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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Oct 14, 2016 4:09:35 GMT
"You don't understand."
Suddenly, Pitch's hand clenched over where it had been resting on his chest, almost as if the wound underneath had just reopened. He grimaced at the sharp pain but kept his focus on Adeline, the wind suddenly blocking out the sun with a stray cloud and placing them all in shadows.
The shadows...that was his true calling, no matter what people assumed.
"For humans, a promise is something weak, a thing that can be given with ease and be broken even more easily. It holds no true power over them other than that which they give it. Break a promise and rarely does anything even happen to the oath breaker. However, for a Demon....a promise is a very different thing."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Oct 14, 2016 17:34:55 GMT
"Oh." Adeline thought she understood what Pitch was getting at. Truly unbreakable promises, she had read about them before. Witches and wizards could use magic to make promises like that, so that it could literally never be broken. The Harry Potter series had called it the Unbreakable Vow. Something like that didn't exactly exist in real magic, but it was pretty much the same concept. "So...are you saying you..." Adeline wasn't sure how to finish that sentence. Was Pitch regretting making that promise? Was he tired of being bound by it? But her curiosity got distracted when she saw Pitch's hand clench over his chest and the grimace of pain that flashed across his face. "Pitch? What's wrong?" She took a step towards him. Had his chest gotten injured or something?
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Oct 15, 2016 3:36:07 GMT
"It's nothing."
Pitch tried to retain a cool and collected expression, but soon enough it faded as the pain flared once more. He looked down where his hand had been resting over his bandaged chest and pulled it back slightly. The palm was stained crimson and glistened wetly. In his need to gain some control over his emotions, he had walked far too briskly and reopened the injury he had received during the raid. The gauze covering the wound was already saturated with blood and he could feel the pain beating in time with his heart.
Clenching his bloody fist, he ground his teeth as muttered a curse under his breath, a curse that humans should be so frail and a curse against those who had reduced him to moral flesh.
However, as he looked down at his own bright red blood, a memory surfaced suddenly across his mind. Another time, another place, but also so much blood. A young man barely out of childhood looking up at him as he knelt by his side, the ground beneath him soaked. His own chest, a chest clad in a vest marked BPD, riddled with holes and the smell of gun smoke still hot in the air. Sirens, voices, confusion. And yet, despite all that the man had smiled at him through his pain and grabbed his arm. And those words had formed a request, a final request that would be bound by his own blood and that of the demon's. A promise....
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Oct 15, 2016 3:45:01 GMT
Adeline narrowed her eyes. It certainly didn't sound like nothing. But Pitch eventually revealed what was bothering him. It looked like being turned into a human wasn't the only thing that had happened to him. He had a nasty wound on his chest, and it looked like it was opening up again. "Oh jeez," Adeline muttered. She wasn't a stranger to blood. Some difficult spells required it. But it still creeped her out a little bit. Nevertheless, she wasn't about to let Pitch keep walking with a wound like this. "Hold on a second. I know a healing spell." It wouldn't fully heal the injury, but it would at least get it closed up again so it wasn't bleeding so much. Adeline let out a breath as her right hand started to glow a dull white. "Just stand still for a second," she said.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Oct 22, 2016 23:09:07 GMT
Pitch didn't really hear what Adeline was saying in that moment, but when she stepped towards him with her palm incased in magic and made as if to touch him, he recoiled away from her.
"NO!"
Taking several steps, he put space between the two of them even as his would continued to bleed freely beneath his hand. His manner was almost like that of an injured animal when confronted with a possible threat, but it was still unclear if he would react by fleeing....or by attacking.
He stared at Adeline across the space he had created, the look in his eyes one of distrust and lingering confusion. Even now, he didn't want to depend on anyone for help. He had never required anything like it before and to find himself so vulnerable was unnerving to say the least. However, his biggest concern lay in how Adeline's magic might effect him, for even though he was no longer a demon in that moment, the powerful bond of the promise he had made would never leave him so long as he was alive.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Oct 23, 2016 16:12:23 GMT
Out of all the reactions Adeline expected, she didn't think one of them would be Pitch backing away from her like she had just electrocuted him. She pulled back slightly, her eyes filled with hurt and confusion. What was with Pitch? Weren't the two of them friends by now, or at least close to it? "I...I don't understand," she said. "What's wrong?" She couldn't figure out what she did to upset him so much. She was just trying to help.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Oct 24, 2016 2:51:29 GMT
Pitch suddenly felt a flare of pure frustration at everything in that moment, at the situation he had been placed in, at how he was no more than a human now, at the pain and emotions and experiences he was being forced through, and at Adeline. Adeline was only trying to help but she didn't understand.
Feeling reckless for a moment, Pitch pulled down the collar of his black robe so that his upper chest was revealed to the young witch. The skin was pale but clear of any scars or markings, his demonic nature healing any and all injuries so completely that there wasn't even a trace left on his flesh. Only two things marked him.
One was the gauze bandage that covered his injury received during the raid, the white stained crimson. And just above that....
It was a scar, comprised of two deep and vicious cuts that crossed lengthwise over the place where his heart lay. The markings were a deep red, so deep that they were almost black in color and the cuts were made all the more stark by the fact that the rest of the skin on his body was clear. However, the most startling thing about the scars wasn't their color or their severity, but the strange energy that seemed to exude from them. It was almost like a vapor, something invisible to the naked eye and yet felt on a deeper, more powerful level.
Pitch kept his collar pulled down, let Adeline see the markings and feel the energy that came from them. After several moments of utter silence in which even the surrounding trees and birds had gone quiet, he pulled his collar back up so that it once more covered his chest and the mark that lay just over his heart.
"Do you understand now?"
There was still frustration and anger in him, but the reckless feeling had disappeared and now all he felt was a growing sense of worry. He had never showed the mark on his chest to anyone, never since the moment he had carved it into his own chest with the promise he had made. So why in the name of all things sane had he shown Adeline?
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Oct 24, 2016 4:07:28 GMT
Adeline gave a little gasp, her eyes widening. So that was what Pitch had meant. His promise wasn't just something he had spoken. It was something he had marked onto his body, to forever serve as a reminder. And it was strong too. She could feel that much. Mixing it with her healing magic was bound to bring disaster. The scars looked painful though, just by looking at them. Adeline wasn't sure if those bothered Pitch more than the injury he had sustained during the Sapien incident, or vice versa. She wasn't even sure if there was anything she could do. Sure, she was pretty dang smart when it came to magic, but this was something an adult would never let a teenager handle. Promises like this, they were powerful things. "How on earth did you..." Adeline wasn't even sure how to finish that question. There were so many of them tumbling around in her head. What had made Pitch make a promise of that magnitude? How had he allowed something like that to be carved into him? Did it hurt then? Did it hurt now?
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Oct 26, 2016 3:29:29 GMT
"I made a promise."
Pitch turned away from Adeline so that she wouldn't see the range of expressions chasing across his features. And although his words were soft and could be barely heard over the rustling of leaves that resumed around them, he continued speaking.
"I told you. When a demon makes a promise, a true Promise, they cut into their own flesh a deep scar that binds the promise to their life, to their very essence. From that moment on they are bound to keep the Promise made and nothing, not any trick or spell or deed, can break it. The scar will stay carved into the demon's flesh and remain unhealed, as fresh and painful as the day it was made, until the Promise is fulfilled. Only then will the scar finally disappear."
Pitch closed his eyes again as his words slowly died away, his mind unable to stop itself from reliving the moment of the Promise he had made and all that had led to it. The sun no longer felt warm on his skin, the breeze no longer refreshing. All he could feel in that moment was the distant and haunting echo of memories the he wished he could alter but was powerless to change.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Oct 26, 2016 3:40:48 GMT
Adeline's heart wrenched painfully. She didn't know what to say. What could she say? This was some heavy stuff, even for her. She knew Pitch was doing good as a member of the BPD, but this seemed almost too much. Then again, maybe it wasn't too much to a demon. They were made of sterner stuff. They had greater strength, and it was harder for them to feel emotions. But now that Pitch was human, it was a whole other story. Something like that couldn't be ignored when you were in a body that felt things at such a bigger magnitude. "There has to be a way to get you back to your regular form faster," she said. "I mean, if you were a demon again, it wouldn't hurt as much, right?" She wasn't sure if that was true or not. Emotions were a bit different from physical injuries, especially ones that were laced together with magic. But she felt like it was all she could go on right now. After all, the mark had never bothered Pitch before. At least, not when she was with him.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Oct 26, 2016 3:54:41 GMT
"Perhaps..."
Pitch didn't say anything else for several moments, standing perfectly still with his back to Adeline. Again, the question passed across his mind; why did she want to help him? Even in his current human form, he couldn't comprehend it. He had aided her, yes, but he had shown her no kindness, no compassion or anything that should make her want to help him in turn. Finally realizing this was something he wouldn't be able to answer on his own, he straightened his back and turned to face Adeline.
Taking a deep breath, he forced a look of calm across his features.
"However, I doubt there is much you could do. The BPD is already well into studying the Sapien drug and finding a cure to reverse its effects. And with my current situation, you should focus your energies into protecting yourself. I cannot offer any assistance should Thrax attempt to influence you once again."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Oct 26, 2016 3:59:25 GMT
Adeline sighed. Pitch had a point. If the BPD hadn't found any leads with this, there probably wasn't much she could do either. She was a witch, not a police officer. And she was just a kid at that. But she was tired of feeling so helpless all the time. Sure, she had gotten better at asking people for help lately, but that didn't mean she wanted to ride on their generosity forever. She had to do something in return. "I'm tired of not being able to do anything," she muttered, looking down at her feet. For so long, she had been this scared little girl who just wanted to shut herself inside all the time. Now that she was starting to branch out a little bit more, shouldn't she be more capable of handling problems?
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Oct 27, 2016 4:09:34 GMT
Pitch stared at Adeline as she spoke and finding that, amazingly, he could understand what she was feeling. Helpless. He silently debated with himself for a long time before finally reaching a decision.
"If you want to do something, you can conjure or summon some gauze bandages for me."
He glanced down at his chest as he spoke. The bleeding had slowed somewhat but it hadn't stopped and he would need to change the dressing if he was going to make it stop anytime soon. The EMTs had tried to stitch his wound closed but he had blatantly refused. He knew now that it had been a hasty decision given his current human state.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Oct 27, 2016 4:14:40 GMT
There was a moment of silence between the two, until Pitch suggested some way that Adeline could help. When she heard him ask for some gauze bandages, she almost smacked herself in the forehead. She felt dumb for not thinking of that earlier. Then again, Adeline was pretty wired to think of magical solutions to things. When injuries arose, she turned towards healing spells rather than bandages. But, taking the non-magical route seemed to be the wiser decision right now. "Right." She held out her hand, concentrating for a second. Then, with a little popping sound, a roll of gauze appeared in her hand. She smiled, glad to see she wasn't totally useless in this situation.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Oct 27, 2016 4:37:08 GMT
Pitch blinked somewhat in surprise at Adeline's reaction. Clearly the idea of the gauze hadn't passed her own mind and that struck him as a bit strange, given how intelligent and practical she seemed to be.
Then again, I suppose I am much the same way.
Pitch quietly mused as Adeline quickly produced the gauze from thin air. He took it from her and stared down at it as he continued to ruminate.
After all, as a Demon I rely almost exclusively on my Nightmares and my Shadows Powers. Reduced to a human, however, I know little of the skills needed to function effectively.
As the thoughts floated around his head, the smallest of smiles appeared for just an instant on his face at the irony of it all. However, it disappeared quickly and his head snapped back up at another realization.
"Forgive me, Adeline, but the location and nature of my wound will make it difficult to dress. Normally I would never ask anything of the sort, but I might require...."
The word stuck in his mouth. Even know, he found it incredibly difficult to ask for it even though it was perfectly normal for most people.
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