[rayquaza7996]

"I'm not sure. Fighting's a great deal more than instinct if you want to be good at it. There's no way you can just "go with the flow" and get anywhere against anyone with any sort of fighting experienced. The enemies I have are extremely skilled warriors who will not be easily defeated, no matter how good I get. I need to learn how to use my spatial powers to render myself near-invincible."

"Such an interesting plan, it is truly ingenious! I'm glad you're go smart, Curse, I could never think of anything that crazy. I think my brain rotted a little bit when I was dead."

Curse blinked. That was actually a possibility, not that he'd tell dear Aya that. Girls didn't tend to take being told that they had rotting brains well. Sure, Aya had to listen to him, but he really did prefer everything to be consensual and such, there was frankly less legal trouble.

"No way. You're just newly up, and your brain probably isn't used to being on again. Like when you turn on a light after a vacation, it'll flicker a bit before glowing even brighter than before. You'll be fine, I'm positive. And like you said, I'm very smart, so I think you can trust me...right?" He looked up at his lover, eyes the closest approximation of a puppy-dog look that the demonic serpent could manage. It wasn't a particularly good one, no, but Aya wasn't exactly highly resistant.

"I suppose you're right."

[rayquaza7996]

He bonked Aya on the head lightly (because he didn't need to be slowed down) and cackled (enjoying the pain). He was pretty self-absorbed in making sure he didn't grow a conscience until after the whole mess with Moonlight was over, he had no intentions of caring at all until he was at the very least whole again, after all. It was dangerous to go into a battle caring about the foe and her family. Entilak and Flash wouldn't be as tough as Moonlight...

"Hi! Hi! I'm trying to figure out how to use this thing but I don't really know how do you know how and - ow! I'm sorry miss!"

"Master, was that one of the creepy weird disembodied whispers in the dark? It sounded kind of cheery and happy compared to normal..."

"I apologize for that intrusion in your personal lives. My dear phantom friend, Rakumra, decided to mess with my devices."

"That's nice. Get her to go away."

"Of course, and may the fates guide you."

[rayquaza7996]

"Whatever. Crazy old b-" he began, cutting himself off with a sharp hiss. There was something in the air, something...dangerous. But not in the good, appealing, sexy way. This was dangerous in the icky, painful, gross way. This wasn't something Curse wanted, not until he'd trained better, anyways. Then, of course, he'd love some foe to prance along for him to decapitate and eat the innards of as it struggled, thrashing, its blood pooling on the hard, rough stone, light of life slowly leaving its eyes as it tried to scream its last sound, its last words, but failed, finding its larnyx ripped out, feasted on, delicious, blood, blood, blood.

"Are you okay, Master Curse, love? Your eyes just misted - oh my! That doesn't smell safe at all! It smells like something nasty this way comes! How about we practice on it? If all else fails, we can just run away!"

Curse considered this plan. He got to fight, and then avoid the pain if there was pain, and there would be blood, and blood, and bloodbloodbloodbloodblood he wanted blood and now and rip them apart and eat them and crunch their bones and rip and tear at the sinew and dig your teeth in and devour and soon it's all yours and you have them and warm soft flesh, tearing into it and yesyesyes the taste, the salty sweet, amazing and perfect and whynotdrinkit, and feast, and bloodbloodbloodbloodblood...

"I like that idea..."

[rayquaza7996]

Of course, when the creature met, Curse was slightly less sure. The black cat had prowled in, glowing red marks carved into its body, black and bright red glowing flames coating its body, shiny silver blood fresh on its paws. It looked like it had probably just killed...and like it or not, that marked it as dangerous. Dangerous, and good prey. And bloody. Bloodbloodbloodbloodblood! 8D BLOOD.

It turned to them, blinked, and then smirked - more practice, his sister was dead by him and now more would be - and charged. Curse, as usual, was ready for the blow.

Fangs. Snapping at the strange cat's throat, drawing blood, blood blood blood and rip and rend and tear and it's yours and you can have it all in you, blood so salty and tasty and blood blood blood and blood blood and spines in his side and eat his insides and hear him try to scream and try and fail and blood and guts and oh so good and Ara's getting her share and tears and screams and diminishing lights in the eyes and they're dull now and it's all theirs and theirs and bloodbloodblood.

[rayquaza7996]

It took a while for Curse to break out of his insane frenzy. Ara was perched on a stone ledge, looking at him, concerned. She was a bit frightened of the terrifying killing machine that had replaced her courtly (if somewhat decadent) lover. But every silver lining had a cloud, or somesuch, not that she didn't love clouds, they brought rain and rain was really a good thing, now wasn't it? But still, she was expecting something like this, no one was perfect and if they were she wouldn't deserve them after all because she really wasn't that great.

"Aya?"

"Yes, Master? It seems like violence - even to a certain extent thinking about it - seems to send you into a crazed, involuntary rage, which means battle practice isn't a need for you. Your body understands how to kill, I'm not even sure it was you doing the killing. It was a little scary."

Curse reached up and licked her nose. "Now now, Aya, you don't need to be scared of me. I'd never hurt you, crazy or not. You're my lover, and my best friend, and that's what counts."

[rayquaza7996]

"I suppose. It's still a bit frightening with how important you are to me and then you go crazy. I don't ever want to loose you; I'd be lost without you."

"Dead, more likely. Being a zombie must suck. You're always stuck with magic and relying on others to raise you and you probably don't get very nice dreams either."

"And your flesh rots too, don't forget that! she agreed before grinning widely. "But you also don't age, you get a second chance, you can fall in love just like any other person, people care about you, you've got a good future in zombie movies, and you don't have to eat. I have you, too, I suppose most zombies don't, but I do, and that makes everything okay! I wouldn't care if it was the pain of a thousand deaths, I'd do anything to be with you, anything at all, love."

"I'm glad I have one person to rely on. You're amazing, Aya."

[rayquaza7996]

"Thank you, love, but you're truly the amazing one. I just sit here and watch you do stuff. I think I'm mostly useless. But hell, this is fun and I love you. Why wouldn't I follow you around? The only problem is that I sometimes feel like a freeloader, but - I don't think you think of me like that. Do you? If so, I can easily change my ways to be more satisfactory to you, love, dearie. You're way stronger than I am, but that doesn't mean I can't try to help, right?"

Curse blinked. Freeloader? He owned her, she wasn't freeloading. And she did pay, in pleasure as well as in helping. "You don't need to change. Frankly, I think I probably get way more out of you than you get out of me. I mean...you eat for fun, sleeping is a benefit and not a necessity, and you're a zombie, not needing much in the way of company. I'm only alive. Sort of. But I still eat, sleep...I might be the brains between us, but you're certainly the one being held back." A lie. He owned Aya, she could do naught without him. But relations were important. One didn't abuse someone just because they could, it would always come back to haunt them. He'd learned that from reading books that no one cared about enough to notice missing.

"I think we're best friends, that's what!"

[rayquaza7996]

"I'm violent, I know, but I suppose you can put up with me. Now, do you want to eat any of this? Fresh cat is pretty good, really, all bloodybloodbloodbloodblood-"

"You're frenzying again."

"My apologies. But really, don't you want to eat? You might not have to, but it's awfully good. All salty and fatty and red. Delicious, really, you ought to try it."

Aya responded by leaping from her spire to land at the ground, carefully lowering her head to the corpse to sniff it. It seemed fresh enough. She opened her jaws wide and began to crunch, her thick, heavy teeth easily slicing through the sinew and even cracking the thick bones of the ancient, powerful cat that Curse had slain. Formerly ancient, anyways - rebirthed, perhaps, to be so young? It didn't taste old, that was for sure.

[rayquaza7996]

"See? Fatty, delicious fresh flesh is truly the best thing we have been granted as citizens of this world. It's salty and delicious and filling and bloodybloodybl-"

"And frenzying, for you. You need to learn how to control that. Or maybe you just need something better to fight, so you can use up all the crazy in your head. It can't possibly be infinite. After all, no one is crazyfrenzy forever. Even Turkizillas get better eventually. You can too, I'm certain about it!" Her thick teeth torn into the thick meat and she chewed and swallowed, her glowing red eyes bright. Normal Kodiles had blue eyes, but with her resurrection through Curse's mana-irradiated magic, and her subsequent diet of raw flesh and the blood of beasts, had turned her eyes as red. Indeed, much of her skin had taken on a bright glow of the same color.

"You're such an optimist. Think you could learn to tone that down? It's very annoying for me, as I dislike it. It's so uselessly time consuming to make happiness out of hopelessness. And hopelessness is a weapon of its own, why would one toss it away for something else?"

((From here on, Curse is also in a toureny and we're allowed to do that 8D NOTE TO SELF: LEVELS ADD ON LATER))

[rayquaza7996]

"Of course, love! I'm sorry...I suppose I'm just happy to be alive - not because of some silly optimism, but because I was dead until about two days ago. And now I'm alive! Because of you!" Aya shared very few of her brother's traits - unlike the light, pure magma creeper she was dark and convoluted - but they did both share a special gregariousness that was so purely theirs.

"[b]Sounds like a good reason to be happy, I guess..."