Piercing Light

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari Bloodworth

In the midst of agonizing pain Kusari's bloodshot eyes winced as the sky brightened. Was she dying? Why was it suddenly so bright and where was the tunnel she'd always heard about? Her chattering teeth stopped as she forced her mouth shut and closed her eyes. As if, she wouldn't die that easily. Nothing in life was easy, in contrast everything about death was. You no longer existed, there was no need to feel misery, happiness, sadness, nothing. Of course she couldn't get off that easily.

"Kusari, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

A man's voice rang against the dull corners of her mind like a dust covered bell. Why was she remembering her father now?

"You want to be an artist like your old man huh? Well I should warn you, us artists have to suffer for our art."

That's right, he'd said something like that once hadn't he? Just how much talent must I have by now... Kusari thought.

She opened her eyes, and was shocked to see that she was somewhere else. Water, there was water all around her. At her feet, above her and behind. It was as if she were inside an empty cube of air under the ocean. She couldn't quite place why, but it looked familar. She took an uneasy step forward, and her right leg sunk into the water. She struggled to pull it out, when the sound of her father's laughter run in her mind once more.

"As expected of my daughter. Well when you draw that masterpiece that can ease an artist's suffering, I'd like to be the first to see it." Her father's voice faded, and Kusari stopped struggling. She'd forgotten that bit, maybe because it was too embarrassing to remember.

"I don't want anyone to suffer for art, I want art to make everyone happy." She repeated the words she'd spoken as a child, it all seemed so ridiculous now. Her leg eased back out of the water, and she only just now noticed how dirty she was, covered in grime. But the ocean had cleaned her leg, made it look perfect...

Kusari opened her eyes once more, someone's crying face was hovering over her. It was Emma. "Kusari... it's..." She looked like she was about to say something, but she stopped. Instead she spoke to her, asking if there was any way she could help. Kusari tried to speak, but only ended up spitting up blood. She spat it away from Emma, and looked back to her.

"That's... Better. Platitudes... Useless." She barely managed to speak, her throat still feeling as if she'd swallowed a container of rusty razor blades. Before Kusari could try to actually respond, Emma went to action herself, using her power to summon creatures and command them to stop the doll that was headed their way. "I... can get up." Kusari muttered, holding the cloth on her neck herself and standing to her feet. Her... feet?

She looked down at her legs, and her eyes widened in disbelief. She had only tried to stand because it was second nature, the last time she checked her leg was barely attached to her body, and now in it's place was something she was having a hard time believing was there. At first glance it looked like the leg of a raptor, however the three claws were crimson red and gleamed like polished steel, and her skin still appeared smooth, albeit a bit bulkier. She took a step back and wobbled like a newborn fawn, the new limb not only looked alien it felt it too. What the hell was she supposed to do with this?

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

OOC notes

This post contains sections written by RedDusk

Kusari Bloodworth

The moment Kusari stepped off the truck a chill went down her back. She had seen Dreamcatcher's creatures before but this was the first time she had been so close, and she would now be fighting against them. Her chest heaved up and down as she took a deep breath, at least these weren't made by DC himself, they were just imitations. Her eyes narrowed, and her breathing eased. As long as she stayed calm, she could think. She listened to Eric, and watched as a girl from his team marked groups of the monsters for them to handle. It was an interesting ability, but this was hardly the time to be curious about it.

Lawrence tossed a knife to Kusari, reminding her of what she'd said in the truck. Catching the knife, she walked over to Sander as the others moved away from the truck. "Let's not make this long." She said, flipping the blade out and pressing it to her left wrist. The cut had to be deep, otherwise it could heal too quickly. She clenched her teeth, and quickly slashed her wrist open. A gasp that couldn't be helped left her mouth, the sudden pain was more intense than she thought it would be. Blood was flowing from the wound, trickling down her hand and dripping to the ground. "Here." She grunted, trying not to scream as she held her arm out to Sander.

Color drained from Sander’s face, but he moved forward nevertheless. The hesitation from earlier had evaporated, replaced by an eerie calmness as he reached out to grasp Kusari’s bleeding arm and brought it to his mouth. He drank deeply, not letting even one drop go to waste.

Kusari winced as Sander grabbed her arm without a word and began to drink her blood. Needless to say this was awkward, so she busied her eyes looking at the battlefield. The oversized eyeball was interrupted from launching an attack, instead firing upwards. What looked like glitter fell on the others in her group, it didn't appear to do much damage to anyone put Hazel. It seemed her arms were vulnerable while using her power. A bit of the glitter blew towards her and Sander, it stung as it touched her skin, but it was nothing her body wouldn't heal within a moment.

"Hey, that's enough, isn't it?" She said, looking back to the boy. She was beginning to feel light headed.

Sander didn’t give any indication that he heard what she said and kept his mouth glued to her bleeding wrist. If anything, his grip on her strengthened. As moments passed and the bleeding slowed, he grunted, then bit down on her wrist hard. His free hand clamped over her throat and pushed, shoving her back against the truck.

As her wrist began to heal and her bleeding slowed, Sander bit into her. "Ow! What the fuck!? Listen to me dammit, let go!" She screamed, trying to yank her arm away, but his grip only tightened. His other hand went to her throat, and she suddenly felt the truck slam against her back. This is what she got for being so charitable...

"When I said all that you need..." She gripped the knife, and jammed it into the arm he was using to hold her bleeding wrist. "I meant it, you dipshit!"

The sudden pain seemed to bring some semblance of sense back into Sander’s mind. He cried out, his iron grip loosened as he staggered back. His eyes widened momentarily as he looked at his roommate, breaths labored. He would have pulled off the ‘deer in the headlight’ look quite well, had it not been for the crimson hues that enveloped his pupils and the blood stains on his lips. Realizing what he had done, he hastily let go of Kusari, mumbling jumbled apologies and cradling his wounded arm. Before she could say anything else, he turned and dashed, heading to the battlefield like a cornered beast toward its escape.

The knife dropped to the ground as her hold on it faltered, stabbing Sander seemed to use up much of her stamina. He let go of her arm, but still held her by the neck. She didn't say anything as he stared at her, his eyes wide and now crimson red. The loss of blood surely was effecting her, because in this situation all she could think was "He's one step away from being nothing but a monster, yet those eyes aren't nearly as scarlet as mine... How annoying."

Sander's apologies were barely heard before he ran away to the battlefield. Kusari's vision went black for a second, and her body slumped down the side of the truck once she was released. The sounds around her faded as if she were under water, she tried to get to her feet but ended up flat on her back instead. Her wrist had only just stopped bleeding, it would take a few more moments for her blood to regenerate. In the meantime, she was gazing at the sky. "There's a point to all of this, right?" She said, her voice low and hardly audible. "If there is, please get to it already."

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

A plate of food sat in front of Kusari, it's contents being prodded this way and that by a plastic fork. Lobster, steak, french fires, steamed vegetables, the plate was loaded. When she had entered the cafeteria she was surprised to see the vast amount of food on display. When she asked how much she'd need to pay, she was shocked to hear that it was all free. She'd lived for years eating very little, her mother couldn't afford to feed both herself and her daughter a healthy meal every day. When was the last time she'd had a decent meal, she'd wondered, piling food haphazardly on a plastic plate. It didn't take much to make her feel full, a feeling that was nostalgic in it's rarity. Now she was left with a bunch of food she couldn't force down.

She placed a hand on her side, feeling her ribs. She didn't want to think about it but she was close to starving before she was captured. She couldn't help but wonder what her mother was doing, was she eating well? Surely her mother was actually thinking of her daughter's best interests? At least she had food and a proper bed here... Kusari gritted her teeth, and threw the food into the trash. "Wouldn't that be nice..." She mumbled to herself, heading back to her room.

Before she could arrive, a loud siren blared throughout the school. A synthesized voice spoke from unseen speakers thrice, a silence in between each time. Students around her all at once began moving and yelling, Kusari wasn't sure what she should be doing. Were they really going to be fighting a Precursor? Why did she have to do this? The only fighting she'd ever done was getting into fist fights with idiots in the streets. Maybe she could just sit this one out, she doubted how useful her ability would be in combat anyway.

As if on cue the cuff on her ankle beeped, and the voice of the Director herself could be heard. Kusari stood still, listening with a stern expression. A red light appeared on her anklet, she stared at it as her heart began to pound. This was really happening, she would be forced to fight those terrible monsters created by a rogue Precursor. A soldier eventually had to come and guide her via the barrel of a gun. Her mind felt like a fishbowl tossed into a raging sea, she could almost hear the angry ocean swirling in her ears...

Soon enough the other members of her team and a familiar transparent truck came into view. Along with her two roommates, there was the boy that helped brief them when they first arrived, he had more coffee with him. Two familiar girls were also there, Kusari didn't bother talking and simply got into the truck as instructed.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Forgot to mention that Kusari's ankles are still cuffed in my initial post, edited it to clarify, sorry.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Kusari Bloodworth

When I was forced to be cuffed and chained to complete strangers, and then herded into a transparent truck, I was a little bewildered. What kind of nonsense material was it made out of? It reminded me of the transparent aluminum from Star Trek, but it seemed to be more durable. I pondered the point of transparent transport trucks, perhaps they wanted easy visual contact of their not so precious cargo in case anyone tried something stupid. I looked at the magical binding cuffs on my wrists, even if someone wanted to break out these would stop it. I lowered my hands and gazed at the floor. There was some sort of spell placed there, most likely a last resort option to deal with any escape attempts. Honestly, they were treating us as if we were convicted mass murderers. I glanced at those around me, I didn't know any of them, perhaps one of them had killed someone. I let out a sigh, apparently that wouldn't even matter where we were going.

At some point the truck stopped, I looked up to see why, considering they were so intent on stopping for nothing before. A golden light shined in the sky, I strained my eyes to see what it was. Two women, dressed as if they had just woken up. I recognized them, it was Sparrow and Prism. What were these Precursor whores doing here? At first I thought it had something to do with us, but that didn't make sense, with how they were dressed they had clearly been called on short notice, and our transfer wasn't so sudden.

"Oh." I muttered, as monsters began to materialize, and Prism began blasting them to death. This was certainly a good enough reason to be called out. I blinked a few times as I realized something about the creatures, this was a power one of the other Precursors possessed. He hadn't been seen in years however. Why was he now appearing, and fighting the other Precursors was beyond me. I was about to tell the driver to move his fat behind and hit the gas, but he soon started moving again. As we moved further away from the battle scene, I hung my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. I wasn't even at the school and already dangerous situations were coming my way. At least the annoying boy chained to me had shut up a little, for now...

The rest of the drive seemed to past in an instant, and we were led out of the fishbowl on wheels and into the school, at least I assumed it was the school, it was just a large empty room. Soon enough a stern looking woman walked out, and introduced herself as the head of the school. What she did next was well, I know it was supposed to be scary and threatening, but for some reason seeing her try so hard just came across as kinda pitiable. Perhaps I should fear for my own life more, but... I jingled the cuffs around my wrists, suddenly a thought occurred to me. Could I die now that these were on me? A wry smile sneaked onto my face. Did I really want to die? Now was a perfect time to decide. I didn't have any particular reason to live, but I didn't have any real reason to die either.

I brushed aside the thoughts of death and looked to the guy holding a cup of coffee. I could go for an energy drink myself, I was tired. I only half listened to what he had to say, most of it was either common sense or pretty obvious information. "What a concise explanation, maybe the Director will give you a doggy treat later." I said, my mouth almost moving on it's own. Off I went with a stellar first impression as always. I turned towards Zhang and opened my mouth once again. "Why are you threatening us with a firing squad, and inviting us to be executed? Didn't some of them volunteer, and this is how you treat them? We're valuable tools for the government, aren't we? You shouldn't be so willing to throw us away just so you can look credible." My hands suddenly slipped out of the cuffs and fell to the floor. They weren't unlocked or anything, I had simply dislocated joints in my hands. It took a while to do it while on the truck, I had to time it with the kid with the loud mouth's rambling to make sure no one noticed. It hurt of course, but I was used to it. Thanks to my magic I used to have a bad habit of doing it to myself as a child. I raised my hands to signal that I meant no harm, my legs were still hindered by the ankle cuffs after all.

"So, how about you uncuff us and let us inside the school with open arms already? It's late and I want to get some sleep."

OOC note

Unless someone has eagle eyes they shouldn't have noticed her dislocating her hands in the truck.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

@Kyrisse

She didn't say anything, shrugged and then walked away.

ha, no comment is probably less inflammatory than one.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

It appears Kusari is going to make a bucket load of friends. (I'm not sure how deep down you need to go to reach 'nice' Kusari)

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

done

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Is it showing up now?