Let the show begin

[Jaxen Marveet]

This was it. He was in a padded room that his subconscious named Komukai City. His nut-house cell mate was a snake and Jaxen was stuck there. Maybe they'd shoot him up with a sedative or something if he made a scene. Might as well make the most of it.

He lifted his face just enough to cast careful eyes around him. But he froze when the gaze fell on his savior's true form.

He stared at her body, and not in the fun way. Her face rippled with scales like ancient gold coins. Her eyes slanted and sinister. Her skull fanned like the hood of a standing cobra.

Jaxen hadn't realized he'd crawled away from her. "NO! Creature! Stay out of my head!"
He yelled defiantly and in a flash he ran the opposite way.

The stalls and stands of a market loomed. He ran to it, hoping to lose her inside. Blinded by fear of her torture, he barrelled through a wall of people that hissed at his passing without realizing he'd run into the belly of the beast itself. He shot a brief glance over his shoulder to check on the creature's distance.

Despite his dancer's agility, he tripped on a thick rope that sent him tumbling. When he realized the 'rope' slithered out of the path, the footwork flailed uncontrollably to get away all the faster. The ground rushed up to meet him. A scream shattered the air - not his. White spheres that looked like giant eggs rolled around him having toppled from the stand of a creature seemingly slicing them apart to sell.

Pain flashed through his hip and back, but he rolled, more-like scrambled, to his feet. The dazed creature that came out to check on him found Jaxen's elbow in its face moments before the Ancient stole his knife.

Of course, by then a goodly crowd of snakes, some on two legs, others wormian formed, had circled him. Some were small enough to crawl up his leg, others big enough to swallow him whole, and all manner of scale, color, fang and eyes came for him. Horror panicked inside until defiance grappled his mind of all reason. They wouldn't break him! Not again!

He shifted back and forth, twisting one way and another to keep them all in his sight. "STAY BACK!"
He hefted the knife so that it slashed a radius of warning through the air. They kept their distance.

Threats, horror, betrayal. They made war in his mind a trauma to last the ages. One that burned bright defiance behind ever-shifting eyes.




"On the rocks the gods bind thee with bowels torn forth from thy frost-cold son." A distant voice threatened.

His answer spewed hatred in return.

"Veizt, ef ā hjǫrvi skulumkens hrīmkalda magar“

<em>Though on rocks the gods bind me with bowels
"torngǫrnum binda goþ"

of from my frost-cold son,
"fyrstr ok øfstr vask at fjǫrlagi"

I was first and last at the deadly fight while cowards leered behind</em>



He'd gut his way out, if he had to. Or he'd fall on the knife himself. But either way, he would never let them in again. "STAY OUT OF MY HEAD YOU SONS OF BITCHES."





Edited by Jaxen Marveet, Jun 24 2014, 11:51 AM.

[Sora Ryuu]

Sora shook her head in a slow curve from side to side. She really wished the Ancients Reborn had more sense at this stage. She jumped up and pursued him, though the pursuit was less about catching and more about keeping him and others from harm. Faster than a human she closed the distance quickly, catching a Naga stumbling backwards, darting to stop the crockery of liquid from spilling and otherwise providing mass damage control. She circled around until she was behind him. Three other Gatherers, off-duty, in garb much like her own and one wearing his cloak assessed the situation and surrounded him. They stayed outside of his blade’s radius, waiting and alert.

The rest of the crowd backed away, calmly returning to their shops or homes. This was Gatherer’s business and one human was obviously no hindrance to four Gatherers.
“I ssave your life and you return the favor by threatening ourss? That iss not how I wass taught the Ancientss behaved.”
If she could get him to see reason it would be better than attacking. Naga did not assault Ancients were there any other way to make them see sense.
“We mean you no harm, but we will defend ourselvess and our familiess. Lay the knife down. You are here becausse of your power. We protect and provide ssome guidancce for thosse like you. Lay down the knife and be calm. We will take you to where you can get answerss about who you are and the power insside of you.”


She and the other Gatherers were each as different as could be in size and scale, but there was a solidarity of purpose behind their unblinking eyes. Even if they had to overcome him forcibly, they were here to protect, not harm. 'Long live the Ancients Reborn, even the most stubborn, high-pitched screaming, irrational ones'.



Edited by Sora Ryuu, Jun 24 2014, 02:38 PM.

[Jaxen Marveet]

Four snake .. uh .. people surrounded him. Everyone else seemed to retreat all too casually, dismissively, of the strange human and his knife, into the background.

The lead one, feminine in voice and form - at least comparatively - spoke directly to him. “I ssave your life and you return the favor by threatening ourss? That iss not how I wass taught the Ancientss behaved.”
He gave her question consideration; assuming he wasn't in a padded room and he really was in some other dimension with snake people, then she had saved him from Rune.

Rún
A wide after-image flashed a bent symbol across his vision.



Though the heat of a thousand torches feverishly flared his skin, the shape itself meant nothing to him and he quickly blinked it away. If he were going to survive this with his sanity, he needed to focus. He shook it off and sharpened his mind on the present.

Jaxen remained on the balls of his feet, ready to strike at her should she forget his warnings and come closer. But three other sets of slitted eyes watched him closely. If they chose to come at him at once, he doubted his own survival. Jaxen was many things, but a skilled fighter he was not.

“We mean you no harm, but we will defend ourselvess and our familiess. Lay the knife down. You are here becausse of your power. We protect and provide ssome guidancce for thosse like you. Lay down the knife and be calm. We will take you to where you can get answerss about who you are and the power insside of you.”


He looked from the knife in his hand to each of those four reptilian faces.

Though he had no idea what she meant, he could gauge the value of their situation. He was outnumbered and overrun. Talk of the power inside him was a tempting bait.

With a defiant glint in his eye, he laid the knife on the ground and slowly stood.

"Very well."
Voice steady, he lifted his palms in surrender, "What do you want with me?"

[Rune]

Rune groaned.

Uncle Seth was barking in her ear. "What is it?! Rune? RUNE!"


Tears streamed down her face when she answered. "He's gone,"
she said breathily. "I don't know. They're gone."


"Who??!"


Her hands explored her stomach. She was shaking. Her head went light as a balloon and she thought she'd float away.

Get it out. Get it out!

A cry and she ripped the blade free. She dropped it and plugged the hole with her palms.

Her body flushed hot then cold. Her head swam. "Uncle Seth. I think I need a doctor."


She fell to her knees. Her uncle spoke reassuringly. "ETA, two minutes. Hang on Roonie. I'm coming for you.."

[Sora Ryuu]

Sora’s mouth opened just enough to taste the air. Judgment for whether or not the Ancient was sincere in his sudden return to sensibility would hold until he had proven himself. For now, she watched him carefully and answered his question.
“You musst follow uss back to the temple.”
She gestured towards the large building which he had run from in the center of the city whose gray walls stood high above the rest of the city. Four stories tall when most other buildings were two or less, Komukai was a small city by human standards.
“There you musst enter the doorway and find the answerss given only to Ancientss.”


She walked while she spoke of the doorway, not hurried, but confidently moving forward until she was near where he placed the knife. A quick flick of her foot and the weapon slid towards the cloaked Gatherer who picked it up with the speed of their kind and slid it up his sleeve. The knife disappeared almost like a conjuring trick. Sora's diminuitive frame turned halfway towards the temple.
“Will you come with me?”
She gestured once more, waving him towards the temple and awaiting his reply. If all else failed, she would make sure he at least did not start screaming again. One barrage of her ears was enough for one day.



Edited by Sora Ryuu, Jul 3 2014, 09:02 PM.

[Jaxen Marveet]

He followed the line of her gesture toward the looming structure in the background. "A temple, huh? So long as I'm not the sacrifice."
Though only of moderate height, Jaxen towered over the snake woman with a look that verged upon threatening. There was a game to be played here, and he would be damned if he was the one to lose it. Morbid humor was only a side-element.

She approached, and Jaxen held himself at the ready. Although a thousand insects crawled under his skin, and although his every instinct said to flee or die trying, he remained quite still. Too still. Like perhaps motionlessness would dissuade her interest and she would seek other prey.

She kicked the knife away and the speed and grace by which one of the cloaked companions gathered it up shivered icicles down his spine. His expression remained hard, though the cords of his throat pulsed with the strength by which he swallowed his nerves.

His voice was tight, but vibrated by quiet drums of a very distant farce. His sense of humor was not lost on the situation. His gaze shifted from the gray prison to the crevices of her eyes.

"Looks like I have no choice. Lead on."
He gestured at the path he would follow at her side. He did not like the idea of escorting himself onto his own sacrificed altar, but if he was going to the headsman, the walk to the gallows would be unperturbed by the backs of other people's heads. That he had a clear path by which to bolt was another advantage.

His pace was steady. The cobalt cashmere of his jacket seemed bright against the drab surroundings, and it hung still in the windless air but for the rustling of his legs as he strode forward. As his hands went behind his back the jacket stretched across his chest, and the lines of a skeletal tattoo could be seen through the opacity of the thin white cashmere beneath. The colors and shapes of his attire set his dark features upon a playful edge: one that his mind calculated with every single step.

"So."
He quickly glanced at his companion. Although really he kept her always in his sights. "I'm not sure how old I am in snake-years, but Ancient seems a bit of a stretch."
His musings had a purpose beyond the jab of the words themselves: know everything about everyone. It was for his own amusement that humor gathered much more interesting tidbits than the brute hand of force.

[Rune]

Rune was still on her knees when an unmarked, white van screeched to a halt. The side door flung open even before the wheels stopped turning. In a flash, Uncle Seth was at her side and lifting her into the van. Two other Atharim were walking about, inspecting the area with firearms raised.

"No guys, don't. Its no good. They're gone!"
Rune seethed frustration. She didnt know if she was more mad that the god got away or that her abdomen she was a dart-board.

Seth's horrified, angry haunt went from the blood soaked hands of his neice to the knife beside her. He picked it up and tucked it away with a growl and put his arm around her, lifting gently. "Back to the van boys!"


Rune was laid in the back as the van rumbled through the streets of Moscow. Seth had made her pull up her shirt to check out the wound. He figured it was as deep as the knife was long, which was several inches. A fire blazed inside that kept her eyes squished shut while she writhed around.

"Did that son of a bitch Jaxen do this to you?"
Seth stuck the wand of a clotting can into her belly and Rune screamed bloody murder when the foam filled the hole.

Her hand made a fist and she pounded the side of the van, but she barely felt her knuckles split apart. Nothing took the edge off. "No. It was something else. Something just appeared. Like he conjured it! Small. Short. Female voice. Quick as a dart. Next thing I knew I was shooting at empty air."
She cursed through clenched teeth. Her cheeks were hard as rocks. Her legs folded and unfolded. Her stomach burned like hot coals had been shoved in her belly button.

Seth got on his phone and made a call. When Rune clutched at his arm, he looked down at her. "Closest safe house is White's tin can. We'll be there in a couple minutes. That ruddy kid better be there."


Rune's eyes grew wide, her nostrils flared defiance. "No!! No Uncle Seth! Please not him! Anyone but him! He'll.. He'll be a .. he'll be unbearable!"


Seth shot her his shut-the-fuck-up look.

Rune growled.

[Sora Ryuu]

Sora’s fleshy lips rippled into a sardonic half-smile. She dearly wanted to quip that today there was a ban on human sacrifices in honor of some obscure ritual designed to needle him into a mock sense of fear. She controlled the impulse, however. Judging by his body language, he was terrified and as entranced with her presence as a rabbit with a stoat. It would be her luck that he would take her seriously and either go berserk or descend into a mental abyss which would take time to get him out of. Either way, it was more trouble than Sora wished to encounter. Instead, she turned and began walking towards the temple. The other three Gatherers formed a loose box with the man at its center. Sora walked slightly ahead of him, canted to both study and converse with him as they walked.


“You are a male human, not merely an evolved ape. Likewisse, we are Naga, not ssnakess.”
She and the other Gatherers walked on silent feet along the street which was a straightway to the temple. Each store they passed had closed doors and none of the curtains so much as twitched. Sora knew their movements were being tracked by every serpent in the vicinity. Far enough behind them to retreat should it prove necessary, Naga began to emerge and return to their regular activities.
“You are an Ancient Reborn; a persson of great power. We are the Naga, dedicated to retrieving and presserving your kind sso that you may learn what it iss nescessary for you to learn.”


Her gaze took in his clothing, noting that he dressed much differently than the last Russian Ancient she had returned with. The fine cloth, bright colors, the repeated skull motif and the air of indolent nonchalance spoke of money, if not power.
“There will be no human ssacrificess today.”
Again the half-smile appeared.
“In the temple you will go through a door and learn what Ancientss musst know.”


There was never any rhyme or reason that she could see about where they were sent when needed. Sora had returned to Komukai with Europeans, Americans, an African, several Asians and one short native from a part of the jungles of Brazil she doubted anyone had ever seen. They all asked mostly the same questions and she tried to answer. But the one thing she could not tell them was what they all wanted to know. She supposed if the Naga were to know what Ancients knew, they would be Ancients themselves. The thought was nearly enough to make her shudder.

[Jaxen Marveet]

“You are a male human, not merely an evolved ape. Likewisse, we are Naga, not ssnakess.”


Jaxen chuckled despite the instinct to whimper. Snake woman was kind of funny. "An evolved animal, huh? Suppose you haven't seen me in the bedroom."
He quipped a flirty comeback. Why the hell not? So what if she was a snake. She was funny, and kind of hot. Jaxen could see himself actually carrying on a conversation with her without actually swinging the shovel at her throat. Shovels were the best way to decapitate a snake, after all.

"Naga, huh?"
He pondered the word. He'd never heard of them. Then again, that was probably a good thing. His sanity can only stretch so far for so long. They paused at the bottom of a long ramp. Jaxen craned his neck back and looked up the side of the building. Plain. Gray. Old. It didn't fit with the surroundings. Like seeing a stainless steel skyscraper surrounded by amazonian huts.

He was suppose to go in there? And learn something? So he could be preserved. That sounded totally normal.

"Alright, Yoda. I'll go through your door. Lead on."



Edited by Jaxen Marveet, Jul 7 2014, 02:17 PM.

[Sora Ryuu]

Sora's gaze was blank. The idea of seeing this flaccid pile of human flesh anywhere near a bedroom in the sense that humans meant made her want to return her last meal to the dirt, and it was over a week old. 'Humans'. They arrived at the temple having lost the three escorts along the avenue. The human was controllable for now and they would not insult her by following them into the temple as though she were new to the cloak. She waved him forward to follow her into the building.
“Ssora.”
She glanced his way before she turned down a hallway of polished grey stone.
“My name is Ssora.”
He might tell his own name, but she would not be offended if not. Maybe after he learned a little trust he would be more willing to converse.

She led him down a hallway past works of art which spanned from Ages past to contemporary greats. The sound of Naga's sibilant speech began to increase and Sora dropped back to the human's side.
“You fear ssnakess. Trusst me and all will be well.”


Up ahead the hallway opened into a large foyer which stood before the main training hall. Sora knew that there would be one of the Gathering Masters standing outside of the doors to prevent the ever-curious younger trainees from viewing the bouts which determined if one was ready to gain the title Gatherer. Whether the Gathering Master was in human form was left to chance and Sora knew this human would NOT like that surprise despite it being the only way to the Door Chamber.

Just as they emerged into the foyer, Sora grabbed the human, pinning his arms to his sides and pushed him across the foyer. The Gathering Master watched them impassively, his cobras hood extended and standing sentinel over a coiled mass of black and red scales. Lithos was a kind enough Naga, but his 15 feet of bulky girth intimidated the younger Naga without effort. Sora did not wish to see what this unstable human might do if allowed to linger in the Master's presence.



Edited by Sora Ryuu, Jul 8 2014, 09:04 PM.