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Post by deadman on Sept 4, 2006 1:40:07 GMT -5
Sitting calmly, Dead Man turned his inspection inward. He'd been so busy over the past day to stop and really examine his abilities, and whether or not there may have been any changes to his power thanks to the limited use of mind-energy in his skull. He quickly discovered that having power over himself, as a dead person, had its benefits. Now it would appear he could access his own subconscious and memory banks like he could one of his animations. It gave him a virtual program with which to sift through his own mind with… very convenient.
So it was that when he gained access to his own section of his psyche locked away for his supernatural power, he discovered something quite odd. Not only was Bob Wills next to him an animate, but there was another… one he was unaware of. How this was possible was completely beyond him… and even his own enhanced self evaluation was useless.
There was another one out there… somewhere. Well, that of course meant two. Zombi was out there somewhere, according to this reading, but he'd always known that. There was another, in addition to that old man… someone that must've survived Baltimore somehow.
Curious.
He reached his senses out, searching for this animate… and it was like digging through murky water. The space between them could only be described as viscous, thick. It took him a few minutes to just pinpoint it, but in the end, he did. It was a she. She wasn't incredibly far away, but no longer in Baltimore. She was… sitting down. Talking. Talking? He couldn't get much more than that.
The thrall was curious, but still his. He had to make his presence known… there was nothing Dead Man hated more than not being in control.
"I seeee youuuu." He whispered at her mind.
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Post by deadgirl on Sept 4, 2006 1:50:41 GMT -5
She lay entwined with a sleeping Theo, wide awake. She'd smoked with him but it hadn't had any effect- and she wasn't really expecting it to. In the darkness he had forgotten what she looked like, and had been able to hold her as he once had.
The closeness was an immense comfort. If nothing else it kept her from feeling as if she had been flung into darkness, adrift. The dead girl held to the living body of her former love as if to a rock within a rolling ocean.
Her eyes had fallen half closed in the early morning hours, a certain trance taking over more out of a lack of thought than a need for sleep.
Those red eyes opened as someone joined her in her head. The feeling was so similar to the few memories she still possessed that she gasped and clung to Theo in excitement and anticipation. The calming presence had returned!!
But when the voice echoed in her mind, she knew only fear, and a terrible... stillness. She could not move, frozen in wait of his will. She knew him to the fibre of her being... she belonged to him. Whomever he was.
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Post by deadman on Sept 4, 2006 2:03:15 GMT -5
He could feel fragments of her mood change, and if he didn't know any better, it seemed as if she became still at his presence. This was at least partially a good sign, as it implied she was still forced to listen to him. His call meant something, and it wasn't particularly turbulent.
Then again, she wasn't screaming. She wasn't even disjointed, though he could feel a certain fear within her.
How was this possible? A few ideas came to mind, though each defied what he knew of his own abilities to some degree. It was repulsive, her ability to control herself, and yet it was attractive in a way he'd never experienced.
He sent his will harder at her mind, attempting to penetrate her and pour himself in like a wave of cockroaches.
“Where are you, girl?” He tried, hoping she could send a reply as smoothly as he sent his own question. It would be so much easier than sniffing her out.
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Post by deadgirl on Sept 4, 2006 2:15:59 GMT -5
She hitched in Theo's arms, and he woke as she made a rasping, choking sound, her back arching. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she gripped him tightly.
"Beam?" He said, worried, frightened. He held her with him, stroking her hair. "It's okay baby... I'm here..."
But she hardly heard him. Her tongue was frozen in her mouth, lips slack, without a tremble. The sensation of him pouring into her sent a wave of warmth through her cold body, and she moaned through a tight throat, feeling the sort of pain only the restless dead can feel- something beyond the body or the mind, something within one's soul.
She grabbed at the words even as they left her, trying to pull them back. The danger in her master's call was fought by the pieces of her that still lived; all that was dead in her ran to her creator with a force she could scarcely resist.
"Baltimore..." she whispered, her voice rocketing through ethereal space as a tsunami wave, more powerful than the voices of the dead, weak only in its nature as slave to the Dead Man's will.
A hollow sob left her. Theo shivered in terror, holding her hand in mute helplessness.
"Moon... baby, come back to me..."
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Post by deadman on Sept 4, 2006 2:31:39 GMT -5
“Baltimore.” He repeated, the echo in her mind sounding like he was rolling the the word over his dead tongue. Then, as quickly as he had ripped into her being, a very large portion of his will poured out of her, leaving only fetid residue in it's wake. A lingering, wiggling piece stayed behind, worming it's way through her mind.
Back in his vehicle, Dead Man sent his will to Bob Wills, giving new instructions. He'd turn around, head back to Baltimore, find this girl, and... well, he didn't know. This situation was so unique that he'd never even begun to plan for it. He supposed that he'd simply have to find out when he got there what he should do. Regardless... Genosha could wait. This was a paramount situation.
Minutes after he'd left her mind, his will returned... only it did not speak again, instead it tried to dig through her memories in a violating, callous manner. It did not get very far.
“Why can I not access your memories?” his voice echoed angrily. “What are you? How did you come to be?”
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Post by deadgirl on Sept 4, 2006 2:46:33 GMT -5
His leaving was an evisceration- she reacted very physically to what should only have been a thought. Rolling over to throw her head over the side of the bed, she dry heaved as Theo pulled her hair back, tears slowly rolling down his face.
She set a hand on his leg and gently pushed him away, trying to pat him to tell him it was okay- even if it wasn't. Crawling toward the bathroom, she sunk onto the cold tile flooring and shuddered, grateful for the silence, even as he lingered.
And then he returned.
As he scoured her mind, he found nothing, and yet the digging continued, fingernails of frustration scraping along the inside of her skull. The dead girl spasmed, the gurgle in her throat a mimicry of death throes as she tried her best to fight him off, slapping at the claws in her mind as a child might bat at her captor's hold.
Out of panic, out of some sense of self preservation, she fought back furiously. Thrashing on the floor, her mind responded with a like motion, writhing wildly.
The scream that came from her was one of defiance, rage, LIFE. It said, I am my own possession. I will not be subdued. And yet... she remained there with him, listening, waiting. Wanting.
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Post by deadman on Sept 4, 2006 12:54:19 GMT -5
Defiance. Yes, defiance shone through his blast of will... there was something about her that had the will left to resist him. Somehow she had a fraction of control, some piece of her mind that was hers – and worse, not his.
“Don't you understand, child?” He whispered, letting his will fall perfectly still in her mind...
Or maybe she did. He could feel her need for his presence, he could sense the comfort she found in him, hidden carefully amongst the fear and hate. This, too, was peculiar. Ordinarily he found joy in the fact that his presence was a disgusting violation of the highest order. That just when someone thought they could find rest in the Earth, he awakened them in the most perverse way imaginable. With the exception of Zombi, his old mentor, this process reduced the animate to sobs and screams, even on a psychic level. Yet this one...
Well, needless to say she drew his interest like a flame draws the moth. Her peculiarity was something fundamental to him, it shook him to the core of his being with both an almost erotic level of stimulation, and white hot bar of hatred.
“I'm not sure of where you came from, or how you've managed to hold yourself together...” He said, now calm, now flat. “But I will find out. Without me, what are you? Without my embrace – MY touch, my will... where would you be now? Inanimate? Among the unmoving, fearful dead?”
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Post by deadgirl on Sept 4, 2006 13:19:32 GMT -5
The dead girl watched the ceiling, her arms falling quietly to the floor, frame relaxing, listening to the whispered rhythm of his voice.
The only place she belonged was calling her his own. When he spoke, she felt almost...normal again.
"I'd have rather died...." she whispered back, red eyes closing.
And yet she found a will to live just to know this, his touch inside her very being. As the waters of hate and loathing rose, on its surface floated a veneer of desire, obedience...love.
"Come for me," she said, wanting not to feel him leave, never wanting to be alone again as she had been these last days.
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Post by deadman on Sept 4, 2006 13:27:14 GMT -5
Her desire was met by his own. He needed to see her. Sure, it was largely the need to know how it was she did this to him and his ability, but there was a deeper part... something he couldn't describe.
He wanted to keep her, even though she was unlike the others. He still wanted her as HIS animate, even if she had something of her own control. Maybe even because she did.
Whatever it was that was boiling inside his stomach, he couldn't get to Baltimore fast enough.
"I'm coming." He said, letting his mind linger in hers for a moment longer, then withdrawing completely, leaving once more only a filmy residue.
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Post by theodouglas on Sept 4, 2006 13:40:58 GMT -5
Theo had watched this whole exchange with something akin to fascinated horror. He'd not smoked enough to get totally stoned, just enough to relax into what was rapidly becoming an horrific and terrifying situation that he couldn't handle.
"Beam, oh my Beam," he moaned, feeling helpless, feeling impotent and unable to do anything to help break her out of this peculiar state she seemed to be in. "You gotta come back to me honey, how am I supposed to handle this? I'm not a great scientist or philosopher, I don't know how to handle this..."
He began to cry.
"Moonbeam, baby, please. It's me, Theo. You gotta snap out of this. I don't know how to help you!"
"I'd rather have died." She whispered the words, but he heard them and that was enough to break him out of his moment of self pity. He crossed to her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.
"But you didn't, honey," he said, fiercely. "You're still here and I'm with you and we're together and it'll all be fine. It WILL."
Funny thing. He didn't know who he was reassuring.
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Post by deadgirl on Sept 4, 2006 13:56:48 GMT -5
She cried in his arms dryly, letting him lift her body. The Dead Man's retreat was like a death in her family- a grief washed over her so powerful she could think of nothing else.
"He's coming, he's coming Theo..." she whispered finally, head lolling bak as he lifted her closer to him. "He's coming for me."
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Post by theodouglas on Sept 4, 2006 15:05:39 GMT -5
He rocked her in his arms like she was a babe. "Don't say that, sugar, nobody's coming for you. Except me. I've got you here. You and me, remember? You and ME. Not anybody else!" He sounded so fierce, so certain.
Theo continued rocking her, tears streaming down his own face. At the end of the day, he was...just an ordinary man. Nothing special about him, and he'd been thrown into a world where he barely understood what was happening. He could just turn now, turn and run away.
But he wouldn't leave his beloved Moonbeam. Not for all the tea in China.
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Post by deadgirl on Sept 6, 2006 19:31:35 GMT -5
Her arms wound around him slowly, her face a mask of apathy and despair. Her fingers stroked his hair.
"It's okay Theo... it's okay. It's going to be okay." She didn't believe herself, but somehow, this nightmare felt more normal than anything she'd experienced in the last three days.
"Theo I think we need to go back to the hospital." Simmons wouldn't let anything happen to her. He'd help her understand what happened. Maybe if He showed up... Simmons could test him too.
"Theo... baby..." she echoed his words, the sound hollow. Her hands fell still and for a moment she rested, looking precisely as she was; dead.
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Post by theodouglas on Sept 7, 2006 11:58:45 GMT -5
"Theo I think we need to go back to the hospital."
His head snapped up and he blinked tears at her. "Baby, I can't do that. I can't let them...do experiments on you, or whatever it is they've got planned. Besides..." He slowly released his hold on her. "You do realise that officially I'm now a kidnapper, right? I took you out that hospital without a discharge form..."
The misery in his expression turned to horror as he finally realised the enormity of what he had done. He'd thought only to liberate his beloved girlfriend and hadn't once stopped to consider the consequences of those actions.
"Oh fuck," he said.
Theo never swore.
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Post by deadgirl on Sept 7, 2006 12:39:47 GMT -5
The girl brushed his hair out of his face. She was beginning to feel more comfortable with him as the hours passed.
"I went on my own Theo, you didn't steal me." She frowned, hurt in her eyes. "I'm not dead. I'm my own person."
Wanting to help, somehow, she sat up and kissed him, her cool lips a subtly different texture than they had been a week ago, but there nonetheless.
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Post by theodouglas on Sept 7, 2006 17:59:20 GMT -5
Poor Theo was totally bemused by the kiss. It both attracted and repelled him at the same time and he felt like his brain was going to shatter with the effort of reconciliation. He drew his head back to look at her, anxious in case his hesitance worried her.
"I'm sorry, honey," he said, his voice thick with emotion. "I love you so much...but all of this that's happened. I'm having trouble with it all."
Be that as it may, he realised how much he needed human contact right now, so wrapped his arms around her again and kissed her back.
It's not so bad.
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Post by deadgirl on Sept 8, 2006 2:09:41 GMT -5
Having trouble with it all? She tried not to be angry with him for such a stupid statement... after all he wasn't the one who died and came back to life. Still it wasn't his fault he didn't understand... and it was good of him to have stuck by her.
But it didn't make her want to reach out to him more. She broke the kiss after a moment, and gently pulled them apart. Moving from the bathroom floor, she pulled the hoodie around her thin body and moved to the window.
Sitting on the sill, she stared out at the early morning light, wondering where her life had gone. And when he would be back to get her.
[end scene]
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