Shion Taito:

Taito wandered through the hallways of this new and ominous place he was sealed in. The entire place had an extremely depressing and dejected atmosphere to it.

Perfect... he thought. Dark, cold, and scary. I think I'll adapt to here just fine.

He spied a crumbling balcony, and walking over to it, he just missed a dangling cobweb with many infant spider corpses entangled in it. He leaned against the balcony, the bandaged cuts across his chest against the frigid stone sending chills down his spine. He put his hand at his side, the tips of his fingers bumping against the handle of the icepick he had stuffed in between his pants and his boxers.

Thinking for a moment, he curled his fingers around its smooth handle and slowly pulled it from its place. He looked behind him, noticing that the hallway was, seemingly, completely empty. Breathing heavily, Taito began to drag the cool, sharp tip of the icepick against the skin on his wrist. He tilted his head back and moaned slightly at the sensation made as he pierced his skin with the fine end of the weapon, the artificial android blood he carried cascading down the white of his arm and staining the grayish blue surface of the floor beneath his feet.

She saw him check if anyone was watching. She watched as he inflicted cut after cut against his wrist. She heard every bead of blood hit the floor with a satisfying drip. Lyra couldn't help herself but spy on him. She was always on the roof, he should have known that. He seemed very odd, very strange, but she savored the fact that he was enjoying his pain as much as she was. Good looking, younger looking than he is, and not at all human. I like it. I want you to keep tabs on him. Her heart thudded as the voice spoke. She would do as the voice said; she would watch him, get close to him, wait for him to trust her enough until she went in for the kill. Yet Lyra noticed something that the voice didn't. He appeared to have a dark side, despite his already gloomy features. Why else would he be holding an icepick in his pants? She leaned forward slightly to get a better look at his blood. Yes, it wasn't normal either. She couldn't smell the auroma she usually did when people's body fluids leaked from their limbs. Good, this would be a lot more fun than she expected.

Shion Taito:

Once he was finished indulging in his act, that to himself, was practically autoeroticism, he holstered the icepick back in its place and turned to face the hallway, his left wrist freely pouring, creating a circle of red around him, staining the stone as he slowly turned his body 180 degrees. He once again peered into the hallway, checking the ends that came from both directions to be sure that no one was watching or listening.

Although Lyra was directly above him, he neither took notice or felt the presence of another person. Being entirely unaware that he was being watched, he began to sing a low, sorrowful tune. He did this often, singing without hesitation or holding himself back. No one really knew, but he enjoyed singing more than anything in the world. It was his only love, and after long amounts of practice, he was very good.

The reason he enjoyed singing to the point where he considered it beautiful was that he was able to pour all of his emotions into song, his only way to release his dark emotions hidden deep inside of his mind.

The song startled Lyra. Oh, so he enjoyed singing. Good, we can use that against him later. The voice sounded pleased with this though she couldn't understand why. During the time that he had been cutting himself she had been forcing her breaths to be long and silent. Now they were slow and steady. It was a miserable, horrible, yet wonderful tune. She crept around her perch and crouched just above him to watch him closely. Absently her hand was grabbing at the hilt of her dagger; for some reason the song gave her the longing to follow in his lead and bring pain to herself. But now wasn't the time and she might as well enjoy the moment. Go down and meet him. I want to see how angry he can get and how quickly it will happen. Lyra nodded to the voice. She silently crept around and dropped onto the railing behind him, her step silent. She watched him, letting him continue. "You know it isn't good to cut yourself," she finally said while examining her nails. "It hurt, didn't it? But you liked it." In a graceful leap she landed only two or three feet behind him.

Shion Taito:

Startled by a mysterious, feminine voice behind him, Taito jumped and halted his singing, turning around to see a girl with long, dark hair and eyes that resembled the open night sky before him. Quite beautiful she was, standing there in the darkness. Her skin was much darker than his, as his own skin was near to paper-white.

"I-I... how long were you...!? Ah... n-nevermind..." He sad in a petty voice. "...well... no one ever taught me what was good and bad... besides, you're right. Pain feels good to me... I don't know why." His words trembled, and he stuttered pathetically.

Being curious, he examined her, and looking closely enough, he noticed that she resembled some sort of young goddess. Taito had always pictured a goddess having a very graceful stance, long wavy locks, and having eyes that had a sort of mysterious glint in them. Taito never learned what love really was exactly, but if he knew, he would have had to be very careful not to fall for this girl. He saw something in her that resembled himself.

[Agh... my writing skills are lagging right now...]

"I was told to check on you," Lyra continued, turning to lean against the railing. She was playing hard to get, wondering if he was the type to follow. Her dark gaze moved to find his as it flashed in the dim lighting. "Cutting yourself with an icepick, I've never thought of that one before." She turned, still leaning on the railing, and watched him with her arms crossed delicatly over her chest. "Usually daggers or other sharp weapons work just as well." Make him prey... Taking the voice's advice she began to circle him, letting her hair trail behind her to catch his gaze. "What are you, exactly? You clearly aren't human, despite your stunning features and clear feelings."

[NAH I thought it was good ^^]

Shion Taito:

"To... 'check on me'?" Taito blinked stupidly, then shook his head side to side, ignoring that detail. "I use knives and stuff too... but an ice pick is pretty much my usual weapon of choice... And, um..." He scratched the back of his head shyly. "I... I'm an android, actually. A Vocaloid... I was made to sing, but... I don't do that as much as the others. I don't really perform"

He gazed out into the night sky, his eyes fixed on the moon in its bright, white glory. Its light shined on Taito's skin, illuminating it in the evening, the color of the moon and the pigment in Taito's skin contrasting together.

[Oh, thank you. XD]

Pity... Hearing the voice so down surprised Lyra though she didn't show it in her features. Instead she continued to circle him until she stopped before him. Her eyes looked him over, lingering on his cuts and his bandaged chest. "Interesting. That's too bad, though, I was really interested." She turned, appearing as if down, and made her way back to stand with her hands on the railing. While there she messed with her hair and sighed dramaticly but not too much that it would be suspicious.

Shion Taito:

"See..." He paused a moment. "I never heal, not at all. Whenever I get a wound or whatever, it never goes away. The pain always stays there, too. I can stop bleeding, but there's always still some sort of constant scarring. That's why I have so many bandages. Most of them are covered by my clothes, actually." He shifted the positions of his legs, feeling the burn of the self-inflicted scars lacing his thighs, and the new, recent one... a large, rosy gouge, flowering just above the knee of his left leg. He contracted and relaxed his muscles there, allowing that wound to tear and bleed a little. He winced, but even so, it felt wonderful to him.

"We're the most human-like androids in existence, built and designed by the best scientists out there. However, our appearances are created by others that came before the scientists. I'm the only one that's been built like this... to, well, not be able to heal. In order to heal an android, you have to have a scientist repair it, but that doesn't work on me. They've tried everything, from using different oils and substances I don't even know about, to replacing all of my artificial skin. No matter what, the wounds just burn back. They've considered that maybe I..."

He trembled against the cold and the horrifying thought that arose in his mind.

"...have you... have you ever... thought that an android could... undergo demon possession...?" His eyes widened, and his hands gripped the railing of the balcony until his knuckles went white. "They've thought that maybe I... maybe I'm... possessed by Satan or something..." A twisted grin curled upon his lips, and his eyebrows raised. He let out a long train of laughter, that sounded as if there were a million souls inside of him, all screaming, one after the other, in agony. His laughter broke through the dead of the night, and the white moon began to bleed red, the black of the sky surrounding it glowing an awful red.

His laughter ended suddenly, and he bowed his head down, his black hair covering his face, his arms limp at his sides. "...maybe I am... possessed..."

The laughter brought Lyra's blood to a chilling stop. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled as she fought to regain control of a calm composure. Her hands tightened on the railing as it continued, her knuckles turning white and her wrists beginning to hurt. Even when it stopped her heard was pounding. Oh, now this is much more interesting.. The voice had a grin in its words. She blinked and turned her head slowly to face him. "Maybe," she said with a shakey laugh. "You could say I'm a little possessed as well. I have this voice in my head and right now its telling me to kill you." Her voice grew flat as her eyes seemed to bore into him. "What do you have to say to that?" she asked in a whisper. Lyra felt her blood once more begin to run through her veins, though it was icy cold from the laughter.

Shion Taito:

Slowly, Taito lifted his head, a few strands of hair still dangling in his face. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and his eyes were red from crying while he had laughed, and while his hair hid his face.

...kill me...? He thought. "Oh... how I wish you could kill me." A distant, foggy look came to his eyes, and his smile faded. "Permanently, I mean. You can kill me as many times as you want, but I'll just automatically revive. I have a generator built inside me that gives me eternal life, though I'd much rather have not existed in the first place. They have copies of me as well, in places far away from here, so even if you could kill me now, I'd still be alive somewhere."

He then backed away from the balcony and faced Lyra, holding out his arms. "If you want to, you can destroy me anyway you want. I'll let you, and I won't stop you." He had a look in his eyes that assured that he was dead serious.

She jumped slightly at his words. He... wanted her to do it? Lyra almost dropped the weapon in her hands. "You are the first person to ever say that to me," she said. Truthfully, once you got beyond the shock of it, she was deathly interested in him. Not only at his way of living but in him. Sure he was an android, or whatever he had called himself, but this was amazing. "You sound exactly like me. No matter how many times you stab me, I can't die. You can shove knives through my whole body and by the next day I'll be walking around like a normal creep again." Slightly overtaken by his words she stepped forward towards him in her ever graceful way, but stopped. What are you waiting for..? Kill him! Yet as much as Lyra wanted to listen to her beloved voice, she could not.

Shion Taito:

Taito would have smiled, if he had the ability to do so when he was somewhat sane. "I see... I guess that makes two of us. Question is, do you have the desire to die, like I do, or would you rather go on living? Not that you have the choice, of course, but I'm curious..." Taito was surprised at how quickly his shyness had faded. Usually, it took him over a year to get used to someone new. But Lyra was different...

She probed his face with her deep navy eyes before looking down at the dagger in her hands. "I guess I would like to, but if I do then there is nobody to kill, and I must say, if I died then where would pain be? There wouldn't, because when I die I'm not going anywhere. Neither Heaven nor Hell wants me." Lyra looked up at him, her dark hair falling slightly over her face. "Besides, I haven't completed all I want to do." She turned to look over the railing once more. Her hands gripped it in her usual fashion, lightly but with a sense of power. "Discover the world, live like a normal being, fall in love..." She looked at him over her shoulder and continued, "I don't want to die before I do that. And clearly that will never happen. I cannot do any of those things without hurting someone who doesn't disearve to be hurt."

Shion Taito:

A look of concern washed over Taito's face, and a slight breeze disturbed his hair. What could he say? He felt sorry for Lyra, having some sort of desire that she could never fulfill. Then he thought to himself why he pitied her... after all, he had no idea what it was like to want something so badly, to reach for something with an outstretched hand but to never grasp it, and how could he feel sorry for her if he didn't know what it felt like to be her? The only thing that Taito ever wanted or yearned for was death, and he knew he could never reach that, but it wasn't something he could gain from like what Lyra wanted. You can't gain anything from death.

"I've never experienced anything like that... I don't think I'll ever find love, but I think you have the potential for that. As for discovering the world... I think that most humans are too lazy to go out there and see the world as it is, but those who really want it can most likely gain it. Living normally..." Taito stopped there, being completely unsure what to say next. He didn't know what the word "normal" meant, anyway.

"I don't think you're going to die before that, if you really want it. It's surprising what people can accomplish if they're going towards something they really want. Besides, what you said about that never happening, who are you trying to convince? Yourself, or me? If you say something like that, than it will never happen." Taito was surprised at his own words. He had no idea where any of this positive thinking was coming from. After all, his mind was sunken in negative water, so positive thoughts were hidden away somewhere deep, a place where they were locked up, where Taito would never dare go.

She listened quietly, unsure if she should say something. Each word was like a heartbeat to her; she'd have to hold on to hear it all. When he finished she could have sword that her heart was hammering so loudly that he could hear. Lyra looked back at him over at his shoulder, navy blue eyes losing their deathly touch. "Odd," she said quietly, "I thought only insane people lived here." She smiled quietly and attempted to laugh a bit. Idiot, kill him, this is your chance! The sound of anger in the voice made her go rigid. Despite the want to just stand here, listen to his words, she couldn't. She returned her gaze to look out over the balcany. "Too bad I'll have to kill you." Lyra turned and walked past him, brushing her arm up against his as she passed.

As soon as she was behind him she began to sprint. She was unsure where she was going, but she knew she had to get away from him, at least for now. Something about him gave her the chills. He acted even more humain than her and she wasn't even human. Once at the bottom of a large staircase she sat down and rubbed her eyes. You should have taken this opportunity. Shutup, I know it was stupid. Don't let your feelings get in your way. I don't feel anything for him. Yes you do; if you did you would have killed him.

Shion Taito:

"What do you mean? I am insane... people have told me that I have... moments..." Taito said, a sad look glowing in his eyes. So she still wants to kill me... if only she could... He shuttered as Lyra's arm brushed up against him, an odd sensation sweeping over his body.

"...!?" He watched as Lyra took off into the darkness behind him, her footsteps echoing through the damp hallways of the dreary castle. He blinked stupidly, the looked to the moon again. What was that all about?

Lyra was depressed. Someone she had finally found that was just like her was going to be killed by her own hands... if she could manage it. The way he had spoken about being insane said that there was more to this situation than she or the voice could tell. A flare of anger suddenly burst inside her and she wipped out a dagger. Her wrist was at her mercy, the side of the blade ruthlessly cutting into it. She didn't even have time to enjoy it in her depression. Oh be quiet, you know you want to kill him. "No, I don't want to kill him." Oh yes you do, his blood looked delicious. "That's gross."