|
|
Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Apr 14, 2007 19:31:53 GMT
Kadaj nodded slowly. "You speak sense, but there's unfortunately a problem with that theory. My subconscious mind is extremely active." He looked sullen. "It's the curse of my breed... though my brothers seem unafflicted by it. The only logical theory I can imagine is it had something to do with the way we were engineered." He stared morosely into space. "What makes it worst of all is, it is more than just a dream. That dream comes directly from my memory. I relive the culmination of my most terrible mistakes, almost every night. Ironic... at the time I thought it was the moment of my greatest triumph." Now... it's hard to say exactly WHAT I feel about it... anger first. Then regret and revulsion. Finally pain... awful pain.
****
Reno heard the kid moving and his head snapped around to see if he'd woken up. He relaxed when he found the kid still sleeping. "That boy is going to make me paranoid," he joked, leaning his head on hers, holding her closer.
|
|
|
|
Post by *~Nikkole~* on Apr 20, 2007 1:02:44 GMT
Kamen nodded solemnly, thinking. "Well... I can't really help you there. I've only learned three things having to deal with dreams. How to give them, how to take them, and how to live them." He sighed. "And I don't think you want me to do any of those...." He added quietly, shifting in his seat. He had begun to learn more and more about his new family over time, understanding a little more with each piece of information... or at least partially understanding it. He knew he could never fully comprehend any of what they've gone through....
He drifted back to what he had said. Thats right... Cironia had taught me how to give and take dreams... its hard and calls for creativty, but I can do it.. Ahaha. I would have never remembered.... His thinking went back to Kadaj. Focu, Kamen. Focus.
*~*~*
Nikky was startled by Reno's sudden movement. She laughed softly and snuggled him. "He'll be doing that all night... but I don't think he'll wake unless we are really loud or we move him at all." She grinned, happy to know that she was reunited with her brother and that her Fiancee and him get along well enough.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Apr 20, 2007 1:20:45 GMT
"That's too bad," Reno sighed, feigning disappointment. "No loud noises, huh? I guess I'm gonna have to cancel the rock concert... get a refund on that atomic bomb I was gonna set off... send that elephant back to the zoo... forget about the three-ring circus..." He grinned and cuddled Nikky, laughing quietly.
****
Kadaj felt Kamen trying to reach into his mind and reflexively blocked him, almost roughly enough to hurt him. He saw the boy's body jerk in pain and immediately pulled back. He went to him to apologize and make sure he was OK. "Oh, s**t... sorry, I didn't..."
He stopped short. He had spotted the silver pendant Kamen found back at the fortress.
He picked it up between two fingers and looked at it intently. Something about it seemed painfully familiar... "Kamen, where did you get this?"
|
|
|
|
Post by *~Nikkole~* on Apr 20, 2007 1:31:23 GMT
Kamen barely winced. He half waved it off, expecting Kadaj to have done that. He smiled a bit and nodded. "Aha. No biggie, bro..." He paused and blinked. "Um... It was mine. I took it back from Vikktor after you killed him-- Why?" He looked at Kadaj curiously, wondering why he took such an intrest in it....
*~*~*
Nikky rolled her eyes. "Too bad you wasted all that money... now we'l just have to buy other stuff, like ribbons to put in his hair and sharpies to write on his face." She grinned wide.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Apr 20, 2007 1:43:05 GMT
"Where did it come from before you got it?" Kadaj continued patiently. He couldn't place where he had seen something like this before, but it commanded his attention too strongly for him to have never known anything like it...
****
Reno smirked back. "Hmm... I dunno... he's a little too skinny right now for that to be much fun. It's no good unless they can fight back." He kissed her hair and held her to him gently for a moment... then a look of reconsideration came over his face... "Buuuut... it wouldn't be fair to have the kid around without giving him a proper 'welcome'... h**l, I'm not above giving it a try." He kissed her cheek before springing up to the desk across the room. "I'll look for pens... you start on the hair ties."
|
|
|
|
Post by *~Nikkole~* on Apr 20, 2007 1:54:05 GMT
He blinked and frowned lightly. "My mother gave it to me when I was little. She always said it would ward off evil spirits. I never believed her, I just kept it because it was the only thing besides clothes and food she ever gave me..." He paused before adding. "And I don't know where my mother got it...."
*~*~*
Nikky almost pouted but got over it as she jumped up and grinned. "Yes! This will be so fun." She giggled quietly before looking through her bag for her hair ties. After she found them she gently did his hair, careful not to wake him.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Apr 20, 2007 2:01:21 GMT
"No sharpies," Reno shrugged. "But I found, like, three ballpoints. Red, blue, and black." He uncapped one and got to work. "Mind, I'm not much of an author, here..." He thought for a second and started copying down dirty limericks from memory.
|
|
|
|
Post by *~Nikkole~* on Apr 20, 2007 2:10:49 GMT
(( kk ))
*~*~*
Nikky shrugged. "Doesn't matter." She giggled as she styled his hair into little ponytails, randomly placed about his head. She had shifted him carefully onto his back to make all this easier.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Apr 20, 2007 2:23:14 GMT
"Your skill as a hairdresser, baby, once again doesn't fail to amaze," Reno wisecracked, printing out in small letters across the boy's nose the tale of the geezer from Khartoum. His forehead already related the stories of a man from Nantucket, a fellow called Skinner, and a tenor named Horn. "Wonder how long it'll take for this ink to wash off... until then his head is going to have an R rating."
|
|
|
|
Post by *~Nikkole~* on Apr 20, 2007 2:33:26 GMT
Nikky pushed him playfully before shaking her head and laughing. "This is so horribly mean... but a lot of fun." She giggled. "It may take him a while, depending on how long it takes him to notice its there...." She thought some as she grabed her random hair glue and started spiking parts of his hair. "This would be even more fun if we did this to the rest ofthe guys... haha, they would all kill us I bet." She joked.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Apr 20, 2007 2:52:07 GMT
Reno nodded agreement, concluding the ballad of the producer named Redpress on the boy's left cheek. "I know there would be h**l to pay if it were me. And don't get me started on the brothers... they'd be feasting on our entrails by the time we could say 'Ouch'. As for Rude... well, he's kind of out of the running for your expertise. But with all that free surface area... I could probably copy down War and Peace."
****
"Evil spirits..." Kadaj repeated thoughtfully, examining the small, cross-shaped talisman. Small decorations embellished the simple charm, scuffing his glove as he ran a finger over them. "Evil spirits could mean--"
Suddenly he stopped speaking. He just stopped, mid-sentence. The look on his face was totally blank and unblinking.
Then he screamed and fell over backwards. "Turn it off!" He was almost incoherent. "TURN IT OFF!"
Loz suddenly woke up, also howling in apparent agony. He let loose a long, loud string of expletives in vulgar condemnation of the mothers and future children of whoever was responsible for what was happening to him...
****
Reno, startled by the racket, accidentally smeared one of the letters in his current project, a poem about a rotund woman's obscene death by poisoned tea. "What the h**l--"
|
|
|
|
Post by *~Nikkole~* on Apr 20, 2007 3:02:36 GMT
Nikky laughed softly and nodded. "Oh yes... but it would be fun." She shook her head. "I doubt anyone but Kamen sleeps hard enough for this though..." she lightly tugged on the boys hair to prove her point. He didn't wake or stir.
*~*~*
Kamen was startled and jumped back as Kadaj yelled. He blinked and watched them in shock before picking up the pendant and looking at it. He ran his hand over it and lamely willed it to stop in his head...
He looked at, then to the others. He had no idea what was going on, it wasn't affecting him.... He stopped, the pendant. He panicked slightly as he turned it all around, searching for an 'off' button or something; his fingers running over it. He figured it had to be that....
*~*~*
Nikky was startled as she looked up at Reno. "What was that?" Lekki stirred but she softly stroked his cheek and hair, putting him back to sleep.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Apr 20, 2007 3:18:42 GMT
By this point, the brothers seemed to be almost suffering epileptic convulsions. It only seemed to get worse the harder they resisted... Loz was blubbering like a baby, and hard as he tried, Kadaj could not make himself stop screaming...
****
Reno capped his pens and shoved then into his jacket pocket. "I don't know..." He pulled his EMR, narrowly avoiding smacking Lekki in the head with it. "But I'm going to find out." Whatever can make a Remnant scream for mercy has to mean bad news... He snagged one of the keycards and headed out the door...
****
Kamen's fingers ran over the pendant, and suddenly the screaming stopped.
The actual pain had disappeared, but its aftermath remained. Kadaj lay on the floor limply-- his muscles felt like he'd just been run over by a fifty-car freight train. And his head...
"Holy f**king Asak'a," he wheezed. He experimentally twitched a finger... no, bad idea, that hurt. H**l, even blinking hurt. "Kamen, do not accuse me of exaggeration when I say I think you have found the bazooka of the memetic arsenal." He groaned miserably, unable to move.
|
|
|
|
Post by *~Nikkole~* on Apr 20, 2007 3:25:20 GMT
Nikky followed closely, leaving Lekki where he was. He would be fine. "I hope nothings wrong..." She said quietly as she tailed him worriedly.
*~*~*
Kamen stared at him before dropping the pendant against his chest. Not touching this again... He dropped off the chair and next to Kadaj. He was hesitent to do anything. "Can you move? Does it hurt everywhere? What happened? What'd it do to you?" He asked quickly and nervously, that was really freaky... he only thought it was a necklace....
|
|
|
|
Post by Amnesty Lazuli on Apr 20, 2007 3:39:21 GMT
Reno pounded on the door of the hotel room, where the brothers still lay, devastated. "What's going on in there?"
Kadaj groaned again. The last thing we need is for him to see us like this... "Nothing! Go away!"
"You don't scream 'For the love of all things pure and holy, TURN THAT THING OFF' for nothing!"
"S***w you, Reno," Kadaj replied sullenly. "Kamen, don't answer--"
The door glowed green for a moment and then abruptly flew open.
"--him," Kadaj finished lamely. He sighed and looked upward at the incredulous ex-Turk. "Let me guess. That had absolutely no effect on you whatsoever?"
"What didn't, yo?"
"I'll take that as a no." Kadaj started sitting up, despite the excruciating protest of his limbs... it didn't work out and he fell back down. "OK... Let's take a five-minute break."
Loz was too busy whimpering and subbing to say anything. Reno rolled his eyes at this. "Oh, come on, yo... you're too big to be snotting all over the place like that... dude, you're seriously embarrassing me here..."
Kadaj knew from experience that nothing Reno said would do any good. He looked up wanly at the boy. "Got that from your mother, then. Ha... figures." He gave it a second look. The chain ran through the junction of the two lines that made the "cross"... "Not a cross-- The Four Daughters. So THAT's where I've seen it before!"
|
|
