Tag: ic post

On By malicoreLeave a comment

[Reader Warning:]

|| Themes of character mental instability and nightmares are involved || 

[Hence title]

———-

Chittering.
Infestations..
The swarming stings..

The hallowed horrid buzzing, the chomping of maws, the irritable hum of fluttering wings.. the wrapping of tentacles, slinking of flesh and crack of bones as they twisted beyond bend. Sounds of rancor filled her ears as her mind was assaulted with the twisted thoughts and black water. A chiding of voices not belonging to her own in restless slumber caused the woman to toss and turn beneath silken sheets. Slowly her eye pried itself open, her body pulling itself up out of the warmth of the bed to sit on the edge of it.

It was quiet, and yet, her mind in a clamor of disarray, the only other sound in the darkened bed room were the gentle purrs of her partner. Their prosthetic metal tail wrapping around her arm in the gentle silence. A silent calm help for the weary and restless. Bella lay still for but a moment before shifting again, trying to push her thoughts away, to try and fall back asleep.

The cold unpolished wood floor could be felt along the soles of her feet as she pulled away from the safety to linger on into the darkness. Shifting through the shadows, her hand slowly found a door knob. It’s idle kiss of cold metal found itself pressed against her fingertips as she turned it, the lock knocking back as the door were pulled open to an even darker hallway.

Voices echoed through Haven’s halls, unintelligible whispers just out of range. The warmth of their words lingering just behind her ears. Their waves of breath puffing against nervous skin. As the wayward woman seemingly aimlessly crept through the dark hallway, shadows gave way to a bitterly dim silver glow that weaved its way through white drapes behind glass windows.

The further she moved, the longer the hallway seemed to stretch. The windows lining every other space yet still leaving the dim light in their places. Whispers turned to growls, the growls to snarls as puffs of breath at her ears turned to heavy pants that trailed down the back of her neck. Voices every manner of them echoed in different volumes, all a cacophony and ill-boding symphony of one singular word…

“RUN”

“̀R̡un. ͘R͢U̸N.͏ ̸RUN͟ MO̸ŖE͠! Run f͏a͡s͞t̨er͜! I̸t’̡s beh̴in͞d͘ y͜ou.҉ It’s aĺm̀os͝t her̛e͞! It̸’s ́here̴! Įt’̴s ͝h̷er̵e. ͘I’m͏ ̀he͞ré! RUN͡ ̵F͏AST̀ȨR̶.̸ ̀WE’ŖE ͟RIGH͜T ҉BE͘HÌND̶ YOU̕~"͠

"͢Why d͢o͡n’t̀ ̶ýou͘ j́oin u͝s̢?͢!̷ ҉W͘ḩy̢ d͡o͘n͠’̛t y͟ou͘ ̵w̨a҉n̨t us?̧!͠!? We ͡c̕a̛n ͘b҉e w̵h҉ol͜e̛ ̀a̡g͜a͟in!!҉!!!!̡!͢!"͞

The voices were yelling, screeching, cascading behind her as she raced down the hall. Beads of sweat rolling down her face as her heart thundered in her chest. The heat of their breath was ever relentless as it brushed down her back. Claws and fleshy tendrils thumped and chased after her, scratching and thudding just only moments behind. Hurried footsteps clamored down the elongating hallway as the elezen finally let out a panicked cry.

With every blink of her eye, wipe of sweat from her brow, things around her changed. The wood and stone walls turned to metal sheets. The silver ghost lights from the windows turned to hues of red and blue as the bubbling of the ocean floor surrounded her. Haven… safe and warm was now Whisper Ridge… cold and dark… alone. The only thing left were the door at the far end of the hall.

As she reached out with a leap ahead her fingertips just out of reach of the door knob to her home, the black claws and flesh of death wrapped around her sight, holding her there as it started to eat away, to cover her body up and pull her into the open dark that lingered behind her.

Bella could only muster up a choked up scream as her hand frantically reached out for the low iridescent light. The echoing laughter and whispered rushing… assaulting her mind as the colors of this dim existence grew black and dark till suddenly a breath of air hits her lungs. Her eye shoots open as she sits up in a panic, heart racing at breakneck pace.

There was a cold sweat along her body, silken bed sheets covering up her and her partner still some. Trembling and on the brink of weeping, she sat there, a face in hand, trying to force herself quiet again. It wasn’t working. Slowly now, her partner reached over, it were different, a hingan’s hand placing it atop of Bella’s and squeezing firmly.

The elezen turned some to see her, the woman of raven black and snow white locks laying in the bed next to her. An ageless smile coming to the sleepy hyur’s lips as she whispered something in her foreign tongue.

"Another one?”

With a saddened gulp, Bella sniffled before gently lowering herself back down, the warmth of her partner reaching her against the cold mattress and sheets in the late, late evening. This wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last. Nightmares… whispers… horrid thoughts plagued her every night, endlessly, and relentlessly, yet no one knew save for those who shared her bed. From one heart to the next, one lost, another found, they would know she suffered but never knew the cause.

Slowly she drifted back to sleep. Another long set of nights pass, and through it all, the nightmares never ceased. The weeks go by, and then night terrors continue, the whispers getting louder, the thoughts getting worse… fear of loss turned to outrage and possession… The dream whispers get harder to differentiate from reality as the days change…

————————————–

One night, and with a low growl, the elezen huffed in her sleep.

“̨Th͢ey̵ ̨çan͢’̡t͡ h͠av͜e i̧t͝. ̵The͟y͡ w͢o̧n’t̶ ͟h̨a͝ve it. Ǹo ͏on̶e̴ wil̴l h̸av͘e ̕it͠.́ It’s ͝m̀in̵e͝.͘ ̴I͝t̢’̷s mi͡n͢e̡..͟. It̸’s͠ MI̢NE҉,̷ ͟it̴’s ͘ALW̡A͢YS̕ b͜ee̕n͘ ̀miǹe.̵ Not͢hinģ w̢ill ̧b̵e ̵t͡ak̨en͢.͢ T̕hey҉ w̶on’́t ͜t҉a̢ke it.͢ ͞T̀hey ́CAN̸’T take̛ ̧i͡t.҉.͡. ̷"̸ Whispers in the dark turned to yells as they cascaded across the dreamscape.

Their voices raising higher and higher as her heart raced again. The elezen’s eye shooting open once again, just as the nights before now. She were in bed with her partner again, her face buried in raven and snow white locks. It was quiet again, the idle crackle of a hearth filling the air solely. Bella moved to press a soft kiss to the woman’s head beside her before pulling away gently. Slowly she scooted herself to the edge of the bed, sitting up right.

The cold unpolished wood floor could be felt along the soles of her feet as she pulled away from the safety to linger on into the darkness. Shifting through the shadows, her hand slowly found a door knob. It’s idle kiss of cold metal found itself pressed against her fingertips as she turned it, the lock knocking back as the door were pulled open to an even darker hallway.  

Voices echoed through Haven’s halls, unintelligible whispers just out of range. The warmth of their words lingering just behind her ears. Their waves of breath puffing against nervous skin. As the wayward woman seemingly aimlessly crept through the dark hallway, shadows gave way to a bitterly dim silver glow that weaved its way through white drapes behind glass windows.

”Mine.. Run… It’s mine. RUN FASTER..! It’s always been mine. Run away with it… Hide it! They can’t take it. No. NO. They won’t take it… We can become whole with it…“

As she reached the door at the end of the hall, her hand pressed against it’s knob before reaching for a secondary panel on the side. Red numbers and sigils glowing on the combination dial as she turned it quietly to the left, the right, and left again. Those symbols pulsing blue as she moved to the knob and pushed.

Walking through the dark entry way, she found herself no longer in the safety of Haven, but out at sea now. The washing of The Bounty’s waves below echoed out against the large metal foundation of the platform she stood upon. It was dark out, the sky filled with millions upon billions of twinkling lights that reflected on the shimmering ocean.

This was her lab, a place just for herself. Few knew of it, fewer knew how to reach it. Through metal door after metal door, she walked through the empty facility, going lower and lower till she reached a small lift. The elevator lowering itself past the deepest point of the facility to go even further below… The Ocean floor.

Blips of light dotted the sandy sea bed, indicating where small buildings were, connected by hallway tubes. The trip itself was quick, even for such a long distance between the surface and here. The lift stopped at a welcoming station, the facility still ever empty. Empty… save for one voice.

"Greetings User Belladonna! It is I, S-1-E-R-A, Siera. It has been approximately four days, twelve bells and thirty-two ticks since you last visited this outpost. Would you like an status update on containment?”

The elezen stepped forward with a small frown, her head giving a firm nod.

“Very well. Your ‘gift’ is still in containment. All systems nominal. Would you like to see it?”

As the Allagan node poised its question, the door leading onward into the rest of her facility opened up to reveal the singular hallway that connected to containment. Without hesitation, Bella raced through the entryway. The voices still lingering in her mind and in the hallway now too… Her voice coarse and growling.

“They won’t take it. They can’t have it. It’s mine. Run… Running.. It’s MINE. My tek… my home.. mine. ALL OF IT…. Mine.”

Slowly her voice went silent as she reached the next room. It was a medium sized metal room, spotlights gently washing over a center table, and on the table sat a small opened parcel, it’s wrappings of black still housing the box.

There, on satin cushions sat a small glass bottle. Within the box itself, in crisp and perfect detail, sits a little scene. Wide expanses of rolling farmlands nestle a house, and around it the tiny movements of magicked farm animals grazing and running and playing can be seen all frolicking around a picturesque little farm, a home Bella knew ever so intimately that the details within it were impossibly accurate.

Belladonna’s voice was nothing now, her hurried and panicked expressions from before were muted to a smile as she rested against a railing that overlooked the table and bottle.

“…No one will take it..”

“No one.”

On By malicoreLeave a comment

Don’t leave me lost here forever…

Tell me… please
just tell me to stay… (say something)..
I’ll turn..
I won’t look away..
I’ll stay here..

Farewell..
Farewell and godspeed…
Light years (now)..
between you and me..
I’m fading..

At night the earth will rise..
and I’ll think of you each time I watch from distant skies…

Whenever stars go down and galaxies ignite
I’ll think of you each time they wash me in their light
And I’d fall in love with you again…
I will find you..

A thousand armies won’t stop me I’d break through…
I’d soar the endless skies for only one sight of your starlight..

Don’t leave me lost here forever…

Show me your starlight and pull me through
Don’t leave me lost here forever…
I needed your starlight to pull me through…

Please… Don’t leave me lost here forever…

The rain came as but a mere dreary drizzle along the late night’s air. Idle crickets and cold breezes brushing through the trees were all that accompanied the whimpers and claw etches of her chocobo.


Not a soul nor light to be seen save for the distant starlight and the horizon’s glow of blue aetheryte many miles down the road… It was a lonely road. Lonelier still as she were left alone now…


Just as she always had been….


“Farewell… and goodbye… my Starlight.”

| @lilyverlial | 

Destiny’s Reflection

On By malicoreLeave a comment

|| Mentions: @lilyverlial

Peace and quiet. 

Something that everyone wants but never got. Something most souls strive for in the end. Well… one could hope that they do. Simple thoughts for not so simple people. Noble thoughts for a not so noble people. But one could always be respected for dreaming of that. No? Especially in this world of living gods and monsters.

Those were things always fought for by the average man, by the average adventurer. Some would fight and be remembered, others would only fight and fall into obscurity, forgotten by time, lost without meaning. And then there were some that would fight just to survive. Those of the absolute former were always against the world, or rather, the world was against them.

For the Rangers of Gisana. they saw their lives like this. The world’s gnarled and fanged maw agape, simple waiting for them to fall into that bloodied darkness. Belladonna saw it better than anyone. She knew that darkness waiting for them, saw it first hand, greeted it with a cry as a young girl. Some would see her as the one woman who has done it all, seen it all and still fights.

Were one to ask exactly why she still fights against those impossible odds, she, once upon a time might have said that her reason was lost long ago to the annals of time and that this life was all that she knew.

But so many could simply say the same in that regard. That this life of war was all that they had left. And Bella, even as she sits still on an open windowsill looking out to the Thavnairian island city of Gisana, reflecting on it all, she herself would know a different answer to that question.

As the midnight stars twinkled high above the rolling and seemingly endless horizon beyond the island’s beaches, Bella, as she sat there would feel her answer. For there, in her arms was a gentle shift. Her loving partner rested ever so quietly, nestled into her arms. Her magitech tail flicking idly in the air from side to side every so often as she she slept.

The elezen’s one eye drifted from the star side horizon to look at her partner with a soft smile. Her arms gently pulling the sleeping miqote closer into her fold. A gentle pair of lips press themselves atop Lily’s head. The woman’s ears twitching in their sleep as the shade of a smile shifted onto her face ever so slightly.

Now, were someone to ask why she fights ever onward, even after everything she has done, after everything you could have learned that she has been through. The Last blue Ranger would simply smile and gesture to the woman that slept so calmly in her arms.

The Ranger had found someone again. Someone she truly felt for. Perhaps it wasn’t so clear to her before, perhaps it was. That this woman, Lily, was someone that destiny had saw fit to bring forth and entwine their fates. the thoughts of her flicked through her mind, racing at lightning pace as the memories of why they were here, in Thavnair and not in Eorzea came rushing back.

The Fear. The Worry. The Ache. Lily’s curse, once thought buried for good had come again. It had surfaced and struck a fear into the miqote’s heart that was once thought quelled. Belladonna’s arms tightened around Lily like a blanket as the thoughts and memories of simply hours ago came flooding back.

Her reason to fight, then and there came very clear. To fight for Her happiness, Her Smile, Her laugh, and Her love. To see that fear creep onto her partner’s face brought pain, it brought a sweeping devastation that struck harder than any hammer could.

That reason. Something so simple in contrast for the woman who has seen it all and done it all. But it was something so clear to her, something that she could see right then and there, here and now as she thought back on it all. It was something from the watery reflection of the stars forever in the sky. 

For her, this was Destiny’s reflection.

The Cursed Barer.

On By malicoreLeave a comment

lilyverlial:

Mentions: @its-morphin-time-xiv

It was a late night in the lane, in Ul’dah, Lily was retrieving a package Belladonna had asked her to grab on her way home from the Network Headquarters. It seemed like quite the quiet night.

The seeker kept on her way towards the aetheryte to teleport her way home. Though something stoppes. Her dead in her tracks. Her, and a chill when up her spine.

As she turned around she saw a portal open up with a figure in a black robe with a hood obscuring their face. “My… Young Illya, its been quite a long time…. How fairs my dear sister? Your mother.”

Lily’s ears had pinned back as she took a step back. “She’s dead…. Has been for many years, though I that you dead for many years uncle, Nerrick….” She said lowly, her body was tense and she was ready for just about anything.

He had a twisted grin on his face as he lowered the hood to show his grotesque face. Most of his features no longer his own. Most were twisted and mutated to look much like a voidsent, blackened scales adorned his face as well as horns. “Come my dear niece, we wish to merely give you the power you crave, that mark has such limitless potential to give…” He said outstretching his hand.

Though Lily stepped back as he did so. She held the parcel closely to her as she began to take off into a sprint though as she turned around, there he was right in front of her.

Swiftly before she could react his hand shot out wrapping his claws around her neck, slowly lifting her, off the ground. She felt his tight grip squeezing around her neck as she tried to breath.

Lily had dropped the parcel as she hands shot up to his trying to pry away his fingers. She looked down to him with fear and hatred in her eyes.

Though Nerrick brought his face close to hers. “Now, now dear Illya… I’ve merely come to give you a gift, and reminder that soon… Her come, with us in tow.” Her said with that grin tugging at his lips. His eyes glowed with that odd golden sheen that could be seen in Lily’s own left eye. “Now please enjoy your friendly reminder.” He cackled.

Lily’s eyes had gone wide as she felt it, that burning feeling when the mark first formed on her eye. She quickly kicked and lashed at him, her foot planted in the centre of his chest forcing Nerrick to let go.

Lily had fallen to the ground writhing and screaming as her hand was brought up to her eye. She felt as if her eye was melting out of her skull as she screamed in pure agony.

Nerrick had vanished into a portal with a few last words. “He comes! And when its time you will not deny him his prize!” He said cackling as he had vanished from the lane entirely, his voice echoing until it had faded into the silence of the night.

The seeker continued to scream in pain, Though she felt something rolling down the side of her face, something slick. Blood had been rolling down her cheek from her accursed eye.

The pain started to dull, though it had still rocked Lily to her very core. She moved to grab the parcel, and moved her hand to her morpher. She quickly clicked on the communications and said a few words. “Bell…. Help….” Was all she could choke out in her pain before the device clicked off.

The seeker left on the cold brick of the lane whimpering and curled up around the parcel that she swore to deliver home, to Bella.

Though right now she had been left laying on the ground in the cold air of the night.

On By malicoreLeave a comment

Jamais, n’oublie pas
Conduite par une étoile
Jamais, n’oublie pas
I promise where you are
Un point dans l’univers
It’s a love that’s everywhere
Jamais n’oublie pas
C’est moi…

– “We’re something I’ll never forget.”

“No matter what happens, no matter where we are… we’ll take on this star together..” 
– “You and Me.” 
“Me and You.”
– “Rangers together, Lovers forever..”

| The fantastic U’illya Verlial belongs to @lilyverlial ! | They’re TOO cute! UGH.

On By malicoreLeave a comment

[!] When The Bill Comes Due ==>

I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..
And I fear no evil ‘cause I’m blind to it all..
And my mind, my gun they comfort me..
Because I know I’ll kill my enemies when them come….

“Hushhh, rest now.”

“Rest now… and Sleeeep…”

image

That was all a voice echoed to her through a warble and chorus of running water through one’s vocal chords. The raking sound of chain links rattling as they were pulled away clanked into the air as a thunderous rancor of a rolling storm overhead began to pour onto singed soil.

The thick scent of scorched earth and muggy swamp filled the air as wisps of ethereal blue smoke floated past rotten smiling lips. Blue and blackened eyes stared down at the wake of chaos they had wrought upon the earth nearby. With every flash of passing lightning, the scene itself turned eve more grizzly.

Each flash revealed just how much had been done more and more. A woman in Blue armor lay limp, partially embedded onto the rock hard ground, partially smoldering. Her chest gentle moved up and down, the tell tale sign that she were still alive, that she were still breathing…

The air itself seemed uneasy, feeling as if the currents of wind and water fluctuated, churning like a hurricane’s waters above the scene. Only what seemed like fleeting seconds before was the air ever still, the calm before the brewing storm that had wrought itself onto the land so quickly from the eastern ridges.

With the thunder booming, causing the earth to tremble and shudder, Bella’s daze centered and wavered just enough to hear the echoes of her memory however foggy from just seemingly seconds before chaos tossed the land asunder.

image

The voice of the Creator echoed in her mind as flashes of lightning bring her back to still sands and cold ground just moments before. Thumps of footsteps through darkened caves and crystalline floors as the pair of them traveled through the darkness to emerge from the earth’s depths. As they reached open air, one could easily taste the sea salt and spray that unnaturally lingered within darkened midday shadows.

“The air wreaks of contempt and of the Dead Sea. Investigate, Belladonna. I will take the Crystal to the lab. I fear for the storm that is brewing on the horizon.”

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
And I will dwell on this earth for ever more.
Said I walk beside the still waters and they restore my soul.
But I can’t walk on the path of the right because I’m wrong.

Green bolts of static shoot across the floor and course along his body to extend from his fingertips as they jolt forward, his hand outstretched. Collectively, they gather to form a tall green shimmering doorway that only he could step through. Warping electricity sounds through the air as the man disappears behind the dissolving door, leaving Belladonna alone with the shadows along eastern mesas and aged mires.

With a held breath, Bella kept her one eye searching for anything as she followed unholy sounds and scents through the bog and mire nearby only to be lead to nowhere. Along waterlogged ground, bubbles began to form and pop, seemingly to follow every step she made. A stinging tinge of fear crept up along her spine as the spikes stuck out, rattling in distaste to the situation.

“Welcome to the Depths…” A voice spoke from below as the bubbles began to collect and grow.

Before she knew it, the screech of boiling air being carved in-twain made itself known as a pulse of blue and purple shoot through the foggy mire, soaring just shy of the woman’s head. The bolt itself collides with the ground behind her, igniting the waters and earth as the smoke billowed all too quickly into the air to shroud the already dark earth with a seemingly pitch black sea-scented smog.

image

|Ranger… Ready!| “…. Henshin!” |Go-Go Mighty-Mighty Blue!|

The hyur’s voice called out to darkened skies with panic and fear lingering lightly along her tone as the sounds of armor forming and locking along her body clank and clash to create her suit. She hadn’t even thought to Morph, her heart weak as ever still pounded with the force of a million drums as her head turned to face the source of the first attack. But she were too late, the screech of another purple hued bolt careened through the air to collide with her helmet-half formed.

image

The weight of the impact sent her flying to the ground as two… three… four… five more bolts of both purple and blue hues collide with her armored body. Each strike splashed and washed against the earth, soaking the dirt with scent of the sea. The force of each hit darkened her vision as it blurred and faded. The concussive waves far too strong for even her. All she could hear in the fading light was the warbled laughter of The Dead Man.

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“Drink it in… Ranger.”

“Drink it all in… Every last drop. For every last soul you abandoned…”

“Every last soul you damned with your so called… "heroics”…“

As Bella laid there in her half-coherent mangle of a body, her mind faded again and again. Each word spoken to her, an echoing darkness that haunted her as the young Ranger she used to be was brought back to her now… a dark reminder that she wasn’t one to belong onto the title of a "Hero”.

“Shhh shhh shhhh….”

“Sleeeep…. Sink into the darkness.”

“Let that Hex you’ve had strain your body… take hold..”

“And when you wake…?”

“Ahahahaha….A new woman to be brought into the depths…”

Her mind was swimming in the sea of a million memories as she raced to find which ones fit with the voice she heard. Trickles and traces of fading existence passed through her mind before her mind went black again. Succumbing to the strain and concussive strikes that had struck her again and again. The strength of each strike against separate parts of her strained her senses. The Pearls she had in her ear going dark from the shear weight of it all as her body grew still from the numbing strength.

She was stuck, immobile in a trap that she had no way out of…

Perfect.

She were His prey now… And yet… The man who spoke, despite his voice of darkened drownings and strength of the churning sea… He only had words… so it seemed.

“Well You know who I am… Ranger.”

“And soon… your new Rangers will know…”

“They will know… When you wake, that the Butcher’s Bill….”

image

“Always.”
“Comes.”
“Due.”

image

No I can’t walk…

On the path of the right.


‘Cause I’m wrong….


image

[!] Unexpected ==>

On By malicoreLeave a comment

[!] Unexpected ==> 

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

image

The tappings of late spring rain on a large floor to ceiling glass window were all that filled the Ranger’s workshop. Not even the thrum of magitek engines and turbines were enough to fill the eerily quiet space. Dull grey moonlight poured through the raindrops as the storm rolled over the farm. 

It hadn’t even been four bells since the Incident. An accident, an unexpected result to an otherwise already untrustworthy attempt at catching demons. 

“What a mistake…” 

The mutant’s words were but a low huff and whisper as her one eye looked up to the dreary sky. Her lone seat creaking as she shifted her weight. Her heart shuddered beneath her heavy thoughts, mind adrift in the maelstrom of lost causes and troubled outcomes. 

They won… did they not? They captured the succubus, that was the goal. That was why they lured her out from the darkness of the la noscean jungle, in an attempt to bring some manner of peace to the locals and visitors as well as pursue their own wants and needs as a Ranger.

Thanks to lady Sariel’s assistance, they had captured a succubus. A second addition to the already present collection of colorful demons. Their containment coffers stowed away behind wards of the Original Ranger Corps’ design as well as her own. Locked away behind iron and adamantite vault doors and sealed magitek gates for extra protection. 

A Ranger’s work always involved the Darkness™, it was always intending to be dangerous, chaotic work with unpredictable outcomes. Yet… this… This she should have seen coming. How much of a stupid fool, how much more of a bloodied rookie waiting to plunge into death could she have been? The longest standing and remaining Ranger, last of her generation, last of her Corps and yet… she made this mistake? 

What an idiot. 

Belladonna’s thoughts kept drifting to hours before, during the summoning.. during the capturing. The Black Ranger, while effective was too slow to hinder the succubus containable. Blackened daggers and shadows proving slow and unpracticed against a voidsent from a tier of her magnitude. Ambition clouding proper judgement… rookie mistakes…

Rookie mistakes leading to unpredictable outcomes. 

By the time anyone had realized what had happened, the succubus had already sought to posses her, cursing her or fixing her. Claiming the little hyur’s body for her own means and ends. A dreadful existence. And yet… It was not to be. 

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The demon… the voidsent she’s bound to… had other ideas.

You see, once a Ranger chooses this as their path. One must cast aside fear, and take unto their enemy as their enemy takes unto them. Essences of demons are taken, extracted and used… Binding to the user, to the Ranger through the magitek Morpher and use of special aetheric and arcane seals. Each one binding the essence to it’s user in the goal of co-existence in an limited range of the Ranger’s body. 

Were the Ranger to become ill, the demon bound would move to cleanse their body of the pathogen, healing their sickness, keeping their health. For one can not exist without the other. And both ‘souls’ both essences, the Ranger’s and the Demon’s strive to live. Strive to co-exist. 

A rare anomaly.

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It was a tie that binds Belladonna and her demon that kept the succubus from gaining full control… and yet.. Even with Bella safe, all would not be left untouched. The demoness, as it were had already done her work, altering the hyur to her liking, changing her enough to be a fitting host. A fitting slave.

Slowly now, Belladonna rises out of her chair. Her arms extending as her hand reaches and presses against the cold glass. In the dim light, she could see herself there, like a mirror. Only darkened greys mixing with the reflection of magitek monitors in the background reading inconclusive numbers and unpredictable outcomes. 

The hyur’s skin in the light could still be seen as the patchwork for what it was. An uneven body, strands of musculature visible along her biceps and parts of her shoulders through the paper thin and transleucent skin while other parts were thicker, ‘normal’ yet darker… seemingly permanent variations of bruises from the wear and tear through the passage of time and unhealed injuries. 

Scars scattered along her body, her skin showing impressions of light and dark over her form where bullets, blades and debris had pierced and punctured. The scars despite everything seemed like accents to the ink that adorned her. The black ink itself in designs of the ancient and arcane, a trained eye could tell they were sigils… seals. 

Beyond such knowledge, they simply looked like intensive art, ornate and unique. 

Belladonna’s frame in the reflection was noticeably larger… taller. More built than how frail and pitiful she had looked before. Her facial features looked more refined, something akin but not quite how she looked prior to her mutation*. 

[* See the Whisper Ridge Chapters for mutation context ]

This outcome was… more close to how she looked, were her smaller form to have aged… if it could’ve at all. But now… she was this… an unexpected outcome… through careless mistakes..

How… Unexpected…


-H.M.

Powerless.

On By malicoreLeave a comment

[!] Powerless [!] Audio Diary Entry: AD – 45 [!]

|| Mentions & Involvement || @lilyverlial @the-faceless-ffxiv

“It hurts.”


“It hurts you know?”


“Being powerless.”

“I don’t mean.. without power.. I don’t mean being without a Morpher, or some.. special affinity to Aether…”


“I mean… being there… watching someone you care about suffer, someone you love be hurt, suffering from something that you can’t stop.”


“And so… you just sit there, powerless. Helpless as your loved one clings to your fingers for dear life. As their tears from the hurting pain trickle down their cheeks.”


“It hurts me too.”


“For bells I’ve sat here, at her bedside, locked away in my armor. Locked away so I wouldn’t be susceptible to… to this Plague.”

“Wear masks! Wear masks!” They say, and so I do… this contagion hurts, and so I remain in this suit… in this suit of armor as my loved one suffers not even fulms away from me. I sit here.. her hand in mine as she churns… as she remains ill.”

“And I am powerless to help her.”

“Yet even as she hurts… even as she suffers… even as we’re powerless, those that have looked her over.. see something. Something odd that others do not have… something about her that is different.”

“Her Aether.”

“They say it swirls like a hurricane, churning… changing.. centering around one point on her body.. The Morpher I had given her. They say in hushed whispers that her Aether churns there, going through the device like a filter over and over… cleansing itself.”

“Yet that isn’t enough for her to be well, she still hurts… She still suffers.. She’s still sick.”

“And I am powerless to help her, powerless to save her.”

“But I promised to remain here in the clinic and the regions nearby, so I could arrive in a moment’s notice..”

“Still though, as I work with the others on this… contagion.. I can’t help but just think of the Morpher and what it’s doing… ‘Course I then sometimes forget that us Rangers are operating a little differently.. Maybe its the essence she’s bound to… maybe not..”

“Suppose I could ask my own…”

“Maybe then I won’t feel just so powerless…”

Salvation… And Goodbye.

On By malicoreLeave a comment

“I am… dislocated from Aldenard currently. Apologies, Nam…”

– “I’ll pull you aside when you get back. Be safe, Bella.”

I’m sorry I can’t be there…

I’m sorry I haven’t been there.

I should’ve been…

I’m so sorry.

|| Mentions and involvement stemmed by: @the-faceless-ffxiv , @enambris ||

[Mood]

Thunder rolls across ebony and star-crossed skies as distant lightning flashes across the horizon. A sickly warm breeze billows past untouched fields of grass before meeting a lone figure along the edge of a cliff. The figure was small, a hyur no less. Fingers tangling through their messy braid of hair, hand gripping tightly as the other gripped tight the loose strands of a broken bracelet. The wind gently dancing with thee frayed edges, lightly howling against the hollow charms. Small yet worn out letters and symbols were etched onto stone and shell beads.

The hyur’s head was held low, her chin pointing up towards the gloomy horizons as the setting sun began to shy away into fields of gray. The spikes of a bloodied mutation stuck out of her spine, twitching in the air behind her quietly. The distant rain and billowing wind painting ivory and ornate carvings with a graying wetness. One lone eye of foggied amethyst hues began to dim and dull as words repeated in her mind.

Words of the whispers. 

Bella’s mind crossed over her reaction, how she responded to the words. The whispers of salvation… Promises for the pain to stop. The memories of hearing such promises decades before called out to her aching bones and shuddering heart. Almost thirty years have passed since the end. An end that was brought about by someone listening to Whispers from the dark, whispers of the very same salvation… promises for the very same pain to stop. She despite the ages, could remember it clearly… So very clearly. The hand around the broken bracelet tightened a bit more as jaws clenched, flashing her teeth in anger.

“León.”

A name so hated, yet one so loved. One that she trusted with her heart… once… and forever. Bella’s mind drifts once more back to that day. Back to how she was told by him and him alone that the whispers of the dark were “true”. Back to how betrayed she felt, listening to the man she loved turn fanatical, turn into something she didn’t recognize. Back to how the Ranger Corps that day, fell and never stood back up. Back to how one lone being, so loved and so trusted accepted a promise of salvation… and back to how devastation lay in its wake.

The cruel warmth of salted tears brimmed over her only eye, trailing down her right cheek before falling, gently dampening the earth beneath her boots. A choked sob escaped her lips as the hand tangled in her hair race to clutch at her chest. Her knees begging to buckle as those whispers from beyond ate away at her, dredging back up all the grief, anger and pain she had ever endured.

“Look at you.” A voice growled from behind.

“Are you to tell me this is how weak you’ve become…?” The voice was low, gravely and deep. A suit of red armor stood behind Belladonna, the burning mongrel’s iron gaze cast down onto her. Their arms crossed as the wind howled against the bladed forearms and head. “Decades pass, you change and grew… yet somehow you’re still the same girl as you were then.”

“Now tell me, Bell. Before I kill you.”

“Why did you summon me here?” The man’s hands were stationed at his sides, beneath the fold of their arms as he waited. Despite the roughness of his words and his voice, he seemed to be content with waiting for the little hyur to respond.

While the world waited with bated breath, Bella began to clench both of her fists. She was steeling her nerves as she fought to speak the words that would come to mind, attempting to give reasoning to why she called forth her traitor.

“Do you… still think about back then…?” Her voice came out slowly, unsteady and pained. Her tone was choked as she fought to keep herself speaking.

The red armor shifted, letting out a low growl in response. “What do you mean?”

“Us.” She returned plainly. Her voice low and curt as she gripped the bracelet in her hand, letting some of it dangle in the air at her side. “I do.. Sometimes I think about how we used to be inseparable.. what you meant to me.. to each other.”

There was a low growl from mongrel’s helm, their jaw tightening in a slow broiling anger.

“And then now… I think about the times after. How things changed.. About… a-about how.. you gave in to the dark.. and brought everyone down with you..”

“And how… we never said goodbye.” Bella’s tone dropped, her voice breaking as she bit back her own struggling tears. The little hyur’s heart shuddering, trembling beneath the oncoming storm and weight of fate on her heart. She was quiet now, unable to find any other words to speak. Her hand lifting up the bracelet slowly to show it to the man at her back.

The Mongrel mused quietly a hand lifting to meet Bella’s. Iron-clad fingers running along a barren and bruised hand before moving to take part of the bracelet into his grasp. “This… this is the one I gave you, isn’t it?”

The little Ranger didn’t respond, her head turning to see the Mongrel’s helmet. Her expression softening, hurting in silence. She could only offer a small nod to the man before looking back to the horizon as flashes of lightning cascade along darkening storm clouds beyond the ocean’s horizon.

“So that’s why then…” He croaked, giving an audible nod as the armor shifted along his person. “To say goodbye.” León wore a small smile beneath the forever daunting tooth-filled grin his helmet carried. Despite how fate had set these once lovers astray, something drew them closer again, decades apart only to be together for seconds. Suited arms moved to wrap around the little hyur as an armored head rested atop her shoulder. The embrace lasted for what seemed like fleeting seconds. It was a cold one, the gentle fall of evening rain coating the already cool armor in a bitter chill against the uneasy warmth of the breeze.

Bella seemed to feel at ease, an odd feeling… a missed feeling. Something regardless of how many lovers she could ever have… it’d never be the first.. But yet it was something had so very, very long ago. It was time to move on… Despite all the pain it had brought, all the foulest of foul memories it gave, it was time… Lest the whispers she had been given be something she take.. and history repeats.

“This shall be the last then, my dear..”

It was quick, the piercing hiss of a blade being drawn. Before she could recognize the sound, the kiss of ringing steel plunges into her, drawing out a strained whine. In reaction, her body and spikes began to tremble as the Mongrel moved a hand, digging his blade in, driving it deeper into her. Despite not being able to feel the pain, the *notion* of having it run through her sent ill feelings through her mind. Bella grit her teeth as her grip on the bracelet loosened, allowing León to yank it out of her grasp.

“Despite everything you’ve done… Blue never suited you. You were never meant to be a Ranger. Just a hapless tragedy. But it’s over now.”

The world was silent, the shock of it all coursing through the air. León brought his hand to Bella’s shoulder, the other gripping his dagger tight before giving one last push inward only to rip it out of her back. The remnants of a grim-dark smile beneath the helm seemingly resonating as splatters of crimson stain the teeth of his traitorous mask. Even as thunder rolled across the sky, cascading like a hail of cannon fire, the audible choke of Bella’s voice could still be heard amidst that and the rustle of the fields beside the cliff.

With a gentle nudge, the Mongrel pushes Bella down. Letting her body collapse on its own as he stowed his bloodied knife away. His other hand moved to clip the bracelet onto the breastplate of his armor, wearing it like a pride-filled medal. León began to turn away, walking the same way he came in silence, as he left little Belladonna on the ground twitching.

“Goodbye, Belladonna.”

“You were always a disappointment.”

Belladonna let her eye flutter to a close as tears mixed with the falling rain. Clothes soaking crimson now washing it away. She could see herself collapse to the ground as León walked away. He didn’t even pause to look behind him as she lay on stained dirt. Yet even as the world grew cold and dull, the words of whispers echoed once more. Those painful memories threatening to surface again as her body and mind fought for a way out, causing the offer of those whispers to come to bear.

To let them show her reprieve, to let them be her savior…

The little Ranger’s body was numb, More so than the usual. Those thoughts repeating in her mind over and over as her hourglass began to trickle out of time. The offer of the whispers eating at her as the anger she felt towards them floated to the surface.

“N-no.” She spat to open air, her breathing at a pitiful quiver.

Her mind clearing from the haze of deathly repetition. She came here to say goodbye, to move on from her lingering darkness. Not to give in to it. This is not where she had set out to die..

Only to say goodbye.

As she lay on the stained grass, her vision skewed to the side. Her hand slowly dragged across the ground towards her right wrist. Fingers outstretched to shakily reach for her communicator. The world was growing darker as she neared her point, the more she fought to signal, the dimmer the light got as it faded away. Bell’s heart thundered with the beat of a drum, rivaling the rolling thunder overhead.

Tired fingers traced along the beaten surface of the device on he right wrist, sliding along its casing to find the one button she needed. The bump of outcropping for the button brushed along her fingertips before she pressed it down as much as she could. The gem atop the device pulsing a gentle red hue of light before her vision faded away to give into the inky nothingness that crept in…

…She had become her own salvation…

On By malicoreLeave a comment

I’m trying to hold my breath
Let it stay this way
Can’t let this moment end
You set off a dream with me
Getting louder now
Can you hear it echoing?
Take my hand
Will you share this with me?
‘Cause darling without you

All the shine of a thousand spotlights
All the stars we steal from the nightsky
Will never be enough
Never be enough
Towers of gold are still too little
These hands could hold the world but it’ll
Never be enough
Never be enough…

“Belladonna… I love you… Please don’t ever leave my side..”

“I promise I never will… I promise with all my heart I never will… U’illya.”

| @lilyverlial |