Re: MISSION: Introduction Deadlight-Virus

[Kit Estenial]

The last three months...they seem almost seared with everburning fire in the back of the Czar's eyes. The blinds were closed as light filtered through the dust-filled air in columns, bringing the only light to the one room apartment. One large bed, small fridge and stove, and nothing else. He sits, his knees to his chest, as he looks at the room and his jaded memories form his old resting chamber with its magnificent trappings and the crimson and golden colors that he once awoke to every morning. The beaming face of Nyx and NIN every morning as he entered sleepily, rubbing the nightmarish images from his eyes. The beauty he got to behold...the woman who had snapped him back to his right mind as the maddening emotion of Gluttony began to rest.

"We don't have to tell them now...we can wait. All this will blow over and then we'll tell them, okay?" He did and did not regret that statement to her. He meant it, god did he mean it, but...it didn't just blow over. Deadlight didn't just go away. Her laugh, her smile, her love, all stripped from him. He barely got to see her once she was put into intense care. He could bare to see her like that. He cursed his humanity. He hadn't ever felt as much pain as he had when Aurel walked out of her room for the last time. Tatyana was gone. The diamond ring that had stayed in his care would never reach her finger. Never...an absolute he hadn't wanted to live by. Nothing in his life was ever hopeless...his pain would always end one way or another. But this...death WAS absolute. The pain of it was also absolute. Even with NIN in his care, Kit would never quite be the same as he ever was, no matter what.

Three weeks. After evacuating, the haze of panic as they found refuge, he had to make a choice. In his condition, he was not able to help anyone. Not even his daughter. Catatonic, he sat and sat, staring at the wall lost in memory. He'd feel the weight shift the bed and see her...Tatyana in a gown of white. He'd smile and talk to her, such mundane things as breakfast and the occasional television show he had glimpsed weeks before. Always the same conversation. But it didn't matter. He had her again and that was all he wanted. For only so little time he'd known her, but when one has witnessed morality so many times...lost so much...he needed her. Like a plant to sunlight. He'd then inch close to her, her warmth so close as he kissed what turned into a whirling shroud of white smoke.

His face would be stark every time. Tears would stream down so unreserved. Then he'd fall asleep to just wake up and have the same thing happen again. Days and days would pass. Then, as he inched closer again to feel her embrace again, he hesitated. She look saddened, begging for him to hold her. Begging for the cold to be gone. It broke his heart to absolute pieces. Nothing had existed to him than this specter and now he had to end this. A small voice, his own from the past, commanded that he stop this virus as to keep this pain from all others. "I can't help you. You aren't real. You are a torture to me and I won't disgrace Tatyana by worshiping a ghost while there's work to be done. Leave me."

Again, she left in a column of smoke and this time she didn't come back. Kit was free. Things faded and Kit's eyes cleared. He was blinded no longer. The pain remained, but it would be the driving force to keep him going. To sustain his work towards destroying this...sin.

[Alejandra Rovella]

Date: September 1, 2013
Location: Vaingloria, Gelemorté

Everything was fucked up. The whole world, gone to hell. And here she was, a few months away from bringing two innocent lives into the world. But things had to get better by Christmas, right? Well, they had two. Alejandra Rovella would settle for nothing less. Especially after the summer she had been having. Telling Caj that she was pregnant was the first of many ridiculous things she had to endure. He had taken the news well enough, without the initial shock. He had been around a lot since, which is saying something, considering his hatred of Gelemorté. He had been there in July when she found out they were having a boy and a girl. Alejandra had wept and she liked to think Caj got a little emotional as well.

The real test had been shortly thereafter, when she had flown home to finally break the news to her parents. It wasn't something she had wanted to share over the phone, clearly. There had been some serious emotions... her father had offered to take Caj into another room for a private chat, which Alejandra had refused. There had been a lot of shouting back and forth between daughter and father before Violetta had made it clear that shouting would upset the babies. Everything settled out after that. Alejandra had kept her arm tight around Caj's waist as Caj met the rest of her giant family and the pregnancy was announced. It had been one big party (and no fights to be had). Violetta and Salvatore agreed to fly out for Christmas to be with Alejandra for the babies' birth.

After Alejandra got back, she settled into her work. She had never actually brought up her pregnancy at work, despite constantly growing in size. Flowing clothes and the general idiocy of her coworkers kind of help. She had planned to tell everyone around her birthday, but the world decided to start heading to hell. A virus hit Drachma and Xing and she watched Wolfgang take the world by storm, so to speak. Now it was time to introduce her coworkers to her giant belly and batten down the hatches. Caj would come towards November to spend the last month with her, if he could secure travel to Vaingloria. In the meantime, she'd just have to survive.

[Dunstan Hue]

Date: September 1, 2013
Location: Dublin, Carraig

There is an idiom that says that when you search for answers, you have to know that you're not asking the wrong question. At first, it sounded silly to Dunstan. Not so much now.

"So, Lugo," he said, with a slight indecisiveness. He glared into the mirror, one eye looking back to his reflection, expecting it to move. The other eye was, as always, closed. He couldn't get it to open. Apparently, Lugo could. He then looked a little more proudly. "Lugo," he said with more assertion. Then he bowed his head. "Lugo," he mumbled.

He won the fight apparently. In Drachma. He had taken on Shinku Kamogaya hand to hand and won. Well, Dunstan didn't. Dunstan was fat, podgy, almost constantly high or drunk and could barely hold his breath, never mind fight. Why else did he make sure to blow up his opponents up weeks in advance? But that was exactly the problem. He didn't win the fight.

The moment he was back in Carraig, he went back to the doctors to find out what was wrong with him. The answer was nothing.

Not even amnesia. In fact, Dunstan Hue had never had amnesia in the first place.

As he soon discovered, the reason that he couldn't remember his past life was that he was trying to remember events that had never happened. Dunstan Hue was one of many aliases, one for each country. Dunstan Hue, Jacob Mariner, Paulus Ansgar, Vladmir Vodlov, Julian Mamschtein, Kasa Hideaki, all just names and fake lives. All for the same man.

Lugo Brenhian.

Dunstan searched the house once more. It took him forever, but he had finally found the notebook behind security measures even he paled at. Of course, given that this was a notebook he hid from everyone, it made sense that Lugo would make sure that not even he could find it easily. He had also found what Dunstan... was... just a harmless mechanic who spent his days high and drunk and gave what he could to charity. Apparently, Lugo didn't even smoke pot, and was near teetotal. And the charity was not something he considered.

The man Dunstan was now was something of an inbetween of these men. He had the charity work, drinking and smoking added on, but otherwise he found that Lugo was simply an even more extreme version of himself. Dunstan could be surly and was a lecher, but ultimately harmless to those he cared about; he enjoyed bombing, but he would rather annoy others than kill them. Lugo, however, was a psycho. He was a bitter monster who detested everyone and only did anything for his own gain, and thought nothing for the lives of others. Plus, he had a lot of thoughts about women that even Dunstan thought dark and depraved. For Dunstan, women were to be wooed and have fun with. For Lugo, women were objects and slaves. Overall, Dunstan knew that Lugo was not the man he wanted to be. And so long as he was in control, it didn't matter who came first. If this was Lugo's body and mind by right, then it was Dunstan's by inheritance, and the little niggling voice in his head could do nothing to stop it.

Still, therapy had to be postponed. The Deadlight Virus. Gavin had all but shut off the routes in and out of Carraig, and Dunstan found that his business tumbled. People died and had less need for a bomber. He couldn't let anyone know about Lugo, because that would kill the mechanic side business that he now relied on to live. Still, he would inevitably have to warn someone, but the who could be worked out later.

Dunstan looked back up to the mirror, saying Lugo's name one more time.

"Doesn't really suit me, I don't think."

[Roarke Moray]

Date: September 1, 2013
Location: Dublin, Carraig

Roarke had decided that maybe thinks weren't so bad being a chimera. Sure, there were still some issues here and there. But a definite bonus was that chimera did not appear to contract the Deadlight virus that had come crashing down on the world recently. Not that Roarke was going to go get infected JUST to make sure, of course. Because that would be dumb. And a lumbering hulk he might be, but he was not dumb. Roarke stayed in Carraig as normal and continued about his life as normally as possible, just as he had done prior to the virus. Sure, it wasn't a great way to go through life. But he wasn't some fancy scientist or a diplomat. At most, he started assisting with unloading the cargoes bringing in supplies to Carraig. Gave him a chance to work out all his beastly muscles.

So life continued for Roarke Moray much as it had always done. He would roll with the punches and follow his Kingly-King down whatever path he decided to go. That was what soldiers did and Roarke was definitely a soldier. He was also hungry... and kind of tired. When would he get to retire to his fantastic manor house and just VEG OUT? Gosh.

[Ryuu Sato-Chiba]

Date: September 1, 2013
Location: Kyoto, Aerugo

The world was changing and the people of said world were running to catch up. A virus was taking its hold on many areas of the world, like the rest tried to fight back. Aerugo was no different. Borders between Xing and Aerugo had closed and there were restrictions everywhere. The change had not effected Ryuu too much, in terms of his job. A special task force of border security had been created, but luckily was not his department. He would continue policing the country and judging crimes. It was all he could do.

His fathers were still thriving and Ryuu was enjoying what life he could. He spent his quiet evenings at his home, his weekends at various dance studios. He ran into the young Ayaka on occasion, watching her blossom in her dance lessons. It disgusted him that her father still lived and breathed, secretly hoping the man would drop dead. Not a nice thought for such a high-ranking official... but, he couldn't help it. The man made his skin crawl. And since Ryuu wasn't one to commit crimes, all he could do was keep Ayaka safe from a distance. It helped that the snake of a man didn't exactly trust his angle. And knowing that the Pīsumēkā was watching his girl closely meant that the bastard had to behave.

Ryuu shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind. He disliked thinking about the situation and needed to clear his mind. He had better things to attend to, like helping to keep his country in one piece. It was all the dancing man could do, after all.

[Tsuboi Ryūji]

Date: September 1, 2013
Location: Kyoto, Aerugo

He was back to his routine. Stood out in the frigged September morning air in just his trouser practicing his swings. His forum finally back slowly shedding the fat he had put on with depression eating. After all he had to be back in shape to protect his lord. This un-seeable threat even had him on edge.

The scare his mother had was a slap to the face. Luckily she only had anemia but it was a stressful few weeks. The Deadlight-virus had only just been discovered and the symptoms weren't well known. Seeing his mother in an isolation room with men in hazard suits behind glass had broken him.

Drinks had been down and even more candy had been chewed. It had been hard but when his mother had been cleared Ryuji hadn't cried harder in his life. hugging the small woman close while he sobbed into her shoulder. Happy that she was alright.

Now she was back to her job as an in house nurse while Ryuji worked on shedding his baby fat and getting his head back into the game. It was also time to pay his father a visit.

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