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 Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 4:56 pm
The closest laboratory was still in flames, and the walk towards it uneventful. The Death lead moved first, a few steps in front, taking purposeful strides, well even after they were out of sight from a tenuous crowd. As it was unclear as to whether or not Caelius's death would benefit or hinder Deus, and even more unclear as to the motives and team movement of the Boogeymen, the two walked alone.
There was a loud crackle as several of the floors of the acclaimed labs, the ground zero for their date collapsed on itself, plumes of smoke rising. He turned to face the flames anyway, the smoke and heat creating an almost majestic, and mostly deranged shadow of the Death lead, one of the pinnacle figureheads of the Deus Ex organization-
- And now, simply moving for entirely selfish purposes. Really, that much should not have been a surprise to anyone.
His back was still turned away from Red, he didn't even move, but he spoke slowly, in that familiar low tone, slow enough to make each word deceptively calm. "I am still curious," he began, a loud crackle from the flames for a second interrupting the conversation, "as to the state of your core considering your unfortunately terminal condition. It is interesting how easily you were reinstated despite your debilitating weakness. Clearly the standards of your Halloween council swing the possibility of extreme negligence."
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:08 pm
Caelius was met with silence as the werewolf stopped several paces behind him. Her arms were crossed behind her back, smile gone from her face as she looked up at the burning ruins. "It is pleasant to know that you still care," Red replied as she tilted her head to one side, lowering her gaze from the crackling fire to the golden emblem on his back.
"It's almost funny, in a way." Red continued as she drew an arm from her back, studying the nails hidden beneath the glove. No, wait -- her hand shifted, sprouting long black talons. "What you did to me not only killed me, but made me both stronger and weaker in the process. The benefits of shattering our cores far outweigh the risks that come with it."
"But," she continued, dropping her arms to her sides. "You were never one for chances, were you?"
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:11 pm
"Benefit." A longer lapse in silence, a countdown to the inevitable. Just as Red moved, almost conversationally, preparing, so did the Death lead, just a small change in posture, a tilt of his head so that she was in his peripheral vision instead. "Amusing how you should mention that. I was just investigating the phenomenon known as the Haunted House, and discovered that the infection had corroded all the ambient Fear around it, to a point where nearing it risks contamination and the imminent parasitic destruction of its host. Is that of benefit to you as well?"
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:17 pm
"An unfortunate side effect of my death," Red replied briskly. "One that I can use both to my advantage and disadvantage. It is also a place you can leave well enough alone."
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:29 pm
"I thought you made that very clear with your invasion of the Boogeymen to this island, which I might as well thank you for," and yet, in one hand, he had already summoned his weapon, "What is yours is also mine. Isn't that part of the regulations you just stated in terms of our treaty."
He was facing Red now, taking a step forward, deliberately. "Using the same logic, investigation on your existence, or lack thereof, would also be considered beneficial." A second step, and then a third -
- And then he was gone-
- The hum of the scythe weapon betrayed his position as he appeared beside Red, swinging it heavily forwards. It moved slowly, almost painfully easy to avoid, its purpose purely provocation.
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Marushii rolled 2 12-sided dice:
4, 5
Total: 9 (2-24)
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:42 pm
"You do not see us capturing humans and placing them on display!" Red growled back in protest. "What you and your kind have done greatly pushes the very ess-"
Red dived forward and rolled beneath the incoming scythe, spinning to face him with a snarl. Her hands were no longer human, abandoning all pretense for fur, talon, and scale.
A single talon stood out as she flipped him off. "Come investigate then, princess. Let's see how beneficial our little play time can become."
With a roar Red abandoned her humanity as she shifted into her bipedal werewolf form. For a moment she was white, the bright color lost as it was swiftly overtaken by gray that darkened to black. She lunged towards the human, talons outstretched and jaws wide.
Dmg: 5
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Zoobey rolled 2 12-sided dice:
1, 4
Total: 5 (2-24)
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:44 pm
And then he laughed because it was that easy. Because, standing in front of him was the monstrosity he had created and perhaps to some degree, felt obligated to destroy. Their fates, if one believed in such a trivial word, were infallibly intertwined until one finally destroyed the other until nothing else mattered from thinly veiled politics, to civil conversations to everything they claimed to preserve.
He didn't move.
Red's attack scraped hard, betraying the bare outlines of a Fear shield, perhaps, surrounding the Death Hunter, and he simply let her because she could, because on that insignificant island of insignificant Hunters known as Deus Ex, noone else would, and those who rose to his provocation fell so terribly short, worthless and meaningless, contributing only to the anger eating him alive, the pride of having so much yet taking so little.
This was what it felt like to be on equal grounds, unlike the Doctor who preferred playing, unlike Allan who fought for some convoluted purpose that barely made any sense and was so predictable it was painful, this was what it felt like to stare someone in the eye and realize they were also not quite there.
It was priceless and so he reveled in it.
The next clash however happened in almost an instant and he stepped backwards, moving his weapon to the defensive, twisting it so that if it collided, it would barely nick at her fur. It wouldn't do much other than continue to provoke.
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Marushii rolled 2 12-sided dice:
10, 8
Total: 18 (2-24)
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 5:53 pm
His laughter drew a growl from her as she lashed at him, her claws sliding uselessly across the smooth surface of his Fear shield. Of course. With Caelius it wouldn't be that easy. Come to think of it, things were never easy when Caelius was involved.
The werewolf pushed against his Fear shield, using it to launch herself back and away from him as she struggled to revise her options. It was harder to focus now, with the whispers hissing and urging her to strike and others longing still for a Home that was no more. In a way it was almost a blessing that not as many voices now shrieked at her to kill, kill. To knock him down and use her talons to tear open his tender belly and --
A roar from both her throat and her mind shattered the image. She didn't have time to reminisce about how Caelius' blood tasted. Jack, she could already taste it now.
She wasn't aware that she had moved until she clashed against Caelius' shield yet again. This time her claws seemed to shiver and shift, as if their form was created out of a thick concentration of smoke; her Insanity was on the rise.
Taken: 1
Dmg: 14
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Zoobey rolled 2 12-sided dice:
8, 8
Total: 16 (2-24)
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 7:02 pm
This time the attack made an errant scraping noise, half of Red's claws successfully sinking into something human, while the rest was deflected by the blunt end of the scythe weapon. Circe. One could even say the three of them had a rather intimate experience.
He waited, just a little bit, just a little longer, before moving, disengaging from the close-ranged attack to flicker his weapon against the ground. Two shockwaves, a brilliant blue, tore through the rubble and debris, threatening to swallow Red's form, her black figure easily visible in the blast of blue-white.
It was never quite just a battle, to him: it was a contest to provoke, to create something interesting, and his obsession, as the Insanity made itself so very visible, was beginning to leak through the facade of waiting. Unlike the others that had fallen before however, Red never made the mistake of underestimating. Fear was something so large and substantial, it was adaptive, it was primitive, it betrayed all the weaknesses of Humans so blatantly and simply.
And because of that it was easily deceived.
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Marushii rolled 2 12-sided dice:
3, 10
Total: 13 (2-24)
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 7:55 pm
It was becoming harder to concentrate. Even with his help the voices were becoming louder, more insistent. Even after snarling them into silence and cowing them they surged back again and again relentless. Part of her was surprised that they recognized him. It was his fault. He did this. Caelius had to pay with his blood.
The werewolf grunted as the shockwaves threw her off of him. She landed hard against the ground, rolling before scrambling to her feet. Something had to be done and quickly before she lost herself to them again.
Two large black tendrils of smoke shot out from her back and expanded, the smoke condensing and taking on the shape of solid wings. Her tail grew longer, lashing as it took on draconic qualities. A row of spikes shot out from her back, their clear form quickly staining with a vibrant red as longer spikes shot out from her arms. A pair of horns curled out from her brow as her form shifted, channeling the Insanity from a nuisance into a viable fuel to grow larger.
Red loomed over Caelius. The solidity of her form was betrayed by the faint wisps of smoke that curled out from her here and there, made all the more apparent by the glowing red runes that flickered to life from the cracks that appeared on her horns and arm-spikes.
The Insanity werewolf-behemoth-thing charged at him on all fours, rearing to reach and slash his side.
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Zoobey rolled 2 12-sided dice:
3, 2
Total: 5 (2-24)
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 8:30 pm
There was no such thing as distance when the abomination reached her full form, his grip tightened slightly at the base of his weapon as he braced himself for the attack. Red's size worked to his advantage and disadvantage, easy to deflect, impossible to counter. The first swing hit with a strong clang, of Insanity claws against vibrant metal, and the second sent him to one knee, sliding sideways, a long gouge on one side, just a brief moment before he moved-
- A second later and the Insanity being would have consumed him.
Red indeed now was terrible to look at, she was repulsive, horrific, an abomination of so many incomprehensible elements forced together, mashed, chaotic and disorganized-
- Caelius looked up-
'Do you need help?' For a second, white, a comforting presence, his weapon.
'No. Not yet.' This battle was far, far from over. The churning masses of greys and red runes, everything so horrifically ugly and disjointed about the creature - he would take everything from her as she did to him, again and again until the cycle repeated infinitely. This was not destiny nor fate but simply a collision between two forces that could and would not let their past go.
His eyes flickered towards the still-burning labs, and then he retreated inside it, regardless of the falling debris and flames. The thick smoke did the rest, perhaps as convoluted as the Insanity itself. There was nothing cowardly about hiding when you were a Hunter and your single asset was survival.
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 9:40 pm
Even after channeling the Insanity into a form wasn't enough to get rid of them all. She could still hear them. Perhaps not all of the Horsemen left her as she thought. The sheer weight of hate that spawned when Caelius retreated threatened to override her, to spur her forward to give chase.
Red flinched as new cracks broke out across her body, each one twisting into the shape of a rune before a red light oozed into each one. She couldn't do this. Not here. Not now. Too late, too late, too late.
The being that made up Red withdrew from her consciousness, pushing against the whispering mob of Insanity to search and feel within herself. She couldn't lose herself. She could't let herself shatter, not here, not now, not yet. Her pride got the better of her, didn't it? She was drunk off the Fear that the island had produced. It wasn't enough, it would never be enough to drown the whispers completely. Red burned it too quickly, leaving her with nothing but herself.
The part of Red that was still Red reached for her core and curled around it, desperately trying to hold the misshaped and broken thing together. She could feel the presence of someone else, a quelled desperation that matched her own as they too struggled to hold what little there was left of them together.
Physically the creature that was Red seemed to shudder and shift as massive amounts of Insanity flowed through it, blanketing the ground with a thick fog. As one the creature roared and charged the burning building, yowling with frustration as it was far too large to get through. Uselessly it slammed against the sides, one arm fitting through the doorway to claw and scratch at whatever it could reach inside.
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Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 10:27 pm
The flames cracked, as if for a single ridiculous second Caelius had taken mastery of them to combine into a single entity against the Insanity itself-
- as then the charred remains of the lab, from wall to wall, collapsed, until there was nothing left but ashes and smoke and flames-
- yet no Death lead.
It was just Red, her twisted behemoth of a form, a familiar apparition to those who were part of the Haunted House, looking so out of place far away from her nest, maniacal and twisted and utterly lost within the Insanity. In her own right, she was beautiful, she was a queen. In her own right, she was the Insanity and wore it as her own.
And then a quick jolt, perhaps barely enough for her behemoth of a form to register at first. Something, long, thin, sword-like had wedged into one of her many spine platelets. She couldn't see her target, not at this size, but she would be able to feel the aftermath of their handiwork, what felt like rivulets of electricity spreading through her, what felt like something force-ably pulling her, tearing into her, filling her with -
- as the Insanity part of her shrieked, as it tried to tear at the base of the pain, she might have noticed for a second that someone was very carefully watching her. Someone so miniscule and tiny, so human and obsolete. Someone who had been waiting for this exact moment.
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Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 5:51 pm
She was also quite out of her mind. Getting used to her new selves had taken far too many moons than she would care to admit. It was a game of patience, one that she had to learn hand-in-hand with her new... What? Soul? Brother? Packmate? It was difficult still to summarize just what the ex-hunter Weapon was to her. All that mattered was that they were in this together. She had spent too much of her own Fear earlier, far too much to allow an actual bout against Caelius. The only thing she could do was clutch at what remained of her core and hope that the hive knew what it was doing in its blind hatred, that it wouldn't do something too stu-- -- By the bloodmoon's light of course it would do something stupid. She could feel its anger as the building collapsed, deafened by its mental howl of frustration and the prey eluded it. Red could feel its rage rising. She could also feel the cold presence that held her back, cautioning her to wait, wait. Hunting was all about timing, wasn't it? The behemoth that was Red shrieked and roared as something tore it apart both within and without. There was more than one hunter that waited for the moment, more than one that sprung into action. One thundered down as the arching pangs of light began to finally fade, quelling the voices into silence. The other rose unsteadily to her feet. She was smaller now, not quite as monsterous but not yet as small as a human. A massive, white-and-black arm reached behind and jerked the sword out, bringing it to the front to throw it aside. "Is that it?" she whispered, pale red eyes gleaming. "Is that all you have to bring?"The werewolf seemed to slump over where she stood, wings limp. Her form was shuddering, blackened by the bright light of the burning fire. "Ahaha... Ahahaha! Is that it?!" Red threw her head back and unfurled her wings, shouting. "IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT, CAELIUS?! AHAHAHA! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE ALIVE THAT IT WILL TAKE MORE THEN THAT TO KILL ME! I WAS KILLED ONCE, DO YOU HONESTLY THINK YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN?!"With a clap of her wings Red leaped into the air, each flap of her wings causing the fire to snap and crackle as she flew higher and higher. "I͗̈́҉̟̺͎̤͍S̹͋̂͒ͯͭ ̺̬̉ͣ͛̽͌̾ͦT̾̒͞H̨͙̉͌̉ͪA̻̘̹̫̺͈͋̑̐̃T̖͙̮ͪͣͣ ̸͈̿ͭ̓ͦA̲̗͈͋̔̅͐ͦͯ̇L̝̔̅̊̋͟L͍̿̆̇͐͠ ̞͓͓̯̇̽Y͗ͯ́̈̽̍̅͏͓̤O̩̺͈͕̗͔͕ͣ̏ͣ̾͆ͨ̌U͎͙̜̱͍̣'̜͋ͦͨ̔ͧ͡V̖̦̪ͣ̓͐͐ͦͦͧE͖͡ ̱̬͍̐̏̍ͯ̅G̢͕̦̦͉͆ͣǑ̞̗͔̙͌ͨ̅ͦ͗ͣTͧ?̬̜̣̥͖ͣ̆ͤ͛̈ͯ!̭͉̺̘ͥ́͗̔̅̿̅͡"
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Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 6:22 pm
For those bound to the laws of gravity, all they could do was wait. This was not an unfamiliar move, this was the very same tactic Red had used in their original Haunted House encounter, as she rose for the first time as a monstrosity and sought above all else revenge. When the only thing that consumed someone was the past it was so easy to relive the same experience over and over, repeating in and endless loop, inseparable now from present events.
There was at least, noone holding him back. They were very much alone, which meant that everything was fair game.
He braced himself, weapon curved low behind him, one knee on the ground so that his side, still torn and damaged was mostly obscured by Red's line of sight. At this angle, it looked like he was almost taking a second to rest. A moment of weakness, perhaps.
The Death lead's eyes flickered to artifact, half-buried on the ground. It was already smoking a deep black, Fear freely escaping from it. Tendrils of it, as it hit the ground began to bleed the very earth around it, turning things an odd blue then orange, white and black, a multitude of colours that continued to spread. A Distortion gate was forming.
'It was too soon,' Circe seemed more intrigued than anything else, watching through his eyes as well. 'There will be limited time now.'
'How much time.' Their mental communication between Hunter and weapon passed less than mere seconds, a brief flicker of an exchange.
'Wait for her to strike first. I will be here for you.' Again, the same soothing presence. 'I am always here for you, master.'
And then slowly, without moving, still waiting, he looked towards Red, one hand still firmly gripped on his weapon. Though there was no way his voice could convey that far a distance, he made sure to smile, very slowly, that sort of smug not-quite-sane smile that suggested he was still waiting.
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