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Post by cynexia on Feb 29, 2012 17:19:42 GMT -5
What had once been a landmark of New York, now lay in rubble and ruin. Its doors blown outward as though a great cyclone had pushed through them, hung dejected on broken hinges..
Its pews pushed to either side of the graceful aisle, like some massive beast had lumbered through without care for the crafted seats..
Marble, statuary lay broken in shards at the front of the church, stained glass windows sprinkled the floor like colored diamonds.
Against one of the still standing marble pillars she waited.. would others join her she wondered? She'd given up on finding Thalas, he was her only real hope of surviving what had come and what was...
Absently she fiddled with the cinnamon strands of hair, fingers nervously twisted and pulled them through. Eyes the color of ferns darted back and forth as she kept her wary vigil. She knew she'd never survive this new world alone.. A simple human with some natural ability in deft fingers and slight of hand..
Before all this, she'd been a fairly good thief and grifter.. making her way through life. Then she'd met Thalas and all that had changed. He'd given her a home, safety, and even affection (by his standards). In return she'd given him her heart, though he'd never reciprocated those feelings. He had her loyalty as well.
In the dark, dank rubble of the church she prayed he'd find her.. that someone of a friendly nature would. She did not know how much longer she could keep safe, how much longer she would survive this hell....
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Thalas
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Post by Thalas on Mar 17, 2012 14:48:44 GMT -5
How many decades ago had it been?
He found that as time walked past him that he was surprised at how incoherent it felt. How far away and distant, like someone else telling a story he'd never heard before. One day he was telling a woman that he knew something about her father with carriages prancing in the background and now he was in the rubble of New York city, looking for that woman.
There wasn't much use in explaining himself. It usually complicated the situation and caused the parties that were involved to get even more upset. If that human creature could flit about and defy the hunger of another creature here, so could Nexie, right?
Didn't think that any creature could outdo her for the stubbornness in her blood.
Where would she have gone? Where do the lost go in the rubble of the terrifying streets of the damned? He light a cigarette and walked like he meant business. Sometimes that was enough to keep priests and the like off your back long enough to get where you were going. It was important to look like you've be too much trouble. He knew he could be, he didn't know if he had the time, though.
A bank. A police station. The church. Would she have gone to a church? Perhaps int he hopes of it offering some holy shielding against the darker creatures... perhaps. He didn't knock on the door, he just slipped in like a thief with a trail of cigarette smoke behind him. Cigarettes were good in a time like this. They had a strong smell and you could mislead a creature with them if you needed to.
The nicotine wasn't all that bad, either.
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Post by cynexia on Mar 31, 2012 16:04:09 GMT -5
She had stood for hours it seemed, melded to the comfort of shadows provided by the scarred and battered column she leaned against.
One could tell by the looks of the pulpit that something large had once stood there. The scorching marks upon the floor gave hints that whatever had stood there, no.. not stood, but landed there had been large and hot. Perhaps a gate hid there in sentiant, closed maybe? One would guess closed since it was no longer visible.
Did that mean that it was subject to being opened again? If so, did she want to linger there and risk that those who'd want to open a hell gate would come to do that?
Could she leave though, venture back out into that hell that was now New York? Be reminded again that at any turn could be death? God! Where was he?? Why hadn't he found her yet?
She bit back a whimper and stiffened her spine. Only the nervous twirl of fingers in hair betrayed her frayed nerves. She jumped and slid further around the column at the sound of disturbance by the door.
She wrinkled her nose at the odor that came with it. The faint luring scent of smoke. What she wouldn't give for a smoke right now!
Keen gaze skipped around the columns shadows to what had been the door, and for a moment the backlighting kept the figure in shadow, but it was his build, his devil-may-care gait that struck the chord of recognition with her.. he'd come!
Before she could even hesitate her body jumped into action, skirting about the column and racing towards him. Her heart beat a quick rhythm. Her eyes tearing with relief as she flung herself against him.
"Thalas! Oh thank gods.. !!"
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Thalas
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Post by Thalas on Apr 23, 2012 17:56:58 GMT -5
The cigarettes fell onto the ground and she collided into him like a wave of warmth and sweat. For much of their relationship he had shown her indifference-- he did not know now if by looking for her that her reaction was more than just relief from the situation but also, relief from him.
Being alive that long could do that to someone. Drive them into a pit where only extremes and shouting brought in them a reaction. Hell on Earth had a way of doing that, just the same. The smell of sulfur was a strong one and when she felt out of his arms he wrapped one of his hands around her's and looked her in the eyes, "We have to get out of the city." He didn't tell her he'd been looking for her for two years. He didn't tell her that in that search there were certain moments, perhaps, which might have made him apologize. He wondered if Hell bearing down upon him made such an apology sincere at all. Adrenalin was talking.
His hand tightened and he moved away from the church building, crouching low and looking back over his shoulder. Now and then he would see the smaller creatures scurry. Maybe even one like the woman before, lost. He with quite nearly kneeling to keep himself hidden by a pile of debris. His voice went over his shoulder to her.
"Can you believe people are comparing me to these creatures? It's tragically dumb." His mind recollecting the woman he'd come across before and her reaction to him. The jig was up, Vampire or Canaanites were known creatures, grouped together by some minds with the other flesh eaters. Like all the other carnivores, Thalas was insulted at the comparison.
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Post by cynexia on May 4, 2012 9:02:04 GMT -5
Crouched behind him, her hand gripping his like the lifeline it was. She listened to his words, recognizing them for what they where. His attempt to keep her calm and focused.
"Where will we go?" she whispered the question in response. Fingers tightened. She flinched with each new sound.
His next comment had her lip curling in surprised humor. "Why ever would they think that?" the smartass comment could not be resisted.
Still she waited, moving when he did, freezing in intervals. Trust, only he had hers. She would follow him into hell if need be. Wait, was'nt that exactly what they where doing?
Her heart pounded in her chest, from fear, and more. Simply being united with him once more was enough to make it race. Under all that excitement and dread was the wonder that he'd found her at last. She had given up on ever seeing him, much less surviving.
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Thalas
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Post by Thalas on May 28, 2012 8:45:29 GMT -5
"From what I have seen the outskirts of the town are a bit more stable than the inner city." He crouched a little lower when he thought that he saw some questionable movement. It was only paper, flickering behind a fire born in the scraps of a building. His eyes went over his shoulder to her when she gave him the comment, returning to her the salt of "Really?" But the smile was cut just the same.
He pulled. Her arm was tugged on like the line of someone fishing. Weaving them through debris, sometimes catching a frightened survivor. Some were just good at looking dead or hiding well. Most looked like the trauma has shattered their mind a bit and that they couldn't seem to understand how to pick themselves up and get out of town. Eventually they would get eaten. Or fucked. Fucked was just the easiest way to describe it.
The garabage of bones, of limbs, of trash hit his nose strongly. He wondered if Nexie smelled it just the same as he did. It wasn't appealing for him. Flesh was only alluring when there was a heart beating behind it. The smell of death for him was like the stench of a predator rubbed into trees and then defecated upon. Primal, nothing at all beautiful about it.
Honestly, if he were going to make it, human being were going to have to as well.
"What were you doing out here?" He stole a moment to talk down his sleeve and into her ear. He did not look her in the eye, he was watching out for the opportunistic. Vultures of any race lingered in the shadows.
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Post by cynexia on May 29, 2012 5:20:10 GMT -5
Tension, fear, primal heat, and hunger. Left a pall in the air that made it hard to breath, the smoke and sulfur did'nt help matters either. She gasped softly for fresh air as they crouched huddled. Could he feel her trembling? Her stark terror?
Perhaps that was why he continued to speak in such a calm manner, as if they where simply chatting over a drink? She didn't know, but she was grateful. He was all that kept her from running, screaming madly into her doom.
"I had no where else to go, I had hoped the church would be safe. That i'd.. find someone.. " , her words trailed off as she felt him tense then relax. Would they make it? She allowed herself to feel the wonder that he'd found her, that he'd come for her.
Allowed herself to believe that finally she might actually be safe, they just had to make it through the gauntlet of hell.
"We'll be safe there? On the outskirts?", the question she didn't ask was, would he be? Would anyone ever be safe? She had heard of no known safe havens. But then Humans where pretty scarce in the jungle of concrete and desecration.
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Thalas
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Post by Thalas on Aug 26, 2012 18:10:17 GMT -5
"We always tend to find each other, don't we?" In the city in, in the heat of it all, his hand still slipped cold down into her own. He pulled her on the line of his arm back to their feet to being picking along the side of building. Something scurried-- it looked small and uninterested in them. Perhaps even afraid of them if it was low enough on the pecking order.
It had been centuries. There had been multiple times in his life that he had walked through the wreckage of a city. Those years the fire, the rubble and death was a disheartening cleansing of a sore. Something about the downfall had felt right, as if bringing a greater health to the planet. This time was different. It felt more absolute, more final, as though someone were trying to shut the book on Earth and bid all its story lines and creatures farewell.
If that was the case did someone like him really have a say in it? Could a couple of sentences really motivate a reader not to throw away an entire book?
His hand squeezed her's as a smell his him nose, causing him to stop. He asked her, though he knew that she was alone and that told him well enough, "Are you alone?" He turned more to examine her, his eyes the same grey as the day they met. Still different. For the normal lifespans of people that came and went he was much like a statue. For the centuries though, something worn down slowly.
"Have you heard anyone talking?" His step continued as they passed the tallest masses of building, furthering themselves from the heart of population and death. Without the sewer systems being maintained some parts of town were completely unapproachable. It was as if the un-watched city formed habitats which welcomed the new guests. "I have heard conversations. Rumors."
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