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Post by Logan on Mar 1, 2009 18:18:58 GMT -4
Weapon X hunched down in the tall grass of a place he was unfamiliar with. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. The smells seemed familiar to him. The way the air tasted of the fragrances of the exotic flowers seemed to ring a dusty bell somewhere in his cobwebbed memory…but it was always infuriatingly beyond his reach.
He had followed a woman into this strange land. Tracking her had been easy enough; there were few that could elude him for long. But he hadn’t expected that finding her would only point him in a direction he wasn’t prepared to go in.
And so now he sat unmoving in the grass. His long unkempt hair blew across his face as a fine mist of a rain began to fall. Tall blades of grass mingled with his hair, sticking to his cheek as the rain picked up in intensity.
Something wasn’t right.
Flicking a glance toward the canopy of trees above him, Weapon X saw the darkening sky through the leaves. The rainy weather seemed to suit the environment. That wasn’t the problem.
Something was wrong. Call it intuition. Call it a hunch. Weapon X felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing out on end.
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Post by Storm on Mar 1, 2009 20:00:03 GMT -4
Creating the rain was not an uncommon action. In the valley she called home, she had controlled the weather methodically. The temperature had always been perfectly comfortable, the sun conducive to the growth of food, and the rain... there had never been a drought in the valley.
Now she was required to spread her power out, to extend her control to the land the outsiders had claimed, and she resented it. Yes, she had agreed to allow them to stay, but she still did not trust them. She still feared them and their unknown language, and terrifying “technology”. She feared how they would affect the land and her people. She feared they would bring danger, and destroy everything she had built.
The Goddess feared change, but most of all she feared that they didn’t fear her. They had their own gifts, and their “technology”. She feared they would make her obsolete. She could prove them wrong, all of them, but at what cost to her people?
Commanding the rains to fall, the Goddess flew among the drops for a while, revelling in the feel of them against her bare skin. It was the only truth she knew, the only control that could not slip away from her. Eventually she let the winds carry her downward until her feet alighted upon the soft jungle floor. There were so many dangerous creatures within these surroundings but the only ones she feared were the ones who didn’t belong, the ones out in the clearing.
Here, she was safe.
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Post by Logan on Mar 2, 2009 23:36:44 GMT -4
The winds picked up, carrying something on them that had Weapon X twitching. His nostrils flared as the air whipped around him and matted down over him like a heavy blanket.
He turned his head up just as she appeared. Over the dull roar he could hear her heart beating calmly as she slowly descended toward the ground.
There was something magnificent about her. White eyes shone with a light of their own and her stark white hair whipped and snaked around her bare body. Weapon X caught himself staring with narrowed eyes and then he blinked.
This one had a command about her. He watched as her bare feet caught on the jungle foliage, her muscles slowly taking the weight of her as the winds released their grip. The breezes died down and the light in her eyes slowly faded.
This one was the leader. He knew one thing for certain.
She was the reason he was here.
Slowly he rose to his feet and moved along the shadows as one of them. The pattering of raindrops gave him extra unnecessary advantage in silence and stealth and soon he was standing right behind her.
She had that smell about her. Exotic, beautiful and deadly.
She was the Savage Land.
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Rahne
Training Mutant
Having a cane and being a doctor doesn't make me House
Posts: 25
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Post by Rahne on Mar 3, 2009 5:07:23 GMT -4
In the end the lying had been lief to choke her. She'd known she was singing lies, deep down. Sung them all the same, all the lies about Magneto and his empire. How good it was, how great it was to be a mutant, how kindly was their master. Shiny pretty lies. Like a choking collar around her throat.
Until she couldn't sing anymore because of how they caught, and hooked and barbed their way around her voice. The wolf knew they were lies. The girl had been happy not to think about it. She'd pulled and tugged and tore her collar, and then run. Run so far, so fast. Following roads that shouldn't exist. That didn't exist.
Until Rahne was here now, redfurred and green eyed. On four feet, not two. Coming down into the Savage Lands in the coat of the wolf, and just let it all go. Everything about humanity, mutantity. Let go of the girl and let herself get swallowed up by the wolf. So much easier. And cleaner. God, she finally felt clean.
The rains had swept her, leaving her coat soaked but it was a clean rain. The plants smelt sweet, there was prey, the water was good. One more predator more or less hadn't changed much in the Savage Lands. Mostly by chance, she'd wound up in a good place to survey the meeting that was about to take place.
Flattened against the grass, Rahne the wolf watched from her place underneath a bush. Motionless, barely breathing. Watching, smelling. The rain drowned so much out. But the woman who'd come down into the clearing was easy to see.
But there was someone else there. Rahne wasn't sure where, who, or why she knew, but there was someone there. Someone who didn't radiate the same sense of belonging that the woman did. Someone who blended but wasn't quite...right.
Caution reigning, Rahne merely watched and didn't move.
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Post by Storm on Mar 3, 2009 22:07:21 GMT -4
Although the rain pattered gently upon the leaves overhead, The Goddess could not help but notice that the jungle was unusually silent. At one time she had been completely in tune with everything here, with every plant and every animal, every living thing in the land.
That was until they had arrived. Although her control over the elements remained, she couldn’t help but feel that the very land was rebelling against her for allowing the trespassers to inhabit and taint it.
Kneeling upon the ground, the Goddess threaded her fingers through the long blades of grass and closed her eyes. It used to be much easier to commune with nature when her thoughts had been less jumbled. Now it took much more concentration and time.
Too much time. Or else she would have been warned of the danger behind her much sooner.
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Post by Logan on Mar 4, 2009 1:05:50 GMT -4
Every fiber of his being was focused on her as he stood motionless behind her. He could hear the steady rhythm of her heart, pounding out in an unchanging beat. She had no idea he was behind her or else she wouldn’t be kneeling down in prayer or whatever it was she was doing.
The living weapon had no intention of giving her the smallest bit of forewarning.
Slowly a single blade pierced through his skin and slid out to full extension. He quickly put an arm around her neck and held the blade up to the soft and vulnerable flesh that was stretched over her windpipe.
“Don’t move, darlin’,” he said in a voice like crunching gravel. The blade thirsted for blood. “This’ll cut clean through your pretty neck before you get a chance to scream.”
This time he had intentions of doing a lot less talking and saying a lot more.
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Rahne
Training Mutant
Having a cane and being a doctor doesn't make me House
Posts: 25
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Post by Rahne on Mar 4, 2009 6:16:31 GMT -4
Almost before she knew it, Rahne broke cover. Once she started, stopping was probably a bad idea. It was girl and wolf that brought her loping down out of hiding, into the open. The girl not being able to stand seeing someone else threatened. The wolf's motives were more cloaked, hidden in snarls of instinct and tangles of something like awe. The woman kneeling, she belonged here.
The man did not.
It made choosing sides easier. Stifflegged and hackles up, Rahne dropped her head and snarled. Low, menacing sound as she slowly progressed into the clearing, a creature of the Northern hemisphere and out of place herself. Slinking muscle and gleaming teeth, ears laid flat back against her head and redfurred hide dripping with the rain.
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Post by Storm on Mar 4, 2009 22:07:52 GMT -4
The strong arm catching her around the throat, the Goddess made no sound nor did she try to struggle. She could hear his gruff voice but didn’t understand the words. He seemed to be talking that same foreign language the many armed one and her people spoke.
Another outsider. Another one of them. She knew they couldn’t be trusted, and although she couldn’t understand what he was saying the tone of voice and physicality made it perfectly clear that it was a threat.
She didn’t take kindly to threats.
Moving only her eyes, she lifted them skyward, the blue hue of them clouding over until they were pure white. The sky had darkened with the rain, but suddenly it light up with a bright flash, the lightening streaking downward, true to its mark. It would not harm her, even though she was in his grasp, but it would certainly harm him.
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Post by Logan on Mar 6, 2009 8:12:27 GMT -4
The naked broad didn't say anything after Logan was finished, nor did she seem particularly upset to have a man holding her from behind with a blade to her throat. Weapon X could hear a creature coming toward him from behind, and he turned to give the large wolf half his attention as it bared its teeth at him.
"This yer dog?" He snarled and tightened his grip just a little. Her rain-soaked skin was slick, but he held her tight nonetheless.
But once again she didn't answer. He followed her gaze skyward to see the clouds light up. Before he could react a snaking tendril of white fire bolted down and caught him in the side. As the electricity coursed through his body he released his grip on her and was thrown into a tree.
Weapon X lay face down with small tufts of smoke winding upward off of him.
Beneath the shirt, his blackened skin began to mend.
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Rahne
Training Mutant
Having a cane and being a doctor doesn't make me House
Posts: 25
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Post by Rahne on Mar 7, 2009 7:09:09 GMT -4
Lightning broke from the sky and Rahne broke off her slow advance, standing stock still in the wet grass. The bolt sent the man skidding away from the woman, smoking and smelling of burnt meat. She whined and crept forward again, ears angling forward in interest. The air tingled along her fur, smelling like ozone and the sky.
She didn't want to seem threatening to the woman. At all.
The man's heart was still beating. Rahne didn't understand why. A shock like that was enough to kill almost anything.
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Post by Storm on Mar 9, 2009 15:13:43 GMT -4
Now free, the Goddess rested only a moment on her hands and knees in the wet grass before getting gracefully to her feet. Turning to face the man, her eyes still solid white, she looked for signs of life but could see none from where she stood.
They had broken the truce. They had invaded her land, gained the trust of her people, and when she remained sceptical and refused to believe them so blindly, they sent this man to kill her. Obviously they underestimated her power. Their ‘technology’ and abilities had made them overconfident; they thought themselves equal to the Gods.
As this man could attest, they had been sorely mistaken.
Hearing a whining off to her side, the Goddess turned her head swiftly to see the approaching wolf. It was different than the usual animals she tended to encounter, from the large scaled lizards to the long toothed cats, and she studied it curiously for a moment. The creature’s movements, the way it carried itself, didn’t seem to pose any threat. Closing her eyes momentarily, when she opened them again they had returned to their unusual clear blue. Crouching in the grass, she held her hand out toward the canine.
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Post by Logan on Mar 12, 2009 7:53:02 GMT -4
When Weapon X regained his senses he didn't move immediately. He turned his ear toward the surrounding area. The low growling sounds of the wolf had changed. It sounded almost timid now, and he turned his focus to the other one who had just called lightning down on him from the sky. He could hear her heart beating. He could almost see her, and she wasn't too far away.
Lying where he was with one arm pinned beneath his body, Weapon X waited for the right moment and then sprang to his feet. Arms snapped out to the side brought out the claws and his face was twisted into a look of rage.
Nothing was going to stop him from getting her this time.
With a roar he lunged for the woman, catching her before she could rise and sending them both sprawling through the foliage. He used his weight to his advantage and pinned her down, straddling her and holding one arm up over her head. This time the claws were pointed up under her chin.
"Try that again and I'll take yer head off."
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Rahne
Training Mutant
Having a cane and being a doctor doesn't make me House
Posts: 25
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Post by Rahne on Mar 13, 2009 3:57:40 GMT -4
A slim hand was extended as the woman crouched, and Rahne moved forward. Slowly, every muscle focused on seeming nonthreatening. More dog-like then wolf-like. A dog was a wolf with human thrown in, so what else was she? No matter how she tried she couldn't get rid of every last root and tendril of the girl called Rahne. There was no way to be simply be.
Mere inches from cold nose meeting warm palm, Rahne almost leapt backwards in shock as the man rose. Attacked again. It startled a yelp from her which moved straight back to the growling, mixed with anxious whining. Moving backwards and forwards on four feet, every hair on her body raised. Not wanting to get too close in case he cut the woman's throat.
The girl recognised the risk of the metal. The wolf wanted to attack.
A shift in the way she thought and she shuddered, shifted. Got bigger. Paws split into fingers, hooked at the ends and she lifted herself off the ground, on two feet now. Still furred, still beastial, but somewhere between the wolf and the girl. Needing brute force, but a more human viewpoint.
"You can't kill the land," she murmured, voice a low deep growl. Some traces of a Scots burr in her speech, something she'd never gotten rid of even though they'd pressured her to. They wanted her to sound just like all the other singers. But she'd refused. Just dug her heels in and refused. She wondered if she could be as stubborn when it was her life on her line, and not just her livelihood. "Let her go."
The words felt thick and heavy in her mouth. It was so long since she'd spoken.
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Post by Storm on Mar 20, 2009 22:46:08 GMT -4
The bolt of lightening should have been enough to kill a man, so the Goddess was shocked to find herself once again being threatened by the very same attacker. The blades he held to her throat glinted like the arms of his leader had. Never without a weapon, these intruders.
The threatening tone continued, and the Goddess glared up at the man defiantly. She could strike him again, but he was stronger than he appeared. She would need to try another method to destroy him
Before she could form a plan another voice drew her attention. Her eyes moving to the side, her heartbeat quickened at the sight she was met with. Her people told stories of spirits who chose to take the form of animals, but she had never seen one reveal itself so visibly. It was a sight to behold, and she seemed to be speaking in the same foreign tongue as the intruders. For the moment, the Goddess placed her life in this spirit’s hands. She did not wish to anger it.
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Post by Logan on Mar 22, 2009 14:11:33 GMT -4
"You can't kill the land..."
Weapon X broke eye contact with the woman beneath him and whipped his head around to the voice behind him. His eyes were wild and bestial and for the moment he did nothing more than sniff lightly at the air.
Keeping the blades firmly in place at her neck, he glanced back down at the woman.
She was the one. He knew it.
Rage twisted his face again and he raised his claws menacingly. He brought them down with a roar and buried them in the dirt inches from her head. Holding eye contact with the woman for a moment longer, the living weapon took a deep breath and rolled off of her. Catching her rain slicked shoulders as he rolled, he brought her up to a sitting position and held her between the wolf girl and himself.
He sniffed the air again as he draped his arm loosely around the front of her neck. "Ain't interested in the land, darlin'. My beef's with tha nudist here."
The implication was clear. If the girl didn't abide by it, his beef would be with her.
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