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Post by PS113C "ABEL" on Jan 23, 2011 13:17:12 GMT -8
"Hmm, whether you call it a soul, or a ghost, or just our consciousness, I think you're right to assume that whatever we're dealing with can separate it from the body. From what was said, ice or the cold is probably involved some how as well," Able recapped what he knew to support her theory.
"I still believe in my abilities, though," He added looking away and smiling. He was gonna help her dig, but she seemed to be able to handle it... Better than he could anyway. He moved closer to where she was throwing the snow and began to push the pile that was building up, away from her. He tried to move the snow, so she could pile up more with out worry, but his human hands complained at the touch of the cold snow.
He had to ignore it and force himself to work, but he stopped and breathed out on his hand while rubbing them every now and then.
"Banshee is a good name for it... at least until we know more about it," He commented as he returned to work.
"If this Banshee can separate our minds from our bodies, then... it would be logical to think that those wandering thoughts would stay near their physical bodies," It was very likely that the rider had retreated to his body, but what did she hope to gain by finding this body?
"Worst case scenario... our minds have already been separated from our own bodies, back on the mountain," He added, even though it really only could serve to cause stress and worry.
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Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 23, 2011 14:21:39 GMT -8
Adia sighed in disappointment in Abel’s apparent need to cast out any religious basis of thought for a weird one that was supposedly scientific. “No, Abel,” she said to him when he was finished speaking, “If it was simply a separation of conscious mind, there would be no physical manifestation. The alternative to the ghost/soul theory is that the remnant is only doing this to mess with us, which, I doubt; because I can’t fathom the idea of a remnant so powerful that it would prefer us as entertainment rather than food or companionship-fuck it! The snow is too deep...”
Adia fell back on where she had expected a snow pile to have built up, but instead felt herself lose her balance as the pile was missing, and she fell onto her back. She turned to her side to see Abel had moved the pile. He was too calm when he talked, or in the way he did anything, it was unnerving her and she grumbled at him for moving the pile. It was a good notion, however, that their souls could already be separated, and that they could be wandering the mountains all the same as the others that they had seen.
At any rate, they lacked the necessary information to act. Adia sat up in the snow, and the blizzard raged on throughout the mountains. “I don’t think it’s important…” she said, “Neither the logic of it all, or whether or not we’re even still alive. We need more information, and we need to try and find the remnant behind all of this, because if we can kill it… then all of this should go away.” She got up and looked at Abel, “And deep within myself…” Adia finished, “I think that there are souls trapped in this mountain… disturbed by this… Banshee. I think that if we can get rid of the Banshee, we can put all of these souls to rest.”
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Post by PS113C "ABEL" on Jan 23, 2011 14:54:33 GMT -8
"Soul, ghost, mind... A thorn by any other name would cut just as deeply," He said with a shrug.
"But you're right, we should focus on how to get out," He said looking around, but finding nothing. The blizzard made it too hard to see. He walked over to where she was lying and looked down at her smiling pleasantly.
"It'd be nice if we could help these people," He agreed.
'Human or otherwise,' he thought to himself.
"If killing this Banshee is the key, then I'll work towards doing it, but maybe instead we can befriend it... and ask it to stop," He added, only half jokingly.
"According to most ghost stories I've been told, there is always a reason why a ghost is haunting people or a place," He said recalling the old woman whom he loved so dearly.
"Surely this Remnant isn't doing this all for nothing... Maybe we can help it..." When he said this he shrugged and walked towards the hole she had dug. He still naively believed that all people where inherently good, and were only forced to do bad things out of desperation, but that may not have been the case.
"We don't have any other leads to go on, to help us escape," He added.
"So we might as well not give up on that rider just yet, after all... if we find him again, we can at least ask him which way is out of here... or which way is the Banshee," He explained himself as he jumped into her hole.
He took in a deep breath, the cold air stung his nose and lungs as it went inside him, but he held it in anyway. He let it out, then took several more like this, acclimating his body to the cold. After a few moments of breathing, he was ready. He gripped his fist tightly and raised it up into the air. He then drove it deep into the hard layers of snow below him. He was using his powerful punches like a pick axe.
He then began to throw snow up, away from Adia, despite how cold his hands were.
"If you see something up there... that's a better lead... then give me a shout," He shouted over the sound of his pounding into the ground.
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Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 23, 2011 15:54:30 GMT -8
As Adia thought and tried to make sense of it all in her head, she watched Abel digging further into the snow. “Maybe that is the best thing to do…” she thought, “It seems so inefficient, but that rider being as old as he was… He’s probably our best lead. What if it’s not a remnant though… What if this place is actually haunted? People who died in this town, or city, wherever it is… probably because of the freezing cold-“
“Wait,” Adia said as she remembered something, “The town, or city, a settlement of some kind… that’s the common theme, other than the banshee. Everyone seemed to freeze to death trying to find this place hidden in the mountains. Even the soldier and those others with him; they never looked like they actually found it… but yet… we saw what looked like some kind of settlement…”
As she was talking, she suddenly stopped, seeing a floating figure right in front of the hole they were digging in to. It wore an old, tattered night gown, and wore some kind of necklace. While it resembled human, this one was different, much more ghastly and ethereal looking. It didn’t do anything; it just stood there, as if it was watching Abel dig. “Abel…” Adia said as her eyes went extremely wide, “Stop digging…”
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Post by PS113C "ABEL" on Jan 23, 2011 16:08:31 GMT -8
To be honest, Abel could never bring himself to be afraid of ghosts. If you were afraid during a ghost story, you'd enjoy it more really, but he just couldn't do it. The idea of a ghost killing you... wouldn't you just become a ghost too? Then it'd be payback time, but nothing would really be gained... still the score would be even, at least.
That being said, when Abel stopped and looked up, he was afraid. Very much so afraid. Still, true courage was not something as simple as being unafraid. True courage was being afraid, and still having the strength to move forward.
Abel took a step forward, closer to the creature hovering above the hole.
"Nice weather we're having, huh?" He said upwards with a wide smile.
"The name is Abel... is there anything I can help you with?" Is how he choose to greet this creature. Remnant, Infantry New Child... maybe even humans... he just simply did not want live in a world where he couldn't trust people, and so he choose to trust in them.
That was his usual line of thinking, and with his mind gripped by fear, he couldn't really think of something new to say.
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Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 23, 2011 16:36:15 GMT -8
As Adia stared at the thing, wide eyed, she completely tuned herself out of what Abel was doing or saying. She just took a step back slowly. Just then, the ghost-like creature let out a loud, ear-shattering shriek like the one before, except this one was much louder and more painful than before.
Adia dropped to her knees, and slammed her hands against her ears. Sound was any canine’s weakness, but Adia was particularly sensitive in her left ear; any high pitched noise heard in her left ear caused a disabling set of symptoms to take over. Other than the sound giving her a painful headache, her vision began to split horizontally like a television with bad reception, and soon became a blur of bright colors. In addition to all of that, high pitched sounds caused her mind to perceive electric jolts shooting through her, and she quickly cringed and curled up on the snowy ground.
While Adia was temporarily disabled, the creature swept through, and finally stopped screaming. It fled the scene, back down the path they had originally come from almost faster than one could blink. After a few seconds, Adia slowly got up and shivered in the cold. “Where’d it go?” she asked Abel, having physically missed what happened over the last 30 seconds or so.
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Post by PS113C "ABEL" on Jan 23, 2011 16:59:22 GMT -8
A horse's sense of hearing was also good, better than humans anyway. The Banshee's cry did its toll on Abel as well. He gripped the sides of his head and nearly fell to his knees, but he caught himself by moving forward until he crashed into the side of the hole.
He could barely think straight with the sound of the Banshee's wail. He realized his hands did little to help keep out the sound and struggled to look up towards it, but it was gone. He reached up and gripped the top of the hole, and pulled himself up. He saw Adia on the ground, and the Banshee fading off in the distance.
With the wail over, he began to process the situation.
"And I though I was bad at first impressions..." He said under his breath.
But what was that? An attack? Why now? And why didn't it finish them off when it had the change. Was it trying to lead us somewhere? Or was it trying to lead them away from something?
His thoughts were interrupted by Adia's question.
"That way... the way we came..." He said, distinctly remember seeing its figure fading over what was left of their foot prints, which were mostly being filled by the snow.
"More importantly... where did it come from? ...And why'd it come after me in the hole, instead of you out in the open... I'm not that pretty, am I?" He asked, half jokingly again. He was a little upset that he had let a possible predator sneak up right behind him. But then again... was that really an attack? All it did is scream and run off.
He stumbled out of the hole and towards her.
"Damn, do you just want to chase after it?" He said a bit more seriously.
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Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 23, 2011 17:27:32 GMT -8
And They Shall Reign
- ✝ - Adia looked off towards where Abel said the Banshee came from. She then looked back to Abel and the hole he dug. “I think that that might be our remnant,” Adia said, “And if it wanted to kill us, it would have… I think it may be trying to lead us somewhere.”
- ✝ - Adia stretched out and popped some of her joints as she began to transform, but she only took off her boots and socks, tying the laces to a belt loop, and stuffing the socks in them. She unzipped the front of her jacket as she began to walk, and then run forwards. Her fur grew out to its full length, and her head, neck, back and shoulders re-aligned so that she was hunched over, almost on all fours. As she moved faster and faster, her arms rebuilt themselves into the half human, half wolf look, and she undid her waistline, to loosen her pants up before her lower half transformed. By the time she was done, she looked like a werewolf of myth, and her formerly rather loose clothing was completely filled out with newfound size and muscle build-up.
- ✝ - She charged down the path, not as fast as Abel probably could have as a horse, but much faster than any human could travel on foot. She realized that Abel probably hadn’t figured out how to pack up his clothes on himself for transformation, but kept going anyways; she had to catch the Banshee before it was gone for good.
Forever and Ever.
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Post by PS113C "ABEL" on Jan 23, 2011 18:11:28 GMT -8
Abel noticed Adia begin to transform, it was interesting to see her strange ability. She was able to transform part of her body selectively, it seemed. He couldn't do that himself, and wondered if it was some power unique to her, or a problem unique to him. He didn't really have time to worry about that, though. As she made preparations, he made his own.
He let out a sigh, he did not like the idea of stripping naked in this blizzard, and with out her ability to transform, he had to strip completely before transforming.
First he took his coat off and spread it out on the ground. He took his shoes and socks off and threw them in side it. He took off his shirts and sweater and tossed them inside as well. He then closed up the coat over them. He rolled up the coat, and took off a pair of pants. He used the pair of pants to tightly tie up the coat so that it wouldn't come undone. He knotted it over several times. He took off his last pair of pants and boxers, and stuff the boxers into the pants pocket again. He was naked, again.
He tied the pants leg around his neck, as well as the coat's arms. He tied them both with several knots around his neck, but loose enough for when he would be in his horse form. He transformed as quickly as he could, but was still freezing.
Adia had taken off by now, and was much farther away.
The cold was life threatening, but he would just have to warm himself up by running.
He exploded into a gallop, quickly accelerating to top speed.
The average horse could run at a top speed of about 25 to 30 mph. In a short spring, the world record for a horse's top speed was once set at 55 mph.
Abel, was not an average horse. He was a genetically altered product, who's special ability was his greatly increased physical traits. His speed was one of his top traits and Stamina was is best above all others.
He blazed forward with incredible speed, quickly catching up to Adia who had gotten a head start, and passing her. He would have jabbed at her with a quip like 'Try to keep up,' or 'enjoy the view,' but he couldn't speak in this form.
So instead, he just passed her and concentrated on the task at hand. He moved forward in the direction he remembered the Banshee had fled, determined to put an end to this.
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Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 23, 2011 18:21:07 GMT -8
And They Shall Reign
- ✝ - As Adia heard Abel coming up fast behind her, she shape-shifted back into her human form, and as he ran by, she quickly grabbed on to one of his pieces of clothing and swung up, landing on his back. He was moving much faster than before it seemed, but having rode him once before, she could get the hang of it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight and close to his body.
- ✝ - The snow of the blizzard blitzed past her and began to give her wind sores, so she grew her fur out again and hoped it would protect her even at this speed. As they got closer and closer to where the ghost town was, Adia looked and saw that the eerie lights were gone, and replaced only by the Banshee, standing in what she thought should be the town’s center.
- ✝ - When they got closer, Adia rolled off of Abel, and morphed back into her more wolf-like form quickly. She began digging frantically in the snow, trying to find something buried beneath it. As she dug, the ghostly figure appeared right in front of her. She looked up and saw it, but ignored it and just kept digging.
Forever and Ever. |
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Post by PS113C "ABEL" on Jan 23, 2011 18:43:01 GMT -8
As soon as Adia jumped on, he slowed down a bit, but only for a bit. As soon as she was firmly secured, he bolted after the Banshee.
When they got into the city, he slowed down, but kept on going in a speedy canter. When she jumped off, he slowed down even more, but kept moving to let his body cool down. Even his impressive stamina in horse form, was taxed, and his lungs begged for air heavily. Still, it was better than freezing to death slowly.
He slowed down into a trot, and circled the two at a safe distance. He didn't want to agitate the Banshee, but he was ready to charge in. Although, he didn't know that his attack would have any affect. Still, he would do what he could. That's the only thing he could do. Of course, he prayed it wouldn't come to that. He steadied his breath, and patiently waited to see if he would be needed.
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Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 23, 2011 19:09:14 GMT -8
And They Shall Reign
- ✝ - Adia looked up at Abel and stopped for a second t tell him, “Abel… way back during our fight… we caused an avalanche. We went down the other side of the ridge, and then followed the ghosts back over to this side of the ridge… this is the side of the ridge the avalanche came down on… which means that the mysterious settlement should still be here… but buried.”
- ✝ - She returned to her digging, and soon ran into ice as he claws scratched against it. She uncovered a bigger and bigger area; sure enough, she saw blood covered it, her own blood from earlier. She reached for her dagger and began hacking away at the ice. “Our remnant… what if she’s using her own ability on herself. That means that her body was already frozen in the town or city here, probably during a blizzard along with others, by the time she had been mutated into a remnant. If we find her still living, still frozen body in the town under this avalanche, and kill her… we’ll set her free… The only problem is that she could be anywhere, buried underneath here…”
- ✝ - Right after she said that, the Banshee let out a loud shriek again, and instead of it being hurtful, this time it was helpful. All around, a whirlwind picked up and began blowing layers of snow and ice away from the area. Adia hunkered down, and braced herself as the high winds blew everything away, slowly uncovering the still standing ruins of stone buildings all around. “The soldier’s and all of his group’s bodies should be around her too, along with anyone else who was in this town every time it froze over. Just start killing all of them, one of them is bound to be the Banshee’s body, Adia shouted to Abel as the wind subsided. She then ran off to where a large group of bodies, 6 wearing soldier’s uniforms lay frozen in place on the ground; and one by one, she began slashing their throats with her dagger.
Forever and Ever. |
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Post by PS113C "ABEL" on Jan 23, 2011 19:22:44 GMT -8
Abel tried to absorb what she was telling to him. It was a bit hard to follow. The Banshee screamed again, blowing away snow and causing Abel to trip up.
He was nearing his limits, when he managed to get back onto his feet he saw what Adia was trying to do. He charged towards her, transforming into his human form as he did, moving up to run on just his legs instead of on all fours.
He reached out and tried to grab her by her knife wielding arm again, but not so much to crush her this time.
"Wait!" He called out as he did. "D-don't you think... that's a bit too sad?" He called out, completely serious.
"Shouldn't we try and help these people... if they're still alive... maybe they can be saved..." He turned to the corpses, not sure if their spirits were nearby enough to hear him.
"Can't you help us? Can't you tell us anything about the Banshee? The one who haunts the path near here?!" He called out desperately.
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Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 23, 2011 19:35:25 GMT -8
And They Shall Reign
- ✝ - Adia looked up at him, transforming back to her human form as well, since she preferred that form. “Abel,” she said as she moved her arm back from his hand, “Some of these people are 500 years old; none of them have ever heard of Arcis for sure. We’d be waking them up to Hell on Earth. Even if they could cope with that, then they would fall flat at the thought that everyone they ever knew or loved was dead. Not only that, but how are we going to revive them? We can’t carry them out of the mountains, there’s too many. And an actual successful revival would take extreme precaution and a slow, thawing process that we can’t perform since many of these bodies have been frozen for years.”
- ✝ - Adia put the blade lower on the first body’s chest, and pointed it right over its heart. “The only suffering we can inflict on them now,” Adia said, “Is leaving them alive to haunt the mountains for an eternity, or worse, to live lifelessly in an icy tomb.” As she finished, she put her hand over the corpse’s eyes, and closed its lids shut before firmly pressing the blade through the body, and piercing its heart quickly.
Forever and Ever. |
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Post by PS113C "ABEL" on Jan 24, 2011 7:22:13 GMT -8
"So euthanasia is the answer? Its not our place to decide whether they can survive or cope with their lives... Its our duty to help them, friend or foe..." He couldn't believe he was sticking up for human beings this much.
"For many people's their life is suffering... its only through struggle and effort that anything is accomplished, and happiness is earned. That's true for anybody, and them included. I'm not saying it'll be easy... but... As much as I hate them, the people in Arcis have the technology to create us, so surely they can save these people," He desperately debated, with the lives of these people on the line.
"Maybe, we can convince the Banshee to let them go, if we can save her first..." He reasoned. Though he wondered how the Banshee herself would react to all of this.
He was probably wrong. He might have even looked like a pathetic child, begging for things to be better... but even so. If there was a slight chance that these people could be saved, then it made no difference how pathetic he looked. He would still try to save them.
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