The White Picket Fence [Closed]

Much like desks were made out of trees but their remained forests across the world other things could be taken in staggeringly large numbers from certain locations or things to form breathtaking beauties in foreign locales. This might appear obvious; houses are made from stone and personal electronics are made from copper, gold, diamonds, and other precious stones. This is, however, only a prelude to the 'thing' which currently was providing a resting place for a thing that had crawled out of one hundred abyssal worlds and seemed all the changed for it. In the same way that mountains give way to homes and molten expulsions give way to land masses this place had been torn and crafted from the jettison and refuse of that infamous multidimensional space known as the Dangai. It was, after all, a living thing of sorts. It grew ill. Sometimes portions of it had to be removed and it was a curious thing that Umi had located where this refuse was being dumped. Not because it was particularly unusual or unlikely, it wasn't, but because he had somehow managed to pilot a boat into it and was forced to jettison much of the cargo as refuse. The comparison was stinging but humorous. It hadn't been his boat anyways, what did it matter to him? He'd simply found and piloted it because he fancied himself a Captain of two sorts.

The bones of a previous crew were thrown off as Umi pretended to evacuate the ship. It was a very silly thing but one which occupied his time as he adjusted. It took him an exceptionally long amount of time to not only leave his flesh but to appropriately scale himself. Tendrils manipulated the literal skeleton crew as he tried to desperately recall the exact scaling of humans in comparison to the cosmos. It was a bit like trying to remember the number of jellybeans in a jar. It really didn't matter whether you saw the jar every day or you lived in it, the exact count was always off and it was a test of his patience to find the Goldilocks zone. This took whole minutes. Perhaps not an exceptional stretch of a time but one which he found to be unbearably long and unbearably dull much like filing taxes as a centuries old human-contained cannibal monster. Decades of this practice had given training in the only appropriate method of escape from this nightmare of data entry.

Use one tendril to use whatever pen or instrument is needed and every other one to do literally anything else that seemed even remotely engaging.

Fortunately he was only up to the point where he made the skeletons splash in the water with pantomimed pleas to save the children, each actor manipulated by ebony strings that he wasn't certain others could see, before he was finished and he was free to return to that previous thought...he had never been observed. Was his from even capable of being beheld by things that were not on his own level? That might prove useful but he was not willing to risk his planning to find out. The boat was dismantled and returned to the depths of the ocean where he'd retrieved it. The only reason for this choice being that he was going out into the middle of the ocean and figured it would be unwise to simply walk or teleport on the off chance he collided with the thing he was looking for and caused some sort of terrible space-time explosion...also he liked the color.

His form was still quite large, much bigger than the boat, but he was just going to cram that back into a human shape to begin with. This reminded him that he was only allowed to have thoughts on that subject on Earth and nowhere else where his mind might be heard or where he might need to be contained. It was the itchy t-shirt tag of problems; if he was reminded then it became nearly unbearable. He wondered for a moment if Tova had ever felt this way about that ridiculous shape he preferred to adopt. His experience as an Arrancar told him how uncomfortable it was to be a beast in a man shape but that had only been child's play compared to the near torture it was to be a god in a man shape. It would near literally be easier to put a planet into a telephone booth. Naturally he intended to take his time and to avoid the man shape as long as possible...

The inflight movie had been apparently the only thing the crew had wanted to watch while sailing away to distant lands on a crude television: Donnie Darko.

Why anyone would want to subject themselves to days of this bewildering thing was beyond him but he'd watched it a dozen times just to be safe and was now asking himself why did he wear that stupid man suit?

The answer was obvious but the question was worthy of consideration either way. The landmass on which his infinitely more terrible form came to rest was not, strictly speaking, a real place or a real thing as it was adjacent to the time and space it was occupying. Adjacency was a running theme and problem with the reality in which he was contained...a great many things lacked the distinction of 'difference' and were simply 'dissimilar' at best. It seemed to him that the only things which were truly opposite were coupled: the Royals and the Sovereign and both parties and mortals. Even these things were adjacent on another and he struggled in vain to find a more sitting synonym. Much as this thing which he claws kneaded into like soft loam was unreal the condition of the world in which his 'peers' lived was unreal to them. If they couldn't even acknowledge this place, the size of a proper continent, amidst the Atlantic then they were a lost cause...

The Dangai and its composed walls were all very...timey-wimey to put it best. Very few seemed aware that while the space had been crafted and created by clefting a hole in the thing known as space-time it was not a machine; a machine would decay and rot. It was organic. It was alive. It grew ill at times and parts of its rapidly changing makeup became, for lack of a better term, cancerous. They had to be cut out or ejected but as no human hands since its creation remained who were qualified to do so it seemed someone else had either taken up the work and remained unknown to him (a ridiculous and near impossible feat) or it had developed enough autonomy to do so itself. Umi considered that perhaps similar ejections of tissue were in the other realms and he simply had yet to find them because they were not as obvious as a continent.

Some human scholars who were privileged enough to be able to view an object consistently four seconds out of time with the faulty idea of the present had given it a name: Mu.

The 'Lost' Continent of Mu.

Umi liked it...despite the boat damage on the shore. This material was far too weak when separated from its body, it lacked the ability to accelerate time around it to any serious degree beyond the four seconds a whole continent worth of the stuff seemed capable. The Dangai was much more vast to the degree that it could slow time by thousands of seconds per second but it also had the curious property of staying in an exact sync with the present. The architect was clearly highly skilled and the Sovereign smiled at the handiwork of someone unknown to him. His invited guest was very likely to not see or experience the continent on which he was now erecting a solitary cubicle-like office out his ever malleable spiritual force.

The flames snaked into shapes and forms and once that infinitely prideful thing known as reality had a form seared into her breast she relented quite quickly and hid her wounds with shameful compliance to the whims of an abusive lover. Flames gave way to other things. Chemicals and substances forming because he demanded that they construct themselves from the raw energy of his spiritual presence. Reality felt the sting of his force and did not interfere or interject her laws onto him or his whims. She was quick to learn and was slowly but surely realizing that he simply wasn't having any of it when it suited him and was only passive to her when he desired to be...it was, after all, very rude to be brute with one's lover constantly. Concepts, much like women, were malleable but had their limitations.

He knew this very well and this was one of the contributors to his invitation.

The thing that he was in truth breathed heavily in a way that seemed to be a sigh if a sigh was such a sound as to whip the winds into a furious dance of passions unknown to mankind. 

It concealed itself once more in the form of a man. Slightly below average height. Short cut hair. A black suit. A black tie marked with a pattern of eyes which blinked and adjusted themselves. 

And the continent hid itself as it always had and was now supporting his office space which featured a ridiculously large door adorned with a bronze garogyle knocker (though it was unlocked.) The room would very likely appear to be floating in midair and he rather liked the visual. Past the door the space was impossibly vast despite its small exterior, purely because he enjoyed exercising his powers for the purposes of baffling his company at any given time, and a large desk made of an impossibly dark wood held a mug of steaming Americano. The mug itself was ivory in color and coated in similar eyes as his tie wore. He sat at the desk with a spinny chair.

Even gods loved spinny chairs.

A tablet was resuming his movie for the dozenth time and Umi, now absorbed in the piece of modern film, ran his fingers backwards through his hair as he pondered a thought aloud.

"...why doesn't the boy just eat the rabbit and hurl the ignorant into a fireplace? Humans are so very odd it seems I've become out of touch with them in the past century."

He smiled in his way. "I do hope that the man's concubine is wiser than he ever was or this shall be an unbearably messy occasion and I haven't taken the trouble to create a maid..."

Umi spoke but it became clear that in this place he had no need to be Jomyaku Umi. His coffee cup found its vital life blood levels dropped in one staggeringly massive sip and Hatred adjusted his throat with a cough. A fork of black fire escaped his lips as he breathed aloud and his lungs expanded as far as this form would allow. There was an unmistakable air of joy in his tone. "I don't need to pretend here though do I?..."

"Oh..."
 
A single solitary word snaked its way between the pair of demons as the two seemed to share an innate awareness of what the other party was. Not in a trivial sense as a man knows other men. Not in a primal sense as a soldier knows other soldiers. It was a sensation more similar to how you know its going to be a bad day when your umbrella is missing and it storms. Perhaps its better explained as seeing a sword on the shelf and knowing, without a sales pitch, that this weapon is yours. It belongs to you. It is part of you. You don't ask for a price. You don't ask questions. You know its edge like the blood in your veins know their tracks. He looked at the sword before him and knew very well what it was...and how he would come to possess it. Umi's word did very little to conceal his amusement or his avarice...this one would be a prize fighter on his behalf. Maybe she knew that. Maybe she didn't. Either way it didn't change things...
 
She saw in him what few others did and now he had only one question on his mind.
 
His 'body' tore and split. Umi fell to the ground as little more than tatters and broken pieces but Hatred stepped out. He flexed his wings and expanded them to either side of the room, thick talons gouging into them like fingers into clay. A pair of arms latched onto the desk as a brace and sputtering embers coiled around tongues of flame emerged from his open, toothy, hands. Six eyes on its' head looked down at the much smaller Sovereign with a look of confusion. A pained expression worked its way over his face as he spoke and sought out the answer to his question.
 
"I didn't summon you. You summoned yourself at my request."

Its' tail swished and gestured towards her.

"What a wonderful thing you've done...I can't say I like what you've done with the place, much too plain, but I didn't care much for Amaya...so it is an improvement."
 
The other pairs of arms held back with the exception of one of his right hands which extended forward in greeting. Hatred's wings folded back into their place and both pairs nestled against the sinuous flesh and heavy bones of their originator. His rows upon rows of teeth sighed in content; the ashen fumes swirling about the room like frenzied fireflies seeking mates before their lives faded into darkness. Its' tail moved swiftly and elegantly, curling round' the floor and resting seven fingers with their attached talons against the material.
 
"A vital sacrifice I wasn't concerned with losing. So Severance...how was it?"

"I'd suggest you make it your top aim. The people who like you are much less likely to murder you..."

His jaws clamped down on a string of flame to cut himself short with a low, tonal, hissing growl. The combination of steam vapors, ash storms, and chitinous teeth making a sound unique to this creature's mood. It only made this sound when it was notably agitated and it was the only thing really capable of the noise. It conveyed in equal measure his restraint as well as his lacking of it. The idea of fire hitting a cage of bone strung around his lips was the most distinct and obvious comparison despite the clear divide in scale. Fire was a thing that could be snuffed out and quelled. Hatred was the fire that never knew weakness or slumber. A single ember would ignite and consume the whole of creation if given the chance and there were just so many embers Hatred had spread about that the odds were simply in his favor; one of them would set this place apart in the multiverse by being nothing but ash soon.  A single ember of the same variety slipped, with a token number of brethren, from the jaws of the thing. Magma spilled forth in droplets like busted boils.

It was not agitated or dissatisfied with the child Sovereign itself. No, that would be nonsense. He couldn't care less what anyone thought of him beyond a burning contempt to keep him warm at night. 

Hatred found its' behavior more alarming for its own safety rather than any concern for his pride. The distinction made itself clear enough in his tone with each jaw unhinging to let loose sparks from the forged and handled words it had crafted and chosen with care. "You've quickly come to misunderstand my intentions and similarly to misunderstand your current position. I am certain you haven't been given the proper check and been put in your place yet. Allow me to be the first by informing you that I am not oblivious or ignorant towards or about your weaknesses. You're much too fresh, right out of the oven in fact, to be of any real threat to anyone. What exactly could you do if I changed our relationship a hair?..."

He had allowed his mood to change within a range, roughly 5-6%, so that his point would be made. So that Severance could feel what exactly would happen if he were to dial it up a few more magnitudes. The tingle and burn of hate swirling and digging like hungry maggots at the very insides of her soul would convey the message without wasting words on idle threats. His powers were, for the most part, in the developmental stages but were much beyond the new recruit. If she was a larvae he was pupating; neither person had yet blossomed forth into their final stage but he would most likely reach it before her if trends continued. He had experience with this and she didn't. He had his powers in function and she did not seem to have the same as he felt no significant change in her spirit and, in fact, seemed to tower over her presence without particular contest. The spiritual presence and internal burn seemed adequate reminders of place and scale which could not be conveyed with words.

"If I decide I don't like you anymore that tingling sensation will be your heart and soul ripping themselves out of you as they burst like an overcharged battery...I don't say this to intimidate you, I have no need. I say this to put your growth into perspective which you very sorely need. If you act too flippantly you will attract the wrong type of attention and I assure you that as you currently are someone like Adimus would have little trouble piercing your heart and ending your life then and there...you know what happens when you die right?"

The wall behind him shifted and contorted. It snarled and bellowed like a roaring beast being brought under command. The very image of the gates of Hell stood behind him in its towering, terrible, glory. The awesome sight that it was framing his words like gilding made of rot and fear. "No forgiveness. No return. Nothing but an eternity of captivity...so let me be clearer about why you were summoned here..."

The gate shrunk away and peeled off from the wall as quickly as it had appeared. Six arms slammed down fiercely as both pairs of wings beat against the wind as if to futilely muffle the roar of its voice.

Its' tail smashed against the floor with a heavy crunch.

Torrents of flame billowed out like caustic smoke.

"TO SURVIVE! TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF THE GIFTS YOU'VE MADE! SO SUCK UP THE APATHY SO WE'RE NOT ON THE ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST NEXT MONTH!"

Its wings slowly curled back inwards, talons dug gouges into the desk like it were clay, and its tail drug its' fingers through the ground in a similar fashion. All biding time. All being patient. Even this outburst was intentional.

Ash blew forth in heavy sighs.

"...we are not discussing politics, they are irrelevant. The Soul Society is as it always was and being pushed further and further into war. The inevitable. It is far more critical that the war be delayed with this new addition of yourself...that drastically changes my time tables. You need time to develop and grow. I have a clear interest in ensuring that happens but it is also in my interests to ensure that I speed up the process...so in the context that I am extending my hand to you as an arrangement through which we mutually benefit from each other's knowledge of the state of being we are currently I am going to try this again..."

Seven fingers drew up from the 'earth' and snaked forwards between the smaller Sovereign and the table in a second attempt at greeting.

He had no interest in losing this one to circumstance or random fate. Despite his words and behavior resembling anger at the party in question he was solely focused on the flippant attitude she was showing towards topics which were far more serious than it was possible to know...not as they were. Hatred knew how it worked for him but knew very little about the transition or process of others...this was vital. Not only did it benefit him to know the process for other individuals but it also granted the fresh Sovereign a way to benchmark its future successes. They both needed to know and they both needed to cooperate though it seemed, currently, one of them was more aware of this fact than the other. It likely didn't help that Severance was a poor concept in relation to cooperation but it wasn't like Hatred was much better...things would just have to work out.

Bad things always have a way of fixing themselves...

"Hello, I'm Hatred and you're a Sovereign. Lets talk about the changes in your body and how they aren't a very late puberty..."

A twinge of thought ran through the creature as if lightning had found a mark in its' heart. A jerking of every eye towards a point further beyond in both space and time. It seemed...distressed. Only for a moment.

It faded and was replaced with what might be called jubilation. Every pair of lips grinning madly as it took a heavy bow with three arms tucked and three spread.

"I'm sorry but we're going to have to learn the basics in one swoop, as a Sovereign you are both entwined with and outside of typical rules of time and space. We do as we like and this may be difficult to wrap your head around but once you're marked for Sovereignty it is very difficult to miss. Your senses are not as acute as my own but I suspect, with time, your sight will dwarf my own. You've met already...or will meet. Its not often I try this but she seems eager and I'd rather our reunion be more complete..."

He considered, for a moment, that perhaps this was an unwise idea but quickly abandoned it. Even if he were outnumbered he didn't expect conflict to break out...not when he was being so well behaved.

"Come now, we haven't got all day...step out and say hello Penance..."

An arc of black fire sparked across the air to the left of the desk. A white ivory door appeared, unopened, waiting for the individual on the other side to take the initiative and come forth.

It was time to meet the family.

Time to make things better.

She ached within her bones. It wasn't the itch of old wounds or variegated weather, nor was it the chill of winter seeping through the tissue-paper skin that wrapped her up like a forgotten present. The sensation was more then that. So much more. It bubbled and writhed and screamed at her all at once, a cacophony of ugliness with a pinch of surly disbelief. It was a pain that she refused to let go of, instead clutching it towards her with all her might as the agony burrowed its way into her heart.

Kiriko had asked Severance to get rid of that pesky organ. Her heart, as it was. But after the numbness of her transition had faded she swiftly realized it was not wholly gone. She had banished Hahaue and Aneue. She had ripped away the softer curves and edges of that pink and beating hunk of flesh. But her entire attempt to regain control had only served to reinforce the parts of her that were necessary for this new game. To stay as she was, to ensure that there would never be anyone else who could push her out of this corner, she had had to reinforce those parts of herself that would keep her bound.

Kiriko hadn't realized it would be this painful. It was a welcome surprise. She had opened her front door to the flames of Hell and was busy making them space at her table. So long as she burned, so long as she twisted and writhed over the fire, then all was safe. All was perfect.

Control, after all, came with a price. Kiriko was willing to pay the entrance fee. More then willing really. The sensation was akin to crystalization. Given enough heat and pressure, even a speck of dirt could turn to diamond, and her insides were already smooth as obsidian. Eventually the process would spread entirely. She could not wait. It was her punishment and it was her reward.

Throwing back her head, Kiriko laughed. There was nothing to hide from anymore. Nothing to hold back. The peels of mirth echoed in her empty office, rattling the window and radiating inward. How odd she had been before, not to realize the merits of doing what she'd done.

The detachment that came with ascending, with this strange new title of Sovereign, it should have been frightening. The slow calcification of everything inside of her should had felt alarming on some level, or at least bizarre. The raging heat trapped beneath her flesh should have been too much, too sudden. Instead Kiriko realized that it was a comfort. All of it. She had shucked her humanity and in doing so had found her reward. Pain. Suffering. What was life without those experiences?

She no longer had to worry about being good enough. Being bad enough. So long as she continued to live she would be punished, and it was in facing that fact that she had found true strength.

This was her Penance. And she would be the world's Penance. Whatever it took, wherever this path lead, she would be there to exact her price. This cycle had gone on long enough. It was time to set it right.

To her fledgeling senses the appearance of a pearly door to her left was surprising, and Kiriko was not used to being surprised. What was behind it though, came as less of a shock. Stepping into the blank room, she gazed around impassively. Severance. And another. That aura was impossible to forget, even in whatever bestial form Jomyaku had taken now. She wasn't such an idiot as to believe him Hollowified once more, and if anything Kiriko had always been a quick study though she sensed now that she was coming in to the middle of a conversation.

“I apologize for the wait, I was quite unaware of this meeting,” Kiriko strode forward without preamble, unsure if it was arrogance or pride that made her unafraid. Looking the two beings in the eyes, she inclined her head in gracious greeting, “Would I be correct in assuming that you are Hatred, Jomyaku-taichou? Severance mentioned something or other, and now that I've moved on it is rather embarrassing how easy it is to tell the difference.” She had such a narrow mind before. Neat little hedgerows in a cultivated maze. How droll that Kiriko had believed that to be the height of trickery.

He had called her out. Penance. The word resonated on a level that she hadn't believed possible. It summed up so much. At first meeting Kiriko had thought Severance a strange entity for referring to herself as a singular human quality. Suddenly it wasn't so odd. Penance... Yes, that certainly fit.

“I suppose I should reintroduce myself as well... I used to be Chinda Kiriko, maybe the name still fits on occasion. But I think that I've surpassed that, whatever I am now... Penance is apt.” The pain rose in an undulating wave. Penance took it as the celebration it was and a narrow edged smile split her face. Who had said suffering was so bad, anyway?

WC: 856 | GP: 17 | Total GP: 17

Its eyes each turned to face the new arrival with an unmistakably sarcastic and incredulous look carved into them.

"You know what I am...don't act like you've never seen a monster before..."

A taloned arm gestured to the empty ocean below. "Welcome to Mu."

The floor was simply not there and the Sovereign hadn't been interested in creating it. The glass bottom allowed him to see a part of the world where he was most comfortable and below it...a secondary comfort. These continental mass of Dangai refuse was the ideal place for him to rest his wings and to delegate tasks as finding it would be rather difficult. It would appear, to anyone but himself and perhaps a select few others, as nothing but more ocean. So long as the visible structures he erected were removed he was capable of dwelling here without interruption. Perhaps he would just bend the material around himself and live that way...it might be more ideal. Invisible timey wimey stuff was great construction material despite zoning laws making it a nightmare to deal with...or so he imagined.

It put the thoughts aside as it rolled a wrist dismissively in the direction of Severance as if to ask her to continue prattling and to let him know when she finished.

"I'm a new age educator. I don't use letter grades, I just see if you live or die and judge accordingly. If you're interested in living then I can impart some vital information towards that end. The most prominent fact is that we share most of our traits with our 'brethren'. I believe I described it to one of the women in the 4th Division currently crafting me a better meat suit as a conflict of birds and snakes. The remainder of humanity are eggs and any traits we share with them are superficial, I share the least but thats more aligned with my personal disdain for bipedal humanoids...how do you get anything done with so few limbs? Its maddening..."

The eyes all blinked and nodded in agreement.

"Their bodies, and our own bodies, are more of an extension of will than a physical thing. Mine is presently more malleable than your own because I have a different relationship with it. After so many changes of form and appearance, the ability to produce and alter bodies on a whim, and the discomfort with non-bestial forms it should come as no surprise that I have the most natural talent with form changes. In time I believe you will develop these abilities at your own pace and as your own sanity is able to keep up with the lose of the idea of 'self' as a concept related to your shape. Similarly the durability of the body is influenced by willpower as well. Again, I have the most natural abilities towards that and was able to integrate my Hierro flawlessly into this state of being. It is no longer armor. Its who and what I am. This may or may not be unique to me but I suspect your own recuperative or defensive abilities will enhance naturally as well, either out of necessity or out of natural pressures. We'll see."

Two hands and a tail slashed vertical cuts into the reality around them to reveal the three prominent realms, including the one they were sorta' kinda' inside of right now: Earth.

"As our brothers and sisters in transcendence you will come to learn that these three planes are not true 'planes' but rather segments of the one plane. There are an infinite number of other planes, each with its own characteristics and developments. Very likely other copies of yourself whose powers may or may not rival your own. Considering they haven't come hunting you down yet as mine did? You're lucky. I had to kill the rest of them so you can sleep soundly at night knowing I am the only Garra Desalmados left in the whole of creation. Your minds should be able to compensate for the confusions resulting in time and space painlessly as you just did. Once information is in your possession at any point in time you should, with the right triggers, attain it. Mundane information is likely to be left out, I don't know what I'll eat for breakfast tomorrow or the contents of my mail but the exact rules dictating how, why, and when I become aware of future or past events more clearly is a bit...fuzzy. You may have experienced similar effects on a smaller scale in a lesser state but lets not dabble to much in that..."

The previously restrained aura which Severance had felt only moments before was released again for roughly one second but without the previous constraints. It was at its full capacity but simply occurred too quickly for lasting injuries to result. The distinct impression of what sort of injuries it would've caused was enough to make his next point. "Your powers won't show up immediately, I had to resort to crude uses of reiatsu and Shinigami powers in Karakura during that whole 'Miki Incident'. They will come in time though and if you retain any previous powers you're going to find that the relationship changes drastically...right now I'm actually dealing with having my Zanpakuto spirit obliterated. I got Tokiyo, Takua, and Rania to handle it for me. Such nice kids, even if Tokiyo continues to be a massive disappointment to me..."

A wing extended and patted Penance on the shoulder as if to comfort here. "Trust me, I had kids. They don't ever stop being needy little shit smears until you throw them into the wilderness and they grow up. I've still probably got a few kids running around of the Hollow variety...speaking of which we need to organize better. Do you know how many Royals we've had as of late? Two. Do you know many we should have? Zero. So lets set our sights on fixing that problem and breaking as many fucking eggs as we can hm? The Royal Guard only tangled with not-Tova because he allowed it and was directly confrontational, not to say that I wouldn't mind picking the feathers off of one of our 'brothers' one by one..."

Steam and ash loosened itself from every orifice in his body, tongues of flame slipping out hungrily. "...tearing the flesh from the bone, filling the marrow with acid, breaking their skull off just to fill it to the brim in magma to pour down their gaping neck wound..."

The flames grew more chaotic, angry, and destructive. Tendrils of midnight heat intent to destroy and consume as black adders among men. "Ooh would I love to rip their hearts out so delicately as to leave every vein attached...puncture it delicately with one claw...course their whole vascular system with my merciless spirit...pick and prod at their nerves as jagged, roaring, fire tore through them...each second a perfect, practiced, deliberate agony...I could imagine no greater pleasure than to grasp their haven by its roots, hurl it down to the earth, and make each and every one of them accountable for what they've done to them..."

Claws curled, jaws snapped shut, muscles tensed, and the whole of the beast seemed to be fighting against itself. Any plumes left to escape became violent ebony fireworks with the poison of a Sovereign mind etched into every curl, twirl, and snap of the embers. The ivory skin morphed into a reminder of a volcano. Black veins made themselves visible throughout the form and the sizzling anti-colored liquid dripped from its clenched jaws. Each drop burst into flame as oil but burned and corroded much the same as true magma. No excess heat escaped any of it despite the violent heated appearance. For all of the visible anger and wrath it was not the embodiment of either of these things. For his ideas of justice and world order he was not the embodiment of those things. Hatred was purpose driven and engineered towards only the target. Collateral damage was likely and possible but never intended...and his powers were much the same.

"Those miserly, cowardly, pathetic, childish, power hungry monsters...there would be no sweeter nectar than their bodies churned into fluid. No greater delight than their disattached, reanimated, faces forced to look on as I devour their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and every child even as far as three generations removed from them and as far as any plane my claws can reach...these fucking laws. FUCK THE RULES. FUCK THIS SYSTEM. FUCK EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THOSE GOD DAMN EGOTISTS!"

It's body lost any semblance of detail and become little more than a shadow of hatred. Fire rolled in thick bands tightly around its entire body, smoking and flowing out as the river could not be contained. The Sovereign of Hatred became a towering thing coated in flames with only the brilliant red glistening far too intelligently through the buffets of flame to signify that any mind remained. An ebony demon whose six primary eyes were like crimson stars darting upwards with the intent to reclaim their place in the night tapestry...and to take the others down from it. 

"I hate you...I hate you...I HATE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU. I KNOW YOUR FACES. I KNOW YOUR NAMES. I KNOW THE SINS ETCHED IN YOUR SOULS AND THE IMPERFECTIONS YOU COWER BEHIND!"

A light ding pierced the drama like a knife in the actor's back. Silence followed. The flames receded and the creature resumed its natural form swiftly and turned around to pick up a small blue cup from beneath its desk with a steaming brown liquid inside of it. "...my coffee just finished."

It brought the liquid to its lips with all the courtly manner of a prince and similarly dismissed the outburst. "If you wondering why I had any interest in putting up with Captain 'Daddy's Biggest Let Down' and Queen 'Unimaginable Loose Fanny'...you got your answer. I'm willing to stomach any amount of personal disdain in order to ensure that this dysfunctional little family unit of ours stays. We're all going to Hell when we die...I'm just intending to drag those heavenly fuckers down with me. Their sins are not so menial as to be forgiven...I think they fear death more than any mortal ever could..."

Another casual sip followed and he eyed the pair of them. A facet of polite society came to his mind and was immediately executed for treason. "...I'm not sharing."

The Sovereign scrunched itself up inside an small office wheelie chair which clearly couldn't fit it and attempted to finish the drink before anymore questions were asked about it's coffee.

She saw the two in a new light. Perhaps it was a reflection of the white walls, or a new acuteness of her own sight, but either way the bestial form of Hatred and the girlish figure of Severance ceased to exist on such plain two dimensional terms. It was so much more then that, and the heavy weight of what lay behind those facades was enough to cull Kiriko into momentary silence. Was this what she was now? Flesh and reiatsu molded into an old shape, a husk only imitating humanity? Flames licked the air from around Hatred's puddle of ecstasy, and Kiriko felt her teeth gleam as she bared them in a sharp grin.

Humanity... That was the goal of all Shinigami really, to replicate and play out their lives as if they were still human. As if they weren't broken little dolls tottering around with fake senses of power. She looked back on her life as if it had happened to someone else. As if it was all a play, some sort of theater troupe enacting part 1 through 3. How cliché she had been, how boring. Clawing and striving and tearing her way towards what? Goodness? Ha! That word no longer need apply. Simply by existing Kiriko was in the right. That was all the proof she needed to know that she was justified in all her choices. In all her actions.

Humanity was like a flimsy plastic cap used to tamp down on the truth. On the reality that they were all monsters deep inside. The sovereigns had just decided to flaunt it instead of hide from it. Watching Hatred, balking at his superiority complex but nodding anyway at his lessons, she realized the key point therein. He might be better at these things now. Better at shucking the mortal husk, better at visualizing his emotions, better at understanding why and how, but Penance was not going to sit idly by as he moved forward.

He had goals, and so did she. Luckily they coincided for now. It would be useful to take advantage of the proffered “hand” that was being so carelessly thrust her way. He might not realize it now, but one day Hatred would come to understand that this advantage was one she would adapt to her own needs.

“I see, well then Hatred-sempai, I supposed we have a lot to learn from you. Though I'm afraid I don't have a Father anymore. They all left me, but if I was being truthful, I would have killed them if they'd still been around. There is so much those three men owed to me, and the world. Too bad I wasn't able to collect before they disappeared...” She chuckled, a delightful noise that tasted like warm bitter chocolate in the back of her throat. Unlike Hatred she had no need to visualize the damage she might wreak on those who had wronged her. When Penance struck it was not so theatrical. Kiriko couldn't shed her roots entirely, and an assassin had little need for dragging out death.

Tilting her head downward, so that she could look over her nose at the cup of coffee, Kiriko narrowed her eyes and shrugged, “I do not drink coffee,” she explained, leaving it at that.

Musing to herself on another subject entirely, Kiriko realized that she was finally free. Free in a sense that she never had been before. Free to unleash her own brand of reality on the world around her. Free to break those pesky little laws Hatred had spouted on about. Free to write her name on the panes of this world, to splatter it in blood across the sky until everyone and everything had drunk deep of the lessons she was here to bring. “Maybe... I should track them down. The Tova imposter, he was sent to another duplicate world, right? Those idiots didn't kill him. Sloppy, but perhaps something we all can benefit from.” She looked up, her gaze shifting towards Severance, the girl with all the answers.  

WC: 676 | GP: 13 | Total GP: 30

It drained the murky fluid as if its lips were the parched roots and tendrils of an ancient tree tasting life for the first time in centuries. The elation on his face was downplayed by the fact that he doubted either of his companions were particularly interested in probing his mind with spiritual senses or able to discern the difference in facial expression his new face allowed. His pleasure as a solitary moment in this constantly expanding world of gods and men...no matter what changed, his tastes would stay the same. No matter what fresh hell crawled out of the womb of this reality coffee would continue to keep him healthy, distracted, and sane.

The creature's eyes were far less distorted in their expression as they passed over the company present.

He seemed...humored; stifling a wellspring of laughter was a more apt description actually.

"...you, Severance, tried to track someone down and expected any degree of success..."

A finger from each of his available hands found itself pressed against his skull to contain the froth of questions and accusations of mental deficiency that were vying for the limited amount of snark his lips could produce in any given moment.

"I'm not even sure where to start really...as far as dragging the real thing down here I've been working on that. You see, they only respond to times of immeasurable crisis so we need to produce a crisis. I've made sure to put the humans in a position of pride where they believe themselves strong enough not to need spiritual interference, the Soul Society in a position of unrest and change such that they can't be comfortable in their own homeland, and Las Noches in an artificial cage leaving every Hollow within desperate to claw free. I've been stirring that pot for a while now...Jigokucho in the human world, disrupting the normal order within the Soul Society, scaring the fear of god into Arrancar..."

An expression of genuine pain came to its face. "I thought someone would've noticed and tried to stop me by now...I get so bored in my office."

It's intentions were very far from alien now. Teeth were bared in a toothy grin and lips were stretched to their breaking point...and then further.

"I have a war on the horizon brewing but now that I have help...whose interested in a war to end all wars...or more accurately..."

If it's face could crack it would've trying to express the jubilation in the core of the beast's soul at it's words.

"A war that never ends."

Kiriko clenched her jaw, the oddest sensation of glass grinding itself inside of her chest making it difficult to really focus on what was going on around her. That rattling noise set her teeth on edge and she slowly forced her hands to go slack and her fingers to smooth themselves out, pressed flat against her hakama. The silken material was too soft against her calloused thumbs, and Kiriko quietly began to tap at her thighs, first one finger and then the next. Drumming a silent beat that neither drowned out nor subsumed itself to the creaking crash of breakage within her own body.

If this was metamorphosis, she wasn't sure she understood what the end goal was. But Penance, as she was now coming to think of herself, was certain that at the very least she could appreciate a fine pain. The purity of that sensation. The smoothness of a fresh agony. The sugary tang of velvet blood on her tongue. Electricity in her veins and ice in her joints, everything a jagged edge that jangled and rubbed raw places that she hadn't even known had existed.

Something was wrong. Out of place. Penance wasn't pleased, but becoming a God came with a lot less power then she had originally imagined. She still had a hierarchy to oblige. She still had people above her on this endless ladder. And the freedom she had tasted just a brief breath before was now gusting away with her exhalation. Leaving her chained. To a new reality. A reality she had created for herself, shaping with her own bloody hands the iron bars that were meant to keep her here.

Penance grinned through the pain, and slowly turned her attention outward, her fingers tapping away at a dirge that only she was aware of. “I'm certain we could find a piece of him... There were many that he marked with his lingering touch. Perverting their souls and minds with bits of himself. If we locate one such victim, perhaps that shadow of the fake Tova will lead us to his real realm,” she mused with a delicate shrug of one shoulder, already over the idea even though it had been hers to begin with.

Fervor was in her bones, and it seemed to be the very flames that made up Hatred, and yet Severance was disparate enough that she appeared to glimmer with a casual nonchalance. Sight itself was a weaker sense though, and Kiriko could feel the woman's reiatsu radiating very different signs. How curious, that the girl who was now a God felt such a terrible need to hide from the man before them. Didn't she realize the power gap that existed in this room? Or perhaps she was too blinded by control to realize what was there.

Hatred gurgled and expanded as Penance frowned back in his direction. Such utter joy from a being so very dark. It was hard to hate the man, if he could be called that. Harder still to pity him. And yet Kiriko wasn't completely absent of her old feelings for him. She tried to listen anyway, to push aside the old bygones, but what Hatred twisted into his new line of inquiry was enough to make her gag.

“A never ending war?” she mouthed the syllables without feeling, her entire body a frozen block of stone. Crack by crack that shifted, and Kiriko felt things shatter all around her as she rumbled, “I am all for a purge, a perfection of the stock that exists. But a never ending war, Hatred-sempai? I don't see where that will leave us any better off then we are today.” Was it a failure to look inward that allowed her to claim the moral high ground? That let her cling to the fact that all that she did now and in the past had been for a better future?

Everyone had a price to pay to reach that new world. And Kiriko would gladly see them pay the toll. But not one cent more. She would enjoy exacting the price from their blood, and pulling her charge from their body, but when all was over and done with there would be peace. She would make it so.  

WC: 709 | GP: 14 | Total GP: 44

Its fingers tapped in sequence against is exoskeleton, each strike as steel scrapes against steel, and it waited its turn to interject.

"I don't believe we're on the same page and sharing the same goals...I do not want to kill, I want to elevate. I want a world where there are not three but hundreds...I will see this world twisted between my fingers and the chaff burned away. This is not a war with something as simple casualties, I am in pursuit of a war that lasts forever because the contempt is never allowed to die away. Each new generation instructed by the wounds of the past, once it is set in motion it will sustain itself. This is my damning act..."

Each eye, rotating in its orbit like a slumbering beast, turned upwards. "...I will ensure that the Royals never see a child of their species ever again. No peace. Death I leave up to my betters in the realm of punishment."

They returned in a thunderous flow as the wave of irises pierced into the youngest recruit. "Penance. In this war you should see fit to pick out those you believe to be irredeemable and punish them as you wish, I will not interfere in your mission. This war simply needs to produce enough damage to the next generation of Royals that they have no ability to ignore it, if we were to do as you suggested..." The tide shifted. "Severance. We would be killing our siblings before they had a chance to development, we only need to be certain that we produce Sovereigns and the damage will be noticed. If you absolutely insist on making the world's most expensive collect telephone call then you should do it with mixed races, the damage is easier for us to repair and it feeds the war fire. Additionally, pick your targets wisely. I don't need to tell you what happens if you put down a potential member of our backwards little family unit but you can imagine what your attitude has earned twelve fold to start."

"You two will never understand it...you weren't there. You didn't see what he did to my body...you didn't see what he did to my family...you didn't see the demon that marched into Las Noches and spread its wings over the battlfield yet drew no blood in the sight of the sun. The little ebony bird and its Kinslayer pet. Not even you, Penance, have seen what your predecessor can actually do. I am increasingly frustrated that he cannot be located so that I might throw him to the dogs once more and watch that man pile on his sins. War created me. War created Hatred. War created Severance. War created Penance. Without that conflict that interloper would never have come, it was war that broke the veil and gave him the chance. One Kinslayer and one Ebon Storm were sufficient to create three, what kind of products would result if we walked into war?"

The pause was slow, deliberate, a nesting ground for ideas of a grand scale.

"Before I drag that Ivory Storm and that Liesayer down to the depths of Hell to line it with their sins I will ensure that Earth is enough of a Hell for them to show up in the first place. You can only die once. I can torture forever."