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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 19, 2017 21:41:59 GMT
I wish this headache would stop. Why won't it stop?
The thought passed through Anna's throbbing head as she closed her eyes and rubbed at her forehead, trying to reducing the nagging pulse that continued to plague her. She had been feeling perfectly fine for the past few days, even better than usual. She felt energized, stronger and more alert. And she was certain it had to do with the serum she had injected herself with. Feeling a violent rush of pride in the success of her work, she had almost wished that Shadow or Axel had been there so she could tell them of what she had done and shown them that indeed her work was a success.
Almost. The thought of the two of them still brought a flash of anger to her, but now that her serum was proving its worth that was starting to fade a little. Or it had been until the headache had started a day ago.
She had woken up one morning to find the place between her eyes on her forehead beating out a painful rhythm in time with her heart. And when she had gone into the bathroom to get some aspirin for it, she had been startled to see that a piece of her hair had turned white. Not only that, but looking at this in the mirror she had also noticed her eyes seemed to have changed ever so slightly in color....
Somewhat uncertain, she had reasoned that these were merely small side effects of the serum and nothing to worry about. And once she had taken her aspirin and the headache tapered off, it had been easy to believe that.
However, the headache had come back and wasn't showing any signs of fading. Instead, it seemed almost to be getting worse.
So she had decided to drop by Nevermore Café and grab a coffee. After all, people often said caffeine was good for headaches. Now she sat at one of the tables with a single mocha frappachino in front of her, her eyes closed as she rubbed continuously at the painful spot on her forehead. It was a rather quiet day at the café, and the medical examiner was grateful for that. Noise seemed to make the headache worse and she found herself getting increasingly annoyed with anyone who came into the Nevermore and made a lot of sound. |
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 20, 2017 0:16:35 GMT
Axel typically wasn't an early riser when it was his day off. Except he needed to go and deliver some video tapes to the BPD of some punks who thought vandalizing the outside of the bar was okay. He really really needed a coffee - just a coffee - black as charcoal. That's how he took it. And as strong as it got. Sometimes Mrs. Seddon gave him a worried look when she saw him drinking the strongest brand she had but he waved her off. For a demon who could literally eat fire if he wanted, black strong coffee was hardly anything to worry about.
Except as he stepped into the cafe he froze in his spot when he saw Anna. This... wasn't going to be good. Not one bit. A smart man might have walked out of the shop. But at that moment, Axel was not a smart man. He stayed exactly where he was, openly staring at her like some sort of idiot. He hadn't seen her since he torched her lab. Things were going to be... tense.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 20, 2017 0:37:36 GMT
Anna's eyes had still been closed as she messaged her head when the bell over the Nevermore door rang, the door opening so that a new customer could enter. At first that didn't matter to her. However, a sudden scent came to her in that moment just like it had at the bookstore when she had run into Namine. It was a strong, spicy odor and one that was very familiar, smelling of an open pinion fire. And for some reason it made her inexplicably angry.
Frowning with her eyes still closed, she opened them and looked towards the doorway to try and identify where the scent was coming from. And there stood Axel.
Everything in that moment seemed to slow down, nothing moved and all that seemed to exist in that instant was her and the Fire Demon. It stretched for an unknown length of time....
And then the rage came. Anna's face transformed into a thunderous expression and if looks could kill, in that moment Axel would have been as good as dead. A small part of her was surprised by the fury she felt in that moment towards the demon, never having experienced the emotion this strongly before. Never. And the anger she felt only seemed to make her headache double.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 20, 2017 0:58:44 GMT
Axel realize quickly he made a mistake by staying in the cafe. He should have left, gotten his coffee somewhere else. But then he would be running from a human girl. Also, no one in the city made his coffee as strong as Nevermore. The look on Anna's face, however, made him think he had pushed his luck. He had seen that look before. During the Black War, by humans who would have seen him dead for something he was born as. He never thought he would have seen that look again, especially not on sweet Anna.
"Anna," he greeted.
Well, he wasn't going to pretend what he had done was wrong. But she had been equally wrong. Neither of them were making a 'right' at any point. As long as Anna didn't try to recreate the damn serum. Axel didn't back down though. He stayed right where he was, well, moving out of the doorway instead of blocking the path. He placed his hands in his pockets. Best not to start any fires here. He liked Nevermore. He didn't want to get kicked out.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 20, 2017 1:16:03 GMT
When Axel spoke, Anna couldn't even look at him. The very sight of him made her want to either scream at him or break down crying. Not only that, her headache was getting steadily worse and nothing seemed to be helping it, especially seeing Axel. She told herself that she would just stay quiet, that she would only focus on her frappachino and not even look at him until he was out of the café.
However, when he passed where she was seated and spoke her name, something strange seemed to happen. The anger in her reared violently when he said her name and she couldn't keep silent.
"Here to destroy something else I'm working on?"
She didn't look at him as she spoke, her gaze fixed on the cup in her hands. It was shaking.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 20, 2017 1:35:33 GMT
"No. Not on the agenda for the day." he replied.
He stopped at her table, since she seemed so insistent on spitting hate at him. But he kept surprisingly calm and level about the whole thing. It was hard to believe this was the same girl who had laughed, smiled and made him dinner and worried he wouldn't like it. The aggression coming from her was... very much out of character for her. Though to be fair, he destroyed her project, her work, probably lab equipment. But if he hadn't, Shadow would have. Either way, she would have been left without her super serum.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 20, 2017 5:59:52 GMT
"Oh? So what exactly is then?"
The venom practically dripped off of Anna's voice as she spoke, her eyes still fixed blankly on the table as the cup in her hand continued to shake. The pain in her head was quite horrible by that point but it only seemed to be fueling her hatred for the Fire Demon in that moment. And although she didn't see it in that moment, the small length of white hair in her normally strawberry blond locks began to spread slightly.
"Lose another friend? Burn down another dream? Break another.."
Here Anna paused. She had been about to say heart but that seemed wrong. That would have implied that she had started to care for Axel as more then a friend and that wasn't true..... right?
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 20, 2017 13:10:49 GMT
"Actually, just get coffee," Axel replied.
He had no other plans. He had delivered his video tapes to the police. He had filed a report. He had cleaned up the vandalism after documenting everything and what it cost him to clean it so if the little brats were caught, they (or their parents) would have to pay for his expenses. Now all he wanted to do was go and drink, heavily. Anna was not good for him. Not like this. Accusing him of betrayal when she was the one that had crossed the line of scientific morals - using someone's blood against their will, genetic modification for her save the world project and using her office resources to benefit herself. It was all not like her. This obsession was something more demonic in nature than human. There was also a reason her 'project' never came to light the first time - the last guy died.
"You were past reason then. As soon as we said no, you tuned us out," he said. "Besides, I told you what I was from the start. I'm a demon. I was bound to do something to fuck this up anyways."
Axel gave pause. Her hair seemed... different. It could have been the fluorescent lights of the shop, but niggling feeling in the back of his head told him it wasn't. His eyes narrowed as he looked down at her, trying to tell if this change was a trick of his eyes or if there really was something that changed.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 20, 2017 17:57:36 GMT
Anna's eyesight was beginning to blur but she couldn't tell why at first. It wasn't until a drop of water hit the table where she was looking down that she put a hand to her face and pulled it back wet. She was crying, the tears silently coursing down her face before gently pattering down onto the tabletop. She was filled with a deep sorrow, yet the anger was so potent she hadn't even been aware of it.
"You know, for a while there I actually thought you were a good person. It didn't matter you were a Fire Demon or whatever, you were kind to me and laughed with me and seemed to actually care about me in a way no one.... on one ever did before."
All these words were spoken so quietly. She was too proud to admit that she was crying out of sadness and instead chose to blame the headache. It really was terrible in that moment, almost as if something were trying to break out of her skull using a blunted knife. Even beneath the tears, her eyesight seemed to become tinged in red and it was a good thing she was sitting down because the world seemed to be listing strongly to the side.
"Well, I was a stupid fool to believe that."
Suddenly, she turned her head so that she was finally looking up at Axel. And there was something horribly wrong with her eyes. In that moment she glared up at him, they no longer seemed to be the eyes of a human.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 20, 2017 18:11:03 GMT
He felt immensely guilty for hurting her like that. Even worse when she started to cry. He might have tried to sit down and comfort her, try to talk this through, try to make her see things differently, if it had been before he destroyed and devastated her hopes and dreams. But when she looked up at him, he felt his stomach clench with something sickly. She was human. His mind was reeling. He knew she was human. She had all but said it in a few past conversations. She was human. But her eyes weren't. He almost took a step back from his shock alone.
"Yeah well you... surprised... me to..."
Her eyes weren't right. They were Other eyes. Inhuman eyes. A human that suddenly wasn't very human. It had an awful ring to it, one that made a chill run down his spine and he gave a slow shake of the head. But he thought they had taken care of that. She couldn't have recreated everything already... Could she? She was smart enough and he wouldn't put it past her. But her equipment had been destroyed. Her notes had been ash. Her beakers were coated and spoiled by extinguisher foam.
"Anna," he breathed, barely able to get the syllable out. "What did you do?"
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 20, 2017 18:37:15 GMT
The last thing Anna expected to see looking up at Axel in that moment was fear. And yet that was the expression he wore, his green eyes large and his face paler then she had ever seen it before. A short time ago she would have been completely shocked to see that kind of look on his face, especially since it was directed towards her. But now... now all she felt was a savage pleasure in that look and a mounting fury that seemed to know no bounds.
"I finished what I started, Axel."
Suddenly, she was on her feet without remembering standing up, the drink still held in her hand but the grasp so tight it was amazing the glass didn't simply shatter. She didn't know it in that instant but her eyes, her beautiful turquoise blue eyes.... had turned a bright red.
"You and Shadow were soooooo certain you'd destroyed all my work but there was one piece you missed. And I wasn't going to let you take it away from me, the last part of my hopes and goals. So I did what I had to do! I put it in the one place you two would NEVER be able to touch it!"
And with that, the glass in her had DID break, her grip on the glass so tight and strong that it finally caused the whole thing to shatter in a shower of frozen coffee, whipped cream and pieces of glass. As this fell to the floor, a darker red began to seep from between her fingers to stain the floor. Anna didn't seem to even notice.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 20, 2017 19:29:27 GMT
"Anna, no!" Axel cried.
It didn't matter to him that he had just attracted the attention of the entire café as he shouted. It was that she had done exactly what he feared she would do. He had been so close to talking her down. So close. He might even have been able to have talked her down if Shadow hadn't been there, hadn't been so caught up in the betrayal of using his blood. Axel felt frustration boiling beneath his skin but took a deep breath. He could not start a fire. Not somewhere this crowded. Not with this many people he could accidentally hurt.
"This is exactly what we were trying to avoid," he told her.
She crushed the cup in her hands. Her blood oozed through her fingers and the sticky sweet foam that coated them. Axel felt his stomach churn. Her blood - dark red - could almost pass as black. He had done this to her - forced her hand so much she felt like this was the only way to stop him from ruining her research.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 20, 2017 21:57:46 GMT
Despite there being less then six people in the café, the whole space was suddenly as quiet as an open grave and as tense as a length of piano wire.
Axel was staring at her in a look of fear and anxiety and she was aware of a new throbbing coming from the hand that had held the glass, but Anna couldn't care. The scent of her own blood filled her nose as it dripped steadily onto the floor and yet she never took her eyes away from the demon's.
"Well guess what? You're too damn late!"
Suddenly she was aware of how quiet the café had become and immediately her head snapped around so that her glare fell upon the few customers that were watching in complete silence. One look at the expression on her face and the blood seeping from her hand and all of them grabbed their drinks. Without a glance back, they exited the Nevermore as fast as possible so that the only souls left in the building were her, Axel and the two people manning the counter.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 21, 2017 2:03:52 GMT
"We can fix this. We'll reverse the serum." Axel said.
The words came quicker than he could think. Save Anna. Keep her safe. Despite hurting her he still wanted to help her. He had only done what he had done to keep her safe. That was the craziest part. She had changed so drastically, crushed all of his expectations of her and turned out to be doing something horrible and he still wanted to make sure she was alive, safe and well. She didn't even want anything to do with him. That was a touch of an annoyance as well.
Her blood wasn't right.
Perhaps that was what bothered him the most. The serum changing her. He had liked her just the way she was. She was great without powers. Even if her lifespan was shorter than his or that she was so damn fragile. The glass shards of the cup had broken through her skin quite easily. But he didn't want to know what else that serum was changing unless it helped to changed her back.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 21, 2017 2:18:12 GMT
"I don't want it fixed!"
The pain in her head, the pain was becoming almost too much for her to bare. She closed her eyes and pressed both of her hands against her temples, not caring that her hand was still bleeding freely or that she looked in that moment to be coming apart. In that instant she wanted to strike out at Axel, at the one who had become the source of so much of her pain and yet she didn't move. She felt that if she did she might simply fall over or perhaps be ill. Why had her headache suddenly gotten so bad?
"That's what YOU wanted from the start, wasn't it? To fix me! Everyone has always though something about me had to be fixed! The little freakish oddball of a medical examiner. And then I met you and I thought you liked me despite how strange and different everyone told me I was! And to think that I actually started to love you!"
The words were flying out of her mouth so fast, her feelings so hot and angry, her thoughts so scrambled by the pain and confusion that was washing over her. She didn't even realize what she had said to Axel in that moment. All that seemed to exist in those brief moments was the pain in her head and the anger in her heart.
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