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 Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:42 am
[ q u e s t 4 ]
Blink.
"What do I do?" Ako heard himself ask. He and Luke were leaning on a bridge, watching the river flow underneath, as people scurried about their business behind them.
"Just close your eyes," Luke said, and Ako felt his other-self obey, shutting out the light. "Now, just... listen. With your mind. It's hard to explain, but you'll know when you get it."
Eric's face screwed up into a grimace as he thought, his thoughts flapping around like beached fish. "This is stupid."
"I didn't make it up," Luke groaned, "Just trust me, ok? I didn't get us turned into vampire things so you could laugh at me."
Eric sighed, rolled his eyes, and just let his mind drift... wait- what was that-
WHAM. It was like he'd opened a pair of eyes he didn't know he had. In his mind, every person, every animal in range glowed and pulsed with a strange half-light that twisted and bulged in response to their thoughts and emotions.
Luke saw him gaping. "I think it gets easier. Eventually. After a while, it doesn't even turn off, it's just... always there."
"What is it?" Eric gasped.
Luke's smile was slow and catlike. "Food."
"We're not- we can't eat- they're people!" the younger boy gasped, and Ako echoed his emotions. There was something very wrong about this.
"It's not like that," Luke soothed. "You don't have to kill anyone. Just a little bit. Doesn't hurt anyone. And it's free. God knows we need that.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:53 am
[ q u e s t 5 ]
Blink.
Ako's mind reeled. What was this, scenes from another life? He didn't like this life. His world until now had consisted of soft, happy sensations, and now-
Bright. Too bright, the sterile green glow of a buzzing fluorescent bulb. Eric breathed heavily, pale face gleaming with sweat. Through the tenuous connection between the two minds, Ako felt a conflicting surge of emotion, guilt, shame, nervousness, and under it all a throbbing, overpowering need, a hunger beyond hunger- the tiny ghost flinched from the strange emotions, trying to pull out of the scene- what was wrong with him? Why was he thinking these crazy things?
The boy muttered to himself under his breath. "Don't- don't ********- just drain her energy and get out, Luke will ******** kill you if you do-" like he was trying to talk himself into something. No, out of something. His fingers shook.
In his hand, a knife gleamed, sickly in the flickering light.
They were in a tiny room, almost like a closet, cracked white plaster walls and a wood floor. Slumped against the far wall, a young girl was bound with duct tape around her wrists and ankles. A bruise shone lividly on one eye. Eric crouched next to her, knife held loosely between his fingers. They had to be the same age, barely teenagers.
"Wh- what are you doing?" the girl gasped through chattering teeth, her voice spiked with rising hysteria. "Do you need money, I've got money- what do you want?"
Eric's eyes clouded over momentarily as he considered something. Then he shrugged.
"No idea," he said, looked over his shoulder with something like panic, then back- squeezed his eyes shut, tensed his shoulders-
A flash of metal, soft, meaty thud, repeated, cut-off scream, and there was hot red blood spreading across the floor and Eric's face was twisted in ecstacy, feeding off something invisible and the ghost felt it, some kind of energy from the girl, spiked with searing burning pain and panic and it was beautiful.
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:55 am
[ q u e s t 6 ]
Blink.
No. No more. Stop it. Stop it stop it stopitstopitstopit. He wanted to go home. This wasn't right, wasn't right, wasn't right- why was he suddenly trapped in this killer's body?
Blink. More blood, slick between his fingers. Blink. The static crackle of a televison broadcast, and someone laughing. Him. Blink. Two voices, rising, shouting, screaming with rage and defiance. Blink. Blink. Blink. A girl, vivid red hair and bright full lips, looking at him, her eyebrows quirked in puzzlement. Blink.
The scene steadied for a minute, a second, it was getting hard to tell. A yet-older version of Eric reclined in a leather chair, shirtless. His hair was buzzed short and spiky, and his lips seemed to be twisted in a perpetual grin, laughing at a joke the rest of the world hasn't figured out.
"You sure about this?" Next to him, a man with a skullcap and a red dragon tattoo around his muscular arms picked up an odd apparatus and slotted a needle into it. "No way you can get this thing removed, you know."
"I know." The voice had changed. Now it was sharp and arrogant, harsh on the ghost's nonexistent ears. "I don't care." One slim finger traced a bright white scar that carved a jagged path down his left arm. "I just want this thing covered up."
"Why? It's not that bad."
Eric's eyes narrowed, burning slits of fury. "Yes. Yes it is."
The other man shrugged, flipped a switch, and brought the buzzing needle to Eric's arm-
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Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 11:56 am
[ q u e s t 7 ]
Pain. Pain and fear and laughter and everything else possible, all trying to cram themselves into the ghost's tiny, immature mind, and there was nothing to do but shut down and let it wash over him. He needed out.
And for a minute, in the delirium, it seemed like the other, foreign mind, the one named Eric was there with him, whispering into his mind. Yes, get out, get back. Your new world has so much to offer. So much pain to taste.
No. I don't think I like you.
Tough luck.
---
Taylor had put on some music. She told herself it was to get her to calm down, but she really, irrationally, was trying to lure the ghost back. So the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony floated through the cramped rooms of the apartment, sweet and sad, as Taylor closed her eyes and waited.
"Hey, we're home!" Diacyn called, as he and Todd stormed inside, tracking mud across the floor. They were both out of breath and sweaty. Todd lobbed the soccer ball he was holding across the room.
"Hey, Taylor," he shouted, "You got dinner, or are we making microwave noodles again? And- bloody hell!" He squinted, blinked a few times, and when the thing he was seeing didn't vanish, shouted out, "Um, and do you know there's a naked kid on your couch?"
"There's a what?" Taylor gasped, keeping her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Her arms remained clasped around Karl- sometime recently, the kid had suddenly fallen asleep, all the energy draining out of him. Wait... that sounded familiar. Unconsciously she felt for the crystals she always kept in her pocket now, making sure they were there.
"I told you, a naked kid on your couch. I think he's sleep- no, he's awake. Looks really confused.
"Um... ah... crap. Er... can you get him some pants?"
"Whatever."
---
Ako blinked wearily at the faces surrounding him. They were vaguely recognizable- the blonde one, the bald one- this was home, wasn't it? Not another dream, definitely not. He only had one set of thoughts in his head this time.
But... this was different. He had a body, with arms and legs and a strange black marking on one arm that made him wince and look away with sudden memories of the bizarre dream world. He felt heavy, too heavy, as gravity suddenly claimed his now-solid body and smashed it into the ground. And he felt older, his thoughts more concrete, more-
This was too much. He couldn't focus. There was music, so he tried to slip into that, hold onto the melody like a lifeline until he could find his footing. But the people wouldn't let him; they were all talking at once, to each other, to him.
"Duuude," one of them breathed, the girl. Taylor. His guardian. He felt a relieved surge of affection for her- and something more, like a thin glow surrounding her, half a sensation, half a vision that slipped away if he tried to look directly at it. They all had it. Energy. No- his new mind found the word- aura. "Are you... the ghost thing? Ako?" she continued.
"I-" he tried to say, his voice rough and untested. "I think so."
Then his mind decided to shut down for repairs, and he lapsed back into darkness. Thankfully, dreamless.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:54 pm
[RESERVED]
Diacyn, mouse-torture, fun shiz like that.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:55 pm
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