InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I like slugs and snails."

Sidney "Onyxx" Green (_onyxx) wrote in utr_logs,
@ 2008-05-20 01:05:00

Entry tags:

candy quackenbush, onyxx, time warp plot

Who: Candy and Onyxx.
What: Onyxx rescues Candy from a bunch of bigots on Medieval Day.
When: Early Tuesday.
Where: London. Anyone in London, feel free to hear about a rampaging monster made of stone saving a "witch". Because he's not playing this quiet, subtle, or gentle.

Onyxx was glad he'd already been in London. The outskirts of the city, in a dungeon awaiting some church lapdog to come kill him for "being a monster" to be precise. He'd been prepared to wait it out and hope that the church guy didn't show up before this whole universe changed again, but the moment he saw Candy's entry, that all changed. As soon as he finished writing the comment about being on his way and wanting her to keep her eyes closed, he very calmly turned and began running, barreling right through the solid steel bars.

Crossbow bolts pinged off his granite skin and he ignored them, smashing guards out of the way. One man clearly broke both legs as he landed. The rest, suddenly much less confident in their ability to stop the raging "monster" began backing up. Onyxx, his red eyes glowing bright, did not give one whit about what they did. The minute he could see light from outside, he just turned and burst right through the wall.

Screams greeted him, but he ignored them. People were violently shoved out of the way, some of them undoubtedly injured. Onyxx didn't care about these idiots. These people were too stupid to realize that different didn't mean evil, didn't mean they had to be exterminated, and he was so fucking tired of Xavier's attitudes towards it all. If these idiots were going to condemn a sweet, wonderful girl to death because she could use magic, then fuck them, they deserved whatever injuries they sustained.

He tore through buildings, toppled carts, threw guards and horses and stalls and any other obstacle he encountered out of his way until he finally set his sights on the large group of people gathered around the stockades. Unable to suppress a growl, he grabbed up an abandoned cart he'd shoved by the wayside a few feet back and launched it directly into the group. Gasps and screams erupted from the group as they turned to see what was going on, and now chaos reigned. Onyxx charged forward, and actually laughed as they started throwing stones at him. "I'm made of stone you bigoted idiots," he bellowed, broken manacles on his hands jingling as his arms pumped forward and back. "Anyone that doesn't want to get hurt should get the hell out of my way! Anyone that doesn't move..." He snarled suddenly, spitting out rage he'd been bottling up all his life, "Anyone that doesn't move better be prepared to accept their deaths, because I'm not playing nicely with narrow minded morons anymore!"

And then he was upon them, crashing through the crowd, swinging his arms about in huge axehandle smashes, clearing a path towards the stockades. He just hoped Candy had listened to him and closed her eyes.

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toitshour
2008-05-20 05:26 am UTC (link)

Candy hadn't stopped struggling since they'd put her in. She had no doubt that Onyxx would save her, but she hated needing to be saved. She tried rocking her body, tried wiggling her wrists, but there was iron reinforcing the wood and her movements only served to bloody up her wrists.

She hadn't closed her eyes right away; she had figured Onyxx was exaggerating. She was strong, she'd survived horrors that other people could only dream of. She'd come out of the Twenty-Fifth hour and actually not gone mad, a feat unheard of. But when she heard crashes and screaming in the distance, she understood.

She would have done the same for him. And he didn't want her to see him. Candy closed her eyes, trembling, finally bowing her head. Her neck felt weak, muscles already tired from fear, and she bit her lip.

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_onyxx
2008-05-20 05:50 am UTC (link)

Onyxx was fighting to keep the red haze from clouding his vision. All the rage he'd bottled up over his life, from his abusive foster families to the judgmental populace of his world to the pretty little mutants that never had to worry about looking like a monster and always judged him at Xavier's, was trying to come out now and he was doing everything he could to keep it in check. He knew if he let it out people would die, and while he wouldn't care too much if a few of these idiots dropped off the face of the earth, it wasn't necessary for saving her and he didn't want to really become a monster.

And then he saw one of the guards at the stockade aiming his crossbow at Candy. Then the red haze descended and Onyxx no longer cared about the moral consequences of his actions. Snatching a fist-sized rock someone had thrown at him out of the air, he hurled it at the guard's head with all of his might. The stone collided and made an audible clanging as it bashed into, and right through, the weak little helmet the man was wearing. Candy probably couldn't hear the sound of his head caving in over all the screams, but she probably could hear the thump as his body hit the ground.

The other guard received a piece of broken wood through his chest, to halt any threat to Candy's life from him. Onyxx was taking no chances. After that, people gave up on having their way and started running, scuttling away in all directions. They look like insects, Onyxx found himself thinking. Scuttling little insects... Later, he would realize two things: One, that these thoughts sounded like Magneto. And two, that he did not care in the slightest.

He didn't have time to think, though. He knew more guards would be swarming this place soon. He pushed the rather dark thoughts from his mind and focused on reaching the stockade. No one really stood in his way, the remaining crowd parting in front of him. When he reached the stockade, he easily broke the lock on the side and then ripped the top off, throwing it over his shoulder carelessly.

"Candy!" He checked for any remaining restraints and, when he saw none, carefully lifted her up into his arms, turning and hunching over so she would be shielded from any projectiles. "Oh god Candy are you okay?"

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toitshour
2008-05-20 06:02 am UTC (link)

She hated that she'd been weak enough to be taken. She'd just been walking down the street, looking for some place to buy food, or at least the ingredients to make food, and three men had grabbed her and dragged her off. At first Candy had been confused, but when people had screamed at her (Stone the witch! Stone her!) she'd quickly caught the gist. She'd tried to fight them off, and had managed to bite one fairly hard, but the other two had hit her hard enough that she'd bit her tongue and saw stars. As she heard the wreckage and screams, she could feel her eye swelling, could feel the blood around her nose crusting.

It occurred to her that she should have felt worse about the loss of human life - and she knew there was a loss of human life, she could hear bodies thunking to the ground, could hear gurgling - but they'd hurt her for no reason. She'd studied the Inquisition and witch hunts of various places in school, but never thought she'd be part of one. She'd stopped caring when they'd put her in the stocks and left her.

Candy heard the stock break before she felt it, body somewhat limp and falling backward. But then strong stone arms were bearing her up, and she managed a weak smile. "I'm okay now. Just go."

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_onyxx
2008-05-20 06:22 am UTC (link)

Onyxx saw the bruise and the blood, and could tell that Candy's nose was broken. He was so tempted to put her somewhere safe and then turn around and show this crowd a good ol' fashioned demonstration of karma, but he knew he had to take care of Candy. She was the most important person in the world to him, and she needed him right now.

With one last glare at the crowd, he bolted down an alley, his broad shoulders scraping against the walls. He remained hunched over to protect Candy, and when he'd built up enough speed, he decided to try a move he'd once heard Hulk had pulled off. Without slowing he crouched and in one powerful pump of his legs took to the air. He didn't make it nearly as far as the Hulk, but his vertical leap would have impressed anyone in the NBA. It managed to carry him over the building in front of him and into another alley on the opposite side of it, which was his goal.

He spotted a carriage in the road and bolted out of the alley, prying open the door before glaring at the driver. Onyxx knew he looked like some kind of stone demon straight out of hell, his four red eyes glowing brightly, rags hanging off of his huge body, oversized manacles on his wrists. He decided to use that image to guarantee that the driver would respond. "Drive us out of the city or I will swallow your soul and feed it to the hounds of hell," he growled, and then stepped fully inside the carriage and slammed the door closed. He had to stoop very low to fit in there, but it was fine.

"Candy?" He didn't plan on letting her go any time soon, but he did lean his arms back a little so he could get a better look at her. "You're safe now, baby. You're safe. They won't hurt you again." The carriage jerked and began moving, slowly at first and then quickly picking up speed.

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toitshour
2008-05-20 06:35 am UTC (link)

Candy could feel him sheltering her, could feel how fast they were moving. She really just wanted her head to stop aching, and wanted to go home. To London in the year she remembered, to the Abarat - even Chickentown. But she wanted Onyxx there too, and she decided that a present where people were trying to stone her - with him there - was better than Minnestoa alone.

She heard his voice threatening someone, in theory someone with a carriage, and she felt them inside of something. Only then did she open her eyes, managing a small smile for Onyxx's benefit. "Thank you," she managed, throat dry. "Thank you so much." She flung herself forward, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him. She scraped her wrist a tiny bit, but she didn't care. He'd saved her. Even in the Abarat, nobody had saved her, she'd always saved herself. It was nice to know someone out there cared about her enough to risk themselves for her. She knew she'd do the same.

Eventually she leaned back, unaware that her eyes had welled with tears, and she rubbed at them defiantly with the back of a hand. "The funny thing is, I didn't even do anything. I don't know why they came at me." She winced as her fingers touched too close to her broken nose, and she blinked as her hand came away streaked with blood. Her wrists were also cut, and she reached down to rip at her dress for makeshift bandages.

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_onyxx
2008-05-20 06:57 am UTC (link)

When she hugged him, Onyxx returned as best he could in the cramped carriage. Well, cramped for a guy of his size and particularly odd build. He managed to get one arm around her, which was enough. When she leaned back, he went back to cradling her gently in his arms, careful to keep any spikier bits away from her. He wanted to get her nose looked at, but knew there was no way to do that until they reached their destination.

When she mentioned not knowing what she did, his eyes darkened again, from a softer red to a dark crimson, and they glowed with an inner rage. "You didn't do anything." There was a deep, deep bitterness there, and he continued, "They were just idiots. Idiots that needed a scapegoat for their own corruption." He managed to close his mouth before he said that they were insects, but the sound of his mouth snapping shut was like two rocks being smacked against each other, and then a low grinding sound as his lips pressed into as tight a line as they could. It never changes. People think they get better...they just get new targets and claim it as progress.

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toitshour
2008-05-20 07:04 am UTC (link)

Candy smiled at Onyxx, wincing as her eye crinkled in a way that did not work with the swelling. Her head was throbbing, but she could understand his agitation. Empathize, even. In some small way, she'd always been picked on when she'd been in high school. But it was nothing compared to what Onyxx had faced. She'd had a small taste of it, and she finally understood why he hadn't trusted her.

She reached out with sore fingers to take one of his between her palms. "This might sound silly, but for as much cruelty there is in the world, I think there's equal love and joy somewhere." She kissed the finger and relaxed back into the crook of his arm. "They don't understand, and society will always pick on people. But that's why you and me have to keep fighting. Show them they're wrong. And I think the best way to do that is love each other." She spoke the words almost as if she didn't know where they'd come from, all the while remembering a story she'd heard in the Abarat - Princess Boa of the daytime hours marrying a half-breed to unite all of the islands. It hadn't worked, but they'd tried, and she'd been mourned.

"Don't be mad at them. They all get the plague and die, anyway," she smiled a bit, trying to joke. "Where are we going, anyway?"

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_onyxx
2008-05-20 07:15 am UTC (link)

Onyxx took a deep breath and tried to put all the anger he'd unleashed back in the bottle. He wasn't too successful, his mind still focused on his thoughts about humanity and how nothing every really changes. In this vein, he had his own ideas about how to handle the bigots of the world, but he had a feeling he should keep those to himself and rethink them when he calmed down.

Still, his trust in "Xavier's dream" was horribly shaken by this event. Or perhaps a better term would be "failing". How could he believe in it when he'd just seen first hand that all humanity ever really did was change from one scapegoat to the other? For the first time, Onyxx began wondering if maybe Xavier really was just a deluded little bald man that saw too much good in people.

He didn't voice any of these thoughts, and did his best to calm his outward appearance. Now wasn't the time for rage. "Well, if all we have to do is love each other...I think we're off to a good start." He was still working to dim the rage in his eyes when she asked where they were going. "We're going somewhere safe," he said, smiling as best he could. "We're going to Atlantis."

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toitshour
2008-05-20 07:23 am UTC (link)

She could tell that he was upset, so she sat up a bit, managing despite the bumping, and kissed him again. "We're off to a great start," she said, taking care not to smile. "Don't get me wrong, some people are terrible, and I don't care much what happens to them. But I've traveled a lot, and met a lot of wonderful people." She gave him a pointed glance as she settled back down.

"Nobody I've known before would've tried to save me. Well, maybe John Mischief. And Malingo. But still. You're... different." She felt almost sheepish, and tried to focus on how traveling by horse and carriage was actually incredibly soothing.

Onyxx's destination made her blink. "I wish I could smile - Atlantis? The real Atlantis?" She bounced a tiny bit to show she was happy. She had to do something.

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_onyxx
2008-05-20 07:33 am UTC (link)

The kiss helped. It didn't change his feelings on the matter at hand, but it helped him put the rage back in the little bottle. His eyes dimmed finally, and he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He felt like a blocked up tea kettle that had finally been opened, letting all the steam pour out. The heat was still there, on the inside, but the pressure was gone and for now, he could be calm.

"'Course I tried to save you." He touched his forehead gently against hers, which wasn't that hard with how low he already had to stoop just to fit inside the carriage. "I care about you. A lot. A lot."

"The real Atlantis," he said, chuckling very slightly at her shock. "The guy that runs the place - Namor, he's a good guy - said we could stay as long as we don't start calling people heretics or monsters or anything." He knew it wouldn't be a problem for either of them.

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toitshour
2008-05-20 07:39 am UTC (link)

His forehead felt deliciously cool against hers, and she turned her head to let her sore eye lay against it. "I care about you a lot too," she murmured. She didn't know how to put it into words, but she would have done the same for him in her own way. She would have flown down a glyph and used any mans possible to save him. Granted, she probably never would have to, but still. Maybe sometimes she'd have to calm him down, help sooth the anger inside. Candy was fine with that. She'd never thought she'd have a boyfriend in the same way that the girls at her high school had boyfriends - boys they talked to for a week, made out with once, and then then ditched for someone more handsome. Candy was glad that she'd bypassed that stupidity and moved right onto the guy she adored with all her heart.

"The real Atlantis. Even after all I've been through, I didn't think that it existed. Isn't it under water?"

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_onyxx
2008-05-20 07:54 am UTC (link)

He made sure not to move his head too much, so that Candy could use it as a psuedo-cold compress for her eye. He never really imagined he could be a good cold compress, but hey, it worked. He would have to add that to his list of powers. Superstrength, stone skin more or less impervious to most types of physical damage, and excellent cold compress.

"...That is a very good point," Onyxx muttered, in response to her question. "I'll check with Namor and see if there's anything special that has to be done to get there."

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toitshour
2008-05-20 08:01 am UTC (link)

Her eye did feel a bit better after the cold, and she could tell he was probably amused. "Thanks," she murmured, moving back to the crook of his arm.

"I can't breathe underwater any better than you can," she teased. She felt somewhat sleepy, but struggled to keep her eyes open. "Maybe he means the island? I don't know." She was half tempted to go to the woods, summon a glyph, and pilot it back to the desert. At least they'd been alone there. "As much as I like visiting other places... I hope we go back to London soon. In our own time. I miss fridges. And soda. And air conditioning."

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	_onyxx 2008-05-20 05:09 pm UTC (link)
	Onyxx hoped they went to a time where society had actually grown, rather than just switched targets. He didn't voice it, though. They'd had enough talk of society being stupid for today. "Tell you the truth? I miss showers. These people clearly don't bathe anywhere near as much as they should," he said with a laugh. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	toitshour 2008-05-20 08:23 pm UTC (link)
	That made Candy laugh, broken nose and swollen eye or no. "Maybe that's why they thought I was a witch. I'm clean." She curled up in his arms and gave voice to her fears, knowing Onyxx would actually listen and not pass them off as flights of fancy. "I hope we go back. I'm actually starting to miss school. I want to go see another movie with you." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

_onyxx
2008-05-20 10:56 pm UTC (link)

Onyxx chuckled a little at that. It was much better to think of the joke than to think of the real reason someone might have chosen to persecute her. "Funny thing is, the plague thrives on the lack of regular bathing. Sometimes I love irony." He paused as he listened to her talk, and then nodded, knowing how she felt. "Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't mind not being yanked through time anymore, either." He smiled and added, "And going to another movie sounds great."

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toitshour
2008-05-20 11:05 pm UTC (link)

She had wrapped muslin around her wrists, and they actually didn't pain her so much anymore. When she thought about it, the common dress of a woman in this period wasn't that bad, and she adjusted her skirts on his lap. "Hydrophobia's a killer," she murmured.

Candy shifted her legs after he accepted, and tried to laugh without moving her face too much. "I'm glad. Or we could hang out and you could teach me those video games. I'd like that a lot too."

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	_onyxx 2008-05-21 12:20 am UTC (link)
	"Literally." The gallows humor was amusing enough for now. Kept them away from the more serious issues. Onyxx was still too angry to really talk about that without being kind of a douche to society. "It's up to you, whatever you want to do." He smiled and tried to relax, inadvertently bumping his head on the roof of the carriage. He didn't seem to sense it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	toitshour 2008-05-21 01:05 am UTC (link)
	Candy couldn't keep from tracing patterns on the smooth stone by Onyxx's wrists. "I think I'd like to spend some time with you where we're not in mortal peril," she murmured. "One where we can just cuddle or something." Even when he was stone, she liked him touching her. (Reply to this) (Parent)