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

Cherub Rock (SDB) [M]

Started by Eckhart_Von_Musel, April 10, 2018, 05:13:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

[M for language]

"Aahva, stop." 

Aahva Chatterjee followed the pillowheaded boy through the hall, a nasty grin on his face. He had spotted Arthur alone, and had taken the opportunity to harrass him. "Why would I stop, retard?" he asked cruelly. "I'm just asking questions!"

"Well, your questions are mean and I don't wanna answer them." Arthur replied, his pace quickening. "Go bother somebody else- ow!"

Aahva smiled as he shoved the boy into the wall. "Hey, hey, I just wanna know who's name you cry out when you fuck that crusty hat at night! Is it Margath? No, wait, Fen-Breath!" The Thanati boy put his finger on his cheek. "Or is it that whore Professor Summers?"

"Shut up!" Arthur yelled, cheeks flushing bright red. "You shut up right now!"

Aahva began to laugh, only for the Clearwater boy to aim a weak punch at him. Easily shrugging it off, he quickly had Arthur pinned against the wall. "That's not very nice, Pillowhead." he said, dangerously quiet. "I might just have to throw those faggy trading cards of yours in the wishing well if you don't apologize..."

Celegwen

The halls were relatively quiet at that time, and Brendan Chase had found himself between classes with nothing else to really do. He decided to go to his aunt's base in the meantime, as she would surely have something for him to do. His mind was occupied with a gentle tune that he had heard earlier from a lute player in one of the campus courtyards, and he was unconsciously whistling it softly.

Bren stopped when he saw two boys in the hall. He recognized them more from reputation than anything else, but he had seen them both around before. Aahva and Arthur. An inaudible groan escaped the young man, as he realized what was happening.

"Just walk away and go to Clarissa's base," a female voice said in his head. "There's something interesting and fun to do! This isn't your problem to deal with."

I know it isn't, Nikki, but it's about to be.

Despite the protests from his sister's voice, Bren started walking towards them. His confidence was palpable, yet he never came across like he was trying even slightly.

"I'm sure the wishing well would appreciate the cards," Bren said, approaching with a relaxed smirk. "Then again, everyone's aware of its biting wit, so it just might end up mocking you for something like your Thanati accent." He raised his right brow and shrugged with his hands in his pockets, bright green eyes showing just how much he was done with the boy's taunting. "Really, Aahva?" He asked tiredly. "Aren't you done with this shit yet? I would think it gets old after a while."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

The sound of a young man's voice caused Aahva to release Arthur from his grasp. Shooting the boy one last dirty look, he turned to look at the newcomer. "Oh great, it's that popular guy." he thought, crossing his arms. "Exactly the retard I wanted to see."  He glaced back at Arthur, and was suprised to see the boy was shivering nervously, staring at the man as if he was a ghost. "Well... this is is interesting..."

Aahva looked at the upperclassman, smirking. "Well gee, I wish it that easy." he said smugly. "In order to get bored with it I'd need to keep a stick up my ass, and I don't practice that every night like you do." The bully turned on his heel and began to walk away. "Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta leave. It's gettin' real gay over here."

Aahva would walk away, leaving only Bren and a visibly frightened Arthur.

Celegwen

The young man smirked, chuckling silently and shaking his head with a sigh. He knew better than to challenge Aahva; not because he was afraid the boy would beat him, but because it would be feeding a bully's ego to be challenged. Besides, he had better things to do.

"Great," Nikki's voice said in his head. "Now, you can go!"

"You feed into it," Bren said, looking at Aahva's back. "He wants a reaction from-" He looked at Arthur and furrowed his brows at the shaking boy. "Hey, are you okay? Kia, Arthur... You're shaking like an autumn leaf." Bren would put his hand on Arthur's shoulder, a concerned look on his face.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"Oh no! What if that's how he does it?"

"N-no!" With a small gasp, Arthur pulled away from Bren's hand. He scuffed away, stopping a few feet away. "I-I, I mean, really I'm fine!"

"Shit! Shit!" Arthus shook his head. "T-thanks for making him leave... I just got shook up, that's all!"

Celegwen

Bren lifted his hand, as the boy slid away from him. This isn't just a reaction to Aahva, he thought to himself. Nikki's voice was quiet that time, which put him slightly on edge.

"Arthur," the young man's voice was quieter then, "what's wrong? What're you afraid of?"

"You," Nikki's voice said to him. Bren's brows furrowed, and his lip twitched momentarily at the comment, but he ignored it, instead waiting for Arthur to mumble his way through an answer.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"Umm, well..." 

"Aah! I gotta think of something fast!"

Arthur glanced to the side. "Aahva has this friend, her name is Beatrix..." The boy's breathing grew shallow. " All she ever does is tattle on people! She's gonna tell the professors that I hit him, I just know it..."

Celegwen

"You know Beatrix," Nikki's voice said. "That's the shadowmancer girl."

Bren nodded. Though Arthur's answer was clearly a way to sidestep the question, it wasn't a falsehood. Beatrix was notorious for fabricating stories when it came to Aahva's bullying, so it would make sense that Arthur wouldn't want to run into her after the ordeal.

"Listen," Bren started. "First of all, if I vouch for you, you'll be fine. No one working here is going to take the word of a first-year tattletale over a last-year with strong connections throughout the school. Second of all, come on." The young man took a few steps, jerking his head in the direction Arthur was originally going and putting his hands in his pockets. "Walk with me. Where are you heading?"

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"Ummm..." Arthur silenty cursed himself- his excuse had made things worse. He swallowed nervously. "R-right... Thanks..."

The pillowheaded boy stared at Bren, and unconsciously took a step back. "I-I'm just heading to Professor Summers' office, down by the library. We-we have a deal where she gives me A's if I write her short stories instead of schoolwork, I just gotta hand 'em in..." He shook his head frantically. "I'll be fine, I can get there myself!"

Celegwen

Fuck, Bren thought to himself. Professor Summers was one of the very few people that he avoided at all costs. Of course no one actually knew this, save for his aunt and girlfriend, so he had to keep up appearances.

"Arthur, it's pretty clear that you don't want to be around me," Bren said plainly. He had a great deal of patience, but it wasn't everlasting. "I don't know why, and if you want to tell me, I'm all ears. Really: I promise I won't be upset. Thing is, I said I would walk you to your destination, and I make good on my word. So, quickest way to get rid of me is to simply let me escort you."

"He was literally giving you a way out," Nikki's voice said. "Are you seriously that stubborn?"

Yes.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"No! I can't let him have it!" 

Arthur's face darkened, and the boy took another step back. "L-look..." he said shakily, pointing his finger accusatorily. "I know what you're t-trying to do! It's not cool, and I d-don't like it!"

"Shit, shit! I'm saying too much!"

Arthur shook his head slowly. "D- don't make me call my brother! He's tougher than you, he'll win!"

Celegwen

"You know what I'm trying to do?" Bren asked, genuinely confused. "Well, would you mind clueing me in as to what that is? Because I thought I was trying to help you..."

"You fucking idiot," Nikki's voice said. "He thinks you want his magic."

Why would I want his magic?

"You wouldn't, but he doesn't know that!"

The young man sighed, brows furrowed at the boy who was clearly terrified simply by being in Bren's presence. He could've easily opted to walk away and go about his day, but something about the pure fear Arthur was expressing held Bren there. "Your brother, Percy?" He asked after a moment of silence. "Yeah, sorry to burst your bubble, but that's just not true. I know his magic, and I have at least seven different defense spells that I can think of just off the top of my head."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Arthur went completely silent, staring at the older boy in horror. Even underneath his multiple layes of clothing his chest was visibly heaving. "You... you t-t-took his m-magic already?" he said, seemingly on the verge of tears. "But... but..."

"Run!" he told himself. "Run to Professor Summers, she'll help you!" Arthur tried to move, but found himself paralyzed in fear. "S-stay away!" the boy squeaked. "You can't have mine, I won't let you!"

Celegwen

Bren's brows lifted in shock, and he burst into laughter at the boy's horror. "Arthur," he huffed, "that's not..."

"Play along, Bren," Nikki's voice said. "Come on, it'll be funny."

Stop, he thought. I'd be no better than Aahva.

"Just for a moment!"

The young man took a deep breath, relaxing himself with just a smirk that could've been interpreted as devious. "Yes, Arthur," he said. "I took his magic. I could even show you the spell, if you'd like." He patted the satchel he was wearing, which contained his spell book. It wasn't a lie; not even an exaggeration. Bren had patted Percy's back after seeing him perform his magic and taken the power. "He wasn't as powerful as I had expected..." Now, he was starting to lie. "Still, better to add another power to my collection. Why shouldn't I take yours? It's pretty interesting, from what I hear, and you're not using it."

An entertained grin began to tug at his lips, but from the level of terror Arthur was expressing, he probably couldn't tell that the entire thing was an act.

Eckhart_Von_Musel

Arthur was now so terrified that he had backed up into the wall. The boy began to hyperventilate, his eyes the size of saucepans. "Do- do you even know what that'll do to you?" he asked, his voice a panicked whisper. "S-souls have rules! You'll die if you keep going!"

Celegwen

The young man took a single step forward, his hands formally behind his back and a new darkness in his piercing green eyes. "Oh, you naïve, foolish boy," Bren said, shaking his head slowly. "My soul is untainted, void of any magic I've collected over the years. My mind has memorized every spell, but my soul is pure. I can keep gathering, and gathering, and gathering all kinds of magic until I've decided that I'm finished. Or until there's no more magic to collect. Whichever comes first."

"Alright, showoff," Nikki's voice said with a hint of worry. "Don't overdo it."

He spun completely around on his heel and spread his arms out with a shrug. "And why shouldn't I?" He asked, scoffing slightly. "Who's going to stop me?" Taking two more steps towards Arthur, Bren put his hands behind his back again.

"The thing is... My method of harvesting is completely harmless." A genuine smile crossed his lips, as he broke character. "Everyone whose magic I've taken still has their magic, no less powerful than before." Bren chuckled lightly. "I'm not a monster, Arthur. I'm just a collector."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"B-bullshit." Arthur said angrily, cutting Bren off before he could finish. "I just told you, souls have rules. If you aren't using your own, then there's a second involved. Magic cannot simply exist in a vacuum- even when dorment it needs something to tether to our plane."

The boy stamped his foot on the ground indignantly. "With the sheer amount of magic I feel surrounding you, it has to be a soul! I know it's not a link network, because then it'd all be dispersed around and I wouldn't feel it!"

Arthur swallowed nervously. "I-it doesn't matter where the soul is or how it's stored, it's gonna have limits! There's no such thing as unlimited power!"

Celegwen

The young man lifted one brow with a half smirk. "See, this is where your inexperience cripples you, kid. If you actually took the time to learn and understand your own magic, you would have a better grasp on the concept of tethering magic. You're right that souls have a limit to how much power they can contain, but an immortal soul doesn't. Like a human would keep living without aging, a soul would basically keep growing. Or, if you want another route, you can tether more than one soul to a person, then tether magic to the souls. But either way, it doesn't matter..."

Bren unclasped his satchel and pulled out his large, leather spell book. The book was a true work of art, and if anyone watched it carefully, they would notice that it seemed to grow slightly in thickness every few days. He opened the book and flipped rapidly through the hundreds of pages covered in strange symbols Arthur never would've seen before until he reached the end. With a quick movement, he stuck his finger between one of the pages to touch a spell. The entire book was full, yet Bren wore another smirk.

"This is the tether, Arthur." He held his hand over the end of the book, and a faint blue light shone from his hand to the book. As the light touched the book, a new page seemed to materialize out of nowhere. "This isn't a human soul, so it does have unlimited power. I can collect magic until I feel like stopping."

Eckhart_Von_Musel

"An immortal soul? What is he talking about?" Arthur stared at the spellbook timidly, watching the upperclassman flip through the pages. As Bren turned to the last page, the boy narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute..."

"Bren... that is a human soul." Arthur said quietly. "Look at how the energy wafts from it, the little wavy patterns in the soulsilk, it's not even dormant!" He shook his head, panic spreading through him. "This is an AAA capacity multimantic human soul. You need to take this to Magister Maergath, this thing could be really dangerous!"

Celegwen

A breathy chuckle escaped Bren's lips, as he actually thought Arthur was trying to pull a fast one on him. When the boy started backing away wreaking of genuine fear, something made him pause. He closed the book and tucked it back into his satchel.

Arthur could hardly ever speak louder than a whisper. This was a boy who literally wore a pillow everywhere he went on the off chance he decides to nap. Seeing the level of panic-driven excitement coming from him was the only reason Bren actually started considering the possibility that what Arthur said could be the truth. A frown tugged at his lips, and his brows furrowed in thought. He went to open his mouth to speak, feeling his heart racing, but something cut him off.

"Everything's dangerous here," came an accented voice from down the hall. Bren looked to his right and saw a dark-skinned woman in tribal clothing walking towards them with her arms folded over her chest. A hint of a smile appeared on Bren's lips at the sight of his best friend, and Sunny approached smoothly. "I was eavesdropping," she said openly in her thick Duhjari accent. Sunny hugged Bren, then turned to Arthur, a genuine smile spread on her lips. "What's happening?"

Tags: