Genjutsu, weapon masters, those who actually wielded the bloodlimit, the Ninjutsu masters, incredible mastery of Fuuin...I suppose..." She said, smiling at Lula. "...in some manners, our family saw a lot of ourselves in them." But then, her smile turned sad...slowly, slowly...into a frown.
"For better or worse, our own discovered something beyond just legendary chakra control which tied together all members of the royal family..." Her voice trailed off. "The special properties of their chakra, capable of capturing and suppressing the wild bijuu beasts that roamed our land...an art that should've not been possible, but most of all...the ability to convert properties of chakra so it becomes the very source of life... Commanding jurisdiction over nature herself."
"Do you know why, Lula...that the High Council protects the Senju most jealously? Because, though the legacy they bear is legendary, they are one of the shortest living families under this sky - and doubly-cursed so, those who bear Mokouton." A soft sigh, as Melediana opened and held up one hand. She was staring at it intently...but why...? "All power...comes at a price, after all. In creating life, they lose life..."
"...but sometimes I do wonder, which is the more cursed fate, the one who lives briefly but learns to treasure every moment of life...or...it is not quite immortality, no...but having an eternity to live, and watching time roll by, without pity...?"
...was this why Senju loved everything in life - even the tiniest, smallest things...so ridiculous it seemed...made them so happy...? And why the Kyuuketsuki family were closest to the Senju clan...sharing so many similarities, yet polar opposites...
"So you see...most of our own had remain secluded from the beginning...because, living with the general populace...longevity had made many of our own disillusioned with the world... I suppose...I suppose in many ways, we stayed, even after the village flowered...because..." Her voice trailed off. "For the disillusioned with living, to see another so appreciative of life..." Her smile was gentle but there was something painful about it...as if she was recalling a long ago memory. And finally, she added softly: "...that, too...is something special..."
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:53 pm
Lula just sat there for a minute... "So... The Senju help us because they're going to die fast anyway, but in helping us they kill themselves even more quickly? Is there some sort of vampire ethics board I'd be brought up in front of for not killing the Senju?" Normally, killing a royal family member would be a godsent mission... But not after what they'd done for her new Family.
"Like what if I just fed on normal people?"
Wait... Lula stopped for a minute... She seemed to be thinking about something that was trying to elude her thoughts... "That man... There was a man in purple robes... He kept talking about people who would never live up to their potential because they didn't want to be what they were... Did he know?" Whether she was asking Melediana a question or just asking herself was a real question, but it was a serious question either way... "What if I wanted to feed on something else? Anything but Senju?" They seemed too honorable in her mind --at the moment-- to drink from.
All this talk of blood, though... Her mouth was watering. Her body clenched in an involuntary spasm. She couldn't consciously see or smell any blood, but she knew there was some nearby. She'd just fed, though... But her mind was clinging on to the thought of blood now. There wasn't any hesitation. Blood was blood right now. No matter where it came from. "I'm... Thirsty..." It wasn't the right word. But it described a means to satisfying the craving.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:05 am
"Because our family before Lord Senju Hashirama had never openly participated in society. Here and there, a few. But how many villages out there would be willing to host 'parasites'? People fear what they don't understand - just as how other, older and more powerful nations feared Konoha as young as she was at the time because of her people - so we were...not exactly welcome due to the nature of our line. Our people secluded ourselves thus...best not to get involved with society at all if ousting was a possibility..." Her voice trailed off.
"But Lord Senju came to us, and told our people...that while we may have our...conflicts with society, that the Kyuuketsuki were contributors as well...that it wasn't necessary to hide our talents...many that they were, advancements in Genjutsu and Fuuin arts..." A soft pause. "But how would we have been able to live outside? If our powers are used at a minimal, feeding on nature alone would be able to get us by the years...but if we are to use our abilities on a constant basis...then there would be a problem. So the first Kyuuketsuki made the royal family promise..."
"They will aid Konoha, if the royal family would protect them when the morning star is high - when we are most vulnerable. At the time, the Kyuuketsuki would take the minimal amount of chakra from all the villagers but not so much as to harm them...if blood was absolutely necessary, the Senju would provide as donors. Yes..." She said slowly. "This current Fuuin protection system has become more advanced since eight hundred years earlier...but it was the only way to cover a wide variety of possible foreign attacks. But under the conditions of this shield, while we could still feed directly on another by blood consumption...the ability to drain by chakra grows greatly diminished. However..."
She held up the necklace, the ruby vial catching the faint glint of light from the crack in the doorway, illuminating the pendant a lurid red as crimson as her own glowing orbs. "Fortunately, we do not necessarily need to do direct blood draining... And any other than Senju as the donor, we would need to take much more...for what we feed on in both blood and chakra is not their physical essence but the lifeforce within each substance itself."
"Hm...sooner or later you might see Senju can extend Mokouton from any part of their own body. It's...a secret of the elemental creation families... Dual elemental manipulation...well its many branches takes different turns... As the family that could give life...well...I'm not certain of the specifics but to actually create Mokouton their blood is the actual medium for the conversion point." She looked thoughtful. "Hence why the elemental creation families are a line even though it was theorized that anyone theoretically should be able to control a dual affinity manipulation with a high enough level of chakra and control..."
"So the blood serves as the linking medium...Senju's particularly...they take a bit of their own lifeforce and convert it to the most purest base...so that it could be used as a facilitating element to allow life to flourish. While our bodies could neutralize certain impurities or offensive elements...theirs, basically, well...like medical ninjutsu, any living thing would be able to live off of it. They surpassed the kingdom limitations though and was able to craft their limit into an offensive type. Granted..." She admitted.
"My mother...she was a normal civilian woman, not even a shinobi. My father did not live that long to tell me everything about the clan...he was killed in battle...she...hated me, when she found out that her child stopped aging... I don't understand everything of the relationship between Senju and Kyuuketsuki...it's something that goes very anciently into the past. But I knew one thing, ever since I was a child..."
"I was, well, rather popular in my class. That man you met...was my former Genin squad sensei Takani Kyuukyoku. He was the only other beside my teammate...Senju Chiru did everything he could so that I could live normally...or as much so as possible..." A gentle smile was on her face. "Making sure my secret was safe...for he knew what I feared most...I knew very well too - no, of all those people - that they'll leave me alone as soon as they learn... I wondered...sometimes..." Her voice trailed off.
"I wonder sometimes, did I go along with it because...?" His last smile as he laid dying in her arms, the swords of Kokuyoku having driven through his chest...their traitor teammate carrying on the hated legacy between Senju and Uchiha... A distant memory of that voice...strained, yet still trying to get her to smile in his last moments...
'Heh...why...are you...crying...?'
"Was it because - even though their family frowns upon it - even as our numbers gradually passed theirs...yet, each time one of our own is in great need...one of their own would come aid willingly...? It's...such a foolish kindness...like him..."
Their first meeting as Genin...
'If I were king of the world, I'll make sure nobody hurts anymore!'
And she had told him flatly, rolling her eyes.
'Riiight. Like that's ever possible...'
That was before he found out her secret...before her bloodlimit awoke. And while Kokuyoku was disgusted...she knew very well how to see the rare emotion that flicker across the Uchiha's dark eyes...he wasn't...
And Haru now, child though he still is.
'I...am certain his wish will be the same as ours. We will not let one of our own die.'
One of our own...
"Because to them...we are family..." Smiling, she clasped the necklace gently around her neck. She did not tell Lula that Haru had apparently placed some sort of seal on that vial...it held more than what it deceptively seem to contain. That boy... "As my sensei used to tell me...I shouldn't let such small things prevent me from doing what I love...if the urges come..." She pointed to the vial. "Uncork it and drink a little bit. The fortunate thing is...these urges are only worst at the beginning. They'll eventually grow manageable."
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:02 am
Lula listened like a charmed cobra. She took in every word, clung to it, and then flowed seamlessly back to her new obsession. She really tried to be more in the conversation than she was, but as soon as Melediana moved that vial to her eyes, Lula barely caught herself. She'd lunged several inches towards the vial before she got control of herself and --shaking-- forced herself to remain calm and still (Failing, obviously.)
The next thing she consciously and calmly remembered was drinking from the vial, and drawing it away from her lips, shuddering like a woman mad with lust. She closed her eyes and licked her lips, the vial like a hundred pounds of gold in her palm. She began to raise it back to her lips. Insatiable. "It's going to slow down? You mean... I won't want it this much?" What if I don't want that? Her voice was little more than a harsh whisper, and her white-knuckled grip on the vial might have done it damage, had she ever decided strength training was worthwhile.
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Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 6:12 am
((They are still in the morning when they were talking but we can just say time passed after the conversation... sweatdrop ))
"Hm..." Melediana looked thoughtful at that question, and seemed to be seriously considering her answer. "I...really won't say slow down...no..." She said slowly. "It's more of a...it's hard to explain...like when a child starts learning to harness chakra...at first it's hard, something foreign and difficult...but then eventually...even while the chakra doesn't disappear with the years...well not until we are past our prime anyways...well...eventually, they'll be able to harness it better..." A pause. "Stabilizing-wise, I don't think it's much different to chakra control concerning our bloodlimit." She pressed a palm to the child's forehead, but looked reasonably pleased.
Was there a reason...?
Quite certainly. Some of the less healthy children suffer great pain during the transformation. Lula did have a fever like she had when her limit awakened: that was a good sign. "You don't have to worry. The vial can match the strength of diamonds and the weight of several elephants." Here, she smiled, despite herself. "The Senju...enjoy enchanting everything with strengthening seals to make it sturdy...I suppose partly it has to do with that Taijutsu style of theirs."
"Anyhow...as soon as night comes, you can go outside. Until then if you wish, rest, or use the Senju's dojo whilst the sun is high."
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Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:05 pm
Ayame was finally back at the Senju Estate. Her home. She hadnt stayed more than a few minutes previously as she had been training to learn the hand seals required to perform jutsus. Hard as it had been Ayame welcomed the rest. She was outside in the open pavilion watching the sky for no other reason than to pass her free time relaxing.
Ayame's thoughts were never far off from what she needed to do to become a shinobi. But today for once her mind was silent allowing a complete sense of relaxation. Getting up from her place on the ground she began pacing as she now returned to her thoughts of how she was going to achieve her goals.
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Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 1:37 pm
((Sorry for the wait, Demonic. =3))
Senju Touka made her way slowly through the estate's open hallways, looking disapproving as several young children rapidly wove their way past her, nearly crashing right into her and forcing her to drop the two potted plants in her arms...
"Please." Muttered the royal family member and she turned her head, no longer paying them any attention, long, gently curling locks of dark-red hair swaying with the motion. She was off to the pavilion today to pot this belladonna plant and its offspring in the garden: new additions they were to their pavilion garden's collection. Recently the Senju Elders were testing on the possibilities of creating belladonna with stronger poison by selective breeding...
She stopped though, as she noticed a main family member along the way. "Ayame-chan." Greeted the teenage black ops member. "Good evening. But would you mind helping me carry the smaller plant? I need to head to the pavilion, but it seems the children prefer using the hallways for their games tonight..."
Carrying the Potted Plant
Touka has requested if Ayame can help carry the smaller potted belladonna with her to the Open Pavilion. But it's quite far, and the plant is not that light, even though it looks by far lighter in comparison to the mother... Ah well. At least if it gets too heavy, Ayame can put the plant down for a few moments and rest before resuming the task.
DC: 10
1d20 + Strength
Successes: 0/5
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Demonic Storm rolled 1 20-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-20)
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:41 am
((no worries...))
Ayame didnt react right away as she was lost in thought. When the teenage black ops senju spoke to her it roused her from her thoughts. "Touka-chan you startled me..." She said smiling at the royal. She looked past her and saw the last of the kids turn a corner and laughed, "They never really understood the clan heirarchy" She said and stood up from her seat. She took a look at the pot plant and then looked back to the girl, "s'pose i can... im not doing much anyway" She said and walked to the potplant trying to decide on what was the best way for her to carry the seemingly light pot plant.
She decided on using the weight of the plant mainly situated on her shoulder and her arms to support it and keep it balanced. "Lead the way..." Ayame said lifting the plant onto her shoulder.
------------------------------
Carrying the Potted Plant
Touka has requested if Ayame can help carry the smaller potted belladonna with her to the Open Pavilion. But it's quite far, and the plant is not that light, even though it looks by far lighter in comparison to the mother... Ah well. At least if it gets too heavy, Ayame can put the plant down for a few moments and rest before resuming the task.
DC: 10
1d20 + Strength
Successes: 0/5
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 8:38 pm
Smiling in gratitude, Touka took a step forward, and waited for the younger girl to follow. As they walked, though, she said: "Nah. It's not so much the hierarchy..." Her voice trailed off, almost hinting to slight displeasure. It was well known that Touka was the only one in the royal branch who did not possess Mokouton Creation and was last in line to the throne's ascension...however, it was a sore topic to this royal branch member. After all...she was only allowed to remain in the royal branch because...her parents were from the royal branch, that was one thing...but because she did not inherit their kekkai genkai, she should've been demoted to the main branch...
Because of her little brother.
Granted, she loved Haru, certainly. How could she not? The child was just too selfless to not be loved... However, the clan was very kind to remind her in every moment of her existence that she was only allowed to remain in the royal family because her little brother was a manifester of Mokouton Creation...
Shaking her head lightly and pressing aside the troubling thoughts, she smiled at the younger girl. But her smile was a bit apologetic... "I heard you joined the Academy, Ayame-chan..." Her voice trailed off. "I am sorry to hear though that..." She didn't need to say more. The Genin Exams were already underway for this semester's class. As unfortunate as it was for such a bright child, Ayame had registered late, and would have to be in the next semester's class - a term behind.
"I really need to get Anzu working..." She mumbled.
The youngest Elder of the Hyuuga clan, the teenage Nyame, along with the current second-in-line to the Senju throne, Anzu, were supposed to teach the Academy. Nyame disappeared - only okami-sama knows to where - while Anzu seemed more grumpy lately and immersed in his work as captain of the black ops forces... She wasn't certain why, but Touka assumed it had something to do with his currently missing Hyuuga teammate...
But the Hokage's assistant did not look too troubled. So she assumed it was all right, and Hyuuga Nyame was just probably off for some type of business...
"I heard two sentry captains from Hyuuga have taken up the role of substitutes..." Clearly, disapproval filled her tone now. The Senju clan, despite their close relationship with the Hyuuga nobility, had by no means liked them...and of course...after that incident Shiro was seriously harmed by that half-blood girl...
"Well. How are they?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 7:50 am
Ayame let the pot doen briefly before carrying before her chest. "Yeah, Academy seems awesome. Its a pity i joined late though..." She sighed following the girl. "Sentry captains? Teaching at the academy?" She asked confusion filtering through her somewhat strained voice from carrying the plant. "To be honest i wasnt paying much attention to the world around me when i was doing the hand seal training." She admitted with a laugh
Something seemed to be bothering her but Ayame could guess what that was as the pain on her face was self explanitory. She didnt ask what that was for respect of the girl, "How's Anbu holdin' up?" She asked changeing the subject.
------------------------------
Carrying the Potted Plant
Touka has requested if Ayame can help carry the smaller potted belladonna with her to the Open Pavilion. But it's quite far, and the plant is not that light, even though it looks by far lighter in comparison to the mother... Ah well. At least if it gets too heavy, Ayame can put the plant down for a few moments and rest before resuming the task.
DC: 10
1d20 + Strength
Successes: 0/5
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Demonic Storm rolled 1 20-sided dice:
19
Total: 19 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 7:50 am
((Damn completely forgot the dice... Stupid me))
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