Cities By Shadow
Oct. 2nd, 2013 03:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lady_elfleda in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
birthright_rpgThere was a shadow flowing across glass... A dark, perfectly smooth surface, flush with trapped faces of agony pressed tightly against it. Whether sculpted that way or rendered so in paralytic contortion, was not for mortal mind to know. The presence willing its way across the room, from one end to the other; hunting, searching for something, as the floor beneath it darkened yet further. Glimpses from another realm filtering through the murk.
There... It wanted to go there...
A place of the living, no longer fully claimed by the dark. Merely looked back upon with envious desires. She understood that. Elfleda. Bride to that which laid... Beyond. And it was she whose emergence was made without fanfare, like a silky-smooth handkerchief falling in silence.
Nor, here, was her chosen attire that which others might be more accustomed to viewing of her depiction. No black dress here, nor pale complexion seen. Instead, there stood a teenage girl. Pretty, yes. Diabolical, likely not. Her choice of clothing something more conventional. The tone of her skin, relatively healthy. Eyes no longer inky pools of black, but perfectly normal.
White... That part was a deliberate mockery. A challenge, almost. A veiled insult to the forces she stood against.
But it was not geography which brought her here. It was the girl. Elfleda's usual unseen cloud of spiritual filth now held tightly against her for reasons of stealth. Reined in, so that erstwhile shivers up spines would not alert others to the arrival of one such as she.
"Hello," she said in greeting. Here, spoken like anyone else. Not the half-telepathic tease she gave to most others. Just a voice. Yet, one still spoken in that same clear-cut, educated English accent. "I'm sorry, have we... Met? You seem somewhat familiar..."
There... It wanted to go there...
A place of the living, no longer fully claimed by the dark. Merely looked back upon with envious desires. She understood that. Elfleda. Bride to that which laid... Beyond. And it was she whose emergence was made without fanfare, like a silky-smooth handkerchief falling in silence.
Nor, here, was her chosen attire that which others might be more accustomed to viewing of her depiction. No black dress here, nor pale complexion seen. Instead, there stood a teenage girl. Pretty, yes. Diabolical, likely not. Her choice of clothing something more conventional. The tone of her skin, relatively healthy. Eyes no longer inky pools of black, but perfectly normal.
White... That part was a deliberate mockery. A challenge, almost. A veiled insult to the forces she stood against.
But it was not geography which brought her here. It was the girl. Elfleda's usual unseen cloud of spiritual filth now held tightly against her for reasons of stealth. Reined in, so that erstwhile shivers up spines would not alert others to the arrival of one such as she.
"Hello," she said in greeting. Here, spoken like anyone else. Not the half-telepathic tease she gave to most others. Just a voice. Yet, one still spoken in that same clear-cut, educated English accent. "I'm sorry, have we... Met? You seem somewhat familiar..."
no subject
on 2013-10-24 10:21 pm (UTC)Then again the night had yet to end.
Arms were gripped simultaneously as legs, pulled until she stood starfish, in a grip that threatened to cut in places. Throat was next, so that she had no option but to face the girl, breathing restricted but not entirely by the invisible things that held her in place. Fear would have been natural, no doubt expected, though none flared up as Valerie took in a deep breath. Silently making her frame as big as she could to see if she could feel where they were. Perhaps the faintest twinge of annoyance like an animal caught in a trap, but intelligent enough to listen instead of struggle.
Perhaps the flippant way she’d tried to make the girl get to the point had been a tad misguided but it wasn’t terrible. Valerie didn’t say anything, didn’t attempt to break free, just blinked at the girl and felt whatever the invisible things were release their hold. The blonde straightened up but didn’t move closer, or away, from what might still lurk beside her. Alright, she’d bite, now that she felt intrigued. Nothing was ever given without some sort of price, strings of some sort, or a small print that had devastating consequences. Like so many people who wished for things, Valerie had been the kind who didn’t, understood even as a child how sinister they could become.
However the Council had never been entirely forthcoming about the essence that was as much a part of her as her skeletal structure. The fact that they could rip it from her like a surgeon could rip out a heart frightened Valerie. Deep down she believed in her core that power didn’t actually corrupt people, it revealed them for who they truly were.
“It could be if you’re talking about embracing the demon essence.”
Valerie’s voice was calm, collected as she watched Beth. The blonde suspected the help she offered was deceptive, but why? What motives did the girl have for finding her, really?
“My humanity could be washed away and I’d be nothing but a husk of myself. If that’s the case then I don’t want to ignite anything. I am my sense of self, if I lose that then I cease to be anyone. Access to more power isn’t worth losing myself. Nothing is.”
no subject
on 2013-10-25 01:05 am (UTC)A derisory tone and intentionally so. Foul contempt conveyed by a narrowing of that blackened gaze, upon witnessing the Slayer's appeal to her perceived better half.
"You think it laid apart from the demonic throng in the age of the primordial? It is exists as a pretender to this world's throne... Crawling deficients, unworthy of what was bequeathed in their name. A species you no longer belong to... And which your calling will pull you from."
Having turned side-on was dismissive, Beth shifted pose, gliding step after step towards, then past her momentary prey of choice. Pausing in consideration, then halting to turn back to Valarie, again.
"You will turn from them, Miss Vause, as surely as they would turn from you. Your kind enact murder with ease of breathing... The hunt cannot be refused. Not by you... Yet, you insist on denying yourself the very empowerment with which could defend others - and consort with those who would not."
Chin raised and the infernal diplomat curved lips into a sickly, cold smile. Devoid of the earlier warmth or charisma. Now a mere statement of facial expression.
"I offer nothing which does not already reside within you. Only the means by which to use it best... For whichever purpose you see fit."
Lifting a pale hand before her, fingertip trailed down nothing but air, yet left a strange, tingling sensation echoing from Valarie's throat to sternum.
"You would truly sacrifice those closest for purity's sake?"
no subject
on 2013-10-26 01:25 am (UTC)One thing was certain though, “You really don’t like humans as a species.”
Dismissed or not Valerie didn’t move yet, wasn’t foolish enough to imagine that their encounter was over with. The girl turned to face her again but it was the use of her last name that caused her green eyes to narrow in pale figures direction. She didn’t just know what she was, she knew who she was. The short hairs at the nape of her neck stood on end.
Wait, her kind? Humans? No, Beth had just made a point of separating her from that particular heard. Which meant she spoke of the other chosen ones. It was on the tip of Valerie’s tongue to state that her kind weren’t nearly as bad as what they killed. Balance had to be kept, nine girls against the forces of darkness in the entire world wasn’t exactly an advantage. Murder wasn’t how she’d word it.
Valerie raised her chin in kind, an equally cold smile was offered in return, which faltered and vanished seconds later with that caress through air. Only, Beth hadn’t just touched the air between them. The blonde’s chin dropped as shudder worked through her body, lips parted to take in a stuttered breath as a single trail of skin tingled from the ghostly caress.
“What...” Erotically sinister, the blonde felt disturbed by the contact, confused by her skins betrayal. “What was that?”
Instinctively her hand raised to splay against her chest, eyes wide as she faced Beth. Valerie was fully clothed but that touch had been against skin. She still felt it. What kind of thing could do that? More importantly, why? It could be anything from a show of power to a mindgame. More questions were raised by Beth than ever answered, the blonde was starting to feel a little frustrated. A little out of her depth, considering the things the pale girl could do.
What good was strength against someone like that? Who had invisible bodyguards, who could open portals and touch someone from a distance? There was no doubt in Valerie’s mind that Beth would be able to kill them the same way.
“Why me?”
Valerie straightened up, tried to compose herself, look less like a cornered animal. Kept her face as stoic as possible. On the outside she was calm. Behind that mask was another story. The blonde took a step closer to Beth, any kind of retreat would be seen as weakness, she couldn’t allow that.
“Why specifically offer me, out of everyone you could go too, the means to tap into that kind of potential? Because I don’t understand. You talk like human’s are a scourge on earth then in the next breath offer me a way to protect them better. Those two things don’t add up.”
no subject
on 2013-10-26 02:21 am (UTC)A realm of shadows, indeed. Elfleda seemed often to mentally swim within a sea of them. Ambiguity her weapon of choice with a flavouring of subtle inversions.
"A taste of what you are," she supplied of her sensual technique. This time, more of a calculating implication behind it. "Of what it means to be... In touch with oneself."
A truthful eel... At once, seemingly honest and yet slippery. Perhaps treacherously so. Maybe the girl was right to wonder why she should have drawn the attentions of a creature who could command even physical contact from afar. One who claimed to speak on behalf of powers greater than she.
"I relish potential, Miss Vause... And a Slayer's is considerable. To wrong ourselves with the illusion of captivity - to deny ourselves the capacity of change, of alteration - is the gravest possible sin... One which pleases me to find so many willing to rise above."
Interesting to hear a being such as this speak of its philosophical definitions of sin, but there were hints, too, that she seemed not to view the entirety of humanity as a lost cause. Elfleda tilting head as she closed the distance a little more. Black orbs closing as she breathed in Valerie's scent with the look of viper savouring the body heat of paralysed rabbit, then re-opening tto glance back upon the girl with a somehow kindly expression.
"Who I visit... When... Where... How... Is not for you to know." No fingers weaved their way into the blonde's palm, but from brunette could be felt the spontaneously materialising gift of an impossibly jet black stone. One as smooth as glass to the touch and willingly given over. "But should you seek me, all I ask..." A smile. "Is that you pray."
From behind her, a world of infinite horrors opened up. Unseen, unheard, but veiled behind the darkness. One could simply feel its existened laying there. An odd concoction of temperatures, both extreme cold and heat, being sensed as the swirly, gaseous blackness stretched open like a newborn ready to engulf its Mistress of damnation upon her whim. 'Beth' beginning to slowly glide back into its maw.
no subject
on 2013-10-26 03:31 am (UTC)Colour her confused but technically she already had a destiny. Currently one which she worked hard at maintaining. Valerie tried to remind herself that she didn’t even know who she was dealing with, the words from the girl’s lips were hearsay at best and outright lies at worst. Regardless they shouldn’t matter at all. So why hadn’t the blonde walked away? Why did she stand there and listen to words she knew were designed to keep her guessing? The dark essence within her had created an almost tangible sense of kinship with Beth, it called to her the way an infant would a relative.
“Are you saying I can do that too?”
A taste of what she was… Valerie’s thoughts instantly went to the cause behind her abilities, her calling. The very thing that responded to the girl in front of her. The demon playing word games. Honestly it was a lot to take in. Yes, she might have, at times, felt like she was in captivity, but that didn’t mean she wanted to rip out her tracker and make a break for it. That would be suicide.
The way Beth drew in her scent reminded Valerie of Sabra. What was with the flux of seriously powerful demons? What were the chances of someone actually meeting two in a year, let alone in a few months? Valerie felt the object in her palm, uncurled her fingers and gazed at the small impossibly dark stone. The kind of darkness that never ended, just absorbed light like it never existed. Valerie’s thumb smoothed across the surface as she contemplated Beth’s choice of words. Sin and Pray both held religious notes, which contrary to popular horror movies, wasn’t uncommon with certain kinds of demons. Religions it seemed knew no boundaries.
“Who do I pray too, you never gave me your real name.”
Valerie might not have had any desires to pray to anyone right then, but curiosity demanded she ask all the same.
no subject
on 2013-10-26 03:56 am (UTC)Valerie's assumptions did not always lead to truth, however - and neither did the being before her elect to reveal she was no demoness. Was something different, altogether. Had always been something different. Something which had flowed to another's rhythm for a very long time.
"Names are not required, only my face... Only me."
Even as she revealed the secret of summoning, so did that walking contradiction of zebra-like monochromes steadily immerse herself in the blanketing swirl from behind, swallowing her in like a butter-soaked skeletal fish. One only had to think upon her essence and, using that imparted beacon of black stone, the Corruptress would come. That gateway between worlds now sealing shut with the distinct aroma of burning sulfur.
Compelling her to leave? Now, there would be a different matter...