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Post by elizar on Oct 13, 2009 19:17:36 GMT -5
"I hope it doesn't echo in there." Ian said. He knew few things about large empty buildings. At least the airplane hangars had been made as echo-free as possible. But he knew that several large buildings in humanverse were not the same.
"Don't worry." Ash said. "Even when there are just the sellers who didn't get their whole produce out at the end of the day, their lamentations go unheard by those on the other side of the mall." He said. Perhaps talking would make this a bit easier on him, he hoped.
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Post by Evangeline on Oct 13, 2009 20:30:03 GMT -5
Danae wrinkled her nose. "It smells like they've been selling durian fruit here again. Why do they ever bother bringing it over here?" Secretly, she was glad that the trace-scents of produce were there to mask any stray scents from those lying in wait.
Annalise finally looked around to take in the mall as they entered. It had been, indeed, a long time since any high-fashion clothing or upmarket goods had been in the offing. Off in the corner of one stall, a market scale sat empty and still, on an empty counter. Strands of hay and straw were on the dusty floor. A whiff of old manure told of the livestock that were occasionally sold here as well.
Liriel's eyes went all over the aisles and walls. "I wonder what this place is like on the market days?" It was the first indication that she might have an interest in anything outside of recruiting.
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Post by elizar on Oct 13, 2009 20:48:15 GMT -5
"It is quite lively." Ash said. "During the high hours, it is just packed with people. And in the later hours you got the opportunists haggling with the sellers because they know the produce would go to waste if not sold today." He looked around the large space. He had once seen some of the stores converted into stalls for slaughter stock. And he wondered just where the others were, the place had some amazing hiding spots for something as big as a helicopter.
"So, where were we?" Ian asked Danae smoothly.
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Post by Evangeline on Oct 15, 2009 0:21:19 GMT -5
"You were telling me about the plans that your leader had for that section of the Gulf." Danae answered. "I don't want to rain on your parade here, but I find it a little hard to believe that he's completely re-sculpted that flooded-out place."
Bree, Dmitri and the captain were hiding in various places, holding very still. Dmitri wondered where Sandra was hiding, as he hadn't seen many places that would take a Cyclone.
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Post by elizar on Oct 15, 2009 4:50:07 GMT -5
Sandra had found a place in a large store which had previously been a big-brand clothing store. The clothes' racks had all but disappeared to be used as something else after the blowup, so she still had some space for herself. Most of what she knew what was going on with the baits was based on what she was hearing.
"Yet you believe in such magnitude of power that managed to bring others between the worlds." Ian said. "The power and potentional is in everyone. How we manage to access it, and more importantly, how we use it, is the key. Our leader managed to use a great deal of his power at first to make what was once an abandoned place even before the blowup into a place of paradise and peace."
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Post by Evangeline on Oct 15, 2009 18:23:20 GMT -5
Liriel picked up from that, "You ought to see what he's accomplished. Why should people be living in wreckage and squalor when they can thrive and truly be themselves in a totally remade world?" There was a tiny something in the apparent cat-girl's eyes and attitude which struck Danae as coming out of something she'd seen in a movie once. Or several movies.
"Remade... like yourself?" Rihanna asked.
"For the first time in history, much of the cruelty and unfairness of existence can be reversed. No one will have to live with disabilities, or defects, or ugliness. No one will have to go through life with a club foot or cleft palate, or a body that puts on the pounds if they even THINK of food. There'll be no such misery."
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Post by elizar on Oct 15, 2009 19:15:06 GMT -5
"And all of you just get along, no troubles at all?" Ash asked.
Hiding, Sandra was on edge. It was perhaps time to move in.
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Post by Evangeline on Oct 15, 2009 20:51:37 GMT -5
"When people are truly actualized, they don't feel a need to argue." Liriel smiled. "Isn't freedom from stress what everyone dreams of?"
Danae parted from Ian, just a tad, the sort of thing that is a subconscious inducement for a male to follow.
Annalise was masking herself well. Liriel had no idea of her true nature.
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Post by elizar on Oct 16, 2009 4:03:50 GMT -5
"So you also take out some of the hot air from the political windbags?" Ash said smirking. It was a nice idea of a paradise, and he wondered for a moment if he would be taken in if it weren't for the others.
Ian seemed to follow Danae, but appeared to be completely oblivious as to why he had done it.
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Post by Evangeline on Oct 16, 2009 18:49:36 GMT -5
"Oh, they talk up a storm, but who listens?" Liriel continued.
Annalise, in the meantime, was unobtrusively raising a "moleasses" field, and gradually stepping it up. Rihanna signalled Ash that they should move back, lest they get caught in the "moleasses" as well.
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Post by elizar on Oct 17, 2009 9:05:11 GMT -5
Ash backed slightly away with Rihanna while Liriel's spiel continued. Ian moved a little away from Danae, not really getting why he had been up against her in the first place. Then he felt he hit something strange and unfamiliar. As if the air had somehow gained thickness. He growled a warning.
Sandra took that as a cue to make way forward.
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Post by Evangeline on Oct 17, 2009 14:55:28 GMT -5
Annalise then turned the "moleasses" to full power around Ian and Liriel. The field would allow them to breathe, but considerably inhibit their ability to resist without causing them harm. It was a very useful tool for subduing any angry, combative creature.
Bree and Dmitri also came out of their hiding places.
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Post by elizar on Oct 17, 2009 16:00:45 GMT -5
Ian snapped at the air as he couldn't even move his blades even for how much he wanted it. He trembled a bit in frustsration and looked over to Danae, seemingly oblivious to the other three helicopters closing in on them. He looked hurtful and confused. He had just been trapped and she was part of it, and he had no idea why.
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Post by Evangeline on Oct 17, 2009 20:36:53 GMT -5
"Ian," Bree spoke as Danae withdrew and the captain and Dmitri emerged with Sandra, "Your father would admit he's far from perfect in the way he's handled himself up to this point. But he doesn't want to see you on this path, which is nothing but a gilded road to Hell for everyone who comes under Cesarion's influence. He's just a two-bit cult leader with demigod powers, but that doesn't make him God. According to the local version of the Bible, Lucifer also presents himself as an angel of light."
Liriel was screaming, cursing and crying as she struggled in vain. Finally, she collapsed on her knees, hyperventilating. Annalise had crafted self-immunity into her own spell, so she was able to wade in and extract the cat girl who had all the fight knocked out of her at this point.
Rihanna kept a wary eye on Ian, despite his current trapped state. The wild look in his eye told her that he was not even close to coming around yet.
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Post by elizar on Oct 18, 2009 6:14:02 GMT -5
"And according to the local version of the bible, you, me and the rest of the mechanians don't exist." Ian spat out. "It is wrong, both in this world and the other. He's trying to heal this world, make it better. Then we'll have two world that can live on their own but we'll choose to be together, rather than a weakened world dependent on another strong one. He looked at the other humans and unwittingly at Annalise when saying that.
Ash was unimpressed and went over to Liriel. "Any way to reverse it?" He asked Annalise.
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