solo log - the eruption of the Rune
Who: Geddoe
When: evening of Friday, August 20
Where: his flat in the MAC
What: the True Lightning Rune breaks its seal and manifests
For the past month or so, something had been changing. There was no mistaking it. Geddoe was growing concerned that something was not right with the True Rune in his right hand, but it was difficult to say what. Considering it had been completely silent, as if nonexistent, since his arrival in this world in the spring, he might have thought that this change was a sign that things were becoming more normal. True Runes did not take well to being sealed or silenced, sooner or later they would do something about it. The dreams were not terrible; Geddoe was used to them, he had been having them for decades and learned to tune them out. The subtle whispers in his soul were familiar, it was indeed as though the act of traveling between worlds had only temporarily silenced the Rune and it was now, finally, waking up and resuming its old, normal habits. But then the dreams turned to nightmares, and the whispers became roars. He began to lose sleep, as the Rune would suddenly whirl into a rage at the most random and inconvenient times. Like a storm, it would blow up in an instant and fade out just as abruptly, though sometimes it remained lurking around the edge of Geddoe's consciousness like distant thunder. It was getting difficult to maintain an even temper, but as of yet it wasn't impairing his ability to function.
I'll just have to work harder to suppress its will, he told himself. Like in those first days and weeks of having this Rune in his body, almost eighty years ago, he would have to retrain himself to resist it and ignore the whispers. That might have worked if it was merely the Rune's natural behavior. Eighty years of having this constant companion warned him that it might not be so easy.
It had been a busy week. Regular lessons with Lupin on Monday, a strange message and fight on Tuesday, and testing his spell levels on Wednesday. The Hammer of Raijin still worked as normal, and he could still cast two of them before exhausting enough power. Discovering that only made him even more curious and wary about the True Rune's behavior, but he had no further answers about it. Friday evening found Geddoe returning from a forage for food, flopping down in his living room with a bag of takeout. He had taken a liking to burgers, big thick meaty burgers dripping with cheese and grease that he could get pretty cheap from pubs and street vendors. There was a lot he didn't like about this world, but he really couldn't complain about the food. Such a meal couldn't be eaten with gloves on, but he was home alone anyway and could doff his leather gloves without fear. Wild Geese went to rest against the wall where he always put it, the gloves on the table, and he could finally sit down and eat.
Dusk had fallen by the time he finished and sat back, propping his boots up on the little coffee table. Geddoe still hadn't adjusted to this world, exactly. He stuck with his old habits, figuring that a technologically-advanced world full of light and noise and mayhem really wasn't that different from his except on the surface. Room and board were the same, eating and sleeping and walking and fighting, drinking and scowling and keenly observing. At least his comprehension of the written language was improving considerably, he could finally read text posts to the communicator-device. Rested and relaxed for the moment, he decided to pick up the comm and check to see what was going on with the so-called heroes today.
As he stretched and reached for the device on the table, his right hand suddenly gave a spasm so fierce that it hurt. Geddoe snatched it back to himself and stared at it in alarm. It never did that before. He checked the back of his hand where the True Rune's symbol was ingrained in his skin like a faded henna tattoo, but it didn't look any different. It jolted him again, just then, and tingling pains ran up his wrist and forearm. Clutching his arm, Geddoe moved to the edge of the chair, preparing to get up - his instinct was to run it under cool water as if it were a burn. True Lightning blazed to life without warning, screaming in his head with a bloodless voice. Images rampaged through his mind's eye, memories and premonitions and futures never to be, flickering faster than the pictures on TV. Gritting his teeth, Geddoe fought his way to his feet and then reeled right down onto his knees, overwhelmed by the electric threads invisibly tearing up through his arm and freezing his fingers into gnarled claws. Stop it, stop! he demanded of the Rune. What do you want from me? What's going on?
The True Rune did not answer. Perhaps it couldn't, or else it had nothing to say to him. The flood of memories became a blur in Geddoe's head, he couldn't pick one out from the rest. True Lightning didn't do this, it had always been stable. Its will meshed so well with his own most of the time that when he had to squash it down, it didn't protest much if at all. All of a sudden it was lost in a rage, howling in his subconscious like never before. For a fleeting moment, Geddoe wondered if this was what it felt like to his friend when True Fire went out of control, and a cold stab of fear clenched in his chest. All the people in the MAC building, people living for blocks around them, were in danger if this Rune was about to explode. He had to get clear, at least get to the street and start running. But the pain was so fierce and the inner turmoil so great that he couldn't stagger to his feet again. The magic began to be visible, first as small sparks and then thicker ropes of electricity wreathing around his hand and tickling up his arm. Geddoe could only kneel there and watch in panic, holding his right arm while his hand seemed to have a life of its own. There was a sudden surge, and the faint outlines of lightning bolts on the back of his hand flashed out with a greenish glow. He didn't have time to think, because the pain came right on its heels, a burning, vicious, screaming pain. The glow flashed again, bright enough to make him flinch, and then it happened.
Ripping, shredding. Anguish worse than any wound he had ever borne. It was as though magic, electricity, light itself were erupting from his hand. Geddoe could no longer hold back a bellow of pain, though he managed to shift and direct his arm toward the window. A finger of lightning roped out and blasted through the wall, but it didn't just flash and then vanish - it whipped at the window and wall and poured out into the night, tearing itself out of his hand and escaping. Geddoe stared in horror at the hole opening in his flesh, at the blood dripping down his fingers - this wasn't like what Luc did to him. This was worse. This was the Rune itself.
But the lightning wasn't arcing out, there was no further damage to the wall. Instead, it was coalescing outside, forming itself into something. From where he crouched in the middle of his flat, Geddoe could just see it out there, in the air above the street. The jolts of pain muddled his head, but not enough that he couldn't comprehend what was happening. He remembered that battle in the ruins all too well. The burst of claws and feathers from Luc's chest. He lifted his eye to the gap in the wall, trying to focus and see what the cluster of lightning was resolving into. All he got was a whirl of sparks and blue flame and an unearthly scream before whatever it was took off, rising into the sky and vanishing.
The room and the night around him fell back into darkness. Geddoe remained kneeling there, panting, sweating, and trembling with pain. His arm ached, his hand wouldn't even move now. He needed help, he needed medical attention...but all he could think about was the Rune. It had left him. After almost eighty years, it just tore itself out of him and incarnated. It was free, but in a form that had to be stopped. Geddoe knew this, and yet it took him a long time to move. Fighting shock, dizziness, and pain, he reached for the device on the table.
[for reference, the True Lightning Incarnation looks like this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/CapsuleCorp/trueltrnuni_150.jpg ]
When: evening of Friday, August 20
Where: his flat in the MAC
What: the True Lightning Rune breaks its seal and manifests
For the past month or so, something had been changing. There was no mistaking it. Geddoe was growing concerned that something was not right with the True Rune in his right hand, but it was difficult to say what. Considering it had been completely silent, as if nonexistent, since his arrival in this world in the spring, he might have thought that this change was a sign that things were becoming more normal. True Runes did not take well to being sealed or silenced, sooner or later they would do something about it. The dreams were not terrible; Geddoe was used to them, he had been having them for decades and learned to tune them out. The subtle whispers in his soul were familiar, it was indeed as though the act of traveling between worlds had only temporarily silenced the Rune and it was now, finally, waking up and resuming its old, normal habits. But then the dreams turned to nightmares, and the whispers became roars. He began to lose sleep, as the Rune would suddenly whirl into a rage at the most random and inconvenient times. Like a storm, it would blow up in an instant and fade out just as abruptly, though sometimes it remained lurking around the edge of Geddoe's consciousness like distant thunder. It was getting difficult to maintain an even temper, but as of yet it wasn't impairing his ability to function.
I'll just have to work harder to suppress its will, he told himself. Like in those first days and weeks of having this Rune in his body, almost eighty years ago, he would have to retrain himself to resist it and ignore the whispers. That might have worked if it was merely the Rune's natural behavior. Eighty years of having this constant companion warned him that it might not be so easy.
It had been a busy week. Regular lessons with Lupin on Monday, a strange message and fight on Tuesday, and testing his spell levels on Wednesday. The Hammer of Raijin still worked as normal, and he could still cast two of them before exhausting enough power. Discovering that only made him even more curious and wary about the True Rune's behavior, but he had no further answers about it. Friday evening found Geddoe returning from a forage for food, flopping down in his living room with a bag of takeout. He had taken a liking to burgers, big thick meaty burgers dripping with cheese and grease that he could get pretty cheap from pubs and street vendors. There was a lot he didn't like about this world, but he really couldn't complain about the food. Such a meal couldn't be eaten with gloves on, but he was home alone anyway and could doff his leather gloves without fear. Wild Geese went to rest against the wall where he always put it, the gloves on the table, and he could finally sit down and eat.
Dusk had fallen by the time he finished and sat back, propping his boots up on the little coffee table. Geddoe still hadn't adjusted to this world, exactly. He stuck with his old habits, figuring that a technologically-advanced world full of light and noise and mayhem really wasn't that different from his except on the surface. Room and board were the same, eating and sleeping and walking and fighting, drinking and scowling and keenly observing. At least his comprehension of the written language was improving considerably, he could finally read text posts to the communicator-device. Rested and relaxed for the moment, he decided to pick up the comm and check to see what was going on with the so-called heroes today.
As he stretched and reached for the device on the table, his right hand suddenly gave a spasm so fierce that it hurt. Geddoe snatched it back to himself and stared at it in alarm. It never did that before. He checked the back of his hand where the True Rune's symbol was ingrained in his skin like a faded henna tattoo, but it didn't look any different. It jolted him again, just then, and tingling pains ran up his wrist and forearm. Clutching his arm, Geddoe moved to the edge of the chair, preparing to get up - his instinct was to run it under cool water as if it were a burn. True Lightning blazed to life without warning, screaming in his head with a bloodless voice. Images rampaged through his mind's eye, memories and premonitions and futures never to be, flickering faster than the pictures on TV. Gritting his teeth, Geddoe fought his way to his feet and then reeled right down onto his knees, overwhelmed by the electric threads invisibly tearing up through his arm and freezing his fingers into gnarled claws. Stop it, stop! he demanded of the Rune. What do you want from me? What's going on?
The True Rune did not answer. Perhaps it couldn't, or else it had nothing to say to him. The flood of memories became a blur in Geddoe's head, he couldn't pick one out from the rest. True Lightning didn't do this, it had always been stable. Its will meshed so well with his own most of the time that when he had to squash it down, it didn't protest much if at all. All of a sudden it was lost in a rage, howling in his subconscious like never before. For a fleeting moment, Geddoe wondered if this was what it felt like to his friend when True Fire went out of control, and a cold stab of fear clenched in his chest. All the people in the MAC building, people living for blocks around them, were in danger if this Rune was about to explode. He had to get clear, at least get to the street and start running. But the pain was so fierce and the inner turmoil so great that he couldn't stagger to his feet again. The magic began to be visible, first as small sparks and then thicker ropes of electricity wreathing around his hand and tickling up his arm. Geddoe could only kneel there and watch in panic, holding his right arm while his hand seemed to have a life of its own. There was a sudden surge, and the faint outlines of lightning bolts on the back of his hand flashed out with a greenish glow. He didn't have time to think, because the pain came right on its heels, a burning, vicious, screaming pain. The glow flashed again, bright enough to make him flinch, and then it happened.
Ripping, shredding. Anguish worse than any wound he had ever borne. It was as though magic, electricity, light itself were erupting from his hand. Geddoe could no longer hold back a bellow of pain, though he managed to shift and direct his arm toward the window. A finger of lightning roped out and blasted through the wall, but it didn't just flash and then vanish - it whipped at the window and wall and poured out into the night, tearing itself out of his hand and escaping. Geddoe stared in horror at the hole opening in his flesh, at the blood dripping down his fingers - this wasn't like what Luc did to him. This was worse. This was the Rune itself.
But the lightning wasn't arcing out, there was no further damage to the wall. Instead, it was coalescing outside, forming itself into something. From where he crouched in the middle of his flat, Geddoe could just see it out there, in the air above the street. The jolts of pain muddled his head, but not enough that he couldn't comprehend what was happening. He remembered that battle in the ruins all too well. The burst of claws and feathers from Luc's chest. He lifted his eye to the gap in the wall, trying to focus and see what the cluster of lightning was resolving into. All he got was a whirl of sparks and blue flame and an unearthly scream before whatever it was took off, rising into the sky and vanishing.
The room and the night around him fell back into darkness. Geddoe remained kneeling there, panting, sweating, and trembling with pain. His arm ached, his hand wouldn't even move now. He needed help, he needed medical attention...but all he could think about was the Rune. It had left him. After almost eighty years, it just tore itself out of him and incarnated. It was free, but in a form that had to be stopped. Geddoe knew this, and yet it took him a long time to move. Fighting shock, dizziness, and pain, he reached for the device on the table.
[for reference, the True Lightning Incarnation looks like this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/CapsuleCorp/trueltrnuni_150.jpg ]
