when the man comes around
Feb. 22nd, 2017 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deaths_headAfter his meeting with the trapped soul and her Stone Speaker, the Shade returned to the Vale to renew himself. Two days of rejuvenating sleep, drawing power from his souls and his world, and he had the strength he needed to walk into Hell and fight, if necessary, for the answers he was looking for.
Fulfilling his promise to the couple was going to take time--he had to start by naming the demon that made the bargain, and if he was fortunate, locating the sister that condemned her kin to darkness.
He was fine as he crossed the border, swam easily through the lakes of fire, and as a show of courtesy didn't take any of the shortcuts through Tartarus or Purgatory. He just mended his coat with a little power when the lakes burned holes in it, dusted the soot off his hat and boots, and made his way to the main city at its heart. If he'd pulled a few strings, he could have spoken with Satan himself--it was his right, as a lord of the dead. It was a right he'd shed blood and destroyed souls for, a right that brought demons and angels alike to his doorstep, turning their back on God and Satan to serve him instead.
No, it was in Hell's darker corners where the Shade made his inquiries. He didn't hide his presence, but it was on side roads and in the badlands where he spoke to disenfranchised souls and rogue demons, where he sought names and even faces to put to his hunt. His only mistake was to look into the armies of Hell...not when he'd decimated so many of their rank during the war.
Not when he'd stolen one of their own--and as luck would have it, he happened to find himself up against the regiment of the flesh starved monster that now called himself Rick Grant and fed his hunger with Limbo's scavengers on the fringes of the Vale.
Rick, the man that followed him out of a sense of concern and no small amount of annoyance--not when he was having a perfectly good day in the Vale, drinking beer and watching Furies fly in the wind currents around his home...
After Rick saved him from that particular fight, he insisted on accompanying the Shade back to the realm of the living when his master refused to return to the Vale for healing. It was stiff muscles and a black eye, but wounds on a dead man were a big deal, seeing as how the dead couldn't be harmed.
"I tell you what, Boss," Rick rasped in the bold, bass tones he'd made of his voice, and in a heavy Texas drawl he'd chosen in an unconscious effort to model himself after the godling that he'd sworn his service to, "you're a damn fool for comin' to see a succubus when you damn well need to go the hell home and sack out."
The Shade glowered at Rick as they walked side by side, heading for Sparrow's front door. "It's a black eye, Rick. I'm fine."
"You're fulla shit's what you are, f' ya don't mind me sayin' so."
"I do mind."
"Tough shit." Rick replied, but with a sly enough smile to show the Shade that he was just giving the younger man a hard time. Rick had thousands of years on the Shade, having been borne long before the dawn of man, but the Shade had wisdom beyond Rick in a thousand ways. The absence of judgment in the Vale, the comfort the Shade brought the souls he claimed, the equal footing given to all who dwelt under his protection...it all poked at buttons in Rick that had been niggling at him for hundreds of years, buttons the Shade pushed just by showing up. The boy made him do more than just rattle his scales and swallow his souls with malcontent in his black heart, he made him question his very nature.
Now he had a human face, a home, a taste for good beer--hell, he even had friends. And the Shade was one of them.
"What's so important you gotta swing topside before headin' home to patch up, anyway?" Rick asked as they reached the door, the Shade reaching out to knock lightly.
"The succubus is the one I'm grantin' a favor Hellside, that's what." the Shade rumbled, folding his arms as he waited to see if she answered the door. "Got her master's name, and there's not much said 'bout him in the back alleys. Means he has his fun in the human world--and that means if she can get us an introduction, he might share a few names 'n numbers with us."
Rick sighed, head sinking to his chest for a moment as he planted his hands on his hips. "So there's a demon needs killin'?"
"Couple, if she gives her blessing."
"Pureblood?"
"Another succubus. Her twin sister."
Rick lifted his head, and when he smiled, for an instant his mouth was all fangs, bright blue eyes now empty black pits.
"Can I have her?"
"With Sparrow's blessing, you can feed at will."
Rick grinned, and in a blink he was purely human again, head shaved bald and blonde goatee betraying no trace of the high demon beneath the carefully crafted facade.
"Cool."
Fulfilling his promise to the couple was going to take time--he had to start by naming the demon that made the bargain, and if he was fortunate, locating the sister that condemned her kin to darkness.
He was fine as he crossed the border, swam easily through the lakes of fire, and as a show of courtesy didn't take any of the shortcuts through Tartarus or Purgatory. He just mended his coat with a little power when the lakes burned holes in it, dusted the soot off his hat and boots, and made his way to the main city at its heart. If he'd pulled a few strings, he could have spoken with Satan himself--it was his right, as a lord of the dead. It was a right he'd shed blood and destroyed souls for, a right that brought demons and angels alike to his doorstep, turning their back on God and Satan to serve him instead.
No, it was in Hell's darker corners where the Shade made his inquiries. He didn't hide his presence, but it was on side roads and in the badlands where he spoke to disenfranchised souls and rogue demons, where he sought names and even faces to put to his hunt. His only mistake was to look into the armies of Hell...not when he'd decimated so many of their rank during the war.
Not when he'd stolen one of their own--and as luck would have it, he happened to find himself up against the regiment of the flesh starved monster that now called himself Rick Grant and fed his hunger with Limbo's scavengers on the fringes of the Vale.
Rick, the man that followed him out of a sense of concern and no small amount of annoyance--not when he was having a perfectly good day in the Vale, drinking beer and watching Furies fly in the wind currents around his home...
After Rick saved him from that particular fight, he insisted on accompanying the Shade back to the realm of the living when his master refused to return to the Vale for healing. It was stiff muscles and a black eye, but wounds on a dead man were a big deal, seeing as how the dead couldn't be harmed.
"I tell you what, Boss," Rick rasped in the bold, bass tones he'd made of his voice, and in a heavy Texas drawl he'd chosen in an unconscious effort to model himself after the godling that he'd sworn his service to, "you're a damn fool for comin' to see a succubus when you damn well need to go the hell home and sack out."
The Shade glowered at Rick as they walked side by side, heading for Sparrow's front door. "It's a black eye, Rick. I'm fine."
"You're fulla shit's what you are, f' ya don't mind me sayin' so."
"I do mind."
"Tough shit." Rick replied, but with a sly enough smile to show the Shade that he was just giving the younger man a hard time. Rick had thousands of years on the Shade, having been borne long before the dawn of man, but the Shade had wisdom beyond Rick in a thousand ways. The absence of judgment in the Vale, the comfort the Shade brought the souls he claimed, the equal footing given to all who dwelt under his protection...it all poked at buttons in Rick that had been niggling at him for hundreds of years, buttons the Shade pushed just by showing up. The boy made him do more than just rattle his scales and swallow his souls with malcontent in his black heart, he made him question his very nature.
Now he had a human face, a home, a taste for good beer--hell, he even had friends. And the Shade was one of them.
"What's so important you gotta swing topside before headin' home to patch up, anyway?" Rick asked as they reached the door, the Shade reaching out to knock lightly.
"The succubus is the one I'm grantin' a favor Hellside, that's what." the Shade rumbled, folding his arms as he waited to see if she answered the door. "Got her master's name, and there's not much said 'bout him in the back alleys. Means he has his fun in the human world--and that means if she can get us an introduction, he might share a few names 'n numbers with us."
Rick sighed, head sinking to his chest for a moment as he planted his hands on his hips. "So there's a demon needs killin'?"
"Couple, if she gives her blessing."
"Pureblood?"
"Another succubus. Her twin sister."
Rick lifted his head, and when he smiled, for an instant his mouth was all fangs, bright blue eyes now empty black pits.
"Can I have her?"
"With Sparrow's blessing, you can feed at will."
Rick grinned, and in a blink he was purely human again, head shaved bald and blonde goatee betraying no trace of the high demon beneath the carefully crafted facade.
"Cool."
