Re: The Gradual Massacre (GBS2G4) [Round 2: The Museum]
09-24-2010, 07:43 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by whoosh!.
A few minutes of zig-zagging through the odd artificial twilight of the warehouse only apparently resulted in having completely lost the elf. Acacia’s eyes skimmed around, obstinately skipping over the gleaming glass cabinets and displays. She didn’t want to know.
I do.
“And so it begins,” Acacia muttered, picking a path through the glass and sticking to it.
That’s the second time you’ve so cheaply used our boomer upon my beloved. It must be terrible to be so limited in thought. I wonder, what will you do when you meet again? When you use the boomer, remember that I called it.
“And you? What do you do when faced with an enemy, Aic? What wild thoughts do you have?”
Something sniggered darkly at the back of her mind.
A moment later, Acacia was on all fours, clawing at her stomach and staring blankly at the splatter of vomit before her, but only seeing what Aic’s imagination had thrown up. Her entire body shuddered, wracked by fear and disgust and perhaps the smallest sliver of awe.
So pathetically, deliciously weak. It’s a wonder you could even look at the plags. The only thing separating you is a wretched appearance.
“But… the plague victims. Those things you did to them…”
Laughter screamed through her head.
Oh gods yes, Acacia. You deserve their fate exactly. You wouldn’t believe how much I would give to do it all to you, every cut, every snap, every pathetic little noise they choked up. And the eventual stillness, the disease cut out from the world.
Little giggles trailed away into the dark, gaping space in her mind, sounding curiously organic even in spite of the poison and spite laced in it. Nothing like her current hellish chuckle. She would have called it a memory, but Acacia could barely remember having reason to laugh. Aic probably had all the reason to in the world in those dark little thoughts of hers.
Acacia just shakily flipped off the vague area behind her back, and limply attempted to pull herself back up only to ineffectually scuff the floor. She suddenly paused, her gaze strangely captivated by her pale bare feet against the dark concrete floor. And lingering on the heel, the brand of the Seventh Sanctum. Acacia traced a languid finger across it in a daze. She didn’t feel good. The crap with Aic was bad, but she’d never felt so drained. This entire knotted and painful mess was just insane, and holding onto her like some demon limpet.
She absently traced the dark rings of the Seventh Sanctum and cried alone in the gloom.
Eventually it ended, but she felt no better. There was a gaping maw on the inside and a rabid sense of claustrophobia on the out. It felt nuts. It felt electric. And she just wanted…
“…To hurt something,” she whispered through her daze. She barely noticed the tickle of blood running down her arm from where her nails dug into the soft flesh.
It was the prime moment for Aic to return, and return she did. She didn’t say anything (did she need to?) but her presence pressed on her. Something cold and wet, festering and moldering in the back of her head…
Acacia staggered to her feet and ran. Her feet immediately shrieked with the onset of cramp, but she just hopped until it slacked off. Glass and reflections slid by, the faceless onlookers of her last ditch attempt to get the poison out.
She ran wildly, aimlessly, until her breath scratched against her throat and she couldn’t see for the tears. She slid down to the ground again. Acacia felt certain she would never stand again.
“Why won’t you leave? Why? Why. Why?!” If she still had her breath she was sure she would have created a strangled scream that would have brought the whole building down, but she affected nothing. She barely even made a sound beyond the shrieking mess in her head.
“Weak,” she choked, her voice barely audible and her lips only just moving. “So weak. I’m going to die. Die amongst strangers. Except for my closest enemy, who follows, always following.”
Aic still waited in her loud silence.
“Just take it. Take it and do what you want.”
She closed her eyes, quietly savouring the coolness of the floor against her boiling cheek in some detached part of herself.
“Go back to that elf who tricked you. Watch her die. Die. But for the love of anything good, don’t drag me into it.”
Her whole body relaxed. At least it wouldn’t hurt. This was a death she preferred, even if it left a bitter taste to the last part of her that still wouldn’t let go.
But no blissful oblivion came. Just the feeling of Aic and the cold warehouse floor and darkness.
What… what do you mean? The uncertainty was undeniable, and almost enough to shock her out of her total relaxation. Almost.
“It’s over. Congratulations. You won.”
No… Holly? She… what do you mean? What trickery?
A little of Acacia burst into life. A little cunning, a little belief, a little hope. The relentless monster wasn’t all-knowing and she certainly wasn’t invulnerable. An errant finger twitched. A ghost of a smile flitted past her lips. But her grip on the inevitable was still too strong, and the words came freely.
“In the belltower. She forced love on you, in defence. Surely you remember better than I do? How do you think it took off so fast?”But the words were not without a burning, sneaking incredulousness. She wondered, hoped, watched with her heart beating a little quicker. Here it was. The flawless goddess of pain and terror, poised to fall from her pedestal and shatter.
Would it regain its balance? Or would she fall?
…No. No, I- I love Holly. It’s real. She wouldn’t…
“Don’t you remember, Aic? You were about to smash her face in seconds before you first kissed –“
No! No! No!
Acacia stirred. Her eyes still closed, she scrabbled for a hold on the floor and shakily pulled herself up into a sitting position. Her faith was burning again. Perhaps not blazing, but glowing. She could feel the uncertainty, the paranoia unfolding for someone other than her for once.
The goddess teetered.
And then came acceptance. The howl of dread, of irrefutable truth glaring back.
And the goddess fell. And her soul burst into flame.
Suddenly, it was very quiet and dark for Acacia. Aic had faded away, and she was alone with her eyes screwed shut in a world without sound. Acacia couldn’t bring herself to see. Perhaps it would prove to all be fake, a dream world without bearing on the inescapable final shell of coldness and pain. So she stood.
It felt real. Each thumb moved over the four fingers on their respective hands, and found none wanting. It was right. She was free.
Nonetheless, her heart was beating as if trying to explode just before she lifted her lids to see out on what was real.
It was then, of course, that she spoke.
Acacia?
She expected fear and got only cold indifference.
“Yeah?” Acacia replied, tilting her head a little.
Let’s…
A silence fell, as if Aic was searching for the right words.
Let’s go fuck that elf’s shit up.
She smirked.
“Sure. I could use a truce.”
Aic and Acacia opened their eyes to a world that was as real as it had always been.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As it happened, the elf came to them. Sobbing and crawling in the dirt, gasping for Acacia to let ‘her’ out.
Aic and Acacia simply stared at the quivering mess at their feet for a moment.
’I’ll admit, this wasn’t exactly how I envisioned our revenge. ‘
You… actually gave that thought? Whatever for? Seriously, why haven’t you gone comatose from boredom already?
’Why haven’t you got yourself killed already?’
Maybe it’s just because I love you so much, dearest Acacia. Now shut up and let me deal with this, darling.
Acacia continued her clueless stare, even as she pushed over control.
The first port of call was, quite naturally, to remove the braindead expression.
“Holly,” she whispered, dropping down to her knees and encircling her shaking body with her arms. “Dearest Holly, I’m here. It’s ok. I’m here. What the hell happened?”
The reply was a little muffled by Aic’s shoulder, but the venom in it was clear as crystal.
“Acacia, of course. She relies too much on that stupid boomer thingy. And always getting in the way of our fun.” She nuzzled Aic gently.
Acacia snorted. “Yeah, she’s an irritating little bitch,” she replied automatically, staring down Holly’s back at the traitorous hand clutched around her pistol. It glinted in the light, promising the repulsion of blood and sweet sting of victory in the same shudder of her hands. But… not yet.
“Holly.”
“Mm?”
“Do you remember…”
“Remember what, Aic?”
“At the school,” she whispered, running a hand over Holly’s back in lazy arcs. “Because you know what? I thought back a bit. And suddenly, I realized something.” She paused, completely still. “I realized that you lied to me,” she hissed, immediately tightening the hug. A gasp escaped Holly, but no more. Aic smiled into the gloom beyond the elf’s back, and pressed the gun against her spine.
“Your little trick in the bell tower? Payback, my darling. No one uses me like that, least of all a prissy little elf who comes on to the first thing that so much as breathes near her. Got that?”
Holly tensed up under her arms, even futilely attempting to wriggle free of her grip. Aic just pressed the gun a little deeper, her dreamy smile stretching a little wider as she fell still again.
“Good. Now listen in. You’re going to die, elf whore, and there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s it. As much as I’d love to snap your legs, I’m not going to risk losing out on putting a bullet through something important.”
She paused, then turned her head and tenderly planted a kiss on the side of Holly’s neck.
“Nice knowing you,” she whispered, and let go.
Aic leapt backwards, blindly kicking out at Holly and grimacing with bland satisfaction as the bare foot connected. She stumbled a little, but held her gun steady and trained on its target. And paused. A grey eye stared back through the pathomancer’s streaks of dirty blonde hair. Despite everything, despite all the hate in her brain screaming for that twitch of her finger that would end it all, she let her eyes lock with that single grey one.
Just staring.
“No!” Aic screamed, her throat burning. “I’m not doing this! You’re dead, elf! Dead!”
One last moment in which to regret what she was about to do – and then the trigger was pulled.
A few minutes of zig-zagging through the odd artificial twilight of the warehouse only apparently resulted in having completely lost the elf. Acacia’s eyes skimmed around, obstinately skipping over the gleaming glass cabinets and displays. She didn’t want to know.
I do.
“And so it begins,” Acacia muttered, picking a path through the glass and sticking to it.
That’s the second time you’ve so cheaply used our boomer upon my beloved. It must be terrible to be so limited in thought. I wonder, what will you do when you meet again? When you use the boomer, remember that I called it.
“And you? What do you do when faced with an enemy, Aic? What wild thoughts do you have?”
Something sniggered darkly at the back of her mind.
A moment later, Acacia was on all fours, clawing at her stomach and staring blankly at the splatter of vomit before her, but only seeing what Aic’s imagination had thrown up. Her entire body shuddered, wracked by fear and disgust and perhaps the smallest sliver of awe.
So pathetically, deliciously weak. It’s a wonder you could even look at the plags. The only thing separating you is a wretched appearance.
“But… the plague victims. Those things you did to them…”
Laughter screamed through her head.
Oh gods yes, Acacia. You deserve their fate exactly. You wouldn’t believe how much I would give to do it all to you, every cut, every snap, every pathetic little noise they choked up. And the eventual stillness, the disease cut out from the world.
Little giggles trailed away into the dark, gaping space in her mind, sounding curiously organic even in spite of the poison and spite laced in it. Nothing like her current hellish chuckle. She would have called it a memory, but Acacia could barely remember having reason to laugh. Aic probably had all the reason to in the world in those dark little thoughts of hers.
Acacia just shakily flipped off the vague area behind her back, and limply attempted to pull herself back up only to ineffectually scuff the floor. She suddenly paused, her gaze strangely captivated by her pale bare feet against the dark concrete floor. And lingering on the heel, the brand of the Seventh Sanctum. Acacia traced a languid finger across it in a daze. She didn’t feel good. The crap with Aic was bad, but she’d never felt so drained. This entire knotted and painful mess was just insane, and holding onto her like some demon limpet.
She absently traced the dark rings of the Seventh Sanctum and cried alone in the gloom.
Eventually it ended, but she felt no better. There was a gaping maw on the inside and a rabid sense of claustrophobia on the out. It felt nuts. It felt electric. And she just wanted…
“…To hurt something,” she whispered through her daze. She barely noticed the tickle of blood running down her arm from where her nails dug into the soft flesh.
It was the prime moment for Aic to return, and return she did. She didn’t say anything (did she need to?) but her presence pressed on her. Something cold and wet, festering and moldering in the back of her head…
Acacia staggered to her feet and ran. Her feet immediately shrieked with the onset of cramp, but she just hopped until it slacked off. Glass and reflections slid by, the faceless onlookers of her last ditch attempt to get the poison out.
She ran wildly, aimlessly, until her breath scratched against her throat and she couldn’t see for the tears. She slid down to the ground again. Acacia felt certain she would never stand again.
“Why won’t you leave? Why? Why. Why?!” If she still had her breath she was sure she would have created a strangled scream that would have brought the whole building down, but she affected nothing. She barely even made a sound beyond the shrieking mess in her head.
“Weak,” she choked, her voice barely audible and her lips only just moving. “So weak. I’m going to die. Die amongst strangers. Except for my closest enemy, who follows, always following.”
Aic still waited in her loud silence.
“Just take it. Take it and do what you want.”
She closed her eyes, quietly savouring the coolness of the floor against her boiling cheek in some detached part of herself.
“Go back to that elf who tricked you. Watch her die. Die. But for the love of anything good, don’t drag me into it.”
Her whole body relaxed. At least it wouldn’t hurt. This was a death she preferred, even if it left a bitter taste to the last part of her that still wouldn’t let go.
But no blissful oblivion came. Just the feeling of Aic and the cold warehouse floor and darkness.
What… what do you mean? The uncertainty was undeniable, and almost enough to shock her out of her total relaxation. Almost.
“It’s over. Congratulations. You won.”
No… Holly? She… what do you mean? What trickery?
A little of Acacia burst into life. A little cunning, a little belief, a little hope. The relentless monster wasn’t all-knowing and she certainly wasn’t invulnerable. An errant finger twitched. A ghost of a smile flitted past her lips. But her grip on the inevitable was still too strong, and the words came freely.
“In the belltower. She forced love on you, in defence. Surely you remember better than I do? How do you think it took off so fast?”But the words were not without a burning, sneaking incredulousness. She wondered, hoped, watched with her heart beating a little quicker. Here it was. The flawless goddess of pain and terror, poised to fall from her pedestal and shatter.
Would it regain its balance? Or would she fall?
…No. No, I- I love Holly. It’s real. She wouldn’t…
“Don’t you remember, Aic? You were about to smash her face in seconds before you first kissed –“
No! No! No!
Acacia stirred. Her eyes still closed, she scrabbled for a hold on the floor and shakily pulled herself up into a sitting position. Her faith was burning again. Perhaps not blazing, but glowing. She could feel the uncertainty, the paranoia unfolding for someone other than her for once.
The goddess teetered.
And then came acceptance. The howl of dread, of irrefutable truth glaring back.
And the goddess fell. And her soul burst into flame.
Suddenly, it was very quiet and dark for Acacia. Aic had faded away, and she was alone with her eyes screwed shut in a world without sound. Acacia couldn’t bring herself to see. Perhaps it would prove to all be fake, a dream world without bearing on the inescapable final shell of coldness and pain. So she stood.
It felt real. Each thumb moved over the four fingers on their respective hands, and found none wanting. It was right. She was free.
Nonetheless, her heart was beating as if trying to explode just before she lifted her lids to see out on what was real.
It was then, of course, that she spoke.
Acacia?
She expected fear and got only cold indifference.
“Yeah?” Acacia replied, tilting her head a little.
Let’s…
A silence fell, as if Aic was searching for the right words.
Let’s go fuck that elf’s shit up.
She smirked.
“Sure. I could use a truce.”
Aic and Acacia opened their eyes to a world that was as real as it had always been.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As it happened, the elf came to them. Sobbing and crawling in the dirt, gasping for Acacia to let ‘her’ out.
Aic and Acacia simply stared at the quivering mess at their feet for a moment.
’I’ll admit, this wasn’t exactly how I envisioned our revenge. ‘
You… actually gave that thought? Whatever for? Seriously, why haven’t you gone comatose from boredom already?
’Why haven’t you got yourself killed already?’
Maybe it’s just because I love you so much, dearest Acacia. Now shut up and let me deal with this, darling.
Acacia continued her clueless stare, even as she pushed over control.
The first port of call was, quite naturally, to remove the braindead expression.
“Holly,” she whispered, dropping down to her knees and encircling her shaking body with her arms. “Dearest Holly, I’m here. It’s ok. I’m here. What the hell happened?”
The reply was a little muffled by Aic’s shoulder, but the venom in it was clear as crystal.
“Acacia, of course. She relies too much on that stupid boomer thingy. And always getting in the way of our fun.” She nuzzled Aic gently.
Acacia snorted. “Yeah, she’s an irritating little bitch,” she replied automatically, staring down Holly’s back at the traitorous hand clutched around her pistol. It glinted in the light, promising the repulsion of blood and sweet sting of victory in the same shudder of her hands. But… not yet.
“Holly.”
“Mm?”
“Do you remember…”
“Remember what, Aic?”
“At the school,” she whispered, running a hand over Holly’s back in lazy arcs. “Because you know what? I thought back a bit. And suddenly, I realized something.” She paused, completely still. “I realized that you lied to me,” she hissed, immediately tightening the hug. A gasp escaped Holly, but no more. Aic smiled into the gloom beyond the elf’s back, and pressed the gun against her spine.
“Your little trick in the bell tower? Payback, my darling. No one uses me like that, least of all a prissy little elf who comes on to the first thing that so much as breathes near her. Got that?”
Holly tensed up under her arms, even futilely attempting to wriggle free of her grip. Aic just pressed the gun a little deeper, her dreamy smile stretching a little wider as she fell still again.
“Good. Now listen in. You’re going to die, elf whore, and there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s it. As much as I’d love to snap your legs, I’m not going to risk losing out on putting a bullet through something important.”
She paused, then turned her head and tenderly planted a kiss on the side of Holly’s neck.
“Nice knowing you,” she whispered, and let go.
Aic leapt backwards, blindly kicking out at Holly and grimacing with bland satisfaction as the bare foot connected. She stumbled a little, but held her gun steady and trained on its target. And paused. A grey eye stared back through the pathomancer’s streaks of dirty blonde hair. Despite everything, despite all the hate in her brain screaming for that twitch of her finger that would end it all, she let her eyes lock with that single grey one.
Just staring.
“No!” Aic screamed, her throat burning. “I’m not doing this! You’re dead, elf! Dead!”
One last moment in which to regret what she was about to do – and then the trigger was pulled.