Topic: Of Jade Snakes

NightRunner

Date: 2011-04-10 23:15 EST
Of Jade Snakes
Sandai Kitetsu

"The face of evil is most often that which displays beauty. The mind of evil is most often in the guise of so-called wisdom."





"I will not go back."

"You will. You will."

"I will not!"

"Silent. You will. You must."

"Why?"


He was answered with silence no matter how many times the question was asked. In a way, it was in itself a reason to stay here out of the darker place that was the outside world. It was the silence that Renne clung to in this bright yet empty world. The warmth was almost addictive against skin that had grown used to self-circulating heat. It was in itself, a relief that he could simply know there was sufficient warmth here.
The silence was an odd thing for him -- something Renne typically didn't like much of since it often left him with his own shadows.

He relished the silence this time.

In this bright silence, the shadows that haunted him weren't there. He didn't hear thunder or feel rain. He didn't exist in consistent doubt of himself or in pain. All of that was worlds away where Humans were relegated to the unknown. Here, the warmth was assured, he could eat when and what he needed and he didn't have to think about such things as the kind out there. Here, he simply was.

"You will go back."

"I will not."

He didn't want to go anywhere. Here was an ideal place were it not for that voice. Its words questioned Renne's defiance to remain here. Its timbre escaped his identification so he simply identified it as Human and therefore, not worth his consideration. What he did not know however, was that this place-time was a thief in the light. It was, as far as Renne was concerned, his remnant of happiness.

"I will not."

It was peaceful here, not counting that voice which insisted that he was to return to Out There. He didn't concern himself with the shadows and eventually, he didn't concern himself with his own identity -- what use was such a thing in a place where you were in complete solitude?
Time wore away his ability to care of such matters. Time could not wear away that insistent voice which became the only shadow in his halcyonic oblivion.

NightRunner

Date: 2011-04-13 22:10 EST
Of Jade Snakes
Oni Giri

"There are those in existence which take upon themselves the burdens of others. Of their failures. Of their sins. Of others' arrogance. They that do this do the devil's duty."





Tick.

Tock.

Time meant nothing here in his almost-synthetic world of unseen brightness-without-shadows. It was just him and this inner/outer world of memories. His world, or what little he had of it, was the one thing it seemed that couldn't be taken away from him.

Tick.

Warmth revitalised him. Thick ocean currents soothed him and tasting his native fruits reminded him of an emperor's feast. It was all he could do to ignore the nagging whisper.

Tock.

He didn't want to go back Out There. He didn't want the aloneness. He didn't want the Human mentalities that had taken him so far. He didn't care that his own name escaped thought.

"Go."

"No. Stay."

"Why?"

"It is safe here."

"From?"

The last of an exterminated species frolicked within this world-in-a-world, growing more unaware of things beyond its safe barriers. No one and nothing could get into this final sanctuary and that was how he preferred it...despite the annoying whisper.

"It is safe here."

"From?"

"That which hurt me."

Tick.

The whisper didn't have a response to that for a while. For that while, he didn't care that the whisper had gone silent. He enjoyed the solitude, determined to remain here. Away from shadows. Away from hurt. Away from identity if it so called for that. Who was he, anyway?

When the whisper came back, its words shook him.

"Duty. It is yours."

When the whisper came back, its tone spoke of time running out.

NightRunner

Date: 2011-06-20 20:20 EST
Of Jade Snakes
Mugen

"For what is the stuff of dreams or nightmares but our own encounters with that which we should not touch?"




"Do not leave to go out there."

"I will not. Why?"

"You know why."

It was a paradise and not to be here, in this forgetful and forgotten world-between worlds. Still, there were lines attaching him to the solid world he'd gone from. Attachments to a world that had overall, been a place fit only for the spineless and the crooked and the cruel.
Still, he was attached and he listened from the window which was the thinnest of borders between Here and There, Now and Then.

The crystal stood as it did when it was lain here on the sandy ground in front of nothing yet in front of something. It pulsed, shone and on this day, even dared to echo a faint song into the wind. It was an anchor and a line between one thing and another thing.

Within it, all was almost quiet except for the thunder that echoed by.