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 Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:30 am
YOU KNOW MY THOUGHTS, Q.
D:<
/fakeangst@lackofcomments
but srsly, lovin the story. <3
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:29 am
Yes, but. Maybe if you posted them. Other people would talk about it/them. 
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:18 pm
Another big chapter dump
CH 13 JUNE 29
THE NO REZ
Hirun glared at Fortenra, urging the other to go inside without words. Askasa swallowed before stepping over boulders and shards of glass to the front door. He hesitated, looking at the doorknob. He didn't want to use his hands.
“Just push it,” Hirun stated, stepping forward.
Fortenra pushed the door with his shoulder and it opened easily with a squeal. It was clear not many people came here. Once he stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind him, leaving him in darkness. He took one step forward before turning on his heel.
“Hikari?” he worriedly asked.
“Well who is this that the No Rez has brought to me?” A voice rang out, seeming to reverberate off the very walls. It was high-pitched and ghostly.
“I'm-- I'm Askasa!” Fortenra fumbled, pulling his injured hands in close to himself. “Askasa Fortenra!”
The eighteen year old's heart raced; he could feel it beating in his ears. Faster and faster and--
CREEEEEAAAAAK!
Fortenra spun around to the new source of light. A candle lit green, glaring eyes.
“Opal, quit your silly games. This is my brother,” rang Hirun's voice. He had just opened the door.
Fortenra instantly felt relieved and calmed. Making people feel fear... Was that this person's resonance soul?
A small girl walked out from the shadows. Once the candlelight spread across her face, he could see that although she was at most five feet tall, she looked no younger than sixty. Fortenra gave a quizzical look to the Hirun.
“This is the healer?”
Opal growled. “Fool, if you wanna insult me, do it when I'm not right in front of you.”
Askasa looked down. “I didn't mean it like--”
Hirun chuckled. “Yeah, Opal's the healer,” he said, cutting Askasa off. “Anyway, this kid here,” Hirun gave Fortenra a hard slap on his back, “burned his hands. He was wanting you to heal them.”
Opal grumbled something, then began to walk away.
“Follow me,” she groaned, unhappy with the new chore.
The lady led the troupe to a mattress on the floor, where Opal instructed Fortenra to stand directly in front of it.
“Why?” The boy asked.
“Because you will pass out,” Hirun smirked as he answered.
Beginning to have second thoughts and doubtful of his old friend's intentions, Askasa began to walk forward. Opal put her hand on his chest, stopping him.
“I'm not gonna--” Fortenra started, but couldn't finish his sentence once he fell backward onto the mattress, unconscious. Hirun chuckled and waved a hand wile Opal did her work.
“I'll be back when this is all done,” he said. “Don't do anything you'll regret.”
And with that, he turned and left.
As the door squealed behind him, Hirun straightened his hat. It was now dark outside. That was when the stranger came out.
Heading over to the Music Store, he took another drink from his canteen.
The Music Store was a house, similar to Opal's, which had begun to fall apart. The roof was caving in, and most of the walls were in pieces. The place was called the Music Store because it was theorized to have been one at some point, as amongst the rubble and hidden in the wreckage were hundreds, if not thousands, of CDs. It may as well have been called the CD Graveyard.
Regardless, every night for the past week, there had been a weird guy here searching through it all and stealing the CDs that weren't damaged. He had grey hair and glowing green eyes, wore a strange combination of red and black, and queerest of all, heralded a tail. Hirun had thought it was fake at first, like a belt or something, but the way it moved and waved periodically left no doubts.
The reason Hirun didn't like this guy was because the stranger had no rez, just like him. And stranger still, had no ki. No one knew this man was here except Hirun, who still depended on his eyes rather than his sixth sense. Even Hirun had ki. This guy, he was trouble. Hirun's eyes narrowed as he watched the man rummage.
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:19 pm
CH 14 JULY 2
SMOKE
The next day, Askasa woke up late. 11AM or so. He felt weak, tired, and lightheaded. But as he pushed himself up from the mattress, he realized his hands were healed. And that was all that mattered. He looked around the house, the floor creaking beneath his feet, but could not find Opal. He soon gave up and left the home to venture outside.
Outdoors, it was hot and smoggy, the smell of something burning permeating his nostrils. Askasa didn't think much of it, as the pollution from the main city always blew down into the slums. He simply covered his mouth, breathing through his fingers while he tried to find Hirun.
He managed to retrace his steps back to the alleyway Hirun and he used to call home. There was a tent there as well as Hirun's hat, but no body. Askasa tilted his head in confusion.
“Hikari?” He called. No answer.
“Hikari?” He tried again later a few feet under an abandoned overpass, one of their old hideouts.
“He's not here,” a rasping woman's voice answered.
Out from the shadows peaked a teenager with pale skin and a head of short, thinning red hair. She smelled like rotting flesh.
Fortenra tightened the grip around his mouth and fought the overwhelming urge to puke while he somehow managed to ask the girl where his friend was.
The zombie pointed toward the main city, and for a brief moment, he thought he saw the girl's intestines through her skin.
He quickly said his thanks and trotted off in the direction the zombie girl had pointed. Once he was out of her sight, he gasped for air. In comparison to her stench, the polluted atmosphere was like heaven in his lungs.
He walked swiftly the rest of the way with his hands by his sides. It was maybe thirty minutes later when he finally found Hirun, who seemed to be in some sort of argument with a boy named Buzz.
“You don't understand, Hikari!” Yelled the short, dark blue-haired boy. “The Phoenix can't die! She's a God now! And she's destroying half the city!” The boy pointed back to where a pillar of smoke was coming from.
Hirun had the harshest scowl that Fortenra had ever seen on his face, his green eyes seeming to glare through Buzz's soul. His arms were crossed over his chest, his coat replaced by a ragged black sweater with the sleeves pushed up to his shoulders.
“I don't care if she can revive herself a million times, Buzz. I'm not not risking anyone to go join her, or whatever it is you say you want.” Despite Buzz's obvious frustration, Hirun still managed to stay calm. He spotted Fortenra standing near and began to turn away from Buzz.
“It's over, just leave it alone,” he mumbled.
As Hirun turned away, Buzz clenched his fists and began to shake. Fortenra lifted a brow as a faint, high-pitched buzzing noise could be heard.
“You never understand!” Buzz screamed, pointing an open palm toward Hirun, who immediately doubled over.
The ground began to shake, and Fortenra covered his ears. Now he only heard ringing. Temporary deafness? Fortenra could see Hirun's mouth moving, but it was as if they were in a soundproof room. Hirun grit his teeth and rolled out of the direct path of Buzz's beam of sound, which was easily distinguishable by the craters it made in the ground.
In no time at all, Hirun had got up behind Buzz and had him in a choke hold. For a second, Fortenra's hearing came back. But only for a second, as it was quickly taken away by the blue-haired boy emitting an extremely low frequency from his body. He'd become a subwoofer, and Hirun's nose began to bleed in reaction.
Fortenra could only imagine what sort of beating Hirun's internal organs were taking from this. Regardless, Hikari continued to tighten his grip. Finally, Buzz could take it no more and stopped his emissions as his face turned red and his arms went to Hirun's.
Fortenra's hearing was back now, albeit muted. As Buzz came closer to the point of passing out, Hirun started to show sympathy. He finally let go, Buzz falling to his knees and gasping for breath.
“Next time you attack me, I'm not gonna let go,” Hirun barked, wiping the blood from his nose with his arm.
He gave Buzz a light kick in the gut with his boot. “Get the hell out of here.”
Buzz scrambled to his feet, wheezing as he ran off, almost tripping over himself.
Once the boy was out of eyeshot, Hirun fell to his knees and started to puke.
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:19 pm
CH 15 JULY 6
COUNTDOWN
Hirun had spent two full days recovering from Buzz's attack. Fortenra had stayed by his side through all of that period. Hirun tried to play it cool, but Askasa and Opal knew he'd come close to dying. Buzz's attacks were slow to take hold. The injuries got worse long after the fight took place. Today, it was already noon and the smoke from the main city had not lessened in the slightest.
Fortenra and Hirun paid a visit to Insom, the zombie girl Fortenra had stumbled over the other day once Hikari was healed. Hirun told Fortenra that Insom could see everything that happened in the main city, and to understand what was going on, they should ask her instead of going to the city themselves.
The zombie put her hands on each of the boy's foreheads and showed them all of what the phoenix had been through. Hirun was a bit impressed, while Fortenra was angry.
“This, this is exactly why I left her!” Fortenra proclaimed as they walked back to Hirun's from the zombie's overpass. “She only thinks of herself! She destroyed our apartment!” He let out a groan and held his head. “She misses me but she destroys all my stuff?!”
“Chill, Askasa,” Hirun smirked. “I think it's endearing. Buzz and Ismaru killed the Heartlies because of her. Formed their own gang. So they're out of my hair, finally. And Tali's giving Dexterity the beating it deserves for treating its next generation like s**t.”
“That's not what I--” Fortenra tried to get in, a bit confused to Hirun's choice of wording.
“Chill. Seems like all you ever think about is yourself these days. She saved you, you know. You abandoned us. Because you said you loved her. Do you not love her any more?” Hirun let out a sinister “heh” as if he'd won some sort of competition with his narrative.
It was partially true, as Fortenra did feel defeated at the remark. His shoulders slumped.
“I... I still love her, I guess. But I don't want to. She's selfish and shallow and never works or does anything for herself...”
Hirun playfully slapped Fortenra. “She's working now!” He laughed.
Once they got back to the alleyway Hirun called home, they simply hung out and caught up with eachother's lives. It seemed like things were going well and all was forgiven until the sun set.
“Listen,” Hirun said. “There's this guy what comes around every night looking through the Music Store.”
“So?” Fortenra questioned.
“I don't like him,” Hirun answered. “I want you to take care of him for me.”
Fortenra sat up from his place on a large concrete boulder. They had been sitting inside the fallen parking garage near the alleyway. “Why can't you do it?” he asked, confused.
“Because I want to watch you do it,” Hirun shot back. “You said you'd pay me back. This is my favor.”
Hirun stood up, stretching his arms over his head. He tossed his cap onto a blanket with some other miscellaneous things and began to walk toward what was known as the Music Store. Fortenra reluctantly followed.
When they came to the familiar house, the guy Hirun had been talking about was already there, minding his own business.
Fortenra knew asking questions wasn't going to work with Hirun. He had a sneaking suspicion Hikari only wanted him to do this just to see if he could still fight well.
“Hey!” He called to the stranger. “Hey, you! With the tail!”
The stranger stood up straight, slowly moving his glowing green gaze to Fortenra and Hirun, as if calculating. Hirun crossed his arms over his chest and stepped back as Fortenra stepped forward.
“This is Hikari territory,” Fortenra proclaimed. “You need to get out of here.”
Askasa was trying to play it cool, but really he just felt stupid. This guy wasn't threatening anyone. He didn't even have any ki.
Wait. No ki? Fortenra scowled. Now he knew why Hirun didn't like this guy.
The stranger blinked once and went back to his search for CDs, unphased by Fortenra's lousy intimidation tactics.
“Hey!” Askasa yelled. He was confused. No one had flat out ignored him before.
“If you don't leave within ten seconds, he's going to kill you,” Hirun stated matter-of-factly to the stranger.
The tailed guy proceeded to ignore him.
Five seconds passed, and Fortenra didn't know what to do. He had, however, decided he didn't like this dog-man either.
“Five,” Hirun started his countdown.
“Four.”
The stranger kept digging around the rubble.
“Three.”
Fortenra curled his hands into fists, looking to Hirun.
“Two.”
Hirun nodded to Fortenra, who ran toward the strange man.
“One.”
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:20 pm
CH 16 JULY 9
INTIMIDATION
Q had just found a CD that didn't appear too damaged when Fortenra Askasa charged toward him. A large bundle of wires shot at him like a man-eating vine from Hell. Q wasn't expecting the attack to come so fast, and just barely was able to get out of the way. The CD had been held tightly in Q's right hand when the wire-rope struck through the case.
There went Seether.
The Talvian growled with anger as the plastic shattered into an uncountable number of pieces out of his hand. He didn't have time to do too much else to express his frustration, however, as the next attack was quick to come. The dog-man used his left hand to bravely shove the wires away from his face and grabbed a pocket knife with his right as he turned his right shoulder into Fortenra. This he later found to be a mistake, for as his left hand did shove the wires aside, they also gave him the most wicked rope burn he'd ever encountered. He called out, but refused to let that hold him back and shoved the knife into the next set of wires that came toward him.
It merely split the wires in half. Like a lone tree in the middle of a rampaging stampede, the wires still came at him full force. Q reversed his grip on the knife, pulled it out and ducked under the vines of death. He continued to spin, grabbed the right rope of wires under his left arm and used it as leverage to kick Fortenra in the head with his right boot.
All this time, Fortenra had been aiming those wires at Q's head. That boy had been trying to kill him, not simply injure. What was this kid's problem? All Q wanted was the music others had thrown out.
The kick hit Fortenra's head and the both of them fell to the ground, Q on top of Fortenra. Askasa's wires slammed back into his wrists like a returning measuring tape pulled out too far while Q stood up, glaring at Hirun. Now that Fortenra was unconscious, this other kid, this Hirun Hikari, was his only other competition.
“What do you want from me, No Rez?” The tailed man asked, turning to the other kid, making sure his right boot was planted firmly on Fortenra's ribs, should the boy wake up.
Hirun narrowed his eyes at Q. “How do you know that name?” The boy questioned. Only Opal called him that.
“Would you prefer Hirun?” Q gave an evil grin.
“Who are you?!” Hikari yelled.
“I am someone who wants to be left alone while I find my music fix, Hirun,” Q stated. “Tell Fortenra Askasa and anyone else you have in mind to challenge me to lay off.”
Hirun growled, stepping forward to handle this problem himself. Q pressed his heel into Fortenra's ribcage in response. The boy called out in primal pain after being jolted back into consciousness by the act.
Hirun stopped in his tracks.
“Don't test me, Hirun. I don't care about your stupid gang war. All I want is access to this music. If you leave me alone, I will not bother any of you,” Q stated bluntly.
Hirun scowled. “Fine. Let Askasa go!” He ordered, reluctantly agreeing to Q's terms.
Q looked to his pocket knife which had been ruined by Fortenra's wires and simply tossed it to the ground with a sigh. He then got off Fortenra and offered his right, undamaged hand to help the boy up. Askasa glared at Q, refusing the hand and getting up by himself, albeit with much difficultly. Q walked off while Hirun rushed in to make sure his foster brother was okay.
Q was pissed that a perfectly good Seether CD was broken because of some stupid kid. But he figured he should be getting back home anyway. Edmond was getting antsy.
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:25 pm
CH 17 JULY 13
INFORMATION
Q got home rather late. The castle Edmond had moved into was far away from everything else, making the walk to and from civilization a long one.
Edmond had fallen asleep on the couch, presumably staying up to try and talk to Q upon his return. Q simply went to his own room. He was awoken at approximately 10AM the next day from the Monte Criston staring at him. The feeling had been awkward enough to rouse the Talvian out of his slumber.
Edmond didn't let Q blink twice or grab his sunglasses before he looked straight into the dog-man's eyes and asked, “What do you know about the Phoenix?”
The Monte Criston was dressed lavishly as always, however his glare was particularly intimidating. His arms were crossed over his chest as he leaned against the doorframe that led to Q's room, awaiting the answer to his question.
“Her name is Tali Heartlie,” Q began. “She lived with someone named Fortenra Askasa. She's been wreaking havoc across town for the last few days, because she just discovered she can revive herself. Tali's family, previously known as the Phoenix Mafia, were killed recently by a group of kids who now call themselves the Phoenix Gang. They worship Tali. I only know two of the members' names- Buzz and Ismaru.”
Q groaned, finally sitting up and putting his left hand over his eyes. “Why did you do that when you know about the sun...?” he whined, blindly reaching around his nightstand for his sunglasses. Edmond walked over and handed them to his disciple with a grunt.
“You've been particularly dodgy lately,” he replied.
Q and Edmond had moved into the castle about two and a half weeks a go. Edmond expected this Phoenix business to be over and done with rather quickly, yet in this time had made absolutely no progress. Edmond was sick of waiting around while Q disappeared for days at a time with some “scouting” excuse. Edmond wasn't stupid. Q was still a child even at twenty five. How did he get himself into this?
“I was out getting information for you,” Q whined again, after putting on his sunglasses and looking to Edmond.
“I hate how you can lie to me like that with a straight face,” Edmond scowled.
Q frowned. “So I can multi-task,” he replied sardonically as he threw up his hands in defeat. “What else is new?”
Edmond grabbed Q's left hand, having seen something wrong with it. There was a huge gash, like some sort of rope burn.
“What is this?” Edmond questioned, leaning in closer.
Q pulled his hand away from Edmond's grip forcefully, pushing himself off the bed to stand up to Edmond. Q was still in his red and black attire, having slept in his clothes.
“It's nothing,” Q replied, going on the defensive. He began to walk to his closet, to get a change of clothes.
“Nothing?” Edmond slammed his hand to the wall, blocking Q's path. “Where have you been every night? Why are you avoiding me? What happened to you?”
Q looked away and began to walk around Edmond, his lips tight. Edmond slammed Q into the wall, getting into his disciple's face. “Answer me!”
There was a silence as Q looked down, his grey hair covering his glasses.
“What happened to you, Edmond,” he whispered. “You used to trust me.”
Edmond took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself. “You're right,” he finally said, letting go of Q and backing away a few steps in realization. “I apologize.”
Q loosened up, and after a moment of trying to judge what Edmond was thinking, gave up and continued to his closet to change into some clean clothes. He came out with jeans, a t-shirt, and a jean jacket. Edmond quirked a brow.
“I was going to go into town today,” Q said. “Since you woke me up so early.”
Edmond sighed. “I can't get the television to work,” he said after a long pause.
Q turned to go out the door, “Dexterity doesn't have TV as far as I can tell,” he said. “But I'm pretty sure you can get internet access. I've seen a few computers around.”
“All right,” Edmond responded, going to his own room in defeat.
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Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:26 pm
That's the end of it.
Enjoy.
Or not.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:00 pm
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:12 pm
.________________________.
I wanna comment but I don't know what.
I just know I love these chapters.
Why? New Characters, new scenery, and depth.
I'm so descriptive.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:47 pm
Thank you for saying something though.
Sometimes I wonder if anyone reads these anymore. D:
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 9:26 pm
Well, I'm reading! And... you're definitely keeping the story going really well...
Can't wait for the next fix! n_n( )
GJ Q! ^_^
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:55 pm
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:05 pm
So I know nobody's reading this.
But I would like to take this moment right here.
To just express how much I HATE writing chapters where Tali is the main character.
Chapter 23 is one of them, and I want to kill myself.
.__________.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:15 pm
...Just out of curiosity, why do you not like writing the chapters where she's the main focus? o_o
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Reply
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