12-31-2017, 07:18 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-31-2017, 07:57 AM by Jaixe Furiael.
Edit Reason: Even reviewing it once did not get all of the typos... *rage*
)
The Seeker of Darkness stood atop the balcony, hanging overhead the busy flows of traffic that sped by below, weaving their way through a luminous cityscape that never truly slumbered. The wind blew softly, cold from the night that blanketed the world at the time. A cold that bled through the thin, scarlet long-sleeved shirt and black pants that Jaixe wore, but scarcely bothered him. It was a mere few hours for him since Jackie had been apprehended, but for the world, it appeared as though time had sped forward considerably.
This strange warping of time that constantly occurred occupied his thoughts. His curiosity compelled him to mull over the laws of the reality he was now forced to be a part of. There was no Realm of Darkness, no Heartless horde to call upon, no connection to the negativity that flowed through all mortals. The cityscape was relaxing, in a way, but his thoughts set him on edge. He finally came to the inevitable conclusion that he had dreaded for so long. The truth that he was so completely isolated from every living being.
Alone. He was alone, in a way he was never accustomed to being. It was not the kind of loneliness that people often think of when away from friends or family for an extended period. It was a kind of haunting sensation, an ever-present emptiness that embittered him. It was the source of constant pain; a rejection by reality to his mere presence. And it was all the fault of one trickster of a deity.
“This world of yours is a rather creative form of torture for everyone involved,” Jaixe sighed, leaning over the metal railing.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted movement. A shadow sliding along the wall, one of his creations. It ran up towards him, morphing along the thin bars of the railing and popping back into a three-dimensional shape, balancing on the rail. Its yellow eyes stared blankly at Jaixe. They were simple creatures, even simpler now that Jaixe had removed their insatiable desire for Hearts. They now mutely awaited to be commanded, and held only a shard of curiosity that often set them to explore. They never traveled far from him, always returning after a few minutes of adventure, much like a pet checking up on its owner from time to time.
Jaixe hummed to himself, patting the small creature before it eventually scuttled off again. It was unlikely they would cause any mischief while he wasn’t paying heed to them, but he kept a telepathic leash on them all the same.
Doing so was more a reflex anyway. He was so used to commanding armies, it seemed such a waste to have to manage a mere two Shadows now.
“I will need to make more…” He noted to himself, pushing himself off from the railing and turning around, entering back into the hotel room he had booked for himself.
For all intents and purposes, it was a comfortable, yet small room he had gotten. Though it was certainly suitable enough for his needs, or lack thereof. He was thankful he still did not require rest or sustenance in this nightmare of a multiverse, though the act of either was admittedly refreshing from time to time.
It was a small, square room with a full bed with plenty of blankets overlaid. The other Shadow Jaixe had summoned to this world had busied itself with wrapping as many blankets around it as it could manage. The second seemed to have taken up assisting him, dragging more covers from who knows where it had gotten them.
It’s odd, he didn’t remember adding any penchant for self-amusement to them… Perhaps it was a subdued detail he had missed before.
Rolling his eyes, he continued towards the wooden desk that sat opposite of the bed, and picked up the office chair that the Shadows had somehow managed to overturn.
As he sat down and spun back around, pulling out his dataverse device: a small rectangular frame with a holographic interface centered inside of it that lit up on demand. He set himself to reading up on news he had almost certainly missed. Though, aside from the usual chaos arriving from Primes, little else was of note. A message from Ash was a most welcome surprise however. The fact that she had not only survived, but seemed to be thriving was rather intriguing to the Heartless.
The news that she had died at least once was less of a shock. More an inevitability, perhaps.
“Raal seems to have disappeared in the time I have been away, and though I have made some connections with the Empire, they are far from anything substantial…” He mused to himself, trying to form some coherent plan moving forward.
One of the Shadows scurried along the floor, up the desk, and popped into being in front of him, staring at him with unblinking eyes once more. Jaixe reciprocated, his mind idly wondering as his dimly glowing orange eyes stared into the empty yellow.
“I need allies. An army...“ He spun around in his chair, looking at the second Shadow that had now fallen over due the sheer weight of all the blankets it was wrapped in. It was silently squirming in a vain attempt to free itself from its cocoon of blankets and covers.
“... perhaps something more competent than far-too-hastily conjured Shadows as well…”
---
He was ready to begin. He stood up, having cleared a spot on the carpeted floor for the sort-of ritual and conjured a great deal of Omnillium for the task ahead. The two Shadows had taken up perches, observing him with modest curiosity. One was clinging to the wall, and the other hung from the ceiling, looking down at Jaixe, its neck bent in an impossible way.
”I need to ascertain the rules of creating more Heartless… first, let’s begin with a more direct approach.” The Heartless thought to himself, bringing the Omnillium together and concentrating.
The iridescent orbs congregated together into a shining light, forming as one, as mere thought beget creation in a way that defied any logic Jaixe could bring to bear. Minutes passed by, then hours, with Jaixe diligently focusing on the experiment.
He focused on the form of the subject, its shape. It had to be humanoid, and far less bulbous than a normal Shadow. Taller, broader, and much more defined rather than as thin and frail like a Neoshadow.
Heartless were effective at power, but often lacked subtlety. Try as they might, they could only manage to hide in darkness at best, or forsake all stealth and overwhelm with sheer numbers and power otherwise. For normally unthinking creatures, raw emotion and a strong sense of pack mentality was dominant.
But he needed something smarter, more cunning. Something that didn’t rely on the usual advantages of the Heartless, which they now desperately lacked.
Bright light slowly faded to black, as an impossibly black silhouette, resembling closely a person in stature, though nondescript otherwise, stood in front of Jaixe, its creator. For a moment, it stood statuesque, until it opened its eyes. Eyes of pure white, similarly unblinking and round like its Shadow cousins, stared at its master.
As it slowly awoke, veins of white formed along its arms, twisting around and ending at each fingertip, which were more like elongated claws than human fingers. They twirled around its legs in a comparable manner, though ended at the ankles in an odd, swirling band of white lines. Energy seemed to radiate off the white bands, providing a very faint light that further illuminated the rest of its pitch-black body. Two antennae poked out of its head, shaped like bolts of lightning, gradually curving around its bald head and down to its neck, where they tapered off to a paper-thin point.
Jaixe could feel it reaching out, ever so slightly, and knew he was connected. Though, despite it being intentional, he did not anticipate the thought his creation had directed towards him at that moment.
“What is my purpose?”
It had used emotions to convey the thought, but the intention was still there. It had purposefully directed its confusion and curiosity towards Jaixe, and then attempted to form words, though disjointed as they were, trying to communicate its question.
Jaixe was taken aback, but managed to retain his composure, hiding his shock. Though, in reflection, he wasn’t sure why. Appearances were pointless with Heartless that were so unerringly loyal to him regardless.
“Your purpose is to serve. Your calling is to mimic those around you. Your mission is to observe and learn as my eyes and ears.”
Jaixe had directed his command back to the newborn Heartless, which stood almost as tall as him, ignoring the antennae. It seemed to contemplate, its thoughts, or rather, its collected stream of emotions and vague ideas had pulled back onto itself.
Then, it morphed, shifting, as a black mist formed around it during its metamorphosis, camouflaging the finer details of its transformation.
In a mere minute, after the purple-black mist had dissipated, what stood before Jaixe was… well… another Jaixe.
Or at least a very convincing facsimile of Jaixe.
“Impressive…” The original noted, stroking his chin as he closely examined the duplicate that stood before him. Excepting the sharp silver-white eyes that it bore, it was incredibly accurate.
The other mimicked him, seeming to duplicate his motions, closely observing Jaixe in return.
“You can accurately copy me, that is admirable… Though I wonder, can you speak?” Jaixe challenged the duplicate. If it was made correctly…
“... Yes,” it answered after a moment of strain, as if attempting to learn how to move its jaw and tongue to properly mimic the appropriate sound, “I… c-can speak.”
“Hmm, not too terribly either, though you may need to practice.”
The mimic simply stood there, watching its master intently, as Jaixe walked over to the chair and sat, thinking again.
”I can create Heartless that exceed any abilities they may have once been limited to… But creating Heartless at such a slow rate would not only strain my limited supply of Omnillium, but would require far too much time. Time I would ideally not like to waste.”
Jaixe looked back up to the mimic, who was still standing there, staring, as the two Shadows circled around it. They had kept their distance. The mimic was foreign to them, its mind unusual and its emotions kept exceptionally hidden from the fledgling thought stream that was slowly growing, flowing through their common master.
“Take up a new form, one similar to a civilian of this world, and seek suitable targets with darkness in the lower tiers of this world.” Jaixe commanded audibly, transferring the requisite information from his mind to the Heartless that awaited its purpose. It would be a suitable test, perhaps.
“Note them, but do not attack them,” Jaixe finished, as the Heartless, intriguingly, nodded its affirmation and morphed again, into a human Jaixe did not recognize. So, it could be creative with its appearance, that was interesting.
He seemed to be from a middle-class lifestyle, with simple clothes that fit rather loosely, but were suitable enough. There was little fancy to this form, and unassuming was apt in describing its short brown hair, roundish face, and overall average build. Truly, the only oddity about the man that stood before Jaixe was its, sharp silver eyes.
The man walked towards the exit and left the room. Moments later, its thoughts faded from the dwindling thought stream, its connection with Jaixe stretched to its limit and evaporating.
“Now to see if this prodigy of my genius passes the first trial…” Jaixe hummed lightly with a slight grin, eagerly waiting to see what his creation could dredge up from the waste that was the lower tiers of this forsaken world.
This strange warping of time that constantly occurred occupied his thoughts. His curiosity compelled him to mull over the laws of the reality he was now forced to be a part of. There was no Realm of Darkness, no Heartless horde to call upon, no connection to the negativity that flowed through all mortals. The cityscape was relaxing, in a way, but his thoughts set him on edge. He finally came to the inevitable conclusion that he had dreaded for so long. The truth that he was so completely isolated from every living being.
Alone. He was alone, in a way he was never accustomed to being. It was not the kind of loneliness that people often think of when away from friends or family for an extended period. It was a kind of haunting sensation, an ever-present emptiness that embittered him. It was the source of constant pain; a rejection by reality to his mere presence. And it was all the fault of one trickster of a deity.
“This world of yours is a rather creative form of torture for everyone involved,” Jaixe sighed, leaning over the metal railing.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted movement. A shadow sliding along the wall, one of his creations. It ran up towards him, morphing along the thin bars of the railing and popping back into a three-dimensional shape, balancing on the rail. Its yellow eyes stared blankly at Jaixe. They were simple creatures, even simpler now that Jaixe had removed their insatiable desire for Hearts. They now mutely awaited to be commanded, and held only a shard of curiosity that often set them to explore. They never traveled far from him, always returning after a few minutes of adventure, much like a pet checking up on its owner from time to time.
Jaixe hummed to himself, patting the small creature before it eventually scuttled off again. It was unlikely they would cause any mischief while he wasn’t paying heed to them, but he kept a telepathic leash on them all the same.
Doing so was more a reflex anyway. He was so used to commanding armies, it seemed such a waste to have to manage a mere two Shadows now.
“I will need to make more…” He noted to himself, pushing himself off from the railing and turning around, entering back into the hotel room he had booked for himself.
For all intents and purposes, it was a comfortable, yet small room he had gotten. Though it was certainly suitable enough for his needs, or lack thereof. He was thankful he still did not require rest or sustenance in this nightmare of a multiverse, though the act of either was admittedly refreshing from time to time.
It was a small, square room with a full bed with plenty of blankets overlaid. The other Shadow Jaixe had summoned to this world had busied itself with wrapping as many blankets around it as it could manage. The second seemed to have taken up assisting him, dragging more covers from who knows where it had gotten them.
It’s odd, he didn’t remember adding any penchant for self-amusement to them… Perhaps it was a subdued detail he had missed before.
Rolling his eyes, he continued towards the wooden desk that sat opposite of the bed, and picked up the office chair that the Shadows had somehow managed to overturn.
As he sat down and spun back around, pulling out his dataverse device: a small rectangular frame with a holographic interface centered inside of it that lit up on demand. He set himself to reading up on news he had almost certainly missed. Though, aside from the usual chaos arriving from Primes, little else was of note. A message from Ash was a most welcome surprise however. The fact that she had not only survived, but seemed to be thriving was rather intriguing to the Heartless.
The news that she had died at least once was less of a shock. More an inevitability, perhaps.
“Raal seems to have disappeared in the time I have been away, and though I have made some connections with the Empire, they are far from anything substantial…” He mused to himself, trying to form some coherent plan moving forward.
One of the Shadows scurried along the floor, up the desk, and popped into being in front of him, staring at him with unblinking eyes once more. Jaixe reciprocated, his mind idly wondering as his dimly glowing orange eyes stared into the empty yellow.
“I need allies. An army...“ He spun around in his chair, looking at the second Shadow that had now fallen over due the sheer weight of all the blankets it was wrapped in. It was silently squirming in a vain attempt to free itself from its cocoon of blankets and covers.
“... perhaps something more competent than far-too-hastily conjured Shadows as well…”
---
He was ready to begin. He stood up, having cleared a spot on the carpeted floor for the sort-of ritual and conjured a great deal of Omnillium for the task ahead. The two Shadows had taken up perches, observing him with modest curiosity. One was clinging to the wall, and the other hung from the ceiling, looking down at Jaixe, its neck bent in an impossible way.
”I need to ascertain the rules of creating more Heartless… first, let’s begin with a more direct approach.” The Heartless thought to himself, bringing the Omnillium together and concentrating.
The iridescent orbs congregated together into a shining light, forming as one, as mere thought beget creation in a way that defied any logic Jaixe could bring to bear. Minutes passed by, then hours, with Jaixe diligently focusing on the experiment.
He focused on the form of the subject, its shape. It had to be humanoid, and far less bulbous than a normal Shadow. Taller, broader, and much more defined rather than as thin and frail like a Neoshadow.
Heartless were effective at power, but often lacked subtlety. Try as they might, they could only manage to hide in darkness at best, or forsake all stealth and overwhelm with sheer numbers and power otherwise. For normally unthinking creatures, raw emotion and a strong sense of pack mentality was dominant.
But he needed something smarter, more cunning. Something that didn’t rely on the usual advantages of the Heartless, which they now desperately lacked.
Bright light slowly faded to black, as an impossibly black silhouette, resembling closely a person in stature, though nondescript otherwise, stood in front of Jaixe, its creator. For a moment, it stood statuesque, until it opened its eyes. Eyes of pure white, similarly unblinking and round like its Shadow cousins, stared at its master.
As it slowly awoke, veins of white formed along its arms, twisting around and ending at each fingertip, which were more like elongated claws than human fingers. They twirled around its legs in a comparable manner, though ended at the ankles in an odd, swirling band of white lines. Energy seemed to radiate off the white bands, providing a very faint light that further illuminated the rest of its pitch-black body. Two antennae poked out of its head, shaped like bolts of lightning, gradually curving around its bald head and down to its neck, where they tapered off to a paper-thin point.
Jaixe could feel it reaching out, ever so slightly, and knew he was connected. Though, despite it being intentional, he did not anticipate the thought his creation had directed towards him at that moment.
“What is my purpose?”
It had used emotions to convey the thought, but the intention was still there. It had purposefully directed its confusion and curiosity towards Jaixe, and then attempted to form words, though disjointed as they were, trying to communicate its question.
Jaixe was taken aback, but managed to retain his composure, hiding his shock. Though, in reflection, he wasn’t sure why. Appearances were pointless with Heartless that were so unerringly loyal to him regardless.
“Your purpose is to serve. Your calling is to mimic those around you. Your mission is to observe and learn as my eyes and ears.”
Jaixe had directed his command back to the newborn Heartless, which stood almost as tall as him, ignoring the antennae. It seemed to contemplate, its thoughts, or rather, its collected stream of emotions and vague ideas had pulled back onto itself.
Then, it morphed, shifting, as a black mist formed around it during its metamorphosis, camouflaging the finer details of its transformation.
In a mere minute, after the purple-black mist had dissipated, what stood before Jaixe was… well… another Jaixe.
Or at least a very convincing facsimile of Jaixe.
“Impressive…” The original noted, stroking his chin as he closely examined the duplicate that stood before him. Excepting the sharp silver-white eyes that it bore, it was incredibly accurate.
The other mimicked him, seeming to duplicate his motions, closely observing Jaixe in return.
“You can accurately copy me, that is admirable… Though I wonder, can you speak?” Jaixe challenged the duplicate. If it was made correctly…
“... Yes,” it answered after a moment of strain, as if attempting to learn how to move its jaw and tongue to properly mimic the appropriate sound, “I… c-can speak.”
“Hmm, not too terribly either, though you may need to practice.”
The mimic simply stood there, watching its master intently, as Jaixe walked over to the chair and sat, thinking again.
”I can create Heartless that exceed any abilities they may have once been limited to… But creating Heartless at such a slow rate would not only strain my limited supply of Omnillium, but would require far too much time. Time I would ideally not like to waste.”
Jaixe looked back up to the mimic, who was still standing there, staring, as the two Shadows circled around it. They had kept their distance. The mimic was foreign to them, its mind unusual and its emotions kept exceptionally hidden from the fledgling thought stream that was slowly growing, flowing through their common master.
“Take up a new form, one similar to a civilian of this world, and seek suitable targets with darkness in the lower tiers of this world.” Jaixe commanded audibly, transferring the requisite information from his mind to the Heartless that awaited its purpose. It would be a suitable test, perhaps.
“Note them, but do not attack them,” Jaixe finished, as the Heartless, intriguingly, nodded its affirmation and morphed again, into a human Jaixe did not recognize. So, it could be creative with its appearance, that was interesting.
He seemed to be from a middle-class lifestyle, with simple clothes that fit rather loosely, but were suitable enough. There was little fancy to this form, and unassuming was apt in describing its short brown hair, roundish face, and overall average build. Truly, the only oddity about the man that stood before Jaixe was its, sharp silver eyes.
The man walked towards the exit and left the room. Moments later, its thoughts faded from the dwindling thought stream, its connection with Jaixe stretched to its limit and evaporating.
“Now to see if this prodigy of my genius passes the first trial…” Jaixe hummed lightly with a slight grin, eagerly waiting to see what his creation could dredge up from the waste that was the lower tiers of this forsaken world.