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Post by Vayle Cameo on May 31, 2019 17:38:53 GMT
Vayle rushed as fast as she could the moment she felt it. the murderous presence, the feeling of unmistakably hollow reiatsu unleashed in a refined burst, and the instinctive blast of an unskilled, high-energy human's panicked reishi emissions ekeing out across the area. A chilling presence cut through her bones as she felt the power go through her. Hollow... no, not quite. it didn't feel quite right to be a hollow... a fullbring, potentially? Or she could just be wrong.
Either way, this was definitely the target the SRDI had contacted her about, an ominous reiatsu, appearing just to grab humans with high spiritual power and make them disappear.
It only took a few shunpo dashes, even in her gigai, for Vayle to find herself standing on the wrong end of an asauchi. With a swift kick, she knocked the frightened blonde-haired tourist across a counter, realizing dimly that she was standing in a now abandoned ice cream shop. Her thoughts were much more focused on the blade she'd just stopped with a hand filled with concentrated, violet Reishi, and just how much power she was being forced to use to maintain this inefficient defence was.
Looking up at the being holding the blade with a look of condemnation, she was surprised to see...
Estrella?
The death god backed away, as the look of a malicious killer met her own. It was Estrella. But...
Vayle took a deep breath, placing a hand on her blade's pommel. Every part of her wanted to scream out, to say something, to try and get her to fight this. This... affront to everything she knew Estrella to be, painting over her like a gaudy shade of make-up.
Vayle wanted to hug her. To help her. to peel this layer off like a decaying coat of paint.
But something in her told her... that wasn't the best way to find Eleanor.
She needed to know what Eleanor told her. What she'd been forced to think. What weaknesses in that conditioning she could exploit later. If she was stupid, she'd just give Eleanor that much more help finding out what holes in her brainwashing's defences needed fortifying. At the same time, she needed to know what threads might potentially exist...
She looked directly into those hateful eyes and forced herself not to cry as thoughts of a much nicer, quieter night ran through her mind, and she threw out her opening sleight. A question asked to a pretty girl, holding a pair of pistols that were clearly not the fullbring she was staring at right now.
"Erm... pardon me miss... This might seem like an odd question, but can you see me?" Vayle cautiously asked.
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Post by Lady Arcadia on May 31, 2019 19:32:19 GMT
The battle in what once used to be an ice cream shop for visiting tourists was slowly coming to its climax. On one side stood Ikki, a young blonde tourist born with too much Reishi to live, frantically using anything at hand, be it chairs, tables or scoops of ice cream to ward off his opponent. On the other side stood a short brunette, dressed with red and black, bearing piercing crimson eyes and a sword infused with Hollow Reiatsu. Lady Arcadia - and no matter what the man threw at her, she unceremoniously took out and promptly retaliated, each one of her cuts and slashes landing exactly where they need to, forcing out cries of pain and gushing blood.
For her, it was almost a game. She was hardly trying - why would she let out all of her potential against someone so unable to wield their powers, so much of a waste of a good soul, as her Mistress would say? Which meant ample opportunities to break the man further and further, inflict more and more pain, see their confidence and eventually their desire to live slowly erode, all like a beautiful symphony for her Soul. However... even this game had its limits, points when it was time to cut loose and finish everything off.
Easily deflecting Ikki's superpowered punch to the side, Arcadia threw a powerful elbow smash straight into his gut, before stepping back and allowing her Spirit Shackle to do the rest. Screams of agony and terror filled the air, the man succumbing to his knees from the powerful shocks and jolts released by her Hollow Reiatsu, while the woman raised her weapon in preparation to finally harvest his Soul...
Only for her Asauchi to suddenly get caught by a third party. A hand filled with violet Reishi held onto the tip of the blade, Arcadia's crimson eyes meeting with a familiar, disgusting green.
Vayle Cameo.
The Shinigami instantly backed away, her face overtaken by shock and terror. But for Arcadia, this was a sight long since awaited. She had heard a lot about this woman from her Mistress, and what she had done to the only family she has ever had. The question thrown her way ended up dissipating in the background - instead, Arcadia slowly lowered her blade, glaring towards Vayle and speaking.
"You."
The Mistress wanted her to follow orders and stay disciplined no matter what befalls her. But this was one of the few occasions where she believed that letting her emotions open was... justified.
"You... murderer..." Arcadia muttered in disgust, slowly stepping forward and raising her blade towards Vayle. "...tell me you came here to die to my blade."
(451 words)
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Post by Vayle Cameo on Jun 1, 2019 9:25:42 GMT
Vayle looked to Estrella -
No. Vayle looked at the results of Eleanor's handiwork painting over the scene. She was clearly brainwashed to believe... something. She needed to find out what.
A smile broke out that hide the tears she'd rather shed. she'd done her homework on mental conditioning since Estrella had been gone - wanting to know more about Eleanor's powers and how to circumvent them. And there was one thing she noticed right away, something that helped explain why Callia couldn't stay completely true, either:
Stress or extreme emotion not built into the conditioning system had a great chance to wreck it.
Which meant...
Vayle swallowed, as her mouth went dry. She'd already called for back-up to pick up the souls here. All she needed to do was move her current target. and the best way to do that, and to try to break this conditioning from the ground up.
A sinking feeling entered her gut as she began to laugh in the Lady Arcadia's face. Mocking laughter, on the surface. Hopefully, Arcadia took it as meant for her rather than for Vayle itself.
"...I'm sorry, have we met?" Vayle asked, taking on as arrogant a grin as she possibly could manage, before using flash steps to appear behind his opponent. "If I did something to you, I suppose it was so unimportant I can't recall it."
She'd dash, fast, and get her away from here. she just needed to piss her off enough that the only thing she saw was red.
Well, mostly.
Vayle knew Estrella damn well, and while she was headstrong and intelligent, she was also clever and capable of seeing small details without a problem.
Which meant that if they hadn't tried to breed out all those smarts...
Eventually she'd notice just how bad an actor Vayle really was.
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Post by Lady Arcadia on Jun 1, 2019 16:10:52 GMT
Vayle had the option to say a million different things. She could have shown sympathy towards Arcadia and believed it all was a fluke. She could have gotten angry at being accused of being a murderer. She could have even simply not said anything, or attacked Arcadia outright, or... No, instead, she made the absolute worst choice. To put on a wide arrogant grin, to laugh her threat away and to state that she didn't even remember her.
"You... You don't even remember..." escaped Arcadia's mouth.
Someone with a bit more control over their emotions would have probably noticed at this point that something here was fishy. The way how Vayle reacted upon seeing Arcadia for the first time clearly implied shock - not the type of shock you'd expect from someone who supposedly doesn't even remember her. However, at this point, Arcadia was well part caring. She was well past reaping the Soul of the tourist which she had beaten to an inch of his life, too. As soon as Vayle dashed out of the ice cream shop, she followed suit, speeding across the building and the street outside at inhuman speeds, her crimson eyes locked onto the fleeing Shinigami.
"How dare you?!" Arcadia yelled at the top of her lungs. "How dare you forget it! How dare you forget my sister! And what you did to her!"
(234 words)
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Post by Vayle Cameo on Jun 2, 2019 6:15:33 GMT
Vayle took a deep breath as she headed out, happy that at least the initial part of her plan was working out well.
Well, "happy" was way too big of a word. Vayle pulled back through the streets with Arcadia not far behind. The senkaimon's energy-matter converters were going to take another 5 minutes minimum to set up, so for now, she was going to have to keep 'Arcadia' distracted.
Well, as long as she could stay alive, she had that part down pat.
Looking back to Arcadia, she'd dodge backwards with careful precision, dodging backwards. "...A sword, huh?" Vayle would ask. "Doesn't that feel a little... limiting, range-wise?" The woman would ask, waiting for her opponent. "At any rate, I don't think you're catching me with that one. And you still haven't told me what happened to your sister, either." She'd add with a look filled with confidence she didn't feel. If the anger was going to help break the conditioning... she might have to feed into this. It did not mean she had to like it, though. If she let her calm down, though, and "logical" thought processes run through her head... she had a funny feeling the programming would get another chance to reassert itself and any progress she made would be for nothing.
The pain burning through her body as she continued this sham didn't agree, though. She focused instead on getting ready to dodge Estrella's next attack, as she zipped towards a quieter, poorer part of town.
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Post by Lady Arcadia on Jun 3, 2019 9:02:43 GMT
It was almost as if Vayle was not even listening to what she was saying - and even if the Shinigami was, then she clearly couldn't care less. To Vayle, all the anger and all the suffering directed towards her was merely just a lazy Tuesday. How dares she... not recognize her and what she is saying, as if she doesn't see Arcadia as an equal, as someone who could actually kill her. The Fullbringer was getting more and more aggravated with each passing second.
"The hell does that have to do with anything?!" Arcadia yelled out in response to Vayle asking on why she's equipped with a sword rather than something else. As if she herself wasn't equipped with a close quarters weapon... You need something less limiting range wise, huh?! Instead of lashing forward blindly, Arcadia pressed upon the handle of her Asauchi - with her Fullbring ability, she reached out to the Souls inherent within the ground underneath Vayle's feet, creating tendrils shooting out and aiming to constrict the woman.
With the Soul Constrict ability activated, Arcadia no longer rushed forward after the Shinigami, though the expression on her face remained as contorted and frustated as before. A brisk walk was enough for now.
"Callia Morily. Do you remember her, or will I need to torture that memory out of you?"
(228 words)
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Post by Vayle Cameo on Jun 3, 2019 14:26:45 GMT
Arcadia's face continued to scare her in just how determined it felt. She still needed a few minutes of time, though. More importantly...
Vayle felt the ground shift, the very air shift, and suddenly fell energies were determined to hold her in place. With a grunt, she attempted to move her feet, but it didn't seem like she could overpower whatever force this was quite so easily.
"Lady Callia..." Vayle would repeat after herself. looking directly at the changed Estrella. "Let's see if I have the story right: During the strike on Eleanor's mansion, I ended up thwarting Eleanor's plans, and murdering Callia as a side effect of preventing her good work?" Vayle asked, poking to see just what specifics those memories have.
"And yet, now you're here... even when Eleanor has long since forgotten her and moved on to other projects, you're still holding a personal grudge, ready to strike." She added, seeing her opportunity to add a burst of poison with how Eleanor had handled this particular issue. "Because you couldn't forget me after I killed your sister you've known from birth?" She'd ask calmly as Arcadia strode forward, seemingly unconcerned by the attack.
Inwardly, the constriction forced her to sit tight and wait for her chance. She wasn't about to try and go for some slow push or run, and if she said a word of kido, she was sure Arcadia would block it. "So now you're going against your lady's wishes to bring me to justice. You're certainly dedicated." She added, waiting for Arcadia to get close... she still had a gambit to pull right now. She just needed to wait for Arcadia to get closer for her to make her escape.
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Post by Lady Arcadia on Jun 3, 2019 17:08:18 GMT
Arcadia stopped upon hearing Vayle's response, listening to the Shinigami once again being not bothered in the slightest by her attacks and calmly weaving what she imagined to be the story. The way how she described her relation to Callia was... accurate to a point, but what clearly bothered her more was the way how she went out of her way to go after Vayle instead of committing to the orders of her Mistress. It was a terrible action from her part, but...
"You've answered your own question." Arcadia replied, stopping a few steps away from the constricted Vayle. "You took something away from me and you took something away from my Mistress. This was not in the plan, but... I am sure that She will not be bothered if I tell her that I stepped out of boundaries to grant you death. Or, better, bring your Soul to her."
Merely thinking about the loss got Arcadia to release a defeated scoff, glaring to the side. "And you're wrong... I didn't know Callia since birth." she spoke with an increasingly somber tone. "She has been a Shinigami as long as I remember, and we only got to meet face to face a few months ago... in an awkward accident. She was the one who explained how the world of Souls and the Coven works, we would have coffee together, we sparred in a forest together, and..."
Arcadia shook her head, trying to keep the sorrowful memories away. Aside for her Mistress, Callia was the only true friend she had ever had... However, all these sentimental thoughts were starting to break her discipline. Discipline, discipline, discipline!
"Tsk... All you need to know is that you took away what was precious to me. You killed what Callia once was, you brainwashed her into Mizu... And for that, I'll tear you from limb to limb." With a deadly glare shot towards Vayle, Arcadia raised her Asauchi, its blade starting to burn with the Hollow Reiatsu infused within it, ready to descend upon the Shinigami at any second.
(350 words)
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Post by Vayle Cameo on Jun 3, 2019 18:20:59 GMT
Vayle heard every word that Arcadia said like a jackhammer smashing into her heart. Arcadia was whipped into an angered frenzy, crying, over...
Vayle took a deep breath as the memories flooded back into her, holding up a hand as energy filled her fingertips.
"Hado #1: Sho!" Vayle yelled, and a burst of kinetic energy would flood from her fingers. not enough to cause any true damage, but a ball of physical force strong enough to smack the sword away, and, with luck, temporarily disarm her.
Another hand came up, and Vayle placed it squarely on Arcadia's shoulders. "The coffee shop. Right. She ordered lemon meringue. You had a cappucino." Vayle replied, seeing the chance that this meant for her.
If she was using modifications of existing memories to try to solidify them, then those were now core parts of this 'arcadia'. things they couldn't completely or wouldn't completely modify out. it made sense. otherwise, how detailed could they really get in a short time? It would have been as easy as Vayle pointing out that she didn't even know Callia's favorite food.
It was an ingenious way of using Vayle's relationship with the human as raw resources for their own plans, and it made Vayle sick to her stomach.
"...You ordered some after she did." Vayle added, hoping to see if Eleanor had really managed to be so thorough as to change even such minor details, or...
Or if this was a vulnerability she'd been left to touch on.
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Post by Lady Arcadia on Jun 3, 2019 18:39:18 GMT
Right before Arcadia was about to lay the finishing blow on Vayle, the Shinigami used a Kido spell to break herself free from the Soul constriction - the powerful burst of kinetic energy flung the Asauchi out of her hands and sent it sliding across the ground. Instead of using the opportunity to attack, however, Vayle merely grabbed onto her shoulders and started recanting events from her and Callia's first true meeting together. One which did not involve attacking each other with swords, that is.
"Lemon meringue..." Arcadia repeated Vayle's words, staring into Shinigami's eyes with her own - for the first time in the entire time since she met the Shinigami, her discipline and anger were broken by shock. Lemon meringue... Lemon meringue... "That's her favorite food... She would always order one whenever she was in the human world..."
Suddenly, Arcadia sent an empowered punch, straight towards Vayle's throat, to try to have the Shinigami latch off of her. Arcadia's glowing crimson eyes glared towards her opponent, overtaken by more and more fury with each passing second.
"You..." she muttered, struggling to even form a sentence, before finally letting her thoughts loose in fury. "How do you know that?! How do you know any of that?!"
(211 words)
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