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| A Brush with Death; Yaksha | |
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| Topic Started: Sun Apr 26, 2009 8:18 pm (208 Views) | |
| Nia | Sun Apr 26, 2009 8:18 pm Post #1 |
 
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The sky was overcast for most of the day, so no light broke trough as a woman emerged from the forest by the falls. She let her gaze travel out across the area before letting her claw-like left hand loose itself her staff and lean it against a tree. A soft flickering of frost, the thinnest layer of cold possible, formed where the staff touched the tree. She waked a few more steps, her bare feet leaving the same bit of frost behind, thought the air was warm enough for it to slowly melt to water once more in a few moments. She sat down on a large stone not far from the water's edge, but still within reach of her staff should she need it. She was an unusual figure. Her skin was blue and gave the illusion that is was transparent even though it wasn't. Her eyes had no discernible pupal, only being an even darker blue then her skin with a soft magical glow to them. Her hair was of the purest white, even her eyelashes. Should anyone touch her, her skin would be ice cold to the touch. She was not dressed for the cold places she was native to. She wore only what she felt like and often ignored more complicated garments, like shoes and things with many ties or buttons like bodices many human women wore. What she took to wearing she would wear until she found something better or it got dirty. She didn't sweet or eat like a human did, nor did she require sleep. She did have lazy bouts, but nothing much that would make her or her clothing dirty. Not when she froze the ground she walked on, even if it was only for a short time. She let her gaze play across the falls. She wasn't board exactly, not yet at least. Sometimes quiet was nice. About now though, she would rather have something more interesting to do that wander the forest and have small animals run away from her birds as they hunted. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, enjoying the cold breeze the flickered through the air, the mist from the falls freezing as it touched her skin. |
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Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:22 pm Post #2 |
 
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Yaksha sat in a clearing near the selfsame falls, floating just inches off the ground. His eyes would've been shut had he any, but he was in his lich form, and there was little to be seen of him but a skeleton, floating gently. Several men staggered through the clearing, gathering berries from nearby bushes and trying to capture any animal they spotted. However, their clumsiness made it quite hard for them to do any of it very well, and thus far Yaksha had nothing but a pile of squished berries, and several squirrel carcasses that were already half-rotted. Finally, after several long moments, he rose a hand, causing all the men to snap to attention, staring straight ahead and making no movements. He descended to the ground slowly, standing up as he finally touched ground, and then sighing. I'll have to do it myself, I see. He began to move forward slowly, pushing through the bushes and spotting an almost translucent woman sitting by the waterfall. Her skin was bright blue and the very mist around her seemed to freeze. Quickly shifting into another stage of vision, he spotted a corona of almost pure black around her, and he chuckled calmly, holding out a hand quickly. Two men stepped forward, one carrying a cane, the other a black tophat. He grasped the cane calmly, and then flung the hat onto his head quickly, his voice altering slightly as he did. It became less whispery, and more nasal, almost annoying. "Here we go, here we go!" A third man stumbled forward, carrying a black suit and pants, and Yaksha nodded quickly towards him. The man set them down and stepped back, and Yaksha placed them on. A figure stepped out from the bushes, moving towards Nia swiftly and laughing. "Hello, hello, my sweet! Wonderful morning, isn't it?" He grabbed his tophat, pulling it off his head and sweeping it across his chest as he gave a wide bow. His voice seemed almost to drill into the ear, leaving most people with a low-grade headache. "Then again, any of my days is a grand day." He reached almost absentmindedly into a pocket of his pants, pulling out a dog-ended cigar and placing it in his mouth. As he rose a hand calmly, seven men stumbled from the underbrush, one of them carrying a small stick from earlier. Yaksha grabbed it from his hands, and struck it across his skull, then lit the cigar with it. It went between his lips swiftly, and he peered at Nia with his twin caverns, promising glorious and mysterious wonders if one went inside. "Call me Baron Saturday. I guess you could say I'm like the Grim Reaper." |
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| Nia | Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:37 pm Post #3 |
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Nia turned her head, her gaze taking in Yaksha and the undead. A thoughtful look crossed her face for a single moment before it vanished completely, leaving glass smooth and nearly porcelain features. She relaxed the twist she had done to see him and his entourage. Then she let her elbows fall back against the rock and her head fell back so she was looking at the entire world upside-down. She gave a soft smile, finding the view more interesting for her own reasons. Her long white hair hung loosely, a soft white cascade that mimicked the falls themselves. "I think I like the name Baron Saturday more then Grim Reaper, but if you want to take the name..." Nia gave a shrug, the gesture seeming awkward with the way she had situated herself. She lay down on the rock then, looking at them all still upside down. "I do like the weather today though. Not so glaring. Though I don't mind it sometimes when it's bright." ((OOC: short! *gnaws on* )) |
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Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:41 am Post #4 |
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He chuckled once more, and then move towards her slowly, his body seeming almost to jerk like a puppet with cut strings; his legs only touched the ground by coincidence, it seemed. "Yes, I much prefer Baron Saturday, too. It's why I used it as an introduction, dear!" He finally sat next to her, and reached into another pocket of his pants, pulling out a snifter. He then pulled out a small bottle full of an amber liquid, and began to pour the liquid into the glass slowly. He nodded calmly to her, and handed the glass to her. "Would you perhaps join me in a drink, dear? I do much enjoy a good glass of rum." His cigar burned steadily between his teeth, and his hands made an odd noise reminiscent of dice as the joints ground together. The men all began to stumble towards the two, until he rose a hand calmly. They all stood still once more, peering at her neutrally. Yaksha's voice had lost its nasal quality, now more soft and sweet, seeming almost to wrap around her and bypass what most people would call logic. "If you want my given name at birth, you may call me Yaksha. But I still prefer Baron Saturday; it's such a wonderful ring to it, doesn't it?" His words sounded calming and used to having what it asked answered. This was a man who rarely heard the word 'no'. |
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| Nia | Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:41 am Post #5 |
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Nia didn't see the glass he held out, her upside down gaze on his undead and how they responded so compleatly to the simplest gesture. She turned the idea over in her head a few times. After a moment's thought she decided she liked the idea. It seemed like a wonderful way to use otherwise wasted bodies. "Not exactly. Tittles are frivolous things used as a illusionary tool to give the impression of power to those who are not capable of measuring the ability of another on their own. As for a birth name, I have none that I know of. The chill of the winter wind calls me Nia though, so you may do the same if you wish." Her own words were soft, a burst of observational information from someone who had been watching the world for some time and had no real interest in participating in much of what she saw as frivolous activities. Abruptly, she sat up and crossed her legs so that she was sitting facing Yaksha. Her hair took a moment longer then the rest of her had taken to settle into this new position. A soft glow lit up her eyes though and a touch of eagerness laced her voice. "Your undead, may I ask how it is that you gained them and if you would mind informing me about a method of procuring my own collection? They are quite intriguing." |
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Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:53 am Post #6 |
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Yaksha looked at Nia calmly, still brandishing the glass close to her. His voice swirled around her once more, but now it seemed almost forceful, making it even harder to resist his orders. "Drink, Nia. Heavens know I won't be needing it, and none of them really bother lately. I may not drink myself, but there's still no excuse for wasting good drink." He cocked his head, and twin cobalt flames sprang into existance within his eyesockets, dancing merrily as he spoke once more. "While you drink, I'll see if I can explain how it works. I could simply tell you it's magic, but that's never satisfactory." He rose swiftly, placing the glass down where he had sat. He waved a hand to the undead, and they all moved into a line, standing at attention once more. He moved past them slowly, peering at each the way a butcher would examine a cut of meat. "If I'm to show you how this magic works, I may as well choose the best preserved. We'll start out simple." He pointed to one, and waved it forward. The man jerked forward, and then stood before Yaksha; he barely reached the chest of the 7 foot skeleton. "It starts off simply enough. Gather the magic around you, however you feel best doing it. It typically works best with hand gestures and words, but they needn't always be there. The initial stage is just...exercising your will on the magic. Then, you find a suitable topic to animate. Freshly slain work best, but anything can be risen if you know how. I prefer to activate my magic with a touch on the corpse. You may prefer something else, but the magic that you've gathered on yourself has to be sent into the dead. Once this is done, it's just a matter of making sure that you use enough to make it rise, but not so much that the energy causes it to burst. So much magic is simply about balance." |
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| Nia | Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:02 pm Post #7 |
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Nia felt a measure of resentment at being told to drink when she was not thirsty. She picked up the glass anyways, her own core temperature dropping with the resentment. She didn’t drink it at first, but kept her attention on Yaksha as he explained how to do the spell. Did he think that she didn’t know magic perhaps? Her power was with ice, not death. If she did what he said she would simply end up with a frozen corpse. That how she feed after all. She needed to know what it was that made them able to move. Was is electrical perhaps? She doubted it. As she pondered this, she went to take a drink and found she was unable to. Her frustration and touch of resentment had been enough to freeze a good half inch of the outside of the drink, catching a bubble of more concentrated alcohol in the center. The ice maiden rose to her feet then and handed back the glass, now over frosted nicely. “Sorry.” She murmured in reference to the mostly frozen drink that needed thawing. She made her way off into the forest then, with the intentions of finding something dead or to kill in order to test what she thought the power was. She didn’t think to even explain that to Yaksha though. It wasn’t like it was really that important to tell anyone what she was doing. That power, it had to be something like the scent she got off the undead as she passed by them. It smelled like dust or old white ash with a soft metallic scent completely unlike blood. Perhaps like tempered steel, but with a tinge to it that she almost felt on the roof of her mouth when she had spoken. She stopped walking at that thought and pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth to see if she could taste it perhaps. Magical energy was hard to scent without a decent amount of focus. She would need more practice. At least Yaksha had enough of it in and about him that she could detect it easier then most. |
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Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:13 pm Post #8 |
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Yaksha's voice issued from behind her, calm and soft. He had managed to bridge the gap between them easily, making no noise as he did. This was made more obvious by the fact that he was standing in the middle of the air, as if riding an invisible cushion. "I'm sorry, dear. Magic isn't something I can really explain, it's just something I feel. What works for me may end up with your body shattering into a million peices." He held out a hand for her, and crouched down some. "I'll see if I can't give you a real explanation how I do it." His undead had followed him calmly, and they all stood nearby, their eyes unseeing and their bodies unmoving. Yaksha stood just over their heads, seeming like some minor god as he smiled down at Nia. "Magic is as much a part of me as flesh or blood. It runs through my body, and I suppose you can say I just give a bit of my gift to these men. But I'll see if I can explain just how I make these men work." His voice was soft and kindly, and his voice would've brought back memories of what a person would call a 'perfect father'. |
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| Nia | Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:33 pm Post #9 |
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She glanced back at Yaksha when he spoke. As he continued, she turned around and placed one hand on her hip in a relaxed pose. She parted her lips slightly to see if she could get a good feel of the type of power he used for raising the dead as loyal servants. About then, Yaksha finished his speech and she simply nodded her head. "I understand that well enough. You were already in tune with the magic shown here," She gestured to the undead with her free hand, "while my own magical inclination is much more… colder." She held up a hand, palm towards the sky. A small shimmer appeared and swiftly grew into an orb of pure ice, not sloid but infused with magic so that it was more like the liquid cold version of fire. "I think that perhaps there should be an example. When something is not easily explained, the simple act of showing can often be a great aid." She gave a soft smile and passed the orb over to her other hand, then flipping her hand over to the simmering orb of ice hovered over the back of her hand. "Shall we find a test subject or two?" She asked and took the orb so she was holding it in the air between her hands in front of her. It suddenly burst, throwing snow about her as she herself shifted into her snow form. The white flecks of snow flew up into the air a bit before streaming off into the forest. It didn’t take Nia long to find two men. They were bandits away from their camp, ironically heading towards the falls. She flickered back into a solid form not far from them and sat down on the ground. She curled up one of her feet under her and starting humming softly to herself as she waited for the men to come closer and wondered if Yaksha was nearby or not. She wasn’t too worried about him, there was no real difference to her if the undead man and his minions were there or not. She wasn’t hunting or anything. It was too warm for a proper hunt. |
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Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:46 pm Post #10 |
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Yaksha began to walk across the air calmly, following the miniature snowstorm as he did. A soft whistle escaped him, though his lips were in no way pursed or anything similar. "I think we'll have a wonderful day today, just great! It's not often I get a chance to kill, and I'm sure we can really make this last." He laughed softly as he spotted two bandits nearby, then saw Nia's body reforming by them. He quickly descended, pulling up the hood on his cloak as he did. Stone began to creep across his body quickly, causing him to plummet to the ground from the weight. When he landed, a perfect statue stood where he had been. The two bandits saw the statue land just in front of them, and fell over in surprise. "What the...where'd this come from!? We're not over top of Cascadia, are we?" The other bandit, a taller man, slapped his collegue at this. "Even if we were, we wouldn't be looking at a statue if it fell, we'd be looking at rubble! Whatever happened, this thing didn't fall far. And it might even be worth something!" The two skittered towards the statue, running their hands over it slowly. "This thing is beautifully carved...so much detail. Worth a fortune!" As they began to speak, the hands shot upward, grabbing their wrists. Yaksha's face burst out from the statue, grinning maniacally. "Is your life worth a fortune, boys? Do you really think you can steal, and evade my grasp for long?" He chuckled wryly, and twisted the wrist on the taller man, snapping it with a low crack that reminded him of thick ice cracking. A strangled scream issued from his throat, quickly silenced by a dagger to his throat. Yaksha whirled on the spot, his cloak obscuring the smaller bandit's vision. A glint of steel came from his cloak, and embedded itself in his chest. His eyes grew wide, and Yaksha lept forward, pulling out the dagger and slashing his throat open. He turned to Nia, and waved her forward. "At your leisure, dear." |
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| Nia | Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:37 am Post #11 |
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Nia's eyes sparkled at Yaksha's decent and his work. It was swift and effective. The best part being she didn't have to do much at all. A charming being this one. She came over to him and looked down at the two men. A good thing she was not hunting, they were simply too warm to do her any good. She knelt down to look at them, breathing deeply through her nose to see if she could find the scent of the power she had sensed among Yaksha's minions. She thought she sensed it, but wasn't sure. She rose to look at Yaksha. "Very swiftly done. I do think it is your turn first Baron Saturday." She gave a slight bow as she took a single step back as to not be in the way. "Show this poor girl how one raises such a simple being into such an obedeant minion. Then I shall see if I can duplacate the effect. Then we shall know if I am an apt student." She wasn't actually baseing her ability to learn to raise the dead on this meeting, she could always seek out the knowlede elswhere. What she liked was the skill and attatude towards the undead that Yaksha had. It was a plesent change to the driryness of the vampire and the simpleness of many lesser undead. |
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Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:51 am Post #12 |
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Yaksha laughed steadily at this, his cane twirling in his hand. "Well, I pride myself on being as I was in life; there's no point in doing it if you can't do it with a little flair. All of life is some little game, and we never learn the rules until we stop playing. Me...I like to think the rules are just to leave as many memories as we can. Good or bad." His cane fell to the ground gently as he spoke, and he clapped his hands calmly. "Now then, let us see if we can't just show you how this works." The flames sprang to life in his eyesockets again, this time a pure white. His hands moved along in slow, careful arcs that seemed to leave afterimages in the air that were just beyond the ability to truly see. Words spilled from him, full of enough power and energy to make the air around him shimmer. As his hands moved in faster and faster arcs, and his words came forth faster, the shimmering air began to move towards the symbols he made in the air. He reached down to the corpse, leaving a trail of shimmer behind him. His words issued calmly, speaking with a surgeon's clinical detachment. "I transfer what I've gathered with a touch. It begins at either the skull or the torso; the primary areas of the body. It travels through the body quickly, and begins to...shock the body into listening. It gives me a sense of vertigo to control the muscles and tendons at first, and stay aware of the outside world. With a human, it takes seconds to animate. With a dragon, it could take up to a minute. The hardest part, to me, is bringing all of the corpse back but its mind. It's not profitable for them to be smarter than it needs to be to follow orders." |
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| Nia | Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:41 pm Post #13 |
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The air began to have a tinge to it, a feeling that hung so heavily in the air she could sense it with more then a few senses. She watched Yaksha aptly and listened to his words, though they were for the most part simply repetitive of what he had said before. There was enough variation though for her to learn a few little bits of information. Magic was a subtle thing after all and one little bit of information could change how something worked. She didn't have much to say in response. Instead she sat down on the ground not far from the corpse she intended to make her own minion. As she settled down a funny little thought came to mind. If she got this to actually work she could 'go out for dinner and a minion'. The little joke caused her to smile to herself. Then she closed her eyes for a moment before focusing on her own magical energy. It felt very sharp and fresh to her, but ice was by nature that way. She reached out a little to see if she could find that scent of magic she recalled from Yaksha. She reached out beyond her ice magic for it and after a moment felt it slip into her grasp. It felt cold in a way very different from ice. It wasn't as crystalline but more metallic, like the feel of a dagger sliding into a victim... Nia's eyes snapped open then and she transferred the collected magic, flavored with what she would quickly enough learn was called Necromancy, to the corpse laying on the ground. A flicker of ice crystals spider-webbed away from her hand when she touched the man. She felt the power flowing through him and was glad she had headed the warning of vertigo and taken a seat before attempting the magic. She felt as if her insides had jumped and if she had anything in her stomach she was sure she would have lost it. Thankfully there was nothing for her to lose... it was going to take her a moment to recover before she would even know if it worked or not... ((OOC: I'm going to leave it up to you if the spell worked or not!  ))
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Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:11 pm Post #14 |
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The corpse twitched several times, finally rising to a sitting position after a minute. It peered off into space, and then let out a hoarse cry, before falling back over and twitching one final time. Yaksha clapped his hands at this, and then reached a hand down to Nia. "That wasn't bad for a first try! You've got natural talent, I can feel it flowing off of you. In time, you could be a necromancer to rival myself. For now..." He stepped up once more, landing on a stair of wind and standing upon it. "Let's return to my home. You don't have to come in, but it's always helpful to know where I am if you need a lesson." He began to ascend slowly, until his form could only barely be seen from below. His mind was churning as he walked across the air at a brisk pace, matching a quick jog. "She is quite the woman. It may be interesting to watch her grow, and to play teacher for a time." He chuckled wryly, and began to descend slowly, his hands folded over each other. A large stone building could be seen in the middle of a clearing. There were four stone spikes pointing upward from the roof, a small blue orb drifting in the middle. Several distorted faces had been carved in the stone, and the doorway glowed with a warm yellow light. Before Yaksha could even approach the door, it opened quickly, and a man stepped through. He was almost half a foot shorter than the lich, but built much better. His chest and arms were easily what one would call rippling, and his face was almost chiselled. Twin blue eyes peirced the lich, and a voice rumbled from him that seemed like it was unstoppable. "That place looks horrible. Can't you be bothered to do something about it?" Despite the words, there was a calm smile on his face, and he looked at Yaksa like an old friend. "You better have something good planned. I'm famished." |
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| Nia | Sun May 3, 2009 12:01 am Post #15 |
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Nia was not unhappy with the result, but she wasn't thrilled either. She would have to go find some more corpses, or make some. She would apparently have to do that later, as Yaksha seemed to have decided that his job was done. Fine, she would take things into her own hands later. She stood and dusted herself off, what little clung to the little amount of clothing she had bothered to wear. It wasn't too badly out of place in the warmer forests, but she had often entrapped her victims by pretending to be lost and cold. Many a foolish mortal had given up their cloak or blankets to her just to have her consume their souls while they died of the cold. Having those same victims rise again was a pleasant thought. They would still look like themselves after all. Such a lovely assortment of things you could do with that! As Yaksha took to the air, Nia shifted once more into her snow form, traveling along the air not far behind him. She had been planing on simply making a note of the location and being on her way until she had another puzzle to figure out. That little plan changed when she saw the man who came out to greet them. She wasn't sure what it was but there was a familiarity there she couldn't name. Nia was getting rather tired of shifting forms though... It made her tired to do it so frequently. Back and forth back and forth... she gave an unaudible sigh and let herself drift back into her hunting form. She felt the weight of it much more this time and was annoyed slightly by it. She was going to have to actually go hunting if she kept this up. Long distance or necessary tactical travel was fine, but she could have walked here if Yaksha hadn't flown... Once she was fully formed, she let her gaze wander around, not saying anything... yet. |
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5:14 PM May 23
