capeandcowllogs | I've seen it all/Still can't taste it

Butterflies. Hundreds of thousands of them, all fluttering and knifing through the dark. Tyki let the Tease out to feast on the veritable smorgasbord the city had presented him with, making his way through the crowds of the dead and dying, the running and the scared as though none of what was going on affected him in any way, shape, or form.

"Help us! Help! Hel--aaaaagh!"

And it didn't. Not really; he looked on the invading army as though they were any other human-wrought disaster, carefully making sure to avoid it unless the damned things made certain that they would want to be a nuisance. By the time he finally caught sight of Takaya -- and, oh ho, was that ever a lovely surprise -- his gloves were nearly covered in gore and filth. Tch.

At least he'd have someone to take it out on.

He followed the man down the alleyway at a leisurely pace, the Tease flying out in front and above him to cut Takaya off at the pass. He said nothing, hoping for a slight element of surprise.

Takaya almost didn't see the Tease until he'd run right into it, stepping back cautiously from what he could see of them. He considered swatting at them, but chose not to due to how he knew absolutely nothing about them - for all he knew, they could explode. And then he'd be little more than a feast for the vampires running loose throughout the city, just a part of the chaos washing over it.

He said nothing, choosing instead to remain as quiet as possible, and turned to exit the alley again. He knew the routes somewhat well, had plotted them out beforehand during the days he spent wandering, exploring, making mental maps and plans. He was, however, surprised to see Tyki Mikk blocking his path, and inwardly cringed. Of course he had to run into someone who probably wanted him dead on the one night he had chosen not to interfere with or add to the chaos. Of course.

"This is an...unexpected visit." Takaya's tone of voice was as cool and unfettered as ever, though his hand had closed around the handle of his gun in expectation of violence. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

He smiled, slowly rolling his neck in a full circle, cracking the bones. "Pleasure," he began, already Choosing to ignore the entire creation of God around him, making himself intangible. "Is what brings me here tonight, Takaya. Namely--" he began to close the distance between them again, his mahogany skin and black clothing making him a shadow, a wraith in the darkness. "--The immense pleasure I'm about to get from harming you."

Several of the Tease broke off from their brethren, inching all that much closer to Takaya, their fanged mouths opening in anticipation.

Takaya glanced back at the Tease, his eyes widening slightly at seeing that they were indeed not butterflies, and then glanced back to Tyki, already edging forward with an unfettered expression. Inwardly he knew that he was pretty much completely fucked, had felt the sensation of something cold bottoming out in his stomach, but ignored and masked it behind apathy and hollow amusement.

"Impressive, how you choose such a chaotic night to wreak this upon me." He glanced back (over the Tease, as much as possible) and to the night lit up with fires and screaming and chaos. "Such a beautiful backdrop. But...I suppose you understand my need to disappoint you."

He clenched his left hand into a fist tight enough to break the skin of his palm as Hypnos appeared and he turned sideways to keep Tyki in his peripheral, letting loose an Agidyne at the Tease. He staggered at the pain it caused him but refused to drop to his knees as usual, knowing that doing so could be his undoing. His revolver was drawn and aimed sloppily at Tyki, wight or not, though he refrained from firing just yet.

"I cannot afford to give you the pleasure."

The Tease died in droves, but there were more and more of them to fill the gaps, the fire from the -- spell? Ability? Tyki didn't know and didn't care. None of it matter -- creature that Takaya had summoned eating away at them like a hungry bird finding its cornucopia. He kept advancing, the alley filling with the smell of burning obsidian and oil, with the smell of glass and fetid, putrid flesh; his gaze was focused intently on Takaya and none other, fuck the Tease.

"Then, perhaps --" Tyki purred, finally reaching Takaya without incident. "You shouldn't have cashed such a large check."

He reached out, hoping to grab the gun and bend its barrel backward upon itself, still keeping intangible all the while.

Somewhere, somewhere deep inside, as he watched Tyki bend back the barrel of the piece he'd bought off of some crack dealer somewhere (his precious revolver was still in asylum or police hold and he was beyond planning in getting that back sometime), Takaya more or less accepted the fact that he was dealing with something inhumane, something beyond his power to control or harm - someone that wouldn't have any problem doing what he wanted. It might've been recognizable in the slight way his expression, moderately tight with stress, softened, or the way he more or less let go of the gun to either Tyki's hold or to drop uselessly to the ground. Or possibly the way he leaned back against the alley wall, keeping a good eye on those fucking Tease, Hypnos disappearing with its task fulfilled.

"Perhaps I merely care very little for you or your pleasure," He quipped, testing his luck as far as it would go - how much luck could the being of the Luck Arcana really have? He could run, he could plead for his life, or he could give up - neither three very good options, as far as he was concerned. The Tease, though he saw them only as butterflies with fangs, weren't invincible and could be taken out by a blast of fire, but could Tyki be disposed of so easily? And worse yet, the ones he killed were easily replaced.

He ignored the stench in the air, flattening himself against the alley wall with a placid expression. His flat yellow eyes were locked on Tyki's now, ignoring the Tease as a secondary threat that he had little control over, innumerable in count and a hopeless wall of fluttering wings and fangs.

"I neither fear death nor do I fear you. If you mean to terrify me through slow and purposeful threat, you will be disappointed."

"You are a stupid, stupid man," he stated flatly, his tone dripping with venom and sheer, unabashed anger. "Fear of death is what keeps humans struggling to better themselves -- ignoring it is like ignoring your need to breathe, to eat and reproduce."

In a blur of movement, he aimed to grab at Takaya's wrist and elbow, bracing the arm tight with his right hand, his long, spindly fingers digging into the flesh before Tyki wrenched his left forward from behind Takaya's elbow in an effort to snap the limb. If he succeeded, he'd use the confusion -- and the pain, oh, the glorious, glorious pain -- to phase Takaya's now mangled limb into the concrete wall behind him, leaving the joint sunken halfway within the heavy material to both bind and cause him the most discomfort if he even thought about moving.

See if he enjoyed that.

Even though he knew his actions, his words were like kissing rattlesnakes, Takaya pressed onwards merely because he could and because there was nothing else for him to do here but needle and taunt and feel superior in that. The vitriol in Tyki's tone was just fuel on the fire. "There is nothing in this frail shell of a body worth bettering."

At first, he didn't know what Tyki had done - he heard a snap, and he felt the jerk, and it wasn't until his arm was sunk deep into the concrete wall that the pain finally hit him - and it wasn't until he looked back at it that he realized what had happened. The pained cry he let out wasn't a scream - he wouldn't scream. He refused to scream - he'd screamed for the scientists when he was younger, he'd screamed as a boy, but he would not scream now. He instead let out a mangled and loud choked...noise, something guttural and animalistic, his form sagging and knees threatening to give way. He steeled himself, however, and when he raised his head the look he gave Tyki was absolutely vicious, a flat and loathsome glare.

He didn't even blink when the faraway noise of breaking glass sounded and Hypnos was summoned again, this time aiming a Garudyne blast at Tyki himself - he wasn't positive nor faithful that the gale of wind would work at all, but right now the focus on the psychic pain was preferable to the pain in his arm.

More noise, more commotion. The Tease whirled and hurricaned around the two of them, some ripped apart as the spell Takaya directed at Tyki hit the ground running, slicing deep, jagged rivulets into the floor all around the Noah. Tyki laughed softly in Takaya's face, already kneeling down to settle gloved hand on the man's free shoulder as the winds that had ravaged the space he occupied died down to gentle roar, a soft whisper, and then, nothing.

"Fool," he spat, his tone lacking any kind of anger, any kind of derisive tone. Tyki knew what was to come next as well as Takaya did -- the only difference was that one of them would be walking out of this ally in far, far, far less pain than the other. "You fight just like all the rest. For all the crowing you do otherwise, you won't go softly or peacefully."

In another vicious flash of movement, Tyki forced his intangible hand through the side of Takaya's face, attempting to yank out several of his molars if the man did not move his head or otherwise squirm in a way that would most certainly disturb his sunken arm.

The fact that the spell didn't affect Tyki in the slightest both disappointed and didn't quite surprise Takaya, and his heavy and pained glare didn't change with the hand on his shoulder or the laughter in his face. He saw no point in replying, only watched closely to every movement the Noah made. He barely saw the movement, just barely, and only had time to jerk his head and shoulders - the snapped bone in his arm jabbing into muscles that spasmed in pain, a loud throaty gasp and choke, and more pain: this time in his mouth. The movement hadn't saved or diverted too much; he was now missing two teeth, pulled cleanly from his jaw (which, for a moment, he had thought was broken) and he barely recognized his jaw was quivering in pain.

"A...Shadow." The words were hard to form, his lips felt numb. He spat onto the concrete below him and wasn't surprised to see blood. His tone was deliriously light, exhausted, and the pain in it was near tangible. "I had never anticipated meeting a living Shadow, much less two."

A shadow? What a strange thing to call him. The Noah smirked and reached out with his opposite hand, trying to grab the front of Takaya's long, greasy silver hair. "--Not quite," he corrected, tugging Takaya's tresses up in an effort to force the man to look him in the eye. "Though you do get points for originality." He laughed, soft and innocent, a dualism that always managed to either rile or horrify his opponents. "I think that's the first time anyone's ever called me a Shadow."

For a moment, Tyki seemed thoughtful. Should he press the man for information, or just keep going?

He winced audibly at the tugging on his hair, another enormous peeve of his, and glared flatly and fully into Tyki's eyes. The laugh didn't faze him, though it did irritate him somewhat that through all of his fighting it had no effect on Tyki Mikk in the least.

"I would anticipate nothing more." His tone was coarse and derisive, snide and matter-of-fact. "Shadows are a creature from my realm only. And as I see no other Persona user within this city, I seem to be the only one knowledgeable of them." He fell quiet, a heavy and sullen silence, and refused to offer up anything else without prompt.

He decided, after hearing absolutely nothing of worth come from the man, to press even harder. His hand came round again, this time remaining solid as he aimed a hard, downward slap at Takaya's face.

"Tell me more," he asked, tone neutral, wary. He didn't want to devote time to finding out much more, but he'd do as much as he could. "About Shadows and Personae."

Yes, the slap did send bolts of pain through his jaw - he hadn't been expecting it in the least, had no time to try and lean back or lessen the force of the blow. His head jerked downwards with the direction of it, and when he glanced back up it was low and bestial, like a cornered animal.

"An interrogation? I would never have imagined you would sink so low." The hubris never left his tone of voice, possibly because it was all that he had left right now. He raised his head and smirked humorlessly, baring bloody teeth through the expression. "Persona is a power delivered down upon a blessed few. You have witnessed mine." He gave the barest amount of information possible, half to frustrate and half because if Strega ever happened to reform in the City, he needed to keep their secrets even under pain of torture. "And Shadows are the creatures born from that which is suppressed within the minds of all humanity. Hatred, fear, despair, lust, violence, apathy, hopelessness, shame - it bears those creatures that feed upon the living." A sneer, a prideful and terrible one. "And you are one of the two I have met in this city that can be nothing but Shadow."

A tone of utter victory and confidence had seeped into his voice.

"Even your eyes bear a Shadow's touch."

"Is that so?" Tyki asked, the wheels in his mind ticking and turning, slowly piecing together the similarities between yet another world and his own. Though the Persona sounded nothing like Innocence, the far-reaching similarities were there for anyone smart enough to find them: both were unique gifts, handed out only to a "blessed" few individuals poised to combat -- what he assumed -- was an ever-encroaching darkness plaguing the world. Though he had no idea how Takaya, of all people, could have come into contact with such a thing, the fact of the matter was that, like Innocence, Persona could have been another weapon arrayed against the Noah family.

And Tyki would have none of that foolishness.

"--Who else?"

He leaned in to Takaya, his right hand leading him as he reached inside of the man and settled his gloved fingers just a millimeter or two above the man's clavicle bone.

Takaya made an effort to lean away from Tyki's hand, momentarily forgetting about his arm - he flinched visibly as soon as it moved, froze a moment, and then sagged forward in defeat. There really wasn't a chance to get out of his range, not when he was immobilized like this. Now he had absolutely no idea about any sort of relationship, good or bad, between Tyki and Katurian, and so the name dropped easily. It wasn't as if he was particularly interested in keeping Katurian safe anyway.

"Katurian K. Katurian." Takaya winced slightly and quietly, narrowing his yellowy eyes in discomfort, but his voice remained casually strong, something gained through years of practice and charismatic speech. "There is great difference between the two of you, however - while you parade the bestial cruelty and animal urge hidden beneath humanity's guise of civilized society, he is undeniably the purest personification of misery I have ever laid eyes upon." His smirk remained intact and in place, though the blood on his lips and now idly allowed to seep from the corner of his mouth detracted from it somewhat. For a moment he wondered what Jin would do if he saw his leader, his savior in this position, but brushed it away easily. "What oddity."

For a moment, Tyki halted his movements, his entire body going unnaturally still. Katurian, of all people, was the one thing closest to innocuous that Tyki had found in his stay thus far, and he was the most like the Noah to this man? How did that even begin to make sense?

Unless...

"Katurian," Tyki repeated, idly grabbing at Takaya'a clavicle bone snapping it as if it were a twig. "He's the one most like me, you think?"

He'd been expecting his clavicle (or something) to be broken, but that didn't prevent the sharp noise of pain he couldn't stifle. Focus. Focus on something else. Focus on the words.

"In particular ways," He almost gasped, and then withdrew to even attempt to regain some of his self-control. He'd seen the pause in all movement at the name Katurian, and all he could do to keep himself preoccupied with anything other than the pain was to push that. He kept his tone carefully unbothered, as much as possible, though it was distinctly ragged. "Have you bad blood with him? How humorous."

"Quite." Tyki's grasp tightened around the broken bits of Takaya's clavicle bone, squeezing the thing hard enough to cause both broken ends to bend upward, distending beneath the flesh. "But that's neither here nor there."

And it wasn't, not really. Katurian could be left well enough alone for another day: the here and now was all for Takaya, for this intimate moment between the two of them.

"Do you know anything about the human body, Takaya? It's a rather wondrous thing."

He cried out at that, and his free hand came to try and grab Tyki's wrist, pull him away even at the cost of more bones, more pain - it was a hopeless situation, but Takaya thrived on hopelessness.

"I know little of it," He near growled, voice ragged-edged and angry. "My interest was not within the body."

The Noah was strong. Super-humanly so. Though he let go of Takaya's bone in the next moment, his opposite phases through his left side, reaching for and latching on to one of the small ribs making up his ribcage.

"A pity," Tyki says, bracing his body with his right hand as he gently strokes Takaya's rib. "You'd be surprised as what you can learn, if you read the right books."

And out came the rib without any kind of ceremony, simply torn loose in a brief, violent jerk.

"Like how humans can survive with less than their maximum number of ribs."

The removal was so quick and clean Takaya almost didn't know whether or not Tyki had actually done anything. His expression, once confident, faded into mild confusion and then blankness as he attempted to comprehend what was in Tyki's hand, what he was looking at. A white crescent spotted with a bit of blood.

The pain hit him a moment later, and it was crippling. He screamed this time, despite not wanting to, despite his pride and despite his hesitance to spur Tyki on any more - he just couldn't help it this time. He dropped from his awkward standing position to a knee, unable to support himself further - he would've sat down, had his arm not been trapped in an awkward and uncomfortable position in the concrete. The scream died down into an agonized groan, and he dropped his head - his free hand was clenched into a fist so tight he broke the skin on his palm. Takaya's frame shook with visible pain, his head tipping backwards - he blankly stared at the sky, the Tease, and then his yellow eyes rolled down to meet Tyki's. He didn't say anything, wasn't able to at the moment, but his glare was absolute and scalding.

He tapped the wayward bone against his opposite hand a couple of times, then "weighed" it, closing a single eye as he held it up to his face as if he were trying to find any imperfections, any marred space or fracture. Once he was done, he turned his attention back to Takaya, slowly pocketing the bone as his amber-hued eyes met the man's angry glare. He smiled.

"That's one."

He watched Tyki appraise his rib, tuck it away for god knows what later, dropping his head again. The smile didn't affect him, but once those two words and their meaning set in, Takay felt a wave of something he hadn't felt in a long time. Horror. And in a way, he relished it. And it showed in the way the corner of his mouth quirked up into a sneering smile.

"Would you rather I kept count?"

"No."

At that, Tyki directed a stomp at Takaya's right knee, aiming to snap the joint just above the socket. Without letting up, he'd phase the offending appendage into the ground, pushing down with the hard heel of his boot until Takaya's leg was stuck into the concrete up to his calve.

"I'm quite capable of multitasking."

Edited 2010-05-03 19:38 (UTC)

Takaya cried out in pain again, though halfway through it warped into a growl in his throat and then nothing. He didn't bother trying to pull his now certainly broken leg out of the concrete, since it'd do nothing but make him hurt himself further and he really wasn't big on pain at the moment. Great, he was caught even more than before. He grimaced slightly, closing his eyes.

"My, you will not even take my offer into consideration? Are you really so far above me, or do you simply wish to reach me?"

His tone was as haughty as ever, though it was strained and very obviously so.

"I am what I am," he explained, his voice dripping with flatness and boredom. "Which we've gone over for about the third time since this is all started."

The heel pushed down more, sinking Takaya's leg in further and further...until Tyki caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye, and grimace. The Tease moved to intercept, suddenly leaving the two of them alone.

"Of all the annoyances..." he trailed, then, looking back down to Takaya with another feral grin. "Our schedule's been pushed up a tad, m'afraid."

There was no preamble other than that, no warning; as soon as he finished, Tyki stomped his foot down sideways and aimed to pulverize Takaya's kneecap instead of snap it, hoping to shard the bone into the joint behind it.

Another howl of pain, not a willful one, and Takaya hung limply as he could with his arm pinned behind him. He was more or less through with arguing or fighting, there was no point - it was apparently almost over, however, and he could handle that. He glared, however, and though it was somewhat strained and he was grimacing without noticing, it was a glare nonetheless.

"You'll pay for this - you must realize that fact."

He gave a noncommittal shrug, then began to fish in his overcoat for something. "Most likely," is all he answered, before taking out a box of cigarettes. "But, until then, I'll continue on my merry way."

He lit up a cigarette and looked toward the Tease. For a moment, he considered them before turning back to Takaya. "You'll have trouble follow suite, I imagine."

"Time does not exist for men like myself." Takaya winced, though he attempted to put power into his voice. "I will follow your steps one day, and our positions will be reversed." A promise, as hollow and threatless as it was - he was swearing his own little oath.

He inhaled and exhaled, letting the smoke coalesce around him before he nodded, almost to himself.

"Right then."

Without another word, he began to walk away.

"Wait."

--That wouldn't do. He turned on his heel and took out his cane -- a rather beautiful, mahogany thing quite as expensive as it looked -- with a slight flourish, spinning it once before settling it solidly against Takaya's other leg.

"I can't leave you like this."

And with that, he chose to phase Takaya's entire other kneecap out through the back of his leg.

Why no, he was not expecting that in the least. He made a high-pitched noise that turned into another shriek of pain, one that ended in a quivering wail. It faded off into heavy and shaky pants, occasional and quiet noises of pain now and again. No more taunting, he couldn't manage it, and simply sat there with his head bowed almost penitently.

Tyki laughed, and the noise was dry and pitiless, more vaguely amused than anything else. Part of him wanted to chide the man, to ask him how quickly he would reach the Noah with both of his legs so useless to him now?

"There, there, boy. It'll heal."

He turned and walked off without pausing, this time, all but too content to let the man stay there and rot.

I've seen it all/Still can't taste it

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

tagging ability sinks near 2am...

flfksljf if ya need to go to bed, there's no rush!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

almost done! |D

slkdjfl sorry for the lateness

same here

no subject

1/3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject