Mh? Isn't audience participation the big thing nowadays? You'll have to excuse an old man for mixing things up.
[The glowing chains of Douman's attack fizzle out of life alongside the grit they originated from, but he doesn't stop to hold still and let himself just be hit either.
A quick chant summons a spherical shield that stops Fandaniel's chains before they can wrap around him.]
Let's assume you got me. What now? The moment you appear in here, I'll strike.
[Fandaniel floats down to the ground and lands daintily in front of the sphere.]
Or have you been feeling a tad...confused in your memories of late?
[He curls his fingers next to his cheek and looks Douman over.]
I don't know if I can help you with that. But I can fix this relentless hunger of yours.
That is what I shall do if I do, indeed, "have" you at the end of my proverbial claws. I shall rip and cut until I've torn loose the Gnosia within you.
[Realizing how that sounds, he grins and his eyes flash mischievously.]
It is your soul and mind I shall cut into as I search for the corruption, not the body. You, the real you, will not be harmed! A bit rattled, perhaps, but no worse for wear.
Twenty? [he laughs mirthlessly at that] When was that?
[He doesn't confirm nor deny Fandaniel's suspicion. Douman has always been a shitty loser; if he doesn't admit to having made a mistake and letting slip something he shouldn't have during his glitch, then nobody can say that it really happened. Even if they both know that it did.]
....you realize that anybody with half a working brain would run if you told them something like that, right? Not just the gnosia. You're just missing the "Mwahaha" for a full-blown villain.
[Fandaniel winks and the hand curled against his cheek rises, index finger pointing at the sky.]
Ah. You are mistaken.
I cut not as some unfathomable monster but as a surgeon. With precision and purpose.
You are in good hands.
[A beat, then.]
And yes, you told me you were twenty. Hardly old, if you ask me. You were trying, and failing, to contain a spirit fox of some sort. If none of that was true, then I hope you share the real story with me...
After I've removed that pesky Gnosia corruption, of course!
[Pardon him the deadpan, but it's true. Both mentally and physically in that particular case, even.]
Huh. So it wasn't just a weird dream.
[He is still standing still, making a point of doing the opposite of Fandaniel and not emoting at all. At least their little banter is invigorating Douman a little, although the squirming gnosia sending invasive thoughts into his head about how he 'must not be caught, kill that person!' is implying that the break he's getting will be brief.]
[The answer comes from behind Fandaniel. Douman's defensive sphere hasn't moved or changed, but he is behind him now. More or less. His upper body raises from the ground as if it were a pool of water until he is standing with his guard down. Douman even goes so far as to lift and spread his arms in a mocking surrender.
This should be good.]
Maybe after you've succeeded in touching and "healing" me.
[It's a malicious prompt, considering that his youkai power is to be too slippery to be caught and that it's a passive trait. Even with him doing nothing Fandaniel will have a hard time just touching him as long as he has evil intentions. Let's see how his would be-surgeon will handle that one.]
[Fandaniel hears the voice speak behind him and slowly turns around, hands still behind his back. The sight of a man slowly rising up from the ground doesn't surprise him much, despite its strangeness.
His grin never falters.]
What an interesting ability.
[He slowly lifts a hand and stares thoughtfully at his fingers.]
It must have served you well these past twenty years.
[With the speed of a striking serpent he lashes out with his arm. Shadows lance from his gloved palm and surge toward Douman's chest. He's hoping to at least stun the other man, if not knock him unconscious.]
[Douman doesn't even flinch as the attack hits him and his body does the fog thing again. The only difference is that this time it'd feel like Fandaniel came even less close to touching than the last time.]
Thanks. I didn't have it back when I was a human, though.
[He wills his body to reshape itself right where it was before, looking unbothered.]
Once I grow bored of this I'll strike you back, alright? It's been almost a day since I killed that fake Seimei with my gnosia ability.
[He waits silently until Fandaniel is 'gone' before he tuts under his breath.]
Youth these days. ....no perseverance or patience. [Is that what you want me to say? His teeth bare into a sadistic smirk behind his mask as he looks around as if he were expecting his opponent to suddenly pop up right in front or behind him again before Douman walks to the next wall and sits down in front of it. Waiting calmly.
For a moment he considers sending out some very basic shikigami to scout the premise, but he quickly decides against it. Doing that would take too much energy for very little gain considering that those things would only work as glorified movement detectors. Douman needs to preserve what little reserves he still has to end this fight, no matter what the gosia in him says. Getting impatient and making mistakes is no option.
Only Seimei is allowed to defeat him.
No, not even Seimei....
What is the best way to get out of a trap realm again, if one can't find the caster and can't shatter it by force?]
[Fandaniel silently descends to the ground again and watches Douman. Slowly, he raises a glove and conjures his chains once more. As extensions of his aether, they, too, are invisible.
They snake through the air above Douman, pause almost thoughtfully, and then come down to wrap around him. This time Fandaniel attempts to trap not the body, but the spirit. The chains do not wrap tightly but curl to bind in a loose, shimmering circle.]
[Douman makes a surprised sound at being suddenly magically grabbed, but doesn't make any attempts to break free. He wants to see where this is going.]
[The quip is amused rather than annoyed as Douman takes a deep breath and relaxes into the magical hold. He will have to react quickly if the chains are dropped, but he isn't concerned about Fandaniel having any more luck at directly touching him than he did the last times.
But he will have to get close to and be corporal to do it. That's what Douman is gambling on.]
It has gotten to your head too, hasn't it? The opposite of the Gnosia.
[There is no malicious intent nor any to grab or hold, so Fandaniel doesn't trigger Douman's youkai power when he touches his mask's nose. Douman still rolls his eyes, though.]
Putting the dramatics on thick, are you?
[and then he goes and says that. Submit. As if Douman has ever submitted to anything! There is a palpable change of air and a crackle of power as his old rage and refusal to submit in any way possible rises its head, but Douman still doesn't act. Not yet. This arrogant brat if going to get what he's asking for so desperately, but Douman wants him to run into it face-first. Let's see who's the one laughing then.]
I may be. I have been known to do that, incorrigible thespian that I am!
[Fandaniel feels a static-like surge of power from Douman; the sense of something recoiling in anger, bearing its teeth, though the man himself never moves.]
[The pentagram over his eye is glowing brighter, leaking more little versions of himself as if it were reacting to his rage. It hurts, but none of that matters. Fandaniel is so close to being within his reach now. Closer... closer... just a little bit more.]
Are you going to do it remotely? Or will you get your hands dirty, kid?
Really, he's not even certain if his idea will work. He wasn't lying when he said he preferred not to fight. For thousands of years, he's fallen back to the sidelines to watch the more powerful Ascians fight it out with the great heroes and dragons who poured out of the Light to stop them.
But, well, it is worth a try.
As he rises from his bow he attempts the shadow lance again. Or, rather, a variation of it. Instead of shadow, Fandaniel dives deep within himself to unlock the power of the Echo. The walls around his mind seem to fall and he hurls his own soul at Douman with the force of a battering ram.
Should he make contact, Douman will feel the Ascian's presence: Sparkling laughter at first followed by an intense wave of rage and pain that hammers into him, intent on driving the Gnosia out.]
[Mercy that's a bare-faced ridicule is no mercy at all. Douman is tempted to tell him that when Fandaniel tries his previous attack again except this time it's different and he has barely time to flinch before it hit.
For a moment the nurarihyon just stares speechlessly at the lance that's stuck inside his chest. It feels.... Wrong. Not just on a physical level because there is no blood and barely any pain, but on an emotional level. Like somebody took a big pot of mixed up ground souls and decided to pour it all over him. It's oppressive and sticky and he doesn't like it one b- Oh gods, what's that!? The mix of random laughter in that overwhelming pool of rage and pain is almost like he is being swallowed by a big battlefield's curse which is trying to tear him apart! It his Douman instinctively brace himself and dig in his heels, ardent on protecting what makes him him rather than letting it be swept away and himself by dyed black.
For a moment they are leaning their souls straight against each other. Douman offers his own history of hope that was ridiculed and crushed in front of those he'd wanted to prove himself of again and again, the empty hollowness when that whole world was ripped away from him, friends, enemy and home gone, and even his own sense of self nothing but shreds. There's confusion and a severe feeling of being lost, followed by a low simmering rage that turned into a protective pride eventually. Contentment, but always with an undercurrent of sadness and feeling like he hasn't done enough yet to restore a home.
And then he starts slipping away again. Douman has barely a mind to notice that he's yelling when the fabric of his body ripples and dissipates around Fandaniel's link to him again because his youkai-ism is pushing past the Gnosia infection in a desperate of self-preservation. Once, he had just wanted to be somebody. Now, even his souls is trying to slip away from being noticed, dissolving into proverbial sand between the Ascian's fingers.]
[The scarlet glyph ignites once again in front of Fandaniel's face, casting his features in an eerie glow.
He glares maniacally as he presses forward with the Echo, against Douman's soul. All around and within him he feels the other man's presence: Despair, loneliness, emptiness, death of a home, death of ego. Beneath the current of pain he finds a knot of defiant pride, still standing against his battering spiritual assault.
The Ascian snarls, barely aware of his enemy-- no, his patient's shouting. Sounds and colors drain away into a meaningless blur. All that matters is the Gnosia, the infection must be purged.
His soul tears through Douman like an ancient wild beast, digging through mind and spirit to find the infection's source. Its movements ripple like laughter.]
[And suddenly there is another source of laughter, trailing along Fandaniel's soul attack like a tail of embers that accompanies a comet. This one isn't as much part of Douman's soul as it is a remnant of another. Something dangerously close yet alien to concepts of embodied divinities like eidolons are in Fandaniel's home world, acting like an impulse of a second will that is guiding the Ascian's savagery towards its target while keeping the Nurarihyon from slipping away just yet.
If Fandaniel cares to inspect it, he will find slyness and laughter, the essence of Summer wrapped in flames. It's signature resembles that of a phoenix, but it's far more fickle and unpredictable ....not to mention dipped into a faint scent of blood.
It maintains its own claim on Douman's soul, a leftover permanent stain in his blood from a god setting his sigil on a human that has not even once believed or prayed to them. And right now it's on Fandaniel's side, because nothing and nobody else could have this man besides the god who murdered and turned him.
Douman isn't screaming anymore when Fandaniel reaches his infection and tears it out. He could have bucked the leftover energy from becoming that guy's creation easily in his normal state and then slipped from Fandaniel, but he's tired. So tired. And what's the point? He has killed Seimei again and it didn't matter anymore. Hadn't really mattered the first time. Might never matter ever, no matter how many times he does it. Last time he fought, and it brought nothing. What if he gives in this time?
There is a short moment of hesitation.
Then Douman sighs as he falls forward and his body frays into shreds of darkness that pool into the darkness that covers the floor where his body touches it as if it were the surface of a body of water. His lifeless body sinks into the ground as if it were going under in no time, leaving Fandaniel with his chains and a win. One Gnosia effectively neutralized.]
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expiationlogs2024-07-15 08:13 am
no subject
[The glowing chains of Douman's attack fizzle out of life alongside the grit they originated from, but he doesn't stop to hold still and let himself just be hit either.
A quick chant summons a spherical shield that stops Fandaniel's chains before they can wrap around him.]
Let's assume you got me. What now? The moment you appear in here, I'll strike.
no subject
You said you were twenty...
[Fandaniel floats down to the ground and lands daintily in front of the sphere.]
Or have you been feeling a tad...confused in your memories of late?
[He curls his fingers next to his cheek and looks Douman over.]
I don't know if I can help you with that. But I can fix this relentless hunger of yours.
That is what I shall do if I do, indeed, "have" you at the end of my proverbial claws. I shall rip and cut until I've torn loose the Gnosia within you.
[Realizing how that sounds, he grins and his eyes flash mischievously.]
It is your soul and mind I shall cut into as I search for the corruption, not the body. You, the real you, will not be harmed! A bit rattled, perhaps, but no worse for wear.
no subject
[He doesn't confirm nor deny Fandaniel's suspicion. Douman has always been a shitty loser; if he doesn't admit to having made a mistake and letting slip something he shouldn't have during his glitch, then nobody can say that it really happened. Even if they both know that it did.]
....you realize that anybody with half a working brain would run if you told them something like that, right? Not just the gnosia. You're just missing the "Mwahaha" for a full-blown villain.
no subject
Ah. You are mistaken.
I cut not as some unfathomable monster but as a surgeon. With precision and purpose.
You are in good hands.
[A beat, then.]
And yes, you told me you were twenty. Hardly old, if you ask me. You were trying, and failing, to contain a spirit fox of some sort. If none of that was true, then I hope you share the real story with me...
After I've removed that pesky Gnosia corruption, of course!
no subject
[Pardon him the deadpan, but it's true. Both mentally and physically in that particular case, even.]
Huh. So it wasn't just a weird dream.
[He is still standing still, making a point of doing the opposite of Fandaniel and not emoting at all. At least their little banter is invigorating Douman a little, although the squirming gnosia sending invasive thoughts into his head about how he 'must not be caught, kill that person!' is implying that the break he's getting will be brief.]
Do you know what a Nurarihyon is?
no subject
[He clasps his hands behind him and walks a few steps closer to the sphere with a childlike sway of his hips.]
Mmm... no.
I cannot say I am familiar with that term. Care to enlighten me?
no subject
[The answer comes from behind Fandaniel. Douman's defensive sphere hasn't moved or changed, but he is behind him now. More or less. His upper body raises from the ground as if it were a pool of water until he is standing with his guard down. Douman even goes so far as to lift and spread his arms in a mocking surrender.
This should be good.]
Maybe after you've succeeded in touching and "healing" me.
[It's a malicious prompt, considering that his youkai power is to be too slippery to be caught and that it's a passive trait. Even with him doing nothing Fandaniel will have a hard time just touching him as long as he has evil intentions. Let's see how his would be-surgeon will handle that one.]
no subject
His grin never falters.]
What an interesting ability.
[He slowly lifts a hand and stares thoughtfully at his fingers.]
It must have served you well these past twenty years.
[With the speed of a striking serpent he lashes out with his arm. Shadows lance from his gloved palm and surge toward Douman's chest. He's hoping to at least stun the other man, if not knock him unconscious.]
no subject
Thanks. I didn't have it back when I was a human, though.
[He wills his body to reshape itself right where it was before, looking unbothered.]
Once I grow bored of this I'll strike you back, alright? It's been almost a day since I killed that fake Seimei with my gnosia ability.
no subject
Hah.
What nonsense. There are far too many Gnosia to cure for me to waste my time being toyed with by an infant!
May you enjoy the feeling of your soul rotting.
[He disappears in a swirl of shadows. This time he doesn't appear again.
But he hasn't gone anywhere.
He hangs over the street, cloaked in an invisibility spell, waiting to see what Douman does next.]
no subject
Youth these days. ....no perseverance or patience. [Is that what you want me to say? His teeth bare into a sadistic smirk behind his mask as he looks around as if he were expecting his opponent to suddenly pop up right in front or behind him again before Douman walks to the next wall and sits down in front of it. Waiting calmly.
For a moment he considers sending out some very basic shikigami to scout the premise, but he quickly decides against it. Doing that would take too much energy for very little gain considering that those things would only work as glorified movement detectors. Douman needs to preserve what little reserves he still has to end this fight, no matter what the gosia in him says. Getting impatient and making mistakes is no option.
Only Seimei is allowed to defeat him.
No, not even Seimei....
What is the best way to get out of a trap realm again, if one can't find the caster and can't shatter it by force?]
no subject
They snake through the air above Douman, pause almost thoughtfully, and then come down to wrap around him. This time Fandaniel attempts to trap not the body, but the spirit. The chains do not wrap tightly but curl to bind in a loose, shimmering circle.]
no subject
Ah. Back so soon?
no subject
Play time is over.
Let us get that Gnosia out of you, hm?
You may thank me later.
no subject
[The quip is amused rather than annoyed as Douman takes a deep breath and relaxes into the magical hold. He will have to react quickly if the chains are dropped, but he isn't concerned about Fandaniel having any more luck at directly touching him than he did the last times.
But he will have to get close to and be corporal to do it. That's what Douman is gambling on.]
It has gotten to your head too, hasn't it? The opposite of the Gnosia.
no subject
Oh, it would seem so.
Gnosia and doctors alike, we have all been given our parts to play in this little comedy of errors. Who am I to resist?
...Now, the thing is...
[He reaches out a gloved hand and pokes Douman's nose. Boop.]
I'm not a fan of fighting I'm afraid. All this back-and-forth nonsense, trading blows... It grows so dreadfully tedious after a while.
My bag is full of tricks, and I have many more where my shackles came from but I'm hoping you'll be a good boy and let me off the hook.
[As he speaks, his eyes glitter manically beneath the shadows of his hood.]
Submit to me, then we can both be on our merry ways, hm?
no subject
Putting the dramatics on thick, are you?
[and then he goes and says that. Submit. As if Douman has ever submitted to anything! There is a palpable change of air and a crackle of power as his old rage and refusal to submit in any way possible rises its head, but Douman still doesn't act. Not yet. This arrogant brat if going to get what he's asking for so desperately, but Douman wants him to run into it face-first. Let's see who's the one laughing then.]
no subject
[Fandaniel feels a static-like surge of power from Douman; the sense of something recoiling in anger, bearing its teeth, though the man himself never moves.]
Oh my, have I said something wrong?
no subject
[The pentagram over his eye is glowing brighter, leaking more little versions of himself as if it were reacting to his rage. It hurts, but none of that matters. Fandaniel is so close to being within his reach now. Closer... closer... just a little bit more.]
Are you going to do it remotely? Or will you get your hands dirty, kid?
no subject
[Fandaniel rises from his crouch and looks down at Douman, a smirk lifting the corner of his lips.]
Remote it shall have to be. But how will I do it, I wonder?
There are so many nightmarish methods at my disposal.
Or, as I said, you could simply allow me to extract the corruption. A far more gentle experience.
[Though still, hardly gentle in itself.
The Ascian clasps his hands behind his back and watches the glowing pentagram closely.]
Your choice, old sir.
no subject
Spoken a real youngster with no tangible life experience. Or should I call you a theater man instead?
Like I said - do it if you can.
no subject
Very well then.
But do not say that I never attempted mercy.
[He stoops in a low bow.
Really, he's not even certain if his idea will work. He wasn't lying when he said he preferred not to fight. For thousands of years, he's fallen back to the sidelines to watch the more powerful Ascians fight it out with the great heroes and dragons who poured out of the Light to stop them.
But, well, it is worth a try.
As he rises from his bow he attempts the shadow lance again. Or, rather, a variation of it. Instead of shadow, Fandaniel dives deep within himself to unlock the power of the Echo. The walls around his mind seem to fall and he hurls his own soul at Douman with the force of a battering ram.
Should he make contact, Douman will feel the Ascian's presence: Sparkling laughter at first followed by an intense wave of rage and pain that hammers into him, intent on driving the Gnosia out.]
no subject
For a moment the nurarihyon just stares speechlessly at the lance that's stuck inside his chest. It feels.... Wrong. Not just on a physical level because there is no blood and barely any pain, but on an emotional level. Like somebody took a big pot of mixed up ground souls and decided to pour it all over him. It's oppressive and sticky and he doesn't like it one b- Oh gods, what's that!? The mix of random laughter in that overwhelming pool of rage and pain is almost like he is being swallowed by a big battlefield's curse which is trying to tear him apart! It his Douman instinctively brace himself and dig in his heels, ardent on protecting what makes him him rather than letting it be swept away and himself by dyed black.
For a moment they are leaning their souls straight against each other. Douman offers his own history of hope that was ridiculed and crushed in front of those he'd wanted to prove himself of again and again, the empty hollowness when that whole world was ripped away from him, friends, enemy and home gone, and even his own sense of self nothing but shreds. There's confusion and a severe feeling of being lost, followed by a low simmering rage that turned into a protective pride eventually. Contentment, but always with an undercurrent of sadness and feeling like he hasn't done enough yet to restore a home.
And then he starts slipping away again. Douman has barely a mind to notice that he's yelling when the fabric of his body ripples and dissipates around Fandaniel's link to him again because his youkai-ism is pushing past the Gnosia infection in a desperate of self-preservation. Once, he had just wanted to be somebody. Now, even his souls is trying to slip away from being noticed, dissolving into proverbial sand between the Ascian's fingers.]
no subject
He glares maniacally as he presses forward with the Echo, against Douman's soul. All around and within him he feels the other man's presence: Despair, loneliness, emptiness, death of a home, death of ego. Beneath the current of pain he finds a knot of defiant pride, still standing against his battering spiritual assault.
The Ascian snarls, barely aware of his enemy-- no, his patient's shouting. Sounds and colors drain away into a meaningless blur. All that matters is the Gnosia, the infection must be purged.
His soul tears through Douman like an ancient wild beast, digging through mind and spirit to find the infection's source. Its movements ripple like laughter.]
no subject
If Fandaniel cares to inspect it, he will find slyness and laughter, the essence of Summer wrapped in flames. It's signature resembles that of a phoenix, but it's far more fickle and unpredictable ....not to mention dipped into a faint scent of blood.
It maintains its own claim on Douman's soul, a leftover permanent stain in his blood from a god setting his sigil on a human that has not even once believed or prayed to them. And right now it's on Fandaniel's side, because nothing and nobody else could have this man besides the god who murdered and turned him.
Douman isn't screaming anymore when Fandaniel reaches his infection and tears it out. He could have bucked the leftover energy from becoming that guy's creation easily in his normal state and then slipped from Fandaniel, but he's tired. So tired. And what's the point? He has killed Seimei again and it didn't matter anymore. Hadn't really mattered the first time. Might never matter ever, no matter how many times he does it. Last time he fought, and it brought nothing. What if he gives in this time?
There is a short moment of hesitation.
Then Douman sighs as he falls forward and his body frays into shreds of darkness that pool into the darkness that covers the floor where his body touches it as if it were the surface of a body of water. His lifeless body sinks into the ground as if it were going under in no time, leaving Fandaniel with his chains and a win. One Gnosia effectively neutralized.]