Post by phoenix on Oct 24, 2015 22:03:47 GMT -5
((I must vanish for the month of November (and maybe December, too), so I need a reason why Methuselah is MIA in the meantime. Also, since Amber returned, I have to (rightfully) relinquish Hellsgate back to her, meaning I have to tweak Methuselah's previous storyline a bit. But it's an easy fix, don't worry! So here are my last two posts in the Loch, and the reason Methuselah disappeared. For those who have already read them, skip ahead past the *** section. And yes... This is like an entire chapter in a novel, I know. *chuckles*))
It had been a long night. It had been a long day. It had been a long few hours, and a very long forever.
Methuselah was in Tent City, for once in a very long time. He had spent a lot of time in Union City training since his recovery, but he figured that he needed a break, he needed to rest. The albino was sitting at a table by the Food and Drinks tent. Blood red orbs stared down at the table, deep in thought.
Innocent. Each time he said her name in his mind, his mind would whisper ‘My Queen’, which confused him. He didn’t understand. Innocent was not a queen. What was his mind trying to tell him?
The albino’s one hand that wasn’t holding the glass of blood clenched some, his nails digging into the surface of the table. It irritated him how, the moment he decides to finally let go of this past, his past returns. Did he want to remember Innocent? Yes. No. He didn’t know. The General frowned and took a drink of the blood.
As he did, images flashed in his mind.
He stood amongst other soldiers. He was looking at somebody in a small gathering of priests and priestesses. Who? Another flash. Somebody was bellowing out instructions. Instructions? No… More like… a decree. Another flash. The soldiers amongst Methuselah were furious. There was a lot of shouting. Methuselah was displeased, but silent. He was still staring at one figure in particular… Who? Another flash: It was war. A sword sliced toward Methuselah’s head…
The albino jumped up from the table, knocking the blood over, which pooled onto the surface of the table. Eyes wide, adrenaline high, Methuselah looked about, confused as to where he was for a few seconds. There was no sword. There was no battlefield. He had been in Tent City all along…
The man’s attention fell to the blood on the table. Another flash of him being the sole survivor on the blood stained field.
Methuselah slowly shut his eyes.
Once the albino had regained his senses, once the flashes of images were no longer occurring, the man turned and entered the food and drinks tent, grabbing a rag to clean up the spilled blood. He walked back to the table that he had been sitting at and blotted at the blood. There was a strong metallic taste in his mouth, and the familiarity of Asuna’s addicting blood swirled in his mind.
Asuna. He’d have to tell her about these new images. And so, as he cleaned his mess, he reached out to her mentally.
“Mine heart…” he started, then paused. Methuselah looked up from the table, toward nothing in particular, then toward the general direction of the lake. Something was wrong. Something didn’t feel right. “Asuna?” he tried again. “Thou art…”
Methuselah pulled away from the table, dropping the blood-soaked rag. He glanced about him and spoke an incantation in his native Ancient tongue, opening a portal next to him. As he went to step inside, another image flashed in his mind: A woman screaming, begging somebody to let him live. Methuselah couldn’t breathe, and stumbled into the portal, which shut behind him.
He fell to his knees, holding his chest. Why did it hurt so bad? Gritting his teeth, the albino stood up with difficulty, and looked around him. He was standing on the greenest grass had had seen in quite some time. Nearby, there was a cliff, and water. Home. He was back home. But how? Methuselah turned around to see what was behind him, and his eyes went wide.
He was suddenly on a battlefield, and there was a sword swinging to hit his shoulder. The man stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding the blow, and reached for his own sword… But there was no longer a battlefield, or even soldiers at war; instead, the area was devoid of much at all, and warm. Very warm.
Methuselah did not move for a few minutes, waiting for the image to shift, again, but it didn’t. No. This time, it wasn’t a strange memory. He really was standing… wherever the hell he was standing.
“Vampire…” a voice growled behind him. “I warned you what would happen if I ever saw you, again…”
Methuselah spun around to face the voice, only to be face to face with a large, red dragon. The beast swiped at him.
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The sky was burning. The land was desolate. Scorched. Nothing but fire and rocks. Methuselah, still disoriented, stumbled backwards. He did not move out of the way fast enough, and three of the large red dragon's claws sliced through his armor as if it were made of paper. Part of one of the claws managed to touch flesh, too, and the albino cried out in shock, surprise, and pain, as he fall backwards, on the ground.
The beast was quick. Within seconds, A large paw smashed down on him, crushing the man. Not only could Methuselah feel bones breaking, but he could feel the ground beneath him crumbling from the force that was applied. He gasped for breath and fought for consciousness. Was this it? Was this the end?
"You're making this far too easy, Vampire..." the dragon growled.
Methuselah’s aura flickered. No. He wasn’t going to die like this. He was going to be the one to defeat the High Priest. He HAD to be the one that defeated the High Priest. He had to protect Tent City. Union City. Asuna. His aura, a soft white glow about his body, grew brighter, like the sun. The dragon blinked in surprise, and even more so when the Vampire beneath the red paw began pushing back with incredible strength. The Dragon growled angrily and pushed down harder, scratching at the crumbling ground beneath Methuselah until the albino was gripped tightly. And then, with a large whoosh of its wings, flew up into the fiery sky.
Methuselah tried to wiggle free, but each time he moved, the dragon gripped tighter as it flew higher and higher. More bones broke, and Methuselah cried out each time, but it only brought him more strength.
He heard the dragon shriek angrily before he suddenly felt the beast dive. The beast dived so fast, Methuselah knew that it was going to be a painful landing. The dragon then did something that the albino did not expect.
As they continued to fall, the dragon shifted. It shrunk in size until it turned into human form. A woman. She gripped his throat tightly with flames burning bright and filled with hatred in her eyes until Methuselah’s back touched ground. From the speed of the impact, his body did not stop there. He continued on, with the red armored woman still atop of him, until he hit the end of a cavern. His body finally stopped moving. He was in pain. Severe pain. But, of course, he'd been through worse. Not that he could say being dropped at sonic speed from a few hundred miles high in the air wasn't worse. No, he'd only been in worse pain. His aura faded to nothing.
The woman’s skin was dark, and her hair raven black and long. She wore red dragonscale armor that fit her body so perfectly at every curve, that it seemed impossible for her to be wearing anything else underneath. She was weaponless. She released Methuselah’s throat before bringing one of her bare feet up against his chest, keeping him pinned.
“Well, well, well, doesn’t this scene look familiar, hmm?” she purred.
“I…” Methuselah winced, his entire body aching. “I know not what thou speaketh of…”
“Don’t play me for the fool, Vampire. You’ve always fed me nothing but lies.”
Methuselah’s blood red orbs tried to focus on her, but his vision was getting blurry. “If we hath met previously, m’lady…” he started, his ancient accent thick and slurred with trying to remain conscious, “I doth not recall.”
“LIES!” she shrieked.
“Thou can rest assured that I speaketh truth. And whatever horrors I seem to have caused thyne self… I apologize profusely. Perhaps we can start over…?”
“Start over?!” the woman looked appalled.
With a growl that echoed her red dragon being, she removed her bare foot from off of Methuselah’s chest and kneeled next to him. A hand reached out for his head. She ran her fingers through his long white hair before touching his temples. There was a slight sting felt from the albino, and the woman pulled her hand back, giving it a quick shake, as if she had gotten a shock. She tried again. Methuselah winced and groaned, and the woman pulled her hand back.
“Your mind.” She said. “It’s blocked.” Methuselah could only manage a nod. “You really don’t remember, do you.” Methuselah faintly shook his head. The woman stared at him for a moment before exhaling a sigh and standing back up. “Why am I always saving you instead of killing you?”
She looked down to him and muttered incoherent words before she extended her hand, palm down, to him. Light was cast from the palm, and, in no time, his bones mended. He was still battered and bruised, and he was in severe pain... but his bones were no longer broken.
She kneeled back down next to him, and brought her hand back toward his head. Methuselah twitched and turned away, but the woman gave him a stern look.
“Easy, Vampire. Giving you my memories doesn’t hurt nearly as much as trying to get through your barrier…”
She touched his temple.
Images and sounds flooded through Methuselah’s mind. The albino shut his eyes. When he opened them again, he looked straight into her fiery red ones.
“Xiu.” He simply said.
This brought a smile to the woman’s lips. “Good.” She said, as she stood back up. “You remember.”
“With thyne memories… Aye.” He replied.
“Well, it’s a start.”
“Art thou truly the only remaining being in Hellsgate?” he asked.
“Maybe.” She replied. “Maybe not. Hellsgate is as vast as it is desolate. Come.”
The woman extended a hand to aid the albino back to his feet. Battered, bruised, bleeding but no longer broken, the man accepted her aid. He winced and groaned in the process, stumbling a bit once on his feet, but he soon stood up straight. He was taller than the woman before him. She looked up at him for a moment before she turned around and walked out of the cavern.
Methuselah followed the woman. They walked beneath the burning sky. He couldn’t tell whether it was night or day. They walked past rocks and mountains and plains with absolutely no vegetation. Eventually, the albino saw ruins in the distance. Those ruins seemed to be where Xiuhcoatl was taking him.
“Do you remember this place, Methuselah?” she asked him, once they finally stopped before the ruins.
Methuselah looked up at the ruins of what was once a castle. Nothing seemed familiar about it at all. He did not remember attempting to kill Brent and Nina. He did not remember taking on every single vampire and dragon in the realm in order to make the realm Innocent’s wedding gift.
“Nay.” Was his eventual reply, short and sweet.
“You were to give this realm to your betrothed. Do you remember her, at least?”
Methuselah glared to her question, but it was short-lived. “There art images in mine mind. But I doth not remember her, nor her, I.”
“Love is blind…” the woman smirked, as if she had won a bet. “Come.” She then quickly added, moving toward the ruined castle.
Methuselah followed the woman as she approached the ruins and stepped past some fallen stone, into a hole leading into the ruined castle itself. The albino paused for a moment, watching the woman with uncertainty until she poked her head back out, beckoning him to follow.
He followed, ducking as he entered the hole as to not hit his head, and, soon, he was inside. Everything was drab, dusty, desolate, dead.
“It must have been quite a sight to behold, once…” he whispered.
“I wouldn’t know.” Xiu answered in a regular tone. “I couldn’t even get near the outside of the castle, let alone the inside of it.”
She lead him down crumbling halls, past empty rooms, and down at least half of a dozen dangerous stair cases, until she came to a halt. Before her was one single room. And the only thing in the one single room was a black spiral on the ground. She stepped inside the room, then to the side so that Methuselah could follow.
Blood red orbs looked to the spiral. It moved, as if it was living. Methuselah cast a glance about the empty room, then back to the spiral.
“What ist this?” he asked.
“A portal.” She replied, rolling her eyes. “You remember what they are, because you came here through one.”
“And on the other side?” he asked.
“We call it the Great Realm of the Jewel.” She replied as she moved to be standing behind Methuselah. “We don’t know how long it’s been hiding here, beneath this castle, but…”
“We?” Methuselah asked, cutting her off. “You mean there are other beings?”
“As you’ll find out.”
Methuselah turned around, only to get kicked harshly in the gut by the barefoot woman in red scale armor. His eyes widened as he fell backwards into the portal, one hand reaching out and up, trying to catch himself on absolutely nothing at all. The last thing he saw was a particularly evil and content grin upon Xiu’s lips before she jumped in after him.
“Asuna!” he cried out, in an attempt to reach her, in an attempt to connect their minds, in an attempt to create a portal back to her. But his attempts failed as if the link broke.
He was in a new realm, and it seemed that something was affecting any communication, or even magic and abilities. Asuna, now in Outworld, would hear Methuselah call out to her, but it seemed that he was calling from an unbelievable distance, and his alarming call was full of static, his call barely even audible at all. If Asuna tried to link their minds, to connect and try to either join him in his mind, or bring him to hers, their starry void would explode in a bright light, and there would be nothing but a constant pulse of energy- almost like a heartbeat. It was the only thing that let Asuna know that he was still alive.
It had been a long night. It had been a long day. It had been a long few hours, and a very long forever.
Methuselah was in Tent City, for once in a very long time. He had spent a lot of time in Union City training since his recovery, but he figured that he needed a break, he needed to rest. The albino was sitting at a table by the Food and Drinks tent. Blood red orbs stared down at the table, deep in thought.
Innocent. Each time he said her name in his mind, his mind would whisper ‘My Queen’, which confused him. He didn’t understand. Innocent was not a queen. What was his mind trying to tell him?
The albino’s one hand that wasn’t holding the glass of blood clenched some, his nails digging into the surface of the table. It irritated him how, the moment he decides to finally let go of this past, his past returns. Did he want to remember Innocent? Yes. No. He didn’t know. The General frowned and took a drink of the blood.
As he did, images flashed in his mind.
He stood amongst other soldiers. He was looking at somebody in a small gathering of priests and priestesses. Who? Another flash. Somebody was bellowing out instructions. Instructions? No… More like… a decree. Another flash. The soldiers amongst Methuselah were furious. There was a lot of shouting. Methuselah was displeased, but silent. He was still staring at one figure in particular… Who? Another flash: It was war. A sword sliced toward Methuselah’s head…
The albino jumped up from the table, knocking the blood over, which pooled onto the surface of the table. Eyes wide, adrenaline high, Methuselah looked about, confused as to where he was for a few seconds. There was no sword. There was no battlefield. He had been in Tent City all along…
The man’s attention fell to the blood on the table. Another flash of him being the sole survivor on the blood stained field.
Methuselah slowly shut his eyes.
Once the albino had regained his senses, once the flashes of images were no longer occurring, the man turned and entered the food and drinks tent, grabbing a rag to clean up the spilled blood. He walked back to the table that he had been sitting at and blotted at the blood. There was a strong metallic taste in his mouth, and the familiarity of Asuna’s addicting blood swirled in his mind.
Asuna. He’d have to tell her about these new images. And so, as he cleaned his mess, he reached out to her mentally.
“Mine heart…” he started, then paused. Methuselah looked up from the table, toward nothing in particular, then toward the general direction of the lake. Something was wrong. Something didn’t feel right. “Asuna?” he tried again. “Thou art…”
Methuselah pulled away from the table, dropping the blood-soaked rag. He glanced about him and spoke an incantation in his native Ancient tongue, opening a portal next to him. As he went to step inside, another image flashed in his mind: A woman screaming, begging somebody to let him live. Methuselah couldn’t breathe, and stumbled into the portal, which shut behind him.
He fell to his knees, holding his chest. Why did it hurt so bad? Gritting his teeth, the albino stood up with difficulty, and looked around him. He was standing on the greenest grass had had seen in quite some time. Nearby, there was a cliff, and water. Home. He was back home. But how? Methuselah turned around to see what was behind him, and his eyes went wide.
He was suddenly on a battlefield, and there was a sword swinging to hit his shoulder. The man stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding the blow, and reached for his own sword… But there was no longer a battlefield, or even soldiers at war; instead, the area was devoid of much at all, and warm. Very warm.
Methuselah did not move for a few minutes, waiting for the image to shift, again, but it didn’t. No. This time, it wasn’t a strange memory. He really was standing… wherever the hell he was standing.
“Vampire…” a voice growled behind him. “I warned you what would happen if I ever saw you, again…”
Methuselah spun around to face the voice, only to be face to face with a large, red dragon. The beast swiped at him.
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The sky was burning. The land was desolate. Scorched. Nothing but fire and rocks. Methuselah, still disoriented, stumbled backwards. He did not move out of the way fast enough, and three of the large red dragon's claws sliced through his armor as if it were made of paper. Part of one of the claws managed to touch flesh, too, and the albino cried out in shock, surprise, and pain, as he fall backwards, on the ground.
The beast was quick. Within seconds, A large paw smashed down on him, crushing the man. Not only could Methuselah feel bones breaking, but he could feel the ground beneath him crumbling from the force that was applied. He gasped for breath and fought for consciousness. Was this it? Was this the end?
"You're making this far too easy, Vampire..." the dragon growled.
Methuselah’s aura flickered. No. He wasn’t going to die like this. He was going to be the one to defeat the High Priest. He HAD to be the one that defeated the High Priest. He had to protect Tent City. Union City. Asuna. His aura, a soft white glow about his body, grew brighter, like the sun. The dragon blinked in surprise, and even more so when the Vampire beneath the red paw began pushing back with incredible strength. The Dragon growled angrily and pushed down harder, scratching at the crumbling ground beneath Methuselah until the albino was gripped tightly. And then, with a large whoosh of its wings, flew up into the fiery sky.
Methuselah tried to wiggle free, but each time he moved, the dragon gripped tighter as it flew higher and higher. More bones broke, and Methuselah cried out each time, but it only brought him more strength.
He heard the dragon shriek angrily before he suddenly felt the beast dive. The beast dived so fast, Methuselah knew that it was going to be a painful landing. The dragon then did something that the albino did not expect.
As they continued to fall, the dragon shifted. It shrunk in size until it turned into human form. A woman. She gripped his throat tightly with flames burning bright and filled with hatred in her eyes until Methuselah’s back touched ground. From the speed of the impact, his body did not stop there. He continued on, with the red armored woman still atop of him, until he hit the end of a cavern. His body finally stopped moving. He was in pain. Severe pain. But, of course, he'd been through worse. Not that he could say being dropped at sonic speed from a few hundred miles high in the air wasn't worse. No, he'd only been in worse pain. His aura faded to nothing.
The woman’s skin was dark, and her hair raven black and long. She wore red dragonscale armor that fit her body so perfectly at every curve, that it seemed impossible for her to be wearing anything else underneath. She was weaponless. She released Methuselah’s throat before bringing one of her bare feet up against his chest, keeping him pinned.
“Well, well, well, doesn’t this scene look familiar, hmm?” she purred.
“I…” Methuselah winced, his entire body aching. “I know not what thou speaketh of…”
“Don’t play me for the fool, Vampire. You’ve always fed me nothing but lies.”
Methuselah’s blood red orbs tried to focus on her, but his vision was getting blurry. “If we hath met previously, m’lady…” he started, his ancient accent thick and slurred with trying to remain conscious, “I doth not recall.”
“LIES!” she shrieked.
“Thou can rest assured that I speaketh truth. And whatever horrors I seem to have caused thyne self… I apologize profusely. Perhaps we can start over…?”
“Start over?!” the woman looked appalled.
With a growl that echoed her red dragon being, she removed her bare foot from off of Methuselah’s chest and kneeled next to him. A hand reached out for his head. She ran her fingers through his long white hair before touching his temples. There was a slight sting felt from the albino, and the woman pulled her hand back, giving it a quick shake, as if she had gotten a shock. She tried again. Methuselah winced and groaned, and the woman pulled her hand back.
“Your mind.” She said. “It’s blocked.” Methuselah could only manage a nod. “You really don’t remember, do you.” Methuselah faintly shook his head. The woman stared at him for a moment before exhaling a sigh and standing back up. “Why am I always saving you instead of killing you?”
She looked down to him and muttered incoherent words before she extended her hand, palm down, to him. Light was cast from the palm, and, in no time, his bones mended. He was still battered and bruised, and he was in severe pain... but his bones were no longer broken.
She kneeled back down next to him, and brought her hand back toward his head. Methuselah twitched and turned away, but the woman gave him a stern look.
“Easy, Vampire. Giving you my memories doesn’t hurt nearly as much as trying to get through your barrier…”
She touched his temple.
Images and sounds flooded through Methuselah’s mind. The albino shut his eyes. When he opened them again, he looked straight into her fiery red ones.
“Xiu.” He simply said.
This brought a smile to the woman’s lips. “Good.” She said, as she stood back up. “You remember.”
“With thyne memories… Aye.” He replied.
“Well, it’s a start.”
“Art thou truly the only remaining being in Hellsgate?” he asked.
“Maybe.” She replied. “Maybe not. Hellsgate is as vast as it is desolate. Come.”
The woman extended a hand to aid the albino back to his feet. Battered, bruised, bleeding but no longer broken, the man accepted her aid. He winced and groaned in the process, stumbling a bit once on his feet, but he soon stood up straight. He was taller than the woman before him. She looked up at him for a moment before she turned around and walked out of the cavern.
Methuselah followed the woman. They walked beneath the burning sky. He couldn’t tell whether it was night or day. They walked past rocks and mountains and plains with absolutely no vegetation. Eventually, the albino saw ruins in the distance. Those ruins seemed to be where Xiuhcoatl was taking him.
“Do you remember this place, Methuselah?” she asked him, once they finally stopped before the ruins.
Methuselah looked up at the ruins of what was once a castle. Nothing seemed familiar about it at all. He did not remember attempting to kill Brent and Nina. He did not remember taking on every single vampire and dragon in the realm in order to make the realm Innocent’s wedding gift.
“Nay.” Was his eventual reply, short and sweet.
“You were to give this realm to your betrothed. Do you remember her, at least?”
Methuselah glared to her question, but it was short-lived. “There art images in mine mind. But I doth not remember her, nor her, I.”
“Love is blind…” the woman smirked, as if she had won a bet. “Come.” She then quickly added, moving toward the ruined castle.
Methuselah followed the woman as she approached the ruins and stepped past some fallen stone, into a hole leading into the ruined castle itself. The albino paused for a moment, watching the woman with uncertainty until she poked her head back out, beckoning him to follow.
He followed, ducking as he entered the hole as to not hit his head, and, soon, he was inside. Everything was drab, dusty, desolate, dead.
“It must have been quite a sight to behold, once…” he whispered.
“I wouldn’t know.” Xiu answered in a regular tone. “I couldn’t even get near the outside of the castle, let alone the inside of it.”
She lead him down crumbling halls, past empty rooms, and down at least half of a dozen dangerous stair cases, until she came to a halt. Before her was one single room. And the only thing in the one single room was a black spiral on the ground. She stepped inside the room, then to the side so that Methuselah could follow.
Blood red orbs looked to the spiral. It moved, as if it was living. Methuselah cast a glance about the empty room, then back to the spiral.
“What ist this?” he asked.
“A portal.” She replied, rolling her eyes. “You remember what they are, because you came here through one.”
“And on the other side?” he asked.
“We call it the Great Realm of the Jewel.” She replied as she moved to be standing behind Methuselah. “We don’t know how long it’s been hiding here, beneath this castle, but…”
“We?” Methuselah asked, cutting her off. “You mean there are other beings?”
“As you’ll find out.”
Methuselah turned around, only to get kicked harshly in the gut by the barefoot woman in red scale armor. His eyes widened as he fell backwards into the portal, one hand reaching out and up, trying to catch himself on absolutely nothing at all. The last thing he saw was a particularly evil and content grin upon Xiu’s lips before she jumped in after him.
“Asuna!” he cried out, in an attempt to reach her, in an attempt to connect their minds, in an attempt to create a portal back to her. But his attempts failed as if the link broke.
He was in a new realm, and it seemed that something was affecting any communication, or even magic and abilities. Asuna, now in Outworld, would hear Methuselah call out to her, but it seemed that he was calling from an unbelievable distance, and his alarming call was full of static, his call barely even audible at all. If Asuna tried to link their minds, to connect and try to either join him in his mind, or bring him to hers, their starry void would explode in a bright light, and there would be nothing but a constant pulse of energy- almost like a heartbeat. It was the only thing that let Asuna know that he was still alive.