Description: After a long absense, Stasya Voronkova returns to the streets of Gedo to see first-hand the chaos the Invaders have wrought. In the search for her missing friends, something altogether worse finds her instead. The Devil of Koga catches up with her past victim, confronting her now about a promise being kept. Against such a monster is Stasya's power a boon ... Or a curse?
The question has been prominent in the minds of the other Guardian Kings, all throughout the invasion: where has Stasya Voronkova been?
In truth, she's been wondering the same of her best friends.
Once the invasion started, the girl was not permitted to go back to school. In fact, she wasn't even permitted out of the house. Her paranoid father had decided to bunker down and wait the turmoil out-- he had long since grown tired of getting embroiled in other people's wars-- and Stasya, despite her concerns, was not allowed to return to Gedo in order to help defend, or even to see if her friends were okay.
Aleksandr wasn't heartless enough to stop his daughter from calling her friends to see if they were all right, however. The problem with that was, the invasion had played havoc with civilian communications, and Stasya could not contact the other Guardian Kings.
In the end, her concern overpowered the obligation she felt to obey her father. Thus it is that she's slipped quietly out the door this sombre night, her pale lithe frame hurrying quietly down the streets towards Gedo in an attempt to see what has become of her school and her friends. But long before she ever gets near the front doors, she realizes she must go no closer; it's clear to see, even from all the way down Gedo Street, that the school has fallen to the invading forces.
It's no longer a safe place to be. Stasya begins to back away, retracing her steps, clearly intending to go look elsewhere for her lost friends.
The Guardian Kings have not been the only ones wondering about the fate of Stasya Voronkova.
In the carnage of those first, heady days of the Invasion, the absense of one Russian student had not gone unnoticed. Especially considering she was one of the very few ear-marked specifically by a particularly enthusiastic invader.
The Devil of Koga desired to have words with the girl, you see.
The three Kings were accounted for, along with Daigo and his helmed sister. The warrior children were routed from the place they strove so ardently to protect for year after year against the depredations of the Southtown Syndicate and their puppet gangs. Ironic really, that they were doomed by the very force that came to destroy their chief enemy. Marise appreciates these things.
However, no Stasya.
Its not as if the grey-haired fairly tall Russian doesn't stand out amidst the local Japanese like a beacon. Her presence would have been noted quickly within the screaming throngs.
It seems serendipity came to her defense, The Devil had reasoned. Out sick that day, maybe? Marise thought the girl may end up moving away as a possibility. After all, after such a terrible kidnapping surely her parents would seek to keep the girl away from her ruffian friends who may as well have gotten her into this mess in the first place? Though, her sources said she made no such move. However, matters can always change.
Disappointed the monster may have been, but she had other matters to deal with. Plenty of other Gedo children to stalk, plenty of other missions to undertake. Stasya will just have to luck out as 'the one that got away'. It happens from time to time, Marise endeavors to not despair over such details.
Though, the ghoul had promised her...
What's this?
Marise stands atop a shorted lamp post. Perfectly balanced upon the curved slope, the urban breeze not touching her dark kimono as her symmetry is masked by a blackened, evening sky above. She monitored the local streets, most nights. Local resistance stulked about in the alleyways, always looking for weaknesses in the Invasion force. Keeping an eye on them, occasionally making raids to free loved ones or strike a blow for the citizenry. The Devil preyed upon the less skillful ones and scouted out the stronger individuals she could not personally bring down. As is, one never knows what rat might crawl from the woodwork ... Thinking themselves a hero.
Pale ghostly hair, waifish figure? No doubt about it.
The Devil's violet lips slowly pull into a satisfied smile. It may have taken that girl awhile, but sooner or later ... Marise knew she could not resist coming back. She had seen the girl at her lowest ... The monster knew who she was. Giving up is not something she would entertain.
In a heartbeat, Marise fades from her perch within the night's sky. Moment's later, a shadow stirs at the edge of the Russian's vision. From beneath an awning in front of a shelled and looted cafe.
"So... The pet Russian dog returns to her pack.." A low, amused whisper that rightfully should not carry the distance. Softly teasing her ear with a familiar chill. Too familiar. "... I knew you weren't a coward."
Gleaming, serpentine eyes reveal themselves within the dark, "... Though I gave you room to disappoint me."
Stasya feels it before she sees or hears it. It touches her senses, bringing with it a sense of dread she hasn't felt since the last time a nightmare woke her in the middle of the night. Her hands clutch, eyes widening, as her head turns instantly towards the direction from which that feeling came. Her blonde hair gleams dully in the little light that yet reaches this ruined street, her grey eyes straining to pick out the Devil's dark form.
"Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?" Stasya's voice comes out sharp, and yet not without its slight cracks and tremors. The girl has been well-protected by friends and family alike since she returned from her ordeal... indeed, almost obsessively sheltered. This is the first time she's had to lay eyes on Marise since she thought the beast was killed.
A pity she was not. Though it's beyond Stasya how Marise escaped her rightful fate.
The girl's aura is already spiking with defensive energy. She's a brave girl, but also a prudent one; this is no time for bravado. Who knows what kind of backup the Devil might have at her beck and call, with the entire city fallen into such depredations? "You will excuse me if I do not... I do not think I need to accept any sort of kind word from a creature like you..."
The shadow croons lowly. Quietly stepping further into what dim light the urban night affords. The maiden is much like the Russian remembers, as her nightmares kept her from forgetting.
Marise is supposed to be dead. Murdered for the atrocities committed upon the very girl standing once again before her now, and her little blind psychic toy. The Guardian Kings aren't the sort to lie about such things, especially not to her.
Although, evil such as she rarely entertains death with obedience. The Russian's nascient powers keenly detect that something is clearly ... Wrong about her. Wrong in all the ways monsters in storybooks should be wrong. A thing that doesn't belong in the world of men any longer. A creature such as this no longer obeys mortal laws as closely as the just and good.
Irregardless, this is no illusion. This is not the light playing tricks on the girl. This is not a bit of under-done potato. Marise has survived.
At Stasya's dismissal of presumed kindness, Marise sniffs. Stepping closer again, the taller woman looks down upon the girl with half-hooded eyes. Hands folded together within the voluminous sleeves of her dark raiment, "You like what we've done with your school.. Hmn?" Switching subjects, briefly glancing past her to spy what she had once sworn to protect along with the three kings. "Exhilarating.. Is it not? I had so hoped to show you .. In person .. The fate of all your little friends.." Her voice trailing over that notion as her head tilts just so, "But you had to miss school.. At just the wrong day. Na... Pity."
Stasya stares narrowly at Marise when the woman steps closer. While she isn't privy to the sight of Marise's true self the way Shurui is, her empathy means she can feel its contours. And feeling the shape of Marise's ugly aura is no better than seeing it with one's eyes. In some ways, it's worse. Ever reached into a box and felt something grotesque, without ever knowing what it truly was? Yeah.
The girl does her best not to flinch back when Marise leans close. She does her best to keep her jaw strong when Marise talks about what has become of Gedo. But it's when Marise implies that harm has come to the other Guardian Kings that Stasya truly loses it. The girl's eyes widen as she brings the full force of her empathy to bear, trying to read in Marise's twisted self whether what the woman is saying is true.
It's impossible to tell. Reading emotion is not the same thing as reading thoughts. It's very easy for people to convince themselves of the truth of things, even if they are lies, and that conviction tends to come through strongly in their emotions. The end result? Stasya just can't -tell- what Marise is implying. Only that Marise is fully reveling in some kind of suffering.
She just hopes it's not the suffering of her friends.
"This is what I think of whatever you have done!" Stasya snarls, just before she leaps forward and tries to slam a sidelong kick horizontally into Marise's center of mass. The strike seems, at first, innocuous... but then, a sharp -blade- of psi springs to life along the line of Stasya's shin, raking wickedly out in an attempt to cut deeply into the dark woman. There will be no blunting of her power... not for this creature.
COMBATSYS: Stasya has started a fight here.
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Stasya 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Marise has joined the fight here.
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Marise 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Stasya
COMBATSYS: Stasya successfully hits Marise with Aggressive Strike.
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Marise 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Stasya
The Russian is absolutely right.
Touching this blackened creature with powers of empathy is an exercise in revulsion. Prying at this thing's emotions is not hard ... This monster has always had a vulnerability to such efforts. It was the motivation behind kidnapping Shurui and Stasya and experimenting upon them, and others of their ilk. It was fear of their power that drove her to employ a drastic solution. Ultimately, it nearly killed the monster and she only succeeded in part. The Devil can now see these powers as much as any average person can with her unholy eyes and they are no longer quite as potent against her wicked frame. But they can still pierce this creature's veil and reveal the horror beneath.
%Marise is a creature of such profound hate it makes conventional 'anger' Stasya has sensed from regular people seem ... quaint. She is so filled with loathing for every living thing its sick. There is not a person or thing this monster does not loathe on some level. Other negative emotions exist there as well, orbiting this central pillar of loathing like satellites. For the crime of being born, Marise wishes nothing more than to see you live a life of suffering and horror before an ignoble death.
Just like the life Marise has lived.
As anger of her own visibly blazes across the Russian's features, Marise's golden eyes flash with wicked delight. A moment of bliss seeping through a volcanic miasma of emotional pain. The Devil only feels a tinge of joy ... When other people share in the fetid mass of rage that boils beneath her skin like a cancer.
A short-lived joy at that. The Russian strikes with aggressive ferocity, so much so even Marise is taken aback. What was a half-hearted attempt at a block from the little girl is plowed aside as that slashing kick tears a gash across the Devil's middle. Unlike natural cuts and abbrasions .. That psi-induced wound earns a yelp from the monster. Forcing Marise to take a pained step back, a hand sweeping over her middle.
"..NnnnnMiserable FOOL!" Marise's hand lashes forth, claws springing from her fingertips like a bouquet of thin daggers, seeking to rake those necrotic-poisoned blades across the girl's middle in exchange, "I am a woman of my WORD!"
COMBATSYS: Stasya blocks Marise's Shinigami.
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Marise 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Stasya
In large part, it's Marise's own everpresent, seething, endless rage that causes Stasya's own to boil over so fast. Being an empath means receptivity to emotions, as much as it does the ability to read them; to be in the presence of such a malefic creature for even this short time is taking its toll on Stasya's own calm. At first, Stasya struggled to control the bleedover, struggled to keep those poisonous emotions out of her own heart.
But then? Marise said the wrong thing. And Stasya's temper, fueled by fear for her teammates and friends, snapped. Feeling her energy cut into the Devil draws not horror, not remorse... but something almost bordering on a fierce, vengeful joy. Something fueled in large part by the Devil's own spite.
Later, when she's calmer... when she's farther from Marise's poisonous hate... Stasya might be privately troubled at how much satisfaction she derived from that blow.
But the Devil is not about to take this strike lying down. The woman retaliates swiftly, and the overextended girl is too close to do anything but try to protect herself. Her arms come up in a rudimentary defense, the claws slicing across her forearms instead of her more vulnerable torso: the necrotic blades hurt not only for their edges but also for their poison, and the girl gasps in mingled pain and revulsion.
Backing away, trying to get some distance so that decay cannot touch her again, the girl swiftly transitions into a backflip, energy slinging off the kick of her leading leg in a vertical array of gleaming, psionic blades.
COMBATSYS: Stasya successfully hits Marise with Chandrahas.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
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Marise 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Stasya
For those without the gift of empathy, it only seems that Stasya's own rage is finding its vent. Finally does the girl have a chance to avenge herself upon her former captor, without chains or shackles holding her back. Buoyed by the outrage the monster has inflicted upon the girl's own school, her home away from home. To her friends and classmates. The Devil does not question the Russian coming alive in fury, to the monster it is only a natural response.
As the girl manages to keep those wicked claws from slashing her fully in turn, the Devil seems fully intent on continuing her rampage, just beginning to pursue the girl as she falls back, "I told you.. I TOLD you! I WILL kill your friends! Your family! EVERYONE you've ever loved! Your -insolence- will cost your loved ones DEARLY you pathet-"
Malicious words cut short as Stasya vaults backwards, loosing a volley of psychically sharp blades that cleanly slice straight across the dark woman. Swords born of righteous fury pierce through her pale skin, giving the monster pause as her eyes widen in stunned shock. Before .. Such an attack may have killed her straight away. Only her dearly-wrought resistance lessened the damage to merely ... Excruciating. The mind-blades pierce the lies and fabrications of her body.. Somehow distorting her flesh where they hit. Pale skin becomes ancient and burned out.. Revealing brief, momentary glimpses of the horror her fake beauty continually masks.
The creature staggers back, a hand once again going to her side quickly, staunching the blood .. Or more precisely the dissolving illusions, forcing herself back to her 'normalcy'. The wounds closing slowly as the blood lessens, but the damage is still severe.
And the monster is not happy.
"..Arrogant Wretch.." Marise hisses through gleaming fangs, "...You've done nothing to earn that power... You don't deserve those blades!" Her long ebon locks suddenly whip to life, rising at her sides like spreading wings as she lifts her free arm, "I'll TEAR them from you yet, Dog!" And with a gesture, the creature's locks lash forth like a mane of needles. Sending forth a volley of hundreds and hundreds of long black needles.. Each imbued with a fraction of her unholy, evil power.
COMBATSYS: Stasya interrupts Onigumo no Kokufuu from Marise with Angurva'del.
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Marise 0/-------/----===|=======\-------\1 Stasya
The glimpses of reality beneath the outwards beauty only fuel Stasya's anger. They are representations of the truth beneath the mask, and they validate every iota of the hatred, terror, and revulsion Stasya feels for the creature spewing death threats before her now. Standing stock-still before Marise, her breath coming vicious and fast, the girl finally succumbs to the overwhelming miasma of murderous hate that radiates from the woman. Her eyes gleam as she taps fully into that wrath.
"You won't be killing ANYONE I care for." The girl advances, her usual gentle, unassuming nature lost beneath a roil of emotion-- hate, terror, violence, and vengeance-- that is both her own... and Marise's. "You won't ever hurt me again. I've looked at what kind of thing you are... I know what you feel. What you think! And in the end..."
The storm of spearing needles rushes forwards, hair transformed to pinioning spires of unholy power. Stasya rushes -through- the slashing, piercing assault, spurred by her own need to destroy this creature. It's unclear whether she acts to avenge her friends, should they be fallen... or to avenge herself and what was done to her... or simply to stop this monster from ever troubling her again. What is clear is that it hurts immensely, the girl a bloody ruin by the time she slams into Marise at the far end of the gauntlet.
"...I still haven't seen anything in you to redeem you!"
Stasya slashes into the Devil with a destructive combination of strikes. The girl wildly attacks with a pair of slashing punches, followed by a violent crescent kick: all edged with that deadly bladed Psycho Power.
As Stasya stands resolute before the oncoming hail of poisoned death, Marise manages a triumphant grin. This girl may be no stranger to anger, but she has yet to learn how to control it proper. Without guidance, rage can lead one to make mistakes or take foolhardy chances.
As the girl -charges- into the attack, barking her defiance... Marise thinks the fight already over. Needle after needle piercing into the girl's flesh, no one can endure that level of agony. The black rain of the demon spider is a powerful technique even hardened holy warriors such as Hakuya cannot shrug off easily.
Which gives full definition to the further look of shock on Marise's face as Stasya continues her charge. Serpentine eyes widen as the monster spits, "I..Impossible!"
The creature only just begins to consider a defensive measure before blades sharpened with the power of thought -tear- into her! Her dark symmetry tossed about with every impact as arcs of blood paint the street and broken cafe windows. As the attack is complete, The Devil is again sent staggering back. This time falling to a single knee as she doubles over, both arms clutching her middle. A gout of crimson spat from her lips onto the cracked pavement beneath her as her eyes shudder open.
"...Redeem.." The Devil breathes with a rasp. That word.. Angers her the most. "... You fool ... There is no .. 'Redemption'. We are... All damned. All of us ..."
Hateful eyes burrowing up to the girl, lips trembling with charged rage, "... I .. Only ... Lead the way."
With that, the Devil's hand snaps outward to the side. Fingers flexing as crimson lightning dances amongst her fingertips. The air begins to fill with chorus of keening screams, as the Devil sparks open a portal of suffering.. Conjuring a vague sphere of storming red and shadow, the energy a shrieking cacophony. An ode to suffering.
The monster then rises and -hurls- the ball of destruction in a single smooth motion. Attempting to smash into the girl and introduce her to a whole new level of pain.
COMBATSYS: Marise successfully hits Stasya with Tokoyami.
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Marise 0/-------/---====|=======\======-\1 Stasya
Marise makes her scathing, bitter, and hateful reply... stating that she merely heads the vanguard when it comes to the human race's descent into damnation. Stasya, against all common sense, doesn't back up or try to retreat. Her grey eyes stay locked with Marise's, the girl's slight frame resolute, as she seethes in answer, "We are not interested in following you."
Stasya's mistake-- indeed, one sourced from inexperience with handling anger-- means she has no chance of getting out of the way when Marise rips a hole in existence and slings the mass of iniquity straight for her. The girl is struck headlong, sent crashing backwards, a cry of surprise, pain, and terror ripped out of her as the attack assaults her not only on a physical front... but an empathic one.
All that agony grates against her empathy like sandpaper against skin. Like acid rubbed into the eyes.
Once the smoke clears, the ruined girl is revealed... hunched on her hands and knees on the ground, still shuddering from feeling all that pain as if it were her own. Her arms tremble so violently she seems liable to fall on her face any instant. Her blonde hair streams down from her dipped head to pool on the ground, obscuring her face. When Stasya finally manages to lift her gaze, she looks through a curtain of hair twisted with blood.
"You... can go... /alone/," Stasya rasps, her energy pooling palpably within her-- charging the bleak air. Abruptly, the girl funnels all her psionic power straight into the ground: a gleam of brilliant red emanating about her hands, before it soaks into the street like blood.
There is a pause of instants. And then, spires of tearing psi pierce from out of the ground in wild, scissoring directions all about Marise, threatening to impale the Devil like so many thrust spears. To rip her apart by piercing her from all conceivable angles.
COMBATSYS: Stasya successfully hits Marise with Alkonost.
[ < > //////// ]
Marise 1/---====/=======|==-----\-------\0 Stasya
While the Russian writhes on the sundered ground, wrestling with indescribable agonies conjured from the depths of Makai itself, the Devil slowly walks. A slow, tortured gait but the creature looms closer. Her claw yet outstretched, arcs of crimson lingering at her fingertips as low laughter escapes her bloodied lips. Mocking, sinister chuckles at the horrific sensations rifling through the poor thing, ".. What you are.. Interested in ... matters not at all." The creature seethes. Spitting a mouthful of blood aside as the monster adds, "You were born to serve the strong.. Child. The true rulers of the world. Now... Bow down .. And you may yet be spared..."
Ahh, false hope. The kind Marise loves to give, as she looms over the young woman. Its not really Stasya's fault, ultimately. She just happened to be born to a barbarian bloodline, doomed to irrelevance and to feed greater people. Like any unruly dog, the only sensible solution is to put it to sleep.
Not that Stasya intends to go quietly into the night.
The Gedo Student roars in defiance. Telling her to be ...
.... Alone. For a split second, a moment frozen in time as those words leave her, Marise's eyes widen a fraction. An emotion stirs beneath all that hate, all that anger.
... So alone. So very, very alone ...
Marise -shrieks- as those energy spears thrust from beneath her. Impaling her clean through from a dozen angles and -hoisting- her like a ragged, ebon banner. In that agonized, painful second.. The spikes of psycho power interferes with the monster's illusion. Her face flickers and shifts.. The pained beauty revealing something terrible beneath. An ancient, horrific thing.. blackened from fires and rotted from oceans, scarred from countless battles and withered from endless decades. It is this thing, contorted in absolute agony with clawed hands clutching at the spears within her, slowly replying, "... I ... Won't ... Go ... Alone ..."
Golden eyes glimmering in that solemn vow. When the Devil does finally leave this world, she -will- take most of this world with her straight to Hell.
Thats how much she hates them all.
As the spires fade in the wake of the deadly attack, Marise knows she's beaten. These Gedo children.. These mere kids. She cannot beat them yet, even by themselves she is no match for them. As humiliating.. as frustrating as that is, the monster must be patient. Her time will come again. Her power will grow ... And there will yet be a day where she will see them ruined before her. But that is not this day ...
The ghoul falls to the Earth as the blades fade... But never touches. The creature seemingly fades completely to shadow. Vanishing from sight a fraction of a second before she touches the pavement. Leaving only the blood and ruin in her wake.
COMBATSYS: Marise takes no action.
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Stasya 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Marise can no longer fight.
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Stasya 0/-------/-----==|
The street is quiet in the wake of the Devil's awful condemnation. It is barren in the wake of her sudden disappearance. The sudden silence chills Stasya, adding to the empty coldness that clutches at her heart once the air is void of that overwhelming hate. Uncontrollably, the girl-- still huddled on the ground-- starts to shake, and she can't stop the trembling even once she's pulled herself together enough to stand.
Now that Marise is gone, Stasya can think just a little bit more clearly. And in her memories, she finds one fraction of evidence that disproves what she had tried to tell the Devil-- and herself-- earlier.
The creature -could- feel loneliness. She was not completely constructed of hate... she was not an irredeemable force of nature. Before she became the horrific thing Stasya saw beneath the beautiful facade, she was somebody. That is a fact that cannot be hidden from the girl's empathy... but now, not for the first time, Stasya wishes she -could- hide that realization from herself. That she could shuck the heightened awareness of her 'gift.'
She had wanted to kill her. This thinking, feeling creature. She had felt herself take one step closer to the cold, executing pragmatism of her father. How much of that feeling was an infection from Marise's virulent emotions; how much was her own hate? Has she forgotten the cost of actually killing another thinking creature? How had -Tenma- brought himself to do it? Had he felt this same way afterward?
Stasya shivers in the slight breeze that comes down the empty street. She doesn't want to go home, not yet. She doesn't want to feel her father's killing emotions when he sees her in this state; her own might come back out if she does. Instead, she wanders off in search of her teammates. She wants to see them, to talk to them. Somehow she feels like things will feel right again if she does.
COMBATSYS: Stasya has ended the fight here.
Log created on 22:01:23 05/03/2009 by Marise, and last modified on 09:12:01 05/04/2009.