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 Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:04 am
It was an odd sensation. Zascha felt the need to gasp for air, but there didn't seem to be any in this dark place. It was dark and oppressing. What had just happened? Had he dreamed it all? Everything? This place felt real and tangible though his thoughts were telling him this space was not real it was hard to tell the difference. And then he found himself at a table. His vision obstructed Zascha rubbed at his eye with his palm but still it did not clear. Neither did the little girl's face that sat adjacent to him. But...he remembered this scene from before now. So familiar yet... His attention quickly snapped into focus as she spoke, though his head still felt as if it were spinning. "Who are you? What do you want?" Obvious first questions of course. Yet a question even more difficult popped into his head. "Are you Merina? Did you kill my sisters?" His voice was flat when he asked the second. In his heart though he knew whatever this girl was it wasn't what haunted his nightmares. Part of him thought that at least, the other half of him had hope it was. Maybe it would make it easier. But what could he do here?
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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 10:25 am
Ripley stared in mild horror at the tendrils that expanded from the mask. He watched on as they twisted and dug under the Hunter's skin, disappearing along with the mask. The dead eyes that opened seemed a little more his speed, and with the horror in the 'out of sight, out of mind' category, he was able to focus on what was important. Namely, the fact that Zascha's body wasn't holding up to whomever was trying to get in.
Damn.
"Pity." He grumbled, and seriously so. After all, it hadn't worked. He'd need to try again, and that was a dangerous thing…for him. "I can find you another." Was it possible for the entity to even leave Zascha now? His gaze drifted to the disintegrating flesh, resisting the urge to curl his lip in disgust.
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Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 11:16 pm
"It is good for now," said the rotting husk of Zascha, "you have kept your bargain. We will find another one. For now, your reward. Knowledge. Loyalty. I may offer a single favour. What is it that you desire the most?
As it spoke, the mask took over more of the body, vines now spreading on top of skin, creating a network that solidified to an armour of green around the original host. A shell. It moved properly, more green than flesh, and moved adequately, with no sign of what it had formerly been, and no telling what the state of the original body was, flexing hands made entirely of branches and thorns.
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Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 11:19 pm
"Okay," She finally said, not heeding any of Zacsha's actual questions," the table is ready! Have a seat and oh, let me pour some tea, I'm really good at that part!" She smiled and it was all black shadows and white teeth. The teacups began to rearrange themselves nonsensically, making everything feel a little more like a dream.
"Before we get started, I do have a second option. You can stay here with me forever if you'd like! I'll take very, very good care of you and you'll never ever get hurt again."
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Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2015 11:54 pm
Zascha was unsure how to take the fact that she had completely ignored his questions. But he figured in the end she had no answers for him. At least not for those questions anyhow. As he took a seat at the table he watched the teacups run amok. By this time he was unsure if this was a medication induced dream or if he was really experiencing it. The teacups changing places on their own did nothing to assure him of any concrete conclusion on the matter. He had seen far stranger things. His gaze returned to the shadow girl who was all smiles. A second option was lain out for him. Was there even a first? "If I refuse?"
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 9:30 pm
What he desired the most. What a loaded question.
It took him a moment to respond, as he considered his options: He could ask to be free of this island, certainly. There was nothing for him here. Yet he felt, somehow, that asking such a thing would involve his death…not something he ultimately wanted. There were more. Assassinations. Destruction. Yet, in the end, after that small pause for thought, he chose:
"I would like to be let in on your plans." He asked quietly, deciding that Knowledge could sometimes trump immediate freedom.
"However." He started again. "We are in the infirmary. There are people milling about." His gaze flickered to the privacy curtains that cut them off from the rest of the room.
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 2:33 pm
"People will not see what they cannot comprehend," stated Zacsha's shell. As if on cue, a Moon Hunter walked into the room, and after several moments of confusion, opened and closed the curtains, unable to see them. "Knowledge is simply beyond their reach."
It looked once again at it's own decaying body, and then to Ripley. A moment of revelation, but perhaps Ripley finally understood it was coming all along. "This is a very simple solution, simple enough for even you to comprehend. Will you then accept your fate as my mask?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 2:42 pm
"Well then! It's all very nice if we all managed to pick what we wanted, but sometimes to get what you want, you have to understand what you don't want to get!" The teacups stopped moving at the end of this exclamation, though she tapped the table twice and they began to dance wildly again. When she had finished speaking, vines, long green vines that looked oddly out of place in this wild table of colour, began to wrap around Zacha's legs and waist, reaching towards the arms.
"You are almost out of time," she stated, "so make a choice, or choose to make none. You can stay, or you can go at a cost. Will you pick yourself or will you pick others."
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 3:04 pm
Deep down in his gut he knew. Zascha knew that something was up but he did not understand the gravity of this situation yet. There was a reason but he could not put his finger on it. The decision was weighted. But there was no time to mull it over as the vines began to wrap around his legs and torso. There was a cost to everything, he knew that. If he stayed there would be a cost. If he left there was a cost. The question was, what cost was he willing to go with. If only he had time to know more. No, he assured himself he would find out more. Even if he wasn't confident in that assurance. "I will stay."
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 4:11 pm
Despite his usual calm, Ripley jumped when he heard the telling cry of the curtains opening. Wide amber eyes stared at the Moon Hunter, waiting for them to say something - anything - and when they walked away instead, looking nothing more than confused, Ripley relaxed. Well, that was lucky. He turned back to the shell that was once Zascha just in time to see it look down, and then back at him.
The gesture sunk in as the words did, and he pressed his lips into a thin, unimpressed line. Accept his fate? That was rather suspicious. He regarded the decaying husk a little longer, putting two-and-two together, connecting potential dots. He felt the distinct impression that all of this was just a long, tedious test.
"You planned for me to be your pawn all along?" He asked, though it was more of an observation, punctuated with a slight, bitter laugh. "Will I turn out like him?" Was his final question, nodding towards Zascha, the unfortunate first host.
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