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Post by { o p a l } on May 1, 2013 20:54:27 GMT -6
"Chief. You are in the area of the potential recruit, over." Her intercom flipped off with a click.
Reaching up a hand, she carefully pressed a button and spoke into it quietly. "Confirmed." She glanced down at the ground beneath her. "Send coordinates, over."
"To the north slightly and a little eastwards as well, over."
"That's not how coordinates are written." The Chief scoffed. "I suppose it works. Over." She grumbled. "Imbeciles."
Standing up from her crouch, she made her way carefully over the rooftops, confident and comfortable underneath the dark grey clouds overhead. She wore her usual dress, but had added a pair of sunglasses. More disguise wasn't really necessary- when you dealt with the Silence, you either became one of them or quietly vanished.
Kalyani was waiting for her above the next rooftop. "He's right this way."
Regina nodded and followed her spirit animal, as quiet and nimble as the ocelot. "What's he doing?"
"Waiting for the meeting that was promised to him."
"Fae activity?" The Chief paused behind her spirit animal as the feline slunk up to a rooftop, peering down to locate their target.
"There's one present. Recruit's right below us, by the way. I believe I caught a whiff of gnome stench earlier. He scouted the area with his batty spirit animal."
"Excellent, that's a good instinct. Well, stay on the roofs and watch my back." Her voice was no more than a whisper.
Kalyani nodded and crouched down. The Chief, meanwhile, rolled away and sprang up, quickly clambering down the side of a building into an alleyway and striding out, looking quite relaxed, into the disused side street which Vincent waited in.
She glanced around behind her sunglasses, setting a leisurely pace. Her gaze happening upon the man in front of her, she frowned. "Excuse me, sir, are you lost? I don't normally see people on this side of the city." Her bearing was casual and her posture lax, not looking in any way like an agent of the Silence would look. She would have to see how suspicious he was.
"Regina, the gnome's coming closer. Stay on guard. I'll try and get above it."
The Chief hid a smile. Trust in her spirit animal to have this covered. Nonetheless, she shifted her posture so that her weight was more on the balls of her feet, ready to spring into action.
Suddenly, she laughed. "Oh! I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. Where is my brain? I'm Victoria. You?"
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Post by Wildsky on May 1, 2013 21:19:17 GMT -6
The man walks down the street. He kept a careful lookout for anyone suspicious; Eyvindr hanging up on one of the numbers ledges, but kept his eyes open. He hated the streets of London. Never made any sense to him, not really. Still, he learned his way around parts of the land.
Vincent finds the woman, introducing herself as Victoria. It wasn't set on who he'd be meeting, or how, but he had a feeling this was it. He was looking the slightest bit lost, curse his curiosity. He smiled at Victoria and said, "A bit lost, yeah. Can't seem to find my way around this place. Generally stay on the other side of London, closer to my family." His accent had a very normal feeling to it, but there was a strange Northern side to it, as if he'd spent the last few years up there and grew attached to the words. "I'm Jonathon, by the way." Jonathon was his father's name. Perhaps they'd pick up on that, perhaps not. Still, he needed to find another name.
"My friend said that he was on 48 Pineriver, right next to Pineriver and Garthwallow. But I can't find it, and I've looked all over the place. Must've been here two hours." He flashed a smile up to Victoria. Not to distract her, no; she was someone much wiser than he in this, but to allow the pretense to fall into place. To allow the acting to set the pieces, in a type of interview, he supposed. "Think you can help me?"
'Careful, now, Vincent. Don't get too flirty with her. We don't her jumping your pants.'
Suppressing a grin and holding back a laugh -- Vincent like Eyv. He was sarcastic, but never to him; helpful, but never obvious; quiet, but never forgotten. A perfect pair, he thought. Still.. Eyv had this annoying habit of taunting him occasionally. Pissed him off, just what Eyv liked. 'I don't think I'd mind that too much. I mean, sure, she's a bit too prudish and whatnot, but for me? I'd be doing pretty good.'
Inside jokes, inside jokes. All around the mind, filling it up. He loved playing games, Vincent did. Had fun with it. Had fun with thinking. Thinking and thinking and thinking. It was troublesome. Worrying, was. He didn't worry. He didn't care. Didn't worry, didn't care, not his problem, not his issue. Deal with it another day, push it off, procrastinate.
His mind was a bit too full, sometimes.
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Post by { o p a l } on May 1, 2013 21:34:14 GMT -6
"Jonathon, eh."
"All clear, Regina. Whenever you want."
Regina turned her head to one side. "Well, good to meet you. I know these parts pretty well- I guess I'm sort of an aficionado for walking through the lesser-known parts of London." She smiled.
"Progress of that gnome?"
"Unbearably slow. It's killing me, Regina. I just want to attack it. It's right below me. My claws. They itch."
The Chief smirked darkly inside, but kept up her friendly facade well enough. "Here, I might be able to help you. Pinewater and Garthwallow, you said? It's this way."
Humming to herself, she began to walk down the street towards Kalyani's location. "You see, this place is just one giant maze. Pinewater and Garthwallow intersect at three different points, and at a different point Garthwallow turns into Grosspoint, but there's only one place that's got the number 48 with it."
Closing her eyes briefly, Regina touched the Spirit Zodiac, locating Kalyani a block or so away. Striding slowly down the road, she crossed her arms, preparing to draw her blade. Even a recruit could subdue a gnome, but they were stupid enough to try doing idiotic things in their first fight.
"Are you going to drop the act already? The battle's coming soon. You need his name again?"
"All in good time, my dear kitten. And no, I've still got a functional memory, I read through the files. I know his name."
Arriving at the alleyway which the gnome slowly made its way up, the Chief took off her glasses and turned to 'Jonathan.'
"I do believe what you're looking for is this way, Vincent Evan Chambers, son of Jonathon Chambers." Regina smirked darkly. "I would suggest proceeding with utmost caution. And remember: walk in the Silence."
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Post by Wildsky on May 2, 2013 19:21:49 GMT -6
Vincent followed the woman, assuming she had a destination in mind. The house he had made up probably didn't exist (or perhaps it did), but it was the only streets that he could think of. He followed the woman, listening to her directions. When she was complete, he smiled and said, "Thanks. I would have never figured that out. Crazy streets down here. I say, at least."
A curious look ran over his face as they approached the alleyway. Victoria knew his name, unsurprisingly, and caught on of his father's name, which he was glad for. A small smirk began to appear on his face. "Thank you, Victoria. Anything I should watch out for?" he asked. He didn't know if she would leave or watch, but he assumed something important was here. Perhaps a book, perhaps a fae, perhaps a trap, anything.
He didn't have his sword on him, so he doubted he could fight something strong. Still, he knew how to dodge fairly well and could possibly find something sharp or blunt to take out something. But a riddle, trap, or some other device could be more difficult. He didn't really know how to solve riddles, not so well.
'Want me to stop by, Vincent?'
'If you don't mind. Stay up top though, you'll be my eyes.'
'I'm always your eyes.'
'This is very true, Eyv. I'd be nothing without you.' Vincent was slightly patronizing, yet slightly also telling the truth. He was helped immensely by Eyvindr.
A part of his brain told him to be worried, be scared, but that part was all but silenced by his rational mind. He didn't have time to be jumpy. So he wouldn't be.
He cursed himself for not bringing a knife or anything. His spatha would be far too obvious, but he had a pocket knife in his apartment too. That was still a blade, so that still worked. Eyv told him to not worry about it, that Victoria wouldn't let him die, but he felt like she would. It wasn't a lack of care, it was the realization that some had to die for the good of all.
He wasn't afraid of that. He was proud of that. Unless it came to his life, that is. Oh, double standards, how you protect minds so carefully, yet destroy any possibility of justice and equality.
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Post by { o p a l } on May 2, 2013 19:41:44 GMT -6
Regina smirked as he strode on ahead. Stepping behind him quietly, she stood with her arms crossed. Kalyani perched above, crouched and ready to slam 14 kilograms of furious feline into the unaware fey.
The mental image of that scene made the Chief smile. She always enjoyed seeing Kalyani get angry, it was just something that terrified others and amused her.
"There's nothing particularly dangerous in there. Just a fey that probably wants to kill you in a thousand grisly ways." She shrugged.
Her trained eyes spotted the advancing gnome with ease, the ungainly fey picking its way through the trash in the alleyway. Her gaze picked out a discarded kitchen knife lying close to the entrance.
As the gnome looked up at the sound of Vincent's approach, Regina whirled out of the entrance, hiding herself from its view by stepping out of the alleyway's narrow entry. It would be a more interesting fight if the thing thought it was up against something that was an equal match for it, without any back up. Her absence would also prevent it from fleeing before Vincent got a chance to fully engage.
"There's a climbable wall close to you, Regina. You can get a better vantage point there."
With a nod of her head, the Chief glanced around. A large dumpster provided enough height that she could reach the rim of the roof and pull herself up. Plotting her course with her eyes, Regina took a breath, then darted forward, leaping onto the dumpster from an old box and catching herself on the roof with both hands. Pulling herself up, she stepped onto the metal and quietly made her way over to survey the scene unfolding beneath her across from her spirit companion.
Watching the recruit advance from her position, Regina quietly sank into a deeper concentration, creating a small conduit to the Zodiac in her hand, ready to strike with lightning should things get out of hand.
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Post by Wildsky on May 3, 2013 22:19:33 GMT -6
'Small, fey creature, hiding next to the trash.'
Merely sending a telepathic acknowledgement to Eyv was all that he needed to do. He spotted this creature, and it was strange itself. Not moments afterward, it spotted him. He wasn't sure if to run or fight, but as it approached him, he started backing up. Not for any particular reason besides that he didn't have anything to fight with.
'Eyv, I need something! Anything!' Vincent was desperate -- the gnome probably wasn't stronger than him, but it would take a lot more effort if he didn't have something sharp.
'I'm looking, Vincent!'
Vincent decided to stop waiting and tried to kick the gnome. He was much less experienced in hand-to-hand combat, and the gnome was easily able to dodge the kick. Quickly regaining his balance, he tried lunging at the bothersome, aggravating creature. He grabbed it by the leg and tried to pull it over, which, while not easy, was doable. He threw a punch at his chin.
'Vincent, five meters behind you, kitchen knife. About seven o'clock.
He threw the creature, with some difficulty, over. Landing about five meters away, it hit the ground hard and was briefly dazed. Vincent dashed over to grab the knife, picking it up and looking back over to the gnome. Seeing it starting to scamper off, he sprinted towards the impossible creature, catching up to it quickly, and kicked it squarely in the back. It was knocked forward perhaps half a meter and landed on its stomach.
Before the bastard could get up, Vincent quickly plunged the knife in its back, and took it out just as quickly. Again it struck his back, perhaps behind where his heart and lungs would lay, and again, it was taken out. This was repeated three more times, five in all, until Vincent truly believed that the creature was dead. He stood up and looked around, exclaiming, "Thank you, Victoria! I would have never found my friend without you."
He liked the idea of acting; it suited him well.
'Enjoyed yourself?' Eyv asked the young man with the bloody knife.
'A bit.'[/size]
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Post by { o p a l } on May 3, 2013 22:38:15 GMT -6
Clumsy at first, the recruit slowly worked his way up in Regina's regard. He tried a kick, then bought himself some time to scramble backwards and arm himself with a knife.
He lunged forward, and the Chief narrowed her eyes, honing in like a hawk in anticipation of the kill.
One. Crimson plumes, the fae thrashed.
Two. Scarlet splashes, still a struggle.
Three. Carmine splatters, a convulsive twitch.
Four. Vermillion bubbles, a gurgling cry.
Five. Rubies sparkled, and then it was still.
"Overkill. How pleasant." She strode across the roof to stand above where he'd killed the fae, watching its sprawled form with a cruelly malign joy in her gaze.
"He has made the kill. He has proved himself worthy in body." Kalyani let out a growl, alerting Vincent to her presence, still crouched above him.
"And now to see if his mind is as strong." Jumping off of the edge, she turned midair and caught herself on the rim of the roof. Boots thumped solidly onto the wall and pushed, then she twisted and leaped off, rolling out of her landing to stand up in front of him.
"Tell me, Vincent." Regina began walking in a slow circle around him and his spirit animal, more for psychological effect than anything, like a predator stalking its prey. "How did it feel? You held the life of that miserable little creature in your hands, and it was your decision to end it. The power to take away a soul is great, no?"
The Chief smiled, and electricity danced up her arm, rimming it with dark flashes of storm. "This perverse ability to bend the power of spirits to your will... how does it feel to you? Do you revel in the ability to bathe the world in blood?" She gestured to the corpse of the fey. "Or do you seek to learn how to refine this cold-blooded instinct, to control your urges and harness them to your will as you have the spirits?"
She stopped in front of him, and gestured to the gnome with her lightning-wreathed hand. This was more for psychological effect than anything, she had to make sure that her agents weren't going to go on killing sprees once they obtained a satisfactory amount of power. "Tell me what it feels like, Vincent. And if your answer is correct, then you will no longer walk in the silence."
Regina paused a moment to let it sink in. "You will walk as the Silence."
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Post by Wildsky on May 4, 2013 2:01:52 GMT -6
Vincent took a breath. That was a question -- a very, very loaded question. Did he enjoy it? Did he revel in it? Was he bloodthirsty, like the murderers, rapists, and hateful dictators he claimed he hated? Or was he simply excited to win? Was it controllable? Was it too powerful? Was this feeling the beginnings of an addiction? Was it the beginning of the end?
Did he actually enjoy the kill? Or was it simply the fear dissipating? Was it the stabbing? Did he go too far? Or did he make sure it was dead? Did he let out his anger, or create more? Did he force himself to a life of dismay and destruction? Or did he simply set his life on the track of the Silence?
Was killing going to define him? Or simply be an aspect?
It took a lot of thought. In fact, he was silent. He took time on this. Anger certainly coursed through his veins, but was it cold anger that was malleable? Or hot anger, than would destroy anything in its path? He didn't know. Honestly, it was confusing.
He wanted to simply just ignore it. Was this something he could ignore? It wasn't. He thought back, his mother and father pushing him for grades. His Priest in elementary school, teaching him to denounce sinners and heretics. His Freshman history teacher, constantly telling of the flaws of people. His university counselor, claiming he wasn't getting the degree he should get.
Why did they hate? Was it hate themselves, were they hateful of something? Was it simply selfishness? Mislead philosophies? Perhaps ignorance? Did their parents teach them to hate? Did they think poorly of others? Simple narcissism?
Did Vincent hate others?
He wished he didn't. He really did. He liked people, in general. They were nice, but still... So easily did he fall back into his casual hatred of others. So easily did he manipulate them, causing them to give them just what he wanted.
Why?
'Would you kill a stranger?' Eyv asked, simply.
And that question in itself, was hard to answer. But he tried. A stranger, on the street. No motivation. No aggravation. Would he plunge the knife? Or would his mind stop him? Would he honestly go through with it, or would he see the face and stop?
'If they were a threat, I would. If they weren't, I wouldn't,' Vincent replied.
'Then you have your answer.'
"Victoria, or whatever your name is, this isn't an easily answerable question. I can kill, easily. And... Whilst I wish I didn't, I do enjoy the kill. It's a longing for the simplicity, the ease, the... power." Vincent took a breath, trying to figure out how to word this. "But this longing, this power, this bloodlust can be honed and satisfied. I won't go off on a rampage, but I'll do my mission, regardless of the costs." He desperately hoped that worked as an answer.
Oh, and the worries if it didn't.
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Post by { o p a l } on May 4, 2013 2:57:13 GMT -6
Vincent took a long time to answer, but Regina was used to that. She simply stood, her head tilted slightly to one side, her gaze unwaveringly resting on him in an almost eerie manner.
"I still remember your answer to this question."
Regina let loose a little sigh that was almost a growl. "I was five years old, Kalyani."
The ocelot's telepathic voice turned into a mocking impression of a five-year-old. "'Momma, if I do, can I have chocolate?'"
"I did not sound like that."
"Yes you did."
"I will hurt you." Regina was almost glad that Vincent was too embroiled in his own thoughts to notice her eyes glaring at the spirit animal.
In return, the feline purred with laughter, flashing fangs at her human from her perch.
"Victoria, or whatever your name is, this isn't an easily answerable question. I can kill, easily. And... Whilst I wish I didn't, I do enjoy the kill. It's a longing for the simplicity, the ease, the... power. But this longing, this power, this bloodlust can be honed and satisfied. I won't go off on a rampage, but I'll do my mission, regardless of the costs." There was a look in his eyes that suggested he was very much hoping that was the right answer.
Regina smirked. It sounded not too unlike her own, when she was asked next at the age of fourteen (after her parents had figured out that by then she wouldn't think as much about candy).
"Very well. If that is your answer, I will hold you to your promise."
She released the electricity surrounding her hand (in a way that might imply she was going to use it to kill him if necessary). It was useful as a show, but annoying to keep up. "In that case, welcome to the Silence. You have, I assume, obtained a leave of absence for the day? You're required at our main base for administrative purposes."
"You want to stay, don't you." Regina glanced up at her ocelot. "You want to guide him through Stonehenge."
The cat scoffed. "Of course I do. The newbies are the best when it comes to shock factor. We're headed that way anyway."
"Do I have to interact with him?"
"Of course you do. Stop groaning telepathically."
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Post by Wildsky on May 4, 2013 6:48:26 GMT -6
Fear surged into his body, but he kept it under control. The lightning, or whatever it was in her hand, was powerful. Immensely so. But then, it was gone. Did he respect her? Perhaps, but not because of that. Did he fear her? Definitely, but he won't let that stop him from trying to be himself. If she would kill him, then she would have issues of her own. If she would imprison him, then she'd need a damn good reason. And if she assigned him to a desk job, then perhaps it'd be boring, but he hoped he'd be missed.
Vincent nodded. "I only work part-time, just enough to pay rent and keep myself fed. Will I get paid through this since it will be my life?" he asked. The question wasn't meant to be bitter; there was an honest tone of curiosity. Or, honest enough. Honest for Vincent, that is.
'The right choice. As secretive as people with the zodiac of Night are, we aren't cruel or heartless.' Eyvindr wasn't sympathetic or empathetic; he wouldn't care if you died or if you lived. But what he did care about was the reasons behind these things. If you die, then so be it, there is nothing that can be done. But if you died for the wrong reason, then you should be avenged. And if you died for the right reason, then you should be respected. Whether you're an enemy or an ally, you are still someone. In a way, he was a twisted sociopath, but he had his standards.
'Thank you, Eyv. Those words of confidence mean a lot more to mean than you think.'
He looked up to Victoria and said, "Now, may I address you as something else than Victoria? You know my name, I at least feel like I should know your title." A slight hint of disrespect crept into his voice, but not disrespect in its general form. It was simply addressing a problem and forgoing tact. He wanted an answer, not a dance of words.
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