Though many would think that the fate of a Nobody was a cursed fate; Xharas didn't think so, especially with those whom she had been spending a great deal of time with. When she wasn't tending to the library in the Castle That Never Was; she would be spending her time training with Xaldin and Vexen. However, due to her recent mission, she was forbidden to train further as she was a danger not only to those around her, but to herself as well.
As Xharas placed books away, she couldn't help but sulk. It wasn't her fault that she went berserk when she was on mission with Saix to a world she learned was her origins for recon. At first, she was excited to explore a new world..but when she started to speak with the Grand Council that ruled that world, she could feel her anger get the better of her. She ended up having her whips appear in her hands and attacking one of the Council men, a red haired male by the name of Lord Ela.
His sarcasm towards her family's death didn't settle well with her.It took both Saix and two other men to break the fight before she was sent through a dark corridor with a scolding Saix glaring at her. Thanks to her actions, she was bound to book keeping until she could control her temper. Letting out a sigh, she reached up high on a ladder to place a few smaller books away.
She didn't mean to let her anger get the better of her. It just..happened. As she went on her toes to place another book away, she found herself so distracted that she lost her balance and started to fall backwards off the ladder.
“How about every time you get something right I take off a piece of clothing, but every time you get something wrong….”
@alternate-ienzo
“One, if that is your way of attempting to have me take off my mask of my own violation, nice try but you’re not fooling me. Two, no one should be stripping off their clothes in this world because they’ll catch hypothermia due to the winter climate. Three, you’re not welcome here so you have five seconds to open your corridor and leave before I send my wolves after you.” The Ghostly Guardian crosses their arms over their chest.
Luther jumped up when his alarm went off at 8am. At home, he’d gotten up every morning at 6am, programmed to get up and start his day as quickly as possible, but he’d quickly fallen out of that habit when he left San Francisco. He usually had several messages on his phone from Andrei when he woke, telling him what his orders were for that morning, if he didn’t already receive them the night before. He’d get up, skip breakfast, shower in ten minutes, and be out the door to do as he was ordered. Except that there were no more orders. No more messages on his phone. No real reason to even get out of bed in the morning anymore.
Except to find a damn job…
At this rate, he’d be kicked out of his apartment in two months. Despite that Andrei had been exceedingly wealthy, he had only ever paid Luther enough to get by. Working for him was supposed to be its own reward. When he left the Bratva, Luther was left with very little money of his own to live on. The cash Luther had managed to get selling an expensive watch Andrei gave him would keep him afloat for a couple months in a low rent district, but not for much longer than that. He needed to find another job, but they were scarce for someone who didn’t want to give out all that much information about himself. Andrei’s daughter Marta got her father arrested for giving the order to kill her husband, but she hadn’t sent the Feds after Luther for pulling the trigger. Why, Luther still did not understand. Nevertheless, he assumed that at some point she would do exactly that, and so he had to be careful.
The problem was that Luther had a very specific set of skills. He could be a bodyguard, security guard, bouncer, etc., but some of those jobs involved carrying a firearm. Luther had his own pistol, but a conscientious employer would want a background check on him before issuing any other kind of gun. There’s no way Luther would pass one of those… He was great with electronics, for Anderi had him managing and encrypting websites and accounting software for the Bratva in addition to installing and maintaining surveillance systems and phone taps. He’d fixed his share of computers and cell phones as well. He knew he could get some kind of tech job easily, but Luther didn’t necessarily want that. He wanted to be a bodyguard. It was the only thing he’d actually enjoyed while working for Andrei… provided the person he was protecting was one he felt was worthy of such protection.
He sat on the edge of his bed for an hour, not having any reason to rush. In a daze almost, just staring at the wall, the floor, his hands, anything… he didn’t know what to do with himself. Waking up without waiting messages or orders or people banging on his door or his phone ringing was just not normal to him. It felt terrible to not have a purpose, to not be needed or valued by anyone. Sighing heavily, Luther eventually forced himself to get out of bed and shower. Slipping on a long-sleeved t-shirt and jeans, he sighed as he looked at himself in the mirror. Geezus, I look like shit. He wandered to his kitchen, grabbed a bottle of vodka out of one of the cabinets, and took a few deep gulps of it. Well, that takes care of breakfast, he thought dejectedly. Stuffing his pistol into the back of his jeans, his switchblade into one front pocket of his jeans, and his cell phone into the other front pocket, he left the keys to his motorcycle on the table. He felt like walking today.
It was a bright sunny day, but Luther didn’t notice. He’d worked for thirty years near a marina, and so whether it was sunny, cloudy, raining, or so foggy you couldn’t even see, he was outside almost every single day. Picking up a newspaper at a local coffee shop, Luther had a cup of black coffee while he perused the want ads. Nothing struck his fancy, and so he left the shop and continued to walk around this city he’d moved to only recently, trying to familiarize himself with it. Before long he caught sight of something that demanded his attention. Two teenagers were trying to mug a third in an alley. Luther shook his head and walked right up to them.
“Hey, back off, man!” said one of the teenagers, pointing a pocket knife at him. Two clearly stronger and older boys were hassling a third who was much scrawnier. His glasses had a crack in the lens and his cheek was bruised and swollen.
Luther nodded, looking at the knife. “That’s a nice blade. It’s too bad you don’t know how to use it, though.” Without warning, he grabbed the boy’s arm, locking it in both of his and hyperextending it a little, taking the knife as the boy cried out in pain. Clearly scared, he backed away from Luther, as did his friend. “Come on, what is this? What’re you doin’ with your life? You’re pickin’ on kids smaller than you? You should be a role model, not a bully,” Luther said.
“You don’t know, man,” said the one who’d pointed the knife at him. “You don’t know how hard it is!”
“Oh, I don’t?” Luther asked. “I used to be a little shit like you. You know what happened? I grew up to be a big shit. But you? You’ve got time to change. Think about it. This could be the moment in your life when you decide you’re gonna end up dead or in jail someday, or you can turn it around and do somethin’ good with yourself.” Whether they were listening to him or not, he didn’t know, but he kept the knife. “Go on, get outta here before I call the cops.”
The boys ran away, and Luther turned to the one with the broken glasses. “You okay? You want me to walk you home?”
“Nah, I’m okay. Thanks, mister,” the boy said.
“Here,” he said, handing the knife to him. “For protection only. Okay?”
The boy smiled shyly. “Okay. Thanks.”
Luther watched him run off. It bothered him to see boys on the street like this. He still remembered being one of them. He stood in the alley, lost in thought for a while. He needed to work on getting his own life in order. I’m not exactly someone who should be givin’ advice to others on how to be a good person...
His thoughts were interrupted suddenly by an intense feeling of being watched, even though the alley had been a dead end. Sandwiched between two apartment buildings, the narrow alley faced a brick wall. Luther couldn’t believe his eyes. The brick wall was gone, and a dark void was in its place.
“What the hell?” he whispered. He turned to look back toward the mouth of the alley to see if anyone else walking by was seeing this, but there was only darkness there. Two walls, and a dark void. The city was gone. Even the air seemed to still around him, as if someone had put him under a dome. When he looked to where the end of the alley should have been, the brick wall he had seen before, he cried out and jumped back a few steps. The black void was now only a few feet away from him. Did the wall just move closer?! he thought in a panic, his eyes wide. Looking into the void, he could not see anything, but he swore he could hear voices whispering ominously just beyond his comprehension. His brow furrowed as he leaned a bit toward it, trying to see into it. As he did so, he fell, drawn into it as if it had its own gravitational pull. His hands reached out, but there was nothing to hold onto…
As a Goddess of Death, it was not uncommon for her to travel between various realms and worlds to collect the dead. Of course, she didn’t do all of this by herself. She had reapers in certain worlds that were known for massive amounts of death. However, there were some places that had no reapers designated -- worlds that were known for being peaceful with little death occurring that it required a special escort for the souls there to be taken to the after life.
She remembered when she escorted two souls from Radiant Garden -- parents of a child -- both being scientist that dedicated their love and life to their child and the research the performed on the understandings of the connections of a heart. Together; they were successful in their findings as they used a combination of their own theories and personal experiences as data to be complied together. They were actually close to their findings, in fact. However, it left their son, Ienzo, unattended for some days. Of course, there was always the other scientist that watched over the young lad..but it wasn’t the same.
It came to the point where they volunteered themselves for the experiments to further their research. To allow themselves to understand a Heartless better by allowing their blood to enter their own. But the hatred and darkness in the Heartless was too much to contain in a body that was already completed. It was placing an unusually shaped puzzle piece in the center of a completely different one that was completed already; but taking a few of the pieces that held it together out and shuffling the others around to force the awkward piece to fit.
The experiment was, without a doubt, a failure. The darkness consumed them both; making the once proud couple into the very thing they were researching. By orders of Ansem the Wise, the two were to be in confinement while they were still out cold. He knew that their bodies were never going to change back nor would they survive long..but not before going on a rapid rage to destroy everyone and everything in their path. It took them both about a week or so to not only wear themselves out from clawing against their metal doors barred with heavy chains, but to allow the darkness to completely consume them to the point where their bodies crumbled and there was no remains of their soul left. The Heartless, however, were soon too weak to remain alive without a heart to feed on..so they died of starvation.
It was then that the Goddess found herself in the white halls, using her magic to escort the lovers to her realm of the dead. These souls were sad, lonely...and full of regret. It almost broke her heart to usher them away..almost. She knew from personal experience that love was only a temporary thing and not an emotion to place faith in. Hell, her own family banished her to a frozen wasteland due to her appearance and identifying with the dead. True, she was dubbed a goddess and ruler of a realm of her own..but that didn’t amend the fact that she was casted out of her home as a child.
Hela spoke with the souls of the lovers after returning to her realm. Hearing how they got into the situation that they did was mildly amusing. However, it didn’t surprise her that humans were toying with supernatural substances that shouldn’t be. She was given a strange request shortly after speaking with them..to keep an eye on their son and to make sure that he didn’t die before his years. It truly was a strange request. Hela was no baby-sitter nor did she have an interest in children. But the child did show a bit of promise as a mage, by the looks of his dedication to working on his studies, despite his young age. She merely gave a shrug of her shoulders, accepting the task...
~~~~~~
Ten years later...
~~~~~~
For a few years, it was difficult to spot the young lad that she was asked to keep an eye on. Where in the Nine Realms could that child possibly be? It wasn’t until she turned her gaze on the darker worlds that she got a proper lock on the child. A slow smile formed over her pale lips.
“Found you...” she muttered to herself softly.
She wrapped herself in a black and green cloak, covering every inch of her body. Hela wasn’t certain the mental state of the child so she had to be sure to approach him with caution. According to her calculations, he was in a world known as ‘The Castle That Never Was’. A strange name for a place, but she wasn’t picky when it came to titles. She only cared if she could find the child, Ienzo. Little did she know that he was a being of darkness here. She would be in quite a shock when she encountered him as mirror image of what his parents had become...
@alternate-ienzo
Though Namine and Kairi were indeed completed as one; Namine still felt that there was unfinished business to attend to. Seeing that Lea was completed jogged the memory of Kairi’s Nobody that there were people that she needed to see..to make sure were alive and well again too. When Namine made the comment, Kairi gave her other half a defeated look as she had a great deal yet of keyblade training to do with Riku, Sora and Lea. However, it didn’t mean that Namine wasn’t allowed to go.
So, after breaking apart from her other half and giving her a quick embrace, Namine opened a dark corridor to Radiant Garden. Kairi was too young to remember but Namine knew that there were scientist that once served her father and gave their lives to protect her before the world fell..before she was forced to move to Destiny Islands.
She couldn’t pin-point the names exactly, but she could remember their faces. Maybe if she saw them once again she could remember? Well..here’s to hoping!
Namine looked around the broken halls of the castle, holding her hands close to her chest. “H-hello? Is...anyone here?” she called out before slowly stepping through the halls to peak into the rooms to see if anyone was around.
@alternate-ienzo
@alternate-ienzo
As the lover of Maleficent; there came a benefit of knowing certain knowledge. Aside from knowing the truth about her various forms, the power behind her Heartless and the people she associated with; there were also copies of documents that were shared. Being an experiment that controls darkness; he felt that he knew more about the topic than anyone else, to be perfectly honest.
However, there were some documents that he came across that made him..curious. People who were once whole, broken into pieces -- shattered to the darkness as a Heartless and Nobody; only to be whole again after both are destroyed. Such an idea was..unheard of to Nero. Why be broken to begin with only to be whole again? There seemed to be a piece of information missing. To abuse the powers of darkness in such a fashion was insulting. He had to know the purpose of it.
He looked over the papers once more to get an idea as to where he was going before allowing himself to be consumed by darkness and sent off to Radiant Garden. There were a great deal of questions that needed to be answered before he could rest easy. His darkness led him to the labs within the castle, appearing in what looked like a computer lab. For the moment, it seemed empty. But he could hear the whispers of the souls within his darkness that followed him -- there were indeed people nearby..or at least close. Perhaps it was best to get their attention?
Nero went back into his darkness, leaving a small dark corridor in the lab before five Neo-Shadows swam from the corridor and started to venture through the labs, looking for anyone who may be nearby.
