Apocalypse Please {OPEN}

[Calcephony]

Calcephony sat at the end of a dock with her legs hanging over the water. The waves crashed against the rocks to her left and the sandy shore to her right. The breeze blew a few inky strands from behind her ears and into her face. The boardwalk behind her bustled with evening traffic of high school kids and young couples in love.

The sun set slowly over the water and Calcephony could almost feel the warmth just from the colors bleeding across the rippling surface. She leaned back on her hands and shook her hair out behind her.

These were the sort of evenings that she loved, she only hoped that some wicked being wouldn't come and ruin it for her. She definitely didn't feel like a fight this evening.

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[Tommie Anderson]

Pixies were notoriusly playful, and this one had chosen a target that it was most likely uninformed about.

But it was evening, and the sunset was gold and red and orange on the right side of his face, so Tommie merely padded along after the tiny, darting faery as she giggled and waved his hat at him. She had stolen it a half hour earlier.

It was . . . peaceful. He was essentially playing with this faery, where most times he would simply eat it. But then he was no immortal; he was just a boy.

Content in his momentary fugue, he followed the faery onto the beach, and eventually onto a long, wooden dock. The humans there were unable to sense the darting light, but they gave Tommie a wide berth, naturally suspicious.

Eventually the pixie swung behind a woman, at the end of the dock, and peeked over her shoulder. She waved the hat again and laughed playfully.

Bemused, Tommie waved back. The pixie laughed and tossed his hat back, which he caught and remounted on his head.

Almost insultingly friendly, she then flew over and perched on the edge of the hat brim, staring into his eyes from less than an inch away.

Aware of what would happen should the faery actually touch him, Tommie puffed a breath at her and sent her tumbling away.

[Calcephony]

Calcephony basked in the warm light and the quiet buzzing of conversations behind her. Suddenly, she felt a breeze across her face, but it wasn't a breeze, it was more like some one blowing on her face. She drew her focus in and away from the sunset to find a little pixie peaking out from her shoulder back at someone. She waved a hat then tossed it to whoever was behind Cal.

As the pixie flitted away Calcephony turned slowly to figure out who was the pixie's companion. Her eyes stopped on the boy she had met, or fought rather, in the hospital. He seemed to be in a better mood since their last meeting and he was actually playing with the faerie. Her eyes narrowed but her voice stayed level when she spoke to him, she felt like giving him a second chance. Maybe he wasn't here for destruction this time.

"Fancy meeting you here." was all she said.

[Tommie Anderson]

Tommie glanced again at the woman when she spoke, and his brow furrowed momentarily in confusion. Then he recognized her; in the heat of the battle, he had not had time to memorize her features.

He blinked quietly, the only tell to his surprise, and nodded quietly.

"I had not planned it." he answered, and watched the pixie carefully as it swooped up in front of his face, chattering angrily at being blown about. It stung his nose with a burst of faerie magic, then flew away in a huff.

Tommie rubbed his sore nose briefly, and watched her fly away.

"I will never understand the young." he said, frowning slightly as he watched the pixie dart through the air in random, contrary directions.

His own adolescence had lasted barely two years, and his first kill had been at the age of six years old. Needless to say, his tendency towards playfulness was nonexistent.

"What does she accomplish?" he murmured, a question that had marked all of his years.

[Calcephony]

Calcephony swung her legs over and stood up on the dock to face him. She walked toward him, "The young are lucky. They have no worries to ruin their fun." Her mouth was set in a thin line as she cautiously surveyed the man in front of her.

"Unlike myself..." Her sentence faded out. She was hoping he wasn't here to add more to her stress. "What brings you to the shore? Searching for another angel to devour?" Calcephony's tongue was sharp but, after their last meeting she didn't have much respect for this man.

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[Tommie Anderson]

Tommie met her gaze with a look of hisown, but there was nothing behind his eyes. No anger, no hate, no grace, no laughter, no mortality.

It was like looking into the surface of a pond that had nothing below the surface. It was endless, barren, and pure.

"I have nothing to hunt tonight." he answered, softly. "I would not, in any case."

"I was desperate, that night."

He turned to leave, aware that his presence bothered the woman. He would not stay where he wasn't wanted. He held himself to what standards he could.

He stopped briefly, though.

"The child." he murmured. "Is she alright?"

[Calcephony]

Calcphony's eyes softened when he asked about the tiny angel that he had almost destroyed mere weeks ago. So there was some heart behind his surface. She stepped forward a bit to close the gap between them and answered quietly, "She's doing alright. Just a little shaken, I mean who wouldn't be, right?" She realized suddenly that they had only thrown insults and warnings at each other. She knew nothing about this guy except that he had some awful power in him.

"It's nice of you to ask." She said lamely. She didn't really know what else to say.

[Tommie Anderson]

Tommie shied the slightest bit back from the angel as she stepped forward. It wasn't even a active reaction; it was like scratching an itch or blinking. Instinctive.

"I suppose." he murmured. "I'm . . . glad."

His head turned to watch the tide surging in and out, and one eye flickered, a brief shot of disquiet inside.

"I do not particularly like killing." he admitted softly. "I am glad she escaped."

He didn't say anything about what had happened after he had lost his quarry, when the entire building had collapsed, not in fire, but in ice; the Pyre had a price, and it always had to be paid.

[Calcephony]

A small surge of anger shot through Calcephony. He was glad she escaped? She wouldn't have had to escape if it hadn't been for him.

She pushed the anger away and nodded slightly. "Then why do you? Kill I mean. If you don't like it, you shouldn't do it." Her lips were a think line of concentration, keeping the anger from exploding. "If it's for that stupid power, it's really not worth it." She turned her back a bit, trying to cool down. She hated those who delved into things that they had no business toying with.

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[Tommie Anderson]

Tommie's voice did not harden, but his response had an iron in it that it did not have before.

"Do you think I chose this?" he answered, lifting a hand and letting the cold dance around it in visible black wisps, like maddened hornets.

"I am not its user." he continued. "I am its host. The Pyre is a parasite."

He said the last with a finality that left his feelings on the subject obvious. He did not appreciate what he wielded.

"You have spent much time with the humans?" he asked then, blatantly changing the subject. He'd never had much social grace.

[Calcephony]

Calcephony decided to follow the subject change, she still wasn't up to another altercation and didn't particularly feel like arguing either. She crossed her arms over her chest and bit her bottom lip, breathing to keep herself calm.

"Yes, I've spent some time with humans... why do you ask?" It was a curious change of subject. Although, now that she thought about it, she enjoyed earth much more than heaven lately. Down here no one was bothering her with the fears and panic of Lucifer's plans. Down here, she could just mind her charges and make sure there was a reasonable amount of peace happening.

It was her job to help keep a healthy amount of good in the world to balance out Lucifer's wicked plans. She found this boy strange though, this "parasite" was obviously not something good if it was feeding on innocent beings. She wondered slightly if it was Lucifer's doing. If it was, that would be easily remedied, but if not, Calcephony had a whole other problem on her hands.

She sighed wearily at the thought, she didn't want to have to worry about something other than just Lucifer's antics. This parasite had the potential to age her much faster than she should.

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[Tommie Anderson]

Tommie lifted one shoulder in an approximation of a shrug.

"I move too much." he explained. "And most avoid me. One I did know put it as 'too much free air conditioning'." Tommie explained, a somewhat disgruntled look on his face as he quoted his acquaintance.

He turned to face back over the dock, at the couples that remained. With the slow setting of the sun, they had begun wandering away, though a few remained to watch the evening sun.

Almost absent-mindedly, his fingers began dancing a rhythmic pattern in the air, and gentle snowflakes fell from them, quickly melting in the warm air. The deck beneath them became damp with the shower.

"It is how I spend my days." he mused. "I watch. I try to understand my kin."

"Sometimes they have such great wisdom." he said softly, sketching a simple design in the air, a triple loop, all entertwined. "It amazes me, on occasion."

[Calcephony]

Calcephony's lips puckered in thought, she chewed on the inside of her cheek. "You speak as if you've been around for ages. If you truly are human and this thing is a parasite, you can't be that old."

Her thoughts drifted back to what she's seen over the centuries. The changes that had been made through history. The humans were fairly brilliant, some more than others, but that didn't change the fact that they were inventive. She smiled slightly, humans had really come a long way.

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[Tommie Anderson]

Tommie shook his head. "I'm young." he answered. "I possess barely a score of years."

He indicated the couples with a hand, ceasing his snowplay.

"I spend my time watching. It is a hobby, you could say." he continued. "Twenty years is a very long time for a human. There is so much they accomplish in that short span."

"If you watch," he said softly, "They are incredible, every day."

He pointed with one finger at a man who had let his child run in circles around him for the last fifteen minutes.

"He comes here every week. Tuesdays." Tommie murmured. "He stands there, and watches the ocean, and the child runs. And when the child is tired, he takes him home."

"That is wisdom." he said simply. "That is all that man's years. The ocean is enough for him."

The wistfulness in Tommie's tone was abrupt and shocking.

"He is content." Tommie whispered. Then he shook his head.

"That is marvel, to me."

[Calcephony]

Calcephony almost smiled... almost is the operative word there. This child, and to her he was a child, marveled at the same things she marveled at sometimes. It was amazing to her that a centuries old being could share a simple link with someone who didn't even reach three decades. Her eyes smiled at him as she looked away toward the father and child that Tommie had been talking about.

"You are much wiser than you should be." She meant it as a compliment. Most humans were too consumed with money and power to catch the true meaning of life, simple happiness. Sometimes she longed to be a human, she would embrace that simplicity and be all the happier for it. Without her immortality, without her rank, she could enjoy life to its fullest.

Her now gold and green eyes traveled back to the gifted human before her. She hated doing business and ruin such a peaceful moment, but time was short when dealing with humans, even the gifted ones. Her face turned serious, "Have you chosen a side?" It was a simple question and she stated simply.

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[Tommie Anderson]

He accepted the compliment with little else but a tilt of his head. He was in no position to judge the value of his own wisdom.

In truth, for the stark view of the world that the Pyre had laid out for him, in lines of ash, he thought it was accurate. Not wise.

He wasn't yet old enough to know there wasn't a difference between the two.

In response to her question, Tommie thought carefully for a moment.

"To my knowledge, I have not." he answered in equal simplicity. "I have been offered bargains, if that is what you mean, but every demon within my reach I consume."

He shrugged. "Your kin leave me be, and congregate in groups. It is easier and wiser to hunt demons."

A brief look of thought passed over his face. "Does this mean I have chosen a side?' he asked carefully. "I am unaware of the strictures in place here."

[Calcephony]

Calcephony thought for a moment before responding, her right hand working furiously at her left thumb messing with a hang nail that resided there. No, just because he destroyed demons more often than he destroyed angels didn't mean he had chosen a side.

After all, he had gone after that baby angel. If he was to choose a side, which he ought to, then it would have to be a conscious decision. Her eyes rose once more to his face.

"No, that doesn't mean you've chosen a side." She thought about telling him the rules for a moment. About what would happen if he chose a side, what the perks and downfalls were. She wondered how to word it best so it didn't seem like she was persuading him.

This was his choice and she couldn't sway him in either direction. "If you chose a side, you would know it. You would be protected, you would be a part of that group, associated so to speak. Say, if you chose to help the demons..." Her jaw clenched at that thought, she hated to think she would lose a perfectly good human to the dark side, even if she didn't exactly see eye to eye with him. "If you chose to help the demons, you wouldn't be talking to me. Lucifer would forbid that, and as demons go... you'd have to obey."

She knew that if he had already sided with the demons that it would be possible that Lucifer had sent out this boy as a distraction to her, knowing her weakness for humans. But she also knew that this was an unlikely event and that Tommie was in no way tied to either side. He would be incinerated on the spot if he had come here behind Lucifer's back. Lucifer was just that sort of ruler.

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[Tommie Anderson]

Tommie chewed on that for a second.

"I doubt the demons would accept me at this point, anyway." he said finally. "When I say I have hunted more demons than angels . . . that means I have hunted a demon once every two or three days for almost two decades. And then a smattering of angels."

His mouth bent in a facsimile of a frown.

"My last meeting with an envoy of the Underside ended in multiple deaths. It was a small legal office, uptown. Named Jordanson's, I believe. It was an ambush on their part."

Tommie's eyes cooled to eerie polar lights as he thought, and then said, "I have had no diplomatic contact with the demons since that time."