vatheon | I've been believing in something so distant, as if I was human...

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I've been believing in something so distant, as if I was human...

Who: Rin, Shing, Kohaku, Vanitas [Open thread here!]
Where: Starting at Shing and Kohaku's apartment
When: Early evening
Style: Prose
Status: CLOSED
WARNING: Character death, blood, violence, all the things that go with having Vanitas involved

Grocery bags on his arms, sword on his back, Rin walked through the city to a familiar apartment complex not that far from his own. After what had happened at the ice cream shop and his visit to them, Kohaku had given Rin a key to their apartment, saying that if he ever needed to go some place that wasn't his own home or Maka's, or if he just wanted to come over and cook without having to be invited, he could go there even when they weren't home. And it really had become like a second home to him. It was familiar, comfortable, and reminded him of when he still lived at the abbey, cooking meals for the priests.

For all the things that had been tripping him up lately, Rin was feeling surprisingly optimistic with his current situation. He had good friends, a great girlfriend, and had managed to hold down a job for longer than a month for the first time in years. Vatheon had it's fair share of annoyances, sure, but it had been a surprisingly good place for Rin. Even if he did miss his brother and other classmates back home.

These were the thoughts that kept him moving, and the thoughts he was going over when he approached the apartment and headed to the floor where Shing, Kohaku and Beryl lived. Something made him stop, though, his hand hovering above the door handle. A strange feeling came over him, like the crawling sensation of being watched.

He wheeled around, but nothing except the empty hallway and the dulled yellowed lights greeted him. One flickered down the way, some three or four doors down, but nothing else moved. There was no noise, no movement, absolutely nothing that should have given him that feeling.

Yet it was still there.

His blue eyes narrowed at the flickering light, but after a few minutes he sighed and shook his head.

"Damnit... get it together..." he mumbled to the air, finally turning the key in the door and heading inside.

It was nothing... right?

((ooc: Alright, this is the log for the plot that was recently discussed on the OOC comm! Obviously it's closed, but there should be room for reactions and other things at a later point! ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Naturally, being in the state he was in, Rin was of no mind to think tactics. The spear came right at him, striking and imbedding in his stomach. Between the force of the strike and the force of is own movement forward, he was taken off his feet and sent crashing face first in to the ground so hard he left a shallow ditch.

But as before, he wasn't down for long. While that would have put any normal human down for good, Rin was far from normal, and he was on his feet again with the spear actually protruding from his stomach, blood rushing down and staining what of his shirt wasn't already filthy.

A sustained feline-like growl escaped from him as he ripped it out, caring not for the blood the spurted from it.

And just to add insult to injury to Jade, he hurled it back at him.

Jade was impressed, if not a tad annoyed at the tenacity. While he should have taken more time to aim, the shot should have at least disabled him. No matter, as the spear was hurled back, is disappeared in a flash of light and came to Jade's hand in the same.

A straight charge wouldn't be good, with that strength, and Jade's less than impressive close-range fighting, Jade would have to keep a distance between them, or try to calculate the boy's strength versus the guardian shield. He fired off a quick spell, Energy Blast a quick one just to toss the boy back a bit. After that, he'd work on a larger spell, picking up the residual Field of Fonons from the Splash to use an alternate spell.

In another part of the park, Yuri was out doing, well, whatever it was he was doing in the park that night. Probably wandering around due to sleeplessness and all. In any case, the park was normally peaceful, so the sudden rain of blue fire upon the trees and grass around him, needless to say, alerted him to the current predicament of the half-demon raging and thrashing about, striking out at anything and everything in the surrounding area.

Considering that several people he knew -- Estelle and his Majesty in particular -- lived very close to the park, Yuri found himself running towards the source. Had he not thrown himself onto the ground he would have got blasted with blue fire upon arrival. Glancing around the area and spotting Jade, he groaned. Great, this guy was already targeting innocents. ~~Jade was most certainly not innocent, but Yuri had yet to know that.~~

In any case, it looked like the guy was trying to ward him off with magic, so it only seemed fair for Yuri to at least distract the devil. "Hey! I'm your target! Look at me, you stupid piece of charcoal! Azure Edge!"

Why yes, there IS a blue projectile coming at you, Rin. Have fun!

Edited (oops HTML fail) 2012-07-29 05:12 (UTC)

~~Stupid piece of charcoal? Subtle, Yuri. Real subtle.~~

As before, Rin was just a ball of rage with no real direction or sense, and both the spell and the projectile hit him square on, so hard he went hurling back in to a tree...

And right through it. It shattered as though it had been made of glass, sending wood debris everywhere, a few even stabbing Rin in his arms and legs.

But as before, it was doing very little to stop him. Slow him, maybe, as he was getting injured too fast for his demon regeneration to keep up properly, but soon enough he was back on his feet again.

This time he went right for Yuri, who was much closer than the distance-casting Jade, swinging his flaming sword down with every intention of taking off Yuri's head.

As the boy was sent flying from the combined force of the Energy Blast and the Azure Edge, Jade had to make a quick adjustment to catch him in the Frigid Coffin. After the incantation, Jade fired off the spell, hoping to catch the boy before he reached the newcomer. Neither had a fonist's mark and Jade really didn't want to put too much into aiming. He'd have to find a way to get a temporary fonist's mark onto the black-haired kid soon before the battle became too much, if it was going to become that.

Yuri just barely had enough time to dodge the flaming sword, rolling out of the way and pushing himself into circling the demon as he continued to fling Azure Edges at Rin. There really wasn't much else he could do, considering that the flames were very well still good for charbroiling Yuris...

Rin had very nearly reached Yuri when the spell hit him. He had enough time to swing the flaming Kurikara down, but between the spell and Yuri's deft dodging, he never connected.

Instead he was trapped rather suddenly, a cage of sharp icicles appearing around him and stopping any further pursuit. Several cut in to his clothing and lanced across his skin. What had been a white shirt and a blue open hoodie not hours before was quickly becoming a blood stained, shredded mess.

Immediately he started hacking away at the ice, unaware that another attack was coming down on him. There was a very loud crash! and the sound not unlike a metric ton of glass shattering upon impact, the massive ice shard having struck Rin right in the head.

He went down. Hard. Amongst the melting shards of ice he lay, blood spilling out of several very large wounds on to the wet grass.

The sword, however, was not out of his hand yet, and the flames - while petering and fading some - weren't out. Rin was deceptively still, and one who didn't know him and his power might easily mistake that for unconsciousness.

Edited 2012-07-29 05:53 (UTC)

Jade took the moment to put a temporary fonist's mark on Yuri. He didn't want to trust the boy, given the small flames and the still held sword.

"Hold." Frigid Coffin was powerful, but there were enemies he'd seen brush it off like a light snowfall. He stayed defensive, watching the boy for a moment with his spear at the ready.

Yuri paused, glancing down at the temporary fonist's mark for a few moments before turning his attention back towards the apparently fallen demon. He'll ask later. In any case, he frowns, staying defensive as he glanced over at Jade.

"... I'm willing to bet this is a trap." Yuri responded in an overly obvious fashion as he backed away. No point in falling for something this open, right?

There was nothing for several moments, save the ragged rise and fall of Rin's chest and the continued flames. There wasn't even sound aside from his breathing.

It very well could have been the end...

Could have been, but it wasn't. He was moving again, slowly getting to his knees but wobbling as he did so. His arms lashed out, attempting to catch either of them, be it by the claws on his hands or the arcs of fire he wildly hurled.

He was wearing down, wounds attempting to heal but doing so slowly, yet he kept on trying to fight. Rage was driving him forward, keeping him going blindly even when some part of him inside was screaming for him to stop. The sounds he was making were akin to that of a wounded, frightened animal, yet somewhere beneath all that there was a teenage boy, trapped in his own body by nothing more than a bad luck draw of genes.

Jade moved quickly, avoiding most of the flames, though the right side of his uniform caught flame and Jade immediately went to pour water on it, drawing fonons to splash all of the affected areas before he could return his attention to the fight again. He went to casting again, figuring it'd take only a few more attacks to bring the boy down.

Meanwhile, Yuri took to distracting Rin again -- his fight made somewhat easier now that most of the flames were put out, though he was smart enough to remain at a distance, tossing Azure Edges at Rin to keep him distracted from Jade.

"Get... get... away... from me..."

The beating he was taking seemed to finally be working. Even as he took the hits from Yuri and kept stumbling forward, there was a halting hesitation to his steps that wasn't just from the attacks striking him.

Some part of Rin was slowly coming back, the tiniest bit of sanity breaking through the fog of his mind. It was that little bit that was finally aware of what he was doing and how out of control he was. But his voice was still demonic, sounding like many voices speaking at once, and there was a pain in his tone that was more than just the physical trauma he was receiving.

"Leave... me... don't... want to... AAAUUUGHHH!"

A horrible, terrible scream ripped from him as he dropped to his knees, clutching at his head. The sword finally fell from his hand and extinguished the last of his flames. His ears, fangs, and claws remained long though. He wasn't out of the woods yet.

The arte fired off, another Splash aimed at the boy. When it settled, Jade watched him, frowning. So at least he was right to not try to kill the boy. His immediate reaction was to shoot a harsh gust of wind to knock the sword towards himself and away from Rin. When it was close enough, Jade left it on the ground and resummoned his spear. He took a few cautious steps towards him, ready to fight if he still wasn't done.

Yuri paused, frowning at Rin as he cautiously approached. This was good, right? Exchanging worried glances between Rin and Jade, he stopped in front of Rin's sword, ready to kick it away if he needed to.

"Okay, okay. You're all right... you're all right. Mind telling us what the hell caused you to become... well, that?" He was ready to leap back if he had to, if needed.

The water hit him again, soaking the poor boy and leaving steam curls coming off his skin. He didn't continue to fight, though, after his sword had been knocked away. Instead he crumpled to the ground on his side, arms around his stomach as he wheezed weakly. He was in pain, that much was obvious, but their attacks had brought him back down and while he couldn't really find it in himself to voice any sort of gratitude he was thankful for it.

A groan sounded from him then, body curling in to a ball as he tried to hide his dirty, bruised face. His ears slowly started to recede, but even when they were small and normal sized there was still a defined point to them. The tail also didn't fade, but the flaming end had been replaced by a black tuft of fur. He was very obviously not fully human.

"He... killed... my friends..." came the much more normal sounding voice from him after a few moments had passed. It was weak, barely loud enough to be heard, but it lacked the strange echo and the frightening inhuman sounds that it had earlier.

Slowly he looked up again, vivid blue eyes showing not only his physical pain, but the emotional pain as well. Where he looked wasn't at Yuri or Jade, but at something further away. Something back where the flames had started and the park was still attempting to burn.

A body. A masked boy likely no older than Rin himself, stabbed several times and very much dead.

"He killed... Shing... and Kohaku... couldn't... couldn't stop 'im..." his voice cracked then, and a sob wracked his shoulders. "'msorry..."

Jade adjusted his glasses, guard not disappearing though his spear resealed itself to his arm. He watched Rin a moment, kneeling down next to him. He was still ready to retaliate if the boy attacked him.

"I'll move you to my apartment for now and we'll get you healed. You can explain everything after that."

He turned to look at Yuri, standing. "Floor Three, Room one. Just put him on the couch. I'll see if I can help with the fires. If you have any friends who can heal, contact them."

A key was given to Yuri and without giving them room to object or say otherwise, Jade headed off towards the areas that were in the most trouble. Given that the Ikashun Apartments were right there, there was little guess as to where Jade was telling Yuri to go. Letting a stranger into the place wasn't his best plan, but given the circumstances and Yuri showing himself to be at least capable and allied made it better than a random passerby.

"R-right." Yuri responded, frowning as he watched Jade run off in the direction of those particular apartments. Pausing for a minute to look up where they were headed, he then too a few minutes to contact Estelle before grabbing Rin's sword, hooking it to his and then heaving the crying boy onto his shoulders, carrying him.

"Hey. Hey, listen to me... you got nothing to be sorry for." Yuri responded seriously. "It's his fault, not yours. Now stay with me, will you...?" Muttering under his breath, he ran towards the apartments to look for what he supposed was Jade's apartment.

Edited 2012-07-29 08:26 (UTC)

Rin didn't say anything. There were some noises of discomfort as he was picked up and hoisted on to Yuri's back, and a bit of coughing that tasted far too much like copper than was comforting, but words had seemingly escaped the normally noisy and verbal teen.

And of course, he didn't cry often, but any sense of control he'd had over his emotions had gone out the window with his rage induced fit. No further sobs sounded from him, but tears did roll freely down his stained cheeks as he hung limply off Yuri's back.

It hurt to breathe, to move, to even flinch. He wasn't about to die, though this was probably the closest he had felt to it since nearly getting crucified all those months ago. Back home, back at True Cross... at a place that was so distant from him he honestly wondered if it had really been a part of his life.

And it wasn't just the physical pain that was keeping him quiet, either. He kept replaying it all in his head. Their faces, the sounds, the scent of blood, the feel of it on his skin, oh god he couldn't stop seeing it--...

"... gonna... be sick..."

Jade continued on, helping the few others who were out to calm the fires. A decent group had gained by the time the fires were calming. Jade found Kohaku and Shing's bodies amongst the mess, getting a nurse to bring them to the hospital. At least they'd be out of sight of the boy until he recovered, and he'd been told that after time, people could be revived. His thoughts turned sour briefly, but then were distracted by the work.

It took a good hour and a half to fully extinguish all of the flames and clean up most of the issues. No casualties aside from the two, some injuries from civilians who had gotten too close or had been shoved by the rampaging demon. Jade only had the very light burn on his side and even that wasn't even a bother unless he had gotten too close to the fires. For now, Jade wasn't needed, the rest being handled by capable individuals. When he was done, he headed back to the apartments. Heading upstairs and opening the door, Jade looked a little charred and frayed around the edges, but over all none too bad considering the circumstances.

As an automatic reaction. Jade went into the kitchen, moving around before he reappeared with a washcloth for his face.

"Just don't set my living room on fire, if you will." It wasn't necessarily the good Samaritan in Jade that got Yuri to grab the boy, but more or less the "he just wreaked havoc on the city and attacked civilians" bit. He'd rather keep an eye on him rather than have him go on some kind of crazed cycle again.

"Something tells me he's too out of it to stand up, much less set this place alight." Yuri responded flatly as he gestured towards Rin, who was currently on the living room couch. Sighing, he glanced down at himself; he was covered in soot, and looked and smelled slightly singed, but otherwise he was fine save for a few burns on his arms.

Sighing, he glanced towards Jade, the frown on his face deepening as he headed to the window and peered outside. "You find the two he was talking about?" he asked, jerking a thumb back towards the half-demon.

Rin wasn't unconscious, amazingly enough. An arm slung over his tear-stained face, he tried to block out the light from his burning, red eyes, his head pounding long after most of his smaller injuries had healed on their own. His deeper cuts were taking longer to mend (which was weird - he'd had that problem during the first fight with Vanitas) but he wasn't at risk for bleeding out any time soon.

He heard Jade come in, and heard the two speaking, but he didn't say anything. If his eyes had been open and arm not on his face, he would have had a disturbingly blank expression.

They were really dead. Shing and Kohaku... and Vanitas, too... he had taken their lives, but Rin in turn had taken Vanitas'. He had actually killed some one, the one thing everyone had feared for so long that he would do. His friends were dead, and they were going to come back eventually, according to what everyone around the city had said, but he had still snapped and turned in to a monster yet again.

How many other people had he hurt in his rampage? What other damage had he done? Who had seen it... and who now was afraid of him?

Too many questions, not enough answers, and all of it sitting ill in his stomach still. So he just lay there, quiet, blank, hearing them speak and being only vaguely aware that he was surrounded by people he didn't even know and laying in a complete stranger's apartment.

Jade would be impressed with Rin's healing in a moment. For now, his red eyes landed on Yuri and he walked to stand with him.

"Yes, they've been moved to the hospital." He offered a light nod, thoughts prevailing for a moment rather than speaking. Just, after a moment of that, he offered a hand to Yuri.

"Jade Curtiss. My apologies for not introducing myself earlier."

"Yuri Lowell. Don't worry about apologizing, that wasn't the time or place for intros anyway." Really, Yuri has yet to meet anyone crazy enough to introduce themselves while flames were being thrown at him, so it's perfectly understandable.

Taking the hand and shaking it, he nodded gravely at the Colonel and sighed. "So much for this place being peaceful, I guess... I can safely assume they were the only fatalities?"

The teen continued to listen to them talk for a short time, but eventually his arm moved and he squinted at the light in the apartment. His head rolled over, dull gaze landing on the sword still in Yuri's possession. It was strange to see the blade of the Kurikara out without it's trademark flames, though he supposed at some point it had just been a normal demon-slaying blade as it's name once implied. Clearly his power had just... run out, or at the very least fallen victim to exhaustion and blood loss on his end.

He forced himself to sit up, feeling every ache, pain and twinge his body had to offer him. He groaned loudly, holding a hand to his stomach even as he tried and failed to get to his feet.

"... th' case.. did you find the case... ? My sword needs it..."

(ooc: Hold for Estelle arriving!)

{action} Best and worst, all at once. What a first impression.

{action} Second impression might be better after they wake up(?)

{action} so I herd you needed sum backup

{action} hopefully second impressions will be better, yes

{action} You remember those two dudes who kicked your ass? No? Well, we'll be great friends.

{action} I sense a fire-forged friendship about to occur here.

{action} A friendship formed by a no holds barred beatdown? Sounds like anime to me!

{action} They'll be the three best friends that anyone could have

{action} Or those that no one ever asked for -- it's all how you look at it.

{action} Rin never asked for ANY of his friends, but they keep popping up like weeds!

{action} Friendship is a disease

{action} One that has no cure, I might add.

{action} Crap. I'm screwed then. B|

{action} It's terminal.

{action} So sorry, you only have a few hours before you succumb to it...

{action} I blame you for this!

{action} I plead the fifth

{action} you have no evidence *stole it all*

{action} both of you B|

{action} Friendship is starting to sound like a vicious STD

{action} It takes no prisoners.

{action} /sob/ I'm doomed...

{action} How unfortunate

{action} Oh, well, too bad... it can't be helped...

{action} Fine fine I'll give in to this... friendship...

{action} you have no evidence stole it all