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tampered2006-10-27 10:16 pm
revelations9x6.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2006-10-27 10:16 pm
Log: Complete
When; Oct 28th ( just after midnight )
Rating; PG for disturbing plot?
Characters; Xulchibara![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
revelations9x6 , Vincent snarky_padre_v
Summary; Xulchibara adds anotherpiece person to his plans.
Log;
Vincent had become obsessed with the carosel now as he'd found it. when he had nothing better to do he spent his time near it. pondering it.
It never seemed to stop to let on riders.
It never seemed to slow.
He wondered about this end of the world stuff.
well. If he had survived Claudia's attempt to get God birthed, maybe it had only been a brief respite? and maybe there was a reason former denizens of the Hill had been drawn here?
He hadn't got any answers, that was for sure.
But..maybe there was someone
someone who could answer those questions for him....
he wondered if that had truly been Xulchibara.
and if the god really would grace him with the visit he'd been promised.
would the god know where to find him? was there some ritual thing he needed to do to begin all this?
-
The Red God was all things and none; everywhere, and nowhere.
Much of the first seeds of fate the trinity had sewn many years ago were now beggining to bloom, and The Red God was not about to let such an important component of the intended results be neglected.
The reed had been cultivated, the serpent newly so.
There now was need for a record keeper, a prophet to take that which he witnessed in this world beyond to those which waited for it.
As always, however, the intended order of things was somewhat....fluid.
The reed's gaurdian still had much to teach the prophet's; she was not ready.
Nevertheless, The Nameless City was an ideal place to allow for a bit of a learning curve with the lack of true death. No permanent damage would result in her failure to carry out her appointed task.
All of this aside: there were appointments to be kept.
The discordant melody of the carousel started to decrease in volume.
Subtley at first, then perhaps more noticable as the sounds of the City entire began to fade into silence.
The streetlights that illuminated much of misery square likewise began, one by one, to become choked off with a crawling, consuming darkness.
The darkness spread, and deepend until nothing beyond the pool of light caste by the many lights adorning the carousel became the only percievable amount of space within the city entire.
At the very edges of this caste light the darkness moved; shifted, melted, stretched and ran.
The writhing mass then coalesced, and the footsteps of a lone man preceeded his entrance into Vincent's limited range of vision.
Walking as calmly and nonchalantly as anything, this dark man strolled almost leisurely to stand before Vincent.
A lean youngish man with hair was the color of a raven's wing; black and sleek., and eyes that could not possibly be human considered the priest with a calculating, unfathomable intelligence that managed to see straight down to his soul.
" ...I trust you have managed to remember my name for three days, since you could not for most of your adult lifetime, Priest." He said in a voice that, while humanoid, made the hair on one's neck stand at attention, and a sensation of discordant buzzing echo in the mind.
-
Vincent had noticed the sudden darkness with a sort of odd mix of fasination and dread; it wasn't as though he hadn't seen that kind of thing before, after all.
What was pleasant enough was no longer being tormented by the maddening ticking as it dulled in the presence of the god's coming.
Vincent wasn't sure what to do, how to comport himself. "I did not forget you. had my doubts, maybe, but I had not forgotten, my Lord." he said. swallowed hard. was he scared? yes, he was.
"you were the one who came to me that night in the church, weren't you? someone had to have kept me from dying of my knife wounds. I hadn't dared hope, but I thought maybe it could be...divine intervention? sir.."
-
A small smile, filled with hidden secrets, and hinting at a deep an abiding malice graced the angelic face of the dark man.
" Very good, Priest, you are not completely dense."
The smile widened.
In any other instance it would have appeared genial, but here, now, it only hightened the unsettling sense the dark man exuded.
" I would have been highly dissapointed in you, had you believed otherwise."
With a smooth gesture, he then indicated the carousel, it's horses now frozen in thier endless circling.
" Sit, for we have much to speak of."
It was not a request, and moving away as though he fully expected Vincent to follow suit, the dark man took a seat, and reclined at his ease, long legs stretched out before him.
" Tell me, Priest, have you given thought to our earlier conversation?"
This could be interpreted in many ways: Had Vincent realized he had been called to The Nameless City?
Did he realize he had chosen, of his own free will, to answer this summons? Did he fully grasp that the dark man was The Red God?
Did the unbeliever finally understand that in belief, he would be given purpose?
-
"A sleepless night or two, yes." Vincent had spent the night pondering the big and lofty questions, alright.
Maybe he wasn't sure he was worthy, which was strange for him; usually his sense of ego was quite healthy. Still, to believe took a certain type of humbleness til now he did not believe he might have. To follow a god might too, require some sacrifice... and all his life Vincent had been decidedly self serving. Would he need to cast that aside, he'd wondered, but instead all he asked was. "So, is the world about to end? THIS world? and if so, are ~we~ a part of it? Silent Hill, I mean. Our people. The Order."
-
The dark man gave only a nonchalant shrug to the first question.
"All things end, yet in ending, all things are reborn. Everything returns in it's changed form."
A cryptic reply at best, but the first question was one that wasn't relevant to the dark man's plans, nor his reason for contacting Vincent, and therefore did not warrant a detailed answer.
" Silent Hill is a part of many things, as well as a place where the barriers between perception, reality, and 'sanity' are thin."
Those wrong eyes opened once more to study Vincent, and his reactions.
"For those with the need, it acts as a sort of mental and emotional gateway to redemption....or damnation."
In all actuality this was not another vague response, but the nature of Silent Hill, and it's special properties was not something easily grasped by the analytical, or 'scientific.
"Do you care so much for your people?"
Yes....'your'...but whether the dark man considered his , perhaps, misguided followers his own was up for debate.
What was important was whether or not Vincent did.
-
Vincent paused and thought.
his vocation had always been dubious at best.
Really, he'd had no choice- at that time someone of his social stature within the Order...it was take an interest in the religion or risk one day looking a suitable sacrifice for same, and he had chosen what he hoped was the choice that would keep him alive a bit longer.
Although he had rebuilt the Order from the chaos it had fallen into he kept precious little of the tradition; he found the traditionalists superstitious, naive, and very, very dangerous, in the end.
"No..." he admitted, finally. "My flock always did seem to benefit from the 'pruning' it took every so often, to be perfectly honest with you..."
-
The dark man simply nodded, as though digesting this statement....but in truth he had known the answer.
Thus far Vincent was doing well with the resistance to lie and perhaps appear more devoted to the worship of The Red God, and his other siblings/aspects.
And the truth shall set you free.....
" You feel no ties to Silent Hill, nor the people within it then.", again this was a statement, rather than a question.
The dark man suddenly pined Vincent with the weight of those inhuman eyes; eyes that hinted at a deep and abiding chaotic awareness.
The Red God saw all, knew all, was all....and even in this flawlessly human form, the eyes acted as windows to the soul.
....A soul that had seen the dawn of mankind, watched entire civilizations rise and fall, and knew the great mysteries of the universe.
One man's secrets were as nothing to this.
"Would you, then, be able to walk among others? Other worlds, other people, and feel no remorse at thier ends?"
Needless to say, it was in Vincent's best interests not to attempt to lie.
-
"I..." Vincent lowered his head. Maybe it wasn't right to speak in such a way here, now, before this one, but then who else to tell such things to? "The town twisted me, used me to its own ends in more ways than one," he said quietly, "It took me almost my whole life to break free of those who had me wrapped around their fingers, and to what avail? If there's just going to be more of that here. No. No I guess I don't, and yet..." he paused, thinking, "Since I've arrived I've found myself drawn to them. Like a moth, to a flame. I guess I need to know how it all ends... if anything I did played a part. If I played a part. Or if it was all just... a terrible waste of my time."
-
The dark man narrowed his eyes at Vincent.
Did this poor excuse for a priest really believe The Red God wasn't aware of Vincent's feelings on Silent Hill?
This was an irrelevant question in the grander scheme of things....but, humans often need to feel thier time and efforts are validated in some way.
Though bothersome, it was probably best the dark man reiteratted to Vincent that whatever may have come before, what comes after is far more important.
"Your former life was a means of cultivating you. To ready you for a higher purpose, Priesssssst."
The dark man's voice changed, then, quite suddenly and quite drastically; it became something closer to his TRUE voice.
A sound that had the potential to destroy nations, and drive men mad with a single word.
"YoU ArE NoW GiVeN A ChOiCe."
The Dark man's face started to warp, as the veins below his skin shown a with a dark light, his eyes flaring like two shining pieces of the abyss; an abyss which most certainly looked back.
"WiLl YoU RiSe AbOvE AlL ThOsE WiThIn ThE PoRtAl, SiLeNt HiLl, Or WiLl YoU ReMaIn HeRe To FeEd ThE TiCkInG ClOcK?"
-
And Vincent dared to smile. it was a bit of a wicked smile, but a smile nonetheless.
As if the choice he'd make wasn't obvious.
Not that he knew what he was getting into, but anything that would better him would be worth it somehow.
"I think I'll go with plan A, thank you." he said quietly.
-
As suddenly as it had changed, it then changed back to the angelic countenence he had previously worn.
Another of those unsettling smiles graced his features, then quickly transformed into an outright grin.
...A grin that could display far too many teeth to exist in a human's mouth, or simply slightly more pointed than were necessary depending on who was looking.
" Excellent!" He praised, and viper quick reached out one-handed to grip Vincent's jaw.
The Priest might struggle, he may even try to pull away completly, but niether would be effective.
Thus pinned, the dark man held Vincent's full and undivided attention, his wrong eyes boring into Vincent's own.
"LiStEn WeLl, PrIeSt, AnD TaKe CaRe To NoT tO LeT YoUr DoUbT OvErShAdOw YoUr FaiTh EvEr AgAiN."
With his free hand's index and middle finger, the dark man scribed a complex symbol into Vincent's forehead, then forced the priest's chin up to repeat the symbol over his sternum.
The touch both froze and burned; caused searing pain, then left unadulterated ecstasy in it's wake.
Where Vincent to try and struggle, it would still be fruitless until the dark man released him forcefully to colapse against the carousel, or beg for the touch again, as was Vincent's perrogative. Niether would have been unseemly.
The mark would throb with a dark light forever more in The Red God's presense, but remain dormant and invisible at all other times.
Invisible save to those who similarly played key roles in The Red God's plans: The serpent, the reed, the dragon and the avatar.
They would know regardless of whether or not Vincent wished them to, but to all others within The Ticking Clock it would be up to Vincent's perrogative to share the information.
"YoU ArE nOw MaRkeD, ViNcEnT. MaRkEd As OnE Of MY OwN."
The Voice of the dark man started to recede...and soon followed the darkness, to leave the prophet as he had been found.
" To YoU I ChArGe ThE TaSk Of KeePiNg ViGiL; Of ReCorDiNg AlL ThAt OcCuRs On ThE RoAd To PaRaDiSe."
Perhaps intuitevly Vincent would know this meant all that transpired between those also marked by The Red God, and the stories that were to unfold between them.
...As he would intuitevly know he was meant to take this knowledge, perhaps written, perhaps remembered, and be ready to take it unto many worlds, and speak of the Nameless City, of The Red God, and of the rebirth of the Great Lady in the time that would pass between her birth, and when she was ready to step out of this haven, and into the world once more.
And here did the dark man depart...leaving only a memory of his touch, a ghost of his voice.
A shadow in the night.
-
There are moments one is privy to, and then there are events, epiphanies if you like. this of course was one of those moments that happen TO a man; what Vincent said or did were more or less irrelevant in the enormity of what had occured, but what in fact happened was this; at first he did struggle, but in the wake of sudden pain and mixed ecstasy, he sort of giggled, a bit nervously, and in the moment he was released hit the floor in boneless bliss.
He was alone again. a decidedly crazier Vincent, but still Vincent nonetheless.
He could have laughed, perhaps, or cried, mourning his loss- all he had been, prior to this moment.
Vincent did neither.
Walking back to the cathedral, he began to sing, loudly, drunkenly, one might argue, tho this time the usually alcoholic priest hadn't had a drop.
-
Rating; PG for disturbing plot?
Characters; Xulchibara
revelations9x6 , Vincent snarky_padre_vSummary; Xulchibara adds another
Log;
Vincent had become obsessed with the carosel now as he'd found it. when he had nothing better to do he spent his time near it. pondering it.
It never seemed to stop to let on riders.
It never seemed to slow.
He wondered about this end of the world stuff.
well. If he had survived Claudia's attempt to get God birthed, maybe it had only been a brief respite? and maybe there was a reason former denizens of the Hill had been drawn here?
He hadn't got any answers, that was for sure.
But..maybe there was someone
someone who could answer those questions for him....
he wondered if that had truly been Xulchibara.
and if the god really would grace him with the visit he'd been promised.
would the god know where to find him? was there some ritual thing he needed to do to begin all this?
-
The Red God was all things and none; everywhere, and nowhere.
Much of the first seeds of fate the trinity had sewn many years ago were now beggining to bloom, and The Red God was not about to let such an important component of the intended results be neglected.
The reed had been cultivated, the serpent newly so.
There now was need for a record keeper, a prophet to take that which he witnessed in this world beyond to those which waited for it.
As always, however, the intended order of things was somewhat....fluid.
The reed's gaurdian still had much to teach the prophet's; she was not ready.
Nevertheless, The Nameless City was an ideal place to allow for a bit of a learning curve with the lack of true death. No permanent damage would result in her failure to carry out her appointed task.
All of this aside: there were appointments to be kept.
The discordant melody of the carousel started to decrease in volume.
Subtley at first, then perhaps more noticable as the sounds of the City entire began to fade into silence.
The streetlights that illuminated much of misery square likewise began, one by one, to become choked off with a crawling, consuming darkness.
The darkness spread, and deepend until nothing beyond the pool of light caste by the many lights adorning the carousel became the only percievable amount of space within the city entire.
At the very edges of this caste light the darkness moved; shifted, melted, stretched and ran.
The writhing mass then coalesced, and the footsteps of a lone man preceeded his entrance into Vincent's limited range of vision.
Walking as calmly and nonchalantly as anything, this dark man strolled almost leisurely to stand before Vincent.
A lean youngish man with hair was the color of a raven's wing; black and sleek., and eyes that could not possibly be human considered the priest with a calculating, unfathomable intelligence that managed to see straight down to his soul.
" ...I trust you have managed to remember my name for three days, since you could not for most of your adult lifetime, Priest." He said in a voice that, while humanoid, made the hair on one's neck stand at attention, and a sensation of discordant buzzing echo in the mind.
-
Vincent had noticed the sudden darkness with a sort of odd mix of fasination and dread; it wasn't as though he hadn't seen that kind of thing before, after all.
What was pleasant enough was no longer being tormented by the maddening ticking as it dulled in the presence of the god's coming.
Vincent wasn't sure what to do, how to comport himself. "I did not forget you. had my doubts, maybe, but I had not forgotten, my Lord." he said. swallowed hard. was he scared? yes, he was.
"you were the one who came to me that night in the church, weren't you? someone had to have kept me from dying of my knife wounds. I hadn't dared hope, but I thought maybe it could be...divine intervention? sir.."
-
A small smile, filled with hidden secrets, and hinting at a deep an abiding malice graced the angelic face of the dark man.
" Very good, Priest, you are not completely dense."
The smile widened.
In any other instance it would have appeared genial, but here, now, it only hightened the unsettling sense the dark man exuded.
" I would have been highly dissapointed in you, had you believed otherwise."
With a smooth gesture, he then indicated the carousel, it's horses now frozen in thier endless circling.
" Sit, for we have much to speak of."
It was not a request, and moving away as though he fully expected Vincent to follow suit, the dark man took a seat, and reclined at his ease, long legs stretched out before him.
" Tell me, Priest, have you given thought to our earlier conversation?"
This could be interpreted in many ways: Had Vincent realized he had been called to The Nameless City?
Did he realize he had chosen, of his own free will, to answer this summons? Did he fully grasp that the dark man was The Red God?
Did the unbeliever finally understand that in belief, he would be given purpose?
-
"A sleepless night or two, yes." Vincent had spent the night pondering the big and lofty questions, alright.
Maybe he wasn't sure he was worthy, which was strange for him; usually his sense of ego was quite healthy. Still, to believe took a certain type of humbleness til now he did not believe he might have. To follow a god might too, require some sacrifice... and all his life Vincent had been decidedly self serving. Would he need to cast that aside, he'd wondered, but instead all he asked was. "So, is the world about to end? THIS world? and if so, are ~we~ a part of it? Silent Hill, I mean. Our people. The Order."
-
The dark man gave only a nonchalant shrug to the first question.
"All things end, yet in ending, all things are reborn. Everything returns in it's changed form."
A cryptic reply at best, but the first question was one that wasn't relevant to the dark man's plans, nor his reason for contacting Vincent, and therefore did not warrant a detailed answer.
" Silent Hill is a part of many things, as well as a place where the barriers between perception, reality, and 'sanity' are thin."
Those wrong eyes opened once more to study Vincent, and his reactions.
"For those with the need, it acts as a sort of mental and emotional gateway to redemption....or damnation."
In all actuality this was not another vague response, but the nature of Silent Hill, and it's special properties was not something easily grasped by the analytical, or 'scientific.
"Do you care so much for your people?"
Yes....'your'...but whether the dark man considered his , perhaps, misguided followers his own was up for debate.
What was important was whether or not Vincent did.
-
Vincent paused and thought.
his vocation had always been dubious at best.
Really, he'd had no choice- at that time someone of his social stature within the Order...it was take an interest in the religion or risk one day looking a suitable sacrifice for same, and he had chosen what he hoped was the choice that would keep him alive a bit longer.
Although he had rebuilt the Order from the chaos it had fallen into he kept precious little of the tradition; he found the traditionalists superstitious, naive, and very, very dangerous, in the end.
"No..." he admitted, finally. "My flock always did seem to benefit from the 'pruning' it took every so often, to be perfectly honest with you..."
-
The dark man simply nodded, as though digesting this statement....but in truth he had known the answer.
Thus far Vincent was doing well with the resistance to lie and perhaps appear more devoted to the worship of The Red God, and his other siblings/aspects.
And the truth shall set you free.....
" You feel no ties to Silent Hill, nor the people within it then.", again this was a statement, rather than a question.
The dark man suddenly pined Vincent with the weight of those inhuman eyes; eyes that hinted at a deep and abiding chaotic awareness.
The Red God saw all, knew all, was all....and even in this flawlessly human form, the eyes acted as windows to the soul.
....A soul that had seen the dawn of mankind, watched entire civilizations rise and fall, and knew the great mysteries of the universe.
One man's secrets were as nothing to this.
"Would you, then, be able to walk among others? Other worlds, other people, and feel no remorse at thier ends?"
Needless to say, it was in Vincent's best interests not to attempt to lie.
-
"I..." Vincent lowered his head. Maybe it wasn't right to speak in such a way here, now, before this one, but then who else to tell such things to? "The town twisted me, used me to its own ends in more ways than one," he said quietly, "It took me almost my whole life to break free of those who had me wrapped around their fingers, and to what avail? If there's just going to be more of that here. No. No I guess I don't, and yet..." he paused, thinking, "Since I've arrived I've found myself drawn to them. Like a moth, to a flame. I guess I need to know how it all ends... if anything I did played a part. If I played a part. Or if it was all just... a terrible waste of my time."
-
The dark man narrowed his eyes at Vincent.
Did this poor excuse for a priest really believe The Red God wasn't aware of Vincent's feelings on Silent Hill?
This was an irrelevant question in the grander scheme of things....but, humans often need to feel thier time and efforts are validated in some way.
Though bothersome, it was probably best the dark man reiteratted to Vincent that whatever may have come before, what comes after is far more important.
"Your former life was a means of cultivating you. To ready you for a higher purpose, Priesssssst."
The dark man's voice changed, then, quite suddenly and quite drastically; it became something closer to his TRUE voice.
A sound that had the potential to destroy nations, and drive men mad with a single word.
"YoU ArE NoW GiVeN A ChOiCe."
The Dark man's face started to warp, as the veins below his skin shown a with a dark light, his eyes flaring like two shining pieces of the abyss; an abyss which most certainly looked back.
"WiLl YoU RiSe AbOvE AlL ThOsE WiThIn ThE PoRtAl, SiLeNt HiLl, Or WiLl YoU ReMaIn HeRe To FeEd ThE TiCkInG ClOcK?"
-
And Vincent dared to smile. it was a bit of a wicked smile, but a smile nonetheless.
As if the choice he'd make wasn't obvious.
Not that he knew what he was getting into, but anything that would better him would be worth it somehow.
"I think I'll go with plan A, thank you." he said quietly.
-
As suddenly as it had changed, it then changed back to the angelic countenence he had previously worn.
Another of those unsettling smiles graced his features, then quickly transformed into an outright grin.
...A grin that could display far too many teeth to exist in a human's mouth, or simply slightly more pointed than were necessary depending on who was looking.
" Excellent!" He praised, and viper quick reached out one-handed to grip Vincent's jaw.
The Priest might struggle, he may even try to pull away completly, but niether would be effective.
Thus pinned, the dark man held Vincent's full and undivided attention, his wrong eyes boring into Vincent's own.
"LiStEn WeLl, PrIeSt, AnD TaKe CaRe To NoT tO LeT YoUr DoUbT OvErShAdOw YoUr FaiTh EvEr AgAiN."
With his free hand's index and middle finger, the dark man scribed a complex symbol into Vincent's forehead, then forced the priest's chin up to repeat the symbol over his sternum.
The touch both froze and burned; caused searing pain, then left unadulterated ecstasy in it's wake.
Where Vincent to try and struggle, it would still be fruitless until the dark man released him forcefully to colapse against the carousel, or beg for the touch again, as was Vincent's perrogative. Niether would have been unseemly.
The mark would throb with a dark light forever more in The Red God's presense, but remain dormant and invisible at all other times.
Invisible save to those who similarly played key roles in The Red God's plans: The serpent, the reed, the dragon and the avatar.
They would know regardless of whether or not Vincent wished them to, but to all others within The Ticking Clock it would be up to Vincent's perrogative to share the information.
"YoU ArE nOw MaRkeD, ViNcEnT. MaRkEd As OnE Of MY OwN."
The Voice of the dark man started to recede...and soon followed the darkness, to leave the prophet as he had been found.
" To YoU I ChArGe ThE TaSk Of KeePiNg ViGiL; Of ReCorDiNg AlL ThAt OcCuRs On ThE RoAd To PaRaDiSe."
Perhaps intuitevly Vincent would know this meant all that transpired between those also marked by The Red God, and the stories that were to unfold between them.
...As he would intuitevly know he was meant to take this knowledge, perhaps written, perhaps remembered, and be ready to take it unto many worlds, and speak of the Nameless City, of The Red God, and of the rebirth of the Great Lady in the time that would pass between her birth, and when she was ready to step out of this haven, and into the world once more.
And here did the dark man depart...leaving only a memory of his touch, a ghost of his voice.
A shadow in the night.
-
There are moments one is privy to, and then there are events, epiphanies if you like. this of course was one of those moments that happen TO a man; what Vincent said or did were more or less irrelevant in the enormity of what had occured, but what in fact happened was this; at first he did struggle, but in the wake of sudden pain and mixed ecstasy, he sort of giggled, a bit nervously, and in the moment he was released hit the floor in boneless bliss.
He was alone again. a decidedly crazier Vincent, but still Vincent nonetheless.
He could have laughed, perhaps, or cried, mourning his loss- all he had been, prior to this moment.
Vincent did neither.
Walking back to the cathedral, he began to sing, loudly, drunkenly, one might argue, tho this time the usually alcoholic priest hadn't had a drop.
-