Are you afraid of the Darksoul? [Part 2]

[birthmural]

[[OOC: This right here is required reading if you're going to tag. OOC organization is here

For too long the firstborn son of Satan's demonic soul had been trapped, denied his rightful control over Daimon's body. Now, thanks to Mei-Xing, he was finally free. The next course of action was obvious- he would have to take control of one of the beings on this ship. He could start with the vulnerable and move on to the more powerful. He had to act fast before that fool recovered. Fortunately he needn't go very far. The city was full of potential victims.

Now, now. Who to possess first?

Comments

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

Hiccup was in his forge as it happened, working on the things Kang had requested, while also working on...something else. A private project, of sorts, something that was starting to look distinctly axe-like that he planned to give to someone whose name maybe rhymed with Mastrid.

It was when he had raised his hammer to strike that something struck him.

"What? Come on--" was all he managed to gasp out, dropping the hammer, annoyed at how life worked in general, before he didn't have control of his mouth anymore.

Then he looked down at his own body as if seeing it the first time, lifting his automail leg and twisting it to get a good look at it.

"Pathetic. This cripple won't do at all--but I need time to find someone else." And perhaps he would while taking care of some other things. Yes, there was bitterness here that bubbled to the surface, anger repressed for years, that he'd tried to cast away. For a moment, the boy fought back with all his might, tried to choke down the anger like bile, but as he felt the power surge through him, that timidly assertive voice was silenced as it was swept over by a glorious high from that potent paranormal vigor.

Hiccup looked at his hand, suddenly flaring with soulfire, powerful for the first time in his young life after an entire lifetime of being weak, and his mouth quirked into a lopsided grin.

"Who's useless now?"

The trident materialized in his hands, and soulfire swept through the forge, snuffing out the real fire there. The forge door was blasted open and with one hand, Hiccup ripped off his forge apron, and flew out into the city. Shirtless.

"Oh, Astriiid! Ruuuuffnut!" he called out, trying to find them. "It's time we had a little talk about sensitivity."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut as it turns out was still nearby...arguing with herself.

"So what if I think of her like that huh? It's not like I'm replacing Tuff." She reasoned as she stopped to examine a peculiar structure she'd never seen before. It was in fact a fire hydrant.

"Weird." She mumbled out loud tapping it with her foot, oblivious to the Karmic backlash that was about to be brought down upon her head.

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

"There you are!"

There was Hiccup, shirtless and holding a trident, floating a few feet off the ground. There was something wrong, besides the flying, about the way he moved, about how empty his gaze was as he tilted his head and looked at her. There was something wrong with his voice, too.

"Ruffnut Ruffnut Ruffnut, you know, I've been looking everywhere for you."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut blinked once...twice. Then rubbed her eyes.

"Um...hi Hiccup?" She spoke slowly, with that particular tone that indicated her less then high speed brain was trying very hard to process something confusing.

So naturally she started with the simplest of things, "You got a tattoo?" She asked confused and pointing at the upside down pentacle on his bare...and admittedly toned chest. Ruffnut had to blush as she realized that he had firmed up since they were younger. He'd never be a big bulky strong manly man but...well he was slightly less scrawny?

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

"Pretty great, huh? You like it?" he asked, landing lightly, and stepping forward, and the way he moved was almost...seductive. Like he was perfectly sure of himself, perfectly aware of how his body looked.

He had gotten some tone from working so much in the forge and Zuko's training and the just natural growth that came of being a teenage boy and having months passing. Still was a scrawny thing, but he was getting to be a scrawny thing what could possibly pass as a few muscles now. (Just a few, though).

"Wanna touch it?"

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

"What?" That was a weird thing to ask wasn't it? For Hiccup surely it was a weird thing to ask!

But...well frankly she kind of did. "How'd you do it? Is it like burned on or something?" She asked reaching out a hand gingerly to poke at it before placing her entire hand on it and running her fingertips along the design.

Meanwhile a voice in her head that sounded decidedly like her brother was screaming warnings at her about something involving Astrid...but Ruffnut was far too busy suddenly noticing this fluttering in her belly. Had she eaten something off? Maybe she was sick?

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

"Something like that."

Hiccup leaned in, and with the hand that wasn't holding the trident, reached up and cupped her face with it.

"So, listen, I was thinking, you like me, right? Saved the entire village, tamed the first dragon, big hero, badass survivor, so on and so forth. I've got all this new power now, you've got a whole lot of new power... It really seems to me that it would make a whole world of sense if I dumped Astrid and went out with you instead. For one, you're hotter, and for two, you'd probably be way more of a she-demon in the sack. Astrid's a prude."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

If there was ever a way to completely shut down the portions of Ruffnut's brain that were not vital...that was probably it.

Somehow despite his being roughly the same height as her she found herself tilting her head back to his touch looking up at him. A chill raced through her skin followed by intense heat...but it wasn't painful.

No...this was an entirely new kind of thrill, the rush of adrenaline surging through her blood was unlike anything she'd experienced before. Her face was red as a tomato as she suddenly found her mouth dry, unable to take her eyes off Hiccups.

"Y-you...and...I...huh? R-really?" She managed to mumble a barely coherient string of words.

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

"Yes, really. But there's a time limit on it. Yes or no. Tick tock."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

"I..." The words died in her throat as her legs threatened to buckle on her. When did it get so warm in the city? She was sweating! She could feel the lightning energy she was now one with surging through her limbs desperate for an output. But she knew better then to abandon control of it right now. It would hurt Hiccup!

And if she hurt Hiccup Astrid would...

And suddenly that chill was back turning her heated flesh to ice with fear and confusion, "...but what about Astrid?" She spoke wanting to protest louder but her voice only coming out a whisper in the face of this new assertive Hiccup. "She's my friend..."

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

"Who cares about Astrid?"

He gestured with both hands, one of them still holding the trident, spreading his arms wide.

"She'll get over it. She's Astrid."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

"Who cares about Astrid?"

The words rang in her ears like the screech of a dragon. No...like two dragons. No still! Like both heads of her hideous zippleback screeching on either side of her head.

"I thought you did..." She spoke softly but with a firmer voice. Something was twisting those butterflies in her stomach into a knot of discomfort now. Was it guilt?

"I-I still do..." She added still quiet and found herself shocked that her voice wavered. Was she afraid of losing this chance? She'd been jealous of Astrid for months, lonely aching for something she had never had day after day on this lousy tin and here it was, being offered to her on a bare chested smiling platter. Her every biological urge screamed "YES YES YES!" and she licked her lips nervously as she tried to force her brain to process despite being mush.

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

"Stop caring," Hiccup said, leaning in.

HOLY POWER TO THE RESCUE. :|b

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

Nehaalista would not be able to tell you how many times she practiced dispelling her mount and not falling off it like a total initiate. Following the darksoul through the city had been taxing, and if her mount had not been granted unto her by the Holy Light, she was fairly certain that it would've been frothed to exhaustion.

Still, as she dismounted the horse and landed deftly, she was thankful that no one had been inordinately hurt.

[You're not going to get away again, demon,] she signed as the necklace translated. Though if she were speaking to Zetta or Hiccup, that remained to be seen. Again, as she'd done with Eva, Nehaalista knelt beside the vikingpile and appeared to do nothing.

In the name and by the grace of the Holy Light, I cast you out, dark one. You are unwelcome, you are unwanted. Leave this body you have stolen for your devious purpose. Nehaalista prayed, and felt her power clash against the Darksoul's. And if Zetta managed to get a bit singed, well, that'd learn him.

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

Hiccup thrashed while Nehaa prayed, screaming, his voice filled with rage.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Hey! What the hell did I do?!" the book demanded -- before he saw the true target of the exorcism. True to form, nothin' learned Zetta, ever; he didn't even notice the power of the Light as it brushed past him.

"Wait. He was possessed?" The book frowned. "Damn. That sucks."

[birthmural]

Daimon ran to Hiccup's side.

"Leave him now, demon and return to me." He hissed. He reached for the trident...

[birthmural]

But before he could touch the trident the darksoul fled Hiccup's body, emerging from his mouth as a quickly fading dark cloud. The trident disappeared along with it.

As if I would stay in the crippled body of a weak child.

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

Nehaalista stood and tossed her curls off her shoulders, [I am growing tired of chasing him.] The holy light in her eyes dimmed slightly as she wrangled her abilities back into their proper levels. [Do any of you need to be healed?] They certainly looked like they'd taken their licks.

Ah, but such small humans did tend to have less stamina when it came to being beat upon.

[i-saw-myself.livejournal.com]

As he lay there, looking up, eyes wide, Hiccup was hyperventilating slightly. This wasn't because of any injuries though. While he was definitely banged up, it could have been far, far worse given who he'd been attacking.

No, this was because WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED

"What--what just--what was that? Why--why did that just--what just happened?!"

He'd been there, he knew he'd been there. He's said all those things. At the same time, he hadn't.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Apparently, some demon thing possessed you," the book said -- overtly sulking, because he'd totally missed out on any sort of real fight or challenge.

[astridhofferson.livejournal.com]

Even though Hiccup was back to normal, she didn't immediately rush to his aid. Instead, dropping to her knees near the startled boy, Astrid simply shut her eyes and massaged and rolled her shoulder. Of course the possession wasn't all that happened and out of everyone present, Ruff and her were strangely quiet... but for an entirely different reason.

With one last massage of her shoulder, her hand dropped. Her stare lacked its usual fierce glow when she turned a rigid, tired side-glance in the direction of the other blonde Viking female, wondering who will break the silence first. "..."

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Well...it wouldn't be Ruffnut apparently. Because the moment Hiccup had been set upon by those who had removed the darksoul from him and he had apparently been OK, Ruffnut had taken off.

Yep, she was long gone. And whichever direction she had run off in was anyone's guess.

[birthmural]

"You were possessed by my darksoul. You were not in control of your own actions. I will explain more later. I am sorry." Daimon placed his hands on Hiccup's chest and closed his eyes.

A soft glow emanated from the Son of Satan's hands, spreading until it encompassed both Hiccup and Daimon. Hiccup, and even those watching, could feel a sense of tranquility- but only for a moment.

Daimon stepped back. "Who else is hurt?" He looked at Astrid.

[astridhofferson.livejournal.com]

Her eyes narrowed after Ruffnut until the girl disappeared from view. It was hard to tell if she was bothered by Ruff leaving or fairly satisfied to see her turn tail and haul out.

Astrid released an exhausted sigh, feeling overall cranky, then regarded Damion's comment. "I'm fine. Thank you. ...So, that was your fault? T'ch, hel of a mess you got us involved in..."

Looking back at Hiccup without expression, without a word, she finally put on her best smile and jostled him. "Glad to have you back with us. How you feel now?"