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chaos_vincent ([info]chaos_vincent) wrote in [info]mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-08-18 19:33:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:complete, day 11, katara, vincent valentine

Tune as old as song...
Who: Vincent and Katara
When: Day 11, Evening
What: Katara checks on Vincent
Where: Vincent's Room
Rating: PG for now
Status: Complete

Surrounded by inky darkness, a single man stood alone. He was dressed in a black suit that had clearly been trimmed to his features, as it hugged the lean muscles of his body nicely. Beneath the folds of the blazer he wore a pale wrinkled suit coat with an impeccably done tie could be seen, along with a pin on his lapel. It was something of a contrast from his hair style, which hung down almost messily in his face, the longest whisps of it lightly falling down to his chin. Through them, a pair of crimson eyes stared out into the abyss, the black sea around him. It seemed to draw the eye in, swallow him, but it wasn't real, he knew that... didn't he?

Vincent Valentine, the Vincent Valentine turned slowly, looking around him. Nothingness. Even beneath him. no hint of ground, and yet the blackness held him up. Slowly he took a step, testingly, then another one. It felt real, this place, and yet a part of him told him that it was not. His arms raised up then, staring at the suit that he wore, his right hand grasping the cuff around his left hand and feeling the smooth silken fabric. It felt real enough. But the blackness around him didn't feel like anything. Not hot nor cold, no sense of forboding, just emptiness.

"Hello?" he finally said, almost timidly. But the sound of it seemed to muffle in the darkness, not echo but simply evaporate into nothingness, for there was nothing for the sound to rebound off of. Vincent looked down for a moment. He felt embarassed doing it, but if he was in this place he needed to find something, some way out, and if there was someone else here, then that would really be the easiest way to go about it. "HELLO??!!" He yelled, a flush coming to his pale cheeks as he did it, thinking that someone might be laughing at him even now. He wasn't used to shouting, he didn't like the sound of his own voice at such decibals, but it was worth it to try to get in touch with someone, anyone, at this point. But only silence answered him. And then...

"Hello." Came his own voice, back at him, disembodied and foreign. Much calmer and darker than his own voice. Vincent spun slowly, but he could not place the voice, there was nothingness everywhere he turned. "Would it really help you to see me?" Asked the voice as Vincent looked back and forth, somewhat eager to see exactly what it was that was talking to him, somewhat afraid as well. Why did whatever it was have his voice? Why did the calm words that the other voice spoke cause his very soul to tremble in a way that he couldn't place?

"Where are you?" Vincent demanded, and he found himself instinctually reaching into his jacket for where he kept his gun. It was a high calibre handgun, the sort that had a kick that nearly had made him break his nose the first time he'd fired it, and had caused him to stumble backward each time he fired it for weeks after getting it until finally he'd begun to master it.

"You really want to know who I am, don't you?" Came the voice from behind him, and Vincent spun then, drawing his gun and pointing it at the source of the voice that was tormenting him. What he saw was a larger gun than the one he dared to carry, almost like a sawed off shotgun, but with three barrels instead of two. Holding it's hilt was a sleek black leather gloved hand, and beyond that, was him... in a way.

The other Vincent's hair was longer, and even though there was a crimson headband around his head, the hair still fell out over it clumsily around his face, but where the first Vincent's hair stopped at his chin, this Vincent's hair fell down over his shoulders and down his back. Around the inky hair that flowed along his shoulders, the other Vincent wore a crimson mantle that stretched down over his chest till it was midway down his arms. In the back, that mantle became something of a cape, long and crimson that was tattered at the ends, as if it had seen too much wear over the years. Beneath it's folds Vincent could see the pale golden gleam of something that looked like a claw, like the Galian beasts hands did...

The beast...

The first Vincent groaned and put a hand to his head, as the second holstered his three barreled gun. "You can shoot me if you want to, it won't really do anything in this place anyway, and you won't do it, because you're afraid to be left alone here..." The second Vincent calmly reasoned as he turned his back on the first. A long silence was heard as the Turk Vincent, adorned in a suit, began to shake his head slowly and stare at the crimson one's back.

"Who are you?" The turk finally asked.

"I'm you." The second Vincent said with some finality. "Who are you?"

"I'm Vincent Valentine..." countered the younger Vincent with a twinge of anger.

"You were Vincent Valentine." Corrected the second, turning to look at his mirror image with crimson eyes, the only truly shared characteristic between the two of them. Even his face seemed different, not older but more timeless, and lifeless at the same time, as if he weren't alive at all but rather something long dead. "Now I am Vincent Valentine."

"That... doesn't make any sense!" The first growled as he took a step forward towards the second.

"You're a part of me. Unfortunately the part in control..." The crimson Vincent sighed quietly, and then gestured for the turk Vincent to sit down, even as he himself knelt down and then sat. On his feet the younger Vincent noted were black boots, with a golden metal over them, to protect his toes. The older Vincent took a soft breath, and placed his golden claw adorned hand on one of his knees. "I am what you are, but you haven't accepted it yet. So you lock away everything that keeps you from coming to terms with the truth... that is what I am."

"The truth about what?" The young one demanded angrily as he reluctantly sat down. But even as he spoke the words he blinked. Behind the older Vincent the darkness that was around both of them began to take solidified form, becoming a pair of black leathery wings, so black that they seemed darker, somehow, than what it was around them, the anathema of light itself. The young Vincent felt his heart start to beat erratically in fear, and as he recoiled the wings disappear.

"Even now, in this place you cannot accept the truth. You come seeking it, and yet when it is revealed to you, you pull away..." The older Vincent commented as he lowered his head to stare at his own knees.

"I just want to be the way I was!" The younger Vincent said, his suit wrinkling slightly as he scrambled to his feet.

"Who is ever the way that they were?" Countered the older Vincent.

"I... I'll find a way out of here on my own!" The younger Vincent shouted as he started to walk away, though given that it was through darkness, he had no idea where he was going. It didn't matter though, all of this seemed stupid... he was himself, not someone else...

"I'll be waiting when you're ready to face the truth..." the older Vincent commented.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Katara opened Vincent's door to come and visit him, she would see his body lying with his belly pressed against the ground. He was no longer the beast, but the person that she had seen yesterday when she'd nearly frozen him, and again when his body had calmed down. His lower half was covered in black trousers, which was odd, as they covered down to his ankles, where before half of his legs had been exposed when he was the beast. Perhaps they had just ridden up, or perhaps it was the nature of Vincent that his transformation was more of a spell rather than him becoming something different.

His head rested half on the wild raven strands of hair that flowed around him like spilt ink, some of them lightly draped across his bare back. There were muscles there, lean, firm, but not the sort that showed off, rather they were lithe, the sort that came from lots of aerobic exercise rather than trying to bulk up with weight lifting. Lower still on his back she would see cruel looking scars that still looked almost fresh. They were not pleasant looking, nor did they look like the work of a master surgeon... rather it looked as if someoen had carved him open like a piece of meat and then poorly stiched him back together. Despite the dismal look of them, however, they were not oozing or bleeding in any sort of way...

But they weren't red, either, and didn't look as if they were swelling. That would have shown easily, given how pale he looked, laying there. The whiteness of his form even contrasted the soft grey of the chains that adorned his neck, his wrists, and his ankles, the heavy links falling in places along the back of his legs, and across his back. They didn't move in the slightest, even as she looked at them... and then it would probably occur to her what seemed off from the whole scene...

... he wasn't breathing.

For all intents and purposes, it appeared as if Vincent Valentine was dead.


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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-19 12:40 am UTC (link)
Katara had promised Vincent she would visit him every evening. The evening before, after the hurricane party, she had checked on him, bringing him some food and tea, but he was asleep, so she’d simply left the items near him and left. It wasn’t that she didn’t want him to know she was there, nor was it that she didn’t want to speak with him. The waterbender had been incredibly tired after a day of training and a party with only a few hours of sleep to get her through it.

As soon as she hit the pelts she was out like a light, and she stayed asleep until late morning.

That evening, she decided she would bring Vincent food she cooked herself. Of course, it wouldn’t be as amazing tasting as food provided by the Planet, but she had become an excellent cook over the years, so it would still taste good, and she hoped he would appreciate the thought that she cooked for him. Maybe it would make him feel better about life. It may also make up for the fact that she hadn’t actually stayed to speak with him the previous night. Maybe she could make something tasty for him from each of the four nations. It seemed a bit cheesy, but she wanted to give him a taste of her home world because she doubted he’d had food like what was found there.

That evening, she set to work in the kitchen with a golem to aid her. Once inside the kitchen Katara cooked a cow-pig steak with a generous flavoring of spices the way she’d learned to make them while she was in the Fire Nation. Spicy foods were favorites in that country. For a side dish, she also made seaweed soup as her grandmother had taught her to make it in the Southern Water Tribe. It’s flavor and colour were blander, so it would compliment the main dish fairly well. As another side dish, she steamed some corn, carrots, broccoli, and peas, and tomatoes before mixing them together to form a vegetable medley like one might find in the Earth Kingdom. Finally, for desert she made a small fruit pie- raspberry being the fruit- like they did among the Air Nomads. Aang had taught her that recipe, and he said she made it just as good as the Air Nomads. While everything cooked, a pot of jasmine tea brewed. Because she was hungry, she ate a small portion of each for herself before putting the rest into bowls and onto plates.

The golem carried this tray for Katara as she led him to Lodging Unit D, the first room on the first floor- number one hundred. She took the tray of food items from the stone creature while he opened the door for her. Last night she’d had to enlist the help of a golem to get into Vincent’s room the previous night. Apparently, because the inhabitant of the room had given her permission to check up on him each night, the Planet didn’t try to deter her from entry. Maybe it knew that it’s resident would truly harm himself if not given proper care.

A small smile passed over her lips when she noticed a man rather than a beast lying upon the floor. He had overcome the beast, and he looked quite peaceful. The same satisfied smile drooped into a frown as she noticed several things at once. The plate of rice and giant sea-crab meat hadn’t been touched. The cup of tea looked cold and untouched as well. The man lying there wasn’t moving even a fraction of a centimeter.

Quickly, Katara half dropped half set down the tray, spilling the tea onto the floor, and nearly spilling the soup. She rushed to his side, fell to her knees, and placed a hand upon his back. The flesh was cold. “Vincent? Vincent!” His body lay still, unmoving. Her ear pressed against his back where she couldn’t hear the gentle rhythm of his heart beating. Frantically, she lifted the key from the floor and unlocked all of his shackles and removed them from his person. She then grunted as she pushed at his weight to turn him onto his back as gently, and quickly, as humanly possible. He wasn’t a huge guy, thankfully, but he wasn’t exactly small, either. It was a small task. Her ear pressed against his chest again to listen for his heart. The only sound in her ears was her own heart pounding lividly in her chest.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-19 12:50 am UTC (link)
A frustrated sound escaped her lips as tears welled in her eyes. She couldn’t give up. As quickly as she could, Katara’s graceful fingers plucked the stopper from the water skin she almost always wore on her person, and a stream of water left its holder to envelop her hands. A soft, light-blue glow began to emit from the water as she ran them all along his chest and belly. The glow illuminated his pale face, and she wondered- even as she concentrated- if he would be able to maintain his human form like this in life if she managed to bring him back. The realization struck that this was definitely his true self because, if the beast was, he would still be in that form in death. The waterbender clenched her jaw, and continued to dig into his qi, using the water to center her energies. The fact that she could still feel his qi meant there was hope. Despite his cold flesh, he hadn’t been dead for very long.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-19 01:07 am UTC (link)
As she reached in to feel his qi, she would feel amost nothing inside of him. There seemed to be nothing to bring back, no life force to fix. Even as she healed the outside of his wounds, it all seemed hopeless. He was cool to the touch, the blood in his face drained. She would probably realize that the evening before she'd more than likely assumed he was sleeping, but he could have been like this for a while, since she'd left him the previous evening. It was what happened in tales, wasn't it? Creatures that were caged and longed for death would sometimes just give up, lose their will to live. Perhaps in a way it was for the best, but it would likely hurt Katara deeper than most to see the one she'd promised to help laying dead like this in her arms.

But then she would feel the faintest flicker of Qi in him, in the Dantian, the elixer of all life, and the source of all energy. Something in him lived. And then suddenly it pulsed from him more strongly than it did from a normal human being. If she examined it she would see that the amount of energy in him was far greater than it should have been, as if he were no longer human at all but something else entirely, even when he wore a form that looked so very human, and so very sad. Had she the ability to see the merdian lines flowing through them they would look tampered with, as parts of him had been misaligned to create the desired magic effects. In a very real way he was a Frankenstein monster, a horrible mismash of things that were once him and things that weren't.

And then he breathed, air coming into him as if he'd never tasted it before, a sudden gasping that seperated the Vincent that was alive from the Vincent that wasn't. Beyond his thick black eyelashes she would see a tinge of red as those eyes stared up, blinked at her for a moment, then closed. He could feel the warmth of her hands upon him and his body writhed lightly beneath them. His hair, not having been her cocern when flipping him, lay across his face in a disheveled fashion, and pooled beneath him.

"Just a few more moments..." He mumbled in the haze of sleep that had taken him. While someday he would learn to extend his mind outward as he slept, to sense the world around him, for the time being it was as if he were in a coma, and coming out of it his mind was fuzzy, unkept. Katara would see a light smile touch the corners of his mouth. There weren't many smile lines on his face, it was clearly something he didn't do often. Lazily he raised up an arm and kept it over eyes, the elbow bent almost over his nose as he breathed contentedly for a moment.

"I had the strangest dream about the most beautiful angel with blue eyes..." he whispered softly. "She came from another world. She wasn't afraid to touch me, so softly, like I was human again, instead of... instead... of..."

He paused then, and the smile faded from his lips. If she noticed, she would see one of Vincent's pale hands digging into the earth slowly, feeling the cold dirt beneath him. It wasn't a dream, none of it was a dream. He had killed those people, been experimented on... the pain of the saw, the smell of his own flesh dying around him, his body a hollow coffin that he couldn't escape from no matter how much he'd screamed-

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-19 01:07 am UTC (link)
His hands went to cover his face as he let out an almost piteous whimper at the memories that flooded him, and Katara would see the flesh of his fingers split open as terrible claws emerged from them in their place, blueish purple fur growing down his bare arms as the joints and bones popped until they grew longer. Around him the sea of black hair began to turn white, and covered as his face was she would not see as it changed rapidly from the beautifully fair face of Vincent Valentine to the horrible snarling mask of the Galian beast.

Without warning he rolled away from her, almost in fear, scrambling until he was a few feet from her, standing on his haunches. The pale yellow eyes like fire blinked a few times as he got his bearings, remembered where he was, why he was here, who it was who had been... touching him. He blinked again and looked at her, a plume of soft flame spurting from his lips. His chest was heaving now, no sign of the death-like state he'd been in mere moments before.

"Katara..." Vincent's now inhuman voice growled out slowly, as he looked at her. "I..."

And suddenly it dawned on him that she'd been here all along, that she'd heard, before, what he'd said about her in the haze of sleep. To hear those words being whispered from his monsterous lips... He looked down then, and away, the white main of hair half falling across those fearsome features of his as he stared at the wall, his mind desperately searching for the right thing to say. If it were anyone else they'd have been able to laugh it off as if it were nothing. But Vincent wasn't good with people, he'd never been... and how could he be better now that he was a monster? His laughter in this form would probably have been enough to curdle the blood of anyone who heard it, after all.

Vincent closed his eyes tightly as a feeling of stupidity washed over him. She probably thought he was a fool.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-19 03:34 am UTC (link)
When Katara first started, his Qi was faint, hardly a flicker. She really had to dig deep to find that ember, to try to bring it to life. She continually lost that feeling of the faint stream of his life energy, but every time she felt it, she stroked it with her energy, trying to revive it.

At last it began to strengthen under her probing and prodding. A strangled sigh of relief left her lips. She’d helped him; she was helping him. Suddenly, his life energy flared more vibrantly than any Qi she’d ever felt before. The energy was so intense she had to pull her own away. Katara blinked back the tears in her eyes that hadn’t quite fallen. He was going to live, and she’d helped him- so she thought.

Now that his Qi had enhanced greatly, she could feel the strange pattern the meridian lines formed, and she wondered if this was simply how people from his planet were, or if this was how he was created to be. She continued to run her hands over his chest, prodding that flaring energy to give his body the life it needed.

Her smile widened as his lung took in necessary air to breath, and he looked at her. Warmth passed over her face, and, as she felt him writhe beneath her, she removed her hands and bent the water back into the water skin. It was strange to view that smile tug the corners of his lips upward because Katara had never seen Vincent smile before. It was nice, and she hoped she would see it more often.

When he spoke of his dream, her cheeks coloured, and her smile turned bashful. The husky sound of his deep voice was soft, melodic, but she liked hearing him speak. Before he could finish vocalizing his thought, his smile faded and she could feel his anger and unease returning to him. No… She thought, and she could see what would come.

In an effort to calm him, Katara placed her hands on his shoulders, grasping him firmly. “Vincent.” A whimper emitted from him. A gasp caught in her throat as she witness his fingers splitting open, his transformation. “Vincent, please, take cont-” She pleaded softly, only to have her words cut out as he rolled quickly away.

He started to speak again, his voice an inhuman growl as it was before. “Vincent, I thought you were dead… You were lying there, unmoving. You were… yourself…” She said softly, her eyes trained on him. Even if the self she’d seen most often was this one, she knew his true self was the man she’d seen lying down, still upon the floor.

“Oh!” She said and turned away as she stood. Her brows creased as she walked toward the food, and she noted the tea was spilled upon the floor. Placing the now-empty tea cup on the tray, she lifted it and moved to place it in the same spot she’d been kneeling in before. “I brought you food. Cow-pig steak, seaweed soup, a cooked vegetable mix, and a small fruit pie- raspberry. There was tea, but I guess I spilled it on accident when I thought you had died… I could get more. Unless the golems dumped it, there’s more in the pot in the kitchen. I cooked it for you. I thought you would appreciate a warm meal.” Katara smiled at him, watching his reactions carefully as she stood, lifting the tea cup from the tray in case he did want her to go get more.

“I also brought my bending water, so I could help heal you. I don’t really know if what I do will help because I’ve only worked on mental blocks once before, but it might.” She said uncertainly as she patted her water skin. The waterbender felt a bit awkward standing there as he stared at her like that. Did he not actually want her here? Maybe he was upset that she’d brought him back. After all, he had wanted to die.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-19 06:54 pm UTC (link)
The Galian Beast stared at Katara from the corner as it bristled slightly, but Vincent was clearly in control. As a beast it's movements were simple, it was either attacking or eating, or something easy to distinguish. The look on Vincent's face was forlorn, and it was probably impossible to tell what he was thinking as he didn't look at her. He could hear what she was saying of course, in perfect clarity, each syllable ringing clear as day in his ears, but processing it took some time. His heart was still beating from excitement and embarassment and from having been woken up suddenly with both. He reached his hand down and could feel the warmth that her hand had left upon his chest, the remnant of her fingertips upon him.

"Myself..." he said slowly, and his head bowed down softly. "What does that mean, anymore?" His yellow eyes looked at her, full of doubt and uncertainty. Was he not a beast? Was this some sort of curse that he could never overcome? To always be seen as a beast in his conscious hours and only be seen as the creature that he was when he was... dead? Perhaps it would be a bitter irony to some hunter someday who slew him, that it had been a man beneath all of this fur and fangs and not the horrific nightmare that was meant to be vanquished.

"You should have let me die..." He said softly, a pawed hand raising to his face. He knew she wouldn't be happy with that statement, she'd been almost furious at him for thinking things like that yesterday, but the point remained, he did want to go into the abyss. It was not just his form, but his life, all of it had been destroyed, taken from him, as punishment for what he'd done. And he couldn't even pity himself because in a way he felt as if he deserved it all for not stopping that damnable experiment. Fiery breath flowed over his claw as he struggled to calm down, though he found it didn't hurt him any, just flowed between his fingertips as if it were air itself. How odd.

"You..." he started, and then looked away from her, standing up finally and walking over towards one of the earthen walls, not facing her as he spoke his words. He could see so much in her simple gestures, to see what she would look like as she answered this question would be too much to take. Too much input. But then she began to talk about how she had brought him dinner, and other items to heal himself, and he turned back towards her. There was, as usual, a soft kindness there. She would have made a rather excellent doctor on his planet, Vincent realized. Just like Lucrecia had. Was that why she managed to still his breath in his chest every time that she came here, or was there some other reason that was beyond his grasping?

"It smells wonderful." he commented on her food, looking over it, a soft rumbling sound coming from the beast's stomach as he inhaled the scent. The beast, unlike he, could practically taste the food even from across the dim chamber, each seperate and unique scent, and the way that they combined into one. Despite his desire not to, he swallowed lightly to keep from salivating openly. The beast, if nothing else, was hungry for good cooking.

As she spoke of her healing instruments though, Vincent took in a slow breath, and stared at Katara for a long moment before his eyes went downward. He should have brought it up before, but he couldn't find the right way to. It seemed unfair of him to keep it from her, like some deep hidden perversion that he should feel so affected by her touch, and yet she would never know why. He swallowed slowly again, still not meeting her gaze, a light wince appearing on his features, though it was nearly impossible to tell from the fact his face looked so inhuman. "Katara..."

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-19 06:54 pm UTC (link)
"Amongst my peopl..." he frowned, not wanting to start that way. It sounded silly. "Where I come from... we don't..." He bit his lip, because that wasn't exactly true, and it sounded as if he were chastizing her for doing the wrong thing. She didn't know, how could she? Why was it so hard to put into words? Because perhaps it was just an unspoken rule, something about society, that you didn't say, you just learned, from watching your parents, and others, from the way kids would make fun of other kids at school.

"To touch someone is... unless... I mean it's... a sign of affection." He finally rumbled out. "Deep affection."

He sighed and looked down. His father would have found this all fascinating, another culture from another world, whose customs were completely different, and almost provacative without meaning to be. Vincent found the whole thing... awkward. Katara was probably going to burst out laughing at him any moment for being embarassed. "I... you didn't know... but... it seemed... not right... I should hide it from you..."

He turned towards the wall then, almost wishing there was a window he could stare out of, something to hide the fact that he was facing away from her simply because he was too scared to see the look in her eyes. "I... you heard what I said... in my sleep... didn't you?" he asked, straightening a little, though he didn't turn around to face her.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-20 12:13 am UTC (link)
“It means you were closer to being what I know you would prefer to be than what you’re showing now.” Katara spoke softly. “You looked human, and you looked as if you were at peace with yourself and everything around you.” She wasn’t thinking of the peace of death, she was speaking of the small smile that had passed over his lips when he had awakened. “I don’t see you as a beast, even when you look like this, Vincent, but I know you see yourself that way. You just need to find a way to be at peace with yourself while you’re fully awake.”

Katara clenched her fists at his comment. How could she just let him die when he needed her? Her knuckles were white from gripping her fists so hard. The apparent anger passed over her expressive face, simmering just below the surface. She took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking. “If I should have just allowed you to die, you would be dead. I felt you were coming even before I knew what the feeling meant. You need me whether you think so or not, and I need to help you. If it weren’t meant to be this way, it wouldn’t have turned out like this.” The rage she felt played just at the edges of her words, but she was slowly sucking down her fury. “Did you ever think that you could take this as an opportunity to start over? I met someone a few days ago who came from a hard life he didn’t like, and he likes it here. It’s like having a second chance. You could use this to your advantage.”

Her anger evaporated at the change of subject. A smile lit her features, and she beamed as he complimented the aroma of the food she’d cooked. She heard the soft grumbling of his belly, and nearly chuckled. Instead she said nothing, and waited, standing in front of the tray of food, holding the tea cup.

The smile left her face, turning into a mask of attentiveness as he tried to explain something to her. It was hard for him, and she couldn’t fathom what he was trying to say until he finally spilled it. Heat rushed to her face, turning her cheeks scarlet against her darker flesh. Her silvery-sapphire eyes looked away from him to the floor, to the walls, as her fingers fiddled nervously with the tea cup in her hands. “Oh.” Katara said softly, embarrassed. When he spoke again she nodded slowly. “No, it’s okay. I understand. I’m sorry for making the entire thing so uncomfortable for you. If I’d known the customs of your people, I never would have put you in a situation that made you uneasy.”

Then she heard his next question, and, if at all possible, her blush deepened. “Yes.” Katara spoke hardly above a whisper. She was quite embarrassed at this point, and she wasn’t sure what to do.

Her eyes passed over his face before she spoke uncertainly. “Well, when I heal, I don’t actually… touch the person I’m healing. There’s water between my hands and the person. Is it okay that I still try to heal you, or would that be going to far?” How would healers in his world help people if they couldn’t touch them? It didn’t make any sense.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-20 01:08 am UTC (link)
"I looked closer..." Vincent corrected the young water bender. "You don't..." He sighed exasperatedly and looked at her with a face that would have been almost pleading, had it been on anything but a vicious looking monster. But then again it might mean that Katara was getting better at recognizing his facial features like this. "Whatever you think I am, I'm not..." he sighed, not knowing what to say to her anymore. Not knowing what he could say. How could he make her see that it didn't really matter what he looked like? He was a monster, he deserved to look like this, for letting Lucrecia... Dr. Crescent... kill herself. He bowed his head and tried to think of what else to say, but the topic of him dying, and his feelings for Katara came up too quickly to really dwell on it.

There was a long silence after she said the word 'yes', and then his voice came, just loud enough for her to hear, but soft enough that he might have meant to whisper it. "I'm sorry."

He didn't know what else to say other than that, and as the water bender offered to heal him, when she asked if it would be going too far he spun, and those glowing yellow eyes were gone, now his crimson eyes stared at her, full of more emotion than she'd ever seen them, and pain, so very much pain. Going too far, why did she care about going too far? Why did she care about what he thought at all? Why couldn't she understand he wasn't a thing to save but a thing to just let... die! He could feel his frustration bubbling up inside of himself. Because he couldn't put into words what he felt, there were so very many things at once, all swirling together.

"It's not the... It's not... too far, I just..." he put his hands on the sides of his head as he sunk to his knees, almost like a child. The roar of the beast in the back of his mind didn't make any of this easier, in fact it made coming up with words, something that he wasn't good enough at to begin with, nearly impossible. His lip curled slightly and he felt like he wanted to bellow out, but he knew it would only cause a look of fear to come into Katara's eyes. His nails nearly instinctively dug into his arms to cause them to bleed again, but he caught a look coming across Katara's features as he did it and he stopped, staring at her, his brow furrowing.

"You don't... understand... can't understand..." He said softly. But he couldn't tell her, about Lucrecia, his shame over that was too deep. No matter how forgiving Katara was to him, no matter that he thought deep down that she wouldn't think less of him for it, a part of him was afraid that she would truly agree with him, if she heard that he had let the woman he love perform an experiment on herself that killed her, and hadn't said a damn thing. Had let her do it, standing idly by. It was as if he'd... as if he'd done it to her himself.

"I..." he stared pointedly at the ground then. "I liked... like... y-y-" he put his hands in his head again, and clawed at the sides of his head, causing it to bleed, not really caring anymore about Katara's scorn. He felt frustrated and angry, and no longer in control. "I liked your touch. You didn't know what it meant to me and I knew it wasn't real but..." What was he saying? His head was blaring at him like a siren and finally he let loose a roar of frustration that seemed to almost shake the room.

"This is no spell cast upon me. This is me, Katara..." Vincent said as he gestured to the beast. "What you saw is what I was.. before..." He looked down at his stomach where she'd seen the scars before.

"You don't understand why I want to die, no matter how much I tell you..." Slowly the walls began to turn into steely walls, cold and unforgiving and even more forboding than the cave that she had been in. Next to her suddenly she would see a glass wall, but the inside of it was black for the moment, as Vincent's voice louder, angrier. He was losing his temper, and though he'd never physically hurt her, he was about to do something to her emotionally that he would likely regret for a long long time.

"They stuck this in me, they made it part of me, I AM a MONSTER KATARA!" Vincent roared and the glass to the side of her lit up. "LOOK!"

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-20 01:08 am UTC (link)
Inside of the glass she would see a slimy looking man, his hair tied back in a pony tail even though the front of it was receeding rapidly as the years got to him. He was dressed in a white lab coat, or what would have been one, were it not nearly dyed in blood. Around him there were specimens of bizzarre and alien looking creatures, monsters of various shapes and varieties, and some were just tissues.

Slowly the doctor fished one of the tissues out of the jar, and chuckled to himself, talking in a tone that would send chills down Katara's spine. There was no compassion or mercy in it, no ounce of remorse over what he was doing. "You're very lucky, Vincent." The doctor snickered. "This tissue wasn't easy to come by. Hopefully it will take to your genome better than the rest of them did..."

As he came to the operating table the light followed him, and Katara would likely see something to turn her stomach. Vincent was on it, and it was clear that most of the blood on the doctor's coat was Vincent's, not a monsters. His body had been hacked apart, and there were pieces of his insides hanging out of the open wounds. In other places it looked as if his body had been cut open and more than what should have been there stuffed back in. But what was most horrific of all was the fact that Vincent, bleeding and half alive as he was... was awake.

The doctor slowly took a scapal to make a fresh incision, but as he did, something horrible happened. Vincent screamed. He was gagged, it was clear, because the sound was muffled, but if Katara dared to look she would see those beautiful crimson eyes wide in horror and agony as his face twisted and his body tried to thrash against his bonds.

"We're going to make a monster out of you yet..." the doctor said over the sound of Vincent's pain, but rapidly the scene vanished, the glass in front of Katara turning black again.

He'd gone too far. Showed her too much. Vincent realized that now, but, having showed it to her, it was impossible to take back. Slowly he turned around, ashamed of what he'd done, and leaned heavily against one of the steel walls, waiting to hear Katara's footsteps as she ran from the room... after all, who would stay after... that?

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-20 02:08 am UTC (link)
“That settles it then.” Katara said pointedly. “I’m right, and you’re wrong. You only see yourself in a half-light. I know what you are, but you’re in denial. You can’t see that there’s more to you than what meets the surface. Your suffering is all you know.” Her voice was calm and matter-of-fact, as if they were discussing the weather instead of whether or not the man before her was a monster.

“Don’t be sorry, Vincent.” Her voice was soft. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” Her brows creased together as she watched him hurt himself, his claws scratching deeply through his flesh. It hurt her to see him harm himself, but she said nothing. What could she say?

His admission that he had liked her touch, that it had meant so much to him, caused her to blush again. He didn’t think her touch was real because among his people a touch meant deep feelings for someone. In her world, a touch is always real because a touch didn’t have to mean a person felt deep emotions for the person they touched. It was just a sign of caring, a sign of comfort, a sign of compassion. The fierce growl he let loose caused her to jump a little. It wasn’t expected because his voice had been so soft a moment earlier.

“No, it isn’t!” Katara yelled at him. “I may be a small part of you, but what I saw is who I know you really are! Don’t give me that nonsense about how you’re such a horrible monster! If you were, I would be dead now. You could have easily killed me that morning when you arrived, but you didn’t!” The fury was obvious in her voice as she yelled at him. She knew what he didn’t. He said that she didn’t understand, but he was the one who was completely clueless.

Katara’s body jerked away from the wall as it formed into dark glass. She hadn’t been expecting that, and she didn’t know what it meant. The way he yelled at her made her want to cringe away, but he couldn’t see she was even slightly afraid, or he would take it the wrong way. As the glass lit up, her eyes obediently traveled to watch, her body turning toward it.

Dark brows creased together in confusion as she saw the man. What was this? There were people on the other side of the glass? At first she didn’t realize this was a memory, something Vincent was showing her. She only knew the greasy looking man on the other side of the glass gave her the creeps, and his voice sent shivers down her spine. His clothing was like nothing she’d seen before, but she knew what blood stained clothing looked like, and recognized what coated his apparel. She didn’t understand what the specimens were, or what their purpose might have been. The waterbender could only watch in horror at what she saw next.

Tears welled in her eyes, breaking free of her lids to streak down her cheeks as she witnessed the mutilated, living, and awake Vincent lying on the table. She had never seen such torture in all her nineteen years. This was unheard of even within the Fire Nation that was thriving before the end of the war. Her free hand moved to cover her mouth as it hung open in horror, and her arm wrapped around her belly as if she were going to be sick. How could anyone do something like this?

When Vincent screamed, Katara began to shake. Suddenly the scene ended, but only a split second of silence was apparent before the tea cup that had been thrown just before the scene went dark shattered against the glass. A scream emitted from her throat, but it held no fear, only fury. Ice spears and ice discs flew at the glass until it shattered. The furious waterbender ran into the room that had been on the other side of the glass, but it was completely empty. Her feet crunched on the broken shards as she whirled around.

Some part of her was all too aware that it wasn’t real, what he’d shown her, but a memory. It was the past he had shown her, but the other part of her wanted everything to be there, on the other side of the glass, so she could destroy that despicable person who had hurt Vincent.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-20 02:08 am UTC (link)
Katara fell to her knees, not caring that water and glass were all around her, beneath her, digging into her knees and soaking her garments. Her shoulders shook as her hands moved to cover her face. “How could… anyone do something… so terrible to… another… living being?” Her voice cracked with sorrow. If anything, Vincent had failed in trying to make her understand his point of view. Now she was far more adamant that he was no monster. The man who had done this to him was the monster, and Vincent was only a victim of a terrible monster’s disgusting whims to hack into humans for the fun of it.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-20 02:40 am UTC (link)
Half the time Vincent thought that he was going to explode with joy at the slightest action that the water bender sent his way. Sometimes the little thing shse do gave him such pleasure, but now she seemed to be infuriating him, stoking the fires that were causing his rage to get out of control without knowing it. How dare she say that she knew better than he? It was himself that they were talking about! He knew well enough what he was to know that he was a monster, that he was something out of control, irredeemable. 'Your suffering is all you know'. The words hurt, perhaps because they were true, but Vincent refused to see them, refused to accept that he might be wrong in this.

She knew who he was? She KNEW who he was... he would show her who he was, what he was!

And then he did perhaps the most horrible thing he could have done. He showed her the truth. And he watched her, calmly, coldly the beast watched her as she saw what had happened to him. Watched as she looked puzzled, not expecting what was going to happen. Vincent hadn't expected it either. Let it be a surprise to her then! Let her be as shocked as he was. To watch someone put strange tissues in him, organs from monsters, creatures. She wouldn't be able to say that he wasn't a monster after that! She'd be forced to see, forced to know what he was, to hear his screams and know once and for all that the Vincent that had been died on that table once and for all.

She would go away afterwards. He knew that, she would run screaming from him, tell him what a horrible monster she thought he was. And he would be at peace, to go to sleep again, to die, as he had been meant to die this evening! Who was she, to say that she had no say in life or death matters and then snatch sweet death from him when it came knocking! Maybe now she would understand, she would see why he longed for it so! Let her hear his screams and know what it was to see true agony, to experience second hand what it was like. But Vincent realized too late that it was not true agony she was seeing, but true agony she was experiencing.

True agony was watching someone you cared for in pain.

Vincent winced, internally and externally as he saw the look on her face and realized too late what he was doing. His fingertips dug into the steel so violently that it seemed to twist it as he saw the look of horror and pain on her features. No... no he'd not meant to do this at all. But the scene couldn't be undone, the memories couldn't be erased from the water bender's mind. The look of pain on her face would stick with him for a long time, another in a long list of mistakes that he had made, stupid silly mistakes that he deserved to be damned for.

He ended the scene then, closing his eyes and turning from her. Waiting for a cry of outrage at him. Suddenly he heard the teacup fly and winced as he heard the sound of hurt, of anger and fury. He opened his mouth to apologize when he heard the glass shattering, the study glass wall now decimated by the fury of a water bender consumed with anger at what had happened to him. Vincent's eyes widened at the destruction, not aimed at him but rather in fury of trying to get to Hojo. It was an anger that he himself was filled with... but he did not expect it of Katara.

Slowly, almost hesitantly he walked up to the room as she whirled inside of it, looking for an enemy to fight. He couldn't bear to meet her in the eyes as she looked so angry and in pain, because of him. He felt guilty and stupid. He'd lashed out at her when she'd only offered him kindness, and a chance to be more than the monster that he was. And all he'd done was proven to her that she was wrong... or so he thought.

"Katara..." he spoke softly, but no sooner had he then she dropped down onto her knees, onto the glass shards that were littered at her feet. He listened to her words, and they ached like a knife in his heart.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-20 02:41 am UTC (link)
Without word or warning suddenly he reached down and scooped her up off of the glass, pulling her up like a bride into his arms, his arm supporting her under her knees while his other arm pressed lightly against her back. He belonged in that nightmare forever. Not her. But he didn't know if he could manage to take her out of that place now that he had shown it to her. How could he erase what he had done?

With a sigh, he tried to think of the most peaceful place he could as he carried her, and when Katara opened her eyes again she would see they were surrounded by a forest of pure white trees that glowed with magic, like laterns in the dark night that had surrounded them. The Forest of the Ancients, the most peaceful place Vincent could think of. His father had taken him here once, though they'd not gone far from the excavation site, as the forest was rumored to be cursed. It was, by far, however, the most beautiful place he'd ever seen.

"I'm sorry." He said, as he lightly set her down beside one of the trees, and she would feel his claws delicately brush off the shards of glass from her knees, making sure she'd not cut herself. "I should not have shown that to you, I..." He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. "Words are not enough. I'm sorry." And then he rose from her slowly, to walk away from her. He couldn't imagine after what he'd done, what she'd seen, she'd want him close.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-20 03:15 am UTC (link)
Katara continued to sob quietly into her hands, not caring about the glass digging into her knees or the water dampening her pants. Already tense muscles tightened when she felt him lift her effortlessly, as if she were a feather or a child. Perhaps in his eyes she was a child who could never understand what he was going through. In a way, he was right. She was very stuck in her thinking, and it was hard to switch over to a new pattern of thought when she believed she was correct. She was right, though, and she knew it as well as she believed it. No monster would care enough to get her out of there; no monster would care enough to lift her as gently as one would an infant. He had control over his strength and how he used it.

The Water Tribe femme buried her face into his furred shoulder, not wanting to look at anything any more. She didn’t want to see the shattered glass, the cold, unforgiving cave of a room, the shackles in the corner. None of it appealed to her right now, and she definitely would fly into another rage if she saw it.

Lids didn’t open reluctantly until she felt herself placed upon the ground and the gentle sweeping of his large paw-like hand at her knees to rid them of the glass. Katara’s eyes were even more silvery when reflecting off the tears she wept and the gentle glowing of the trees. Her face wasn’t puffy and red from those salty tears, though. Crying had never affected her skin that way.

Those tears ceased when she witnessed her new surroundings. Her breath caught in her throat, and her mouth hung agape at the sheer beauty of the forest of trees. Katara had never seen anything so beautiful before in all her life. Her world didn’t contain any terrain such as this. Her slender fingers moved to touch the tree he’d set her beside. It felt like a normal tree as far as she knew. It glowed beneath her hand, though, and that certainly wasn’t normal, but it was quite aesthetically pleasing to her.

When he removed himself from her side, Katara stood. “No. Don’t be sorry. It’s okay. I think I understand now.” Her eyes left him to look around the forest once more before her silver gaze returned to him, taking in his beastly appearance. “I mean, I still think I’m right, but I think I understand more about why you think you’re a monster.” The waterbender was silent for a moment, and she took that time to bend the moisture from her knees. When she’d collapsed on the glass, her concentration wasn’t on the water any more, so it melted back into it’s normal consistency.

“That’s what he said, while he was… hurting you. He told you he was making you into a monster, and, because you saw what you became under his messing, you believed him. You’re not, though. He was wrong. You are wrong. You’re not a monster. That man… That disgusting slime-ball of a man is the real monster. You were hurting, and he didn’t even bat an eyelash at your plight. You were frightened and in so much pain, but he didn’t care. Only a real monster can torture another person like that.” The tears were welling in her eyes once more, but she blinked them away. Her hand started to rise, but she clenched her fist and allowed it to drop back down to her side. Any time she touched him, he trembled. It made him uncomfortable even if he claimed to have been okay with it, and she didn’t want to make him uneasy. “Besides… I bet you fifty gold pieces a monster could never have brought up such a beautiful place.” Katara teased, trying to lighten the mood, though her voice was still a bit too somber to be convincing.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-20 07:47 pm UTC (link)
He inhaled slowly as she pushed her face into his shoulder, and she would feel him linger, with her in his arms as she did it. If she were close enough to hear the beat of his heart quickened slightly at the contact. It made him feel guilty though, that she was using him as a shelter and yet he instead felt excitement at her touch. But ashamed as he was he still lingered in it for a long moment his nostrils flaring silently as he breathed in and drown in the sweet scent that was the smell of her. He was fairly acute at smelling her from a distance in this form, but here, with her right against him it was almost overpowering. And comforting, to both himself and the beast, he realized.

He had paused as he heard her gasp, and watched her as she looked around at the surroundings here. It did seem surreal here, as if the trees were somehow a negative image of what they would be in real life. There was a glow to them though, and as Katara would feel them they felt as if they had a comforting aura about them that was nearly peaceful in a way. This was a place of things long forgotten in the world, and somewhere near here, Vincent reflected, there was supposed to be a long lost city of the Ancients, where the last memories of their extinct race were supposedly hidden away.

As she rose with him he paused, not sure what to say when she told him not to be sorry, and that she understood. In a way he hoped that she was wrong, for if she really understood how much agony he had been in, it would likely scar her for the rest of her days as well. Just thinking about it made his stomach twist, as if his body held a memory of it beyond what his mind could recall, something dark and cancerous inside of him. And there were pieces missing from it, things that Vincent couldn't remember. Who could say what had been done to him then?

"Katara..." he started to protest, but the water bender went on with her thought, and Vincent merely quieted down and listened to her. "Hojo..." he said finally, and so bitterly that she would be able to tell whatever resentment that she held towards the man was held double by Vincent. There was a gleam in his eyes, dark and frightening as he spoke the single word, the way that his face had been when he'd been consumed by the beast. There was no denying that Vincent would have killed Hojo without a thought if it had been in his ability to do so.

His gaze moved to her hand as she raised it up, but didn't touch him. He could understand why she wouldn't, after all, who would want to lead on something like him? After what he'd done, what he'd shown her... He looked away from her as she started to tell a joke about this place, walking slowly over to a small pool of water that reflected the moonlight almost perfectly to seem like a bright disk of light upon the ground.

"Then you owe me 50 gold pieces..." Vincent said softly, staring off into the distance. "The more horrific monsters of my world dwell in this place. It is close to the Northern Crater... where the Great Calamity fell from the skies..." he said softly. "Monsters are more powerful and viscious the closer they get to it, as if there were a dark power surrounding that land..." Vincent was still surprised that the citizens of Icicle still dared to dwell so close to that place, and now and again in the news there was talk of a monster coming down from the great crater and trying to attack mountain climbers.

"But I've always found this place peaceful..." He said quietly. "My father took me here a few times, when he was consulting at an anthropological excavation near here. Before our race became overly plentiful, there was another race that lived on my planet. The Cetra... or the 'Ancients', as we call them now. My father used to study them, and their ancient writings, and digs from all over the world would ask for his advice on their habits... he was something of an expert." He said softly, but from the way Vincent spoke of him, it was clear that his father had passed on some time ago.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-20 07:47 pm UTC (link)
Vincent looked down and let himself get lost in the memories. He could still remember his father's gruff face when Vincent had announced he was going to be a Turk, and not go for his Doctorate, the way he'd planned to when he was a child. Even then, however, his father had taken it logically, never having been one to show much emotion. Vincent was fairly certain that his father simply hadn't known what to do with a child, and his mother had died young enough that the elder Valentine had been forced to at least figure out some way of dealing with one.

"Supposedly there's a legend, in the Cetra's writings, that the key to salvation lies in the water here... no one knows what it means, though..." Vincent said, remembering his father telling him the story. There was another superstition to this place as well, that one could see the truth of themselves in the puddles of water here. He remembered being disappointed when he'd looked into one and seeing only his reflection. His father had commented with a smile that he was still just a boy, and would be one for some time.

Remembering, Vincent knelt down beside the pool of water, and paused. Staring back at him was the man from his dream, the other 'him', garbed in red. It was probably something that his mind had cooked up making this place... but somewhere in the back of his thoughts he could still hear his father's lessons. They'd seemed drab and boring, but the older he got the more wisdom Vincent discovered in what little he could remember of his talks with his father.

'You can only be yourself, Vincent. No more, no less. What you are on the inside may change over time, but only as you let it. Inside each of us is a spirit that is borne of Lifestream, a bit of light from the planet. Our purpose here is to experience as much as we can so that when we go back, we can share those memories with everyone. Don't fill the memories you have with hate and anger...'

At the time it'd made no sense to an angry boy, but as he stared down at his reflection suddenly he felt ashamed. Quietly he turned towards Katara, and walked back over to her. Her flask of water was still beside her, as was the tray of food, the two things that didn't really change even as the room did. "Alright..." he said quietly, standing in front of her. "Why don't you try your healing techniques..." he said. He was sceptical of them but...

Inwardly he promised himself that if she managed to change him, he would take another, much bigger risk...

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-20 11:26 pm UTC (link)
Katara wouldn’t have minded not knowing the name of the man who had carelessly tortured Vincent. She could have gone on contentedly thinking of him merely as a monstrous, despicable creature who had no room in humanity. Knowing his name might aid her in future conversations with Vincent, though. When he told her, his voice was so dark and bitter that she felt the urge to comfort him once more. How did one comfort another from something so terrible, though?

When he told her she owed him fifty gold pieces, Katara opened her mouth to protest, but closed it as he spoke. Why did she have to go and say something so stupid without first knowing about the place first? Just because a place was awe-inspiringly beautiful, didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. “The Northern Crater? What’s that, and what was the Great Calamity?”

Silver eyes passed over glowing trees. “I know this isn’t the real place, just the memory the Planet materialized, but I think this place feels peaceful, too. Maybe I’m just feeling what you felt and the Planet decided to make real. I know one thing, though. Despite those memories, you’re calmer now than you were in that cave of a room, despite the fact you said monsters are more vicious here.” Katara wasn’t going to stop making points that he wasn’t a monstrous beast until he finally realized it himself.

Katara’s brows knitted together as Vincent spoke of the Cetra and the Ancients. Where had she heard those terms before? Her eyes widened as realization dawned on her. “Vincent! I think there’s someone here in Mirage from your world. Yesterday, I met a boy named Kadaj who spoke of a woman who was an Ancient who he had met when he was in the… the…” She struggled to recall what the place had been called. “Lifestream! He was in the Lifestream when he met her. He said she loves everything.” As far as she knew she was speaking nonsense, but any little bit might have helped him realize who Kadaj was if he’d met the boy before. If Vincent still didn’t recall she would bring up Sephiroth. Either way, remembering Kadaj or not, knowing that another from the same world was on the Planet could help. It made Katara feel better to know that Toph was there, even while she had the mixed feeling of wishing the earthbender didn’t have to suffer being held prisoner.

Katara’s eyes traveled to the water when he spoke that Salvation might lay in the water. “The Northern Water Tribe in my world is found in the North Pole. There’s this place called the Spirit Oasis where the mortal forms of the Moon and Ocean Spirits swim in a circle around each other. The water there has special properties that enhance healing. I was able to bring my friend back to life with it when…” The waterbender took a small breath. Remembering everything surrounding Aang’s short-term death was still hard. “…when someone shot lightning at him and killed him.

“Did anyone ever test the water here to try to learn what the Cetra meant?” She asked.

When he stated she could try her healing techniques, his skepticism was clear. Katara didn’t blame him. After all, she didn’t even know if what she did could help him. “Okay. I’ve only tried this technique once before. My friend, Jet, was brainwashed and I did this to help him clear his mind, to find the path back to his memories. I know you’re not brainwashed, but I think maybe this could help you find a path through your mind, the path to the truth, to yourself. Maybe it could help you gain complete control over yourself.” She moved to pop the stopper out of the water skin she wore on her person, but she soon realized the water was no longer inside. She’d used it all to break the glass.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-20 11:27 pm UTC (link)
“You wouldn’t mind if I used the water here would you? I mean… You don’t think it would hurt, right?” At his response, she motioned that he sit, as he was much too tall for her to effectively do anything while he stood, and sitting made it easier to relax, to let go and allow her help to flow more freely. Katara moved to stand behind him, moving her arms in such a way that two thin streams of clear water extended from the water, forming two masses of shapeless liquid on her palms. The waterbender lifted her hands to his ears, the water glowing with a faint blue light as it engulfed his auditories. The soothing sounds of the water currents moving around his ears should help him, along with her gift for healing. The way the water moved also aided with a small massaging effect. If this didn’t work, she wasn’t sure what would, but she would try as long as he needed her to continue.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 12:41 am UTC (link)
"The great Calamity wasn't just an event, but a creature, from the heavens. We don't know what it was, the ancients only spoke of it as the Calamity... " he frowned slightly, and shrugged. "The Ancients gave their lives to protect the planet from the creature unleashed by the Calamity... Jenova..." he paused as he said it. He hadn't thought about all of this archaelogical stuff that his father had taught him for years. But as he talked about it, the name Jenova... it sounded familiar, like he'd heard it recently, somewhere... he just couldn't place it. Had Lucrecia been talking about it? A very worried frown touched on his features as he suddenly felt as if he had a large piece of a bigger puzzle, but couldn't quite fit it into words.

"I never got to see any of the monsters that linger here... I doubt the Planet would materialize creatures here anyway, or else I would think that most people would stay in their rooms instead of leaving them..." Vincent speculated. "But yes, it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to... I'd forgotten..." he sounded almost wistful as he remembered the place, and for once forgot to argue or look sour with Katara as she tried to make him look at the positive. She was right, in a way, this place was relaxing to him, far more so than he'd been in the dirty dungeon, though that place too, had seemed fitting, in an odd way. He felt.. unsure, of what was right and real anymore.

"I..." he paused at Katara's story, and frowned. "If he is from my world... he's gone mad, Katara... the livestream is a philosophy. It's not like... a physical current that runs through the planet..." Oh, but if Vincent only knew how true the lifestream was. "When we die... we fade away, into tiny balls of shimmering light... many people believe that it is us returning to the lifestream... I would like to believe it is as well..." Vincent offered, but looked down. "but it is not a place that you go to and come back from. To go to the lifestream would mean to lose your physical body... you would be dissolved into the great stream of consciousness..."

Why was it that the idea of someone retaining consciousness inside of the lifestream caused a shiver to go down his spine. Something sparked in the back of his brain but was out too quickly for him to remember it. Where had he heard someone talking about that before? He couldn't remember, and not remembering made him more anxious to know. But the memories alluded him. Vincent was just certain that Jenova... and the ability to retain consciousness inside of the lifestream... they had been something he'd heard of... where was it that he had heard that.

"Kadaj... it wouldn't hurt to meet him, I suppose..." Vincent said softly, but he frowned all the same. Something didn't feel right, but he couldn't put his fingers on it.

Those thoughts were quickly taken away though when he saw Katara's face as she talked about her slain comrad. Vincent had no idea that she was speaking about more than just a friend, but the pain in her face made his hand almost raise to touch her shoulder, as she done to him so many times, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, not after she'd not wanted to touch him. Thankfully the pain seemed to wash from her face as she started focusing on another idea, though Vincent watched her, slightly worried.

"I tried, when I was a kid... and I think my father spent more time staring into these waters than anyone..." he said, wondering how Katara seemed to know what he was thinking. Maybe she was right after all, maybe she and he were linked, somehow. Maybe she really had been sent to meet him for some purpose. It seemed almost silly in his life, to think that someone had been sent for such a purpose, but he held onto the idea, almost desperately, though he couldn't for the life of him understand why.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 12:42 am UTC (link)
"I don't think the water here is magical, and even if it were on my homeland, I doubt that the Planet has created magical water based off of my thoughts..." Vincent offered quietly as the water bender stepped to one of the puddles, letting himself sit as he was motioned to. She would feel him twitch a little as the water started to touch his ears. It would have felt weird as a human, and as a creature it felt even weirder still...

And then the water around him started to glow, seeming to harmonize somewhat against his ears, the warmth of it slightly golden around the pale lights of the trees. They started to disappear as he looked at the horizon, and he felt his gaze falling to his feet, but as he tried to lift his head it seemed as if they were now on a floating island, he and the water bender, and beyond the few feet of land there was nothing but water, as far as his eyes could see. It was peaceful, still like glass... and in the distance he saw the other him, standing, his arms laying at his sides.

"You, again..." Vincent murmered, staring at the other him. The other him nodded slowly.

"The Water Bender is leading you astray... but you seem to be finding your own way well enough." The other him said softly. "You are right Vincent, you are a monster, but not the one you fear..." The crimson cloaked Vincent walked up slowly and suddenly slammed his hand into Vincent's stomach, pulling out a chunk of black looking mass. "The Galian beast. A rather ancient creature which had been slain by explorers a few years before your father passed away... you know of it, and yet your mind resists..."

Vincent blinked, and looked at himself. He looked... like the other Vincent, the same... save that he was bare chested, and the other wasn't. The other Vincent let the flesh he held drop, and from it in the ground sprang the full sized Galian beast, which roared, but remained silent. "You haven't accepted it, so it fights for your consciousness. You still want to think of yourself as normal, despite what you tell the girl..." The crimson Vincent explained calmly.

"You said there were others..." Vincent said to his crimson doppleganger.

"They are like the beast. Simple creatures you can accept... save for..." The crimson Vincent looked away quietly, and there was a long pause of silence between the two of them. "The dark one. Do not call on his power, lightly, for to do so would be to tease a power capable of decimating the planet itself." The crimson doppleganger said softly. "When you finally accept me... and all of the memories I hold, you will understand."

"But I DO!" Vincent protested angrily, but the crimson vincent held up a hand slowly, and shook his head.

"Accept the beast for now, and let your anger go. It is your lack of control over your emotions that lets him rage so, and twists your features. In time you may learn to control the transformation at will... but for the moment I think it will be rocky for you, even if you accept it."

Vincent paused then, and slowly walked up to the creature that was the Galian beast. It looked awful, and yet as he approached the creature didn't growl or snarl, but whined slightly, and then panted lightly, contently, like an oversized... killer... dog. It was strange to think of it in such a fashion, but Vincent slowly reached up and scratched it's head, and it seemed happy enough.

"What you plan to do... will you really do it?" The crimson Vincent asked, with what might have been a smirk, though it was impossible to tell from his cool features.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 12:43 am UTC (link)
"Yes."

"Truly? It may cause you to lose your progress if she rejects you."

"Didn't father tell us that our sense of pride was the most worthless thing in the world, and the best things were worth throwing it away for?" Vincent asked his doppleganger. This time, he could tell that the crimson cloaked Vincent was smiling at him.

"I'll believe it when I see it." his doppleganger said.

And then suddenly Vincent was with Katara. He turned slowly, and looked at her with pale yellow eyes. Swallowing, he took a deep breath, and tried to do what was asked of him. Accept the creature inside of him, calm it's raging emotions. Let them be put aside for another time. They didn't matter here, in this moment there was just... him, and what he was going to do. He could see Katara was giving him a puzzled look, and realized he wouldn't have much time. He'd been hoping that he could change and then...

But he just had to trust that he would change.

"Katara..." he rumbled softly, and then suddenly leaned up. Light began to flow from around his face, streaming off of it in little balls, so much so that it was hard to see where Vincent was in the mass of glowing orbs that were flowing off of him. The pale hair turned a familiar shade of black, and when a face pushed forward through the mass of green lights it was his face, the one she'd only seen sleeping or half dead. His crimson eyes still looked sad, longing, though she would probably only glance at them for a minute before suddenly his face pushed forward.

Vincent kissed her.

It was a soft kiss, a pressing of his lips to hers, and so lightly that she would only need to lean back to pull away from it. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't pull back, he would wait her reaction, he would put all of this out there, on the line, the one thing he promised himself that he would do if he managed to transform back to a human form... if only for a moment.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-21 02:19 am UTC (link)
Katara searched her mind as Vincent explained the Great Calamity. Somewhere this all added up to something. It had to link to something Kadaj had told her. Alien cells… A creature from the heavens… “Was Jenova… an alien? Kadaj said something about how he was created- or rather, how his creator was created. It was so strange, I’m not even sure if I heard it right. He said the one who was created was partially created using alien cells- though they did think that the alien cells were the cells of an Ancient- and that when that man, Sephiroth, refused to die, he broke into three different people, and Kadaj was one of those people.”

Katara sighed. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe he is just crazy. He seemed nice, though. It’s sad to see one so young become insane.” Or one who was younger… Maybe it had been best that Azula had driven herself insane with her power because it enabled Katara to outwit her, defeating her. It didn’t make it any less upsetting that a girl her age, a fifteen year old, would have gone completely mad at such a young age.

“Well… When you transform from one physical body to the next, you’re surrounded by shimmering balls of light. Who’s to say a person who goes to the Lifestream can’t manifest the same way again?”

The waterbender smiled and nodded. “I don’t think it would. He’s nice, just a little easily provoked. He’s young, though. I think he may be sixteen or seventeen. He might technically be younger from his description of how he came to exist- if he isn’t lying about that.”


When Katara began her attempts to heal him, she could feel the warmth radiating from his body. It was comforting in comparison to the fear she’d felt when she’d noticed how cold his skin was when she thought he had been dying. Her lids closed over her eyes, sealing the silvery irises from view, as she concentrated on her task, putting forth her energy, her qi into healing this man. She tried to untangle the network of knots of energy, but part of her sensed this wasn’t her task but his. With Jet, she had only a small string of loose energy knots to disentangle in his mind, but Vincent wasn’t a brainwashed case. These knots were very different, and the qi lines were different from those of the people from her world. Instead, she concentrating on soothing the energy with gentle strokes here and there so it wasn’t quite so erratic. It seemed to be working out fairly well.

After a while, Katara felt Vincent turning to face her. Her eyes opened slowly as the water dripped away from her hands. Her head crooked to one side as she looked at him curiously, almost confused. Suddenly he spoke her name, and glowing lights began to flicker around his person. The lights were beautiful and enamoring. Her mind was filled with a haze of glimmering lights, glowing trees, then- suddenly- raven hair and crimson eyes.

Katara’s eyes closed much more quickly than they’d opened, and- as if she weren’t controlling the movements of her own body- her lips reciprocated the tender kiss from Vincent while her fingers simultaneously curled through his raven hair(she hadn’t removed her hands from their positioning on either side of his head, even after the water had dripped away). His lips were soft.

All of this lasted half a heartbeat before the waterbender remembered herself, and jerked her face away from him with a sudden gasp that made her realize she had been holding her breath. Katara’s cheeks flamed scarlet, and her heart beat erratically beneath her breast even as her stomach twisted into knots. She stumbled a couple steps back.

Aang… She’d betrayed him. She’d kissed another man. Her eyes were wide as her fingers flew up to twist at the pendent of her necklace nervously. “I…” I what?.. What could she possibly say to rectify this situation, to make it okay, to make herself calm? What if I never see Aang again?.. How could she dare to think such traitorous thoughts. She was no better than some floozy. Katara swallowed hard, unable to move, unable to think of something to say- lost, so to speak.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 03:17 am UTC (link)
Vincent didn't really hear Katara, when she spoke about Jenova or Sephiroth. Somewhere it registered, but by then he was lost in his own thoughts about why it all sounded so familiar. Ironic, for if Vincent had been paying more attention he would have realized that Katara had handed him the missing key to the puzzle. Sephiroth, Jenova... cells. Kadaj. It all made sense in a twisted sort of way, and it would have only added to Vincent's guilt, which he was soon to have more of than he could even realize. But at the time it didn't click, and Vincent merely nodded lightly, but was somewhat obviously lost to his own thoughts then, staring off into the distance.

He snapped back when she mentioned the lifestream and someone coming from it again. "It's not... the same. You give up all that makes you... you. It's not as if we remember coming from the lifestream, or what we were before. According to the ancient tales, we don't enter and come out the same, rather we go in, and what was once our energy breaks up and becomes others, a piece of us divides into many. In fact, the fact that none of us can remember is one of the better arguments against the lifestream being real..." he said.

But the tickling of his mind was easily distracted by the task at hand, and thoughts of Kadaj and all things that were bothering him seemed to fade away into nothingness. It always seemed to be that way when Katara touched him, which was part of why he feared her touch so much, and it made him shiver in a way that he could hardly express to her in words, no matter how he'd tried to. It was also part of how he knew that she didn't really... share those feelings, because she could touch him and simply see it as little more than a gesture between friends.

And in that moment when he turned, he became what Katara had said he should be. She had told him there was a reason that she had come to him, that there was something between the two of them that was meant to be. That he just needed to have faith in himself. Needed to see himself as something other than a monster, other than something detestable. That if he truly wanted to he could be something more. He just needed to try.

So for her, he tried.

He'd been half afraid that the beasts muzzle was going to smash into her face when he'd leaned up, for he himself didn't know that he would make it, but it had been a leap of faith inspired by her. She probably wouldn't notice, as it was hard to see, but there was the faintest red around Vincent's face, a light flush at the very idea of what he was doing. If the person he had been could have seen him now he would have probably been awestruck and shocked. For this was simply beyond what Vincent considered his range of possibility. And certainly, in this strange place, with this strange girl who was younger than he was, it wasn't exactly what he had pictured...

After all, this was the first time he'd ever kissed a girl.

It felt strange, made his lips tingle as his lips brushed against hers, and he kept them there, slightly afraid to move them for fear that he would do something wrong. A part of him expected that she would push him away at the first touch of it, but he shoved that into the corner of his mind. She had told him to have faith, and he had promised himself that he would lay everything out for her, if only to prove that he had the strength she saw in him.

But she didn't push him away, and as he felt her hands slide into his hair she would feel him sigh, a soft murmer of contentment flood through him as she reciprocated the kiss, his lips moving slightly against hers as he slowly began to relax into it. And oh how the earth moved then, to have this creature that he thought more angel than mortal woman kiss him in return. His heart beat wildly and freely and for the first moment since he could remember Vincent felt himself truly soaring, happy... free. He didn't think about anything other than this moment, and her. And in it he desired to be closer to her, his hands slowly starting to reach up to touch her waist to pull her near...

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 03:18 am UTC (link)
And then suddenly she was away from him, and there was nothing but the cool air upon his lips. Oh, and how he looked at her afterwards. Those red eyes shone brightly, as if the sadness in them had somehow gone. There was somewhere in them a darkness that would always be there, but he looked at her almost worshipfully, one of his hands moving towards hers until he noticed the look on her face.

He didn't have to be a mindreader to see what was there on her features. Shock, horror. A thousand questions ran through his mind all at once. Had he done it wrong? Did he move too fast? Was there something he should have done that he didn't? Were customs different on her world that made a kiss from him mean something different to her?

Why...?

And that single question echoed in his eyes, those deep eyes which had shone a moment before now were filled with even more agony than they had been when she came. She would see, or perhaps feel the glossy sheen start to cover them as Vincent suddenly spun, unable to see the look of horror on her face. He put a hand over his chest. A familiar pain was there... but he'd tried this time, given it his all... was that why it hurt more?

"I'm sorry." he said, and she would hear his voice start to change as his body underwent the now familiar transformation, but it was faster this time, barely in the bat of an eyelash he was the monster again.

Not knowing what to say, he stepped from her, and placed his hand against a tree, leaning against it so heavily it looked as if he might collapse right then and there, but he did not. He just didn't know... what to say anymore. He'd tried his best... why... why didn't that comfort him more?

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-21 04:28 am UTC (link)
Katara’s wide, almost fearful, eyes took in the sight of Vincent when she pulled away. His eyes were… joyful. The sadness had evaporated out of them, and she had caused that. She had… No… Even as the thoughts filled her head, realization took over the man before her, and suddenly tears and more pain anguish than had been there previously assaulted him, and, in turn, assaulted her. Her stomach churned and twisted as she watched him turn away, and the man became a beast once more.

The waterbender’s chin trembled, and she looked away from him as twin streams of salty water streamed down her cheeks. She had failed him and Aang both in the same action, the same second. She had unleashed the man, only to turn around and unleash the beast once more. “Vincent…” Katara said softly, her eyes still averted. What? What could she possibly say to justify herself, to make him feel better. Nothing. She shouldn’t have even begun that sentence. His name, her voice, that one word lingered on the air between them, and she had no idea how to finish.

His pain, knowing she had caused a deeper gash than the mutilation she’d seen that monster, Hojo, inflict on Vincent, seered a deep wound through her. I will never, ever, turn my back on people who need me!.. Her own words from long ago echoed through her mind, mocking her. “Don’t be sorry.” Katara whispered. “At home- in my own world…” Her voice was so soft she could hardly hear herself. If she spoke louder she wouldn’t be able to finish; her voice would cut out, become choked with emotion. Whispering her words was the only way she could keep them steady. “I was with someone.” You were with someone… Her mind mocked her. No… She would get back to him. There had to be a way.

Pessimistic thoughts clouded her mind, sending her to her knees beside the pool of water. They were all prisoners of the Planet. They would never escape. Her life before she arrived was nothing, was just a memory. She could never return to her lover; Aang was just a part of her past. Her fingers clenched into the cool dirt.

Until then you might as well enjoy the place while we're stuck here... Toph’s words from the other day filled her mind, and she wondered just how long she really would be stuck here. Forever? Katara wanted to scream, to yell to the heavens, to do… something other than feel sorry for herself, to feel like some horrible spirit sent to destroy those she really just wanted to help! Her lithe frame shook with anger and with sorrow.

Katara’s silver gaze, clouded by a film of tears, moved over the silent, still pool of water as it reflected the moonlight. For a moment she thought of Yue, but then she remembered that this was a place of Vincent’s world, not hers. Yue was not the Moon Spirit here. Then she saw her own face, streaked with tears that fell to ripple the water, distorting her features. With an irate growl, her palm slapped into the water, sending much of the water out of the pool to soak into the ground around it as she accidentally bent the water with the movement. Within the same instant, she was on her feet and walking toward Vincent. She paused a few feet away.

“Don’t be sorry. It’s my fault. I… I wanted to help you, but I only made things worse.” Katara wasn’t used to this. Usually when she tried to help, she succeeded. In fact, she couldn’t think of a time when she failed someone so miserably as she had just failed this man. Tears still trailed down her face, but her voice was stronger, though it still held a note of sorrow for him, and anger at hurting him.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-21 04:30 am UTC (link)
“If it’s all right, I’d like to come back tomorrow evening to make sure you’re all right?” What would she do then, try to make it up to him and make things even worse than they already were. What else could she do? Even though she’d hindered more than helped, she still couldn’t turn her back on him. It wasn’t something she could ever bring herself to do. He needed her… He needed her help, and she would try to aid him better than she had this evening. “If you would rather I didn’t, I’ll understand.” Those words were not false, not a way she could find out. She didn’t hope he declined her offer, but accepted it. Maybe as much as he needed someone to help, she needed to help him, and she couldn’t just give up and leave forever without giving it her best effort.

Not caring about his worlds customs, only knowing she needed to offer him some semblance of comfort, and knowing that it would offer her a small amount of comfort, Katara placed her hand on his arm, near his elbow. “Please, don’t give up hope. There is so much good inside you, more than you know right now, but I know it's there. I've seen it.” I've felt it... She failed to say.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 09:48 am UTC (link)
-------------------------------------------------------
"Dad... why did you Marry mom?" Vincent had asked his father once, on the long and boring trips at sea to the Northern continent, where this forest was. He recalled this particular memory clearly, for as he got older it began to make more and more sense, and at least was a guide post in an otherwise completely alien topic. He didn't know what to do around women, for the life of him, but back then he'd been so young a kid that his feet were too big for his body, and the rest of him was clumsily approaching his teens.

"I knew it would make her smile."

"Huh?" Vincent had been confused by that, and stared at his father.

"It would make her smile, make her happy. You're going to learn a lot about love, someday, Vincent, and learn that many people cling to a false version of it, even though they don't know what it is. They like feeling good, and they assume that's real love... but it's not." Grimoire had put his hand on Vincent's shoulder then, and squeezed lightly, before giving him a gentle pat on the back.

"But... what's real love then?"

"Real love is... wanting to make someone happy. Even when that means you're not happy yourself." Vincent's father said softly. "But when you meet the right one, they want to make YOU happy too, so you create a balance... like a circle of life..."

"And if they don't?"

"... hopefully you'll never find that out, Vincent."


-------------------------------------------------------


Vincent paused as he heard Katara's voice speak to him from behind, half turning his head towards her to show that he was listening to her. But he didn't turn around, couldn't turn around to show her the sadness in his features. And then she spoke to him, and it all made sense all at once. "The one you saved, at the North Pole..." Vincent said as if he could almost have snatched it from her mind. He'd seen the look there, when she spoke those words and had assumed that it was in reference to a good friend. But htis made more sense to him, now that he thought on it.

He could hear her sink to her knees, and he longed to go to her, but what could he do? She was longing, no doubt, for the comfort of the one she had left behind, and no matter how much Vincent wanted to be, he would be a poor substitute for anyone else. As he stared down at his claw he realized that he was actually not that great of a replacement for the person that he had been. Those yellow eyes closed slowly as he thought on what to do. What could he really do that would somehow take this pain away from her? He could act like it didn't matter, but she'd see through it.

Lucrecia... this had gone much the same way as it had with her. Except with Lucrecia he'd been too scared to try, to timid to take it beyond the bounds of what he thought their relationship was. With Katara he'd taken that extra step, laid it on the line, and been... rejected. If he'd known it would hurt this much... hurt this much to...

"No..." Vincent said when she tried to take the blame on herself. "You only wanted to help someone in need. It was a noble act. I'm the one who perverted it into something else..." he said, as usual taking his own actions and casting them in the worst light. He paused as he felt her lightly touch his arm, forgetting what that meant, to have her fingers lingering there, to feel her close to him.

But slowly, gently, he pulled his arm from her fingertips. "I'll be fine..." he said, and she would hear the hollowness in his voice that came from him clearly shutting out whatever emotions that he had inside of himself. His voice only trembled a bit when he said it, but it was enough that it would be obvious to her that he was in pain.

To do what makes one happy, even if... Vincent's father hadn't meant for him to be self sacrificial, and yet that seemed the only capacity in which Vincent could help those he cared for. No matter what he tried, he was only a waypost, something they passed on their way to better things, a shelter, perhaps, from a storm, but little else. Lucrecia had been the same way, her interest in him fleeting... and eventually she'd chosen Hojo.

Vincent tried to have faith that Katara was in love with someone better. Until he knew otherwise, that was all he could do, really.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 09:49 am UTC (link)
"You... should look for a way home, not come here." Vincent said softly as he stepped away from her, and suddenly the room faded from the beautiful forest back into the plain hotel room that it always was when they first showed up. For what could the planet learn of his heart's desire if he was trying to kill off every emotion running through himself right now?

"I'll look too. I'll find a way to get you back to him." Vincent said softly. To see her smile... yes, he would lead her back into the arms of her lover, just to make her smile.

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[info]k_waterbender
2008-08-21 09:46 pm UTC (link)
“It wasn’t at the North Pole, it was in the Earth Kingdom capitol, but the water came from the North Pole. Yes. He’s the one.” Katara said slowly, softly, sadly. It was hard, remembering the way he had finally mastered the Avatar State, only to be shot down in all his glory by the cruelly calculating Azula. The flash of lightning had blinded her momentarily, and she hadn’t understood at first, but then Aang was falling. The glowing of his tattoos and eyes ceased, and Azula stood there smiling while the tips of her nails smoked. The waterbender had cried as she road the wave of water that took her to Aang, catching him just in time before his body smacked the ground. His body had been so lifeless in comparison to the energy he always seemed to have. He hadn’t been cold, though. There hadn’t been any blood. The heat of the lightning had cauterized the wounds. She knew what to do, though, as she removed the vile from her neck, opening it. The water felt as if it contained its own energy, as Katara pushed her own energy into it, to help Aang. Somehow she’d just known that the water should go into his body, through that terrible, open wound in his back. She wasn’t quite sure what else she’d done other than that. All she knew was one moment, Aang was in her arm, lifeless, and the next his tattoos lit up for a split second and his eyes opened as he groaned, alive.

That day was a memory she would never forget, no matter how hard she tried.


Katara shook her head, stuck on her own opinions of the matter. It was her fault, but they were both strong willed and steadfast in their thinking. It would be a waste of energy to attempt to verbally argue her point of view over his. “I’m not going to fight you on this.” She said simply, but in such a way that made it clear she hadn’t decided he was right. She dropped her hand to her side when he pulled away from her.

Her eyes clearly showed the sorrow she felt, but, when he said he was fine, a small glimmer of something else shone there for a moment. He hadn’t denied her those visits outright. In fact, he hadn’t been clear at all about whether or not he definitely did or didn’t want her around.

“I look for a way home every day. It’s emotionally exhausting. I haven’t found any possible way out, and it could be a long time before I ever do. I need a break sometimes, just like everyone else, or I’ll go insane.” Katara admitted. She wasn’t lying. Every day she searched the library, searched the main building, searched the residential buildings. She found nothing every time. When it stopped storming outside, she would search the Planet itself for the key out. “If you want to help, I won’t stop you, but I can’t search for an escape every waking second of every day I’m here.”

Katara’s eyes were dazzled by the sudden brightness of the room as it transformed into that strange, nondescript room the rooms always started out as. She wondered why he would want to be in here. The architecture was unappealing, and the colours were bland. It didn’t suit him at all. It didn’t suit either of them at all. Then again, this was his room, a reflection his ideas and his feelings.

Her smile was strained when he mentioned getting her back to Aang. Yes, that would be nice. To see her lover again, would be a dream come true. Helping others while she was here was something she felt she needed to do, though.

“I’m going to go. The food is still there, but it may be a bit cold by now. I’m sure the Planet can produce something to help you heat it back up.” Her gaze fell on the tray from the night before. “I’ll take this one away.” She said as she lifted the tray of food she hadn’t actually cooked herself. She walked to the door and opened it, balancing the tray on her knee.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Katara said softly before vacating the room.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 10:48 pm UTC (link)
He listened to her story, listened to the way that she talked about Aang. He could hear it in her voice, the pain over the very memory of him, and something more there... Hope. She hoped that she would see him again. He'd thought before that she might have changed her tone when talking about him like that, but it'd been compassion, and he'd been unused to the ability to hear so much better as the Galian Beast. Unseen beneath the strands of white hair his ears twitched slightly as he listened to her, almost wanting to lean into the wall so that he didn't have to expend the energy to stand, so that he could drown completely in the sound of her, the scent of her.

Everyone, now and again, wants something they can't have.

Silence was her only reply as she mentioned not fighting him on the matter of coming to his room. He wasn't going to fight her either, he really had no energy left for it anymore. The pain in his chest became a slow dull ache there, crying out for attention, but ultimately was pushed aside to other thoughts, thoughts of emptiness, of finding a way home, for her. She could not search day and night for such a thing, but Vincent could. Or he could die trying. Somehow either one seemed preferable, perhaps one after the other. See her into her own world and then... find someplace quiet... and let it all go. Sleep for years, centuries... or perhaps just give into the silent death that had nearly taken him before.

He stiffened only very slightly as she spoke about searching for a way home, imagining her desperately searching while he had been dreaming of her, dreaming of a life that she and he couldn't share. He felt stupid, full of self pity, angry, like every emotion inside of him was raging at once, becoming a massive whirlpool in the pit of his stomach that caused it to ache. The beast's nostrils could smell the scent of her cooking, and it took a conscious effort not to make his stomach growl, to think of other things to distract the body.

And then she left, with a promise to see him tomorrow. Only then did Vincent turn, staring at the door that she'd left. His hand lingered upon one of the tacky lamps that were in the hotel rooms features, reaching slowly beneath the lamp shade, letting his beastly hands clamp down upon the sides of the light bulb for a moment. The sound of shattering glass didn't even break the hollow air in that room as he squeezed his hand closed on it, his eyes closing as he felt the sweet sting of blades of glass cutting into the delicate nerves of his palm. A part of him wanted to howl, but he drew it in, drew everything inside of him.

The empty room, the memories of Hojo, Katara, Lucrecia... this awful Planet... he drew it all inside of him, all that emotion, and pushed it down. The whirlwind of emotion in him followed, like water down a drain, until there was just, nothingness. And all at once Vincent in his human form stood there, shards of glass sticking out of his palm. Accepting his feelings, acknowledging the beast inside of him was a way to control his transformation... so too was it to kill... everything inside of him that wanted to care... it seemed.

He clenched his fist a little tighter, causing the glass to break as the room transformed around him again, to something that looked cold and steely like the laboratory that he'd been in before. It was a Turk training room, the sort he'd remembered training in when he was younger. In the corner though, where his suit had once laid, there was the outfit that the other him had worn, the crimson garb, hanging there, as well as the gun he'd seen himself wield in his mind's eye. The odd three barreled gun.

Vincent turned as he heard glass falling and stared at his hand. It had already healed from it's injuries, the wounds sealing having pushed the glass outward, but it was barely worth noting, and he turned back again to the rack of clothes.

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[info]chaos_vincent
2008-08-21 10:48 pm UTC (link)
His trainer had told him once that the power of uniforms lay in the mental control it put over you. When you were in a uniform, you were someone else, and the more you seperated out that someone else from the regular you, the more power that it had. As he put on the black shirt, covering up his body, and the clasped the crimson mantle which matched his eyes around his shoulders, it felt oddly heavy, as if a burden that he was supposed to bear, invisible chains he couldn't see. The red headband kept the long strands of hair from his eye...

But it was the golden claws and boots that truly spoke to him, the claw looking like almost that of the Galian Beast's hand. A reminder then... that he was truly a monster, regardless of what he looked like on the outside. And when he'd slipped the gun into a side holster on his pants, he turned and looked at where Katara had come from... as she'd left, he'd said... nothing.

And he felt... nothing.

When Katara came the next night, Vincent Valentine would be gone.

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