The X-men run missions and work together with the NYPD, striving to maintain a peaceful balance between humans and mutants. When it comes to a fight, they won't back down from protecting those who need their help.
Haven presents itself as a humanitarian organization for activists, leaders, and high society, yet mutants are the secret leaders working to protect and serve their kind. Behind the scenes they bring their goals into reality.
From the time when mutants became known to the world, SUPER was founded as a black-ops division of the CIA in an attempt to classify, observe, and learn more about this new and rising threat.
The Syndicate works to help bring mutantkind to the forefront of the world. They work from the shadows, a beacon of hope for mutants, but a bane to mankind. With their guiding hand, humanity will finally find extinction.
Since the existence of mutants was first revealed in the nineties, the world has become a changed place. Whether they're genetic misfits or the next stage in humanity's evolution, there's no denying their growing numbers, especially in hubs like New York City. The NYPD has a division devoted to mutant related crimes. Super-powered vigilantes help to maintain the peace. Those who style themselves as Homo Superior work to tear society apart for rebuilding in their own image.
MRO is an intermediate to advanced writing level original character, original plot X-Men RPG. We've been open and active since October of 2005. You can play as a mutant, human, or Adapted— one of the rare humans who nullify mutant powers by their very existence. Goodies, baddies, and neutrals are all welcome.
Short Term Plots:Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
The Fountain of Youth
A chemical serum has been released that's shaving a few years off of the population. In some cases, found to be temporary, and in others...?
MRO MOVES WITH CURRENT TIME: What month and year it is now in real life, it's the same for MRO, too.
Fuegogrande: "Fuegogrande" player of The Ranger, Ion, Rhia, and Null
Neopolitan: "Aly" player of Rebecca Grey, Stephanie Graves, Marisol Cervantes, Vanessa Bookman, Chrysanthemum Van Hart, Sabine Sang, Eupraxia
Ongoing Plots
Magic and Mystics
After the events of the 2020 Harvest Moon and the following Winter Solstice, magic has started manifesting in the MROvere! With the efforts of the Welldrinker Cult, people are being converted into Mystics, a species of people genetically disposed to be great conduits for magical energy.
The Welldrinker Cult
A shadowy group is gaining power, drawing in people who are curious, vulnerable, or malicious, and turning them into Mystics. They are recruiting people into their ranks to spread the influence of magic in the world, but for what end goal?
Are They Coming for You?
There have been whispers on the streets lately of a boogeyman... mutant and humans, young and old, all have been targets of trafficking.
Adapteds
What if the human race began to adapt to the mutant threat? What if the human race changed ever so subtly... without the x-gene.
Atlanteans
The lost city of Atlantis has been found! Refugees from this undersea mutant dystopia have started to filter in to New York as citizens and businessfolk. You may make one as a player character of run into one on the street.
Got a plot in mind?
MRO plots are player-created the Mods facilitate and organize the big ones, but we get the ideas from you. Do you have a plot in mind, and want to know whether it needs Mod approval? Check out our plot guidelines.
((OOC: Some points before we begin- For those of you who might be wondering about our characters bouts of amnesia, do not worry, the mods have given us the go ahead and all will be revealed in due time. Also, some of you may recognize these posts from elsewhere on the site.....now you know what they are for ))
The room was slowly lightening as sunlight,- bright and strong, fought a siege like battle against this particular room that, though after midday, was still blanketed in shrouded gloom. The rather effective barrier that was the bland Venetian blinds separated the rooms occupants from the brightness and busy-ness of the world outside.
A sleep tousled head raised itself a millimetre or two off its nest of pillows to blink blearily at the alarm clock on the bedside table beside her…12:45…hmmm, damn, must have been a long night last night, the sleepy figure thought as she stretched expansively within the confines of luxurious material, reveling in the feel of the silky cloth against her bare skin.
…..that was until her questing foot hit something, another foot in fact, and suddenly her weary, waking mind was very alert indeed. She quickly retracted her stretched out limbs back to herself as she lay in her curled up position and exclaimed loudly in her own mind a number of expletives her own mother would gasp that she knew. Now, she lay there, taking stock of her surrounding in more actuate detail that unwelcome, unpleasant surprise will give you. Tris’s conscious mind was presenting her with an alarming list of aberrations, things that weren’t quite normal; the sheets she was current wrapped in, while feeling amazing, weren’t her rouged red Egyptian cotton ones, the clock on the night stand, not a hello kitty edition but a slim lined silver job, in fact the room in general, not her familiar clutter, but a stark, elegant and Spartan unfamiliar environment…and the soft sound of slow, rhythmic breathing that filled the heavy silence defiantly helped with the conclusion she was not alone.
Oh God, what did she do last night… And worse, as she was beginning to suspect- who with? And why couldn’t she remember? She hadn’t had that much to drink in awhile.
Tris knew she had to get up and get out and find out what the hell was going on, but the first step was getting out of bed. Listening hard for any sound or sign of this person stirring as she went. She slowly, excruciatingly slowly, and inch by inch crept her way to the edge of the bed ……and encountered a dilemma- she could get out of bed, but she didn’t have any clothes, and a quick scan of the polished wooden floor revealed nothing but a dust particle or two. So Tris’s predicament was simple- get up and make a break for the bathroom or something, or drag the sheet off the bed to make a toga style dress which would have the added effect of definitely waking her bedroom partner.
Tris- not exactly in the mood for more subterfuge, and really getting fed up with not knowing what was going on, chose the second option. Already on the very edge of the bed as she was, it was an easy task for Tris to grab a hunk of the sheet and yank it up as she got up and off the mattress, curling the cloth around her and twisting it into a toga style dress. This move inevitably left the figure on the bed only partially covered by the left over blanket, and remarkably visible from Tris’s view. Hmmm, she thought as she eyed him from toe to top; slim build, pale skinned, short brown hair- sleep tousled of course, cuteish she decided…and then she saw his face as he opened his amazingly blue eyes, and a chill of shocked and repulsed recognition ran through her- Tris immediately rescinded her earlier decision, there was no way that figure on the bed was cutish ….she knew him…..it was the one person who annoyed her more than anyone, who frustrated her more than anything, it was Zephyr.
She gripped the sheet tighter around her with both hands as she stared at him in shocked silence. When her dumbfounded voice finally wanted to emerge, all she could say in a high and slightly hysterical voice was;
“YOU- what are you doing here?....”
She stared at him, there on the bed in no clothes whatsoever, then glanced at her own make shift toga clad form, and then back at him. And it clicked, and it wasn’t a nice click- it was one thing to have slept with some random person, Tris could deal with that, but Zephyr….what had she been thinking? What had he been thinking? He hated her too didn’t he?
Consciousness came gradually to Zephyr, as though his mind were being forced to undertake a vast journey through dark and treacherous terrain. As awareness slowly returned to his body the first thing he noted was the sensation of lying down, not surprising really as he could still feel traces of fatigue in his system that had yet to be purged. For a moment the elementals hazy mind focused upon this lingering exhaustion and he wondered what had roused him from his slumber prematurely. However when his muddled instincts failed to detect another presence or any hint of danger Simon allowed the question to drift away as his subconscious gently guided his thoughts down a different path in an effort to resolve a matter which had been causing it some mild concern for the past the few seconds, for he had no idea where he was.
Subtly shifting his shoulders against the opulent fabric which clothed his bare form, Simon opted to rely solely upon his sense of touch to familiarize himself with his environment, for although he was indeed conscious the elemental was somewhat unwilling to be roused completely and thus abandon fully the comforting caress of oblivion he been enjoying moments before, and so his eyes remained resolutely shut as he set about identifying his surroundings. The answer came to him surprisingly swiftly and the undercurrents of unease at the back of his mind were promptly put to rest as he found that he knew the texture the material which clothed him; these were his sheets, he was in his bed, there was no need to worry.
Comforted by this new revelation the merc allowed himself to dismiss any thoughts of awakening fully, instead submerging himself into the pillows once more and inhaling deeply as he sought a return to the darkness. Before this goal could be achieved however his senses were assaulted by a strange, yet oddly pleasant aroma that was most certainly not his own. Perplexed by this latest development Simons gaze remained closed as he drew a second, lighter breath and took a moment to examine the foreign fragrance which seemed to have enveloped his bed. Almost at once he could tell that the scent was feminine in nature for it possessed an almost sensual sweetness which bound it nearly completely to the fairer sex. ‘A flower of some sort’ he mused idly, ‘..not jasmine, maybe… lavender?’ Even as he came to this conclusion though he detected a second, more subtle aroma hidden within the floral bouquet of lavender; it had a distinctly earthen base to it which contrasted sharply with the overlying sweetness yet it wasn’t a traditional pine or cedar scent. Delving into the vault of his memories Simon racked his mind for something to further associate the wooden scent with, and eventually a single name surfaced, sandalwood.
This was a unique combination of fragrances to be sure and oddly enough it was one the elemental found rather agreeable to his tastes. Now that he had managed to identify the main components though the more rational part of his mind couldn’t help but wonder where this strange scent had originated from, certainly it hadn’t come from him, but if he were not the source then who…
It was at precisely this point, when Zephyrs thoughts were only just beginning to comprehend the possibility that he might not have spent the night alone that an unseen force whisked the sheets off from atop his form, leaving him bare to the cool air of the room.
Caught completely off guard by this turn of events the young elemental at last opened his azure eyes which contained a mixture of surprise and bewilderment as he propped himself up on one elbow and surveyed his surroundings for the first time, or at least tried too. Dark as the interior of the room was it took his eyes a few seconds to properly adjust during which time he tried to get his bearings, any chance of that however was thrown out the metaphorical window when his eyes caught sight of the scantily clad figure directly in front of him.
Wrapped in what could only be the sheets from his own bed was his so called teammate Trista Evans, the girl had obviously attempted to make some effort at modesty. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, when one took into account the way the girl had so tightly wrapped the sheets around her form (The small, isolated part of elementals mind that wasn’t staring dumbfounded at the sight in front of him very much doubted she’d be able to walk without falling over) and the lightweight properties of the material in question well, suffice to say the girls effort had been almost completely unsuccessful.
Silence stretched out for what seemed an eternity as the two of them simply stared each other, at a loss for words. The logical sequence of events which must have transpired last night had not yet occurred to Zephyr whose weary and disoriented mind was still shocked by Tris’s very presence. He barely knew the girl yet the little he had managed to discern of her personality had shown her to be irritating, impulsive, intractable and the most immature person he’d ever met. There was no way he’d ever had have shown her where his apartment was let alone invite her inside, so what the hell was she doing half naked in his bed-
“YOU- what are you doing here?....”
The shattered silence sliced through the elementals thoughts breaking his chain of thought and bringing his attention fully back upon his unexpected companion. Judging from panic and hysteria Tris’s voice it was clear that she didn’t know anymore then he did, yet the note of accusation in the redheads tone sparked something inside him, summoning a wave of resentment. He did not relish this sudden turn of events any more than she did and he would not shoulder blame for whatever the hell was going on.
“Me?” he growled with an ardent gesture towards himself, “I live here, what your excuse?”
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
Tris stared at him in some more shocked silence as her resistant mind slowly added this horrifying news to the barrage of unpleasant information in her increasingly eerie ass day.
“You…..You live here.” She echoed dumbly, looking around at the apartment again- anything but look on the bed at the source of her problems, running frustrated fingers through her messy hair, noting the extreme differences in their taste. “Its nice,” she managed. “Very ahhh, sleek.” Relying on polite society chitchat for a minute while her heart beat slowly down alittle and give her mind a break….
However it seemed her mind didn’t want a rest, it wanted to get back to the subject at hand. “So…..you….live here.” She repeated stiltedly. “And…I’m here….in your bed…..with no clothes……and, Oh God!” she literally flinched as the logical conclusion she was trying to avoid hit her. “I slept with you……I SLEPT with you……I slept with YOU!” Yes, Tris could be quiet the parrot when she was stressed, and she started to pace, in her agitation almost tripping up, but she recovered and sat down heavily on the edge of the bed.
-Unbeknowanced to her, and maybe even him, the glass of water on the bed side table closest to her was fogging up alittle, its contents molecules responding to a vague emotional reaction, the water literally slowly beginning to simmer in its glass_
Her head in her hands, she groaned, her muffled voice saying in bemusement; “How drunk was I last night?…..I can’t even remember anything.”
Then a thought occurred to her poor thought deprived higher thinking processes- stress being the culprit- even if she didn’t have the answeres, she wasn’t alone. Tris twisted her body around, her legs half on the bed, and more importantly, her eyes making contact with Zephyr’s, and a steely, accusing expression on her face.
“What about you?” she addressed him sternly, not stopping to get a response, she flicked rapid fire questions at him like a whiplash, each seemingly more irrational than the last. “Do you remember anything about last night? Were you?….Did we?…..Oh my God- did you pick me up? Was I drunk? Was it drugs?……Did you drug me or something?”
Her rapid pace working her up to extremes, she suddenly stopped, unable to think of another question, yet still needing to vent her frustrations in a non blowing the apartment kinda way. Giving in to a sudden urge, she grabbed a pillow from her side of the bed and started hitting him with it. “WHAT did you do?” she ground out through gritted teeth, been hits with the pillow. Her hypothesis she was working off right now was- men were jerks, she didn’t know what was going on, but this jerk was going to tell her, one way or another.
Cobalt blue eyes narrowing in annoyance Zephyr’s gaze remained fixed on the woman before him as he waited for some type of suitable response to his query. However it seemed the girl was incapable of conforming to socially acceptable standards of etiquette for the moment she discovered that she was in his abode the redhead began rambling on inanely; bestowing light praise upon his room without any real sincerity. Under a different context the elemental might have found his companions muddled state of mind somewhat entertaining, after all it wasn’t everyday that you managed to shock someone speechless, as it was though her performance only served to add to his growing aggravation; his rest had been disturbed, he had an unwanted guest to deal with and he had absolutely no idea what was going on… although his mind was starting to supply some rather awkward possibilities which were doing nothing to improve his mood.
‘We couldn’t have…’
“So…..you….live here.”[/color] The statement was oddly formal, as though the girls mind couldn’t quite deal with the simple fact and had resorted to running on automatic in order to continue functioning.
‘There’s no way in hell…’
“Yes we’ve already established that,” the reply was short and carried a clear note of frustration as the merc repeatedly tried, and failed, to find a flaw in the logic his mind was presenting him.
‘She’d never…’
“And…I’m here….in your bed…..with no clothes……and, Oh God!”[/color] The increasingly hysterical redhead than actually recoiled and an expression of pure shock overcame her features as the logic finally won against denial.
“I slept with you……I SLEPT with you……I slept with YOU.”[/color]
‘…fuck’
It is something of a shame that the irony of this thought did not truly occur to the elemental for his mental facilities had abruptly frozen as they tried to process the implications of Trista’s little outburst and, perhaps out of a desire to spare themselves as much stress as possible, promptly refused to even consider the subject. The result of this, while somewhat less dramatic than his companions, was no less telling about his current state of mind. Still propped in a sitting position on the king sized bed the merc’s muscles suddenly seemed unable to support him as he collapsed back onto the mattress with one hand over his eyes and a low almost imperceptible groan emanating from his throat as the redhead stumbled and all but collapsed onto the edge of the bed.
It wasn’t the fact that he had slept with someone that was problem, Simon was a healthy young man after all, he knew how to be charming when necessary and while he wasn’t overly fructiferous he’d had occasional nighttime companions before. It wasn’t even the fact that they had, for some reason, ended up at his own apartment instead of one the more anonymous establishments he normally used for this type of thing.
No the problem here was the fact that Tris was the one whom had shared his bed. Out of all the women he knew the redhead was one of the last ones the elemental would have pictured himself with. It wasn’t that the girl was unattractive; her face was actually rather pretty and from what he’d just seen she had curves in all the right places but when combined with the woman’s “charming” personality it just wasn’t worth it. The girl was completely irrational, interpreting his every word and action as an insult of some sort which then prompted her to engage in various forms of petty revenge which always managed to get under his skin.
“What about you?”[/color]
“What?” Roused from his internal machinations Simon wearily removed his hand from his face and glanced up at his neighbor with a bewildered expression on his face which almost perfectly matched his tone voice. It would be fair to say that he hadn’t really been paying any attention to Tris after she’d “dropped the bomb” so to speak and he was therefore at something of a loss. Unfortunately he was given no times to gain his bearings for the moment their eyes met the redhead began hurling questions at him without waiting, or possibly even expecting, a response.
“Do you remember anything about last night? Were you?….Did we?…..Oh my God- did you pick me up? Was I drunk? Was it drugs?……Did you drug me or something?”[/color]
Finally she seemed to run out of accusations, her emotions however were far from spent and upon realizing that words could no longer suitably express what she was feeling the girl resorted to the most basic of impulses; violence… in the form of a pillow.
“WHAT did you do?”[/color] Each word was emphasized by a swing of the deceptively heavy cushion which resounded thoroughly with the mercenary’s head causing no small amount of disorientation.
“What the?!” Zephyr’s cry of outrage was promptly drowned out as Tris all but smothered him with the pillow leaning in with her full weight before resuming her beating.
‘Typical bloody woman’ he thought furiously as he shielded his head with one arm and attempted to rip the pillow from the redheads grasp with the other. ‘No matter what happens the mans always to blame’.
Another resounding smack to his cranium forced his arm over his eyes effectively blinding him and it was at this point in their faux struggle that his questing limb finally managed to grasp a handful of opulent material. Not giving a second a second thought Simon pulled his arm back down, fully intending to tear the offending cushion right out of the girls arms. Instead however there was a sudden surprised shriek and the elemental had only a split second with which to open his eyes and witness his mistake; for in his grasp was not Tris’s pillow, but instead her hastily constructed toga which was even now being ripped from her body as she lost her balance fell towards him.
There shouldn’t have been enough time to react. She was too close and gravity had already taken hold, yet his arm rose rapidly, somehow managing to wrap around the girl’s falling body, slowing her descent and, seemingly of its own accord, guiding her down carefully until the next thing Zephyr knew there was a warm, smooth body atop his chest and Trista’s face was a hairs breadth from his own. He could hear her every breath, feel each rapid pulse of her heart, and read the panicked expression in her hazel eyes as she tried to figure out what had just happened. That wasn’t going to happen, he needed to keep her off balance as long as possible or he knew she would revert back into hysterics, yet he hesitated.
‘Why not?’ questioned a small, yet persuasive voice in the back of his mind, ‘You’ve already slept with her, it’s not as though you can make things any worse.'[/i]
‘But I-’
‘Just kiss her’
And he did.
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
Tris had been actually starting to sort of almost maybe enjoy herself, cause while she still had major problems and had woken up to the extremes of the weird and wacky day, she was currently pummeling the stuffing out of a constant irritation in her life- fun and zen at the same time.
…..that is until Zephyr started fighting back. ~Typical bloody male- wait until you’re having a good time then change the rules~ Was Tris’s immature inward voice, starting to get into rebellious sulk mode.
Or that was the plan until a bad-mannered hand was thrust at her sheet-covered midriff as she was raising the pillow for another swipe at Zephyr’s head, the fingers grasped the fine material before Tris could so much as object, and suddenly yanked the suddenly offensive fabric back towards the arms owner in a powerful gesture. This action had two main effects, one- being that the sheet in question was sprung from its lose moorings, drawn in a slithering, silken mass to that had so recently called to it, however since the being so firmly enmeshed in its folds was effected by this sudden gesture as well, the second result found Tris shrieking in shocked surprised as her makeshift dress was wrenched from the body it clothed, the cloth heaping in soft folds atop Zephyr’s body on which an unbalanced Trista Evans was soon to follow.
….It all happened kinda fast, and Tris wasn’t sure how, but suddenly her toppling descent slowed, as warm hands guided her to land softly and safely…..the only downside to this was that it was Zephyr she had to land on.
Bewildered brown eyes gazed helplessly into the clearest azure eyes she’d ever seen, and hands that were placed to help push her up and off this great lump seemed to hesitate afew seconds too long as they connected with Zephyr’s warm shoulders. It seemed her motor functions had deserted Tris for the moment, she didn’t seem to be able to move, to look away, even breathing wasn’t going as planned.
Zephyr didn’t seem to have the whole ‘deer frozen in headlights’ body thing going on however, as it appeared the face that was a hairs breath away from her own was able to move- not the way she expected however.
Lips came up to meet hers, and suddenly she could move again- after a fashion, motion was seemingly involuntary at this point, but she could still feel everything. Her own lips responded to the kiss in a manner completely devoid of what the screaming mind wanted. Eyes closed in acceptance of a familiar and accepted kiss, hands quested on flesh that only last night had been the most welcome of friend, and body melted into the embrace it knew well, despite what the disapproving mind might think.
Tris’s hands stilled, and she drew back from Zephr, freezing atop him again, her eyes opening to convey a rush of emotions, the two most prominent of which were confusion, and lets face it- desire. She pushed herself up and off him, as was her original intention, grabbing her sheet and taking it to wrap around herself, yet not before the telltale signs of a blush began to infuse her cheeks.
She ended up sitting fairly much where she’d started from, at the edge of the bed, the sheet wrapped around her. “Well I guess that disputes the drugs theory.” She softly muttered to herself, the slight vulnerable undertones in her voice scratching at the edge of recognition. She was staring off into the middle distance, trying to work through the rush of emotions she was feeling….and trying to figure out where the hell they came from.
Well this was certainly a most unexpected turn of events, yet as the kiss deepened and a new but familiar taste assaulted his senses Zephyr found that, even if he wanted to, he couldn’t stop. His body was acting of its own volition, following commands from somewhere outside of conscious thought. His arms moved with a purpose he couldn’t recall; one gliding swiftly around Trista’s shoulders and bringing her into an almost crushing embrace while the other moved deceptively lower, sliding down the center of her back and beneath the line of the sheets which still clothed her form. His eyes closed against his will and as his sight vanished he became aware once again of the strange sensual scent which now seemed to surround him. A surge of adrenaline seemed to course through his system as body fought for complete control against the mind, and due to an almost complete lack of resistance from the elemental himself, it was winning.
Then Tris froze, and whatever strange spell had overcome the two of them was suddenly dispelled. Blinking his eyes dimly Simon found that his body was his own once more and as he glanced up into the hazel orbs of his companion he found an almost perfect mirror of his own warring emotions; bewilderment, lust and strangely, disappointment. ‘Why did she stop?’ the thought rose sullen and unbidden to the surface of his mind but as he became uncomfortably aware of his own rapid pulse and the unnatural warmth which covered his body the thought twisted and changed, ‘How did she stop?’ Which then evolved into, ‘What the hell was that?’
He felt Tris’s hands move to his shoulders, the subsequent pressure as she pushed against his form and without thinking his arms loosened their grip and fell away as she resumed her earlier position at the edge of the bed. His eyes lingered on her just long enough to catch the sudden crimson shade which coloured her cheeks before drifting away as he returned to his own internal musings.
The elemental was no stranger to instinct, it was a faculty he’d quickly come accustomed to using as his mutation had grown. It was the body’s way of warning mind of approaching danger, the sudden split second impulse to do this or that, you went along with the impulse because you knew it was probably better than any other alternative but it never held any real power over you. Whatever the hell had just happened was not instinct, his body hadn’t been responding to a brief impulse; it had been following a set of unwritten instructions, an ingrained reaction the likes of which normally only resulted from constant repetition.
Although this revelation left more questions than answers what truly concerned the merc was his own lack of resistance; he’d never lost control like that before and the fact that Tris had been the one to bring an end to what would have undoubtedly been a repeat of last night’s performance galled him. A comfortable anger swept through his system, swiftly clearing away his unanswered questions and the other confusing emotions he didn’t know how to deal with. Leaving his animosity to boil just beneath the surface Zephyr took control of his features, discarding the undignified expression of bewilderment he had worn since his rude awakening and sliding easily into the calm and impassionate mask he had become so accustomed to using and a hollow confidence pervaded his mind. He could deal with the awkward questions and other strange feelings later. The resentment however, he knew how to deal with, turning his gaze back to the figure at the edge of the bed he adopted the superior tone of voice he knew would infuriate Tris.
“That wasn’t so bad was it?”
A small part of him knew he was being petty, but as this was the same part of his mind which was asking him how he knew Tris had a small scar on her right hip it was already being ignored.
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
Tris, at another more normal time, might have tired to throttle the arrogant air elemental for such a comment, or slap the damn cocky expression from his face, or even turn the stylish bed he was lying on into a pile of ash…. but it had been a weird morning and she’d had extended periods of scared, panic, angry, and bewildered all before breakfast and all before a cup of coffee- Tris was on emotional overload and felt completely wiped out.
So instead of furious rage, which was her instinctual choice to deal with people like him, she had to settle for spiteful annoyance.
Not even looking, Tris put out her left hand in a decided ‘be quiet’ gesture a primary teacher might use on her class. Her tone weary, yet the undertones of ill will still palpable, she replied;
“Can you just try not to be a complete jerk for five seconds- can ya do that!” The sentence phrased as a question, and yet it could clearly be seen it wasn’t that simple, it was an order.
She wasn’t really looking for an answer though, simply burying her head in her hands with a long suffered sigh. This was ridiculous, this whole situation with her and him and this was just ridiculous, and she should just go and find some damn clothes that didn’t resemble a toga and go back to her apartment and have a drink or five, then maybe this would all end up as a bad dream. Tris was wiped, completely drained, and all unanswered questions could wait until she was nicely tipsy- it was settled, she was going home and all this would be a distant memory as soon as humanly possible.
It was decided, she was going to calmly and gracefully get up and walk out of the room, okay? Okay. That was the plan…..until Tris’s hands, finished with shielding her from reality, fell to her lap from covering her face and that’s when she saw it…..it was the glint that gave it away. Tris’s carefully considered practical plan went out the window, as her widened, shocked gaze was drawn down to zoom in on the simple golden ring on her finger. Suddenly her mothers voice decided to clang through her head, the old adage ‘no matter how bad things get, they can always get worse’ over and over like a broken record, and Tris, at this point in time found that this deep and philosophical old wives tale was true as she was swiftly sucked back into the swirling vortex of unhealthy emotions that scientists say can lead to heart attacks and stomach ulcers….she was finding the assumption that she was completely emotionally wiped and nothing else on this planet could surprised or upset her right now was slightly wrong, or to be more precise- wrong in the extremes. Again she felt the panicked assumptions rise up against her will, again the absence of memory leading to confusion and fear which boiled oh so nicely into anger.
It was so handy to have a subject to close on which to vent her increasing frustration- cause what with the jerk he could be, karmicly speaking, he probably had it coming.
Tris swiveled back to face Zephyr again, her hand reaching out to grasp his left arm, practically yanking it off in her efforts to get a closer view of a stomach clenching upsettingly familiar gleaming object in her mind numbing panic.....and there it was, another gold band that matched her own. Her fingers lightly traced twined etchings on separate bands while her reluctant gaze presented to her brain the enviably ironic conclusion….
Violently, she thrust Zephyr’s hand back at him, springing up off the bed, spinning round and slipping her ring off her finger, equally violently throwing the small, golden projectile at the arrogant air elemental.
“We’re Married!” She screamed at him hysterically, her voice rising shrilly through the octaves. As yet again, she began to pace, her expansive hand gestures coming dangerously close on a number of occasions to undoing the lose moorings of her sheet dress. “We woke up together…..and apparently slept together, which I could just barely handle with a great many double shots……but MARRIED!……What the hell happened last night?!” She demanded.
Remaining motionless beneath the covers of his bed Zephyr’s gaze remained fixed on his companions back as he waited for her inevitable outburst. He knew that he would eventually have to abandon his current resting place but, for the moment, it could wait. The fact that neither of them was clothed was a moot point; this was his room after all; he knew where his clothes were kept and so could be modestly dressed in less than six seconds he if wanted. However he was still attempting to find a suitable outlet for his simmering animosity, which while admittedly immature was one of the few things he was willing to address at the moment, however that could not commence until Tris-
“Can you just try not to be a complete jerk for five seconds- can ya do that!”[/color]
An eyebrow quirked upwards skeptically as the elemental titled his head and glanced at the hand which had been thrust in his general direction while his mind processed the odd outburst. That was it? He really had been expecting something more dramatic, yet as time failed to jump forward unexpectedly and nothing in his room seemed about to combust Simon acknowledged that this was the best the girl could do. It was somewhat disappointing really; he had been hoping for a little more material to work with, maybe even another slight show of hysterics akin to when she had “attacked” him moments ago. Still, he supposed that this would suffice, it would simply take him fractionally longer than usual to get beneath her skin.
“Ah my apologies,” he proclaimed in greatly exaggerated tones of mock regret, “what was I thinking of, trying to strike up a civil conversation…” Zephyr trailed off uncertainly as he noted just how pale Tris had suddenly become; as though the colour had been bleached from her skin. The expression on the girls face was not particularly reassuring either; her features appeared to have become frozen in a state of shock as she gazed down into her own lap with an open mouth. It looked as though the redhead was mere instants away from having a heart attack, and while the elemental was still far from overjoyed at her presence he did not want a corpse in apartment; they were always a pain to get rid of and tended to raise the wrong sorts of questions. “…Evans?” The tone of voice was cautious and carefully pitched, this time to fully avoid any chance of antagonizing its recipient, though the merc somewhat doubted whether his attempt would be fully successful, the girl was hardly rational at the best of times after all.
Silence reigned supreme as the seconds crawled by and the elemental waited, almost anxiously, for something to happen. Vaguely Simon wondered what the cause of such a reaction could be, for it seemed as though Tris was barely even breathing now. ‘If she faints’ he though halfheartedly, ‘I’m tossing her into the stairwell.’ Even as the thought developed though he knew it was an empty promise, because while such an act would certainly make his situation much easier in the short run, it would only serve to inconvenience him later. Having a naked woman wandering around the building was certain to raise just as many questions, if not more, than a corpse. The other strong negative about that particular scenario was that Tris herself would be in a position to be questioned, needless to say that was not something the elemental desired, the few people who knew he lived in the building were inquisitive enough about him as it was, he did not need it to become public knowledge that he was mutant, nor did he desire his neighbors to entertain the idea that he was… courting, the redhead, that simply would not work on so many levels.
A sudden hint of motion and flash of crimson hair brought Zephyr swiftly out of his internal musings just as Tris suddenly leapt towards him and grasped hold off his arm, leaving the merc in a state of utter confusion for a split second until she then proceeded to try and tear the offending limb from its sockets. With no idea as to what the girl was attempting to achieve Simon voiced a few decidedly non muttered oaths as he tried to get the redhead to let go. However, before he could begin to place any real effort into the endeavor Tris abruptly relinquished her hold and violently thrust his arm back at him as she bolted away from the bed, hurling some type of glittering object which struck his collar bone before coming to rest somewhere in the tangled comforter.
“What the hell do you-” Simon barely had time to direct his venom filled gaze before he was suddenly cut short.
“We’re Married!”[/color]
The elementals retort died in his throat and his brows furrowed in momentary confusion, of the many subjects he had expected his unwanted guest to rant over this was most assuredly not one of them. His first thoughts were to simply dismiss the redheads claim as ludicrous; why would he ever get married? Not only did it introduce a dangerous liability into your life but due to various laws that had been worked into most governments over the years any union between two individual meant that in the case of divorce your significant other got at least half, if not more, of your total assets. Marriage, in short, was something that happened to other people, not to him. ‘She must be delirious’ he thought dismissively, ‘There’s no feasible way it could it happen, I don’t even have a…’ the mercs thoughts came to an abrupt and jarring halt as his azure eyes caught sight of the slim band of gold which had wrapped itself around the fourth digit of his left hand.
Thump
Time suddenly seemed to crawl to a fraction of its normal speed as Simon’s mind swiftly, yet reluctantly, put together all the pieces it had been given and hastily backed away from the rather distressing image it formed. His pulse decreased rapidly into an irregular pattern as his heart responded to the strangled signals of panic which traveled through his synapses while his breath caught in his throat as his lungs froze and ceased to perform their function, the consequences of the first two affects lead straight to the creation of a third which was a bleak complexion as the oxygen levels in his blood fell swiftly.
Thump[/i]
Time resumed once more, and with its commencement the mercs higher mental functions instantly became aware of the rather undesirable situation they now faced and swiftly set about to correct it. Chemicals were hurriedly exchanged as neurons fired on and off; passing along a single message to cease the symptoms of panic. This was hurriedly relayed through the cerebral cortex and down to key areas of the body. A sudden intake of air to the elemental lungs was the first sign of this internal “reboot” as oxygen once again flooded his system and his skin regained the little colour it possessed while his heart beat reverted back to a more tolerable pace. All of this took place in roughly the same amount of time it would take one to blink and despite, or perhaps due to, the alacrity with which the process was carried out Simon was left drained. The overwhelming sensations of panic though were all but gone, replaced instead with a steady of feeling of dread which, while uncomfortable, was manageable.
“We woke up together…..and apparently slept together, which I could just barely handle with a great many double shots……but MARRIED!……What the hell happened last night.”[/color]
Zephyr glanced wearily over to his redheaded companion and found himself fighting the strong urge to scowl as he met her accusing eyes once again and felt his ire rise; this was his home and he was damned if he was going to be blamed and interrogated by this immature and hysterical girl for something that was no fault of his own. It was high time that some form of order was restored.
Raising his right arm with a deliberate lack of speed the elemental held Tris’s gaze easily and waited until he was certain that she was aware of the motion. The second he saw her eyes flicker to his raised limb his fingers met in an instant of friction, releasing a highly audible snap throughout the room which was then followed by utter silence. The precise moment his fingers had made contact Zephyr had delved into his mutation, shifting his perception of the world to a new level as he became aware of the untold billions of air molecules which surrounded him and, more importantly, Tris. Reaching out through his will alone the mercenary took hold of his element, crafting it to his needs with considerable more ease than he remembered, as he commanded the air to descend upon the redhead, collapsing inwards upon her form, surrounding her limbs, torso and neck before finally raveling off just above the girls lips, in order to ensure her silence.
Once the girls body was covered to his satisfaction the second stage commenced as the air began to contract, pressing itself with increasing intensity against the redheads figure, stopping just a hairs breath short of crushing her. The effect of this was perhaps best demonstrated by the sheets which Tris wore as an impromptu piece of clothing. The folds of the sheet, now less dense than the air itself, were forced to follow along with the elementals designs; abandoning their former function of concealment and disregarding the laws of physics as they ceased to hang loosely against the redheads body and instead clung tightly to the girls figure, revealing every sensuous curve as the cloth molded itself to the contours of her body like a second skin, leaving nothing to the imagination. Even if some obscurity had been left unchallenged it would have been a futile effort for Zephyr’s mind was now aware of everything the air encountered, and in the case of Tris that was everything.
Strangely enough though this happened to work in the redheads favour, for despite the elementals best efforts he was finding it rather difficult to retain his initial vehemence when confronted with the image that was continuously playing across his mind’s eye. And so his grip faltered somewhat; easing in its intensity and allowing her a degree of movement, not enough for her to be considered free by any standards but certainly enough for her to breathe and perhaps talk.
After taking a moment to ensure that he still a satisfactory level of control over his “guest” Simon lowered his arm and simply allowed silence to reign until he felt the girl had come to grips with her situation. “Listen carefully,” he warned softly, “because if I have to repeat myself you will regret it.” A pause followed to ensure the threat had been heard before he continued, “Now I appreciate that you have little in the way of culture so I shall make this easy for you. I am going to answer your questions and you will remain silent, when I have finished you will continue to remain silent and think about what I have said. If you have an additional question you will ask permission to speak understood?” Another slight pause in which the elemental assumed her compliance. “I have no idea what occurred last night, nor am I sure that I truly wish to know. If you continue to insinuate that I am completely at fault I will remove you from my home and deposit you in central park... without my sheets.”
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
Tris scowled in infinite frustration at the reclining form of her adversary, awaiting a considered reply in which idyllically, all this would be explained as some hilarious and accidental incident, and of course, Zephyr would be proven completely at fault of any wrong doing. Yet for a good while he just lay there like the great lump of insufferable annoyance he was, her questions apparently falling on deaf or bored ears.
The silence stretched out between them yet again for long moments, and since in a landscape of stillness, when finally the continental drift that was his brain decided to perform an action, her wintry gaze was drawn to this singular event, her narrowed and withering gaze tracking the slow rise of a single arm with the concentration of a house cat after a mouse. Her iced honeyed eyes flicked from the arm movement back to Zephyr’s face, her still sour glare having now a very great load of suspicious tensity and the slightest hint of questioning puzzlement- what was the black hearted thief up too now?
He put his fingers together and an audible snap seemed to echo around the room……and suddenly she knew…..unfortunately by this time it was too late…
She felt it- the atmosphere around her rapidly solidifying, feeling the traitorous air surrounding them as summoned by its master, it compressed in on her form, efficiently and very effectively trapping her in an immovable, untouchable prison. Tris commanded her muscles to move, to struggle, to blast her way to freedom, even if it ment a graze or two for her, but it was not to be- her limbs despite her insistence, were bound by steely atmosphere, unable to move the slightest inch to struggle, to lift her hands to aim her powers, as, in effect she was fighting solidified nothingness- and losing. Tris glared savagely at her captor, her angry eyes conveying the clear message that the instant she got free- he was space dust. Unfortunately this seemed to be the most she could do right now, her muffled curses of the ruffian unable to pass her lips as they were sealed closed by unyielding air.
However even this method of venting she had to cease as the pressure surrounding her form didn’t seem to want to stop at imprisoning her, it felt like it wanted to slowly crush her to death. It was no surprise, as wide eyed, Tris was starting to panic just alittle- flashing back with a vengeance to the time of Zephyr and her and their duel in the warehouse, him using his powers to crush her to the floor, she only surviving by freezing the scene….though it seemed as of now, he had gained even more control over his gift- and she was in trouble. Strangely enough, her wrapped mind handed her an image of when she’d tried on afew corsets, this was like wearing a whole body corset, only one hundred times worse.
She had no notion of Zephyr’s thoughts of molded cloth and second skins, as instead, she was increasingly conscious of her airy cage shrinking, cloth sealed to skin, hair molded to head, air despite her best efforts, being squeezed reluctantly out of her lungs, and feeling very much as if she was being vacuum packed for future study- be she dead or not was anyone’s guess.
Tris didn’t know what to do, feeling the panic sweep over her, immobilizing her mind just as Zephyr had immobilized her body. Logically she should just start blowing stuff up in his room till his let her go, but she wasn’t feeling very logical right now, in fact cause of her rather stressful day already she was feeling more prone to highly strung irrational actions than usual- her higher order functions seemed to have gone on holiday as her racing thoughts were unable to collect themselves. Her fearful and pleading eyes locked on Zephyr asking she didn’t know what, but in there somewhere was the plain request that he please not squish her into nothingness, which, as the proud and volatile person she was, was making her hate herself right now.
…..However the plan seemed the work as the pressure eased slightly, not so much that she was released or in any way struggle to lift her hand to aim at him, but enough to allow her to breathe again at least, the airy veil even lifting from her lips so she could speak. While grateful for her reprieve from being squished like a bug, the befuddled Tris, while not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, was confused and puzzled about Zephyr’s response- he haven’t seemed to be looking at her face to see her pleading stare, his eyes instead roving her body as if looking for/at something. She’d get it in a minute when her brain cleared and her panic resided back to where it had come from, but right now she wasn’t even up to shouting angry retorts at her rival, instead taking as deep a gasp of life giving oxygen as she was allowed by the air pressure prison again and again, thankful for the ability to still do so.
The silence stretched out yet again, Zephyr seemingly very comfortable with a state in which he did the whole bored yet slightly threatening stance thing he did- Tris mutinously muttering inside her own head that he must pose and practice this look in front of the mirror every morning. Yes, Tris was getting over the of shock of being squeezed within an inch of her life (or so it seemed to the dramatic queen) and getting her attitude back- watch out Zephyr, yet still feeling as though someone had wrapped a boa constrictor around her chest, she wasn’t quite up to a screaming match yet……but she was getting there. So for now, she let him do whatever he seemed to want to do- which at this point seemed to be talking at and threatening her, ~wow, his two favorite things~ was her sarcastic commentary…..thank goodness he wasn’t a telepath.
“Listen carefully,” he warned softly, “because if I have to repeat myself you will regret it.” A pause followed to ensure the threat had been heard before he continued, “Now I appreciate that you have little in the way of culture so I shall make this easy for you. I am going to answer your questions and you will remain silent, when I have finished you will continue to remain silent and think about what I have said. If you have an additional question you will ask permission to speak understood?” Another slight pause in which the elemental assumed her compliance.
Tris was…..Tris was struck dumb by the incessant rage that filled her at the condescending nature of the chauvinistic air elementals words. The patronizing way he spoke at her really grated on Tris’s nerves- Angry annoyance buzzed in her ears, clearing her head of the last vestiges of fear and panic- this guy was going down, was all she could think about. She glared daggers at him, though still side nothing- the only reason she wasn’t screeching the room down was she couldn’t decided which triad to start first, the words all jamming in her throat, wanting to be out and at him first.
“I have no idea what occurred last night, nor am I sure that I truly wish to know. If you continue to insinuate that I am completely at fault I will remove you from my home and deposit you in central park... without my sheets.”
Tris now knew- assuming Zephyr was telling the truth, he was as in the dark about this as she was……the only difference seeming to be in her mind, that he was a rude and uncouth chauvinistic ass who had no human common decency and deserved to be taught a lesson by anyone who could. This threat of walking home naked had an interesting effect on Tris, and maybe not exactly the one intended, taking her focus for one moment off her climbing, boiling rage, and focusing instead on the picture of her, in central park, without any sheets- that was funny, and no doubt she’d have an interesting time getting home yet…………..she didn’t take threats well.
“You slimy, self centered, egotistical, condescending, pompous, arrogant, jerk!” She shouted- God it felt good to finally vent some of those terms that had gotten stuck in her throat, going on with; “You don’t have the balls!” She hissed the crude and antagonistic words, Though now she felt a surprising icy calmness sweep her into its grip, the panic that could engulf her on occasion thankfully no where to be found, instead a simple list of things that must happen blazing in red hot simmering resentment in her mind. The first thing that must happen- she had to get Zephyr to release his elements grip of her so she could move, maybe even make it out of there before his foul mouth got her to do something she would regret. Tempting at it was to blow him up, she still harbored the greatest respect for Hunter, and loath as it was, Zephyr was his second in command and under Kabal protection. So, her other safer option was freezing him- hopefully with the connection broken, she could slip free, maybe kick Zephyr in the groin while he was defenseless, and then slip out before the freeze wore off…..that was a happy thought, so she must try it……Only one problem, Tris’s hands were pinned by her sides, and she wasn’t as good at freezers as the other one- still, Hunter had preformed that hypo whatsit on her to be not so reliant on her hands to work her powers, and she’d been practicing that, so maybe, if she concentrated enough- especially if she could tap into the feelings left behind by the emotional roller coaster she’d been on today, it would happen.
Trista Evans locked her fiery brown eyes, her will power, her entire awareness on Zephyr’s tall figure, and concentrated her energy on him, on reaching out with her mind to his existence and commanding every molecule within his body to cease their function for afew moments, just long enough for her needs. She tried to use imagery, fueling her imagination by seeing his image frozen to the spot in its entirety. She knew something was happening, feeling her powers coming to the fore, making the connecting with the object in question she needed……the only problem was the more she concentrated on Zephyr, the more she felt the simmering resentment of Zephyr, of Zephyr’s treatment of her, of this entirely situation coming to the front of her minds eye as well.
The actual effect of this was- as she was focusing on every molecules of his being, seeing in her minds eye every cell that made up his structure, this smoldering anger made her intentions change, a tiny voice in her head suggesting she burn the molecules, not freeze them, make them sizzle, make them twist and writhe and boil in an agony of sensation……and try as she might to clear her head, the voice, and the anger, were still there, active thoughts within her connection with the ‘object’ that was Zephyr.
Tris blinked, a sudden flash of darkness and desire inside her minds eye drew her into it for a moment, and she lost sight of Zephyr and the room as the insides of her eyes lids were painted with startling images she had never encountered before.
…………………..
Tris suddenly thrown into somewhere else, looking down at a woman in an alley, herself feeling divorced from the scene for the moment, as if she was watching a movie- there but not really there. The women held an elegant sophistication about her person, showing in her chic clothing and coffered hairstyle, but above and beyond this, her stance and posture and everything she was screamed confidence….and right now- annoyance. The brown haired women was looking down at three men who lay before her, crouched on the ground in abject fear, and somehow Tris knew they were not afraid of the two men with guns standing behind them, but of the woman. The woman’s flashing brown eyes sparkled with displeasure, her voice practically hissing her frustration;
“How could you think we wouldn’t find you? That we wouldn’t track you down? We know you were planning on selling out on us….we know the meet you planned to set up- don’t worry, those people have already been dealt with….now all I need from you three in the answer to a tiny, easy question- where did you hide the disk?”
She was saying, settling into a cool and icy tone, finishing by kicking dust in their down cast eyes with a sweep of her foot.
One of the men raised his head from the dust slightly, his quavering voice stating that he didn’t what she was talking about, the other two quick to join in the pleas of innocence.
The women rolled her eyes, Tris could see their fearful pleas only getting on her nerves, not in fact doing them any good at all. Her eyes as flat and cold as her voice, she stated simply; “Very well, we will do this the hard way then.” And with that she thrust out her hand, palm extended towards them, yet other than narrow her eyes slightly, she made no further move towards them. …….the men however, soon beginning to whimper, clutching heads with a white knuckle grasp, gasping for breath, as muscles that would not hold them anymore, had them sprawled on the ground in open and oblivious pain.
“Your blood is boiling.” Said the women calmly in a bored voice; “Soon your lungs will sear….your organs will over heat, and death will come……..a very painful way to die if you don’t TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!” she ended, her calm demeanor cracking slightly at the end there.
One of the men caved- willing to do just about anything to stop the pain of his body being boiled up and burned from the inside. “We gave it to Cardy for safe keeping.” He faintly croaked, struggling to pull himself up, but stumping to the ground again, unable and writhing.
The women smiled brightly at this enlightening new information; “Thank you for your cooperation.” She said in a very fake sincere tone; “Have a nice day.” And with that she waved her hand again, and the men, instead of bring released from their boiling fleshy prison, quietly disintegrated into dust as each molecule of their beings was separated from the others and charred till dust point.
There was silence for a moment more, then one of the guards questioned; “Have a nice day?”
The cold brown eyed women flashed him a wicked grin for his efforts; “Well I will.” She answered.
Tris started- the women had her powers, the knowledge that somehow this horrible, beautiful, cold, and calculating women was her filling her head like migraine- all encompassing but unexplainable…..but that couldn’t be possible, she wasn’t like that- was she?
………………………………………………….
She blinked again (in reality gone just a millisecond) and her eyes cleared to see the room and Zephyr from whatever weird flash- Back? Forward? Otherwise? she had just experienced, suitable freaked out enough to tell Zephyr about her vision, rival though his was……but when she looked at him, she noticed he was not frozen- disappointing, and seemed alittle whiter than usual, sweat beating on his forehead, face contorted into a look of displeasure or pain or something, muscles tense.
It said something of his obvious discomfort that Tris felt compelled to ask;
Staring silently at his unexpected guest the elemental resisted the urge to scowl as his gaze turned cold; such crude and unimaginative insults would, usually, have had little to no impact on the merc’s manner or bearing, yet for some reason Simon could feel his mood darkening as each inane barb left the redheads mouth. Had he not just warned the girl to keep her tongue? She was in no position to speak as she was, if anything she should be begging him not to harm her. ‘Impudent little…’ Swiftly raising his arm once again Zephyr made a clear and definite crushing gesture with his hand while at the same time tightening his vice-like grasp around the redheads chest, squeezing the air from her lungs in order to render her silent.
Although he had never trained a creature in his life Simon had a rudimentary understanding of basic psychology and thus knew what was required in order to condition an animal to perform as desired. All that an individual required was a primary and secondary conditioner, the former to act as a reinforcement for the desired behavior and the latter to act as a signal for the creature to associate with the reinforcement. Thus when Zephyr felt his point had been made he released the crushing gesture and lowered his arm back down to his side. With the secondary conditioner now dismissed the elemental permitted the constrictive pressure around the girls body to fade and watched silently as Tris gasped for air once again, her chest rising and falling sharply as she sought to replenish her lungs all the while staring at him with murder in her eyes.
Zephyr himself returned the malicious glare with one of his own; did this feeble minded child, have no grasp of social conventions? When one was in the power of another it was the subjugated individuals priority to appease their superior in any way they could, yet the inflamed redhead continued to remain defiant; almost as though she were deliberately trying to provoke him. With an irritated scowl the merc raised a knuckled fist and kneaded his forehead as he worked to regain his composure. Much as he hated to admit he was in no fit state to deal with Tris while she continued with her current attitude, more than once now she had managed to get under his skin and evoke a flurry of emotions he still did not want to consider. Lowering his arm Simon did not deign to spare his unwanted guest another glance, instead opting to toss aside the remnants of the covers as he finally removed himself from his bed. The final fact of the matter was that both of them had lost their tempers, or come damn close to it, they needed a chance to cool down.
Moving away from the bed Simon strode wearily towards what appeared to be a solid wooden wall, once within arms reach of it though the elemental placed his palm upon the grained surface; applying a slight amount of pressure to the wooden barricade and causing it to shift inwards an inch or two until an audible click was heard and allowed Simon to slide the wall to the left revealing a closet of modest size. Considering what he and Tris had likely done the night before Zephyr saw little reason for modesty or other social decorum at this point, despite this though the elemental was not accustomed to wandering his own quarters without some type of attire. In order to rectify the situation therefore the vexed merc spent a moment or two absently shifting through the clothing before selecting a plain gray pair of pants from a hanger. A few second later he emerged from the walk in closet, feeling somewhat better now that he was at least partially clothed, he turned his attention once more to the nettlesome individual who occupied the space between the end of his bed and the wall. He noted that Tris had closed her eyes and for a moment wondered if the girl had done so out of her own sense of modesty, he seriously doubted this was the case but it mattered little either way, he would simply say his piece and leave.
“I’m going to make something to eat, when I’m done I’ll let you go. Try to calm down while I’m gone.” Simons voice was carefully neutral as he spoke, for while his negative feelings towards Evans had by no means dispersed he had recognized that if the two of them were to have any hope of engaging in a civilized discussion then one of them would need to be the “bigger man” so to speak, and obviously he was the only possible candidate.
It was as he turned to leave that the pain hit him, at first his mind simply could register the intensity of the new sensation leaving the elemental to wonder, briefly, why his legs had suddenly failed him and his other limbs would not respond.
Then the agony set in.
Pain, as the reader may have read before, is not something that the elemental was much accustomed to; life before his mutation, while admittedly not enjoyable had contained little in the way of physical suffering. Then, once his mutation had been gained and mastered pain had become almost completely optional, and as he had seen little point in enduring pain if he did not have to Zephyr had chosen to forgo that particular sensation, leaving him poorly equipped to deal with his present situation.
It was like nothing he had ever experienced. The world had burst into a kaleidoscope of pain, a mirror falling to the ground in reverse, shattering and scattering and replaying again in brilliant flashes of cold crimson, blue and green that tasted like bitter copper. He’d never been burned alive, felt his own skin crackle and split in the heat, fluids boiling in his own body, hissing as he burst into flames, eating him from the outside in, yet now he was agonizingly aware of each new sensation as it set in, activating dormant nerves and setting off entire networks of pain receptors he had never known existed. He tried to yell, tried to move, tried to do something as his body was turned inside out, but his voice wouldn’t come and his limbs were defiant of his commands as his body remained paralyzed.
As it became evident that he was swiftly running out of options the elementals subconscious mind began working frantically; desperately seeking refuge from the pain. He felt the world darken at the edges, found himself slipping away; his control slowly unraveling and scattering to the winds as his body seemed to lose substance, and he welcomed it; if discarding the physical world was the only way he could escape this torture he would do so gladly.
Then it was over.
The pain abandoned him as swiftly as it assaulted him and with it the strange paralysis which had claimed his body. Simon gasped, drawing a huge, shuddering breath so fast he started coughing, gagging on his own element. Still coughing, Zephyr attempted to get to his knees.
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
Tris, her mind still unconsciously buzzing with the focus of her powers, got no response to her politely concerned query of Zephyr’s current welfare, her face creasing in perplexed confusion that changed quickly to a kind of fascinated horror as she watched the current ban of her existence topple over like a fallen tree and…. This was all Trista Evans had time to notice before her own predicament got in the way of her careful observation of her fallen foe. This painful yet welcome predicament being the steely bands of air molecules that had bound her in an inescapable, invisible prison suddenly decided to go about their normal business- effective meaning there was nothing keeping Tris suspended anymore. While she had both feet firmly set on the ground, Tris, not expecting the sudden absence of pressure, managed to overbalance herself and fall in an ungraceful tangle of limbs and sheets on the floor, there was a thump, and then silence…….
Swearing in a not so muffled tone about good for nothing, irritating, show offs, with their powers and their arrogance, Tris managed to untangle herself and sit up, sorting out her, her sheet, and her hair into something that approached that which social convention would allow. She glared over at the collapsed form of Zephyr again, her suspicious nature, ever so slight bias against his character and slightly dazed mind convincing her that this was all some new ruse to laugh at her, or order her around some more or something- after all, he had to have some plan for dropping her rudely on her head. She knotted the sheet firmly and tied it up, toga style again, before crawling the slow, short distance to her adversary’s side.
As she reached him, trying to heave the annoyance over to begin anew her numerous rants about his behaviors, an alarmed expression spread across her pale features as she realized something- Zephyr was too still, too silent, his eyes staring sightlessly as some unendurable terror that Tris could not imagine- no actor was that good. Another thought crossing her mind as her hand touched his arm, her whole hand recoiling in surprise- Zephyr’s skin felt like it was barely containing an internal fire…. What the hell was going on? This was not normal, and most certainly not a trick he was feigning. Tris, looking down as the still figure, the most annoying person in her life, the bane on her life, lying there in some confounded, torturous pain- her strong and unwanted reaction to this event surprising her as she felt her eyes unintentionally softening anxiously, her intent not to harm him as she so often envisioned, only to help. This strange feeling of protectiveness towards the person of Zephyr was a defiant shock to Tris, all her attention focused on the unwanted ness of this weird feeling, pushing it away, far more comfortable with being enemies than anything else with this irritating male- despite unwelcome memories from that morning trying to squeeze into her mind ……unnoticed by Tris, unused to the feeling, the strange ‘buzzing’, ‘sizzling’ connection with the ‘object’ faded abruptly, cutting lose the subconscious link with the ‘prey’, her terrifying power lying once more dormant, waiting to be called on again in need.
….
It was as if someone had pushed the ‘play’ button- the still and silent, wounded statue of a moment before, came to gasping, animated life. The creature rising slowly and painful from the floor in jerky moments, Zephyr, drawing shuddering breaths, coughing and gasping, rising to his knees with unconscious determination, his blazing gaze showing shadowed signs that he had just come back from the depths of hell. Tris, blinked in surprise, but recovering quickly, maneuvered around to face him, reaching out to grab hold of a still too hot hand, trying to get his attention. Her face matched her tone precisely, anxious and with a touch of curiosity;
“Zephyr- what happened?…..Do…do, you want me to call Hunter?” Her voice soft and hesitant.
When his mutation had first started to flourish during his childhood and teenage years Simon had been prone to migraines. There had been things he had done to relieve them of course; warm compress, a dark room, breathing through your mouth… little things that worked together to take the pain away. There were times however when such small comforts were not an option, when he could not afford to relax. In those times he found it hard to function, to focus, to plan, or simply retain any form of control. In those times cognition came in feverish bursts of coherency, striking like dangerous children in the dark, running out of the carnival colours, spinning like tops behind his eyes, dressed in flashing red and blues.
This was one of those times.
Thoughts struck at random; laughing figures from the corners of his aching mind and with them came the maddening question: ‘Why? Why won’t it stop?’ Like any other time. Demanding it softly to himself , a muffled shout, gritting it out silently as he stubbornly denied any show of weakness even as his skin developed an entirely unbecoming shade of green. Pain without a source or a reason, without visible cause or motivation. It’s the worst kind, the maddening kind, because you can’t touch it, clutch it to you, staunch the flow or bind the sprain. There just the constant sensation eating its way through your core, the untouchable pain. It’s a fragile existence.
The fact that his blood was boiling him from the inside out didn’t help much either.
He’d barely managed to get to his hand and knees before a tremor ran through his body, rendering him immobile and forcing him to draw a shuddering breath to combat the sudden onslaught of nausea in his stomach. ‘Wha- What the hell is this?’ The thought echoed helplessly through the merc’s disjointed mind. It was all he could do to simply retain his balance, to fight his trembling limbs and with each second that passed it only seemed to get harder. Each breath he took was becoming steadily harder and more painful, as though his own body were rejecting efforts to recover. He could sense darkness on the edge of his vision…
A warn hand engulfed his own, “Zephyr- what happened?..."[/color]
Lightening jolted through his mind, instantly dispersing the darkness as his awareness shifted violently; for a split second all his senses were enhanced. Once more he could smell the strange combination of lilac and sandalwood, hear soft yet anxious breaths just in front of him, feel a steady pulse in the hand atop his own and something clicked.[/i]
For the second time that day he lost control. A biting pain flared in his mouth as foreign energy raced through his body, banishing the fatigue and granting his limbs inhuman speed as his hand suddenly leapt forwards; shrugging off the redhead’s concerned touch and clutching her forearm in a death grip. His neck gave an almost audible crack as his head snapped up and for a fraction of a moment he could clearly see the confusion and panic in her hazel eyes before his muscles and he struck…
…blood was never meant to taste so sweet.
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
The only answer Tris got to her repeated question was as unexpected as it was frightening. The too warm and clammy hand she had been anxiously holding was suddenly grasping her forearm with relentless pressure, the movement too blindingly fast for her eyes to follow. Tris recoiled in surprised shock, but the tense grip on her arm didn’t let her get very far, his death grip unbreakable and the pressure increasing- it hurt, she was going to have a massive bruise on her pale skin if he wasn’t careful.
There was a cracking sound as Zephyr’s head snapped up far to fast, Tris’s stunned eyes flicking uneasily towards Zephry’s own brilliant blue gaze, she not liking what she saw there in that millisecond- blind frenzy…. Her heart thumped unevenly- as much as she hated to admit it, this was freaking her out; he was scaring her. Tris was about to voice her opinion about how this so wasn’t funny anymore and for him to quit this bizarre behavior, but apparently the unexpected was not done for today, as, muscled tensed, Zephyr swiftly lunged at her.
Tris shrieked as he bodily slammed into her, a intensely sharp pain making her cry out, yet the meaning of this pushed aside as the momentum of their unintended flight sent them both flying backwards, the tangled couple seemingly floating for afew seconds before gravity reasserted itself, and with an unhealthy THUMP they both landed on the hard floor again- Tris first. It had all happened so fast that Tris hadn’t even had a chance to freeze anything, especially not without the use of one hand. Tris gasped as she hit the floor, her breathing coming in short, sharp pants- dazed, breathless, faint and dizzy, she’d landed in such a way the floor also gave Tris a good crack to the back of her head as she’d come down.
Tris groaned as she lay there, head spinning, movements slow, feeling faint and hazy as she tried to breathe with Zephyr crushing her to the floor. Winded and bruised, Tris had numerous pains to account for, and yet her sluggish mind was trying to get her attention, something about Zephyr….well- she could feel his body and arms pinning her to immobility on the ground, she could feel every line and plane of him crushed up against her, he was so crushingly close to her she could distinguish every rise and fall of his rapid breaths, could feel the still unnaturally feverish heat emanating from his body, especially where naked heated flesh touched her own warming skin, she could even faintly make out a thump thump thump, a hollow but hurried vibration that signaled the pulse of his heart beating- all this information drifted to her at a seemingly slow pace, vibrant yet dreamlike as very sensation was brought center stage and inspected in all its animated and coruscating beauty for a microsecond before flittering up to join the haze of her thoughts while another came to be the center of attention….. it was interesting what you noticed, when your thoughts wandered unattended and free to be themselves….. But also something else- his head angled into the crook of her neck and buried there, what light there was glinting dimly on dark chocolate brown hair, she couldn’t see his eyes but she knew the cropped chocolate tresses would be falling to try obscure his gaze like they always did…..but still something, something more…. And now as her poor fogged mind focused, she realized she could feel something that was there all along- could feel satin smooth lips sliding against her hot skin, coarse teeth grazing her neck again and again, and the never-ending swirl of an expert tongue moving to send tingles of fire and ice all along Tris’s nerve ending and up and down her spin, the movement surprisingly intimate, seemingly out of context with the current situation, yet Tris didn’t complain. The sensation was actually amazingly pleasant, and Tris lay quiet and still, not knowing why Zephyr was doing what he was doing, yet too dazed to do anything much more than wonder idly about the topic for the moment, and enjoying the mysterious, tingling, sucking powerful pressure too much to really care.
However Tris’s self preservation instincts, able to grasp concepts her conscious mind was in no condition to be aware of, had other ideas, trying to kick her abused and hazy brain into gear with another jolt of adrenaline to realize what was really going on here. In sporadic flashes, electrical energy dancing along her neural pathways, her mind began to ‘see’, to connect the dots that would have been dotted long ago if she hadn’t been winded, dazed and bruised from plummeting through the air with Zephyr.
…..Come to think of it, it felt like he was lapping up something wet from her skin…. Come to think of it, the adrenaline from the fall had dulled it some, but if she concentrated, the base of her neck was throbbing with a sharp and incessant pain, and while the pain mixed and mingled with the slivery tingles and shocks that were rapidly turning Tris’s body into a heated live wire, hastening the feelings and accentuating them rather than halting them, Tris still knew there was something very not right about this…..
Come to think of it, that wet substance felt sticky and warm…… like blood…..and he was……and with the tearing pain in her neck….
….suddenly her lethargic mind had finally connected the rather obvious dots. Oh God, Zephyr had BIT HER! - it was not turning out to be a very nice day for Tris, all things considered. And worse, he was still biting her, and the sweetly soothing motions of his mouth on her skin was actually him SUCKING her blood. Oh God! The very thought was abhorrent to Tris- she even viewed needles with deadly distrust, and this was horribly worse and wrong and so….. Tris’s thoughts trailed off, it was becoming harder to keep focused, as the lightheadedness was getting stronger.
Tris gasped in shock, operating on automatic, she bucked against him, trying to push him off, but she couldn’t move her arms no matter how she strained and tensed against the feverish iron fetters that held her in place- that didn’t mean she was giving up through, her body writhed and twisted under Zephyr’s strange assault, becoming very much like another aspect of a live wire as she jolted and jerked, her neck curving away from the insidious parasite that was draining her blood, her gasping breath echoing in her ears as her back arched off the carpet trying to…..trying to……trying to….
An unintended moan slipped from Tris’s lips as she slumped back to the floor, her energy draining faster than she would have thought possible, a beyond tired weariness seeping through her being at the very little effects her efforts had had from freeing her of the complete alien ness of these feelings and this situation……it was becoming too much effort to be afraid, but still, she had to ask; “Simon, what…….what….are you……doing to me?” her breathless whisper broken with many pauses.
Although the early part of his life had been rather sheltered Zephyr liked to think that he had managed to broaden his horizons over the last few years. He had visited foreign countries, acquainted himself with the locals, sampled exotic food and drink and experienced both the pleasure and the pain from compounds of dubious repute.
Never had he felt anything like this.
It was almost indescribable
Energy coursed through his veins, circulating through his system with more potency than any drug could ever hope to match. His previous pain all but forgotten as his senses focused upon the delicious fluid flowing down his throat, fulfilling a hunger he hadn’t even realized was there.
He could feel the body struggling beneath him, felt it twist, felt it turn, pressing itself against him. Whether it sought escape or release he couldn’t tell but his arms held firm as he relentlessly devoured all he could, all the while the staccato breaths grew shorter, the low moans longer and the will to fight weaker. It thrilled him; this sense of dominance, of control, he wanted more, he would-
“Simon… ”[/color]
He stopped, his body frozen in sudden rigor mortis as his disbelieving mind registered what his ears had told him. He hadn’t used his real name since he’d left home; he’d wanted nothing to do with his father or the man’s family, discarding everything the man given him including his birth name, so how? How in Gods name did she know it? The shock plowed through his mind, wiping out his hunger and bringing him back to his senses. Opening eyes that he hadn’t realized he’d closed Simon blinked and for a moment simply stared at the white carpeted floor which a small part of him noted was slowly turning brown.
“ what….are you……doing to me?”[/color]
The voice was barely whisper yet Zephyr heard the words as clearly as though they had been bellowed into his ears. What had he been doing? He vaguely recalled grabbing Tris’s arm but very little afterwards. Feeling something shift under him slightly he realized that he was lying on top of the redhead, hands pinning her arms to the ground while his legs straddled her hips and his head resting against- wait, why were his lips… wet? Remaining as he was the elemental slowly brushed a hand across his mouth before lifting his head to view the strangely sticky substance…
‘Blood?’
His brow creased itself into a look of perplexed unease as he stared at the crimson liquid which coated his fingers, ‘but I feel fine.’ In fact he felt far better than that but his thoughts were a little too preoccupied to register the fact. Simon’s confusion did not last long however, for he acted the same way anyone would when faced with such a conundrum; he glanced down. And promptly bolted upright when he spotted the modest puncture wounds in his companions neck which even now were releasing a steady flow of scarlet fluid.
“What the hell?!” the elementals exclamation was not as loud as it could have been, yet given the harmonics of the room it certainly carried well enough to be taken as such. Yet it was doubtful that anyone else even noticed the cry for the room was well built and the only other occupant seemed far from coherent in her thoughts. Frankly though Simon wouldn’t have cared who heard him at this point in time; his mind was currently running in a thousand different directions at once, trying to piece together exactly what had just happened even as Tris slowly bled her life away just below him. After a moment or two though one of his errant thoughts pointed out that the last thing he needed right now was a corpse on his hands and so Zephyr hurriedly pushed his other suspicions aside as he tried to remember what little first aid he knew.
Staunching the flow was the first thing to do, stop the blood and you had half the battle won right there. Not wishing to spend time searching for an appropriate bandage the merc simply went for the first material he could find and so grasped a handful of her sheet covered midriff, promptly severing it from the main body before holding it firmly against the wound. However the material quickly became soaked, forcing him to sacrifice more of the sheet to halt the flow. ‘This isn’t working’ he thought irritably, the sheets hadn’t been designed for this type of task; he needed proper gauze, water, a way to elevate the wound and something to act as a disinfectant.
‘Of all the damned…’ Keeping one hand curled tightly around the girls neck Simon slid his other arm under the redhead knees and deftly swept her into his arms, feeling momentarily surprised at how light she was before stalking out of the bedroom and into the living area, muttering curses as he did so. ‘Why does this crap always happen to me?’ He thought irritably as he strode past the kitchen. ‘First there was her initiation, though I did that myself.’ Not missing a beat he quickly navigated around the various office furniture before laying his partner down on a dark leather couch. ‘Then there was the bloody episode at the warehouse.. come to think of it she never did give me my bike back.’ The elementals hands froze briefly before he returned to his task and resumed placing pillows under the girls head to elevate the wound. ‘And didn’t she faint after that training exercise as well?’ His mind was a little foggy about that particular incident but he had gained momentum now. ‘Every time, every damn time we meet she pulls something like this.’ He hunted blindly through the bathroom until he finally found what he was looking for. ‘How the hell does Antonescue manage to put up with her?’ Sitting down next to his companion Simon began sorting through the first aid kit as he searched for gauze.‘Honestly it’s like I’m taking care of a child.’ nimbly looping the thick cloth around the redheads neck the merc’s hands jolted to stop.
…how the hell am I supposed to do this?’
Roughly five minutes later Zephyr had finally discarded his role of medic; not wanting to choke the girl in any way he had finally improvised and used several pieces of masking tape to hold the bandage in place. Now he was in the process of trying to salvage what he could of the suits decorum; spraying water on anything with a blood stain and tossing out the crimson soaked rags which had previously been his sheets. Even after finishing this though he could still make out the stench of blood, hanging in the air like a weak mist. Something about the smell put him on edge, yet that made no sense; he’d never had this problem before, more than half of his jobs normally required him to spill blood so what was going on?
He needed a drink, something to calm him down though preferably alcoholic in content. Fortuitously he happened to have an ample supply of beverages which fell into that category. Wandering wearily into the modest sized kitchen the elementals feet feel upon the cool checkered tiles with hardly a sound as he made his way over to the onyx oblong lodged in the corner of the cooking space. Easily the center piece, or at least the most eye catching part of the kitchen any observers may have been surprised when the merc’s gaze moved directly past the obsidian refrigerator and fixed upon an unassuming cupboard a few meters to its left. Concealed behind the unpretentious wooden door was, as one may have already guessed, a second cooling unit. Standing no more than waist level the smaller unit was only three feet wide, yet it made up for its deficiencies by being surprisingly deep, extending a few feet into bedroom next to it.
After a few moment’s of irritated searching Simon managed to find something to his tastes and withdrew from the smaller fridge with his desired brew in hand. Leaning back against the kitchen sink the elemental snatched a magnetic from its place on the ebony fridge and deftly removed the cap before the container to his lips and preparing drink.
‘Scrkkkt’[/i]
A strange grating sensation originated from the top of the mercenary’s mouth, not painful but simply jarring. A feeling akin to nails down a chalk board Simon swiftly jerked the bottle away and held it at arms length as his other hand attempted to seek out the source of the unwelcome sensation. However when his questing fingers encountered what felt like an elongated fangs in place of one of his canines he paused, sure he that was mistaken, yet when further inquiries found a second, matching anomaly, in the appropriate place for such a thing Zephyr felt something plummet into his stomach and glanced cautiously at the bottle in his hand only to have his suspicions confirmed as he spotted a single unwavering scratch down the length of the glass neck.
‘No.’
Completely ignoring the comatose girl on his couch the elemental all but stumbled back into the bathroom. Still clutching what was fast becoming a rather drained bottle of beer the merc went straight for the nearest mirror and saw his own azure eyes widen in shock as they focused on two gleaming ivory points.
‘H-how?’
Fangs, there was no deny that was what they were, two curved, razor sharp fangs extended just slightly below his upper lip shining clearly in the synthetic light. Zephyr’s thought’s whirled once again as he frantically tried to put puzzle together, sadly it seemed that all he had he was completely missing any corners, edges or even a picture from which to build a foundation. Despite his lack of information no little amount of anger the elemental abruptly came to two conclusions; the first being the Atonescue was responsible for whatever had happened him; not a great jump in logic by any means but at least it gave him something to focus on. As for the second conclusion, well…
Simon stalked out of the room, dark storm clouds passing visibly over his face for any to see as he closed in on the lifeless figure lying on his couch. Not sparing a moment to consider what damage or pain his actions might cause the elementals hands reached out, prepared to tear away the taped bandage he had applied only minutes before. As he reached out though his eyes glanced down for a split second and his arm froze.
It should, perhaps, be noted that in the course of stopping the redhead from dying of blood loss Simon had… sacrificed a large amount of the girls improvised dress to staunch the flow. Although Tris had, admittedly, possessed very little in terms of attire since the start of this unhappy episode she now, literally, had nothing.
So, circumstances being what they were, it is not entirely unconceivable that the elementals azure gaze had wandered for a moment, or maybe two, when his eyes caught site of two rounded indentations. Less than a centimeter in diameter and only an inch or two apart the marks had the fresh pink of newly healed skin and were centered on the girls left breast. The sight gave the merc a seconds pause as he realized what he was seeing, then his hands slowly began to trace down…
--
An indefinite amount of time later Simon lay seated in a deep leather armrest, elbows on his knees and head in his hands as he struggled to remember anything before this morning. He could recall flashes of events at the labs, wandering down side streets in the city, where he had lunch but his entire evening was blank. There was nothing in his memories to explain how he’d managed to end up with Tris or the marks he’d found on her body, though the latter required no great stretch of the imagination to explain.
The problem though was that each of the bites were at different stages of healing. The most recent was, of course, her neck, however Zephyr had also found a fresh bite along the redheads inner thigh which looked to be only a day or so old. In addition to this he had come across a flesh coloured band aid on the underside of Tris’s forearm just a few inches above the wrist and although it had been left in place he was certain he knew what it covered. Including the one he had found on her chest that made a grand total of four ranging from a few minutes to maybe a week in terms of age. Yet if that was the case then it implied that the two of them had been together for more than just one night.
Raising his head a fraction from his hands the elemental shot a frustrated expression towards his drained companion who was now covered by a small blue towel. Exposed as she was Simon had been finding it somewhat… difficult, to think and although it was likely that Tris would be somewhat… displeased with the attire he had chosen for her the merc was confident that her current state of undress of would keep the redhead confined to couch and thus hopefully avoid a repeat performance of what had happened in the bedroom, hopefully.
With a sigh Simon glanced at the phone on the table beside him, he’d tried repeatedly to call the labs in an effort to find out what was the hell was going on or to locate Antonescue so he could grill the immortal, both figurative and literally, on why the two of them now shared a taste for blood, but no one was picking up. So for the moment at least it seemed as though he was on his own, which in turn meant that he was staying here as he had no intention of leaving Tris alone since he actually liked the suite he had here.
Returning his gaze to the redhead opposite him Zephyr thought over the day’s events so far; his unwanted awakening with the unpleasant shock and accusations that came with it to the strangely intimate embrace which he still couldn’t wrap his head around. Then there was the searing pain which had come after their little standoff; he had yet to give that any further thought but he was certain that it had somehow triggered his newly developed vampiric abilities which were a mystery in their own right.
None of it made any sense.
Lowering his head back into his hands and closing his eyes the elemental muttered in frustration, “This is so fucked up.”
Cafas: "Zephyr is the king of bad decisions, but if Sebby being weak to ghost is anything to go by, not so amazing at follow through."
Trista Evans pale lids flickered shut over soulful brown eyes as her whispered breath uttered that last question, her will to fight or even care slowly streaming away from her as her brilliant ruby life’s blood trickled down her neck, soaking the creamy carpet a dull, ever spreading red. Her tense features slowly relaxed as her taut muscles gradually unknotted without conscious command, Tris’s face becoming one of seemingly peaceful repose as she lay there, paler now as blood failed to get to flaccid limbs, the essence of her flowing free instead, welling in the deep marks Zephyr’s mouth had gouged into her flesh, then as gravity took over, trailing down her already slick neck, a bright red banner that signaled all that had happened here today- desire, violence, danger…….maybe even death.
It hurt of course- the open wound gouged into the side of her neck, but it seemed a ways away and not so important right now. Also of little significance was the way Tris’s vision began to blur and darken, the way her sense of touch felt bunted- the sense of soft carpet supporting her and of Zephyr’s heated weight crushing her feeling less and less real. The fact of the matter was that blood lost, combined with a concussion and the stress of the day was already pulling Tris over towards the shifting dream realm of unconsciousness, and she right now, could not be bothered to heed the danger this presented to her body and mind. The only thing of vague importance that registered in the mind of the dazed red head, or would register, if anything felt important right now, was, in contradiction to the norm, while her body was finding it difficult to render her internal temperature stable, leaving her body colder- she instead ‘felt’ a strange sort of warmth overtake her psyche and physical self, the radiant essence seeming to lift the fading mind from its physical form and let it soar or dip where it would.
Tris felt apathetic about her wounds, indifferent about her chances of becoming back to a reality she knew, too unconcerned to even consider vengeance against the devious and underhanded lord of air whom she would usually be quite happy to plan on shredding to pieces for what he had done to her, but now, not so much. At first, it was true, she had been fading, falling into blackness and blank emptiness as a result of her injuries, but now, something had happened to replace the empty void of unconsciousness, shine above it…….Tris’s scattered thoughts began to reassembled despite her hazy internal mind, all else was unimportant now- she had but one goal, a single focus …..right now Trista Evan’s only concern in the entirety of existence was to embrace the feeling swelling inside her mind, heart and soul, to embrace all it was, to surrender totally to the unknown sensations filling her up- let them take her where they will.
This feeling, sensation, out of body experience- whatever it would name itself that had seized hold of Tris’s heart, mind and body, the way a thief would steal quietly yet efficiently into the heart of a castle was suddenly and totally the sum total of everything that Tris was.
It would be curious, if Tris cared enough to be curious as she glided over long forgotten dreams and memories buried deep below her conscious mind, where this strange but appreciated feeling had come from- there had been Zephyr and then was pain and struggle, then there was a brief time of drained acceptance, and now this……. It mattered little now, for she knew she would gladly accept all that came before now for this……it was so beyond worth it…..
She was floating, floating on waves of serene bliss, a radiant energy that was pure, soft but engulfing power of all consuming ‘I might be in paradise’ pleasure. Tris wasn’t exactly in a state to maintain her thoughts in coherent order at this time, yet if she was, she might have been heard to remark that this mysterious feeling that had stolen entirely over her being in a tenderly comforting embrace of the most skilled lover was remarkably miraculous, a transcended state of mind that was past her experience- way better than chocolate cake to a chocoholic, way better than mind altering drugs to an addict, better even than sex, and that was saying something… The experience took her breath away…… a memory shocked her- a sharp sting as Zephyr began to taste sweet flesh……..her breath, took her breathe away- wait, was that Zephyr still bleeding her dry? Confusion may well have reigned at this internal statement if it had not been for the transcendent radiance that swept her along on the tide of its wake, and one might forgive Tris for not struggling with the almighty force of which she was a willing prisoner, for not wanting to leave this strange but glorious state of mind and body. …..so she didn’t. Instead she drifted.
Drifting, her mind far away, walking trails of dreams on tendrils of dark imaginings and smoky desires, straying close to reality at times- aware in brief moments of weightlessness, outside as well as in- someone caring her? Or was she really flying? Aware of light touches on her body then corresponding soreness around her neck. Aware of cool air on her skin- she shivered then, but never stirred, never opened her eyes, for to do so would be to loss the feeling, and she wouldn’t do that. So for brief periods of time Tris was vaguely aware of touch and sound…….but then she was away again, wandering towards far more fascinating memories- experiences she’d had, shadowy fantasies seldom expressed, every detail of her visions heighten in the most vivid imagined reality she had ever experienced.
……
There was no way in the depths of hell that Tris would ever willingly let go of the completely blissed out state she was in right now, not for food or water or to avoid a deep stage coma- but fate it seemed had other ideas. Slowly and ever so gently, Tris’s own personal radiant rapture started to fade- it went gradually, setting Tris’s consciousness safely and firmly back in her own mind, leaving only a supremely perfect memory, and a deep and overwhelming sadness at the loss of such. The sense of loss and longing was acute, stirring up a memory of something Tris had once read that seemed to suit her current state. “For if a man should dream of Heaven and waking, find within his hand a flower as token that he had really been there- what then, What then?” Unbeknowanced to Tris, a single tear escaped from wet eyelashes to make a lonely tract down her alabaster cheek.
…….
It was a time later- which time Tris did not know, when deep brown eyes opened to light a pale face. Tris was herself again, well as much of herself as she had been before the incident- sore, confused, and with a seemingly overwhelming tiredness streaming over her prone form. But Tris could not sleep, did not move yet even though she had been still as stone through the entire experience, she was content for the moment to relax into her cushioned seat (hmmm, it seemed she had been moved) and the profoundly quiet atmosphere and just stare up at the ceiling, marveling at, well, everything.
Tris didn’t feel particularly inclined to worry about where Zephyr was just yet or how she was going to react to him, didn’t notice the inadequate cloth which had been laid over her form as she only covering, didn’t seem to overly mind the uncomfortable ache that was her gouged throat.
No doubt she would feel differently when she remembered what happened, no doubt talking to Zephyr would accelerate her emotional decline, darkening her mood to the point of rage, as what was usually happened in her discourse with the elemental- he just got under her skin in completely unexpected and annoying ways.
For now Tris was content to simply be…….but as ever, the girl had a amazingly short fuse when it came to some people. It seemed rather predictable that the quiet would soon a distant memory if or when Zephyr did not chose his words with the delicacy of a brain surgeon performing a terribly tricky operation.
))