incandentias

[incandentias]

Thanks for participating in the event! As a reward, you’ll be able to cast sword burst up to five times daily. See you next time!

[incandentias]

eliminatorleck​:

Going to surpass death to face new challenges. More people to eliminate. It’s madness that fills Leck’s mind, motivates him anew. These voices in his head he ignored and didn’t bother sort out for too long. The compromises he made seem to be catching up with him now.  He still struggles to set himself in motion though. The darkness is his home. His friend. He feels cozy here and the light does have something threatening to him, he just can’t remember anymore why. His thoughts are a mess. He lost himself in voices and desires that he can’t sort out anymore, that all seem so important and dear and yet… all that seems now is this light. His eyes become dull and distant. He is tired of struggling. Tired of thinking. He lost the tugging war against her and in the end against his own insanity, too. Here is nothing for him anymore. No challenge. No people to eliminate. And, the one he loves and longes for so deeply and dearly is not here, either. He wants to leave this empty place. And just like that, he starts walking. His gait is sluggish though and while his mad needs push him forwards, there is no longer any joy. There are no other emotions left, either. There is only numbness with nothing to fulfill him anymore but this light. A shattered conscience he is, his appearance drenched in his own blood that is as yellow as her poison. Broken by his own wishes and longings. But maybe this is fine. To not feel a thing anymore. To be free of it all, when there’s no death anyway. The light keeps getting brighter as he goes on. It further distorts his broken mind into endless chants to justify any and all of this. The luring promise to walk amidst the living again. To be free as he pleases. To see Grimm again. Happiness.

“I want to live…” his voice is hoarse and dripping with longing. A longing that ultimately, and unfortunately, leads him into her embrace.

ALL SHE EVER WANTED WAS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. Now she has it, watching with indifference as the creature that cared for her brother so much casts that love aside, reaching for the light as all creatures inevitably do. But truth be told, she feels nothing toward him, and as soon as she feels his psyche shatter beneath her iron grip, the Radiance turns from where he fell in the fog.

The suffering, the madness that envelops the other’s mind-- it’s all of utter inconsequence to her. Like a memento upon the mantel, the Radiance stops thinking of him the instant she begins to drift further into the fog, seeking her next victim. There is no need to continue baiting the other forth into her light. He will do all the rest on his own.

If anything, all she feels is a quiet satisfaction at having taken away from her brother the same way he took from her. Like a child, she thinks: if I cannot have it, then neither can you.

Insatiable, unstoppable-- like the fog that devours the island, so she desires to devour too. For no reason other than that she can.

[incandentias]

eliminatorleck​:

Leck severed the connection from soul to body. His body dissolves in the mist, but his soul’s image is still stuck in the endless abyss. Blood still flows out of his throat and mixing with the darkness while his pain resists. It is painfully cold and he’s feeling exhausted. His soul’s image looks as terrible as it’s current condition is. He has difficulties to speak.

“Grimm…” He wishes so dearly for him to be here on his side. He feels once more the desire to lie in his arms. Ah, he’s so tired and so cold.

“Grimm…” He calls out his name again. It is hardly more than an exhausted whisper. The desire to be not just alone overcomes him as he’s there in the midst of darkness and his own blood, while unable to escape this space.

He doesn’t want to become her toy. He doesn’t want to betray Grimm for fake salvation. It’s his oath he gave, and that still means a lot to Leck. Just like he would endure torture to keep a secret. It’s part of his job, part of who he is. Something he prides himself with.

But, this is a tugging war with a god, and his battered mind begins to shatter whole under this pressure. He has gone far beyond his limits and his madness is taking over in a moment where he just wants to die. It’s a burning desire to go on instead, keeping up with his job, to find the one challenge. To eliminate more lives along the way. No no, you can’t die yet! Not like this! You must go on!

He is ready for her to do with him as she pleases, for he is no longer able to resist her suppressing will or these desires birthed by his own distorted mind. His madness drives him now, making him want to LIVE.

But I will never love you like I love him.

His last clear thought echoes in between all the shards of his own crushed being. The words that now come out of his mouth instead are hysteric, and they’re motivated by a much simpler and natural desire. Survival.

“I don’t want to die like this! I haven’t found my last challenge yet!”

While he deep down just wants to die to remain loyal to his love, his madness desires to live. It leaves Leck at a loss. Which is right? Which is wrong? Which one is actually madness anyway? He can’t tell anymore, he is too exhausted to gather his mind.

THE SECOND HE SHOWS WEAKNESS, the game is up. As he thinks of challenge, of the desire to eliminate, a light emerges in the distance. Warm and comforting. A siren’s call to beckon him forth from the shell of his resistance. An invitation to show that her light is not merely salvation, but his happiness, should he only choose to embrace it.

Come forth, it seems to say, the challenge you seek-- it is yours, should you only accept me within your heart. The light offers promise. Of those who would look at him with fear in their eyes, some who would run, others who would fight tooth and nail to stay alive.

None who dream can resist her for long. None with desires that can be warped and manipulated to suit her own needs. It doesn’t surprise her that even her brother’s plaything bends and breaks beneath the pressure ere long.

In the darkness, a path of light shines forth. To stay where it is cold and unforgiving, or to march forth into the Radiance’s embrace...

She watches, she waits, and she knows what his answer will be.

[incandentias]

eliminatorleck​:

It takes effort to pull the knife while the darkness presses onto him. He struggles to rise his hand and bring the tip of his weapon to his throat. He’s holding onto the hilt so tightly that his knuckles become visible under the skin, to not lose it in the condensed shadows all around him. He’s not even dropping it as this sudden loud voice breaks the absolute silence.

          The offer, though? Leck sneers, and his sneer turns into a hysterical laughter. So surreal and ridiculous it sounds to him.

“Is that what you offered the vendor from Cotes, too? Some light and warmth at the end of this endless darkness?“ The man that fell on all fours in front of him, babbling about light and safety, Leck hasn’t forgotten about that moment. He killed him off, after all. He might not feel regret over his murders, but he doesn’t simply forget them, either. Warmth in this vast cold space sounds tempting to him and his freezing, tired limbs. He can’t deny that he desires rest. But not for that price. Not for suffering some strange magic inside him that grows some ugly cysts. “I ain’t needin’ the help of a filthy liar, I’m fine livin’ within the darkness. That’s the path I have choosen for myself. But not under YOUR watch.” Growling, he pushes the knife deep into his throat, with the hopes that this should do it. To either wake up, or die by his own means. Oh but little does he know he meddles with powers here that are still far beyond his understanding.

LECK DIES. Unceremoniously, his life sputters out with no intervention from the Radiance, and her world is neither better off or worse for it. Or so it would seem. His consciousness remains, while his body fades. All within the confines of the daydream that has since melted into a genuine dream.

She doesn’t mean for it to be torture. Truly, she doesn’t. It is but loving discipline, to show this creature where he errs. That everything outside of her is temporary-- that love is foolishness-- that if he doesn’t turn to her, there will be nothing left for him but the very all-engulfing darkness she gives him a taste of.

As long as it takes, she will keep him plunged in the abyss. Without even a body to ground himself, since he cannot be trusted with it.  « WITHOUT MY LIGHT, THERE IS ONLY DEATH. I WILL LEAVE YOU, IF THAT IS YOUR DESIRE. MY BROTHER WILL NOT HEED YOUR CALL. LIGHT AND DARK, NIGHTMARE AND DREAM... YOU WILL KNOW NONE OF IT. »

[incandentias]

eliminatorleck​:

As the darkness condenses and starts pressing in on him, he still tries to remain calm. Just like when he infiltrated the Glat Archives and let himself carry into the floodgate by the mucky swampwaters. There’s not much else he can do in this situation anyway. Is he really worth all of this? Just look at you, letting him call you a pet! You’ve been always better off alone. You enjoy it, being just on your own in the cold vast darkness.

“Oh I surely enjoy the dark vast darkness, and I enjoy Grimm’s company!” Leck grimaces, trying to shut these voices out while he’s running out of breath. But is he really suffocating here? Is any of this here real? Where is this glowing fuzzball anyway?  

“Shit…” He’s getting dizzy. It is tempting to drift off into silence and get lulled by the darkness. His eyes become so heavy. His thoughts remain with Grimm and how much he loves him, how much he wants to be with him. And suddenly, he’s dearly longing for his warmth in this endless and smothering bleakness… … and that’s where he knows that something is off.

Instead of just drifting fully into unconsciousness, Leck pulls a knife from his belt with what’s remaining from his awareness. Giving up? Not in his book.  He’s not sure what it is that happens here right now, but if he’s going to die, then rather by his own blade than whatever weirdness this hairy lamp pulls on him here.

TO LET THE MIND SINK into despair, and then retrieve it-- mold it into something new-- that is her way of things. It’s rare, oh so rare, to see a mortal that resists so hard they would rather die than allow her to take hold, but it’s not as though this is a completely new reaction. The Radiance watches, unperturbed.

Not wanting to reveal her light unto him, knowing his mind is nowhere near as pliable as she would care for it to be. So her voice echoes in the dream, powerful, all-encompassing. Inescapable. So loud that it stings.

« DARKNESS BEGETS DARKNESS. YOU WILL FIND NO SALVATION AT YOUR OWN HANDS. » She says, finally offering the promise of comfort in the distance. A warm glowing ray, like the end of a long and horrid tunnel. « I WILL SAVE YOU FROM THIS NIGHTMARE, IF ONLY YOU LET ME. »

And she waits, to see just how far his stubbornness goes.

[incandentias]

higher beings, these moves are for you alone

[incandentias]

eliminatorleck​:

And here he is now, surrounded by nothing but silent, deep darkness. All alone. But if anything, it is… soothing to Leck. The silence, the thickness of the void he’s swallowed in. It feels like he belongs right here. It is familiar to the coldest and most vast places in space, the kind that most so desperately avoid. Abandoned stations, the Badlands, or even Ferenginar’s swamps. He is longing for the loneliness of the dark, and being here makes him realize how much he’s missed it.

For a while he is just like this, sitting on the ground, weapons tucked away and being in a meditation-like condition. At least he is until there is a thought. A voice talks to him in his own mind that’s penetrating the silence and preventing him from being completely calm.

You feel no fear. No compassion. You only know it by logic. If there is nothing left to do for you, no one to talk with and hold onto… what even will become of you? Will you just fall into despair? How long can you keep pretending?

Leck opens his eyes again, but it’s not like there’s any difference. It is still all dark and vast around him.

“I know no despair. Don’t be ridiculous…” But he is still in the dark, eyes open or not, and the voice doesn’t leave. And just more start talking in his head while he is just stuck here…

ALL IT TAKES IS A FLICKER of doubt. She knows this well. Even the strongest fall in time. The ones born and raised to contain her failed to succeed in the task. In the real world, she hovers a few feet from the Ferengi, looking down at him, expressionless. If he finds refuge in the illusion, she is more than content to try and crush that.

The darkness remains, firm-- and then it starts to condense. Pressing in on all sides. Smothering. If he can remain loyal to her brother, then surely this will pose no problem, she reckons. A strange scene, perhaps, to any outsiders. Glowing, golden eyes peering down at this pitiful creature, benign at first glance.

But she pushes her will, impressing it the best she can into the creature’s mind. Determined to see what makes him react, what she can use to break this consciousness and rebuild it anew. Hoping to crush him alive beneath the weight of the shadows...

For it is always darkest before the dawn.

[incandentias]

eliminatorleck​:

Leck recognizes the man as he stumbles his way. The Ferengi reaches instinctively for one of his knives, but he’s not throwing it. He only turns it around in his hand while he’s waiting. Heavily breathing, the man falls down on his feet as he reaches him, and reveals these ugly cysts as he does. Leck now lowers himself down to eye-level.

“That’s why you stay away from the light, my friend.”  Without flinching the least bit, he is now ramming his knife straight into the vendor’s neck in a twisted sense of mercy. 

As the Ferengi straightens himself again, the bloody knife still in his hand, he notices the light the man must have spoken of, and narrows his eyes.

“No hard feelings, but I’m worshipping someone else already.”

The daydreams though, the consuming light, it starts kicking in. Leck is far from pure… but he is also immensely determined to Grimm, and that is what he holds onto now as he pulls his disruptor pistol with his free hand. He aims blindly into the bright blinding light before him, and fires.

EFFORTLESSLY, THE RADIANCE teleports out of the way of the beam, slightly to one side, not impressed that this creature is resisting her attempt at subjugating his will, but rather annoyed. To be free after so many years, free and able to use what little power hasn’t been sapped from her veins-- it’s unacceptable.

                            AND I WILL NOT FADE AGAIN.

She feels no need to speak out loud, but cannot help convey her thoughts through the daydreams. A darkness-- the darkness that she knows this creature follows-- her brother’s stench permeates this one’s soul. The darkness consumes the light, leaving the creature alone in a void vast like no other. One where his cries will echo, hollow and forgotten.

Be swallowed in the darkness you hold so dearly-- know the loneliness you will feel when he turns his back on you, the same way he turned his back on her.

[incandentias]

A man from the Cotes Ward marketplace, kindly even to the powered ones who others might have turned away out of fear, stumbles through the fog. Not that the mist bothers him, no-- but there’s something amiss. Breathing heavily, he falls down at the feet of someone he might usually recognize-- and as he falls, unveils the massive, pulsing cluster of cysts, bright, and ugly, and orange, all along his spine.

“The light...” He groans, voice a feeble wheeze, “The light will lead you through... to safety...”

And behind him, still shrouded by the mist, hovers a cloaked figure. Eyes bright, expressionless, and determined to force her will on the stranger next. It starts with a daydream that you can’t seem to shake-- of a light in the distance, powerful, and all consuming...

[incandentias]

LIKE THE BEAM OF A LIGHTHOUSE, a ray of light cleaves through the mist. First a gentle brightness, beckoning the lost to safe shores. But quickly it grows stronger. Until it becomes headlights in the fog, ready to run over the very same souls it attracted. Without warning, a searing burst of light tears through the area, honing in fast on the wretched creature who thought it could best her.

« YOUR FALSE KING CANNOT SAVE YOU. » She says, voice thundering from every direction at once. And in a powerful flash, the Radiance appears before the Knight, cloak billowing in her wake. « I WILL NOT BE CONTAINED. »

( You cannot outrun the light, @palevessel​. )

[incandentias]

heclingmuzik​:

“What?” Eyebrows furrows and she can’t help but make this annoyed  face. It doesn’t stay for long though, because she really is curious as to WHO she’s talking about. “I don’t know what you’re talking about but you’re…kind of confusing me.” Maybe she needs help. She MUST be new. Maybe she’s looking for someone? Ismael does tend to hang around people…

“I don’t know if I said this before, but uh…I’m Ismael. What’s your name? Are you looking for someone? Do you need help or…”

THE CREATURE MENTIONED A CALL. The Radiance tries to recall how she once spoke to her followers. How their words used to mean something. Perhaps this being, poor and lost, is the same. She watches, clearly focused on Ismael’s lips, until a question finally breaks the barrier of self-inflicted miscomprehension.

« I AM THE LIGHT, » she says, « A RADIANCE THAT SHALL NOT BE FORGOTTEN. AND YOU... YOU, MORTAL... YOU CALL OUT... AND YOU GO UNANSWERED. KNOW THIS, MORTAL... THE RADIANCE WILL NEVER ALLOW YOUR WORDS TO FALL UNTO SILENCE. »

[incandentias]

ascarletflame​:

“This will do you some good,” Grimm scoffs. It would be even better if he could shove some of these mortal emotions into her now corporeal form so she might properly enjoy the mall, but they’ve got to start slow, he supposes. Maybe she’ll learn. The Radiance possessed the ability to learn. It could happen, right? Ahaha… ha.

Grimm leads his sister on a short walk, ending up with the two of them in the open and extravagant area of the Mermaid Cove Mall. This is going to take a while. What should he suggest? Collecting anything is out. It’s too close to her affinity for collecting mind slaves.

“If there is a store that catches your interest, say so. Maybe you should consider… growing something? Flowers, plants… Or you could make something, which would certainly be perfect coming from you. Some type of art, or music like I do… Games? There are puzzles, chess, sports…”

THOUGH SHE HAS BEGUN TO accustom herself to the laws of the mortal realm, there are still moments when she bumps into a passerby and does not even acknowledge their existence despite their annoyance and ‘what the hell is your problem’s. 

« TO MAKE... » she says, attention caught at last, « HOW LONG IT HAS BEEN SINCE I WIELDED THE POWER OF CREATION...? YES, MY BROTHER... IF THIS ‘STORE’ CAN RETURN THAT UNTO ME... TAKE ME THERE. »

[incandentias]

lunarprophet​:

Waka raised a brow. “Well I certainly hope I would be~ It would be very concerning if I were some other sort of state of matter~” he said, looking over the giant moth like creature. She seemed sort of familiar, and like another he knew.

“A lot of things in this place are solid, so if you were trying to move through them, I am afraid you are out of luck.”

SHE ACKNOWLEDGES THE MORTAL’S voice, and for perhaps the first time, realizes that he’s talking to her directly. How odd. Gaze finally turns downward, glowing gaze looking him over, and replies:  « THE MORTAL WORLD... IT IS FRAIL. WHY DOES IT NOT YIELD? WHY DOES THIS ONE NOT YIELD? »

[incandentias]

heclingmuzik​:

Ismael places a hand over her ear as if she’d be able to block the creature from entering, but it doesn’t seem to work. Was this the only way for her to communicate? If that were the case, Ismael should understand…Right? 

She’s just so cautious. She doesn’t want anyone being able to hear what she has to say. 

“Yeah. Just like some of the people here.” She looks around. A lot of the people in this place were more than mortal though. Sometime, she felt like she was the only one. The only human amongst all of these…well…

She knows that isn’t the case though. 

When she turns her attention to the other, she can’t help but take a step back, leaning away from how close she is. “But I’m not entirely sure who you’re talking about….” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Uhm….do you mind? I’m waiting on a call from someone.” Grimm….hasn’t answered. It’s unlike him.

HALF OF THE GIRL’S WORDS go in one metaphorical ear and out the other. The Radiance doesn’t move, undeterred by Ismael’s discomfort. It goes utterly unacknowledged, « PETULANT BEING, » she says, instead,  « LIKE A FIRE, DESTINED TO SPUTTER AND BE EXTINGUISHED. »

Sorry, Ismael. She’s not going anywhere. In fact, she’s all the more curious now, watching her, trying to figure out what all the damn fuss is about.

[incandentias]

ascarletflame​:

“…somewhat?”

She is truly clueless…

“So. Why don’t we take a moment, sister dearest. What sounds fun to you? We’ll go visit the mall, and you can see what we can pick out for you to do… and perhaps, if you care enough, I can show you my music, magic, and dance after. However, if you’re just going to nitpick and question it, I’m not going to bother.”

IT ALL SEEMS SO... FOUL. Unclean, perhaps, for a lack of better word. None other would be able to tell her disdain for the suggestion save Grimm by the way that her fluff bristles and she stays silent.

« I AM TRULY IN A POSITION TO QUESTION IT, BROTHER? NOW THAT I TOO HAVE FALLEN, GRANTED CORPOREAL FORM AT LAST IN EXCHANGE FOR EVERYTHING THAT I AM? » Someone’s being unintentionally melodramatic. Radiance thinks, for a long time. What does she consider fun?  

Somewhere, deep in the back of her memory, she recalls the stories they once told and shared. Long before her self-inflicted isolation, her fixation on maintaining her status quo. « THINGS... THAT DO NOT EXIST, » she says at last, her best attempt at describing that fragment of a time long past,  « YES... I WILL LOOK UPON THE MALL, AND THEN YOUR ANTICS. »

[incandentias]

ascarletflame​:

A few days later, the exhausted moth finds himself wandering around. Perhaps he’d get a bagel, or a smoothie, or both. Why not? Treat yourself, right? …But there she is once more, tailing after him like some child that’s strayed too far from home. Grimm sighs lightly.

Of course. It would figure she has no idea what to do with herself.

“Have you tried…” He takes a dramatic pause. “Getting a H O B B Y? You know what that is, right? Something to do other than forcing your will down the throats of mortals?”

IT’S FORTUNATE THAT HE EXPLAINS the concept to her, because as he suspected, she has no idea what any of that means. To say it’s been a struggle to adjust is an understatement, and she’s silent for a while-- probably far longer than she should be, given the simplicity of the question, before she responds.

« HOBBY. IS THAT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, BROTHER? IN ALL YOUR MANY YEARS ON THIS MORTAL PLANE... YOU HAVE BEEN COLLECTING HOBBY? »

[incandentias]

lunarprophet​:

“Not much of a talker, I see~” He showed no signs of moving, even though he could easily teleport out of the way.

He was not one to be so easily intimidated by strange beings.

SHE ISN’T CONSCIOUSLY TRYING to intimidate him; when her body meets resistance in trying to pass through him, she keeps pushing before she stops and looks down at him as though his existence is a violation of the very rules of reality.

« ...SOLID... » she remarks in her booming telepathic voice, not necessarily in response to his words, but a spoken thought, trying to make sense of it all.