paixaorpg | Seeing Into the Dark [closed, active]

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Seeing Into the Dark [closed, active]

Character(s): Ichihara Yuuko and Harry Dresden
Content: Yuuko takes a look into the darkness with Harry
Setting: Yuuko's Shop
Time: Night
Warnings: None, really.

Yuuko laid stretched out on her couch in the room she had set aside for business purposes. In her hand was an inconspicuous looking jar that might have once been used for any number of things: storing change, or herbs, or collecting seashells. However, it's purpose now was far darker...literally. Swirling inside it, threating to escape, was a dark shadow. She had bottled darkness in her hand. The jar had her magic circle etched on it, which was the only thing keeping the shadow from seeping out in the first place.

Yuuko twisted the jar from side to side, examining the darkness. She knew she wouldn't find much by her eyes alone, but she had little else to do until Harry finally showed up. "Curiouser, and curiouser as they say," she muttered to herself. This darkness had a familiar feeling to it but Yuuko couldn't place where she had felt this before. She hoped Harry would be able to shed some light on the subject. Yuuko could do it herself, but sometimes it was more fun to see what other wizards thought first. "You'd certainly be fascinated by it, wouldn't you...you glasses wearing bastard," she said to know one in particular.

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Harry had to admit he was a bit curious about what exactly it was that Yuuko had managed to acquire. His own investigations following the battle at the lab kept coming up empty, and he was beginning to feel rather incompetent by this point.

Maybe if he could help Yuuko, he wouldn't feel honor bound to hand in his PI license.

Coming into the room, he noted the strange jar, or to be more specific, he noted the dark vibes it was throwing off. Whatever was in that jar, it had some serious bad juju.

"That the stuff," he asked, pointing to the jar out of a love of stating the obvious.

Yuuko looked over to the door when Harry entered. She sat up slightly and sat the jar down on the table in front of her. "It is, indeed, the 'stuff'," she replied coyly as always.

"Pure darkness. You know, it's not necessarily evil...it just has a stronger tendency to corrupt if there is an over abundance of it. The same could be said for light, even though many wouldn't think of it that way," Yuuko murmured, half to herself and half to Harry. She glanced up at him, "I have it sealed within the jar. However, if we're going to be poking at it, I would like to take the precaution of sealing the room as well."

Yuuko rose from her seat and crossed to the door Harry had just entered, "I'm sure you're familiar with the practice of 'closing a circle.' Is there anything you think you will need before we begin or shall I shut it?"

Coming closer, Harry could feel the power in the stuff in the jar, and the temptation it represented.

"Yeah, I have some, experiences, with that kind of thing."

He looked up from the darkness when Yuuko mentioned circles. He'd always been interested in the witch's magic, but she had a real gift for dodging questions when she wanted to. The fact that she used circles was very interesting.

"No, I should have the stuff I need for the moment. Anything more complicated and we'll need a lab."

The witch watched Harry for a moment, her usual sly smile gone, "Most humans have. Some more than others."

Once she was sure Harry was ready, Yuuko shut the door. Freshly marked on the door was a very intricate and strange circle. It was Yuuko's personal design (http://www.onemanga.com/xxxHolic/1/21/) and one she used in most magic she did. As soon as the door was shut, the circle on the door flashed red and the air in the room seemed to hum with magic. The hum was coming from the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room. While it wasn't visible to the naked eye, those areas were also taken up by a larger version of the circle that Yuuko had drawn on the door.

"That should prevent it from getting to Aerith or Leslie...however we are on our own in dealing with it should it get out in this room," Yuuko said, her voice as calm as ever as she walked back over to Harry. "So," she said, a grin creeping back onto her face, "shall we get started?"

Harry felt a little chill at Yuuko's words. He'd long since learned that when the woman finally did get serious, it was time to pay very very close attention.

He watched Yuuko move about sealing off the room, studying her own circle closely as she manipulated it. It was a great deal more elaborate than his own, with a circular motif containing intricate designs, and what appeared to be a stylized eye in the center.

When she closed the door, Harry could feel the room hum with energy, the ever present background noise of magic rising to become almost a dull roar before Harry's magical senses could adjust to compensate. Clearly the fancy circle wasn't just for show, whatever she had done, it was powerful.

Harry had to blink at the sudden change in Yuuko's demeanor from calm to playful, wondering if it was possible to get whiplash from a person's moods.

Moving over to the jar, Harry leaned down and studied it carefully. Just from watching it, he got the bizarre impression that whatever was in there was alive, and that it knew he was there. Shaking off the heebie jeebies, he looked back at Yuuko and said, "Why do I get the feeling when you say you got this from someone, you weren't talking about they had a jar of it just lying around?"

Yuuko chuckled, "Honestly, Harry, who keeps a jar of darkness just lying around." This coming from the woman who had been keeping said jar of darkness in a wardrobe and had stored it in a jar in the first place.

"No, I got this from Flonne, she's a fallen angel and originally a being on the light end of the spectrum. From what Laharl told me, Flonne had been infused with this darkness by our friends with the Organization, it completely threw off her balance and she fell into a comatose state. I told Laharl how to extract the darkness and that's how we got it in a jar," Yuuko explained matter-of-factly. Yuuko didn't seem as bothered by the swirling darkness, she leaned closed to the jar, tracing a finger down the side. The darkness swirled and seemed to press itself towards her finger, "I think I've seen this type of darkness before...when I went to Hades' party. This is the same darkness that makes up those beings called Heartless."

Harry vaguely remembered Flonne from the rescue mission they'd pulled off just a few days ago. Soon after they'd fended off the Nobodies protecting the labs, the people who had gone in had emerged with a frail looking blond girl. Harry didn't need years of experience dealing with people who had been ravaged by dark magic to tell she'd been through hell. The small blue haired demon hadn't let her go the whole time, whispering Flonne under his breath.

Remembering that caused anger to rise up inside Harry once again. He may not be any closer to figuring out what the Organization was after, but the longer he was here the more certain he was of one thing, he was going to put a stop to the bastards.

Getting control of his anger, Harry tried to focus on the rest of what Yuuko was saying. "So, this stuff comes from the heart, and they injected it into her? Where would they get something like this, and what benefit would there be to injecting it into someone? I suppose they might just want to see how she reacted, but that's too simple, there has to be a motive."

Harry's musings were interrupted by Yuuko's next words, and tilting his head he asked, "Wait, the Heartless? What are those?"

Yuuko could tell Harry was getting angry but she didn't say anything about it. Instead she waited for him to calm down so they could continue. "That's what I gathered from Laharl. Darkness actually isn't that hard to come by, Harry. As I said earlier, it's within everyone. The real question is how they are manipulating it so that they can force it on someone else. I honestly can't say what they're motive behind it was. Although, I do think seeing her reaction was part of it."

She looked up at Harry over the jar, "Ah, so you haven't encountered them yet. They are beings created when someone loses their heart and it is consumed by darkness. Heartless lack a true body or soul and so their form is made up of the darkness that has consumed the heart. As I said, Hades used them at his party. They go after people with hearts because their only drive it to make more of themselves and consume more hearts."

"Well, if we can get some idea of what you can do with this stuff, we might have a better idea what the Organization is plotting." Not that Harry was planning to use the stuff himself, he tried to not make a habit of willingly exposing himself to highly corrupting power. He was self aware enough to know not to trust himself with something like that.

"I've seen a lot of very strange things in my life, but taking someones darkness and giving it physical form is pretty up there. I know about using souls to fuel magic, and there's a lot of symbolism and power tied up in the heart, but this is new."

Sitting back slightly Harry rubbed his chin and listened to Yuuko describe the Heartless. "They sound a little bit like Fear Phages or some Demons, but neither of those are created from a human." Leaning closer he noticed the darkness was definitely reacting to his presence. He didn't want to think too much about what that said about him.

"Okay, we know roughly what it is, and where it's from, now we need a clearer idea of what it can do, and why they want it. I could see what it looks like with my Sight..."

Yuuko smiled slightly, "Well, Harry, you are in a different world now. It's only a matter of time before you come across something even you haven't seen before. I'd only heard about things like this myself, before coming here, but then...I get out a bit more."

She tucked some of her hair behind her ear, "Are you sure that's wise? Looking at such a thing with your Sight?" She reached forward and started twisting the jar, the darkness swirled around inside, when it came between Harry and Yuuko it was definitely more attracted to Harry...but then again, Yuuko was an odd one. If Harry had been to Hades' party he would have known that, Yuuko hadn't attracted the Heartless there, and the darkness was the same. "Although, I guess it's better than letting it out of the jar...for now," she lifted her hand from the jar, "Try not to get blinded by the seals...they can be a little overwhelming if you aren't prepared for them."

"Yes well, considering I can't seem to go a year without running into some new supernatural creature, it's not surprising this place has its own unique horrors," Harry sighed.

"No it's probably the opposite of wise, but that's never really stopped me before."

Steeling himself, Harry moved so that he could see the jar without looking straight at Yuuko. He had a feeling that whatever the dimensional witch looked like, he probably wasn't ready to see it yet.

Closing his eyes, he focused on the spot just above his eyebrows, feeling the pressure that came with opening his third eye.

The second Harry opened his eyes he winced in pain as a blinding light seemed burned into his retinas. The afterimage of mystic runes floated behind his eyelids as Harry jerked back. He waited a few minutes for the afterimage to fade before slowly opening his eyes again, this time giving his eyes to get used to the nimbus of light surrounding the top of the jar.

After a moment or two, Harry noticed that the light itself was actually thousands of symbols in a complex rotation, circling the jar and somehow never touching despite the intricate nature of their movements. The raw power coming off them was staggering, resting on the jar like a mountain.

Focusing closer, he looked past the seal and saw the darkness within. The thing that was inside it was...almost indescribable. It formed shapes Harry's eyes didn't want to acknowledge, moved in ways no natural being should move, and radiated a aura of pure, cold, all consuming power. The only thing Harry could really recognize were the two bright yellow eyes, glowing with an insatiable hunger. A hunger directed right at Harry.

The worst part was that this thing didn't feel evil. Harry had felt true evil, been in its presence, come to know the unique horror that twisted in his gut when faced with it. This thing wasn't evil, it just was. It was a force of nature, a typhoon that promised to sweep all life away in a tide of darkness, following a mindless hunger.

To it Harry wasn't something to be conqured, or manipulated, or over come. To it he was just something to be eaten. All this was underscored by a soft steady thumping that Harry suddenly realized was the beating of a heart.

Closing his eyes quickly Harry forced his Sight shut, but the image lingered. Feeling a little sick, Harry realized he was covered in a cold sweat, and had somehow ended up on the floor.

"Please...please tell me I didn't start screaming like a little kid."

Yuuko stepped back and decided it would be best to watch. She felt the tension build around Harry as he opened his Sight. At first, he was thrown off by the wards, well, she had warned him about that. She could also tell he was avoiding looking at her. Probably wise on his part, although if he had looked at her he might have seen that she looked a little saddened by it.

She turned her focus back to the jar, watching as Harry took in the darkness within with a different vision. Yuuko could tell he was getting a better understanding of it than anything they could have done by poking at it.

She closed her eyes as Harry's breathing started to get heavy. Clearly, what he was seeing was something that frightened him in some way. She walked over to him when he fell to the floor, kneeling over him and wiping his brow with a handkerchief she had pulled out from somewhere, "Harry, shh, it's alright. You didn't scream." This was probably a tone Harry had never heard from Yuuko before, there was a kindness there, as well as concern for his well being.

Yuuko's deep red eyes softened at seeing him like this, yet, it also looked like she might be seeing someone else. She could, after all, remember a time when another wizard had worked with her and had often been thrown off guard by his own visions. It was different circumstances, another time, Yuuko mentally shook herself while still looking down at Harry. She didn't need to be thinking of Reed right now.

The mixture of Yuuko's caring tone and soft touch seemed to drive away the lingering visions of what Harry had seen, pushing them into the darker corners of his mind for the moment at least.

Closing his eyes, Harry let himself indulge in Yuuko's warm presence for a moment, giving himself a chance to catch his breath. He didn't question the sudden revelation of a side of Yuuko he'd never seen before, he was just glad for once he wasn't alone during one of these. It took everything he could to occupy his mind so he didn't remember some of the other horrors he'd Seen.

Harry must have been more shaken than he thought, because before he realized what he was doing Harry heard himself joke, "Guess I should have looked at you after all. Least then I'd have some beauty to balance things out."

Too late to avoid dooming himself, Harry could only do the mental equivalent of a face palm and wonder whether this was his subconscious getting pay back for all his beard jokes. That was the only possible explanation for why he'd use such a cheesy line now of all times.

She was glad that he was starting to calm down. Yuuko ignored the movement of the darkness within the jar, reacting to the emotions passing between the two magicians. The witch knew she shouldn't be indulging herself like this, a feeling was budding inside her and she knew she couldn't allow it to grow.

It wouldn't be right, after all. Things weren't meant to be like that. Still, Yuuko was still technically human and even she couldn't destroy any feelings she might have.

Harry's lame joke actually pulled her from her thoughts and she gave him a sad smile, "You're sweet, but how do you know what you would have seen would have been any better?" That being said she kissed him gently on the forehead and rose to stand up again.

Harry was avoiding thinking about the darkness for the moment, the memory of his Sight too new, still lurking for just the right moment to return. He would have to face it, but he needed to make sure he did it on his terms, not before. Just thinking about that was enough to send the images rushing back, causing him to wince.

Yuuko's soft lips pressed against his forehead managed to provide a rather excellent distraction, causing Harry to swallow awkwardly and try to keep from blushing like some teenage boy with a crush. Hell's bell's, what was he, 16?

Still, all the charged emotions in the room weren't enough to distract Harry from Yuuko's words, nor the sad way she spoke. Even as she stood Harry reached up and grabbed her hand gently, keeping her from moving away.

Looking up he allowed for a few dangerous moments of eye contact as he said, "I know. Look, I don't claim to be able to understand you or your magic, and I sure as hell don't know much about your past, but I do know one thing, and that's magic comes from life, and is meant to protect life. You may be operating under some weird rules I can't begin to understand, and I may not always agree with your methods, but what I do know is that you work to preserve life in your own way."

Glancing off to the side Harry laughed self-deprecatingly and continued, "Look, I'm probably the last person who should be saying this, but whatever you did in the past, whatever else you are now, you're a good person."

Harry's lips quirked as he looked back and finished, "If a weird one who enjoys sexually harassing poor defenseless wizards."

She didn't pull away when he took her hand. His palms were still sweaty from what he had witnessed, but they were warm. Yuuko wasn't as surprised by him taking her hand as she was by the brief moment of eye contact. Yuuko had noticed awhile ago how Harry never really met eyes with anyone. It was always difficult, because Yuuko actually liked looking into people's eyes, it helped her judge clients.

Yuuko smiled, Harry really was a good person. He reminded her of the few good people she had met and gotten closed to over the years. She liked him. Yuuko reached forward with her free hand and placed it against his cheek, "You shouldn't judge yourself so hard, you know. Everyone has things about themselves they wish weren't so, but it's what you do with yourself despite those short comings that makes you what you are."

She took her hand away and her smile changed to the usual one she wore, the smirk that let you know she was thinking bad things. She poked him in the shoulder, "You enjoy it, don't even act like you don't."

Coughing awkwardly at Yuuko's words, Harry gave her a tired smile and replied, "I know. I've had enough people I know are way smarter than I am tell me so, it's just going to take a bit longer for me to accept things. It's murder on my brooding anti-hero image."

In truth Harry wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to allow himself the luxury of going easy on himself. There was too much on the line if he slipped up, and it was all too easy to start down a very dark road for the best reasons. Still, that didn't mean it wasn't nice to occasionally have someone reaffirm that he wasn't a monster yet.

Yuuko's change in demeanor suddenly reminded Harry that he was still holding her hand, and that her other hand was pressed against his cheek. One part of him couldn't help but note how soft and warm said hand felt against him, and how slender and pale her neck looked.

The rest of Harry, thankfully the part that was actually in charge, swallowed and gently let go of her hand, trying to extract himself from a potentially very compromising position. Of course he was already too late.

Grinning despite himself Harry looked back up at Yuuko and replied, "Oh yeah, nothing better than waking up every morning wondering how I'm going to be embarrassed next. Really adds some spice to life."

She pulled away as he did. Perhaps, now was not the time for this. Although, if he had continued, Yuuko probably wouldn't have argued. "If you don't want to get back to work we can always add a little more spice to your life, Harry," Yuuko said, the grin evident in her voice even though she wasn't looking at him now.

A part of Harry, a part that was far larger than he'd like to admit, would have liked nothing better than to take up Yuuko on her offer. He'd just subjected himself to a mentally traumatizing experience, one that threatened to reopen old wounds. He was far from home, in a place full of unseen dangers and separated from all but one of his friends.

Not to mention it had been a very very long time since he'd been with anyone, much less someone as beautiful as Yuuko. While there had been something between him and Luccio, he'd been taken before he had a chance to figure out what that was. Murphy had already made her position on them clear, and Susan was long gone. There was no one here who would judge Harry if he told Yuuko exactly what he wanted to do with her at that moment. He could just slip that robe off her shoulders and lay her out on the couch...

Shaking his head to get rid of those images, however pleasant, Harry reminded himself they had a job to do. What they were looking into could determine the fate of everyone in this city, he didn't have time for a roll in the hay with Yuuko.

Swallowing, Harry made sure his voice wouldn't hitch or anything embarrassing like that, then said, "Maybe next time, for now there seems to be a lot of spice as it is."

Yuuko had known he wasn't going to accept, still, it hadn't stopped her from offering. Part of it was just to see his reaction and the other part of her had hoped he would. Oh well, perhaps another time. "Suit yourself."

The witch brushed her hair over her shoulder again and went back to the jar. The darkness was really stirring now but seemed to slowly be settling down. "We'll move back to business then...are you up for that?"

Steadying his heartbeat, Harry rose to his feet and returned to the jar. It seemed whatever this stuff was, it had reacted aggressively to the charged emotions in the room.

"Yes, I'm fine now. Besides, I'm not sure I want to do anything with this thing as a voyeur. Notice how it reacted to emotions?"

Yuuko nodded, he had a point. Her eyes fell on the darkness in the jar, "Well, it is attracted to that sort of thing. That's all it knows is desire. I'm sure you realized that when you looked at it." She picked up the jar, "It in itself has no emotion...but it wants to consume what it can. That's what makes the Heartless so dangerous. They don't stop, they just seek out and find hearts to consume."

She turned her gaze back to Harry, "Would you care to describe for me what you saw?"

Yuuko's description sent another chill down Harry's spine. In many ways this was the most dangerous kind of monster, one that couldn't be bargained with, manipulated, tricked, bribed, or reasoned with. It obeyed no rules, held to no code, it simply wanted to do one thing, and it seemed that like a certain comic book character, it was the best at what it did.

Bringing his focus back to Yuuko, Harry sat back and readied himself, both physically and mentally, for revisiting what he had Seen. Closing his eyes, Harry called up the memories that had been seared into him, and began slowly describing them in methodical detail, forcing himself to face the Sight, rather than let it rule him.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Harry opened his eyes and took a calming breath. "Well, that's it. What do you think?"

Harry's description was extremely accurate. Yuuko could practically close her eyes and see what he had. She supposed that was the power of his Sight, interesting. "I wish I could understand why they put something like that in the child...any longer and it might have corrupted her beyond saving."

That was all the darkness wanted after all, to feed on others. "Still, I'm glad you came to see it as not necessarily evil. Too often, people tend to dismiss the darkness as merely that...but it doesn't work that way. Fire is similar if you think about it. It is a powerful tool that can quickly consume and turn on anything or anyone in its path. It can be very overwhelming."

Yuuko sighed, she gazed thoughtfully at the jar, "I'm not sure what answers we can truly gather from this. We know what it is and how it works...but we still don't know what it was doing in Flonne or why it was put there. Those mysteries should be directed at the Organization."

"Whatever reason they have, this tells us these guys are stone cold bastards through and through. The fact that they were willing to inject this, this thing into a child means we can't expect them to show any hesitation in bringing harm to others." Just thinking about it was enough to anger Harry, and at the same time chill him to the core.

He did smile a bit at Yuuko's subtle praise. It was nice for once to have someone who didn't automatically assume he had been seduced by whatever dark force was offering him power. "I've had more than enough experience with Black Magic to know using it is a bad idea with a capital B. It's like potato chips, you can never eat just one."

He paused for a second, then added, "Well, if potato chips warped you into a self focused monster obsessed with inflicting his desires upon the world."

Feeling tired, Harry shifted back and said, "Well, do you have any other ways for us to get more information about this stuff?"

Yuuko didn't say anything for awhile. It was hard to tell what she was thinking. She finally cracked a smirk, "Those sound like some pretty bad potato chips."

The witch sat down on her couch and sighed, "The only thing I can think of would be to let it out of the jar. However, that doesn't sound like it would go over to well, since it would likely attempt to go after one of us, since it wouldn't be able to leave the room. That option aside, all we can really do is wait for more information to slip out of the Organization or someone who knows something about them."

Laughing in spite of the situation, Harry grinned and replied, "The worst. Like Salt and Vinegar combined with barbecue and dunked in oil."

Flopping back on the couch, Harry put his arm over his eyes and said, "Well, perhaps that's enough mental trauma for one day anyway. We need to keep a close eye on the Organization from now on."

He paused for a moment, then added, "We probably should figure out who the hell they are first though."

The witch nodded, "I'll leave that to you, Mr. Detective." She decided if they were done with the darkness she should put it away. It would probably trouble Harry for a long while to come. However, Harry was strong and he would live through it. She rose from the couch and picked up the jar, moving it back to the cabinet she stored it in. As soon as that was put away, she moved over to the door and placed her hand on it. It sounded like she muttered something under her breath and with a relief of pressure, the magical barrier and circle she had set up was dropped.

She looked tired as she returned to her seat on the couch next to Harry. "Will you be alright, tonight?" It was an innocent enough question, and for once Yuuko's face was neutral of any expression.

While Yuuko went about getting securing the darkness and unsealing the room, Harry rested against the couch, his body rather resistant to the idea of getting up.

"Wouldn't be the first time I've had nightmares. You wouldn't happen to have a spare teddy bear would you?"

Yuuko couldn't help herself. She looked into Harry's face and a grin pulled at her lips, "I can be your teddy bear."

Harry decided to blame the mental trauma for giving her such an obvious opening.

"Somehow, I get the impression that wouldn't lead to much sleep."

Yuuko continued to grin, putting a finger under Harry's chin now. Why she enjoyed teasing him so much, she didn't know.

"Ah, but here's the fun part. If you don't sleep you won't have any bad dreams. See? It all works out for the best."

Harry managed not to shiver from her touch. Mostly.

Trying to avoid both her playful eyes and her plunging neckline, Harry finally compromised by locking his eyes squarely on Yuuko's chin.

"I will have to sleep eventually, might as well get it over with now," he replied easily, managing to keep his voice in check.

Other parts of him not so much, but Harry had long ago learned to ignore that for survival's sake.

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Seeing Into the Dark [closed, active]

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