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Entry tags:

aion,
isaac clarke

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Characters: Isaac Clarke and Aion
Location: The World’s End, Death City
Rating: PG-13
Time: February 15th, a little after midday
Description: Isaac meets the family to talk business and …other things.

Aion looked up when he heard the knock on the backdoor of his pub. He had told Viede’s partner to use that one when they had agreed to meet and apparently he had not only found it put was also quite on time – Aion was pleased.

He put the ‘clock’ that he had mentioned to Isaac back on the table that he had prepared for them and covered it with a soft cloth, making sure that nothing of it could be seen by prying glances until it was time for the big reveal before he stood up and sauntered over to the door and unlocked it.

The Sinner was wearing his casual clothes, white pants and a shirt with a soft off-grey hue and red highlights that matched his eyes as well as the three red ‘marks’ on his forehead and which had been modified to accommodate the big pair of dragon-like wings that he kept folded in a relaxed manner behind his back.

Opening the door, he smiled, “Hey. Mister Clarke, I assume?”

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He watched him closely, paying attention to the things he said and did not say out loud. Was he aware how much he gave away with his body language? Probably not. He considered upping the tension of their conversation once more to be sure, but then discarded the thought since he still wanted the clock to be in a better shape as soon as possible. Relaxed hands worked better than those lead by frayed nerves, period.

So he smiled gently and leaned back in his seat once more. Finding out what the clock was really used for would be the first challenge for Isaac. It had a clock face, but much of the rest of the things that were needed to make a clock a clock were missing or replaced by what Shader had considered more useful.

A question.. "Why?"

"The incident that happened in my world. It's a long story. Viede knows more about it after what I told him. There was an incident with an artifact called the Marker. It turned the dead into monsters pretty much and it made everybody else suicidal. I got caught up in it by chance really. Needless to say...I had to do some pretty horrible things to survive."

Isaac was surprised it was getting easier to talk about it even if this place had its share of crazy shit with these Kishin eggs and all. Everybody being in the same boat here was something that helped too. He didn't want there to be more people involved in it, but that wasn't something he could fix. The sooner this war ended, the better everything would be. When he got sent back to his world then he'd have a chance to fix something on his end.

He was momentarily distracted by the inner workings of the clock. He knew the basic functions of these since they still obviously had clocks where he came from, but the inner workings of this one was...unique to say the least. He was pretty sure he could figure it out still. He wanted to say he could probably make it better with how he ended up fixing Gintoki's television.

"I'm not gonna freak out on you or anything. I've been through some things, but I'm sure everybody has here too."

Aion turned very silent as he listened to Isaac's words. The dead, turned into monsters... some of those symptoms sounded familiar in a painful manner. Closing his eyes for a second, he forced the flashes of memories that were not his own but Pandaemonium's main core's down and back into his subconsciousness. Not here, not now! He didn't need another one of those flashbacks that always ended up threatening to overheat his mind.

He took a quick, big drink from his beer as he pulled up his poker face and fixed it firmly in place once more. Despite that the calmness in his voice ended up surprising himself as he spoke.

"That is good to hear, Mister Clarke. I am sorry to hear that something like that has happened to you. It must have been horrible." He considered for a moment, before he carefully added "We once had to deal with something similar. Maybe we will have to again once we return as well. That is why I want to continue and finish this 'clock' as soon as possible."

Isaac didn't mean to bring up something that might end up giving Aion a bad memory. He couldn't help but notice something about him that changed a bit. Maybe there was the whole swig of alcohol he just gulped down before his face changed again. It wasn't difficult for him to figure out when somebody else went through a traumatic event of some kind. Maybe he had kind of a sixth sense for it when he went through the shit he did too.

As much as he liked having something in common with another person, he also didn't want them to have had to go through something just as bad...if not worse for all he knows. He didn't really want to dwell on it if it was a touchy subject even if he wasn't the one telling it. Telling his own side of the story any more deeply and he might stir another bad memory up for both of them.

"...Er...well I promise you I will do all I can to fix this up if I can. Right now it looks like I'll just have to figure out every part and go from there. This'll probably take more than just today. If you don't mind me hanging around, I'd like to keep working on it. Maybe then the stuff back home will turn out better than you hoped it would."

And he hoped it would for him as well. He didn't have a clock or whatever, but he did get some incite into a few things so far. This time he really put his concentration back on this clock. There were still some things he needed to know first though like what the hell this was going to be for. It couldn't just be a clock. Even sentimental value didn't feel right.

"What exactly is this going to be for besides telling time...if even that?"

"Thanks," he smiled gently, back to his old self. Giving the man and the clock in his hands a level look, he nodded. "I am fine with whatever it takes to get it working."

"As for what this thing is..." He grinned weakly as he raised a hand to cover his chin. Stroking his thumb over his lips, he shrugged. "The simplest answer would be a lifeline. A clock ticks time away, right? Each soul has a certain amount of time, just as every demon needs astral energy to survive." He shrugged his shoulders again. There was really no easy way to explain the device without going into too much details or over-simplifying things.

"It's a pacemaker." It's a word that he has found in one of the textbooks about human medicine that he has taken up studying and which seemed to ..fit what the clock was going to do.

So this was basically what Aion mentioned before when he spoke of deals with people or whatever for this astral energy. Isaac didn't study complex shit and not take away an ability to be able to figure out what others were getting at. he didn't see anything wrong with it existing or anything, so no moral reasons not to. He felt like he owed Viede one by helping out his brother.

He didn't even want to know the kind of shit he would be in if he didn't meet any of these guys that turned out to not be crazy. At least...he hoped they didn't turn out to be assholes. That would...pretty much mean he was duped all over again. Nicole always told him he had a tendency of being too nice of a guy sometimes.

Trust...he finally just nodded to him.

"Got it. I just hope I don't screw this up and turn it into something the direct opposite of that."

He grimaced at the idea. "That would be most unfortunate. Besides the obvious I also need it to make it up to a person that I hold very dear and killing them is... Not what I'd like to do."

He leaned back, the spell of their earlier topic of conversation broken. The memory of how it felt when he had torn Chrono's horns out was still fresh and - as much as he should feel guilty about it - it gave him new energy. Just like for Chrono without his horns, there was no way for him to falter and go back either. They had to keep on moving forward and do their best to survive.

"Let me know if there is anything that I can help you with. I'm no technician but I ended up helping them out from time to time. Well," he waved his hand, "I was pretty much an assistant for whoever needed one."

For some reason it made Isaac feel a hell of a lot better knowing that this was for somebody Aion cared about. It wasn't like he could not make that shit up or anything, but it didn't exactly feel like he was lying either. The whole trust thing...he was starting to wonder if his own radar for that was broken or something.

He finally smirked. The idea of having to explain things to somebody while he worked was not exactly awesome, but it would be nice to have somebody to talk to. If Aion really sat in on a few technical things then he might be just as interested in hearing how everything worked. Despite being a demon, he really wasn't so bad.

And that was not the most comfortable understanding he had as a human being, but there it was. He felt more at ease around this guy than a lot of the people on the network could be.

"I'll be sure to do that."

It would have been more alarming if Aion had added that it had been him who had brought that person in need of help in the first place, but the Sinner wisely kept that part to himself. His and Chrono's relationship was too difficult to explain, even back when it had still been simple. Love and hate really laid close between them, but Aion knew that at least he didn't hate Chrono.

Watching Isaac's face, the demon returned the grin. "Thanks. Feel free to just ramble away, most of my friends do that once they start talking. I'll just ask if I don't understand anything or need a break." He winked. "The same counts for you as well, of course. Viede and the others keep telling me that my translations into English aren't always the best."

Isaac wasn't sure if Aion would actually be interested in what he had to say when he got going. Right now he was looking at the clock and considering all it was supposed to do. He wanted to say it was out of his league, but the future taught him a lot about the strange things objects could do when given the right combination of basic things. That didn't mean he knew how to put together a clock that messed with somebody's...life force or whatever.

He was never really good at small talk. It always came off a bit forced to him. He wasn't really nervous about the guy not being human, or Viede for that matter. He got over that. Speaking of questions, maybe he should start there.

"So...why do you guys need something like a clock? I wasn't really aware that demons or anything would need something to control their power...even if it comes from somebody else. Don't you all have...unlimited power or is that just me asking a stupid question?"

Aion finds that listening to people talk about something that is important to them is always well worth the effort. Even if the subject didn't interest him that much the way how and what people spoke would still tell him lots about themselves and what they thought and Aion - well, he found it interesting. In a way he had no hobbies of his own besides wanting to live a life without regret. But he enjoyed partaking in what was important to others. It felt like he was adding a tiny feather to his wings every time he did so, creating bonds and increasing his knowledge little by little.

One day those wings would be big enough to shake the world with their beat.

"Why?" He gave him a look that was half amused and mildly impressed. It was a good question. "No, it's no stupid question at all. You see, normally we wouldn't need it since we have an organ that takes care of our Astral consumption. It's probably the easiest when you imagine it like how your own lungs work. The problem is that you always consume the same steady amount of 'air' the natural way." He raised his index finger and waved it in a circle as if to demonstrate a cycle. "The clock is for times when we can't use those organs anymore. If that happens and we are dependent on the soul of a contractor... It's like being locked in an underwater cave with only a limited amount of air left, you know? If we just breathe normally we'll have consumed it very quickly." He paused, giving Isaac time to think through what he had just been told as he casually forgot to elaborate on the question about their powers and its limits.

With the way Aion was speaking, Isaac felt like he should be a little on edge here. Maybe he'd just been through enough crap back home that considering what this guy was saying was actually a bit disturbing. He was always paranoid though. Whatever this demon was saying...it just didn't sound good. The way he was describing it was easy enough to understand, but what happened to the contractor they ended up using? Did they have any idea about all of this? Did they even live through it? Somebody using their souls to utilize their own power...sounded like some science fiction shit to him. Since he just went through his own version of science fiction from his own world, this was only a little bit of a stretch.

Only a little bit before he had the sinking feeling that this clock he was working on was going to be used for. He wondered what this...organ was he was talking about that they had to use their powers with. It didn't really matter. What DID matter was that he was possibly helping to complete something that would end up killing somebody. The feeling welling up in his gut was not exactly comforting. In the end, asking about it might be the best way to just figure it all out and decide from there what to do. Just getting up and leaving because he felt strange over this seemed like kind of a bad idea.

"So what happens to this contractor then? Do they know what they're doing and...well...obvious question is obvious but...do they live?"

For the moment, he didn't question anything about not being told about the whole power limiting and what not. He wasn't sure it would matter right now. He needed to find out if he was even doing what was right. He had no idea how he'd get out of it though. There was so much shit going through his head that, for now, he was too confused and uneasy to move.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the human stop his work on the watch, making him look predatory for a moment. Then shrugged his shoulders and smiled, breaking the effect.

"That's a question that I can't answer you properly, to be entirely honest." Taking his beer, he took a casual gulp from it. "You see, it's very rare and unusual for higher ranked demons to enter contracts, contrary to what stories might tell you. I am thirty years old and have never as much as heard about a demon who did it in that time."

"What I know is based on hearsay and the technical details I could glimpse, so take it with a grain of salt." Putting his drink back on the table, he folded his fingers against each other. "A contractor always knows what they are doing, at least as far as the chains and conditions of a contract go since it is normally the human who instigates it. But whether they live or die..." He waved his hand in a 'there and gone' manner, as if he was trying to grasp something just to toss it right away. "That depends on them and if they know their limits. Using the watch we should be able to cut the connection before anything too bad happens, but without it it's a very risky gamble at best."

Isaac wasn't sure why...but he felt like he should be treading a little bit more lightly on the territory this was getting into. He didn't really know if a demon brought here could actually hurt him or not. He could imagine though that he was at least in the presence of somebody that wouldn't mind hurting him badly enough and keeping him from telling some higher up. His paranoia was definitely showing right now. There was good reason at least. The problem now though was trying to keep from making it so obvious that he had no choice but to do something fucking stupid.

He didn't turn to face Aion. He couldn't shake the feeling of unease though no matter what he told himself. He always tended to look at the downside of a situation. It was just...something behind the demon's words that made him feel like his questions were being welcomed, but not technically appreciated. That shouldn't matter all too much...if he didn't feel like his life was in jeopardy. If this was Viede's brother then he should try to get past that, right?

This contractor business though...was it really as simple as the person that instigated the contract being able to have any place in the rules or were they really tricked into it? He guessed though that he wasn't lying at least about that. If he really wanted to think about it enough, the stories he heard usually had to do with a stupid person contracting with a demon or the devil or whatever and getting what was coming to them in the end. He didn't have anything to really compare it to, but it just didn't feel right.

"...I guess that's fair enough. Sounds like a bad deal for either side of it."

"Because it is." His expression turned serious and unhappy.

Leaning back, he sighed. "The demon loses its freedom and autonomy and the human has the risk of quickly having to pay a prize that is way more than they can afford. There is a reason why stories warn of it." He shook his head. These stories existed in both worlds, that of the humans and Pandaemonium alike. "Damned if you do and damned if you don't. ...and yet we have to bet our lives on it..."

If they kept their horns they would be able to use their full powers. But that would be meaningless as long as Pandaemonium could use those very same horns as receivers and invade and destroy them from inside out. He still remembered the terrible force the Geass had had over him during the battle on the Eden and how it had been used with the intention to force them to hold still while the reanimated head was going to tear them apart one by one - and that had only been a mere minor terminal! The queen itself would have a far greater power and range once she got involved. Which was only a question of time and priorities. This whole thing was a horror scenario that would end with their utter annihilation or worse if their enemies ever thought of it, and Aion was not willing nor able to let that happen. They had to find a way to survive without the horns!

"You said that there was a disease in your world that turned your own kind into monsters. Did that only affect the bodies?"

Now that Isaac could hear more and more about this contract business, he supposed that he wasn't giving Aion enough credit for what he had to deal with. Demon or not, he was still a being with a conscience. It was just the problem of whether or not he had enough of one to not squash one of them here like a damned bug. He still had no doubt that he had an advantage over him with strength and whatever the hell else he had over humans. It sounded like it was a raw deal for both parties. Freedom was...a pretty powerful thing.

He didn't suppose he needed to say anything about that. If he was telling him then he knew about how dreary all of that was. He was thinking about what to do next for the clock when he found himself once again gripped with a nightmarish memory. It wasn't something that could be helped really. Asking about it was just natural. As far as he was aware of he hadn't seen anything about somebody living becoming one of those. What he had seen was a person changing right before his eyes when one of the Necromorphs stabbed the guy right in the forehead. Basically that person died and immediately became one of them in the same instant. It was fucked up....REALLY fucked up.

"Bodies...bodies of the freshly killed...that's as far as I am aware of. The ones that immediately died were infected and turned as soon as a Necromorph got a hold of them. They tend to adapt over time. I have no doubt...that turning the living would be very probable in the future if it hasn't already happened since I've been here."

Maybe that question had been a bad idea. He watched the man fighting with himself and whatever memories he had - Aion figured that they were no good ones. But he was also glad that he asked because it only affecting the dead was an important piece of information.

He made a small, empathetic sound and then made sure to create eye-contact before he said his next words. "I am sorry to hear that. Hopefully they didn't. But in our case..." He paused before he delivered the blow. "As long as we have that organ it affects the living. And it spreads at the speed of sound."

Well damn. And Isaac thought he was the only one suffering from some of this kind of crap with the dead. He couldn't really tell the kind of specifics he would like to question, but he had a surprising respect for him now than he thought possible. He had something in common with a couple of demons here. Should he feel bad about that or what? Something told him it really didn't even matter. They were all in the same boat here and some a lot more than others. He finally just turned away from what he was working on, deciding that a drink might be a little more important right now to calm his nerves in a way that he needed and he was sure that Aion needed to.

He managed a smile at the demon.

"We have a lot more in common than I thought. To be honest...I didn't really expect that. Did you want me to come by here on a regular basis to work on this or should I take it with me? I have a feeling you want to hold onto it."

The whole trust thing was something he could understand for sure. There were a lot of pretty terrible people here and there were a lot of good ones. With people like that Saleh running around, there was little they could do but try and keep as much to themselves as they could and hold onto what they understood.

He laughed lightly at that. "Why, because I am a demon? You'd do good not to believe in all those stories that are going around about us, most of them are just made up tales to scare friends and little children." He winked. "And even if I act like a jerk at times, I guarantee you that I'm also person who cares and likes to prove it if given the chance."

Thinking about the offer, he gave him a grateful smile. "I would prefer to keep it in my possession and have you come over if it's not too much of a bother, to be honest." Recreating the watch would be impossible with his knowledge of technology alone, after all. Aion didn't know what else he would do if it were to be taken or worse, broken, but he was sure that it wouldn't make him happy. Maybe even made enough to forget his manners and destroy a couple of things and people. Controlling their rage once set off was neither his nor Chrono's forte.

"Well...that I can believe...the whole caring and what not. Viede is sure as hell a caring guy even if he can be a little more quiet than I am."

Isaac didn't really know how he SHOULD feel if he was helping these guys finish something that could potentially be something bad in the future. He had no idea whatsoever if he was just getting himself into a situation he couldn't get out of so easily or if he was genuinely reading these guys the way he should be. It was better to have stronger acquaintances around to be the type he knew he could count on. He would hate to find himself in a situation where it really did turn out that he was absolutely and completely alone.

Which was exactly what he figured it would turn into eventually. It seemed like his growing pessimism was not going away in the near future after all and he doubted he was any good at hiding it. He decided that he was going to trust Aion though and that meant that he would be returning to work on this watch. The way he described it was just something he had to see for himself. He felt like he needed to get a feel for a couple more tools though as he was sure he would need a couple of things a little less conventional to be able to achieve what he needed. He had to admit that it was a project he could definitely get behind.

He nodded finally, standing up and giving him a much more assured smile.

"I can understand that. Better not to lend somebody something important and end up losing it. I think I need a few more supplies for this though, so I think I will just be on my way for today and be back whenever you need me to be with some other equipment. I got a head start on it, but an engineer has to have everything at his disposal and I need to do this right."

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Sorry about the wait on this.

welcome back <3

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