OOC: took ages hunting down posts with certain small details...man.../OOC
Mad turns form his contemplation to the man walking towards him, and sighs. so, it's vandal. At this he laughs softly and stands up. well, it had to be someone i guess...
"hey man. Good to see you too." Mad slings the guitar over his shoulder, and rests his arm across the neck, looking around them. "so, you seen any of the others yet?"
"no, i don't even know if they're alive, i mean, i guessed they might be, but no proof."
"I think that all of us there probably survived, I ran into Sherm and maria before, and if they survived, i'm guessing it's likely we all did." Mad turns and starts walking towards the tower. "Let's walk and talk. You've still got a long way to go."
Vandal hurries a few steps to Mad's side, and then slows his pace to match the red haired man's. "You saw Sherm? where is he now?"
Again the chaosbard sighs, and looks ahead. "They...died. When i found them, they were being attacked by the insane remenants of the human race. We killed them all, but then it got maria too, she shot Sherm, and i ended up...killing her, too."
Vandal is quiet for a moment as this sinks in, then he says the only words that come to mind. "shit, sorry man."
Mad gives a resigned shrug. "What's past is past. How have you been doing in this mess of a reality?" He looks over to Vandal. "looks like your powers have evolved too, Even here, the universe needs a balance, eh?"
"I guess so! I think it happened in response to Dischord. I suppose this makes us opposing forces."
Mad grins. "Opposite poles, yeah." The two laugh softly, and then walk along silently, both looking off into the distance.
Something then occurs to vandal, and he turns to ask Mad a question. "When you said i have a long way to go, why didn't you say we?"
Mad hesitates only for a fraction of a second, and then keeps walking, his expression now a dark scowl. "Before i explain it, let me tell you a story. It's a story you deserve to hear, i think."
Vandal nods, a little wary now. "Okay."
"Once, there was this little kid. A strange little kid, funny hair, funny eyes, but his parents loved him anyways. He had as normal a childhood as circumstance could afford."
"But when he was 6, the kid started having these nightmares. His parents were worried, so they took him to a child Psychologist. The shrink figured the boy had several mental illnesses. in the interest of expedience, i won't describe all the symptoms he listed, but it was a decent list. they put the kid on medicine to get him to sleep."
"let me guess," Vandal Interrupts. "it didn't work?"
"oh, it worked, in it's way." Mad responds. "The kid slept, and he stopped biting himself, and throwing hissy fits all the time. but something was still wrong. The boy started getting nosebleeds. the family docter didn't quite know what it was, CATscans didn't find anything, all that."
"so what happened?" Vandal asks, watching both Mad and their surroundings.
"Well, it turns out those nightmares were real. there was some kind of opening inside the kid's mind..that went to somewhere where multitudes of dead spirits that couldn't see or hear anything, let alone each other, screamed and howled for eternity. It was driving the kid nuts."
"But?"
"But? well, But then something different happened. in one of these dreams, One of these dead souls saw the boy, and stopped screaming. The dead person went near the boy, and pleaded that the boy listen to his story. To his life."
"and...did he?"
"Yeah. The boy hoped that if he did, all the other screaming dead would shut up or go away. But instead of telling the kid a story like reading from a story book, the woman sorta showed the kid her entire life, through her eyes."
"now, imagine a 6 year old boy trying to come to terms with the life of a girl that grew up in a warring country, Where she was constantly afraid of her life, got regularly beaten, raped, shot a few times, and was eventually blown up by a mortar."
Both are silent for a minute, as Vandal Contemplates this, trying to imagine what that sort of experience would be like. he imagines trying to live through the lives of some of those he'd known over the years, all on top of being who he already is. He tries to imagine that happening when he was a boy, and all he thought about was Transformers and the A-team. He decides it's something you can't come close to without actually having it happen to you.
"so how did y-the kid cope with it?"
Mad smiles a little rueful smile. "heh...well, I went fucking insane, of course. i...killed my parents, then went into a coma. After all was said and done, and a stint in first a mental institution, then a corperate training facility for Paranormals, i was Let loose upon the world, still crazy, and very angry."
"Which is where you earned the name Adric The Mad, I still don't know how you kept off govornment radars, and out of the news all those years." vandal begins wondering why the man walking next to him is telling him his life story, as they walk on to what is likely their doom. maybe it is just some bonding thing.
"yeah. Me, Ez, and muz caused a lot of havock, usually by me getting us into trouble, and then them trying to think our way out. Anyway, it didn't last for long and we were recaptured, they took ezelek off to do god knows what, but muz and I managed to escape again, but we went our seperate ways."
"a falling out?" Vandal enquires.
"not really, just different directions. Anyway, now we're getting to the point of my story."
"ah, so there IS a point!" Vandal jokes. mad gives a half-amused, half-annoyed smile.
"yeah, there is. after one particularly wild run, i was pretty injured, and this girl helped me heal up and get back on my feet. Chemistry happened, and we hooked up, lived together, did the whole love thing. it was the best thing ever, man. The only thing that was normal in my life and still felt good."
'how it ended doesn't matter. What matters now is, Fold has her, and he's found a way to torture her until i find a way to kill the expatriate who's got the rune causing that pain on them. Which brings me to why i'm here."
As Vandal takes this statement in, and reacts, Mad flips Dischord off his shoulders and stands ready. "I'm sorry, Vandal. it's kill me or die."
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Through the pain, She can feel the link she had subconsciously shared with her lover all these years flare to conscious life. it's not in her dreams anymore, he's right there, a little ball of conflicting emotion and thundering chaos roiling in the back of her mind. As she gasps, and her already empty stomach strains to heave up what isn't there any more, she briefly sees through his eyes, the man in front of him, shock across his face, betrayal. And if not the whole picture, she understands at least enough.
"no, please, not for me...not for me..i...can't...i'm sorry..."
The young woman breaks down, as convulsions wrack her body with pain, her muscles twitching and straining against each other as her body tortures itself, and still unconsciousness is denied her.
She would cry, were not all her tears gone from the unendurable pain, so she just sobs, and convulses, trapped in her misery as surely as he is trapped in his.
OOC: all yours, vandal. either some more dialog or straight to the action. but let's have the fight last a few posts each at least.
Also, as usual, if any of your character's actions or dialogue is out, PM me or put it in the OOC thread, and i'll fix it up, /OOC
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