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 Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:41 pm
Roman laughed softly, shaking his head. "I don't think you can ordain a Kindred as a priest-- even if they later become ex-Kindred," he commented, still laughing though. This was what he'd missed the most-- the easiness he felt with Wolfe...
Asteil grinned, sitting next to Cordell and hoping that Cor's 'Muraki-sama' would decide not to investigate these visitors. Then again, Asteil wasn't known for his luck. Muraki slipped in from the shadows, laughing quietly. "Visitors, my dear?" he asked before glancing at Asteil and Madison. "Guests, I see... well, welcome to the laboratory, Asteil-- and who is this charming friend of yours?" Muraki asked with a smile.
"My name is Muraki Kazutaka," the scientist gave him a slight bow, "...and you would be...?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:47 pm
"Well they did it," Wolfe shrugged, not defensively as he might've if he'd truly cared about the matter. "Didn't get struck down by lightning or nothing, which suggests a fallacy in damnation, God or the Catholic clergy, whichever you'd prefer~
"Let me tell you though, it wasn't always easy, trying to get ordained in the nineties... Scandal runs amok everywhere, you know?"
Had there been two less people in the room, Maddie would have been much more comfortable. Unfortunately for him, he'd surrounded himself with the performer's mystique and couldn't afford to shed that so soon. "King Conjurer of Gothenmello, Madison Square Garden," he bowed low and with a flourish to the entering unicorn. "I'm flattered by your presence, Doctor."
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Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:52 pm
"Oh? Why was that? What happened?" Roman asked. One might say that he didn't run in knowledgeable crowds. Then again, if one knew him better, one might say that he didn't run in crowds at all. In fact, he detested crowds most of the time."
"A conjurer?" Muraki smiled slightly, his single visible eye glinting. "Well, why don't you show us something, conjurer-- and then perhaps we will return the favor, won't we, my dear?" he asked Cordell, lightly running his fingers through the angel's hair.
Cordell smiled at Muraki, pressing a kiss to the unicorn's hand before turning back to watch Maddie. He liked not talking, having Muraki there to speak for them both...
Asteil grimaced at Muraki's nearness, but didn't comment. Damn. If only Cor didn't have such a creepy mate! Oh well. MSG-boy was going to do more tricks! Yes! Focus on the tricks!
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:07 am
"Ah... never mind that," waving a hand in the air as if to physically attempt to change the subject, Wolfe jumped on a new train of thought without so much as a backward glance.
Only to find that he couldn't really find a new subject. All thoughts asphyxiated when he really stopped, just stopped and looked at Roman. There wasn't even the need to fill the space between them with sound. It was just... there was no space between them. No space at all.
Oh, he knew this feeling. The one that set all the hairs on the back of his head to standing on edge. This man... this man was a magician too. Perhaps not in the same sense as Madison himself, but he too was an unmagickal creature delving into unnatural arts.
Magician.
A powerful one at that.
And something dark about his countenance.
"I live to serve," Madison repeated with another bow, waving a hand in the air as if to summon Teil to him from the couch. "Watch closely," he raised a hand, snapped it once, set the electric lights aflicker once, twice, thrice. Waved it through the air, set the lights back to their austere, sterile consistency. "Light dances to our will," he murmured softly, looking all three of them in the eye in turn. "Light is the essence of conjuration. Light is illusion and perception. Illumination.
"Darkness takes us elsewhere."
Final snap. Darkness falls. In the utter dark and SILENCE of the lab, Madison stretched out his hand and waited for the Wall to gather at his touch. The Wall between life and death and spirit, for these three are all different. He waited, called, brought over, touched, took, drained. Waited. Pulled down the barrier between the worlds, pulled it down in the time it took to breathe once and again. Broke the Wall as best he could in the center of this other magician's domain.
The whisper of old souls beneath the surface of the world. The Wall is thin, thinning thin, small inkling dark, take us through but a moment kind sir sir kind, thin, thin, thin--
Something would come over soon. It was really up to the good Doctor what became of it.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:22 am
Roman smiled softly, lying back onto the grass. This quiet easiness was what distinguished Wolfe from anyone else Roman had ever cared about. Roman wasn't sure what it was, why he felt so at ease so quickly again... but at the same time, he wanted very badly to not fall so quickly, lest something happen again...
Surprisingly enough, it wasn't Muraki who reacted first-- nor was it Cordell. Asteil rose to his feet at Madison's gesture, but as soon as the lights went out and Madison touched the Wall, Teil began to shiver. He'd felt power like this once before, hadn't he? Somewhere in the depths of those nightmares he couldn't remember, something akin to this and yet wholely different had touched him.
The demon didn't realize he was crying until he slumped to the ground against Maddie, didn't realize what he was doing as he quickly found himself assailed by thoughts he didn't recognize as his own, memories he didn't remember and yet knew...
Cordell whimpered softly, clinging to Muraki as his eyes darted about the room anxiously. He could feel the gathering, could feel something happening...
"You intend to disrupt my house?" Muraki asked calmly, his less than human eye shining through the darkness. "I think that most unwise, sir Conjurer. Spirits like those have very little to do with this place-- especially with the large number of Shinigami and Shamans present, who will be more than willing to send them away. I'd rather destroy them, but perhaps you should make yourself clear as to what you hope to accomplish?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:28 am
Wolfe frowned slightly. Something on the air... sounded like...
No matter.
"Why can't we make snow angels all year round?" he asked bemusedly, continuing to look up into the fading sun sky. Idle thoughts, idle meanings. No need for the words, so why not have them anyway?
The Wall was, as usual, overpowering. "I intend, good Doctor, to get your attention," Madison's voice carried through the SILENCE in a dull, preoccupied fashion. "There's nothing I can do to send them back. All up to you on what we have here..."
And what he really wanted was the chance to find one of the weaker things that inevitably slipped through with the stronger. To grab a parasite, take something back to this world that might allow him to send other things on the mend. But Maddie had never been disposed to soul magicks. He needed someone else for that, no matter the price.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:35 am
"Well, theoretically you could, if you could get it to snow all year round," Roman smiled gently, considering it. "If you really want, we could ask Miss raven to make it snow now."
"Very well then-- as you wish," Muraki shrugged before murmuring a few soft words.
The room was bathed in flame for a few moments, heat cascading over every sense as something swept through the room. For the sensitive, there were moments of shrieks of pain from the spirits before dead, utter silence reigned again, the spirits gone far, far away.
Muraki began to clap slowly, that self-righteous smile just barely touching his lips. "What a wonderful little trick, little boy."
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:41 am
"Who wants it to snow? Snow's cold. We have to care about that kind of thing now," Wolfe rambled, half seriously and half... not. "I like it when it's now. Here and now."
He'd managed to seize one. A tiny one, like a housefly in comparison to Beelzebub. But one. It was a start. Madison stood in silence through the purge, storing away this small treasure in the third ring of his left hand and realizing only after the flames what had...
Happened to Asteil.
Well crap. He hadn't known the kid was spirit-sensitive. Or whatever. Maybe the Wall had just focused on him, being as he was the one with least senses to him, least defenses. Or maybe... there was something more. "Pretty snazzy, isn't it?" he responded lightly to the Doctor, crouching down beside the fallen demon and placing a hand to the golden hued forehead. "Not without it's side effects, of course," he continued under his breath, checking for temperature--anything abnormal, heat, cold, ... well, temperature was pretty much limited to that.
Escape could wait. He hadn't meant for this particular jumble...
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:51 am
Roman laughed softly. "As long as the here and now is exactly like this, I like the here and now too." As long as you're here and you're safe...
"But of course. I suppose I should have mentioned that a close collegue of mine left his Spirit to guard the laboratory for the moment before you pulled your little trick-- but I should thank you. I think he was hungry," Muraki smiled.
Cordell whimpered softly as he moved closer to Muraki. He'd known the Spirit of Fire wouldn't let anything happen, but... at the same time... it had been terrifying, and now Asteil was crying... this wasn't fun at all...
Teil's temperature seemed slightly above normal, but not enough to cause an alarm. What really seemed to be wrong was the fact that he was crying, shaking, whimpering out apologies and at the same time begging for someone to be there... 'Atticus'...? Madison knew that name...
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:57 am
Wolfe let out a yawn, revelling in the need for it, the need of it. Sleepiness was such a welcome change. "Nice out here," he commented vaguely, almost repetitive considering what they'd been talking about till that point.
And, offhandedly, "You started dreaming yet?"
There was a split of attention to be made here. Did he keep an eye on the creepy Doctor he'd just provoked or play it nice and kind and take care of... He hated it when people got hurt, it just made him so uncomfortable. When things had to be done and people got in the way, he supposed it was okay but...
Oh, he hadn't planned for this! "Glad to know I could help with feeding duties, he sounded ravenous enough to start plucking souls out of the living," Madison replied easily, eyes on Asteil but all other senses on Muraki. "You wouldn't mind terrible much if I moved him out of here, would you?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:29 pm
"Dreaming...?" Roman asked becore seriously considering it. "To an extent," he shrugged slightly. "Only those dreams right before you wake, the ones which fade away too quickly to remember." He had to assume they were dreams and not nightmares because they left him with a gentle sort of longing-- not the bitter taste of bile in his mouth.
"By all means," Muraki continued to smile. "Although, perhaps an escort is in order?" he asked before snapping his fingers, a porcelain doll rising and walking towards Madison on unsteady legs. "Why don't you escort our Conjurer out of the laboratory?" Muraki asked before sending the doll who attached herself to Madison's other leg.
Asteil whimpered, whispering soft words under his breath over and over again-- 'Atticus' 'please' 'I'm sorry'... Tears fell from violet eyes as the demon trembled, whimpering and so needing... where was he...?
Atticus...... what happened to me....?
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 12:56 pm
"Huh..." he wondered aloud to the air--the air still tinged with a whisper of... he didn't know. "I haven't. Not at all. Dreamed."
Dolls. Ugh. He hated, hated, hated dolls, human and otherwise. At least the 'otherwise' could be broken. They'd have to get out of it's place of power first, of course.
And as soon as they had, he was going to do something about... About this demon. Something had gone wrong and damned if it was his fault. Someone needed a good talking to.
Carefully as he could manage, Madison raised Asteil to his feet, moving the demon's arm around his own neck and (if necessary) dragging him out, intent only on getting the hell out of the other magician's territory. "Stay with me, lovely assisstant, I don't think it's clever of me to leave you alone and I don't trust the Doctor to leave me alone inside this place. We're getting out of here, okay? Doesn't have to be quick, we just have to do it."
He didn't really expect a response.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:35 pm
Roman considered that and shrugged slightly. "Perhaps... you don't need to dream," he smiled ruefully. "After all, dreams are for those who can't otherwise achieve what they want, aren't they?" And it was extraordinarily true that Roman wanted so much he could never ask for...
Asteil whimpered and clung to Madison, deeply aware that the unicorn wasn't the one he so desperately needed to see, so desperately need to talk to... but at the same time, he was someone who cared enough to at least try to help him. What had happened?
The demon remembered something... a Quest? Atticus took Nature's Quest... but then... what had happened after that? Why couldn't he remember? "Atticus..." Teil whispered, those beautiful, terrified violet eyes darting around frantically. "I need... Atticus... where...?"
The little doll clung stubbornly to Madison's leg, smiling up with painted rosebud lips at the unicorn with eyes that sparkled and never closed. Find out what the uni's doing~
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:59 pm
"Isn't it supposed to be a nice feeling, though? Don't remember dreaming too well. Think it happened before, but it hasn't happened in a long time," Wolfe stretched towards the sun before putting his arms back behind his head and glancing over at Roman once more.
"Dreaming's good, isn't it? If you don't have dreams, what are you? It's not full, it's empty."
Damn that damnable coon! Madison had, until now, made a deliberate point of not thinking about whatever spilled out of the demon's frantic mind. But there wasn't any way around it, he was talking about the beta. The sulking one. The one Madison really didn't like being around, moreso even than Arthur sometimes.
He didn't know whether taking Asteil back to the Townhouse was the brightest of ideas, but hell, there was nowhere else to go. He could only hope that that stupid beta wasn't around when they got back. He had some sorting out to do before bringing them together. Madison's knowledge of chemistry was rudimentary at best, but he knew what happened with sodium and water.
Leading them outside via the front door as quickly and quietly as possible (ignoring the latter when the former could only be accomplished without it), Madison paused briefly, remembering who he'd dragged along with him in this less than uneventful soujourn.
... Wolfe could take care of himself. He'd just have to believe that for now.
Briefly moving one of his hands from helping to support Asteil, he touched one of the multi-colored jeweled studs on his left ear, twisting it once. They disappeared in a sunlit haze, recalling their bodies and souls only once they'd re-appeared, not half a mile from the townhouse on the side of a dusky, dusky road.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:50 pm
"Perhaps...? I'm not sure. Dreams always leave me feeling... unsatisfied," Roman shrugged slightly. "I tend to not remember what they were about, but they make me feel... rather like I'm not doing what I ought to be doing," the boy tried to explain. "Like I'm living my life by proxy."
Like I'm not fulfilling what I need to... my dreams remind me that I'm empty...
((And I'm throwing Teil at the Townhouse, so i'll see you there, Jannie~ xd ))
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