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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Sept 12, 2016 4:55:55 GMT
She's coming.
Pitch opened his eyes as he sensed the approach of Adeline, his surroundings the same as when he first met the strange and powerful witch. He stood in the very heart of Laveau Cemetery and very little had changed between then and now on the surface, yet so much had changed on a deeper level.
Adeline had agreed at last to accept his help.
Part of him had expected the girl to simply refuse his aid when he first handed his card to her, yet after the encounter with Thrax at the Masquerade Ball and the ensuing chaos, she had agreed at last. For reasons he didn't fully understand, he was pleased by this. And while he told himself the only reason for this feeling was because it would lead him closer to finding and capturing his fellow demon Thrax, he knew that it truly wasn't the only reason.
These thoughts passed quietly across his mind as he stood in an open section of the cemetery and waited, his face as calm as ever despite trying to understand why he was so interested in Adeline, so willing to help her. |
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Sept 12, 2016 14:27:58 GMT
Adeline's parents insisted on dropping her off themselves instead of just letting her walk to the cemetery by herself. Part of it was because they were still paranoid about Thrax jumping her again. The other part, well, Adeline expected that they wanted to see Pitch face-to-face. They had spoken with him over the phone a few times, just to verify what Adeline had said about the ball and that Pitch was offering to help her, but they had never seen his face before.
"That's him over there," Adeline said as she unbuckled her seat belt.
"Whoo, that's a demon alright," Mr. Nevermore said as he peered out his window. "Even if you can't feel it, you can see it."
"I still wonder why he ended up joining the police," Mrs. Nevermore muttered to herself. "That doesn't seem natural."
"Who cares why?" Mr. Nevermore said. "The important thing is that he did, he's good, and he's willing to help our daughter."
Mrs. Nevermore couldn't argue with that. Why wonder about the details of Pitch joining the police when so much good came out of it? "We'll be back in about an hour sweetie," she said as Adeline got out of the car.
"See ya." Adeline gave a wave as she hurried off. She appreciated her parents' concern, but it made her guilty, seeing them fret over her like this. It always did, ever since she had first summoned Thrax. But she tried not to think about it as she approached Pitch. She couldn't feel guilty over this stuff forever. "Hi," she said, giving a small smile.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Sept 13, 2016 4:03:09 GMT
"You are late."
Pitch didn't turn to face Adeline immediately and instead kept his back to her, waiting for her parents to leave the graveyard. Their presence would only distract her from what they were about to do and they couldn't afford anything to distract her once they had begun. Their involvement in their daughter's life was understandable and yet the thought of it was still foreign to Pitch, who had never had anything like a family since before he could remember.
It was several long moments before Pitch finally turned and looked down at Adeline from his greater height.
"Next time you are late, do not bother coming to the cemetery. I will not be here."
These words would have sounded harsh in almost any other situation, but Pitch's complete lack of anger or annoyance or any emotion made it sound like an obvious fact, like the sky being blue or water being wet.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Sept 13, 2016 16:27:07 GMT
"Yeah, sorry about that," Adeline said. It had taken a bit to get her parents out the door. They had fretted about what she should wear, if she should bring anything, etc. They weren't sure what exactly was going to happen, after all. In the end, Adeline had just brought herself, and was wearing jeans and an old T-shirt. No doubt this situation was similar to her parents dropping her off at school for the first time. They didn't really know what to expect. In a way though, they had always been like this, even before she had summoned Thrax. They were the typical dotting parents who wanted to make sure their little girl was okay. Pitch's voice sounded casual though, almost monotonous. Adeline wondered if he was always like this.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Sept 14, 2016 0:40:19 GMT
Pitch didn't respond to Adeline's apology and instead moved straight into the reason they were there. He began to slowly circle her, speaking as he did so while at the same time allowing his senses to take in everything about the young woman, searching to see what had changed in her since the masquerade ball.
"The first thing you must know before we begin properly is that Demons are beings of deception. They masquerade as many things and appear in many guises yet always remain true to their nature. In turn, they feed off of the lies and falsehoods of humanity and grown stronger where these deceits have taken root. If you are to defeat the demonic shard placed inside of you, you must speak nothing but truth from this point onward. To lie now will only serve to feed it."
The demon had finished his examination of Adeline and came to stand in front of her once more, waiting for her to confirm her understanding of what he had just said. During their trainings together, she needed to remain completely honest no matter what. Otherwise she would risk strengthening the piece of Thrax inside her.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Sept 14, 2016 1:00:03 GMT
Adeline bit her lip. Pitch was certainly giving off an intimidating vibe, circling around her like a lion sizing up its next meal. Well, maybe it wasn't quite like that. Pitch was intimidating, but not enough to seriously scare Adeline. It looked like he was just a stern kind of guy. In all fairness though, Pitch was asking her a pretty serious thing: to be honest with him. She couldn't lie about anything here. It was a tall order to fill. Adeline tended to keep things to herself, white lie a little bit so others wouldn't worry about her. It had always been a habit of hers. But she couldn't do that here. If she wanted Pitch to help her, she had to tell him like it was. She gave a nod. "Right. Understood," she said.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Sept 14, 2016 4:41:16 GMT
"Good. You must also learn to master your anger."
Suddenly, Pitch reached out a hand and pushed Adeline hard in the shoulder, hard enough to make her trip and fall to the overgrown ground on which they stood. There was no maliciousness in the act, but there was cold calculation in it and he waited in silence, ready to see how the young girl would react to this act.
"Now tell me, what do you feel?"
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Sept 14, 2016 18:20:56 GMT
No sooner had Pitch mentioned mastering anger that he gave Adeline a hard shove. She gave a little squeak as she fell to the ground. Her first reaction was to glare at him and snap "Hey, what the heck?" But, when he asked how she felt, she realized that that was just part of the exercise. Had she always snapped at people like that so quickly? She wasn't sure. "Mad, I guess," she replied as she got to her feet. Although she was also a bit curious as to what this would lead up to.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Sept 15, 2016 4:46:10 GMT
"Precisely. You reacted in anger before you had even paused to properly think."
He watched as she rose back to her feet before continuing to speak.
"Anger and rage are yet another emotion demons use to manipulate people and strengthen themselves. Those consumed by fury or frustration do not stop and use their reasoning or attempt to understand the situation they have been placed in. Rather, they act upon this wrath and only later stop to consider the consequences or outcomes of their acts."
Pitch paused at this. Although he said nothing, it was clear enough that he was making a reference to the masquerade when she had been so enraged by Thrax's escape that she had come close to harming those present at the time.
"That is not to say anger does not have its proper place, but it must be tempered and controlled. Only then may it become a driving and energizing force, a determination that can see one through the most difficult of times. Respect it, direct it, and it will give you great strength. Do nothing and it can destroy you."
Pitch paused. He gazed down at Adeline before suddenly letting his eyes wander across the expanse of graves and tombs that lay all around them. Deception and lies. Anger and rage. All of these were the Moral weaknesses that demons preyed so freely upon.
But there was one last vulnerability, perhaps the most dangerous and difficult to overcome, that he wondered if he could even help Adeline overcome it.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Sept 15, 2016 16:08:07 GMT
Pitch's words were blunt, but they were truthful. And Adeline understood what he was talking about. More often than not, the reason she lost control was because she got angry. In a way, she had a lot to be angry about. She had made a stupid mistake, and it had cost her a lot. Any aspects of normalcy in her life had been taken away. She glanced up at Pitch before asking "How do you control your anger? I mean, you must see a lot stuff on the job that makes you mad. How do you just..." She hesitated for a moment. She had been about to say "not feel it" but she knew that wasn't entirely true. Even somebody like Pitch had to feel anger every once in a while. The difference though, was whether you let it control you or not.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Sept 16, 2016 3:29:39 GMT
"Not feel it?"
Pitch retuned his gaze to Adeline, aware of what the woman was going to say. It wasn't unexpected and it was a common misconception about demons. Still, there was some truth within it as well.
"Demons do not feel emotions in the same way as humans and most Others experience. Our thresholds for such feelings are infinitely higher than those of Mortals and therefore requires a much more intense experience in order to elicit an emotional response."
Pitch could have continued in this vein of thought for a length of time, explaining to the young girl how the older a demon became, the more distant emotions became as well. Or how it different from demon to demon just as it did for humans. He could have discussed his own experience and how at most times he felt little beyond boredom and mild contempt. However, that was not what they were there for.
"Now, deception, lies, anger, rage. These are all tools that demons use in order to gain power and control over humans and Others alike. However, their greatest weapon is one that every living, thinking creature on this plain of existence feels. Fear."
At this word, a soft wind blew through the tombstones of the graveyard, creating a distant moaning sound as the sun seemed to dim behind a bank of clouds. It was as if the word itself even had power. Fear.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Sept 16, 2016 16:14:40 GMT
"Oh." So that was how it worked. Pitch was kind of a master at controlling emotions, but he also had the benefit of not feeling them quite as easily as Adeline. She wondered what had to happen, to get a strong response from him. Probably something really bad, or really good. When he said that fear was what demons used to the most to get a hold over someone, she could definitely attest to that. "You got that right," she said to herself. Using fear, Thrax could scare Adeline, even if he wasn't really there. He could make her anxious and paranoid, fearful that he would turn up at any second. He seemed to be able to do that pretty well, almost as if it were second nature.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Sept 17, 2016 4:15:58 GMT
"Indeed."
Pitch closed his eyes for a moment, letting the breeze pass through the tombstones until silence had once more descended over the graveyard.
"While all of demonkind can use this to a degree, each belongs to a different group based on their powers and abilities. One of the most powerful of these are the Terror Demons. I am a Terror Demon."
When Pitch opened his eyes, something seemed to flicker in the very depths of his eyes, some part of him from the past and a memory that would never leave him.
Promise me.
The voice spoke to him across time, the voice of a young man lying in a spreading pool of his own blood in a deserted factory. His intense brown eyes, full of pain yet filled with a focus and hope beyond words, were looking up. A crimson-stained hand came forward to grasp at him, to hold him in place as if he had been paralyzed. Through the soaked vest he wore, a golden badge was just visible over his heart. And his last words as the life bled out of him.
Promise me.
Suddenly, without realizing he had done so, Pitch brought his hand forward and lightly grabbed at the leftish side of his chest. It was almost as if he had experienced a brief pain.
"Or rather, I once was."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Sept 17, 2016 18:35:03 GMT
Adeline blinked. The name "Terror Demon" sounded scary enough on its own. Pitch certainly seemed to look the part. She remembered being spooked by him the first time they had met. No doubt he could strike fear into anybody just by looking at them. That probably came in handy when apprehending criminals. Who would want to go up against somebody like him? But, being totally scary didn't seem to be Pitch's game anymore, as he regarded his Terror Demon title in the past tense. "Why'd you decide to leave it behind?" she asked. Who knew if Pitch would actually give an answer, but it was still something she was curious about. Why had Pitch ended up joining the police?
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Sept 17, 2016 19:19:38 GMT
At the question, Pitch suddenly lowered his hand from his chest as if he had only just realized what he was doing.
"A promise was made."
The words were so softly spoken that it was almost impossible to hear them even in the near silence of the cemetery. However, he didn't say any more and it was clear from his body language that the topic had come to an end. If Adeline chose to pursue it, he would end the training then and there. His past was his own.
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