| Peeling Back the Layers | ||
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| Summary: I've been plotting what to do with Tabitha since she was conceived. She was originally gonna belong to Samantha's player but when he didn't keep her I got stuck with her and then this THING slowly came of it. I've taken her down some very strange roads since then, but I assure you they were mostly planned...   |
If you thought the start of the Wastelands were bad, you had no idea. Instability is an issue, glimmers of other worlds clearly seen as they try equally to merge into, and push away this part of existence. A thousand possiblities, a thousand terrors. And worse yet, the longer one lingers this far into the wastes, the more their mind will try to rip itself apart from within. You've only got two directional options though: east and west. At least you've got a fifty-fifty chance of getting there.
Tabitha stands in the midst of a large crater, panting for breath. She pushes up the remains of her left sleeve as she weakly scans the area for any sign of her 'teacher'. Since she agreed to his terms the rest of the day had been nothing but a blur. Assuming it's only been a day. Twisted has a reputation for confusing the natural flow of time, being in the more chaotic area of the wastelands just makes it worse. Thirty seconds… sixty… why isn't he attacking yet? There's a faint hope of it being over crawling up the back of her skull, but the girl knows better. She's managed thus far without drawing her grandfather's dagger. Maybe she can last a little longer. Concentrating, she engulfs her fist in a weak fire spell and spins around expecting to connect with Caliga's face - assuming he's standing behind her (the most likely place, after all).
While Tabitha flails like a cat that just had a clothespin clamped in its tail, Caliga appears infront of her with a stopwatch in hand. He presses a button, causing the timer to stop. "All right. I think we can take a bit of a break." The stop watch is then tossed over his shoulder, easily discarding something that could prove useful an area such as this. The raven haired man wanders away, moving towards a ripple of a convience mart, only to vanish inside for what seems to be a few moments. As he returns, a paper bag is clutched within his hands. He tosses the bag towards the catgirl, and sits down upon the ground. "You're exhausted, and out in these wastelands.. Well. I supposed for /you/ it'd be a lot worse. Go ahead. Eat. I have a feeling you'd like what's in the bag."
"There's many things that have been forgotten. Some things have been forgotten due to the passage of time, and others? Well. There's generally an explanation for it." Caliga watches Tabitha carefully, as if he were studying some new form of animal that had just been discovered. Of course, as she starts to devour the burritos, it causes him to smile for a brief moment as if the faintest of recollections surged forth only to fade. "It's called a burrito by the way. You can find them in the convience store on Twisted Street. I don't think Diablo would like it very much if you were to frequent the place that often in order to get them." No trace of that smile remains upon the mans face, having been replaced with the stoic gaze he's been gracing the realm with since his resurgence. A lot of things aren't quite settling right with him, but there almost always is a bigger fish to fry. "Tabitha. I'm going to attempt to explain what Chaos actually is, you may not understand everything now, but eventually you will." As the catgirl continues her feast on one of the most unhealthy and questionable quick-foods in existence, the man starts to speak once more. "Chaos is an element. It helps to make up the very fabric of reality, and Twisted is a prime example of that. There are no rules that govern it. It doesn't have feelings for one particular thing or another. Chaos simply exists. As we train here, you lost track of time. One minute could seem like one week. One week could seem like one minute. There isn't a rule. There is no controlling. It just.. is there. Your potential is quite like chaos. Its there. You can't control it."
Tabitha listens intently as she finishes her meal, even going as far as licking her fingers afterwards. "That sounds like what happens with my dagger. Sometimes I have control, sometimes it controls me." She looks into the bag one last time and frowns, standing up once again. "But if th' dagger was chaos - then I'd already be a master at it!" She grins fangedly at her joke, looking to Caliga's face for a reaction and ultimately frowning as it seems to fall on deaf ears. "But why is it important? What's chaos got to do with trainin'?"
"Because there is no order. Chaos is the primary agent of evolution and change. There aren't any rules that govern it, so it happens. Your abilities have no set element. Nor did 'his' to a degree..." The man shakes his head slightly as if he were trying to figure out where that last part truly came from. Once more he shoves that aside to continue on with the task at hand. "You haven't had your potential ever truly tapped into. It quite litterly is chaos. It could be that you'd never be stronger then a fly, or you could easily surpass myself in power. There isn't any telling. So what we're doing is allowing the chaos to blossom to see where it stands so we can force it to evolve as well. While chaos has no rules, order is nothing but rules. Generally, they're seen as opposites. So if we introduce the proper rules of order, the chaos should react in an opposite way, giving us what we want. Chaos however, isn't an opposite. It's existence itself."
The girl listens to this as her hand goes to her dagger, holding it in its sheathe. She knows she can fight, she knows she has potential, but his words ring true in the back of her mind and her mind keeps coming back to that black bladed dagger Diablo insisted she carry. Her grandfather's dagger. The one Samantha murdered. "So, I should give inta chaos before we can gauge my potential? Isn't that what you're saying?" The words sound strangely right coming out of her lips. It's almost as if a part of her needed to hear herself say them. Without another word the girl simply isn't there anymore. The dust from the ground kicks up as air suddenly fills the space where she previously stood. Just as suddenly the girl is behind Caliga, hovering about the ground, the dagger being swung towards his chest by a pair of solid black hands. The girl's face, seemingly made of shadow like the rest of her body now appears, is twisted into an expression of hatred and anger as her eyes burn with a solid-white light, her mouth agape in rage.
Generally, Caliga isn't caught off guard by things. It's just not his style. Yet, as Tabitha channels the energies of that dagger, it makes him freeze in place. There's a portion within him that not even the former Dai Kaioshin understands wanting to allow this. Something about all of this makes that portion of Caliga feel an emotion that rarely ever comes into play. Fear. "Yes. His friend is going to be coming back, oh isn't that grand?" The voice seems to eminate from within the chaotic wastes themselves, almost as if they were carrying over the wind. "That little shit doesn't have friends. Don't you remember? He was nothing but a pathetic tick that failed us when it came down to it. Maybe the cock bite will die, and we'll finally please --" A second voice slowly starts to carry over the wind, mingling with the first. Blurs of white flash through Caliga's head as if something within him were trying to relieve memories that didn't exist. Maybe they never did exist. Who is Caliga to question that? Maybe it's some grand joke a higher authority that claims this realm is playing. "..The girl's actually going to do it Eff! That flea infested shit stain is actually going to do it!" As the blade passes into Caliga's chest, memories start to surge forward, but none of his own. Metropolis, Twisted, Chronos. Visions of times, 'friends', adventures and killing sprees due to the lack of Cherry Brain-Freezies. And an absolute hatred of a certain word that begins with W. Shadows slowly start to engulf Caliga, spreading from where the dagger rests within his chest. His voice is barely audible as he speaks once more. "..That sunovabitch knew this would happen... He intended it.."
"SoRrY bItCh." The shadows surrounding Caliga form start to solidify as Tabitha starts to try and force whatever lies within the man out. A wretched grin starts to appear on them, not even trying to line up with where his face should be. "i'M NOT a TOoL. DiDN't YoU FuCKs LeARn thAt AlReaDY?" The shadows start to splinter as light starts to stream forth, forcefully expelling a body from the rear, leaving the dagger in a rapidly decaying shell. The body slowly starts to rise to its feet, whistling a random tune as its features aren't quite clearly defined. The creature's voice is garbled, as if it were fighting a fight with an electric toothbrush and a gallon of water. "Hey there Tabitha! Been a while, hasn't it?" The being grins maniacally, as the shadows start to form a couple of daggers within its hands, only to have them vanish at the last moment. It looks down at its hands, confused as if it were trying to figure out just what exactly happened. "..Huh?" It clutches it's head, as if a war inside it were starting to break out. "NoOoOo. WOn'T LeT THeM..."
The beast vanishes again, snatching the true dagger up before appearing about five feet from the echo. "AwW. IsN'T tHIs SwEEt?" The beast cracks it's neck, too far, before yanking it back in place with it's free hand. "BuT WAiT! ThAt'S NoT AlL! WhAT'S BEhiND DoOR NUmBER ThREe?!" It takes the dagger, twirls it in the air, and then plunges it deep into the girl's chest, burying the blade up to the hilt. The thing hovers a moment, filling the air with a demonic cackle before reaching up with both hands and ripping the girl's ribs apart sending cascading black horrors into the air and across the sands. In the gaping whole it creates beats a crippled heart with the blade plunged straight into the center. The beast rips out the heart along with the blade, holding it like a stabbed apple. It begins to speak, but this time in a distorted version of Caliga's own voice. "ChAoS Is An ELEMEnT! It HElPS MAKe UP ThE VErY FaBRic of reALity, and Twisted is the prime example of that!" It's voice shifts becoming more like Tabitha's, but deeper. Almost more mature. "There are no rules that govern it! It doesn't have feelings for one particular thing or another! It simply exists! TO DEVOUR! TO CONSUME!!! To seek revenge!!" It cackles once again before taking a bite from the heart sending more blackened gore spraying outwards before her form shifts and pulls itself back together again - save for the darkness of course. Her head tilts to the side as she begins to speak again. "..and I have so much I must do before I'm finished."
Once more the creature faces The Beast, staring at it with disdain. It's not quite sure what to make of it, but it does know that it can't be caught by it at any cost. "Oh, you do party tricks now? Do me! Do me! No no wait, do Samantha! You should have an easy time with that one, especially since you're nothing more then her shadow no matter what you do." The creature takes a few steps backwards, glaring now at The Beast. It's features slowly start to shift once more, taking a more familiar appearance, then bouncing back to the blur. "Would it help if I said I'm sorry? Maybe I could give you a puppy. Girls like puppies don't they?" It continues to step backwards, keeping an eye out for something or another, as if it were trying to pick out the proper escape route. "See, I can't let you take me. Especially because I'm not complete. Wouldn't you rather take the real deal, then something thats pretty much a shadow, just like you? You should just put the dagger away now."
The creature frowns as Tabitha falls over, glancing over at the dagger. "Hey, I've been lookin' for that!" As it moves to grab ahold of the hilt, it stops. "Nah. I'm not the real deal anyways. Of course, you knew that already." It slumps over, its features finally starting to settle upon what they should be. It doesn't take long for Caliga's features to become fully noticable once more. While before this little adventure he may have showed no emotion, there is bit of remorse and sadness in his eyes as he looks down at the girl. "It seems that you may have had a motive after all, and weren't just his happy go lucky pawn." His eyes turn back to the dagger, frowning at it. "As for you, I'm going to make this clear. I'm not a willing participant in your games. Never have been. Don't think that ever again." While it may seem strange to address a simple piece of metal and leather, in this case it seems proper. He moves to pick the nekojin up, weary of just what sort of potential she may infact truly hold now. The dagger however, is going to be left alone. | |
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