Passing Strange

Suddenly the bedroom door crashes open. Behind it stands DeMonica, looking completely badass, having just kicked it in and practically smashed it right off the hinges, and with arrow already knocked and aimed directly at Neener's heart.

She lets fly. The arrow penetrates halfway through Neener's torso, emerging partially out her back. Yet curiously there's not a drop of blood - not even a trickle.

"Ha ha haaa!!" Neener howls with laughter that seems a little too cruel to me, just a bit forced. Though I suppose I understand given the circumstances.

"Fool!! The hawk returns home to roost!"

That really makes no sense whatsoever. This isn't DeMonica's home... but then it hits me..

"Neener neener!"

Damn, didn't have time to warn her. Now she's a hawk. Literally - a hawk - struggling to emerge from under the noisy pile of armour and weapons and clothing she's buried under.

"No, I didn't shrink her clothes with her." Neener explains. Fuck, she is really perfectly cut out for this - she's going to give me an explanation of her evil motives!

She grabs the arrow emerging from between her breasts, pulls hard, and yanks it out right through her chest, pulling the arrowhead right back through the wound. There's still no blood. Wow, she seriously doesn't have a heart!

"A hawk in heavy armour can't fly. I also put her under a compulsion. You'll see what that is in just a minute pussycat. Oh this may be my best work yet! And I came up with it all on the spur of the moment. With her damn arrow right. through. my. chest."

I'm backing toward the divan with some notion of taking refuge under it, but it's too late. With a powerful lurch the proud hawk shakes off the last bit of chain mesh and screams, takes wing directly toward me.

I leap directly toward her too. It's the best I could come up with under pressure - unexpected tactics you know. I don't know if it worked, or if maybe DeMonica is as unsure of her new form as I am of mine (though truth be told, she doesn't seem to be a hatchling so much as actually a fully developed bird of prey). But for whatever reason, her first dive misses me and I manage to make it out the partially broken door before she gets herself turned around in the confined space. I'm not sticking around to watch, but I suspect it involved landing and turning on foot before taking off again - there's not enough room in there for her to maneuver in full flight.

Damn! That would have been my best bet then! I should have stayed in there - maybe went the under-things route that's so effective for small animals.

But here I am instead now, out in the vast open space of the living room.

I decide to duck under the table nearby, but before I can razor sharp talons pierce the skin of my scruff and lift me up. I'm yowling pathetically and my legs are sticking straight out as she carries me out the living room door and into the huge corridor, like an airplane hangar.

I'm facing backwards, and now I see Neener run out the door brandishing DeMonica's bow and knocking an arrow - presumably the very one she just pulled out of her chest. Damn - I wonder if she has some archery skills she also inherited from Diana? She certainly looks the part, fierce and beautiful, black eyes flashing as she bends the bow powerfully beside her cheek.

Suddenly DeMonica's talons disengage and I'm falling flailing to the polished tile floor where I hit and slide in a tumbling mass of fluffy limbs and tail. It occurs to me that hawks probably need to land before devouring their prey.

The arrow whizzes clattering off the tiles just next to me. Well, not bad, but Neener's no DeMonica when it comes to archery, fortunately for me.

There's another shrill screech and I manage to get my head up high enough to see her wheeling savagely around to descend on me, claws spread and hooked beak looking vicious.

But what's that sound? A sort of drumming coming from behind me. There's something familiar about it

ScurvySeaMutt!! His paws pound rhythmically against the slick tiles, long pink tongue dangling just as it was when he emerged from the dust cloud on the trail behind our broken-down old plow horse.

He's going to reach me just about the same time the diving hawk does. Just before in fact - he leaps right over me and her claws sink into the flesh of his face rather than into me. They go down in a sprawling writhing mass of beating wings and flailing legs, there's a rapid violent chorus of screeches and growls, and then the hawk lifts off and flies off down the corridor. The white salt-crusted dog is left laying on his side.

He lifts his head slowly, sadly. It's trembling. His face is ravaged badly by DeMonica's claws - I can't tell if his eyes are still intact or not.

I bound as fast as I can to his side.

"You saved my life." I state rather inanely.

"Somebody had to." He says in his growly voice. "You're the key apparently. Least that's what he says." His head turns toward the open door at the end of the corridor, where just now king Diddy and Xey come running in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

He's going to reach me just about the same time the diving hawk does. Just before in fact - he leaps right over me and her claws sink into the flesh of his face rather than into me. They go down in a sprawling writhing mass of beating wings and flailing legs, there's a rapid violent chorus of screeches and growls, and then the hawk lifts off and flies off down the corridor. The white salt-crusted dog is left laying on his side.

He lifts his head slowly, sadly. It's trembling. His face is ravaged badly by DeMonica's claws - I can't tell if his eyes are still intact or not.

I bound as fast as I can to his side.

"You saved my life." I state rather inanely.

"Somebody had to." He says in his growly voice. "You're the key apparently. Least that's what he says." His head turns toward the open door at the end of the corridor, where just now king Diddy and Xey come running in.

---

That's the part of the movie where I'd start bawling. :(

Lol yeah, it's a tearjerker for sure! Good old Scurvy!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by sinoblak

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I agree.

More on its way - thanks for the interest!! I ran into a tough spot that requires some serious thinking-through before I can write again (plus had a lot going on yesterday and today). :jester:

Yeah I've noticed you haven't been writing much lately. I hope you haven't lost your motivation.

Not_at_all!!

Just gathering my energies before wading into the 3rd and final act. A prayer before battle>

http://wesclark.com/jw/prayer_warrior.jpg

Sad news - for those who haven't seen it, Dianeva posted this 2 days ago on the Going Somewhere or Returning thread:

Quote:

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I'm leaving DV. I know that to many people it won't make a difference, but there are a few who would prefer that I stay, and to them I'm sorry.

I'd like to thank everyone who regularly posts in the RRC&C thread - Zhaylin, Darkmatters, Gavin, etc. I experienced a sort of community compassion there that I haven't anywhere else. Even outside of that, this forum is filled with amazing people. I wish you all luck with your lives. If there's one thing DV is good at, besides the lucid dreaming thing, it's bringing a bunch of colorful often slightly crazy people together to form what might be the most wonderful internet community in existence.

It's strange that actions based on desperate longings for escape can end up just burying you deeper.

---

All the holiday madness of Thanksgiving is over now, and I can again return to normal daily routine, but I'm afraid it might take me a while to get back on track now with the story. This is a serious blow. Just as I did when she first came aboard as a character, I need to rethink the entire story before proceeding now. My character may be the narrator and the 'main character', but DeMonica was truly the central character.

I guess it's fortunate that this happened toward the end of the story anyway - if we were only halfway through the Underworld section it would be much harder.

Aw. No bueno. :cry:

Why do people leave? It's not like there's a shortage of internet wherever they're going. They could always just check in now and then, and leave the odd post.

Tis indeed a sad occurrence. :(

Ok, I've resolved the issue. I know how I'm going to handle this now. I would feel weird writing about Dianeva with her not being here, so - art imitates life.

And with that decision made - I crack my knuckles and once again return to the keyboard. Back in a few with the next section.

"Stop the hawk!" I try to shout, but it comes out a cute squeak instead. They apparently don't hear or don't understand, and keep running toward me.

"Wot the 'ell??!!" Xey bursts upon getting a better look at me. "Darkus, is that you?!!"

"Yeah, it's me... but the hawk that just flew out - that's DeMonica!!! Don't let her get away!!!"

They turn and run back out, with me leaping and bounding clumsily after them. Man it's hard to make any forward progress when you weigh little more than a feather and most of it is your head!!

I reach the door (which is thankfully propped open) and spill out. The sky is dark and brooding and I can see several huge twisters wandering in the middle distance beyond the castle walls. Diddy and Xey are standing a few dozen yards away, Xey with his arm held out level before his chest, and the hawk is circling gently down to land on it.

At sight of me she immediately beats her wings powerfully in an attempt to take off again, but Xey grabs her leg with his free hand and restrains her. Diddy glances back at me, then at her, and places a hand over her head to keep her from seeing me.

"She must be under one of Neener's compulsions." he says. "As long as she doesn't see or hear him she'll be alright."

Ah, then that explains why she was able to fly away as long as she was facing the other direction. I was wondering about that.

"Let me go!" Her voice rises, harsh and shrill. "All I've done is bring disaster and pain - I'm supposed to be your protector and warrior but I've only hurt you." I'm not sure if that was directed at me specifically or to all of us.

"Are you KIDDING?" Diddy bursts. "You saved us all from that stag monster, and if you hadn't shot down the harpies we would never have freed our guide and found what we needed on the island at all!"

Her voice shrieks out again, a plaintive wail: "Be that as it may, you all almost died saving me from the stag, and I've brought nothing but pain and misery to everyone. Not only that, but I can feel my energy draining rapidly. It's almost gone now - I need to return to my glade or I'll soon die. Let me go."

Suddenly a note rises into being - a terrible and hypnotic note.

"Saffron's Discordion!" Diddy shouts. "We must find her and kill her!!"

But before we can do anything of the sort the spider minions begin appearing.

They come from everywhere - from around every corner, through every doorway, climbing through windows on every floor and scurrying down the walls. Some of them are familiar - people I had seen before, most I suppose at the sausage feast - which after all is where they were turned into these hideous creatures.

Most have their legs and lower bodies hidden in some way - long dresses or big floppy pants, but some are partially or completely naked. It's uncanny to see the way they flow across surfaces - horizontal or vertical - it doesn't seem to make a difference.

"These aren't catatonic like the Stable boy was!" Diddy announces unnecessarily. They draw toward us in an ever-tightening circle, hissing and scuttling nervously to and fro. Quite active.

Xey rapidly transfers the hawk to Diddy's arm and draws a pair of small farming implements from his belt.

"Sickles." I say. "They're sickles, not scythes." Not that it matters I suppose - but a scythe is a heavy two-handed tool used for harvesting grains and grasses - like what the Grim Reaper carries. Well, all reapers really, at least pre-industrial age. A sickle is a small crescent-shaped blade wielded with one hand - like the Communist hammer and sickle emblem.

Holding one wicked hooked blade in each hand, Xey advances on the closest spider minion, takes a quick swipe at it, and manages to cut through one of it's spindly black legs. It hisses loudly at him and scuttles backwards dripping white goo. But at the same moment a dozen more advance on him, growing bolder now that he's drawn first blood. Or first ichor I suppose.

Sorry, I can't help making these little on-the-fly corrections - it's the writer in me.

Diddy runs the only direction left open - toward me and the open doorway. He's holding DeMonica on his forearm and has his other hand cupped over her head like a hawking hood.

Xey lets out a savage shriek - not sure if it's a battle cry or a scream of pure terror, and starts laying about him on all sides, blades flashing and ichor flying as slender black limbs get lopped off. Suddenly he disappears in a writhing mass of hissing spider limbs and human arms and familiar heads. It's truly a nightmare image come to vivid life.

"Oh dear! We've got to help him - he can't last long against all of them, and there are more showing up every second.. " Diddy runs inside and thrusts DeMonica into the first room, shuts the door, and then runs past bleeding, trembling ScurvySeaMutt to the pile of armour heaped in the corridor. He picks up the bow and arrows and returns to the doorway, fitting an arrow to the bowstring. He lifts it and draws back, but his arms are shaking fiercely.

"Oh hell! I managed to do this before, but that was sheer luck. Or maybe a bit of divine intervention - What the hell - it might work again, right? O Holy Knight!"

The trembling lessens a bit but doesn't stop. He looses an arrow, and it disappears into the mass of writhing bodies. We can't tell if he hit anything or anyone, until one of the spider minions comes lurching out of the crowd with the arrow through its chest.

"No blood!" Diddy whispers in amazement. "And it didn't faze him at all. Maybe I'm shooting at the wrong part."

He draws back another arrow, aims lower, and lets fly. This time one wades out screaming, white ichor spurting from the arrow stuck into its thorax (which is beneath the human torso). It takes two more trembly steps and then collapses into a heap.

"YES!! That's it. The human parts aren't even alive now - they're like zombies, completely controlled by the spiders. That must be why the Stable Boy failed to respond to us - the spider must have been sleeping, or whatever it is that spiders do when they sit inert for so long."

He fires a few more arrows into the thronging crowd, then comes up empty handed.

"Damn! No more arrows!!" He throws the useless bow down and returns to the pile of armour, strapping DeMonica's sword belt around his spindly waist.

"I don't suppose there's anything you can do in this form. Just stay here."

And with that he wades into battle, drawing both swords and shouting his own battle cry.

I can't do it. I can't just sit here and watch as my two remaining friends fight to their deaths. I have no idea exactly what it is I think I can accomplish, but I must help them, so I start bounding toward the fracas.

Suddenly a shadow passes by overhead. I flinch instinctively, thinking DeMonica got out somehow - maybe the window was open or something. But no - it's not a hawk - it's Blueberry, in wolf form with huge blue wings beating furiously and with a small child sitting on her back..

"Serafiend!!" I shout, but of course my tiny squeak is lost in the scuffle.

The flying blue werewolf drops into a ground-pounding lope, and smashes directly into the mass of bodies, scattering spider minions like tenpins. Sera leaps off and dives headlong into battle, disappearing from sight. The huge blue wolf rears up on hind legs and bares terrifyingly long canines, snapping and tearing at everything that moves.

Between them they manage to open a corridor from which Diddy and Xey emerge, backing warily toward the door and safety.

"Come on - inside!" Diddy urges, pushing Xey in through the door and pulling hard at the little 10 year old cannibal girl as she rips into another spider minion with her terribly sharp teeth. She's growling like a wild beast, but being so small she's lifted up bodily and carried inside. The werewolf however is caught up entirely in battle frenzy - leaping and tearing into the crowd.

"Blueberry! Come in!! There's no point trying to fight them all!" Diddy shouts to no avail.

But suddenly something happens to her.

She switches to human form.

Not the familiar Victoria's Secret lingerie model with blue wings that we know - it's just a normal human girl. She does look quite similar - in fact the face is the same, but her body is slightly shorter and not quite as impossibly svelte and slender as her supermodel form. And there are no wings.

She looks directly at us for a second as if in shock, her eyes widening incredulously, and her arms moving to cover her nearly nude body. She still wears only the lacy white lingerie, but now for the first time she seems embarrassed by it. Or maybe just surprised - it's hard to tell.

At any rate, she leaps toward the open door and comes scurrying inside, arms still crossed in front of her chest.

Diddy and Xey close the ponderous door, cutting off a few waggling spider legs that try to force their way in, and set the floor locks.

"That should hold them momentarily," Diddy says, "but they'll get in elsewhere. Our only hope is to kill Saffron. And I don't know if that will actually stop them or not."

"Wot the 'ell 'appened to you?" Xey asks the pretty girl, no longer sporting her blue wings.

"I'm myself again." She replies, sounding almost baffled, as if the answer is suggesting itself to her and catching her by surprise.

"I'm really me now - Raspberry."

Raspberry. Yeah - of course. That's who she is - who she's always been, except that she was distorted - changed into a sort of caricature of herself, and her name was changed to Blueberry.

"Raspberry - yeah! I recognize you now. Welcome back!" Xey says, taking off his too-tight black jacket and draping it over her shoulders.

"Thanks. Wow - this is so weird - what the hell has happened to DV?!!"

"The personalities must've changed when Alex changed the names" I venture. "And when he changes a name back that person returns to their original personality."

And suddenly I'm me. Human I mean. Not a bundle of cuteness and hair and warmth.

I must say I rather miss the feeling of being impossibly young again, but it is nice to have actual mass and be taller than everyone's ankles.

"Darkmatters!" Diddy cries. "I remember you all of a sudden."

"Yeh, me too." Xey says.

"Darkmatters - comes slightly after Blueberry alphabetically - " I muse, to myself mostly.

"What's that?" Diddy prompts.

"Alex and Ninja are changing the names back - they must be doing it alphabetically."

"Shit." Xey moans. "I've got a long wait.. "

Posted today by Dianeva on Going Somewhere or Returning:

Quote:

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I. Can. Not. Take. This. Anymore.

I. Love. DV. Too. Much.

I'll elaborate once I'm finished playing this l4d vs game!

I'm drunk =(

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:awesomed:

Does this mean she's not leaving? If so, that's great news.

Yep. She's back.

24

SaffronAxe

The sky is a darkening mass of scudding black clouds - stirred by the half dozen huge twisters patrolling impatiently just beyond the walls of the Castle. Wind is lashing ferociously through the stone-walled enclosure of the corral, ripping up handfuls of straw from the ground and dashing them against the walls and whipping Zombie_Muffin's long brown hair sideways. She's standing now - mouth closed and all her attention focused on the opposite wall - or perhaps on one of the many tools and implements hung from hooks or standing on the ground against that wall.

And though her hair is whipped into a frenzy till it makes snapping sounds and lashes against her skin, she stands resolute - arms held stiffly by her sides rather than swinging loosely the way they have been for so long - hands repeatedly clenching and unclenching. For once even the ever-present string of foamy drool has been torn from her chin by the fierce wind.

The churning sky is darkening perceptibly, roiling clouds piling atop one another and blotting out the few scraps of open sky that remain. A sudden flare of lightning illuminates her determined face right through the wire mask, flashing from her yellow-grey eyes, and a moment later the thunder rips across the enclosure.

As if that's the cue she's been waiting for the zombie girl takes one faltering step forward. It's a bit stiff and awkward, but a far cry from her disjointed spastic movements of the last couple days. Every rigid line of her slender little body registers sheer concentration.

She takes another step, and another - each a bit more controlled than the last. Then she's walking. Not lurching but really walking, though rather more like a sleepwalker than anything else.

She reaches the opposite wall, her hands extending toward something that rests propped against it.

Another brilliant flash of lightning illuminates the scene blindingly for a second to reveal a large heavy sledge hammer propped upside-down against the wall. Both of her small hands close on the grip and she tilts it toward her body.

It's very heavy - probably weighs nearly as much as she does! But she struggles and strains and manages to drag the hammer out away from the wall a couple of steps, keeps tugging on it as if she expects to be able to actually lift it.

Another forked lightning flash tears across the sky and something very strange happens..

The hammer seems to leap into the air.

As if propelled by some powerful underground explosion or yanked by invisible wires from above.

It flips itself upright and lifts to a level of some 7 feet in the air where it hovers restlessly, tiny slender Zombie_Muffin still gripping it with one upthrust hand - the other now groping about in the air as if for balance.

One final lightningbolt cracks and explodes inside the corral itself, revealing letters inscribed on the side of the huge rectangular head:

BANHAMMER

I'm sorry Darkmatters, I feel terrible about making you have to rethink everything, then coming back quickly, probably causing you to rethink it all again.

That's alright - it keeps things fresh!

Besides, I suppose your real life takes precedence over your story life - by a little bit anyway.. :cheeky:

Plus I like the new idea better than what I originally had.

Okay. Am I gonna end up dead soon due to my momentary decision to leave? :crying: lol

Hmmmm...
http://images.travelpod.com/users/mi...here-to-go.jpg

There there, Dianeva. We all die eventually.

"Doreenema.. "

"What?" Diddy looks askance at me.

"Doreenema - comes shortly after Darkus. Since Blueberry changed just before me, we can assume they're going by the changed names, not the original ones. And her official screen name was still Doreenema, remember? She couldn't get it changed. Guess it hardly matters either way though..

I open the door to the room where Diddy put her - step in and close it quickly so she can't fly out. It's a study or library - walls lined with shelves of books and a big writing desk against one wall. She's perched atop the tall back of an ornate wooden chair right in front of it, one eye locked on me.

There's a tiny *pop* noise and suddenly she's human - human and entirely naked. For an impossible second she remains perched on the chair before it topples and dumps her onto a thick rug where she lands in a graceful crouch.

She looks up at me - eyes red and face already wet with the tears she was unable to shed as a hawk. In a sudden rush she's up and plastered against the front of my body - clasping me in a tight embrace and sobbing wetly against my shoulder.

This is not DeMonica - or Doreenema for that matter. No Amazon warrior, though in many respects she still looks the same - not as tall or athletic, though only slightly less so really, and her face is still as dazzlingly beautiful. The changes are subtle, but before me stands a real young woman - not the fantasy character she had been. And suddenly I remember - she's Dianeva.

Her grief is overpowering - her emotions elemental. For a lost moment I'm caught up completely in her, holding my hands out clumsily behind her so as not to touch her naked body - how to hold a crying woman when she's naked.. ?

"I'm so sorry!" She bawls. "All I've done is screw everything up!! Some great warrior I turned out to be.. I almost got everybody killed!!"

My hands slide against her back - one goes up into her hair and one remains beneath her shoulderblades. I press her head into the hollow between my shoulder and neck - thankful it's not the side so terribly soaked with grease from carrying those sausages for so long.

"So - now what?" I ask.

After a moment she leans back slightly, careful to keep her body pressed against mine to cover her nakedness. Her face is a trembling mask of sorrow threatening to break like a sudden storm at any second into more tears.

Her raised eyebrows ask the question.

"What do you do now? - Go home?"

The tearstorm begins. She sniffles loudly and buries her face once again. But I feel a bit of tension seep away - her resistance has given way and she's becoming a teary-eyed little girl in my arms. What I'm about to say gets a lot harder to say. But it has to be said.

"You think you've betrayed us? How - you've given your all - practically sacrificed yourself for people you hardly know! If not for your amazing courage against that stag-thing the rest of us would have lay down to die!! YOU gave us that!! And the reason you didn't kill it is because of compassion - you could have shot it right through the heart, but you held back for a second too long - I saw it. You didn't hesitate with Neener though.. "

"She was about to - kill you.. "

"You did what had to be done - you had learned from your earlier mistake - and that's all it was - a momentary mistake. Nobody can be blamed for that!"

Suddenly she draws away, eyes flashing anger or resentment. She does her best to cover herself with her hands.

"I CAN'T!! Don't you understand - I have to go!!" She's seething rage at me and instantly I know it's really rage against herself. And what I need to do becomes suddenly - not easy exactly - but necessary. Inescapable.

I slap her hard against the side of her face. In the heat of the moment I can't tell how hard, but her head rocks and her eyes snap wide open in shock. Now she's not crying - not anything. Just listening.

"What the hell do you think this IS??!!" I practically scream at her. "You think you've betrayed anybody? What will it be if you leave now? That would be the ultimate betrayal. Just go back to your comfortable grove - disappear into the woods and leave us all to die? Or worse - to become those spider things!!??"

She turns her head away defiantly. I grab her hair and yank it back. Our eyes lock - there can be no dishonesty in this moment.

I'm about to ask her what happens then - after Saffron and Neener destroy us and expand their evil empire to overtake her even there in her idyllic woods - but suddenly her face changes. She draws herself up taller, no longer covering with her hands. Her hands both reach up, tangle themselves in my beard, and she yanks my head forward and down to meet hers. It's so sudden and unexpected it catches me entirely off guard and before I know what's happening she's planting a hot savage kiss on my mouth, salty with her tears.

Involuntarily my eyes close. Looks like I've lost control to her now. She pushes me away forcibly and I discover she's changed once again - into the Amazon.

She's DeMonica now. Not Doreenema - somehow I just know her name change has gone through and Alex or Ninja has changed it to DeMonica as she requested.

She's as surprised as I am and for a moment we both drink in her tall athletic form. Then she smiles and slaps me hard across the face.

"Yes, this body is good." She says. "In fact I don't feel depleted anymore - with the change in identity I've been recharged. Let's go kick some ass, shall we?"

My head is still ringing from the powerful blow, the entire side of it numb and throbbing. And I can feel a tear rolling hotly down into my beard. I suppose now we're on even terms.

"And don't ever do that again." She warns. But I know - for just a second I felt it - some part of her enjoyed it momentarily. It'll remain our little secret.

Haha. Awesome scene. :thumbup:

Hmmmmm......................

I forgive you, but not in that way.