Log COMPLETE

[legendarysnake.livejournal.com]

When; Nighttime
Rating; PG-13 due to sadistic violence
Characters; Orochimaru legendarysnake and Tayuya violentflutist
Summary; Orochimaru calls Tayuya for a conversation at Xanadu..which quickly turns ugly, as she is made to repent for her 'transgressions' and is taught her place.
Log:

It was quite dark. The wind danced lightly through the trees like a wandering soul, whispering and singing through the leaves with a weightless voice. It was an almost disconcerting sound, eerie, especially for the place where it was heard. It was the only sound, the only motion that was occurring. All else was still, as would be expected of a place such as this. The moonlight shimmered down, glittering strangely off the bleach white stones, making them almost glow with an ethereal light.

The Crypt, in the far corner of Xanadu.

Yes..this place was quite fitting. Standing against the cold stone of the Masouleum, Orochimaru waited for his 'subordinate'. They had many a thing to discuss.
'

Tayuya was afraid. The fear permeated ever core of her being, thrummed in her bones, made her heart, the heart that beat once more, quiver between pulses. It had been so long, since she had felt so… overwhelmed, so utterly weak, powerless… it was a fear that had been bred into her since childhood, since she had come to Orochimaru, received his powers… a fear that she always carried, always would carry.

She arrived on time, not a second late, bowing before her master so low the tips of her bright red hair brushed against the earth, her eyes downcast and to the ground. “Sir.” She spoke briskly, not loudly nor softly, her voice for when he called her before him as such. The North gate did not move after speaking, holding her position with the knuckle of one fist to the ground, kneeling, head bowed. Waiting. Fearfully.

The snake grinned, as he regarded the prostrate form before him. She still gave the subservient response, still knelt before him, still following all protocol with her even voice and lone fist pushed into the dirt. And something else about her...he could still tell. Smell it on her, as clearly as he could smell the musty, stifling scent of age and decrepitness leaking from the building behind him. The smell of fear. Pure and unbridled, it bled from her every pore. Orochimaru licked his lips once, as he took this in. Fear was a delectable thing, and it would make things so much more enjoyable...

Coming down to one knee before her, he slipped a hand around to her cheek, caressing it once, almost lovingly, trailing it slowly down to her chin, tilting her head up to look at himself.

She shivered slightly at the touch, unused to such… sweet gesture, after so long. Because even if she wanted freedom, no matter what she wanted or felt, he would always have that hold over her. She knew that. She was sure he knew it, too. Brown eyes, dulled and hidden, did not rise to meet his gaze until instructed by the motion of his hand, locking with golden pupils and reptilian slits, held perfectly still in that gaze. It read her, penetrated her… only serving to enforce the knowledge that she could never deceive him, never hide anything from him… no matter how much she wanted to.

“Orochimaru-sama…” She breathed, body taught, alert, and unsure of what he would do next.

Behind the serpent's head, the moon shone brightly, bathing him in an otherworldly light. The moonlight wove a halo upon his head, pure and gleaming like something empryean, creating an almost benevolence to the flat smile the snake now wore. It was almost perverse--the night painted him as an angel, a savior from above, throwing all other truths that may be closer into a darkness, untouched. Keeping his one hand upon the girl's chin, he moved his other to her hand, taking it, and bringing it upward from the ground. As he began to stand, he slowly led her, moving her to stand as well. The pale sheen danced across his eyes as well, making the golden pupils shine with a light demonic, a antipodent to the heavenly image that was being portrayed..

"Tayuya..." He drew slowly, focusing the slitted aureate orbs upon her brown ones, catching her in his gaze like a snake to a rat. "..Punctual...as always."

“… Thank you, sir.” Her voice had lowered reverently. It was times like these that she was convinced he would complete his goal. Become something like a god, learn everything there was to learn, and live forever, immortal and forever young. Tayuya followed his direction, that was always what she was to do. Heed him, follow him, listen carefully… she belonged to him, even if she didn’t want to… even if- she stopped her thoughts there, as if he could read her mind, waiting for further intstruction.


Orochimaru watched her for a moment, noticing the change of expression and tone. It was almost as if she had resigned, everything that she may have been thinking of, every action that her mind had thrown at her, dissolved in that one second. Amusement began to take root within him, as this point came to light. No matter what kind of game she talked, no matter what she tried to do, he'd always hold her reins. Always. She was his. Keeping his hand on her chin, he began to speak to her once more.

"..Tell me. You've been in this place for a while.." He said, tone still soft, but even. "About all you've seen."

Everything? Tayuya’s brow furrowed for a moment. That was… a hell of a lot of stuff. She figured it may be best to be vague and general, and then clarify if he asked for it. “Here… there’s nothing… much to do, to accomplish…” She began hesitantly, watching her language carefully. “There’s curses, those just… mess with everyone, get people angry or upset… then there’s some fighting, but Konoha usually keeps out of it… In general, it’s just… a contained existance, where what we accomplish can’t return to our worlds with us…”

"Really..." He turned from her, taking his hand away, to face the moon's luminous touch. "So..it is a pointless existance. Nothing we can really learn that will aid us when we return....." A wicked smile began to grace his face, though it was nothing that the girl could see. "And Konoha stays out of it...mm?" He was waiting...waiting for that moment to stike, that moment to attack her, paralyzing her further, and gaining the answers he sook. "Are you sure that is everything, Tayuya?"

“If you want… more specific answers, Orochimaru-sama…” Tayuya’s eyes lowered again, the fight she had possessed when not face to face with her master drained out of her already, evident in the small gestures he would probably catch. The tilt of her shoulder, the angle of her hips, and the way she held herself. “… Ask… more specific questions?”

At this, there was a quick motion. Once again, her chin was caught, but it was not in the soft manner as before. This time it was tight, and uncomfortable, the precursor to something worse upon the horizon. He brought his face down to hers, his eyes narrowed, and his face a bit less amused.

"I was as specific as I needed to be with my first question." He said, his voice a sharp hiss. "You should know this. Maybe this time in the City alone has done something to you..." His mouth began to show her the smile he had possessed just moments before...wicked, and poisonous. "But...I would believe there are things you do not wish to tell me. Things...that you are ashamed of."

“… Of course, Orochimaru-sama.” She spoke carefully, neck arched back a little to ease the pressure on her lower jaw. “… I’ve… done many things I am not proud of, sir. I… let myself behave inappropriately in your absence… and because I am dead, I felt I could afford… a bit of…” Her words began faltering, pupils dilated. “… freedom.” The word seemed like a death knell to her, even in her own mind. Everything she had worked on saying before arriving had flown from her head, leaving her grasping at straws for something to say, an apology, a plea for forgiveness, anything to stave off the punishment she knew awaited her.

"So....you finally come forward....." He drug his hand once more across her cheek, but again, it was no longer kindly. Reaching up, he grasped the edge of the wrapping upon her head, yanking it off, allowing her ruddy hair to fly free. Tossing it to the ground in a swift motion, his hand immediately found its way back, running through her hair gently, but with a forboding twinge. "And why did you not tell me this sooner? Mm?" Fingers still trailed softly, fingernails leaving small paths in their wake. "Was there something...." His hand began to tighten, pulling the strands of hair taut between his fingers painfully. " or someone you wanted to protect? Someone more important than I?" The grappling he had on her hair became like a vice, as he tugged her head back at an abstract angle, the pain becoming excruciating. He slowly progressed, coming to stand over her once more, still holding her head back. "Confess these trangressions of which you speak."

She had begun to grit her teeth when he’d began to rake his fingernails painfully across her scalp, tug on her hair, but her eyes widened in fear as he bent her neck back at a painful angle, reminding her all to clearly of her most vivid memory of her life, which had been her death, lying motionless with a broken spine. Unbidden, her breath quickened, shallow and quick, and the new seal on her neck he did not remember giving her began pulsing as she lost her control over her emotions, the first signs of its release showing as her eyes began to slowly filtered from white to black, the iris from brown to a gold that matched his own. “I- Sir, you are most important.” And right now, he was, it was the truth. “I won’t choose anyone over you, I couldn’t-“ Her protests were weak, trying to force her seal back, not wanting to show the weakness that she couldn't even fully control the gift he'd bestowed on her.

His grin became more sadistic, as he bent her neck back even more. "That's not what I asked you. I asked you to tell me of your transgressions." He placed his face in hers, his tongue coming to slip around her misplaced neck, with a quick taste, before darting away back into his mouth. "If you continue to dodge me...I will continue as I am." He looked at the color her eyes, intrigued. This is something I've never seen before.....maybe I should inquire of this as well....

And her defenses, weak as they were crumbled as she shied away from his tongue, wet and warm against her neck, pulse beating erratically in her veins. The curse seal raced across her face in geometric lines only to retreat as she forced it back, a struggle against herself. Tayuya tried not to, it only made it worse, she knew that, but she couldn’t help but thrash a little in his grip, vainly attempting to right the angle of her backbone. “I have a contract with a doll from another world.” She choked out, mouth revealing teeth sharpening with the seal’s influence. “I’ve had relations with three people, unauthorized. I have people I care about, sir, please-“ The fear had over-ridden her brain, focusing on telling him anything he wanted to get her out of that position, out of that tell-tale strain she recognized, after having that spine broken not once, but twice, as the noise of something on the verge of snapping.

He grinned down at her...his face deepening in its atrocious cast by each passing moment. "So...let me make sure I have heard you correctly.....you....made a contract with someone else.....and you have people you care for? Enough to show weakness...." Her head was jerked back painfully once more, before it was let free. But, this was for only a moment...as behind it, as she brought her head back up, his hand came across her face, with a violent slap, knocking her to the ground. Glowering down at her, he reached down to once more grasp her by the hair, dragging her up to face him. "...and you thought these would be good practices, hm? To find allegiance under another, and to soften yourself...to forget all you were?"

Cheek already bruising from the force of the blow, she looked up at her master through lanks of her hair, eyes now fully gold and flashing against blackened cornea, hands curling into fists around the dirt. The pain had knocked some of the fire back into her, some of the resistance she had possessed. “I’ve never forgotten who I am.” She hissed, horns bursting and retreating from her skull, hair fairly writhing as it grew and shortened, skin darkening only to lighten, her hold tenuous at best on the curse seal burning hot and white on her neck. “I’ve never sworn allegience to another, and I haven’t served another as I serve you. It’s a contract of power, not servitude.”

"A contract of power? Like you made with me?" His eyes searched hers, while they raked over her form, watching the changes. "..But this doll asked nothing in return....." He placed a hand upon her neck heavily, squeezing where he knew the curse would be. It was quite intriguing, what his other self had done--the power he felt from her was much stronger than he had remembered--and the curse form looked much different. "..or did she, and you just do not want to reveal it?"

“Not like I made with you.” Tayuya breathed out in a moan, his hand and grip clammy cold against the heat of her seal, digging nails of constantly changing length and sharpness into the dirt, one finger graced with a delicate, feminine rose ring, symbol of her contract. “She draws power from me, and in return, fights for me, if I need her to.” Didn’t need to mention she was supposed to be fighting for her, to, since she didn’t have to, with Suigintou’s sisters not participating in that weird game. In a brazen move, the North Gate brought that ringed hand up and latched onto her master’s forearm, not trying to remove his grip, but an act of defiance nonetheless, eyes still wide against the fear of that bone beneath his palm snapping in his cuff.

Orochimaru grinned. She was trying to show a strength. By grasping his arm, she wanted to show she defied him, at least somewhat, even though there was nothing she could do. His eyes caught the rose ring upon her finger, and noted it. That must be the symbol of her contract. Something very unlike Tayuya to wear otherwise... Deftly, he brought his other hand to wrap around the one she held on his forearm, taking it gently at first, as if to admire and appraise the small ring. But, as it progressed, his hand began to constrict around hers, all the fingers being brought into a very unnatural state.

She had been still, taught, but now a whimper came to her lips, brow furrowing as she started to thrash, trying to wrench her hand, her neck, from his grip. The delicate bones of her fingers were snapping, the breaks audible in the silence of the night, visible in the insane bend of the appendages between the pale skin of her master’s. “Orochimaru-sama-“ She moaned, the seal pulsing faster, faster, breath quickening, horns fully extended from her skull at this point, and writhing, stark white of ivory. Tayuya was barely holding on to her mind at this point, the seal in the back of it, murmuring sweet whispers of killing and wrenching and holding and tearing, driven by her overwhelming fear and pain.

Wrenching her fingers back further, five small snaps could be heard, as all the fingers finally gave way, breaking like twigs in a strong wind. He continued to press the bones of her hand together, now aiming to shatter the inner workings, since the extremities were already crushed. Eyes still locked upon hers, it was obvious to see the curse's instability flash across her eyes like lightning upon a restless sea. It was almost beautiful in a way--something raw and uncontained, like nature at it's purest state. He almost wished he remembered what his previous self had done--so he would know just to what depths this extension of the original curse went, and be able to appreciate it's wild beauty at an acceptable level, rather than just watch in awe and try to understand fully, as he was doing now.

Tayuya snapped. Her curse seal opened fully, primal rage and fury and just pure power, unbridled and untamed. The horns were fully formed now, sharp and jagged, as were her teeth and nails. Skin darkened to a dun brown, hair long and free about her as she ripped her hand from his vice-like grip, swatted at his other arm with her broken hand, the pain having dulled from her transformation, a low growl, a snarl, in her throat. She was usually incapable of speech for moments after letting it go fully, as it washed over her, purely beastial, making her fight for the basic logic and self-preservation of humanity. And now, the man In front of her, hurting her, was an enemy in her eyes. … She lunged.

A laugh escaped the serpentine man's throat, as he felt her rip away from his grasp. So this was the next stage of the curse she was given. As she lunged toward him, she believed she caught something, but as her hands grasped into it, it melted away into a brown sludge--a doton kawarimi. From behind her, something moved, a gasp of noise, as a cold feeling slipped once more about her neck. A myriad of snakes now wrapped themselves around her, holding her hence, biting deep into her flesh, small rivers of crimson appearing underneath where the coils were taut. The snakes did not move, but something behind them did, yanking her forcefully backwards.

The only answer to the snake bites was a snarl of frustration, the cursed seal blocking the pain from the bites and restraint, a grunt the only answer to the yanking back. But she thrashed viciously under his hand, the neck, the neck, not the neck. With much effort she somehow managed to manipulate the broken fingers, numb and deadened, to stab claws into the reptilian flesh near her arm, but she was unable to move further, eyes alternating between wide and dilated as Tayuya fought both against her inability to move and her cursed seal.

A flash of silver to her right accompanied an immediate sensation underneath her chin, metallic and cold. One look would give her all the answers she needed about this-- the Kusanagi rested closely against her skin, placed above the last coils of the snakes that bound her. Pulling back once more on the snakes that held her throat, he allowed one to slip away to expose the skin beneath, as he brought her neck back at a painful angle. The Kusanagi then moved, slipping into her flesh slightly, giving a laceration.

"Stand down...Tayuya." His voice echoed from his position, reaching the feral woman's ears, though he was unsure she was coherent enough to understand. But, on the other hand, he knew that he truly did not care.

With her neck still taut, still arched, still strained, she could hardly focus, the animalistic fear overriding her senses, that tried weakly to focus in the glint of steel, for the bite of the blade did nothing. She saw herself, reflected in the Kusanagi, feral, wild, beastial… and weak. Her fight slowly ebbed out of her as quickly as the curse had released it, her thrashings weakening, but still present, her eyes searching his and a plea on her lips. “Orochimaru-sama- please-“ She half choked out, the speech difficult with the angle of throat and rumble in it. She wanted him to seal it, make the seal stop moving, crawling, taking, taking her reason away from her. If Suigintou had been there the power would have filtered off and she would have retained her sanity, but without her near… it was hard.
The Kusanagi slid in a bit farther, the laceration deepening, and blood beginning to run from its entry line in more freely than before. Orochimaru gave another tug upon the snakes, the angle of her neck worsening, reaching dangerously close to the breaking point. The laceration, at this, ripped open even more, the skin being pulled farther apart due to the angle of her neck joints. A psychotic expression haunted the snake sannin's visage, her pleas like a sweet requiem sung across the silent fields of the graveyard. He licked his lips in delight. So wonderful it was that she attacked him...for now, he would finally instill it completely-- his dominion over her, the freedom that she signed away in blood herself, and her inability to escape it.

Her begging grew louder, more insessant, anything to stop the popping in her spine she knew signaled the strain in the bone. “Please, Orochimaru-sama,” Her curse seal was wavering again, all the attributes retreating and invading as her mind tore itself apart, “Stop-“ Tayuya choked on her words, on her fears, on her shame. She talked rough, acted so proud, so cocky, and yet her master could reduce her to this. A sniveling pawn beneath him. And it disgusted her, even though she knew it would never change, that it was just th way things were, even if she wanted it so badly to be different now. “I’ll do anything, please“

The blade stayed its course, and the snakes did not move. It was almost as if the man behind her was waiting on something, waiting for her to fall apart more than she had, to bring the taste of death once more upon her tongue, and to allow her to savor that, before allowing her peace. Holding her still, he turned his head toward the graves, looking like protruding bones in the moonlight. A fitting comparison,, since that is what lied underneath them, or at least he would surmise so. This city was odd about that.

"Do you see the sepulchers around us, Tayuya...?" He inquired slowly, watching the North Gate's writhing form from behind. "Do you know why I brought you here?"

A low keening noise escaped her lips, still stretching muscles taught and thrashing periodically in a vain and futile attempt to free herself from the painful and uncomfortable position at his feet.

“No.” She answered after a moment, unwilling or unable to form further words, knowing that what he was doing now wouldn’t be swayed by her pleas, her begs, even screams for mercy or forgiveness. That would only excite him.

"It was to show you something." The sword was pushed in a bit deeper, a red splash being the reward for his effort. "It was to allow you to visualize what would happen if you opposed me....where you would end up." A wet feeling traced the lip of where the blade was anchored into her neck--slimy, nothing like the blood that was pouring forth from her. She didn't have to look to know it was his tongue, licking against her neck, sampling of her life fluid, and violating her further.
"For...even if this city brought you back to life....I would just track you down...and end you once more. Eventually...I'm sure the City would cease to revive you all together. And if not......then you would have finally found Hell, wouldn't you?"

Tayuya’s lips twisted into a grimace and only a whimper escaped her at the feel of blood and tongue on her neck, her pulse slowing gradually as the curse seal died away, her small noises of pain growing louder as her brain began to be able to register the pain without the seal inhibiting it. Her body returned to its normal state, eyes dulling not just from the seal’s power drain, but… from her defeat, utter and uncompromising.

“… Yes, sir, Orochimaru-sama…” Her gaze was averted unable to look at him, her only sign of her great discomfort now being the tensing of her neck muscles and the pained look on her face.

All at once, the snakes receded, and the sword disappeared, as if it had never been there at all. The only reminder of its presence was the gash that decorated the girl's neck, still beading itself with sanguinary droplets. Orochimaru stood at her back, still looking down on her, face in a serious, but somewhat satisfied cast.

"Good. Let us not have this conversation again." His voice returned to stern and even, as if he had just finished reprimanding a child. "Now. I will bring you to Kabuto, and have him heal your....wounds. I need you in good condition for the battle coming up. You will stand at my side, and if something happens, fight."

She stood, slowly, cradling her shattered hand against her stomach while the other hand tried to staunch the flow of blood from her neck, the red oozing between her dirtied fingers. It hurt, and she was biting her lip hard to keep from making sounds of pain, opening her mouth only to lower her head.

“… Yes, Orochimaru-sama.” Tayuya was the North Gate. And she would always belong to him.