|
|
Post by Tina Bennet on Jun 18, 2018 16:37:31 GMT -8
"THEN SIT! DOWN!!" She bellowed right back, jamming a finger at the one chair she had to sit on other than the bed. She gave him a look that dared him to try eating it after a tantrum worse than her little sister's where shit was left on teh walls. Literally.
"Rude guests don't get stories." She flopped down on the bed, sitting cross legged, still eyeing the bracelet as she rest her chin on her palm.
"I don't know what happened to Mom." She hated the names Mommy and Daddy, lips twisting in disgust when her mystery guest mentioned them that way. Whatever. he didn't need to know.
But she wanted it back. It was all she had, the only solid thing. She'd blown up the rest a long time ago, before ever even bothering to think about Cabals' existence. Clearing her throat, she continued, looking up at him for a moment before back to the bracelet.
"Mom died a long time ago, when I was little." She raised a hand up, measuring a guessed height about when she was seven. It barely came up above the top of the mattress she now sat on, eying him to make sure her guest would indeed listen instead of bluster and threaten her in her own room.
"She was awesome, a total badlands badass. She could snipe you from the other side of the city with a single shot and not miss. She made people smile and could get them to do anything she wanted if she smiled at them, instead." She was her mom. She made that one weird stew when she was five that was a sickly purple color that was almost black with noodles that floated around it. Some stupid thing called an eggplant.
"She was my mom." She shook her head, clearing the thought away. "Anyway, Dad doesn't matter. He wasn't around." And didn't go saving his children or the women who bore them.
|
|
|
|
Post by David B. on Jun 18, 2018 16:50:25 GMT -8
"Then how do you know she's dead?"
He did indeed sit as ordered, still clutching the bracelet.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tina Bennet on Jun 18, 2018 17:21:50 GMT -8
'Because she never came back.' Tina's fell silent at the question, refusing to speak the words out loud, then straightened as she took a deep breath.
"Because the badlands have traps and cheats. You gotta play the game against everyone. Always." She could count the exceptions on one hand. "Blood doesn't matter unless it's on your cash and you don't like it. Bounty hunters, assassins, thieves, bandit kings, all of it." She ticked off each example on one of her fingers, focusing on them instead for a moment. Small, calloused hands that had burns on them from her recent practice with her powers and recovering from her injuries during the battle.
"We got snatched up by a bunch of slavers." She raised both hands, fingers spread wide and hooked as though they were claws and could reflect the danger. "You get caught by some of them, you don't come back. Sometimes they take you back to the city, but that's risky if someone thinks you broke a contract doing it." Assuming they didn't just get mad because you took their favorite toy. She looked at the bracelet, the way he clutched it like he needed more of the story, fueling her tale as she spoke more actively, hands gesturing as she went.
"They got us, super sneaky in the middle of the night like a coyote. A whole pack, others packed in and chained, lined up like a bunch of sticks. The whole city was quiet, the outskirts on fire and lighting up the night as they raided. And there was my mom, taking out the big bads with her bow, pchew!" Still elaborate and dramatic, but her words came in a rush now of memory and storytelling, knowing the words by heart when she was singing her mother's praises.
"And then she saw they got me, trying to be all 'one more shot and she goes down.'" She paused, shaking her head and straightening again. "So she came along, hidden weapons and all, ready to kill with a glance if they looked at her wrong. We got through...half the badlands? Something like that." She flipped a hand in dismissal at the guess. "Anyway, when we found outs they were takin' us to go to Prota, she said nope. Lead a whole rebellion and everything with nothing but a dagger, a couple busted arrow shafts, and a lotta crazy people in chains." More to tell? Absolutely, but she was curious to see what her audience thought so far.
|
|
|
|
Post by David B. on Jun 18, 2018 17:31:48 GMT -8
He listened intently, at her antics and her story. Then, after she paused, he blinked.
"Problem one."
He stood.
"You didn't tell me the entire truth. Clearly, this is something you're used to telling people, and you have this all worked out to reveal only as much as necessary to show what you want to show. Problem two- you don't like people seeing who you really are. But not anymore."
He ate her bracelet.
Whether she got angry or not, it didn't matter. He vanished as he ate it, along with the room- and Tina was back there. In the battle. Her memory had come to life- the rebellion story she was telling was happening around her, the young girl in her PJ's despite it. The shadow man was standing behind her, looking around.
"Lets see what we see...."
|
|
|
|
Post by Tina Bennet on Jun 18, 2018 18:04:01 GMT -8
What.
Tina's eyes narrowed further when the guy stood up, listing off the problems with her story before she'd finished it, and ---
"NO!" It was ON. The little blonde let out an outraged shriek that wold have made banshees weep as she launched herself at her mysterious and obstinate guest. But he vanished before she could tackle him to the ground, which was now a sand-blasted wasteland instead of the much cooler and comfortable floor of the dorm she had at Cabal. She flipped around, still in her pajamas as she sat up, then pushed herself up of without bothering to brush off the sand as she looked around with wide eyes.
She already knew where to look.
The heat of the flames crackled against her face, even from here. A frustrated growl turned into a roar of pain that shook to the sky in her mind. A large man with broad shoulders and an even broader gut was scrambling in the distance, twisting and turning as something scuttled along, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and screaming with impotent rage and defiance. A little girl, not even tall enough to clear the four foot mark, was dangling from him like a monkey from a tree, her pale blonde hair gleaming in the sun, tinged red from the fire and...blood? Yes, blood. Not hers, given the fact that she spat something out of her mouth to the side. The man’s head was bleeding, and the red bit of flesh and tissue that landed in the sand looked suspiciously like part of an ear.
“No,” she whispered. She knew what was coming, what this would lead to. The man who invaded her room didn’t even matter at this point; her bare feet were taking strides that carried her across the scorching sands. The remains of a little shanty town, nothing more than shacks and barely surviving dreams were a mass of ashes and scorched shadows in the distance.
A heavy thud could be hard along with his roar of pain, the sound of flesh against flesh as a mercenary scowled, muttering under his breath about incompetence as he clocked the small girl upside the head with his fist, stopping her long enough for her captor to grab hold of her as a woman’s figure could be seen just above the wall of flame.
“Drop your weapons, now, or the girl dies!” She saw it then, the shackles on her body that kept her attached to the man who suffered her presence even before she had powers. Raw skin showed under the shackle, suggesting it wasn’t a new bond on her frail form.
Tina stopped, staring at who she knew was a younger version of herself, shaking as she looked away to the woman on the wall. She was still there, right? She had to be. Right?
Several seconds passed in silence, enough that the man pulled out a knife and held it against Tina’s cheek, slicing part of the flesh, a thin streak of red as she fussed and whimpered, half out of it and, somehow, still trying to bite the man who held her in check.
“Fine.” The bow was tossed to the ground, the sound of wood and sinew cracking as it landed. Not cheap materials, either.
“And the rest.” Irritated, the man drew the knife down further.
“Knock it off already!” The woman’s voice was agitated, her face hidden by the flickering dance of shadow and flame as a sword was tossed downward, followed by a quiver of arrows, some of which fell free and were immediately consumed by the fire.
“Hurt her again, and you won’t get to finish your threat.”
Tina rocked up on her toes, never once remembering being cut, but she did remember biting the guy’s ear off. Blood tasted much better than brains. She shaded her eyes, trying to get a look at the woman who was making her way over the wall.
|
|
|
|
Post by David B. on Jun 19, 2018 16:06:34 GMT -8
"So that's her, huh?"
The shadow David started walking past Tina, into the light....toward those people. Hands raised, he spoke up.
"I'm sorry, dream demons....but is one of you Tina? You, maybe?"
He'd point at the very small child with the cut face.
|
|
|
|
Post by Tina Bennet on Jun 19, 2018 16:26:44 GMT -8
She couldn't make out her face. Why couldn't she make out her face?
"Yeah." She swallowed, believing the man beside her meant her mother as she already started jogging forward, then going at a run. He shouldn't be here, shouldn't be seeing this, but at the same time, that didn't matter. She knew she could get out in time on her own if she had to, but if her mother's feet hit the ground on the other side of that wall, she'd never see her again except in her dreams...and nightmares. Obviously.
She had no idea who he was talking to, believing the David-wanna be was the dream demon but not voicing it. Dream Tina, however, looked up and stopped mid-crawl, one foot shoved against her captor's face as she balanced by hanging off of him like a grimlin, completely with sharp, glimmering teeth that were bared in what might have been a displeased greeting. She didn't say anything, merely watching. Waiting.
Tina herself stopped, noticing the exchange with almost as much caution. This was her dream. WHY WAS HE IN HER HEAD?!
|
|
|
|
Post by David B. on Jun 19, 2018 16:37:33 GMT -8
The shadow David started to grow. And swell. And change. Lightning started crackling in his body as the smoke started shifting to a deep black, like thunder clouds. His eyes went white as horns started sprouting from his smoke head, his teeth changing to sharp, stabby things as he roared, his body beginning to blot out the sun.  Like a tidal wave of clouds he rolled forward, and then Tina (present day) would notice a strange thin line of smoke coming from under her PJ's If she lifted up her shirt, she'd see it coming from her sternum, and she'd feel a sudden strange attachment. Her anger and fear were causing this monster to grow. "You rape and pillage women and children....so we'll rape and pillage you, small little men." His voice was booming, cruel, demonic....and he roared as he surged toward them! |
|
|
|
Post by Tina Bennet on Jun 19, 2018 17:32:18 GMT -8
Well that was new. Tina cocked her head to the side, jaw askew as well with a quiet, "Huh." With the mask fading away to reveal the horned dark creature, it felt more like what Tina had expected to see of not-David originally. The transformation was enough that she shook her head, no longer bound by the horrific memory. Instead, she turned her eyes to the little Tina and the scene of destruction that seemed to feed in on itself in a loop of frozen time.
Again, she missed Leyak. Then again, she wasn't sure how she'd share this sort of thing with him, either.
She felt no remorse for the horrified men that were shifting and transforming, bones cracking and popping as their skin discolored, Teeth that gleamed now seemed more like razors and sharp blades, eyes bright like a creature's lurking in the night as smoke swelled around them and filled nightmarish world.
"This is my dream," she said with a frown, shaking her head as her pace slowed to a stop. Her gaze went to the silhouette of her mother once again, but forced it away. Time to send them away, all of them, even this one who suddenly like a protector from a shadow world. He had not been invited, had shoved his way in with threats and promises of things she would regret.
For a moment, the world faded into the blackness, the sound of sweet laughter like honey filling the air instead. When her vision cleared, it was still focused on her mother, but she could see her face this time. Out of sight came a boy's laughter, as well, warm and not at all malicious, like sunshine that never stopped. A flash of bitterness came to mind at the memory of that horrific plant soup that looked like it came from the bowels of something better off dead. She'd told her mother it tasted that way, too. She gagged ont he taste and gave her mother a look of deep betrayal.
"Try it with this, then." The woman grinned and passed a small bit of spice to Tina, who added liberal amounts and tried again, making a face but not gagging the second time. You didn't waste what Mom gave you, especially when it was something someone paid her with. A well-manicured hand reached out to ruffle her hair, but the twilight from the world outside faded and the darkness took over, roars in the background.
It turned back to the road, open desert and wasteland in all directions. Some slaves had been sold, a couple died from the heat and poor immune systems. Tina was huddled up against her mother in this memory, though the teen herself stayed at a distance, watching with a numb expression. In the background, she could hear the slavers talk about their next path, the lost funds and compensation for collateral damage. A warm hand wrapped around her as Prota mentioned as the next stop for reasons that seemed personal to the one who had cut her cheek.
Already frowning, Tina pushed the dream away, but it only jumped to a couple of weeks later.
The nightmare spirits, or at least what they had appeared as, returned, grumbling at the low profit run, but hopeful glances were cast at a few. Some would catch a high price, others...well, no one would miss them. Free bodies weren't a bad thing in some circles. Dream Tina tensed, sensing what category she fell into out of that list, clutching something cold and sharp to her chest as sh took a deep breath to steady herself.
"I remember this one," she mused, the real Tina reflecting on the memory. "They broke my arm last time for trying to break free again." She felt the rage boiling up in her throat, fists clenching tight, wanting them to pay for what they did, what it lead to. For breaking her family apart. For thinking they could sell her, leave her to be a nothing.
As the little Tina steeled herself for what she was about to do, a commotion broke out among those still remaining. The little fire meant for the slavers ignited, faceless forms of those with no name or significance in her mind massing together with her mother to tear down teh men who tried to destroy them. In the lead, her own mother, appearing to punch the large man who now was missing part of an ear in teh throat. Only, blood was dripping from his throat on contact where her fist had been, revealing a broken arrow shaft that had penetrated flesh and artery alike.
"Tina, run!"
She remained where she was.
Another vision, two years later. Her brother was away from home for reasons she couldn't remember. Tina lay curled up in the remains of their home, which suffered another attempted raid. The important things were safely tucked away elsewhere, but the fight was exhausting.
The steps creaked as someone took to the bottom step, not knowing about the trick spot. The easiest way to detect an intruder. She didn't understand why they always fell for it. Little Tina's head popped up, her body uncurling as her hand went behind her, preparing to greet this new 'guest' in her own special way...
"I hate you."
|
|
|
|
Post by David B. on Jun 19, 2018 17:36:40 GMT -8
Tina would wake up.
Sitting in the chair beside her, she'd hear the echo of her own words in the room around her. Sitting there was the shadow man, still holding her bracelet. Smoke was slowly shifting away from her face, as though she'd been surrounded by it previously. He wasn't smiling, nor did he seem hungry anymore. He'd blink once. Then twice. Everything she'd seen and felt was like a damn buffet to him. He'd be full for weeks, and though he could amplify that by eating her treasured possession, he was also a sprite of his word. He slowly set the bracelet on the edge of Tina's bed. He didn't address the dream...but said something else entirely.
"I know who your mother was."
|
|
|
|
Post by Tina Bennet on Jun 19, 2018 17:46:19 GMT -8
And like that, she was awake. The smoke that had previously bubbled around her was now in her face, taking up her air, and way to slow for her liking to back off. She swat up and waved it away with a small but rapid gesture, her focus now on the shadow man beside the bed, noting that he set the bracelet down as he had advised he would if he was pleased with her tale. Her had better be.
And yet, that twist in her heart didn't let go with his words, either.
"Yeah?" She resisted the urge to frown only because she was able to go for the bracelet herself, lips still tugging down as she eyed the man beside her. Judging by his phrasing, he got the point. There was no "if" she was dead - she had to be. Why else would she stay away for so long after that fight? She knew how to get home just as much as Tina did.
"Why are you even here, anyway? You said this is far for you." No reason for him to come all the way back here just for her.
|
|
|
|
Post by David B. on Jun 19, 2018 17:52:08 GMT -8
"Because you reminded me of someone."
He pondered for a moment.
"I tell you what little firecracker...I will answer any question you ask, but in return you answer mine. We'll go back and forth until one of us has no more questions to ask. But no tricks, no one word answers. Only the truth, and the story to back it up."
He leaned forward, and only now would tina notice David's form wasn't so perfect. It shifted and shimmered slightly with the smoke.
"Deaaaaaaal....?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Tina Bennet on Jun 19, 2018 17:57:29 GMT -8
That's okay, David's form never was so perfect. Tina didn't judge. But jeez this sprite was greedy. GREED - Y. Still, she had to ponder it a moment, since it meant opening up more. But if this one was willing to deal, she could haggle and barter too.
"Alright, but no jumping back in my head, either.' RUDE. She would nod once and point at the sprite.
"So, let's start with your story for your answer. You said I reminded you of someone."
|
|
|
|
Post by David B. on Jun 19, 2018 17:59:49 GMT -8
He smirked, showing teeth.
"Deal."
He leaned back.
"Angeline Gunnhild, former Queen of Territory four prior to her capture." He cocked a brow.
"Mommy."
He pointed at her.
"Who is the one person you trust most in your life and why?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Tina Bennet on Jun 19, 2018 18:10:13 GMT -8
She reminded him of a queen? Tina's chest puffed out a bit at the name, though her attention was very much on the information he gave her. Her father a King of the Badlands, and her mother a territory Queen too. But that also meant her mother had been a long way from home for a while, and capture? Did that mean her mother had gone back to rule without her? Or had she been captured more than once? It was possible; you didn't take big risk jobs for big pay without hitting a dead end once in a while.
At his question, she snorted and rolled her eyes. That was an easy one.
"Myself, duh. I look out for me. I know what I want." Didn't most people? "Though I guess my brother is a close second." Full blood brother, of course. The little half-blood shits she was related to could die in a fire. There was hope for a couple of the youngest ones, though. Either way, if you couldn't trust yourself, you were screwed, because trusting others was risky on the best of days and more likely to get you stabbed int eh back.
"Did you know my mom? Like, actually know her?" He'd called her Tina's mother when pulled from the dream, not the mocking "Mommy" he had turned back on her again. And if she reminded him of her mother, then maybe, just maybe, he knew more than that.
|
|
