Out of Character:
A team of Xaul (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?p=135983)
and Epsilon (http://althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=17872).
I'll start.
Xaul Knofker, once a simple farmer, soared through the never, twisting and turning as the god he shared a body with directed him to their goal. That star on the right, Xaul. Straight past it and on to cause mourning. You know, I think you might actually win this one, with my help. The god Resheph, lord of war, death, and pestilence, chuckled as he rode his avatar further through the void. “Shut up, Resheph.”
At the rasp that hissed from between Xaul’s lips, Resheph let out a bark of laughter. Oh, so you can talk! And here I was thinking that you had lost your tongue in that last fight.
“We both know that they all died, Resheph. You got your sacrifice, and I wasn’t touched. The victims got their closure, too.” Xaul shuddered as he remembered the beautiful horror of the rapists and murders, all eight of them. For someone to so boldly, so brazenly walk into their midst and slaughter them… it had been unthinkable. Xaul, to them had been unimaginable. He flashed between targets, slicing into them one by one, letting them all die slowly as he gloried in the ichor that had soaked the room. The fight had never even started. Xaul had stepped into the little hovel that the gang was using as a hideout, and the slaughter began.
Closure? Closure?!? Is that all you want to remember, little Xaul? Do you really want to forget the magnificent deaths, the blissful massacre? Three degrees right, ten down, follow that creature ahead. Have I taught you nothing?
“”I see it,” muttered Xaul, turning to follow the god’s directions. Trailing behind the neon blue squid-like creature, Xaul continued. “You have taught me everything, and that’s the problem. Who was I, before you came? Who is Xaul Knofker, the man? What is he now? LOOK AT ME, DAMNIT!” Xaul stopped, whirling to a floating mirror that had appeared seconds before. “You say that this is a realm of dreams and fantasy, one where perception is everything. Why do I still look like this? Here, I have only to think, and the riches of a thousand nations fall from the sky, dismissed with but a thought. Is this my self-image, then? Is this who I really am, now?”
Xaul’s image in the mirror stretched and laughed, the sound echoing and warping into the voice of Resheph. Does it matter?
“What?”
I said, does it matter, boy? Resheph leered out of the mirror at Xaul, easily manipulating the other. Why do you need to know who you are, when it makes no difference? If you knew that you are really, truly my avatar, that you are the murder and butcher that the Kounnar makes you, would you stop? Would you give up and rush back to the Banir, and beg them to end it? Would you take your own life? No. You and I are more alike than you think, and I know that you will go through with this. As long as there’s even the slightest chance, you will keep fighting, just as I want you too.
This time Resheph’s laughter was loud enough to fill the entire reality, rasping against Xaul’s mind. The image of the god stepped back from the mirror, motioning to Xaul. Come on through, little Xaul. We’re here. Staring through the mirror, Xaul could see a mass of ruins in the middle of a forest. With a shrug, he stepped through, landing easily in the Garden of Secrets.
“Is this the place, Resheph?”
Bet your life, little Xaul. Bet your life. Welcome to the Garden of Secrets, where they got fun and games. They got everything you might want, honey, if you know the names. Wait here, by the portals, for a little while. Everyone has to come through here, little Xaul. Watch, absorb, analyze. You know the drill.