His fingers dig into the arms of his seat. He's glad that the other man has turned aside, as for the briefest moment Emet-Selch's mask slips and a flash of raw fury twists his aging face. He slams it back on quickly enough, reassembling it into Emperor Solus' stern, unforgiving planes. It isn't possible that they know, he reminds himself. They're simply pulling wild guesses out of the air hoping to hit a mark.
They want an in. They want a crack in the armour so they can slip through. Well, they won't have it. Twelve thousand years he has laboured for their people. He isn't about to surrender all that work to some creature of the void and their honeyed words.
"Killing you here would raise questions, but not so many that I am unprepared to answer. Get yourself gone before I change my mind," he says gruffly, turning his hard gaze back to the gathering below. He had been prepared to enjoy the performance but...well, now his mood has soured.
The corner of his lips pucker in amusement. "Oh, did I hit a nerve? Wasn't my intention." He hums and his eyes crease, fluttering and tensing with nasty intent. It is in them (the furrow of his skin, the tightening of his nerves) that dreams of beyond dwell. Where power, wealth, and notoriety reach out with crooked fingers to strangle the opposition.
Greed's teeth grind together so hard they almost crack and spark with the pressure. It's in his nature. He's the scab that never quite heals, the itch that never gets a scratch. And oh, does he love every last second of it.
The Sin's face screws over, tightens, and snaps to finally show his frenzy pure and raw. He simmers. "Get gone?" He tastes his own lips and gingerly pulls them into his mouth; his expression as blissful as someone sampling a fine meal. "As you wish, your highness." The end of his sentence extends and the S(s) draw out to a snake's empty lullaby.
And that's where it changes. The mask slips. The pretense tumbles. A curtain call of a completely different kind.
Greed's tongue rolls out of his mouth, lithely stretching to form a fiery, split-down whip. His transformation is both painfully slow and deliriously fast. Fine dust breaks from his skin in a condensed, black funnel only to spin as it thickens and churns like a whirlpool on a dark night. Greed spreads his arms to his sides and the tails of his coat evaporate; their torn remains spooling out to disintegrating threads.
And he laughs. Oh, how he laughs. His baritone boxes the ceiling and batters the walls with the force of an explosion. Even as he disappears into the swirling swill of his own making, his joy, his hysteria, thunders and claps. No storm could hold candle to it. No tempest could even try.
The Sin's smile breaks through the ash, now twisted and jagged. Where sharp teeth had been before, elongated daggers now take their place, and the pricks of his eyes burn like coals through the mist. A show of his fire, true and plain. "Ha .. AH HA HA HA HA! Who would have ever thought!? You really are something special, Emperor!"
Waves of inky black roll out of his mouth, spilling into his ever-expanding presence. He's everywhere and nowhere all at once. Wisps of himself crawl across the floor, wrap around the banister, and choke them out. Greed purses what's left of his jaw in the mayhem - his expression both tender and unstable. A creature eating itself alive.
When he speaks again, his voice is hollow. Tinny. A can's echo. "I really do admire that about you. Maybe one day, we could be good friends." Holes break through his face, his hair, his throat and the light behind them dims. All the while, another cough of smoke drops out of his jaws and vomits over his feet, swallowing them whole.
Greed tries to breathe this time, but it's too late. He's already crossed the threshold. "I hope you'll think of me differently after this." From the looks of it, he's having difficulty moving. He stretches his arm out with a strain - his fingers almost locked in a tense, clawing grip. He reaches to grab a hold of anything he possibly can. But at the mercy of the whirlwind, he's no match.
Not that it matters. He's right where he wants to be.
His fingers fall apart, break into pieces, and the boney tips sputter off short spirts of electricity. Zzt. Ztt. Ztt. Greed gasps in his own suffocation; the last of the ash in his gut finally filling his nose and mouth to stifle out his laughter.
He's gone a second later, replaced by the sounds of merriment and amusement below. Light creases off glass and party goers alike; a soft melody plays distantly up the staircase. It's silent. Quiet.
It's the pressure that shatters it. The sensation comes from all sides; above, below, inside, and out. Noise amplifies only to splinter under the terrible sensation of buzzing. Like an eardrum blown out by cannon fire.
"You're going to be like that, aren't you. You won't give up and you won't give in until every part of you is suffering. I did tell you - it wasn't going to be pleasant for either of us." Greed's voice is an annoying whisper through it all. His tone hisses above the static, stinging and biting where it can. "It's a shame, your majesty. This could have been so much easier." The Sin exhales, forcing his voice over unseen teeth as prickly as nails grinding down a chalkboard.
Getting to this point was one thing, and he's unsure of the outcome. But he can only imagine the fight on the horizon. After all, possessing an unwilling host is always a challenge. And here? Well.
His gnarled hands grip the armrests of his chair as he staunchly faces the seething cloud, face set. The noise rattles him from the inside out, sets his teeth on edge. It's a different pressure to that which lies at the bottom of the ocean. The descent and ascent don't rock him to his core the way this fiend does.
What manner of voidsent are they? Something strong - far stronger than any of them could have foreseen.
"You won't have me," he whispers. The red mark flares before his face. Not for the first time, he wishes it did not limit the power the seat of Emet-Selch can wield. Such ancient magic, however, is not his to undo. "Not in a thousand years. You don't know me, nor the sacrifices I've made to make it here, you shallow creature. You thirst for something you will never truly have."
I know because I, too, have been tainted by Darkness.
Lifting a hand, he gathers his power. More power than even the best mage of this realm can ever bring to bear. So much so that he thinks even those below can surely sense something amiss.
The surge of power shifts through him like a conducting current, leaving an ethereal taste of copper buzzing in his mind. It lights him up as sure as a live, hot wire and his thoughts static and break. His everything leaks out and fills the spaces in between in a tangle of thick ink. In the instant, as two of them remain separate and apart, Greed feels both blind and fully aware of his surroundings. Similar to a bat on a supersonic high, the world about him vibrates in color. Reds crash into blues, whites go off like atom-bomb stars in the back of his mind's eye. They erupt into patterns and collide into one another, only to shatter again like a broken kaleidoscope.
He's never tasted anything like this; never felt anything better. And while he basks in everything this man is, distracted and drunk, pieces of him creep into the gaps between. Moments of who he is, what he is, casting themselves in hisses of static.
Greed sucks in a breath and where he once stood, the faintest hint of a thunderhead pulses silently to life. Whatever grip he has on the patrons below holds, though tentatively so. There's a feeling of something for some of the more attuned few - a glance here, a pause or break in conversation there. The sensation for others is alert; as if someone had briefly sauntered over their grave to kick away the dust. It's a feeling of ill will in the air. A presence of everything evil and rotten crawling to meet each other in dissonant harmony.
Flooding forward with all the force he can muster, the Sin concentrates himself. He tries to bite at Emet's defenses and rip them apart by will and laughter alone. "You're finally understanding. I want it all. Everything you have, everything you've ever wanted. But don't get the wrong idea," Greed's tongue lashes invisible teeth. "-as much as I'd want to, there are limits. I may be bad, but even I have some standards, friend."
The air in the room turns up a notch, then another and another. It's warm in the way a jungle is warm; hot in the way a desert scorches the earth. The Sin makes a noise like lips touching together ever-so-softly. "I can cut you out of this. Remove you from this one moment and give you a taste of it all. A second to be blissfully away from all this bullshit. You just have to give me your hands."
Another flash of violence wriggles into vision. The place isn't here - it's far away. Darkness squirms and infects all it touches. No where is safe from it; not the rocks, not the trees, nor the empty shells of buildings that had once stood as a testament to humanity and mortality, now incubators for creatures starved of the sun. Yet above all the devastation, it is them that linger. Faces made prominent in vague shadows and menacing shapes. Seven of them total stand tall. Towering giants twisted and clawing like the Titans over the destruction of Olympus.
Greed hums from somewhere behind and his arms stretch out, shadowy and intangible. Four of them try to wrap around Emet loosely; their forming fingers turning sharp and crooked. "I'm sure you hear it often. All those people down there singing your praises. If only they knew. If only they realized how special you truly are." The Sin sighs, his exhale catching each edge of him, every barb, in a thin whistle. "You're so much more. Oh, Your Highness, you're just too, too, much - "
His jaws close in, but the pressure radiating off his target is too much to bare. Greed snaps his mouth shut, sudden and brisk. Something has broken. Maybe him from too much energy. Maybe his spell from being stretched too thin. The air in front of them cracks, forming a hairline split like thin ice spiderwebbing underfoot. The Sin's arms retreat to the tune of a thousand snakes and in his chest, a noise stirs; a sound of a purr and a growl storming in delight.
"Just so you know that I'm telling the truth. The name's Greed, not Envy. I make it a point not to lie. But if that's not enough to convince you - " Greed's attention changes direction; a predator seeking out an alternative meal. "I could find someone else if that's what you want. I'm sure you won't have an issue with that, hmn?" A hint of confidence nips back into his jaw.
"Otherwise, we're just going to be doing this all night long. And I don't think either of us want that, do we?"
For half a moment, he falters. Trapped in this mortal body, for the time being, he can only revisit those days of paradise in his dreams - and even those dreams sometimes end in fire and death. This entity - Greed, as it calls itself - would offer him that dream.
He casts his gaze out over the people below. Solus' people. Not his. Their pride is not his own. Their dreams and aspirations far removed from those of his long-dead people. His aging frame seems to sag under its own weight (or perhaps just the weight of his heavy heart) but his defences remain firm. His conviction is not so easily broken. Why should he care where this creature wishes to feast?
But they're right that they cannot continue this all night, and if he lets them loose in the city then his carefully laid plans may crumble.
"A moment of bliss for, what, my soul?" he asks, his chuckle more a dry cough than anything. Frustrating how these mortal bodies break down after two-score years. Solus is verging on half a century now but he can hear the creak in his joints, the wearing down of cartilage, and sense the slow decline of his own organs. "You will have to bargain better than that. Why should I settle for a moment when I can have an eternity?"
The crack drives deeper into him, splintering his focus and forcing a pang of something into his core. Greed's breath hitches somewhere (an inhale of air, a jump of soot through the floorboards that's both subtle and alarming all at once) and his mirage briefly falters. Where he exists is in the peripheral. He's there and he isn't. He's whole, but transparent; a shadow of a man, a monster, hovering between one reality and the next.
The Sin almost misses the question. "Your soul? Ha - ! No - " A static shock arcs out of the air, spitting and hissing like a snake electrified in a terrible, wicked red. "-if I wanted that, we wouldn't be talking right now. Besides - ah," his voice dies in his throat. Under all that pressure, under all of Solus's sheer mass, he feels like he's falling. Like he's coming apart, tearing himself open, and bleeding out everything and all he's ever been.
A jagged smile etches in the air and stretches out - the edges of it reaching like nails searching for a wall to scratch on.
"An eternity," Greed finally answers, breathless. There's a sense of a grin in his tone; a tickle of malice pure, raw, and unabashedly wanton. "You're just as greedy as I am, aren't you?" Another tremble of dust vibrates around the banister. It lifts off the wood with a mind of its own; like the aftermath of a deafening rocket shaking the earth from its slumber. "I like the sound of that."
And hasn't that always been the catch? Eternity without the concerns of their own rules, without worrying about him, without all the strings that came attached.
Greed's focus suddenly snaps, his red eyes briefly reforming as pricks in the dim. "I told you that we couldn't do this all night. I wasn't lying, friend." When he speaks, his voice seems far more distant. It's a whisper - a hiss from a violin's string or a hum from a clinking glass. No, he can't do this much longer. Shedding his form had been a risk he was willing to take, but going back? Now? When it's all so, so close -
A member of the waitstaff passes below, unaware and oblivious of what's watching him. Greed gathers himself. "It's either you or that one down there," he slurs. "-then you can decide for yourself."
But he isn't wasting time. A ribbon of ash slithers down the steps, twisting and turning like a thick band of wire seeking out a power source. "It's always been your choice. So, what'll it be?" The soot pauses, rises up, and puffs out; a cobra seconds from a strike.
He coughs again, a little louder, and shakes his head.
"You think I care about these people? I would curse the gods if this empire fell tonight but you can have that one if you wish." The men and women here - they are expendable. The loss of one (if indeed this creature intends to take them over) is a mere pebble in the way of his grander scheme. The problem is what they do with them...
"Mark my words: I'll not suffer you to undermine all that I've built thus far," he growls. "I don't know what you are, nor do I care - stay out of my way and out of my plans else your greed will forever go unsatisfied."
And there it is, his permission. While it's not written in stone or summoned up from the desperation of desire, it is an allowance of sorts. An open dinner bell of a different kind, coughed up and spat at his feet with the same threat and distaste as someone (something) so much higher on the food chain that they couldn't be bothered.
Greed's body flashes once more and his alarming grin burns itself into the limelight; like that of a lightning strike outlining its crash. "You drive a hard bargain, chief. But fine, suit yourself. Hold that thought though -" Much like his voice, his presence drifts. Twirls of ash crawl down the steps with a purpose. They bounce and spiral low to the ground; their edging fingers tiptoeing closer, closer, closer -
The man never sees it coming. His preoccupation with the goings on (the many guests to tend to, his never-ending list of demands, his personal life) make him an easy target. He's halfway to his next destination, unknowing and carefree, when he suddenly stops. From the tips of his toes to the grip of his hand, every part of him appears to seize up. It's almost as if he's hit an invisible wall - one solid, foreboding, and thrown up endlessly to block his path. The server's eyes wander wildly in his sockets and as the drinks on his tray begin to sweat, his chest slowly expands; his breath all but catching in his throat.
"What do you want - ?" The Sin's voice whispers in. Like a squall trapped in a jar, his body thunders in and out of the physical; his existence now a fleeting, flickering thing. Greed guides one of his four arms to gently cup the man's face. "What do you really want - "
The nameless server studders. He doesn't speak (or he simply can't). Nevertheless, he watches what is about to swallow him with both fear and intense precision. Greed lowers his head. "You have to tell me. Whatever you want - " The devil turns his neck and as he puppets the man's skull to lean into his ear, an alarmingly kind smile touches on what's left of his lips. "Hmnn? You're going to have to speak up a little bit there, handsome."
A silent exchange passes between them. Instead of words, their conversation sparks in colors. Purple sizzles and murky blacks write out the silent contract: what is willingly given, what is willingly received. Greed's claws rake down the man's throat and the remnants of his half-smoking forehead press against the man's head. "-see, that wasn't so hard, huh? I just hope you have the stomach for it."
Seconds later, he's gone, and the waiter shakes his head like a man out of a dream. He looks to the left of him, the right, behind him, then begins to head back out to his work. However, his freedom doesn't last. He makes it to the banister of the stairs when the tray in his hand goes topside; its various flutes of rich-gold champaign clattering to the floor. The man eases down to his knees. Whatever grace and poise he may have had quietly goes out the window as his body fights itself. His fingers twitch, the veins in his forehead gorge and bloat beneath his skin. Yet, he makes not a sound. Not a whisper, not a scream, nor a sigh. He just clutches his head and as the bow of his spine contorts under his long-tailed jacket, his nails bitterly claw at his hair, freeing it from a loose tie string.
His fingernails dig, peeling themselves free and cracking. No, the promise, the deal he's been given - it comes with a price, doesn't it? And all debts need to be paid at some point.
The last of his nails rips open and the waiter's head hits the carpet with a dulled thud. When he inhales again, his voice isn't his own anymore. "Ahh -," Greed tongues at his new cheek, feeling it out. "I did ask if you had the stomach for it, kid. Guess not - "
The Sin grips his legs, righting himself to a stand. "You should probably sleep this one off. You'll get yours once I'm done." Similar to an insect in a cocoon, he tests his borrowed body - swaying his skull one way and the next, rolling his shoulders back to click and pop all the bones into place.
Greed brings his hand up to his face and turns to look back up at Solus. "Now, where were we? Oh - " He wiggles his fingers. The stubs of his lost nails are angry, raw, and thin bits of skin stingingly cling to the cuticles. The Sin examines them with a strange sort of fascination before his core kicks in and his red current licks them clean, leaving a fresh, manicured set. "-don't worry about it. I did tell you, didn't I? It takes a little more than that to hurt me. It's the same now for our friend here."
He lazily steps over a broken piece of glass. "I'm not here to get in your way, chief." Crunch goes the handle of a flute. "You've got me all wrong. But then again, I can't really blame you." He takes another step, his hands making quick work to adjust his collar and remove the thin tie at the dip of his throat. "Most do deny me at first, that's true."
He drops the fabric on the banister: another thing of his host, discarded. "See, I look at it this way: want is no different than hope. And you're hoping for something. Something most don't really understand. Did I get that right?" It's a wild guess of course. An idea vaguely spun together. Greed waves his arm and the long jacket whips at his feet. "You could say I want something similar. But nothing's impossible."
He pauses at the top of the stairs and when he opens his eyes, they're no longer a muted green, but a wicked sort of red. A reflection of his parasitic hold pushing outward. Greed slouches his shoulders. "It's stupid to be stubborn. What, do you think all of this is enough to satisfy me? I don't care what you've built, Solus."
The Sin tests his host's teeth. "Ehh, either way, now you know mine. If you want me gone, this one'll be back here tomorrow just the same as always. I've given him that time. But if not - " His arms wander as eccentric as an actor eating up the applause. "-well, I'm sure you can figure out how to find me, can't you?"
Solus watches with thinly veiled disgust. He is, perhaps, the only one who watches. The only one who cares - all the rest have already turned back to their entertainment. Does Greed think he's the only parasite to try burrowing his way into the heart of this empire? Of its emperor? Solus has lived far too long and suffered far too much heartbreak to crack from such crude tactics.
"Pitiful creature. You want what you cannot have, yet even when you have it you will never be satisfied." Solus disregards the fact that he could very well be talking about himself. "It will never be enough. Man is filled with unrelenting want and you - you are the purest form of it. Begone."
That's right, he must turn his eyes away from the temptation. He must stand strong, for the burden of a thousand, thousand people rests upon his shoulders. Like the sole remaining pillar of a ruin crumbling towards the sea.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
They want an in. They want a crack in the armour so they can slip through. Well, they won't have it. Twelve thousand years he has laboured for their people. He isn't about to surrender all that work to some creature of the void and their honeyed words.
"Killing you here would raise questions, but not so many that I am unprepared to answer. Get yourself gone before I change my mind," he says gruffly, turning his hard gaze back to the gathering below. He had been prepared to enjoy the performance but...well, now his mood has soured.
no subject
Greed's teeth grind together so hard they almost crack and spark with the pressure. It's in his nature. He's the scab that never quite heals, the itch that never gets a scratch. And oh, does he love every last second of it.
The Sin's face screws over, tightens, and snaps to finally show his frenzy pure and raw. He simmers. "Get gone?" He tastes his own lips and gingerly pulls them into his mouth; his expression as blissful as someone sampling a fine meal. "As you wish, your highness." The end of his sentence extends and the S(s) draw out to a snake's empty lullaby.
And that's where it changes. The mask slips. The pretense tumbles. A curtain call of a completely different kind.
Greed's tongue rolls out of his mouth, lithely stretching to form a fiery, split-down whip. His transformation is both painfully slow and deliriously fast. Fine dust breaks from his skin in a condensed, black funnel only to spin as it thickens and churns like a whirlpool on a dark night. Greed spreads his arms to his sides and the tails of his coat evaporate; their torn remains spooling out to disintegrating threads.
And he laughs. Oh, how he laughs. His baritone boxes the ceiling and batters the walls with the force of an explosion. Even as he disappears into the swirling swill of his own making, his joy, his hysteria, thunders and claps. No storm could hold candle to it. No tempest could even try.
The Sin's smile breaks through the ash, now twisted and jagged. Where sharp teeth had been before, elongated daggers now take their place, and the pricks of his eyes burn like coals through the mist. A show of his fire, true and plain. "Ha .. AH HA HA HA HA! Who would have ever thought!? You really are something special, Emperor!"
Waves of inky black roll out of his mouth, spilling into his ever-expanding presence. He's everywhere and nowhere all at once. Wisps of himself crawl across the floor, wrap around the banister, and choke them out. Greed purses what's left of his jaw in the mayhem - his expression both tender and unstable. A creature eating itself alive.
When he speaks again, his voice is hollow. Tinny. A can's echo. "I really do admire that about you. Maybe one day, we could be good friends." Holes break through his face, his hair, his throat and the light behind them dims. All the while, another cough of smoke drops out of his jaws and vomits over his feet, swallowing them whole.
Greed tries to breathe this time, but it's too late. He's already crossed the threshold. "I hope you'll think of me differently after this." From the looks of it, he's having difficulty moving. He stretches his arm out with a strain - his fingers almost locked in a tense, clawing grip. He reaches to grab a hold of anything he possibly can. But at the mercy of the whirlwind, he's no match.
Not that it matters. He's right where he wants to be.
His fingers fall apart, break into pieces, and the boney tips sputter off short spirts of electricity. Zzt. Ztt. Ztt. Greed gasps in his own suffocation; the last of the ash in his gut finally filling his nose and mouth to stifle out his laughter.
He's gone a second later, replaced by the sounds of merriment and amusement below. Light creases off glass and party goers alike; a soft melody plays distantly up the staircase. It's silent. Quiet.
It's the pressure that shatters it. The sensation comes from all sides; above, below, inside, and out. Noise amplifies only to splinter under the terrible sensation of buzzing. Like an eardrum blown out by cannon fire.
"You're going to be like that, aren't you. You won't give up and you won't give in until every part of you is suffering. I did tell you - it wasn't going to be pleasant for either of us." Greed's voice is an annoying whisper through it all. His tone hisses above the static, stinging and biting where it can. "It's a shame, your majesty. This could have been so much easier." The Sin exhales, forcing his voice over unseen teeth as prickly as nails grinding down a chalkboard.
Getting to this point was one thing, and he's unsure of the outcome. But he can only imagine the fight on the horizon. After all, possessing an unwilling host is always a challenge. And here? Well.
Here he is fighting the emperor of them all.
no subject
What manner of voidsent are they? Something strong - far stronger than any of them could have foreseen.
"You won't have me," he whispers. The red mark flares before his face. Not for the first time, he wishes it did not limit the power the seat of Emet-Selch can wield. Such ancient magic, however, is not his to undo. "Not in a thousand years. You don't know me, nor the sacrifices I've made to make it here, you shallow creature. You thirst for something you will never truly have."
I know because I, too, have been tainted by Darkness.
Lifting a hand, he gathers his power. More power than even the best mage of this realm can ever bring to bear. So much so that he thinks even those below can surely sense something amiss.
no subject
He's never tasted anything like this; never felt anything better. And while he basks in everything this man is, distracted and drunk, pieces of him creep into the gaps between. Moments of who he is, what he is, casting themselves in hisses of static.
Greed sucks in a breath and where he once stood, the faintest hint of a thunderhead pulses silently to life. Whatever grip he has on the patrons below holds, though tentatively so. There's a feeling of something for some of the more attuned few - a glance here, a pause or break in conversation there. The sensation for others is alert; as if someone had briefly sauntered over their grave to kick away the dust. It's a feeling of ill will in the air. A presence of everything evil and rotten crawling to meet each other in dissonant harmony.
Flooding forward with all the force he can muster, the Sin concentrates himself. He tries to bite at Emet's defenses and rip them apart by will and laughter alone. "You're finally understanding. I want it all. Everything you have, everything you've ever wanted. But don't get the wrong idea," Greed's tongue lashes invisible teeth. "-as much as I'd want to, there are limits. I may be bad, but even I have some standards, friend."
The air in the room turns up a notch, then another and another. It's warm in the way a jungle is warm; hot in the way a desert scorches the earth. The Sin makes a noise like lips touching together ever-so-softly. "I can cut you out of this. Remove you from this one moment and give you a taste of it all. A second to be blissfully away from all this bullshit. You just have to give me your hands."
Another flash of violence wriggles into vision. The place isn't here - it's far away. Darkness squirms and infects all it touches. No where is safe from it; not the rocks, not the trees, nor the empty shells of buildings that had once stood as a testament to humanity and mortality, now incubators for creatures starved of the sun. Yet above all the devastation, it is them that linger. Faces made prominent in vague shadows and menacing shapes. Seven of them total stand tall. Towering giants twisted and clawing like the Titans over the destruction of Olympus.
Greed hums from somewhere behind and his arms stretch out, shadowy and intangible. Four of them try to wrap around Emet loosely; their forming fingers turning sharp and crooked. "I'm sure you hear it often. All those people down there singing your praises. If only they knew. If only they realized how special you truly are." The Sin sighs, his exhale catching each edge of him, every barb, in a thin whistle. "You're so much more. Oh, Your Highness, you're just too, too, much - "
His jaws close in, but the pressure radiating off his target is too much to bare. Greed snaps his mouth shut, sudden and brisk. Something has broken. Maybe him from too much energy. Maybe his spell from being stretched too thin. The air in front of them cracks, forming a hairline split like thin ice spiderwebbing underfoot. The Sin's arms retreat to the tune of a thousand snakes and in his chest, a noise stirs; a sound of a purr and a growl storming in delight.
"Just so you know that I'm telling the truth. The name's Greed, not Envy. I make it a point not to lie. But if that's not enough to convince you - " Greed's attention changes direction; a predator seeking out an alternative meal. "I could find someone else if that's what you want. I'm sure you won't have an issue with that, hmn?" A hint of confidence nips back into his jaw.
"Otherwise, we're just going to be doing this all night long. And I don't think either of us want that, do we?"
no subject
He casts his gaze out over the people below. Solus' people. Not his. Their pride is not his own. Their dreams and aspirations far removed from those of his long-dead people. His aging frame seems to sag under its own weight (or perhaps just the weight of his heavy heart) but his defences remain firm. His conviction is not so easily broken. Why should he care where this creature wishes to feast?
But they're right that they cannot continue this all night, and if he lets them loose in the city then his carefully laid plans may crumble.
"A moment of bliss for, what, my soul?" he asks, his chuckle more a dry cough than anything. Frustrating how these mortal bodies break down after two-score years. Solus is verging on half a century now but he can hear the creak in his joints, the wearing down of cartilage, and sense the slow decline of his own organs. "You will have to bargain better than that. Why should I settle for a moment when I can have an eternity?"
no subject
The Sin almost misses the question. "Your soul? Ha - ! No - " A static shock arcs out of the air, spitting and hissing like a snake electrified in a terrible, wicked red. "-if I wanted that, we wouldn't be talking right now. Besides - ah," his voice dies in his throat. Under all that pressure, under all of Solus's sheer mass, he feels like he's falling. Like he's coming apart, tearing himself open, and bleeding out everything and all he's ever been.
A jagged smile etches in the air and stretches out - the edges of it reaching like nails searching for a wall to scratch on.
"An eternity," Greed finally answers, breathless. There's a sense of a grin in his tone; a tickle of malice pure, raw, and unabashedly wanton. "You're just as greedy as I am, aren't you?" Another tremble of dust vibrates around the banister. It lifts off the wood with a mind of its own; like the aftermath of a deafening rocket shaking the earth from its slumber. "I like the sound of that."
And hasn't that always been the catch? Eternity without the concerns of their own rules, without worrying about him, without all the strings that came attached.
Greed's focus suddenly snaps, his red eyes briefly reforming as pricks in the dim. "I told you that we couldn't do this all night. I wasn't lying, friend." When he speaks, his voice seems far more distant. It's a whisper - a hiss from a violin's string or a hum from a clinking glass. No, he can't do this much longer. Shedding his form had been a risk he was willing to take, but going back? Now? When it's all so, so close -
A member of the waitstaff passes below, unaware and oblivious of what's watching him. Greed gathers himself. "It's either you or that one down there," he slurs. "-then you can decide for yourself."
But he isn't wasting time. A ribbon of ash slithers down the steps, twisting and turning like a thick band of wire seeking out a power source. "It's always been your choice. So, what'll it be?" The soot pauses, rises up, and puffs out; a cobra seconds from a strike.
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"You think I care about these people? I would curse the gods if this empire fell tonight but you can have that one if you wish." The men and women here - they are expendable. The loss of one (if indeed this creature intends to take them over) is a mere pebble in the way of his grander scheme. The problem is what they do with them...
"Mark my words: I'll not suffer you to undermine all that I've built thus far," he growls. "I don't know what you are, nor do I care - stay out of my way and out of my plans else your greed will forever go unsatisfied."
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Greed's body flashes once more and his alarming grin burns itself into the limelight; like that of a lightning strike outlining its crash. "You drive a hard bargain, chief. But fine, suit yourself. Hold that thought though -" Much like his voice, his presence drifts. Twirls of ash crawl down the steps with a purpose. They bounce and spiral low to the ground; their edging fingers tiptoeing closer, closer, closer -
The man never sees it coming. His preoccupation with the goings on (the many guests to tend to, his never-ending list of demands, his personal life) make him an easy target. He's halfway to his next destination, unknowing and carefree, when he suddenly stops. From the tips of his toes to the grip of his hand, every part of him appears to seize up. It's almost as if he's hit an invisible wall - one solid, foreboding, and thrown up endlessly to block his path. The server's eyes wander wildly in his sockets and as the drinks on his tray begin to sweat, his chest slowly expands; his breath all but catching in his throat.
"What do you want - ?" The Sin's voice whispers in. Like a squall trapped in a jar, his body thunders in and out of the physical; his existence now a fleeting, flickering thing. Greed guides one of his four arms to gently cup the man's face. "What do you really want - "
The nameless server studders. He doesn't speak (or he simply can't). Nevertheless, he watches what is about to swallow him with both fear and intense precision. Greed lowers his head. "You have to tell me. Whatever you want - " The devil turns his neck and as he puppets the man's skull to lean into his ear, an alarmingly kind smile touches on what's left of his lips. "Hmnn? You're going to have to speak up a little bit there, handsome."
A silent exchange passes between them. Instead of words, their conversation sparks in colors. Purple sizzles and murky blacks write out the silent contract: what is willingly given, what is willingly received. Greed's claws rake down the man's throat and the remnants of his half-smoking forehead press against the man's head. "-see, that wasn't so hard, huh? I just hope you have the stomach for it."
Seconds later, he's gone, and the waiter shakes his head like a man out of a dream. He looks to the left of him, the right, behind him, then begins to head back out to his work. However, his freedom doesn't last. He makes it to the banister of the stairs when the tray in his hand goes topside; its various flutes of rich-gold champaign clattering to the floor. The man eases down to his knees. Whatever grace and poise he may have had quietly goes out the window as his body fights itself. His fingers twitch, the veins in his forehead gorge and bloat beneath his skin. Yet, he makes not a sound. Not a whisper, not a scream, nor a sigh. He just clutches his head and as the bow of his spine contorts under his long-tailed jacket, his nails bitterly claw at his hair, freeing it from a loose tie string.
His fingernails dig, peeling themselves free and cracking. No, the promise, the deal he's been given - it comes with a price, doesn't it? And all debts need to be paid at some point.
The last of his nails rips open and the waiter's head hits the carpet with a dulled thud. When he inhales again, his voice isn't his own anymore. "Ahh -," Greed tongues at his new cheek, feeling it out. "I did ask if you had the stomach for it, kid. Guess not - "
The Sin grips his legs, righting himself to a stand. "You should probably sleep this one off. You'll get yours once I'm done." Similar to an insect in a cocoon, he tests his borrowed body - swaying his skull one way and the next, rolling his shoulders back to click and pop all the bones into place.
Greed brings his hand up to his face and turns to look back up at Solus. "Now, where were we? Oh - " He wiggles his fingers. The stubs of his lost nails are angry, raw, and thin bits of skin stingingly cling to the cuticles. The Sin examines them with a strange sort of fascination before his core kicks in and his red current licks them clean, leaving a fresh, manicured set. "-don't worry about it. I did tell you, didn't I? It takes a little more than that to hurt me. It's the same now for our friend here."
He lazily steps over a broken piece of glass. "I'm not here to get in your way, chief." Crunch goes the handle of a flute. "You've got me all wrong. But then again, I can't really blame you." He takes another step, his hands making quick work to adjust his collar and remove the thin tie at the dip of his throat. "Most do deny me at first, that's true."
He drops the fabric on the banister: another thing of his host, discarded. "See, I look at it this way: want is no different than hope. And you're hoping for something. Something most don't really understand. Did I get that right?" It's a wild guess of course. An idea vaguely spun together. Greed waves his arm and the long jacket whips at his feet. "You could say I want something similar. But nothing's impossible."
He pauses at the top of the stairs and when he opens his eyes, they're no longer a muted green, but a wicked sort of red. A reflection of his parasitic hold pushing outward. Greed slouches his shoulders. "It's stupid to be stubborn. What, do you think all of this is enough to satisfy me? I don't care what you've built, Solus."
The Sin tests his host's teeth. "Ehh, either way, now you know mine. If you want me gone, this one'll be back here tomorrow just the same as always. I've given him that time. But if not - " His arms wander as eccentric as an actor eating up the applause. "-well, I'm sure you can figure out how to find me, can't you?"
crawls back here after a million years
"Pitiful creature. You want what you cannot have, yet even when you have it you will never be satisfied." Solus disregards the fact that he could very well be talking about himself. "It will never be enough. Man is filled with unrelenting want and you - you are the purest form of it. Begone."
That's right, he must turn his eyes away from the temptation. He must stand strong, for the burden of a thousand, thousand people rests upon his shoulders. Like the sole remaining pillar of a ruin crumbling towards the sea.
But even stone is worn down by wind and time.