Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro]

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Cheshire

Two of Hearts.

1,231 Posts

Reiatsu200 Defense20 Strength50 Speed80 Spirit50 ApplicationLately I've been wishing I had one desire. ThreadsSomething that would make me never want another.

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jun 29, 2016 16:10:08 GMT -5

Post by Cheshire on Jun 29, 2016 16:10:08 GMT -5

"I was wondering where I'd find you."

Her coy was grin - oh, the semantics of that hardly made a difference! It was a bristling excitement, a rush of adrenaline, that lightened her head and met her now - or old, was it? - toy head on. His sword had just torn through another mindless abomination, its screams echoing as the last remnants of its existence faded away to the purification it was due for. Or the Hell it might be condemned to, she mentally shrugged. Tomatoes and Tomatos. What mattered was that Shinkiro stood before her, a veritable peacemaker ushering away terrified rural souls with only his own blades for backup.

That determined loneliness - the lone wolf outlook - only drew her closer to the black haired beauty. Handsome? She giggled, shaking her head and skipping around him with light, even steps. Both of her hands locked behind her back, bouncing off the sheathe of her dagger with every whimsical twirl she took. It was the same song and dance as always, that same piercing desire smoldering him in her sights. The difference, of course -

was that this time would not carry on like the last. It was a whole new world, an entirely different territory. This landscape didn't have the same setting as the park from before, so relaxation was likely out of bounds. What mattered, really, was the taste of him on her lips she could still vividly remember. What mattered, really, was that spark of black she so seemed to love. She could feel it within him even now - not in some literal stance that allowed her to legitimately pick apart the contents of his soul, but rather a more secure understanding that his true nature lurked below that facade of an honorable Shinigami.

She knew the direction his spirit leaned towards, and it was significantly more similar to her own than any of the kin he might be trying to protect now. A heavy cross to bare - but those chains need not be binding. Not that it bothered her, either way. She'd get her fun, whether that song of hers would have to drag it out of him or not. "Hey, Shinkiro," she purred, facing him with a disconcerting grin sparkling with bared fangs and lascivious enthusiasm.

"Fight me."

[ 380 ]

We're singing I believe that lovers should be chained together and thrown into a fire with their songs and letters, and left there to burn.
Left there to burn in their arrogance.

Shinkiro

Everyone's got a dark side. Some avoid it, I chose to harness it.

612 Posts

Reiatsu300 Defense110 Strength70 Speed70 Spirit50 Application"A Soul Plagued By Darkness" Threads"Searching For A Way Out"

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 2, 2016 3:30:26 GMT -5 Cheshire likes this

Post by Shinkiro on Jul 2, 2016 3:30:26 GMT -5

How many of these monsters had fell before him since the start of this invasion? Dozens? A few hundred? He had lost count long ago. What he did know, was that he was officially fed up with it. The Gotei's forces were already spread thin, so thin that they could nearly be considered nonexistent. Most of them had been directed to defend the Seireitei; in fact the bulk of them were there now. What remained were a scattered few either too inexperienced or too cowardly to provide an effective contribution on that front. This, of course, also left the unfortunate souls of Rukongai virtually fending for themselves. The already broken streets of this decrepit branch of Soul Society were doused in crimson and littered with the corpses of those who had been too weak, too downtrodden, and altogether too unfortunate to have gotten clear before the swarm. Those that stayed now looked to him for protection and guidance, yet he knew. It was a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless; very few of them would survive.

So why bother being here if your presence won't make a difference?

The answer was perhaps as simple as the revelation about their chances of survival; he was here because he was their beacon of hope. Shinkiro was their reminder that they had not been completely forgotten. And although they may perish, at least seeing one Shinigami so determined to protect them let them hold out for just a little longer. Under circumstances such as these, "a little longer" tended to go a very long way. Yet even if he was their glimmer of hope, however, internally it did little to abate the fury he held for the situation as a whole.

Fingers found purchase in the top of a hapless Hollow's skull, thumbs jammed into the eye sockets to blind it with two grotesque pops. Against the shrieking flails of the agonized beast, some errant swipes sending thin trails of crimson spattering to the ground from negligible slashes on various places of Shinkiro's torso and arms. A savage yell as the struggling creature was torn in half right down the middle. Bathed in the gore of his most recent kill, narrowed crimson glowered at the fiends around him. Sometimes to fight a monster, you had to be a monster. His hand reached out to his side, the handle of his zanpakuto hovering just within his grasp and still embedded in the its previous victim. The voice that drifted to his ears was a familiar one, but undoubtedly displaced in this world. But there was no way she would be here, that was something comparable to slitting her own throat. He lifted the sword from its improvised mount and held it idly at his side.

Soon enough his objections were proved groundless. The lunatic haze cleared from his senses and he actually felt her now. That whisper of lavender caressing against his own scarlet aura. It was her, there was no mistaking it now. Cheshire. His solemn gaze flickered towards her as she skipped into view, softening ever so slightly as he watched her circle around him.

"Hello again, little kitten." A croon to match her playful purr. His hand passed over his face, wiping away the blood and absently discarding it with a quick jerk of his hand. The grin she wore didn't warrant a second thought, but it was her next request that caused him to curiously angle his head towards her. He had known since their first encounter that she was rather quirky, but for the first thing she said to him to be a challenge to fight?

"Alright, I'll bite. Why do you want to fight me? Was last time really that bad?" A musing grin in response. What was this all about? He could still feel her reiatsu probing at his own, enticing it, attempting to provoke some kind of response. Externally he wore the same casual demeanor, regarding the Arrancar before him with a noticeable lack of hostility; there was seemingly no reaction at all. Internally was a separate matter entirely. A deep, gnawing hunger ebbed within him, ravenously clawing at the wisps of foreign reiatsu being exuded by this feline temptress. A shuddering inhale, satisfaction drifting from the omnipresent grimace of that parasitic darkness inside.

"Ahh...what's this I smell? Is that Cheshire I sense? Mmm...yessss, yes it is! So the little cat has come back to play, has she? How wonderful!" The pulsations grew stronger with each passing moment, Shinkiro's grin slowly tapering off into a thin line. Any joviality that had been present in his expression gone and replaced with stony realization.

"I see...so that's what this is about..." An exhausted sigh. He was much to tired and much too annoyed to want to deal with this now, but he knew that he had to.

"Why now, Cheshire? Look around us. Look what your King is doing, what your kin are doing! What is fighting me going to accomplish? What are you getting out of it?" His voice dropped to a haggard drone, any enthusiasm that might have been present gone without a trace. He had an idea of what her answer would be, yet he hoped it wasn't as shallow of a justification as he thought. For her sake and his.

Word Count: 904

Shinkiro| Shiori |Kaori |Kuro

Cheshire

Two of Hearts.

1,231 Posts

Reiatsu200 Defense20 Strength50 Speed80 Spirit50 ApplicationLately I've been wishing I had one desire. ThreadsSomething that would make me never want another.

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 9, 2016 19:30:32 GMT -5 Shinkiro likes this

Post by Cheshire on Jul 9, 2016 19:30:32 GMT -5

"Kitten" reached her ears and they gave a twitch, once more aching to flutter the ones nestled into her long tresses of hair. It was a nice pet name, one she still favored - Cheshire had many, many suitors, but so few knew what to say to get under her skin. It was met with a reverberating purr, her teeth rolling over her lip to keep it pinned from further noises. Her eyes were alight with many things: the same old, same ole sheen of mischief and curiosity, arousal, desire... and the barest hints of something deeper.

Ah, but she wouldn't tell. "Alo, my little prince of darkness," she teased in turn, fingers locking themselves in place at the small of her back. It wouldn't do her any good for those to wander. "Miss me? Oh, don't bother answering," a flash of gold, that grin only stretching. "I know the answer. Of course, right? There couldn't have been a day where you didn't think of me."

"It's okay to be excited. I know I am." How did she get such a sultry tone into that roll of her tongue? It sent shivers up even her own spine, a stutter to one of her steps that was righted by a skid of her boot. The smallest cloud of dusk picked up around her feet, blown away with the wind and mingling above with the cries of war and terror. "Well, now that you ask...," she laughed. "There are some improvements to your technique I'd suggest. Oh... but you were fun, yes. Mmn."

"Alas! My point! I didn't come here for another lay. This area has seen enough destruction already, nu?" Prrrr.

She paused, a trace of that dark energy swelling in the depths of his soul. She might not be able to see it just yet, might not be able to dig her teeth and claws into that Hollow inside of him - but when it reacted to her presence, hnn, she could feel it then. "It's there, isn't it?", she couldn't hide the excitement in her voice, almost shattering the coy mirth of her expression. Her heart had already skipped its beat, quickly picking up pace and thrumming heavily in her ears. "The Hollow. That "Inner Hollow"."

He seemed exhausted, cleaning his face of the blood and sweat he had built up. That wasn't her concern. He was a big boy - he could take of himself. There was the sigh confirming his exasperation, annoyance lingering in the way he addressed her. That wouldn't do; but she was much too lost in her thoughts to react. "I've met one, you know. I talked with it. Played with it." She wasn't going to talk about who that one belonged to. She didn't know Shinkiro well enough to trust him, and Kasumi was someone she...

She...

She shook her head, pressing on, half-facing him with her body and watching him from the tilt of her head. "It wasn't able to stick around long. How do you continue to fight yours? How do you keep it down? Why do you bother?", the questions were pouring out. She wasn't able to find Walkren Dekharr in her journey across this world just yet, but she was hoping to ask him the same things. For some reason, however, she knew what his answers would be compared to the confusion clouding her from seeing Shinkiro's. Walkren was hiding from himself. He was scared.

"You're not scared of it, are you? You embrace that little spark of black I adore about you, Shinkiro." Why didn't he harness it, then? Why didn't he just... let it take over? Did he expect her to believe that he thought himself better than that? "You're not some hero. You don't avoid your demons. So why?"

It was about time to answer his questions, too. "I don't care for what the "King" is doing any more than I care for the lives of the Hollow or your own military. That is to say, of course, not in the least. This entire situation is an absurd waste of time and I don't want any part in it."

"I am here now, in this Soul Society of yours, with my own goals," now, at least, she mused darkly. "I did not approach you with the aim of furthering this chaos. You are one of these goals. Or rather..." Her expression shadowed, the tired creases of her face just a little more apparent. "Regardless, my... mm... suggestion was just another means to an end."

"I met one of those "Inner Hollow" you Vaizard have, Shinkiro," she restated, pressing that point home. "I want to meet yours."

The "may I" was both unspoken and unnecessary.

[ 785 | 1165 ]

Last Edit: Jul 9, 2016 19:33:07 GMT -5 by Cheshire

We're singing I believe that lovers should be chained together and thrown into a fire with their songs and letters, and left there to burn.
Left there to burn in their arrogance.

Shinkiro

Everyone's got a dark side. Some avoid it, I chose to harness it.

612 Posts

Reiatsu300 Defense110 Strength70 Speed70 Spirit50 Application"A Soul Plagued By Darkness" Threads"Searching For A Way Out"

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 11, 2016 2:24:26 GMT -5 Calais likes this

Post by Shinkiro on Jul 11, 2016 2:24:26 GMT -5

From first glances it appeared as though Shinkiro barely had any resistance left in him. Hours of endless fighting coupled with the strain of keeping hold of what little tenuous restraint he had on Kuro was wearing him down. And now, in the face of that adversity as well, here stood Cheshire. The weariness was evident in his gaze even if his expression remained stoic and unreadable. Not long after Kuro had voiced his excitement over Cheshire's presence here did she actually confirm what Shinkiro had already thought; she was here to experience it again. Not the physical romp they had taken, but rather the taste of darkness he had given her prior to it. Jaw tightened to the point where his teeth ached, the cording of his Zanpakuto's handle giving a low groan of protest within his gradually constricting grasp.

She had met another one? Who?

There was the faintest crack in his enduring veneer, a brief twinge as his eyes narrowed with inquisition. Something in her expression that came and went in a flash; a glint of apprehension, perhaps? He already knew that she wouldn't willingly divulge the identity of the one she had encountered; neither would he, if he were in her position. Still, he couldn't help but ponder whether it was someone he knew. Another shift in his expression, another crack wrought by panic. There were few Shinigami that he actually cared for, but the possibility of it being the one he care for most of all filled him with a fleeting moment of dread. At once his thoughts jumped to Kasumi, that hotheaded but endearing young Shinigami whom he had come to develop a brotherly attachment to. But could it really be her?

"Now do you see? No one is exempt from this. Even that little brat is falling into the abyss. Shouldn't you join her, then?" Seducing words beckoning him, swaddling him, enticing him to give in to the shadowed deep. Shinkiro's lips peeled back into a frustration sneer, a hand raising to obscure the single eye that had become dipped in ink. Another pulse, a thrumming heartbeat that slammed against the resolve he desperately clung to. Her questions about his strength dissolved into a muddled drone, the remaining unchanged ring of scarlet peering intently at her.

"Don't listen to him, Shin. You know Kassie, give her more credit than that. There's no way something like this would happen to her. And if she can keep it from happening in the first place, you can keep it in check now!" Counterproductive words to Kuro's influence, yet they were words that Shinkiro took great solace in. His eyes slid shut and a slow exhale trailed from his lips. When he next opened his eyes a moment later, they both held the same natural crimson as always. He was reestablished control...for now. Her next words elicited a small frown, eye contact broken in favor and peering at the blood-drenched tiles below them.

"That's where you're wrong..." His throat gave an audibly dry click. When had it gotten that way, he wondered; it was a passing thought at most.

"I am afraid of it. I'm afraid of what would happen if I let it free...if I lose myself to it. I..." A faint but shuddered sigh. She was right, he wasn't a hero, not entirely. But that was the mask he tried to wear. A sinner masquerading as a saint. A killer making play a being a savior. His very existence now was a blight against the governing body in which he was supposed to serve. Half of his superiors want him and people like him dead, and that number probably quadrupled when regarding the rank and file populace. So why did he fight? Why did he feverishly cling to the remaining shreds of humanity he possessed. What was it all for?

The sound of that word, Vaizard, was like a death knell to his ears. His visibly tensed at hearing it, the scowl he wore deepening, teeth sinking into his lip to draw a thin trickle of blood down the corner of his lip. She wanted to meet it, to meet him. It didn't need to be said to even be known. After all, he had surmised as much from the moment he sensed her and Kuro voiced his recollection of her.

"I...don't want to." A hushed whisper. Pleading eyes rose to meet her. Wavering crimson lost in seductive amber.

"Cheshire...why do you want me to fail? Haven't I lost enough just being what I am now?"

Word Count: 781
Total Word Count: 1,685

Shinkiro| Shiori |Kaori |Kuro

Cheshire

Two of Hearts.

1,231 Posts

Reiatsu200 Defense20 Strength50 Speed80 Spirit50 ApplicationLately I've been wishing I had one desire. ThreadsSomething that would make me never want another.

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 12, 2016 0:58:46 GMT -5

Post by Cheshire on Jul 12, 2016 0:58:46 GMT -5

She loved how Shinkiro offered her a challenge - another one she had and could topple. He always started off impassable, stony as a statue, but what happened when an unstoppable force met an immovable object? They were both about to find out. She let her head decline slowly to the side, hair fanning out over her face and starkly framing the fair tan of her inquisitive features. Her eyelids fluttered, mirroring the brief narrow of his for the same amount of time. Did he know something she didn't? Or rather, that she did?

She wasn't sure she... trusted Shinkiro with Kasumi, and the thought of them together made her fingers twitch against the black of her stockings. She knew what Shinkiro was, what he was capable of - that dangerous quality was what drew her towards him. That alone was enough to make her wary towards his interactions with anything else she held - ... what was she going to say? Dear? A... absolutely implausible.

She swallowed once and was happy enough to move on, her gaze boring into his in a battle of molting amber versus guarded red. They mixed beautifully together, she mused. Like fine jewelry, gold and rubies smelting into a perilous form that could only be considered lava or an equivalent. This connection was what tipped her off to the startling new development inside of Shinkiro, a flash of frustration in his eyes before it bred a blackening sclera and a twist of his expression. Her heart skipped a beat and she fought to keep herself in place, a foot already having shifted to take that step towards him.

She was left with only one gateway to his soul bearing his full intensity down on her with its single stare. It helped freeze her where she stood, a shiver whose cause she couldn't define trembling up the back of her curiously arching spine. She was slouched forward just a few inches but it changed the whole of her demeanor, only a breadth of the distance closed between them and yet...

"Does it hurt?", she managed, fire and darkness eating at her own eyes. "You're fighting against its control, right? No one has ever answered me when I asked if they're in pain. Does it hurt all the time, or just now, when it's excited?" Even she couldn't help the perverted tone to her words at the end, her view of him shivering with confusion, interest, arousal and... sympathy? Concern? She didn't have the gall then to snort, her nostrils only going so far as to flare with no accompanying sound.

She never quite learned that denying feelings didn't stop them from existing. He reestablished his dominance, she knew, when the staring contest between them ended with a glance off towards the ground. The sight of him like this was almost pathetic: it spelled the suggestion and most obvious answer out to her. There was no point in fighting it. So why did they all keep doing so? What was this pride they clung to as Shinigami? Would it be such a bad life, giving in to its desires - your desires?

Taking what you want.

He was a pale imitation of the man he had been the first time they met and at the start of this meeting. Crouched, shaken and admitting the weakness that was his fear. She wondered, then, if his Inner Hollow hurt his pride more than it did his soul. "I don't know if I can believe that. That you're afraid." I don't know you at all. She could see that sentiment in his eyes, always the eyes, before he even began to express it. You don't know me at all. He wasn't wrong. He was, after all, just another one of her passing interests - another fleeting desire, sated until it began to smolder once again. Always a means to an uncertain end.

"Is it scary? The fact that you'd stop existing?" She had taken a step forward, her own words marring her expression with their mystification. "That you'd become someone else? No... that isn't even the right phrasing." A hand had found its way up to her lips, teeth pressing into the pads and nibbling - a nervous habit? "That it would become "you"?" Another movement, not taking her eyes off of him. They were... sad. Melancholic? Worried? Definitively confused. That incertitude shown the brightest. "What scares you more: killing your friends and family or someone else doing so with your body?"

"You wouldn't even know anymore...," she murmured, volume dropping significantly until it was almost a whisper against her lips. Explosions rang heavily in the distance, barely intruding upon their meeting. "It's fascinating-", she started once again, trying to perk up with a glimmer of gold and amusement urged to the dulling ring of her eyes. It didn't entirely succeed.

A small rivulet of blood dripped down his chin as he raised his gaze to meet hers once again and offered his plead. It was a disgusting display, unworthy of her presence. It almost began to piss her off - she could feel the fire in her chest, the indignance sharpening her cheeks and pursing her lips. "You don't want to? Why should I care what you want? What you care about? Correct me if I'm wrong, Shinkiro, but it sounded to me like I just stated my desire. It is your duty to comply." The area around her eyes tightened, showing off just how dark those rimming circles had become.

Why did her voice resemble his own plead in contrast to the demand she was trying to pass it off as?

Think about what you need.

She was within a few feet of him now, one hand balled into a fist at her side and the other digging into her thigh. She looked down on him, literally and figuratively. His words shook her ears but her gaze remained cold, precise - aggressively trying. "And what if I just dragged it out of you? How long do you think you could hold off against my advances? Forever?" Her cheeks throbbed, hollowing against the rough dig of her teeth. "Do you fancy yourself strong enough to take us both on?"

[ 1032 | 2197 ]

We're singing I believe that lovers should be chained together and thrown into a fire with their songs and letters, and left there to burn.
Left there to burn in their arrogance.

Shinkiro

Everyone's got a dark side. Some avoid it, I chose to harness it.

612 Posts

Reiatsu300 Defense110 Strength70 Speed70 Spirit50 Application"A Soul Plagued By Darkness" Threads"Searching For A Way Out"

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 12, 2016 2:07:49 GMT -5

Post by Shinkiro on Jul 12, 2016 2:07:49 GMT -5

He had begged her, had pleaded with her, both silently and verbally. Yet as he met her gaze now, heard the words that fell from her lips like sharpened glass, he knew; it was only her own satisfaction that she cared about. He had given her the benefit of the doubt before, had even thought that perhaps she could be different from the rest of her maniacal kin. But as he stood here locked in a contest of wills, he realized what she truly was. The words that he had thought prior to her appearance rang in his thoughts again; sometimes to fight a monster, you had to become a monster. He didn't bother answering her question of his torment, his gaze instantly sharpening, as if attempting to pierce straight through her. She continued to press the matter, goading him with harsh questions and passive aggression.

"I see...you don't care..." A sardonic chuckle, eye contact broken as his gaze lowered and his arms hung slack at his sides. His duty? So now she was saying he absolutely had to acquiesce to her whims; he was her puppet, her slave, and nothing more. What more could he be to her? After all, not even moments before, she had stated that what he meant nothing to her.

"Did you expect any different? No one would care if you were gone, why would you expect this woman to? Did you think you were special to her? That you held some soft place in her heart because shared a moment of physicality? News flash boy, it's not you she wants, it's me. Why do you continue to deny the inevitable? Give in...it will be so much easier on you." More venomously entrancing words, more thrumming heartbeats of darkness at the boundaries of his spirit. Shinkiro's hand rose to cradle his already hair-obscured visage, shadowed locks falling over hand and face alike. His shoulders hitched once, twice, thrice. A short repetition of the movement, a faint sound of...something. Crying? No, not quite. Louder it repeated, more discernible. Low chuckling. Again it repeated, now louder. He hand fell away and unforgiving scarlet stabbed at her, a crazed grin splitting the lower half of his face.

"My duty? Your desire? What the hell do you know about duty? Because of what one of your kind did to me, I'm a fucking outcast among the same people I'm supposed to be in service to. Half of my goddamn superiors would happily stick my fucking head on a pike and smile while doing it. Your desire...." He practically spat the word back at her, the grin twisting into a grimace and his brow contorting into a frown. The ring of metal piercing stone shrieked through the air, his zanpakuto planted into the bloodied tile beside him with enough force that the web of fissures reached much further than they should have. It took quite a bit for Shinkiro to actually become irritated with someone, very specific conditions had to be met; needless to say, Cheshire had succeeded in this moment.

She approached him, further taunting, further challenging him.

I dare you, Shinkiro! Do it! Let go!

The words didn't have to be said, the tone of her voice enough to convey the message adequately. An electric jolt shot through him, his entire body taut with boiling anger. Fists clenched into tightened clubs at his sides, knuckles pressed tightly against the strained skin that struggled to cover them. A single step forward, descending with enough force to shatter the tile and create a small crater on impact. Vermilion fire burned from him, his spiritual aura searing at the ground, at the very air around him.

"What if you forced it out? Do you really want to find that out?" Frozen words in contrast to the infuriated aura around him. She wanted a monster. Why shouldn't he comply? That was her desire, for him to be a beast, a savage warmonger. The vibrant crimson slowly stagnated, deepening to blood, then even further to obsidian.

"Shinkiro...don't...what will this solve? You're better than this." Kaori spoke softly, a gentle salve upon his seething rage. His jaw tightened, stare becoming less deadly. He actually looked at her, recollected her latter words in his thoughts. The spectral flare around his brightened a shade and retracted ever so slightly. Some of the tension dissolved from him and his approach ceased, standing within arm's reach of her and no further. He saw something in her, a parallel that he couldn't quite place presently. He sighed, fists relaxing to hang idle beside him. He chuckled again, this one slightly more gentle than the previous iterations. Then, he did something that would perhaps surprise her; a passive smirk slowly replaced the twisted sneer on his face.

"Who're you trying to fool, little kitten? You say you don't care, but you really do, don't you?" The ruby flames that engulfed him receded completely and his expression softened a bit more. As he stood gazing at her, he began to finally place the similarity he had seen; it was pain. Not physical pain, but rather emotional pain. Someone had hurt her, had hurt her so deeply that it resulted in the jaded woman that now stood before him.

"You've been hurt, haven't you? Someone broke you...didn't they? Who was it?" There was actually something present in his hown expression now, a small hint of sympathy, of concern. But why did he care? Even if someone had hurt her, what would he do about it? What could he do about it? What concern was her emotional turmoil to him? What was it that made him question it? The truth was, however reluctant he may have been to admit it, he had thawed. He had began to forsake his own issues in favor of solving those of others. Even the nagging presence of Kuro had been shifted to a smoldering afterthought at the back of his mind. At least for now.

Word Count: 1,028
Total Word Count: 2,713

Last Edit: Jul 12, 2016 2:12:06 GMT -5 by Shinkiro

Shinkiro| Shiori |Kaori |Kuro

Cheshire

Two of Hearts.

1,231 Posts

Reiatsu200 Defense20 Strength50 Speed80 Spirit50 ApplicationLately I've been wishing I had one desire. ThreadsSomething that would make me never want another.

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 12, 2016 3:13:50 GMT -5

Post by Cheshire on Jul 12, 2016 3:13:50 GMT -5

The scene could have gone differently. Maybe not totally so - there were some elements that would always remain. Pain, anger, regret: none of these were variables. The way it all played out, though? This could have been different. His aggression was the catalyst for the end of their hope.

She hadn't expected the way he plunged his sword into the ground, cracks swelling and shattering the ground further than they had any right to reach. She skirted around this show of power, her eyes narrowing slowly, focused intently on him. A bitter confusion flickered in the slowly burning gold of her irides, her heart slowing for a single beat or two. This isn't how you're supposed to respond.

He was laughing, spitting her words back in her face. Her heartache and this new perspective she had begun to see from were no longer doing him any favors by this point - he was quickly using up any shred of humanity she had been offering him. The plead in her subconscious hadn't been enough. The way her tired eyes dragged, or her teeth bit into her cheeks, or her throat swallowed down every breath with an uncomfortably controlled motion. He hadn't caught on at the rate he was supposed to.

Poor, poor Shinkiro. An outcast and a rebel who only ever wanted to do good by his friends and family. His little soul had been taken and twisted into something unrecognizable, something he had never wanted to be. Now he was constantly fighting with himself, struggling against every corrupted fiber of his existence to maintain even a sense of individuality and control. That he was more than this desire instilled and ingrained within him. That he was more than a monster.

Cheshire, or at least some part of her, almost wanted to laugh and snarl her own bile right back at him. She couldn't totally see the irony herself but the phrase "preaching to the choir" definitely found some space in her darkening thoughts. Her expression was more than happy to mirror his own gravely one. Her reiatsu, too, obliged the dangerous flare and pulse of his; the acrid mist of lavender unfurling and billowing outwards.

His brute force didn't even make her flinch. His so-called "righteous" anger was nothing in the face on her own, every ounce of regret and betrayal and hopelessness she had bottled up again and again starting to roll off of her in erratic waves. She could taste the demon within his blackening spirit: but how could his measure up? She was, after all, a monster through and through. He was but a piece of one.

The air twisted with their chaos, even when his pressure began to recede and fade to make room for his heavy words. Hers, however, continued to spread. Nanami had freed her of Erasmus' influence, the obsession to take part in this fruitless battle, so she no longer had an excuse for her actions. This tormented anger, darkening the skies and crying out, was fully her own.

This murderous intent - all her, baby.

However, it was his actions and final words that sealed the nail in the coffin. This isn't how this was supposed to go. She no longer heard her own distress, burying it under the mountains of her other burdens. Her lips lifted in a snarl, not a hint of her telltale mirth to be seen within any crack or crevice. "Is that so?" He had to be able to practically taste her trembling ferocity within those coldly hissed words, black flooding her eyes until it framed the feline slits sharpening within pools of molten gold.

"You bare your fangs and bark, dog, bark: and then you know of my pain?"

"I've been hurt, you say. I've been broken. You think you have the right to say such things?" Her volume was slowly raising with her words, a harsh contrast to the way it had fallen just minutes before. This wasn't the route this was supposed to take - and even if somewhere, deep down, she accepted this fact, she was no longer able to stop herself. Shinkiro, with his tactless choice of words, was no longer just a man she had once met. He wasn't even the Vaizard he was striving so hard not to be.

He was Jian. He was Nazomi. He was Erasmus. He was Bertolt, Kionchi, Souta, Walkren, Takua, Nanami, Kasumi. He was everyone who had ever brought her doubt, who had helped - in all their varied ways - her to this point of her fragile state. This time, however, there was no Hope to center her. There wasn't a space she could break down in, lamenting about her hurdles and exhaustion and fragility. There was no release for this terrible, crushing weight except the aggression that tore at her skin in bright tendrils of gold reiatsu. They ate up her arms, flaring high with the purple sum of her mass.

"You're out of line. You're out of order." Trembling, she was trembling - could he see it? Could he feel it?

"Don't worry."

"I'm here to put you back in your place."

"Stand against, Tentadora."

It repulsed, that golden fire eating up her body before abruptly flickering out and leaving a shattering mirror of her form. Within every crack of this glass person played a reel of memories. Sorrow permeated every scene, every meeting. Desperation dug its dirty claws into every action and terrible decision. This, too, played out in one of those distortions: her stand against a man who had simply chosen the wrong words at the wrong time.

These fragments, too, exploded, melting away into nothingness as they soared outwards from her position. Dust blew up and then cleared - in the center of the smog stood Cheshire, fur thickly coating every inch of her body save for her head, neck and a single strip across lower stomach where her Hollow hole now rested. A bone-white tail flicked out behind her, the same consideration given to fluttering ears nestled in pixie-cut hair. Her claws glinted in the pale light of the warring Soul Society, her stare a bestial and empty thing.

She didn't even speak as blade after blade shimmered into crystalline existence in the air around them; desire given life in the form of solid illusions quickly descending upon the Shinigami in a tidal wave of false steel.

[ 1062 | 3259 ]

Last Edit: Jul 12, 2016 3:17:33 GMT -5 by Cheshire

We're singing I believe that lovers should be chained together and thrown into a fire with their songs and letters, and left there to burn.
Left there to burn in their arrogance.

Shinkiro

Everyone's got a dark side. Some avoid it, I chose to harness it.

612 Posts

Reiatsu300 Defense110 Strength70 Speed70 Spirit50 Application"A Soul Plagued By Darkness" Threads"Searching For A Way Out"

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 12, 2016 4:16:01 GMT -5 Cheshire likes this

Post by Shinkiro on Jul 12, 2016 4:16:01 GMT -5

Tact had never been part of Shinkiro's being. Regardless of rank, standing, or creed, he never minced his words. What he said wasn't what people wanted to hear, but it was what they needed to hear. Cheshire was no exception to this. Despite whatever bond they had forged, whatever sentiment that had been shared between them, he spared nothing in his words. In hindsight, perhaps it may have done the already emotional woman more good if he had catered to her ego at least a little bit. As it stood now, he could see that her reaction was one of haste and bred from a furious haze. Anger was tempering her actions and ruling her thoughts. Maybe even...disappointment? A passive tilt of his head as her own reiatsu became miasmic, the scorned woman practically bristling at his words. Even before she began to speak, he knew what route their encounter had just veered onto. Gentle resignation whispered from his lips.

Even if she didn't say it, even if she returned his venom with her own, the tumultuous roil of her soul told him what he needed to know; it answered his questions truthfully while her lips spouted subterfuge. By now he stood as he had been before; not a shred of hostility in his posture, not a spark of reiatsu out of place. Calmly he regarded her. Orchid tendrils lashed at him, yet he stood unwavering. A thin cut streaked across his cheek, trails of crimson joining then already drying rivulet from his lip. Her body trembled, his stood solid. Fury roiled within her, serenity flowed within him. Perhaps he had been indignant, had shattered what little comfort she had sought from him. Was it worth the outcome?

His gaze remained gently centered upon her as her spiritual aura roared, clothing and debris alike billowing in the storm of her temper. Another soft sigh, his hand retrieving the zanpakuto that stood nearby. It wasn't the most favorable outcome, not even the outcome he wanted, but it had been the outcome that fate had chosen for them. Would they resign themselves to spill each other's blood? To slaughter one another over groundless claims and false words? A thoughtful gleam sparked in scarlet rings as they peered ahead through the clearing fog. The true face of the one he had, with no shortage of sincerity, called---his? Was she his in any way?---little kitten. The monster that dwelt within brought to the surface. Yet even as he saw the truth of her form, he couldn't bring himself to actually harm her. Something restrained him, but what?

Slow eyes rose to the curtain of illusory steel above him. Like visceral rain they descended, a flood of every negative emotion she felt at present brought to heel and turned upon him. The cording of his zanpakuto creaked in his grasp and he raised his blade, as if to prepare an attack. And then....

His arm fell to hang idly at his side again and his eyes slid shut. With a deafening crash the blades struck. Piercing, shredding fabric, slicing into his already scarred skin and adding even more to the tapestry of combat that his body had become throughout his life. As the last blade fell, as the mountain of edged pain clumped upon him, still he stood with a complete lack of hostility. Again his hand clenched and this time, his blade actually swung, cleaving asunder the jagged mound that encased him. Splotches of red stained his clothing, trails of blood streaked down the exposed skin that could be seen through his shredded clothing.

"Even if you don't say it, I know, little kitten..." He spoke gently. His free hand rose to grip a reluctant shard that still sat pierced through his shoulder. A slight wince and a wrenching tug and it was pulled free, left to slip from his fingers and shatter upon the ground beside him. The hand that gripped his sword rose once more. But rather than lash out in retaliation, the retreating scratch of metal upon wood was heard as the sword was returned to its sheathe. His arms held disarmingly out to his side, he stepped forward, threw caution to the wind and laid his safety on the line.

"Are you sure about this? She just dropped the equivalent of a mountain of blades on you. Why are you still pushing this?" The wary sapphire eyes of his spirits peered at the feline monstrosity ahead of them from deep within the confines of his soul. An inward grin and a visual sway of his head from left to right.

"I know you've been hurt, Cheshire...but you don't need to be afraid. I won't fight you...if you feel like you need to strike me, then do it. But let me ask you this; why?"

Word Count: 812
Total Word Count: 3,525

Shinkiro| Shiori |Kaori |Kuro

Cheshire

Two of Hearts.

1,231 Posts

Reiatsu200 Defense20 Strength50 Speed80 Spirit50 ApplicationLately I've been wishing I had one desire. ThreadsSomething that would make me never want another.

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 14, 2016 4:15:00 GMT -5

Post by Cheshire on Jul 14, 2016 4:15:00 GMT -5

She felt heavy. Not physically - she had suffered very little during this trip to the Seireitei so far and her regeneration had gladly taken care of the damage she had taken from Nanami. Her body, especially in the free-er state of her release, was light as a feather. She felt like she could run laps around her opponent; which, for once in her combat career, was not necessary. The torrent of her Phantasmagoria's blades sufficed entirely in this moment to cage in and pin down Shinkiro.

No, she felt heavy from the memories and anxieties weighing her down in her head and in her heart. She felt burdened by having her pain so crassly stated to the world, as if it wasn't shameful. How could he say what she had only ever managed in a dream? How could he bare her feelings for her? What did he know of her brokenness - what did he think he knew about anything she had been through? Seeing the pain in her eyes or feeling the troubled agitation of her spirit wasn't enough for him to declare what he had. She had lived through it and it still caught in her throat.

She shook her head slowly, staring down the man that had come to take upon himself the mantle of everyone who had led her on this path. He wanted to know her pain so badly? She would make sure he did. She'd give back the suffering the world had put her through. She'd make sure he wasn't allowed what it had taken from her. Her happiness. Her assuredness. Her sense of self.

He lifted his arm and she felt a twinge in her chest, a skip of the beat of her pulse in - excitement? Her face shown nothing but the emptiness she was about to inflict on him. The false steel descended, converging terribly as if an iron maiden for his retribution: a penance she was doling out. What she couldn't do to Jian. Crimes no one else would face. His sword raised, poised -

And he dropped it, the sickening shear of blade after blade impaling him cutting through the air and ringing in her ears. She had frozen in shock. It was no sooner than they had pierced his skin that they evaporated into nothing, unable to maintain the shapes of a desire that no longer burned. She just.... stared, her eyes wide-rimmed and emotions once more clearly showing on her sharp features.

Hey, you reacted wrong.

It was a childish thought, one born of a displeased indignance. She watched carefully as his sword sheathed, slit, feline pupils flitting back and forth between him and his actions. He started to speak again, his voice both a blessing and a rise to her boiling resentment. "Shut up.", she managed to hiss, taking another step forward. She had re-increased the distance between them with her release and was more than happy to close it now that the situation was wholly in her favor once more.

"What do you think you know -" You've been hurt, "Shut up!" She was screeching by this point, her lips pulled back over monstrously sharpened teeth. Her eyes burned with liquid fire - gold - and served to add heat to her chaotic expression. She was burning up, her reiatsu lashing angrily in a mirror of her frenzied mental state. "What right do you have to say any of this?! Who do you think you are?!"

Another angry step, her claws curling against her palms at her side. Her fur bristled, ears splaying back against her hair and tail giving a dangerous, curt flick to the air behind her. "Afraid? You think I'm scared?" Her tone seemed to want to laugh but the rest of her posture completely disagreed with any merriment, even snide. "Of what? You? This world? Myself?"

"I'm not scared, Shinkiro.", she stated simply, her stare wavering in its intensity before focusing once again. She slowly raised an arm, golden sand crystallizing and shaping the air above his head. It sluggishly filled out the form of another sword - a very large one, hanging directly over him. A sword of judgement. It hummed with her energy, twirling minutely in a slow axis. She had nothing else to add: what could she add? "This is nothing more than punishment for your disobedience," she finally found she could reply, narrowing her eyes.

And so the guillotine hung, waiting to carry out its destiny and end his. "I don't need more of a reason than that. I never have." She waited for the raise of his blade that never came, stalling out the moment. "So why won't you fight back? Why do you so eagerly accept your death? Are you an idiot, or have you just finally realized your place?"

[ 798 | 4056 ]

We're singing I believe that lovers should be chained together and thrown into a fire with their songs and letters, and left there to burn.
Left there to burn in their arrogance.

Shinkiro

Everyone's got a dark side. Some avoid it, I chose to harness it.

612 Posts

Reiatsu300 Defense110 Strength70 Speed70 Spirit50 Application"A Soul Plagued By Darkness" Threads"Searching For A Way Out"

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Jul 14, 2016 5:41:03 GMT -5 Cheshire likes this

Post by Shinkiro on Jul 14, 2016 5:41:03 GMT -5

He could feel the turmoil in her spirit, could actually see the back and forth tug of her emotions vying for dominance in her actions. She had expected him to lash out at her, and truthfully, a part of him did want to strike out and return an equal if not greater amount of punishment back upon her. But a bigger part sympathized with her, the more humane part of him. It was a part of him that had only recently manifested, brought on by that very darkness that had been forcibly exhumed all those months ago. She listened to his words, but it seemed that she didn't actually hear them; she was going through the motions, effectively letting his words slip past her like a wayward breeze. Still she denied the truth, adamantly standing on a facade that was very obviously crumbling beneath her. He did, regardless of how reluctant she was to believe it, he knew.

Like a cornered beast she bared her fangs at him, words seeking to cut into him even deeper than the conjured blades had. He suffered more superficial lashes from her hectic reiatsu, yet still he stood with patient sympathy. The soothing scarlet of his own gaze sought to chill the boiling gold of hers. What right did he have? He pondered the question for a moment, seeking the answer himself before relaying it properly to her. Before he hadn't thought himself above her, in fact he viewed her no differently than he would anyone else; perhaps therein lay the source of her fury. His expression softened further and his gaze remained locked with hers.

She took another step towards him, yet he remained passively rooted, arms still splayed out at his sides and every weapon of his arsenal securely holstered, be it his zanpakuto physically in its sheathe or his spiritual energies begrudgingly dormant within him. He could strike back, it was well within his capabilities to do so; he chose not to. She was already a tightly wound bundle of nerves, practically vibrating in her attempt to only slightly maintain a semblance of composure. Or perhaps that's what Shinkiro let himself think about her current demeanor. She questioned him, derisively at that. He didn't verbally respond, yet the expression that he returned her questions with was perhaps answer enough.

But aren't you? Who are you trying to convince of that?

His jaw clenched briefly as the answer came hastily after. In that short moment where the conviction wavered in her eyes, he knew that even she didn't believe the declaration she had so desperately been trying to pass off as truth. Shinkiro could feel the energy being gathered even as his gaze shifted away from hers to follow her arm's ascension. His focus moved away from the hand and his head craned to witness the creation of the blade above him. A small knowing chuckle. He couldn't help that it had happened; the note had left his lips before he fully realized it. Minutely the watchful crimson tracked the slow revolution of the blade, seemingly mesmerized by the lazed pirouette it performed.

"Punishment...I see..." A hushed whisper, lips barely moving to utter the simple phrase. His gaze lowered to center on her again, a certain type of resignation...or perhaps resolution, present in his expression. Any moment now the blade would descend, and then what? Would it be enough to end him? He could still feel Kuro clawing at his restraints, frantic to break free and intercept this fate in a bid for self-preservation; Shinkiro wouldn't let him, not this time.

"What are you doing, you foolish boy?! Are you truly so pathetic you would allow yourself to be struck down so pitifully? Enough of this! Do you think this will rid you of me? That is wishful thinking, boy! As long as you exist, so will I! You'll never be free of me! I'll continue to haunt you for the rest of your days! If you want so badly to be free, then let me free and let yourself fall into the darkness!" For the first time, Shinkiro could actually hear the panic in Kuro's voice, and it made the faintest twinge of triumph present itself at the corner of his lips. It was a small victory, and would likely pass quickly, but it was a victory all the same. Despite his hysterical growling, there was a ring of truth to Kuro's words. As long as Shinkiro lived, so too would Kuro. Her questions intermingled with his own thoughts that ran through his head.

Why won't you fight back?

As long as you exist, so will I.

Why do you so eagerly accept your death?

His eyes slid shut, sifting through the thoughts. Dawning realization slowly settled over him, a sort of serene peace that he hadn't experienced in a long while. It wasn't his death he was accepting. In fact, it was the opposite; he accepted himself. For the longest time, he had been afraid of what he truly was, afraid of what Kuro represented in him. Yet now, for the first time, he understood. In order to move forward, he had to accept everything he is and everything that he was. He inhaled, the held breath being released in a relieved sigh, feeling as if a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders. Once more his eyes opened and serene ruby beheld chaotic amber.

"I'm not fighting back because...that's not what you need from me. And I'm not accepting my death..." A soft chuckle as he shook his head, a thoughtful glance spared towards the hovering blade before meeting Cheshire's gaze again.

"I'm accepting myself. And honestly yeah, I guess I am a bit of an idiot since it took me so long to get to this point. But that's not important. I think...that's what you've needed, someone to accept you for who you are. You've always had to influence and manipulate..." A slight grin that passed just as quickly as it had formed.

"I'm not exactly saying that I'm the person to give you that, but you've helped me to accept who I am, so I'd like to help you in return if I can." A single hand reached out in presentation, a wordless offer of his assistance. From the depths of his soul, a befouled growl of defiance.

"Do you think this changes anything? Because you believe you've had some kind of epiphany am I suppose to roll over and show my belly just like that? Think again, boy! It won't be that easy." Shinkiro could feel Kuro's gaze smoldering within him, defiant to his core. Shinkiro, however, didn't grow angry or irritated. Instead, he met Kuro's glower with his own challenging smirk.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore. But soon, before this is all over, you'll be afraid of me, you can count on that."

Word Count: 1,178
Total Word Count: 4,703

Last Edit: Jul 14, 2016 5:43:32 GMT -5 by Shinkiro

Shinkiro| Shiori |Kaori |Kuro

Cheshire

Two of Hearts.

1,231 Posts

Reiatsu200 Defense20 Strength50 Speed80 Spirit50 ApplicationLately I've been wishing I had one desire. ThreadsSomething that would make me never want another.

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Aug 6, 2016 5:57:31 GMT -5

Post by Cheshire on Aug 6, 2016 5:57:31 GMT -5

The guillotine hung.

She was still waiting for him to pull the trigger.

Her lips curved in a snarl, her eyes widening and then slanting to mirror the unsteady slit of her pupils. As erratic as the beat of her heart, wavering yet still trying so desperately to keep herself bound together. Anger - anger was good. Wrath and indignation could keep your body moving. If she just stayed mad: if she could just be mad at him, be anything more than this slowly sinking feeling under the guise of her outrage... maybe.

Maybe...? He looked so relax, so accepting of this fate - for a moment she swore she saw the hints of a victorious spirit on his otherwise casual expression, a triumph softening his features and making this... making this... making... She bit down on her lip, a muffled, pathetic noise swallowed back in a pump of her throat. Uneven breaths, unsteady fingers. She lurched forward after a moment of this, opening her mouth to yell but finding herself cut off by his own declaration that same instant. Her words died.

That's not what you need, he says.

Think about what you need.

"Stop," she managed, her voice a coarse and tiny whisper. Once more images were flashing through her thoughts, weighing her down until her hand fell from the accusatory point she had been in the process of thrusting his way. She retained some semblance of her visage, her pleading tone masked with this until the last lingering seconds that the word hung in the air.

You don't need to be Queen.

"No." Again, another weak and flimsy attempt. Her eyes caught his, the molten gold melting from her irides and the sclera starting to clear once more while her release sparked in and out of existence across her frame. Instability. Everything always came back around to her instability. Her ears splay back, a cornered and wounded cat with a steadily drooping tail. It was a nice metaphor to the way her heart slowly fell, from her chest to the hole formed by her very emptiness as a creature of desire.

She had never been a fan of such symbolism.

You're not what I needed.

"Y... you're so dumb, Shinkiro." Her speech now was a strange, broken mix between a hiss and a whine. She was shaking her head, that tremble returning to her frame. A step forward, her guard relaxed unintentionally to bare her hurt with an outstretch of her arms. "Accept me for who I am? This - this is what I am, Shinigami! Look at me!"

Don't look at me. "Look at me!" Another shout, rocking her shrinking form and shaking the ground underneath the uneven steps of her feet. Her fur bristled the times that it happened to exist, otherwise her being was a mesh of static images and bright eyes. "I am -"

Queen?

Nothing?

Desire?

Love?

A monster?

A means to an end?

"I -" And those words caught again, damning her spiraling despair. I don't even know what I am. "God, shut up already with your stupid fucking bullshit!" She looked positively stricken, creases formed in the tight lines of her face. Her advance stalled for a moment for her to scream, eyes squeezing shut periodically during the flight of her chastisement. "You just need to be accepted, Cheshire. You're hurt, Cheshire. Oh, Cheshire, I'm coming to terms with myself." She mocked him, a gravely tone underlying every inflicted word. "Why should I - I don't give a damn what - You're not -"

"None of this matters - shut up!", she almost tripped over herself as she scrabbled forward another step, clawing at the air for a hold that couldn't stop her fall. Her knees buckled but she remained on her feet, arched and panting. The silence distended, looming over both of them much in the same way the blade still did above his head. It had started shaking and disintegrating, as well, mirroring her precarious form. She clenched her extended hand into a fist, trying to straighten the path of the sword before she swung it down: though only managed to iron out her own limbs, shaken but standing taller. "You can't just stand there!"

This isn't how you're supposed to be reacting. "You're not - Fight back!" She shrieked, desperation clearer than her roughly manufactured anger. "My life, how I've lived it, the things I've done... you're not here to absolve me of that!"

"I don't want forgiveness! I don't want your damn acceptance! I-" She arced her arm through the air, swiping at nothing. Her chest heaved, Ress stabilizing for the moment that her fingers flared between them both. Just like that the blade above his head crumbled to crystallized sand and evaporated, leaving not a trace of its brief existence save for the replica now primed heavy in her grasp. Its tip pointed at him and she yelled - wordless, breathless - lunging forward in a sudden Sonido that had her pressing it against his chest. She didn't impale him; just stood hunched, gasping for air and rationalizations with the false steel pricking his clothing.

"Do something!"

Anything.

[ 851 | 4907 ]

We're singing I believe that lovers should be chained together and thrown into a fire with their songs and letters, and left there to burn.
Left there to burn in their arrogance.

Shinkiro

Everyone's got a dark side. Some avoid it, I chose to harness it.

612 Posts

Reiatsu300 Defense110 Strength70 Speed70 Spirit50 Application"A Soul Plagued By Darkness" Threads"Searching For A Way Out"

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro] Aug 21, 2016 0:29:08 GMT -5

Post by Shinkiro on Aug 21, 2016 0:29:08 GMT -5

Something was changing in the feline Arrancar. Long before he could actually see the change, he sensed it. That wavering and lack of surety with which she perpetually struggled to keep hidden was slowly peeking through; the facade that she wore was breaking. She muttered something, a feeble attempt at speaking that earned a curious tilt of his head. He hadn't caught the exact word that had been spoken, yet the following word was more than clear enough; she had said no. What eluded him, however, was exactly why she said no. His brow wrinkled in a thoughtful frown, however brief that moment might have been. The manifestation of her past self wavered, flickering on the border between stability and regression. Maybe his words had gotten through to her after all. He took a half step forward, the calm expression still present on his countenance. Had she chosen to let him help her?

The answer was a decidedly resounding no.

He uttered a quiet sigh at her verbal barb, the patience never leaving his gaze for a moment as he regarded her. A step forward and a presentation of herself, yet it wasn't the "her" that she really saw herself as. From the chaotic nature of her spiritual presence and the way her transformation struggled to maintain itself, Shinkiro was certain that there was an internal struggle bringing itself to the surface after decades---centuries? How long had Cheshire been lost? Unsure of herself or her goals?---of being suppressed and buried deep within. Again she verbally lashed out, and again Shinkiro returned her barbs with a patient gaze, his expression still as calm as it had been the moment he accepted who and what he was. She scrambled forward, and Shinkiro had instinctively began to reach out a hand to offer assistance, though it quickly fell to idleness at his side.

"Cheshire...it does matter." He spoke in an even tone, making certain not to speak with any inkling of hostility; he was trying to diffuse the situation, the last thing that either of them needed was for it to be exacerbated. His focus slowly rose to the still hanging executioner's blade above him, and even now he could still feel Kuro's futile clawing to break free and the apprehensive gazes of his twin spirits. For the moment, he had kept all of them in the dark as to what he was trying to achieve. Of course, he also suffered no delusion that they could figure it out on their own if they put enough thought into it. The seemingly mesmerized stare that watched the looming instrument of demise lowered to the outstretched fist clenched and pointed at him. She still wanted him to retaliate, to fight her; he wouldn't.

"I never said that it was my job to absolve you of any "sins" or mistakes or whatever you want to call them, nor have I ever claimed to want to do such. I'm only offering to help you the same way you've helped me." He slowly shook his head, a pause to gather his thoughts then he proceeded.

"You haven't done anything that I would need to forgive you for, and I'm sure any acceptance from me amounts to fuck all. I doubt anyone would really want any acceptance from me." A diffusive chuckle, a likely poor attempt at lightening the mood just a little bit. Unfortunately, it seemed not to have any effect at all, or worse yet it was the opposite of what he intended. The blade above him crumbled, only to shortly after be replaced by a more manageable one within Cheshire's grasp. His eyes studied it, dissecting and reconstructing the blade's composition in his mind. Silently she lunged, yet even with every instinct within him wanting to prime himself for defense---to dodge, to parry, to react---he stood still and watched the spectral weapon. Now even she was echoing the urgency of his instincts, demanding that he be more than the unreadable and unfaltering stone that he had currently become.

"Do something..." He parroted faintly, attentive crimson still peering at the weapon primed at his chest. Slowly his hands rose to press flatly against the blade on each of its flat sides, effectively sandwiching the weapon within his grasp as he continued to stare at it. He pressed more firmly, a small frown wrinkling his brow for a brief moment.

"You wouldn't dare! Even you're not that stupid!" Kuro hissed, though there was a panicked dread in his voice as he began to claw even more frantically at his restraints. Shinkiro couldn't help but to smirk at the Inner Hollow's panic. He wondered exactly what Kuro thought he was going to do.

"Whoa, hey now, Shin, are you sure that's what you want to do? I don't think that'll solve anything." Now it was Shiori that was chiming in, her concern evident in her voice.

"Yeah! You just had a great breakthrough! Do you know how long we've waited for you to get to this point? I mean yeah, there's more progress that still needs to be made, but this is a really good first step. Are you going to just throw away that progress by offing yourself?" Kaori joined in on the impromptu---albeit unnecessary and groundless---intervention. Initially Shinkiro remained silent even with the followup berating from Kuro and dissuasive remarks from the twins. There was a shift in his reiatsu, a subtle sway in its output and its composition. Marginally he shifted the point that threatened to pierce his heart until it was lined up with the still gaping wound from the shard he had removed just moments prior. Then, he did something that would likely surprise both Cheshire and his spirits alike.

He released his hold on the blade and stepped forward. The serene acceptance upon his face was replaced by a pained wince as he pushed forward, to the point where the conjured sword was pierced completely through his shoulder. Lodged at a point just shy of half of the sword's length, Shinkiro calmly raised his hands, against the screaming pain of his left shoulder, and gently placed both of his hands over the solitary one of Cheshire's that held the sword's handle. Carefully he pried the handle from her hand, his left arm dropping to hang limply at his side while his other hand carefully cupped against the Arrancar's cheek.

"There, I did something. It hurts like hell and it's probably not what you were expecting, but I did it. The point? Mainly to get Kuro to finally shut up for a bit...and I guess to scare my Zanpakuto spirits a little in the process. I'm pretty sure they thought I was going to suicide or something." He chuckled and shook his head, pushing on with his statement.

"Anyway, I started rambling, what was I---oh, right. You're not alone, you never have been. Maybe you've just been...looking in the wrong place, I guess? I don't know, my thoughts are getting loopy from the blood loss." He muttered as his hand slipped down from her cheek and instead coiled around the handle jutting from his shoulder. With a pained grunt he wrenched the sword free, a sputtering scarlet spray being his reward for the endeavor. He took a few stumbling steps back then settled against a nearby wall for support, a haggard sigh escaping him.

"I'm just going to...stand here for a bit. I had something else I wanted to say, give me a moment to think of it."

Word Count: 1,274
Total Word Count: 5,977

Last Edit: Aug 21, 2016 0:29:37 GMT -5 by Shinkiro

Shinkiro| Shiori |Kaori |Kuro

Bleach Gotei

Prince of Clubs [Shinkiro]

Post by Cheshire on Jun 29, 2016 16:10:08 GMT -5

Post by Shinkiro on Jul 2, 2016 3:30:26 GMT -5

Post by Cheshire on Jul 9, 2016 19:30:32 GMT -5

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Post by Shinkiro on Aug 21, 2016 0:29:08 GMT -5

Welcome!