soul_logs | OPEN

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OPEN

Characters: Open to all Mission goers to Vienna
Location: Vienna
Rating: PG
Time: Jan 17, starts at about mid-morning
Description: Missions 151 and 152, crossposted to DW

It's snowing in Vienna when the agents come in, and it seems that the situation there had gone from all right to downright crazy in the minute it took for the madness wavelength to sweep the city just an hour before. There is chaos as people run from murderous citizens and the police try to take them down. The prisons are already overflowing, some with people desperate to protect themselves from attack.

It doesn't take long before the first kishin eggs appear, people who accidentally kill others and eat their souls in madness.

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One thing that Hades had come to realize ever since he arrived in this version of the world was that he didn’t enjoy the extremes of weather very much as long as he was stuck within a mortal body. Huffing at the snow and the chaos that was cloaking the city the lone weapon wasted little time moving towards the place that appealed the most to him: St. Stephens Cathedral.

Ignoring the madness, the god slipped inside it past its heavy, dark gates and quickly made his way through the place that seemed too light and elaborate in its decor (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/St._Stephen%27s_Cathedral_interior.JPG/800px-St._Stephen%27s_Cathedral_interior.JPGY) even yet. There were some scared visitors huddled here and there inside it, but he disregarded them and their prayers to a god that wasn’t him as well as he made his way to the left aisle. The amount of graves the church housed wasn’t the only thing that had attracted him. There was also a small, inconspicuous set of steps and at their end a door with a lock that couldn’t hold long against a god who had decided to pass. Picking the lock, Hades stepped into a room with white walls and neon lamps. Taking a deep breath, the god of the dead smiled. He had reached the first vault and entry to the catacombs beneath the city.

He waited for a moment before he started to speak. “Do you intent on following me even past here?”

Saki hadn't been sure what to think when she'd seen him going off by himself, but she decided to go after him. It was dangerous here, that was the whole reason why they were there, and he shouldn't go off by himself. Maybe she should have called after him, but the city is loud, and she's also too busy trying to commit landmarks to memory; she doesn't want to get lost on the way back.

She follows him as he goes inside a church, slowing down but still going quickly - she knows what's here, in the middle of a Western city what else can there be? Here, especially, she doesn't want to lose him (it was beautiful here, really, and part of her wished she had more time to just look around), and so she tries not to disturb people and keeps going.

He stops, and... though she wasn't trying to be sneaky, really, she shouldn't be surprised that he'd noticed her. "Yeah."

"Is that so?" he turned around and looked at her with an amused expression. She didn't look like this was the right culture for her, but then, humans mingled. A lot. Still, it seemed more likely that she had arrived the same way he had rather than being a local because otherwise she wouldn't have followed him that easily. His next question was simple interest.

"Why?" Most humans disliked the idea of arriving beneath the earth while still alive.

She swallows, a bit hesitant - part of her doesn't care if she makes him angry, but another part of her, well... part of her does. She's never so much as spoken to him, and she doesn't know his temperament at all. She doesn't want to have to deal with a hostile presence that isn't a kishin. "It doesn't matter what kind of power you had in your world; you don't have it here." She sighed. "I don't want to go down there, but something could be down there; that's why we've come here. None of us should be by ourselves."

Her words amused him. Hades was aware that most of his kind would have reacted with upset frustration at the blunt honesty in her words, but he found them refreshing, just like the danger his current decisions were putting his continued existence in. And her words were true, which was a weakness of his. Hades liked the truth because nothing was as cruel yet liberating as it. He still regarded her with the same smile, but his topmost pair of ears layered furry perked up in a silent display of interest.

"I am always alone." His words were gentle, showing no hint of bitterness. As far as Hades was concerned he was simply stating a fact. "Are you on your own, child of humanity?"

Edited 2012-01-24 22:10 (UTC)

She bites her lip and looks down, trying to collect her thoughts. He seems calm enough, but really, she considers herself so lucky that he hasn't flipped at her yet. She isn't sure what to think when she notices his ears, but her gaze is steady, and she looks back up at him when she speaks.

"My best friends aren't in this world, but I've made more. I don't... I don't think people are ever alone unless they choose and try to be."

"True," he gives her an amused glace. He has seen enough humans to realize from the subtle hints of her body language that she's not really feeling comfortable here, but her persistence was entertaining him. For now. "Loneliness is something that can be always and never, depending on one's point of view. That wasn't what I asked you, though."

Of course. And here she was with someone who was going to call her on it. Way to go. She can't help it, though, despite her nervousness - her lips twitch, like she's fighting back a smile. "No."

He gave her a long look and then turned back to continue his way.

"Then it would seem as if I were not the only one doing something to come here on my own. ...I may be a weapon, but most have come to regret trying to wield the Earth's other form so far." This was about as nice as he would get about this. If she wanted to withdraw, she could do so now. Otherwise he had warned her so this deal would be fair.

Edited 2012-01-28 03:55 (UTC)

Nope, she's an Idiot Hero and now she's curious. Of course she's following him down there. Really. She has to quicken her pace, skipping a bit to catch up to him, and she's suddenly having second thoughts. She can't back out, though, and her curiosity beats out fear. She just thinks to herself that it's a good thing she isn't Hiroto. Brr.

"Earth's other form?"

His hair makes a a strange soft noise as it drags over the floor that slowly switches from polished tiles to stone. It mingles with the barely audible sound of his bare feet. Hades walks calmly, apparently knowing exactly where he wants to go. He doesn't answer her question - calling himself 'Earth' is a combination of his habit to call things as what he considers them to be and is also a hidden pun between him and the others of his kind. Each kind gets named after his realm - Zeus is the Sky, Poseidon the Sea and Hades the depths beneath the Earth he rules, just as his name says in more than one way. Explaining it to her would ruin the beauty of this simple yet complex game of words.

After a couple of minutes he answers her question with one of his own "What do you think I am?"

She looked down when she noticed his hair out of the corner of her eye - and hoped that she hadn't been stepping on it (even though part of her actually didn't really think he'd notice if she was fast enough). His quiet steps made hers just seem that much louder, and suddenly, she was really self-conscious. But it was way too late for regrets now; she'd made the choice to follow him down there. Her only hope was that she wouldn't give the wrong answer to one of his questions and end up barely making it back. Her eyes narrow as she thinks.

"I'm... not sure. I don't think you'd ask if you were just a regular guy - I mean, human, I guess - but other that? I don't know."

"Several centuries ago humans referred to me es the King of the Underworld. They believed in me as one of their gods." However, he had never been theirs.

They started passing grave sites, first elaborate, tightly closed coffins and urns, then less well hidden bodies. Walking calmly, Hades pursued the sense of something alive within the bowels of his familiar realm. "They had many wrong ideas about me and the others of my kind, but with one thing they were right." He stopped, giving her a look through dark eyes. "This is my realm and I am its god, even under circumstances like this."

Saki started to draw closer to him. All these dead bodies just hanging out are creepy on their own, but where she's from the dead are cremated. His words just make her have more questions, god or no. But he isn't any of the old ones that she knows - good thing where she's from there's more than one world. She hadn't been to all of them.

She meets his gaze, hoping he won't find a way to smite her for what she's about to ask. "What kind of power do you have here, then?"

"Here?" He stops and smiles, amused. "The same as I have everywhere in this world and one of the basics of what my existence seems to humans at that day and age."

He smiles and his pale complexion and dark, dark eyes make him look as if he were one of the 'natural' denizens of those corridors beneath the earth rather than just another living visitor. "Fear. Madness. I am the bearer of the last irrevocable truth. One could call it only natural that any mortal beings aware of their existence shy away from me." He gives her a small, conspiratorial wink before he starts walking again, past a hole and down another corridor that is almost hidden to their left. "I myself am inclined to think that the only thing one has to fear when encountering me is their own fear. It will happen soon, now."

The only to fear is her own fear... she doubts he meant it this way, but she chooses to take it as reassuring. Normally she wouldn't be, she'd be scared regardless, but down here? Well, she's encountering him, isn't she? She's finding the catacombs to be far creepier. She doesn't smile, but there's enough of a difference in her countenance, certainly.

"It? What's it? The Kishin?"

He stomps and a barely audible 'hmph' escapes his limps. He did not enjoy the company of having this things down here and the smallest pair of his layered sic ears turned down in response to the emotion.

"What else?"

With a flash of unlight the god vanished and a black weapon clattered to the floor softly. The heads of the meteor hammer look deceivingly small and light, barely bigger than a fist as they emit small waves of subtle terror.

Let's see if she would be able to use him.

Yeah, subtle her ass. But given that she'd really started getting scared as soon as she was down here, well. Too late to turn back now. The weapon itself didn't start her near as much as the fact that he thought it was necessary to transform... into something she'd never used before.

She picked (it? him?) up, gingerly. She'd seen it used, so she... twirls it. Kind of. And almost hits herself when she lets go. Welp, the noise she made would draw the Kishin, that was for sure.

Now, he had never claimed that he was a nice god. (He had justified doubts that such a thing ever existed, actually.)

He listened to the soft pulse of her life as their wavelengths connected, as easily adapting his own to fit hers like a shadow would adapt with any change of the light that was throwing it. He picked up partially on her doubts, but remained silent while she tried to wield him.

Only when she almost hit herself he broke his silence, laughing gently at her bad luck. At the same time a grunt followed by the sound of claws against stone echoed from somewhere ahead of them, drawing closer far too quickly until it passed the corridor they had left only moments ago. It wouldn't take long for the kishin egg to realize that it had passed its prey, but for a moment they were in its blind angle and at advantage.

'Relax, it is just simple dynamics. Rotation, force and speed. Gravitation. Consider that the chain still moves when you let go.'

She'd heard those claws, but if she wanted to actually be able to find, she had to practice more. Even the slightest bit helped. She'd never wielded a Weapon before, and the connection, along with her new focus, helps to calm her down.

'Okay,' she says, and tries to strengthen the connection, at least on her end. Maybe it'll help her skill; there's only one way to find out, and it really can't hurt it. She keeps his words in mind, and there. That one was much better.

He reacted to her attempt he deepening their contact, letting his soul seep into any cracks and darknesses hers had to offer and empathising the power of her liveliness and light by his own lack thereoff. His weapon-form reacted by making a soft noise as the chain cut through the air, suddenly being a bit lighter to swing and easier to control.

'If you are not sure you migth want to wait until there is little way to miss', he adviced.

At the same time the kishin egg had turned around. Growling and sniffling like a giant hound, it maade its way back to where they were, going a lot slower then before in order not to make the same mistake tice and miss its prey again.

'It knows we're here. I can't afford to wait.' Most likely, that's exactly the wrong kind of attitude. Something down here, though? She throws, again. She doesn't think she's good with it, by any means, but it was better than just standing there. She doesn't know why, it's probably that link, but it's been getting easier, really quickly.

His soul is... cold, an... empty cold, normally the kind of cold that she'd find really creepy. This time, though, it's reassuring, and she nods to herself and throws once more.

'Heh', the strange one-syllaby laugh was the only way Hades reacted with as their opponent finally apeared. More by luck than skill the head of the hammer hits the quadrupedal kishin egg by it's shoulder, breaking it in the process and driving it back with a shriek.

'Fear is what you make of it.' It could be both, a strength or weakness.

Edited 2012-02-23 05:40 (UTC)

Saki almost ignores him, barely trying to send an acknowledgement through the soul link. She doesn't want to underestimate the Kishin, but she's fought monsters before. She can handle this, she knows she can. Its shriek makes her more determined, and she throws again, aiming for its other shoulder.

The kishin egg reeled back awkwardly, revealing a shape that looked like a big furry crocodile with too long legs and an eyeless scull that seems to be made of metal. Part of its teeth are bloodied. It hisses and jumps to the side, snapping after her feet when it lands only to let out another wailing shriek when the meteor hammer connects once more.

Falling to its side with both its front legs broken, he twists in order to keep moving. It's still trying to harm thet Meister and Weapon team.

It's determined, she'll give it that. But she's determined too, and - faster than she thought it'd be, damn. She's not even stopping to aim before throwing the hammer in its direction, choosing to rely on what little resonation they might have.

Be it through Hades' help or not, the meteor hammer manages to find it's goal once more. It does so with a devastating effect and this time there is a crushing sound, a few stubborn last moments of movement as the kishin egg struggles - and then it dissolves into a swirl of black light until only the sickly-red corrupted soul of it remains, floating in the air and illuminating the catacombs with an eery light.

Hades comment to this all is a prominent silence as the god waits for the mortal to react first.

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OPEN

Hades and Saki | St. Charles's Church/catacombs beneath the city | Closed

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