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 Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 3:32 pm
Four hours of skirting down dank alleys and navigating busy streets of dilapidated booths and shady storefronts had taken its toll on Rose; her usually good-natured smile had evaporated, leaving a sickly frown in its wake. The stench and thickness of the air from factory-spewed smog left her somewhat breathless, sweat gathered on the freckled jut of her collarbones and glistening on the edges of her round face. They’d snuck out after Hermione had left for the Beach House, with lies to Ron about taking Pyrate out for a relaxing lunch on the coast. So far their search had turned up fruitless, and all the leery eyes and close calls with massive, muscled blokes with squinty eyes made their directionless wanderings all the more miserable. They were combing the city based on hunches that came and went from something deep and dark in Pyrate.
Morbus, the city built on sin. That’s all Dung had told them, despite bribes accumulated from years of allowance and threats of tattling to Mad-Eye Moody.
“I’m exhausted,” Rose mumbled, and her voice was papery with disuse. “And that last ogre creeped me out. Maybe we should go home?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 3:45 pm
A scowl had settled on his lips hours before the fatigue had even begun to set in. Years of playing blind house cat had left his thin frame out of shape, and he felt useless further by the lack of a wand and the ability to show them around the city himself.
Blood wept thickly from beneath the black cloth of his blindfold, marring his pale cheeks with a slowly thickening crust of false scabs. He thought of wiping it away, but thought it better to give some illusion of being scary. He might manage to spook a child or elder if he got lucky.
"I told you before, this was idiotic... I don't even know if they're still alive... You should have listened to me from the beginning, but you- Wait." the last word trailed off in a hoarse whisper.
The necromancer turned his head to "look" towards the sound of opening doors, the sudden crackle of power in the air giving him more of a heads up than the creaking wood. His lips parted in a partial gasp, seeing and unseeing as old scars began to ache tenfold due to their closeness.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 3:53 pm
Hugo’s head tilted as they walked along the cracked sidewalk, shuffling around clumps of straggly grass that had crept along the cement. He had been feeling uneasy for several minutes, discomfort bundling in his stomach as his sandals scuffed softly with his slow strides; Pyrate’s fingers were clutched in his own, the Hufflepuff leading the blind wizard dutifully as he had on many normal outings in the past.
“Dung said they were,” Hugo protested casually, as though they were discussing the weather and disagreeing on the type of cloud clustered above - not that one could see clouds through the dirty haze that clung to the sky above Morbus. “He said ‘they’re in Morbus,’ Pyrate. Why would he lie if that’s all he’d say in the first place?”
At once, the dusting of fine hair on the back of his neck bristled, and Hugo stopped short.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 3:54 pm
Rose, lacking her brother’s sensitivity to the dead, remained clueless. “What?” she asked blankly, before turning at the sound of an opening door across the street.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:01 pm
“We’ll be paying a visit to a former client of mine… He still owes me for the gift of life,” Jule informed the creatures lingering, massive and obedient, behind him. Ordinarily he did not resort to such harassment and intimidation, but the client in question had been alive two years without making a single payment as he’d promised in his contract. It was not only irritating, it was ungrateful.
A cold brush of sensation ghosted through Jule’s subconscious, and the necromancer stilled, sensing not power but recognition; the draw of another necromancer against the energy encircling his stolen servants, like water drawn through a sift. His own power mingled and was touched.
“Avery,” he murmured, his voice flat, calculating. It seemed too unlikely - and yet, how long could he have hoped to hold his stolen goods without confrontation, especially when he’d finally mastered them?
The necromancer in question stood across the street with too freckle-faced children. Bizarre, but another odd in his favor.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:09 pm
Xuchilbarra felt the same sensation except to him it felt warm, inviting. It felt right. His hands clenched into fists with the confusion of it all, muscles tensing with the tug of power in two directions. He growled a low rumble that physically shook the whole block, a few of the older buildings around them losing loose bricks and cracking into further dilapidation. His power was that of strength, but it could do nothing against control. He took a step towards Avrey and the children so he was now standing in front of Jule, but that was all he could manage.
His command had been to follow, not to lead.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:12 pm
"Get behind me." his voice was a low snarl, anger and a tinge of fear rising up and tightening the inside of his chest. He released his hand from Hugo, but took hold of the boy's forearm and pulled him behind himself before the teen could protest.
"....All these years, and this is where we find each other again? Dark magics having gotten the better of us as always?" he called in question, not speaking to the necromancer that held his lovers, but to the brothers themselves.
He reached up for the pendant around his neck, using the edge of the chain to make a rough, shallow cut. He worried it until the skin gave way more freely on the pad of his thumb, the blood more comfort than a wand would ever be.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:20 pm
Jule swore beneath his breath, the curse accompanied by a light flinch as his wand-encasing dagger slid along the length of his arm; flesh parted beneath the blade, blood welling from wrist to the inner curve of his elbow. He smeared the entirety of his arm down the muddled skin of the larger brother, a crimson streak coloring its back. The blood glistened like water. “Stay,” he crooned, soft and commanding. “Stay.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:26 pm
Rose took a quick step back, removing her wand from its safe leather sheath at her side; a gift from Mad-Eye Moody the year she’d been accepted to Hogwarts and sorted into Ravenclaw. Her wits, he’d told her gruffly, were something she should never lose, no matter what situation she was in - and that included safe wand use, something many of her peers took for granted. “Tell me what to do,” Rose whispered, her voice faint. “Pyrate. They’re - they’re massive, and they’re standing with someone… he just smeared his blood all over one of them… ugh, that’s revolting…” She paused upon seeing Pyrate tear the flesh on his thumb. “Okay, are we getting into the dark magic s**t now, then?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:29 pm
Xuchilbarra could smell the blood and that same familiarity pulled at him, Jule's own blood fading to the back of his senses, no longer seeming important. He breathed deep, the sound of the intake of air audible even from a distance, like wind rustling down a long damp corridor. He tilted his head so he could look at his brother through the grates in the helmet, wanting him to understand too. Stay meant nothing. Stay was no longer a word to him.
He stepped further forward, feeling the cage of power around him like a bubble, like if he just kept walking and pushed he would break free from it. The normal bars of Jule's power were now like a thin net, easily broken. The smell of Pyrate's blood filled his mind with a single message, one that was impossible to ignore.
He had to get to him. He broke over the power, the sound of shattering glass filling his mind, grating on a chalk board, incredibly loud. But then it faded and he was free of it. He could feel the dull wind and the thick, smog-filled air around him, feel his own blood coursing like fire. The connection to Pyrate solidified, and he shivered with it.
He stood between Pyrate and Jule, looking at Jule like a tiger does an antelope.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 6:04 pm
Vith made a sort of whine noise, swaying on bare feet as power and memories crackled through his muddled brain. He hissed at Jule, but made no move for his brother or Pyrate, feeling boxed in and hurt at the same time.
Trapped and wanting to flee.
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:10 pm
"Put your wand away, Rose.. It's fine..." he murmured to her, but began to step forward, holding his hand out, beginning to reach forward to where he thought Barra to be.
"If you were to kill him and it were to be recorded I would lose you both again.. And go to Azkaban. Let the wretch worry of when we needn't fear such things."
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:20 pm
Panic briefly flitted through Jule’s dark gaze, his lips parting as he watched Barra lumber forward, clearly displaying his loyalties despite the necromancer’s blood sacrifice. As the beast rounded on him, the sun glistening on the narrowed length of its massive helmet, Jule drew back a step and extended his still bleeding arm to Vith. The wound gaped like a jaggedly opened mouth. “Taste,” he ordered in a hiss, desperate to strengthen his hold on the younger of the two, “Taste and obey me; my sacrifice is greater…”
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Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:22 pm
Hugo remained behind Pyrate, quite willing to let the male dictate whether or not he became involved. Frankly, being far away from the… things looming on the opposite side of the street - precious to Pyrate or not - seemed like a dandy idea.
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