|| After Eliminations: Dusk. Sunstrike's Room.||
Maximos was quiet at first, shadows usually are. He met Sun's "look" with a shaky and altogether failed attempt at a smile. It was a good thing Sun didnt have eyes at the moment, that smile was just a horrible thing to look at. Max event went so far as run his hand down his face, as if scraping it off, and replacing it with something more honest.
It was a sort of cringe.
Sure, any brutal warrior, any hardened veteran of the battlefield can tell you what it looks like to see, and maybe even to perform an eye gouging. But when the face being afflicted was so familiar...when it belonged to someone so close...all of that made more by the way it was being slowly revealed layer by layer. White...more white...more white...and then pale tint stained into cotton, the stains grew deeper and deeper, tracing the wounds that lied beneath giving a sort of sneak peak at what was about to come. And before the black clad view was ready, there it was.
My handiwork...
His right arm twitched, twice. Bandages fingers dancing for a moment. His left reached across grabbing the opposite arm, like a man jerking a leash to keep a misbehaved dog in check.
Those jagged cuts, no tears down Sun's face, they tore at him. Those red lines of inflamed red flesh across Sun's cheeks, streaked down his heart, leaving little ribbons to get caught up around his throat. He didnt say anything, not really knowing what to say. Sun had kissed his sister, and he had...had...
...no this wasnt justice.
I should go...
The thought ran through his mind just as fast as it was quelled by the sight of red head scooting over. It was a silent invite, true. But Max heard it, it held him from the door. It allowed him to find the courage that nearly slipped. He stepped forward, immediately noting the bowl as Sun mentioned it.
There was knocking sound, like glass on something hard, followed by a second similar sound, this more metal on wood.
Soon came the sound of running water, and a metal bowl moving in a sink, some of the only proof that the seemingly mute shadow was present. That was until he sat down, adjusting himself to face Sun while keeping the bowl in his lap. Of course he would play along...Max was a total sucker for that kind of stuff. He ever realized trouble was coming until it was too late.
Thanks...
He said in belated response to Sun's compliment.
...You know...it doesnt look...that bad.
That was a bad lie. A horrible lie. And he immediately tried to cover it by just saying.
Hold still.
He even faked a half way serious voice when he said it. Which would mean Sun shouldnt move those cheeks, to do things like talk and say "Max that was a bad lie. A horrible lie." Max started off ridiculously gentle, barely cleaning off anything of the mess with each pass. He continued like that for a good minute or two, before he finally had the courage to look Sun in the..."eyes". Sure, there was nothing there, but the spot had lost none of its symbology. The eyes, the window to the soul...the epic-center of ones being. He looked at Sun, his hand pausing unusually long on his cheek. Not the man who kissed his sister. Not the god. Something played in the back of his mind, and immediately felt silly.
Oh...right...
He said, as it clicked. Immediately opening his eyes wide as he realized he said that not thought it. Thankfully again, Sun couldnt see, blush just wasnt Max's color.
...I should wring this out!
He said with a chuckle as a shoddy cover. And there was splashing, in clean water, as he hadnt really gathered much of anything. It was another obvious lie, but as he pulled his hand from the water, he immediately added on.
Hold still.
Again. Another helping of fake seriousness.
Smooth Max...real smooth...
His inner voice was brutal. And Max this time around was a little less gentle, Sun could take it. He was by no means rough, simply not baby kisses soft. He would stop or move his hand away if the red head huffed or if the stitches began to bleed as they love to do when harassed. It was somewhere in that the realization dawned on Maximos cinnamon and iodine...it wasnt a pleasant smell. For the last few passes he grabbed a clean towelette and wiped off the mans face. It looked far better without all that gunk, he'd grin and bapping the tip of Sun's nose gently.
Excellent! You look good as new!
He responded with more of his natural cheer seeping through the gloom.
"An apology is not meaningless-"
I'm sorry...
It spilled out immediately like it was pushing against the inside of his lips with unyielding urgency waiting for the opportunity to spill out.
"--Maximos, but it's also certainly not necessary."
I d--Sorry...
He wanted to argue that, but quickly thought better of it. He got the feeling Sun wasnt done, and wasnt going to bend, as the machine seemed to agree. He'd let the man continue.
"You were supposed to be mad, maybe not...that mad, exactly. It was a decision of mine that was under the assumption, that Nocturne wasn't a threat to you."
That first statement made his eyes sink down, his hands playing with the wipe cloth in his hands idly stretching and squeezing it together, beads of water falling into the bowl from his soaked bandages, and the cloth. He didnt mean to be mad at all, he didnt mean for any of this and if it was anyones fault that people were involved beside Max, it was his for not warning them or controlling himself. Max looked guilty. And he looked down, at his reflection in the watery iodine bowl and muttered something hateful to himself in his head before the glint of orange caught his eyes.
Immediately he looked up, confusion spattered across his face. His memories told him Nocturne had already stolen this. In his pride, had the shadow deity kept the failure secret?
"You're just lucky I'm the bigger b*****d, else we'd be pretty screwed."
And suddenly Sun was holding his bandaged hand, he could feel the eye between both of there palms. It was round, and it was warm. And it filled his body with an indescribably deep sense of looming. It was the feeling that made every muscle, every vein, and ever fiber scream that something huge was about to happen. Every being knows the feeling, but only the truly great ones can cause it.
Maximos had words. But he found them immediately stripped under the war drum beating in his chest.
The eye was warm, be it due to being clenched by Sunstrike so tightly or the fire that raged within it. He couldnt say. He couldnt think clearly enough over the rolling in his brain. It was like a massive stone block moved across gravel. Like the heavens were being torn in twain inside his mind. His eyes were locked on the grinning god before him.
Trouble...
"You know when we were on the roof, and I said that I'd put a tattoo of a sun on you?"
Y-yes?
He squeezed it out, literally. As if some massive force was pushing him at all sides and the word squished out like some insects innards. That wasnt thunder...that was roaring. Very...very...angry roaring. Something...something inside Maximos was pissed off.
Deep in the soul of the shadowy man a hungry beast lurked. Raven had seen it, deciding to tip toe past its sleeping form. The runes that covered the shadows hands poured over each other and onto a single chain that ran through this hulking monstrosity and several hundred feet deeper ran through a door with a shaky golden radiant sunburst over it and a small hole for the grandiose chain to slip through. But this beast...its form was blurred by the very darkness that was Maximos, nevertheless it was there.
The roar rattled the massive chain as a whole. The beast rose. Its form was massive, easily a dozen feet tall and twice as wide. The wet shimmer of its eyes visible in the violet light of the runes themselves.
Outside Maximos' arm would twitch twice in Sunstrikes grip. The beast growled angrily, lapping a black tongue against its enormous maw allowing the violet runes to reveal countless twinkling wet teeth. And then it moved, like a murderous blur of black it charged forward along the runes, away from the door, toward the shadow itself. The Lord of Nightmares last desperate play. The arm twitched again, and again.
Maximos' lost in a grin seemed entirely unaware of what had become a pulse of involuntary twitches. Black became visible through the bandages, as the arm began to ever so faintly bleed.
"Well, maybe it's not as interesting as you having one on your rear, but this should be more functional, at any rate."
Wh-what--
--
The Beast rushed forward, its massive paw like front appendages carrying it through the shadow to the connecting point between the runes and the chain. Its maw opened wide, hot growling breath filled the ethereal air.
His arm bucked, like a rodeo horse with Sun's hand as the rider, just one leap was all it could muster, and it was entirely too late.
Orange-gold bursts through the runes. A dry choking fills the air as the creature is stopped cold by a now visible shiny new spiked golden collar jerks it back like a bad puppy.
--
Max's eyes immediately jump from Sun to his arm, and back.
What the fleeb?!
--
The light bursts on through dashing down the chain, like molten gold, igniting the deep purple runes with a vibrant apricot hue. The two colors intertwining like a gorgeous sunset. And then, with a brilliant, beaming, and for lack of a better word Sunny explosion the light strikes the door. A boom fills the air as something on the opposite side of the door lands on its rather huge bum. A rain of gold and orange cascades in all directions, and the sunburst carved into the door ignites in a beautiful radiant glow.
--
Maximos left hand immediately jumps grabbing the wrist of his right, his face filled with something other than blissfulness or sorrow. Something more like agony. Though as most know its very difficult to actually get a pain filled sound out of Maxim--
Yeeeow!
It really hurt. Alot.
It only took a second for burning embers to be visible in his right palm as the weak gauze was reduced to nothing but a rain of black bits. The burning spread quickly to the back of his hand, and then began to seep up his arm, like...well fire.
But he never broke contact with the grip of the god before him.
Burned spots could be seen rising through the wrapping, and Maximos quickly did all that he could to rip the bandage from his hand, as the began to unwrap the arm, spilling what had to be a spool worth of burned medical gauze from inside his sleeve and onto the floor in a disheveled heap.
He rushed to roll up his sleeve as fast as he could.
--
But, as dusk follows dawn the darkness reaches inwards. From around the door frame black tendrils seep in like eels, searching over the door, over the brand. The darkness swirls and pools and gathers and begins forming itself into a shape.
NO! NO!
Massive hands slam and smash into the door to no avail. The black pools and forms, before finally settling on a shape.
TRAITORS!
A second sunburst, a deep purple rests beside the first the hollow rings at their centers interlocking with each other. The glow fades to a gentle shimmer, leaving the bright orange and deep purple brands, to rest beside each other.
--
Maximos looks almost like he's choking the life out of his hand, yet not pulling away. Violet burn scars running from his shoulder downward ignite with a furious copper glow, before settling, staining the violet flesh with a streak of orange as the glow rides all the way down to his wrist.
"Try getting through that now, bloody gods..."
With the pain gone, all that remained was a quiet shocked awe. Feeling the air blowing especially sensitive flesh, his eyes fall to the back of his hand revealing a sunburst on the back of his right hand, purplish-black. Maximos slowly turns his right hand, revealing a matching dark orange sunburst its outstretched limbs matching perfectly with the runic pattern across his palm.
Tattooed, burns, same difference. Either way he found himself quite loving them immediately.
"Teira's upset with me, Vahn's upset with me, You were disgusted with me, and Nocturnes gonna be livid with me."
Just trying to imagine what could have just happened and what sort magics were employed and how horribly right or wrong that could of gone. How random...how...how...Maximos' mind was fried. There might have actually been smoke coming from his ears...not really, but close! He knew he had something to say about each of those points. But what? He didnt know. The Shadow had read countless books, delved himself into eons worth of literature and knowledge, over decades of his life. He had a vocabulary that expanded several dozen languages, each fluently....
But...
...He couldnt find one damned thing to say. He just stared, and let his hand slip into the iodine water, the cool was refreshing. And he stared...mismatched eye seeing a million things and still looking completely lost.
"Sure as hell beats blowing up a bar, eh?"
He broke.
Blowing up a ba...your are completely mental Sun! You know it?!
He said with nothing but the widest grin on his face.
--|--
|| After Eliminations: Dawn. Alley Beside The Waning Twilight Inn ||
Footsteps. Hurried paces rushing toward his position. Maximos' legendary fighter's instincts rushed him into action. Though at the moment, those instincts were precisely as sharp as marbles. And "action" consisted of peeling one eye open as easily as one might run through black strap molasses.
It was his left eye, black, glossy, bloodshot and dull, open and yet half closed. The image was blurry, but it recognized what stood before him. It was tall, muscular, hooded and dark. That recognition the first beam of light in the dark house that was Maximos' mind.
Heh...
The poetic justice of it all had not escaped him. How could he not laugh? And yes, that singe wheezing huff of air slipping pale his dry pale lips out of his cotton mouth, was a laugh. It only made sense didnt it? Did those who live by the scythe not die by the scythe?
The weak laugh was proceeded by a faintly visible grin. His lips barely managing to spread. As his senses awakened like wild fire scoring at this screaming hung over brain, Maximos realized where he was. The smell of rotting meat, made things clean even if his vision was as murky as the rain water he was so haphazardly slopped in. This was one of those many places people pass in life and say "I wouldnt be caught dead there." And yet low and behold, here he was.
The figure knelt. Instinct told him to relax. That worried souls cling to there bodies that strings must be popped and, well it was a nasty, painful business. He shut his eye.
And in the darkness he was spoken too.
"Sir, yhabeeneryadlyedmeaalarmut..."
It was it like came from down a hallway worlds away and bounded right on through him. Maximos' mind was a mess. It was a dark house left to a group of routy teenages for a weekend, with no rules, nor restrictions. Beer bottles and plastic cups were spread all over the floor leaving only tracks were feet had pushed paths through the mess. Some bottles were empty, some had simply fallen and spilled all over the carpet. The air was filled with the pungent scent of alcohol, and the walls were stained with a thousand colors from fluids unknown. It made the eyes feel unclean simply because they were taking it in.
Everywhere were the vestiges of the night before. Socks hanging from the curtain rod, panties were tossed across a lamp shadow, boxers drooped from the armoire. On the living room table a monument to paper and plastic cups had been erected. Beside the table a pile of clothes had been discarded, and beside that a used a few used condoms nearby a pile of wrappers. Garbage of various sorts and kinds covered tables and bookshelves making accessing anything near impossible.
It had been violated. As anything Nocturne touches is.
Maximos responded like any normal individual would to hearing a wireless phone go off in a messy room. He panicked, and dug and fished through garbage finding soft ball sized bundles of letters which told him nothing about what the man actually said.
And then, without warning he was warm. The chill of his rain drenched clothes caught in the breezy air was gone. Before he had even realized he was cold, it was taken away. And overriding the scent of dingy alley was something, someone else. Though he didnt know who. Through nothing short of a miracle, he opened his eye again.
Within a few seconds of opening it shot open even wider. Armor? And not full plate, this didnt seem attached to itself but attached to the wearer. What sort of a Reaper was this? And then forth came that monstrous arm, it screamed pain, agony, and more broken bones. Was that what he used to reap souls? The sight alone was sobering. The shutter knocking free garbage and giving Maximos that much more clarity.
"I apologize if there is pain."
It sounded a bit like what a doctor says before impaling you with a needle, or viciously ripping a tooth from your mouth. These were what stood to possibly be his final moments. He had to say something.
It's okay. I understand.
The words repeated in his mind, and then his lips moved.
S'kay...
Was he could get out before nausea overtook him, and he shut his mouth. It would be entirely rude to puke on the man. Even facing death Maximos was a gentleman. And before he could react, that monstrous enormous limb, ever so gently grabbed him, and moved his arms into a safer position. In the mans grip, he felt tiny.
Pain shot through both limbs. A pulsing jolt through the broken, and a searing streak through the unzipped. Between the swarming multitude of awakening injuries, swirling gut, throbbing mind...Maximos was in too much pain to be in pain. He didnt show his discomfort in the slightest, but it was severely awakening, clearing away a good chunk of the mess that mussed his head. This allowed him to think, on things like, why would a Reaper lift him up and carry him? He was beginning to think maybe this wasnt a Reaper...
Maximos was a tall individual, but this man was nearly a foot taller than him, and twice if not three times his mass. He felt like a child being cradled away to some uncertain destination. His eye looking up into a blank hood...He wondered if this was how his targets felt...
No. Because he felt safe. If this man was going to crush him, he likely would have already. He surely could have.
"If you hear me, it is best to try to remain conscious."
Yes. Consciousness, a state which seemed much more accessible than moments ago...his right eye slowly peeled open. This eye was white, as opposed to the black left. It was not soulless or empty but on close inspection one could make out a cornea and the like, it was more of a very very very light color. The strangers large form blocked out the majority of the sunlight making it safe to more fully open his bloodshot eyes.
"If you can speak we should attempt conversation. What is your name?"
Yes, a name! He had one.
He fished through the garbage, pushing aside a bookshelf, tossing out an entire 12 pack of beer, a whole discarded outfit and then finally he found it, an M, protruding from a pile of refuse.
His eyes rolled away from the figures shaded out face as he tried to think.
Both hands grasped the letter and pulled as hard as he could, and with a clatter it...and the rest of the name flew free. Maximos fell to his rear and out it flew, clear out the door. If he could have seen it, before he said it, he may have stopped himself.
Maximos...Lucilien...Dark...
As if guided by some irresistible urge, it just rolled right out of his mouth. But for the first in the nearly 10 years Maximos had been on Gaia he had answered that question completely and honestly. No other soul on this planet knew that name. There was an awkward pause, as if he was trying to get the dust out of his mouth from the ancient name. The motives for it having been kept clandestine currently lost in the muck somewhere. Then he took a quiet breath, and spoke again. But, injured and ill as he was his host would hopefully forgive if in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet he simply followed his name with...
N'you?
)) from slipping behind him and performing the heimlich maneuver. He wanted to fight her off, but his body's instincts prevented him from doing so, lest he succumb to a grizzly and rather embarassing fate.
The door to his room would open, right as a pair of knuckles would end up rapping against his bare chest.
"No... Reiko was in there..." What that meant was not really important, what was important was that he had the info that she had happily been waiting for.
"Now that sounds like fun, who are we against?"
Her fighter was hidden under her glove, where it only made a slight bulge to distract from the rest of her outfit.... Rae really did not think the band worked as a fashion accessory, no matter what she had worn 
))
))
Rae was actually wishing she had worked harder now... but if it was not for her healing abilities she would have been in a hospital right now, likely with a couple hundred stitches to show for her effort!
Rae fell back on the couch with a startled look as she blinked up at Damion for a moment...
Rae smiled and looked so innocent and sweet as she delivered that threat that a couple of tough as nails reporters suddenly felt cold and disoriented!
Teira munched on her cookies crackers while she watched. She was tempted to interrupt-- But Silver was a tough guy. He could handle himself, and what was more than that, she saw it as just desserts. A punishment for falling asleep on his teammates during the first round.
-- 10:56am Day, 4 of HoH, Final Day of Rest Before Round 2 --
The fluffy white cat hopped up on the end of the bed to look at him from a fairly safe distance, part of her wondering if he was weak enough to do any damage and the rest of her wondering why Kas had done so little damage to him.. perhaps he had just been in a kind mood.. Gods knew Rae had seen Kas do a hell of a lot worse to a lot of people in the past... she kinda missed the old a**, Vahn was too quiet 
She smiled cruelly for a moment before she couldn't help but to giggle softly and her smile took on a more gentle curve.
As soon as the edge came out of his vein, he'd rid himself of the needle, grab a washcloth, and press down on the small hole for a couple of second, to keep the internal pressure from spurting a stream of blood, and to allow the clotting process to start utself faster. After that, he'd simply concentrate on his now opened right hand. A small ball of white, dim and transparent energy formed in the palm of his hand, about twenty seconds passing by as it did so. Eventually, bright blue lines swirled around the ball, a sphere of swirling energy having been created. Wow, what a sight...
"SA-KU-RA!
"Booooooriiiiiiiing."
Raven laughed softly as the wisp continued to dance it's way through the air above them.
Teira's eyes narrowed on Raven dangerously. The unspoken works were clear as something dark... something primal danced behind those eyes.
"What the hell do you mean by that? I have made plenty of friends in this competition, and I met him before it even started you moron, I already told you that he was the one who brought Fluffy here!"
