A Day at the Park...at Night

[Zook Murnig]

Another lame title, but what's a guy to do? Also, closed to Jimmy LeBlanc

Caduceus always did love watching the stars in the night sky. They always seemed to twinkle and call out to the young magician, begging his attention. He must have been out there for hours meditating, but it didn't matter.

There he lay, in a clearing, his feet crossed at the ankles and his hands clasped over his abdomen. His eyes closed, and his thoughts drifted back into the meditations.

He imagined a ball of pure white light floating just beyond the crown of his head, vibrating with contained power. Yohd-Hey-Vow-Hey, he thought over and over, feeling the words vibrating in his head and through his body.

A small shaft of light extended from the sphere, down to his throat, where another ball of light appeared, this one a pale blue. He focused on the air attributes of the ball, feeling his neck getting lighter and pulling upwards.

Another shaft of light emerged from this second sphere, proceeding to his sternum and forming a ball of bright red light. Caduceus felt the fire qualities of the orb, the heat and expansion.

Yet another shaft came from that ball, down to his abdomen to become an orb of dark blue. The magician sought the water element in this orb -- those of coolness and contraction.

And finally, a last shaft extended down to his ankles, where a dark brown sphere came into being, filled with the earth element's weight and stillness.

The pillar of light complete, Caduceus mentally circulated the energies of each ball of light up and down, and around his body he imagined fountains of light spewing from the top, down to the bottom to be reabsorbed.

Oh, how this young magician loved the quiet of the night.

[Jimmy LeBlanc]

It was a cool night. The moonlight filtered down through the forest's dark canopy, tickling the flora with a pale, white light. An owl hooted somewhere off in the distance, though to the lone figure moving silently through the underbrush it sounded like the owl was roosted in the nearest tree. The far-off, near-silent rustling of wings as the bird took off after some invisible prey echoed in the figure's ears as if the bird were swooping down towards him. Each flap of the thing's wings was perceived all to clearly, until a quiet, distinct squeak was cut-off by the visceral tone of sharp talons tearing into soft flesh.

Jimmy LeBlanc stalked silently through the forest, enjoying his new traits. At first he had been horrified of his decision to request to be turned into a vampire. What a fool, he had thought to himself at first, feeling the two small, circular scars on his neck. It was only after the scars had completely healed in a matter of hours, only after he had felt the physical change within him did he realize what a blessing he had been granted. He knew he was stronger. He felt almost untouchable. Little things barely hurt him; he had cut his finger making dinner, and the wound had disappeared by dessert. And now, here in the dark, quiet forest, he felt god-like. He had startled several small animals that he had never been able to even get close to before. He could hear the owl and the crickets so far away, but he couldn't even hear himself as he traversed the dense woods. A ghost of a smile tugged on his lips. It was a wonderful feeling.

He had been walking for an hour, maybe a little bit more, when he stopped and stood still among the trees, momentarily joining their ranks. A patch of his off-white shirt was illuminated by the dull moon, but his face was shrouded in darkness. He peered ahead through the trees and spotted a clearing. Within that clearing, more importantly, was a seated figure, who's straight back absorbed the moon's light.

Drink his blood...

The idea popped unbidden into his mind, and he pulled a disgusted face. Confused, he looked around at the trees and plants of the forest, vainly searching for a source of the whispered thought.

What?

His face, whose smile had been plastered over by confusion, turned back to the figure in the clearing, half-expecting some sort of telepathic answer.

Do you not thirst?

This time he understood that it wasn't a voice at all. He wasn't hearing words; he wasn't even really hearing anything. What he was perceiving, and what kept strong in his mind, was instinct. Realization dawned over his face, dispelling the disbelief, as he looked upon the stranger with a different point of view. Everything comes with a price, I suppose. I do feel a bit...thirsty, I guess. Or is it hunger? I...I can't tell. The newborn vampire held his ground among the trees, pondering his most recent understanding of his new powers. Huh. Guess we'll just see if this is all worth it.

Once again, he resumed his soundless travel. His boots pressed noiselessly into the earth as he passed the few remaining trees before the clearing. Despite the uselessness of such a pose, he sort of crouched and held his hands out aways from his body for quiet balance. As he entered the clearing, the moonlight fell upon his entire being. His long, black hair hung down to his neck, passing his dark goatee. His brown pants swayed silently against his legs. Half-finger gloves covered much of his hands, though the faint, celestial light still kissed the skin opposite his palm. He moved forward towards his prey, unsure of the outcome.

[Zook Murnig]

Caduceus slowly opened his eyes, still keeping the image of the energy chain firm in his mind, still feeling the force of the energies in his body. He drew them up from their resting places, pulling them towards his head. As they became closer, they began to merge, blending colors -- red and dark blue mixed with light blue to become purple, and brown melted in to make a puce. Finally, the pure white overtook them all and they formed into a single pentagram, spanning the bridge of his nose and touching on his eyes as he attempted to see with his Etheric Vision.

The trees in the distance blurred and lost their color, until he saw beyond them to more trees, seeing their auras instead. Powerful and old life he saw, and he stood, looking around himself. Then, suddenly, he halted his turn as he spotted an unnatural aura. Unlife... he thought. Faint, but undeniable. This creature is no longer among the living, but only recently so. He quickly ended the spell, regaining normal clarity in his vision and staring down the dark-haired and pale young man before him. "Who and what are you?" he asked in his most commanding voice, though it still quavered slightly with fear of the unknown. "Not natural, that I know. You are a befoulment of life, and of death, that I know as well." The magician's robes billowed about him as the winds blew softly through the trees and into the clearing.

"Speak!"

[Jimmy LeBlanc]

He was completely disheartened by the turn of events. He had thought he was being rather quiet, but apparently he was just full of himself. As the man turned slowly about to face him, Jimmy stopped in his tracks, frozen awkwardly in his "sneaky" position. He stared at the man, confused yet again. What is going on with me...

Not natural, that I know. You are a befoulment of life, and of death, that I know as well.

Not natural? he thought, the confusion becoming tainted with the beginnings of anger. Befoulment of life? Who does this guy think he is? I'm just like him...

Only better.

The young vampire sneered, though it seemed to be for no apparent reason. But that voice without a voice, that instinct had come to him again, and he was drawn deeper into his requested affliction.

Yeah, I'm better.

Speak!

Instead of words, only a hiss emerged from Jimmy's parted lips. The light from the waning moon was just enough to illuminate his new fangs. The long canines were white and extended powerfully from his gums. His face screwed in anger and challenge, and he charged forward.

He moved fairly quickly, and still without much sound. His hair flew back out behind him as he reached out towards his prey. His brown boots pushed soundlessly off the cool, long grass. He would remember later that he hadn't thought much about what he would do, or how he would do it. He would reason that this man didn't appear to have a weapon on him either, so it was a mostly even fight. Except for Jimmy being better, of course.

[Zook Murnig]

Caduceus heard the creature's hiss and saw the fangs. Vampire... "You'll have no blood here, nightstalker," he declared

The Qaballist slowly drew a deep breath, visualizing an image of flames all around, feeling the warmth of fire gathering in him. The energy was diverted to his hands as he drew it in, not just through his lungs, but through his very skin. His eyes narrowed and closed and he muttered a quick prayer to Ain Soph that his aim be true.

The eyes snapped back open to glare at the bloodsucker. "Mee-kai-ehl, Teh-jhass," Caduceus intoned, feeling his entire body vibrate with the words. His arm thrust out at the vampire, and he felt the warming fire leave his body as a ball of flame the size of a fist sparked into life in the air before him, moving with great speed towards the undead beast, filled with explosive intent.

[Jimmy LeBlanc]

Even as Jimmy charged forward 'neath the night sky, his enemy readied a mystical defense. A flash of orange, yellow, and red erupted from the mage's hand, shattering the darkness of the forest. The newborn vampire's charge slowed as he squinted, dim eyes unready for the luminous counter-attack. He was too close. He raised his hands before his face and hissed (hissing? weird...) in protest. He couldn't see the tall, black, ominous shapes of the trees surrounding the clearing; he couldn't see the lean, cloaked figure before him. His vision was consumed by the fiery light and his own hands until the former smashed into the latter with a brilliant explosion.

"GAAAAHHH!!" This time the forest's silence was shattered as Jimmy unleashed a pained howl up towards the cold moon. The explosion had not only reduced his hands to useless, blistering flesh, but it had also thrown him from his feet. He landed on the soft earth with a hard thud. The pain from the fall was hardly registered due to the pain from the fireball, and he stared screaming at his ruined hands.

But something told him to get up, despite the horrific pain. Something knew he couldn't linger there, on the cold earth, crying out from agony. He had to get out of there. His screaming stopped as he quickly and strongly pulled himself up. He kept his charred hands close to his singed shirt as he did so, using only his legs' momentum to rise to his feet. He glared intensely for a short moment at his prey, then turned and bolted for the woods. His pupils shrank as he ran, readjusting to the dim light generated solely by the moon. He was sprinting towards the edge of the clearing, back the way he'd came. His shirt bounced loosely up and down upon his shoulders. He was nearing the trees. Black flesh fell from his hands as he ran. The blisters were already shrinking...

[Zook Murnig]

Caduceus watched as the vile thing became engulfed in the flames of his spell, and fell to the ground, writhing in pain. In no time at all, however, the beast was on his feet again, and the burns seemed already to be healing as it fled the scene.

Best leave this place as soon as possible, he supposed. Vampiric thirst is not long deterred by threat of true death.

The young man began to back slowly in the opposite direction from where the creature went, and in the direction of Radasanth, the nearest settlement. As he turned around, the grass twisted under his feet, and a slight squeak could be heard from the slightly dew-wettened blades.

Even as he travelled away from the clearing, his thoughts returned to his meditations, though the vampire remained haunting the back of his mind.

The young man, stepping around a large oak, visualized himself buried underground, surrounded by earth. With each deep breath he took, the soil seeped into his body, filling him with a feeling of weight and stability, and his pulse began to slow down to normal levels as he drew in the Earth elemental energies, the Prithivi.

With each step, he felt more closely aligned with the natural world around him, though he was no more attuned to it than normal.

I will have to return here in the light of day to meditate further, he thought to himself.

Still, that unnatural thing lurked in his mind, keeping him on edge.

[Jimmy LeBlanc]

Jimmy looked down towards his ruined hands with depression, but actually saw them with delight. They were healing. Before his very eyes, blisters shrunk, charred flesh fell away, yeilding to new, fresh skin. There was still pain, to be sure, but it was masked by the realization that Jimmy was powerful. A moment ago he had thought his hands would be gone forever. He had already begun thinking of a life of despondency, giving in to defeat, but now was elated to find there was no such future for him. To the contrary, it appeared he would live a great and powerful life after all.

His mind returned once more to his prey, this evening's meal. The man was just leaving the clearing on the other side, opposite of Jimmy LeBlanc. The vampire smiled ruthlessly, unconsciously, and charged off to the right, circling the clearing. Despite his hurried pace. his boots made no noise on the earth, and only a faint whishing sound marked his passage beside flimsy limbs and still-young branches. He raced through the forest, ever aware of his prey's presence. He could smell the man's odor, hear the man's footsteps, and he could nearly make out the faint, distant, almost silent beating of a heart.

The vampire slowed its pace as it neared its target, eliminating all but the most silent of sounds from his movements. He now crept past the bushes, slipped past the trees, and floated over the dirt and grass. It almost felt as though he were floating, but he chalked it up to his new-found strength and bodily control. He was so excited by the chase that he did not notice that his feet actually did just barely kiss the earth with each step. It looked as though Jimmy was suspended from the treetops above, and was lightly stepping on the grass solely for the fun of it. He left no footprints in the soft earth. He was stalking his prey, and he was drawing nearer.

[Zook Murnig]

The Qaballist continued on his way back towards Radasanth, enjoying the sense of connectedness with the earth beneath him and the trees, bushes, and brush around. That weighted feeling of the Earth energy did not slow him, but seemed rather to give him more confidence in each step he took, knowing that he would not falter or stumble.

He smiled at the touch of a passing breeze. To Caduceus, the winds of night were by far cleaner and purer than those in daylight, unaffected by the sun's rays and floating about as they wished.

His thoughts wandered to the nights he had spent out with Chic, his old master from back home. He would take the time to point out the various wonders of this world which Ain Soph had graced us with. The stars above formed familiar constellations, and Luna, the moon, watched over the land in the night, though, she seemed tired with her shining white eye half open.

Caduceus had no idea that the horror was on his trail, prepared to strike at any time.

[Jimmy LeBlanc]

And so the vampire struck.

He threw himself at the shuffling cloak of his adversary. He snarled, unbidden, as the moonlight slashed across his face, neck, shoulders. He blurred over the last few feet that seperated him from his prey. A tree in the distance groaned at the monk's misfortune. Jimmy's teeth flared out over his lips as the hiss ejected a small string of spit into the cool air.

His arms were spread wide, ready to snare the midnight traveller's back in a deadly embrace. The long, thick hair gave way to the snarling face as the beast attacked.

Looking back, Jimmy doesn't remember deciding to strike. In fact, he could swear he remembers almost a slight hesitation at the idea. He knew that the feeding would come from the strike, and he longed for the sustenance, but for some reason, he didn't think he had yet made the concsious decision to bite the neck of his prey and drink its blood. Something else had launched him at his foe; but he hadn't thought of it at the time. He was far too busy for much deep thought.

[Zook Murnig]

Caduceus fell as hands struck his back, and he immediately knew what had attacked him. The vampire, he thought. So it didn't run off, after all...

Knowing what would come next, the magician used the energy that he had already gathered in himself, the Prithivi of Earth, to throw bits of soil into a makeshift shield around his neck, where he was most vulnerable to the bite. "Adonai ha-Aretz," he uttered, completing the magic. He felt dirt and small rocks pressing themselves together against the skin of his neck, feeling gritty and uncomfortable. Small price to pay to keep my humanity. Still, he determined to take a nice long bath when he got back to town.

Even as the spell was cast, he began gathering up Vayu, energy of Air, making himself feel lighter and lighter as he became filled with it.

[Jimmy LeBlanc]

He toppled down atop his prey, hands full of the man's shoulders. He quickly recovered and attained a mounted position, straddling the back of his foe. Squeezing hard with his fingers and nails, the vampire snaked his head forward and lashed out with his mouth wide open, sharp white canines reflecting once more the light of them moon. Strings of saliva bridged the gap of his jaws right before he bit down on his foe's neck.

Chomp. "Ptooey!"

Jimmy reared back and shook his head, scattering his hair and spitting out a mouthful of dirt and rocks. He released his right hand and brought it up to frantically wipe off his lips and clean out his mouth.

It tasted horrible. The soil was mixing with his saliva and becoming mud faster than he could spit it out. The rocks were grinding against his teeth, and one was threatening to tumble down his throat. He made hacking sounds and rapid-fire tongue whips, but it seemed almost futile. He licked the back of his shirt in an attempt to rid his tongue of the earthen taste as his knees dug small ditches in the grass beneath him. He spit out that life-threatening rock just before he noticed a strange sensation between his legs: It seemed as though his prey were...floating.

[Call me J]

This thread could have gotten into the 50s if you completed it, though the lack of continuity was a problem. Since this is an old thread and there is really no point for comments since Zook has improved since and Jimmy has left, here are the raw numbers.

Total Score- 38

• STORY ~ 8/30

Continuity (1) ~ There was no real sense of any past or future in this thread.

Setting (4)

Pacing (3) ~ Hard to tell if it was going anywhere in the end, so you lost points from what you might have got based on a good start.

• CHARACTER ~ 13/30

Dialogue (5)

Action (4)

Persona (4)

• WRITING STYLE ~ 17/30

Mechanics (7)

Technique (3)

Clarity (7)

• Wild Card (0)

Spoils
Zook Murnig receives 500 EXP and 68 GP
Jimmy Le Blanc receives 252 EXP and 68 GP

[Karuka]

EXP/GP added!