[Open] The Assimilation

[Morlayaashia]

Ashia jumped slightly at his touch, it had been decades since she'd been touched by a person but for the hand on her shoulder, but immediately relaxed. Not realizing her mind was being subtly tampered with, she reasoned that humans were always comfortable with touch, whether she was or not. "Perhapss." She returned his smile.

She too, noticed the sign as they moved closer, but his grasp of her hand made her look down at their now clasped hands. Her hand, though slightly warm before, now grew cold to match the temperature of his. Her brow furrowed slightly. As far as she knew, humans were normally warm creatures. She nodded, and though she was mostly comfortable, something didn't seem right. Something in the back of her mind was telling her to be wary, but she tried to push it back. Ashia quietly slipped her hand from Skylar's, tying up Kenia on a horse post as an excuse, then joined him on entering the building.

[Skylar]

Tall Johnny's turned out to be slightly more than a casino. While the right half of the building was indeed of the gambling nature, with tables filled with dice and cards and money and scantily clad creatures from both sexes bringing drinks and manning the tables. The left side on the other hand was some sort of blood sport arena, a packed dirt pit where even now a couple of dogs were ripping at each others throats while a few spectators shouted loudly and bet.

Apparently the big crowds didn't show up until they got sentients to fight each other. That was easy enough in a city like this, Skylar mused. The whole ordeal disgusted him somewhat. He loved watching things inflict violence on each other, don't get him wrong, but the way it was organized and... artificial, it just rung so hollow. Skylar didn't think much of it at all. This had none of the charm and spontaneity of true murder. It could only be called a pale imitation. Violence, sure, blood, definitely, but murder? No, that was too high a praise for this little show, Skylar rolled his eyes and turned around, that false smile once again on his face.

"Looks like it's not just a casino. I'm sorry if this brutish behavior disturbs you. Sunberth is Sunberth, after all. You have to expect this sort of thing. So, casino or arena? I don't mind myself, but you don't want to leave me alone, do you?" He gave a wry smile, but his words were laced with yet another hypnotic suggestion. This girl was too interesting to waste, but she was also cold and distant. If he wanted to know her story, he'd have to dig for it.

And he intended to.

[Morlayaashia]

Ashia's eyes were fixed immediately on the fighting dogs. She shouldn't have been able to smell the blood from their distance, but she swore she could. The iron stung her nose slightly, her tongue flicking out to taste the air out of habit, demonstrating how much time she'd spent in her snake form.

She could hear Skylar's words as she walked towards the arena, but chose not to answer them. The tampering caused her to grasp his arm with her now-cold fingertips, sharp fingernails digging into him slightly, and pull him along with her. She didn't even notice as she continued to pull him forward until they were quite near the ripping and slashing of the animals.

Her eyes were unfocused, not caring for the sport particularly, but for the blood which they spilt. This was dangerous, she knew it was. She shouldn't let herself. But she couldn't pull herself away. It was like all the years had never passed. Though the display was staged, but the dogs were truly fighting for their lives. And this she knew. The brutality of it made her heart pound, her nails digging deeper into Skylar's flesh.

One dog, the one with the spotted coat, soon had its organs spilt upon the dirt floor, the scent of blood even heavier closer up. It died with whimpers, and the other clearly starved dog began to gobble them up.

The men around them began to argue over their bets, but Ashia didn't even hear them. She was much too focused..

[Skylar]

Well, well, what was this. Skylar was more than slightly intrigued by her strange behavior. Well, intrigued wasn't even an apt description. Perhaps fascinated would be better. He knew that nobody with a squeaky clean past ever came to Sunberth, but the mind could wander in dazzling directions idly wondering what kind of past would inspire this level of obsession. He didn't once flinch from her nails digging into his skin. Even the slightest movement could interrupt her... revelry. And Skylar thought it would be a pity to do that.

He stared in her eyes, he drank up that look on her face. The blood. The combat. The violence. The death. The blood. That was what she saw. That was what she... feared? No, it was not fear in those eyes. Something more wonderful and more delicious.

Or so he hoped.

Once he'd gotten his fill of that beautiful sight, only then did he feel the need to break his arm away from her vice-like grip. She left gashes in his skin from which tiny droplets of whitish ichor flowed. He covered his arm with his sleeve. Hopefully she didn't notice.

"See something you like, my dear?" He asked, his voice had lost its false kindness and took on its usual tone: That playfully demonic pitch he was so fond of. With a little luck, she wouldn't even notice his slow change from frightened tourist to master hypnotist until it was too late.

[Morlayaashia]

Ashia could feel all of her well-practiced rituals of normality going right out of her brain, a soft smirk on her lips.

So, she wasn't the one in control of the carnage in front of her. She wasn't the one slaughtering and ripping out throats....yet. She could almost taste it: the power that came with death and this kind of violence. And she wanted it.

There was a voice banging at the edge of her head, screaming for her to stop. To think this over. Ashia laughed out loud to herself as Skylar freed himself from her grip, though hardly noticing him. This time, she knew she wouldn't slip back into herself. She was, in essence, more blood-thirsty than even she knew.

His words broke her self-reverie, her eyes returned to him, seeming much more sinister. Though she did not have the skills that (unbeknown to her) the man in front of her possessed, she was a bit disillusioned in thinking herself in control. It showed on her face, still unguarded. In fact, it was almost as if Ashia herself had become a different person all-together, personality-wise of course. "Its just dogs." She smiled at him, a layer of coldness underneath with which she now viewed the world.

Her eyes, in fact, fell upon a middle aged man of normal stature, a tad ugly in fact. In the moment she glanced at him, a dozen ways to painfully kill him raced through her mind, causing another smirk to cross her face as once again faced Skylar.

[Skylar]

Skylar smiled. He had won.

Her change in personality had been immediate and obvious. It was all too clear what had happened. She'd repressed some part of herself as a defense mechanism and now that part had taken over again. Good. It was better this way. People should be themselves. They shouldn't hide behind masks of false frailty and lies like 'I want to help others.'

Everyone, everyone, without exception, was a murderer under the right circumstances. It was foolish to pretend otherwise.

Now Skylar felt a bit like a midwife. This was a creature that was brand new to this world. A creature that was all instinct and bloodlust that it could not truly verbalize or justify. It was a weapon without a wielder, a blunt instrument.

Little Ashia needed to learn. And Skylar was a better teacher in the art of evil than most. Skylar returned her smirk and leaned in to whisper to her. He wouldn't need to use hypnotism any more, she was already the same as him. "You can't be content with just dogs, can you? You can't be content with watching the destruction, can you? You want to feel it, perhaps? I can help you with this. I can show you." He glanced back at the middle aged man and smiled before turning back to her.

"What do you think?"

[Morlayaashia]

Mild surprise flitted over Ashia's face at Skylar's words. How had he known this? That she wanted...no, that she needed to feel someone's life flickering out because of her. Her eyes were wide as she looked into his. "Y-y.." She couldn't find words for a moment. "You..can show me?" Her eyes returned to the man after Skylar's did, eyes wide.

This was unexpected. But a very good type of unexpectedness. As if she was seeing him for the first time, Ashia's head tilted to the side, looking him over all over again. He just didn't look menacing or....dangerous. Until her eyes found their way back to his.

There was something..different about his eyes. It wasn't in the coloring or something so simple, it was what was behind those irises that surprised her.

"Who are you?" The words fell in a soft whisper from her lips before she even realized what she was saying.

[Skylar]

"No one of real consequence, I assure you." Skylar said, his eyes shining with that evil intention that drove his every action from the last thousand years or more. That dark need to twist people into the worst versions of themselves. It was such a heady rush to feel Ashia slip into her darkest impulses and most disturbing desires. It made him happy to know that he had, at least a little, helped her reach her full monstrous potential.

"Never feel ashamed of your desires, Ashia. Never apologize for who you are. This is who you are. It will always be. Never change for the sake of others. They're all sheep. They're all bags of flesh and blood waiting to be ripped open like an overripe tomato. Wait for me out back behind this building. I will bring you a gift."

He walked away from Ashia then, towards the older gentleman she'd been eying. "Excuse me, sir, you were cheated out of your money." He began, the hypnotic statement barely registering.

In a few minutes, with a combination of guile and hypnotism, he had convinced the man that the establishment was cheating him and the proof was in the alley outside where they pulled the elaborate ruse.

Of course, this was Sunberth, there was no law against gutting the fool where he stood, but no, a little patience and planning would do well in minimizing the impact of the incident. Let little Ashia have some privacy.

"I brought you a present."

[Morlayaashia]

Hearing his words, it was if another bridge had been crossed. She wasn't the only one who felt that way about the rest of the people, the..the nothings that inflicted this world with their disastrous ways. There were very few people she considered sacred, and they were the ones who had banished her.

Ashia made her way to the back alley, eyes flicking around for any threats, but she wasn't concerned in the least...not anymore. She was all too willing to rip open an unlucky thief's throat.

She didn't have to wait long before Skylar walked into view with the man. Her heart started racing uncontrollably. Yes, this was good. Along with her heart, her mind was taking in everything about the way the man walked along, the way he carried himself. She felt this was important, though she failed to interpret what it meant. That was her lack of social skills showing themselves, though they were slowly returning to her.

"And what a nice presssent he isss." She smiled, looking completely predatory.

[Skylar]

The man looked quite worried now. It was clear something had gone wrong. Skylar's hypnotic suggestions that he had been cheated didn't really sway him that much, and now he was looking for a way out.

There was none, Skylar had one of the entrances blocked and Ashia had the other one equally under control. This man had nowhere to turn. He was speaking now, something about something, but Skylar wasn't paying attention and there wasn't much reason Ashia should either.

"Listen, you're hungry aren't you? Hungry for the death? You want to see it, the moment someone's life is snuffed out before their eyes and their foolish dreams and desires and fears and everything they ever were is destroyed at a moment's notice."

He gestured to the man, and now he was smiling widely, his teeth exposed like the mouth of a shark. "Ashia, my dear dear Ashia. Hurt him. Kill him. Surrender to the path of blood and death and never stray from it again. Become the perfect killing tool. I want to see your most disturbing self! Show me the real you!"