Advertise/Affiliate Other Forum Main Page The World Before You Play

A Half Expected Visit (Moonie)

Started by Brisinger987, May 02, 2013, 01:31:24 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Brisinger987

Xerordir snarled, and wandered across the street. The screams of terror and death would be obvious to all, and their cause, a deathly silent reaper. A harbinger of doom to all.

And just as quickly he had arrived, he had left.

=====================================

It was midday, and Xerordir approached the door. If this ended badly, he wouldn't try again. He was a freak, a monster. Kirnardaz had twisted him, turned him into something he had never dreamed he would be. And now he had to make it all right.

Starting with Nadya.

It had been about 3 months, so she'd probably forgotten about him. But he wanted to make things right. His now blue glowing eyes and white robe made him seem much friendlier, and his aura was gone, replaced instead with a light aura, something positive. He was literally the reciprocal of himself three months prior.

He knocked on the door, hoping that Nadya wouldn't freak out. It was obvious he had changed again. Very obvious.

Zero

Nadya was sitting quietly in the library, embroidering the sleeves of a new dress with roses painstakingly crafted from golden thread. The dress she wore was a deep plum, with slashes of creamy lavender in the wide skirts. The bodice was snug, with a neckline that dipped in a modest "babydoll" fashion and sleeves that hung off the shoulders, fitting snug at the upper arm, but slashing and trailing down from elbow on.

She certainly wasn't expecting company, but when there came a knocking at the front door she set her project aside and rose, soft slippers barely making a sound on the carpet as she glided gracefully though the halls. Not a single servant passed her as she made her way to the door, but she didn't really think much of it. They had so few of them about these days.

When the door opened, Nadya peeked out, soft violet eyes gazing at the white-robed figure standing there. For the longest time she simply stared at him, saying nothing at all. Finally she managed to regain her voice, though it was soft. "I asked you not to come back."

Brisinger987

((OOC: The song, Don't Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult heavily influenced this post.))

"Nadya, I'm dead. If I want to change who I am, the I just buy some new clothes, dye my hair and start acting differently. I won't pretend to be the Xerordir you once knew. But I'm damned close. I just lost weight it all. He lifted his head up, his blue eyes being gentle, and kind. The skull seemed to have a happy impression, as if it were capable of changing expressions.

"And if I want to say sorry to old friends that I hurt and betrayed, then all I have to do is do it. I choose when, and where. I could wait until the end of time if I wanted to, find you in some long forgotten afterlife, and just before the end, I could say sorry, try and make things right." Xerordir's expression seemed to shift to one of regret and sorrow. It was very clear that he was being sincere.

"And if I wanted to tell someone how I felt about them, I would choose to come to their house, in Serendipity, and tell them. Right then and there. Even after I betrayed her, hurt her. Nadya, you know what I'm saying, and I'm not saying it would ever work out between us, but I thought you should know. I'm not asking you to wait. But when I finally come to collect you, when your time on this earth is up..." A blue tear of light rolled from the eye socket of Xerordir's skull.

"Promise me I can spend time with you?"

Zero

It was an impressive speech, wasn't it? Nadya couldn't help but wonder if it was rehearsed. How many times had he practiced his little lamentation? Those soft violet eyes were full of hurt and mistrust, and they shimmered with tears. There was an overwhelming desire to believe him, to trust that he meant everything he said, but after his last visit, after what he had become, how could she really trust anything about him.

"You have some nerve, coming here and throwing this on me after everything else you've done. When you first came here, what seems forever ago now, I wanted so badly to help you. I wanted to bring light back into your darkness. I thought you wanted that too, but I was wrong. If you're close to who you once were then you don't even mean what you're not saying. You care about power more than me. Don't deny it."

Her eyes squeezed shut, tears running down from the corners and she raised a hand to lightly cover her mouth as she bit her lip to choke back a soft sob. "You're dead, you said it yourself. I've lost you twice already, and here you come to make my heart mourn for you again. Don't ask me to promise something that I can't."

Brisinger987

"You know that I didn't expect you to believe me? You did change me. I resolved to try and find balance. An old friend caused problems, affected me, manipulated me. He controlled me, as if I were a marionette. I don't expect you to believe me, but eventually, you will have to see me again. Everyone will. I have to offer everyone a choice. Even if you don't forgive me, can I at least come in and explain what happened?" Xerordir didn't expect her to let him into the house either.

"I'm not asking you to promise your heart to me. Your heart should go to someone more deserving. I did hurt you, I don't deny that. At the time, I did care about power. But I have seen it's ugly side, the face of hell itself. I don't care about it anymore. I'm just asking that eventually, you find it in yourself to forgive me. Even if it takes a change in perspective." Xerordir's form shifted, and he was flesh again, the form now his to control again.

He held his hand out, his red eyes the same as they used to be, the same face. Feature for feature.

"Please?"

Zero

All of this was really overwhelming. Nadya didn't know if she should believe a word he said. It wasn't as if he hadn't lied to her before. Would she be naive and silly to not slam the door in his face again? Her grandmother would have known exactly what to do. Her grandmother would have scorned Xerordir right from the beginning, never would she have befriended a mere scholar to begin with.

"What is there to explain?" She whispered softly, watching him transform in front of her eyes from a skeleton to the man he had been before his fall. That only made it so much harder. The lady of Lancaster had called this man her friend, and then she had found out in the most horrible way that he had not only died, but had become a monster. Now he was here again - changed yet again.

Violet eyes stared at the out held hand, unsure if she should dare take it. Nadya couldn't stop tears from leaking from the corner of her eyes. After a little hesitation she finally took his hand with no small amount of trepidation.

Brisinger987

"More than most could comprehend. But I am confident you can understand why." Xerordir took a very cautious, sheepish step inside, seeing if he was actually allowed inside.

"Come, let us go to the library, to talk."

((OOC: Shortest post of the thread, I swear))

Zero

Nadya let him inside. Part of her wanted to just make him leave again. Still, he had been a friend to her - once. At the very least, letting him explain himself seemed fair. If she didn't like what she heard she could just demand he leave. Right?

"Yes, the library..." She murmured softly, almost numb from the shock of everything. They'd first spent time together in the library. That was where their friendship had blossomed, where she had first pledged to help save him. It seemed almost poetic that it was there that it would end.

Leading the way she moved quickly, not sure if her grandmother would or should know that Xerordir was there. As soon as they were inside, surrounded by her countless books, Nadya walked over to a chair and collapsed into it wearily. "I don't even know where to begin..."

Brisinger987

"I do..." Xerordir sat in the chair, his human form matching exactly the one he had first been in when he entered the library for the first time.

"I suppose it started when I got possessed." Xerordir sighed, remembering his old, power-hungry self. Remembering the old Xerordir. The one that needed her help.

"It was not long after my last visit in human form, my body was inhabited by a demon, a combination of me attempting to recruit a young boy into the field of necromancy, and the demon's considerable willpower. It entered my mind, and blocked certain memories. One of which, was your visits. It didn't want me to overpower it through positive emotion, it needed something to feed on." Xerordir, deciding this needed to be a visual story, melded his features with Kirnardaz's, producing a red skinned, red eyed half demon.

Zero

It was all so much. Nadya listened quietly, hands folded in her lap as she let him explain what had happened. She had wondered what had kept him away, but finding out he had died had been a big shock and a painful loss. Now that he was telling her, she wasn't even sure she wanted to know the details. None of it would make him less dead.

When he changed his appearance she gasped in horror, violet eyes widening. She had witnessed him change from a skeleton to the familiar form of the man she'd called her friend, but to see him take the appearance of a demon was a bit of a shock.

"Oh no, why didn't you stay? I begged you not to go..." She squeezed her eyes shut. If he'd have just stayed with her none of this would have ever happened. Nadya didn't know how, but she would have protected him...somehow!

Brisinger987

"I know. And my mistake was not listening Nadya. However, to grieve over another's mistakes is to make a mistake. I made my mistakes, and they landed me where I am. And I am honestly better for it." Xerordir's newfound immortality may have provided him perspective that Nadya couldn't understand, and he accepted that. She saw a dead man, where he saw someone with the rest of eternity to set everything right.

"But, after a time, the demon released me. Partially. It kept me in it's service, slowly making me more and more power hungry, until I decided a visit to an underworld was in order. I sought more power. But it proved my undoing. For in the underworld, I strayed into a field of hell, whereupon I found my place of rest after death. Then, I was killed, by my sister's agonised, tortured skeleton." Xerordir let the form shift to a skeletal one, no wings or robes, just a plain skeleton.

Zero

Nadya kept her face in her hands, her eyes squeezed shut as he went on. Of course she didn't have the same perspective as he did. Nothing he could do or say would convince her that he was somehow better off dead. In fact, just his saying that caused anger to stir within her heart. What a cruel, idiotic thing for him to say!

As Xerordir explained how he ultimately met his end, at the hands of his sister, no less, Nadya raised her head, violet eyes watching him change into a skeleton passively. Her initial fear was quickly being swept away by something else.

"You're better off for it..." Her voice held a hard edge, though there was also something else. Despair, perhaps. "How could you possibly say that you are better off? You're dead. You haven't learned anything!" The anger rose in her voice. "You haven't given up your lust for power at all if you think this is better."

Brisinger987

"Nadya, I do not deny, my personality isn't that changed from when I first met you, but I assure you, I do not wish to have power. Although my form is immortal, I still have the mind and soul of a man, just as easily corrupted. You are throwing baseless accusations at me out of grief. I have seen it in the families of those who I come to collect." Xerordir remained calm, and passive. He would not get into an argument over this. He wouldn't.

"Anyway, continuing on with my recent history..." Xerordir's skeleton changed, into the white form, with blue eyes, white robes, and glowing white wings. "The goddess in charge of the underworld I lived in selected me to be her reaper. To take the souls of the deceased and guide them to her underworld. To the afterlife. But, even in death, I was still a thrall to Kirnardaz's will, and he soon removed me from the underworld, and corrupted every fibre of my being with his unholy presence."

The colours on Xerordir began to change, the skeleton went from white to a musky cream, and his robe changed to black, his eyes fading through purple, from blue to red, and his wings shed their feathers, black feathers replacing them.

"I became a harbinger of doom. That was when I last visited you."

Zero

Baseless accusations out of grief? Did he think she was stupid? Nadya was angry, she shouldn't have let him in. It didn't matter what he had to say. What was it going to change? Absolutely nothing! Xerordir was dead, and that was all there was to it. The details weren't all that important were they? She didn't even know what his point was anymore. What could he possibly be trying to accomplish?

"You shouldn't have come to me then, and you shouldn't have come now. I don't know what you really want, but I don't know of anything at all I have to give you or that you would want, except maybe that stupid book you came here for so long ago. You know where it is, take it and leave if that's what you're after. No need to put me through more than you already have."

His appearance as that evil, vile creature that had come to her before did not get so much as a bat of the eye this time. He wasn't going to shock her or scare her anymore.


Brisinger987

"Let me finish, if you will." Xerordir remained perfectly calm, shifting his form into the newest one, habitually clearing his throat.

"Then... He tried to invade this world, flood it with death, and violence. However, his realm collapsed under it's size, and he was rendered near powerless by it. I was freed, and I took up a job as a reaper, finding comfort that I put the dead to rest now, instead of taking them from their graves like I once did. It is fitting." Xerordir would have smiled if he wasn't bound by skeletal limits.

"And I do not want your book. I do not want more power. I am content with my current position."

Zero

Let him finish...how could he be so calm? Nadya couldn't even sit still, instead she jumped up and began pacing furiously as he finished speaking. Whether it was nervousness, anger, or sorrow, she couldn't really even decipher how she even felt right then.

"It's a good thing you're content, I guess, since I can't see you being able to change it. I just don't understand why..." There was a ton of different things racing through her mind. There were a lot of things she wanted to ask him, and to rage at him.

How could he be content like this? Had he not been content with her? Of course not, he left her behind, so obviously there were other things he needed at that time. "Why'd you come back here? Just to explain what happened? Why? I could have gone my whole life without knowing and probably have been happier not knowing."

At least she could have held hope that he had simply gone about his life and forgotten. Now it was too late. He was dead and that knowledge would linger with her for the rest of her life.

Brisinger987

"I thought you'd like to know that you succeeded. That you did save me. My time with you, was the only reason I didn't fill my spot in that field of hell. The goddess of that underworld saw the same good in me as you did. And she only saw it because you did. And she restored my memories after I was freed, and it changed me. Seeing how I died. Seeing how hurt you were. It did change me. And I came to thank you for that." Xerordir's voice was soft, and calm, and he let an image replace his skeletal form, an image of his fleshed form, with blue eyes, brown hair, and a white clothing. He looked purely human now.

"I also wanted to apologise for last time. I was not myself. And I wanted to see you. Before the day that I come to collect you, when your time on this earth is finally up. I can destroy that book if you'd like. Obliterate it entirely. Do you want me to destroy it? If not, it will remain with you, until you find another with the means, or you die."

Zero

Why did he have to keep talking? Curse him! Nadya wanted to be furious with him. Anger was so much easier than the alternative. Her mind kept trying to frantically draw up venomous words to throw at him, things to tear down everything he said, but she couldn't. Maybe that was just a tiny bit vindictive. He had hurt her deeply, and she wanted to hurt him back, but she didn't really want to hurt him, that much she knew. Even know, knowing everything, she wanted to just run over and embrace him.

Slender shoulders slumped in utter defeat. He said that she had saved him, but it didn't feel that way. Perhaps his soul had been saved, but that was a paltry consultation prize to the realization that they wouldn't be able to be together as long as she lived. Numbly she nodded her head and moved over to the shelves where the secret panel was, and triggered the opening mechanism. Nadya pulled the heavy black volume from it's small hiding place and, holding it away from her body, brought it over to him.

"Make sure this filthy thing can never hurt anyone again." She whispered, violet eyes shimmering with tears.

Brisinger987

Xerordir nodded, and summoned Guinevere, who stood by the book, and vaporised it.

"Thank you Guinevere." Guinevere's aura was clearly one of purity, promoting happiness in it's range.

"You're welcome Xerordir." She disappeared as quickly as she had disappeared, and book was gone.

"There you go. It's gone. Forever." Xerordir hoped she would be happy with how it had been dealt with. If Nadya decided she wasn't happy with it, he didn't know what to do. And that made him seem guilty of taking it.

"So, do you want me to leave? I've nothing more to say, and if you desire, I will leave you in peace until the end of your days." Xerordir spoke plainly, unsure of what to say next. What to do.

Zero

Nadya blinked as some appeared out of nowhere and made the book disappear. She had no idea what had been done to the horrid thing, but as it vanished Nadya felt a great deal of relief. It didn't matter what had been done with that cursed thing, as long as it was out of her house and her life forever.

Did she want him to leave? Part of her said yes, she wanted him to go away and to never come back. Cutting him out of her life was the easiest, least painful thing she could think to do in this situation. Still, another part of her didn't want for him to go. She truly had cared for him.

"If there's nothing else to be said...I guess you should. I'm sure you've got a lot of work to do." Was there really nothing else he had to say to her? Nadya didn't know what else to say, really.