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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 4, 2013 1:08:37 GMT -5
"Why aren't you submitting to me? What are you!"
"A friend. Your friend. I would like it if you could be my friend."
The stranger paced through the ashes towards the boy, seemingly unperturbed by his actions. When he began to panic however, the entire perception of reality began to warp, distort, and before long the scene forcibly shifted to leave behind that burning place and the stranger with it.
---
"Well why stay cooped up here? It's pretty gloomy and depressing if you look at it, and what do we have that ties us down here in the first place?"
Given Asuza's appearance, this memory was probably a couple of years after the cataclysm. He carried terrible scars across his body from the incident, but they had more or less healed. They were quite apparent, but he wasn't covered in bandages like people from the present would know him. He was sitting on the front porch of a restaurant, listening to the wild proposition of a fellow standing nearby. Also at the table was the girl from before whom Asuza had dug out from the rubble of the market during the cataclysm, and next to her another much younger girl. The one from the market carried the scars of the event though to a lesser extent, while the younger girl and the man with the ideas did not seem burned at all. Chances are they were outsiders or had not been present for the cataclysm.
"This is our home now... we've been here long enough to make a living, why would we leave it behind?"
"Because it's a meager living at best! Who want's to stay in one place forever, this place? We've got a whole world ahead of us to explore, so lets go!"
The puppeteer might not know it, but the place they were at was the Ashfall islands, only a couple of years after the cataclysm. So soon after that time though, it showed. The sky was dark and the atmosphere gloomy, and there was a perpetual downpour of ash from the clouds above; a morbid reminder of the fire that had burned above not so very long ago. The islands themselves had not suffered to much during the event, but the sky above it was forever changed, and even to that day people were still finding burned buildings and scorched ruins falling from above every now and then. The sacrifice made by the Sky King Proteon had averted certain doom, but it had not come without some cost, such that the former name of this place was no longer used and largely forgotten by everyone who lived or came here.
{Even if we were to leave, and travel around like you suggested, what would we even call ourselves? We'd need a crew name before even considering anything else.}
The girl Asuza had rescued was also part of the conversation (unlike the much younger one whom just watched the sky), though she couldn't speak as part of it. Probably an unfortunate side effect of the cataclysm, she could not vocalize any sounds and so had to rely on a notepad and scrawling her thoughts upon it for the others to see. She had been learning a method of communication from the blue sea where one could use their hands to speak for them, but neither Asuza or the wild-idea'd fellow knew it well enough to be able to hold a conversation with her. Asuza could see the words from where he sat, but the other fellow moved closer to lean on the table and read them.
"Hmmm... you know I'm not really sure. I was thinking maybe something like 'Heartfelt'? Pretty catchy and... well, it applies pretty well to us. A crew of people like that, I could sail around the world with!"
The fellow laughed about the matter, and his optimism and cheer spread a little to Asuza and the girl. All of them had it pretty rough, some more than others, but he always managed to lighten things up. He always saw the bright side of things, always had some crazy ambition or idea, and so they found themselves following him.
People walked briskly through the dark streets, trudging through the accumulated ash as it snowed down, with the occasional cinder or burning ember shower. It was actually early morning, though the only source of light aside from the nearly black sky was the windows and exterior lights of the various buildings lining the streets. The place was not as lively as the real present day location (despite the environment), and still so soon after the cataclysm there were not many people around, most if not all of them foreigners to the place. It was noteworthy however, that there seemed to be nothing to indicate that this was a memory of guilt or shame for Asuza. If anything, despite the place and atmosphere, this was not at all unpleasant. This was probably one of the better, fonder memories that Asuza had.
And then there sounded a crashing, coming from an alleyway nearby.
"Ah, there you are! What a strange place this is, but I found you!"
Through the rubble of several crates from the alley, a new person emerged on the scene. Dressed in a full white and red tracksuit with the jacket unzipped, her attire and vibrant blonde hair was in great contrast with the environment, not to mention her vibrant attitude. Sitting atop her head was a pair of aviation goggles, and her exposed shirt bore the emblem of a skull and crossed rockets. The people walking in the street must have been very busy, to not notice her.
"Why'd you run away? We just met, we should get to know one another better, don't you think?"
The soon-to-be Heartfelt crew continued to converse amongst themselves, and didn't seem to notice the newcomer like anyone else in this place, and listening to the voice alone the puppeteer would be able to tell this was the stranger. She could be seen clearly now, simply because she was not standing with a sun behind her. She had exited an alley a ways down the street from the restaurant, so she made her way towards it and towards the puppeteer. As she went though, since people took no notice of her she just bumped into them or pushed past. Upon making contact though, the passerbys combusted, burning with an intensity such that they joined the ash in the street in a matter of moments. Everything she touched ended up the same way, and as she drew nearer there could be seen a glow approaching in the distance. Most prominent from out of the alley she had come but before long it was spreading across the horizon. The buildings were starting to set on fire too now, and the other people were walking towards their demise in approaching her.
None of this seemed to phase her however, or she simply did not notice, in the same way that they didn't notice her. All she was concerned about, was getting to the puppeteer.
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Post by CJ on Mar 4, 2013 15:06:27 GMT -5
The puppeteer sighed in relief as the memory shifted into another. He still wasn't used to his new powers so he figured the stranger was simply a fluke. It wouldn't happen again. The environment was controlled. He could observe Asuza's actions again to determine whether or not he should die.
The yellow aura of the puppeteer was bright and obnoxious. The being would have dominated the scene had it been an original part of the memory. Fortunately, his form wouldn't disturb any part of the memory and could watch and hear it without interruption.
"Heartfelt," he whispered to himself. The being's black, burned indents for eyes glared intently at Asuza. It seemed he had made a confirmation. He turned around and began to walk away when the stranger reemerged.
She might have been assumed to be another part of the memory had the puppeteer not recognized her voice or witnessed the unnatural destruction of the pieces of the memory. The boy screamed out and began to flee yet again. A door materialized out of the ash. It was one of the doors of the mansion Asuza was sleeping in. The puppeteer tugged on the knob but it wouldn't budge. He slammed his fist on it in frustration and looked into the peephole to see Asuza, sleeping peacefully on the couch in the mansion. He grimaced terribly, not knowing how to wake the man up and force the memories to end.
"Stay back!" he shouted, bracing himself against the door, holding his hand out to the stranger. "Please, don't come close."
The boy slumped down on the door. Bits of light peeled off of him, revealing quite an average looking boy dressed in an expensive, torn coat and ascot. His greasy brown hair, half tied back, covered his hands as he shielded his eyes.
"I don't know what might happen to be if I were to disappear here. Asuza, you can take whatever form you want in your mind but I should be the one who's controlling things right now. Please let me out and you can kill me outside of his memory. Please."
Still hiding his eyes from the stranger, the puppeteer began to cry and shivered in the ash. He wasn't going anywhere any time soon so the stranger could probably speak to him more properly there.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 13, 2013 21:47:55 GMT -5
When the puppeteer's true form was revealed, the girl only stopped for a moment, not so much surprised as she was relieved. She wanted to be friends with him no matter what he was or what he looked like, but that he was a normal-ish person, at least by appearance was more to her liking.
"Who's Asuza? There's no Asuza here, only me."
A smile crept across her face when she heard what the boy had to say, amused at first because she didn't understand what he was talking about. She was still a ways away but when she noticed the little conversation that was taking place on the porch, she veered over towards the building.
"You mean... THIS guy?" She didn't care to listen to what they had to say, but she leaned forward and pressed against the building, hard. Without a moments notice the whole scene jarred red for a moment and there were glimpses of burning bodies, and immediately the building and all the occupants near it were burned to ashes in a matter of moments. Stumbling back from the bright display, the girl laughed a little to herself, admiring the display with fascination. Eventually her gaze slowly shifted once more from the blaze, to the boy. By this time though, the glow and the fires following her had spread, and the entirety of the scenescape was ablaze.
"If he would kill you out there, then why would you want to leave this place? Stay here, with me! Let's get to know one another."
At that she started to pace through the burning cinders of the building and towards the boy. It seemed she was slower than the fire though, because it had spread now to catch onto the door that had been summoned. As a result, the memory began to break down, the view started to collapse. When the girl realized this, she very soon became very anxious, and took off into a run for the puppeteer. Already though it was too late, and before she could reach him she was pulled away into oblivion with the rest of the scene in a cry of defiance.
---
"That was pretty impressive back there... what's your name, girl?"
"...Jean."
What a strange island it was, that simply rose out of the water like a great big mushroom. Although it was actually just the way the rocky formation was shaped, over so much time, an ecosystem had developed on top with dirt and forests, so it looked like looked like a grey mushroom with a green top from a distance. Water poured off the top and over the edge in many places creating waterfalls to the sea far below, but the only way up and down was in giant buckets, big enough to hold ships that were lowered and raised from the top of the island down to the ocean and back again. A girl in her early teens with dark hair was trying to unlock one of these giant pails from the dock so that it could be lowered down to the sea below, and bobbing in the giant bucket was a little raft. There was smoke rising from many places on the island, and it looked like a battle had occurred just recently, and yet people were celebrating in the streets of the town nearby.
"Hey! Do you mind?"
"Jean, and that's it? Just a one word name?"
Clearly, Jean was trying to leave while everyone else was busy celebrating. She had been trying to undo the ropes mooring the bucket to the dock, after which she could trigger the crane mechanism to lower and then quickly run to get to her tiny boat before the descent started. It was obvious that this whole process was supposed to be done by many people, but they were all busy partying. While struggling to undo one of the knots, that pirate from before with the explosives showed up, and put his foot on the rope to interrupt her as he spoke. She looked up indignantly, and was not at all frightened by his ghastly appearance. Asuza noticed this earlier, which was why he approached her.
"Strife. Jean Strife, happy? Now get off the rope!"
The King obliged, but he narrowed his eyes as he straightened up.
"I'm not from the blue sea myself, and even I know that name. That's that famous pirate family, made a pretty big name for themselves before me and my friends here started sailing about on water."
"Yeah, well not anymore. They're all soft, elegant now, pretend like they never did anything and cover it up. Well not me, I want to see what they tried so hard to forget."
"So you ran away."
Jean's hands locked up when Asuza commented about her situation. Perhaps she had run away, but she didn't like to think of it like that. She didn't want to go to boarding school to learn how to act refined like her parents. Maybe there was a time, when she thought like them and felt like them, but not after she found out the truth. And so here she was, getting caught up in the middle of a bunch of pirates showing up to get rid of a bunch of criminals who had taken over the island. Well the situation was taken care of now, the inhabitants were celebrating the pirates and singing their praises in the streets, so there was no reason for her to stay. She wanted no part of it, all that shouting about "Heartfelt" and all that. It seemed though she couldn't slip away undetected well enough, because here was the first mate, badgering her about her family.
"I may not be familiar with sailing on water, but I don't think you'll manage to get very far on that."
"Well if you aren't familiar, then I don't want to hear it. It's a good boat, and it'll go as far as I want it to!"
There was a sudden cracking, and both Jean and Asuza turned their heads in time to see the raft break under its own weight, and disperse into its constituent pieces across the surface of the water held in the bucket. A vein appeared on Jean's head at the sight.
"Me and my friends though, we've got a pretty nice boat ourselves, good for sailing on the water from what I hear. It's pretty empty though... I'm sure there's room for someone else, Strife or no."
So that was what he wanted. She looked back fiercely with the intent on swinging at him with the sheathed sword she had, but stopped short when her eyes met his. She could tell, he wasn't making fun of her; he was sincerely offering for her to go with them. So what if they had helped her out of that bind, she didn't owe them anything...
...then again, they did have a boat. A working boat.
"Ok... but even if I went with you, it would only be temporary. Just till the next island, I wouldn't be joining up with you guys or anything..."
---
While the memory was occurring, one of the giant buckets from below had been raising up, and even from up here anyone could see that the metal and wood it was made out of was burning, and the waiter held within was boiling off in a torrent of steam. The cloud of steam itself hanging over the bucket as it approached the upper top of the island did a good job of concealing whatever was inside, but not concealing the light pouring out. It was like a burning lantern being dragged up to the top, and yet no one seemed to notice. Not the people back in town celebrating, not even Jean or Asuza who were right here by the edge of the overhang of the island.
When finally the bucket reached the top, it was only a matter of moments before the fire began to spread to the dock surrounding, and seconds later the crane assembly hoisting the pail up was scorched to cinders and collapsed. Falling over the edge, it fell back to the sea along with the bucket it had pulled up in a fiery smoking mess. But the dock up here was still burning, and the glow was still spreading. And there the girl in the tracksuit stood, looking down at the falling wreckage of the crane until it hit the now-burning sea below, after which point she turned towards the rest of the upper island she was on.
"These places keep getting stranger and stranger... now, where did he run to this time?"
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Post by CJ on Mar 15, 2013 9:04:25 GMT -5
Grasping onto the knob of the door, the boy turned his back to the tracksuit woman and screamed for Asuza to wake up.
"I don't want to know you!" he shouted in fear and frustration.
As the world burned away, the boy turned back and watched the girl disappear into the void with bright yellow irises.
---
A new memory began. This time it was of someone he was familiar with. The memory was so real, so significant, he almost forgot about the girl who lit up the world in flames. The door was back, still present in this world. The memory of Asuza and Jean wouldn't be able to see or comprehend the object behind them, but it was as "real" as the boy.
His eye caught the wreckage of one of the transportation systems and knew exactly what it would bring.
"Stop!" the boy shouted with his hand outstretched, once the girl was in his sight.
The boy kicked his feet against the ground as he leaned against the door.
"Look, alright, let's talk... just not with you so close. The closer you get, the more the world goes away. I think..."
He ran behind the door and peered out at the girl with those same creepy yellow eyes.
"This place we're in, it's Asuza's head, isn't it? So how are you even here, Miss, if you're not Asuza? And why do those flames follow you? Are you a Devil Fruit user like me? Who are you?"
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 19, 2013 0:58:47 GMT -5
"Stop!"
Surprised that the boy addressed her the girl blinked and stopped for a moment, her eager smile leaving her face as she stood there, the ground cracking and melting beneath her feet.
"Look, alright, let's talk... just not with you so close. The closer you get, the more the world goes away. I think..."
"If I'm not close, then it's not talking. It's more like shouting at a distance! Let's just sit together and get to know each other, nothing bad will happen... I promise!"
With that she started moving towards him again. This time not so much out of deference for him or his desires, but because the memory was collapsing around them once again, the world burning till there was nothing left but a scorched sky and ashen earth. Even stone was burning and melting at this point, and the gleaming light was immense. Long since, had the town nearby and its inhabitants turned to cinders.
"This place we're in, it's Asuza's head, isn't it? So how are you even here, Miss, if you're not Asuza? And why do those flames follow you? Are you a Devil Fruit user like me? Who are you?"
"You mean this guy?" At that point she reached Jean and Asuza, though when she brushed past them their forms gave way to ashen husks to fall to the floor in piles. "I'm here because I want to be. This is his head, sure, but it's a part of his head he can't control... his nightmares."
She drew near now, and laughed lightly when he questioned the effect that she brought with her. Devil Fruit? Please, this was just her glowing personality! As bright as the sun it was, and burning twice as hard, perhaps a bit more literally than intended. Getting too close, well it was as they say, like a moth to a flame.
"Who am I? Ugh... that's a question that's been asked so many times, by so many people, that even I don't know anymore. No one does, least of all Kingsley here. That doesn't matter though, you didn't answer my question, and I asked it first."
She had been walking at a steady pace but the last part, perhaps fifty feet away, she took off in a run. Obviously she was dressed for the part in a tracksuit, because she was very fast, and closed the distance in a matter of moments. She didn't aim right for the boy though, she merely turned at the last minute and slammed against the door with her back so that she was leaning against it on the other side. Separated by it and as close as she was now, the boy would not simply be able to lean to the side of the door and see her. He would have to actually lean around to look. Either way he never got that chance.
"Who are you?"
After a few moments, she quickly leaned to the side of the door to meet the boy face to face, like looking into a mirror. Hanging onto the doorframe she leaned down a little to match his height, but she looked right into his yellow eyes with her own green ones. The smile on her face was wider than ever now, that she had finally made it to her new friend. Think of all the fun they could have together.
Unfortunately that was the breaking point. By now the memory had all but decayed and the final anchor, the door, now followed suit after being held onto by the girl for so long. The last burned and ashen remnants fell away along with her, only a yell of complaint left in her wake.
---
It was a nice sunny day out, though the sky did not match the sea well. It looked like a great ship battle had taken place not long before, as the damaged and sinking wrecks littered the ocean around the area. At the center of it all was a large boat of a strange shape and design. Very broad, very low, it looked more like a wide platform in the water on top of which a building sat. The building in this case, was a casino. A very large, clearly wealthy, floating casino. While the vessel clearly did not have much in the way of armaments, it could be correctly guessed that the cause of the strewn wreckage about the sea here had been done by people using the casino as a staging ground for the battle. Whether they were protecting it or trying to keep it for themselves was unclear, but they must have done a good job because the place was relatively unharmed.
"Beg pardon, Sir? They told us not to talk to the pirates, but that was amazing! I can't believe what I saw, and my friend here, she thinks it was magic!"
"Believe what you want, but it wasn't magic."
Asuza sat by the steps that led to the water, intended for people to dock their boats at when they wanted to come aboard and gamble. He had been trying to wash the soot and grime from a couple of his exploded weapons, when two persons of the casino approached. The one in front was a young man, probably about in his mid-teens, dressed in an attendants uniform for the casino itself. Hiding behind him quietly, hanging onto him and cautiously peering out from behind was a younger girl, dressed similarly but that was about it. Asuza couldn't tell her age as it looked like she had been underfed or mistreated, not to mention that she wasn't human. He didn't notice it at first as her skin tone and appearance was rather close to human, however the webbed hands and the gills were a dead giveaway, but he didn't noticed those until after awhile. Regardless, she couldn't have been in her teens yet.
"You two, you work here right? Like the others?"
"Yes Sir, yes we do! The best tables and the best odds in the four blues, right here!"
"Are you... how long have you... do you, belong here? To the people whose place this is?"
Shifting where he sat to better focus on the two, the young man was quite emphatic and cheery to boot, he seemed intent on speaking with Asuza. The girl though, she drew back when he moved to face them, and the boy had hold onto her to keep her there and tell her it was alright. In seeing, the King had a creeping suspicion that these were not normal youngsters. He and the others of his crew had already seen a number of slaves whom worked at this place, and he wondered if these two were the same. He just wasn't sure how to ask, in a proper way, on what he already knew was a sensitive subject. The boy seemed to understand though, eventually, and all the liveliness and cheer seemed to drain from his face rather quickly.
"...yes, Sir. Yes we do. We've... belong here for a few years now."
"A few years... that's how long me and my friends have been sailing around. Tell me, what are your names? Your real names?"
"...Jack, Sir. Jack Merrick."
"And what about this one? What's her name?"
"Samantha Faro, though she likes Sam better. Don't worry, she won't bite."
Nice kids. In coming to this place, Asuza's captain had gotten in a bit of trouble, and so they came. The white-coated soldiers that acted like police down here, marines. It didn't matter much though because they were repelled like any other, and their fleet wrecked. That one calling himself admiral was pretty strong, but nothing they couldn't handle. Once they had fought off the reinforcements though, the Heartfelt crew had effectively taken control of the place. Although they only came for supplies in the first place, they found a number of other things, including how the casino owned and employed slaves. The first order of business was to set them all free, although not all of them were intent on leaving. These two, they were just kids, and it wasn't so very long ago that Selfie or Jean were just kids, though really in his eyes they were still kids. He knew it wasn't his job or his rank to be deciding if people could come with them, least of all a pair of actual kids, but in this instance he was sure the captain would agree.
"So you've belonged here for a few years... well I'm sure you don't want to belong here forever, right?"
"Beg pardon, Sir?"
"How would you like to not belong to anyone, other than yourselves? Not have to work here or wear those clothes, to be able to live however you want? To be free..."
The boy's expression shifted from one of shame to one of thoughtfulness, as though he were a million miles away from this place in his idea of paradise. He wasn't looking at the King, so much as through him, to that place. The girl though, in hearing his words, she seemed to ease up a bit and leaned to the side to look at Asuza with both eyes now.
"Well, Sir-"
"Asuza. Don't call me Sir. I know your names, Jack and Sam, and you know mine."
"I think we would like that very much, to be..."
"Free..."
The prospect of it sounded so good to him that Jack was unable to properly finish his thought, though Sam spoke up to finish it for him. Spoke up in the relative sense that is, as she was no louder than a mouse. Asuza heard her though, and he smiled.
---
"More strangers, don't know any of them. Where's the one that matters, where's my friend?"
A ways off one of the outer doors of the casino opened, and there stood the girl in the red track suit. As sure as always she had a gleaming glow following after her, but this time she was quick enough to shut it inside the casino behind her. How much time that would buy, if any, as unclear although she didn't seem worried. She just wanted to find her new friend and to pick up where they left off. If she wasn't mistaken, they were at the point in their friendship where they could sit down and have a nice talk and get to know one another.
"Strange place too, always such strange places... but that doesn't matter, where did he wander off to this time?"
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Post by CJ on Mar 20, 2013 13:30:10 GMT -5
As the memory disappeared, the boy was left alone in a state of confusion. He hadn't felt this distraught until he bit into that apple at his party, since then his world was nothing but a realm of discord.
The door reappeared in this white space. It wasn't burned or harmed in any way. Whatever this woman was, she was a part of Asuza and, therefore, couldn't hurt him or anything he created here forever. He had an idea.
---
There, at the top of the steps by the casino, was the floor and furniture of the room Asuza was sleeping in, though with no walls to speak of. The boy from before was seated in the only chair Asuza wasn't able to see in the room before, a traditional seat with rose floral pattern. It looked rather odd and rude for him not to offer a seat to the Asuza sitting on the docks, though it was all too apparent the memory couldn't see him. The door remained, though now it stood at the end of the wooden floor, awkwardly placed above the steps and ground. For being able to create whatever he wanted in this space, it was clear the boy wasn't very creative.
He smiled, seeing the track suited girl exit the casino. He seemed quite comfortable seeing her there, confident that she wouldn't be able to harm him.
"Hey, you!" he exclaimed cheerfully, shouting over the precious memory (which wasn't too hard, given the relative quietness of the conversation, Sam's adorableness included.). "Come on over here! Take a seat! You should be able to stay in this space without destroying it... maybe. This way we can talk as you want. So, you asked who I am."
The boy brought his fingers together and wringed them on his lap.
"My name is Ward, son of Shield Asperio," he said carefully. "Well, I was the son of Shield Asperio until I killed him... and the others."
His face shifted between a smirk, a grimace and sheer ectacsy. He closed his eyes and clasped his ears.
"If I could read you, like I read them, I don't think I could stop myself from killing you either. There's so many sounds in people's heads. They make me want to scream."
His eyes opened and he looked about the memory.
"It's very quiet here. You're quiet too, in comparison to what I hear out there. So... you don't have a name, do you? You said you were here because you wanted to be here but I don't think that's the case."
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 21, 2013 20:58:54 GMT -5
"My name is Ward, son of Shield Asperio, well, I was the son of Shield Asperio until I killed him... and the others."
"You killed your family? That's... well I'm not sure really, I never had a family. Not a real one anyway, so I don't know what that would feel like."
The girl obliged the boy in his request to sit down, have a chat. First she had to take care of a little chore though. Out of habit she ran over and grabbed onto the memory of Asuza's shoulders form behind. As usual his body fell apart in her hands, leaving nothing more than cinders to blow away on the wind. Creepily enough, Jack continued having a conversation with the King who was not there, as per the memory. The tracksuit girl though, she entered into Ward's little refuge.
"If I could read you, like I read them, I don't think I could stop myself from killing you either. There's so many sounds in people's heads. They make me want to scream."
"That's not a very good attitude to have, you know. You should always try and help people as best you can, that's what I do, and if the sounds in their heads get to be too much... well, you should try and change them. No good just killing them when there will always be more, wouldn't it be better to change the world to suit you, rather than you trying to suit it?"
She entered into the little haven of space, but she didn't sit down in the nice chairs. Even if it wasn't standing, she preferred to remain on her feet, though in this case she just happened to be standing. She didn't really understand much of what War was talking about, as he seemed to be able to do things that other people could not. After all, he was in this place for starters. She could at least though, understand his position, about not liking his environment. It was so easy, he made it seem, to just kill everything he disliked. That was so unhealthy though, why not instead try and change things for the better, so that he would never again have these problems. Killing fixed the problem now, fixing the problem meant not having to kill ever again.
"It's very quiet here. You're quiet too, in comparison to what I hear out there. So... you don't have a name, do you? You said you were here because you wanted to be here but I don't think that's the case."
"Can you hear inside my head as well?" At this she smiled. "True, I'd rather be out there..." She gestured to nothing in particular, but Ward might be able to understand what she meant. "...but it's like you said, the world is not a very nice place for people like us. I had a dream of a world just right for me, and I tried to make it real. People though, they couldn't understand, they were only afraid. In the end, well... it's hard to explain, let me show you."
At that she leaned down, and reached forward to grab him. The first chance she had, to make physical contact. It was all she wanted, just to make sure he was there and that she could indeed interact with him. The moment she managed to even touch Ward without him disappearing, her smile vanished. Not hesitating for even a moment she lunged at him, trying to grab ahold of him and confine him as best she could. In the process she probably ended up knocking chair over, and once they hit the floor it gave way like water.
---
"There, isn't that better? Now it's only you, and me... but this world, is far too small to share."
It was practically empty now. No buildings, no people, no signs of nature. Just scorched earth stretching out in all directions to meet the horizon. Not even stone was present, having been melted from the heat; all that there was, was just an endless expanse of melted rock and dirt. It was not that it was all on fire, but it would have been hard to find any part of land that was not burned and glowing red, or actually burning. The culprit, Ward would already have been familiar with. A sun, much closer than it should have been, and far too close for anything here to withstand. Even the earth. So close, it was almost like one could reach out and touch it. The star itself was not large enough to obscure the sky, but very nearly so, and it's brilliant aura obscured what its physical form did not.
It's presence had reduced this place to nothing. An empty world. A dead world.
"I've been waiting for you Ward. All this time I've been waiting. For you, for your family. For your friends, and their families. Every one, I've been waiting for all of you, and I've missed you."
In all that burning emptiness, there was only Ward, and the girl in the track suit. There were many reasons she wanted to bring him here. She wanted to show him what she meant, the world she had dreamed of. The world she had tried to show to Asuza, but he attacked her for. As well, in this world there was nowhere that Ward could run to hide, nowhere he could find shelter. Perhaps most important of all though, this world was not Asuza's. He had never seen it himself, though he had been here many times since that day. This world, was a nightmare, in which he could do nothing, in which he was powerless. In this place she was truly happy, and she hoped very much that Ward would be happy as well.
She approached through the burning scenescape, aiming to grab ahold of him, of his head. To draw his face as close as she could to her own, to look him dead in the eyes.
"WHY DID YOU RUN AWAY FROM ME?"
Whether it was simply a ruse all along was unclear, but there was nothing left of that amiable, kindly spirit from before. Her smile was gone, her eyes were filled with hate, and she screamed when she spoke. She tried to tackle him again like back in the casino memory, to grab ahold of him, to force him down and to not let go. Only in this place, they wouldn't just fall through the ground when the hit it and wind up somewhere else. This was her domain, and the ground here was hard, hot, and layered in death.
If Ward was not able to avoid her, he would find her touch to be most unpleasant. He would hear only the endless screams of countless dying and dead, and see only sights to match, of people burning alive and meeting their end in terrible ways. These were all the worst things that Asuza had seen and heard in his life, and there were too many to number, most of them stemming from the cataclysm. Everything happening at that moment, was a recurring nightmare for the King, one he had been through countless times. It was always in this place, seeing and hearing these terrible things, because of her. In the real world he was one of the strongest people around, but here he was always powerless to stop it, and he suffered it every time. The only thing he was still afraid of after all these years, it went without saying that he always woke up screaming from this.
This time however, it was Ward who was in the exact role of Asuza instead. If the King could not handle it though, how would the boy fare?
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Post by CJ on Mar 21, 2013 23:54:19 GMT -5
"How could you be waiting for me?" Ward asked, floating in the emptiness. His yellow eyes reflected the light of the star. He was visibly scared of the woman, especially now that she was able to bring him to this place against his will.
But the star was so beautiful. He couldn't take his eyes off of it. Even though she forced him there, he was happy for it.
Then, everything changed. The woman in the tracksuit was someone he'd never forget, creating a source for future nightmares in his own dreams.
When she screamed, Ward lost himself for a brief crucial moment.
---
Asuza would be jolted awake, seated upright on the couch between the corpse of Obviate and the sleeping form of Miss Mouse. However, the initial shake would be all that he would be able to move. He was frozen in place. His eyes would be fixed on the boy, slouched in the chair.
A long hour passed as the boy cried quietly. He curled up into a ball and covered his eyes as he had in Asuza's mind. Clutching violently at his greasy hair, he swore at himself as clouds darkened the sky and, effectively, the light of the room.
"How," he finally murmured. He stood rapidly and stepped on Henri. He crept close to Asuza, almost meeting him face to face.
"How can you live with all of this suffering? Do you want to die? I can kill you right here."
The boy's arms slumped to his sides. He looked at his deceased aunt and his face fell into despair.
"No, anyone who goes through that much suffering and lives doesn't deserve to die. You live for others, not for yourself. All I've ever done is kill and hurt but you... you and my aunt have helped so many people."
With no transition to speak of, Asuza would the tension of a shovel pulling against dirt in his arms. He was digging the grave he wanted to dig before for Obviate, though now against his will. The sky burned orange. If he looked behind him, he notice the brick house in flames.
"I'll let Henri live because you need him," Ward continued, though his voice was present in Asuza, absent of a source. "I've learned a lot from your memories. The most important is that killing people isn't always the answer."
The scene would change to a dark candlelit room. Ward's silhouette could be seen, hacking away at something on a table nearby. The wood of the table shook as he brought an axe down over and over.
The boy's yellow eyes seemed to glow in the dark. Asuza would barely have enough time to notice the cot he was lying in, the dampness of the air, the twitching smile on Ward's face.
"Everyone has darkness, but this isn't something to be punished. It's something to be used. So use Henri, but don't trust him. Never, especially after your next encounter. Hopefully the message I've sent to him will be enough to deter him from ever harming you."
Finally, Asuza would find himself standing in front of Light von Feuer's mobile home. Standing next to him was Henri, looking quite tired and paler than when he last saw him at the Asperio home. He was covered in sweat.
Henri raised his arms up as his entire body shook. His hands were missing. All that was left were bloody encrusted stumps. He made a small unintelligible noise.
"Goodbye, King Asuza and thank you."
The coordinator of the Grand Path fainted into the door as it opened. Light caught Henri right in time. Her eyes went wide when she saw his arms. She looked to Asuza for any answer as to what happened. She cringed when she couldn't find one.
He might have noticed a pile of newspapers on the steps of the mobile home. There were three of them. The oldest, three days ago, had a stark bold headline.
SEASTONE TYCOON ASPERIO'S MANSION BURNS YOUNGEST SON AND NURSE ONLY SURVIVORS
Light dragged Henri into the mobile home and slammed the door in Asuza's face.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 22, 2013 0:06:55 GMT -5
Asuza blinked as the door was slammed in his face. He then turned away from the mobile home to look at the morning sunrise.
"I don't even know what the fuck is going on anymore."
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Post by Kyubey on Mar 22, 2013 2:30:45 GMT -5
Back in our regularly scheduled programming, Moisant raised a single eyebrow at Asuza's new tactics, impressed still that the King was able to find such good uses for his presumably useless weapons, and had actually managed to avoid taking serious damage from the spheres. In a usual fight, this was the part where Moisant began to take the upper hand, but Asuza was not by any means normal, and if the older man was to win, he knew to not treat him as such. Moisant began to move away from Asuza, going upwards along the spiral, hoping to create as much distance between the two as he could. As long as he was out of reach, he had the advantage. Next, he began swinging his trident about, moving his spheres into action.
The two that Asuza hit fell to the ground and rolled along 'til they fell off the edge of their spiraling battleground. Whatever had kept them afloat and within the control of Moisant's weapon, that control had been lost after the impact. Fortunately, he still had four left.
After he made good distance, Moisant made three motions in rapid succession with the trident, subtly touching the knob each time. The first motion sent a single black sphere racing at Asuza, just as the ones before did. The second and third, however, circled around, moving slower but only slightly, flanking the rocket-wielding king. With the speed in which the old man manipulated his tools, it would seem as though the action was done in one brief stroke, and a single man would have a great amount of difficulty reacting to all three at once, for even if he were to dodge, Moisant could simply shift his trident, and they would follow their mark.
If Asuza could afford to be observant at that moment, he would have noticed that one of the three, the one approaching his left, was one of the different ones, that was a slightly different shade than the others.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 22, 2013 23:22:01 GMT -5
When Aszua saw the three orbs incoming, he knew that he would not be able to stop all three at once, and he wasn't about to try. Instead, he had a sudden and desperate idea, though it was all he could think of. Wielding the rocket aloft once more, instead of running forward or back or standing his ground to defend himself, he rushed to side. Towards the edge of the formation, aiming to perhaps smack the outer orb away if it came too close.
As he ran to the edge, he dropped low and skidded right off, only to catch himself and swing down to the level below. It was his intent to get down there and out of the line of sight of Moisant, whom he believed needed to see him for the spheres to work. The rocket was lost in the process, and he hit the ground of the formation below in a roll, but clamored to his knees. Getting as close to the center of the formation as he could, he drew forth another rocket and cupped his hand around the fuse to keep it from getting wet. With his spare hand he went for a lighter, and it was his plan to simply blast from underneath the part of the formation that Moisant was on.
However in the time it took him to maneuver down here and get set up to fire, Moisant would well be able to act a good deal before then.
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Post by Kyubey on Mar 23, 2013 1:33:48 GMT -5
Moisant, having expected Asuza to block the spheres due to his previous actions, was not prepared for the King to dodge as he did, and struggled to keep up. As Asuza changed position, the spheres increased their pace, but by the time they had reached where he had been, their mark had already dropped and skidded to the edge.
As the three spheres collided, there was a large explosion, with a relatively weak burst, but a wide blast radius, that the King was able to narrowly avoid. It occurred when the slightly different of the spheres, the one with the reddish tint, made impact with the other two. Asuza would not have been able to see this explosion, having already swung to the lower level, but he would have heard it, and might have been able to guess the cause. The detonated sphere was gone now, nothing more than a few pieces of shrapnel on the ground, and it had blasted one of the normal ones outside of Moisant's range of influence. The other sphere used in the attack, however, was perfectly fine, as Moisant was able to pull it away from the impact at the last moment.
Before Asuza was even able to fire at the tough rocks below Moisant's feet, the older man had already made actions to avoid it. He pulled his last remaining black sphere to him, and leapt on top of the weapon, using it to float above the floor beneath him. Balancing carefully, he slowly moved the sphere downwards and away from the spiral, until he was on the same level as his enemy, several feet directly above ground. From where he was, he may have been safe from Asuza for the moment, but he knew he couldn't stay long, the winds were beating at him far too hard for him to remain on top of the sphere so precariously. In a last-ditch effort, he sent the second and last red sphere straight at Asuza, praying the attack would find its mark.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 23, 2013 13:31:42 GMT -5
In the time it took for Asuza to light the fuse and keep it shielded, he found that Moisant was no longer where he had been. Not only was he on the same level of the formation, but he was hovering in the air on top of one of the spheres. It was only a matter of moments now though before the rocket fired, and he now noticed the red sphere. His mind raced.
He couldn't just swing and bat it away, as regardless of whether the sphere itself would explode, the rocket certainly would now. He couldn't just run straight at Moisant either because of this. His only option was to let the rocket fire, but his targets were limited. He couldn't risk shooting at the incoming sphere in case he missed and then got an explosion in the face. Neither could he shoot for Moisant as he had no idea how mobile the man was on that floating ball so it was possible that he could just dodge. As well, even if he hit Moisant dead center and took him out, the King would still have to fare with the red sphere.
He had barely any time to think as the fuse was at its end. In desperation, he acted according to neither of his worries. Instead, he went through with his original plan of shooting where Moisant had been before. At the last moment he swung the rocket upwards and let it fire straight at the formation above them. His intent was to hit the stony roof and cause an explosion, to trigger a collapse. He didn't think that it would take down the entire tower, but if he could get a portion of the roof to cave in then it would not only bury the explosive sphere (or cause it to detonate), but even possibly do the same to Moisant.
Of course he knew the risk involved, that he could suffer the falling rocks as well. It was the only option he could think of though, that might take care of all the problems at once, albeit at significant risk to himself.
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Post by Kyubey on Mar 25, 2013 2:43:20 GMT -5
As the rubble from Asuza's rocket blast fell, some of it did indeed hit the incoming red sphere. What resulted was not the sphere being buried, however, but in it exploding, sending little shards of rock everywhere, and possibly enveloping Asuza as well. The blast itself was designed to not kill, but merely to injure, so though the King would have been caught in the sudden blast, it wouldn't have hurt him too badly. As for Moisant, he was several feet away from the spiral itself still, so he continued to be safe. Except now, he found himself without any means of attacking from his safe location. He might have stayed where he was, waiting to see if his opponent would try to find a way to come at him, but not only would that have been impractical and tedious, the elements and the rockets both worked against those little plans of his, forcing him to come up with something else. A cold sweat appeared on his forehead when he realized that he was coming near to the end of his little mental list of tricks. Not often had someone been able to get this far in a fight with him, and nobody had exhausted him so fast. Even the tricky maneuvers he normally utilized because painfully useless now, as the King's sheer strength and endurance made them impossible to pull off, and the standard tactics Moisant used in situations like these he knew to be impossible also, for Asuza already proved himself to be much smarter than the ordinary fighters who relied mostly on power alone.
So Moisant, perhaps losing his usual cool for a moment, decided to test his luck in a charge.
If Asuza had been caught in the explosion, he would have been stunned at the least, and that would have given the old man enough time to rush forward and perhaps get a good blow in. One good hit with the trident was all the old man needed by that point. He pointed his weapon forward, and, responding in turn, the sphere that was his perch obeyed, moving straight in the direction stated by the motion of the trident. The sphere accelerated, and, due to it's master's aim, would lead straight to the King himself.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Mar 26, 2013 12:57:30 GMT -5
Partway buried under the collapsed rubble, the King struggled to crawl out from underneath all that fallen stone. Some of it had struck him pretty hard after being further blasted by the exploding sphere, and he was hurting all over. Still, he managed to crawl out, rocks falling off as he lifted himself up. The mass of rockets and weapons on his back got snagged, but with a great effort he finally freed himself, taking the chance to sit against the central pillar of the formation.
And then he got speared in the gut with a trident. He seized up from the sensation, grabbing at the trident without thinking about it. He struggled, trying deal with this latest injury, but it was a lot to get over. With great effort he leaned forward and attempted to stand up, letting out a long breath as he did so. Holding onto the trident as blood seeped through his bandages and vest, he managed to stand to his full height. Blood cloud be seen soaking through the bandages about his mouth as well, but with his free hand he reached for another rocket from his back. A solid metal number like the other, he held it aloft, before bringing it around in a sweeping motion.
Unless Moisant let go or had a way of moving it, Asuza intended to destroy the remaining sphere the old man had; the one he was standing on.
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