Looking for Something Special

[Jenmae Ophiro]

Location: Empress Teta
Objective: Seek. Destroy.​

---

The growl rolling around inside of her head was... Interesting. It was amusing that this entity was so upset at the nickname that she'd chosen for it - surely it could sense there was no malicious intent in it, but none the less it was not pleased that she continued to use it. Perhaps she'd hold off until it had whatever they were here for... Or maybe she'd just continue to bother it since it felt the need to keep pushing her around.

"I see. I can do that." She fell silent as she felt her chin turned to the right, her eyes alighting on the ladder that led up to the roof of the building she'd sheltered against. Fair enough. She shifted her weight to rest solely on the balls of her feet, those clattering heels suddenly perfectly silent as she darted to the base of the building and immediately started to ascend.

It didn't take her long at all; despite her appearance being somewhat frail, there was a dormant strength there - born of some sort of strife, no doubt. As Jenmae crested the roof she paused, her eyes scanning the adjacent rooftops to ensure she wouldn't be spotted immediately. Noting that it seemed safe enough she rose over the edge and dropped herself down on the hard concrete.

She kept her steps silent as she crept her way to the opposite edge of the rooftop and peered over the edge, noting she had a decent view of the two that her new shadow friend had pointed out. "Well then... Shall we?"

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Jenmae Ophiro"]

She'd feel something more as she climbed.

Ophiro was faster somehow. It came easier, the climb. Instead of actual work, it felt like she flew past every single step, like she was air. Not much imagination needed to be applied to know what the source was. "Our bond, temporarily it may be, will help you. If you let it." The voices whispered. Her hand was tugged up. Nothing at first... then suddenly oil sank across her fingers before being shaped as a claw.

Razor sharp.

It could cut through plenty of fleshy stuff.

"We hunt." Unless Ophiro had more to say off they would go. The stride easy. Her vision better. Seeing the shadows melt before her eyes. No catch in her lungs as she ran silently.

"Take the right one first, his left shoulder drags. An old wound... I can smell it."

With the boons came something else. She would be able to feel his anticipation. Shadowman's hunger for the kill. Even as it tempered itself, because they couldn't just kill them. Not until their souls was in his claws. Not until they had entered damnation. It was difficult for him, because he could practically taste their blood already. That taste... would fill her mouth too.

 

[Jenmae Ophiro]

Location: Empress Teta
Objective: Seek. Destroy.​

Tag: [member="Julian Imani"]​

---

The ease with which she was able to ascend the ladder and reach the rooftop was a marvel to her - but as she found her footing at the top she could hear that whisper once more... So her companion was going to lend a hand then. With that thought she glanced down, watching with muted fascination was that black ooze-like liquid bled from her skin, forming massive black claws over her already sharpened fingertips. She turned her hand over a few times, examining the hand he'd gifted her. She suspected that, with practice and enough of a supply, she might be able to achieve something similar with blood... Something to think about.

Her eyes drifted away from the fun new toy as those whispers provided some insight on their targets, those dark eyes of hers locking onto the furthest of the two targets. If that was this things suggestion, so be it. She moved swiftly, taking the step up onto the ledge of the building and breathing in deeply - feeling that currents that flowed around her, the energy that dictated all things. She drew on the Force and filled her lungs with that power, crouching a fraction before leaping, the hands at her sides expelling a massive burst of air.

It propelled her high into the air, leaving her suspended for only a moment at the apex of the jump before she contorted her body, bringing her legs up under her and plummeting downwards. She landed quite unceremoniously atop the gentleman to the right, her full weight driving the man downward, causing him to crumble under her. Jenmae brought that wonderous claw down at the same time, driving those long claws into the man's back, shivering as each one plunged to the second knuckle into the soft flesh they found... This would do.

The blood that gushed from the wounds around those claws was perfect - and she planned to make use of it. She lowered her second hand and pressed it into all that warm crimson, able to distantly hear the startled exclamation of the man still left standing. With all that warm, sticky life force coating her bare skin she turned her attention to the one to her right, the eyes inside of the hood no longer bright around those dark irises, instead two completely black, bottomless pits stared up at the startled man from within that hood. She gave him a cruel smile as she lifted that second hand and hissed softly under her breath, a bloodied handprint appearing around his throat, mirroring the bloodied palm she held up to him.

She slowly began to close her fingers, watching with a dull amusement as that bloodied palm print on his throat also began to tighten. She hoisted her hand slowly, catching at the edges of her vision as his feet began to lift off the rooftop, the Force Choke raising the man up until his toes barely touched the roof below him.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Jenmae Ophiro"]

Truth to be told this was cheating.

A bargain should be made of their own free will.

That was how it had always worked. Should work. Shadowman seemed less concerned about that now. Once they were dying, gasping for breath, it appeared in front of their mental eye. Not as the smol cat. Nor as the larger hunter in the nightmare. No, it was a translucent form. A shade. It offered warmth and peace. It offered... a deal. Just some more life and calm.

The price?

Oh, big, very big, but that was a problem for later. No? Only... the moment they accepted? Shadowman guided Jenmae to end their lives. A bargain that should have held for decades... immediately snuffed out. Souls collected. Lives extinguished. That was that.

Eventually they were done.

Behind them they left the bleeding emptiness of the building. The shades of the dead crying. No attachment no more. Shadowman had taken that from them.

"You are a competent one, little witch'a." It murmured in her mind as they walked through the streets. "Ooooh, the things I could teach you."

 

[Jenmae Ophiro]

Location: Empress Teta
Objective: Get the goods​

Tag: [member="Julian Imani"]​

---

The look of terror in the eyes of the man she was choking was exquisite, but sadly short-lived. The widened gaze was only hers for a moment before they became glazed, distant and utterly unfocused on her. She tightened that choke an ounce more but though she could see him struggle more, there was no recognition there that it was her that was causing it...

The smallest of frowns painted her lips as she realized that whatever it was that had crawled into her skin along with her was also stopping her quarry from truly seeing her. It felt a bit like she too had been cheated, but in all honesty, it wasn't the suffering of these two men that had brought her here. What she needed could only come with the deaths of these two unfortunate souls - so perhaps it was for the best that this entity was acting quickly.

It wasn't more than a few moments before she heard that soft voice in her mind once more, slithering around inside her skull and coaxing her to finish them quickly. So be it. With a quick jerk of her blood-soaked hand, she had snapped the neck of the one she was choking, letting his body crumple to the rooftop soundlessly. Jenmae then turned her attention to the man she still crouched atop, gingerly retracting the massive black claw from his back before bringing the fingers together into a gore-soaked spike and thrusting it down into his back, and through his heart.

As the body went still below her she slowly stood and looked to the corpses as her feet. Lovely.

She wrapped things up quickly then, using the steel ladder that led to the roof of the building to descend and turning back the direction she'd come. If this was all it would cost - it was a bargain in true. Her eyes flinched a touch at the corner as the entity murmured into her mind, complimentary but still unpleasant.

"I believe that there is a good deal you could teach me, little one. But I am unwilling to pay you the price you seem most keen to collect."