[House of Broken Mirrors] Truthseekers [Vizyous]

[Hadrian]

"The way you toyed with me?" asked a woman's voice from behind them. A shadow brushed against that bone-pale neck, and when the men turned, the shadows solidified into the form of a woman, but Hadrian didn't know her. Vizyous, however, did. The chain between them seemed slack enough for the time being, but Hadrian hoped that whoever this image belonged to did not make the Symenestra bolt, because they would both feel the pain then. Neither noticed the little Symenestra-shaped spiders that appeared out of the black above them, at least not at first, but they landed all over Hadrian, biting him with invisible teeth, or perhaps stabbing him with invisible stingers, and while he knew the pain was unreal, brushing them off didn't really change much, because the spidersilk attached to him now seemed stronger than steel. The shadow woman laughed as the barely visible strings tugged at his limbs, his head, as if he were a fleshly marionette. "And an oh so clever enchanter who doesn't even know the bounds of his own ambition. What a pair you make."

[Vizyous Aconitum]

The guilt that had been suppressed within the darkest corners of Vizyous' mind reared it's angry head once again, the pace at which it traveled that of a stampede. His jerky turn was made almost unconsciously, the voice of the woman one that couldn't be ignored no matter how strongly the taste of disgust was on his tongue. Any movement that the Symenestra may have wanted to make be it frown or bolt didn't carry from his thoughts to his body, his will completely absorbed by the shadows of the woman in front of him.

She held no face or color, yet her voice alone was enough to entrance Vizyous and remind him of a time long past. Soft shades of red curled across the deep, dark pit of a hole within the ground, tanned flesh smeared with mud that accentuated the furious scowl stretched across her face. Red that flowed more freely dried against her exposed chest, covered by dirt in a poor attempt to hide her lost innocence and life.

It had been an accident, an act of passion gone wrong that was mistaken for betrayal. At least, that's what Vizyous wanted himself to believe, that the innocent girl died because of her own curiosity and his lack of self control. Blood thirst couldn't have possibly been what had caused the deep wounds struck across Korvila's bare chest; the Inarta's insides were exposed yet the anger and hurt within her was more clearly portrayed by the intensity of her opened, glassy golden eyes.

A pair? Yes, he wasn't alone. His trance was broken by those odd words which reminded him of Hadrian and the chain that extended between them. Vizyous head slowly turned towards the human that should have been standing beside him, and an expression finally appeared on the Symenestra's haunted face. Brows lowered and eyes barely narrowed, Vizyous was confused as to why Hadrian was swinging his limbs about. "Hadrian?" His voice sounded dazed, the word a questioning of his sanity more than anything else.

Out of the two, the human seemed the more mentally stable-- his eyes glanced towards the woman void of color to see if she was still there, then went back to Hadrian-- but for a moment Vizyous thought Hadrian had lost his wit. When the thin silk of a spider became visible, though, his fear was relieved as much as it could have considering the situation. The length of chain between them became extremely apparent, then, and the Symenestra realized that he was stuck beside the human no matter whether he wanted to run.

"I'm sorry." Vizyous words were said as his gaze turned from the intense eyes of Hadrian towards the faceless woman ahead of him. Sadness coated them as thickly as it painted his throat, cutting off his breath into short, shallow inhales. It was unclear to which person he spoke. The distinction between reality and illusion was there, and Vizyous knew that the woman couldn't have possibly been in front of him, yet the silk that controlled Hadrian seemed real enough. He was stuck whether he liked it or not, bound by chain that could bring a pain like no other to them both.

"Are you in pain?" This was directed at Hadrian, his dark eyes glancing towards him, catching sight of one of the strange, small spiders that had created the silk. His hand automatically moved to swipe it away from the human.

[Hadrian]

"Yes," Hadrian said through gritted teeth, "yes, I am." The sparkling spidersilk flashed and he screamed in pain, body jerked up into the air beside Vizyous' head. So far he was close enough that the chain between them only pulled taut, but not enough to cause them additional pain, not that it appeared Hadrian could manage much more just then. "It's... It's not... not real," he wept to himself, a broken litany, "not real, not real, not... n-not real..." "What is real?" asked the shadowy, golden-eyed woman, her voice oddly disinterested even as she grabbed the Symenestra's hand and pulled it down to her crotch in a mockery of sexual desire, but all he could feel was a ruined womb gaping against him, blood and little bodies falling out of her and against his sinning hand, bodies that it didn't bear examining too closely in the darkness. "Don't you want to love me now, Vizyous Aconitum? Your friend can watch."

[Vizyous Aconitum]

Hadrian's pain caused Vizyous to move closer towards him, intent on helping in any way he could. When the human was pulled into the air, suspended above the ground by silk that must have been as strong as wire, Vizyous inhaled a sharp breath of surprise. A brief flash of discomfort went through him at the stress of the chain between them, it's intensity much less than before but still enough of a warning for Vizyous to stay close to Hadrian. Of course, chain or no chain, the Symenestra would have stayed by the human who had the right idea on the situation. "It's not real," Vizyous encouraged both the struggling man above him and himself, "the silk isn't real, it's not real," And as much as he wanted to believe it, it was hard to say with confidence rather than desperation when quite clearly, Hadrian was being held above him by said silk. But, the pain the human was going through was enough for Vizyous to keep encouraging Hadrian into believing that what was happening to him wasn't truly happening. A quick, mocking question came from Korvila's shadow and Vizyous' frightened eyes that were resting on the suffering man widened when a second later his hand was grasped and pulled. Her touch was cold enough to make him shiver, and it only became even more freezing as his slowly numbing hand was held to where her crotch would be. A horrified scream echoed through the darkness as the warmth of blood spilled freely and thickly onto his fingers, dripping down his palm and falling into the blackness of the floor. "S-stop--" His plea was cut short by the small fingers that grasped against his larger ones, keeping hold long enough to make clear that they were those of a child and then letting go. More followed, falling from the gaping, bloody hole and making Vizyous' mind tear over whether he wanted to catch his children and suffer the pain of the chain, or let them fall helplessly. "I loved you," The Symenestra spoke as if he wasn't sure whether it was illusion or ghost, "I just couldn't... I j-just.." Vizyous tried tugging his hand, wanting to back up closer towards Hadrian so he could feel that he wasn't alone with the shadow, but Ionu's power was too great to be released from her hold. "I was young and had no control, and it just happened so fast! I d-didn't mean to, Korvila.." His struggle was stronger this time, strengthened by fear and emotion that was shackled for far too long and running rampant through his body.

[Hadrian]

When Vizyous struggled, a larger hand grabbed him from the shadowy depths of Korvila's ruined crotch, slimy with gore and aborted life, but still able to take him firmly by the wrist and draw him toward her as if that bloody maw would swallow him whole. Her laughter sounded like sobbing, and Hadrian's horrified litany sounded from above where he was pinned to the ceiling like an entomologist's specimen, bound too with spidersilk. With Vizyous bent double, struggling not to be drawn into her, a daintier hand reached out to touch his own flat belly, and he felt something warm inside, a quickening, natural to one of the opposite gender. Her softer hand slid up his body to cup his head, bring her mouth close to his ear, tender as a lover. "Now you will give birth to my child," she promised, "and when she has bled you dry, we can be crushed on Lhex's anvil together." From above, a part of Hadrian watched. A skill that had aided him at the University was his ability to compartmentalize things, think about more than one thing at a time. While a great portion of his being was attempting to cope with physical pain, another part was trying to find the conclusion that would banish the illusion, and another part was watching Vizyous wrestle with his demons. They were demons, external manifestations of their own guilt feelings. "Forgive yourself," he said. Then, with greater force and volume: "Vizyous, forgive yourself!" At the same time, he realized that he was subject to powers greater than him, but he still had free will. He had studied ethics as well as magic, and his choices would determine what became of him in the end.

[Vizyous Aconitum]

His screams weren't soothed by the woman's soft, trailing touch, words elevating his panic into hysteria; his struggle to break free from her grasp became frantic, feet digging into the invisible surface of the ground to try and get a hold of something that would keep him from being dragged into the bloody hole. "Hadrian," the name was a muffled mutter in his mind but screamed throughout the darkness of the room, Vizyous not even realizing that he'd called for help. The pain that his companion was in had been completely forgotten, something seeming to be numbing his mind, sedating it into a confused, detached state. It was the coldness that emanated from the woman's mangled body, slowing his movements and bringing intense shivers that shook his bones. And while the Symenestra's jumbled thoughts were processed slowly, his screams of apology accompanied by freely flowing tears of guilt escaped him without question, exposing him in the most vulnerable and raw way. The chain between himself and the onlooker remained, a connection that had been forgotten all but until the moment when Vizyous nearly blacked out, ready to give up the fight. The glass turned warm, no longer indifferent, catching his attention only barely by the tug on his veins that was more a nudge than a pull. It barely hurt, possibly because of the adrenaline rushing through him, but it reminded him, and for a brief, blessed moment, the Symenestra opened his mind and ears to reality once again. His body was sunk deeper into the demon, the slime-coated grasp that pulled him in strong, effortlessly drawing him closer. Vizyous' wide, haunted gaze desperately searched upwards, though, trailing along the taut chain to see the one he was bound to. Forgiveness was something that he'd thought to seek, not to grant to himself. Was self-forgiveness not the key, though, to guilt? Hadrian's words repeated endlessly within his mind, slowly becoming a mantra in an effort to bring sense back into him. I-It had happened so fast, and I was very young, and I didn't know self-control-- Vizyous focused, eyes darting between Hadrian, the chain, and the woman that seemed to have realized her hold on him was slipping, I was young, a-and didn't know how to control my bite, and didn't mean to kill! The mantra had transformed into words that slowly gained confidence, growing stronger with each repetition.

[Hadrian]

The demon child in Vizyous' belly quieted with his growing confidence, and somehow Hadrian's own self-examination freed him from his painful bonds, all save the one linking him to Vizyous himself. The human magus was gaunt and wild-eyed, his hair all in disarray, but he was still -- probably -- sane. He watched Vizyous, all but ignoring the specter of his first kill. Kneeling down beside Vizyous, the slackened chain hurt not at all. His arm went around the Symenestra as if he were comforting a child. It was a strange thing to feel compassion for a creature that many of his own race considered monstrous, but there it was: Hadrian and his love for the strange. The demon woman began to flicker, and her face as she stared down at Vizyous was impassive, but perhaps not quite so full of hatred as it should have been. "Open your eyes, Vizyous," Hadrian said, voice rough. "It's over. Let's go."

[Vizyous Aconitum]

Hadrian had been released, somehow, and Korvila's image began to flicker, her golden gaze more harmless than it had appeared before. They'd likely be walking out of the House tonight looking as if they'd been ransacked by the whole of Sunberth. With the mantra still running on auto in the back of his mind, the Symenestra slowly stood, the arm around his shoulders giving him more strength than he expected. Vizyous' legs were light but stable, arms carefully holding his waist in a hug of comfort. The ghost of Korvila, demon or not, remained passive, observing even as her stomach remained ruined, and finally fading with the barest of a strange smile as the two turned away from her. Ahead of them was the light of the door they'd entered the whispering darkness from, and although the Symenestra's steps were slightly wobbly and unsteady, he tried to remain with enough sense and energy to make it out of the House. With Hadrian beside him, it was much easier, and without a doubt the Symenestra knew that had he not brought the man with him, he would have lost himself to his own guilt. That knowledge made the chain between them seem all the more comforting and real, the blood within it no longer hot with anger but warm with content.

[Hadrian]

"Let's get out of here?" Hadrian asked, his voice strangely plaintive, more vulnerable than Vizyous would have heard before. He also wasn't the sort of fellow to abide the touch of another person for long, but he made no move to separate himself from the Symenestra even as the chain between them seemed to phase in and out of their reality. Tottering together toward the door, at least they didn't stumble and fall. Some things would probably never be spoken of once they left, but the shared experience would be indelibly marked upon their psyches. FIN

[Puzzle]

Thread Complete! "What a well made thread we have here." Thread Review Beautifully played out and left me curious as to what would happen between these two! Are they friends or will they part ways? Hey guys. I understand that with Cadence gone, it's been rather difficult to get any sort of NPC or story-arc going in here, so I will let this slide. I will say, however, that any thread with any sort of revelation relevant to a character's motives or regarding lore does need to be acted out with a mod from here on out. Any sort of knowledge or arcane lore that buildings in Alvadas or NPCs in Alvadas would bestow do definitely need permission prior. Thank you. To do this, please PM me or drop me a line in my office! Thank you! Hadrian   Skills +2 Flux Stealth +1 Bravery + 5   Lore Blood Bonds: Not always a pleasant experience. Your character may become hesitant of performing any blood rituals in the future. The Cardinal Duality of Illusions: There is truth in fiction and fiction in truth. Destiny: Some paths are meant to cross. Psychological trauma: Your character may be less inclined to have sexual relations during your stay in Alvadas.   Ledger   Reward Reward: An admit 1 to the Sanity Center for one week. Vizyous   Skills Stealth +2 Bravery +5 Balance +2   Lore Blood Bonds: Not always a pleasant experience. Your character may become hesitant of performing any blood rituals in the future. The Cardinal Duality of Illusions: There is truth in fiction and fiction in truth. Destiny: Some paths are meant to cross. Regret: Your moral compass is pointing closer to North. Your character may become more disturbed by vile things - especially murder - in the future.   Ledger   Reward Reward: An admit 1 to the Sanity Center for one week.