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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:12 am
❁ The castle town of Lumena is a beautiful place, bustling and yet equally peaceful. It was the first thing the owner of the white home had loved about that place. It gave off a sense of security, a sense of balance. What he liked even more were the mornings. Mornings in Lumena were always quiet, blissful. The sun was shining brilliantly, reflecting in the infinite expanses of white making the entire town of Lumena glow like a pearl against the light. People came and went filling the busy streets with their voices -so many voices, he would note; and behind them the voice of the crowd, the voice of the city- the air was full of the scent of fresh flowers blooming on windowsills as well as an idea of aromatic grass. It blended perfectly with the scent that came from inside the house, a perfect blend of sweet dark coffee, ink and parchment paper. One would say that the resident of that home would always smell of paper, the delicate, earthy scent having become one with his white, white skin. He would also occasionally smell of cinnamon and a variety of baked treats, especially on Thursdays and Sundays and when he had visitors over. And the resident of the white home had visitors quite regularly seeing how he housed lessons quite often and his students would flock in small lively groups to his home. He was always waiting for them earlier than they came and he always answered the door with a warm smile to welcome them inside; perhaps this was one of the reasons he was also so well-liked.
The owner of the white home was more than just a well-liked teacher, however; he also happened to be a Cerberus Knight of some renown. He had completed his training in Makai within but a few months and had meticulously worked his way up the ranks to come to the prestigious position he was today. However, he disliked flaunting his achievements and could be often found dressed in plain civilian clothing rather than his battle gear -that, too, had been modelled as lightweight and discreet as possible. If he wasn't dressed in his armor and if he was being quiet, he could pass entirely unnoticed, like a phantom, a gentle shade, being here for one moment and then elsewhere on the next. It was rather remarkable, how he could stand there without being neither here nor or there, shrouded in the mystery, the uncertainty of being in between of so many things. When he'd finally be gone only his scent would linger on, a gentle reminder that maybe someone might have been there. And that, precisely that, was his existence, damned to be essentially forever alone.
However, for his students, his acquaintances, his friends, he could somehow push aside his very existence in order to take on a more corporeal form for those around him, not that of an illusion or dream even though he had spent the greater part of his life being just that. Nothing. It didn't quite matter, however. Where there was emptiness there was also fullness. Light within the darkness, after all, at least that he knew best. It was the path he had chosen for himself, on his own. ❁
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:47 pm
There was a story with a need to be told
Kyu once had a name, a name he no longer recalls -nor does anybody else-. It was his only for a span of time far too small for it to mean anything and he would forget it soon afterwards. He was born as a son to a poor family living on the outskirts of Clarus Arbor but just like his name this family wouldn't be 'his own' for a long time. It happened at a time he would later not remember either, mainly because he might have chosen to forget in order to shield himself from the fear he experienced right afterwards. The first time he tried to devour a witch's heart was when he was six years old, too young, too innocent and too immature to be able to do anything but succumb to his newly-awakened urge. At that time -the first time- he had been subsequently hunted down by his father and older brother out of the house and into the nearby forest and if he were any less nimble he might have gotten killed right then and there. Thankfully he outlived the chase but was later left roaming the forest not knowing where to go since he appeared to be unwanted. For a good span of a couple months he lived in a semi-feral state, sleeping outside and stealing from the village in order to sustain himself.
For the better or the worse a researcher working at an Institution that was running experimental research on Majin happened across him when he was on one of his usual raids and picked him up out of pity only to soon find out he might have hit the jackpot, having a perfect specimen in his hands to take back at the facility. The fact nobody would look for the child and that the little boy would finally be able to settle down somewhere where prime factors that only helped to affirm the decision the man had taken.
At the institution he was given the code name M3 Q (read as Matrekyu) due to the fact he was the third available specimen for study and from the first letter in his 'guardian's' name -Quinn-. The first part of the name was usually omitted when he came up in conversation and so he became better known as simply 'Kyu' to the researchers and was what he would identify himself with later. While going through endless days -days after days after days- of testing and trying experiments to confirm or shoot theories down was at least tiring and -if nothing else- emotionally exhausting Kyu found out that he didn't mind being among the researchers the way he did. It might have been nothing but force of habit but he didn't mind. At least the researchers didn't hunt him down for what he was, instead they simply appeared to be interested in him. They never once told him it was alright, nor that he could just give in to his urges -on the contrary, they taught him to control himself by sheer willpower- but they didn't shun him for it. And he was safe with them. He had a place to stay, food to eat, clean clothes to wear and people that would care about him almost as if he were an adoptive child.
And that was the way Kyu was brought up, in relative solitude, never once leaving the facility to go to the outside world. He discovered his powers almost by mistake -after countless tries by the scientists to figure out what it was that he could do- when he was trying to read a book while the lights were dim. Wanting for the lighting to be better he had gathered together a sphere of it to hover over his head and he only realized it when someone pointed it out. From then on it was only a matter of time until he managed to control his gift with the help of the researchers that devised a series of various exercises for him to try and train. Once the researchers had deemed that they had discovered everything that there was to discover about him they decided to take their experiments to the next level. Being their more manageable specimen and with powers that were mostly passive, Kyu was decided upon as the most sane choice to turn into a witch eater. The victim used for the unholy act was the terminally ill daughter of one of the head researchers.
However manageable, Kyu appeared to have qualms about answering the call and obeying his instinct to devour hearts as he could faintly recall this had only brought pain before and whyever did they teach him how to restrain himself if they were to accept it in the first place. However hard the deed was eventually imposed on him and Kyu found a pair of wings sprouting on his back giving him the ability to fly, the magic from the consumed heart giving him new strength and mysteriously quenching his craving for more hearts as if the missing piece of a puzzle had just clicked into place.
The next couple years were spent renewing the experiments ran on him so far to determine just how much his powers had matured. To say that Kyu wasn't happy as things were would be an understatement. After all he was infinitely thankful to the scientists for finding a way -even by chance- to rid him of his compulsive need to consume others and he had all he needed there; parental figures, friends, tutors there to teach him about the world and its ways and whatever else he wanted to learn... and yet Kyu couldn't help but feel as if there was something amiss. He was more whole than he had ever been and yet somehow he was feeling just as hollow, empty -and from that feeling stemmed the desire to move on.
His request when made was heard, and followed secretly, yet closely, both by Quinn as well as his assistants Kyu was allowed to enter the Makai Royal Academy under the condition that he wouldn't let anyone to witness his wings and realize what he was unless there was a need most dire. And just like that Kyu proved himself to be an excellent student and graduated almost at the speed of light, his powers already trained and matured before he ever went there to begin with and he simply went on from there, fighting to discover the meaning to his existence and what should he really being doing in life having known no reality save for the laboratory.
It was somewhere around there that he decided to take the path of an Ars Lilium. He wasn't sure about himself at all then but was certain of the fact he didn't want to bring harm upon the Majin, his own kind after all, no matter how people chose to view them. Kyu didn't understand why the Reapers just had to hunt them down either; after all the Majin only did what they had to in order to survive. If there had been no need in them to feed on hearts then they wouldn't probably do so anyway. He knew, from his own experience, that feeding might be making someone stronger but so far it had only brought him pain -it even rendered him unable to belong anywhere seeing how he wasn't human but he wasn't a proper witch eater either, feeling no need to consume other hearts save for the one he already had.
Kyu sought a life of peace at first, thinking that's what he had thought best, what his instincts forced him to follow even if it wasn't conscious. But peace wasn't what he wanted, not what he needed. He didn't hate the humans, but living on the outside world, slowly coming to know what it was like, what he was lacking, he slowly came to realize how truly atrocious was what the scientists had done to him, how, no matter what the cost, what the purpose, it was terribly wrong in so many ways. Fully understanding that he and his other kindred had been held captive in one way or another in that place, forced into a routine that they hadn't chosen for themselves made him somewhat less appreciative of the fact they had let him outside. But war wasn't what he chose either.
But choosing neither peace nor war did not necessarily mean remaining stagnant. For Kyu chose to walk another path, a winding delicate road able to be seen only by one who has so long hung in the balance between things that are and aren't, should be and shouldn't be, a solitary road meant to be traversed in infinite loneliness and self-subjected withdrawal most needed for survival. Of course, the distance that grew within Kyu day after passing day was never given the chance to be witnessed by the outside world, even if he had taken it to heart, planted it and slowly cultivated it into a ghostly plant with roots twisted deeply in his subconscious that was about to bear its first treacherous fruit of betrayal.
The root of the cause that forced his personality to twist and turn from the easily manipulated, sheltered child that would submit to every of the scientist's demands to the manipulative young man with a fondness for complicated, convoluted plans, unshackled from morality and what painted the world in shades of black and white was nothing else but his own surprisingly well-developed primal ability to adapt to situations and the negligent behaviour of the scientists towards it. Should they have foreseen that placing the otherwise kind, genuinely compassionate child in a cruel world ruled by fear and despair -the law of the survival of the fittest, torn in a struggle between humanity and the Majin- would have turned him into that kind of monster they would have opted to keep him inside for the rest of his life, never giving him the chance to learn anything besides what he could from his cell.
The change wasn't, however, immediate. For a long time Kyu hovered in the 'in-between' leaning and threatening to fall either way; into the darkness or into the light. When he succeeded in balancing in between the torn pieces of himself it was time to start thinking ahead, able to see infinite outcomes from his vantage point. Therefore he sat and thought each step of the road like a well-played game of chess. At last everything was in place and the best thing was that he wasn't a player nor a piece; he was the unaccounted variable.
The meticulously groomed exterior that would fit society's standards, the standing of a valiant, noble knight, his ways -ever beautiful- they all helped to keep him elevated to the place where he should have always been standing, ensuring that he would be able to continue existing there in the sense he should always be. One would never expect that underneath the surface, the surprisingly polite, soft-spoken intellectual that was Kyu had actually been turned into what he was; the lack of suspicion towards him quickly becoming his first milestone to stand upon. No one saw him reaching for the fruit he had grown himself, no one saw him reap it. No one understood or realized what was wrong until it was already too late.
When Kyu deemed it was about time to strike he made his way back to the facility where he grew up under the cover of making a routine visit to have his powers measured and see the people that brought him up. No more than an hour later there was no living soul left within the halls that resounded his soft footsteps. Having no need to feed on the hearts of the scientists Kyu only took a single heart, Quinn's heart, the heart of the person who brought him in the facility. He didn't really think about developing his powers further by doing so, only thought that maybe this was the best way to show his gratitude now, however limited it might have been; to allow him to live on through him. The fire he set to the building destroyed all evidence that might possibly point to him and he made it appear like he was simply the first to arrive on the spot. Such was the sorrow and pain that people read in the delicate features of his face that nobody dared suspect him. They were even deeply sorry that such a thing should happen and the fact he had more or less lost what could be considered his last remaining 'family' on this world. No one saw him smiling underneath the facade of pain. No one saw him eat the fruit he had claimed, all by himself.
Having the full luxury of choosing when and how to feed if he ever felt the urge and need to further his powers, Kyu returned to his otherwise quiet lifestyle of serving as a knight and being the pleasant person everyone knew and loved. Of course he never once looked at the rest of the world in the same way, the game of chess that was being played irresistibly intricate for him to pretend he could see nothing of it. As always he would be no part of it, would take no part in it; unless his own well-being was threatenned. A person with no visible path, without a past and only an uncertain future could only be considered a 'nothing'. The empty variable that made him who he was, giving him limitless possibilities rendered him just that; and 'nothings' had no right to choose anything for themselves anymore.
-and so, I told you-
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