Miseries And Company [Liltotto/Lucia]

....
!

The song of night insects were the first to welcome her senses back to the mortal plane. The scent of the forest and all it's inhabitants followed, layered with the strongest scent of water and mud... Finally, the feeling of floating, gently pressed into a corner of sticks, stones, and scum. Night had taken the sky, the flickering stars hindered only by dark clusters of leaved branches.

She was swept far, far away from where she originated.

Her sight was taking a moment to return to her, blinking hard as blurry images gradually focused and squeezed into clarity with a force of will; despite the hunger gnawing her bones and the sleep her flesh begged for, she quickly realized her situation, and the need to remediate it quickly.

She had to get back to everyone.
But the first step to that, was to get food.

She couldn't smell any hollows nearby, her teeth grinding at the familiar sensation of craving she experienced when she got too hungry - every living being around her may as well been sweets to her senses, but she had her wits about her; she wasn't interested in carelessly devouring lives and not even desperate times would push her that way.

A brief flinch hit her as she tried using her dominant arm to spear fish with the sharpest stick she could find, the feeling of burning permeating her skin; the crash not only scraped off notable amounts of skin, but also may have either bruised or dislocated her arm. Not knowing what the hell she got hit with to even approach this much damage was, annoying, irritating. Another thought for later, she'd just ponder the sensation of the injury as she got a good amount of kills from the river, dragging herself and the fish embedded to shore.

Small apologies were included in her mother tongue's prayer for not killing the creatures as cleanly as she could have, she was barely strong enough to walk, much less manifest anything for her to use. Couldn't even start a damn fire, she had to eat the things raw and unprepared. The slimy, fishy flavor would vanish down her throat rapidly, one by one - it barely helped, but she was able to catch her breath a little.

Leaning against a tree, not even a layer of clothing left on her to fend off the cold that invited her exhaustion all the more. There was no fear of death, only a fear of sleeping for too long- no, that wasn't her earnest fear.

The biggest one was someone mistakenly finding her like this... But, she couldn't help but drift off, even for a bit, far too lethargic to remain conscious for long... All she could hope for was that she wasn't too close to someone's dwelling.

Quincy activity had been detected in no small amount here in America. That wasn't too surprising, in itself. After all, the Vandenreich operated often in Lucia's homeland. She naturally had her own reasons for coming here, but she'd promised that little wretch who provided her equipment that she would bring him a test subject if she found one alive. If it had been anything other than Quincy, she would have refused. As it stood, however, she was willing to throw them into that vile cretin's hands.

Her reikaku picked up a signature in the distance; faint, but only in terms of the strength of the output. She could sense something different about it. Either way, it was certainly a Quincy, and so she moved quickly, but quietly, in that direction. When she arrived, her feet touched the ground with practiced stealth, and she muttered under her breath without any hesitation as she pointed her golden hand toward the unconscious woman, seele schneider in hand and mere inches from the woman's flesh.

"In bliss, in pleasure, in delight..."

All at once, she pressed the blade to the woman's body, avoiding such a brazen move as stabbing it into her. Certainly, she was willing to harm another Quincy like that, but this was more convenient. She could reuse the same seele schneider, and she began to mutter once again, hopeful that the target would continue sleeping through further applications of her seal.

"One intoxicates a lover to madness..."

The next time her senses had guided her back to consciousness, an overpowering scent had gripped her. Borderline irresistible, like a wondrous meal after several days of having gone without eating. Her other senses woke up slower than her sense of smell, that familiar spicy burn hardly registered as her lips momentarily parted, sharpened teeth exposed, before she realized herself.

"Sh-shit, oh shit..!" Quincy.. That was a Quincy's scent.. Did someone find her..? No matter, she moved her tired nude body to force some degree of distance between the two of them; she didn't want to accidentally bite anyone, much less a comrade coming to help her. Teeth gritted, she couldn't help but salivate at the smell, her good hand squeezed tight into a fist and dug into the ground as she'd pant out,

"C-careful, care..ful..." Her hoarse voice cautioned, she couldn't recognize who it was immediately, she couldn't call a name to the scent; even her vision was too blurry to have a good image, a sensation of terror wavering her weak voice, "M' starving... Shit... I don't wanna eat you... I don't want... Okay..."

Her sluggish process of thought came together to think of something... It wouldn't help, but it'd at least get her away from the immediate desire to eat whatever was in front of her, "G-Ginto..? Do you have..?"

Tch. Lucia threw the second seele schneider as her quarry stepped away, unconcerned with whether or not it actually pierced flesh. It didn't need to, and she doubted that this particular woman was going to be evading much of anything in this state of hers. For a moment, she thought to simply let her remain confused, to allow her this suffering as penance, but that would have been impractical. It was much more sensible to take advantage of her state.

"Hold still. I'll be done quickly, and then we can go."

It wasn't so much that Lucia cared one way or another about the objective truthfulness of her statement; she would gladly lie to another Quincy without much remorse if it achieved something. But wording things like that was simple, effective, and straightforward. It gave the notion of support where there would certainly be none, and it certainly made her witchcraft come across as less threatening.

"And with words of flower and silk..."

Another seele schneider was thrown, effortless from years of practice, and just as quickly she had already begun to prepare another in her metal hand. Three marks was good progress, and so quickly. She would like it if this went without much trouble.

"They are put to uses most vile..."

Eyes burned trying to stay open, panting hard as she held herself back, taking deep breaths as she'd occasionally have to swallow a mouthful of drool. Even when she was starving this badly she didn't have this intense a craving - it may have been because the woman carried some hollow scent...

She didn't recognize that voice, not that it was too peculiar - there was still plenty of operatives she had yet to meet. Not everyone stayed in the Stadt after all, it wasn't strange to her...

The stranger's calm instruction was heeded, not that she had much choice or ability to push back. But the sensation of cold metal on her skin was another question... Her injuries weren't so terrible as to require what sounded like a full ritual, which only left one other possibility...

Oh.

It must have been a sealing ritual.

Even in her exhausted state, she couldn't help but feel her heart sink. She understood why that could have been perceived as necessary; the last time she did that move she vanished for several days to eat several hollows just to get her hunger back under control. Containing her until she stabilized just made sense... Made perfect sense...

It didn't cease the heavy sensation of disappointment that weighed her mind as she lied down and simply allowed the ritual's completion, closing her eyes in quiet acceptance of the situation. If that was what the Vandenreich deemed necessary to ensure she didn't hurt anyone, she'd swallow that proverbial pill.

Perfect. It seemed her words had led to the intended outcome. Lucia nodded to herself in affirmation as she threw the next seele schneider at Liltotto, and readied the final two in the same motion, speaking clearly and confidently as she prepared to finish the seal.

"Thus I, too, am now beguiled,
For I am flesh, and frailty there is bred."

The final two catalysts were now prepared, and she threw them both at her target to complete the seal. Three glowing lines of blood red light intersected within Liltotto's body, their meeting point at her heart, and took effect as they began to simply drain and burn away any spiritual power she might have attempted to exert. She was hardly much of a threat at all now, no more than anyone else.

Pulling a small black capsule from one of her pockets, Lucia threw it at the ground, a kumon ripping itself open in response. It would bring them to the depths of South America's jungles, a fair bit away from the headquarters in Brazil. She presumed that her generous benefactor didn't wish to give away his secrets, but that wasn't really her business.

"Let's go."

A small wince hit her as that ritual was completed, a cold sensation of weakness hitting her body. It felt like her heart was being squeezed by an invisible hand - of course any form of restraint would be this uncomfortable... She expected to be helped to her feet, but she didn't feel any form of reassurance from the person guiding her. It just made that stone in her gut heavier, as feeble shifting in leaves and dirt would push her trembling body upright, and finally to walking.

'Let's go'? She assumed they'd be on a transport or something, did they have to walk..? Her hair whipped as if wind blew in the dead air, a strong scent of neutral energy flowing with that wind - the smell of the Garganta.

Something was wrong. Her hands tightened, but loosened in quiet defeat - she didn't need clear sight to better understand what was happening... A member of the Vandenreich wouldn't be opening ways through that space without explicit authorization. Whoever this was, she was being taken elsewhere.

"Who are you..?" She complied; there wasn't any point in fighting with how weak and hungry she was. She followed this stranger, to the best of her ability, following her scent through and out into parts unfamiliar.

"Lucia Sunnyglade."

She didn't care about revealing her identity; it wasn't as if it mattered to her whether or not people knew who she was, knew that she was alive and what she was doing. No, it was more than that; Lucia's aims were ones she pursued with earnest pride. Hiding them would have been to feel ashamed of them.

As she stepped through the kumon, Lucia allowed the more humid air to wash over her, lips curling into a faint frown as she considered it a little unpleasant. She'd live wherever she had to, but she didn't like this tropical environment very much. If anything, she almost envied her quarry's lack of clothing, just on account of it meaning nothing would stick to her in the tropical environment.

"We'll be waiting here for now."

In truth, Lucia could have just left the woman here. It was easy to leave someone helpless when Acrasia's seal was buried in their very being. But there was still a chance she might get away, one way or another, and she didn't quite like the idea of leaving a job half-finished.

Sunnyglade...

Her stumbling steps reached the humid tropics, the crunch of undergrowth brushing her feet with her pondering that last name. As with many families, she only had second-hand knowledge formulated from both interaction and rumor - that family was particularly extreme about Hollows, from what little she recalled... She couldn't imagine why one would be taking her out into what she could only guess was somewhere equatorial based on the scent of moisture and the sound of tropical species.

With the word that they'd be waiting, she allowed herself a controlled collapse onto her side; there was barely enough energy to run, the shock of temperature responsible for keeping her conscious. If she were anyone else, terror would have distracted her - but she kept herself focused and interested, any information was valuable.

"Where are you taking me?" She'd calmly reply, "What are you doing this for?"

"I'm handing you off to someone else. They've got research that you'll be helpful for."

Lucia's expression soured just a touch more at the captured quincy's cool composure. How annoying. Was she trying to maintain that stupid quincy pride that she'd always been told so much about? Or was it just because she was so assured she'd be alright? Well, it didn't matter either way.

"I'm doing this because I want to make a world without quincy. Where no one ever becomes one again, and where no more are born."

Despite such a straightforwardly unpleasant aim, Lucia said it without any malice in her voice. After all, she didn't hate quincy, at least not in the way that she knew so many of them hated hollows; she just saw them as evil, unjust and unacceptable in the world.