Imbalance

[iprince]

The shack was shrouded in quiet darkness once again, the other leaders having moved off to separate sections of the little ‘house’ (there was more to the building than it seemed, and if there was any lack of room it was nothing a bit of Murdon mind power couldn’t change), or out of it all together. It was comforting to have his home to himself again, where Yuukuj could stretched languidly against his seat, eyes peering blankly at the purple sheet that swayed and fluttered against the doorframe.

There was a tinker of cartilage against cement.

Almost alone, then. The artifact, that nameless arachnid creature, had become an ever present companion. And a rather perturbing one at that, if Yuukuj were willing to admit his discomfort. Artifacts in themselves were rather disconcerting, but this one…Yuukuj couldn’t get in its head. There was something akin to a tangled web that caught his probing mind before he could even see the first glimmer of a thought. It didn’t speak either, neither vocally nor telepathically, except to recite the prophecy.

By now Yuukuj had it fair memorized, like varnished metal tainting his mind. It tasted putrid and sweet, rich and sour, chaotic. But whether or not he liked it mattered not. He needed to find its reasons. He needed to know what it meant.

The artifact stirred again, restless against the shadows and dust. Yuukuj could only just make out its pearly white eyes in the darkness. It was staring at him.

Yuukuj stirred and jerked his gaze away, strumming fingers and thumbs against the arms of his little ‘throne’.

Such a befitting servant for Him. Soulless spider-unicorns. Even if the prophecy (the instructions, rather, he didn’t know why his mind insisted on calling it otherwise, it was hardly prophetic) was not in the style of The Prince, this servant was surely a signature creation of Him.

“Abominations are not only what I desire
Precious rarities are my wish”

And rarely would something that wasn’t both quell his “desires”.

Yuukuj shivered.

The artifact was grinning at his thought.

[silverdust]

Teneurkujen avoided company by nature, but under the circumstances it was impossible. With so many powerful minds and auras in a singular space, all moved into a subtle chaos by the events of the past few days and stirred by the Prophecy...he could taste the emotions, veritably, tangling around his mind. In Russia he had been as far out of touch as he could manage, and now plunged into this mess was like stepping into foreign waters. Once again he had to learn to remove himself.

And then there was the matter of the Artifact. Yuukuj was not the only one its mind pervaded; that metallic bitterness was sharp in his own, inorganic, unnatural. He gravitated toward it, if only to see if there was anyway he could get it to leave him. He didn't bother to knock or give any physical notice of his attentions, only sending out the touch of his mind as he entered Yuukuj's chambers. He had no standing quarrel with the other, and no care for the etiquette of such occassion. His eyes flicked lightly to the Artifact in the corner, and he had somewhat of the sensation of swallowing blood.

He turned toward Yuukuj. "There is no way you can control this?"

((SD thinks this be first time suckage >.>))

[iprince]

The formal brush of Teneur’s mind against his own was a pleasant relief from the constant bombardment of the artifacts own invasion. He welcomed it, as meager as it was, and leaned back in his chair was heavy lethargy, feet splayed. To human eyes the position would have been relaxation, but Yuukuj was far from any such semblance.

Apparently he wasn’t the only own ill at ease because of It.

He sent a strong wave of negativity through their minds, a sharp shake of his accompanying the movement. Living amongst humans so long has left its mark in his habits.

The Artifact swayed to its feet, the click of hooves followed by the sharper smack of claws against the uneven floors. It flicked its tail, the eerie ear-to-ear grin ever present on its parchment-pale skin. Its eyes danced between the murdons, an obvious stab of telepathy racing through both their minds; invading, sullying, searching, defiling. It didn’t matter. Whatever it got from its little ‘adventure’ seemed to satisfy what curiosity it had, and it turned away from them both, trotting with a jerky gait toward the fluttering purple curtain.

Perhaps to find Arry, thought Yuukuj (loudly enough to allow Teneur to hear it, if he so desired). The abomination seemed to have developed something akin to affection for his servant.

Yuukuj returned his attention to his guest, “It’s the Prince’s servant.” Surely there was a reason they could not affect its mind. Once again, thought loud enough to be shared.

Although company was a far cry from Yuukuj’s preferred method of recreation, Teneur was many times better than say….Amunuku, as far as guests were concerned. Perhaps he could wrangle intelligent conversation from this fellow leader. Teneur was intelligent, was he not? Perhaps some work could be done with deciphering the prophecy.

[silverdust]

Prince's servant, just another in a strange and twisted line. Teneur did not strive to understand their Prince and his choice of aesthetics; it was as fruitless as this pursuit perhaps. To return to Zar after centuries, upon the whim of a Prophecy that was mere spoken through the spider-webbed mind of a child.

It surely could not be possible. But nonetheless he had been brought here, and he would not make it a waste of his time. Even if it were a false chase, he had centuries' experience with waiting, and he could wait again. This was reality, this was the way things were set. And if Yuukuj believed and decided to drag it upon them, well...he would not get his hopes up. But he would humor the leader. His time on Earth need not be made more difficult with enemies.

"This Prophecy," he kept his tone neutral, adding no tinge of emotion to betray his own thought. "Have you any idea of what it really calls for? Do we know what it is we seek?"

[iprince]

True or false, was it so shameful to grasp what threads of hope he could? After centuries of waiting with home sickness curdling in his belly and his mind, even the most ludicrous of possibilities could seem attainable.

Their Prince was ever so fond of the inane, after all. Yuukuj wouldn’t risk the possibility of being trapped on this miserable planet merely because the prophecy was spouted from the mouth (or the thoughts, rather) of a newborn.

Yuukuj lifted a hand from the chair and cradled the side of his head,” No more than what is most obvious. Our Prince wants artifacts…” he eyed the curtain, the ever present brush of Its mind lingering a little more strongly with his attention,” He’s been kind enough to give us a head start. I believe the creature’s sire is attainable as well.”

It would have been many times easier to achieve their offering of servitude if Arry’s radio signal had been effective on the artifacts. But alas, the prophecy would not allow them to do any task quite so easily.

He let his eyes wander lazily toward the darkened ceiling,” Did anything occur to you during your first listen? Any epiphanies concerning our lord’s obscure desires?”

[silverdust]

"The offering of minds requires twins. I know not of who these might be, whether they be of the Euclide or of Amunuku's creatures."

He was not the best to ask of these things. He had been trying to get as far way from everything as possible, he could not know what dramas played out between the races. He gave a sideways glance at Yuukuj, who seemed more human in his affectations that when Teneur last remembered seeing him. Albeit that had been long, long ago.

There, that touch again, ghostly and clinging like a cobweb. Perhaps this paltry decrypting was giving It some kind of amusement, but if Yuukuj could not pierce It's mind then he would not waste his efforts trying. "Have their been any birth of twins lately?"

[iprince]

The very mention of Amunuku’s name forced Yuukuj’s eyes to narrow. His mind stung with the bitter fact that he would be taking up residence in his home for an indeterminable amount of time. It was inevitable, of course. The prophecy would not be deciphered without his help…without the help of all the murdon leaders. Yuukuj had spent months agonizing over the prophecy, with very little to show.

He could not do it along, as much as he would have preferred to.

“No twins of our sort…” twins were a rare thing amongst murdon. Rarer even than unusual colors.

Twins were something of the divine.

Yuukuj’s mouth thinned,”…except for Amunuku and his long departed sibling, of course.” Yuukuj couldn’t even remember the creature’s name. Something abnormal, even for a murdon.

“I don’t keep track of our creation’s reproduction.” No more so than the earth gods tracked their humans’, anyway.

His expression turned sour, eyes finally resting on Teneur. He rose from his seat with a florish and trotted across the floor, pausing a few steps before his ‘throne’,” Perhaps we’d have better luck with Amunuku,”he sneered,” If he deigns us befitting of his presence.”

Amunuku had such a love for his creations, after all.

[FlyingPanther]

[OOC: Hey sorry guys ^^;, I figured you guys were doing so nicely that I would just stay out of the picture...but sure I'll join! Let me just familiar myself with Amunuku's personality really quickly and I will post ^_^. He might bring Suzu along with him...either by choice...or by the old male following him along...^^;

Oh...and my posts might also be sparatic today...as I'm writing something for my english class...and then I'm sheduled to watch my show I watch every tuesday <3, but I'll do my best ^^;]

---

[OOC: Ok...so I read everything I could find on Amunuku, and to be honest...I'm pretty much winging this. I have a little bit of a hint of his personality...but nothing major...so I'm gonna be making alot of stuff up...

Mem you can use this as your judging post....if I'm not good enough to rp Amunuku I'm happy to relinquish his character to someone who can. I'll do my best though ^^;.]

Amunuku headed over to an abandoned shack, one which was rumored by the Amuni of the area to be the home of the Euclide lord, which could only be one murdon. His green, blue-freckled face was marred with a look of discust. It was nearly disgraceful for him to head over to the home of Yuukuj, nearly beneath himself to do so. After all, it was not Yuukuj who had showed up at the door of his own shack to ask him to come to England. It was one of those....unblessed.

Still, time was of the essence. As he said at the meeting of the prophecy, their prince was not the paitent type, and he could only imagine that at some point the offer to be returned home would become null and void. This was no easy riddle either. This would take work. He didn't know about the other Murdon, but he wanted out and back home. He had done his part to protect the humans from unfair butchering, just because the other murdon had grown bored of them. The Amuni would always be there for them, even if he wasn't.

In tow, not exactly by choice, was an artifact Amuni. He had heard the call like all the other Defore, Amuni, and Euclides of the world and decided to go to England. His name was Suzuroninjai, and like his name suggested, he was japanese. Amunuku actually had remembered the Kirin Artifact from many many hundreds of years ago, when he had traveled to japan, suprised to find that his creations, so new in creation, had spread there. Suzu was an old old Amuni. Old was an understatement. He was probably the creature the legend of the Kirin started off of, he mused. So how could he have remembered the creature? Artifacts were extremely rare amoung the Amuni, as with any of the related creatures. Suzu was the only one he ever knew about. It was hard to forget something so unusual.

The male Amuni was silent, his horse like gate making cloping sounds as he walked next to his lord. He was a wise and old soul, but even then he showed a great amount of respect to his (seriously) superior. It was an honor to be walking beside him, and to possibly be in the presence of others like him.

He arrived just as Yuukuj's smart comment was uttered. Amunuku smirked, entering beckoning the Amuni in with a wave of one of his smaller arms. "Never." he said, looking to Yuukuj, touching Teneur's mind with a brief hello mostly for formalities, but purposely not to Yuukuj, but there would be no love lost between them. It was hard to loose love if there was none to begin with. "I'm simply here because my curiousity has gotten the better of me, and to show you the offering I bring to the Prince for the first of hopefully more Artifacts. He is the only Amuni Artifact I know of at present." he said, though more matter of factly then with pride. These were despret times with the clock ticking. There was no room for pride.

[silverdust]

Teneur could feel the tension, the loathing between the two murdon, almost as bitter as the touch of the child's invasive mind. It was once again so very clear to him why he had chosen Russia, somewhere at the end of the world. Still, he responded to Amunuku's greeting with a light touch of his own. He would have to be the arbiter now, then, and while he was by nature avoidant of contact, he did know how to keep the balance, if only to perserve this fragile, testy alliance.

His eyes flicked over the ancient artifact, taking in its graceful yet elegantly fierce apperance. There was certainly more of a conventional aesthetic in its form, moreso than that of the Prince's servant. Not to mention this one seemed to have the notion of respect. He had not had a direct hand in the creation of the experiments, choosing to take the burden of waiting in solitude, but he could see now, why his brethren may have taken an interest in playing gods.

"We were speaking of the prophecy," he said, abruptly, before Yuukuj might snap out at Amunuku's sharp tongue. "I have reason to believe that the second offering requires twins of a sort. Yuukuj suggested that you might recall if any of your creatures had such a birth, as he does not keep such...close attention."

How to phrase things without injuring both sides? It was like undoing knots of razor wire, the feeling almost manifested in his mind's eye.

[iprince]

Yuukuj’s head snapped upward at the brush of…oh, not a stranger’s approach. Far from. Terribly far from. He slid back into his sit with a hard ‘thump’, hands (all four) clenching the smooth wood of his throne. Behind scaly lips his teeth clenched and he leaned back, almost elegantly if it weren’t for the tenseness of his body, nostrils slits sucked close with tension.

He’s eyes landed on Amunuku as soon as the curtain pulled back, narrowed to slits. They lingered momentarily; the shutters of his mind snapped tightly closed, before finally flitting toward the Artifact. He chose to ignore the murdon’s words, straining ear and mind toward Teneur instead. He, at least, had never done anything to betray his kind.

“Yes…” Yuukuj said finally, his voice a petulant drawl. He lifted one hand and fingered his chin with a slender claw,”…your creations, your amuni,” he spat the word out as if it were bile, “Been producing anything abnormal lately?” He sneered, teeth bared momentarily,” With they’re own kind, of course. They’re love of human’s won’t be much used to us in this regard.”

As if it were in any regard.

His gaze landed on the amuni, lip curled,” And that one may take residence in the…basement. Perhaps our prophet will find him decent company, if he can resist murdering the bebe.”

{{Yuukuj is full of love for everyone :3}}

[~*Nyx*~]

Jubeiriku was still rather peeved at the way he had been brought to England. A damned box of all things, so demeaning for one of his kind. He paced around the small room, running his thoughts back and forth between the strange prophecy and humiliation of being sucked into that little box. It had definatly bruised his tender ego. He shook his head softly, clearing the unimportant thoughts from his mind and trying to concentrate on the matter at hand.

Several long moments passed before a great amount of tension filled his mind. Trouble was brewing, how interesting. That could only mean one thing, Amunuku had shown up, and things were possibly going to get more interesting than they already were. A nice blood bath would be perfect, but he knew that the chances of that happening were slim to none.

Taking his leave of the small room, he walked down the hall way, taking his time and sending out tendrils of thought to those in the room to make his presence know. The blankness that one mind brought bugged him more than anything, making his skin crawl. The child's mind was impossible to read and that was something that he just couldn't stand. He should be powerful enough to break into the mind of a mere child. . .but then again, so should any of the other Murdon.

'Riku pushed the curtian aside and stepped into the room, the tension hitting him like walking into a wall, making a wicked grin crawl across his face. He touched each mind in the room before taking position against a wall, his lower arms crossed over his chest, his upper placed behind him, supporting his lower back against the wall. Not a word fell from his mouth, he simply waited to see what was going to happen.

**OOC Let me know if I need to fix anything, trying to catch up**