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 Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:46 am
Josie had found refuge. The staircase leading up to a room on the main floor had caught her attention as she darted past the spelled window panes that cast an unatural sort of illumination. The stairs had been wreathed in it, delicate dust motes drifting softly down to earth like enchanted snow. Josie clung tighter to Victor and began to climb, rounding over and over again as it twisted upwards and out of the sight of the illusion. She would be safe up there...she had to be. And with this thought she perched on the top stair, peering down to see what had become of everyone below.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:53 am
Maverick quickly snatched away his hand from scrutiny by the other, growling. NO ONE touched his hand. That hand started to glow with a mixture of violet and red, much the same as his eyes. He shot out a mental 'lasso' at Avedis, trying to catch him before he reached Josie.
Ean was already there in front of his aunt, and holding out a sword, defensive position. HE could see the reverie - but he wasn't about to let this other... creature get at it. He slid into a defensive stance, and narrowed his eyes.
"Get away from her."
Nishin didn't bother trying to defend her. He was just interested in whatever may happen in terms of bloodshed. He was SO fond of blood...
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:38 am
Avedis stopped, halfway up the stairs. "Stop that," he said severely to Maverick. "It won't work and you'll simply get tired. Cease and desist." He eyed Ean and Nishin warily. Were all of these abominations so... violent? All the others he had met had reacted equally as severely. Perhaps it was simply his appearance? The man looked at his elongated fingers and sighed.
With a deep breath, he seemed to shrink in on himself until he was only, perhaps, six feet and seven inches tall. His hair remained the same, but his clothes shifted with him, to a long black coat, slacks, and a red turtleneck. "I'm really quite harmless," he said to Ean. "You're all truly overreacting."
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:01 pm
Ean didn't lower the sword, and Maverick didn't back down, even with the change of size. They were all concerned about protecting whatever it was that Josie apparently saw. Of course, Ean and Nishin knew it was a Reverie. Maverick didn't, but whatever was important to his apprentice was important to him as well.
"Back off. Whatever the hell my niece has, it's not yours. If she's got it, it's hers, and I will defend her right viciously."
Ean nodded in agreement with Maverick, and gritted his teeth, blowing some of his hair out of his eyes.
"You heard him. I know what you're after, and you're not getting it..." he paused a moment, felt. ".. him. You're not getting him no matter WHAT."
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:07 pm
Josie stood, the outbursts causing a sense of uneasiness but the change in size and form sort of dulling the edge of her fears. Beyond her nephew she peared down at Avedis, emerald orbs shimmering with a mixture of emotions as her mind calculated the words that came after much consideration to what sort of situation was at hand. "Avedis...You frightened me. Why don't you like Victor?"
She held out the ball of fragile fluff and inclined her head. "He hasn't done anything yet, and I'll keep an eye on him...so it's ok, isn't it?"
The debate probably wouldn't sit well with those who were defending her so but Josie knew well of what consequence there might be to an outright fight if they were to truly upset this fickle person.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:13 pm
Avedis sighed. "Because he and those like him are an offense against the natural order of the world. You can't cure something of its innate nature, miss." He crossed his arms and shifted his weight so he could look at the young woman. Orders said not to do anything other than locate and observe, so... no matter how much he wanted to... "Their worlds are dead. By rights, they should be, too. It is improper for them to leave the Void in which they were thrown."
He considered the group arrayed against him. "If you swear to watch him very closely... I suppose I might let you keep him. Until I am given further orders."
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:28 pm
Ean gritted his teeth at the implication, and closed his eyes as he tried not to think of his past life.
This time, it was NISHIN who spoke up. The only one that got to cause his brother pain was HIM.
"Avedis, is it? I'd highly suggest you close that orifice you call a mouth. If you do not, I may have to do it for you. Hurt my brother's feelings again, and I WILL make good on my threat."
Maverick didn't relax. If anything, he grew more tense, and more hair-triggered by the moment. And it didn't help ONE bit when Ben walked into the room, looking for Ean. He shot a blast of dark magic without looking, and ALMOST hit the youth.
Ben ducked instinctively, and narrowly avoided that direct attack. He stood uncertainly after a moment or so, and then peered at the scene before him. Just what were Maverick, Josie, Ean, Nishin, and some strange new guy doing together in the same room.
"Did I miss something here?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:41 pm
A shudder ran through her as Maverick fired off the bolt. She knew it wasn't aimed her way - for Maverick would never willingly harm her - but the girl still found herself unusued to the intensity of his prescence and was slightly alarmed. It to passed. She didn't want Avedis to see her as someone he could easily outmanuver in this manner after all, so she quickly regained composure and pulled Victor back against her chest.
"Until you're given orders than...but...I'll be stronger then, you know. If I were you, I'd at least keep my distance, unless you come peacefully."
Peacefully beign an entirely loose term in their family. It wasn't unusual for some one to get smacked for simply looking at the wrong person in the wrong way - especially not when it came to Maverick or her other, equally as protective, guardians.
She looked towards Ean and gently reached out to lay a hand on his head.
"You really ought to apologize as well. Whatever they are, they have a right to exist...just as much as you do, even if you aren't of this world."
A smile formed then and she turned her gaze back towards the one who'd pursued her thus far.
"Besides, Avedis...I...I want to be a Necromancer. I want to be like Maverick...so death really means anything but the end."
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:00 pm
"It's only the truth," Avedis said arrogantly to Ean. This attitude didn't last long- until Josie spoke, to be accurate. Then his mood suddenly shifted.
His hands clenched, nails digging into him palms until he broke the skin and found blood. Sudden fury creased his face into something completely alien- inhumanly, impossibly beautiful but horrible all the same. But as she continued, his hands unclenched and rested at his sides without tension in the muscles. From his tone when he next spoke, though, Avedis felt anything but peaceful. "I'm... sorry," he grated through tightly closed teeth, as if it pained him to say it. He didn't point out that he didn't exist in the strictest sense in the word, but was in fact a simple manifestation of a greater myriad. His favorite child was the same, a mutation of the word 'human', or even 'humanoid'.
"Is there anything... else," he spat disdainfully, looking at Josie with clear anger and- perhaps- even hatred. Avedis restrained himself from saying the reflexive word to follow that statement- Mistress.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:01 am
Maverick noted the look in Avedis' eyes, and snarled, his entire demeanor changing from slightly ticked off to protective and ready to fight. He clenched the skeletal hand, and his entire body began to glow blackish-purple. His eyes glowed blood-red.
Nishin couldn't care less what happened to Josie - but the man had insulted his brother, and THAT was inexcusable. He vanished. When he would reappear was anyone's guess.
Ean dipped a little deeper into defensive stance, and narrowed his eyes.
"Are you saying we don't exist!?"
Ben was still lost as ever, and blinked at the scene before him, moving over, and BODILY nudging Josie over to a safe corner of the room.
"Stay here. You don't want to get into this... believe me."
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 11:56 am
"S-Stay away....Stay away from me!" Josie's tones echoed the sense of urgency his sudden lape into rage had inspired in her. Ben needn't much to move her for with that said, Josie turned and fled as far as she could - putting any amount of distance between her and Avedis as though somehow it would protect her from his wrath. What HAD she done?! The thought plagued her as she curled into Victor, eyes closed tight as she tried to vannish into the corner, trying to vannish entirely from the beast, her uncle...everything.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:09 pm
"I'm saying you shouldn't," Avedis snapped as he began to follow Josie. Her order took hold and he stopped dead still. What he needed to regain the upper hand in this situation was... The rage faded away as a new thought took hold. If he could get someone who wasn't prone to the failings of the myriad, someone he could trust, he could get this back under control. Necromancers, after all, generally had problems with facing their own kind. "Come here, Alice."
"-looking quite delicious today!" Rounding a shelf of books like she'd been there the entire time was a dark-haired girl, one half of her face horrifically scarred by acid. She held a pair of eyes in her hands, and appeared to be in the process of washing them. "I mean- oh, Daddy, did you call? I am a little busy. Golems don't build themselves!"
The man gave the girl a harsh look. She didn't quail, rather, she looked around curiously. "Have you met my newest acquisitions, Daddy? I think I'm gonna use them for Cissa, you know, her eyes are wearing out. This one's Sable, and that one's Margaret-" Alice paused and stared for a moment in Josie's general direction. "Oh, you have a living shadow!" She trotted over and reached out unerringly for Victor, but then stopped, her hand about an inch away from the other necromancer.
What had enchanted her was plain to see. Her eyes seemed to be caught on Josie's hair, and they followed that line to her face. The girl's lips curled into a slow, horrific smile and one could almost see the gears whirring behind her bloody red eyes. "Oh," she breathed, in a tone of amazement. "That body... I want it." Suddenly she was in motion, reaching for a nerve that any novice necromancer or even healer would know would paralyze a body long enough to get what you wanted from it. "Give it to me!"
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 4:24 pm
Maverick lashed out without any further hesitation. He snarled in a feral manner, and went for the puppet's throat, using his skeletal hand to drain all life, light, and semblance of life from it. He then turned on Avedis with the same insane, enraged glint to his eyes.
"LEAVE. NOW. Or you will suffer the same fate as your little simulcra."
He grinned, perhaps a little too large.
"Did you believe the fact that she is a necromancer would stop me? I've kill Death Gods before. I have no problem dispatching of this hideous puppet."
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:17 pm
Josie watched as her master lashed out, as the girl was snatched so easily and drained of her essense. Within a moment she slipped by Ben and to Maverick's side, nestling herself up against him.
No one else dared to, of course.
Josie was fortunate in being his apprentice in more ways than she could count, but this instant was of advantage only to she - the one he'd drawn so close in, for no one else would ever be allowed to display such affection.
Yet, it wasn't just affection.
Avedis would be in great trouble if Maverick were to indeed unleash a side that she had seen but once and prayed never to see again. If it came to such wrath...she would have to ground him, if at the cost of herself. It wouldn't stop with Avedis...although the thought of facing her master terrified her more than any other man could.
"Master, please compose yourself." It was barely audible, for him to hear alone - unless it be that Avedis could somehow percieve her plea. She new it would not yeild pleasant results either way.The best scenario would still likely end in bloodshed, one way or another.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:34 pm
"Simulacra?" Even the orders from Josie were overridden by what he'd just seen. "Simulacra? That is my daughter, born from my blood surely as you were born from your father's..." He was shaking, hands clenched again. He was the only one allowed to kill Alice. He, and he alone, could lay hands on that little monster that he'd created. Instead of continuing verbally, however, he chose the most provactive thing he could think of to do, striking out at Maverick with pure white magic.
Alice, however, wasn't so fazed. She remained dead for moments at most; as a matter of fact, she half-turned to follow Josie's movements. "That was fun," she said, delighted. The white magic didn't seem to harm her at all; as a matter of fact, it caused the two eyes in her palms to reinflate and reform. "But you killed Sable and Margaret, too, and that was mean, very mean. You're not a good person at all." After shaking herself free of his skeletal hand, Alice promptly leant forward and kissed Maverick on the forehead. As she danced away, the air grew colder and a thick sheet of ice began to form over Maverick's face.
Once she stood near her father, she turned back to the others. "My Daddy hates me," she said gleefully. "That's why only he can hurt me, because only he knows where my phylactery is."
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