In her heart, there's a hole

[soulsword]

Who; Illyana + OTA
What; Event stuff! Log option, find her in the market after her encounter and a network post where she's really unhappy.
Where;Market and Network
When; Today in the evening for the log, past midnight for the Network post.
Warnings;Violence, anger, will update if more

A. Stumbling Out of the Smoke.

It had spoken to her about what it had felt like when he had first realized how much he cared for his Katya. How silly was it that those were the words that had captured her attention, that had convinced her to come with it into a small empty building on the very outskirts of the market. The building may have been a tiny shop at one time, but it'd long since been abandoned and left to gather dust and rotting wood. The entire thing was wrong. She should have known better. How many times had something similar happened in Limbo? Tricks and manipulation were the way of demons after all. Yet...

Yet something had stirred inside of her. Something strange that left her both frustrated and confused. Feelings. Oh how she was growing to dislike those. She missed her brother. The foolish naïve man who tried so hard to be good when the rest of their bloodline was just so...so wrong. When he'd called to her, called her snowflake, her heart had frozen in her chest. It'd caught in her throat and she'd been torn between disbelief and wanting to hug him. Of course she'd been suspicious, but people could come from the same world. Who was to say it wasn't really him? He asked about the people she'd gotten to know here and it was then that he started talking about Kitty. She knew why, she was unexperienced but not stupid and she found herself annoyed as any little sister would when their big brother attempted to give them advice.

And so they walked through the market hand in hand towards the abandoned building, speaking mostly in Russian to one another until they eventually disappeared inside. What happens inside can be heard and perhaps felt by those with a magical affinity. Power is released. Power and pain, anguish almost. Hellfire, fire tinged with blue along with it's yellow and orange hues, consumes the small building from the inside out. If one was watching as the building turned into an inferno they might notice something that looks disturbingly like tentacles appearing out a window for a moment.

Illyana herself stumbles out of the smoke that's created a fog around the building. There are cuts and bruises on her face and body and she's holding a large sword made of white glowing energy. She stumbles then falls to her knees with a twisted expression of something like anger and pain as she tries to get back up to get further away from the destruction she's caused. There are curled horns on her head, red and twisting up like a ram. A thick red tail that resembles the stereotypical devil's tale lashes behind her as she leans on the sword and wipes away some of the dirt from her face. Something extremely unusual comes away along with the dirt, something wet. Tears. There are tears.

B. Network; Audio

[ Illyana's voice is tired sounding. Rugged. But there's an under current of pure anger to it. It's distinctly different than her usual tone that almost always holds at least a small hint of a sardonic undertone to it. ]

I do not know what the thing was that chose to steal a form that did not belong to it. I do not know where it came from. Though I imagine it has something to do with the help given to us by our moronic hosts. Hosts who dabble in power they seem to not understand the strength of. [ She pauses. Perhaps they should care. Perhaps knowing what they were, where they came from, would tell them something important. At the moment though, Illyana doesn't care. Not at all. ] The creature chose the wrong form. A form it had no right to. There are others. I can feel them.

If you find any of these spirits, my sword cuts through them quite well. I will find as many of them as I can, and I will enjoy it.

Comments

B. Network; Audio!

[gadaboutdetective]

[This really was a widespread issue, there's a frown in his tone and something a little rough. Now that he wasn't busy running for his life, he was back to feeling grumpy and sore over the form his own had chosen.]

So it looked like someone you knew too, huh? [An annoyed huff... Wait-] You can feel their presence? How many do you think there are...?

[soulsword]

Too? [ The annoyance in her tone is thick and mixed with a degree of anger. ] Yes, it did. Piotr. [ She makes a hmm noise. ] Enough to be concerned about. They are strong and very angry.

[gadaboutdetective]

For me it was my sister, Clarissa. [He responded in a tone not entirely unlike her own.

Illyana’s answer though, that at least got his attention. If there were video, it would be easy to tell the wheels were turning in a direction he didn’t like.] Lots of strong, angry spirits… And this seems to be the first we’ve seen of them. [’They shouldn’t bother you.’ He had hardly believed it then, and less so now.] Hard to not wonder if this is connected to the Directory.

[soulsword]

How odd. Mine was my brother. The more sane one. [ Though really that was relative, wasn't it? It seemed most of her family had lost their sanity somewhere in world that was not their own. She let out an odd laugh ]

That would make the most sense. The last time our hosts tried to help us something went wrong. But why the impersonations?

[gadaboutdetective]

[Why impersonations, indeed? Llewellyn shrugged, then winced with a sharp breath, regretting it.]

If I had to take a guess on why, I would say to make us let our guard down... Though in my case I should have known better. [The last was said in a lower mutter, before he moved on.] Otherwise I suppose it might also have been to simply add to the distress, if they're bent on hurt and murder why not add an emotional element to it...?

[soulsword]

Is that so? Perhaps we all should have. [ She pauses for a second. ] A mixture of both seems likely. Mine seemed to think their previous form would make me more hesitant to fight back once it transformed. I wonder if they can feel surprise...

[gadaboutdetective]

Perhaps... [Perhaps not, he supposed, that depended on the person and the form taken.]

A mistake I'm sure it regretted soon after. [He did remember that sword of hers, not something he would like to see up close again.] Don't know if it could be surprised, but maybe? They were souls, angry ones, but they did seem to have something of a personality while contained.

[A difficult one, but still.]

[soulsword]

Hmm...did you wish to see your sister? [ It's not necessarily that she's curious about if he wanted to, but more that she's curious if that contributed to motives ] Contained souls...

Someone here played a very dangerous game. But who?

[gadaboutdetective]

That's a complicated question. [He responded shortly, before his brain connected the dots and he took a breath. Tone a little apologetic for being short with her, it was a good point.] I don't know if I would say I wanted to see her again, but I have always wanted the chance to talk to her about certain things... Did you want to see your brother?

[He frowned deeply at the question,]

Whoever was in charge before our current hosts, perhaps?

A

[areasontohope]

Yuki had heard all sorts of things and he'd helped more than one person clear the streets. He wasn't a hero though he was thanked pretty profusely as he managed to get a child into his parents' arms to clear the road. He was scared and focusing on helping was what got him through.

Finding himself in the market place, he'd thought he saw that black room again that Akito had painted to torture him in and his skin prickled as he thought he heard her venomous words from so long ago slithering in and out of his head. But he kept going, just trying to focus on helping.

It was a good thing that he and Nida had gotten some sparring in because that's what he was here to do..to put it to good use. He couldn't cower anymore, he had to step up and help where he could. But he thought he saw an odd light coming out of one of the buildings and he ran towards it even if he didn't want to at all.

And then..a woman comes out but there's a huge sword and there's a huge red tail and curled horns. So he's frozen in place as she falls to her knees and isn't sure what to do. Is this woman going to kill him? No, he couldn't let himself think like that. Still, he keeps his distance and shakes his head. "Are you..okay?"

[soulsword]

Illyana's tail flicked and then drooped down as she heard a voice speaking to her. Even if it was a stranger there was always something strange that twisted inside of her when someone saw her like this. At least it wasn't as bad as when it was someone she knew. Still, it was strange to feel so conflicted about it. It shouldn't matter. Why should she care what others think? Yet...she shook her head and a weird smile tugged at her lips as she looked at Yuki.

"Better than the one I left inside," the smile twisted a bit more and she tilted her head. The sword faded from her hand, disappearing back to where she summoned it and she wiped a bit of blood from the corners of her mouth. "Don't trust new people you see here. They are not what they seem."

[areasontohope]

"Ah.." It was by far not the most eloquent thing he could've said. But the tail and horns were rather unnerving. It made him want to run if he was honest with himself, but he wasn't going to. If this lady was hurt..then he should help. He'd been helping people all day and some were hurt worse than this one was.

However, none of them looked quite as frightful.

Relief swept through him when the sword disappeared though he did wonder if she could just simply resummon it. It was weird to think of weapons that way, but he'd seen others here who could do things like that. And his jaw had just about hit the floor when he saw it.

The silver head finally shook with Yuki really trying to wrap his head around the things he was seeing here. Sometimes he wished he was the superhero he'd nagged about at Kyo.

"They seem more like..apparitions."

[soulsword]

The horns on her head slowly began to recede, returning her to a fairly normal looking young woman. The process was slower than she'd have liked it to be but it was not precisely something she could control at will. Darker magic caused the change and she'd definitely pulled on quite a bit of that to deal with her visitor. Still, she realized her appearance bothered this person. Why wouldn't it? The demonic appearance bothered some of her closest friends sometimes. How could it not bother a stranger? She shifted her position and then forced herself to look directly at him with a strained smile.

Inside there were an awkward array of feelings dancing around, but that didn't mean she had to show it on the outside. "Apparitions...perhaps. It would explain why my sword cut so cleanly," she shrugged. "Though not why they took the forms they did. Have you encountered any?"

[areasontohope]

He watched in an almost fascinated sort of horror as her appearance changed right before his eyes. But then he began mentally chastising himself because even if the cursed zodiac members didn't have anything like this (With Kyo's true form being the exception) it was still disgusting, or so Akito had said. Miss Honda hadn't been disgusted or afraid but normal humans didn't go around transforming into zodiac animals as a general rule.

"Apparitions." Yuki repeated and then shook his head, looking away. "It seems as if that was something going around lately. I had helped a lady run from who she said was her deceased husband."

[soulsword]

"Never seen a demon before?" At this point it was hard for her to not notice his expression. "It's not so bad," she tilted her head slightly and gave a warped little smile. It was forced, a strange defense mechanism that she always seemed to fall back on. "You just trade a bit of your soul for lot of power and some...cosmetic changes." It was actually pretty painful and something she would never recommend doing. But being spooky was supposed to be her calling card, wasn't it?

"How helpful of you," she replied with a somewhat emotionless tone. "I do not suppose you have any idea where these apparitions came from?"

[areasontohope]

"No." His voice was now barely above a whisper and he wondered what he could even do against someone like this. "It's not so bad.." Deep down he was horrified but still did his best not to show it. And deep down he wondered if he'd rather face a demon or Akito and decided that a demon was better because death was expected. Akito did the whole torture thing mentally, physically, and emotionally.

To the last part he shook his head. "No, and I'm sure if we ask those in charge we're not likely to get many answers either."

[soulsword]

"No? Are you certain, it could be fun," she moved just a bit closer to him and tried to lay on the idea that she could be menacing a bit more thickly. Might as well live up to the way she had looked just a moment ago. Or at least try to live up to it as much as one could. After a second she rolled her shoulders and ran a hand through her now completely normal looking blonde hair.

"More than likely not. They seem less than forthcoming about information. Or perhaps they're just unknowledgeable in general."

B. Network; Audio

[asthecroweflies]

So far, I've managed to keep away from them...thankfully.

I'm glad you're alright, moronic hosts not withstanding. I...saw you with it, but I thought...but I guess I was wrong. You...must have really trusted him, to go off with him, though.

[soulsword]

Lucky you. [ There's an edge to her voice, defensiveness maybe. Walls to protect herself being built back up. ]

You thought what?

[asthecroweflies]

That the two of you seemed close.

[He can almost hear those walls being rebuilt and it's near heartbreaking to witness.]

[soulsword]

We were once...things are different now. Though I suppose he always hopes things can just return to the way they were.

[asthecroweflies]

Can they not?

[He still has no idea who the guy is...]

[soulsword]

No. They can never be how they were. He is insistent otherwise. Foolishly he believes we can just start over.

[asthecroweflies]

...have you tried?

[A pause.]

I'm sorry. It's none of my business. You, uh, still haven't say who he was, though.

[soulsword]

He has. I know it cannot be.

[ She lets out a sigh. ]

Piotr. It pretended to be Piotr, my brother.