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Rescue
Apr 15, 2018 7:54:24 GMT
Post by Raven on Apr 15, 2018 7:54:24 GMT
Raven was FUCKED.
It had been months since she last had any decent interaction with another person. That person had been Gabriel, the Daemon Lord, a grumpy as fuck old man that was actually a really cool fire dude. They had only traveled a short while, a day or two, after he had saved her from people that were trying to catch her for whatever reason, and she had pestered him after that. Though her biggest fear was an enclosed space, he had convinced her to go to the Daemon Tunnels. It was a way to connect more to her daemon self, and she was obsessed with being a daemon rather than a human. It had all gone quite well, until she had realized she was being followed.
Though it had been months, the feathers in her wings were still singed from a battle with a gargoyle. Her wings only molted once or twice a year, so she was still unable to truly fly as well as she wanted. Now she was trudging through a disgusting marsh. Raven was wearing a very loose linen shirt with holes cut in the back for her wings, as well as dark brown trousers. The trousers were cut short though, just above her knees, to keep them from getting muddy and gross. As for her shoes though…they were ruined. She could feel the dampness from the mud seeping in and making her feet wet. Every step she took had a nasty “squish” to it.
She probably looked awful too, and that was just unacceptable with her level of vanity.
She was making good progress though, or so she had thought. Raven remember what Gabriel had told her, about the dangerous creatures lurking around the marshes before reaching an entrance to the tunnels. Ugh. There was even some sort of gross smell too. Was there a bog nearby? Probably.
The sky was completely shrouded with overcast clouds. It was not exactly night time, but not the middle of the day either. Sunlight was not a concern since from what she understood, the marshes tended to be gloomy and dull most of the time anyways.
Raven had first noticed being followed not too long ago. There was a stick breaking here, and then a rustle of tall grass there. When she focused in on listening, it sounded like multiple people were only walking when she walked, and then stopping when she stopped. There was a very subtle delay that gave them away, and now she was growing nervous. They were slowly gaining on her.
When she gulped, the adrenaline pumping through her body made it sound extremely loud. She would need to run, somehow. Flying was out of the question. She was in no shape to do so. Just as she was about to sprint, four men and two women showed themselves an surrounded her.
Struck with fear, Raven tensed and merely watched them with a terrified expression as they slowly closed in on her. All of them had smug expressions filled with arrogance as they knew they’d caught her. One of them had a net, while the others all had knives out.
This was no coincidence. In just a few months, people had attempted to kidnap her for a second time. What the hell was going on? Maybe she really should have interrogated that guy way back when she first met Gabriel like he had suggested. Damn, she was such a fool!
One of the men started laughing, slowly inching towards her. “Hey there, sweetheart. Your parents paid us good money to deal with ya. Scum like you that prefer being a monster over human deserve to suffer.”
Raven’s body began to shave convulsively. Of course. Her damn human family, bitter that she had preferred being a daemon over a boring human, had done this. Why hadn’t she suspected sooner. How could the family name hold a grudge for her a whole generation later. Had her parents, before dying, emphasized how much of a disgrace she was to them?
Without thinking, Raven bolted. It was fight or flight, and her only chance was flight on foot.
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Rescue
Nov 26, 2018 6:25:31 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Nov 26, 2018 6:25:31 GMT
Gabriel had spotted Raven a little while ago now, although she had not spotted him in return. The reason for this was pretty obvious - she was trudging towards an entrance to the Daemon Tunnels on foot, while he was travelling as a coil of smoke, impossible to see amongst the perpetual fog hanging over the marshes. He was on his way back to the Tunnels too, though he wasn't in a hurry, so he'd meandered along above her for a while, wondering if she knew where she was going. She looked purposeful in her gloomy trudging, but she'd said she'd never been before and the entrances could be hard to find. Being Turned, he wasn't sure she'd feel the same pull towards the Dream Land portal that he did, useful for orienting himself no matter where he was in Litharia.
He'd realised she was being followed around about when she did. His senses were different in his smoke form, a little hazy, but he noted her growing tension. Unsure, Gabriel remained above her, tangled through the boughs of stooped bog trees, as the hunters revealed themselves. Humans, each and every one...or particularly well disguised Shifters, he didn't have a sense of smell right now to tell. He'd bet humans though, given what they were hunting her for. She was badly outnumbered so he didn't blame her for her fear. He sighed to himself when she ran, though. Maybe it was smart, given how many of them there were, but had he taught the young Daemon nothing the last time they'd met?
Gabriel turned in a neat little coil then shot off after her, easily faster as a wisp of smoke than anyone on foot could be as they struggled through the mud. He could have killed them in a second - six humans against the Daemon Lord? They didn't stand a chance. But last time Gabriel had seen Raven he'd advised her to get more information from her would-be killers, and he still would have given her that advice. First, though, to deal with the situation at hand...Gabriel gained some distance on the younger Daemon and then became corporeal once more, leaning against the trunk of a large mangrove ahead of her, a dangerous glint in his eye.
"Hello again." Her hunters would stop their gleeful chase, he had no doubt, and presumably Raven would stop too, shocked at the sight of him. Her shock, no doubt, would be in running into him again at this moment of all times. Theirs would be different though - a Daemon appearing from nowhere, clothed in crisp black more suited to a meeting room than the marshes. And, although he held no obvious weapons, they would sense rather than see that this Daemon perhaps would be less inclined to flee. In fact, if they weren't completely stupid, they might even pause to consider that he seemed supremely unconcerned to be interrupting their hunt. It wouldn't stop them for long - Gabriel suspected their quarry was too valuable, and their greed too strong. It didn't matter anyway - they were all the walking dead at this point.
"I've found you in a world of trouble again, huh? What are you running for though? Stop. Kill them. You're a Daemon."
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Rescue
Nov 26, 2018 19:15:37 GMT
Post by Raven on Nov 26, 2018 19:15:37 GMT
It had not once occurred to Raven that she should fight. Though it had not been long since the previous encounter with the other humans after her, as well as the gargoyle in the forest, she was still not used to the idea of how powerful a daemon could truly be. She felt too inexperienced, too insecure to even think about fighting back. Anything to do with her family terrified her as well. Anything to do with them, in a sense and besides closed corridors, was her greatest weakness.
Run, get out! Find a place to fly before they catch you.
Briefly she had looked behind her to see how close they were. They were gaining quickly, as they were much more in shape than her as humans than she as a daemon. Looking over her shoulder was a bad choice however. When she turned it back to watch where she was going, she saw Gabriel who seemingly came out of the blew at the last second.
In her attempt to stop so that she did not run into him, Raven tripped over her own feet and fell face first onto the forest floor, getting a nice handful of dirt into her mouth in the process. There was no time to just lie there and think about how embarrassing that was. She immediately jumped to her feet and spat out the dirt. “What the FUCK, fire guy! Where did you even come from?!” Raven heard his words, she really did, but it was just so much easier said than done. How was she supposed to take on six trained people that were hired to capture her?!
Raven turned to face the mercenaries as they began to close the distance. “I’m running because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing! And that sounds way harder than you make it sound!!” She was practically yelling, though only out of fear and without realizing it. Truthfully though, as she looked at her surroundings, there was not really anywhere to run since she had no idea where she was going.
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck FU C K.” she muttered under her breath. The mercenaries saw Gabriel, but thought nothing of it. To them, they thought he was just collateral damage that was getting in the way, sadly for them.
One of the mercenaries was in front of the others and reached her first. He raised his sword up and lunged at her. It was an easy enough thing to dodge, as Raven instinctively sidestepped out of the way, though she was confused. Were they not supposed to be capturing her, not skewering her?!
The man had a wide opening, and she immediately went for it. Her claws extended to their full length and she raked them as deep and hard as she could along his stomach. Raven had to keep herself from gagging at the feeling of the man’s innards being pulled out as her nails exited, and the man’s awful squeal following as he fell to the ground.
Raven looked down at her hand, at the grotesque, bloody and squishy intestine that had wrapped around her fingers. Time seemed to slow for her; the other five mercenaries had stopped in their tracks, unsure whether they should peruse as she just stared at her hand. But there was something there, inside of her. She was not just scared. Raven was pissed. She was mad, angry, annoyed. All of these things along with being scared.
Perhaps as a human that would have made no difference to her. But as a daemon, her emotions were heightened. She could fee that anger spreading to every inch of her being, invading her very essence. All this time, Raven had been decent at controlling her emotions when they got out of hand. But she had never before experienced that amount of rage.
She looked up at Gabriel as her fangs extended to their full length, her mouth raised into a snarl like some sort of animal.
“Just fucking take her out! The coin will be worth it. They said dead or alive!”
Raven whipped around and screamed at them. It was no normal scream, but the sound that came from her animal influence, an Osprey. High-pitched and off putting, the mercenaries hesitated before two more of them rushed her.
This time, there was no hesitation from Raven. The anger was so raw, so powerful and consuming. Pupils constricted, she rushed towards the woman that came at her. Raven was quick, and regardless of the shape of her wings, she grabbed the woman by the throat and threw her wings open. Her beautiful feathers she was so keen on up keeping brushed were still charred and rough. But it was just enough for her to propel herself high up into the air with the woman in her hands, squirming and cursing at her as she was hoisted up.
Raven tore into her throat. Instinctually, her mind knew exactly where the jugular vein was, and she bit into it and tore like some sort of brutish, feral animal. The woman screamed, though it turned to gurgles as she quickly bled out and Raven dropped her body to the ground, the women’s life going out with a solid thud.
The anger was too compelling, too much to control. The very idea of questioning them was out of her mind. Everything was out of her mind. She practically forgot Gabriel was even there with her. Quickly, she darted down and landed back on the ground, tucking her wings in almost completely. The next man was immediately on her, swinging his ax though with more proficiency than the first man. This time, Raven was focused more on dodging and waiting for her change.
THERE
She propelled her hand forward, strong enough where her claws and entire first was inside the man’s chest. But Raven was too focused on her emotions to be rational, to be done with it and move on to the next one. She had no idea what Gabriel was doing, but the remaining mercenary there had run up behind her and was swinging her ax at Raven’s exposed right wing.
It didn’t register to Angel until it was too late. As she began to turn, there was a searing pain that came with the sound of the mercenary’s sword as it easily and almost completely cut off her entire wing through tissue, flesh, and bone.
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Rescue
Nov 27, 2018 7:38:12 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Nov 27, 2018 7:38:12 GMT
This was Raven's fight really, not his. She absolutely had to learn or she was going to find herself dead - the Daemon world she'd found herself in was not forgiving to any kind of weakness, no matter if you had a good reason for it. Plus, and more urgently right now, Raven appeared to have left behind a Human family that was prejudiced enough to want her dead just for being a Daemon, and rich enough to pay to make sure it happened. The girl had to learn to defend herself or she'd need more than the good fortune of running into Gabriel at the right moment not once but twice.
Still, six on one was no fair fight for someone so new to the art. Gabriel gauged that he'd need to pick off one or two, or at least keep them occupied, or she'd end up skewered anyway. One he simply pinned telekinetically to a tree, leaving the man gasping for air as his lungs pressed up against an invisible and unwavering force - but alive, ready for Raven once she'd dealt with the others. He whipped around at her screech and grinned - there it was! That chaotic fury, so quintessentially Daemon. He silently urged her to embrace it, to use it. It was what would make her dangerous, make six Humans rue the mistake of going up against one of his kind.
He couldn't watch uninterrupted, though, not with the other mercenary he was holding off Raven making herself a pain in the arse. He snarled as she jabbed a dagger towards his ribs - thin, razor sharp, designed to slip between the ribs. These were seasoned mercenaries though, experienced in hunting Daemons, and while Gabriel's magic might have thrown her his natural Daemonicness did not. He was forced to twist aside, faster than her, and still earned himself a shallow but long cut down his abdomen. The man pinned to the tree suddenly slumped, released by Gabriel's distraction, but the relief was only momentary before the invisible forced shoved him back against the trunk with a dull thud.
Furious, Gabriel summoned darkness. Or seemed to, at least - the mercenary froze as a dense black cloud enveloped her, thick as oil. She couldn't move, and after a moment she couldn't breathe either. Gabriel grinned darkly at the choking sound that started to emanate from the hovering black cloud, a noxious alien gas that surrounded her completely. If she moved, it moved with her, so she was left blind and choking and scrambling for her freedom. He heard rather than saw her fall to her knees, heard the desperate scraping of her nails on the ground, growing slowly more feeble...
The illusion was perfect. Of course, he was a perfectionist when it came to this magic.
The a noise. Metal on flesh, then bone, a spray of blood that pattered hotly on the wet mud. He turned, too late, to see a once-elegant wing on the ground, the horror of the scene no less horrific for all the times he'd seen similar, or worse, wounds dealt in battles and fights across the centuries. White hot fury was his this time and, still maintaining both the illusion and the telekinesis immobilising the two mercenaries, Gabriel summoned the God-gifted knife that existed on when he willed it to. It manifested somewhere in Raven's attacker's lower stomach and gutted him in reverse, from the inside. The man looked down in utter terror as he died, the pain coming from nowhere, the sight enough to make him vomit even as his intestines and organs were shredded. Gabriel ignored him, looking to the other Daemon.
"Raven?"
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Rescue
Nov 28, 2018 1:22:32 GMT
Post by Raven on Nov 28, 2018 1:22:32 GMT
There was screaming, but it sounded so far away. To Raven, it almost seemed like she was on a different plane from everyone else. She was not the one screaming. Though there was an immense amount of pain, it was almost easier to control her feelings of that than her rage from earlier. She was just standing there, her hand inside the man’s chest, blood oozing down her arm and dripping off her elbow. Her face was covered in blood as well from the throat she ripped out moments ago. Everything seemed unreal, slow. Wrong. Perhaps that was from all the blood she was rapidly losing. Or maybe it was from her destroyed pride, the feeling that she had, in some way, lost her freedom. Her one way to escape from reality.
Raven’s eyes were far off, looking somewhere not in reality. She pulled her hand out of the man’s chest, bringing his heart out with it, and slowly sunk down to her knees with her arm outstretched that clutched the squishy, warm organ of life.
“Raven?”
Tears streamed down her face, though she made no noise. She did not scream; it took every power of her being not to scream. This, at least, she would not do. She would not be even more of a fool in front of the Daemon Lord. It seemed to take ages, years, for her to get the courage to speak. Words that she would have never thought she would have to say. The pain coming from where her wing once was was almost blinding. But it was still there, hanging on by ligaments and loose tissue. There was no way to repair it, she could tell that much. And she could tell that a small fraction of her wing, the closest bit to her back, was still attached to her body. But the rest….
“C-cut it off.”
The words came out as a whisper, and she wondered if Gabriel even heard. The scene around the girl was gruesome and ugly; bodies and organs lining the floor. But she didn’t care. She could not walk around with her beautiful wing tattered and destroyed. There was no way for her to bring it back up to her body, to fly again. It needed to be severed so that, at least, she could maybe heal what remained. It would take time for her stub to heal, but longer for her pride and heart.
This time, she locked eyes with Gabriel, a fire burning in the back of them as her emotions continued to devour her whole; anger, pain, and loss. “It’s still attached, Gabriel.” The physical pain she felt and tried to contain was obvious in her tone and words. “Please just….cut it off. Get it over with. I c-c-can feel everything barely holding it together. Please.” Raven had no experience in healing either. She had no idea what to do once it was completely off. There was a good chance she’d die from bleeding out still.
Raven braced herself, taking deep breaths in and out. She tried to concentrate on it, tried not to think about the searing pain that she was about to feel.
In
And out
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Rescue
Nov 28, 2018 7:03:57 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Nov 28, 2018 7:03:57 GMT
For a moment Gabriel just stood there. He couldn't really comprehend Raven's experience right now, but he knew her wings represented her freedom and he knew that he valued his own freedom above everything except for his power. The devastation would be complete, overwhelming...but she would not be helped by his hesitation. A second passed, then two, but at the third second Gabriel was Gabriel again - smoothly efficient, in charge, in control.
First, the mercenary pinned to the tree by his telekinesis, who was looking at Raven with dark triumph even as he wheezed for breath, had the same telekinesis slam his head sharply against the tree trunk in one coldly efficient move that knocked him out but left him alive, and probably not too brain-addled. The other mercenary Gabriel had been holding off was already unconscious, her body and mind not yet recovered from being suffocated to "death", the broken ends of her fingers still sluggishly bleeding from where she'd tried to claw herself away from the torture.
Gabriel was at Raven's side a moment later, the summoned knife in hand. A flash of flame over his palm to disinfect the blade, and Gabriel did not pause even for half a second before carrying out Raven's plea. The only comfort he could offer her now was utter certainty in his actions; if he looked horrified, or recoiled, or looked like he didn't know how to handle this, he could only add to her fear. Gabriel was not squeamish in the least but he did not enjoy the sensation of slicing through what remained of her wing, leaving behind a stub that was a tidy as he could manage. Again, he didn't hesitate when this was done before running a heated palm along the ruined flesh - different flames, healing flames, but they would still burn. It knitted the wound together, stopping the bleeding, though he dared not do more than that. His healing magic was new, and the healing arts did not come naturally to him. She needed to see a real healer - this was just to stop her bleeding out until then.
"There will be Daemon healers in the Tunnels, if you want to go there. Or, I know of a Shapeshifter, a very good healer, who might be in the Marshes or nearby. They can't fix your wing, but you still need to see someone for the wound." Gabriel stopped then, the knife blinking back out of existence, leaving behind his hands and arms bloodied to the elbows. He glanced over at the two living mercenaries, though neither were conscious right now.
"Those are for you to do with what you will." His voice was quiet, authoritative but soothing, calm and dependable. Not often how Gabriel was described, but like many Daemons he was a chameleon. He could be what people needed, for a while at least.
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Rescue
Nov 28, 2018 15:01:49 GMT
Post by Raven on Nov 28, 2018 15:01:49 GMT
Raven braced herself for the pain that was about to happen. She nearly threw up as Gabriel made quick work; not from the pain itself, as unbearable as it was. She made expressions of wincing while scrunching her neck up as if that would somehow alleviate the pain. It was from being able to feel the knife slice through what remained. The thud of the rest of her wing falling onto the ground was her signal that nothing would ever be the same. Weren’t daemons good at adapting and overcoming things like this? Wouldn’t she be fine? It seemed impossible to think about without the ability to fly. How was she supposed to get anywhere fast? Walking, certainly, was not a very fast thing.
There was another type of pain, this one much different. Her body convulsed slightly and, caught off guard, she let a short ‘yelp’ escape from her mouth. She had completely forgotten about his ability to close up wounds, as painful as it was. It seemed like eons had passed before he was finally done.
It took her a moment to stand; she was whoozy from blood loss, in lots of pain, and still in shock from the loss of her beloved wing. When she did, Raven nearly fell over and instinctively reached out to Gabriel to keep her from going to the ground, but she managed to stabilize herself before doing so. Vision speckled with black dots, she looked at Gabriel trying to comprehend what words he was forming from his mouth. Ah, so it seemed she was not out of the chance of dying just yet.
With a sniffle, she replied, “I um. The tunnels. I came all this way for them and I want to still see them…” She didn’t want to turn back now. “I guess I don’t have to worry about not being able to fly inside of them now…funny. I must be the weakest daemon you’ve ever seen. How embarrassing.” Raven had been so worried about being crowded in, but her flight was thwarted before she even reached the tunnels.
Raven’s eyes narrowed dangerously as Gabriel mentioned the other two mercenaries. Every fiber in her being wanted to kill them, slowly. And she would. But the last time her and Gabriel had met, different mercenaries had gone after her and she had not bothered to ask them any questions. Her mistake that may have cost her dearly. When she turned to look at them, she could see her beautiful, long and elegant wing on the floor, matted with blood that was still moist from the humid environment and caked with dirt and flesh. The daemon girl could feel it within her, her broken spirit or even her very soul. It was broken.
“Do you know when they’ll wake up?” she asked Gabriel in the sullen silence. “I want to confirm some stuff with them before I let them die slowly.” Her lip raised into a snarl, anger rising. She tried her best not to let it rise too much, as she seemed to have no control over it.
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Rescue
Dec 1, 2018 20:43:55 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Dec 1, 2018 20:43:55 GMT
All things considered, Gabriel was impressed with Raven's self-possession. Many would have writhed on the ground screaming at this kind of administration, sharp as the knife was and quick as he tried to be. It was no small thing, to lose a wing - Gabriel might not be able to truly relate, but he assumed it was just as devastating as losing a limb, and certainly the actual change in mass was substantial. She was also so young, and so new to this. Many seasoned warriors would have wept or screamed or railed against the universe for such a cruel blow. Really, a restrained yelp and uneasy sniffle were shockingly restrained responses.
So, when Raven claimed she must be the weakest Daemon he'd ever seen, his shake of the head was an honest response.
"You fought well, actually. Your family must be wealthy or unusually prejudiced or both - they were seasoned Daemon hunters. Not just bounty hunters, they specialised in our kind, I think. And you bore this loss with greater strength than I ever would have expected." It was high praise, coming from the Daemon Lord, who was purposefully and determinedly not looking as the discarded wing lying sadly in the mud of the marshes. That was the past, gone and soon to be buried. Looking forward, to the future, was the only choice.
The anger he saw when he reminded her of the remaining mercenaries was also the only choice. Gabriel was famous for the grudges he held, rarely if ever forgiving a slight, but vengeance was a Daemon trait too. The Daemon Lord considered any unjustified attack on a Daemon a personal grievance and would have happily murdered the remaining mercenaries slowly for that alone, but this was Raven's revenge to exact. Also important, to find out anything she could - whether her family could afford to send more mercenaries now these had failed, whether others were already out in the world seeking her, what exactly they had planned to do with her, and who exactly was responsible for their hiring. Gabriel, personally, would be hunting and gutting those family members in payment for this, but again - it was Raven's to respond to how she chose now.
"Not long, I would guess." Even as he spoke the man who'd been pinned against a tree was groaning and stirring. His smack to the head had been restrained. He was curled over on himself, and raised his arms to grip his head - no doubt ringing with the thud against the trunk it had received - but, Gabriel thought, not too addled. Perfectly able to answer questions.
"He's all yours. Just don't strain yourself too much, the wound may reopen." Torture smart, in other words. There was no need for anything to strenuous when making someone wish they were dead.
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Rescue
Dec 1, 2018 21:45:38 GMT
Post by Raven on Dec 1, 2018 21:45:38 GMT
Raven flinched a bit, not entirely sure how to react to Gabriel’s encouraging words. She doubted he would have said them if he did not mean them. From the short time she had known the Daemon Lord, she was almost positive he was perfectly willing to be brutally honest. It was difficult to understand anything that was going on for her, especially with the last few minutes that had just occurred. Everything had happened too fast for her to register anything.
The words he gave her were greatly needed however. Raven did not realize that tears were streaming down her face like a waterfall till they started dripping off of her chin and she instinctively sniffled. Honestly, she was going to write a script called, ‘Ten ways to embarrass yourself in front of the Daemon Lord: Vol 1’.
That did not change the fact that she wasn’t very good at dealing with words of encouragement. “I…um. Thank you….” She was in so much pain truth be told, she was even surprised herself at having some amount of restraint. It was very draining however. Raven could feel all of her energy sapped and gone from the encounter and pain. The daemon girl wiped away her tears with the back of her arm. “I guess you’re not so bad after all for someone your age.” The witty retort was a bit of a surprised to her in her condition and state of mind, but she meant it. Gabriel was alright in her books.
Eyes flashing with the thirst of revenge, she approached him with her arms crossed. The stump of her right wing was fully extended and drooping, while her other wing also had a slight droop due to the sheer lack of energy she had to keep it firmly against her body.
The man groaned and opened his eyes, blinking rapidly as if to clear his vision to see the image in front of him clearly. “I..what?”
Raven kicked his foot. “HEY.”
Wincing, the man shook his head and leaned back. “Don’t speak so loud, gods.” It took the man a few minutes of clutching his head and clearing his eyes with his hands for him to recall where he was exactly. Raven could tell when that moment was when the man seemed startled and jolted backwards some, hitting the back of his head against the bark of the tree with a groan. “Aw fuck,” seemed all he could manage as realization dawned on him.
Truth be told, Raven had no idea how to torture someone for information. Or at all, really. She approached the man, only a few feet from his feet. “Uh, you can make this easy on yourself or not. I need to know a few things.”
The man laughed. “Like you’d let me go if I told you anything.” He spat towards her face.
Thank the gods it missed. Older men were disgusting, Raven noted to herself. Gross. “That’s true enough. But I can either kill you quickly or…not?” Even though she was angry, Raven frowned at how lame of a torturer she was. She was not as confident as she had sounded when stating she'd make him die slowly.
“You’ve never done this before, have you little girl?”
Raven scratched her head and looked at Gabriel for ideas and any kind of advice.
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Rescue
Dec 2, 2018 3:08:09 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Dec 2, 2018 3:08:09 GMT
Ah, there was a more expected reaction. Gabriel delicately elected to ignore the tears, not to mention yet another not so subtle dig at age. Wait until she met a few more Daemons, he thought idly. Wait until she met some Fae. Instead, he seemed to ignore her thanks, focused instead on washing Raven's blood from his hands and arms in the filthy water. There would be more pleasant places to bathe in the Tunnels, but he wasn't going to wait until then to clean off the blood. Flames held in his hands quickly dried him, although now his forearms were streaked with dirt instead of blood.
Gabriel settled into watch Raven carry out her next task, by turning briefly to smoke to curl into the lower branches of one of the taller Marsh trees before reforming sitting easily on one of the boughs. As he'd suggested before, though, this was no green hunter, but a seasoned mercenary trained to hunt Daemons. Gabriel wondered how many of his kind the man had killed. He hoped whatever Raven decided to do to him, it would hurt. Daemons were not sentimental, and if his earlier victims hadn't been strong enough to defend themselves then Daemon culture suggested they deserved their deaths, but Gabriel still disliked specialist Daemon hunters on principle.
She started well, a sharp kick to the groggy man's foot, before abruptly petering out. Gabriel tended to forget that torture didn't come naturally to most people, even to most Daemons. He had his father's psychopathic upbringing to thank for his own skill for it, more than just Daemon nature.
"No, but I have." If the mercenary had seen Gabriel turned to smoke before, he hadn't reacted. Now, though, his baleful glare turned to the trees, where the Daemon Lord sat. And, given he was a Daemon hunter, he looked a little longer, before abruptly going very, very pale.
"The Daemon Lord?"
"The Daemon Lord," Gabriel agreed cheerfully. He'd know of the pale Bardic Golem who had ruled the Daemons for more than three Human lifetimes. Lots of Humans did, actually, and he'd know more about Daemons in general than average.
"Unluckily for you, I feel like training someone in my image. Settle in, this could take a while." Actually, he didn't know what Raven would do to him, but creating fear was half of the point of torture. It was psychological as much as physical, and the man now looked appropriately shocked. They all knew what targets to never take contracts for, and now "contract only suicidal idiots took" was sitting in a tree above him, looking smug.
"Think of what you need to know. Ask the questions that will help keep you alive in the future. And if he won't answer, start taking him apart piece by piece. I can tell you what pieces aren't essential for life, but fingers and toes are a good place to start. Even limbs. I'll make sure he doesn't run." Gabriel liked to use his magic to get people to talk, but lacking that, Raven would find physical means just as effective. Hardened and seasoned though the hunter was, he wasn't trained to resist torture, and had little reason to try. After all, he had no loyalty to those who had hired him beyond the coin he'd be paid, and little enough to mercenaries who may follow in his ill-fated footsteps.
Hearing Gabriel's words, silky smooth and as casual as if he were talking about the weather, the hunter promptly vomited as fear churned his gut. Gabriel smiled. That was more like it.
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Rescue
Dec 2, 2018 5:23:39 GMT
Post by Raven on Dec 2, 2018 5:23:39 GMT
It was amazing to the young daemon to see the effect Gabriel had on the man. His entire face had gone pale at recognizing the Daemon Lord, and now he seemed genuinely terrified. Raven made a silent little note to herself that she was glad that Gabriel was on her side. She was both curious at just how terrifying he could be against his enemies, as well as wanted to never see that side. But she supposed that was just the way daemons were. Had she not just acted like a complete animal earlier? It seemed like even though she had been a daemon for quite a while, she was still grasping for answers on what it meant to be one.
Raven looked up to Gabriel as he tried to give her advice. She nodded, though not as confidently as she had wished. Even with that burning hatred there, Raven was worried that she would just outright kill the guy instead of get information out of him. Part of her wanted to live up to what the daemon lord expected though, and so she would attempt to be good at this. Thank the gods she was no longer squeamish about these sorts of things.
The man vomited though, and Raven had to keep herself from letting him have a domino effect on her. Vomit was nasty, and she could smell it too. Gross. Maybe torture really wasn’t her thing. But she had already decided to go through with it, and so she would. Raven glared at the man again, puffing her chest out just a little subconsciously as she tried to restore her confidence. She did not want anyone to see the true, agonizing pain that she was still in from her injury or loss of pride.
“Alright well, I know it’s my family that’s after me. Why are they so keen on bringing me in?” AGH that was dumb. She already knew the answer to that! Well, at least part of the answer. Still, the young daemon kept her green and blue eye on the man without showing how stupid she felt. ‘Better add that one to the script. Pretty sure I’m at nine out of ten things for a complete volume,’ she thought to herself.
The man gulped, switching from looking from her to Gabriel, then back to her. He was definitely not as scared of her as he was of the other daemon, but it didn’t really bother Raven. She had no idea what she was truly doing anyways.
“I…uh..” the man hesitated. Was this when she was supposed to hurt him?? Raven’s claws had never retracted since the fight, but she took a step towards him, considering the idea of raking her claws slowly across his face.
The man saw her movement and just the ever slightest hesitation she had with it. He seemed to regained a tiny bit of confidence for himself, though was still quite pale. “I wouldn’t worry about it sweet-cheeks. It’s out of yer control anyways.”
Without really thinking it over again, she strut forward confidently and grabbed his head with one hand to turn it to the side, and used her other hand to dig the tip of her claws deep into the skin just above his cheekbone. The man struggled from the puncture pain, but otherwise did not react. With just enough force, she pulled her claws towards her, just barely parting flesh and skin so he could feel every little bit of it as she moved down from his cheek bone into his cheek.
As a trained daemon hunter, there was a good possibility he had dealt with something like this before at some point. He did not scream, though the expressions on his face were not solid and showed the pain her felt, as did the twitching of his legs and arms. Raven had raked his face all the way down to his chin before pulling away, blood oozing down his face as well as down her claws. Curiosity got the better of her as she brought one to her mouth to taste the blood, but her face convulsed. “BLEH. You even taste gross. I don’t know why you’re protecting my family so much since they’re trash. But hey, I can give you a matching scar if you’d like.”
The man groaned and looked at her with nearly the same amount of hatred she had for him. “They’re payin’ me to bring you in little one, not talk about their personal business.”
Raven frowned. This was hard.
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Rescue
Sept 21, 2019 7:52:58 GMT
Post by Gabriel on Sept 21, 2019 7:52:58 GMT
Gabriel watched impassively for the most part, expressionless but for the furious contempt he felt for the mercenary burning in the depths of bright, alien eyes. The man wasn't really scared of Raven, but that was just because he hadn't learned to be scared of her yet. Her hesitation gave him confidence, made him think it might be worth spending his last minutes causing her further pain. However, with the proper guidance, that misplaced confidence could be turned back on him easily enough, rendering Raven's newness and hesitation an asset, rather than a hindrance. If she could lure him into a false sense of security, a properly timed display of unexpected ruthlessness would shock all the more.
Gabriel could remind him what waited after Raven was finished, should she not be successful, but he wanted to give the young Daemon more of a chance. Not all Daemons had the penchant for torture that he did, but whether she used it again in future or not, the skills she picked up today would endow her with an appropriate mastery of violence to live in the Daemon world. So he hoped, anyway.
"Think of it this way, Raven." Gabriel spoke from the tree where he watched, his voice soft and soothing, the offer of guidance down a very dark and twisted path.
"He knows he's going to die. Neither of us will let him walk out of this clearing alive. That makes him think he doesn't have anything to lose." The Daemon Lord's gaze flicked to the mercenary then, who was determinedly keeping his eyes trained on Raven, trying not to listen to the grim spectre above.
"You need to show him how wrong he is. He is going to die, that much is true, but there is a world of misery in between the death you could give him if he just answered his questions, and the death he will suffer if he chooses not to. He needs to be shown just how much misery there could be. Take him there, show him. The only way he will answer your questions is if he understands that he cannot bear not to."
The other surviving mercenary chose that moment to open her eyes, glassy and staring. She remained stretched out in the mud before she started shaking, slowly at first, then more and more violently. Gabriel looked at her for a moment and then, ghoulishly, her prone form was hoisted slowly in the air by the throat by some unseen force. Like the mercenary now in Raven's tender care before her, this mercenary found herself shoved against a tree, pinned at her chest, though unlike that one she didn't struggle. Instead she stared blankly at nothing, still shaking, hands curled into bloody claws.
"And don't worry too much about taking it too far. If you kill that one you can always try again on this one. Best not to rely on her though, I think I broke her." Gabriel's illusion magic, particularly if one didn't know what it was or that he wielded it, could send his victims insane.
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