Post by Barnaby Cuthbert on Apr 28, 2005 14:25:26 GMT -8
Friday, April 23rd
Seattle, Washington
A cabin on Vashon Island
In my minds eye, fog had rolled in over the small harbor hours ago, thick and grey-green, tinted here and there by hazy bulbs of the dull yellow glow of dock lamps and the deep blue-black midnight sea that was beyond it. I couldn't see anything clearly on the dock, not the faces of the two men that approached me, and hardly even the ground beneath my feet. I heard the weathered wood stretch beneath my shoes as I walked along the pier, and heard the muted splash of water against the pilings, but they remained hidden in the dank air that hung, moist and heavy, between me and the two trenchcoated men.
I knew I was dreaming. When the men spoke, the words trailing out of their mouths like black bubbles in the deep, filling with white squiggles of text like something out of a comic book, I could tell something was off.
[glow=white,2,300]Do you think this will work?[/glow] asked the shorter man, the bright red cherry of a cigarette the only color in the panel.
[glow=white,2,300]Of course it will work.[/glow] said the taller man. [glow=white,2,300]Have a little faith.[/glow] he said, revealing a grainy cheshire smile as the only discernable feature in the grey darkness.
The pier beneath my feet became wet, sticky with blood, or brine, I couldn't tell. Then the boards of the pier fell away beneath me as if every nail that had held it it together had suddenly been removed.
Panic struck me as the world dropped away beneath my feet.
[glow=white,2,300]Stick to the facts.[/glow] said another disembodied voice as I fell into the waters and sunk into the black.
The water wasn't cold and shocking like the ocean, nor was it salty like the sea. It was an almost warm and comforting oblivion, and I sank for what seemed like an eternity in the darkness, fear and resignation flickering over my shadowed features like slow flames.
When my feet struck the ground, it was as dry and dusty as the Arizona desert at night. The fog of the pier had lifted, and the inky darkness of the water had faded into moonlit night. Silver-blue stars danced in the sky like glittering fish in an endless ocean of the nighttime acropolis in which I stood.
A great ruined city lay before me, it's broken pillars stretching up into the night. Stone paths beset by drifts of sand met my feet and criss-crossed away into the deserted streets. The hallowed darkness of the city's ancient shadows rose up to meet the pale silver moon and gave way above to the dull gleam of moonlight on cracked sandstone ballistraudes and broken marble rooftops.
It was then that I saw her, the woman by my side, wrapped in cloth and leather, the golden curls from her moonshod hair cascading down around her beautiful face like a lion's mane. Her eyes burned like stars as she looked at me, seeming to draw the moon down into her eyes as well. I felt her drink me in with her look. It was if her eyes were painting me slowly with the steady brush of her want.
[glow=red,2,300]This,[/glow] she said, her tapered arm indicating the fallen city. [glow=red,2,300]Is what it means to be a childe of Caine.[/glow]
I looked again at the great ruin, and for a moment, thought I could hear distant shouts of rebellion in the streets, the crack and hiss of flames and the clatter of swords.
[glow=red,2,300]Remember this.[/glow] She said, her eyes burning cold again like the moon. [glow=red,2,300]Never forget.[/glow]
Once again she drew me into her eyes, only this time my feather-light dream body could not resist the physical pull. Her eye expanded like the baleful moon, filling my vision, enclosing me in its blue-white light and the clatter of metal and shouting increased.
The moon cracked and popped in a shower of glass like the dingy lightbulb it had become, throwing half of the warehouse into sweeping shadow. The other nearby lights in the room had also been struck, and they swung from the ceiling of the warehouse wildly, illuminating a group of capering creatures that filled the floor in frightful relief.
The largest creature, to the rear of the others, a massive floating thing with purplish black horns and writhing tentacles spilling out from beneath it's black cloak, smiled and gurgled as one of it's green skinned minions backhanded a woman that had been standing near me, causing her to fly backward and bounce against a shipping container. A small hand-axe clattered from her hand as she hit the ground.
The pretty brunette looked up from the ground at the green monstrosity that had just smacked her around and glared. She looked at me for help. There was a sword in my hand, and I ran over to her in and instant, standing near her and the green, spikey-faced creature.
[glow=white,2,300]Oh, he is so going to kick your ass.[/glow]she said.
The creature scoffed, looking down at the prone woman and grinning with rows of jagged, crooked teeth.
[glow=white,2,300]You don't understand what stands before you! [/glow]it growled.
[glow=white,2,300]Oh... a big ugly who thinks he's a lot scarier than really he is, maybe? Yeah, she knows. [/glow]I said.
[glow=white,2,300]You're dead! [/glow]the creature shouted, launching itself at me.
[glow=white,2,300]I'm already dead. [/glow]I said, bringing the blade around hard and fast and cleaving it's head from it's neck in one swift motion. [glow=white,2,300]Welcome to the club.[/glow]
I helped the woman up and ignored her thank you to elbow another green creature hard in the face, kick his legs out from under him and stab him in the chest. A tentacle from the creature to the rear snaked it's way over to her and attempted to grab her around the waist, but another comrade, a wiry looking englishman with a kukri in one hand and a hand crossbow in the other hacked it off and nodded to me, jumping back into the fray and loosing his bolt directly between the eyes of another of the grean monsters.
[glow=white,2,300]Watch his tentacles. [/glow]I said to the woman, who was stepping back into her pumps.
[glow=white,2,300]Excuse me?! [/glow]
[glow=white,2,300]Tentacles. [/glow]I said, hacking off another one that had shot by me with a fierce stabbing motion. The creature pulled back a black ichor-oozing stump, screeched in pain and roared a challenge.
[glow=white,2,300]I don't remember ordering take out, but I like what you brung me. Not as delectable as the last one perhaps, but full of tasty paranoia just the same. Especially that one. [/glow]it sneered, dangling a tentacle in the direction of the Englishman.
[glow=white,2,300]What did he mean by that? [/glow]he frowned, dodging out of the way of a clawed swipe from one of the creatures.
I shook my head, ignoring him for the fight at hand and caught the eye of another of my comrades, a young-looking black man with a battle-axe. I nodded up at the lead squid-thing and he nodded back. We both drew our blades back and rushed in, shouting a war cry. I let him move first, drawing attention from one of the remaining green monsters and a half a dozen tentacles. When the way was clear, I sped up the short lobby stairs and slashed the lead creature with the bradsword, cutting it nearly in half. It was enough. The other creatures burst into bubbling slag instantly. The smell was awful. Soon afterward, even the bubbling goo faded away into nothingness, as did the tentacled monstrosity.
[glow=white,2,300]What did it mean "especially that one"?! [/glow]demanded the Englishman, cleaning off his spectacles and looking around at the retro 40's hotel lobby.
I checked for wounds on my comrades and got a resolute nod from the smudged brunette and a pat on the shoulder from the guy with the battle axe. For the first time I realised that I couldn't see the faces of my comrades clearly. In the heat of the battle I had assumed that things had been moving too quickly for me to make out any detail, but now it was clear that their muddled features swam away from my eyes upon any kind of scruitiny.
[glow=white,2,300]I've been accused of a great many things in my time, but paranoid has never been one of them. Unless people have been saying it behind my back. [/glow]the Englishman continued, his face a blur, looking around warily.
[glow=white,2,300]Are we finished? [/glow]asked the pretty brunette, moving a stray few hairs back behind her hazy ear. I squinted, trying to make the ear clearer, but it had no effect.
[glow=white,2,300]Think so. [/glow]I said.
[glow=white,2,300]Good. [/glow]she sighed, putting her hand on her hip. [glow=white,2,300]Because I, for one, will be glad to see the last of this place. Gives me the heebie jeebies.[/glow]
[glow=white,2,300]No lie. [/glow]said the black guy, wiping the remnants of green goo from his axe's blade with a bandanna. [glow=white,2,300]Plus, it's kinda got an odor to it, you notice that? [/glow]
[glow=white,2,300]Seventy years of violence, mayhem, and paranoia? Bad vibes... [/glow]reasoned the brunette, looking up at the cobweb filled chandelier above the main lobby entrance.
[glow=white,2,300]We're moving in. [/glow]I said.
[glow=white,2,300]...I mean, a few throw pillows -- what's not to love? [/glow]she finished.
[glow=white,2,300]Scion? [/glow]asked the Englishman, frowning. [glow=white,2,300]You don't find me especially paranoid, do you? [/glow]
[glow=white,2,300]Not especially. [/glow]I replied.
[glow=white,2,300]Oh, thank god. [/glow]he said. [glow=white,2,300]I was worried. [/glow]
I smiled, and then watched the faces of my companions turn to horror as something struck me hard in the back of the head, splintering the bones of my skull and splattering a nearby loby chair with blood. I felt myelf splash violently into that warm sea again.
Seattle, Washington
A cabin on Vashon Island
In my minds eye, fog had rolled in over the small harbor hours ago, thick and grey-green, tinted here and there by hazy bulbs of the dull yellow glow of dock lamps and the deep blue-black midnight sea that was beyond it. I couldn't see anything clearly on the dock, not the faces of the two men that approached me, and hardly even the ground beneath my feet. I heard the weathered wood stretch beneath my shoes as I walked along the pier, and heard the muted splash of water against the pilings, but they remained hidden in the dank air that hung, moist and heavy, between me and the two trenchcoated men.
I knew I was dreaming. When the men spoke, the words trailing out of their mouths like black bubbles in the deep, filling with white squiggles of text like something out of a comic book, I could tell something was off.
[glow=white,2,300]Do you think this will work?[/glow] asked the shorter man, the bright red cherry of a cigarette the only color in the panel.
[glow=white,2,300]Of course it will work.[/glow] said the taller man. [glow=white,2,300]Have a little faith.[/glow] he said, revealing a grainy cheshire smile as the only discernable feature in the grey darkness.
The pier beneath my feet became wet, sticky with blood, or brine, I couldn't tell. Then the boards of the pier fell away beneath me as if every nail that had held it it together had suddenly been removed.
Panic struck me as the world dropped away beneath my feet.
[glow=white,2,300]Stick to the facts.[/glow] said another disembodied voice as I fell into the waters and sunk into the black.
The water wasn't cold and shocking like the ocean, nor was it salty like the sea. It was an almost warm and comforting oblivion, and I sank for what seemed like an eternity in the darkness, fear and resignation flickering over my shadowed features like slow flames.
When my feet struck the ground, it was as dry and dusty as the Arizona desert at night. The fog of the pier had lifted, and the inky darkness of the water had faded into moonlit night. Silver-blue stars danced in the sky like glittering fish in an endless ocean of the nighttime acropolis in which I stood.
A great ruined city lay before me, it's broken pillars stretching up into the night. Stone paths beset by drifts of sand met my feet and criss-crossed away into the deserted streets. The hallowed darkness of the city's ancient shadows rose up to meet the pale silver moon and gave way above to the dull gleam of moonlight on cracked sandstone ballistraudes and broken marble rooftops.
It was then that I saw her, the woman by my side, wrapped in cloth and leather, the golden curls from her moonshod hair cascading down around her beautiful face like a lion's mane. Her eyes burned like stars as she looked at me, seeming to draw the moon down into her eyes as well. I felt her drink me in with her look. It was if her eyes were painting me slowly with the steady brush of her want.
[glow=red,2,300]This,[/glow] she said, her tapered arm indicating the fallen city. [glow=red,2,300]Is what it means to be a childe of Caine.[/glow]
I looked again at the great ruin, and for a moment, thought I could hear distant shouts of rebellion in the streets, the crack and hiss of flames and the clatter of swords.
[glow=red,2,300]Remember this.[/glow] She said, her eyes burning cold again like the moon. [glow=red,2,300]Never forget.[/glow]
Once again she drew me into her eyes, only this time my feather-light dream body could not resist the physical pull. Her eye expanded like the baleful moon, filling my vision, enclosing me in its blue-white light and the clatter of metal and shouting increased.
The moon cracked and popped in a shower of glass like the dingy lightbulb it had become, throwing half of the warehouse into sweeping shadow. The other nearby lights in the room had also been struck, and they swung from the ceiling of the warehouse wildly, illuminating a group of capering creatures that filled the floor in frightful relief.
The largest creature, to the rear of the others, a massive floating thing with purplish black horns and writhing tentacles spilling out from beneath it's black cloak, smiled and gurgled as one of it's green skinned minions backhanded a woman that had been standing near me, causing her to fly backward and bounce against a shipping container. A small hand-axe clattered from her hand as she hit the ground.
The pretty brunette looked up from the ground at the green monstrosity that had just smacked her around and glared. She looked at me for help. There was a sword in my hand, and I ran over to her in and instant, standing near her and the green, spikey-faced creature.
[glow=white,2,300]Oh, he is so going to kick your ass.[/glow]she said.
The creature scoffed, looking down at the prone woman and grinning with rows of jagged, crooked teeth.
[glow=white,2,300]You don't understand what stands before you! [/glow]it growled.
[glow=white,2,300]Oh... a big ugly who thinks he's a lot scarier than really he is, maybe? Yeah, she knows. [/glow]I said.
[glow=white,2,300]You're dead! [/glow]the creature shouted, launching itself at me.
[glow=white,2,300]I'm already dead. [/glow]I said, bringing the blade around hard and fast and cleaving it's head from it's neck in one swift motion. [glow=white,2,300]Welcome to the club.[/glow]
I helped the woman up and ignored her thank you to elbow another green creature hard in the face, kick his legs out from under him and stab him in the chest. A tentacle from the creature to the rear snaked it's way over to her and attempted to grab her around the waist, but another comrade, a wiry looking englishman with a kukri in one hand and a hand crossbow in the other hacked it off and nodded to me, jumping back into the fray and loosing his bolt directly between the eyes of another of the grean monsters.
[glow=white,2,300]Watch his tentacles. [/glow]I said to the woman, who was stepping back into her pumps.
[glow=white,2,300]Excuse me?! [/glow]
[glow=white,2,300]Tentacles. [/glow]I said, hacking off another one that had shot by me with a fierce stabbing motion. The creature pulled back a black ichor-oozing stump, screeched in pain and roared a challenge.
[glow=white,2,300]I don't remember ordering take out, but I like what you brung me. Not as delectable as the last one perhaps, but full of tasty paranoia just the same. Especially that one. [/glow]it sneered, dangling a tentacle in the direction of the Englishman.
[glow=white,2,300]What did he mean by that? [/glow]he frowned, dodging out of the way of a clawed swipe from one of the creatures.
I shook my head, ignoring him for the fight at hand and caught the eye of another of my comrades, a young-looking black man with a battle-axe. I nodded up at the lead squid-thing and he nodded back. We both drew our blades back and rushed in, shouting a war cry. I let him move first, drawing attention from one of the remaining green monsters and a half a dozen tentacles. When the way was clear, I sped up the short lobby stairs and slashed the lead creature with the bradsword, cutting it nearly in half. It was enough. The other creatures burst into bubbling slag instantly. The smell was awful. Soon afterward, even the bubbling goo faded away into nothingness, as did the tentacled monstrosity.
[glow=white,2,300]What did it mean "especially that one"?! [/glow]demanded the Englishman, cleaning off his spectacles and looking around at the retro 40's hotel lobby.
I checked for wounds on my comrades and got a resolute nod from the smudged brunette and a pat on the shoulder from the guy with the battle axe. For the first time I realised that I couldn't see the faces of my comrades clearly. In the heat of the battle I had assumed that things had been moving too quickly for me to make out any detail, but now it was clear that their muddled features swam away from my eyes upon any kind of scruitiny.
[glow=white,2,300]I've been accused of a great many things in my time, but paranoid has never been one of them. Unless people have been saying it behind my back. [/glow]the Englishman continued, his face a blur, looking around warily.
[glow=white,2,300]Are we finished? [/glow]asked the pretty brunette, moving a stray few hairs back behind her hazy ear. I squinted, trying to make the ear clearer, but it had no effect.
[glow=white,2,300]Think so. [/glow]I said.
[glow=white,2,300]Good. [/glow]she sighed, putting her hand on her hip. [glow=white,2,300]Because I, for one, will be glad to see the last of this place. Gives me the heebie jeebies.[/glow]
[glow=white,2,300]No lie. [/glow]said the black guy, wiping the remnants of green goo from his axe's blade with a bandanna. [glow=white,2,300]Plus, it's kinda got an odor to it, you notice that? [/glow]
[glow=white,2,300]Seventy years of violence, mayhem, and paranoia? Bad vibes... [/glow]reasoned the brunette, looking up at the cobweb filled chandelier above the main lobby entrance.
[glow=white,2,300]We're moving in. [/glow]I said.
[glow=white,2,300]...I mean, a few throw pillows -- what's not to love? [/glow]she finished.
[glow=white,2,300]Scion? [/glow]asked the Englishman, frowning. [glow=white,2,300]You don't find me especially paranoid, do you? [/glow]
[glow=white,2,300]Not especially. [/glow]I replied.
[glow=white,2,300]Oh, thank god. [/glow]he said. [glow=white,2,300]I was worried. [/glow]
I smiled, and then watched the faces of my companions turn to horror as something struck me hard in the back of the head, splintering the bones of my skull and splattering a nearby loby chair with blood. I felt myelf splash violently into that warm sea again.
