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Post by MP on Jul 15, 2018 1:05:04 GMT -6
As the beast retreated, she approached. She kept an equal distance between them, ready to fade back if it took an interest in her. But she was near enough to watch the pale human figures now. They were calling - not to her, she knew - but their greetings were a lure to her all the same. She responded. Came forward. Stood and watched them, full in the open. Or so she thought.
They never acknowledged her. That was the law. Her punishment. The fact that she had't manifested herself - that she could manifest at all - did not occur to her. When she stood in their sights, they ignored her. When she approached them, they shivered or moved away. These would likely be no different. They never acknowledged her. Until she made them.
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Post by jarahamee on Jul 15, 2018 13:47:00 GMT -6
Ru lacked adrenaline responses, but if he had them, all the hair on his body would have pricked up at this moment. The girl.. Was this a ghost? He froze in place, and stared for a long moment. What was happening here? And why was it happening now? He knew that vampires sometimes attracted other kinds of undead, but this was more than he had expected. He stared for a long time, and then, sensibly, examined the creatures' aura. Were they a ghost?
"H..hello. Are...um, you...a ghost?"
He crouched, as if they were a child. At least as a vampire, he knew that ghosts could only cause so much harm to him.
"What's your name?"
The shape in the water loomed closer, picking up speed, gradual, dreadful, and pointed. Two potential food sources it. Neither human, but close, nearly there. It seemed to dominate the lake itself. Perhaps, it was the lake.
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Post by kilnarak on Jul 23, 2018 22:07:24 GMT -6
The child looked up at Ru with her inky black eyes, her head tilting slightly to the side in a curious lilt at his question. Tendrils of awareness spread out from the child in a web of aura, thin black threads that grew thicker where they touched upon Ru himself. When he knelt she folded her arms over her thin chest, and seemed to shiver, as if she was cold. Taconin was still taking from Ru what he thought the man wanted to see, what he expected from the ghost of a girl.
"If that's what you want... Then I am a ghost," the girl-child's voice was a whisper, but her lips curled in a soft smile as she looked up at Ru. "I don't know. What would you name me?"
Something else - multiple somethings - brushed against Taconin's cast threads of awareness. He tasted each, recognized one. The child's form turned away from Ru, away from the other two somethings. Her smile turned toward the darkness where Bruse watched - was it a touch more sincere than the one that had been turned toward Ru?
"Hello," she called softly to the dark. There were still the other two presences - one skulking, sure it was unseen, the other uncaring, hungry. Taconin was a little hungry as well...
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Jul 29, 2018 6:54:26 GMT -6
The mist floated unnaturally against the breeze of the night as Bruse picked up his own speed to keep up with the thing in the water. With a small burst of speed, his form moved suddenly in its path up ahead, coming to a standing stop a few feet between the two groups to stare down at the water's surface where the thing would eventually emerge to either attack or otherwise engage the physical beings upon the shore.
His eyes glowed hungrily, flickering with an eager but focused light, ready and willing as he waited for the thing to make it's entrance.
"Beware." He said, sending the message in a deep, mental growl to Taconin before the darkness could reach them. He braced himself and hoped Taconin could perhaps warn the vampire, although that would be completely up to the youngster.
Although he wasn't close enough to actually stand over the two on the shore, his tail flowed out behind him in boiling whisps, sending cold air radiating out. The feeling would be enough to raise hair and goose-flesh upon the skin, while his own hungry and anxious energy would play upon the minds of those nearby, putting them on edge and perhaps a little jumpy if they were in any way susceptible to sensing metaphysical presences.
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Post by MP on Oct 9, 2018 21:27:42 GMT -6
“Beware.”
She felt the words as a chest deep thrum, a cold rush of power. She felt the other presence too. That one was subtler, sliding under the water like a snake. Neither was focused on her. Neither one a threat. Still, the force of them was unmistakable, drifting over her senses like a foul marsh air. And none of these people could sense it.
She watched them, eyes narrowed and waiting. The pale one on the bank. The thing in the little girl’s shape. They were blind, all of them. Useless. Hopeless. And in another moment, the thing would be upon them. She’d seen it before. She would see it again. But not tonight. No, tonight, she had no stomach for weaklings. Her curiosity was satisfied.
She turned her back on them. She left the weak to their fate, the spirit to its meal, and walked away into the woods.
[F leaves the rp.]
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Post by jarahamee on Oct 11, 2018 19:32:04 GMT -6
Ru felt like he could jump out of his skin, but he could not help also being confused. If he wanted her to be a ghost, she was a ghost? Did he want her to be a ghost? And if she wasn’t a ghost, who was she? Or maybe she was one of those wandering dead who did not know they were dead yet. Ooh. Scary. He felt a nonexistent chill up his spine, and shuddered a little.
“I don’t know if I have a place here, naming you. What are you doing out here in the cold, child?”
He offered a cold hand to her, as if offering reassurance, his cape unfurling like a wing towards the child, and then he heard her hello. Her hello at… At… at the darkness. He froze and felt the blackness even his nightvision could not penetrate. There was nothing to see. Or was there. Presences out there. Ghostly beings. And they were coming closer.
And then, suddenly, surprisingly close to them, the head, and then torso of a man emerged from the water, slowly but purposefully. It had been seen, and so it came. The being’s eyes were a clear, bright white with dark irises, white teeth like bone, and tanned skin. He was thin and muscular, sinewy like an eel, and he approached with the smoothness of a big cat. But the most remarkable feature of his being was his hair. Incredibly long, it flowed into the water and seemed to spider out from his form. How deep, no one knew.
“So many visitors tonight.”
The comment was pointed, perhaps also aimed at Bruse. He spoke with a slight gurgle. Like a drowned man with water in his lungs, but seemed to be in no particular discomfort.
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Post by kilnarak on Oct 12, 2018 6:24:01 GMT -6
"I was curious. Is it cold?" The child's voice lilted sing-song as she spoke. Her attention drifted and she turned away just before he reached for her, but she made no move to avoid his grasp. If Ru's hand fell upon the girl's shoulder, he would find her slight form as devoid of warmth as his own - as cold as the night air around them and no colder.
Taconin regarded Bruse curiously, his girl-child visage tilting her head to the side. He was aware of the pale man behind him as well as the hungry presence drawing nearer. The skulking presence faded, retreating into the night or simply ceasing to be here. Was that hungry thing what Bruse meant they beware?
"He says we should be wary," her voice carried a hint of a frown, but the expression didn't touch her face. She turned her head to peer up at Ru with her dark eyes, then turned to face the water as the hungry-thing drew closer still. She watched calmly as it rose from the water, canting her head to the side again. Taconin didn't know what it was, and he reached for it with his thought-senses, trying to feel and taste the shape of its essence. "Are you what we should be wary of?"
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Oct 14, 2018 18:33:11 GMT -6
Bruse watched in stolid silence as the figure rose from the water like a silent screen, hair trailing back like ink into the water. The gurgling voice reached out to them with its greeting, "So many visitors tonight." Bruse could sense another hunger's presence besides his own, and his candle-light eyes narrowed.
Keeping himself positioned between the approaching spirit and Taconin, Bruse's bulk blocked most of the others from any oncoming attacks. He watched, barely even a flicker of movement, waiting to see if this other spirit might make a move. His aura-tail and mane flowed out behind him like a sweeping mist, curling about Taconin and the vampire's feet and perhaps leaving a wavering chill in the air. From the corner of his vision, he caught a glimpse of the frail figure that had been hiding in the bushes now retreating to flee from the scene.
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Post by jarahamee on Oct 17, 2018 16:44:33 GMT -6
The newcomer noted the three of them standing before it; all positioned between solid land and the lake. The strange being in the lake was a paradox; it looked both like a drowned man and like a handsome youth at once. Tanned skin tinged a greyish hue. The eyes were both dead and alive, vibrantly focused on the trio before it. Its long hair was shining and thick, spread about its shoulders and draping about its back and into the water. The lake itself was black with the length of it, like a strange sort of pond scum mingled with the dark alkaline water. The rest of his body appeared just about invisible in the gloom. Moreover, it was entirely nude besides its long draping hair, and seemed little concerned with modesty.
Any who felt auras would feel a pit of endless hunger from the being, or perhaps from the lake. It was not just hungry, it was hunger, bitter, and icy-cold. The embodiment of those icy poisonous alkaline lakes that were a quiet death to that which came upon it. Black and hungry. Focused. Its nails seemed strangely sharp and elongated, folded upon.
Its strange bone teeth flashed as it spoke;
"Wary? No need to be wary of me. In fact, we may be able to help one another."
A steady stream of dark water poured out of its mouth as it spoke.
Ru took a step back. Nothing about this creature seemed to be good, and he didn't want any part of helping an evil being. He pulled the child with him as well, as if he felt protective of her. There was something very wrong and he wanted to get back to his car.
"..Uh...this was a mistake..."
He stuttered, trying to pull Taco back a few more feet.
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Post by kilnarak on Oct 17, 2018 17:14:32 GMT -6
Taconin regarded the creature - and Bruse who stood between them. When the vampire grabbed her, Taconin allowed itself to be moved back and away but still reached out - still trying to feel the creature. It was hungry, far hungrier than Taconin - at least at the moment. Had it starved? Did it fear? Certainly it didn't fear them now, but that might change - at least if Taconin could find any hints.
The vampire's fear coursed out into the night air as blood might course into dark waters; Taconin could taste it, drank it up - even if it wasn't hungry, it shouldn't let such resources go to waste. Bits of leaves and earth clung to the child's gray-tinted legs, then faded away into nothing as Taconin took that matter into itself as well - just in case it needed a bit more solidity.
"You want us to help you?" The child's voice rose soft, questioning, her outward appearance slowly shifting and contorting as Taconin contemplated finding a new form. "You shouldn't come so close. My friend will hurt you."
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Nov 9, 2018 21:10:16 GMT -6
"Wary? No need to be wary of me. In fact, we may be able to help one another."
An unearthly growl, distant but still spiritually audible, hummed from the larger entity. Bruse stepped forward, ever so slightly, threatening the other drowned figure to make a move. His form darkened slightly as well with the thrumming rumble that issued from his core, but he remained protectively positioned between the others and this possible danger. Taconin answered it in kind, but Bruse still didn't trust it.
"Speak. What would you have of them." Bruse finally answered, his voice as deep and rumbling as his growl. He wanted to be done with it, and if this other entity needed help, he would not stand to see Taconin in danger. His voice faded once more into silence, and he could feel the trickling uneasiness of the vampire behind him.
"..Uh...this was a mistake..." the vampire muttered, and the sound of shuffling footsteps began to move away. Bruse kept his candle-light eyes locked on the other, watching, waiting and holding his own hunger at bay while time ticked out whatever might happen next.
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 10, 2018 2:15:59 GMT -6
Did the surface of the lake ripple against the wind's brushes? Or was it their imagination? The being took a single step? towards them, strides long and graceful even in the deep, cold, and very bitter water. The figure rose. He was tall, but not inhumanly so. If nothing else, he looked concerningly human, though his body took on a more life-like appearance as he withdrew further from the water.
He was handsome, strikingly so despite his deathly palor. A beautiful youth, well muscled and fit, like one that might have lived here a thousand years ago. Bright, predatory eyes focused on the two of them. His teeth remained overly-bright and unpleasantly bone-like. His long, long hair was wrapped around his shoulders and waist, following around his body and legs, sprawling out into the water behind him. Just how long was it? He was unabashedly naked.
"We are all predators here. Perhaps, we can share meals. Don't worry about me."
The being was fearless, confident. He felt powerful, and not at all vulnerable here. Those who could sense such things, had the distinct sense, his being extended beyond this drowned-man puppet. It was... much more than that.
Ru withdrew a few more steps. He didn't like the sound of any of this, and he was going to get the kid out of here. He tried to lead the girl away back towards the path. In addition, the nudity was unexpectedly awkward, and he really wanted to look away but did not want to seem overly rude. The girl... she seemed to know the strange ghost, and that was ok. They could all leave quietly together, and avoid having whatever this thing was following them.
"..He..hey...that... um, what about we talk about it some other time?"
He found himself declining the offer in the same way he declined people trying to get him to sign whatever petition. He thought about asking the ghost if he was coming but decided that he'd follow if he wanted to follow.
"...We.. we'll be back."
He lied unconvincingly, his voice shaky. This thing was malignant. It was evil. And he wanted nothing to do with its meals. The mystery he had hoped to illuminate was concerningly and alarmingly clear now.
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