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Post by Daniel Caim on Oct 11, 2016 3:39:11 GMT
Daniel listened to every word spilling out of his double’s mouth with growing irritation. It wasn’t the fact that he was trying to deny anything the bastard said—he’d already given up on that exercise in futility—but rather it was the fact that every bit of it was true. This other him was just as much a part of who he was as anything else, right down to the last syllable. “Thing is, you’re right about all that,” Daniel began. “You are part of me, no question there. But guess what, buddy. That don’t mean you control me. This is my life and I’m gonna live it however I want and nobody is going to tell me otherwise, ya hear me? Not you, not the Guild, not even Kalidas herself will change who I am and what I’ve done or how I chose to live with it!” He was about to squeeze off the round that would end this debacle when he realized that Luca had said something. What did the kid mean by that’s not you? It was obviously him. Even if Daniel didn’t look at himself in the mirror all that often, he still knew what he looked like. “The hell are you babbling about, kid?” His eyes never left his evil twin. Luca Burke | Nevyne
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Post by Luca Burke on Oct 11, 2016 23:32:41 GMT
The ache was back in spite of himself, and his efforts to remember that this was all just a dream. It hurt to see his father’s face, tired and sad. It hurt to watch him cry. So he didn’t. Unwilling to watch, and risk falling for this fabrication’s lie, Luca dropped his eyes to watch the weapons being waved about, rather than the phantom’s face. It was a shame he couldn’t cover his ears, too, and block out all the noise. It would have made resisting the urge to talk back easier. Ultimately, though, it was better that he still heard. Not because he needed to listen to his “father’s” words, but because something about Daniel’s seemed important. “You are part of me.” But he was still talking to the wrong one. His words were encouraging, to a degree, but they were still misdirected… Howling winds picked up his hair and played with it, whipping the long black locks into a frenzy along with the dust. Thunder rolled. This is wrong. Daniel snapped at him, but Luca was too busy thinking to have the presence of mind to flinch. ”You are part of me… you don’t control me…” But said to his false father, not the clone. Unless… maybe… “Daniel, who is holding the gun?” Before the man could bark at him again, he added, “Just… humor me. Which one has the gun?” Daniel Caim Nevyne
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Post by Daniel Caim on Oct 12, 2016 2:10:41 GMT
This ought to be good, Daniel thought. “I thought it would be obvious that it’s the guy wearing my face that’s holdin’ the gun.” He waggled the muzzle of his weapon at his dark twin. Was the stress getting to the kid already? It wouldn’t be surprising if that was the case; this hadn’t been the most relaxing walk through the mountains he could imagine. He had to pull the trigger so he could end this; for both their sakes. The yearning to bare his fangs and draw blood, that urgent need to do harm, made itself known again. It drowned out every thought, every emotion. He’d been hunting for what seemed an eternity and now his quarry was cornered with nowhere left to run. He lived for this feeling. If he could just scratch that itch… An inkling of a thought cut through the fog of red like a knife through butter. Why had Luca asked him who was holding the gun? Could it be that he was seeing something different? “So tell me, kid,” Daniel said. “Who are you seein’ with the gun? The fake me?” He turned his head slightly. “Or are you seeing the old guy over there? Luca Burke | Nevyne
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Post by Luca Burke on Oct 12, 2016 20:26:02 GMT
Ah, more patronizing. Lovely. Resisting the urge to sigh, Luca crossed his arms while he turned over Daniel’s answer in his head. The one wearing his face had the gun, hm? He looked again at the pair across from them, eyes flicking between the clone on the ground and the copy of his father. So they were seeing different things, after all… And probably hearing different things, too. For a while, though, he worried the other man hadn’t gotten the hint. The look in his eyes was one of someone who had little interest in waiting— who wanted to act now. But, much to Luca’s relief, it faded after a few moments. It was a start, he hoped. He shook his head before he answered, and turned his gaze back to watching the dream’s dangerous figments. “The one with the gun is my—“ No, not my father. Pausing a second, Luca cleared his throat and tried again. “It’s the other one. Not your double.” But what did that achieve? Thus far, they’d been seeing the same antagonists, whether it was the thing pretending to be his mother, or the doppleganger, but now… Why change tactics now? Daniel Caim Nevyne (ooc: Sorry this isn’t great. >>; )
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Post by Nevyne on Oct 13, 2016 18:12:45 GMT
Welcome to your
Nevyne frowned. How DULL. So much deliberation! And Luca clearly wasn’t buying into it. It wasn’t a very interesting game if only one player made all the moves. It was time to draw the curtain on this act and move on to the final one!
The doppleganger laughed. “Don’t you trust your instincts, Daniel? It’s not like you to question; you’re a hunter! You act! Like this.”
Lu’s father shook his head once more. “Trust me, Lu. This is for you. I wish I could have done this… before. I’m sorry.”
The gun fired at the helpless figure on the ground, the shot from the powerful weapon echoing loudly against the acoustics of the barren mountains. Blood splattered as the head of the victim burst like a boot into a rotten pumpkin, painting the browns of the plateau with a dark red hue.
If Daniel fired in response, the same fate would befall the figure wielding the gun, and all would be silent for an eerie number of moments. If anyone tried to physically assault the figure, they would be able to without any form of self-defense.
If he did not, then the figure would simply turn and point the gun at Daniel.
His doppelganger would say “You’re soft, Daniel. It’s better if I just handle things from here.”
And Lu’s father would say “As long as he lives, he’s a threat, Lu. I have to keep you safe.”
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MADE BY VEL OF GS
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Post by Daniel Caim on Oct 13, 2016 22:45:03 GMT
The familiar crack of a weapon’s discharge drew Daniel’s attention back to the pair across from Luca and himself. He saw the spray of blood and brain matter as the helpless magi’s head burst like an over-ripened fruit. He smelled the acrid stench of gunpowder and the betraying motions of his clone turning towards him. He recognized the familiar grace with which the weapon began to rise to sight in the target. He saw these things this and knew without a doubt that he needed to act.
There was no hesitation as he squeezed the trigger once—twice—and sent a pair of rounds sailing into his doppelganger’s (or whatever else it could be) chest and head. Daniel was already striding forward as the corpse began to fall, unloading the spent brass casings to the rocky floor beneath him with a few practiced flicks of the wrist. He rammed six fresh rounds home with a speedreloader and closed the chamber with another expert flick. And when he was within six feet of the body, Daniel emptied every single round into it.
Daniel stood tall over both bodies with a sneer plastered across his face. “How’s that for acting on my instincts, you son of a bitch?” If it weren’t for the stress of the day, Daniel might have laughed at the irony of his question.
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Post by Luca Burke on Oct 15, 2016 14:48:35 GMT
Suddenly the pace of their encounter sped up. Gone was the time for careful deliberation, replaced by a series of too-fast actions. The first shot fired before Luca even had time to cry out “wait!”. The ex-Hunter’s clone fell, dead in a pool of his own blood and brain matter. Stomach churning, Luca turned away before he had the chance to be sick, though bile still threatened at the back of his throat. Then there was another shot, and another, and another… eight in all, if he’d counted right. At such close range, the noise rang in his ears, and for a while the magi didn’t register that he’d flinched, raising his arms in front of his chest defensively. After a moment, they fell limply back to Luca’s sides, and he straightened. He didn’t dare look at the gory mess on the ground directly, but could still see the dark figure of Daniel standing before a growing swath of red in his peripheral vision. His stomach rolled again. He’d wanted to slow down, to think about the hows and the whys to see if they could figure something out about this mess. But now… Now it was far too late for any of that. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe it wasn’t. A shaky hand rose to card through his hair, and drag against the skin of his face. Not a word was said to Daniel for the time being, as Luca busied himself with muddling through what they ought to do now. Their enemy, supposedly, was dead, but that didn’t change the fact that they were still stuck in the barren landscape of the dream. Daniel Caim Nevyne
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Post by Nevyne on Oct 17, 2016 17:11:55 GMT
Welcome to your
The world was silent for a full minute. Howling wind kicked dust and bone, the scent of fresh death hung heavily in the air. And then a black mist would swirl around the first victim, picking up in speed until it was a pitch-black tornado, the size of a tall human. A… very tall human. And an even darker silhouette could be seen inside, somehow more dark than the whipping mist around it. And when it dissipated, the corpse was gone, and a new figure would stand. It was a woman, seven feet tall, dressed in tattered black rags that cascaded down her form, leaving only the lower half of her face (with jagged, 3-inch long teeth, like a deep sea fish) and her hand (claws, thin and deadly) visible. Long white hair flowed from beyond the hood of the ragged banshee, as if pushed upward by some constant, gentle fan.
“How interesting.” The words came slow, raspy and hoarse. Her lips did not move and it seemed as if the words would forgo going through the men’s ears, and instead go directly into their minds. She lifted a crooked finger to Daniel. “That side of you appears in your dreams more than the man who stands before me. I wonder- what will you do to silence him? It would seem fight, but are you prepared?”
The figure would then lower her finger and turn to Luca. “You seem unaffected by all this. It is, after all, only a dream, is it not? And yet… And yet, every time a similar scene plays out while you slumber, you wake up in a cold sweat. Curious- you cannot ignore them any more than your companion here can ignore his half. A fruitless struggle.”
The banshee would fold her hands together once more and consider both men with an eyeless gaze. “Hum. Very well. Each of you- name a person. Any. Person. I am curious. Whose dream would you wish to see?”
W O R D S 330 M U S I C xxx T A G Daniel Caim | Luca Burke N O T E S ft. nevyne in actual banshee form. Ehhh either can go first.
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Post by Daniel Caim on Oct 18, 2016 4:57:00 GMT
Daniel turned to walk away from the grizzly scene of his most recent killing. He gave up on trying to deny the pleasure it gave him to have slain the dark reflection of himself. It somehow seemed poetically just when he thought about it. He was midway between the corpse and Luca’s side when the wind suddenly picked up, adding a new layer of sound to the long, eerie silence. He performed a near-perfect about face to gaze upon whatever had decided to end its pitiable existence via a shotintheheaditis. His hand moved with practiced precision as he emptied all six chambers of his revolver and loaded them with fresh rounds for the second time.
His weapon began to rise just as black mist began to clear, however the sight of what was behind the dark veil stayed his hand. His eyes widen—partly with fear, mostly with awe—as he beheld none other than Nevyne herself. The goddess of dreams raised a pointed finger to him, mirroring his own dropping arm. He cursed himself for flinching when words that scarcely registered were spoken to him—something about his other half appearing more often than he did and how he would silence the man. She turned to Luca and said something to him before linking her fingers together; then, she offered them the chance to view any one person’s dream that they chose.
The offer confused Daniel, not because he didn’t understand, but because he had no earthly idea of what dream he would’ve wanted to view. A few of the options that came immediately to mind were the dreams of some of his old squadmates from his active days with the Guild, but that idea died almost immediately; they’d all agreed to go their separate ways a long time ago and it didn’t seem right to steal into their dreams for a peek. His second thought was to seek an answer to the question of who or what had killed his father, but that one met with the same fate as the previous. The final thought was the only one of its fellows to survive.
“I’ve wondered what my mom’s been doin’ since she left me for the wolves,” Daniel said. “I guess she’s as good a person to spy on as any.”
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Post by Luca Burke on Oct 21, 2016 0:21:54 GMT
The silence ringing in Luca’s ears almost seemed louder than the gunshots, and hung heavier in the air. With nothing left to worry about, for now, Luca’s body remembered how tired it was after everything that had happened. And, when it seemed nothing else was going to jump out at them immediately, the zero magi sat down with a shaky sigh, and crossed his legs. His elbows moved to rest on his knees not long after he’d settled, and in turn his hands rose so he could bury his face in them. Gods he was tired… Then out of the silence came howling winds, kicking up dust and likely a fresh round of trouble. Dropping his hands, Luca rose unsteadily to his feet once more. What was it now? Was there--? Oh… Deep blue eyes fell first on long, bony fingers, tipped with deadly claws. As they rose, they followed dark fabric and long locks of white to impossibly sharp and certainly inhuman teeth. Oh no… She spoke, low and rasping, and it took nearly all of his willpower not to turn tail and run then and there. But he stayed put, watching and listening as always. “Interesting,” she said. This… this had to be her didn’t it? Nevyne, the Banshee? She certainly resembled one, if nothing else. Luca flinched slightly when the goddess’ attention shifted towards him, unable to keep from staring down the length of her gnarled finger as though it were a loaded gun. While she spoke, the young magi worked his jaw, clenching and unclenching his teeth. He didn’t want to admit she was right, so instead he said nothing at all… until she posed a new question. Whose dream would he see…? “I…” His shoulders drooped a little. Was there anyone? His parents were dead, he didn’t know any other family members, and friends… friends were another problem. Almost none he knew were close, and of those who were, none felt… appropriate, to intrude upon in such a way. Nibbling his lip, Luca started to answer that he wasn’t sure, but stopped when a name occurred to him. Would he mind? Would he even know? Only one way to find out, and it was likely unwise to keep the Banshee waiting too long, anyway. Swallowing hard, Luca tried again. “There’s a… friend of mine… Mikaiah Lupei?”Nevyne
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Post by Nevyne on Oct 26, 2016 23:01:00 GMT
Welcome to your
She had to admit, being the Banshee was awfully fun. The fear in their eyes was a pleasant change from their less intense reactions to the scenes she had set for them. Ah, at least there was some entertainment to be had. Her robed form disappeared into a black mist, which dissipated until nothing remained. Around them, the mountains and stones sank noiselessly into the earth, until nothing remained but their plateau and the evening sky. The clouds dissipated and night came in an instant, leaving the two in darkness again and starless sky.
Then, like a vast movie screen, an image would play against the sky, crystal clear for both men to see.
Midnight in the city; circles from street lights catch movement of a shadow. They follow her until she stands directly under one of the lamp posts. A young adult... Daniel's mother, just how he last saw her. She seems... worried. Constantly looking over her shoulder. Shaking. A pile of... papers in her hand? She puts one on the light post, and it sticks somehow, without tape or string. She flattens it to make sure it's readable.
Daniel would see it; a missing person's poster, with his face... well, his early teenage face, anyway. A reward is being offered that was clearly more money than she would have ever been able to make in a decade. As she ran towards another light pole, papers scattered behind her... how many of these had she printed up? The stack seemed endless.
The street gave way into a forest but her stride didn't break; it was as if it was a normal occurrence. Posters were stuck to every tree as she moved deeper in. And what was that? Behind... several figures pursuing; though shadowed, it was easy to tell these were trained soldiers. Hunters, perhaps. And yet she seemed oblivious, taking time to put posters up even as Daniel could see the pursuers closing in.
Eventually she came to a clearing, and another familiar figure was resting atop a fallen log; Daniel's father, along with an unfamiliar raccoon-aspect magi, female, and holding his hand.
“Where is he?” His mother shouted at him.
“It's your fault he's gone; I bet he's in their hands right now.” He smiled wryly, and readjusted his romantic grip on the magi’s hand. “You got wrapped up too deep.”
“No! No, I won't believe it! It's your fault for leaving us! How... for MAGI??” Her voice was sobbing, weak… broken. “If you didn’t betray your family, I wouldn’t have had to do this!”
Any further conversation that may have happened was interrupted by shadowed figures leaping from all directions at the three of them. And then...
Gone. The sky snapped back to darkness immediately.
Nevyne, silently appearing behind the two, would put a bony hand gently on Daniel’s shoulder.
“She woke up,” came the raspy whisper. “She has this dream often. Hmmm.”
She would lift her hand from the hunter as the sky changed and shimmered to display yet another movie.
It was a starry night, and the lake glistened with a perfect reflection of their twinkling light. However... something was strange. Luca would recognize the place near where he first met the other magi, but... the colors were off. Where dark colors should be purples and blues, everything seemed to blur a mix of all sorts of hues from red to green to yellow. The entire dream looked like it was being viewed from behind a warped glass.
Mikaiah was playing his violin in the middle of the lake, a haunting, beautiful, and energetic melody. As he played, water rose as a pillar under his feet, lifting him slowly towards the darkened sky. The water cascaded down all sorts of colors and it seemed... well... even for a dream, it seemed off. Wobbly, but not like a water's flow; more like paint being smeared across a palette, with new colors being added in during random strokes. Even the violin sounded... strange. Muted. Discordant, almost, yet still beautiful in its own right.
The entire scene jolted. Static. Colors shifted violently. And then. Nothing.
It was Luca’s turn to feel Nevyne’s bony grasp on his shoulder, and her raspy voice in his ear. “Hmm. His brain has been fried from his… habit. His dreams are fleeting and unstable. Alas.”
Her grip would tighten, briefly painful, and Luca would find himself awake back wherever he last slept; his bed? Hunched over his work at his clinic? In any case, he was no longer in Nevyne’s realm. Her banshee figured turned to Daniel. The hood would fall back of its own accord, revealing the pale, blue-eyed face of a beautiful deity, rather than a horrible monster. Her smile, though, did not lack for sharklike teeth. She would extend her hand towards Daniel’s forehead. If allowed to connect, she would chuckle.
“Do visit me again, Daniel Caim.”
If he would not allow her to touch his head, she would retract her hand and laugh. “Very well. Don’t be a stranger!”
Either way, Daniel would then find himself jolting awake where he last slept. Neither he nor Luca would see Nevyne in their dreams if they found sleep once more this night, and would not even register that they were in one.
W O R D S 881 M U S I C xxx T A G Daniel Caim | Luca Burke N O T E S One more reply from each of you to finish up! Thanks for playing.
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Post by Daniel Caim on Oct 27, 2016 2:22:41 GMT
Daniel watched the scene play out in confusion. His sponsor from back when he’d joined the Hunter’s Guild had assured him that his mother abandoned him, and yet her she was, tapping posters smeared with his fresh-faced self as though it was the most important task of her life. And that look of worry she wore like a mask. She was worried about him? And why was she posting missing person’s papers? He didn’t remember ever going missing. “Mom, wait…” he pleaded weakly. He wanted so desperately to reach out and catch her, to tell her that he was safe. The desire all but overwhelmed the years of resentment and betrayal he held close to his heart even to this day. His heart lurched painfully in his chest when the scene shifted and he caught sight of the figures pursuing his oblivious mother. “No.” He recognized those movements; he’d been taught them as a cadet, and had taught them to others in turn. The familiarity drilled into him by constant hours of toil and years of blood and days upon days tracking in the field left no doubt as to what the figures intended. He was about to call out to her again when his mother came to a clearing. The warning died in his throat when he caught sight of his father—alive and well no less—and holding hands with a magi woman. His parents started arguing. It was in regards to his whereabouts and something about his father betraying them. How exactly had he betrayed them? Who was that woman? Whose hands had he been delivered into? All these questions and more began welling up in Daniel’s mind. Questions that wouldn’t be answered in this moment as those that pursued his mother chose it as their time to pounce. Then, the scene faded to darkness. “Wait!” Daniel shouted. His feet bid him to sprint his hardest towards the darkness, but the bony hand laid upon his shoulder stopped him in his tracks. Tears of relief pooled briefly at the corners of his eyes when Nevyne told him that his mother merely awakened, which confirmed that she was still alive. He smiled as his eyes closed and the tears fell freely. Such was his relief that Luca’s chosen dream failed to register to him. When next his eyes opened, Daniel found that Luca had vanished and the Goddess of Dreams’ hood had fallen back to reveal a smile filled with too-sharp teeth. “Do visit me again, Daniel Caim,” She would tell him as Her hand reached out to him. He was too caught up in his emotions to flinch away. Daniel bolted awake with a start and pulled Black Hammer from where it rested on his nightstand. His eyes scanned the bedroom as he searched for something—anything—to drill full of holes. His breathing came in ragged, halting heaves of air and his heart raced. The sheets, pillow and quilt were all thoroughly soaked. Failing to find targets, Daniel let his arm fall limply to his side. He put a hand to his face, then rested the cool metal of his revolver against his forehead. It was then that he realized tears were still cascading down his cheeks. A sob wracked his frame, then another. The toll of his ordeal was finally showing as he began to weep softly into the darkness, a once proud wolf laid low by the weight of years and his sins and the understanding that his hatred for his mother held no meaning. What else in his life held no meaning? Luca Burke | Nevyne
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Post by Luca Burke on Oct 28, 2016 22:27:20 GMT
Luca almost expected more games. More horrible sights masquerading as the requested dreams, but what the Banshee showed them was… not mundane, exactly. He wasn’t sure how to describe it. But at least it seemed the goddess was truly finished toying with them for the night. He hoped he was right to be relieved. Daniel’s request came first, and though the zero magi knew nothing of the man’s mother, her nightmare seemed rather telling. What the story with her was, he couldn’t even begin to guess, but the show seemed to be hitting the former Hunter hard regardless. Gone was the tough facade he’d put up with all night so far, replaced by something weak and nearly broken. It came as a bit of surprise that the man would even allow himself to cry at all. A small, irate part of Luca wanted to snap at him about being a hypocrite. It went ignored to the best of his ability. And then it was his turn, and his thoughts were distracted from the other dreamer entirely. A mess of colors and shapes played out before him like a living painting, but the whole thing seemed… off. Skewed. A worried frown creased his brow as Luca watched the distorted mass of his friend at the center of it all, chaotically happy and jerking strangely with every movement. Despite the dream’s relative simplicity, it deepened an already growing concern, and even without Nevyne’s input, he could have guessed why. When bony fingers clamped around his shoulder, Luca stiffened visibly. He didn’t dare to try turning to face her, even when her grip became painful. Then, just as he had begun to wince, the Banshee was gone, and her nightmarish world along with her. The magi jolted awake, struggling to free himself from his blanket, which over the course of the nightmare had entangled itself around his limbs, and sat up shaking. Dully, he remembered where he was, curled up in an available corner at the clinic in Dagos. Alone in the dark. As he leaned back against the wall, the weight of all he had seen finally came crashing down on him. His mother and father, the doppleganger, the deaths… His throat ached with held-back sobs, and eyes stung with hot tears. And even when the crying subsided, Luca didn’t dare go back to sleep. By the time morning had arrived, he felt more exhausted than when he’d first gone to sleep. Daniel Caim Nevyne
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