trans_9 | Are You Afraid of the Darksoul? [Part 1, CLOSED]

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Are You Afraid of the Darksoul? [Part 1, CLOSED]

Daimon was taking his dog for a walk in the city. The young puppy had grown, although he was still small. He hadn't taken well to Daimon's disappearance during the Fairplay mission. To be perfectly honest, the feeling was mutual.

For now, Daimon let the pup wander off as some scent caught its interest. He was standing there, clad only in the bottom half of a plantsuit. The inverted pentacle birthmark on his chest, the symbol of his unholy heritage, plain for all to see.

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"Tch. Not like their 'demonic pacts' makes'em any stronger than the rest of us." She shrugs.

Mei-Xing leans forward, sliding her gaze from the physical realm to the astral, and everything physical just fades. She can see the dog's aura as it yips and plays about. The plants. The flow of qi in the city. And the twin souls inhabiting Daimon's body. "Well, drek. Yeah, that does look like a nasty bit of possession, there." She rubs her neck. "Not the worst I've seen, though. Shouldn't be too hard to get that little fucker drawn out and banished, or bound to... I don't know. A coffee pot or something." At this rate, she's just thinking out loud. Daimon may as well be a slab of beef in front of her, she's got a sudden magical problem on her plate! And it's been long enough.

"It is not a simple case of possession." Daimon snapped, drawing back. "My souls are merged, further no one else could bear the darksoul as a host and without succumbing to it. It cannot be bound to an object and certainly nothing as mundane as a coffee pot." Oh, but the thought was tempting.

"You probably didn't try hard enough." She waves her hand dismissively. "Any spirit can be bound, as long as you've the power and knowledge to force it."

She glances to her left, calling up a list of options in her PAN, the augmented reality connections in her brain working to show her the various ritual circles that would be appropriate for this. "It'll be just like pulling a possessed tooth out."

"Listen to me, you fool!" Daimon's face took on harder, more angular features and his fangs became more pronounced. "I am an exorcist. I have been separated from the darksoul before, each time has proved disastrous. This is not dentistry this would be playing with demonic forces you do not understand."

A shamanic mask for a spirit posing as a demon? She'd seen weirder. "Uh-huh. And I'm a mage." Mei-Xing takes a breath, then lets it out slowly, almost like a growl. Focusing her power, she'd have to be stupid to notice that Daimon wasn't wrong about it being powerful.

"I'm Mei-Xing." Had to identify herself to the spirit, after all. It was practically tradition. "Now let's stick an ember to your ass, you demonic tick." With that, she moves, pushing her palm out and lunging. It's a simple, flowing movement, almost like she was in the water and didn't want to break the surface.

But the roiling surge of power that flowed from her and sank hooks into the darksoul was anything but gentle.

Daimon screamed. His body briefly sparked with flame and his muscles seized as he fought to keep control. He did not often encounter someone capable of injuring him on the metaphysical level. It both scared and enraged him. "What are you doing? Stop! STOP!" He raised his trident.

"Don't distract me." She snaps. "You've turned yourself into a fucking bachelor pad for this thing, of course it's throwing a tantrum when I say rent's up."

Mei-Xing goes back to work on evicting the spirit. It was a bit trickier than she'd thought, but still within her capabilities. She just had to focus and make sure that she didn't pass out before this was done.

"You have no idea what you are unleashing!" He had no other choice but to send a blast of soulfire directed through his trident straight at her.

She curses quickly, trying to spin out of the way, but Daimon's blast still clips her. It stings more than bodily, like some of the attacks she's taken from spirits in her day. Her grip on the darksoul weakens slightly. "Stop that shit! I've got it under control, but you're distracting me, you idiot!"

Curse his misfortune! He just had to be in one of the City's blindspots. "What you are doing is nothing less than a violation. If you do not cease immediately my next attack will not be harmless." Oh yes, that had all been a warning.

Edited 2011-01-18 01:42 (UTC)

"Shut the fuck up." He's got her irritated now, and she uses that for another pulse of power. Ripping, tearing, shoving a wedge between Daimon's soul and the darker spirit that shared his body.

Really, it's not that different from breaking the bonds between a mage and their spirit. She'd prefer utter silence, the possessee not shooting at her, and a ritual circle, though. The way it's going, however, she'll have the Darksoul free in a matter of seconds.

Daimon fell to his knees. The lines of the birthmark on his chest burst into flame.

"STOP! STOP! You cannot- cannot-" He collapsed onto the ground, desperately trying to keep himself supported by his hands and knees instead of flopping to the ground like a fish out of water, which is exactly what he felt like.

His screams grabbed the attention of his dog, who ran over to him and nudged him. When that didn't evoke any change Dog pawed at him frantically.

Daimon wished he could appreciate it. Right now it was nothing more than a nuisance but he was more concerned with the pain spreading from his chest.

Edited 2011-01-19 02:40 (UTC)

She blinks at the flames for a second, attention wavering, and then snaps back to the iron control over the darksoul and its host.

"Don't be so dramatic." It's just a matter of neatly severing the ties between the two now. Mei-Xing takes a moment to wipe a trickle of blood from her nose with a thumb, trying to stay focused on both not passing out during the middle of this and finishing the job.

"I'm doing you a favor. Once you've got that thing out of you, you'll thank me." Being a host to a spirit like that was hardly the best thing for anyone's sanity, after all.

Before, when his darksoul had left him, it had never been painful but this...

He felt one last sharp tug before the darksoul. Falling onto the floor like a puppet cut from its ties, Daimon exhaled a pitch black cloud.

The pain abated but was still there. Daimon's features softened, his ears lost their point and his birthmark vanished. He felt a weight lift from his very soul. But he knew the danger had just begun.

"Put it- put it back." He tried to push himself up but fell back to the ground.

As for the darksoul, the black cloud hovered for a moment, then vanished.

Thank you for releasing me. Though voiceless, they could hear the words as clearly as if they had been spoken. Such kindness must not be unrewarded.

As soon as he finished speaking, the darksoul began its assault on Mei-Xing. Invading her very soul, doing its best to shove her out of her own body and assume control.

The darksoul might have felt perfectly at home for a moment, in a blackened soul such as Mei-Xing's. Just maybe, it might have had time to stomp mud on the carpet of her spirit.

Until she laughs. "Spirits above, you're as corny as he is!" It would be something akin to slamming into a wall of white-hot iron, as she counters its power with her own willpower. Mei-Xing sinks into a lotus position, breathing out slowly to center herself, despite the raging going on inside of her body.

That's when the second part of her work begins, trying to forcibly hammer a bond between them. A bond that would enslave the darksoul, forcing it to obey her whims. I've faced down the Yama Kings. What makes you think you're so special?

He didn't speak but there was the sense of intense anger. Then, as abruptly as the attack began, it ended.

I will return for you.

And then he was gone.

"Tch." She wipes at the trickle of blood from her nose again, then dusts her hands off. "I'd've had that thing under my thumb, too. If someone hadn't up and tried to burn me."

She directs that at Daimon, then moves to nudge him with a toe. "Get up, drama queen. The big, bad spirit is gone. You can thank me later."

"You." Normally the surge of anger would give him energy- but also require increased restraint to hold back the darksoul. If he were selfish he might thank Mei-Xing but he knew the true cost of what she had done.

Daimon shoved himself onto his feet. "THANK you? There is nothing stopping my darksoul from corrupting innocent people, people unaccustomed to its dark influence and power. If you have any conscience you WILL help me track it down or I swear by my father's unholy heart, I will end you."

"Don't blame me!" She snarls, jabbing a finger at his chest. "You're the one who decided that distracting me by shooting some kind of dumbass fireblast like some half-slot retard was a good idea! If it hadn't been for that, I'd have had that thing licking my boots by now!"

She turns and starts to head off, without waiting for an answer. "Waste your time hoofing it. I'm gonna punk that bitch on the astral plane."

"Need I use small words?" Daimon snapped. "You will come with me and you will do as I say." He grabbed her wrist. "Do not dare to lecture me. It is your ignorance that has released this nightmare."

Touching her was the wrong thing to do, Daimon. She wrenches her wrist out of his grasp, turning smoothly, and throws a side-kick towards his chest.

Smooth.

Powerful.

Practiced.

"Don't touch me, little man. Don't order me, either. I assure you, my dick dangles lower and swings harder than yours."

Daimon slammed into the floor, gasping for breath. Now that he was completely without his darksoul he was vulnerable. Weak.

Dog started making a high pitched squeal at Mei-Xing until Daimon roughly brushed him aside.

"Stay." He rubbed his chest. He could feel his body slowly mending the bruise even as it began to form. "We do not have time for this." He hissed.

"Yup. The more time I waste on you, the more time that thing's loose in the city." She waves two fingers at him, grinning over her shoulder. "See ya, omae. I've got a soul to punch."

Starting to head off again, she pauses.

Where the hell was she going to find a coffeepot here?

Daimon was not so willing to drop the conversation. "Enough! You will do nothing. You have caused enough damage. I cannot permit you to do any more. I give you one last chance before I report you. I do not have the time to deal with your willful ignorance."

"I've got over a decade of experience playing with these things, and I've seen a lot worse than your darksoul." She shakes her head. "You wanna go report me to security? Go ahead. I'm gonna be too busy cleaning up your mess to really play nicely with them, though."

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Are You Afraid of the Darksoul? [Part 1, CLOSED]

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