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 Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 12:27 am
Here then G o n e . . .
(Underworld)
Featuring...
Erena - Played by This Charade -- Departed
and
Lucia - Played by Nyx the Vampire Fish
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Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:07 am
 The dark cave filled with the rich smell of incense. Two gloved fingers snuffed out an oil lamp, leaving the three candles on the small alter as the only light. A small figure, cloaked in black approached the light and knelt down, pouring a scented oil over the crudely carved stone slab. "Goddess Hecate, it's Erena. Please accept this offering of thanks." Above it, a small statuette wavered and glowed in a low purple light.
"Sweetheart, you know you don't have to talk like that." The statuette, now fully animated and transformed, bent over and took a deep breath. "Is that ginger root?" Erena smiled and nodded. "Honey, you shouldn't be wasting ginger root on little old me."
"It would have gone bad before I got a chance to use it." Erena said, sitting down more comfortably on the stone ground.
To most people, even to most Greeks, this little exchange would seem bizarre. Anyone unfamiliar with the Gods of this world would be staggered be the very fact that the statue responded, let alone came to life, but to the people of Olympus, while not common, the occurrence is perfectly understandable. What would have baffled would have been entirely different things. First, the Gods tended to make their actual appearances in temples. Big ones, with throngs of people, and normally only when they made worthy requests. Here was a goddess showing up just to say a casual hello on a tiny personal alter. Aside from that, there was the tone and the particular goddess who made the visit. Hecate is a rather dreaded goddess, an underworld dweller with control over witchcraft, ghosts, and other unpleasant things. Praying to her was more than a little taboo.
But here she was, sitting and talking to a tiny statuette sized Hecate about wasting ginger root. "So, what brings you home?" The small version of the goddess hopped off of the alter and, in the next instant was normal sized. She appeared as a noble and elderly woman. Erena motioned with her head to an old, worn chest against the wall of the cave.
"That's not for Hades, is it?"
Erena opened the chest, revealing old books and carved stone amulets. "No," she answered. "It's more me." She stood up and sighed. "This," she said reaching into her cloak and pulling out a scroll, "is for Hades."
"Well, I know better that to keep Hades waiting." And with a purple glow and a smile, the statue was back and the goddess was gone.
Erena re-pocketted the scroll and blew out the candles.
On to the Big Man...
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Nyx the Vampire Fish Crew
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 8:45 pm
L U C I A- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - a W A R N I N G to the people
the G O O D & the E V I L
this is W A R - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  The Lord of the Underworld was bent over his chessboard, lamenting his latest failure, when Lucia entered the chamber. She hung back, noticing the tell-tale signs of one of his fits. The tense muscles, the curled lips, and the increasingly pressure and heat that radiated from his bent form. She didn't even have to ask what had gotten his toga in a twist. Hercules. It was always Hercules. It would always be Hercules.
"We were so close!" he hissed as the figure of a woman in a fawn skin crumbled in his bony hand. He threw the pieces at the wall, knocking over a chalice of wine in the process. Another plan unraveled in a Penelopanisian minute.
"I'm taking your maenad plan didn't work out, huh?" Lucia asked from the doorway, putting her back to the wall. She eyed the shattered bits of the maid of Dionysus with relish. Destruction, after all, was in her blood.
It wasn't every day that she had the pleasure of seeing Hades sweat. She smirked at her good fortune. Down here, you took your happiness where you could grab it - even though it was mostly at someone else's expense. In this case, she managed to earn a jolly out of The Lord of the Dead's misfortune. If there was one constant in her life it was that Hades attempts to kill Hercules always resulted in failure. Hades, ironically, hadn't seemed to grasp this quite yet.
"So close!" The cerulean flames on his head rocketed upward and spread down his back like a a fin before turning a dangerous red. Pain and Panic, the ever present cronies, cowered on the opposite side of the board. Pain, the fat pink one, curled up into a ball and for a moment she wondered if he would shapeshift into a swine. It would be fitting. Panic, on the other hand, clutched at his large eyes with his spindly fingers.
"It was a good plan, Your Eternal Nastiness!" Pain interjected, hoping to neutralize the God's rage.
"Y-Yeah! Good! Real good!" Panic hurriedly added in his fast stammering speech. "I mean, Hercules isn''t anything like that Orpheus guy but anyone could make a mista-"
"A mistake! Are you suggesting that I made a mistake?!" Hades roared, fire spreading down over his robe in a wave, as he leered toward the twosome.
"Of course not!" They both squealed, diving under the board.
"Let me guess. Your raving troupe didn't even tear one piece off of Zeus's prodigy?" Lucia asked, her thunder blue eyes flashing in time with her smirk.
"Lucia, Lucia, Lucia," Hades clucked, appearing before her in a cloud of inky smoke and pinching her cheek. Her smirk instantly disappeared - replaced with a threatening scowl. He knew entirely too well that she did not like being touched. Were he anyone else he would have had a fistful of fire in his gut.
"I think you're forgetting one eensy weensy tiny detail. If I am your Master, then you are...?" He reached out and picked up her wrist, indicating the thick black cuff that rested snugly there.
"The servant," she said from between clenched teeth.
"The servant!" More flames sprang up, some coming at her face, but she didn't flinch. Stroking his anger left the consequence of hearing him talk, unfortunately. Hades, bi-polar as he often was, regained his cool and snapped his fingers in her face.
"Bingo! Now, my servant, what about our flying porkchop?" he asked in reference to the next monster he already had lined up for Hercules. He ghosted back to the board and conjured up a sizeable piece in the shape of a winged pig and placed it in front of the Hercules piece.
"On it's way." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - until everything B U R N S while everyone S C R E A M SB U R N it all downas my A N G E R reigns - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 1:10 am
TErena made her way through the darkness of the underworld. Perhaps it was her relationship with Hecate, or perhaps it was her lack of a heart. It might have just been the sheer amount of time she spent down here. Whatever the reason, the underworld just didn't get to her like it did for most people. Sure, she'd had her hands on the Olympus Stone, but even the heroes who ventured down her on occasion needed more than that not to get jumpy and distracted by the floating orbs of the dead that popped in and out of existence.
Speaking of heroes, her secret short cut and had landed her just close enough to see the fiery red flames shoot off around the corner. What was it with bad guys and their obsessions? She'd encountered quite a few in her travels, and they were perhaps less flexible than the most go-get-em of the heroes.
As she got a little closer, she could sense the creatures. It was something she'd always been good at, feeling the energy of others, but ever since she'd lost her heart, it had only become easier. Each person or creature gave off a certain energy. Erena had tried to put it into words, but it was something that couldn't quite be communicated. She didn't sense shape or power or even light or darkness. What she could see was a sort of abstract synthesis of the persons weaknesses. Best put, it was something like a psychic blueprint of what buttons to push. Most everyone's was unique if she looked close enough.
Hades, Pain, and Panic were the usual denizens of the inner chamber, but today, she picked up another. She got there too late to hear of the latest failure and the next equally doomed plan, not that Erena cared in the slightest. She entered the chamber and cleared her throat.
"What!" Hades ever present fiery hair flared red as he twirled around. When he saw who it was, he calmed down. "Erena, darling, come in, have a seat. Lucia, the boys, and I were just talking about this marvelous new monster I hatched up."
Erena couldn't be less interested. She glanced over at Lucia and nodded a quick recognition. For the daughter of Ares, the girl was welcomingly level headed, especially compared to their mutual employer. She was in a bit more of a binding contract than the Nobody, but their jobs weren't too different. Messenger girls, and hardly glorified ones at that.
"I don't have time for ambrosia and crumpets, Hades. I'm here to deliver this months rent." She reached into her robe and pulled out the scroll once more.
Hades floated over and wrapped an arm around Erena's shoulder. The lord of the dead had the very odd property of being simultaneously freezing cold and on fire. His bony fingers snatched the scroll out of her hands.
"Nice work. Such a team player. I can always count on you, eh my stoic little lollipop?"
Erena ducked out of his embrace and repositioned herself several feet away. "Unless you have something for me," she glanced quickly at his little chess board, "I'll leave you to your pork roast."
"Come on, sweetheart, no need to rush out like that."
Erena let out a dry chuckle. "Honestly, I can't think of a less appropriate nickname that sweet-heart." She separated the word, putting a different stress on both parts individually. "I got you the tournament line ups and the dates for Zeus's next Olympian council. My rent is paid. I have no more business here. Besides, you have some else plenty qualified to do your next errand." She turned to leave. "Besides, I've done enough to enable your obsessive behavior for the month."
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Nyx the Vampire Fish Crew
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:50 am
L U C I A- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - a W A R N I N G to the people
the G O O D & the E V I L
this is W A R - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lucia crossed her arms, leaning against the wall, feeling the grooves in her bronze armor. This armor, which had been rendered cold when she had first entered the Underworld and navigated through the eerie tunnels, was now warm from exposed contact with her inner fire. Her blood ran hot. It ran like liquid fire when her temper was fanned - like now. Hades, in all his insufferable pompousness, was an eternal thorn in her heel.
The redhead did not particularly enjoy dwelling on the fact that the two of them shared blood. Her thoughts strayed to the irony of the situation. This God, an entity feared and worshipped by all of Greece, was her uncle. Insect legs skittered up and down her arms with the realization. Perhaps that was the explanation for the common fire within the pair of them. His was a cold fire - all shadows and burning bones. Hers was something more primal. It was a blaze forged in emotions and instincts.
"Sooner or later, if you play with fire..." she reflected, eyes trained on the God, "You're going to get burned."
Her thoughts were interrupted by the small sound at the mouth of the cavern. Erena, the strange girl who rented out a little piece of the Underworld, entered the room. While she had no qualm with the girl herself, Lucia in no way appreciated the walking, talking reminder of what her brother had been turned into. They moved like normal people, but there was silence beneath their ribcages. She caught the girl's eye. She held it for a few moments - as close of an acknowledgement as she would offer.
While the God and the Nobody conversed, she took the opportunity to sneer at Pain and Panic who were eye-to-eye with the board. They had been given the simplest of tasks to carry out in the past - and somehow they always managed to fail. It was a sorry Underworld after all. As Erena took her leave, Lucia watched with a twinge of jealousy. It was a darker emotion, granted. Yet it wasn't exactly foreign on her tongue. It was mortal nature to envy what you did not have. Lucia came and went as she pleased, much to Hades's distaste, but she was never truly free. It was more the idea of her being bound by one person, one God, that bothered her rather than the fact that she couldn't fly free.
"Wonder how many that makes in the tally for women who have turned you down," Lucia nodded to Hades as Erena left.
"I take it you're going to subtly hint that I should join the Games."
"We'll schmooze later," Hades waved one of his hands after Erena, moving back to the board. He looked up at the latter half of her statement.
"If your that bloodthirsty, well..." he grinned, showing dagger-sharp teeth. "..then be my guest."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - until everything B U R N S while everyone S C R E A M SB U R N it all downas my A N G E R reigns - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 12:31 am
As Erena started to walk out, she saw a spike of jealousy in Lucia. Actually, she sensed it more than anything, a button getting bigger, strong, more influential. It was noted, then ignored. She sensed things like this all the time, but with Lucia, they were stronger, more distracting. It was her father's blood running through her vains, the rage of Ares. Those were buttons she avoided pressing unless she absolutely needed to.
Erena left the inner chamber but didn't go far. She was fascinated by the Lord of the Underworld. Sure he was sleazy, obsessive, and not someone any one should have too many dealings with, but he knew things that even Hecate didn't. Magic of the darkest nature, binding promises, transformations, curses. Things Erena could only dream about cataloging. He wasn't one to share such secrets, of course. She had to get them slowly. Ease them out. It was pointless to try right now, but she might take him up on his offer to shmooze later on.
So she waited outside the chamber, seeing if she could pick up on anything that might help her get a potion recipe or a spell. Instead, she got more battle plans. She breathed out slowly. What she needed was a lead. Even with all the time in the world, Erena hated not doing something productive. Something told her that Hades would not be the one to tip her off this time.
She debated waiting a little longer for Lucia to come out, maybe she'd tip her off to some of the surprises Phil had in store for the next tournament, but she had no idea how long or how intricate the pig plan might end up being. She pulled a second, more detailed version of the tournament list out of her cloak. She pulled off her left glove with her other hand, and then in a quick, time perfected movement, she brought her middle finger to her mouth and bit a small whole in the flesh. It didn't hurt any more, she had done it so many times. The pump in her chest pushed the blood up through the wound. She didn't like calling it a heart. Without the heart she'd lost, this simple muscle was nothing more than a pump. It did not react like a heart, didn't full her chest with emotion or pitter patter with joy. But it still pumped.
Under her breath, she mumbled a few words in an ancient, early language, and wrote Lucia's name on the scroll. The blood fused the two ends of the parchment together. They would be separated by anyone but her. The way the spell worked, Lucia would know when she passed the parchment on her way out that it was there, waiting for her. A handy trick she'd picked up on a visit to an off world swamp witch.
She thought about maybe going back there. Tia Dalma always had a new charm or trinket that would cost an easy errand. It would be something to do. Erena slipped the marked scroll against the wall of the underworld and made her way back to the cave she called home. The swamps of Port Royal were a hassle to get to. The trees and twisting branches made the wooded mash impossible to access reliably with a portal. Using one could land you thirty feet above ground and three miles from a clue as to location. To get there... well it took more effort than she really wanted to exert right now.
She made it back to her cave and stared at a map of the worlds she'd drawn and redrawn several times. Most worlds had a source listed next to them: Merlin, Ursala, the Cheshire Cat. Knowledge doesn't choose one side and stick to it. The list had good guys, villains, and everyone in between. But, having just dealt with Hades, Erena figured she could use a break from the people-based sources. Not to mention the "shmoozing" she needed to do to even get her rent. No one shmoozes like Hermes.
She scanned the map for a few more seconds before her finger came to rest on a crudely drawn book next to two lines of writing. The first line was crossed out. The second read Hollow Bastion. She took off the cloak she'd been using to travel around her home world. Under it, she wore a plan cotton skirt and a tight tee shirt, both back. Hollow Bastion was one of the more dangerous worlds, but, lacking a heart for the precious little shadows to swallow, she was safer than most. Still, things there didn't seem to be operating on hunger. Someone or something sent them out. As a precaution she pulled a different coat out of her trunk. It had been a gift of Yen Sid, not that she had been forthright with her story. It allowed her a certain protection against snoopers, people like her who could sense things. She wasn't sure with things it blocked. It didn't block her ability, but better safe than sorry.
With the coat fit snugly, she grabbed a large dark backpack and slipped it over her should. Then, with a swirl and a swish, she had opened a portal and vanished.
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