bullet_dance_1 Mister Brightside Opening the box and taking the white handkerchief off of it's face, Ayden lifted The Head by the top-knot braid it wore and set it down on top of the box's lid. Taking the silver lancet, he pricked the index finger of his left hand and let a drop fall onto its forehead, where the furrows on its tortured expression guided the droplet in a perfect stream to the bullet hole he had put there when it was alive. Getting, keeping, or finding body parts from its kind was more the exception than the rule, and in The Head's case, he also had both of its hands, and two of the long barbs from the upper part of its spine. Ayden was never happy to have to talk to The Head, and for obvious reasons, The Head was never particularly thrilled to be talking to Ayden either. "TORMENTOR!!!" it howled, reminding him quite a bit in it's tone of Mercedes McCabridge's voice over work in the Exorcist For a brief moment, the black symbols inlaid in the tiles gave off a faintly red glow. The sound of it's complaints and his incantations would never escape past the walls even if the goddamn thing roared like a jet engine at take-off. "Alright, Alright already, knock it off, will you? The neighbors might not hear you, but i can... and you're fucking annoying." "You are really no fun at all, you know that, Greene?" The head's voice changed, becoming more masculine and taking on a hollow tone, as if being heard through a radio in a trashcan, "I mean it's bad enough that you've kept me bound to this stinking place, but for fuck's sake, I'm a Demon of the Lesser Planes, I'm supposed to scream and howl and generally be horrible." "Okay, whatever," Ayden sighed, "you know what i want so start talking." "Uh-uh, smoke first, talk second" Ayden rolled his eyes and said "Why? it's not like you even had lungs when you DID have a body" "Ughh, Cheap shot, Greene." The head sneered, "Real nice... kill me, dismember me, enslave the remaining pieces and no sustenance other than the occasional piddly little drop of blood. I'm trying to make the best of it so do you think you could cut me some slack and let me have one of your cigarettes...please?" "Fine, here you go." Ayden lights a cigarette for himself and then lights another one for The Head, whose demeanor improves significantly by the time he's finished. "There, was that so hard?" The Head asked (...) 050126 ... Mister Brightside "Whatever" Ayden said, dismissively "Well," The Head started, "so far, i know maybe only slightly more than what you can sense. Something big is crossing over and coming this way." "Right, go on" "Here's the problem," The Head continued, "none of what I can sense gives me any reason to believe that it comes from any of the parts of Hell I'd be able to point out on a map." "What are you saying, then?" Ayden asked, trying not to give away that he found this latest bit of news more than a little unsettling. "It doesn't smell like something from the Lesser Planes, and it certainly doesn't smell like anything or anybody from the Circles either." "Well, then," Ayden hid a shudder, "That pretty much shoots my next question straight to hell." "Let me guess," The Head replied, "Best way to kill it or send it back, right?" "Right" "Bad news for you, a moment of amusement for me," The Head chuckled, "I have no idea. This thing is a complete unknown." (...) 050127 ... Mister Brightside "Why are you so chatty today, anyway?" Greene asked The Head, sounding somewhat exasperated. The Head, doing it's best to furrow its brow, bit its lip for a second instead. "Look, Greene, I lived in this world of yours for over eight-hundred years disguised as one of you, and just because i occasionally felt the need to eat someone here and there doesn't mean that I have anything against humanity, screwed as it might be." "But..." Ayden tried to cut in. "But nothing, Ayden..." The Head asserted, "Let me put it to you this way, every one in Hell, would rather be here, except maybe for a few of the real fuck-ups who prefer being in The Pit and the Brotherhood who would all rather be pardoned for their big mistake and be allowed to come home. The only reason they are even remotely willing to start a war over it is because at least for some brief, shining moment, they'll be standing at His doorstep and be in His sight again, even if He means to cast them even further down or destroy them utterly." "But..." Ayden cut in again, but this time The Head let him, "that goes against everything I've ever been taught on the subject," "Are you that naive, Greene, after everything you and those like you have participated in or been witness to?" (...) 050208 what's it to you? who go blather from