Jack
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"I'll live forever, or die trying.."
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Post by Jack on Jul 11, 2005 16:52:36 GMT -5
(EvelynXandii) After much consideration she turned to Onizuka:
"I will accept accept your power, if you don't want it."
.....
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Jack
Full Member
"I'll live forever, or die trying.."
Posts: 449
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Post by Jack on Jul 11, 2005 16:53:07 GMT -5
(Onizuka) Cynric's attention snapped back to where he was with Evelyn's response, the voice fading from his thoughts and drifting stealthily to the back of his mind. Evelyn's eyes were intent on Onizuka, reading him for duplicity. The bare-chested man with the worn cape tossed over his shoulder smiled politely and stretched out his hand, palm foreward, to Evelyn. "I give it to you freely," he said with confidence. "Cynric, you may want to step back."
The young man took the advice very seriously and leapt backwards with a fighter's grace, landing on the balls of his feet and staying ready, unsure of what was about to happen. Evelyn stepped back slightly, flicking red curls from her eyes. Onizuka flexed his fingers impatiently and looked at Evelyn. "Your hand." The woman twisted her lip slightly and put her slender arm up, her hand mirroring his. Onizuka shuts his eyes and exhales slowly. After several long moments of nothing, Cynric began stepping back towards them, and Evelyn started to lower her arm.
A white hot bolt bit through her palm and a cascade of invisible energy arced along her arm, numbing her and causing her muscles to spastically fire at the same time. Blinding light ran in sheets across her vision, wiping the intricately carved bas-reliefs of Pluto's walls clean and erasing the grimly set Onizuka who stood before her. The light eclipsed suddenly as she saw she was trapped in an iron cage, surrounded by men who reeked of dry filth and jeered at her in tongues she didn't recognize. Her vision swam with black smudges, and when her eyes rolled clear of her eyelids again she was back in the Styx, but this time standing atop an enormous pillar and viewing the wide expanse of the river valley. The castle, which had been decrepit and abandoned on her last visit, was now being worked on by hordes of studious dead, who chipped stone and slathered mortar from a scaffolding of bones and twisted deadwood. Other images came, and Evelyn came to understand both Onizuka and the Styx. A shadowy swath framed by a withered hood of cloth, and a dry, bony hand that cradled what looked as a ram's horn. Deeper down, the image of a beautiful young girl flickered for an instant, the depth of Onizuka's soul closely guarding it.
Onizuka winced as he too was pulled in, as the heavy power of the Styx poured from him to Evelyn, and he caught a brief glimps of a giant man swinging an enormous weapon at him, felt the hooked blade slice through the tender flesh of his neck. He caught glimpses of a girl, silent and vicious, and a host of secondhand thoughts from the pair of half-souls. He felt the hatred Evelyn harbored radiating into Xandii on every strand of power sent, and felt something else, something that Evelyn herself was blind to. The connection shared by Evelyn and Xandii had run more deeply then either could have imagined, even as the perfect purity of Xandii was clouded by Evelyn's rage, Evelyn was seeded with the roots of compassion and kindness, as their proximity had begun to merge the pair together.
Coughing and sputtering, Onizuka woke prone on his back, lurching up just as Cynric chivalrously helped Evelyn to her feet. Onizuka felt empty, as though he were a lake and, pouring himself into Evelyn, he had become nothing more then a dried up lakebed, left to discover his past, which lay strewn about the empty stretch of cracked and dry earth.
Evelyn, who had ached with an intense emptiness, felt fulfilled, and more so, radiated energy and power. The pull of the Styx was felt magnetically, and she turned in Cynric's helping hands and inhaled sharply, gazing through the luxurious halls of the palace towards the river Styx. There, her power would be full and her exertions complete. She felt the deep need to go to the Styx deeply in her gut, pressing and urgent.
"Well?" Cynric asked.
Evelyn turned slowly away from the direction of the Styx to Cynric, slightly flushed. "The Styx is mine."
"Oh. Well. Are you going back that way, or..?"
"No," she said, without hesitation. "I have business to take care of first."
Evelyn felt the side of her missing just as clearly as ever, the incredible power couldn't hide it. She flicked her red hair back again and turned from Cynric to Onizuka. Surprising herself with an emotion more Xandii's then her own, she gave an awkward smile and said, "Thank you," and meant it.
A bit dazed from the transfer, Evelyn failed to notice Onizuka's change in appearance. His dark locks of hair had lightened and changed consistency, soft and almost fluffy instead of slick and neat. His eyes, which had been a dark, mottled green, had bleached into a pure green that brightened his appearance considerably. Cynric, who had been wary of the entire exchange, noticed almost immediately. "What the hell? You look all dopey now."
"Side affect of the power transfer," Onizuka lied breezily, blinking and rubbing his arms. Evelyn started as she recieved another boost of energy, raw willpower that flowed off of the man. It was stronger then before, and she recieved it more easily, being a lord of Hell. Is he no longer suppressing his power? She wondered.
"I think," Onizuka said slowly, "We need to decide what we are doing from here on out." His words felt empty and meaningless, he was concentrating on the strange sensation he felt in his gut. Somewhere in the emptiness that was Onizuka, something stirred and woke, no longer weighed down by the resevoir of power Onizuka had accumulated in the Styx. The man kept his composure, even though he could begin to feel the aches in the bones of his forearms and back, feel cramps wracking his body as muscles tightened and stretched. Before him Cynric and Evelyn faded slightly as his vision dimmed, the grand halls of Plutus fading into obscurity.
"You okay, man? You look like you're drifting a bit."
"Haven't felt this good in a long time," Onizuka replied, punctuating with a small sucking sound as he kept the blood in his mouth from dribbling down his chin. "Like I said, we need to decide what we're doing." Onizuka winced oddly as some of the tendons in his back tore.
"I'm going up," Evelyn said with confidence.
Suprised, Onizuka blinked at her. "I underestimated you. I thought the pull of the power would draw you to the Styx."
Cynric nodded. "I'd go just to make sure he's not ripping you off or anything. Let me tell you, I've been there, and it's kind of dingy." The teen looked quickly to Onizuka, "Uh..no offense or anything. I bet you were doing great as a boss there. It was just kinda..depressing."
"Evelyn quirked her head slightly and glanced at Onizuka. "You were ripping me off, though, weren't you? Something's gone terribly wrong there just now, I can feel it."
Onizuka chuckled, "I might have forgot to mention there were some strange folk passing through the Styx. Me and Cynric here left just before they arrived." Deep down he could feel his beast awakening, filling him with power like he hadn't had in ages. He saw no reason to try to stop his predatory side from coming out. As they say on earth, Ah, what the hell?
Cynric stayed silent for a moment. "Well anyway, I'm actually thinking about staying here to rest a bit before moving on. This place is probably the nicest place to stay throughout the rest of Hell," he lied. In the back of his mind he could sense the the voice from before was smiling.
~ Continued in the next post ~
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Jack
Full Member
"I'll live forever, or die trying.."
Posts: 449
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Post by Jack on Jul 11, 2005 16:53:33 GMT -5
(Onizuka) Onizuka twitched slightly, and Cynric noticed that the man was a tad taller then him, although when they first met they had seemed the same height. "I feel the need to pull up my stakes and move on," Onizuka said calmly. "Immediately, in fact." He hunched forward a bit. A soft down was spreading across his back, the most comforting change that had occurred yet. Already he could feel his chest tightening as his ribs shift postition. Cynric and Evelyn were not completely unaware of the changes in Onizuka, but opted for the moment to not mention it. Onizuka was all at once keenly aware of his companions, the rise and fall of Evelyn's chest as she took breath, the dull pulse that pushed blood through her veins, a pale imitation of life, although not decaying in any way, Onizuka could clearly smell that she was not alive. The smell of Cynric's bloodstained bokken brought other thoughts to Onizuka, which he pushed away. "So Evelyn, will you be traveling with Cynric or me?"
Cynric frowned. "I don't think we should split u...okay, what the hell is happening to your face?" Cynric stared openly at Onizuka, whose nose had flattened and face was twisting as muscles realigned underneath his skin.
"Side affect of the transfer," Onizuka growled, half his mouth filled with sharp teeth better designed for ripping flesh then casual speech.
Evelyn stared at Onizuka for a moment. "I think I'll stay with the boy."
"Then I bid you both farewell," Onizuka managed around his contorted lips. As he turned away his cheek went slack and his neck bulged, as his jaw unhinged itself and snapped free. Both Cynric and Evelyn were staring with slight disgust and puzzlement. "Er..don't forget your..uh...quest item." Cynric called. Onizuka turned around, making a gutteral growl before realizing his speech was incoherent. He instead nodded his head, which was half covered with a downy fur, one of his eyes sporting the slitlike pupil of a cat. The bleeding box, several white feathers sticking out, was actually already in Onizuka's pocket, which he promptly removed. He placed the box in his mouth, his jaw having already rehinged itself, although set in a different manner then possible in a human skull. Onizuka then proceeded to unclasp his cape and take off his pants, prompting Cynric to turn around and Evelyn to raise an eyebrow.
"Okay, bye, man."
Onizuka's front paws hit the ground heavily, and his first few steps on all fours were awkward. As his muscles stretched and his bones grew, however, his movements took on a fluid grace he couldn't have hoped to have achieved in human form. The fully grown and formed tiger blinked curiously a last time at Cynric and Evelyn before stalking out of the room with its trophy clutched firmly in its teeth. A half minute later Cynric turned around. "What the hell was that all about?"
Evelyn rolled her eyes and shrugged, feeling her bitterness return. "He was a cat."
"A cat? That was it? I was expecting something more..I don't know. Bigger? Ferocious?"
Well, I'm sure we'll meet again, though under what terms... Cynric turned his thoughts to the voice he had heard earlier, rolling a small amethyst absentmindedly back and forth in his palm.
NRP: I'll post next in the third, so if I've been so inactive that you actually get there before me..uh..email me or something. I hope it won't get that bad.
Hope to see you all soon,
Onizuka
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