Post by Empty on Oct 8, 2010 21:42:54 GMT -8
~ 1933: Vacation Skills ~
~ Personal Jet ~
Learning: Usuario Negación (User Negation)
Training: Reiatsu/Hollow Technique Proficiency
Loki had been minding his own business in a small Chinese garden just out side of Shanghai when he had been attacked by six Shinigami; as one of their number opened a gate to Soul Society, Loki knew he would soon face the prospect of reinforcements – so even were he successful in killing the rude interlopers, he would quickly be overwhelmed. Tearing open a rift in the air, Loki attempted to retreat through the opening and as he did so he was hammered in the back by three separate balls of red fire and one of blue fire, the force of the almost simultaneous impacts was enough to propel him through the gateway and into the torrent of black energy beyond.
As Loki limped his way back to Hueco Mundo, slowly replacing the Gel which had evaporated and healing the heavy burns on the back of his hood, which had left horrible puckered muscle tissue exposed behind nearly liquefied scales; Loki raged at the travesty, not merely of the unprovoked attack, but of his inability to escape without taking such wounds.
Had it been another hollow faced with such a predicament then Loki would have been able to aid them (provided he knew where they were), by using his Negación field to draw the hollow from whatever dimension they were already in, to Loki's side. It was an extraordinary technique to assist an ally escape, though Loki could not quite recall ever having needed to use it before – they had learned it at some time during their years as a Gillian and even to Loki much of that time was a blur. Yet while Loki himself might be able to rescue another, no one had come to his aid – so what was the purpose of such a technique? Frustrated by the limitation, Loki considered just how they might address the fault.
When they were using the technique on another, they had to target the location and would then create a field around the target, dragging everything within that field, from the dimension it was in, to their own dimension. What they really needed was to do the reverse, create a field around themselves, then push themselves into the other dimension to the targeted location.
The tools he had spent so long laboriously developing seemed to lend themselves easily to the task; even as he considered the first step, creating a field around himself, the veil sprung to mind, though flimsy and transparent, the important component of the first step was to create a readily identifiable field or film surrounding themselves, they could achieve that easily enough with veil.
Yet as they were about to attempt the move, Loki halted the flow of energy. With their humanoid form suspended in mid air, perched atop the tail, Loki reconsidered their approach. 'It is too dangerous for us to perform on ourselves,' he reasoned, 'instead we should have a gel seed develop the skill for us.'
Biting the inside of his lip lightly, Loki drew blood, allowing the tiny amount of crimson liquid to drip from his lip he mixed it with gel and his reiatsu, as he did so the small amount of gel shrunk inwards, solidifying into a reddish brown crystal. Pushing the gel seed against their arm, Loki simply disconnected the limb, allowing it to fall to the ground even as the gel seed worked it's way within. As he transferred the conciousness of one of the Nameless into the gel seed, Loki looked down at his creation as it began to resolve itself into a one foot tall replica of their six foot humanoid form.
The Nameless one bowed slightly towards Loki, happy to be of use to He Who Had Named Them, within moments the gel miniature had fashioned an almost transparent sphere around themselves and even as Loki watched the sides were being pushed inwards, reshaping to resolve in a thin layer only an inch from the skin of the small humanoid shape. Hoping to ensure that they learned as much as they could, Loki began using Revealing Gaze as well as enhancing their senses with Afilar as he looked for any information that might prove useful; at the same time he instructed the Nameless to do the same.
As they looked at the nearly transparent film of reiatsu both Loki and the Nameless sensed almost the same thing, a fragile layer of energy, palpable yet frail. At Loki's prompting the Nameless began the next step, after the film or field was created they would attempt to push into another dimension, there were only two real tools at Loki's disposal that might accomplish such a thing, the first was Garganta and that meant ripping open a pathway into a torrent of chaotic energy – to attempt to infuse that into a film would merely tear such a delicate construction of energy apart. The second tool at their disposal was Negación itself; and it was to that which Loki turned.
The Nameless began to infuse the energy of Negación into the veil around it, at first it attempted to allow the yellow energy to seep into the transparent film, yet the instant it did so, it could feel an extraordinary rush; instead of an incremental flow, the entire film was almost instantly affected as the infusion of energy snapped into being. From either side, Loki and the Nameless looked at the film intently, there was a feeling of indescribable awkwardness, something incredibly foreign as if the film between them was something they could never hope to breach; it seemed that the second stage was done.
Looking to quickly counteract their technique's weakness Loki instructed the Nameless to attempt to push it's way through to the Human realm, towards the rooftops overlooking the square that they had frequented near Big Ben in London in the Human Realm. The Nameless inclined it's head and concentrated, willing itself towards the rooftop in the same way that they would open a pathway to Garganta, for a moment nothing happened and then the field and the miniature gel humanoid was gone – while Loki writhed on the ground in pain.
It took a few moments for Loki to stand up, it was a pain that he had felt many times in the past, yet always in battle and so he had been ready for it. The gel seed had been destroyed in the attempted move and in doing so the consciousness of the Nameless had returned to Verlassen, along with a portion of the mental damage it had incurred.
The last that Loki had been able to sense through the Nameless had been it's attempted push into the Human realm, for a moment it had been distorted by dark swirling energies and the incredible strain had torn asunder the inside of the field even as the field remained intact. It was a sight Loki had seen often enough, but never felt any fear towards – it was the void of energy he had always used within Garganta, a technique he had known for hundreds of years.
Unsure of why the destruction had occurred, Loki thought it was best to backtrack a step. Quickly forming two more gel miniatures controlled by gel seeds, he assigned one to Jun and one to Tony, instructing both to enhance their senses with Afilar and use Revealing sight as he did the same. At the same time he opened a rift in the air and had the pair step through, eventually emerging unto the rooftop in London. As Loki could use the pairs' senses, he found targeting Tony with Negación quite easy and he expanded the yellow field around him.
As he did so he could see through both Jun and Tony's eyes, yet the sensation he felt was not like what he and the Nameless had felt, there seemed to be a sensation of 'detachment,' of a distance that did not match how close Jun and Tony stood – as if they were already very far away from each-other, at the same time that same sensation of awkwardness was there, of an insurmountable alien difference.
As Tony rose into the air into a black tear in the sky, both Jun and Tony turned their eyes upwards, looking at the figure of Loki barely visible through the darkness. As they did they could feel the torrent of chaotic energy surrounding the field, yet this time rather than slipping within and tearing Tony apart, it merely embraced the energy and accepted the intrusion as if it were only natural, as if the dark swirling energy were accepting it.
As Tony landed before Loki he looked at the controller of the Verlassen reproachfully, even knowing that he would not be destroyed by the process, it had been unnerving after knowing the body controlled by the Nameless had been torn apart. Yet even still, Loki was far from finished and he instructed Tony to attempt to use the field on himself.
This time Loki was prepared; even as Tony's field was torn into shreds he was braced for the pain, instead looking to sense the difference between what he had seen when they had used Negación and what they could sense when they used the Negación infused field. It was as the torrent of energy descended on Tony that Loki realised the difference; there was no sensation of acceptance, of sameness, between the field and the torrent. The result was a splitting headache and the disgruntled consciousness of Tony returning to the Verlassen, less than impressed at Loki's decision to send him forth.
Wasting no time, Loki created a fourth gel seed controlled miniature, implanting Gertrude into the shape as he quickly detailed what to do. Nodding at his unspoken instructions, Gertrude focused her reiatsu, quickly spreading it around her in a thin flimsy veil which she infused with Negación.
Both to Loki and Gertrude's eyes there was the sense of an unconquerable alien difference between them in the form of the barrier, yet it still lacked the deciding factor, that sensation of distance, of oneness with the chaotic vortex of energy that was within Garganta. It was to that energy that she turned now, not to infuse the field, but rather to infuse her own reiatsu within the field; as her energy leaved her gel created form, she allowed the dark swirling energy to permeate the insides of the field. Yet rather than tearing her apart as it had the Nameless and Tony alike, it instead merely surrounded her.
As Loki and Gertrude looked at each-other, he could feel the same sense of detachment, of an incredible distance in addition to that strange alien flavour, it was just as it had been Tony and Jun looked at each other through the Negación field Loki had created to ferry Tony from the human realm. After a moment, Gertrude focused her attention on the London rooftop, near Jun – an instant later she disappeared from before Loki, moving through the dark swirling energy. Yet as she strove to move through the chaos, her efforts caused her reiatsu to ebb and flow, the slight variance within her own energy affecting her infusion of reiatsu.
The result was catastrophic, the sides of the sphere buckled as the chaos both inside and outside the sphere warred against the thin layer of energy, it held for a few moments as Gertrude sought to steady the flow, yet once begun it proved incredibly difficult to stop. A tiny tear appeared just below Gertrude's left foot and that alone was enough, the sphere unravelling in an instant as Gertrude was torn into rags by the incredible forces within the dark swirling energy.
As her conciousness returned to Loki he shuddered uncontrollably at the sudden sharp pain behind his left eye, at the same time a dull throb had begun to permeate his entire head, a legacy of the damage he had received from the gel seed's destruction. After a few moments of rest he decided to try again, yet even as he was about to select another member of the Verlassen to control the gel miniature, Gertrude pushed herself forward, determined to see her efforts through.
As she had managed so well earlier, Loki was convinced to allow her to continue, her experience would enable her to more easily adapt to the technique that they were attempting to develop. As Gertrude quickly set about creating a new sphere of Negación and infusing her reiatsu within it with the chaotic character of the dark swirling energy within Garganta, she firmed her lips and straightened her shoulders. Life on a farm had not been easy, work was unending and conditions often harsh; it was the fortitude that she had cultivated during those years that allowed her to throw herself straight back into the thick of things, where other souls in Verlassen might have hesitated after their earlier pain.
Concentrating carefully on her destination, Gertrude began to will herself towards it, releasing a slow, steady stream of reiatsu which she infused with the chaos of garganta. Though to many the chaos might seem no different from earlier when she had failed, the difference was that this time the level of chaotic energy remained constant, order within chaos. The result was that the sphere in which she pushed through the dark swirling energy always had a similar amount of pressure pushing at the sides, a level of disturbance that Gertrude could adjust to with relative ease; her travel through the dark madness was without incident before she sprung into Jun's awareness, appearing as if from nothingness, on the rooftop in London, right before him. Their efforts were a complete success.
~ Travel Guide ~
Learning: Volver Garganta (Returning Black Cavity)
Training: Reiatsu/Hollow Technique Proficiency
The main difficulty with their new skill was if they were to attempt to push to another dimension, there was no telling what might await them on the other side, they could well find themselves emerging into a nest of Adjuchas or even into the lap of a Vasto Lorde; the prospect, quite frankly, was frightening.
What they needed was some way to look through to see what was on the other side before they went, some way of making a window of sorts through to the other dimension. Though they could use Garganta to move from one dimension to another, they were fully enclosed as they were transported, what they needed to do was to burrow a sort of tunnel, a short passageway through Garganta to see what was on the other side.
With a wave of one gel hand, Loki tore open a rift in the air revealing a dark swirling torrent of energy within. As he sent his reiatsu senses forth Loki used the Revealing Gaze to examine the chaotic energy within then stepped inside himself and the torrent of energy closed behind him. Since the skill was one they had used any number of times previously, the risk to Verlassen was negligible, yet instead of immediately stepping out onto the rooftop in London, Loki instead focused on the area ahead of him, tearing it open. The torrent of energy before him opened to reveal the white sands of Hueco Mundo, wrapped as always, in perpetual night. Reaching out with his left hand he held it there as he turned his head to the right, looking before him Loki ripped open the torrent of energy again this time using his right hand, directly opposite the first opening, it showed the London midday rooftop.
For long moments, Loki stood there motionless except for the slow turning of his head this way and that as he studied not just the two openings but the area in between them, the chaotic swirling seemed so 'fluffy,' so insubstantial, 'Like uncompressed reiatsu, Loki realised. Turning back the way he had come, Loki allowed the garganta to disappear before studying the air once again.
This time as Loki ripped the air itself to reveal the incredibly chaotic energy within, he did not attempt to step through, instead he reached within using his reiatsu and tore the torrent again, the space between the two rifts was nearly six feet, yet the 'window' quickly formed, allowing Loki to glance through and see the London rooftop from the relative safety of Hueco Mundo.
Still, there might be times, when such a large gap would prove inconvenient, Loki reasoned; for such times having the two rifts closer together would allow them to reach directly through the rift with little more effort than reaching into a pocket. As Loki focused on the chaotic swirling mass between the two rifts he imagined it getting smaller and as he did so he infused the Garganta with more energy, compressing the insubstantial sensation he had felt earlier until six feet had decreased to just one, the walls of garganta which had felt almost fluffy to his Revealing Gaze earlier instead seemed solid, unyielding; Loki grinned as he saw the results of his efforts and waved his gel hand through the opening.
Seeing his fingers illuminated by the midday sun in London while he himself stood in Hueco Mundo was a thrill; yet the thought that came to him next sent an even more powerful rush through him, 'Could I not use this same technique on the other side to return here?' It was a powerful thought, such a capability would be an extremely useful one in battle and Loki did not spare a moment in his attempt.
On the rooftop in London, Loki tore open yet another rift in the air using garanta, to reveal a swirling torrent of dark energy; a moment later he ripped another tear in the torrent to reveal the darkness of Hueco Mundo once more, then infused the new rift with energy and compressed the fluffy walls of Garganta to bring the rifts closer together.
Finally Loki was prepared, with a deep shuddering breath, Loki stuck his hand through the second rift, before giving a massive start as their own gel hand clumsily grabbed at their tail through the rift. 'It will take some getting used to how to aim the thing.' Loki realised, yet the results were incredibly pleasing. As Loki spent several hours working with the rifts he noticed one thing he had overlooked earlier, there was a slight delay as something entered the second rift; no matter how quickly the object or energy was moving, there was always a slight delay – it was not a grievous flaw, and Loki just prayed it was not one that would haunt them.