Empty Meanings

--Empty Meanings

The night was cold. The wind blew harsh and loud against the siding of the houses on Jenisi Ave. The leaves of the few trees smacked against eachother, it sounded almost like a twisted form of music, entirely un-delightful. As Toryn walked slowly across the brick sidewalk, he closed his eyes, focusing on the noises around him, the little things, like, the kids playing in the puddles to his left, the man with the umbrella behind him, his pace was fast, his feet stamping hard on the ground, upsetting the "calm" of the heavy storm. The rain pelted fast on his bright parasol, it looked so out-of-place in the dreary city streets, like a carelessly placed red streak on a black painting. Toryn softened his pace slightly, letting the man catch up to him, and then pass him, Toryn wanted to see the man's appearance, without glancing backwards. He had a gruff face, with a recently shaved beard, low eye-brows, sharp but hooded eyes, and a bright diamond earing on his left ear. His clothes didn't look much more intresting then his face, just a simple trench coat, black pants, and dark brown baseball cap. He seemed like an average man, living in the city, working within walking distance of his house. A man with a simple routine, a day-to-day process, something that if... upset, would make the man feel strange. It made perfect sense of course, you do the same thing everyday your whole life, then when something intervenes with the routine, you feel afraid, unsure. Toryn almost longed for a life like this, something more, natural. His mind was confronted by itself, he wanted to be free of the heavy burden, but he knew if he was, he would never feel the same. The feeling, when he just let himself go, when he just released the "Wraith", as some people called him/it, was so, satisfying. When he allowed himself to let go of the minor sense of self-conceived "honor" and "justice", and just become the true blood that he was. He hated himself for liking the feeling of harming others, and he wondered if he would ever be rid of the torn feeling inside of him. Heh, Toryn, what a fitting name... Toryn thought briefly. Without warning, the man with the umbrella quickly turned and walked up hard stone steps onto a porch composed of cheap rotting wood. He stepped lightly across it and onto a Welcome mat, before grabbing the screen door and swinging it open. He reached for the door-knob, and after turning it a few times, reached into his pocket and poked around, looking for his keys. After a couple seconds of searching, he pulled his hands out empty, muttered something, probably a curse, and picked up the mat for a hidden key. He put the key in the lock, turned, and with a click the door swung open, revealing a dimly lit room. He stepped inside and closed the door. Toryn continued his slow pace down the sidewalk, thinking about how such little changes may make a world of difference in a person's life. With a quick glance behind him, he continued his way to one of his local apartments. He was on call tonight for mercenary work, and needed to grab Taurine, one of his better taken care of knives, just in case he had a job.

Toryn closed his apartment door hard, almost slamming it. He took off his sneakers, grabbed the days newspaper, and sat down his bed briefly. He read the headlines quickly, predicted the outcome of one of the mystery detective case, glanced over the comics, reading his favorites, and then threw the paper onto his bed. He stood up sighing, then walked over to his desk, and opened the top drawer. Inside was a pile of clothes, most of them went un-worn, he had to at least pretend to live a normal life, or his "friends" might get suspicious. He dug under the clothes and pulled out a gleaming curved knife. It was about two feet long, with a a foot long handle. The blade, Taurine, was intended to be used upside-down, and used in a sort of punching, running motion. He liked it because of it's verastility, he could move quickly and slice through enemies fast, cutting them down like corn stalks, or, he could wield it like a normal blade, good for one on one fights. He glanced around the apartment, looking at the stained carpet, the poorly painted ceiling, and the beat up funiture. It had all been like that before he had rented it of course, he rarely used this room, and when he did, it was usually just for a meeting place with a client. The room was silent. Toryn just stood still for a few minutes, resting. He often had free time, but his work was hard enough to tire him out fairly quickly, even if he never showed it. *BZZZZ* *BZZZZ* *BZZZZ* His phone buzzed un-expectadly, almost startingly. I need to get a better phone, Toryn thought, almost amusing himself, These ringtones could make the biggest brute jump in suprise. He pulled the phone out, flipped it open, and held it up to his ear. "Toryn," a man with a gruff voice said, Toryn recognized him as Jeol, one of the co-runners of Fallen Talon. "We have a, break in. The Fallen Talon's HQ has been attacked. The man got in, and got out, bypassing every single secruity system. Our analysts have come to the conclusion that two people were behind the offense, one a hacker, breaking through the systems at lightning speed, while the second, a probable chameleon, snuck into the base. Come to the Helio corner for a full briefing. Your job, find the hacker." "Hm. What's the pay?," Toryn inquired. "Humph, always on that subject, eh? It will be good, better than the usual," Jeol said before hanging up. Toryn flipped the phone closed, threw Taurine in it's sheath at his belt, made sure the door was locked, and then unclamped the lock on the window, and jumped out. The streets and sidewalks were always empty on this side of the apartments, so he didn't worry about stealth. He landed lightly on the pavement, making barely a sound. It was still raining outside, so he put his hood on. The rain had already soaked his hair though, so it didn't do much good. He set off at a brisk pace, running for about 20 blocks. As he neared the entrance, he slowed down a little. Not unlikely, there weren't any people out this late, it was past midnight, and only the local gangs and night creepers stepped outside at this time of night. The rain had finally stopped, giving the earth a moment of rest from it's steady down pour. Toryn turned down a dark alleyway, taking off his hood. The wind blew his hair in front of his face, and he flicked his head to put it back where it belonged. The rain had soaked the bricks on the floor, making his shoes squeak slightly as he walked. He reached for the handle to an "invisible" door on the wall. The handle was very small, and appeared to just be a bump on the wall to an unsuspecting casual bypasser. It wasn't a very clever trick, and anyone who knew even slightly what they were looking for could fairly easily find it. Toryn turned the handle, and pulled the door torwards him. The room inside appeared to be empty, just an old unused storage room, but actually, there was a large gap in the wall, with another wall about three feet away behind the gap. It had been painted to apear as if there was no gap there, so if someone simply opened the secret door, they might just see an empty room and close it again. Again, not too clever of a trick, but suprisingly, it work pretty well on many. Toryn strode through the room and walked through the gap, he turned left and entered an open room, measuring about 23 by 34 feet. The room was filled with familier faces, most of them excellant assassins and detectives. However, unlike Toryn, all of them were employees of Fallen Talon. Toryn now worked for anyone, anyone who had enough money to make it worth it. Toryn didn't have a very high opinion of money, he knew it corrupted people, and that it could become a very dangerous thing if in the wrong hands. The reason Toryn was very careless with his money, is that he had a lot of it, he was one of the richest people alive, and he knew it would hurt the world if he kept all his money to himself, so he amused himself by slipping a few thousand dollars into the purses or bags of people walking by, or anonymously donating a million dollars to some random organization. He also purchased outrageously expensive things off the internet, then when that came to be delivered, he gave them to the deliver boy. "Toryn, good to see you again, although now might not be the best time for, casual chat," said a man sitting at a desk in about the center of the room. He wore a leather jacket, dark sunglasses, and had slicked back ebony hair. His face was the kind that you might expect to see on a movie actor or a model, it was complete perfection. The contours were very smooth, and everything was just the right size. He reached out a hand to Toryn as he approached him. His hand hung empty in the air for an awkward moment before the man realized that Toryn wasn't going to shake it. It fell loosely back to it's place on the leather chair's armrest. The rest of the people in the room hardly looked up in the entire time Toryn had been in the room, although there was one boy, probably a new recruit Toryn thought, that just stood in the corner and stared at him with hard green eyes. Toryn store back for a second, making his right eye flash black, causing the boy to gasp and look away. Toryn looked back down at the man in the chair, who had begun too type something on the computer in front of him. His desk was covered in random things like pencils, paper clips, knives, a pink memo pad, a couple grenades, and various other standard Fallen Talon desk equipment. "Zerses," Toryn said breaking the silence, "What do you know of this, hacker?" "Well," Zerses replied, looking up, the clicking of the keyboard stopped, "He seems to be very, very skilled, we don't know much, but he broke through the system designed by Riot in just a few minutes tops. Even Riot himself would take that long to break thought his OWN system, so, this guy must have some connection. The infiltrator had a clean pass through, the doors were opened by the hacker as he walked torwards him, they made a heck of a good team," "Did we take any casualties? Did they steal anything?" Toryn asked, using his rougher voice. "All he took was files. Just a bunch of old files on operators that left us like, five years ago, pretty pointless if you ask me. Oh, and they took a spare disk containing a bunch of old un-used data profiles, it was just before we updated the system last month, so everythings out-dated and worthless, other than the names and maybe some of the locations." "Hmm... Well, where are our leads on where they may have fled to?" "Uh, north I think, the chameleon guys fast, Jeol tried to catch him, the guy completely outran him! Now that's a speed demon..." A girl approached with a large card-board cupholder containing two steaming hot drinks, Zerses reached for one and took it from the cupholder, and said thank you. The girl held out the cupholder for Toryn, but he waved it off, he wasn't in the mood for earth food. "The most we can guess at the moment is that they are hanging out just north of the HQ, maybe, a few miles perhaps? We can't tell for sure, but we have five units up there watching. Other than his hacking skills, they shouldn't be too hard, but we still don't have a motive, all they took was mostly outdated information on our sellswords, what would they want with that?" Toryn glanced at the many people working around him, they were all moving so quickly, usually a case like this wasn't hard, but everyone seemed so tense, like it was actaully a threat. "Well, if that's it, I'm outta here. How much?" Zerses glanced over at General Kerfin, another main in Fallen Talon's best, he nodded from the dark desk he sat at in the corner, and Zerses spoke. "$1,000,000 US dollars. We don't usually pay this much, even to you, but this is a hard one, well, for us that is, I bet you'll have him back in here in less then a week, right? Eh heh heh..." "We'll see about that..." Toryn said softly as he left the room.

ooc//
The plot of the RP is sorta this: The hacker and the Chameleon guys, are working for Diaes in trying to get Toryn's blood, the information they stole was for Diaes so he could recruit more mercenaries to attack Toryn. Also, Diaes, being the sick-twisted freak he is, told them that if they caught Toryn then and there alive, he would pay them quadruple the amount promised to them normally, however, Diaes knows Toryn could utterly destroy them, but he's sending them to their deaths anyway.... Well, at least, is that's alright with Whil. I already got the A-Ok to make the break-in for Diaes, but not the sending to death thing...

Oh, just a notice, I've been working heavily on Toryn's plot, I originally set him up without one, so I could write one later when I had the time. It's coming along, but me being pretty busy doesn't help at all. So, expect it finished in the near future.

--Nice intro you got there. I bet you worked on it for a couple of days, mmmh? Just kidding.--

Suddenly, a black shot of lightning struck the ground violently. It seemed to have appeared from thin air, as it didn't come from the clouds above, it came from mere thin air. It coiled and slithered through the air, and hit the ground with a deafening impact, but no ground was shot out of the way. It soon disappeared, showing a teen boy, with a probability of a slight hair disorder. And a body disorder with that, as a tail slithered from under his flexed leg. He slowly got up, pushing on his arms. He rose very slowly, but it seemed that after his arms had pushed off the ground, the motive force wasn't existant, but the boy still managed to put himself on his feet. He stabilized, by putting his hands outstretched diagonally. The teens hands were clawed, with massive ivory blades. He looked around, his four red eyes streaking red lines in the darkness and humidity of the air. He blinked multiple times, and then lifted his head. He mumbled something out loud. The emerald grass under his feet twitched slightly as if in mockery of the situation the teen was in at the present time.
"Sh*t," the boy muttered, throwing his purple hair sideways in a quick glance to the right, "Landed in a city. Not where I wanted..."
The boy carefully reached for his forearms, the purple fur on his limbs swaying gently as he did so. He gripped the left silver bracelet, and tightened it. He then reached for the right one, and tightened that one. Suddenly, as if for no reason at all, the purple fur on his whole body started to fade to brown in waves. The teens four red eyes merged together, to become two red eyes. The claws on his hands shortened, and his tail slashed at the wind very ferociously.
"C'mon..." The boy said hastily. "We don't want anyone to notice..."
Just after the boy had returned to brown fur, he closed his eyes, and seemed to be concentrating deeply. The grass near his feet then got brushed in different directions, forming a circle around the boy. His brown fur slunk back into his skin, as did his tail. His claws became nails, and his hair flopped onto his face. He opened his eyes again, and to maybe, if there was one person to look at him, surprise, his eyes weren't red anymore, but of a gently dirty sky blue. He looked around.
"Phew," he managed, between to urges of pain, "No one." He checked a second time, and noticed the entity with black hair, known as Toryn.
"Sh*t," was what Bart could only manage.

As the lightning flashed behind Toryn, he turned quickly, drawing his knife with one swift motion, the moonlight making the blade glow an odd yellow. Toryn watched as the boy who appeared went through a couple quick transformations. He relaxed and stood up straight, continuing his viewing, but still staying ready in case of danger of any kind. After the transformations finished, the boy swore as he noticed someone had seen him doing such strange... things. Toryn was used to out-of-the ordinary things happening, especially around himself, so this random boy coming out of a streak of black lightning came to almost on surprise to him, and Toryn let out a small 'tsk' before turning and continuing on his way, his cloak whisking along behind him, very slightly dragging across the brick pathway.

--Heh, well, it only took me 2 hours or so to write, with interruptions that is... I had to constantly stop writing, go do some random errand, then come back and try to figure out what I was trying to get out... It's rather jumbled. Although, it take more than one day, as I proofed it at least 3-4 times. --

Bart looked at the boy, scanning his physical features quickly, trying to find out what on Earth had made the teen turn around as if nothing had happened. At the second, Bart knew that this boy wasn't normal, just as he was. A normal human would've been too shocked to move, or else would be screaming pitifully in panic. Bart stood up straight, and slowly walked over to the teen, wary of its' actions, if ever it did any. His purple shirt swayed behind him gently as he walked, and his white shorts moved as docile as a leaf in the cold autumn wind, even though it was night here.

Toryn lightly shrugged Bart off and just continued in a straight line, his hood down, and onyx hair lightly shifting. He lifted his cloak very slightly, putting the hilt of a katana in view, just in case this kid was aggressive. When he had taken a several steps, he turned slightly, giving the boy a glance at least, before narrowing his eyes and moving on.


ooc// lolursig. *throws shoe*

"Hey!" Bart exclaimed, addressing himself to the other morbid teen, glaring at him with his dirty blue eyes. His teeth clenched tightly together, as did his fists. With one majestic sway of his head, he pushed away the fringes hanging from his hair in front of his eyes, to the sides of his face. He noticed the weapon that the kid had. What the hell is some guy like that doing with a freaking blade?! Bart thought, wondering. Without paying no further attention to the weapon, and preparing himself for some hostility, he continued what he began. "You aren't human. That's obvious. Who or what are you?"
Bart tried hard not to sense the invisible aura that the kid had around his whole figure. A strange energy that Bart could half-recognize, for he had already been with before.

The cloaked figure turned around fully this time, his face an expression of half-suprise, half-contempt. His eyes flashed, showing an obvious dislike for this strange boy. His lips curled slightly to reveal abnormally average looking teeth. "What do you want, kid?" He growled. His hand clasped the hilt of the katana fully, ready to draw it at a moments notice.

"Don't take me for an idiot," Bart snapped angrily, lifting his fist in defiance at the teen. "I don't know where the heck you got that blade, but I know I've never seen a human turn away from what just happened." He bore his teeth, slowly, unwillingly transforming into his kraferric form. He didn't try to stop himself. He didn't feel right with the person in front of him. He needed to be able to counterattack at any moment. His fist grew claws, almost piercing the skin of his palm. His eyes went red, and a tail sprouted from his spine, whipping at the air. Fur appeared, shoving through his skin on his arms and legs.

"Mm," Toryn let out with a brief look of uncertainty. "So there are more freaks in this world then I knew about." Toryn frowned and returned to his cold expression. "Eh, I'll have to reduce that number by a little, can't have you running around getting in my way," Toryn said with a dark look in his eyes. He slowly drew his katana, causing the blade to rub against the sheath, although no sound was emitted. After fully removing the blade from it's holster, Toryn held it out straight in front of him, the tip pointing directly at the boy. Toryn lightly flicked his head before closing his eyes, and remaining still.

The boy was ready to attack, and Bart was convicted by that idea. He quickly drew a step back, immediately taking a strong kraferric position, bearing his claws outwards. He knew that the slicing of a katana would cut through any kind of his armor, so he had to flee from it as if it was the Plague. He would need to block the blade somehow, and strike at the weak points in the boy's defense. But why was the kid so aggressive? Bart didn't know, nor did he care. Taking the teen as a threat, he readied himself for any kind of hostility.

No questions asked, Toryn leapt forward, fighting on the offensive. His hood flew down, revealing his shoulder length black hair. The moon to his back, he rushed forward, his body a silhouette against the dim light from the lunar orb. His first attack was a rising slash, starting with the blade perpendicular to his body, and ending with it straight in the air. He slid to a stop as dust flew up around him.

ooc// Just so you know, Toryn ain't technically a 'teen'. He's supposed to look 21 years old.

--The 'old' teen. I'm looking too much at your avatar.--

An upwards attack? Bart thought, how pitiful! Thin blades aren't used vertically, but horizontally... But I must keep on my guard! Bart leaped sideways, making sure that he was on the opposite side from the arm that Toryn used, to prevent him from using any type of quick attack. Bart quickly inclined himself towards Toryn, turning around on himself to face the person correctly, and he dashed towards the male, blades of his fingers at the ready, cutting the wind.