Re: You Killed Something I Cannot Remember, Now Prepare To Die

Sat Jan 07, 2017 4:20 pm

Rudi! and Mr. Badguy's name!

Yaksha's smile was warm, but he was a little like the ocean. Sunlight and warmth only reached so far into the ocean. But there is so much more to the sea than where the sunray will reach, and what lays below are the monsters and long-lived giants of legend, when they climb up to the surface sick and dying and only a shadow of their true splendor.

In short, Yaksha smiled like royalty, a quality that could not be removed for any amount of humiliation and any position provided.

"I'm smiling like this because I'm happy to be alive, Rudi. I'm happy for everything around me right now. I've spent a long time feeling like an outsider. Like I was...just going through the motions. Doing something I didn't understand, in the hopes it'd make sense eventually. And it finally does. Everything is right with the world, Rudi. And now you're here, and now you can share in the beauty with me."

A hand on his neck, gentle and insistent. Rudi froze for a second, his instinct to run and thrash like an animal with a pole-catch around its throat. To snarl and bite and probably, with his strength, break a limb in his ferocity and fear. And yer instead, he moved with careful obedience to the window and stood to watch as he was bid to watch.

And the sight was like another night sky, a hundred thousand stars fallen onto the earth as casinos, of lit signs, of countless shining objects demanding their own attention, pleading for hapless souls to pay all they have for a hopeless dream.

And to know Yaksha would share this paradise of color and hedonism with young Rudi was something he understood. This was something like friendship, potentially, but perhaps it was something more involved that Rudi had no words for.

"I can help you meet them, I think, maybe. Most people don't think I'm strong, but I'm really strong. I can hide and sneak around really good, too!" He grinned and motioned to the city. "And I can sense everyone there, their blood, I can hear how strong they are. And, um, their blood, too, if I drink it. I always know where they are. Kind of. If they are sick, too. I can taste it. I can help make them see you."

These words came out of his body in a borderline-nervous rush, perhaps something like starstruckness in his eyes.

Coding By: [THEFROST]

Sun Jan 08, 2017 12:12 am

He could feel it, the same way a person could tell it when a dog was about to snarl, or yowl, or whirl and snap at someone. The arrancar jumped, his skin crawling ever so slightly. There was an odd gleam to his eye, and sensation that told Yaksha, clearly and with utmost certainty, that he was about to be seriously harmed. To strike the back of the neck was an unpardonable sin, in nearly any word; even amongst humans, doing it was almost unilaterally a sign of dominance, a reminder of some artificial heirarchy; for animals, it was far clearer.

Anyone that close to your spine could damn well do as it pleased, and you'd better do your damndest in the next 5 seconds to convince it otherwise, by any means. He met Rudi's eyes, his expression turning smooth, blank, inscrutable...but he didn't move in the slightest. His muscles didn't even stiffen in preparation for some impending violence, or to start a retreat. He simply held his fingers there, his eyes and face giving off the absolute knowledge that there would be no confrontation over this matter? Why would they come to blows over it? It was natural that he hold the life of this boy in his hands. It was, if anything, an insult that life alone was what he held. There was arrogance, and amusement, and certainty, and simple quiet competence, all bundled up into that smile.

And then, just like a good boy, Rudi yielded. He walked the boy along, speaking slowly, softly, to himself. He had just played with fire, and stepped away unsinged; the boy could've almost certainly removed his hand, and quite a bit besides. And he hadn't even tried, it seemed. He walked along, content to be led, exuding a quiet, vibrant exuberance. It almost felt like a dog, vibrating ever so slightly in excitement at its masters' touch. Was it the boy himself...? Had he simply been so indoctrinated into obedience that the moment he'd been given someone besides a simple contest of flesh and fang, he rolled over and showed his belly? Or was Yaksha truly that charismatic? How could it be that just a mere few days in this body could change that much? How was it that he had already led this boy into the jaws of damnation? And what right did he have to prey on innocence like that?

The greatest right of all; the right given by another.

Yes. That was it. Whether it was by his own machinations or the boy's, this was Rudi's will. He had chosen to invest some measure of trust into Yaksha, to allow him this simple, quiet power over him. And that meant that Yaksha had an obligation to reciprocate; to allow the boy to rest easy knowing his lord was a good one. And so he leaned down, his expression somber, his words soft, soothing. He spoke each one with leaden, flat finality, like someone who was drilling home a point to a person, one that was simultaneously important beyond comprehension, and apparent beyond all contention.

"You can't make them see, Rudi. Whoever sent you after me made that mistake, and look what happened. There is no one truth; the world doesn't have some stockpile of truth, or fairness, or justice, the way it does iron or hydrogen. These things are substances beyond our comprehension, things that exist on a higher order of existence. It isn't our place, to force things upon others. Let them fight. Let them worry. Let them bury their heads in the sand, like ostriches. The truth will out. I have no intention of using force, or making demands, or deceiving, to get what I want. I'll take this town under my dominion, bit by bit, and I will show these people that there are worse fates than to have their success bound to mine; after all, succeeding is what I do. But...there can be no force. Not one little bit. All we can do is present opportunities, Rudi. Show them, lead by example...and wait for them to come to the truth in their own time. It's not always easy, and forcing people to accept a truth only makes them seek to find faults in it."

He smiled ever so slightly, squeezing Rudi's neck, just slightly too hard. Just hard enough to hurt. But that smile, that tone, those words...why should that be a concern? What was so wrong with being under his thumb? That was what he was saying, as clear as day; that there was absolutely nothing to fear, nothing to worry over, nothing to hide from.

For the bad guy had you in his grasps now, and that meant that nothing could get any worse. Everyone knew that, who knew anything about villains; the only place left to go from here was up, right?

Sun Jan 08, 2017 12:12 pm

Rudi! and Mr. Badguy's name!

Yaksha's voice was nice to listen to. Rudi nodded along with his words, eyes nearly half-lidded. His tail flicked back and forth, slowly, lazily through the air as if in slow-motion. Or perhaps it was merely the sensation of the hand on his neck paired with the voice that made it easy to listen to. He was always partial to being told what to think, what to do. And Yaksha's logic made sense, in the way a child knew that if they were told not to touch the hot stove they would shove their hand in it out of spite.

Still, he wanted to do what he can to help, to somehow mine that smile for a little bit more sunshine, to somehow see how deep this man's personality went. There was an air of attraction to him, in the somberness of the voice, of the quiet confidence of a man doing what is natural for his position regardless of the difference between their power.

However, when Yaksha's hands dug into his flesh, his lips curled into something that could be mistaken for a smile. It was not one, for the lips were pulled back just a little too far, showing a hint of his pink, pink gums and all of his teeth, a little too sharp for an entirely human child. A mild, but stalwart threat display that the older man should not push his luck. But Rudi didn't lash out back, or respond in any way. Indeed, perhaps it could be more described as a threat out of caution, or an indication of his mild displeasure than an out-and-out expression of inevitable violence. Perhaps there was still a ways to go before he would be pushed to lashing out.

Yaksha's nails dug into skin and pierced his minimal Hierro as easily as any human skin, perhaps even easier. Although Rudi didn't show any pain, blood welled around Yaksha's fingers and, in fact, if the man tried to pull back he would find he could not. His hand was stuck in place clasped around his neck, with Rudi looking back and his teeth bared in too-wide smile frozen onto his face. And still Rudi did nothing to lash out at this stranger, who made him feel strangely sick and nervous even though Rudi could probably kill him easily.

Then Rudi closed his mouth, and with it, his wounds closed with him and Yaksha was freed again to pull his hand back if he so wished it. The boy looked back to Las Vegas. "What kinda example you thinking of leading? There's a lot stronger than you, though. Stronger than me. They'll fight you and hurt you. How come you don't get scared? How come you don't hide?"

Rudi made no move to harm Yaksha, but he was tenser now, and one hand had traveled once more to his blade. This time holding it by the sheathe, in case he needed to transform in a hurry. "What do you succeed at?" As if he was unaware of the context of success between them- and how Yaksha had already proven the sharpness of his own weaponry.

Coding By: [THEFROST]

Sun Jan 08, 2017 10:17 pm

"Fear is for those who rely on force to get what they want, Rudi. I'm not scared because there's no room for fear when you're riding the tiger with a leash made of dental floss. You're riding the exhilarating high... and then you're flat dead. There's no time to worry about who you killed, or who you pissed off, or what you could've done differently. You're riding a wave, and as soon as the wave breaks you're shot onto another wave. I'm not scared because fear means you suffer twice; you forsee your defeat, and then it comes to you. But if you never exhibit even an ounce of worry...then by the time it's all come crashing down, you can't even tell."

His eyes were wide open, his expression one of almost fanatical delight as he stared off into the distance, his expression amused, triumphant, and deranged, all at once. There was a sense with each word that he was seeking a high that he may never find, that he was desperately attempting to find something that he couldn't even put into words. And yet, as he spoke about it, he seemed...hopeful. Exuberant. Like a child, being told all of a sudden that he was getting a puppy, and trying his damndest to prove he was going to feed it, and bathe it, and teach it not to poop inside.

"As for what I succeed at, Rudi...? Why, everything, given long enough; I'm a bit of a renaissance man, you see. Though I predate it by no small bit. Give me a few months, the sheet music...and I can make it work. Hum a few bars, and I can fake it. I don't need to know what I'm doing, because you won't know what I'm doing, either! And I'm far better at not knowing than you are, my little one!"

He pulled his hand away, holding it up to the light. As he did, he could see each muscle and vein, could see the faint twitches as he did something as simple as lift one finger, moving it up and down. He looked almost lost in the act of watching his own muscles contract and release, unspeaking for quite some time. There was a sense he could've sat there, silently watching himself, all day unless snapped out of it.

Sun Jan 08, 2017 10:37 pm

Rudi! and hopes and dreams!

Yaksha's logic made sense, Rudi thought. It made perfect sense that Yaksha wanted to be good at everything, face it with all the confidence of a man that knew that he would never fail, so that an eventual falling would be all the less thought over. To ride the wave of success, yes. Rudi watched the man's gaze, that delight, and he smiled in turn. This logic made sense to him.

He liked when Yaksha called him 'my little one'. It gave him a sense of belonging, of someone to belong to. It was like parenthood, kind of. something Rudi craved like nothing else. Safety, guidance. A direction to grow. He watched the man stare at his own hand as if it was the first time he had ever seen it.

He let this continue on for a few minutes longer before nudging the man at his side, pressing his face against Yaksha's midsection in an attempt to bring the man out of his strange and somewhat disconcerting reverie. He made a small humming noise in the back of his throat, insistent and difficult to ignore, especially when pressed up against one's midsection (in case Yaksha was ticklish!)

"Something wrong with your hand, Mister Yaksha? You're looking at it funny... If you wanna be the best at everything... can I be the best at helping you be the best? Like best friends! But helping!"

Coding By: [THEFROST]

Sun Jan 08, 2017 10:48 pm

Flesh. Muscle. Bone. All of it so new, so rich, so fresh. And so tainted; he could feel it, somewhere deep beneath the surface. The same way most people could sense the heat generated from a fever, the same way that he could almost certainly sense an impending sneeze, Yaksha could sense it just beneath his skin; an abomination unto this world, a curse and a plague. Something that never had any right to exist. He reached down to Rudi, hand gently sliding through his hair. And this time when he spoke his voice seemed to have changed, ever so subtly; there was no more sibilant shenanigans, no more of that languid tomfoolery. This was a voice for doing business, a voice for giving commands, ones that the speaker knew with absolute certainty would be followed.

"Of course you can help, Rudi. You see, I'm a special man. Not just in the way I think, but to the very core of my being. My own muscle and flesh is special. It's been in me, for some time now; this capacity for greatness. And I can give it to you, too. Many call it a curse, or an unwelcome burden. An intruder. In a sense, it is; in the same way that a secret is a burden upon one who hears it spoken. It will change you, without question. It will make things you thought important seem far more meaningless. And it will mean that the two of us will have a bond that can never be broken."

He reached down slowly, fingers intertwining in Rudi's chin this time. He pushed it up, the movement slow, meticulous. His eyes had widened, taking on a property very much like two wells; they had grown far deeper, prettier, almost seeming to contain the entire world. And as Rudi stared, it would've been hard to miss the sight; tiny forms, flickering off in the very corners of Yaksha's sclera. At first they almost looked like fish, swimming and swirling beneath the surface of the ocean. Something undeniably there, quite apparent, and yet obscured, so thoroughly.

"You see them. Your eyes follow their motions, and betray you. There's no point in lying about it. Are you scared, Rudi? You're looking into the eyes of a madman, after all. That's what everyone will tell you, from now on; that I'm mad, and you're mad for letting me have my way. They'll tell you that mine are the eyes of a killer, of a monster. Someone less than human. But none of that matters...because none of them see. But you see them. You can see the things no one else can. That's why you were brought here, Rudi...to be the first to see."

Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:19 pm

Rudi! and hopes and dreams!

The man struck Rudi as... as frightening... but moreso. He made Rudi feel a deep sense of confusion and disquiet. The man's voice was that of a commanding father, and he couldn't help but desire to obey- but, what command was he obeying? Rudi simply didn't know. And what would make it worse was the gaze that he pointed to Rudi's direction. His eyes were too wide but- but- what was worse was what terrible things danced like chopping waves in a sea, but it was the eye.

He made a face that looked almost like he could cry, rather suddenly, and rather uncharacteristically. He began to pull back, pressing his little body against the glass, his legs digging into the windowsill and trying to force him to back up further. In fact, the force of his doing this began to crack the glass behind him, forcing a sound like crackling wood to creak from the window and with it the appearance of the window starting to break with his fear, what looked to be a strike of lightning from his body to the roof of the large window.

"What... W-what's wrong with your eyes, Mr. Yaksha? How come they're... they're... weird...?" He sniffled slightly, pulling his face from Yaksha's grasp and his eyes darting around, looking for an exit, looking for the best exit point, pressed up against the glass as he was. He needed out. He needed out he needed out he needed out. Panic and confusion, desire to obey, desire for home, desire for safety, and curiosity mixed all at once in a way that made Rudi's head hurt.

For once he was completely baffled, and he didn't really know what to do- what was expected of him, nor did he know what it was he saw or why it struck him with such disquiet. Eventually, the strength gave out from his legs with the power of Yaksha's gaze, and he begun to slowly, but insistently, pull his blade towards his chest to perform his Resurrección... It was all he could think to do.

Coding By: [THEFROST]

Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:31 pm

Yaksha blinked. It was such a simple act, the span of barely half a second, but it seemed to change so much. His expression was once more that insouciant, careless trickster, his eyes wide in shock and concern, his hand flying upwards, pressing against the corner of his cheek. He glanced off to the side, towards and imaginary audience, and spoke in a tone of overblown surprise and dismay, drawing each word out far more than was needed.

"Oooooooh noooooo! I think I broke him! And here I was hoping he'd want to know more. Now he's gonna rip me to shreds, and piss on the pieces! He'll chop me up and feed me to the pigs! I'll be sleeping with the fishes tonight, ladies and gentlemen!"

He made a faint, histrionic stutter step through the center of the room, dancing all about, and hopping in a way that was painful, confusing, and amusing to watch; it was the sort of act someone felt, more than anything, they'd want to see a few more times, just to make sure they'd caught it right. He turned back towards Rudi, raising his hand, fist extended, his voice turning into a gruff, no-nonsense tone of force, as he pantomimed jabbing a few times.

"Unless! I can take out the hero before he knows what hit him. A duck to the left, a dip to the right, a jab to the left, a few feints, a jab, and...WHAM! Down for the count!"

As soon as this was finished, he stiffened slowly, carefully, his expression draining of malice, of worry, of violence, of...nearly everything. All that was left was that warm, easy smile, that expression that seemed to say everything would be alright, that there was nothing to worry about, that everything would be so much better soon.

"Nothing's wrong with my eyes, Rudi. It's just the closest you can come to making sense of something that you've never seen before. I'm sick. That much, I can tell you, straight up. I've got a very special disease, and it's made me a very special person. And it's why I'm going to become the king of this town, soon enough. I like to call this disease "Ego." You see, I've got a very very big one."

He paused, his expression turning mischevious, light-hearted once more. He leaned forward, brows raising, teeth bared in a full on leer, as he waggled his brows expertly.

"Would you like to see my ego, Rudi?"

Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:49 pm

Rudi?? Transformed!

As Yaksha turned to the imaginary audience, Rudi pressed the blade to his chest. Darkness seemed to consume the boy for a moment, before something completely different and blade-free seemed to crawl out of the darkness. It looked like a child-sized hollow, with a long coat and furry collar surrounding a head that seemed more like a skull with two spiraling horns from it. Glowing red eyes from the skull's sockets peered out.

If Yaksha had something of a memory, he might recognize the mask, and the sight, from a fellow centuries ago. Rudi had no blade now, just claws and his blood, but he didn't motion to cut himself just yet to begin the fight. At the moment, he was more concerned with just keeping himself prepared from whatever Yaksha might be trying to come up with.

And then, the man, the confusing, confusing Yaksha, seemed to be more comforting, that everything was going to be okay. Too late, of course, Rudi had already transformed, and he was beginning to try and crawl on his claw hands and his tiny cute paw feet to try and scamper away from him. Once he got a satisfying distance, maybe about an arm's length, he stood back up on his own two paws.

"W-whatever you want... M-mister Yaksha bad guy. I'm... I'm r-ready." He tensed up, glowing red pupils wide and staring. His voice was a little warbled, but still recognizeably Rudi in this context. He thought he'd be in for a fight, and perhaps that's what the Ego was. Regardless, Rudi was ready for anything in this form!

Coding By: [THEFROST]

Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:57 pm

"I want...a hug. I think you let a draft in when you cracked my window, Rudi. Here I am, being a perfectly reasonable host. And you're going to make me freeze to death, now!"

Yaksha wrapped his arm around himself, shivering theatrically, almost too much so. His expression was one of long-standing suffering, and complete lack of concern. The child was getting poised for a fight, it seemed; there was no denying that he had laid it on too thick, too quickly. There was, in all things, a certain measure of tact needed. Or perhaps it had simply been that he was getting a little too arrogant, and had let himself be convinced that the boy was already in his grasp. After all, he'd made such whole-hearted promises. But now he was staring at Yaksha like he was an enemy, like he was going to hurt him. He crouched down, slowly, ever so slowly, until he was perhaps an inch or two shorter than the arrancar. He opened his posture, arm once more spreading out, and sucked at his lower lip, quite noisily.

"I won't fight. Not one little bit. Not a single punch. So get over here and give me a hug, Rudi. Worst case, you'll have easy access to my heart, or my jugular, or whatever other part you want. But I won't force you, and I won't do anything that would hurt you."

He began to let out a soft, almost soothing whistling sound, as he tilted his head to the side. He seemed curious, more than anything; even now, his expression gave away nothing but a resounding, overwhelming, almost stifling sense of warmth and kindness, of self-assurance and certainty. It was like finding a rock in the middle of a churning, swirling whirlpool in the midst of the ocean.

Never mind that the whirlpool had the same source as the rock. When one was scared, and worried, they'd take nearly any form of comfort offered to them with a smile, and a friendly, non-threatening tone.