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 Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 7:22 pm
He knew his chances before venturing into the city, shattered as they were, tawdry as they were in the face of his visage and his deeds. He knew his name carried some weight now, though not cursed with nicknames of old - Vlad the Impaler, Bloody Mary - and that brand of recognition veritably shackled him to backlash. Only the new, the useless might avoid striking him down in first thought now - precisely the individuals he needed to avoid. All those of old spoke tongues acerbic against his presence, as though such deterrents might ward away those damnable acts that so earned such derision.
Buried in his rotten stomach, whirling about the festering pit of dread for acting on high treason, came an exhilaration so great that he paused for a moment to spread wings wide and indulge in the free flow of wind through his feathers, his hair, his tattered coat. The dank caverns of the Rift offered little reprieve from their stale air, not like the city with its pollution-coated breezes to waft away the stench of death. Lights filtered through the darkness with their sources so bright and poignant, much like starseeds exuding auras throughout spidering alleyways. It knew no nebulous, ubiquitous dimness as presented in the Rift, no crawling shadows for endless miles, no predictable desolation fragmented by great crystals.
But alternately, Destiny City was its own Rift.
The buildings stretched upward in clawing spires, reaching toward nothingness, while those milling about in its own brand of desolation offered no further thought to their actions than youma. Here he stood both at home and entirely foreign - an affront to the literal and a boon to the metaphorical. He sighed, the breath humming from its newly-mended cage with little hindrance. Gold eyes surveyed the scape of lights and vague, stark lines across the black background. He found nothing of note in their recesses, no piquing pricks of power.
Soon a brilliant sensation crackled across his skin, setting his senses alight while the myriad of mouths buried in his down groaned to life. An eternal? They will have what I seek - be it meted out in voice or violence.
Such fortune cannot be wasted in idleness.
In closing on its source, a series of timed jumps ending in haphazard slips or landings, he caught sight of a maddeningly familiar guise as it came into focus: cascades of orchids, a hood pulled full over brunette hair, white bodice atop streaks of dark skin and black nylon. So you still prowl these old haunts, Ida. How long now? How many officers have you turned to your side through honeyed words and promises of freedom from the blackened taint that traces our souls? What would you say to me, but damnation alone now?
The creature lighted near the lip of the roof, wings furled and hands raised in the universal gesture of surrender. "Ida," he greeted, voice bereft of echoes.
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Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 10:11 am
Darkness seemed to haunt every moment of her day, whether the sun shone down on her or not. It had been a long, long month since the events in the ware house, and life chugged on like some huge, unfeeling machine of clockwork gears and springs, uncaring what fell between the teeth and got crushed... everything rolled onward, forward, upward, leaving her to struggled to stay afloat, to keep moving, working, thinking...
Graduation had come and gone like a ghost of a shadow, the sudden freedom from the routine of classes and homework startling and disorienting. It was the weirdest feeling to know there were no demands on her time save what she put into the flower shop, as her application to DCU had been put in weeks ago, but it was not exactly a comfortable thing. Nothing that needed doing meant far too much time to think, but there was only so much work she could drum up for herself once the shop and family home had been organized and cleaned within an inch of its life. The only relief to be found was in escaping to Ida, claiming she was visiting friends, but that bright spot in her life came but once a week. Patrol was a far cry from the peace she found on Idan soil, but at least it gave her something to do... even as it came with greater threats than ever before.
The wound in her side was still sore and angry, the stitches holding her flesh together in danger of breaking should she move too energetically... but more than the threat of reopening her wound, it was a liability when she faced more than the lowest of ranks from the other side. Some would say it was the height of stupidity to be out here like this, so fresh from the hospital, but staying at home was just not an option... home had become a foreign place, filled with too many painful triggers and the utter loss of the feeling of safety it had once had. Something had to break soon... this was all building slowly towards something catastrophic, but she felt at a loss to prevent it. If that event would mean the end of her, she wasn't even sure how much of a protest she could dig up...
And then, the scent of filth that teased at her inner senses, sliding into her consciousness like an oil slick on water... The feel of approaching chaos at a level deadly dangerous for even an eternal senshi who was not just injured physicaly, but a little mentally unsettled as well... Ida never moved from where she stood on the corner of the unnamed building's roof, but her absent, thoughtful posture had shifted to acute awareness and the tension needed for quick action should the situation call for it. She shouldn't have gone out without her team, should have found someone to patrol with her while she healed, but stupid decisions seemed to fall from her like petals from a wilting flower lately.
The mental scent/feel of chaos was overridden suddenly with the physical smell of hot tar and her head turned ever so slightly, dark brows pulled together to set a line between them. She found herself wondering at it until the voice came out of the darkness and the world froze around her, locked in black ice at the familiarity of the tone, cadence and accent on two small syllables. Her heart gave a painful thump in her chest that seemed to shake her whole body and she turned sharply, throwing out an arm in a gesture so familiar it took no thought any more. There was only instinct driven by pain and fear, though her voice was remarkably steady.
"Heavenly Orchid Arrows." The eternal senshi intoned as light sprang to life between her and her nightmare, petals forming the classic shape of a bow that was soon clasped firmly in slender brown fingers. Arms pulled back an invisible string as an arrow formed of pure light appeared, the diamond petal of the tip aimed towards the dark form... and released with a flex of fingers and an explosion of sparks as the bow dissolved back into the ether.
The perceived danger of the eternal attack was far greater than actuality, though... unless he moved into its path, the glowing arrow would find its mark to the right of him by a handful of inches, the wind of its passing the only force to ruffle his dark feathers. With no form to find contact, the arrow would dim and dissolve like the bow did... as ineffectual as Ida herself these days.
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Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 9:15 pm
Bischofite exhaled sharply, leaning low to muster a dodge just before Ida loosed the arrow toward him - past him - into the ground with a veritable explosion. The outward unspooling of energy whisked his tattered coat taut against his legs, forcing his wings and body to lean from its blast. His lips tightened into a thin line, gaze hardened significantly by gesture alone. You are not welcome here. A superfluous action, Ida... I knew that long before I approached. Straightening up, he folded wings against his shoulders to silence errant breaths that betrayed the spike of a beat from her motions.
"Ida," he repeated as he lowered his hands. Cocking his head slightly, he watched her unblinkingly for a time. Silence hung stagnant in the air. Bischofite churned a plethora of approaches to their strained dance during that time, ever meticulous in choosing proper presentation. She won't allow for mistakes - her stance alone speaks that much.
Drawing an even breath, Bischofite ventured a step further to maintain conversational distance with a small sacrifice for hushed urgency. "I am not here on Negaverse business," he added at last, eyes ever focused on hers. Exhaustion sunk its deep nails into her face, trawling heavy bags under her eyes and a gauntness to her skin. He wagered her dusky tones showed ashen and pale for her complexion now, if something more than jaundiced lamp light offered luminance. Frayed, tired, at wit's end... He recognized that they stood not far from each other in footing or condition.
Bischofite steepled his taloned fingers together in an inverted triangle, ever pointing toward the boots long hidden away by ravaged coat. "Zere is somesing I must address wis' you, as I can sink of no better... font of knowledge for what I ask. It is not an easy subject to broach, as it weighs heavy on ze mind as hot chains on tired limbs." As heavy wings on a wasted back. "I need to learn of purification - everysing you know of it. As ze first to mention such a feat to me many moons ago, I expect you know much of what I ask.
"So tell me, Ida - is it possible to separate ze youma from my body in purification? And should such a task find success, what might I suffer in its aftereffects?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:41 am
Oddly enough, the arrow didn't seem to dissuade him for more than a strained expression and it gave Ida pause as she finally allowed herself to take him in from head to toe. He looked like Bischofite, but only in a passing way... nearly all of him was twisted in some manner from the face paint to the trailing wings, to the horrible, twisted talons his hands had become. Fingers than ran down your body and made you gasp, that stroked the keyboard just the same way... Her breath shuddered from her and she struggled to still the tremors that swept through her. Talking with Thraen, spending time on Ida, with Shang, had done their parts to dull the stabbing pain thoughts of him caused in her, but they were still there, still eating into her... worse every time something triggered a memory, and there were far too many of those.
"You want to learn about purification... and you came to me for it." She finally managed, her throat so tight her voice ached with it. "You really have fallen far, haven't you? You've finally lost your mask and are the monster outside I always knew you were inside... but why should I tell you anything at all? I don't owe you anything, Bischofite, not even words... Why come to me, of all the people on the white moon side, to ask your questions?"
Purification... his questions hinted he was trying to use it as a way to free himself from his twisted new body. Camelot had explained the mechanics of it to her, but on someone with youma parts? Bischofite was a fool to come to her, of all people, because she didn't even know if it was possible without ripping off huge parts of him in the process.
He looked as haggard as she felt... and most of her was horribly pleased at it. He deserved to suffer for the things he had done, but there was a small, traitorous part of her heart that bled for the sight of his gaunt frame and weary eyes. She tried to tell herself it was simply compassion for anything living in suffering, but that explanation rang slightly hollow to her. If this had been Alois standing before her, deformed and tortured, she would have tried to soothe the hurt she saw, do everything in her power to make it all better the way she had during his withdrawl, but Alois was nothing but a figment of Bischofite's twisted mind... a mask to hide his true intents.
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Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 9:10 pm
"I came to you because you were ze first to mention it. If I remember, ridding myself of ze corruption zat compelled me to commit unspeakable acts? I paraphrase, but ze intent is ze same." He watched her starkly. For a while he only observed her, offering no outward indication of his thoughts beyond the corner of his mouth pursing downward just slightly. He felt tired, strained, far too worn to bat about questions and accusations and abide by Ida's maddeningly patronizing ways.
"You ask why you should tell me anysing at all. I'll explain it - and I'll do so in explicit detail." He swallowed before approaching, steadily, the triangle of his fingers brought upright and framed before his too-thin chest. Unconsciously he placed the gesture over the glaring scar that painted out Iscariot's betrayal. "Everyone has a breaking point, Ida. Pain and suffering are measured on a simple scale: bos' are tolerable until ze sheer amount of suffering outweighs ze coping mechanisms possessed by ze individual. It is basic psychology. And I know no man, no woman, who can endure zis perversion of zeir very body, Ida. No one. Not even me." He paused, anger burning through his veins while hurt festered in his throat. He hated it, hated all of it.
"You know I was human once. You know zat I had a family, friends, acquaintances, favored locations zat I might'f frequented since moving to zis damnable country. Zese are basic human activities. So I will tell you zis..." Slowly his voice drew seething inflections, paired alongside thick rivulets of tar that bubbled up to the surface of his skin. Globules collected on the heels of his hands before descending toward the ground in slow, sticky splotches. "If you refuse to explain purification to me, zen I will kill everyone I know. I can't suffer any more, Ida. It. Is. Not. Possible. I would just as soon rot into ze dirt before I can sustain anozzer ounce of zis miserable existence. All zese people... Zey're so far removed from my life now zat, what does it matter?" Pulling hands apart in a sweeping shrug, he formed thick arcs of tar between his palms.
"So you tell me, Ida. How many lives are wors' detailing purification? Why hide ze facts from someone who has nossing left to lose? I'f already talked wis' a page zat confirmed I may not even survif'e such an ordeal, and if I do... It seems zere's no downside for you. Why hesitate, Ida? What are you hiding? Why are you so averse to my inquiries, when I'f been more zan civil wis' you? You fired on me, yet I'f done nossing. I am a rotting heap of flesh, Ida! What asinine logic insists zat you deprif'e me of any and all chance to lif' as I was?!"
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Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 10:03 pm
The eternal stiffened as he began to approach, her eyes stark as she watched him come closer. He couldn't touch her... she couldn't let him. One touch of those twisted hands and she knew she would shatter like glass under the weight of what he used to be and what he was now and all the pain of knowing what she had done. She was tensed to move, to keep him at more than arm's length unless he teleported.
He said nothing she didn't expect him to say and it made her burn somewhere deep inside. If he had been someone else, again, she might have bled for him, but this was Bischofite... she knew the blood he had on his hands, the suffering he had caused. The threat in his voice, speaking of murdering everyone he had left behind, would have made her quail once upon a time, but not now... Now, it stiffened her spine and made her brown eyes flash with rare heat.
Earth was slow to change. It was steady, reliable, nurturing. It allowed water to wear it down and fire to consume it... but when the time came, when it was necessary, Earth could erupt like a volcano, letting loose everything it had been holding in, and Orah was perilously close to unleashing all of her pain and anger, everything that had been torturing her for the last month. She wanted to hurt him, and had she been able to see herself now... it might have scared her a little. She had said once that he could never really hurt her, that only she could do that by allowing him to sway her heart... and that was exactly what she was letting him do now. How far had she fallen, to get this way?
"Civil with me?" She yelled back, her voice rising. "How incredibly, insufferably childish you are! 'If you don't help me, I will strike out like a petulant toddler!' You already know about purification, and yet you come here to me, telling me I have to rehash what you already know, and you think threatening me is going to get you anywhere?"
Her hands clenched into fists as she began to shake, her face twisting in a way that was entirely unlike her.
"What you are now is a result of your own scheming! You brought this upon yourself and I find it hard to feel sorry for you. What you are experiencing now is all the collected suffering you have caused others, all visited on you at once. What makes you think you deserve to be freed of your torture? Don't you think Sarah cried for release when you broke her and turned her into a youma? Don't you think the people at the convention did, when you set the youma on them?" The words flowed from her, burning her lips with their heat, and she despaired of stopping them. She was crossing a line and she knew it, but the landslide couldn't be stopped once it had started. "Why should you be the one to be granted this boon, the one who gets to go back to a normal life? Only a Princess or a Templar can purify and it exhausts them! What makes you worthy of that expenditure of energy? No one has ever purified a person twisted with youma parts and there is no guarantee you would survive it, but the effort would be same... and wasted entirely if it killed you. There is no telling what memories you would be left with... you could be wiped completely clean and the only people to suffer the knowledge of what you've done would be your victims!"
The tar he was dripping would have unnerved her another time, but now she hardly noticed. He was so steeped in his corruption... it might as well be dripping from him like that tar.
"What possible benefit could be gained from giving you a new life to live through purification? What about you is worth saving now that you've finally gotten what you deserve? Give me a reason and I will answer every. ********. QUESTION." Ida raged at him.
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Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 10:40 pm
"So I am a child! I am a monster and a child and I am dirt and I deserf' nossing more zan zis damnable fate! I'f heard it all before! I'f heard it from you I'f heard it from my own ******** subordinates and I'f heard it from myself! Does zat make you happy, Ida, to know zat I suffer so? Does it bring you joy? Zen maybe you are as much of a monster as I!" With every word came the groaning hiss of another voice, another cadence strung alongside his own at various tempos. Even still came a low groan of one long subjected to strenuous deeds.
"You want value, Ida? You want me to justify my intents wis' a sousand groveling promises and some tears for flavor? Zen you're far more petulant zan I! Don't look to a nihilist for confirmation of value because zere is none! Nossing we do, nossing we seek to protect or punish or pulverize, holds any value but to ourselfs! And we, as petty little life forms wis' ze breas' of a second for a lifetime, are inherently wors'less! Everysing is s**t and we revel in it like fat hogs! You're worried zat Sarah, who no longer possesses ze mental faculties to hate me for what I'f done, might not haf' her everlasting revenge? It doesn't matter! She is every bit as pointless as us! All zose who died to my hand would'f died a different way, a worse way, a better way... What use is it to dwell on zat anymore? I don't choose who dies any more zan you choose who lives - our fates decide for us, beyond our preposterous little games!"
Rage now threatened to choke him, to spew through every last warped pore like wretched vomit. For a moment he faltered, unable to find words through blind fury. "I sought knowledge of purification from a page! Do you sink zat it's wise to commit to somesing zat would wholly alter your life based on one inexperienced source alone? Learn what it means to fact check, Ida! Whezzer it's sree people on your side, seven on mine, two from ze knighthood, I need to know what might come of me beyond a chance of deas' or disfigurement!" With arms cast to his sides, he advanced on her once more, but his countenance spoke of rancor giving way to exhaustion. "I haf' nossing to offer you but abstinence from murder, bloodshed, torture. Zere are no boons offered by zese hands, zese bones. To look for more zan zat is folly."
What possible benefit? There are no benefits. There's nothing. There's always been nothing. Everywhere I look, dead ends loom back at me. Purification... Perhaps I've used up my lot.
Running out of steam, Bischofite stopped short of the livid eternal, both his demeanor and cadence indicative of sheer exhaustion. "Define a benefit," he voiced at conversational volume, gesturing outward just slightly in a shrug of dismissal. "If you want your answer, zen name wors'. I can't read your mind, Ida. Tell me what constitutes a benefit."
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Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 9:49 am
"You are so FRUSTRATING!" Ida shouted back at him, the rage he directed at her running around and over her like water, barely touching her past the armor her own anger had become.
He wanted to free himself of the corrupt pieces of himself, and yet he could think of no reason why he was worth saving. He couldn't even bring himself to lie to her about it just to manipulate her into getting the information he wanted. Poor, pathetic creature... He had really fallen far to be in this state. And it was hard... so hard not to think of Alois. She had been trying for so hard, for so long, and she was so tired... mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted, and the wound in her side tore at her with renewed pain. She just... wanted it all to stop. She wanted everything to just rewind, undo, go back to how it was for those two short, short weeks... and the horrible thing about it was that all this pain she was feeling, he felt too. It was different for him, but they were both suffering, broken.
Nothing was going to fix this either, there was no wonderful cure-all solution to pick up the broken pieces and make them whole. Purification would only do so much, it wouldn't erase her memories of him or make her forget what he was. He might forget, but what would that leave him? He wouldn't be the same person he had been. He'd never really be the same Alois ever again, but for someone who had worshiped change, perhaps that would have pleased him.
"Nothing about you makes me happy, not even your suffering. I'm not a sadist, pain does nothing for me. You didn't need me for your supposed 'fact checking', but you came to me anyway... no one is going to give you a different answer than what you've already gotten, so this groping about is pointless." Her anger was winding down after her initial outburst and the sudden drop of his voice put her off balance, taking some of the ground away that she had been using to launch her attack at him. It was hard to sustain it now and her own voice dropped as well, even as the hurt still stood plain in it.
"All that cleverness you were so proud of in the past, and you can't even scrounge up one thing to give me as a reason why you should be purified beyond that you selfishly can't stand to be what you've made of yourself... Can't even lie and say 'I'll fight against the Negaverse for you', and I know you don't feel even the faintest regret for anything you've done. But in the end, its not my choice to make, if you get saved or not." Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to go to Ida. She wanted the rustle of grass and the arch of blue sky over her head, the scent of flowers and soil... she wanted to go home, where the very atmosphere pulled the pain out of her like the way plants pulled water from the soil. There was rest there, peace, clarity of mind. This would all be so much easier on Idan soil...
Abruptly, Ida lifted her hand and her phone appeared in it, clutched in a grip that was white knuckled, and her thumb hovered over the button. Despite how it made her skin crawl and the nagging fear of touching him, she extended her free hand to him impatiently.
"Come with me. I want to show you something. I swear I won't hurt you and you will return to this spot exactly as you are. If, however, you try anything against me while we do this, I guarantee you'll be stuck there until you die of dehydration and hunger. Do this and I will answer every question you have to the best of my abilities. Does that sound like a bargain to you, Bischofite?"
You said you wanted to teach me how to bargain... I don't even know why I'm doing this, only that I need it desperately. Maybe Ida will strip away the dross from you the way it does from me and I'll finally be able to see you clearly. Maybe it'll take both our pain away.Aeeth Wanna build a snowman go to Ida, Bischofite?
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Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 6:34 pm
"People lie," he countered curtly. Until you refrain from identifying as a person, classifying caution and diligence as wasted effort only emphasizes your own gullibility.
"You never answered my question. For me to answer wis' somesing satisfactory, I need to know what you consider a benefit. Ozzerwise you would haf' me grasping at straws to try to please you, when we never once sought along similar wavelengs'." I'm talking philosophy with children. I can't even imagine a world as simple, as straightforward as hers... And yet she demands I immerse myself so easily and answer with all her favorite buzzwords without missing a beat. She is looking to solve her own problems through me. Drawing a breath, he sighed in an attempt to dislodge some of his irritation with their maddening impasse. "Gif' and take, Ida. I assume, by your answer, zat you value fighting against ze Negaverse as a benefit. Fine. I haf' no qualms against murdering my allies. Violence is wild, hot, and bright - in chemistry, we often find zose ze more volatile of reactions. I could ask for nossing better."
Folding his arms, long fingers spidering across bony elbows, Bischofite settled in leaning to one side. "You are right about one sing - it is not up to you. I don't haf' to justify my wors' to someone who damned ze conversation from ze start. Even if blinded and deaf, I would still recognize you find me irredeemable. You want to talk about pointless? Zis conversation is pointless. You challenge me for answers, yet gif' no room to succeed. You're not even fit to train dogs, Ida."
Stuck 'there'... Stuck where? Senshi lack the ability to teleport... And the only alternative I can think of... Her planet? Oh, how I would love to see your dead culture, Ida, and all the dregs of life I might siphon into my own bones...
Bischofite regarded her palm, outstretched, remaining silent in ostensibly quiet contemplation. His gaze strayed to her cellphone, the thumb hovering above its central button, and returned to her eyes but briefly before completing the triangular path. A low hum emanated from his throat while he weighed his choices. Finally one warped hand parted from its closeness to his body and met her touch. Thick nails pressed against the skin on her wrist, hard enough to leave an indentation. "Fine. But if you fully intend to starf'e me to deas', you'll haf' to bring my body back for someone."
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Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:57 pm
"People lie... you would be the one to know I guess." She tossed back at him, shuddering as she felt his hand land in her palm and his claws dimple her tan skin. She wanted to jerk away, to wipe her hand off on her fuku to dislodge the feel of him, but the contact was necessary if she was going to take them both to Ida.
"And its a good thing I don't train dogs, because you're right. But, again, you came to me." The eternal restrained herself from snapping anything else back at him or the pair was going to stand here forever, bickering like children. "Don't worry, I won't leave you there. I wouldn't want your corpse tainting the soil." Okay so, one last jab.
Concentrating on the power she felt flowing into her, tracing it in her mind to its source, Ida pressed the phone button firmly and felt herself pulled across the system in a so familiar way. Surprisingly, the drag of the creature who's hand she held was no more than any other guest she had brought with her before, and part of her was disappointed. Did Ida really see him as no more troublesome than a person of order? She felt almost like her pristine planet should reject his taint, or at least put up a little struggle...
But they were suddenly elsewhere with as little effort as any other time she had done this, though the surroundings made Ida blink in surprise. She forgot who's hand she held as she stared around them at the grove of small trees they stood in. She had always landed outside of her tower in the past... this was a place she had never been before, hadn't even known was there, but a glance behind her assured her that her tower was not far... she could see the familiar silhouette over the tops of the other trees. So, they were in the city, but what was this place?
All around Ida and Bischofite, chest high trees stood up from the hip high grass, their branches silvered with age and twisting in fanciful curves. No leaves crowned the branches, though... were those buds? Another surprise... none of the other trees seemed to have new growth or show any signs of recovering from whatever had killed the rest of the asteroid. The trees' placement was odd too... it was not in the random sort of fashion of a wild grove, but neither were they in the straight lines humanity tended to plant things in. If anything... their placement seemed to follow a circular method, circles intersecting other circles and spiraling about in a surprisingly pleasing organic fashion.
Stepping forward, the slide of claws on her skin made Ida flinch and recall where she was... and with whom. The eternal dropped her hand and retreated from Bischofite, shifting off into the grass as it swished around her hips in its familiar way. Approaching a tree, she ran her hand along its branch curiously, fingering one of the oddly pink buds. Something was teasing the back of her mind, but she couldn't quite bring it to the fore... it flitted away every time she reached for it.
Over head, the Idan sky stretched from oddly curved horizon to oddly curved horizon, the sheer clarity of the atmosphere making it a blue so rich the color vibrated against the senses. The sun was smaller and cooler by a noticeable degree than on Earth and there was a lack of clouds to chaise across the sky as a wind rustled the grass and barren branches around them, sweeping off into the far taller trees that surrounded the grove and flirting through the archways that decorated them.
Above all, silence reigned here... no traffic, no voices, no wild life to break the stillness. Only wind in the grass and Ida's own heartbeat in her ears... and she soaked it in like water, her tension leaking out of her through the soles of her boots and into the soil beneath. It had been a long, long week since her last visit, and even the presence of the cause of all of her pain could not detract from the peace she found here.
"This is Ida, Bischofite. You are the only person of the Negaverse to ever set foot on it. Ask me your questions now." She said softly, her back to him as she let her fingers slide over wood.
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 12:30 am
I came to you, as the first eternal signature I crossed, and thus I must bend to you as the superior being? You are no god, Ida - you are but a raucous and painfully irritating pain in my a**, both in my Negaverse career and in my sensibilities. Talk down to me all you like, because you will fall that 'great' disance in due time. Or perhaps you already have - we are but two festering sores in a cesspool, you and I. That may be all we have in common, if our philosophies are any indication.
I wonder how many times we'll repeat this same song and dance, across the span of a hundred million lives.
"Quit being so goddamned petulant and take me already." He responded in venomous tones while he waited for the teen to fiddle with her phone. And shortly after his response came a sensation highly familiar in its execution, yet curiously cleaner in its expenditure of energy - teleportation as he knew it, but a distance dizzyingly far and unconscionably out of his capacity to manifest on his own. The sensation lasted for but a moment, lacking the familiar nauseating effects he so recently sustained from it since his transition to a new body.
And once she parted touch with him as soon as she was physically able, Bischofite found himself in an area wholly unlike anywhere he found on Earth - the grove offered trees stranger than any he found in the woods of Saarland, and the sky curiously cleaner and more brilliant than that seen on the clearest of days. Its deep hues shone clarion across the horizon, the curvature notably recognizable, from what he saw over the stunted trees. And those themselves offered little in the way of fullness, as they looked more akin to twisted hands sprouted from the ground in their nakedness. But as Ida toyed with one, he noted a myriad of buds dotting its limbs - indications of slow life to come on the dead and silent planet.
But wind blew occasionally, passing whispers of trees to his ears. His hair trailed across his face like the long trains of willows, and the hot sudden sound of dripping struck him as wholly out of place in the ostensibly serene setting.
Looking down, he realized his hands were covered in tar to the middle of his forearms.
Offering no explanation, he instead touched the tip of his finger to the very edge of the branch and then pulled away, watching the tar stretch a great distance before snapping and leaving a minor portion of itself on the plant. "So zis is a senshi planet." A quiet place, somewhat similar to one of the clearings I found when I wandered much too far away in the days of my youth. Yet, it stands worlds away, possibly an unfathomable number of lightyears. All this distance I couldn't cross... And yet, I wonder how this place might look under the influence of Chaos. More amenable to my tastes, I expect. Yet how could I possibly bring the volume of Chaos required to subdue this place? Even with my body as a vessel, I expect I would die under that strain.
And even so... Would the Negaverse appreciate it as a worthwhile practice? I expect not - such a gesture would be wasted on that organization.
"I am aware of purification as a means of excising ze Chaos from someone's starseed. For ze purposes of zis discussion, assume zat I am... Wholly human. First, what is ze exact messod by which a Royal removes ze Chaos from an individual? How long does it take and how much energy does it demand from bos' parties?" His initial questions amounted to simple fact-checking of the basics, he knew, with the propensity to delve into more complex understandings.
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Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 6:51 pm
The eternal turned as she heard his voice break the silence and she gave him a once over with her eyes. She watched him touch one of her trees and it was almost painful to see the tar stretch between his hand and the wood, breaking its string to leave a black mark on it.
You can't seem to resist polluting anything pure that you see... dirtying anything clean. Or is it that you're afraid if you don't leave some mark behind, no one will even remember you? You so delighted in leaving bruises in my flesh... were you afraid I wouldn't remember what we did if I didn't have some visual sign of it? At least the tree was no worse off for the tar he left on it, and like any mark either of them made on this place, time would eventually erase it. She could see so much Alois in him... more and more of it as she spent time with him...
"For an exact method, you would need to ask a royal, because I don't know the actual mechanics of it. Camelot said his sword called to what the person had been before, to who they should have been. A flood of power then burns or forces the chaos out... Only a Prince, Princess or a Templar can perform a purification because of the amount of power required for it. It doesn't take more than a few moments, and it demands nearly all of the energy of the one performing it. Recovery takes a few days, to build that energy back up to a functioning level. I don't think it takes any energy from the one its being done to, but the process is like being ripped apart... its taxing. I don't think it takes as long for the new knight to recover." It had been a while since she had spoken with Camelot about this... and she'd never gotten to be present for an actual purification herself.
Ida watched Bischofite carefully as she spoke, her mind only half on what she was regurgitating for him. This place nagged at her, trying to pull her attention away from the conversation. Her memories nagged at her, trying to push to the fore with painful reminders of the past. It made it hard to focus.
He probably can't play the piano any more, with hands like that... can't stay long in the city with his aura constantly drawing attention to him. Where did he live? Did he miss Quenton? Faust? ... me? It was hard to imagine he spared her a thought with the trauma of being part youma. He was desperate to be rid of it, that much he'd made clear... and she had never been anything more to him than an amusement.
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Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:29 pm
"Like being ripped apart," he echoed.
The wings seethed, tainting the air in low tones nary above a mumble.
"Each morning
I wake invisible.
I make... a needle
from a porcupine... quill,"
Bischofite paused, for a moment touched by life, recognition, mild enjoyment in the small surprises wrought by those voices in his wings. He continued the recital, leading the broken collective along in proper form.
"Sew feet to legs,
lift spine onto my sighs."
"I put on my rib and collarbone."
"I pin an ear to my head,
hear ze waxwing's yellow cry.
I open my mouth for purple berries,
stick on periwinkle eyes.
"I almost know what it is to be seen."
He smiled, saturnine, but honest. Snorting gently, he shook his head while he spoke. "I'm surprised... Sometimes I wonder if zese wings are truly a facet of my subconscious, or some entity who read far too many books long ago. Perhaps it's Malicious, adding her own twisted humor to my everyday life. Zat poem... Solar Eclipse. I never imagined zat zey would speak it now, or at any time." Finally he turned his gaze toward her, where the mirth fell away from the deep recesses where flesh once filled him with youth.
"More to ze point, zat poem is peripherally applicable to purification. You describe it as being torn apart... And while highly literal, purification is - in essence - rebuilding from ze broken parts, is it not?" So it produces a great strain on the one undergoing purification. Unsurprising. I doubt Chaos is willing enough to relinquish the body it clings to... Like sticky tar. He glanced toward his hand once more, running his thumb across his covered nails to produce thick strands between them. I wonder if there are parallels between purification and corruption. If so... Would I suffer the same fate as Persephone in terms of losing memories?
"Apart from Chaos, what does ze knight lose? Abilities? Strengs'? ... Memories? Ironic it would be if I forgot exactly ze reason why I chose to purify." And infinitely more a travesty if I lost my better, bitter memories. Quenton...
I want to see Quenton before I go.
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 11:17 pm
The sudden whisper of voices unseen sent a ripple of horror down the eternal's spine and her eyes widened as she stared at the monstrosity before her. Where were the voices coming from...? It was so wrong... so very wrong... even more so, that they should recite poetry. Ida swallowed thickly as Bischofite joined the voices, adding an edge to it that made her skin crawl.
But he was asking her questions again and the senshi pulled herself back to attend on what he was saying to her, her skin still paled.
"I suppose you could see it that way... I see it more like how cancer is treated. The disease is cut or radiated away from the good tissue and destroyed, leaving behind what should rightfully be there. But... there is some loss, just like with surgery. There is always some amount of memory loss, but there is no way to tell how much you will lose. You could lose only the smallest things, your civilian side, your powered side, or all of them, even... but the purification will not diminish your abilities. They'll simply change." Ida eyed the general, wondering for a moment. "You'll get a new weapon, a wonder, and magic... but there is no way to tell what it'll turn out to be. It would be ironic if you turned out to be a knight of Venus."
Ida shifted as she glanced to the tree her hand rested on, something teasing at her mind again. "You could look at it as dying, in a way... though unlike that finality, there is some small possibility you'll live again on the other side..."Quote: "Here we are!" Ida said as she swept into the grove of small trees, the manicured grass soft under her bare feet. "You wanted to see it, so here it is... this is where we inter our dead. Our graveyard... I'm sure its not very similar to what you're no doubt used to, but it is an important part of our culture." The lady turned towards her companion, her dress brushing against her legs. Reaching out, she ran her fingers along one of the branches and at her touch, a glow spread outwards. It ran like water through the seemingly random ridges in the bark, tracing out what was in actuality writing, if one knew how to read it. Ida did... the language was old, but it was Idan, and it had been part of her tutoring to learn it. "Woman. Average height, blonde hair, green eyes. Predisposed to heart problems." She recited as she dropped her hand. The words remained only for a moment before the light faded away again. "These trees record the genetic pattern of the person who's grave they mark, so that future generations might study it. You may find it silly, but it also gives us a sense of... connection, with those who have gone before us. This way they are never forgotten, even when their bodies have returned to the earth." Turning, the woman led her companion further in, past the curving rows of graves. Near the center, crowning a hill that was little more than a slight rise in the grass, was a line of graves that was incomplete... expectant. "This is where the line of Ida senshi are buried... This tree belongs to the woman who held this post before me." She said as she touched the tree, watching the glowing words crawl over its surface. "When I die, I will be buried beside her and my own successor will plant my tree for me... continuing a tradition spanning millennia... Dactyl will be interred beside me, just there, as his right as my protector..."
The voices faded as the scene did and Ida blinked rapidly to clear the lingering memory, trying to refocus on Bischofite despite the creeping anxiety she felt. A graveyard... they were in a graveyard... why had they come here, of all places? Why now? There were too many questions, and far too few answers... The senshi cleared her throat as she struggled to remember what they were talking about. Oh, right...
"You'll be a different person after purification, but no one will know how different until afterwards."
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Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 11:39 pm
"One must excise some of ze heals'y parts to eradicate ze infection. Considering zere's quite a lot to cut out... By your account, it sounds like I may lose all memory, in addition to bodily damages." He pressed a hand to the back of his opposite shoulder, applying pressure to bend it forward and offer a decent view of his back. Craning his neck, he tried to view the connective portion conjoining his natural body with the monstrosities grafted upon it. "To never know what happened before... Zat's more of a punishment." Abandoning his search, he drew a sigh.
"If nossing else, deas' is a cyclical affair. We die several times sroughout our lives, and at ze most finite portion of it, we'll lif' again anozzer way. And if purification in zis life ends wis' murder, zen I wonder if we'll meet again in ze next. How many of us knew each ozzer long ago, and how many of our actions are truly new? Maybe we'f always been at odds, ida. Could you imagine? Zat reduces zis war to somesing of a permanent dress rehearsal. Now, will ze understudy for ze part of Ida take ze stage? Ze next, and ze next? It's almost too frightening to sink about, in how our existences would be damned to follow ze same tried pas' and yet we cannot even comprehend deviation. I wonder if ze last Bischof-..." He paused entirely, shifting toward the girl as she stood motionless, wholly vacant.
Drawing closer, he folded his hands into his sleeves and cocked his head to the side, searching for some scrap of motion to indicate her mental presence. It's like she's entirely lost to me. PTSD? We are all soldiers here - it's not terribly farfetched. How fortunate for me... Not only could I visit a senshi planet, but observe a portion of her psyche broken away momentarily. How... Unique.
And just as suddenly as it began, the senshi snapped to life immediately, blinking rapidly as if to banish tears. He continued his scrutiny, noting the way her throat bulged just slightly when she swallowed, how she grasped for words just before returning to their prior subject, offering no mention of the recent occurrence. He frowned, unamused. "Purification and its potential ramifications are of little import right now. I want to know what just happened to you. Tell me, Ida - are you suffering zose very symptoms claimed by war veterans? Or did you simply find yourself in ze sroes of a daydream? It must'f been interesting regardless, for you to depart so suddenly from our conversation. Unless, of course, my potential to purify is such a bore to you."
From your explanations, my survival rate is low. And if it's my fate to die at senshi hands, whatever the means, then I may as well just strike you down now and discover the slow-boiling joys of dehydration to the point of death. Any land, foreign or not, is suitable for my corpse. That sentimentality is for the living, regardless. And as a youma... Few would miss me. Perhaps only Quenton, and even then, I wonder.
And what argument would there be against it? Perhaps only of a missed opportunity - that had I refrained, I might've found some means to corrupt her, this place... But even that sounds like a pipe dream. So it seems I haven't wholly decided.
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