InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Nibblonians to Nibble stations"

I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2012-02-13 18:41:00

Entry tags:

baba yaga, stand still, thomas townsend

Ripped (Baba)
This day in The City was as beautiful as most of the days were. It liked it when people were outside and enjoying themselves, so it rarely changed the weather. It knew that people enjoyed occasional rainstorms, so it allowed those from time to time. But unless it was experimenting, the weather never altered too much for too long.

It had not done much experimenting lately. He had brought in the giant King Kong, wanting to see what those Justice League individuals could do against it. Prior to that had been the werecreatures. There had also been a very wild storm, which it had had nothing to do with.

It had been worried when the storm had happened. The word for the emotion that over came it when that happened was fear, it thought. It feared the one named Baba Yaga. It had opened itself to her, using her like a conduit. She had misbehaved, and it had thought to punish her. The punishment had only made her very angry, she had lashed out. She had done something it had not expected, and it had not liked the feeling of that.

The worry had not, of course, stopped the City's mischievous ways completely.

The love holiday was coming up again. It had played with it's citizens once before on the love holiday. So much fun had been had, that The City was intending to play with them again. Differently this time, but it thought that there was more potential behind the new idea. It would be bigger, more gripping. It had liked to see the people fall in love last time. It wanted more of that.

As The City prepared to unleash the new game, it felt a jolt. Though it had no body at the moment, the jolt felt like it ripped through the entirety of The City. Then came another. And another. The jolts were distracting, mind-swimmingly blinding.

And they hurt.

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i_blankityblank
2012-02-14 02:19 am UTC (link)

The City fought against the pull as hard as it could, but there was something behind this calling that it couldn't break. It knew who was casting the spell, who was behind the pain and the draw. But it couldn't break away. She wasn't using any of it's powers against it. She was using her own.

But that wasn't all, was it?

The City tried to figure out what it was, to break the binding before it happened, but it could not see Baba Yaga, and it could not see what she was using to aid her. It didn't know the spell she was using, what tools she might have that she didn't have the last time. Because this was not like the last time at all.

When she had called it before, against it's will, there had been no pain. There had been no fear. It had known that there was enough power in itself ultimately to fight her and what she was doing. It had gone anyway, angry, and demanded to be set free.

This time, there was no way to fight it. There was no choice but to go where it was being called. It didn't even have the choice of summoning the physical form that it had created to talk to the citizens. There was no way to do it. No matter how hard it struggled, the spell was stronger.

After what seemed like an eternity, The City found itself in a room. The eyes it was looking through were blurry from pain and tears. It saw light. It smelled something horrible. It felt weak.

The City tried to sit up.

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i_cast
2012-02-14 02:28 am UTC (link)

If it were to open its new eyes, it would see nothing. The candles had all gone out as it was finally squeezed into the chosen vessel. Yet, the crone did not move, not yet. She didn't light the room. No, she had just a little more to go.

"Lie still. You'll only feel more pain." The voice was hoarse, as if she'd been yelling for hours. Her face showed a little of the age it usually hid, but that would be gone before she left the building. A few candles were coming back to life, and the crone rose up enough to allow her to waddle forward.

"If you move, this will go very wrong, and you do not want that." The voice was soft, almost sweet. Yet, there was a definite warning mixed in with the sweetness. The small woman settled down just outside the circle. The City would feel the small hands moving over the skin of its body as if looking for something. "You do not want to hurt more, do you?"

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i_blankityblank
2012-02-14 02:32 am UTC (link)

It might not have normally listened to the crone in this situation, but she seemed to be right. Moving at the moment only brought about more pain, and The City was about finished with feeling that particular sensation. It eased itself down and looked into the darkness.

Light was slowly coming through, and it worried that it had gone temporarily blind, that it was only relearning how to see. It moved it's head just enough to see the candles, and then understood.

It wanted to rail against Baba Yaga, to yell at her, to get up screaming. But the tone of her voice stopped it. It didn't know how things could go more wrong than they already had, and it honestly didn't want to know. It was afraid. Truly afraid. A feeling that it had not ever wanted to experience.

"I don't want to hurt more." It agreed. The voice that came out was raw, it hurt to speak. Had this body been screaming? What had she done to it? Where was the body it was used to? Why had she called it into a vessel that did not belong to it?

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i_cast
2012-02-14 02:47 am UTC (link)

"There are few who do." The crone claimed one of the City's new arms, dragging it toward her and turning it over to expose the wrist. That was all the small woman said, and without warning, a sharp blade slit through the skin. It wasn't meant to hurt, but to let blood flow into a bowl. The cut was quickly bound as soon as the crone had enough blood for what she wanted to do next.

"Hold still now." Her voice was still soft, and it was once more working another soft spell. The tip of a finger dipped into the bowl then scrawled on the ground as well as the body. The City might feel something else now. The binding was being doubled and redoubled. The City was being sealed within that mortal shell.

"Thomas." The name was said as if it were the end of the spell. Thomas was the body, the body was the City, the City was Thomas. "You are Thomas. You are here and now." Her voice was even more ragged than it had been before. She didn't remake the City so much as alter it. Some might say she'd added to it, but she had certainly cut it off from its power, or had that intention.

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i_blankityblank
2012-02-14 02:52 am UTC (link)

The City did feel something else. It felt as if it were being crushed down. The sensation didn't create more pain, but there was a definite sense of restriction. The City felt as if it had tried to squeeze on a pair of shoes that were four times too small, only over the whole of this new body.

There was an ache, a desire to stretch out. To break through somehow and be free of this. It felt stuffed in and confined. For a good couple of minutes, The City struggled against the feeling, as if it might rip the skin of the body and be given more room.

Then, that feeling was over. There was also no feeling of it's own powers. Something that he had never noticed before, but noticed now due to absence. Where there had been greatness before, there was a void. It could do nothing. It could feel nothing outside of this body. Startling. Strange. Unnerving.

"Thomas?" It still didn't move. It wasn't sure that the spell was over, and she had warned that there would be more pain. It didn't want more pain. "Why?"

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i_cast
2012-02-14 03:04 am UTC (link)

"Why?" The question was spat right back at the City in its new body. His new body. "You know exactly why."

Finally the crone stood and started stepping back from the circle with the City Thomas within. The same crone waddled off to get something. Soon, there would be the smell of something stingy, astringent almost. The blood and whatever else was on the floor started to dissolve on the flooring. It was possible whatever she was using would probably burst into flames with just a hint of flame.

"Thomas is the name of that body." Anything keeping the body still other than being forced into it was gone. "You will need to know this now. You will need to use this. You are mortal, little man."

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i_blankityblank
2012-02-14 03:11 am UTC (link)

The thought that Baba Yaga was mad enough at The City for keeping her in the boy shape she'd taken when it had wanted to show her the full scope of it's power, was one that had briefly occurred to it before. But now that seemed to be confirmed.

It had never supposed that she would be able to gather enough power to do something like this. It had thought that any use of it's own power, that it had given her access to, was something that it would be able to feel, and stop. The big mistake was to think that she would always use it's power in what she did. Clearly, whatever had been done here was something completely outside. She had not even tapped in.

Something had given her the strength to do this, and it had no idea what.

Carefully, The City sat up, inspecting the body. It felt every inch of the flesh without touching it. It could hear it's own heart beating. It could feel discomfort in the stomach area that it couldn't name.

Emotions it had never felt before washed over The City. It wanted to scream. To cry. It managed to hold back because it knew that such things would only anger the crone. It didn't want more punishment.

"So, I am Thomas." It looked at the hand attached to the arm of the body it was now in. It's hand. No. His hand. This body was absolutely male, there was no way to ditch the body. The City was he.

He looked at Baba Yaga, worried. "What will you do with me now?" he didn't think that she would be kind enough to reverse everything that had been done, but there was still a small hope in the question.

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i_cast
2012-02-14 03:24 am UTC (link)

"There are clothes. I suggest you put them on; they do not like humans to walk about in the nude." The crone walked away to pull on a robe to cover the mess that was her body. Her head tilted slightly as she looked over the floor with the spreading blood. She nodded to herself and tipped over another bottle of the cleaner.

"You will want to move quickly, as I intend to burn this place to the ground." She was very matter of fact. Sandals were slid on to bare feet. "You will live amongst us, and you will learn what it is like to be stuck in a body you do not want to be in. You will talk to those you have brought here, and..." She moved back to the City in its Thomas body, eyes narrowing.

"You will see me again. I have plans for you, and you will know what it means to piss an old woman with powers and knowledge beyond your kin off. She is not one to be messed with." There was a growl in the voice, and her face changed for a moment to show the age that Red hid. There was definitely dark anger in the seemingly rhummy eyes.

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i_blankityblank
2012-02-14 03:36 am UTC (link)

What she was saying confused him for a moment. The meanings of it all slipped in and The City... Thomas... felt fear. There was a fear of being out in the world without the power, a fear of the pending fire.

He was putting on the clothing she had indicated, quickly as possible, when she began to speak of another meeting. Which did not sound friendly at all.

Thomas stopped long enough to stare at her and see that other face. Hear the threat in the words. But the idea of the fire caught him again, and he began to struggle into the clothing.

Where was he going to go? What was he going to do? He had no powers. He had nothing. She had taken away everything. What did she intend for him in the future? Could he hide from her?

The clothing was on, for the most part. Thomas looked around, unsure.

"Do I leave?" he didn't want to do anything to piss her off more.

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i_cast
2012-02-14 03:49 am UTC (link)

"You may stay if you want, but..." The crone's hand lifted, and one of the lit candles fell. Another lit candle fell, and then another. Eventually the cleanser she'd used caught fire.

"I do not think you want to. You can die now, little man." She started to walk away, as if whatever was happening behind her was nothing. She ignored the fire as it started to dance across the floor and up the walls. The smell of burnt flesh from the dead things that were littered about the room rose. Things were dead, and if he stayed behind, there would be one more.

"I would suggest you leave." She continued to walk away. "If you ever want to be set free, you will want to remain alive."

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i_blankityblank
2012-02-14 03:51 am UTC (link)

Thomas' eyes went wide when things started to burn. He could already smell the burning of the dead flesh, which he hadn't noticed before the fire.

With panic, he looked around for a door, and when he spotted it, he made for it as fast as he could. He kept trying to push himself from the body to no avail, as instinct and the urge to survive rose in him.

He turned and looked at the crone as he passed her.

The last words that he heard from her did nothing but cause him to worry more.

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