The Mystery of Pain

[Sakari Lehtinen]

"Yes, I guess you could say that." Sakari responds.

"Everybody needs to supercede the notion of Gods, because they don't exist. If we are to liberate ourselves, we need to come to terms with that, and not blow it out of proportion by trying to become one."

[Antero Black]

Antero sits up in his seat and thinks for a moment.

"So my mistake hasn't been investing faith in false gods...there are no gods and I saw that all along...my mistake was...trying to make a false god out of myself."

[Sakari Lehtinen]

Sakari smiles, and feels a warm tingly feeling inside, as though Antero had come to some grand epiphany through his aid.

"Perhaps... That is a conclusion that you need to reach on your own." I say, then pat him on the back.

"And I am now going to retire for the evening. Goodnight Antero." Sakari says as he stands up, still smiling.

[Antero Black]

"Goodnight...Sakari..." Antero replies.

He gets up and goes to his own room. It has been hard for him. To have everything he loves the most take from him. When he lays down, he holds his arms out ahead of him, as if to embrace the emptyness in his life.
"Come to me.....return to me..." He whispers. He looks at his hands. Slender instruments of suffering. His finger nails have some dirt under them.
"Return...return...and for you I will be brand new."
He closes his eyes and puts his arms down. It doesn't take long for him to fall asleep.

[Iris Faust]

Iris sat at the table across from Youki, she could tell that something bothered him.
"Something wrong?" she looked up at him.
Getting up from the table she toke their plates, and placed them in the sink and then stood in front of Youki. Kneeling on the floor she looked up at him.

[Sephos]

I wake up in the morning, the weave of the couch cushions intermingled with the cuts and bruises on my face. First things first, I rush to the bathroom and begin to vomit. I feel terrible. Exactly how much did I end up drinking last night? Everything is so fuzzy.

Vomit.

I wipe my face on some toilet paper and stay kneeling on the cold tile floor for awhile. The toilet doesn't smell very good, which doesn't help my nausea, and from up close and personal, I can see all of the grime and grit that has caked itself into different places around the seat and base.

Vomit.

The water-shut off valve is leaking a bit. I should try to fix it.

Vomit.



When I have sufficiently purged the last years worth of stomach contents out of myself, I stand up and rinse off my face, swooshing some water around inside of my mouth and spitting it in the sink. The medicine cabinet mirror reveals a face that only a mother could love... the mother of some boxer or fighting dog. My eyes are blackened a bit and my nose is puffy and bruised. I imagine that I must have broken it when I fell on it last night outside of the League of the Godless. Wonderful!

I try to smooth down the worst of my hair and sniff at my armpits before I head back into the livingroom... But, after that, decide that it is time for a shower. I strip down and hop on in. The first burst of water is cold, but it warms up after a bit. It stings when it touches the skin of my back, which is still very sensitive after having been torn apart to let my wings come out.

My wings...

I should be happy, I remind myself. That bastard's seed is less in me now than before.

I should be happy, but I am not. I am miserably in pain. It is as though the two stubs where my wings used to be (although receeded now) are still aching from within me. Growing them back will be a painful process.

Finished with my shower, and feeling like I smell a bit more fresh, I wrap a towel around me and go into the room that I share with Zero. She is not around. I dig through my clothes and find a pair of loose-fitting black canvas pants and a long black pullover shirt. On goes the sweatshirt over top, and I dig around until I find two mismatched socks that look as though they might be clean.

I feel bad for Zero. I wish I was a better roommate, I am terribly messy.

Zero.

I try not to think about her. All of my emotions are so confused right now... and then there's that elf woman...

I stop everything and just stand there for a minute, in the process of putting on my left sock, my foot poised in the air.

... the elf woman...

Did I... ? Did I kiss her last night?
Did I...?

She... She works for Red Infinity. I despise Red Infinity! They are what makes the world as terrible as it is today. They are the bastard son of Communism that steals the goodness and bread away from it's brother, the true son... and gives the whole family a bad name.

I can't have feelings for her... I hate her! I hate what she stands for!

and yet...

And yet nothing! I can't believe I would do something like that. I must have been drunk. I was drunk.

I sulk out of the room, only one sock on, angry at myself and trying to convince myself that I didn't actually have feelings for the elf woman.

[Kaieka]

I sleep a full number of hours after feeding and feel quite contented, though, when I wake up, I have a bit of a headache. The woman is still here in my bed. There is also still the corpse of that prostitute on my floor. I will need to call a janitor to come and clean up the carpets.

I stand up and stretch and wonder if Illidan ever made it back from the bar. I feel bad at being so tough with him, but it is my goal to make it so that they don't want to purge him, and that is going to take toughening him up a bit.

I still don't appreciate him putting me on the same level with Kaschei, though. That man is cruel and hate-filled, even if he does have nice hair and restored my life. I, at worst, am simply a pregnant dog.

[Fascia]

"Aww, wasn't that nice of Moira, to replace our green olives? That's so nice."

I open the jar and promptly eat one. Yum! Nothing like green olives. I hold the jar up to Kakashi, who is still covered in paint.

"Want one?"

[Harry Bergstrom]

Harry wakes up with a yawn. He sits up in bed and wonders where he is. As if from nowhere, his memory starts coming back to him and he remembers that he was staying witht hte Eternal Light. He yawns again and goes to take a shower.

After a warm shower, he bolts to his clothes, as Lapland is very, very cold. He dresses but still feels cold with all that water clinging to him, so he takes his coat from the coat rack and puts that on. He shivers then walks into the kitchen.

"Man, it's freezing in here. What's for breakfast?" he asks before seeing that no one is awake yet and the kitchen is empty.

He looks at the clock.

"4:00... man. Oh well, might as well fix breakfast." he says to himself. He begins cooking some warm pourage with cinnamon and raisins.

[Rolf Wagner]

Wagner checks the clip on his sidearm, then snaps it back into place. He gives the loader a tug and snaps the first round into place, then hulsters the weapon. He always checked his weapon before he did anything where he thought that it might be needed. And checking out the rebel base, even from a distance, would be dangerous. He gives the fake uniform, designed to be identical to one of Infinity's guards, a quick inspection in the mirror, then walks out of the restroom and out the back door of the resturant.

[Hatake Kakashi]

"Thanks but no... I'm going to put these cloths in the wash and then get a shower." He walks off to the back room where the old washer is. There's no dryer, just a cloths line out the window, but that works... except in winter. Luckily it's been warmer lately.

[Fascia]

I follow him back to the back room.

"Want any help?... with washing?... your clothes, I mean. I'm not the most domestic she-elf, but I bet washing laundry isn't all that tough."

[Hatake Kakashi]

Kakashi pulls his shirt off and tosses it into the machine. "There's not much to do really, just put the stuff in, add soap, and start the machine. I might have to treat it when it done. I've never worked with paint before," he starts to undo his pants, "But I've worked with blood. Both're a pregnant dog to get out of clothing."

[Fascia]

"Yeah... I bet they are."

I don't miss the fact that he is taking off his clothing in front of me. I also don't miss the fact that he has a fantastic body.

I quickly grab the laundry soap off of the shelf and roughly hand it to him.

"Well, just thought that maybe I could help. Here. Soap."

[Hatake Kakashi]

Kakashi takes the soap, suprised at Fascia's sudden anger. . What had he done? "Thank you..." Kakashi stands for a moment in his boxers, trying to think why Fascia was annoyed with him. He decides it might be best not to say anything. He puts his pants into the wash, adds the soap, sets the dial, starts the machine, and closes the lid. "There. Shouldn't be more than a half hour or so." Kakashi smiles, then frown and shiver. Holy crap, it was cold out here when he was in his boxers. The back room was closet to the outside and it's walls had no insolation. "Let's go back. It's cold out here..."