to de-stress, here's something that's been rambling about my mind ever since my second DDS run-through.
---
"No."
Under the falling rain and cloudy skies of the Junkyard.
"No!"
Betrayal.
"Jinana! Snap out of it, please!"
It all feels ... familiar?
Like a shadow in his mind, trying to tell him something, whispering in his ear ever since that first chaotic battle, where Varna raged and feasted on the ruin of their foes.
'Am I going insane?'
Argilla's agitation, Heat's battle lust ... he's been here before, but when?
How?
Just through the Citadel, a sneak attack to take out the leader of a rival Tribe while their allies feinted a frontal assault. He and his comrades tore through the Solids' stronghold with its defenses focused on the outside, and were led _straight_ into an ambush ....
... all the while, instincts he didn't know he had, and knew he _shouldn't_ have despite not having known what 'instinct' was prior to when his Other Self had awakened, begged to be used.
He'd seen Heat struggle, often coming through an encounter by sheer bloody minded determination and guts, and Argilla pressing forward on hope and faith ...
... whilst he himself seemed to merely stand on the sidelines and watch as his body crackled and blazed trails of icy destruction.
It was so _obvious_.
As if he'd done it before, somehow.
"We ... _I_ don't want to fight you! You're stronger than this!"
Argilla's shout, and a flare of chakra, brought him back into the present.
For an instant that seemed to stretch into eternity, the world froze.
'Don't worry. Just follow along. Nothing needs to change.'
They'd been betrayed. The Embryon Tribe had gone to the Maribel with an offer of alliance, something that just wasn't _done_, and both Tribes had then come up with this plan to destroy the Solids.
A testament to change.
Proof that they needn't just submerge themselves into mindless slaughter, pure destruction, that state which seemed oh so appealing to the part of his mind that _wasn't_ pure logic.
But just for a bit, he'd thought he could feel it. The concept had been comforting.
Argilla, on the other hand ... he'd seen her embrace it like nothing before.
And now, they were betrayed. Jinana, the leader of the Maribel, tricked and forced to turn into the mindless beast of her Other Self's base urges ...
"Forget it, it's no use! So fight if you don't want to die," Heat snarled, his body shifting, his spirit twisting, and his Other Self - the being of destruction and fire that called itself Agni - stood in his place.
"But ..."
What was this? This tightness in his chest when Argilla's face twisted into a grimace of pain and conflicting emotion?
'My comrade ... friend? Is suffering?'
Just follow along. Nothing needs to change.
"No."
"Serph?" Argilla asked. In front of them, Jinana's own transformation ran its course ...
"Damnit, Serph! We don't have time for this! It's us or her!" Agni's two mouths roared, the claws flexing from his knuckles.
'Suffering. Strife ... I don't _like_ how they make me feel.'
"Detain her," he ordered, the resolve in his voice making Agni's two heads snap in his direction. "Not long."
Mantras.
Tens of them.
More.
Flooding his mind, as the whispers became a full out roar that tore his consciousness along.
"She's just hungry," Serph's chakra twisted, crackled, shattered and reformed into Varna. "And there's a big, fat chunk of meat a ways behind us."
Argilla's eyes widen, then thin into slits as she realizes, then nods to herself, letting her own transformation take its course.
"I'm going to go _get it_!"
Follow along? Stand aside? Don't worry?
'Like hell!'
Varna tore off into the night, like a comet, leaving frost covered ground, icy air, and frozen raindrops in his wake while Agni and Prithivi prepared to hold off Jinana's Other Self ...
... Mick the Slug, leader of the Solids, was about to have a very, very bad day.
As well as a very short one.
---
As far from God,
As heaven is wide,
As far from God,
As angels can fly
-'As Heaven Is Wide', Garbage
---
I've always liked Jinana, despite the short end of the stick she's been given in the game ... or maybe I just liked to watch her butt. Ah, well.
-Griever
---
"No."
Under the falling rain and cloudy skies of the Junkyard.
"No!"
Betrayal.
"Jinana! Snap out of it, please!"
It all feels ... familiar?
Like a shadow in his mind, trying to tell him something, whispering in his ear ever since that first chaotic battle, where Varna raged and feasted on the ruin of their foes.
'Am I going insane?'
Argilla's agitation, Heat's battle lust ... he's been here before, but when?
How?
Just through the Citadel, a sneak attack to take out the leader of a rival Tribe while their allies feinted a frontal assault. He and his comrades tore through the Solids' stronghold with its defenses focused on the outside, and were led _straight_ into an ambush ....
... all the while, instincts he didn't know he had, and knew he _shouldn't_ have despite not having known what 'instinct' was prior to when his Other Self had awakened, begged to be used.
He'd seen Heat struggle, often coming through an encounter by sheer bloody minded determination and guts, and Argilla pressing forward on hope and faith ...
... whilst he himself seemed to merely stand on the sidelines and watch as his body crackled and blazed trails of icy destruction.
It was so _obvious_.
As if he'd done it before, somehow.
"We ... _I_ don't want to fight you! You're stronger than this!"
Argilla's shout, and a flare of chakra, brought him back into the present.
For an instant that seemed to stretch into eternity, the world froze.
'Don't worry. Just follow along. Nothing needs to change.'
They'd been betrayed. The Embryon Tribe had gone to the Maribel with an offer of alliance, something that just wasn't _done_, and both Tribes had then come up with this plan to destroy the Solids.
A testament to change.
Proof that they needn't just submerge themselves into mindless slaughter, pure destruction, that state which seemed oh so appealing to the part of his mind that _wasn't_ pure logic.
But just for a bit, he'd thought he could feel it. The concept had been comforting.
Argilla, on the other hand ... he'd seen her embrace it like nothing before.
And now, they were betrayed. Jinana, the leader of the Maribel, tricked and forced to turn into the mindless beast of her Other Self's base urges ...
"Forget it, it's no use! So fight if you don't want to die," Heat snarled, his body shifting, his spirit twisting, and his Other Self - the being of destruction and fire that called itself Agni - stood in his place.
"But ..."
What was this? This tightness in his chest when Argilla's face twisted into a grimace of pain and conflicting emotion?
'My comrade ... friend? Is suffering?'
Just follow along. Nothing needs to change.
"No."
"Serph?" Argilla asked. In front of them, Jinana's own transformation ran its course ...
"Damnit, Serph! We don't have time for this! It's us or her!" Agni's two mouths roared, the claws flexing from his knuckles.
'Suffering. Strife ... I don't _like_ how they make me feel.'
"Detain her," he ordered, the resolve in his voice making Agni's two heads snap in his direction. "Not long."
Mantras.
Tens of them.
More.
Flooding his mind, as the whispers became a full out roar that tore his consciousness along.
"She's just hungry," Serph's chakra twisted, crackled, shattered and reformed into Varna. "And there's a big, fat chunk of meat a ways behind us."
Argilla's eyes widen, then thin into slits as she realizes, then nods to herself, letting her own transformation take its course.
"I'm going to go _get it_!"
Follow along? Stand aside? Don't worry?
'Like hell!'
Varna tore off into the night, like a comet, leaving frost covered ground, icy air, and frozen raindrops in his wake while Agni and Prithivi prepared to hold off Jinana's Other Self ...
... Mick the Slug, leader of the Solids, was about to have a very, very bad day.
As well as a very short one.
---
As far from God,
As heaven is wide,
As far from God,
As angels can fly
-'As Heaven Is Wide', Garbage
---
I've always liked Jinana, despite the short end of the stick she's been given in the game ... or maybe I just liked to watch her butt. Ah, well.
-Griever
.