One big step for insanity (Open)

[attr="class","mater"]

She stopped and stared at him, a wild look in her eyes. She had seen him, of course she had seen him, no one else felt like he did. She could sense him, that comforting power, those eyes, the calmness and the gentlemanly posture. NO! Shaking her head and lashing out wildly at a woman running past, her head half coming off of her head she flew to the floor. Vee raised her knife to her face, staring at it in horror, her faces moving in slow motion through several different emotions and her legs shaking. A man ran past, yelling at the woman on the floor, screaming a name. She span, reverie broken by the noise, more noise, too much noise, she was being perfectly civilised and within her rights to murder on an off day and this man was interrupting. Plunging her blade into his throat, cradling his head with her other hand and staring into his fading eyes. "Shhhh, sleep now. You have stopped screaming, and the world is quiet again." then moving to the side as he sunk down, wrenching her knife out with a gruesome squelching noise. He fell on the body of his wife, Vee turning, wiping the blade on the back of his sweater and walking over to Gage.

"I will take that as a compliment sir." curtsying and taking a seat. The voices in her head whispered to her, the echoes of screams making her head and eyes twitch. She stopped twice while lowering herself, looking around quickly with her knife raised. Then finally settled in. Tracing the knife up and down her bare forearm absent mindedly, her feet started tapping on the floor, her bloodlust yearning for more. She looked at him, licked her lips and leaned forwards "They won't stop. The voices, the screaming. I had to stop them, but now they wont stop, they are in here" she hastily tapped her head with the free hand. Forgetting to stop tapping her head while she continued to talk. "I saw...things, I saw them, all of them, the people, the power, the..." she looked up, and around in fear, cringing at various things in view, flinching at every new turn of her head. "It...it started...the woman...so...so strong...she followed me" she cried out, remembering the pain and what had followed. "Then the things, the things, the big things, they...did things." She started rocking violently backwards and forwards, shaking her head "No, no, no, no, no more screaming. No more sound, they cannot hear me." she suddenly lurched forwards, staring him in the face with blank eyes, she was inside her own mind now. "No, they cannot find me now, no more screaming, no more people. But you, you don't scream." she smiled at him "You would protect me from the things wouldn't you? That was the deal, favour for...for..." her head sagging down and looking at the table.

Her blade had started to cut the skin, but she had not noticed and continued to run it along her arm. Staring at the table and the reflection into the sky, she muttered over and over, her eyes widening and closing quickly "No no, quiet now, quiet shhhhh, no more screaming, all quiet, they cannot find me now."

[attr="class","mater"]

Vee pulled slightly as Gage pulled the knife from her, holding out towards it then curling up again and leaning away from him. "No, no no...shhh..aaggghhh" crying out in pain as he dragged her by the arm, then her eyes widening in horror she whispered to him "Shhh, shh, no shhhh." then looking around suddenly. "shhh, yes, somewhere else, too much screaming here. They will find us here." She did not even follow his hand as he placed the tag in her pocket or what he really said. She was listening but it did not stay, the words did not make sense, he was speaking another language, an alien language. She pulled back from him, gasping as her arm stung and she fell forwards again, he was trying to take her "Help! No no, shhhh, no help!" she screamed, then stopping suddenly and putting a finger to her lips. She looked at him, Gage, it was just Gage, she could trust Gage, he was quiet. "Shhh, we must be quiet or they will hear us, too much screaming, everyone screaming, why do they scream so much." her voice broke, falling against him and she started crying quietly while still walking.

The more she cried the further she got from the world, she simply matched his feet, staring at the ground and trying to ignore the screaming in her head. The shapes, the monsters, they were everywhere and they would not stop. But she felt safe here, safe with Gage. He owed her favous, she could trust favours, she was a businesswoman and she could rely on favours, she had a business, a successful business that she had made and grown and "Stupid, stupid." she muttered, slapping her face loudly, it echoed down the street. Sirens could be heard in the distance now, getting closer, adding their noise, too much noise, so much noise now, it added to her head, she knew too much noise. "Too much too much, voices should be silent, voices should stop screaming Gage why won't they stop." clawing at her head, her fingernails drawing and causing her to hiss. She smiled, pain, pain was good. Or was it bad. She felt pain before, so much pain, too much pain. But they healed her...who healed her? She woke...no, she was shaken...no...how did she get here. Vee shook her head "No no no, Gage brought me here." patting his jacket to confirm he was there. "Gage brou...brough...bru..br, br, br..." remembering the bodies, the people she had killed. And the crying got more intense, murder was one thing. But that was slaughter. No, those people made noise "bad noise bad, bad noise brings bad people, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad" she kept spitting the word over and over again.

[attr="class","mater"]

She calmed down as soon as the door clicked shut. Now it was only the voices in her head, with nothing to echo but Gages voice they had run out of ammo. The screaming and sirens faded away, she slumped against the wall just inside the door with a tired sigh. Head in her hands, body shaking from what was obviously crying but making no noise. Every so often she would clutch at her hair, fiddling with the hairband holding it back, twisting hair strands around her finger and muttering nonsensical words. They suddenly got more agitated, shaking her head more and more like she was arguing with herself. The voices in her head were arguing back, they were not bad voices, Vee had had fun with them in the past, they made for good conversation on a dull day. But today they were mean, today they did not want to be healed or removed, and Gage was a very real threat, the amount he had reeled her in already attested to that. She thumped her head with the palms of her hands, then in one quick movement she flicked her hair out of the band, letting it fall around her shoulders. It was the first time in 15 years that she had let her hair down in front of an actual person. The fact of the situation sobering her up, her head raising quickly and wiping her face away to remove the tears. Smearing blood all over her cheeks and nose in the process, she looked at her hands and body and laughed nervously. "Look at me, riches to rags feckin aye."

She smiled briefly at Gage, trying not to make eye contact, nodding in understanding, fingering the violin earring on her right ear with her right hand. Her right elbow resting on the wrist of her left arm as it crossed over her chest. She coughed, steeling her mind in preparation, her hair curled over her shoulder, turning pure white and growing in length. Her clothes started to shift, the blood shifting off in a splatter to the floor, then her powers burst, a state of her powers she was not used to people seeing. It mixed strangely with Gages, she could feel it contesting his, hitting against it a lot stronger than she meant to and immediately reeling it in. Her form had nearly completely changed, her face remaining more or less the same, her clothes had changed in style, wearing dramatically less now. But the biggest change was the violin and bow she now held in her hands. "Tadaa" she announced weakly, waiting for him to judge her. She knew people out there had swords and guns and bows and explosive punches or whatever, and here she was with a stupid violin and a stupid revealing outfit. She waved them at him "My item, or items I should say. I know they are not as cool as a sword or whatever but I have never really fought anyone with them so they are a comfort to me." she tried to recover from the situation, she had experienced far too many emotions in a row and had to keep talking and moving to keep the voices out.

[attr="class","mater"]

Vee handed the violin over without question, she rarely actually used it to fight, and so it meant less to her than say a Shinigami's sword to its user. Not that the item itself meant little to her, it was the embodiment of her love of music and serenity, her anchor of sanity in this world of anarchy. But if Gage wanted to kill her then he would have by now, Gage was good, he made the noises go away. Her violin never made noises like that, never off tune, never played badly. If Gage was to attempt to play it this could go very well or very badly very quickly. The voices in her head screamed at her, clawing at her brain when she gave it, she had just handed the source of her strongest powers over to someone else, power that they had plans for, but they could not be used if someone else was holding them. Her hands started twitching as she fought them for control over her body, but she stomped them down, focusing on the situation.

For the first time a thought struck her, that Gage was about to train her. Or upgrade her power or something, she was not entirely sure how the whole thing worked. But unless she wanted her to fight him then she could not of no other reason he would want to see her Fullbring, in films and things she had seen they had to bring the best out of the hero to push him or her further. Excitement bubbling up in her head from both herself and the voices at the thought, she was glad he was so understanding, calm and had that aura of someone who knew their shit. She figured a fullbringer with a fullbring was fairly common, one as a connotation of the other, but the way he said it and asked it made him seem like he really knew what he was on about. And she used that to ground herself. Her inner self screaming his name at the voices, battling them for control over her ironic sanity. She smiled crookedly at Gage, "What's yours then?" not even in an attempt for information, just trying to distract and immerse herself "Is it that lighter? Or is it something weird like a condom you have kept in your wallet since you were twelve?"

[attr="class","mater"]

Her body and soul jolted backwards like he had shocked her, eyes looking wildly up and down her fullbring to make sure it was unharmed. The voices in her head screaming again, trying to claw out of her skull and inspect it themselves but she hushed them back down. Now she was slightly more settled she could control them again, to a certain extent. Normally they sat in the background whispering, like that little voice that says jump when you are up somewhere high, but in moments of distress or panic they fed from her emotion to grow in strength. With the violin back in her own hands, she felt it, like a heartbeat of the soul inside it. Something alien, something that did not quite belong there, no...something she did not know. Like a cog that pushed against nothing, like clay waiting to be moulded or a gun on which she could not find the trigger. "What on earth did you-you-yo-" Her jaw dropped, her eyes going blank and the blood draining from her face.

She dived inside of her own mind, and immediately found them attacking something within, something, no, someone that felt familiar. Her hands outside moved on their own accord, striking up a tune that reverberated inside, almost too soft to hear, and probably too soft for anyone but herself. After all, she would be a poor musician not to recognise her own music. She approached the attack within herself, it felt so real, looked so real, and all she could hear was that music, high pitched like she had just been shellshocked, stumbling towards them. It was bathed in white, just darker shapes moving, fast moving, large, monsters...monsters. The monsters had found her. The scene coming into focus but her eyes slammed shut, the monsters descended on her, clawing and slicing at her body, pain washing over her and not even her own warm blood gushing out could take away the cold fear. The music got louder, the monsters were what she had not seen, the things only her subconscious had seen, the things only the deepest dungeons of her soul had felt after they left their marks there. She curled up into a ball, sitting in a white world with pain spiking into her. If her sanity had anything left intact she would realise the pain was nowhere near what she should be feeling right now, it was more like pins and needles the voices told her were numbed by fear. They goaded her, taunted her, prodded and poked her as she lay on the floor, they told her things she had shut away, the secrets she had, they recreated the death cries of the people she had killed. Her eyes cried red. "Gage..." she whimpered, reaching her hand out out through the pain and lashes into the fading whiteness.

[attr="class","mater"]

That voice...it echoed through her mind. Her eyes flickered open, the pain had stopped suddenly and the world was blinding, a single silhouette stood before her, light spilling out behind it. A faint wisp of smoke coming from its head, standing casually and speaking her name, her body twitched. The voices were still there but...muffled. Like they were underwater, they were also calling her name, screaming threats and cursing her existence. They were trying to get out, but she did not understand why, why they were trapped, why they were so quiet. And who the voice belonged to before her, she could not quiet place it over the pain that still stung her body, it felt warm, the light behind him giving her an unexplainable energy and confidence. She opened her other eye, still lying on the floor but leaning slowly on her right arm to see clearer, the figures details coming into focus and revealing Gage standing there with a cigarette in hand. Vee smiled through the slashes on her face, her body marred with random gouges and burns despite her not experiencing any heat or acid based attacks.

She started to stand up, then glimpsed them out of her eye, her body freezing in place until one of them growled. Vee flung herself away from them and started scrambling away, leaving a heavy trail of blood that spread out over the entire flood area, turning the entire worlds floor bright blood red with ripples coming off from under each figure. "No no no, no, no, no, no" she started to feel faint, the walls and ceiling blotching black with a wine red outline, the shop from before flashing through each of the blotches and streaking across the sky like lightning. She shook her head, her hair falling over her eyes and her pyjamas falling off as she continued to scramble away from the monsters. Though she did not seem to be getting any further from them. Her bloody naked body started hitting the floor, fists and feet, blood splashing up into the air and dark shapes started moving underneath it like a swarm of sharks circling her. "No no no, no no no, no Gage, no, no Gage, Gage!" She screamed at her own feet, she knew he was there, she saw him, she heard him, but still she screamed. The voices had gotten louder, still muffled but yelling at her now, yelling unintelligible things with urgency, warning her, like an acapella group in an insane asylum all in chorus with eachother. Her sanity hiding in the corner told her they were warning her of Gage, saying he was evil, he was a monster, and to ignore them. But her insanity ruled here, and it was a lot louder telling her to release the chains on them, to set them free and sit back and relax. She had not yet figured out that her insanity was a voice she had not formally met yet.

[attr="class","mater"]

Vee was impressed with herself that she could be embarrassed in such a situation, blood around her, the beasts that embody her innermost fears sitting mere meters away, her sanity crumbling and life as she knew it had lost all meaning, and she still managed to blush when she realised she was naked in front of Gage. It had happened without her noticing, suddenly she could feel the air on her soft skin. Just because she did not show it often or at all did not mean she did not take care of it, she anchored herself on his voice. Pulling her knees up to her chest and folding her arms over them, she sat in front of him, the tears in her eyes turning to rivers that she could not stop. But she had been down this road before, three times in her past as far as she could recall, and each time had been bad, some worse than this, but none were as trippy. She knew she had to break out of it, or she would wake up in a padded room again, and while that would be fun, it was the reason she had moved to Naruki in the first place. The past was for planning the future, the future was for running from the past.

As she looked up she kept her eyes on Gage, but the movement behind him made her flinch, almost like her face was going into a fit. They were in her peripheral vision still, thrashing around, trying to escape, but the noise had stopped for now. She was able to rein in her mind a little more and relax slightly, focusing on the features of Gage's face, not really taking it in but staring at it so hard she was practically wearing it down. She followed it down to his hand reaching out to her, but she just looked confused, looking down at her naked body which was curiously not cast in shadow despite her head and arms covering the view and quickly looking back up again and shaking her head profusely. There was no way she was giving him that picture to think over on his own later, she may not know her own mind but she knew the minds of men enough to know they don't think with their minds. "Not them." she shook her head, she thought the rest of the sentence. Forgetting that Gage could not hear her thoughts but she assumed he would know what she meant. "Not them. Not scared of them." it was a strange thing to not know whether she was talking with her mouth or her mind. Her head felt light and her thoughts were scattered, she almost felt drunk her thoughts were so.

What she was in fact trying to say was that the hollows were not the basis of her fear but the face of it, her psyche held a lot more than a brutal mutilation but they generally happened with people she could not see or people she had worked hard to forget. The hollows simply had succeeded to put their face on her fear, not that she was not scared of them, her power was weak, her strength low, both spiritually and physically and they could easily overpower her. But it was not in her nature to fear something stronger than her, after all, if it was stronger then at that moment there is nothing she could do about it, so what is the point of being scared if either way he is still stronger. No one that is stronger than you would suddenly chose to be not stronger just because you are scared of their strength. The 20 or so years of physical and mental abuse formed the bulk of what the hollows were formed of, and she did not fear her fears for their strength over her, but rather her weakness of their existence. It did not help that she was shallow enough to consider a weakness a fear, a flaw was a weakness, but being weak was not a flaw, as it was a state of power, simply having power made her not flawed. Simple as that.

[attr="class","mater"]

As the crack of necks echoed numbly in her mind, a warmth spread throughout her body, the raging sea of her thoughts settled down and lapped gently against her soul. She looked around, testing her limbs, her neck, her jaw, then snapped to Gage, as if she were looking at him for the first time, moving her head from side to side and drinking in the details of his face. "Gage?" she cooed, as if she were not sure what the word would do, then smiled a little. Her hand rested on his arm, as if to politely decline the offer of his shirt, and instead grabbed hold of it and used it to pull herself up. She was relying on the hope that he could adjust his balance and pull her up or anchor himself so she may pull herself up, the blood on the floor seeps up to her, moving in a wave over her body, and as it passed over her a long wine red dress appeared on her, her wounds healed and light makeup. "By killing them you have shown me the power that you have, and the power that I could have if I but concentrated on it." She moved into him, running her hands down his arms and smiling, her eyes glinting with the same insanity but with a tinge of something new...a regret? A realisation? A lust?

She waved her hands at the bodies behind them, they shattered, and faded into nothingness, the world turning dark and closing in. "You are correct, I have things I need to get done, first most being to cover up the mess that Vee made earlier." she stopped for a brief moment, hoping Gage did not notice her slip, she was not used to talking this socially. She moved her hands through the air, the air shimmering like water and rippling where her hand touched it, she grinned at it. "And I feel like this could be a whole can of fun." Her smile promised all kinds of skulduggery with her new toy, even if she did not fully understand it. "So, what is it exactly? It feels like a...manifestation of my imagination?" She was not fully in control of her words again yet, the previous events had shaken her and now she needed to understand before she could move on.