IC: The Dark Hunt
The light is beginning to fade as evening draws closer, and the paths in the forest are growing shadowed.
Despite this, the gleam of a white cloak can easily be seen moving through the trees and away from the bar.
Despite this, the gleam of a white cloak can easily be seen moving through the trees and away from the bar.
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He just stands very still and watches.
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"Such concern it is that you have, for my welfare," she tells the Doctor, smiling still. "Interesting it is, since I know very well what your dear Ace thinks of me."
Another step, and another. She is perhaps ten feet from them now.
"And as for the others..." Ice-blue eyes fix on Venkman with clear interest, as a chill touch brushes against the edge of his mind, tauntingly.
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The Doctor steps forward as well, away from the others. Seven feet. Now five. He holds out a hand toward her.
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And she just threw a lit cigarette out her car window.
His hands clenched into fists at his sides, and his green eyes flashed with anger.
I TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT! And then there was a loud mental slam as he forcefully slammed down his mental shields.
The doctor was certainly right about free flowing energy, since the PKE in the area around Venkman was jumping up.
And yet, there was still a tiny rational side speaking up in his brain. Telling him to look, look!
"WAIT!" He yelled suddenly.
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"What are you shouting about?"
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The White Rider jerks back and glares at Venkman as she hisses to the Doctor, "Too clever it is for your own good, but your friends are much less so, cariad!"
A small blast of power numbs the senses as the image before them explodes into a cloud of glittering white ice and snow and then slices instantly between the Doctor and the other two, a blizzard whirling around him in a tight blinding spiral.
As for the others, Peter may feel a sudden sickening drain prying at his PKE and trying to gain energy from his anger-- and everywhere around them now the wind is rising and pressing in, bringing madness with it as it seeks to bend their minds.
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The winds slam into him from all directions, slinging him this way and that. And the harder the Doctor tries to remain upright, the more determined the storm seems to unseat him.
The first temptation is fear!
But Peter was right about one thing. She needs the anger, the hatred, and the fear. She thrives on it. Which just might mean....
I offer you fear in a handful of dust.
It was a trick he learned long, long ago when dealing with another similiar force. The Mara used the power of fear, of hate, of belief, in order to manifest.
I do not fear. I spread my fingers, and the dust trickles away.
The Doctor defeated it on the Federation world of Manussa by denying it that which it needed, by refusing to succumb. The mystic Dojjen had shown him how to find the still point within himself that could defeat the Mara.
I know that whilst I live, my hand is clean, my eyes are ( ... )
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Using you like a goddamn battery, Venkman...have to stop it. Get yourself squared away here. You know the mind. Now get your shit in gear, and do something about it! Part of him berated himself.
Right. Focus, concentrate. It's not just blanking out the thoughts. It's blanking out the emotions. Ignore the wind, ignore all of it. Still, calm. Just let go. Let go...
The PKE around him seemed to have abruptly shut off, and any ghost in the area would have a hard time seeing him.
One moment he was shouting and angry, now he was still kneeling on one knee, still and silent. Almost in a light trance, but still had awareness of his surroundings. The wind still howled at him, but it seemed more muffled, distant now.
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He closes his eyes and steps forward into the blizzard, towards where he last saw the Doctor. If she wants to cut them off from him, then he'll try to stop her.
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Chokingly close and blinding, with bitter deadly cold and stinging ice in its high winds, the blizzard surrounds Jay and begins to tear at him, ripping at clothing (feathers) and seeking to freeze the very air in his lungs.
Outside that blinding white spiral, the shadows continue to press in around the Doctor and Venkman with a near-physical weight. Nothing beyond the small glade can be seen now, not even the path-- save only a flicker of white just beyond the trees.
There are voices in that darkness, gibbering insane voices that scrape at the edge of sanity and wail of things no mind was ever meant to know -- and they are growing stronger.
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But then he had to focus on getting up, and pressing forward against the shadows.
Those mad voices pressing on him. He had heard their like before. That brief time when that pissant lackey of the Governor who had him and the guys committed. And before then, the mental hospital that his mother was at. So, he was mostly focused on carefully walking, and trying to ignore them. Ignore the memories they were summoning.
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Head ducked into the collar of his cloak to shield his eyes, he takes a careful step and then another, trying to orient himself, trying to find his way through the storm.
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The wind is no colder than her voice when she says to the Doctor, softly and yet bitterly clear,
"Do not try to be clever, dear-- not with me. You are not one to dictate anything, and you know nothing of what I truly want, and why I seek it."
One hand is hidden in a fold of her cloak, but she throws her other hand out at the other two, crying aloud,
"Look at them! Ffyliaid, fools, both of them-- the bird nearly choking on his own fear as the Dark closes in, and the other with his temper and his hatred and his bravado -- they mean nothing but harm, them and others like them, and you cannot change that!"
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The blue light flickers, and the Doctor dials the frequency down without looking.
"And that's what waits for you at the end of this path. No power, no Dark, just the nothing. Just the emptiness. It won't ease your anger or your hurt at being wronged. It won't undo the damage done. You will find nothing. You will become nothing. Because these people will never stop, will never cease, until that is so. They will hunt you down, cariad. They will run you tired and sore and weak. They will run you until you can run no longer. You can't stop them all; you can't even come close. Every one you hurt will send ( ... )
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