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Post by Roxas on Apr 8, 2012 16:33:48 GMT -5
Play - The Pain of the Sand DemonA red haired youth was stood on a large bluff in the outskirts with his arms crossed, looking out onto the city. His face was stern but also sad, the gourd on his back seemed heavier than usual, the cravings of Shukaku seemed to get stronger every day. It was the same, every day, wake up. Go out into the outskirts. Find someone. Kill them. Day in. Day out. He had no-one there to guide him, no friends to set him onto the straight and narrow, no family for him to go home to and talk about his pains. No-one. All he had now was Shukaku and then the other three, Fukushu, Koibito, Sentoki. They were his only family now. Ever since he was young it had been drilled in by his father that only once he consumed those three would he ever feel complete. Only then would he feel either love or admiration. It had to be done then, not like it mattered, as soon as he had seen Fukushu's jinchuriki he had snapped and tried to kill anything that got in his way, but it felt like a lie to say he snapped, he never did anything to stop it, he just let things run his course. Looking down at his open palm, he observed as the sand he had obtained from his gourd ran through his fingers and down onto the earth, only to travel upwards through the air and back into the gourd. "How long... How long until I am free from this horror?" He clenched his fist and the last of the sand drained away into the gourd. His eyes narrowed in anger before closing completely as he thought back on how much he was used simply as a tool, as a weapon, as a monster. "It's him."
"He's that Gaara kid..."
"The one with the sand demon?"
"Some say he is the sand demon."
"Man he's creepy."
"What a freak."
"Demon."
"Monster."He opened his eyes with nothing but detest for the world as he looked at the city before him, filled with people, families, children, friends whom had all the time in the world for each other. He realized how easy their lives were and envied them. He was completely and utterly jealous as he held up one hand, blocking some of the city from his view. "I will..." He started as his body started to shake and tremble in anger. "I will be stronger." He clenched his fist and lowered it to his side as his resolve hardened against his memories of those who had hurt him, and used him in the past. Father...
Mother...
The Village Children...
Yashamaru...
Yashamaru.Gaara growled in anger and frustration at the even mere thought of his uncle, he whom had hurt him the most. He who had instilled even the slightest hope of care, the slightest flickers of the flame of love in his heart. He who had ripped all of that away. Sand gathered round his body in response to his anger before he heard a sound behind him, someone approaching. Spinning around, he held out a palm towards wherever the sound was coming from, sand spinning around his wrist, ready to strike out at the slightest signal from Gaara. |
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Post by Neku Sakuraba on Apr 8, 2012 16:47:49 GMT -5
"That's a pretty neat trick," Izzy commented quietly from behind Gaara, watching him with somewhat-detached interest. "I'm sorry I startled you. I've been watching for a while - I've never met an Otherborn with the ability to control sand before." He tapped the sides of his glasses - though nowhere near as advanced as Haraken's pair (really, that kid had some genius talent, and Jeremie's improvements had overtaken his in leaps and bounds), they did contain a record of Otherworldly activity that he recorded on a regular basis, facilitating his research for the Network.
Of course, with his ability, Koushirou 'Izzy' Izumi had no need for such things as screens to play with. The data uplinked smoothly, and he felt that runing stream of electricity, bits and bytes, zeroes and ones, flow pleasantly across the surface edge of his subconscious like a pleasant background track in a well-scored movie.
"I hope I'm not interrupting."
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Post by Roxas on Apr 8, 2012 17:50:46 GMT -5
Gaara showed no emotion in his face, he remained deadpan and uncaring as Izzy talked to him, he eventually spoke up once he was finished. "You did not startle me. I am no Otherborn and you interrupted nothing." He retorted to all of his statements at once, his arm still outstretched as he glared across at the boy stood in front of him.
"Get lost before I decide to break your body."
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Post by Neku Sakuraba on Apr 8, 2012 18:20:57 GMT -5
He pushed his glasses up on his nose - he didn't wear them naturally, so they weren't prescription, but people had commented that they made him look smarter, so he'd built them closer in design to regular glasses than the goggles-style pair that Haraken wore.
"I doubt you'd find me easy to break," he responded, glancing over the top of them at Gaara, a smirk on his face. "If you wish to try, though... I suppose I can always use first-hand research."
He sighed, crossing his arms and resting his chin on one hand. "Besides... word is, you've been harming people in this area, and the Network I work for can't really allow that. You're generating far too much noise, Otherborn or no..."
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Post by Roxas on Apr 9, 2012 6:04:07 GMT -5
"I told you. I am no Otherborn." His middle finger on his free hand twitched slightly, a thin trail of sand had worked it's way from the gourd to behind Izzy. With that twitch of his finger, the sand suddenly lashed up like a whip. He hadn't added any density to the sand however, any connection would more just disperse on contact rather than cause much pain. He just wanted this kid to realize that he wasn't the sort of person to toy with for 'data'.
This kid had caught him at a very bad time, when he had been thinking of his home, he was already in an angry state and anyone attempting to get under his skin would find something much more evil than they had initially expected. Shukaku stirred within him in response to his anger.
Free me, Boy... I will crush all your enemies... Under a tidal wave of sand... I will bury this city...
Gaara gritted his teeth against Shukaku, audibly growling as Shukaku grew in strength.
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Post by Neku Sakuraba on Apr 9, 2012 7:14:05 GMT -5
During the three, almost four years he'd been working for the Network, he'd honed his reflexes to lightning speed. Nowhere near as fast as Seifer's; after all, he was only human. Still, he was wired on a hair trigger, and as the sand flew at him, he ducked, allowing hte whip to pass overhead. He noticed as it passed and as he rolled away and back to his feet that it was loose; nothing to harm him, simply a warning shot.
He smiled a little bit, waiting, sure that this sandman wouldn't be so kind with his second strike.
"If you're no Otherborn," he asked, taking a defensive stance, "what are you, then? I'm picking up an aura of demonic energy, but I can see for myself that you're not a demon yourself."
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Post by Roxas on Apr 9, 2012 8:25:29 GMT -5
Gaara didn't even respond to Izzy's question. Instead he thrust an open palm forwards, the fingers curled inwards slightly, sending a plume of sand shooting out of the gourd and into the air, floating gently around Gaara's body. His free hand then took a similar position to the first, before he thrust that forwards also. The sand levitating around him suddenly bomb burst forwards towards the boy stood in front of him like a brick wall, this time compacted to a firmer density, aiming this time to knock the boy away from him.
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Post by Neku Sakuraba on Apr 9, 2012 9:13:34 GMT -5
It knocked him away, alright, but he wasn't going to give up.
'His powers seem to be angled towards defense,' he thought to himself, sliding back in a puff of dust as the wall made contact. He raised his hand, placing it flat on the wall, then smiled.
Electricity arced down his arm into his palm, a small blast that cracked the wall in half, spilling sand out on either side of him as he pushed back through, crackling arcs and sparks traveling up and down each arm.
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Post by Roxas on Apr 9, 2012 9:30:37 GMT -5
Gaara spread his arms out wide, the sand flying through the air suddenly halted and it's density increased once again, forming a number of solid spheres of sand. His eyes still seemingly uncaring, he called back what was left of the wall so as to have more sand for his defense. Looking across at Izzy he pulled his arms in towards one another.
"Sand shower!"
The spheres of sand all suddenly shot towards Izzy like a hail of bullets.
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Post by Neku Sakuraba on Apr 9, 2012 15:31:32 GMT -5
'He's going on the offensive!'
He spun, one hand circling out, drawing an arcing wall of intertwined electricity around him, intercepting and dispersing the bullets as he made a complete, three-sixty turn, then shot the other hand and foot out at the same time, sending a bolt of lightning striking forward at the sand-controlling newcomer.
"That might've been tricky!" he called out, laughing. "You're pretty good. Been fighting long?"
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Post by Roxas on Apr 9, 2012 16:07:09 GMT -5
Gaara didn't flinch as a tendril of sand reached out of the Gourd and blocked the bolt of lightning. Looking across at Izzy he spoke "All my life." He said bluntly as he gripped his fist, the sand that had fallen around Izzy suddenly shot to life and darted towards his feet, aiming to grab hold of him.
"Sand coffin!"
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Post by Neku Sakuraba on Apr 10, 2012 17:55:39 GMT -5
"You've been fighting longer than I have, then," he replied, flicking a metal... something... out of his pocket towards the ground. A carefully-calculated electric charge and the something spread out into a disc, a disc that lifted him off the ground, away from Gaara's attack.
"Someone told me about a TV character that used electricity to fly," he said casually, eyes flickering rapidly down a mental list of data being gathered as he spoke. "The principles were simplified, to be sure, but given enough time, I was able to recreate the same effect. It works better during a crossing, implying that the local gravity of the Otherworld is slightly under 1G... but I digress."
He grinned.
"You see... you've been fighting for longer, but it's obvious you've never fought anyone like me before. Care to give up yet? Or should we have a fresh go?" He pushed his glasses up on his nose again.
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Post by Roxas on Apr 10, 2012 18:00:47 GMT -5
Arms still crossed, a thin layer of sand wormed its way under Gaara's feet before lifting upwards into the air, taking the Jinchuriki with it. His expression was still one of thinly veiled anger, and he looked ready to burst at any moment, he glared across at Izzy. "I never walk away from a fight."
"Listen Gaara..." Yashamaru said, smiling at the young four year old "I want to make one thing clear to you, this village abides by one rule when on missions, and that is that the objective comes first! Not your teammates, not yourself, the objective. So if it's your objective to win a fight, you never back down. Got it?" The young Gaara nodded "Got it!"
Gaara clenched his fist at the mere thought of Yashamaru, Shukaku rumbling inside of him. Raising a hand, sand swirled around it before he thrust it forwards.
"Sand bullet!"
The sand shot forwards before more wrapped around his arm, he had effectively turned the limb into a dense sand firing cannon.
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Post by Neku Sakuraba on Apr 11, 2012 8:33:02 GMT -5
'Dammit!' he thought to himself as he ducked out of the way of the 'bullet'. 'He's playing the range game... I'm going to have to get closer!'
He fixed his eyes on the other, still hovering where he sat. In order to get close, he'd need to understand the extent of his opponent's range and rhythm.
He smirked a little bit.
"Care to try that again?"
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Post by Roxas on Apr 11, 2012 15:32:12 GMT -5
Gaara simply turned his palm upside down and clenched it into a fist. The 'bullet' which had flown over Izzy suddenly swung back round and shot towards the back of his head, meanwhile he thrust his fist forwards once again, sending a second bullet aiming somewhat lower for his torso. But he was planning something else, these attacks were weaker than they could be, something was happening within Gaara...
I... Will... Be... Free...
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