DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Alternate Reality PHX: Phoenix Reform Academy Carpe Tenebris ‘Anne’

The hard slap to her face caught her off guard, the intensity of those gimlet eyes staring into hers from mere inches away, her gloved hand resting at her throat completed the job. As was always the case when mother was angry, the object was like a rabbit in front of a hungry wolf.

Mother was terrifying when she ...

Mother was terrifying.

“Tenebra, my darling. You weak lit-tle ~worm~. I do be-lieve I told you to do something for me. I believe my exact words were. ‘Oh Tennie, do be a dear and dispose of that man for me.’ Yet he still moves. Why does he yet move, lit-tle girl?”

Her mother’s sing-song breathy tone was chilling. As was the expression on her face. She much preferred it when the mask was on. At least then all she could see were the eyes - which were disturbing enough.

The man wasn’t even anyone ‘important’. It was some random man on the street corner. Some person whose only crime was being down on his luck and out of a home, no doubt. But for whatever reason, for some reason, mother had chosen today to make a point. But ...

There was a crackling at Nyx’s fingertips and a greasy feeling in the air - The unsettling and sickening feeling in the air of wrongness when she invoked nature’s inescapable law of Enthropy and imbued it with malignant purpose.

And also pain. Tenebra’s heart skipped several beats, a tightness in her chest and the panicked feeling came that always came with the ‘Gaze of Nyx’.

‘Speak, child. What say you, lit-tle girl?’

Temebra

She was too slow to respond. She wasn't sure why it bothered her, why she didn't drain the man automatically as she had been trained to do. It was what her mother wanted, and she so wanted to please her mother. Anything other than what offered immediate satisfactory answer met with swift retribution. Nyx disciplined by a mercurial use of a big stick, her touch.

[OOC: Leaving a spot here for mom to respond with an appropriate loving encouragement.]

Nyx

The resulting voice was almost a hiss. Reminiscent of nothing so much as a wild animal growling.

"Girl!"

Her face is so close that Tennie can almost feel the vibrations from her speech, her eyes locked into hers.

One gloved hand rests on Tennie's throat and squeezes, just slightly. It is a strange sensation feeling like your flesh is failing you. Like it is almost rotting, decaying.

"Are you witless? I asked for an answer not cowering."

Tennie had watched Nyx kill people with hardly a second thought. Concentrate on someone until they crumbled to dust, and then watched them blow away.

Tenebra

Against someone else she might have raised her own hand and defended herself. She could have caused a normal person great pain. Her mother knew that. Tenebra knew that. Yet, she didn't raise a hand. There was no fighting against her mother's will. They both knew that. That was the only reason she was alive of that she was sure. Tenebra couldn't count on Nyx's compassion because the woman had none.

Finding her voice she said in a soft whisper that quivered as much as she felt fear "the man is nothing. Why does he have to die? He doesn't matter? You always have a purpose, a reason. Just killing him makes no sense."

A slow smile.

Girl, you are a god he is an animal. You need learn that, child.

The back of her hand caresses her cheek in a mockery of gentleness before grabbing her chin again, and turning her face to look at the man, then reaching out with Her other hand and pointing. The scream was sickening on a primal level. The sight was almost worse, aging on an accelerated rate. Finally, at some point he ... crumbles enough that the screaming ... stops.


The she stick the hand on her front and Tennie feels a sharp jolt, like a red hot ice pick through her chest, and an almost choking feeling in her throat.

She then lets go and stands up.

“Clean up that mess, girl. You can do that, yes? Oh. And do make sure to record the metro concert at nine. I will be busy then. Things to do.”

Tenebra

She clutched her chest at the pain. It was an involuntary reaction. Yet she felt shame at it. "Yes mother," she agreed when she could speak again. Hopefully before there would be any additional reprisals.

She went to the man. She knew he was dead without looking, but she had to check. She had to be sure. She would have to dispose of the body.

Almost as disturbing as the rest was the pat on the head and the brief tousling of hair on the way out. One perhaps couldn’t help but flinch.

“You might want to see the news tonight, girl. There will be fireworks. Things are going to change. Perhaps you can learn your place then. I shall forgo further lessons tonight. Too much to do ...”

And she sweeps out of the room like a hurricane. Leaving Tenebra alone with her thoughts for the moment. And presumably alone in the house, save the servants.

Tenebra

Not for the first time she wondered if she could run away. Would it matter? How far would she get before her mother stopped her heart or did something worse?

She had been living a grueling apprenticeship. Body disposal was not something she ever put she had ever considered to put on a resume. So many thing she had done recently.

What was Nyx going to do? The world was going to change? It couldn't be for the better. She wondered what she would be called on to do? Tenebra had already failed her mother by not killing. That was certainly coming.

Her mind went to running away again. Where could she go? What could she do? It was like touching something and killing it was a useful job skill. Not like "hi, welcome to Walmart." Let me touch you so that you die instantly, or slowly and painfully. She shook her head.

One of the servants cleared her throat slightly.

‘Miss? Lady NyX seems t have dropped this.’

She is holding a piece of paper.

Implied is that she really was not particularly eager to follow her.

‘Only I don’t think she really wants it.”

Implied is that she didn’t want any more exposure than needed.

Tenebra

"I can take it. I will make sure she gets it." She stuck out her hand to accept it and relieve the woman of the unpleasant duty. "What is it?" She asked without even thinking about it. She wasn't going to ask that, she didn't have to ask it, she was going to have the paper. She could look. But curosity got the better of her mouth and her tongue engaged before her brain could stop it.

“Ma’am. I don’t know. I don’t want to know HER business. Knowing her business is a good way for me to become her business. All I know is it is something to do with an appointment tonight.”

Tenebra

"I will take it to her." She says firmly. Well with more conviction than she really felt at the moment. But her mother had taught her appearance was half the battle. So she showed confidence and a little bit of poise, with her hand outstretched.

“Yes’m.”

She hand the paper over and gratefully scampers away. Servants in the House of Nyx wanted to be unseen.

Once unfolded, the piece of paper contains an address, a date, and a time.

The address is in Halcyon city, and would in fact have to be near the government district. The time was 8:00. The date was tonight. She recognized the writing as belonging to Alchemy. She had seen that writing often enough.

Tenebra

She folded the paper up and stuck it in a pocket. She moved to the room to go to her closet and grab dark clothing. She had no idea what to expect out there. Most of the time she went with her mother, or she was with a servant. But she did know how to drive, and she did know how to defend herself. Nyx had made sure of that.

She glanced at the clock to see what options she might have for transportation. Who was she kidding a cab would get her there easily enough. He looked up a building in the area that might still serve people, a restaurant, or store. That is where she would take the cab to. Get dropped off and make her way to the address. She was curious what Nyx and Alchemy were going to do together that would change the world as her mother had said.

Soon enough she found herself deposited at a Chinese restaurant in Halcyon proper, some several blocks away from the address. As she came closer, she realized she was entering the governmental districts. And as she came yet close, she saw the unmistakable shape of the Maximum security supervillain person, ‘The Black Hole.’. In all, she had a solid thirty minutes before the time on the note.

The sight of the prison was perhaps unsettling. It sat on the horizon like a lead weight, seeming somehow heavy in a way that defied its normal architecture.

Tenebra

She had been just walking looking for the address. But the sight of the prison caused her steps to slow and to falter. She just hadn't expected to be so close to it. The worst of the worst were in there. That is wherethey would put her mother if they ever caught her. Regardless of her mother's point of view that most people were insects to be walked on, it still caused a shiver in Tenebra's spine.

With effort she continued to move forward looking for the address. She wanted to know what her mother was up to more than ever.

The address was the administrative office right next to the prison. The top floor.

Tenebra

She went to the building and tried to find a way in. She would prefer not to be seen by security if she has an option. Then she had to get to the top floor and see what was going on.

She was surprised how easy the trip up was. It seemed amazingly devoid of security. That was, in itself, possibly and indicator of ... something. Very quickly she found herself almost at the top floor.

This was too easy. Much too easy, really.

Tenebra

She slowed her approach. If it were cleared of security then it had been set up. Was it a set up? Was her mom going to get captured doing something stupid? She was crazy enough to do it regardless of the risk.

Tenebra tried to find a good vantage point where she could investiage things without getting caught in whatever set up was in place. Something wasn't right, she knew that. She could feel it in her bones.

She found a nice hidden spot, out of sight ... and shortly thereafter she saw Alchemy - she knew who that was, even if she had not directly talked much with her - walk by And through one final door leading to the roof. From that door she heard sickening screams.

She was quite familiar with their provenance. After all, she had heard similar earlier that day. And then she heard sounds. Loud sounds. Sounds of battle, perhaps? Something was going on out there besides the screaming.

Tenebra

The loud sounds scared her more than the screams, as sick as that sounded to her own mind. She decided she wanted to learn more. She crept forward and tried to get through the door to investigate.

She sticks her head through the door just in time to see a child - a child - crumple into something that thankfully was no longer alive in Nyx's hands, at which point she throws it aside like a limp doll which was shaped wrongly and reaches for another of those cringing against the wall. She sees Alchemy concentrating intently, doing ... something. Something which took extreme concentration, and that concentration was on the prison below.

Tenebra

She didn't even think. She didn't know what was going on. But killing children, was unconscionable. She screamed and ran forward. She had to stop Nyx. She didn't know how. She didn't even think of that thing as her mother at that moment.

She charges forward, as thunder rolls in the sky, and both Nyx and Alchemy look over, just in time for the world to go mad. There is a flash.

A dark spot appears below Alchemy, and then explodes into a rift, almost a tear, like a canister of silly string being opened, black whips and tendrils roil out like growing roots. There is a screeching, almost growling sound as of twisting metal. The rift opens wider in jittering stops, twisting the ground underneath it, chunks coming out of the surroundings, everything looks as if it is bathed in an eerie purple light.

Then reality shatters and goes black.

She awakens to a face



Leaning over her and a hand reaching down.

Tenebra

She looks at the man blinks, blinks again. She looks at the hand. This can't be happening. This is some kind of a dream. She tried to determine if anything hurt.

The almost as if she were embarrassed she asked the words tumbling out. " Who are you? What happened?" She didn't even get to where am I? She was able to stop her mouth before that came out. She looked around.

Then she accepted his hand.

It hurt. All of it hurt. Every last bit hurt. She felt like someone had tumbled her in a drier. Then she remembers what happens bare flesh on bare flesh if she isn’t trying very hard not to, and that she is ungloved. Still, he grasps her hand firmly pulling her up, and she feels the rush as if she is draining, but she has the very odd sensation of something pulling back. The drain seems almost like pulling on taffy, like it won’t quite disconnect from him and move to her.

A very disconcerting feeling.

“Name’s Martin. You are in what is left of building C of the prison complex, which has exploded. You are also definitely super powered and from the face you seem to favor Nyx. Still. We have to figure up what we are going to do with you.”

He grunts and lets go once she is up.

“You had best put on these gloves.”

The gloves were almost more bags that tied at the wrist.

Tenebra

"What?" She looks at her hand almost forgetting about the pain for a moment. "What happened?" She meant when she touched him. But she didn't say that. She was too groggy from whatever it was this odd dream was. What could Nyx be trying to achieve with it? Tenie didn't even know that Nyx had powers over dreams.

"Oh, sorry" she instantly apologizes for grasping his hand. "I didn't mean to." Not that it would have been better if she had meant to. It had been instinctual. She hurt, she touched, she should have felt better. But somehow this man wasn't affected. Or rather he was, but he resisted it.

She accepted the bags. She slipped her hands inside. She hadn't ever thought about that. Had she ever touched someone without draining them? That was a thought she hadn't entertained. Mom wasn't hurt by her touch. Not that Nyx wanted to be touched. But...

She looked at the man again. "Why weren't you affected?"

Martin:

“I’m a healer. Only thing I heal is myself, but very good at that. Body is greedy for its own energy.”

He puts a hand on her shoulder and gently guides her away from the wreckage, trying to not have her look at the other things which were there.

“This way. Let’s get you looked at. Then take you to see Grey.”

He has a very soothing voice, a very ‘dad’ voice, or at least what she might imagine one of those to be as she had never had one.

Tenebra

"Wait," she stops suddenly. "The children?" She didn't try and look. She really didn't want to know. She knew what Nyx was capable of. She had seen it first hand too many times.

Martin

“I think it’s best if you just come this way. There are people helping survivors already”

He says gently.

‘Right now, we need to take care of you.”

Tenebra

She knew those words. She didn't know the tone, she hadn't ever heard her mom use that kind of a tone. But she knew manipulation when she heard it. The reql question was what was behind that control. Was it really for her? To avoid seeing death and decay? Her mother WAS DEATH and DECAY!

Her feet didn't move. It was an involuntary reaction. She hated when her mom tried to make her do things without any kind of an explanation. It was never for her own good.

"I don't want to sound insensitive." Hell she did. Did she not want to? She didn't know what she wanted. Yet the placative words came out as a reflex. " But what is best for me? I am not afraid of seeing death and decay. That is part of my life. You know that you felt it. What really is going on?"

Martin:

“Do you have a name, perhaps?”

He pauses.

“I have lived a long time, and one of the lessons I have learned in my time is that there are sometimes things about which you can do nothing. That are only pain. This is one of those things about which, right now, you can do nothing. That which is lost cannot be returned.”

He looks over and meets her eyes and continued in that same soft tone.

“I think we both know that. If you wish, you can look. But I would rather you didn’t, for your own sake.”

Anne

She nodded and swallowed, hard. That was the nicest and most truthful anyone had been with her ever. She turned in the direction he was trying to lead her and said "I have the name my mother gave me and the name I chose. I would prefer if you called me Anne. That is my choice." The way she said choice with additional emphasis it was almost as if she had stepped hard on it. She was rubbing that in her mother's face, even though mom was no where to be seen. At least at the moment.

Martin

Here he allows the corner of his mouth to turn up.

“I think Grey is going to like you. She is a very strong believer in the power of choice.”

He opens the door to a car.

“We are going to take you to where you can get treated. Then you can talk to Grey. You should know that you are being taken into custody. You aren’t, however, going into prison. I think we have alternate arrangements for you. Do you understand? Grey will explain things more thoroughly.”

Anne

"I can heal myself," she said very softly. So softly that she almost didn't hear the whisper. She could. She just needed a source of life for that healing to take place. She was immediately ashamed by the admission. She didn't want to hurt anyone. She just knew she didn't have to wait to feel better. Maybe she did. Maybe it was better that she suffered for what she was. She needed to pay for that thought, for what she was, for what she could do. Maybe prison was better for her. But she couldn't say that outloud.

She kept moving the direction he was taking her. Someone else making decisions that wasn't her mother was good right now. There was too much going on all at once.

He pauses.

“This once, take my hand. I will allow it.”

“Then I take you to talk to Grey.”

Anne

She took a step back. "I can't. I don't want to hurt you. I didn't mean to say that." Anyone looking at her knew that the body language said something different than her words. She wanted to not hurt. She wanted it all to go away. She knew she could. but it wasn't right. Nyx told her it was, which instinctively she knew meant it was wrong.

He nods slightly.

“A powered medic checked you. You are bruised. You have no internal injuries. And I have just verified that you indeed belong with us. But to Grey. Please.”

He motions to the open door.

“Have a seat.”

Anne

She takes a seat where he pointed. The longing look was only offset by how tightly she held her bagged hands up against her body. It looked like she was hugging herself, which in so many ways wasn't very far off.

The involuntary gasp escaped her clenched teeth as she sat down and her body settled on to the seat.

“Once we get back there should be a medic available.”

The drive over is quiet unless she speaks up. She is led into a building, where a young lady with looks her over, places her hands a few inches over her, and carefully heals the worst of her bruises.

She is then led into a room with a table, and a glass of water. Momentarily a lady in a grey cloak sits down across from her.

Anne

She rides in silence. She is still so overwhelmed by what had happened. She doesn't even know what happened. She can surmise that Nyx and Alchemy were tried to break someone or several someones out of The Hole. Maybe Nyx was fueling Alchemy's powers by killing the children. That was a thought she hadn't considered before. Could she give as well as take life? She didn't have the healing that man claimed to have. That would be handy if she could go the other direction. But she didn't even know, she had never tried. Nyx hadn't even suggested it.

She watched the lady sit down across from her and waited. Her eyes were open and she didn't feel as ashamed as she had earlier. She felt better. The healing was wonderful. Not hurting as much was really all she could ask for, all she wanted to ask for. She waited to see what they wanted to know. The man had said she wasn't going to prison which by all rights she might need to go. She hadn't done anything wrong, well at least not recently. But she had the capability to do so. That was why they built that prison after all.

After a moment more, she spoke.

“So, Anne was it? What do you think just happened?”

She steeples her hands in front of her.

Anne

She considered. Should she play like she didn't know? She had never been very good at lying. At least not to Nyx. The woman seemed to know exactly what she was thinking before Tenie knew herself.

"I can only guess. My thought is Nyx and Alchemy were trying to break someone or several someones out of The Hole. I think I saw Nyx draining children to death. I don't know, but my thought was that she might be feeding the energy to Alchemy. I didn't know she could do that. But it makes sense given what I saw."

She pauses and looks at her.

“People are always concerned. I’ll tell you straight away, that I am not actually delving into your mind. Without permission, I will never do that.”

She pauses another moment.

“And why were you there in the first place?”

Anne

There was the question. That was the one that she could avoid. If she answered it with a lie and got away with it, it might go better for her. She was still one of those who could do bad things, but she wouldn't be implicated. Wasn't that the word they used in all those crime shows? Really though what did she have to be implicated in? She tried to save the children. She knew something bad was going to happen and she acted. Didn't she?

A defiant look crept into her eyes. "I was there because I thought Nyx was up to no good. She told me the world would change tonight. I thought that could only mean one thing, a bad thing." She couldn't do it anymore. Defiance went out of her as she exhaled. She looked down to the table. She had used up her reserves. Nyx had beaten them out of her through her mind games.

She pauses, and pulls down the hood.

“Call me Mary.”

“I know you are not Nyx. Whatever reasons you may have had for coming to begin with, the test of who you are or can become is at the shatter point. You choose. You act.”

She pauses.

“Martin told me how you reacted to the children. A shatterpoint. A choice. It is my suspicion that you made a correct one.”

Anne

"My mother called me Tenebra. You know her as Nyx. When the man who helped me out of the rubble offered me his hand, I accidently tried to drain him. I wasn't thinking. Thankfully he is resistant to my power. I didn't hurt him. My mother," she began sobbing. It wasn't intentional, it wasn't even something she wanted to do. In fact she tried to stop it. Which only made things worse.

Through the torrent of tears she said "I told him my name is Anne. Because that is what I choose. I choose to not be my mother's daughter. He mentioned that you might like that choice. I can only assume you are the person he mentioned." It was a small smirk and really odd through the running riverulets of tears. But it was there nonetheless.

She suddenly stopped crying. She hadn't smiled for a long time. Nyx had stepped up her training and manipulation. It was a true shock to realize that was her reality.

Grey:

“Choice, my dear, choice is the greatest power of all, larger than anything offered by Nyx. In the end, you are a collection of choices. Hebrew has a word - ‘timshel’. Means, basically ‘Thou mayest’— it gives a choice. I consider that the most important word in the world. It says that ‘the way is open’. That throws it right back onto you.”

She points.

“Because if ‘Thou mayest’ - then it is also inevitably true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

“Are you willing to start looking at choices in front of you and seeing where that road leads?”

Anne

"Choices?" She wasn't sure that she had heard correctly. Anne craved acceptance and love. That was evident by her words and deeds. But she thought that she was going to be tossed in the Hole. She hadn't done anything but try to save people. Guilty by association she was sure.

She couldn't find her voice. She nodded instead. She wanted to hear more. She wasn't crying now. But there were plenty of streaks on her face through the dirt.

Grey:

“Choices. I can’t promise they will be easy. But they will belong to you. We run a ... school of sorts for those who have perhaps started off on a bad road. Get you back on a good one. You might lose some measure of freedom ... but I suspect you already had precious little of that where you were.”

Anne

"Freedom is just a word. Every one has an agenda and wants to manipulate you for their ends." It was cynical sure but it was true. She had never met anyone who didn't want something. Even the lady across the table now.

"If I can ask what is it this school teaches? My mother taught things too."

"I absolutely have an agenda. I absolutely want something. My agenda, and by extension that of my friends is simple. Our agenda is to have you not need us any longer. To have you on your own two feet. That is my agenda."

She takes a drink of her own water.

"As to what is taught, in addition to the standards of math, science, history, all that, there is a solid grounding in ethics, Philosophy and in how to think. How to defend yourself and others. How to, when something is wrong and the world demands you go along with it, that you move, you tell the world 'You first."

Anne

She listened but wondered. It was a nice recruitment speech. But when push came to it. Her powers were self serving. Draining someone's life just didn't seem like it could ever be good.

She hadn't been to a real classroom with students for a long time. Tutors were the only people that taught her other than Nyx herself. Heck it was Nyx that taught her about her powers.

She didn't say what she was thinking. As much as her first reaction was negative she wasn't under Nyx's abusive thumb. That alone was something.

Continued in girl’s common room.