Pain. It's an interesting concept really. Physical, mental, emotional,
spiritual, it all accumulates over the years. Some deal with it; cry when
they need to, scream when they have to. Others deny it; seeing crying as a
weakness and screaming as an unnecessary embarrassment, shoving every hurt
and fear deep, deep down and sealing it away. Unfortunately, doing the
latter often results in a backlash of emotion at the worst possible time
that makes the mind heave and the body crumble. As I said, an interesting
concept.
In the world of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' there are creatures that feed on all the grief that humanity accumulates. In the grand scale of things, a normal, individual human doesn't build up much pent-up emotion in their lifetimes. No, to exploit the real grief you go to the demons and fair- folk, creatures that live centuries at a time. In their world, the world of vampires and monsters, despair is a weakness, something that must be hidden at all costs lest your enemies smell it and sense weakness. Over their long lives the emotions they have pent up for this very reason is astronomical.
The demons who feed on this grief and despair, the most powerful emotions right up there with love and joy, would pay well to gather such vast amounts of it from a source such as the 'soul' of a demon. Sadness is simply more accessible and easier to wield than happiness. However, one had to go the right way about extracting as much emotion as possible from one demon to feed the other.
Deparis was one of those people. He could make a demon hurt in the worst ways imaginable. He had recently been hired by some bint who wanted to destroy the world, nothing new really, but the pay was good. This woman, Vala, was going to use one of the worst demons the universe had ever seen to do it, but this demon took its strength from the grief of others. Deparis had been selected to gather that grief, bleed it out of a creature until it was dry and the beast could rise in its full and terrifying might to, well, destroy the world for the stupidly lazy Vala.
If truth be told, he wasn't that interested in the payment; he was set up as it was. No, his task was what really intrigued him. This demon, a vampire to be specific, would be a fun challenge for him, the usual assignments that came his way usually being revenge or just plain, uninteresting torture. No, this one was different. This would be quite entertaining.
He had resources at had for his job; a portal for time traveling, access to various weapons and toys at his disposal. He took his job seriously, researching his subject intently before moving into the area for reconesence. He was careful; the obvious wasn't always the best method of attack. If the subject was burying something worthwhile, it would be buried deep, and he had to go deep to get it. It took months to gather all that he needed, Vala breathing down his neck the entire time, but it was finally perfected, his plan finely tuned in every imaginable way. Nothing could wrong, it was impossible and even if the universe turned inside out and something did backfire, he had ten back-ups to counter it.
Spike's grief was a promising source of power just begging to be drained. This was definitely going to be pleasurable.
In the world of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' there are creatures that feed on all the grief that humanity accumulates. In the grand scale of things, a normal, individual human doesn't build up much pent-up emotion in their lifetimes. No, to exploit the real grief you go to the demons and fair- folk, creatures that live centuries at a time. In their world, the world of vampires and monsters, despair is a weakness, something that must be hidden at all costs lest your enemies smell it and sense weakness. Over their long lives the emotions they have pent up for this very reason is astronomical.
The demons who feed on this grief and despair, the most powerful emotions right up there with love and joy, would pay well to gather such vast amounts of it from a source such as the 'soul' of a demon. Sadness is simply more accessible and easier to wield than happiness. However, one had to go the right way about extracting as much emotion as possible from one demon to feed the other.
Deparis was one of those people. He could make a demon hurt in the worst ways imaginable. He had recently been hired by some bint who wanted to destroy the world, nothing new really, but the pay was good. This woman, Vala, was going to use one of the worst demons the universe had ever seen to do it, but this demon took its strength from the grief of others. Deparis had been selected to gather that grief, bleed it out of a creature until it was dry and the beast could rise in its full and terrifying might to, well, destroy the world for the stupidly lazy Vala.
If truth be told, he wasn't that interested in the payment; he was set up as it was. No, his task was what really intrigued him. This demon, a vampire to be specific, would be a fun challenge for him, the usual assignments that came his way usually being revenge or just plain, uninteresting torture. No, this one was different. This would be quite entertaining.
He had resources at had for his job; a portal for time traveling, access to various weapons and toys at his disposal. He took his job seriously, researching his subject intently before moving into the area for reconesence. He was careful; the obvious wasn't always the best method of attack. If the subject was burying something worthwhile, it would be buried deep, and he had to go deep to get it. It took months to gather all that he needed, Vala breathing down his neck the entire time, but it was finally perfected, his plan finely tuned in every imaginable way. Nothing could wrong, it was impossible and even if the universe turned inside out and something did backfire, he had ten back-ups to counter it.
Spike's grief was a promising source of power just begging to be drained. This was definitely going to be pleasurable.