Welcome to Gaia! :: .~*ϿHell's RoguesϾ*~. ((NOW OPEN!)) ((LITERATE RP)) | Forum

(Is this still alive? I was wondering since I was busy all weekend.. )

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself; I am large--I contain multitudes."

Job descriptions were hard to come by in his line of work. Tailing, tapping, escorting, researching, background checking, package handling, these were to be expected as general tasks, without worrying too much of their subject matter. But Liam couldn't recall when he last cased a property for reasons as yet not divulged. The client's request was benign enough: ascertain the efficacy of a certain building's security, discover faults, and provide a list of said faults. Left unsaid was whether or not this was for the purpose of rectifying the security holes. It was also left unasked.

So there he was, casing, across the street, what looked very much like private property. Liam decided that he could only assume his client was its very owner. From his vantage point--and what a vantage point it was--he could identify CCTV cameras and their blind spots, the regular movement of sparse private security personnel, and managed to capture the rolling code for the automated security governing the points of entry via handheld device. This was no small task, considering he was strapped and grounded to the power lines many several feet in the air. Odd working hours notwithstanding, he probably didn't draw too much curiosity garbed in the jumpsuit of a utility worker with a matching work van parked beneath him. Adding to the facade was his affected use of diagnostic equipment whilst keeping a lineman's handset cradled against his ear. Just some late-night line work, that's all. Nothing of import.

Liam eventually scaled down the pole, heaped his equipment into the back of the van, and took off. He'd compile his findings later for delivery. First he had to ditch the van, before the head office caught wind of the scrambled Lo Jack broadcasting its position as being that of an empty parking spot. A stroke of genius led him to side streets that brought him to a less civilized part of town. With little luck involved, the local criminal element would probably hijack and-or vandalize the van before dawn. So Liam ditched the ride behind a seedy building that had a bad case of urban leprosy, threw the jumpsuit into a dumpster a block or two down, and proceeded as normal. Just another guy pulling a late night, wearing distressed charcoal slacks, an untucked white Oxford, a maroon tie barely hanging on to his neck, and a messenger bag over his shoulder. A flask of Jameson would've made an apt accessory. He'd have to consider it for the next nocturnal return to his humble abode. Before the night was out, however, he'd surely find need for it a lot sooner.

He hadn't counted the number of blocks he'd traversed before the shouts reached his ears. Laughter, and the stuff was steeped in schadenfreude. A concoction of different voices, with different intents conveyed by intonation, could scarcely be heard. Curiosity and little more guided him around the bend, half-stumbling past a comatose bum to reach the lateral vantage point of a news stand. From behind the folds of yesterday's news, comics, and...other graphic novels, he could view the things that should not be. Liam supposed he should have been breathless, his heart pounding, but this was a man who'd seen worse without batting an eye: radiation poisoning, half-molten spall of tank armor swiss-cheesing infantry, white phosphorous immolating "collateral damage," also known as civilians. Sure, there was something wrong with him, especially when unearthly images such as these were simply perceived, accepted, and cycled into his paradigm of reality. And he wouldn't have had a second thought about turning and walking away, were it not for some vestigial inclination to defend previously uninvolved bystanders. That, and his curiosity went to the morbid side as to just what this assumed enemy was all about. Liam needed something of a plan, a smoke screen. Glancing down at the bum, still unconscious, he spotted the third of Wild Turkey on the ground. Well, that was a start.

Liam silently lifted the bottle from the loose grasp it was in, taking a couple swigs after swabbing the opening with his shirt. Then he stumbled, shambled his way into the artificial light. This wasn't a particularly difficult ruse to pull off, not when he'd had first-hand experience to the same effect.

╔ Let the heart bleed and shatter╝


Twilight threw back her head in another cackling laughter. The laughter only added to the woman's heaving back. As she watch the man sob, the new girl scold him, and the woman bleed, she felt the warmth bloom in her chest. The euphoria bubbled and churned in her. It started to engulf her as the man shook his head and turned his head to face the white haired girl. His eyes were red and puffy and snot ran from his nose and was dripping off his chin. Wow, he looks so pathetic. How his heart must be breaking! She then called upon Maleficent to come hold the woman.

Stepping in front of the woman, she brushed her cheek against Elysse's tears stained on. Twilight started to run a hand through the woman's blond hair as she whispered sweetly in her ear, "Your love has condemned you to death. Do you see how he has committed the ultimate act of betrayal? Know in your heart that you are now completely alone. Savor it, cherish it. For, it will be the only real emotion you will ever feel."

Stepping away, Twilight bent down in front of the woman and made in her hands a rope of demonic energy. The black energy crackled and spat blue lightening as she tied it around the woman's. This was meant to lessen the bleed and to keep the woman alive a little bit longer. Alas, she would die tonight. The man had delivered a killing blow.

Standing up now, she turned and looked at the man again. He was just now speaking. "I... I love her so and I hoped... I hope that if I just hurt her a little they would let us go."

At this Twilight had to laugh again. Such a pleasure this couple was! She hadn't had fun like this in a long while. Walking over to the slumped man, she grabbed a fist full of hair and stared into his brown eyes. "My dear, I would have you know you cut a major artery in her leg and now she will die." Letting go of his head, she flung it forward so his head would smash into the ground.

Looking up at the white haired girl, she smiled and said to her, "Lovely, humans can love another deeply, but very rarely will they sacrifice themselves. Most likely, they will love themselves more than one another. That is the beauty of it."

As she grabbed the dagger from Jorishin's hand, a woman approached them demanding that they go. Another grisly grin graced Twilight's other wise enchanting face. Walking over to the new woman, she saw that she was a human. This made her smile grow. "Oh really now? You wont tell a soul?"

Twilight walked over to the man and dragged him to his feet with one hand. With the other, she grabbed his jaw and forced him to look at the human. "You see this newcomer," hissed Twilight, "She wishes to save you." His eyes grew wide with hope. But, the look didn't last long.

As quick and lightening, she slashed gashes in his cheeks and chest. With a wail of pain, Twilight let the man crumple to the ground again. Turning back to the human, she said nonchalantly, "My dear, you could tell the world and I would not care. Call the police or your mother, matters not to me."

Shrugging her shoulders, grotesque wings sprouted from her back. Flapping them once and speeding them to their full 16 feet wing span, she relaxed the demonic energy wings. "I could hide for centuries, still killing and torturing all the while. Your human protectors will not do a thing."

Gesturing to the happy couple, she said cynically, "But feel free to join us."

Jorishin granted Twilight an expression of approval for her efforts. "Very impressive, darling, even for someone as talented and ingenious as you," he praised, his enchanting voice adopting a tint of flattery. "I struggle to think of how I might outdo your brilliance."

The man's body now felt lighter in his arms; perhaps he was getting a bit faint. Maybe I should wake him up, thought the twisted enchanter.

And he did.

Moving swiftly, Jorishin flourished the dagger and brought it across the boy's back twice, being careful to avoid severing his spinal cord. It worked. The man howled in pain and would have collapsed if the demon behind him were not holding his limp body up. "But I didn't move!" he protested.

Jorishin's lips curled as he replied: "The next act requires a volunteer from the audience, and since she's your girl, I think you'll know how best to handle her." He offered the dagger to the boy, and when he gave a confused gaze in return, Jorishin couldn't help but chuckle. "Since my friend seems to be so confident about how she performed that last act, why don't you go up and show us how you think it ought to have been done." Knowing what sorts of thoughts must have been running through the desperate man's head at this point, he laughed and added, "Of course, do try to put some effort into it: your audience will not take kindly to you if your interpretation is less than satisfying." With that, he released the boy, knowing that he would be smarter than to assume that he had liberty in this new freedom.

Erik crumpled to the ground immediately, his legs weak from shock and grief. As he knelt there, staring at the dagger in his hand, he could feel the gazes of his captor, of the hellish girl across from him, and of his love--all of them waiting to see what he would do. He knew he could not run, nor could he refuse to do as he had been told--they would kill him, or worse, kill her, or worse still, torture them both without end. He thought briefly that he could instead attack one of these foul demon-things...but he found the notion hopeless almost as soon as he could entertain it. He knew that the moment he went for one of them, the other would be at his throat...if the one he attacked couldn't deal with him by itself, of course.

After thinking hopelessly for what must have been a millennium, Erik felt that his captors might be growing impatient, and he reluctantly stood up. He couldn't look Elysse in the eye as he walked up to her shuddering figure, but he could hear her breathing only too clearly: it was full of fear, full of anguish, full of tears. He opened his mouth to say something, something along the lines of "I'm sorry," but only a strangled sob was able to fight its way out before he rose the dagger and brought it down in half-hearted slash.

It was enough. The blade fell against her upper thigh, and it was evident from the amount of blood spatter from the wound that it had cut a major artery. Elysse screamed, and Erik dropped the dagger and collapsed in a sobbing heap as his lover's blood stained his shirt. Their anguish pierced the night.

Jorishin's eyes glinted in excitement. The boy had done better than he anticipated. "Bravo, bravo! You're quite right. My lady's performance was lacking in blood spill. Be proud--you have done well, my boy." Jorishin gave Twilight a smug look, challenging her to outdo these amusing atrocities.

"He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man" Samuel Johnson

╔ Let the heart bleed and shatter╝


A crackle came from Twilight's throat. It clawed at the woman's heart and made her cringe. That laugh was hollow and empty, but so malevolent in nature. The sound reached into her chest and squeezed her lungs. It was frightening that any creature could make such a terrible sound. As the woman tried to struggle free, she realized her captor had inhuman strength. There was no way to escape and no way to help her lover. He had been her pillar of strength when all was going wrong and now... he looked weak and frail next to the other man.

Twilight watched the woman quiver and whimper. She was so helpless in her arms and death was upon her. But, despite all the potential danger the woman was in, Twilight could tell that she yearned for her partners safety. Completely disgusted by it, Twilight took her free hand and tug savagely on the woman's blonde hair. This elicited a yelp of pain from her and grin from Twilight. The beastly woman roared in sick laughter as she pulled her Katana from the sheath at her side. Still laughing, she cut deeply into the woman's arms and then rammed it into her victim's leg as a temporary, fleshy sheath. Twilight made sure not to hit the major artery. Another wail came from the woman as the sword wiggle in her leg.

"The wonder of it all! Feel the pain, my love!" cried Twilight. Her eyes glittered with feral pleasure and reveled in the feeling of the warm liquid from the woman's arms oozing onto her hands. The woman started to sob uncontrollably. Perfect. Snickering, she pull out the blade and made another nice long gash across the woman's stomach.

Snickering, she looked to the man and taunted, "Watch her bleed. Watch her eyes cry for your help!" His heart was breaking in front of her. Oh the glory of his pain!

Another fiendish smile slipped across her face as she looked to her partner, "Your turn, my sweet."