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chaos_vincent ([info]chaos_vincent) wrote in [info]mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-08-08 18:04:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:arrival, complete, day 10, katara, vincent valentine

This is my punishment...
Who: Vincent Valentine and Katara
When: Day 10, around 4 am
Where: Nibelheim/On the Beach
What: Vincent's Arrival
Rating: PG-13
Status: COMPLETE



She was... dying.

Even thinking about it caused his hands to shake and his stomach to clench so violently that he thought he might vomit right there. A part of him ached to toss himself down the long spiral stair case, to pave the way for her into oblivion, perhaps hold the gates open to that next place, wherever they went when they were taken back into the Lifestream. It would be quick, painless, perhaps his body would leave a slight smear on the ground from where he once had been, but then, it would all just fade away, to join the planet once again.

Vincent realized he was hyperventilating, his breath coming in ragged spurts as he stared down into the depths of what seemed like oblivion, but was really the long spiral staircase of the Shinra manor on the outskirts of Nibelheim. It was a secret staircase, kept from all of the grunt shinra troops who guarded them day and night. Vincent had heard Hojo muttering something about a new project to create a new class of 'soldiers', but none of that concerned him now, nothing seemed to matter anymore.

Dr. Lucrecia Crescent... was dying.

No. NO! There had to be a way to stop it. Lucre- Dr. Crescents work dealt with the sort of miracles that had happened eons ago, with forces which had mastered life and death. The Ancients, the Weapons created by the Planet, and the Lifestream. There had to be answers, ways that he could find, somehow, to save her. There had to be a way. All he needed to do was get into her files, do the research that she'd done... that she and his father had done together. The thought of that used to sting, that she'd kept it from him, but now, now it might just fix everything, if he could figure out a way to link together the work that he'd known his father was doing with the encrypted notes that were available from the Shinra database... he'd not scored too poorly on his science exams... he could find a way before it was too late...

Dr. Crescent... he couldn't think of her as Lucrecia anymore. Lucrecia was the name of the person he loved, and Dr. Crescent was... the scientist, the woman who was married to another. Vincent could recall clearly as day the first day that he'd met her... even back then she was an oddball, mumbling to herself even after he'd introduced himself. But she'd smelled like sakura, the scent of the cherry blossoms that bloomed in the spring falling down around him when he was little, and her eyes were such a deep brown that they could take someone in even more easily than a newborn puppy.

He'd sworn to his friends at the time that the whole assignment was going to be a waste of his skills. After all, what good was it to protect some nerdy scientist who probably didn't have a single death threat against them? He'd joined the Turks so that he could be a hero, and most importantly so that he could find out what had happened to his father, what true tale there was behind the 'classified' that was marked on his funeral certificate. He had to know the answers, know what kind of a man his father really was, when he was traveling to all of those strange places, never writing home save for the odd letter now and again which felt more like a monthly bill than a warm letter home.

But seeing her there, in the dim lights of the lower basement of the Shinra manor everything had vanished. She'd not been the nerdy, ugly, cold thing he'd expected. She'd been full of warmth, and seeing her the first time he'd had to hold back a bit of a blush in awe of the way that she looked. There had been a point in time when he'd thought that she and he could have been...

Instead she chose Hojo... Hojo who had been everything he expected a Shinra scientist to be. Cold, condescending, holier than thou son of a bitch! Hojo was playing with fire, each experiment getting more and more dangerous, more along the lines of insanity than real science. Vincent didn't know much, but taking random stabs in the dark and trying to get results wasn't exactly in line with the scientific method. How... how could Lucrecia have chosen Hojo? How could they have decided to...

Vincent tried to stifle the memories as he walked down the stairs but they came flooding in a torrent now. Standing there before Lucrecia and Hojo, asking them both how they could experiment on their own unborn child. And they'd told him that they were sure they knew what they were doing, that as scientists they understood the risk... for a moment though, for a brief moment he'd thought... Lucrecia was asking him to stop them... but he'd not listened, instead he'd done nothing.

That was his sin.

But sins were meant to be atoned for. He could find a way now... he could make it all better, somehow. Perhaps, perhaps Dr. Crescent might lose the baby, but at the rate she was going both her and the child were going to be killed. Implanting Jenova cells, alien DNA inside of her womb while the child was still growing... it was insanity! They weren't peforming an experiment, they were giving birth to a monster, if Lucrecia was even going to be able to live long enough to carry to term at all. Hojo was just using her as an incubation tube for his next monster!

As he walked down the dark and forboding hallway each step made him shake with more and more rage. Hojo wouldn't let anyone see Lucrecia any more, and Vincent had no idea if she'd been taken to a doctor, or moved to the hospital in Shinra to seek proper medical care. Somehow he doubted it, Hojo didn't seem like he cared for more than his experiment... not his wife, not his unborn child, not what anyone else thought.

Pale fingertips lingered on the door for a moment, testing it lightly as one does a doorknob in case of a fire, but the metal was cool beneath, and it was so late that no one was likely here anymore. With a deep breath he slipped inside, only to see the shadowy form of Dr. Hojo standing in the corner. Every ounce of him told him that he should just leave and come back later when the spider wasn't about, but anger and bile rose up in his throat at how casually the good doctor was minding his test tubes, writing down numbers... he should be at Lucrecia's side, not performing senseless experiments while everything that mattered in this world was washing slowly down the drain.

"HOJO!" Vincent growled darkly as he stormed up to the scientist. The scientist was holding something, but Vincent was too angry to care now. Every breath now was heated with fiery rage that seemed to want to bubble over and consume him completely. "TALK! Why did you let this happen?!"

"Silence." the balding scientist said, and Vincent drew in a breath as he realized what the silver thing that Hojo was holding, just as the scientist leveled it at him.

As the Turk stared down the long barrel of a rather high caliber handgun, he drew in a slow breath, taking a step back. Hojo had clearly finally lost his mind, if he'd ever was sane to begin with. "You-" Vincent began, but his words were cut off as a loud blast rang out, filling the room.

"Silence!" Hojo squealed, but there was no reason to demand it anymore.

As he fell down to the ground, Vincent realized that dying felt... different than he thought it would. There wasn't the pain he'd expected to be, rather an odd warmth that was spreading across his chest as his vision started to blur. He had experienced enough training to know that his lung had been shot, and that even if he were right outside of a hospital, surgery for it would have low odds of survival. But he was far away from any hospital, and he knew Hojo better than to think that the man was going to let him live.

While the sweet sound of blackness began to swallow up his senses, however, he heard the hauntingly high pitched whine of Hojo's voice ringing in his ears. "Why? Why can't these people just keep quiet?" And then the footsteps began to approach Vincent, and he knew the scientist was looking over him. "Yes, I can use his body.... for my next experiment..."

Vincent felt cold horror spreading over him at the doctor's words, and his hand clawed at the ground, in a feeble attempt to try to pull himself out of the room. No, he didn't care if he lived or died, but not that... he had seen what happened to Hojo's 'experiments'. While he tried to speak, Hojo mused to himself further. "Success here will justify all previous failures!"

The world dissolved into a horrid spiral of Hojo's insane laughter.


If death had been a pleasant thing, then the undeath that Hojo forced upon him was the opposite. Caught somewhere between life and death Vincent stirred ever so slightly at the sound of a drill, and the feeling of something cold splattering against his face. At first he didn't know what it was and then suddenly their came the pain, unimaginable pain that echoed to the deepest depths of his soul as the sickening realization hit him that dying bodies didn't need anestetic as far as Hojo was concerned. As he tried to flail against his captor he realized his arms and legs had been shackled down to the operating table. He didn't have long to suffer though before the intense pain made him black out.

But even oblivion gave him up too quickly, and it could not have been moments more before he awaked to the same sickening sound, the agony. Over and over again his body gave out from pure overload of agony, only to wake moments later. Vincent could not be certain how long passed once the darkness took him, only that he would awake again to find himself writhing again in sheer suffering... it felt like years passed in those heartbeats, every thud of his chest seeming to slow down like a slow thunderclap on the horizon. And through it all a loud sound seemed to fill everything...

Vincent eventually realized it was the sound of his own screams.

Lucrecia died.
He wasn't sure how he knew she was dead... but somehow, he knew. Like a part of his soul had been stolen from him while he slept, something cut out of his chest along with the rest of the flesh that Hojo had torn from him, to make room for... something else. As consciousness slowly began to dawn on him he realized that this was all his fault. He'd not been able to atone for what he'd done... letting Lucrecia kill herself for Hojo was still his sin...

And this... this was his punishment.

Slowly he blinked and looked down at the red fabric covering him. His vision was blurry, and as it came into focus, he noticed he had no feet. Instead, in their place, were two large paws, covered by dark blue fur which did little to hide the massive claws that were from them. What had-

But even as he tried to make sense of it, he saw his hands come into view. Where once there had been soft fingers, now there were freakish talon like claws. Vincent could hear himself whimper, and yet it didn't sound like him at all... and with a sickening lurch of his stomach, it all became clear now...

Vincent Valentine had become Hojo's first successful experiment.

The monster that he'd become barely noticed as it ripped the chains from the wall as if it were paper and not stone, nor did it really heed the Shinra guards who came running, only to stop in horror at what they saw.

"Holy fuck... what did Hojo DO?" claimed one of them as he saw Vincent, and in that moment malice began to thicken around Vincent like a choking smog.

The guards were dead before they had a chance to sound an alarm, but their screams echoed in Vincent's ears like a siren, drowning out the rattle of his chains as he stormed through the halls, the tattered crimson cape around his shoulders flowing behind him. His breath came out in bursts of flame, scorching his lips as he stumbled through the darkness...

And onto a cool beach by the ocean, on a planet very different from the one he'd come from.

His heart still racing, Vincent stared at his surroundings for a long moment. Was he dying? Was he mad? There was no door where he'd come from before... could he have blacked out and made it to the shore already? Yet this place was not the Planet from which he came... instinctually he knew that, something inside of him rumbled at the idea, as if it was important that he go back, yet he had no idea why.

Beside him there was a large tattered cloth of some kind, and Vincent eagerly snatched it up, throwing it around his form like a cloak. He could use it to hide his hands, and his feet, and... what else had changed? Slowly he stumbled on shaky legs towards a puddle of water that gleamed with a dim reflection from the light of his fiery breath, staring down into the puddle at his reflection. The Galian Beast stared back at him.

It seemed to almost have the snout of a dog, but from it's muzzle a horrible disarray of teeth could be seen, a long pink tongue sliding through them every now and again like a snake's. It was the most hideous thing Vincent had ever see in his life... the monster he'd been made into. "No..." he tried to say, but it came out distorted, sounding half like an animal crying and half like someone trying to speak.

In the cold hours of the morning, through the dull roar of the constant winds around the resort, a piercing cry rose above it all as Vincent Valentine screamed to the heavens.


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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-09 08:33 pm UTC (link)
Katara tossed and turned on the warm pelts in her room. Her sleep had been on and off since about midnight, despite having gone to bed and fallen asleep around ten o’clock in the evening. Two hours of peaceful sleep, shattered by restlessness. The waterbender wasn’t even dreaming. She simply continued to awaken just the slightest, needing to roll over into a more comfortable position before falling into a deeper sleep, only to awaken once more.

What was wrong with her? Was she upset that Toph was here, or was she so elated she couldn’t sleep? Having someone she cared about here made her feel better and worse at the same time. It made her wonder if anyone else was going to come. Would Aang be next, or Sokka, or even Zuko? What about her father, or Iroh? Would the Planet want to take on the less appealing characters of Azula or Ozai? Were these questions even what were really bothering her? Something else, something deeper that she couldn’t touch seemed to grasp her.

After a few more hours of tossing and turning, Katara could no longer take it. She hoisted herself out of bed, not even bothering to dress into anything presentable. Who would be up this late anyway? Clothed in a mint green robe of Earth Kingdom style, the waterbender’s feet padded softly across the room and out the door into the hallway. Silver-blue eyes gazed fleetingly at Toph’s door across the way before she turned and walked down the hall toward the exit to the outside. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do; she only felt she needed to be outside for a bit, even if it would only be to walk to the main building through a massive storm.

The storm continued to rage outside, cold winds and even colder waters. That was okay, though, because Katara’s bending was stronger when it rained- for obvious reasons. This storm was brutal, though, and she couldn’t control the wind. An idea struck her that probably would have aided her the day before when she and Toph walked back and forth through here, but she’d had the earthbender to throw up earthen blockades against the howling wind. The waterbender whooshed her arms over her head to form a dome of water as she walked out into the night, kicking the door to the building closed behind her. In another instant the dome was frozen about her, effectively blocking out the wind. She needed to keep her arms moving to keep the domed shape floating above her, but it wasn’t nearly as much work now that she didn’t have to worry about controlling every single droplet so the wind didn’t cause her to be sprayed.

Katara had gotten halfway to the main building when a terrible shriek sounded in her ears, chilling her more than this storm could ever hope to do. It did not hinder her bending, though. It wasn’t often that a mere sound could shatter her concentration enough to cause her to slip. However, the sound did strike a cord within her, making her feel sad. The cry was forlorn, something between a human and an animal, yet distorted, so she couldn’t quite distinguish to which it belonged, though it did seem a bit more human than animal as it wavered back and forth between human and beast.

The waterbender began moving toward the area from which the sound came, bending the water dome around herself to keep it steady. What if the person from whom the sound emitted was hurt or in danger of being harmed? Despite the terrifying sound, the femme couldn’t simply ignore the cry. The young woman had made a promise to herself many years ago that she would never turn her back on any that needed her, and, though she wasn’t sure if someone really needed her, the chance that they did drove her.

Katara neared the beach, ensuring that her dome was clear enough to allow her to see. Despite that, she continued to have an extremely hard time viewing things around her. Lightning flashed every now and again, aiding her to a small extent.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-09 08:34 pm UTC (link)
Her feet sank into the wet earth that soon changed to wet sand. The wind pushed at her ice-dome, threatening to knock her off course as she moved. Lightning struck somewhere in the distance, illuminating the darkness so she noted a silhouetted figure a short distance away. The closer she got, the smaller she made her dome, so it was more like an aura about her than a building of sorts. She didn’t want to frighten whoever was there by showing up as a large domed… thing. Most people here didn’t know about bending, so they couldn’t imagine someone could form an ice dome about themselves from the rain water that hammered about, blown crazily by the wind.

When she was about a yard away from him, Katara melted the ice so she was bending rain water again, but she increased the size of the dome so it included him before refreezing it. After all, the femme didn’t want to accidentally hit him with a wall of ice.

He was quite large, and, with another shock of lightning illuminating the area, she realized he wasn’t human. His appearance was mostly covered by a big cloth of some sort. Despite this covering, she could see glowing, yellow eyes gazing at her, and horns curled from his head from his rain soaked and matted grey-white hair. The cloth couldn’t quite extend to cover the clawed hands and paw-feet that he bore. For a moment her breath caught in her throat, and fear slipped it’s icy fingers around her, forcing her to lose her concentration, so the dome disappeared, and both were enveloped by the storm.

No! What was wrong with her! Whatever this creature was, the Planet had to have brought him here. He hadn’t yet attacked her, so she doubted he was as dangerous as he looked. He was a living being, too. He was probably a common being in his world. Quickly, despite the wind that nearly forced her from her feet, Katara created the dome again and froze it around them. Her frame shook slightly in his presence, but she was determined not to allow his physical appearance to deter her from him. “I’m so sorry! I’m just tired! I haven’t slept well this evening!” She yelled in an attempt to cover the fact that she’d been frightened of him while trying to be heard over the wind. “We need to get out of this storm! It’s been going on for days, and I don’t think it’s going to subside any time soon!” The waterbender suppressed any inklings of fear that attempted to creep back upon her as she looked upon this inhuman creature.

They were both soaked now. The point of the dome had been to keep her dry, yet the water had soaked through her robe, and her hair was matted down over her face and shoulders. The mint green robe clung to her curves in an enticing way, but being so wet when she wanted to remain dry was uncomfortable. Katara proceeded to attempt to bend the water first from him, then from herself.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-09 11:00 pm UTC (link)
It wasn't overly surprising that Katara recoiled in terror. The Galian beast looked, cloaked as it was, something along the lines of a story book boogeyman. Glowing eyes accentuated the long twisted dark muzzle, which had jagged gleaming teeth in it every which way she could think of looking, forever frozen in a snarl akin to a rabid dog that was about to bite. Along the tips of the teeth if she caught it she would still be able to see blood dangling from his teeth like saliva, and there were telltale stains along his muzzle and the claws which clutched his garment. Wherever this beast had come from it was clear that it had killed, and recently, and from the look upon it's face, it meant to do so again.

Inside of the creature a storm raged that put the hurricane around them to shame. Where Vincent had been a silent and calm assassin when the times had called for it as a Turk, the Galian beast was fury, unrelenting unending fury. It battered at his senses like a freight train slamming into a brick wall, blurring his vision and making his body shake with a crack addict's tremors. Nearly gone was the part of his mind that knew greetings, and in it's place came the instinctual longings of a rabid wolf. The thing in front of him was made of flesh, it could be eaten. He was not hungry, but it could be dangerous. A moment before Katara's cry pierced the air the thing hunched down, waiting to see what happened.

Warily the eyes of the creature darted back and forth as a wall of ice surrounded both of them, but it did not seem the slightest bit afraid by these powers, only cautious, perhaps curious. And then... she saw him.

As she slightly recoiled in horror and tried to explain herself, she didn't get a moment to do so. Instead her words were interrupted by a roar from the creature and a burst of energy that flew out in sudden gale force. And in that heartbeat the creature lunged, it's protection forgotten as it tackled her to the ground, hands coming down on her arms to hold them down as it stared at her venemously.

Another bolt of lightning tore across the sky and she could see that it was mainly covered in dark blue/purple fur, save for what almost looked like hair around it's mane which was so white that the lightning reflected off of it was nearly blinding. She could feel something drip on her cheek, and if her mind dared to realize she would be able to smell that it was blood which had fallen from those rows of terrible teeth.

With the briefest pause suddenly the creature's head reached down and snapped vicously at her, clacking like steel traps slamming shut in front of her face, but neither the teeth nor the claws that held her made a mark on her. The creature above her, looking more beast than man panted, and as it breathed heavily now and again she would feel her face lightly irritated by the sudden plume of flame that errupted from it's mouth.

Kill. Kill it. It will tell others. It is not friend, it must die.

Beastial thoughts rained down one after the other until they became a cacophany in Vincent's brain, a roaring crowd that made no sense. The Galian beast could smell her fear, her perfume, her body and pheremones, the sweet way that she smelled. Her quick heartbeat echoed like a war drum in his brain. He could see her pores beginning to sweat slightly from the heat of his breath and saw her pupils diallate in fear of him. And with each breath the one thing his simple mind spoke only a single thing to him:

KILL HER.

The Galian beast roared again into the night, and as close as she was it was nearly enough to make Katara's ears ring at the sound, but in the next heartbeat the creature was off of her, having leapt a few feet away. It's head was against the ground, and it's claws were digging into its own shoulders, bright blood streaming down and staining it's fur as it clawed at itself, whimpering in that way it had previously that was half human and half animal, mournful and tortured and afraid.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-09 11:00 pm UTC (link)
"NOAAAORRRW!" It tried to protest to itself, but the 'no' came out to be incomprehensible.

"Not... a MONSTER NOT A OOOOOuuAAAAARRRRR" It's claws dug deeper into itself as it shuddered and screamed, rolling around for a moment and then rolled to the side with inhuman speed to snatch up the cloth it had previously used to cover itself, a pair of pale yellow eyes staring at Katara once again from beneath the black folds of the cloak. Whatever it was, it was afraid to let her see it. Now it stared at her like a cornered animal... and it became clear if she made any sudden movements it was likely to attack her again...

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-09 11:25 pm UTC (link)
Katara’s fear slowed her, and the creature was extremely fast. When he closed the distance between them, she hadn’t reacted quickly enough to use her bending to protect her. A shield of ice began to plummet down to put a wall between the beast and the waterbender, but he dove beneath it and tackled her to the ground. With an umph, the dome shattered into droplets of rain as her hands were pinned to the sand.

Whatever this creature was, he was fast and incredibly strong. Katara couldn’t move her arms out of his grasp, despite how slippery and wet they happened to be. She struggled hard against him, trying to untangle her feet from the cloth he’d worn. If it hadn’t been for the wild rain pummeling them from the sky, blown about by the wind, the young woman might have noted what dripped on her cheek. The smell of sea salt filled her nostrils, and it masked the scent on his breath.

As an instinctual reaction to his teeth snapping at her face, her head jerked to the side- being unable to jerk back deeper into the ground- as a whimper left her lips. She struggled even harder to untangle her feet from the sodden cloth. If she could just free those, she could waterbend her way out of this. Most waterbending was done with the hands, but this particular bender had developed the skills to do so with her feet as well.

Katara inhaled a sharp breath of air as fire emitted from his mouth, sizzling the rainwater on her cheek. She cringed as she heard his terrible cry, finally freeing her feet. With a flair of her legs, a whip of water cracked out of the rain, straight for his face. It never touched him, though, as he had removed himself from her person.

The waterbender had hardly had a chance to recover before she automatically moved to her feet. It didn’t take thought, it took instinct and reflex. The rain came together to form dozens of long, thick, sharp spikes, hovering, pointing at her attacker. Katara didn’t intend to kill him, but she did intend to throw them in such a way as would render him incapacitated. He wouldn’t be able to move more than a few centimeters. The waterbender’s aim was magnificent; she wouldn’t miss even if he were a moving target.

The wind whipped at her matted hair and sodden robe, chilling her, but she did not move. Katara waited for him to strike out at her, so she could imprison him, so he would know exactly why she had done it. The spikes lowered half an inch as he moved for the cloth, but she kept them hovering when she realized he wasn’t after her again.

At first, her brain simply couldn’t comprehend what was happening. He was howling something, but she couldn’t make out the words in this storm, and his beastly way of speaking didn’t help a bit. It stared at her, and she stared at him, waiting, ever watchful.

“If you attack me again, you will regret it!” She shouted as loud as possible to be heard over the hurricane. “It’s a rule that one person is not allowed to kill another! I mean you no harm, but if you attack me again, I will defend myself!” Now that she was prepared, alert, nothing would stop her from defending herself properly, not even his speed. She was agile and one of the greatest waterbenders in her world. There was so much water around her that she could do any fighting style she wished, quickly and efficiently.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-10 12:06 am UTC (link)
Fear.

There was fear in the water benders eyes, but despite the powers she'd displayed, Vincent's brain saw her as a girl. She was a little girl, probably almost a decade younger than him, trying to fend off some horrid monster that she probably thought was coming out of her nightmares. If he could have held a coherent thought than he would have tried to say as much to her, tried to apologize. But it was like trying to throw a paper airplane into the eye of a tornado, and no matter how straight and true the thought started it would get swept up in the miasma of beastial thoughts that flowed through him, making him into a beserker demon, a mindless, soulless instrument of destruction.

But even though the Galian Beast had no soul, Vincent did. Vincent had to figure out a way to maintain control. Pain helped it, and while the water bender readied herself his nails dug even tighter into his sides, clawing slash marks into his hide until black blood began to drip from him onto the ground. But where it landed it made an awful stench and a hiss, smelling of decay and sulfer, the torrid smell of the depths of hell itself.

The waterbender readied herself, and all the while the intense eyes of the beast watched as it tried to hide itself. However, if she was expecting that it would leap on her again, the Galian beast was going to disappoint, as Vincent was fighting the creature with every ounce of the humanity he had locked away inside of himself. The creature appeared to, rather than bristle at her, prostrate itself on the ground, it's head lowering as it's big paws covered it's face, half hiding it's eyes from her as it seemed to be trying to shut the world out.

And softly at first, then louder came the voice. At first, if she strained against the sound of the wind around them both, it would have sounded startling human, the deep bass rumble of a man rather than the thing before her... but man or beast, the words sounded pitiful, pleading, and yet completely insane at the same time, the sanity of Vincent crumbling more by the minute. "This isn't me... this isn't me this isn't me I'm not a monster this isn't me this isn't me THOUS OUSN'T MEOOOUUuu ARROOUUUNN....NOOOOO!"

The creature's head shot back as it's words dissolved into a series of moans and snarls that were no longer human, and suddenly let out another blood curdling howl into the night. This time, however, the howl was caught up as the creature suddenly seemed to choke on something, and then from out of it's lips a sphere of fire errupted into the night, startlingly bright against the darkness, shooting up into the air before eventually leaving site, though it was doubtful that the young girl in front of him would pay attention to that rather than him.

A whimper of defeat came from the creature as it's head sunk down, not even seeming to acknowledge Katara for a long moment. This was no dream, he was a monster... Hojo had made him permanently into a freak, some creature he barely had control over. And when he lost control? Would he wake up with this girl's blood on his teeth? Or someone elses? Would he remember what he did? Or would humanity come back to him less and less over time until one day he'd be like any other wild thing, and act completely on instinct? Not caring about what it did, feasting on whatever it deemed a threat or weak and tasty...

Slowly those pale yellow eyes dared to look up at Katara again and focus on her. Her heart was beating, but not as fast as it was before. Her muscles were tensed, but the look in her eye spoke volumes. She was ready for him, ready for a fight. And, in a strange way, in that moment she was startlingly beautiful as well, lean muscles tensed and flawless in the chilling rain, an angry angel ready to deal out heaven's wrath.

In that moment, the demon before her knew what had to be done.

"Kill me." Vincent's deep voice sounded through the storm.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-10 12:07 am UTC (link)
Then with deliberate slowness his hands let the sheet fall from his form and flutter away in the wind. The creature before her looked something akin to a demon mixed with a werewolf, the wolf muzzle and glowing eyes mixed with demonic horns that rose full above his head. He rose to his full height which towered above her, his chest starting to heave as he stared down at her, playing the part of the monster as best he could while keeping the beast in control.

"KILL ME!" He roared over the wind, and belched a fireball at her feet. To her it might have looked like a legitimate attack, but Vincent was very careful to make sure that it didn't hit her. At her feet the fireball smoldered and burned the sand into a smooth glass. But as the glass cooled the beast began to advance on Katara, slowly, hoping to god that the water bender would put him out of his misery... eternally.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-10 01:57 am UTC (link)
Katara watched his dark shape as it moved. A flash of lightning revealed the harm he caused himself, and it caused her brows to cinch together almost sympathetically. It did not deter her concentration, but if he hadn’t attacked her, she would have felt sorry for the beast. In that flash of lightning, she had seen his blood sizzle as it dripped to the sand. What was this creature?

Whatever was going on within this creature tormented him fiercely. Katara knew he must be fighting the urge to attack her again, but she was okay because she was ready. Suddenly he began speaking, but it was raining so hard and the wind was howling so much she couldn’t understand him at all. The words sounded a bit more human for a moment, but then they turned beastly again.

Katara didn’t move as the creature belched fire; she only watched his face as it was illuminated by the flames. He was a firebender in a way, she realized, but he didn’t accomplish it with the same forms. Something sounded through the storm, a strong voice, a human voice that pleaded with her, but she couldn’t quite make out the words.

Her lips parted, though the giant icicles remained hovering in place as his cloak fell away. A flash of lightning snapped in the distance, revealing him to her completely as he made himself appear larger and more threatening. The second time he yelled the words, Katara understood them, and jumped back as they were accentuated with a belch of hot fire. She had never knowingly killed anyone in her life, how could she do so now? She wouldn’t, and she had never intended to do so. When she jumped the floating spiked of ice had moved ever so slightly with her. When he moved toward her, he wasn’t nearly as fast as he had been. His movements were slow and deliberate, meant to intimidate and force her to harm him, but it wouldn’t work.

Rather than risk him harming her, though, she quickly shot her arms in a downward sweeping motion, tweaking the arrangement of the giant icicles as they descended upon the beast. They moved so quickly that they embedded deeply, firmly, into the sand. Their positions were such that he hadn’t a single scratch upon his person that wasn’t already there, yet they pressed in on him imposingly, letting him know he would no longer be able to move. With a bit more bending, she used the falling rain to encase his body in ice to add support to the spikes. He wouldn’t even be able to get leverage enough to break free.

Katara waited one more moment, and finally, satisfied with her work, she moved near enough to the beast that she could touch him if she reached out. She didn’t want to do that. “I told you I meant you no harm, and I did defend myself! There are rules in this place, and I don’t wish to suffer the punishment from having your blood on my hands!” Growing thoroughly annoyed with the impossibility of moving through all of this wind, and hardly being able to hear herself think, she threw up another ice dome just as a crack of lightning shattered the sky. It was a smidgen quieter, but the rain beat and the wind howled just outside the makeshift cover. “I’m sorry to do this to you. No one likes to be confined, but I can’t have you hurting me or yourself. Please, be calm for a moment. I know you can understand me, somewhere inside you. I am not your enemy.

“I think you just got here, so I need to tell you some things. You’re not where you come from any more. You’re on another Planet called the Mirage. Killing will result in punishments I don’t care to find out about. I’m sure right now the key to your room is blinking in the lobby. You have a room, and it can look however you want it to look. Please, just stay calm enough that I can let you free and show you the things you need to see. If you’re hungry there is food here, but I’m not it.

“I want to help you, but not by killing you. I can’t do that. Will you please be calm enough, so I can help you?” Her words were strong and loud enough to be heard over the storm, but there was a calming, comforting note tucked away in them, as well as a pleading tone.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-10 02:36 am UTC (link)
As the second flash of lightning appeared, Katara might notice the wounds on the beasts arms had started to close, as if like a werewolf there were something about it that allowed itself to heal. But there wasn't a lot of time for thinking about the anatomy of something that may or may not decide to kill you at a given moment, even if for the time being it seemed to be toying with her.

It didn't dodge the spears as they rained down from the heavens, instead it stood there, and it's yellow eyes drew closed, taking in a slow breath as if to say 'this is it, I'm ready'. Truly Vincent knew his life as he'd known it was over. There was no going back to what was. Even if he could, Lucrecia was gone, dead forever. He couldn't undo what Hojo had done, what he had let Hojo do. He couldn't bring her back to life, and now he was stuck in some abomination between life and undeath. Vincent had felt himself die... but yet he was still alive. It all felt wrong, like some twisted dream that he couldn't wake from. Better to end it now, end it like this and be free...

But instead of freedom, Katara gave him a cage of ice. As her ice began to solidify she would see the hulking monster thrash against the cage, consumed by rage, it's eyes flying open and staring at her with such utter hatred as she'd never known. The spears of ice began to crack and buckle under the straing of the movement but her solidification was faster, the rain cascading down upon the ice seeping into the cracks to refortify them faster than the Galian beast could push, until at last there was no movement at all.

Paying close attention to the ice as she was she would feel parts of it crunch ever so slightly as the beasts powerful muscles flexed in a futile attempt to break it... but it was clear given enough time it stood a chance of doing it, were she not there to make sure that the ice she'd placed around him was constantly refortified.

Helpless against the waterbender, as she stepped closer the beast roared once again loud enough to make her ears ring if she didn't cover them, whisps of flame errupting from it's mouth slightly as it looked down at her. If she thought of it, she might realize that having not covered the creature's mouth it could have shot a fireball at her as she approached it... but it did not, it merely stared at her in silent hatred, glaring at her with dark malice that not only came from the Galian beast, but from Vincent as well.

"I CAN'T CONTROUUWRRLL...." Vincent snarled and snapped as she told him to stay calm, his jaws suddenly snapping fiercely in her direction like a rabid animal trying to bite through a kennel's bars. Again the beast flexed most of it's muscles at once in an attempt to try to break the ice around it, but once more it was futile, and after a long moment of straining and stuggling it began to pant, it's energy starting to wane slightly as it looked down at her, it's eyes no longer filled with malice but something else...

"I can't... control it..." the beast said in a softer tone that sounded more human. "I'm trying..."

Slowly then before her eyes the creature began to shrink. The teeth shrunk back into the muzzle which slowly slid into his face, and as it did green balls of energy began to flutter in the air like tiny bits of snow floating from him off into the heavens. The pale hair turned a midnight shade of black, and hung limply over a face that seemed ageless. In a way he looked to be in his early twenties, but the hair and the eyes made him look older. For beneath the strands of black hair a pair of crimson eyes stared at her, filled with the sort of sadness one only reflects when they've experienced agony beyond mentioning.

"Why.... why won't you kill me..." Vincent pleaded with her again, his dark bass voice easily carrying over the wind. It was odd though, despite being encased in ice and appearing human he didn't shiver, as if the cold meant nothing to him. Or perhaps it was a part of him had already been frozen, eternally. "I deserve... to...die..."

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-10 02:36 am UTC (link)
But suddenly then his eyes widened and began to glow, his head slamming against the ice as his normally beautiful face twisted in agony and pain. And then suddenly in an explosion of ice and water the Galian Beast burst forth again, using the loose ice around Vincent's body as leverage when it grew. Stepping out of the remains of the ice cage the beast shuddered slightly, but did not attack.

"I think... I've stilled it's rage.... for now..." came the inhuman voice of the Galian Beast as it shuddered, but if Katara looked she would see it was still digging it's claws into it's arms... controlling the creature's mind must have been extraordinarily difficult...

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-10 04:05 am UTC (link)
Katara tried her best to ignore the fierce hatred apparent on his face when lightning flashed again. Had anyone ever looked at her like this before? Maybe Azula when she went crazy, but she couldn’t remember. It wasn’t often that anyone looked at her like that. It set an unwelcome knot in her throat, but she swallowed it to speak to him.

When she finished speaking, he spoke, but this time his voice was softer, calmer. She could hear, but only because she was closer, and the dome was around them. Katara’s silver-blue eyes widened as he began to transform. None in her world could do these things except the spirits. She had seen the Hei Bai spirit transform from a ferocious mutated creature into a docile, giant panda bear. However, Hei Bai could control his transformation. The waterbender wondered if perhaps this man was a spirit who simply couldn’t control his rages.

As a human, he was beautiful and enigmatic, his face hiding even his age. The sadness in his crimson eyes agonized her, bringing tears to her own eyes. Katara took a step nearer to him. “Please, understand. No one can kill while they’re here. No one deserves to die, not even you, and no one has the right to kill. I’ve never killed anyone before. I don’t intend to start.” Her voice carried tones of sympathy, compassion for his plight, and her eyes foretold the same feelings.

A small cry left her lips, and she shot herself backward, as he suddenly shattered the ice prison, and returned to his former form. She was ready to defend herself again in an instant should he attack, but he thankfully did not. Even though he claimed to have stilled it, and she believed it, she was afraid it would break out again. His speech, though more human, was halting and he seemed to have a hard time coping. He could crack any second. Perhaps she should do all of this quickly. She should take him to the courtyard first because it was still open to the rain, and she might need it. Then she would make him wait outside while she retrieved his key before showing him to his room.

“O-okay. I have a plan in my head. It’ll take a few minutes of your time, so please try to control whatever it is that’s so upset within you. You need to see this plaque. Everyone has to see it when they first get here. It’s a short, but sweet message from the Planet. I know it sounds crazy, but this entire place, this Planet, has brought everyone here, and it’s providing everything for us. Here, let me just…” With one hand she kept the dome around them while, with the other, she pulled the water from his person so he would at least be dry. With a flash of lightning that glimmered through the dome, she noticed some of the water was darker than the rest. Blood. She allowed it to fall to the sand where is sizzled for a moment.

Katara hated to see someone hurt themselves, but she half realized he needed to do it to help keep himself contained. “I can heal those for you later,” The waterbender said softly, “so they don’t scar as badly.” She hadn’t noticed they healed on their own; it was too dark. She wouldn’t go near enough to him until she believed he was fully contained. She motioned for him to walk beside her, though she was a distance away. He needed to see the plaque, he needed his room key, he needed control.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-10 04:52 am UTC (link)
For a moment, it had all been clear. For a moment he was looking at the girl and his vision was like it had been in life... the sounds of the wind hadn't hurt his ears, all of it had been right. And in that moment, Katara looked more beautiful than ever as she stepped up to him, her face barely visible save for the soft flashes of light that erupted now again in the distance. Her kind words reminded him of Lucrecia, the desire to make the world a better place rather than succumb to the violent organization that Shinra was building up to be. Vincent had no doubt that if she'd been given enough time, she would have tried to give her gifts to the world rather than trying to use them to get more power. Though she never told him why, he knew somewhere inside that she never wanted to see another person die in front of her... that if she'd known he wanted to die, she would be heartbroken.

But she was dead.

And the beast was unleashed again, and when the smoke cleared, the space between them was worlds apart. Not physically, but he could tell the way she watched him, and in truth it was for the best. The Galian beast in him had calmed somewhat, and it's images that flashed in his head were different now. There was still wariness, but the beast inside of him, perhaps responding to her kindness, or to his own determined struggle against it saw Katara as more of an ally know than an enemy. Someone to help not fight against. 'Friend' was the closest word Vincent had to equate with the sensation, but sadly he knew if the beast ever thought otherwise of her again it would likely lash out once more in anger, violence and hatred.

The beast blinked slowly as the walls of ice came around them both, getting a little skittish at the idea of being fenced in, but Vincent controlled it, at least as much as he could. His claws dug in sharper into his arms and suddenly there was a clarifying surge of agony that made his body want to scream, but seemed to keep the beastial thoughts fogged, and focus his mind to simple thoughts. Small steps, simple actions. Walk by the girls side. Do not look at her, do not touch her, do not eat her. It all seemed to be within his reach. Why was it that it was so easy now, but moments before it had been impossible?

A shiver ran through him as he felt her pull the water from his fur, his body twitching slightly at the odd sensation. The beast heard, touched, smelled, tasted, and saw everything in a way completely different than what he did, and this new sensation of water being pulled off of him made goosebumps go down his spine, but he forced himself to have barely any reaction, instead tearing on the flesh of his arms a little more to inspite enough pain to drown out the slight tickle that Katara had unwittingly given him.

"You're wrong..." he finally said, as he lumbered beside her, trying to find some way of breaking the awkward silence that hung in the air between both of them. "There are those who deserve to die..." he lumbered, his voice sounding like a twisted echo of the deep voice it had been when he'd looked human. "And I am one of them..."

He didn't say anything after that, for there was nothing else to really say. In his own mind Vincent knew he was nearly as bad as Hojo, and perhaps even worse. Hojo had the conviction to fight for what he believed in, as twisted and wrong as it was. Vincent himself, on the other hand, had been spineless, backed down, not actually voiced a protest to the whole thing until it was too late, until Lucrecia had already killed herself with that stupid expiriment. He felt the Galian Beast inside of him fill with the urge to throw his head back and howl at the moon in sorrow, but given the storm the moon wasn't even out anyway.

"There's no point in healing them..." the beast said of her offer. He didn't realize that he was healing rapidly either, it was just that he didn't care. Would anyone care care if he was a freakish monster without scars as opposed to one with? They would still see him all as a demon, a monster, a creature to be feared and reviled and hunted down by one of the greater hunters in midgar for a nice hefty profit. Vincent had to wonder exactly how much his hide would sell for at this point.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-10 04:52 am UTC (link)
If Katara had brought a lot of people to this plaque, then there was no doubt that Vincent seemed to care the least about the words that were said on them. His yellow eyes took in took in the words, but his demeanor remained unchanged. For Katara, who had seen and heard his desire to die, his emotional state would be more than likely clear. He didn't care about the plaque, because wherever he'd come from, he hated what he was now so deeply it didn't matter if he never went home, or if he were killed this very moment.

He didn't say anything as she left to go get the key, and when she came back she would see his hunched over form, staring at the ground, though his eyes were out of focus, staring beyond the ground to something else, looking rather like an animal whose spirit had been forever broken.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-10 10:22 pm UTC (link)
Something within him still craved life. Some part of this man respected life, and he had morals. If he didn’t, he would have killed himself before now. He wouldn’t be surviving no matter what the cost. Of course, Katara would never voice that thought. She didn’t want to give him any ideas in case he simply hadn’t thought of it up to that point. However, the very fact that he didn’t think about it meant he savored life.

The waterbender watched him out of the corner of her eye, and noted a twitch or something when she froze the dome. She expanded it to be larger. It was warmer this way. Speaking of warmth, she bent the water off her person. She’d been thinking of him too much to realize she was soaked to the bone.

Sadness filled her once again as she heard that beastly human voice speak. “Who are you to decide who deserves life and who deserves death?” Katara asked simply, the sadness was in her words. The young woman had never been good at hiding her emotions. She still wondered if he was a spirit, though she did not ask. Even the spirits didn’t have the right to decide. They had decided what Aang must do to defeat the Fire Lord, but he did something completely different, and it proved to be the better path for everyone involved.

“You’re not going to die,” Katara said with finality before adding, “There’s every point in healing them. I wouldn’t want them to get infected or worse.”

While they were in the courtyard, she didn’t keep the dome frozen, as there wasn’t a point. The walls kept the wind out, so she didn’t have a hard time keeping the shape. Seeing him look at the plaque with less interest than the golems would have felt. He was a lost soul at this point, but he could be found and restored. At least that’s how the waterbender felt about it.

When she came back outside with his key after entering the lobby, a flash of lightning revealed his sunken figure. A wave of compassion and pity swept over her. As she neared him, her hand extended and she placed it gently upon his shoulder. Katara’s heart beat a little fast, realizing she was touching the same beast who could go crazy and murder her if she wasn’t careful, but she figured he was secure enough inside himself not to hurt her right now. “Here’s your key. Room D100.” With that said, she threw up another dome, but she didn’t freeze it, not wishing to make him uncomfortable. She led him to building D and bent the water from his person, putting it back outside, and from there she led him to the first room, handing him the key.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-11 12:54 am UTC (link)
Katara was wrong though, it was not that Vincent didn't crave death, so much as he didn't think he'd be able to kill himself. Not for lack of desire, but because the thing inside of him had nothing BUT a will to live, a drive to survive, and at that moment of death Vincent feared more than anything it would emerge and take over when his mind sought to let go of living. And though he'd never admit it, a part of him was scared as well. The planet from which he'd come had a stream of life flowing through it, a mystical energy to return to once one died... here... would he return to the energy of the planet? Was there such a thing in this seemingly barren place? All Vincent had really seen of it was sand and storm...

The creature didn't seem overly comfortable with the dome even when it had been expanded. It was not so much that it felt squished as the idea of being confined. All the time the creature didn't look at her, ashamed of what he had done. The fact that another would likely not have been able to resist the beast inside at all didn't consider to Vincent. It was just another failure, like with Lucrecia. He let his claws find a deep spot in his flesh in response to that thought, letting the sharp pain fill him in a way to block out the unpleasantness of life.

He stopped though, as she asked him who he was to decide whether or not someone lived or died, and those pale terrible eyes closed quietly. For a moment everything seemed almost to still around them, though it was just an illusion of the moment, but she would be able to hear the soft breath he drew in before he continued to move, in silence for a long moment, considering what she had said, perhaps, or perhaps not wanting to reply to her at all. But in truth it was neither of these, for Vincent knew the truth even though he held onto his silence, until finally he felt the words fall from his lips. When they came, they sounded as human as when he had been in his human form, coming through with startling clarity, which only added to the bitter edge of them.

"Who are you not to?" He questioned quietly. "Indecision is a decision in itself, in favor of status quo, or someone else's decision." The pain in those words could not be hidden, and there was an edge to them that sounded almost as if he was on the verge of breaking down, but the beast's face held no emotion, though it could have been that it was incapable of showing such facial expressions that Katara would recognize. But the words would likely be enough to make her blood run cold. "When I made the decision not to get involved with matters of life and death before... it killed the woman I..." those pale eyes clenched viciously tight, and he refused to say the word 'loved', but the meaning came through clear enough.

"I killed her. And was made into this. Are you willing to accept that your refusal to choose life or death could cost you everything that ever mattered to you?" Vincent posed, and then said no more. He didn't truly seem to be looking for an answer, but instead telling her, in his own way, that even the simplest decision mattered, even the most benign of things could destroy everything of value in her life.

Her words spoken after, of not dying, he did not respond to, merely focused his gaze down, as if instead of comfort her words were a prison sentence, more terrible than the idea of death. Though he did not mention it to her, a chill ran down his spine when he realized, that he already had died... should have died. Should have bled to death and returned to the Planet... to the Lifestream. What if... what if he couldn't die anymore? What if he could never join Lucrecia? What if this monsters body Hojo had forced upon him was truly an eternal thing?

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-11 12:54 am UTC (link)
It would probably not be surprising, given his words how little he seemed to care about the words of the plaque, and why he looked so distraught when Katara came back from fetching his key. If he could be believed, all that he had to live for was now lost. He wasn't looking at her when she touched him, but when she did she would feel a sudden ripple of muscles and feel him shift away uncomfortably... like a frightened animal. Like something that wasn't used to kindness, used to the feel of another's touch against it. Even though he'd loved Lucrecia, it'd been something from afar, never realized, never allowed to bloom beyond a deep worship of the idea of her...

He hung his head in silence, but didn't seem to fidget when she put the new dome of water around the two of them, merely followed in silence until they arrived at his room, staring at it for a moment, then looking at Katara as she handed him the key. His fingers reached out to take it, and with amazing gentleness he avoided scratching her hand at all in the action, though he was completely unused to his new hands, and it showed in the fact that he gripped the small thing between the tips of his claws, which only lasted a moment before the key slipped through them and fell on the floor.

Growling a little he bent down and picked up the key, only to have it slip through once more. Only on the last attempt did he actually manage to hold the key long enough to get it into the lock. With a twist he opened the door, staring at the normal hotel room, like he might have checked into in the city. But before they could step inside the magical spell of the place took over, twisting it into the sort of thing that was inside of Vincent's heart. Where he thought he belonged.

"Come in." Vincent beckoned as he slowly stepped into the room, his feet moving from the soft plush of the carpet to the hardened dirt of what looked like a cave. It was a cell that had long since been forgotten in Shinra's underground laboratory. Hojo had sometimes used it for his animal experiments, and it was just the sort of place where a creation of his belonged, Vincent realized. In the corner there was a large coffin which, in another life, Vincent might have gone into for a deep rest to forget the world...

Instead he padded over to the corner. There laying on the ground was a heavy set of shackles, for wrists and feet and one for his neck, all of which were bolted cruelly to the ground. The air around them smelled musty and moldy, and it made his nose burn slightly, but he refused to do more than concentrate on his task. With a deep breath he slowly stepped into the shackles and reached down to snap them closed, testing lightly. These felt stronger than the others, they would not snap even at his greatest straining.

He reached his claws down to grab the largest shackle and clasped it around his neck, then put the others around his wrists, clamping them closed on after another, before looking at the water bender, then at the wall where a heavy looking key hung, the key to these chains. "Lock them." he said, not looking at her, but instead staring at the ground. He knew there would be a look of protest there. "You know what I'm capable of, what I might do free." he said before she could protest. "If you won't kill me, at least do this."

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-15 12:31 am UTC (link)
When Vincent stopped moving, Katara stopped walking, though her arms continued their slow, fluid movements to keep the dome around them to block out the wind and the rain. She knew her words had struck at least a small cord in him, forcing him to think. Before he responded, he continued to walk again. The waterbender kept pace with the beast.

At last he spoke, and Katara’s brows creased together. His voice no longer fit his physical appearance, but in her mind flashed the image of the man within the beast, the one who seemed so sad, the one with the crimson eyes and rain-matted midnight hair. “It isn’t a choice of not protecting life or choosing to kill. I choose life over death, always. There are ways around killing to protect those who need you, those you love, even if it isn’t apparent right away.” While she spoke she thought of Aang and the way he handled the defeat of the Fire Lord. “I have a dear friend in my home world. He had to make a choice between killing a man who oppressed the world and failing to save the world and maintain balance. He tried to think of any way he possibly could to work around killing the oppressor, but no one could think of any possible way around killing him. Even his spiritual advisors, his past lives, couldn’t tell him any other way around it. He found a way, though, and the world was saved. Balance was restored. It was the most unlikely of ways, and very few even knew that such a thing could occur, but he learned how and used what he learned to save everyone.”

Katara felt sad that he felt he’d killed a woman he loved. Was it in this form that he’d done it? No, he implied he was made into this creature after her death. How had it happened? How could someone be turned into a creature like this? Was the man she had seen him become who he was originally? “Sometimes things happen for a reason.” The Water Tribe femme said softly, comfortingly, though she wasn’t sure how much comfort the words would likely give him.


The waterbender frowned when he pulled away from her touch, but what had she truly expected? He was a man who felt himself doomed to life worse than death.

Katara saw something else, though, and she realized what it was when he tried to take his room key from her as they stood in front of his door. His paws were far larger than her small, human hands, but he didn’t scratch her at all when he accepted his key from her hand. Then he dropped the key. For a moment she wondered if she should help him, but she realized she mustn’t. Just as with Toph, the waterbender wouldn’t be around every single day to help him with this, so he had to learn to do this on his own. He did do it, though. He managed to fit the key into the lock and open the door.

A small smile lit her heart, though it didn’t pass to her face. He never once requested her help. The beastly man was determined, thus he could learn, and he most definitely would learn. Katara was absolutely, irrevocably certain of this.

Even the look of his room- though it saddened her- couldn’t bring her down, for her realization was enough to keep her pleasantly hopeful. When he walked into the room, she intended to remain outside it until she was satisfied he was okay with his surroundings. She hadn’t imagined he would ever invite her into his room, but she didn’t hesitate when he proved her wrong. Her feet carried her within the cave that reminded her of a prison of sorts. Of course, it’s what he wanted, not what she would have chosen for herself.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-15 12:32 am UTC (link)
Katara stood there in mild discomfort as he moved toward a corner than contained shackles. It wasn’t a surprise when he closed the shackles around himself. She watched him uneasily. The young woman had been bound in shackles as well, though it was only for a short time before she was pushed into the catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se. They weren’t comfortable at all, and she didn’t imagine he could be happy confined to them, so when he asked her to lock them, she opened her mouth to protest, but he was way ahead of her. Before she spoke, his words silenced those unspoken by her. She resigned herself to this task for him.

Her silvery sapphire gaze traveled to the wall, following the direction of his yellow eyes. A large key hung there ominously, and she stepped over to that wall, and lifted the heavy metal key from a hook before moving to the corner where the beast sat confined.

“I’m sorry.” Katara said sadly as she slipped the key into each shackle to lock them. She didn’t step away from him at first. “I know you think life is hopeless now, that you’re simply an uncontrollable beast without the ability to live rather than survive, but I think you’re wrong. You’re determined, and you’re strong. You’re simply new at this. From the way you made it sound, you were only recently turned into…” The waterbender trailed off as she tried to think of a proper word that wouldn’t sound offensive, “…this.” She couldn’t find one. “I’m willing to bet that if you gave yourself time to render control, you could become whole and happier.” She placed her slender fingers on his shoulder once more, expecting him to pull away again, but offering comfort in the only ways she knew how.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-15 01:39 am UTC (link)
The Galian Beast quietly listened to the water bender, staring down at the ground as he tried to drink in her words. But even there hideous paws covered in dark fur pushed out from the folds of the fabric he clutched as a cloak. He couldn't look away from the monster he had become, he realized once again. Even if he were to stare in the distance, the whisps of pale hair would flow past his eyes, even his vision itself was changed by it. He could see things in more clear detail, watch the hairs on the back of the water bender's neck stand on end from the cold. For a moment he found himself staring at soft skin at the back of her neck, looking at the sleekness of it, watching as she rid herself of water, catching the tiny droplets slowly sliding from the strands of what would have been invisible hair at the nape of her neck, had his vision not been enhanced.

Her words filled his sensitive ears, something to fill his enhanced hearing other than the dull roar of the wind outside of the bubble, and the sound of water around them that was the bubble itself. It made a soft white noise which only helped to focus everything on her words, and the sound of her breath. He could hear her pause when she thought of the right words to say next, and her story of Aang filled his ears, and though she wouldn't notice it likely his pace slowed lightly to soften the sound of his own feet crunching on the ground, to remove the distraction from the sound that was her voice.

Vincent didn't say anything for long moments after she'd finished talking, half of him needing to process what she had said rather than listen to just the soft tones of it. She of course had a point, in a way. It was the optomists perspective, the thoughts that Lucrecia would have given him, what she might have said. But Lucrecia had ultimately been wrong, there wasn't a happy ending. Not always. Sometimes, no matter how honorable and good two people were, no matter how right it was for the two of them to be together, things just didn't... work.

Slowly the creature looked over at the water bender, and for the time being it felt as if the two of them were worlds apart. She the lithe gorgeous creature and he the hideous monster, one filled with light while the other was so tainted black that he seemed to absorb the light around him. And blacker still, though neither the water bender nor Vincent himself knew the horror that lurked inside of him, the mad destructive force that was kept in check by something that had been planted inside of him, a last gift that he would likely never know about.

"I'm glad it worked out for your friend..." Vincent said softly, pausing again for a long moment. "But it does not always work out that way... you have to know that. Surely there has been someone you've known who's made all of the right choices, has always sided with good and wound up a tragedy..." Oddly, when Vincent spoke these words he didn't think of himself, but instead of Grimoire Valentine, his father.

No, Vincent knew that he hadn't made the right choices at all. "Yes. But that reason isn't necessarily to bless... sometimes... it is to condemn." Vincent said as she spoke of there being a reason for all things. He had been made into this because of his sin, because he had not been able to correct it. He could never undo what he had done and a twisted part of him inside was glad for it, glad that he was made to suffer. If the person he was years ago had heard about this story, he would have stated that it'd all been deserved. What sort of a man would let the woman he loved play with her life? What sort of man would stand by idly while she made a choice to...

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-15 01:39 am UTC (link)
A part of him wanted to justify it, claim that it was due to the fact that she'd chosen Hojo rather than him. It'd been what he'd told himself at the time. That he had no right to interfere in the relationship of two other people. That his own morals, his own concerns had nothing to do with their lives. He didn't know if he had a right, or not, but he knew what he'd thought then was an excuse. He should have done something, stood up to both of them, at least tried to change their minds instead of doing nothing. Even now it made him want to scream.

As they got to the door and he fumbled with the key, he caught Katara staring at him, and though he didn't look at her directly he watched her from the corner of his vision. Was she mocking him? Why did it matter? Why... did he even care what she thought of him? He almost shook his head, but thought better of it and instead simply managed to get the lock undone instead.

He could hear her pause as he entered the room, and blinked at the lack of hesitation when he invited her in. There was no stilling of her breath at the place he had chosen. Was this because she was not surprised that he would want surroundings like this? Or because she thought, like he did, that something like him, a creature, a monster, deserved to be shackled down like this. No, he could see it in her eyes, see the disapproval there. It wasn't obvious, slight glances away, a subtle pursing of the lips, but it was there...

And as she was asked to shackle him, he could see those soft lips part in protest, and he looked away, unable to face her as finished his request, pointing out before she argued that it was more or less the only way. He'd half expected some form of argument to come from her, even though he'd made a good point, but she had none, only silent assent for his choice.

He didn't watch her as she locked the shackles, and said nothing at her words. They were meant to be kind, but they burned like fire in his chest. "Uncontrollable Beast"... "This"... If she watched she would see him sag at these words, as if they were draining the last of the strength within him. His eyes clamped shut as he tried not to dwell on the thoughts running through his mind, but it did little good.

Though she'd not said it overtly, she agreed with how he viewed himself. A freak, a monster, something uncontrollable and deadly. And why shouldn't she think that? He'd attacked her, for Planet's sake... He might have killed her. The thought was abhorred to him, but the beast inside... it was like a second mind, something that was fighting him for consciousness... it's cries had quieted, but he could still feel it, raging in the back of his mind.

"You can leave the key at my feet. If I ever learn to control this, I can let myself go... if not... the creature is too mad to let itself out. It knows only knows how to rage and attack, not to think..." He took in a slow breath, and tried not to think about the possibility that one day he might lose himself to that monster completely... to be completely brainless... just a killing animal.

And then she touched him again. Katara would feel his large body tremble at the contact. But he didn't pull away. There wasn't a lot of movement to be had in chains as he was, and a part of him... relaxed into it. Why? Was it because the water bender was some measure of peace when everything else was misery and chaos? Or was it something else entirely?

"You don't have to stay here..." he said, not daring to open his eyes, his head still bowed for her.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-15 11:52 am UTC (link)
The beat-man’s words filled her head and her heart, causing a pang as Katara thought of her mother. “No. Sometimes bad things happen, but often there is a reason. There was war in my world that last one hundred years. One nation trying to suppress the other three. They raided the South Pole- where I lived with my family- many times over the decades, eradicating all waterbenders or removing them to their prisons. For a long time there weren’t any, but when I was a toddler I showed the signs of a waterbender. The Fire Nation found out and sent another raid on my village, seeking out the last waterbender, but they didn’t know who it was. My mother told them it was her. She told them to protect me, and they killed her for it.” One hand moved to touch the pendant at her throat, the one she rarely ever went without, only for a moment before she her hand rejoined the other to keep the dome steady.

Katara’s eyes flickered toward him for a moment. “I met the man who condemned my mother to death six years after it happened. I almost killed him, but I couldn’t do it. He was weak and pathetic by that time. He tried to trade his life for his mother’s, an eye for an eye. I couldn’t even hurt him, though. I chose to let him live. I was told later I was a better person for having allowed it, but I don’t know if it meant I was too weak not to do it, or too strong to succumb to killing him. I realized a couple years later that I couldn’t have lived knowing I’d killed another person. I knew I had no right to take his life; I was just angry and out for revenge. If I’d killed him, I wouldn’t have been able to undo it, and it would have eaten at me. It would have marred me. I wouldn’t have even felt satisfied with his destruction. Murder never solves anything.”


Katara’s face fell as he sagged at her words, as if they were pummeling him more than he pummeled himself. The shackle chains clanked softly together from time to time with slight movements. Her words had been meant to lift him not to hurt him more. If only he would really listen to her. He had the feeling he was twisting her words in his head, so they sounded wrong. Was there a way she could say something, outright, that couldn’t be twisted? She would figure it out eventually.

“I’m not going to allow you to kill yourself just because you have this ridiculous idea in your head that you’re powerless against whatever is inside you. I doubt the Planet would have brought you here just so you could deteriorate, either.

“I was going to leave the key right here anyway because you need to get out to eat anyway. I think the Planet allows food to show up in your room if you want it here, too. It happened to me once. I woke up and there was a bowl stewed sea prunes just outside my tent in my room. Otherwise, there’s a restaurant and a kitchen in the main building. They both have better food than room service. The lobby of the building I got your key from has a map of the place that you can look at if you need it.” Katara watched him with narrowed eyes and creased brows. She didn’t gaze upon him suspiciously, only as if she were concentrating on breaking through to something softer, something brighter within him, that one ray of hope he surely must possess.

“I’m not going to allow you to deteriorate.” Katara said with finality. She felt the ripple of muscles as he trembled at her touch, though she was pleased he didn’t pull away, and she even felt him relax a little, after a fashion.

“I’m not going to stay here.” The waterbender said when he told her she didn’t have to do so. “But it’s not because I think you’re going to kill me in my sleep. It’s because I can’t watch you do this to yourself.” Her fingers moved over his furred shoulder to gently touch the shackle at his throat. “I didn’t lock these because I thought you needed to be chained; I did it because you feel you need to be, and I wanted to do whatever makes you most comfortable that doesn’t involve your immediate demise.” She pulled away then, and placed the key on the floor before his large paw-feet.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-15 11:53 am UTC (link)
“I’ll check on you every day to see how you’re doing if that’s all right? I’d also like to go through a couple of healing sessions on your…” Katara’s words trailed off as she realized his wounds had healed themselves while she’d been speaking to him. “Well, I am a healer, and there are more than just surface wounds to heal, though I’ve never deal with someone with two beings battling over control of one body. I could try to help, though, if you want? I don’t think you’re as bad as you think. I know what you‘re capable of, but I think you can overcome it. I believe in you.” Silvery blue eyes looked upon the strange, almost dog-like face of the man before her, and she remembered the face he had revealed to her in the storm, what she knew to be his true face.

“I’m Katara, by the way.” The waterbender doubted he would have recalled the name she’d shouted through the storm before he’d attacked her.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-15 07:45 pm UTC (link)
The beast beside her remained quiet as she told her story, again, drowning himself in her words, but this time not losing them to the point where he didn't comprehend what she was saying. He could feel the pain in her voice, even if she didn't outwardly show it, and his head bowed even further. It bothered him, her story, not because he'd not seen it or heard it before, but because a part of him... hurt... because she did. She was kind, and to think that in this hellish existence there could still be a ray of hope, a glimmer of kindness that shone down on him... was extraordinary. More than he deserved, assuredly, but even if he did not wish it on himself, he wished even less for it to be snuffed out by the cruel nature of mankind.

He waited until she was done before saying softly: "I'm sorry." It felt silly, hanging in the air there, like trying to put a small bandaid on a massive chest wound. It seemed futile and made him feel smaller for even trying to pass it off as something that would help her. Were it not that he was in chains he might have fidgeted more nervously, uncertain of what to do. As it was all that fidgeting happened internally, regardless.

Vincent looked down for a moment, pondering if he should speak to her his thoughts or not. On one hand she had opened up to him, she expected honesty, he could tell. On the other hand, his words might hurt her. He debated with it for a long moment before finally speaking to her. "You're talking of revenge, though... I was speaking of prevention..." he said calmly. "What if you spared someone in battle, and then that person went on to murder a village, murder those you cared for... you say you would not have been able to live with yourself knowing you killed in vengeance... how can anyone live with themselves knowing they could have prevented..." he trailed off then and looked away. He didn't really want to speak of it any longer, and though he knew Katara would listen he found himself... afraid? Nervous of how easily she would have stayed to hear his story...

The beast felt her gaze start to bore into him, and wanted to turn away from it, but instead found himself looking up into those eyes, which shone almost like silver, and stared at him as intently as if she were an angel sent down to judge him. There was in them a fierce strength that Vincent felt he should have possessed, that would have better suited his form than the fragility of his own soul. When she said she wasn't going to let him die, he knew with some finality that if he truly wanted to kill himself he could not do it around her, for she would fight even harder to save his life than she did to save her own. It made him angry, in a way, because he didn't understand it. Why was she doing this?

As she told him of food he felt lost in his own thoughts for other things. He didn't know if he even had to eat, and Planet help him if this world gave him what it thought the beast wanted to eat. He could only imagine Katara coming in on him while he was in the midst of slaughtering a lamb or something equally gruesome. But his own inner musings were snapped out when she told him with some fierceness that she wasn't going to let him deteriorate. And there was that look again, that intense stare that she gave him. He opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't know what to say. Anything he could tell her now would seem silly, pointless... her hand on his shoulder was making it hard to think in an entirely different way than the beast inside of him had clouded his thoughts...

And then she spoke those soft words of her not staying to see him do this to himself. What... was she trying to say? Would she have wanted to stay here with him, had he not chained himself like this? As his brain raced his heart began to thud louder in his chest so much so that he was afraid the water bender might hear it, or feel it. Her hand moved up to the side of his neck, not really touching it, but letting her hand linger there over the shackles that he wore, and Vincent drew in a slow breath...

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-15 07:45 pm UTC (link)
Slowly those pale yellow eyes began to shift, change from the fiery monsterous things that they appeared to be, losing their glow and instead fading into normal eyes, human eyes, save for the odd crimson coloring. But they were his eyes, the eyes that he had looked at her with for just a moment before when he'd been trapped in the ice. Slowly, the shorter strands of his hair began to grow darker, from a pale white to a darker grey, and then black, the tips of the longer strands starting to dye themselves as his eyes stared into hers, searching for a long moment that intense blue silver gaze...

He opened his mouth to speak, but Katara pulled her hand from him then, and the moment was gone as she set the key down, his eyes closing tight for a moment, and when they opened they glowed the soft yellow of the Galian Beast's. He looked away, embarassed that he'd stared at her so long as he had, wondering if she thought him simple, or stupid, because he felt both, being around her.

"...alright..." he said to her coming by each day to check on him. He doubted very highly that she would have taken 'no' for an answer anyway. Not after she'd told him flatly that she wasn't going to let him deteriorate in any way. "Thank... you..." he said, awkwardly, not sure what else to say. Everything he said now sounded stupid in his own ears, and he wanted to take it all back and somehow make himself sound smart... but he supposed it was probably a blessing in itself that he wasn't a drooling monster right now...

"Katara..." he repeated, slowly, savoring the syllables as one whispers the words to a song. He looked at her staring at him expectantly, and realized she probably wanted to know his name as well. "I was called... Vincent." he said, as if the name no longer really applied to him, being the creature that he was.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-16 05:13 pm UTC (link)
A small smile lifted the corners of her lips as he spoke his condolences. “Thank you.” Katara said softly. It meant a lot coming from him, especially because he was trying to convince himself he cared nothing for life. Even if he pretended he didn’t care, he did. Showing he cared enough to offer the only thing he could counted for something.

Katara’s eyes glimmered with a fine sheen of tears that did not fall as he told her the difference in what he’d meant, giving her an example. She had never thought of it that way before, and she wondered if that was how Avatar Roku felt when Fire Lord Sozin betrayed him. Aang had told her the story he’d learned from Roku about how the war began, and how Roku seemed to regret it even in spirit. The waterbender blinked back the tears. “I don’t know.” She spoke honestly. “There are ways to take away a person’s weapons, so they can’t hurt anyone, but I don’t know what I would do if something like what you said happened to me. I’ve never been in that position.”

She witnessed a slow transformation then, his hair slowly transforming from white to ebony, and his eyes became their normal crimson colour as they appeared more human. He had control over himself. He simply needed to relax. Katara believed in him, and she would help him believe in himself.

When she looked at him after setting the key down she felt like such an idiot. His eyes returned to their glowing yellow, and his hair became pale once more. She’d broken whatever spell she’d woven with her comforting words to help him help himself. Katara must not be upset with herself, though, or he would feel it, and he might completely disregard what she said. He was incredibly perceptive, and she knew it.

If the waterbender had only known how he felt around her she would have laughed. She was but a peasant from the Southern Water Tribe, not royalty from the Northern Water Tribe. If anything she could have been viewed as simple and stupid in her own beliefs, and had he not proven that by turning her views around on her. What if you spared someone in battle, and then that person went on to murder a village, murder those you cared for…

For her part, Katara had expected some semblance of argument when she said she would check on him each day, but, even with that, she wasn’t completely surprised when he accepted it. In truth, she wouldn’t have taken no for an acceptable answer. It was good that he was all right with her coming each day because it mean the young woman was getting through to him at least a little. Just take it one step at a time… She told herself.

A smile appeared on her lips, reaching into her eyes as he told her his name. “Vincent.” She repeated. “It is a strange name, but I like it. As long as you’re here, you’re still going to be Vincent.” Katara knew she should probably leave then, but she was hesitant to do so, to leave him here alone with his thoughts. What if he only regressed by the time she returned? No. She needed to stop thinking like that. He was a man, not a beast, despite what his physical form revealed. He had control and she believed in him. After all, he could have killed her, but he didn’t. “I’ll come back every night, and I’ll try some healing techniques I’ve learned. I might even bring back some food. It’s always interesting to try cuisines from other worlds. At least I think it would. I haven’t yet.”

Katara placed her hand on his shoulder once more and squeezed it gently as she looked at him. “I know everything is going to be okay, even if you don’t.” She spoke softly, soothingly. The waterbender remained there for a moment longer before she turned to leave.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-16 05:50 pm UTC (link)
Vincent could pretend he didn't care all day long, but in the end, he did. He cared about the world, even if he didn't care about himself. He wouldn't be telling Katara that though, he imagined it would only upset her to know what he thought of himself. Even now, even with her a part of him longed for some sort of the sweet release of death, even standing here beside her. But how could he put it into words that she would understand, that she would know exactly how he had felt, what he had gone through...

And then he came close, and he saw the tears in her eyes. His own pale yellow eyes clamped shut at that. He didn't realize before that seeing something could hurt... like that. He wanted to draw away from her, to put some distance between the two of them, and though he told himself that it was because he was afraid of hurting her, something inside of him whispered that he was more afraid of being hurt himself than he was of damaging the water bender's spirit. She probably wouldn't see a chained hand reach up, as if perhaps considering brushing those tears from her soft cheeks, before his eyes glanced down and realized it wasn't a hand that he would be touching her with but a monster's claw, which could easily cut as it could caress.

Even thinking it though, caused him to blush inwardly. She'd probably think that he cared for her if he did that... and that was... unthinkable, wasn't it? That he could ever...

But all those thoughts had been lost as she looked at him, stared at him. He could a happiness beam lightly in her face as she looked at him, and his breath stilled there in his throat. It felt as if the whole world were stopping for him, and in that void of thoughtlessness, of simply being there, with her, in the moment, without thinking about the past or the future, things were clear. In that moment something inside of him seemed to understand it all, that he could control the beast, use it, like a tool, or an ability. All he had to do was-

As Katara leaned down though he caught site of his paws, and the illusion of control was shattered. What was he thinking? He was a monster, not a man, and even if he felt strangely around her, she could never return the sort of feelings that he felt stirring now. Maybe she just reminded him of Lucrecia, maybe... maybe it was just that he'd never really know much kindness in his life. Could it simply be that what he was feeling was a reaction to that? A thousand and one excuses and ideas popped into his mind at once, and he batted them away as best he could. What he felt didn't matter, it was something that needed to be buried, sealed away deep inside, like the creature that he was. Maybe if he did that, maybe he could transform back... if he felt nothing...

As she spoke his name though a part of him trembled, and it was all he could do to keep from snarling at it. She thought it was an odd name, but really where he'd come from it was rather plain. Though, she was from an entirely different world, he reminded himself, so what was normal for him was probably strange to her. He wondered if that meant that this creature he'd become wasn't that strange to her, or if it was strange enough that someone from any world would have been taken aback by what he was.

Her promise enacted a soft pang of desire in him, and as she touched him again she would feel that shiver run through him, as his eyes looked to hers again. "I..." he began, and then closed his eyes tightly, as a thought occurred to him for a moment, but he decided not to bring it up as Kataras fingers slipped away from him. "Goodnight Katara..." he said softly. He didn't tell her that touch, in his culture, was not exactly something one did without a reason. But he'd known other places where it'd not been so. The people on the northern continent were very touchy feely, probably due to the cold weather... Katara probably had no idea that what she was doing would have been amazingly forward. He couldn't even begin to think what Lucrecia would have done if he'd placed his hand against her shoulder like that... probably slapped him, or stepped away in shock.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-16 05:50 pm UTC (link)
Vincent paused until he was relatively sure the water bender had shut the door behind her before he collapsed then, on his hands and knees, staring at them. A part of him wanted to scream as he had before, but so much had happened that it all felt like it was starting to blur into a mass of thoughts he couldn't understand. He put a claw over his face then as his head throbbed... before blackness took him, and Vincent Valentine fell asleep.

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