.!.
“NO!”
The scream defiant and unmistakable.
Rule released the pink, hardened nipple from his teeth and looked into a stare of green rage.
Sheila’s forehead connected with her husband’s nose. Blood spray found purchase on her face and bare chest as he snorted in surprise and pain. Sheila Rule shoved his aching form off her frame and in the same movement a swath of shadow wrapped itself about herself, cloaking her no longer in a form hugging robe but a scarlet and onyx armor.
“I am no MAN’S WHORE!”
download Death Warrior dvd
Ars Magna #5
“Slither”
(Wicked Game: Act II)
[12 year old Sheila Torrance came into possession of a pair of creatures called Talismans. In the span of a year her entire life was turned upside down by different events: mentored by Johann Weisz, a young American practitioner of magic; the revelation that a childhood history of abuse stemmed from her Father's secret affair with her Mother; the deaths of all she loved; and marriage to a dark being named British Rule, the Lord of Shadows. Now 18 years old, she is thrust into a position of power in a pocket dimension populated by creatures both deadly and fantastic.]
Clapping echoed throughout the meeting hall of the Chaos Court, clapping that turned into hooting, hollering, howling until it was a thunderous nigh unending roar.
Sheila, no, Lady of Shadows stood over the fallen body of her husband, she watched as he struggled to get up on one knee. Rule’s face swollen and bloodied looked into his bride’s fierce eyes, “Berry goot.”
Lady of Shadows stepped away from the pathetic scene and the crowds parted just enough to let her pass to the dais where her Grandmother, Richmond Christmas, sat.
“Rich-”
She was halted mid-name by her Grandmother Richmond’s outstretched palm.
“LADY Christmas”, she continued.
“Lady of Shadows”, Richmond replied and motioned towards one of the large stone thrones next to her own. She settled into the large, rigid seat and cast her gaze on the entire hall, the members of each table migrating slowly back to their respect groups. A hush fell upon the hall as none dared look upon Rule as he composed himself, an ink black mask now sat on his face, while his entire body slid across the stone floor carried by a ribbon of shadow to the dais.
Rule, his voice full of authority, spoke to the Hall.
“Tonight you’ve seen but a taste of the power my -ahem- new bride.”
Cackling issued from around the room.
“There will be no mistakes this time, this Lady of Shadows will stand at my side as we prepare to take back what has been quickly slipping through your grasps all these Millennia. Once beasts ruled the Earth, Man but prey and scavenger. They grew in number as they dared travel into the lands where you ruled and cavorted amongst yourselves. Necessity mothered ideas which became tools – weapons by which many were put by the wayside. Their fear, eroding.”
Angry fists pounded the tables, earthen-ware jars broke, the room rumbled.
“FIRE!”
Rule’s masked visage turned suddenly towards the part of the room where the cry arose. A pained yelp issued, then silence, and the room stopped its quaking.
“Yes, Fire came to them… from one of you
The Shaggy Dog film
Hot Shots! Part Deux full movie .”
The quiet became palpable, and Lady Christmas shifted in her seat, Sheila merely stared at the back of her husband’s head with her hateful gaze.
“They evolved from prey to hunter to warrior with the fiery gift. Light in the darkness, civilization, war. There was no more room for us, we shrank back until we were but legend. Tales to entertain children, we became – laughable, at best.”
“Disssssssney,” a collective hiss breathed the name.
“Suddenly they were too terrible for even themselves to handle. Again, they evolved – Champions of Humanity. False Gods. Flawed abominations, but they are few. More than once their symbol – their Millennium Man Transformers download
download Carry on Camping has perished, each time returning more powerful than the last, but each time either his host or his host’s mind becomes more fragile. Five years ago one of his namesake died, and instead of reincarnating – his power remained and has begun pushing ALL of humanity to evolve.”
Sheila stood up from her seat, ignoring her Grandmother’s motioning to remain seated, and stood at Rule’s side. Unable to understand what compelled her so she spoke:
“Little Gods.“
The quietly spoken words turned the Hall of the Chaos Court into a frenzy. All the occupants of the 13 thrones, but Lady Christmas, stood and joined into the riotous momentum. Sheila clung to her husband now, together they fed off the fury and the rage of the creatures and beings, again the familiar shiver crept down her spine and she liked it.
***
The Bi-Org’s fingers twitched as it lay upon the table. Its ochre-colored flesh splayed open revealing the chest cavity in all its mucus lines glory. Vestigial organs cradled the once-dead infant, a small network of tubules burrowed and snaked into the babe’s flesh. The Bi-Org continued absorbing the child’s flesh into its own, fusing at the cellular level, creating the first artificial Talisman-Hybrid.”Joseph?”, Dr. Christmas spoke to the ever-moving amalgam that sat on the cold slab.The chest cavity shut itself and the entire body of the creature shuddered and spasmed.”Mr. Liebowitz?” One last shudder and the Bi-Org remained completely still.”C’mon, c’mon”, the good doctor urged.Bi-Org’s were simply organic machines, shells really that mimicked life functions but not true life. Yes, the body had a brain, organs, cells with the capacity of replicate and repair but they lacked – drive. The urge to live.Gregor Christmas created the Center of Advanced Nuances in the hope to bridge the gap between magic and science, his own Mother a product of magic… pure will, able to straddle the veil seperating the worlds of nature and the preternatural. While himself bound by the physticality of this world. With the Center devoted entirely to mastering existence itself, he’d shape life as he saw fit and find a way to cross freely between the Earth realm and what lay beyond.
The Bi-Org quietly drew a long hiss of air into itself before breaking into a coughing fit, mucus bubbled from his mouth. Dr. Christmas gingerly hooked his finger into the creature’s mouth and pulled out long strands of the sticky bodily fluid.
But Gregor and the Center failed as its mission. He no longer sought the freedom and power of the Earth and magic realms, now he only wished to crush it and destory it. And Liebowitz here was going to help him finish it off once and for all.
“H-hello, Doctor”, the reborn Joseph Liebowitz intoned.
***
“I need time, Rule.”
Sheila, still in her armored form, sat with Rule on the dais as the flurry of activity of the Hall dissipated back into Bacchanalia and indulgence.
“I’ve been gone from the world for years now, divorced from reality, readied for – all of this,” she accented her statement with an outstretched gauntlet to the Court.
Rule stifled a laugh.
“Right, just as I asked your Family to do. The isolation was done purposefully, we needed you free of the shackles of your reality, free from thoughts of limitation, and so they molded you into a Warrior-Poet. A Philosopher-Queen of sorts.”
Sheila’s face began to screw up into a retort, but Rule put a finger to her lips.
“Truce”, he murmured before producing a small jade statuette no bigger than his own fist from his inner robes. Sheila’s eyes lit up as he dropped it into her hands.
“If you’re going to go, I want you to come back and this merely a humble gift, a fragment of your past I wish you’d forget.”
Her armor dissolved, replaced by her liquid, black robes from before. Her pale hands traced over every detail of the Talisman’s surface.
“Yet I know you come from the world, and just as much as I wish to return back to it, so do you. I grant you safe passage to explore and find your way, but remember your seat here in the Court.”
The Lady of Shadows turned the keepsake in her hands over and over, examining its surface for any change in features.
The Lord of Shadows snapped his fingers breaking Sheila’s transfixed gaze from her old friend. “What?”, she asked.
“Here”, he grasped at the sides of his head with both hands and removed it from his shoulders.
Sheila took a step back, horrified.
The headless body playfully tossed the decapitated head towards her. Automatically tendrils of the shadows that swaddled her body caught it and drew it against her body, the black once-extremity melting into the darkness of her rainment.
She witnessed a new head regrow at the stump of her husband’s neck, dark flesh knitting itself a new network of bone, sinew, and countenance.
“Now my dear, you have my helmet,” his amorphous face spoke as his features slowly sculpted into view. A reassuring weight slowly came to bear on her head and face. She felt the onyx metal accessory adjust to her own head-shape until it snugly hugged her face and exposed merely her eyes, chin and mouth.
“This will protect your precious little brain from the rigors of shadow-shifting, and also keep you from reverting back to your more… fragile, form.”
She nodded almost absently as she still fingered the little figurine’s surface. And with that he left his young bride to her own devices.
