{"submission_id":"729595","keywords":[{"keyword_id":"44319","keyword_name":"contemporary","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"101"},{"keyword_id":"10159","keyword_name":"cyclops","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"379"},{"keyword_id":"2193","keyword_name":"fantasy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"11600"},{"keyword_id":"123","keyword_name":"female","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"519891"},{"keyword_id":"112296","keyword_name":"garuda","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"51"},{"keyword_id":"1440","keyword_name":"human","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"46903"},{"keyword_id":"191","keyword_name":"magic","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"11599"},{"keyword_id":"165","keyword_name":"male","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"639872"},{"keyword_id":"1146","keyword_name":"vampire","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"3972"},{"keyword_id":"597","keyword_name":"werewolf","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"5589"},{"keyword_id":"1859","keyword_name":"zombie","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"1489"}],"hidden":"t","scraps":"f","favorite":"f","favorites_count":"0","create_datetime":"2014-11-13 06:39:07.05838+01","create_datetime_usertime":"13 Nov 2014 06:39 CET","last_file_update_datetime":"2014-11-13 06:24:41.719215+01","last_file_update_datetime_usertime":"13 Nov 2014 06:24 CET","username":"Simoni","user_id":"279733","user_icon_file_name":"75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_large":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_medium":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_small":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","file_name":"981037_Simoni_part_14_the_price_of_power.rtf","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/981/981037_Simoni_part_14_the_price_of_power.rtf","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/981/981037_Simoni_part_14_the_price_of_power.rtf","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/981/981037_Simoni_part_14_the_price_of_power.rtf","files":[{"file_id":"981037","file_name":"981037_Simoni_part_14_the_price_of_power.rtf","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/981/981037_Simoni_part_14_the_price_of_power.rtf","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/981/981037_Simoni_part_14_the_price_of_power.rtf","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/981/981037_Simoni_part_14_the_price_of_power.rtf","mimetype":"text/rtf","submission_id":"729595","user_id":"279733","submission_file_order":"0","full_size_x":null,"full_size_y":null,"screen_size_x":null,"screen_size_y":null,"preview_size_x":null,"preview_size_y":null,"initial_file_md5":"c9a4cda4a83f3e3c1ece59c8fef1b5d2","full_file_md5":"c9a4cda4a83f3e3c1ece59c8fef1b5d2","large_file_md5":"","small_file_md5":"","thumbnail_md5":"","deleted":"f","create_datetime":"2014-11-13 06:24:41.719215+01","create_datetime_usertime":"13 Nov 2014 06:24 CET"}],"pools":[],"description":"This one was both fun and a bit painful.\n\nSimoni has been worried for some time now in the story that Nelen isn't telling her everything about his abilities, Arja saw what was under his bandages during the fight with the Rakshasa (though she may not have realized what it actually was), and when Lubanah explained the origins of the Mundane Blades it was clear that Nelen has some issues with his powers.\n\nWell, it turns out he got them by making a pact with an inhuman entity known as Merihim. This creature replaced Nelen's blood with itself, allowing him to work magic through it, but requiring Nelen to seal it's power lest the creature run out of control. Its true form is unknown, but as of now the odds of Nelen getting it out of him are very slim indeed...\n\n... for one, he has no blood anymore. If his pact with Merihim is broken he'll almost certainly die from sudden, complete, and catastrophic blood loss.\n\nFor another, even if he finds a way around it Merihim is probably not going to be happy about losing his host.\n\nSo will Nelen find a way out of the deal he made in the future and free himself at the cost of losing his blood magic?\n\nWe'll see... as of right now I'm honestly not sure how we'd pull that one off. Pacts like this are never easy to undo and often have a really nasty drawback when the spellcaster tries, even when it's not potentially fatal.","description_bbcode_parsed":"This one was both fun and a bit painful.
Simoni has been worried for some time now in the story that Nelen isn't telling her everything about his abilities, Arja saw what was under his bandages during the fight with the Rakshasa (though she may not have realized what it actually was), and when Lubanah explained the origins of the Mundane Blades it was clear that Nelen has some issues with his powers.
Well, it turns out he got them by making a pact with an inhuman entity known as Merihim. This creature replaced Nelen's blood with itself, allowing him to work magic through it, but requiring Nelen to seal it's power lest the creature run out of control. Its true form is unknown, but as of now the odds of Nelen getting it out of him are very slim indeed...
... for one, he has no blood anymore. If his pact with Merihim is broken he'll almost certainly die from sudden, complete, and catastrophic blood loss.
For another, even if he finds a way around it Merihim is probably not going to be happy about losing his host.
So will Nelen find a way out of the deal he made in the future and free himself at the cost of losing his blood magic?
We'll see... as of right now I'm honestly not sure how we'd pull that one off. Pacts like this are never easy to undo and often have a really nasty drawback when the spellcaster tries, even when it's not potentially fatal.","writing":"The story begins late one night at the ranch with Lupe and Drusilla guarding outside the building. Across the yard however a group of what appears to be young girls is sneaking over to the cow barn...\n\n[i]Their leader looks around as she holds the gate open \"Shhh...\" she says to the small group of her fellow living impaired young women as the others quickly scoot through the gate. Well save for the one rather expressionless looking girl who just kinda walks through, not making any attempt to even crouch like her friends... \"You really suck at the whole subtle thing, you know.\" she says to her, though the girl doesn't even seem to register it...\"Come on, I smell meat.\" one of the other girls says, pointing to a barn. \n\nLife was hard for people in their situation with functioning minds, really. They had the hunger that any other kind had, but they also had the memories of humanity and the morals to not want to just grab a random person and start chowing down. So things got awkward when the hunger pangs really hit... Luckily, the girls were on vacation from their little old money enclave in Maine, all the way in Texas for a bit of a warm winter vacation (cold was hell on them, when you don't have blood pumping muscles can freeze up bad...), and Texas meant ranches, not the hippy dippy co-op farms they were used to. Ranches were big, and had enough heads of cattle and such to spare one...or two...\n\n\"Remember go for the neck.\" she whispers as she creeps to the barn with her friends \"Bite it and tear it so it looks like a wild animal did it...\"\n\nMeanwhile, up at the ranch Lupe is laying on the porch in her wolf form, Drusilla sitting next to her as the two play night guard duty. Even with McCall away Nelen insisted that they don't take chances. Lupe suddenly sits up, sniffing at the air as her ears perk up, \"Rrrf?\" she whines, looking around and sniffing, then looking in the direction of the barn as she lets out a low growling sound.\n\nThe girl's leader smiles as the group opens the door up, revealing the stalls of cows inside, already mooing in discomfort as they look for a good one, \"Ok this one works.\" she says, pointing to a stall, \"Pop the door open and it'll look like it got out.\" she nods as one of her friends grins, opening the stall door to let the cow quickly make its way out of the barn. \"Keep watch.\" she instructs the stonefaced girl as she and her small group give chase...\nLupe nudges Drusilla with her snout, then starts to pad off towards the barns. Its clear she smells something. As she gets close she sees the 'stonefaced' girl, then lets out a loud howl.[/i]\n\nIts how they've been doing things for a while. Lupe stays outside as a wolf, her animal form making it hard to tell her from a large dog at nighttime, and if she smells something that isn't human or animal she howls as loud as she can. A howl from Lupe means 'Shits getting real!'.\n\n[i]Nelen, half dozing on the couch, suddenly jerks awake as Dawn's head pops up from his lap, the cat blinking and rubbing at her eyes. \"Shit!\" he growls, running barefoot out into the yard with Dawn following behind him. A minute later Simoni jumps out of one of the second floor windows, changing in midair as she flies out in the direction of the howling werewolf.\n\nThe lead girl frowns as she watches her friends chase the cow around, \"Come ON it's a COW, how can you not catch a cow?!\" she says, huffing loudly as the group of city girls finds it harder than expected to hunt a cow that was running for its life... then the howl came. \"Shit!\" she yells, wincing as she sees the figures approaching, Drusilla running with the group. The girl standing guard, though, seems to move far faster than anyone should, especially a girl with that much muscle mass around her body, moving right between her and the approaching group with a frown.\n\nNelen notices this, knowing that Lupe wouldn't howl for help if it was just some random teenagers (she and Drus could easily handle a gang of mundanes after all), and lashes out with his blood tendrils, binding the girl's wrists as Simoni whistles out a sharp blast of air, aiming for her legs to try to knock her off balance.\nAs they do Lupe shifts back into her werewolf form, growling loudly and circling around the girl, preparing to pounce from behind at her throat.\n\nShe winces as she tumbles over, the girl guarding her glaring at Lupe, looking about ready to try to bash the wolf's head in as Lara holds her hands up \"Hold up hold up, is that you Simoni?\" she groans, standing up \"Everyone chill out, shit...\" she says, a hand resting on her guard's shoulder firmly to keep her from going on\nSimoni blinks, flapping her wings to slow herself down as she settles onto the ground, \"... Lara?\" she asks as Nelen raises his eyebrow at her, slowly pulling his blood back inside him. \"You know these guys?\" he asks her as Simoni nods, \"Yeah, um... they're the zombies we met up in Maine. I told you about 'em remember?\" she replies, to which Nelen frowns, \"Yeah... she charged you up so much that you caused an EMP that blew out all our phones and half the town.\" he nods.[/i]\n\nThe girl is, infact, Lara Belladonna. A zombie (or living-impaired as she prefers) girl from Maine that Simoni and some of the others met around Halloween. Simoni, Arja, Lupe, and Natasha had spent the night partying with them and also had their first encounter with the sin-eater Anabelle Morte that night when she came to rescue one of Lara's former classmates that she was keeping in her basement (nothing life-threatening, she just wanted some payback against the girl). \n\nDuring this Lara also discovered Simoni's affinity for electricity and had indeed tested out a few of her own devices (she practiced the Victor Frankenstein method of revivication), charging Simoni up with so much electricity that when she touched metal afterwards she caused a massive bolt of lighting and an electro-magnetic pulse that blacked out half the town and fried every bit of unprotected electronics within five miles.\n\nLara had traveled to Texas to avoid the cold along with several of her undead friends, along with one extra...\n\n[i]Lara frowns, \"Hey, zombies is offensive, we're not some shitty b-horror movie stock.\" she replies as she dusts herself off, \"And she asked for that, and loved it, so mind letting my friends go?\"\n\nNelen glances out at the cow, now running frantically across the field with one of the girls holding onto it's tail for dear li... well, holding on very tightly anyways. \"I would... but they're not our cows.\" he replies, \"One of you guys wanna go wake up Trixie?\" he asks to the others as Lupe sniffs at the rest of the girls who came over, blinks as she recognizes the scent of the one who was dressed as a nurse for the Halloween party that night, then lets out a loud yelp and runs frantically back to the house with her tail between her legs.\n\nNelen watches her go, then looks at the group, then says, \"Okay... thats a first...\"\n\nThe girl who was a nurse just giggles, \"Aw, puppy~\" she teases as Lara sighs, \"Let go of the cow already.\" she says to Starchaser (a hippy girl who died in the sixties after a dose of LSD made her dance out into traffic), apparently not sharing her living self's vegitarianism as she remains gripped to the cow. \"No, I almost have this! Just gotta... angle myself better.\" she says, trying to dig her heels in but only winding up losing a foot \"Shit!\" she says as the stonefaced girl walks over silently to collect the foot, \"Thanks...\"\n\nNelen looks over the girls, rather glad they're not hostile (with the exception of vampires his blood magic is almost useless against undead)... then pauses, looking at the stonefaced girl. \"A golem?\" he says, leaning in closer (though still out of arm's reach) as Simoni shifts back to her human form, the girl wearing her pajamas given the late hour. \"Thats another new one... why is a group of zo...\" he gets a poke in the ribs from Simoni, \"... ugh... ghouls? Well, why are you guys travelling with a golem?\" he asks. Even by supernatural standards, golems are pretty rare.\nThe golem's eyes lock on Nelen as he leans closer, still seeing him as the closest thing to a 'threat' here after his restraining trick, though at least she seems to be more focused on defense rather than attacking anything...\"Oh, Sara? Yea she's been in my family for, like, generations. My great great great grandfather was a rabbi who built her.\" she says as Sara moves away, still locked on Nelen, even when she moves to reattach the hippy's foot. Trixie groans a bit as she walks out, the girl just dressed in a long bathrobe, \"What's this about cow thieves, how is that even a thing in this age...\"\n\nSimoni giggles a bit, \"Well... We kinda know these guys...\" she says, introducing Lara and the group to Trixie as Lupe hides behind the cowgirl, still watching the former nurse and keeping her tail held very tightly over her backside. What happened that night didn't really hurt her, but something that's part wolf and part human is still kind of a dog, and nurse isn't too far removed from a vee-ee-tee.\n\n\"Huh, still pretty rare to see one.\" comments Nelen, \"I mean I only know what they look like because I used to frequent a bar in London that used one as a bouncer.\" he replies.[/i]\n\nNelen is referring to Emet, the golem bouncer at the Wolf's Head Pub in London. A sort of watering hole for supernatural types of all sorts with a strict truce enforced to keep anyone from causing real trouble. Fangs stay hidden, no holy relics, no silver, no shapeshifting, and if you need to fight you take it the hell outside. People who violate the rule are uncerimoniously thrown out of the bar (sometimes through the door) by the large pottery man who's strong enough to even pull Drusilla right off her feet.\n\n[i]Lara just nods casually as her friend giggles wickedly at Lupe...\"Yea, she's an old school model so she's not even good for conversation.\" she says, poking the girl's cheek to make her open her mouth, revealing a scrap of paper wrapped around some kind of talisman, \"See? Mouth's full with her job. Really boring but usually she wakes up for a good reason so I don't really try to ditch her much...\" she says as Trixie nods, \"Well...shit if you're that hungry I guess we can lose a cow to 'coyotes', god knows one cow doesn't make much difference either way when you're sellin by the herd, just... ya know... don't spook the dog next time.\" she teases.\n\nLupe whines and scoots back a bit at the grin as Nelen watches. \"Freaking hell I saw her go for a Rakshasa's jugular once without flinching... what the hell did you girls do to her?\" he asks in an incredulous tone as Simoni looks over the golem girl. \"So... she usually wakes up for a good reason... Um, we did just have some goblin issues a few days ago actually...\" she nods, looking at Lupe, \"Is Natasha back from her hunting yet?\"\n\nLara Belladonna raises a brow, \"I swear to god Sara if you woke up just to fight some tiny little weirdos I'm gonna be really pissed.\" she sighs, nodding to the golem girl, \"I can't check the scroll in her mouth because it's bound up around her talisman, if I rip it she goes back to sleep until a new one is there, and I don't have the right kinda ink set and junk for that.\" she says as Natasha yawns, swooping down from a nearby tree, \"Someone call my name?\" she asks, landing next to Lupe \"What's got her spooked?\" she blinks, more curious than upset.[/i]\n\nAs the cow gets torn up by the undead girls Nelen decides to see if he can figure out why the golem woke up, taking her inside as Lupe's hunger wins out over her fear and she grabs one of the cow's legs for herself, Lara going to join her friends in their feast. They don't actually need to eat humans (though it does keep them going the longest), any sort of meat will do so long as it's fresh.\n\nNatasha goes in with Nelen, Simoni going back to bed, as he brings up a few other stories of vandalism and attacks against the local Jewish population and, with the help of a notepad and a pen (and Natasha to translate as the golem only writes in hebrew), he gets some details.\n\nThe golem can sense when a relative of her creator is in danger from outside forces (specifically any that are targeting them for their religion) and apparently Lara has some relatives in Houston. Several recent attacks were made against a Rabbi and his family by a local group of skinheads who, according to what the golem can sense, are being goaded into it by someone.\n\nWhen it's mentioned that a skinhead group is behind it however... Nelen reacts oddly.\n\n[i]Nelen looks over at Dawn, \"Is it now?\" he asks, getting up and popping his neck as Dawn hops up onto his shoulders in her animal form. \"Well, I'd better go along... y'know, make sure things don't get out of hand.\" he nods, the cat smirking at his words. \"Um... yeah, don't bother waking up the others. They can sit this one out, I mean, just a bunch of mundanes and all.\" he nods, following the undead girls out the door.\n\n Lara sighs, just following Sara now \"Yea at least it's easier than a goblin king or whatever... shit how'd you beat him anyway?\" she says as she follows Sara, whistling to get her attention and nodding at the car she drove to the ranch \"Hey, we'll go break Nazi heads ok? But some of us don't have stone legs, let's drive alright? I promise we're going to the bar though.\" she says, almost like talking to a dog, though it seems to work as Sara turns on her heels and marches to the car.\n\nNelen walks out to the car and climbs into the back, \"We didn't. Natasha tricked him into agreeing to leave.\" he replies, explaining how the vampire had fooled the Goblin King into believing she was letting him snuff out a warrior's bloodline by breaking her neck, except that it didn't matter so much to an undead being. As the car starts up Dawn leans in and whispers in his ear, \"So, off to break up another one...\" she smirks, then whispers in a bit more serious tone, \"You know that it won't bring him back beardy...\"[/i]\n\nNelen just tells her to shush as the car begins to drive off towards the place, the golem's innate senses pointing them in the right direction. Eventually they pull up outside the building and Sara exits before Lara even turns off the engine, the golem practically ripping the door out of it's frame as she enters the bar.\n\nGolems are designed to defend Jewish people from threats, but they aren't exactly subtle about doing so. A golem is an earthquake in human form, a rockslide with a face, and damn near indestructable.\n\n[i]Nelen walks in behind them, looking around at the people inside, and then his tendrils shoot out from one hand and grab one of the shocked patrons around the neck, dragging him up to him, \"Oi. The attacks on the local Jews, who's been doing them?\" he asks the terrified biker, not even looking at him as he watches the golem smashing one of the others over the head with a bar stool.\n\nLara shrugs, seeing him make sure the interrogation part of this has been handled as she decides to join in the breaking, grabbing one of them and hurling him into the bottle display behind the bar... hey she was still Jewish after all, she may have wanted a more subtle approach but it's not like she wasn't going to feel really good about breaking Nazi bones... \"Shit what the fuck?!\" the man being lifted up yells, \"That's what this is about?! Are you fucking insane?!\"\n\nNelen points a finger at the man, a blood tendril bursts out from his fingertip and stabs into his chest. It doesn't kill him, but it hurts like seven kinds of hell. \"Listen to me. I don't like people like you... at all. Right now I'm leaving you alive as a courtesy.\" he replies, Dawn pawing at his shoulder, \"Eaaasy beardy...\" she mutters. Nelen ignores her, \"Now. Start talking or stop breathing.\" he orders.\n\nThe man yells out loudly, moving his body around as he shakes his head \"What do you want?! Yea it was us, ok? What about it?! You want us to buy him fuckin new tires?!\" he gasps, they -had- slashed his tires... among other things...\n\nNelen glares at him, his face turning pale as his blood begins to eat into the thug's body. \"Who sent you to do it? Someone put you and your skinhead buddies up to it. Give me a name and you can just spend a few weeks in a hospital.\" he replies, his voice cold as Dawn glances nervously at him, the mage seeming gripped by a sort of cold fury.\n\nThe man yells loudly \"I don't know I don't know, Chet set it up, this was his plan!\"\n\nNelen frowns, then jabs his other hand forward as the man's body goes rigid, before dropping him onto the ground. \"Which one of you guys is Chet?\" he asks, walking forward with his palms held out, a tooth-covered blood tendril coming from each hand.\n\nThe bar is silent before a side door is kicked open, revealing a tall, rather scrawny, guy holding a shotgun, which he near instantly fires in Nelen's direction, clearly banking on surprise more than precise aim...\"I'm Chet, bitch! I don't know what kind of Jew magic this shit is but...\" \"Really?\" Lara says, stabbing a broken pool cue into one of the guy's legs \"Just because it's blood magic you assume it's Jewish magic, that's fucked up\" she says as Sara looks over, even though her face can't really shift it's pretty clear even she thinks that was a dumb thing to say when fighting neo-nazis...\n\nNelen lashes out with both arms as the tendrils rip into his arms, causing Chet to drop the gun as he lifts him up into the air, the razor teeth on his tendrils digging into his flesh. \"Right. The attacks, your idea or were you paid?\" he snarls, glaring up at the man as Dawn jumps off his shoulders, stepping back a bit. She knows better to get too close to Nelen when he's in this sort of mood. \"Get talking human, or I'll hand you over to the golem and enjoy the show.\"[/i]\n\nDawn backs away from Nelen as he starts to really lay into them, a sort of fury radiating from him. Even Lara, despite being undead, seems unnerved by his sudden display of aggression bordering on sadism, his tendrils shredding Chet's arms.\n\nNelen demands a name, wanting to know who'd set them on their victims, but Chet insists he doesn't know, saying that they 'don't exchange business cards around here'. \n\n[i]Nelen frowns, then growls and releases his hand long enough to slash across his throat with a razor sharp tendril, tossing him across the bar to land in a heap as Dawn winces. He takes several deep breaths, pulling his blood back into his body before looking over at the golem. \"Hey. Do -you- know who paid these things off?\" he asks.\n\nLara frowns a bit \"Alright, settle down, I'm the only one who gets to get huffy with my golem, give her a second here it's kinda a battlefield...\" she says as Sara walks over to Chet, grabbing his head firmly as her eyes glow...\nNelen goes behind the bar, finds a bottle that didn't get splattered with blood or broken in the fight, and takes a long drink from it without even reading the label as Dawn hops carefully up onto the bar and watches him, seeming a bit nervous about getting too close as he tries to calm himself down.\n\nLara sighs a bit \"So you wanna talk about it?\" she says as Sara's eyes keep glowing, clearly taking a bit of time, \"You know her stuff works better on live people...\"\n\nNelen sighs and leans against the bar, looking around to make sure there's no... well... living mundanes left. He knows they won't go to the cops, he's pretty sure he saw a meth lab out back when they were pulling in. \"Its a long story... lets just say someone I cared about got hurt when I was younger and I did some really stupid shit because of it.\" he replies, glancing down at his bandaged hand as he takes another swig from what turned out to be a Budweiser.\n\nLara nods \"Well alright, just...you know...keep it together. I'm not exactly crying over dead Nazis here but killing randomly makes our jobs harder.\" she says, nodding to Sara, \"Fresh kills are the worst for death magic and junk, soul's barely in the afterlife and all.\" she says, grabbing a beer for herself and yawning. After a bit more, though, Sara drops the corpse's head, nodding as she grabs a newspaper and pen, writing in Hebrew on the margins, \"She found the guy.\" Lara reads, \"Some rando, but he seemed magical. We've seen this before, religious leaders maintain some kinda ward or protection, some rando magic user gets a wild hair in his ass to break the ward, only way to break the ward is to stop people upkeeping it, very religious types don't tend to respond to threats and junk, you know how this ends.\"[/i]\n\nNelen nods as they troop back out to the car, gazing out the window as Sara gives Lara pointed directions. The trip leads them to a small shack out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but empty wilderness.\n\n[i]Dawn climbs back up onto his shoulders and whispers, \"Y'know, you're gonna have to tell them eventually. I'm sure Simoni will understand...\" she whispers to him, to which Nelen just replies, \"Yeah, she will... but I don't want her to know. Hell, I'm amazed Arja didn't recognize this stuff already.\" he mutters back to her before examining the door. \"Right, I'll hold back this time. Let rocky lead the charge though, just incase.\" he replies, nodding to the golem.\nLara nods, patting Sara's shoulder, \"You know the drill big gal, we're right behind you.\" she says, Sara simply climbing out of the car and, rather than opening the door, kicking it off the hinges before making her way in, Lara sighing as she hops out to follow, \"You know I'm not deaf right.\" she says to Dawn and Nelen, \"If you wanna talk, well dead girls tell no tales and all.\" she says.\n\nNelen sighs, \"Fine, if you really want to know I'll explain on the way back.\" he tells her, \"However, not a word of it to Simoni. She doesn't need to know what I did to get this...\" he replies, following the golem in as he summons out a single crimson tendril, no teeth this time though.\n\nLara nods \"Not a problem here.\" she says as she hears a loud crack as Sara starts busting the place up, after a bit a man comes scrambling out, young looking, dressed in a black hood with a busted up plague doctor's mask hanging off his face \"So, wanna grab him without eating him this time?\"\n\nNelen shrugs and lashes out, grabbing him around the ankle before hoisting him up into the air upside down, dangling him infront of them. \"Alright Wizzo, why'd ya do it?\" he asks, seeming rather... well, calmer. Annoyed at the guy, but not as enraged as before.[/i]\n\nThe man stammers out that he felt something that the Rabbis had sealed away calling to him, telling him to free it and promising him all sorts of powers and boons if he did so. He says he tried to refuse, but the creature forced him to do it. As he waffles on Sara carries out several spellbooks, which Lara flips through and comments that it's all beginner crap and that he must've just become a mage.\n\nNelen tries to get a name for the entity, but he says that it only referred to itself as 'The Other'. Lara taunts him for being a 'pact maker', though it seems to annoy Nelen when she does. Finally, Nelen binds him up using his blood magic to form restraints made of coagulated blood and tosses him down on the ground, simply saying that they're done there.\n\n[i]Lara nods as she melts a wax cube over the book's opening end, sealing it closed and idly carving something in hebrew into the hot wax with her finger, \"Yea, you're an idiot, but it looks like you just hired neo-nazis because you're too stupid to think of an easier way to fuck with a group of old men and they were close by. You know the drill, if I ever see you in town again I'm gonna eat your face, blah blah blah, get out and start fresh before my golem caves your head in...\" she says, blowing the wax cool and handing it over to Sara, \"When we get home put it with the rest of the low level books, nothing special in there but The Other or whatever may have tainted it.\" she says sounding shockingly professional.\n\nNelen leaves him bound by the shack, \"The bindings will dissipate come morning.\" he says as he turns and walks back to the van, Dawn hopping up onto his shoulder as the group leaves. He sighs and flops into the backseat, leaning back and idly looking over the book before dropping it into the seat next to him. \"So... you sure you want to know about this?\" he asks.\n\nLara nods as she climbs in the driver's seat \"Yea, curiosity and desire for knowledge is a common downfall in my family, might as well keep the trend going.\" she says cooly.\n\nNelen sighs, Dawn hopping onto his lap as he gets talking. \"Alright, but like I said, no telling the others.\" he replies... \"It all started when I was sixteen, about a year before Simoni was born...\" he begins.[/i]\n\nNelen had a friend in high school. The two had been close since they were young kids and they were practically like brothers in some respects. Well, one day his friend comes out of the closet to him. Being gay in 2002 wasn't near as acceptable as it is today, especially in the area Nelen grew up in... and the wrong people found out. A week later, his friend was missing, then a month later he was found... most of him.\n\nNelen knew who'd done it, hell they'd glorified in it around school, but there was no proof and the cops didn't really care because the victim was gay. Nelen was tougher than some guys, but he couldn't fight and besides... he was angry. Not just normal anger, but a deep burning rage against what had happened... It certainly explains why he reacted like he did at the bar anyways...\n\n[i]\"... so, I found a way to make a deal with something...\" he sighs, looking at his hands. \"Arja saw this once, but I don't think she knew what it was. I made a pact with, well... something you should never make an agreement with. There's a sigil carved into the palms of my hands, the symbol of a being called Merihim.\" he clenches his hand a bit as it seems to tremble just from him saying the name, \"I got what I wanted anyways.\" he smiles grimly, \"About a week after I did it those guys were in the hospital with honest-to-goodness leperosy. Real old testament stuff...\" he nods, then frowns, \"And later I realized exactly what I'd done to myself...\"[/i]\n\nNelen doesn't actually have blood anymore. The entity called Merihim replaced his blood with itself, melting into the crimson liquid that flows through his veins. This is what gives him his powers, he's really just directing the entity to do what he needs it to do, in exchange for allowing it the use of his body.\n\n[i]Lara simply nods as she drives, furrowing her brow at the story. \"Well...sorry about the comments about pact makers...\" she says simply, looking down a bit as they pull back into the ranch land. \"So those tendrils and all...those are Merihim? That's why you keep the signs covered and all?\"\n\nNelen nods, \"Thats part of it. The other reason is to keep him under control. The deal is that, well, everyone I kill... their life energy goes to him. The bandages aren't just to hide them. They're a seal to keep him from running wild.\" he explains. \"A while back Arja and I had to fight a Rakshasa, its a sort of Indian demon, really nasty bastard... and, well, I had to let him off his leash for a bit. He doesn't like being chained up and goes wild the moment they come off.\" he nods, \"The magic is extremely powerful when I let him out... but I can't always control it either.\"\nLara nods \"I've never seen anything that manifests like that, but I've seen these kinds of pacts before... you know they never last forever right? I know it's not a great talk to have but...you should probably explain things to your family...before things get too bad...\"\n\nNelen sighs, \"I should... but what the hell am I supposed to tell them?\" he asks, \"I can't just go up to Simoni and just casually tell her that her big brother sold his soul to get payback against a bunch of assholes who killed his childhood friend.\" he replies, \"She doesn't know, and as far as I'm concered she doesn't need to know. I can last long enough to sort out Franklin, then I'll go my own way again.\" he gazes out the car window, \"Hell, mercs like me die all the time... she doesn't have to know it'll be my own damn fault.\"\n\nLara shakes her head \"Deals can end, come on even you pact types know that. Some are harder to break than others, and it's never fun, but every deal has a loophole, you just have to be willing to lose that power... That's the problem I have with your kind of magic, it starts off noble a lot but... well it's like starting to use morphine to stop pain, it'll do what you need at the moment, and it can even fix you up well, but lots of people wind up hooked and worse than when they started.\"\n\nNelen smirks, \"Heh, I know. I've been trying to find a way out of it since I realized exactly what I'd made it with. I even looked through some book of gambling magic, thinking I could win him out of me... Trixie beat me to that one though.\" he rolls his eyes, \"Ah well... I'll figure out something... but I need to deal with that idiot of a grandfather I have first.\" he flexes his hand a bit, \"He's got it in for Simoni y'know. He's holding off for now, but I know he's planning something, and I need something to fight his assassins.\" he nods, getting out of the car as it rolls to a stop. \"Remember, not a word of this to her.\" he says in a stern tone, heading back towards the house as Dawn follows him in on four legs rather than two.\n\nLara nods \"Well if you ever need magic or artifacts or whatever, I have plenty to lend.\" she says offhandedly, cracking her back as it seems Sara is moving more sluggish, \"Fuck she's going back to sleep already...\"\nNelen shrugs, \"Good, let her.\" he replies, \"Means that we got the job done.\"[/i]","writing_bbcode_parsed":"The story begins late one night at the ranch with Lupe and Drusilla guarding outside the building. Across the yard however a group of what appears to be young girls is sneaking over to the cow barn...
Their leader looks around as she holds the gate open "Shhh..." she says to the small group of her fellow living impaired young women as the others quickly scoot through the gate. Well save for the one rather expressionless looking girl who just kinda walks through, not making any attempt to even crouch like her friends... "You really suck at the whole subtle thing, you know." she says to her, though the girl doesn't even seem to register it..."Come on, I smell meat." one of the other girls says, pointing to a barn.
Life was hard for people in their situation with functioning minds, really. They had the hunger that any other kind had, but they also had the memories of humanity and the morals to not want to just grab a random person and start chowing down. So things got awkward when the hunger pangs really hit... Luckily, the girls were on vacation from their little old money enclave in Maine, all the way in Texas for a bit of a warm winter vacation (cold was hell on them, when you don't have blood pumping muscles can freeze up bad...), and Texas meant ranches, not the hippy dippy co-op farms they were used to. Ranches were big, and had enough heads of cattle and such to spare one...or two...
"Remember go for the neck." she whispers as she creeps to the barn with her friends "Bite it and tear it so it looks like a wild animal did it..."
Meanwhile, up at the ranch Lupe is laying on the porch in her wolf form, Drusilla sitting next to her as the two play night guard duty. Even with McCall away Nelen insisted that they don't take chances. Lupe suddenly sits up, sniffing at the air as her ears perk up, "Rrrf?" she whines, looking around and sniffing, then looking in the direction of the barn as she lets out a low growling sound.
The girl's leader smiles as the group opens the door up, revealing the stalls of cows inside, already mooing in discomfort as they look for a good one, "Ok this one works." she says, pointing to a stall, "Pop the door open and it'll look like it got out." she nods as one of her friends grins, opening the stall door to let the cow quickly make its way out of the barn. "Keep watch." she instructs the stonefaced girl as she and her small group give chase...
Lupe nudges Drusilla with her snout, then starts to pad off towards the barns. Its clear she smells something. As she gets close she sees the 'stonefaced' girl, then lets out a loud howl.
Its how they've been doing things for a while. Lupe stays outside as a wolf, her animal form making it hard to tell her from a large dog at nighttime, and if she smells something that isn't human or animal she howls as loud as she can. A howl from Lupe means 'Shits getting real!'.
Nelen, half dozing on the couch, suddenly jerks awake as Dawn's head pops up from his lap, the cat blinking and rubbing at her eyes. "Shit!" he growls, running barefoot out into the yard with Dawn following behind him. A minute later Simoni jumps out of one of the second floor windows, changing in midair as she flies out in the direction of the howling werewolf.
The lead girl frowns as she watches her friends chase the cow around, "Come ON it's a COW, how can you not catch a cow?!" she says, huffing loudly as the group of city girls finds it harder than expected to hunt a cow that was running for its life... then the howl came. "Shit!" she yells, wincing as she sees the figures approaching, Drusilla running with the group. The girl standing guard, though, seems to move far faster than anyone should, especially a girl with that much muscle mass around her body, moving right between her and the approaching group with a frown.
Nelen notices this, knowing that Lupe wouldn't howl for help if it was just some random teenagers (she and Drus could easily handle a gang of mundanes after all), and lashes out with his blood tendrils, binding the girl's wrists as Simoni whistles out a sharp blast of air, aiming for her legs to try to knock her off balance.
As they do Lupe shifts back into her werewolf form, growling loudly and circling around the girl, preparing to pounce from behind at her throat.
She winces as she tumbles over, the girl guarding her glaring at Lupe, looking about ready to try to bash the wolf's head in as Lara holds her hands up "Hold up hold up, is that you Simoni?" she groans, standing up "Everyone chill out, shit..." she says, a hand resting on her guard's shoulder firmly to keep her from going on
Simoni blinks, flapping her wings to slow herself down as she settles onto the ground, "... Lara?" she asks as Nelen raises his eyebrow at her, slowly pulling his blood back inside him. "You know these guys?" he asks her as Simoni nods, "Yeah, um... they're the zombies we met up in Maine. I told you about 'em remember?" she replies, to which Nelen frowns, "Yeah... she charged you up so much that you caused an EMP that blew out all our phones and half the town." he nods.
The girl is, infact, Lara Belladonna. A zombie (or living-impaired as she prefers) girl from Maine that Simoni and some of the others met around Halloween. Simoni, Arja, Lupe, and Natasha had spent the night partying with them and also had their first encounter with the sin-eater Anabelle Morte that night when she came to rescue one of Lara's former classmates that she was keeping in her basement (nothing life-threatening, she just wanted some payback against the girl).
During this Lara also discovered Simoni's affinity for electricity and had indeed tested out a few of her own devices (she practiced the Victor Frankenstein method of revivication), charging Simoni up with so much electricity that when she touched metal afterwards she caused a massive bolt of lighting and an electro-magnetic pulse that blacked out half the town and fried every bit of unprotected electronics within five miles.
Lara had traveled to Texas to avoid the cold along with several of her undead friends, along with one extra...
Lara frowns, "Hey, zombies is offensive, we're not some shitty b-horror movie stock." she replies as she dusts herself off, "And she asked for that, and loved it, so mind letting my friends go?"
Nelen glances out at the cow, now running frantically across the field with one of the girls holding onto it's tail for dear li... well, holding on very tightly anyways. "I would... but they're not our cows." he replies, "One of you guys wanna go wake up Trixie?" he asks to the others as Lupe sniffs at the rest of the girls who came over, blinks as she recognizes the scent of the one who was dressed as a nurse for the Halloween party that night, then lets out a loud yelp and runs frantically back to the house with her tail between her legs.
Nelen watches her go, then looks at the group, then says, "Okay... thats a first..."
The girl who was a nurse just giggles, "Aw, puppy~" she teases as Lara sighs, "Let go of the cow already." she says to Starchaser (a hippy girl who died in the sixties after a dose of LSD made her dance out into traffic), apparently not sharing her living self's vegitarianism as she remains gripped to the cow. "No, I almost have this! Just gotta... angle myself better." she says, trying to dig her heels in but only winding up losing a foot "Shit!" she says as the stonefaced girl walks over silently to collect the foot, "Thanks..."
Nelen looks over the girls, rather glad they're not hostile (with the exception of vampires his blood magic is almost useless against undead)... then pauses, looking at the stonefaced girl. "A golem?" he says, leaning in closer (though still out of arm's reach) as Simoni shifts back to her human form, the girl wearing her pajamas given the late hour. "Thats another new one... why is a group of zo..." he gets a poke in the ribs from Simoni, "... ugh... ghouls? Well, why are you guys travelling with a golem?" he asks. Even by supernatural standards, golems are pretty rare.
The golem's eyes lock on Nelen as he leans closer, still seeing him as the closest thing to a 'threat' here after his restraining trick, though at least she seems to be more focused on defense rather than attacking anything..."Oh, Sara? Yea she's been in my family for, like, generations. My great great great grandfather was a rabbi who built her." she says as Sara moves away, still locked on Nelen, even when she moves to reattach the hippy's foot. Trixie groans a bit as she walks out, the girl just dressed in a long bathrobe, "What's this about cow thieves, how is that even a thing in this age..."
Simoni giggles a bit, "Well... We kinda know these guys..." she says, introducing Lara and the group to Trixie as Lupe hides behind the cowgirl, still watching the former nurse and keeping her tail held very tightly over her backside. What happened that night didn't really hurt her, but something that's part wolf and part human is still kind of a dog, and nurse isn't too far removed from a vee-ee-tee.
"Huh, still pretty rare to see one." comments Nelen, "I mean I only know what they look like because I used to frequent a bar in London that used one as a bouncer." he replies.
Nelen is referring to Emet, the golem bouncer at the Wolf's Head Pub in London. A sort of watering hole for supernatural types of all sorts with a strict truce enforced to keep anyone from causing real trouble. Fangs stay hidden, no holy relics, no silver, no shapeshifting, and if you need to fight you take it the hell outside. People who violate the rule are uncerimoniously thrown out of the bar (sometimes through the door) by the large pottery man who's strong enough to even pull Drusilla right off her feet.
Lara just nods casually as her friend giggles wickedly at Lupe..."Yea, she's an old school model so she's not even good for conversation." she says, poking the girl's cheek to make her open her mouth, revealing a scrap of paper wrapped around some kind of talisman, "See? Mouth's full with her job. Really boring but usually she wakes up for a good reason so I don't really try to ditch her much..." she says as Trixie nods, "Well...shit if you're that hungry I guess we can lose a cow to 'coyotes', god knows one cow doesn't make much difference either way when you're sellin by the herd, just... ya know... don't spook the dog next time." she teases.
Lupe whines and scoots back a bit at the grin as Nelen watches. "Freaking hell I saw her go for a Rakshasa's jugular once without flinching... what the hell did you girls do to her?" he asks in an incredulous tone as Simoni looks over the golem girl. "So... she usually wakes up for a good reason... Um, we did just have some goblin issues a few days ago actually..." she nods, looking at Lupe, "Is Natasha back from her hunting yet?"
Lara Belladonna raises a brow, "I swear to god Sara if you woke up just to fight some tiny little weirdos I'm gonna be really pissed." she sighs, nodding to the golem girl, "I can't check the scroll in her mouth because it's bound up around her talisman, if I rip it she goes back to sleep until a new one is there, and I don't have the right kinda ink set and junk for that." she says as Natasha yawns, swooping down from a nearby tree, "Someone call my name?" she asks, landing next to Lupe "What's got her spooked?" she blinks, more curious than upset.
As the cow gets torn up by the undead girls Nelen decides to see if he can figure out why the golem woke up, taking her inside as Lupe's hunger wins out over her fear and she grabs one of the cow's legs for herself, Lara going to join her friends in their feast. They don't actually need to eat humans (though it does keep them going the longest), any sort of meat will do so long as it's fresh.
Natasha goes in with Nelen, Simoni going back to bed, as he brings up a few other stories of vandalism and attacks against the local Jewish population and, with the help of a notepad and a pen (and Natasha to translate as the golem only writes in hebrew), he gets some details.
The golem can sense when a relative of her creator is in danger from outside forces (specifically any that are targeting them for their religion) and apparently Lara has some relatives in Houston. Several recent attacks were made against a Rabbi and his family by a local group of skinheads who, according to what the golem can sense, are being goaded into it by someone.
When it's mentioned that a skinhead group is behind it however... Nelen reacts oddly.
Nelen looks over at Dawn, "Is it now?" he asks, getting up and popping his neck as Dawn hops up onto his shoulders in her animal form. "Well, I'd better go along... y'know, make sure things don't get out of hand." he nods, the cat smirking at his words. "Um... yeah, don't bother waking up the others. They can sit this one out, I mean, just a bunch of mundanes and all." he nods, following the undead girls out the door.
Lara sighs, just following Sara now "Yea at least it's easier than a goblin king or whatever... shit how'd you beat him anyway?" she says as she follows Sara, whistling to get her attention and nodding at the car she drove to the ranch "Hey, we'll go break Nazi heads ok? But some of us don't have stone legs, let's drive alright? I promise we're going to the bar though." she says, almost like talking to a dog, though it seems to work as Sara turns on her heels and marches to the car.
Nelen walks out to the car and climbs into the back, "We didn't. Natasha tricked him into agreeing to leave." he replies, explaining how the vampire had fooled the Goblin King into believing she was letting him snuff out a warrior's bloodline by breaking her neck, except that it didn't matter so much to an undead being. As the car starts up Dawn leans in and whispers in his ear, "So, off to break up another one..." she smirks, then whispers in a bit more serious tone, "You know that it won't bring him back beardy..."
Nelen just tells her to shush as the car begins to drive off towards the place, the golem's innate senses pointing them in the right direction. Eventually they pull up outside the building and Sara exits before Lara even turns off the engine, the golem practically ripping the door out of it's frame as she enters the bar.
Golems are designed to defend Jewish people from threats, but they aren't exactly subtle about doing so. A golem is an earthquake in human form, a rockslide with a face, and damn near indestructable.
Nelen walks in behind them, looking around at the people inside, and then his tendrils shoot out from one hand and grab one of the shocked patrons around the neck, dragging him up to him, "Oi. The attacks on the local Jews, who's been doing them?" he asks the terrified biker, not even looking at him as he watches the golem smashing one of the others over the head with a bar stool.
Lara shrugs, seeing him make sure the interrogation part of this has been handled as she decides to join in the breaking, grabbing one of them and hurling him into the bottle display behind the bar... hey she was still Jewish after all, she may have wanted a more subtle approach but it's not like she wasn't going to feel really good about breaking Nazi bones... "Shit what the fuck?!" the man being lifted up yells, "That's what this is about?! Are you fucking insane?!"
Nelen points a finger at the man, a blood tendril bursts out from his fingertip and stabs into his chest. It doesn't kill him, but it hurts like seven kinds of hell. "Listen to me. I don't like people like you... at all. Right now I'm leaving you alive as a courtesy." he replies, Dawn pawing at his shoulder, "Eaaasy beardy..." she mutters. Nelen ignores her, "Now. Start talking or stop breathing." he orders.
The man yells out loudly, moving his body around as he shakes his head "What do you want?! Yea it was us, ok? What about it?! You want us to buy him fuckin new tires?!" he gasps, they -had- slashed his tires... among other things...
Nelen glares at him, his face turning pale as his blood begins to eat into the thug's body. "Who sent you to do it? Someone put you and your skinhead buddies up to it. Give me a name and you can just spend a few weeks in a hospital." he replies, his voice cold as Dawn glances nervously at him, the mage seeming gripped by a sort of cold fury.
The man yells loudly "I don't know I don't know, Chet set it up, this was his plan!"
Nelen frowns, then jabs his other hand forward as the man's body goes rigid, before dropping him onto the ground. "Which one of you guys is Chet?" he asks, walking forward with his palms held out, a tooth-covered blood tendril coming from each hand.
The bar is silent before a side door is kicked open, revealing a tall, rather scrawny, guy holding a shotgun, which he near instantly fires in Nelen's direction, clearly banking on surprise more than precise aim..."I'm Chet, bitch! I don't know what kind of Jew magic this shit is but..." "Really?" Lara says, stabbing a broken pool cue into one of the guy's legs "Just because it's blood magic you assume it's Jewish magic, that's fucked up" she says as Sara looks over, even though her face can't really shift it's pretty clear even she thinks that was a dumb thing to say when fighting neo-nazis...
Nelen lashes out with both arms as the tendrils rip into his arms, causing Chet to drop the gun as he lifts him up into the air, the razor teeth on his tendrils digging into his flesh. "Right. The attacks, your idea or were you paid?" he snarls, glaring up at the man as Dawn jumps off his shoulders, stepping back a bit. She knows better to get too close to Nelen when he's in this sort of mood. "Get talking human, or I'll hand you over to the golem and enjoy the show."
Dawn backs away from Nelen as he starts to really lay into them, a sort of fury radiating from him. Even Lara, despite being undead, seems unnerved by his sudden display of aggression bordering on sadism, his tendrils shredding Chet's arms.
Nelen demands a name, wanting to know who'd set them on their victims, but Chet insists he doesn't know, saying that they 'don't exchange business cards around here'.
Nelen frowns, then growls and releases his hand long enough to slash across his throat with a razor sharp tendril, tossing him across the bar to land in a heap as Dawn winces. He takes several deep breaths, pulling his blood back into his body before looking over at the golem. "Hey. Do -you- know who paid these things off?" he asks.
Lara frowns a bit "Alright, settle down, I'm the only one who gets to get huffy with my golem, give her a second here it's kinda a battlefield..." she says as Sara walks over to Chet, grabbing his head firmly as her eyes glow...
Nelen goes behind the bar, finds a bottle that didn't get splattered with blood or broken in the fight, and takes a long drink from it without even reading the label as Dawn hops carefully up onto the bar and watches him, seeming a bit nervous about getting too close as he tries to calm himself down.
Lara sighs a bit "So you wanna talk about it?" she says as Sara's eyes keep glowing, clearly taking a bit of time, "You know her stuff works better on live people..."
Nelen sighs and leans against the bar, looking around to make sure there's no... well... living mundanes left. He knows they won't go to the cops, he's pretty sure he saw a meth lab out back when they were pulling in. "Its a long story... lets just say someone I cared about got hurt when I was younger and I did some really stupid shit because of it." he replies, glancing down at his bandaged hand as he takes another swig from what turned out to be a Budweiser.
Lara nods "Well alright, just...you know...keep it together. I'm not exactly crying over dead Nazis here but killing randomly makes our jobs harder." she says, nodding to Sara, "Fresh kills are the worst for death magic and junk, soul's barely in the afterlife and all." she says, grabbing a beer for herself and yawning. After a bit more, though, Sara drops the corpse's head, nodding as she grabs a newspaper and pen, writing in Hebrew on the margins, "She found the guy." Lara reads, "Some rando, but he seemed magical. We've seen this before, religious leaders maintain some kinda ward or protection, some rando magic user gets a wild hair in his ass to break the ward, only way to break the ward is to stop people upkeeping it, very religious types don't tend to respond to threats and junk, you know how this ends."
Nelen nods as they troop back out to the car, gazing out the window as Sara gives Lara pointed directions. The trip leads them to a small shack out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but empty wilderness.
Dawn climbs back up onto his shoulders and whispers, "Y'know, you're gonna have to tell them eventually. I'm sure Simoni will understand..." she whispers to him, to which Nelen just replies, "Yeah, she will... but I don't want her to know. Hell, I'm amazed Arja didn't recognize this stuff already." he mutters back to her before examining the door. "Right, I'll hold back this time. Let rocky lead the charge though, just incase." he replies, nodding to the golem.
Lara nods, patting Sara's shoulder, "You know the drill big gal, we're right behind you." she says, Sara simply climbing out of the car and, rather than opening the door, kicking it off the hinges before making her way in, Lara sighing as she hops out to follow, "You know I'm not deaf right." she says to Dawn and Nelen, "If you wanna talk, well dead girls tell no tales and all." she says.
Nelen sighs, "Fine, if you really want to know I'll explain on the way back." he tells her, "However, not a word of it to Simoni. She doesn't need to know what I did to get this..." he replies, following the golem in as he summons out a single crimson tendril, no teeth this time though.
Lara nods "Not a problem here." she says as she hears a loud crack as Sara starts busting the place up, after a bit a man comes scrambling out, young looking, dressed in a black hood with a busted up plague doctor's mask hanging off his face "So, wanna grab him without eating him this time?"
Nelen shrugs and lashes out, grabbing him around the ankle before hoisting him up into the air upside down, dangling him infront of them. "Alright Wizzo, why'd ya do it?" he asks, seeming rather... well, calmer. Annoyed at the guy, but not as enraged as before.
The man stammers out that he felt something that the Rabbis had sealed away calling to him, telling him to free it and promising him all sorts of powers and boons if he did so. He says he tried to refuse, but the creature forced him to do it. As he waffles on Sara carries out several spellbooks, which Lara flips through and comments that it's all beginner crap and that he must've just become a mage.
Nelen tries to get a name for the entity, but he says that it only referred to itself as 'The Other'. Lara taunts him for being a 'pact maker', though it seems to annoy Nelen when she does. Finally, Nelen binds him up using his blood magic to form restraints made of coagulated blood and tosses him down on the ground, simply saying that they're done there.
Lara nods as she melts a wax cube over the book's opening end, sealing it closed and idly carving something in hebrew into the hot wax with her finger, "Yea, you're an idiot, but it looks like you just hired neo-nazis because you're too stupid to think of an easier way to fuck with a group of old men and they were close by. You know the drill, if I ever see you in town again I'm gonna eat your face, blah blah blah, get out and start fresh before my golem caves your head in..." she says, blowing the wax cool and handing it over to Sara, "When we get home put it with the rest of the low level books, nothing special in there but The Other or whatever may have tainted it." she says sounding shockingly professional.
Nelen leaves him bound by the shack, "The bindings will dissipate come morning." he says as he turns and walks back to the van, Dawn hopping up onto his shoulder as the group leaves. He sighs and flops into the backseat, leaning back and idly looking over the book before dropping it into the seat next to him. "So... you sure you want to know about this?" he asks.
Lara nods as she climbs in the driver's seat "Yea, curiosity and desire for knowledge is a common downfall in my family, might as well keep the trend going." she says cooly.
Nelen sighs, Dawn hopping onto his lap as he gets talking. "Alright, but like I said, no telling the others." he replies... "It all started when I was sixteen, about a year before Simoni was born..." he begins.
Nelen had a friend in high school. The two had been close since they were young kids and they were practically like brothers in some respects. Well, one day his friend comes out of the closet to him. Being gay in 2002 wasn't near as acceptable as it is today, especially in the area Nelen grew up in... and the wrong people found out. A week later, his friend was missing, then a month later he was found... most of him.
Nelen knew who'd done it, hell they'd glorified in it around school, but there was no proof and the cops didn't really care because the victim was gay. Nelen was tougher than some guys, but he couldn't fight and besides... he was angry. Not just normal anger, but a deep burning rage against what had happened... It certainly explains why he reacted like he did at the bar anyways...
"... so, I found a way to make a deal with something..." he sighs, looking at his hands. "Arja saw this once, but I don't think she knew what it was. I made a pact with, well... something you should never make an agreement with. There's a sigil carved into the palms of my hands, the symbol of a being called Merihim." he clenches his hand a bit as it seems to tremble just from him saying the name, "I got what I wanted anyways." he smiles grimly, "About a week after I did it those guys were in the hospital with honest-to-goodness leperosy. Real old testament stuff..." he nods, then frowns, "And later I realized exactly what I'd done to myself..."
Nelen doesn't actually have blood anymore. The entity called Merihim replaced his blood with itself, melting into the crimson liquid that flows through his veins. This is what gives him his powers, he's really just directing the entity to do what he needs it to do, in exchange for allowing it the use of his body.
Lara simply nods as she drives, furrowing her brow at the story. "Well...sorry about the comments about pact makers..." she says simply, looking down a bit as they pull back into the ranch land. "So those tendrils and all...those are Merihim? That's why you keep the signs covered and all?"
Nelen nods, "Thats part of it. The other reason is to keep him under control. The deal is that, well, everyone I kill... their life energy goes to him. The bandages aren't just to hide them. They're a seal to keep him from running wild." he explains. "A while back Arja and I had to fight a Rakshasa, its a sort of Indian demon, really nasty bastard... and, well, I had to let him off his leash for a bit. He doesn't like being chained up and goes wild the moment they come off." he nods, "The magic is extremely powerful when I let him out... but I can't always control it either."
Lara nods "I've never seen anything that manifests like that, but I've seen these kinds of pacts before... you know they never last forever right? I know it's not a great talk to have but...you should probably explain things to your family...before things get too bad..."
Nelen sighs, "I should... but what the hell am I supposed to tell them?" he asks, "I can't just go up to Simoni and just casually tell her that her big brother sold his soul to get payback against a bunch of assholes who killed his childhood friend." he replies, "She doesn't know, and as far as I'm concered she doesn't need to know. I can last long enough to sort out Franklin, then I'll go my own way again." he gazes out the car window, "Hell, mercs like me die all the time... she doesn't have to know it'll be my own damn fault."
Lara shakes her head "Deals can end, come on even you pact types know that. Some are harder to break than others, and it's never fun, but every deal has a loophole, you just have to be willing to lose that power... That's the problem I have with your kind of magic, it starts off noble a lot but... well it's like starting to use morphine to stop pain, it'll do what you need at the moment, and it can even fix you up well, but lots of people wind up hooked and worse than when they started."
Nelen smirks, "Heh, I know. I've been trying to find a way out of it since I realized exactly what I'd made it with. I even looked through some book of gambling magic, thinking I could win him out of me... Trixie beat me to that one though." he rolls his eyes, "Ah well... I'll figure out something... but I need to deal with that idiot of a grandfather I have first." he flexes his hand a bit, "He's got it in for Simoni y'know. He's holding off for now, but I know he's planning something, and I need something to fight his assassins." he nods, getting out of the car as it rolls to a stop. "Remember, not a word of this to her." he says in a stern tone, heading back towards the house as Dawn follows him in on four legs rather than two.
Lara nods "Well if you ever need magic or artifacts or whatever, I have plenty to lend." she says offhandedly, cracking her back as it seems Sara is moving more sluggish, "Fuck she's going back to sleep already..."
Nelen shrugs, "Good, let her." he replies, "Means that we got the job done."","pools_count":0,"title":"Part 1.14: The Price of Power","deleted":"f","public":"t","mimetype":"text/rtf","pagecount":"1","rating_id":"2","rating_name":"Adult","ratings":[{"content_tag_id":"5","name":"Strong Violence","description":"Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death","rating_id":"2"}],"submission_type_id":"12","type_name":"Writing - Document","guest_block":"t","friends_only":"f","comments_count":"0","views":"41","sales_description":null,"forsale":"f","digitalsales":"f","printsales":"f","digital_price":""}