originally posted in:The New Dojo
[b][i]Relationships are ropes. Love is a noose. [/i][/b]
[i] Lance's t-shirt whipped in the wind, his form free of armor and weaponry for the first time since he'd arrived at the Dojo. The bruises Damien had given him were healing well, but the mental ones weren't. He couldn't have succumbed any lower to win his fight against Damien, but he'd made a promise. A contract actually; to always be stronger than his opponents. Friend or foe, he would never be weak again. No matter the cost; that trumped any codes of honor.
While he had won, his conscience kept nagging at him about it. Who's bright idea was it to make these things anyway? Besides that point, he needed to find Damien and explain himself, He wouldn't sleep soundly otherwise.
The issue was.. the place was huge. He was a hundred feet in the air easily at the point he stood, making out the land around the Dojo with crystal clarity, but he wasn't an eagle. Hopefully Damien wasn't the wandering type and maybe had just retired to his room. Or went for a coffee at Starbucks. There was no telling with him.
In a cloud of swirling darkness, Lance vanished from the rooftop and down into one of the courtyards below to find his friend. Or enemy.. he didn't really know now.[/i]
https://imgur.com/a/Y4IYy
[spoiler]Open to whoever.[/spoiler]
English
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[b]A man suddenly appearing in the Dojo's courtyards was not something to be looked over. Well, now for me, at least. It's not often we get teleporters around here, so I was interested. I quickly flipped my helmet upside-down in my hands, and slid it on. Until I knew he could be trusted, that helmet was staying on. I approached him, my NCR Ranger Combat armor jangling around.[/b] "Hey there."
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Edited by Will: 9/30/2016 8:10:23 PM[i] The man was rather young, perhaps in his mid-twenties. He wore a simple black t-shirt and black slim jeans. Chocolate brown hair topped his head, a lock of it falling over his face. His head turned to acknowledge the new arrival, steel blue eyes boring into the man. If his appearance didn't say much, those eyes spoke volumes.[/i] "Hey." [i] He said, sounding like his mind was elsewhere and preoccupied with something else. His eyes scanned the surroundings, not paying much attention to the man. [/i] https://imgur.com/a/fZl5P
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Edited by Chesh I Guess: 9/30/2016 8:27:40 PM[b]Damien's most bizarre patterns of life included doing the most mundane of tasks... However, his past fourteen hours had been in a deep meditative lock... Or at least he was trying.[/b] [i]"Damien, what the hell...?"[/i] [b]A voice spoke up behind him, flat and monotone as a figure clad in red armor looked down at the slouched shoulders of Damien's agitated nerves.[/b] [i]"Go away."[/i] [i]"Damien where is your arm?"[/i] [i]"I said piss off."[/i] [i]"Your fūcking arm is gone. And you didn't bandage the bleeding stump."[/i] [i]"PISS OFF."[/i] [i]"What the hell is going on...?"[/i] [b]Damien really wasn't in the mood for this. In a flash he sprung to his feet and slammed two fingers into the figure'd forehead.[/b] [i]"Collapse."[/i] [b]Damien only needed .6 seconds to burst a seal. He needed less to break a being made up entirely of seal energy. In a gruesome splatter, the head of Seth Shallow popped like a balloon, Damien standing over the pooling mass of blood.[/b] [i]"When Lana brings you back, tell her not to send you my way when I have a headache."[/i] // [b]Damien padded around the somewhat full court of the shopping center, covered in an atrocious amount of bandages. The first set incapsulated his right temple, a small blood stain formed in the center where his bio sensor was. The other set wrapped around a red stump on his right arm, where an arm used to be.[/b] [b]His eyes were squinted at the blazing sun, his migraine pounding in his head. He always got headaches when his sensors wasn't working... And he got horribly cross. Luckily, he looked like any of the soldiers or combatants of the Dojo who were injured.[/b] [b]He eventually found a seat near a cherry blossom tree, taking it quickly and laying back in the grass, his large hood cradling his head. He was in his usual baggy jeans and large fur coat, the olive green blending in with the grass. His eye drifted to the falling petals for a moment before his eyes began to sink and droop... And eventually his eyelids collapsed, drifting off to sleep in the shade of the tree.[/b]
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[i] Lance nearly cringed once he finally found Damien. Under the cherry blossom tree, he looked like a complete wreck. Bloody bandages wrapped around him, and he was actually sleeping. Lance walked quietly out of one of the branches of the Dojo, a chocolate chip frappuccino in hand. He almost laughed aloud at the reactions some people he'd known would have if they'd known he was actually drinking such a thing...he blamed his daughter. [/i]
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[b]Damien's chest heaved slightly with harsh breaths, something he had grown accustomed to as the build up of chemicals in his lungs tore away at the metal.[/b] [b]He looked rigid like stone, out like a light... A insane light without an arm.[/b]
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[i] Lance sipped at his coffee, trotting over to Damien's unconscious form under the cherry blossom tree. Lance shuddered at the pink petals, his last memory of cherry blossoms, not a pleasant one. Lance eventually walked right over to Damien, his shadow casting across Damien's face while Lance curiously waited to see if he'd wake up. [/i]
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[b]Damien eventually opened one eye, its yellow glare reflecting the sun as it peeled over to Lance. It stared at him for a moment before widening to a huge pool of black, absorbing his entire iris. It was like staring into the actual void of space.[/b] [i]"You like Starbucks...?"[/i] [b]Damien asked, looking at the coffee bizarrely. He was quiet... Strangely quiet... He gave off an unnerving aura as his eye began to retract to its normal look.[/b]
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"I blame my teenage daughter." [i] He said plainly, plopping down a few feet from Damien and resting his elbows on his knees. [/i] "I brought a peace offering/apology gift." [i] With a wave of his hand, he tossed a bottle of cinnamon whiskey at Damien, a reddish brown liquid with golden flakes floating around in it.[/i] "I don't know if you're a day time drinker or not. Probably are."
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[b]Damien caught the bottle with his one good arm, pulling back his hood and looking at the bottle closely.[/b] [i]"Hey... No hard feelings... You gotta do what you gotta do."[/i] [b]He remarked, resting the bottle on his chest as he attempted to rub his open eye... Only for his hand to pull away quickly.[/b] [i]"Damn this heat..."[/i] [b]He grumbled, peeling himself from his coat, his metal plating peeling back and revealing his thin frame. A deep V shape rippled down his back, a common muscle pattern for a swimmer, as he sat up.[/b] [i]"So... You have kids too? You might have told me once... But I generally forget these things."[/i]
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"Maybe. Yeah, a girl and a boy. Ashley and Jonathan." [i] He said with a half smile, eyeing Damien's missing arm.[/i] "You know, life tends to be easier with four limbs and not three."
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[i]"It's... A work in progress."[/i] [b]Damien responds, poking his bandaged stump. Some project.[/b] [i]"It'll make sense later... Once I finish."[/i]
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"Uh huh.." [i] Lance said with a nod, running a hand through his air. [/i] "Found any of the riff raff around here interesting?"
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[i]"Some of it. There's some interesting faces here and there... But it all blends together."[/i] [b]Damien closes his eye once more, hand still on the stump. Pressure felt good to the wound... Mostly.[/b] [i]"Some familiar faces around though. JT... Mallana... Sawyer... Oriental white man."[/i]
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"Can't say I can call Lana familiar. Met her one time, her and her friend Seth. JT though I beat to get in here." [i] He said with a smirk. JT was like a bulldog who lived with a bunch of pit bulls. Didn't think much of himself, but was still hard headed as all hell. [/i]
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[i]"She's sweet. Seth pisses me off though. Dude can be a real bitch. It's whatever."[/i] [b]Damien suddenly opens his eyes and gives Lance a hard look.[/b] [i]"You know... She was friends with Annibelle back at the Mourne Care Center..."[/i] [b]Damien muses, eyes drifting back to the sky as he sighs, perturbed by the thought of Morgrant's old palace of death.[/b]
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[i] Lance froze, his eyes flitting towards Damien quickly.[/i] "Are you saying she had the same things happen to her?"
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[i]"Mostly... But they broke her and separated her spirit. Never worked with Belle... But I'm not sure Belle has alter egos."[/i] [b]Damien remarks pulling a cigarette from his coat, snapping his fingers so that the metal created sparks, igniting the paper fold.[/b]
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"What, schizophrenia?" [i] Lance questioned curiously. It unnerved him at how much Damien tended to know about subjects, but he was a smart guy. All the more reason to keep him on Lance's good side. [/i]
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[i]"Not quite. Belle from a young age was clearly special. She had something inside her that made her dangerous. At first, I didn't know what it was... She was about a year old at the time. But we find a long line a lineage way back to an ancient summoning... She was half-god. Then the attack... And... Well... I got her back... That's what counts."[/i] [b]Damien grimaced and blew out a long puff of smoke, the grey cloud taking the form of a small fox.[/b]
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"What's the deal with Lana though? Multiple personalities?" [i] Lance said, reaching into his jeans and pulling out a red and white peppermint in a cellophane wrapper. Popping it out of the plastic and putting it in his mouth, the plastic disappearing curiously. [/i]
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[i]"Probably best if you ask her yourself."[/i] [b]Damien remarked. Lana was the only person he couldn't get a read on. He didn't understand her 'gifts'... Or why she had them. All he knew was that she was a cute girl hiding a dangerous secret.[/b]
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"Way to make things hard for me Lordan." [i] Lance said, a smirk on his face, but it turned serious quickly. [/i] "The question is, do you know anything about Darius and Belle.,?"
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[i]"I know that Darius hates me and the Aldons. I'm not surprised that he went after Belle. Turn our greatest threat against us..."[/i] [b]Damien sighed and pulled the cigarette from his mouth, tossing it to the side with a small flick.[/b] [i]"Push comes to shove... I'll lock her gates."[/i]
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"Salem's mine, regardless of what happens. But you can do that?" [i] Lance questioned. He wasn't entirely surprised, but Damien was full of secrets and surprises. Especially when it came to seals.[/i]
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[i]"Yes. Get rid of them too... But that would be more risky. The difference between opening a gate and seal however... Is incredibly different, and much more dangerous."[/i] [b]Damien seems to grow thoughtful for a moment, realizing that Salem had probably advanced himself as well.[/b]