LucyLu
Active Member
[OOC: This is a quick background story on establishing some things with Ade's powers and background. This may or may not make sense without reading his history in his character sheet, which if you want to read is right HERE, so please keep that in mind. This isn't necessary to understand him, I just felt like giving him more structure.]
--o--
It was an unusually hot day, which made sneaking out at night all the more appealing for Ade. He would have never thought he would break his curfew, but that night, he was full of energy and want. Wanting to get better, wanting to know what he could do, and wanting, no, needing to finally see the one man whose words have always reached his heart, even in the darkest of times.
He had finally been successful into pleasing the souls of the fallen soldiers. They came to his aid and into his dolls faster and faster, and Ade was still so young! Only sixteen, and he could surpass almost anyone else in his tight community. Even his leader told him that he was strong and one of a kind. It got to the point, where even new souls, on new grounds, formed strong enough connections with him that he didn’t need the help of his people to keep them at bay, albeit only for a short while. If he wanted to be honest with himself, he never actually achieved a full summoning on his own, but his heart was pounding harder with each time he did it even partially alone. It was starting to hurt to keep all of his excitement inside! And thus that night, he decided to perform one without any help.
He walked for a few minutes, wanting to be far away enough that he was sure no-one would bother him, but the fear of being found out was something he couldn’t handle. He walked long enough that he was at the edge of an old, war-stricken site with barely any buildings still standing around. It was perfect, although looking at all the damage around him, he started to question if five dolls were enough to get to the right person.
He shook his head. This time, he couldn’t hesitate. He got this, he had to, he knew he could do it. Everyone else told him so earlier too. He sat down in the middle of the dirt road, pursing his lips together as he could feel the cold ground underneath him and a light cold breeze at the same time. He took a shaky breath but decided to take one of the blue dolls out of his back pocket and lay it down in front of him.
“Oh…” he mumbled. It was bent, but at least it was still in near-perfect condition. Whatever. The important thing was the face on it. He had found the pattern that, although it doesn’t give any strength to the summoned spirits, a little face, an added colour of the thread around the dolls’ necks and torso, could make the difference between a few seconds of waiting and ten minutes of it. This one was special, it had the face of a disguised soldier, although it was sloppy, since Ade had no idea how to properly paint on straws. He also used a dark green and a light brown thread to keep it together. He smirked. “This is going to be epic” he breathed as his eyes opened wide.
He took off the dog-tag from around his neck and put it next to the doll on the ground. He was sure that if for nothing else, at least this would keep away other unwanted spirits. Ade took a few seconds to congratulate himself of thinking about everything, before finally beginning the summoning process.
He closed his eyes and focused on the doll, trying to find spirits around them. He murmured sweet things under his breath. “Oh, strong gentlemen, have you seen a man whose blood runs inside of me…” “What a beauty, I say, lady. Could you help me?” Soon enough, the souls directed his mental focus towards someone in the distance. He could feel their connection growing stronger and stronger. Ade was sure he would be able to keep everything under control, after all, the connection was so strong, even before it was entirely established that it almost hurt the boy. “I got you now, old man.”
Before he could reach the spirit and try to talk to him, the man turned around and Ade got blinded by the pure force of the spirit rushing towards him and the doll. He got blown back and the next thing he knew, he was laying on his back, about ten metres away from where he was sitting before. He could feel his back bleeding in small cuts, and panic washed over him. He opened his eyes and sat up, trying to stand almost at the same time. He was stumbling as he laid his eyes on the doll that was now dancing up in the air, around a meter from the ground.
“This is alright, this is fine…” he mumbled to himself, but he got even more worried when the thread of the connection he had before had vanished completely. “What’s going on?” he breathed and tried to take a step back, only to be interrupted by a bright, blue-green light.
It grew from the doll, first flickering, then exploded into all sorts of directions. It seemed as though the light was keeping the doll up, and as it expanded, so did the voodoo doll fly higher and higher up. Ade was frozen to the spot and couldn’t pull his eyes away from the lights as they took the form of a huge warrior.
“Guuuh!” He heard a deep, otherworldly groan coming from the doll and only now he could see that the dog tag was floating around it. It was slow at first, but sure enough, as the warrior got situated, the dog tag flew on the doll’s neck, as if it was taking its rightful place there.
“G-Great-grandfather?” Ade stuttered, barely hearable, as the spirit towered above him, taller than any of the building remains around them. The boy almost fell on his behind again, just from trying to look at the face (or the helmet) of the spirit. “Wh-What is going on?”
The old general looked around, forming a long rifle in one of his hands, using it as a cane. His eyes squinted and it seemed as though he tried to spit in displeasure. In the end, he landed his gaze on the boy.
Ade was ready to get scolded, but he wasn’t ready for what came instead.
“Uhm, S-Sir?” he tried to smile and settle down on his knees, as though he would be begging to the spirit when he felt himself being pulled towards the great general. It felt like long claws were caressing his body, turning him, confusing him, and all the while grabbing him and hauling him closer and closer to the general.
His adrenaline ran through him faster than lightning, and though he couldn’t understand what was going on, he knew he had to run away. He tried to turn around, but while he was still on his own two feet, the invisible, dead-cold hands could just turn him around like sand in the wind. He threw himself on the ground and was momentarily happy to stabilize himself a bit more, even though he was still sliding towards his great-grandfather. He started to feel more and more cuts on his legs as he tried to crawl out of the spirit’s hold, and he wished he had stayed inside his room that night.
He fought his hardest against the great light, but he was a mere speckle against the old warrior’s power and anger. He lost his grip on the ground only for a second as pebbles started to fly towards his face and inside his eyes, but that was enough of a mistake for his great-grandfather to pick him up and pull him up in the air.
He was grabbed by his ankles and was hanging upside down, as he got floated towards the warrior’s face. He had noticed that the closer he got, the more the light breeze around them started to turn into a strong wind, and when he was only a mere few feet away from those empty, squinting eyes, he could swear his eardrums almost burst from the power of the wind. He didn’t have much time to think, however, as he was thrown away like trash into the night. He flew for a few seconds, before crash landing into the ground. The force was so big, he bounced up once from his torso, ultimately landing on his back.
He had hit his head on his way a few times, and now he could see black spots dancing in front of him. He had troubles keeping his stomach’s content inside of him even while laying in one position.
Then he felt the cold nails on his skin again, and his eyes opened wide, tears gathering in them as everything sharpened in his vision in an instant. He could barely get up on his elbows before he was firmly grasped again and pulled back up into the sky. He was crying, shivering and he was sure this was the end for him. He would never go on his mission into the academy, he would never make his leader proud, he would never prove to his mother, and ultimately, his people and he would never be able to take over others and expand their dark voodoo magic that way.
“Fool” a deep voice rang throughout the sky, much like a thunder. It was slow and shook Ade to his bones. The boy tried to scream out but found that no noise was coming out of him. He could feel tears and snot running down until his chin and fall towards the greater being’s light-made body. “Pathetic.”
There was a pause and despite the wind, all Ade could hear was his own heartbeat beating into his ears. At least this time he was grabbed at his torso and was held up-right, maybe his great-grandfather was getting kinder? He had to hope in that.
“You dare summon me, boy?” The voice was slow, but each syllable made the air colder and sharper. “You are nothing, but a brainwashed rat… A pebble on a mountain…”
Ade felt weak, but somehow still managed to shake his head, even if just a little. No, no, he was supposed to be good at summoning, this night was supposed to be his night… What happened?
At the headshake, the general grunted again and Ade could feel the breath being pushed out of him as he was held tighter. “I could kill you… But you are not worthy of my mercy…”
“You are weak, your body will wither away on a battlefield in seconds. Yet, your mind is even weaker. Shame on you for bringing shame to my name. Shame that my comrades on the other side have to see what became of my blood and sweat…”
At the mention of the general’s fallen brothers, the light seemed to get stronger. Suddenly, the coldness was taken over by scorching hotness and Ade could swear that, before he had to shield his face, the spirit turned from green-blue to a rather pink-red combination. He felt rocks smashing into him, sand getting stuck between his eyelids, lips and inside his ears.
“Do not dare… Summon me… Again…” That was the final warning the spirit would give before exploding into all directions. It was beautiful, all sorts of colours, like fairy dust, flowing around in the air, yet it could have been deadly if someone was standing near them. The blast sent Ade back meters in the air, then made him slide even more on the ground.
His whole body hurt, and he could barely move. He was shivering, he could hear his teeth chattering as he tried to gather himself enough to move. He could feel the remainders of the colourful particles touch his skin and burn where they landed for a few seconds. Not that Ade could tell the difference between that and just plain being in excruciating pain.
It took him a few minutes to finally sit up. That was when he saw the sizeable crate on the ground where the doll used to lay. He crawled on all fours towards it. Was his necklace still there? Was it intact? Was he still allowed to wear it?
He couldn't see either the doll, nor the tag from the top of the crater, but he knew they had to be there somewhere. Not being able to do anything better, he let his body fall inside, hitting his shoulder and knees a few times on the way down. He breathed as he came to a stop and put all of his efforts into sitting up yet again.
In front of him lay the dog tag, unharmed. He carefully touched it. It was warm, but not burning. He grabbed it and put it back around his neck, feeling himself already calming down at the familiar feeling of metal against his skin. He then looked at the other thing laying on the ground. The doll was almost unrecognizable. It was torn apart from the middle, straw sticking out everywhere, the edges burnt black. The face painted black instead of what was originally there, and Ade gasped. He didn’t think about what he wanted to do, he grabbed the doll and with all his might threw it away into the darkness.
He fell forward, catching himself with his hands, shaking in his whole body. He was broken. His own great-grandfather was disgusted with him, called him weak and he was right. He stupidly thought he could have his own warrior spirit, one where his connection would be unbreakable because of the blood relations, and yet, he was on the ground, not being able to pick himself up.
He cried out from the pain that was tearing him apart from the inside. His great-grandfather was right. All of the confidence he could feel at the beginning of the night had turned into pain and anguish.
Weak, brainwashed, pathetic… Ade could never shake those words off, he knew they would follow him around till the day he’d die.
--o--
It was an unusually hot day, which made sneaking out at night all the more appealing for Ade. He would have never thought he would break his curfew, but that night, he was full of energy and want. Wanting to get better, wanting to know what he could do, and wanting, no, needing to finally see the one man whose words have always reached his heart, even in the darkest of times.
He had finally been successful into pleasing the souls of the fallen soldiers. They came to his aid and into his dolls faster and faster, and Ade was still so young! Only sixteen, and he could surpass almost anyone else in his tight community. Even his leader told him that he was strong and one of a kind. It got to the point, where even new souls, on new grounds, formed strong enough connections with him that he didn’t need the help of his people to keep them at bay, albeit only for a short while. If he wanted to be honest with himself, he never actually achieved a full summoning on his own, but his heart was pounding harder with each time he did it even partially alone. It was starting to hurt to keep all of his excitement inside! And thus that night, he decided to perform one without any help.
He walked for a few minutes, wanting to be far away enough that he was sure no-one would bother him, but the fear of being found out was something he couldn’t handle. He walked long enough that he was at the edge of an old, war-stricken site with barely any buildings still standing around. It was perfect, although looking at all the damage around him, he started to question if five dolls were enough to get to the right person.
He shook his head. This time, he couldn’t hesitate. He got this, he had to, he knew he could do it. Everyone else told him so earlier too. He sat down in the middle of the dirt road, pursing his lips together as he could feel the cold ground underneath him and a light cold breeze at the same time. He took a shaky breath but decided to take one of the blue dolls out of his back pocket and lay it down in front of him.
“Oh…” he mumbled. It was bent, but at least it was still in near-perfect condition. Whatever. The important thing was the face on it. He had found the pattern that, although it doesn’t give any strength to the summoned spirits, a little face, an added colour of the thread around the dolls’ necks and torso, could make the difference between a few seconds of waiting and ten minutes of it. This one was special, it had the face of a disguised soldier, although it was sloppy, since Ade had no idea how to properly paint on straws. He also used a dark green and a light brown thread to keep it together. He smirked. “This is going to be epic” he breathed as his eyes opened wide.
He took off the dog-tag from around his neck and put it next to the doll on the ground. He was sure that if for nothing else, at least this would keep away other unwanted spirits. Ade took a few seconds to congratulate himself of thinking about everything, before finally beginning the summoning process.
He closed his eyes and focused on the doll, trying to find spirits around them. He murmured sweet things under his breath. “Oh, strong gentlemen, have you seen a man whose blood runs inside of me…” “What a beauty, I say, lady. Could you help me?” Soon enough, the souls directed his mental focus towards someone in the distance. He could feel their connection growing stronger and stronger. Ade was sure he would be able to keep everything under control, after all, the connection was so strong, even before it was entirely established that it almost hurt the boy. “I got you now, old man.”
Before he could reach the spirit and try to talk to him, the man turned around and Ade got blinded by the pure force of the spirit rushing towards him and the doll. He got blown back and the next thing he knew, he was laying on his back, about ten metres away from where he was sitting before. He could feel his back bleeding in small cuts, and panic washed over him. He opened his eyes and sat up, trying to stand almost at the same time. He was stumbling as he laid his eyes on the doll that was now dancing up in the air, around a meter from the ground.
“This is alright, this is fine…” he mumbled to himself, but he got even more worried when the thread of the connection he had before had vanished completely. “What’s going on?” he breathed and tried to take a step back, only to be interrupted by a bright, blue-green light.
It grew from the doll, first flickering, then exploded into all sorts of directions. It seemed as though the light was keeping the doll up, and as it expanded, so did the voodoo doll fly higher and higher up. Ade was frozen to the spot and couldn’t pull his eyes away from the lights as they took the form of a huge warrior.
“Guuuh!” He heard a deep, otherworldly groan coming from the doll and only now he could see that the dog tag was floating around it. It was slow at first, but sure enough, as the warrior got situated, the dog tag flew on the doll’s neck, as if it was taking its rightful place there.
“G-Great-grandfather?” Ade stuttered, barely hearable, as the spirit towered above him, taller than any of the building remains around them. The boy almost fell on his behind again, just from trying to look at the face (or the helmet) of the spirit. “Wh-What is going on?”
The old general looked around, forming a long rifle in one of his hands, using it as a cane. His eyes squinted and it seemed as though he tried to spit in displeasure. In the end, he landed his gaze on the boy.
Ade was ready to get scolded, but he wasn’t ready for what came instead.
“Uhm, S-Sir?” he tried to smile and settle down on his knees, as though he would be begging to the spirit when he felt himself being pulled towards the great general. It felt like long claws were caressing his body, turning him, confusing him, and all the while grabbing him and hauling him closer and closer to the general.
His adrenaline ran through him faster than lightning, and though he couldn’t understand what was going on, he knew he had to run away. He tried to turn around, but while he was still on his own two feet, the invisible, dead-cold hands could just turn him around like sand in the wind. He threw himself on the ground and was momentarily happy to stabilize himself a bit more, even though he was still sliding towards his great-grandfather. He started to feel more and more cuts on his legs as he tried to crawl out of the spirit’s hold, and he wished he had stayed inside his room that night.
He fought his hardest against the great light, but he was a mere speckle against the old warrior’s power and anger. He lost his grip on the ground only for a second as pebbles started to fly towards his face and inside his eyes, but that was enough of a mistake for his great-grandfather to pick him up and pull him up in the air.
He was grabbed by his ankles and was hanging upside down, as he got floated towards the warrior’s face. He had noticed that the closer he got, the more the light breeze around them started to turn into a strong wind, and when he was only a mere few feet away from those empty, squinting eyes, he could swear his eardrums almost burst from the power of the wind. He didn’t have much time to think, however, as he was thrown away like trash into the night. He flew for a few seconds, before crash landing into the ground. The force was so big, he bounced up once from his torso, ultimately landing on his back.
He had hit his head on his way a few times, and now he could see black spots dancing in front of him. He had troubles keeping his stomach’s content inside of him even while laying in one position.
Then he felt the cold nails on his skin again, and his eyes opened wide, tears gathering in them as everything sharpened in his vision in an instant. He could barely get up on his elbows before he was firmly grasped again and pulled back up into the sky. He was crying, shivering and he was sure this was the end for him. He would never go on his mission into the academy, he would never make his leader proud, he would never prove to his mother, and ultimately, his people and he would never be able to take over others and expand their dark voodoo magic that way.
“Fool” a deep voice rang throughout the sky, much like a thunder. It was slow and shook Ade to his bones. The boy tried to scream out but found that no noise was coming out of him. He could feel tears and snot running down until his chin and fall towards the greater being’s light-made body. “Pathetic.”
There was a pause and despite the wind, all Ade could hear was his own heartbeat beating into his ears. At least this time he was grabbed at his torso and was held up-right, maybe his great-grandfather was getting kinder? He had to hope in that.
“You dare summon me, boy?” The voice was slow, but each syllable made the air colder and sharper. “You are nothing, but a brainwashed rat… A pebble on a mountain…”
Ade felt weak, but somehow still managed to shake his head, even if just a little. No, no, he was supposed to be good at summoning, this night was supposed to be his night… What happened?
At the headshake, the general grunted again and Ade could feel the breath being pushed out of him as he was held tighter. “I could kill you… But you are not worthy of my mercy…”
“You are weak, your body will wither away on a battlefield in seconds. Yet, your mind is even weaker. Shame on you for bringing shame to my name. Shame that my comrades on the other side have to see what became of my blood and sweat…”
At the mention of the general’s fallen brothers, the light seemed to get stronger. Suddenly, the coldness was taken over by scorching hotness and Ade could swear that, before he had to shield his face, the spirit turned from green-blue to a rather pink-red combination. He felt rocks smashing into him, sand getting stuck between his eyelids, lips and inside his ears.
“Do not dare… Summon me… Again…” That was the final warning the spirit would give before exploding into all directions. It was beautiful, all sorts of colours, like fairy dust, flowing around in the air, yet it could have been deadly if someone was standing near them. The blast sent Ade back meters in the air, then made him slide even more on the ground.
His whole body hurt, and he could barely move. He was shivering, he could hear his teeth chattering as he tried to gather himself enough to move. He could feel the remainders of the colourful particles touch his skin and burn where they landed for a few seconds. Not that Ade could tell the difference between that and just plain being in excruciating pain.
It took him a few minutes to finally sit up. That was when he saw the sizeable crate on the ground where the doll used to lay. He crawled on all fours towards it. Was his necklace still there? Was it intact? Was he still allowed to wear it?
He couldn't see either the doll, nor the tag from the top of the crater, but he knew they had to be there somewhere. Not being able to do anything better, he let his body fall inside, hitting his shoulder and knees a few times on the way down. He breathed as he came to a stop and put all of his efforts into sitting up yet again.
In front of him lay the dog tag, unharmed. He carefully touched it. It was warm, but not burning. He grabbed it and put it back around his neck, feeling himself already calming down at the familiar feeling of metal against his skin. He then looked at the other thing laying on the ground. The doll was almost unrecognizable. It was torn apart from the middle, straw sticking out everywhere, the edges burnt black. The face painted black instead of what was originally there, and Ade gasped. He didn’t think about what he wanted to do, he grabbed the doll and with all his might threw it away into the darkness.
He fell forward, catching himself with his hands, shaking in his whole body. He was broken. His own great-grandfather was disgusted with him, called him weak and he was right. He stupidly thought he could have his own warrior spirit, one where his connection would be unbreakable because of the blood relations, and yet, he was on the ground, not being able to pick himself up.
He cried out from the pain that was tearing him apart from the inside. His great-grandfather was right. All of the confidence he could feel at the beginning of the night had turned into pain and anguish.
Weak, brainwashed, pathetic… Ade could never shake those words off, he knew they would follow him around till the day he’d die.