Together Again {Dante & Pure}

[Pure T0rture]

Dantes_river

college is kicking my a**

The Lost
Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth

&

Alone
Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Whoa!
My head is on fire but my legs are fine.
After all they are mine.
Lay your clothes down on the floor,
Close the door, hold the phone,
Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us now.

XXXXXGiving a breath as she set the jars to her side, the vampiress gave a hum and pressed her palms to her eyes, trying to rub the exhaustion away. "She's... I guess I should translate. She feels its not her place to worry of you. She doesn't know you yet, and she wants to understand and learn about you before she does anything irrational. She's been very cautious as of late about who she considers her friends," the blonde mumbled, her hands falling to her side like bricks. "What she meant by saying she thinks you can handle yourself, is that she respects you for wanting to be able to care for yourself despite the hand you were dealt in the game of life, and that she won't hover or interfere unless you ask for her help," she breathed, staring at the ceiling as she recalled how open Truth had been to meeting her, so very trusting and kindhearted. Poor dear. Glancing to the side as the redhead came back in, she couldn't help but frown at how closed off she seemed now. So quiet.

Setting the bowl of water down, Truth tugged her hair out of her face before smiling at the duo. "There you go. Uh... I'm just gonna..." she mumbled awkwardly, leaning her head out of the window to whistle before catching Lianna's violin as it dropped down from the roof. Sure, they were already playing a song to help the others, but something told her this song would be of more use as a whole. Sitting on the windowsill, the half sheikah closed her eyes as she began to play, a hum of magic surrounding her as the air grew thick with the scent of wildflowers, fairy lights forming above the spots in the grass that had been burned away by Skylar and his demon.

"He won't be leaving any time soon, you don't have to worry there. Right now my body depends on his magical strength to keep me going. Until I can find a way to lift the curse the succubitch cast on me, he and I are stuck together," Skylar drawled, a hand rubbing at the mark around his left eye. Hearing a whistle from the side of the house, he didn't hesitate in the slightest as he dropped the instrument over the side, smiling to himself as he heard Truth begin playing one of her explainable songs. Glancing back at Hades as he asked about accompanying him on a contract. "Sure, I'll come along, although, I might not be the greatest if you need someone fighting." That's why I'm here though. Yes, but you're as reckless as Truth and ten times as strong.

Giving a shrug, the kitten took Trevor's hand and wrapped her tail around her waist, rubbing at her bad eye. "She won't listen. She's stubborn like thaaaaaat...." she mumbled, trailing off as her ear twitched towards the violin being played. "Hm? Truth's playing? Wonder why she wanted to play this...." she mumbled, bouncing up the stairs only to pause as a fairy light formed in front of her, her tail flicking side to side as she watched it move. Bounding up the stairs after it, the child gave a hum as she pounced on the golden creature, a loud purr coming from her as she held her trophy. She seemed oblivious to the others as she stared down at the little blonde thing in her hands.

"Yeah, the real world can be a pain. But if it weren't for all the hardships we go through in this thing we call life, we wouldn't be able to appreciate all of the good things that come about," Kuro mumbled, glancing at the gaming system for a moment before pulling one of the larger piercings off his tail, tugging the gem out to reveal it was actually a very small USB, and from the looks of things, one of many. "Like the game. Being stuck in there was absolutely horrid, and terrifying, and probably the most stressful year of my life. But doing that allowed me to make friendships I value more than life itself," he purred, offering it to Jake before glancing behind him again at Shiro. "It also reminded me how much I value those I already have...." he breathed, patting the kid on the head as he sat crisscross on the floor.

Setting his duffle on the floor beside Kuro, the white haired experiment gave something of a growl as he fell to the floor, rubbing his legs before grunting and opening a side pocket of the bag to grab a sketch book and a pencil. He didn't say much, a frown etched onto his face as he pulled a knee up and began scribbling away on top of a previous image that looked like a pair of pants with technical jargon written on the side. What a waste of an idea that had been. He'd have to remelt half the metal he'd used just to get a proper start on this. And that would require going to the forge. scratching at his ear, the albino glanced sideways at where his brother was before shaking his head and turning to a new page, beginning the base of a new design for Kuro's hand.

Crossing her arms as a frown settled on her face, Lianna glared at the back of the shadow user's head for a moment before looking away. Tapping out was for quitters, after all. She didn't quit, not for anything. Rolling her eyes as she walked ahead of everyone else, she began pulling her dress back down from its tied position, the skirt gently grazing the grass as she spotted one of the golden creatures floating nearby. How cute.

Catching the knife on his next toss, she spun the tip on the end of her pointer like it were a top before looking to him. "You're right, we are irrational. But we're not afraid of that, either. Why be rational, sane, normal, boring, when being wild and unconventional is a lot more interesting? Acting within reason gets dull after a while, you've got to mix things up a little bit," the blonde purred before grabbing the knife by the handle and tossing it up to the roof. It must've landed close enough, because she was sure she'd heard Skylar squawk like a birdie.

Smiling at the sound of his music, Kana nodded at his words and grinned. "Truth's played those two before. Although, never together. She's never really explained it to us, either. She claims to have never learned to play the violin, but there she is now, playing away." she sighed, pointing to the window where Truth sat before stretching her arms above her head as she went on her toes, not stopping in her stride as she went into a full cartwheel. It felt good to be out of the city. Although, that was probably her wildcat side speaking for her.

'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

 

[Dantes_river]

Pure T0rture

It does that.

And I remember this avi now.

I wanna hide the truth,xxx
I wanna shelter you,
But with the beast inside,xxx
There’s nowhere we can hide.
No matter what we breed,xxx
We still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.xxx

The Assassins
Sheik, Trevor, Watari,
Lucian, Runealis

&

The Allies
Ephraim, Shayde,
Deception, Kristoff,
Rayne, TX-304 AoD

Smiling lightly as he seated himself once more, he set a finger on Krystina's forehead and gave it a gentle tap. "And I thought I was pretty clear on what I said. Either way, I'm a trusted comrade to her uncle who's a brother to her father whom she loves and cares for to no extent. Just through that chain, the trust barrier will collapse quickly. That's not including my taking care of you and your other friends medically. As for requests, I don't really do that too often and when I do, it comes out like a suggestion. I could be bleeding to death and all you'll hear is various curse words whilst I do a quick patch up and keep pushing forwards even if I have to crawl or drag myself. When requesting aid never gets results, you'd rather chew your own leg off from being caught up in a bear trap than ask for it again. She'll always trust her father, but me... My family, my pack, isn't exactly in my trust circle. Sure, my mom kept my dad from killing me as a pup, but that's about as far as her true kindness extends. The whole not wanting me to leave the cave was just so I didn't cause trouble by getting lost or whatever. My trust lies in one individual and that's 'cause he treats me like everyone else. And yes, I'm talking about Hades," Lucian murmured softly, a faint smile on his lips though his pale blue eyes somewhat told a different story as he carefully reached for the bowl and washcloth. After setting the bowl on his leg, he dipped the cloth into the water just to wring it back out, fold it up some and set it on Krystina's forehead. "You can take a nap if you want. It'd likely be in your best interest with your current condition even if it's not the greatest event and you feel as if you're missing out on things."

Chuckling lightly as he picked up his knife, the Romanian began twirling the weapon with an eerie sort of grace. Unlike everyone else seeming to find the music pretty with all the little faerie lights dancing around, Hayden merely lowered himself closer to the roof as if to vanish. "That's actually not that hard to do, but he'd need a new body to occupy if I were to move him seeing as he lost his to the succubitch, as you so kindly put it," he almost seemed to purr only to chuckle once more in a slightly darker manner. Removing a small card from inside the collar of his shirt and making a pen appear, he scribbled something down just to hold it and a small little mechanical button out to Skylar. "Don't worry, dragă. You won't need to do much more than nonchalantly watch a certain little area for me and alert me to the presence of others with this little button. I should probably mention our destination is a night club... And do remember, Mr. Skylar, this is going to be our little secret. I'm not sure how much you actually know about the crow and I, but it gets swept under the rug until a later date."
As Truth's song was coming to a close, the faerie lights slowly twinkling out with the yard looking bright and fresh as if untouched by man, he stood back up straight with his smile becoming faint and started up a soft hum. Glancing briefly over his shoulder as he began padding across the rooftop, the Romanian started up a light swing of the arms. "I don't wanna be the last man standing. I don't wanna be the lonely one pickin' petals when the party's over. No, it's not any fun. 'Cause I'm fragile and you know this. So hold me, wrap me in love, fill up my cup. Empty, and only your love can fill up my cup 'cause I'm hollow. Yeah, I'm hollow, oh, oh, oh. 'Cause I'm hollow. Yeah, I'm hollow, oh, oh, oh. I don't wanna be the first one folding. I don't wanna be the joker heart..."

Frowning slightly at Niji's response, Trevor continued onwards upstairs. Soon enough, however, she was bounding up the stairs after a faerie light. Smiling ever so faintly, he made his way over to the piano and played a little section of the song specifically to match with the violin playing overhead. Sighing softly, his cheer seemed to melt away once again and yet he started back towards the living room nonetheless. She'd come down eventually so he could talk to her. At noticing Deception trying to make Mari give his opinion to something, he paused and raised a brow at them. When he asked them about what they were talking about and his daughter told him what had happened on the roof, the Sheikah could only start laughing while walking away making her follow him with the demands that he explain his hysterics. After flopping down on a recliner, Trevor merely smiled in a highly amused manner before finally just saying, "I think he's just messing with you two. He's a Sareila and they're chop full of mischief. Then again, he could be quite genuine about it. It wouldn't be the first time he's snuck out of the Sareila estate to meet up with someone apparently so it's not exactly set in stone."

Rolling over to one of the other computers again after taking the USB to click on a few things on the screen, his fingers tapping away at keys with an unnatural speed and grace, Jake didn't seem any happier about the response he'd gotten though he'd plugged in the device to a separate computer from his games. Pushing himself with his foot back over to Kuro and Shiro, he began fidgeting with the headphones around his neck. "You say it was horrid, terrifying, and stressful... It was the best experience I've ever had, my closest connection to the real world without complications. It was the closest to real people I got without any hostilities arising, the exceptions being those who don't fit in with people like our vampiric soldier, Lurtz, and alien samurai, Cirdan. Technology and games are practically my whole life. I was playing against world class chess players online and learned how to use a search engine before I could even walk. When separated from them for extended periods of time, I start freaking out or getting nasty with people. That's why Trevor's garage has all of this in it, not to mention everything I brought over... My world started with all of these things," he said a bit softer than before, his ears flattened off to the side just to compliment how something was bothering him. Pulling his legs up into his chair and wrapping his arms around them, his eyes glanced up at the duo. "Does it make me a bad person for loving the game even though thousands of players died?"

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Shayde gave a soft scoff. "You obviously don't know how to be wild and unconventional without being straight up stupid. Like I said, you two are going to get people killed if you go on just reckless abandon. When the time comes, I'll remind you of what you just said so carelessly," he retorted swiftly before seeming to grow irritated by the little faerie lights dancing around. Bristling, he made a sudden U-turn and started back for the trees. "See ya."

Glancing up at the window where Truth was playing, Sheik smiled lightly just to make a quick series of flips without bothering to set his hands on the ground. "That's probably because Trevor used to play these songs for the girls when they were kids. They're songs from our culture, ones that will live on in a video game and the future descendants we pass it on to. I requested my brother to teach my own kids of their ancestors for when I have them. As for playing the violin, there's various reasons as to why that is possible. Trevor was a natural with music. He was a natural at just about everything he did," he smiled lightly at the female as his flips landed him to where he was facing her yet walking backwards. "Of course, unlike her, I took into account the damage even the softest of lights can cause Shadowheart. I don't blame her though. She wouldn't know he's got light sensitive eyes after all. Heck, neither her nor her sister even knew Trevor had a little brother until now. If it weren't for my current mission, they still wouldn't know unless Trevor finally broke and told them. He doesn't like talking about our side of the family much like myself. The most you'll ever hear him say is that our parents are the cause of everything wrong with us. And apparently Lurtz was given directions to beat up Cloud for something stupid he said. It'll be over soon so just ignore them."

The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed
Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen

Don't wanna let you down,
xxxBut I am Hell bound.
Though this is all for you,
xxxDon't wanna hide the truth.
No matter what we breed,
xxxWe still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.
xxxThis is my kingdom come.

 

[Pure T0rture]

Dantes_river

The Lost
Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth

&

Alone
Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Whoa!
My head is on fire but my legs are fine.
After all they are mine.
Lay your clothes down on the floor,
Close the door, hold the phone,
Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us now.

XXXXXSetting the violin down once her song had ended, Truth let out a low breath, and smiled gratefully at seemingly nothing before turning her head towards those in the waking world, hand clutching something as if to keep it from escaping. "Forgive me if that trust is hindered. You're under the assumption I fully trust my uncle and father, despite the fact they've been lying to me since I got home. I don't like people being dishonest, even about the small things, but I'm trying to be more patient than my sister in getting them to tell me. And I prefer to learn about people by their own accounts rather than hearing what could be slighted encounters from others," she mumbled, smiling as she let sand fall from her hand. "That being said, I wouldn't mind getting to know you as time goes on. Since we'll be crossing paths a lot, it'd make sense for us to understand and know one another," she hummed, dragging her fingers through the sand to create intricate symbols and markings for a spell.
Watching the sand she's been playing with fly back out the window, she nodded to Krystina, who gave a hum and closed her eyes to try and sleep. "She's gonna try and rest now, hopefully pulling in her magic will help her feel better. I've got someone stopping the spells she left running and replacing them with others," she mumbled, briefly glancing to the corner where a ball of soothing blue magic began forming, tiny specks of sand swirling around it.

“Right. Secret. That’s gonna last.” Skylar breathed, glancing to the button before tucking it into a pocket. Giving a hum as he watched the Romanian, shoulders slumping as that red flicked through his eyes again. “Take this confusion,runnin' round my head.Take back my unkind words,lay that weight on me instead.I'm the place where everything turns sour.Where you gonna run to now?Wrong step!We got off track,we need someone to help us get back now. Worn thin,awful state I was in;I believe I was losing me now I'm found.I am found! But I'm not real anymore, I am an illusion. I am the damage, I am the relief. Sometimes I'm people, I never hoped that I would be. If I take in whatever they turn out, what’s that gonna make me now? Don't you understand? I'm not real anymore, I am an illusion.” He breathed, the silver feather in his braid glowing bright blue as the black one became red.

Looking up as the faerie she’d been playing with disappeared, Niji rose an eyebrow at Deception and Mari before coming over and tugging on Mari’s sleeve. “Hey, would you teach me how to play guitar like you do? I can play a little already, but no one can really play very well save for what they learn by ear,” she mumbled, hoping to change the topic before she spilled the demon’s secret. Sometimes, hearing the unspoken wasn’t such a great gift to have. Tail tucking itself tight against her leg, she glanced over at Trevor before up at the stairs, where she could hear a deep voice singing a lullaby. “The sandman’s here....” She mumbled, her bad ear twitching slightly atop her head. What was he up to this time? Last time he’d been here, it must’ve been when Krystina was turned, and he’d been containing her. She wasn’t going to hurt someone, was she?

“You’re allowed to have your own view of the world, Jake,” Shiro sighed, glancing up when he heard the familiar musical ping of Kuro’s game starting up. “Sure people died and Kuro might’ve been forced into leaching off a dead person’s account so they could check on you, but that's his experience, and everyone had different things they did. What was it you enjoyed about the game?” he asked softly, returning to his design book as his tail flicked out and handed Kuro his pack of cigarettes.

“Shiro’s right, you’re allowed to have your own view. I may not have liked it, but that’s me. I was forced for a second time to become an experiment so they could see what was going on inside the game, that’s why I hate it. From the sounds of things, it was the next level of your world. I can see where you’re coming from. That flash drive I gave you has a game on it I started playing afterwards. It’s not much, just a farming simulator, but what’s cool is that the programs send info to a real farm just outside of the city. It was something I lifted off a kid, and when I realized what it did, I may have started writing messages to him with the program.” He grinned, tail fluffing up as he spun around only to blink at nothing being there. “Coulda sworn I felt something watching us....”

A frown settled onto the elemental's face as she stared after the shadow user, a ring of red flicking through her eyes briefly. He's lying to you, obviously. Chaos can only be achieved if you don't think it through. Just feel it and let it move you. But what if I- Don't be ridiculous, nothing bad could ever happen, after all, i'm here. Right, because you're so ******** careful. humming softly, Rissa tucked a curl behind her ear before looking to Lianna. "Maybe we should take it a little easy? I mean, we don't want to gain the attention of the neighbors, after all," she reasoned with herself, ignoring the real reason she wanted to calm down as someone chuckled in her head.

“Mmmm. I asked her once, and she told me she learned them from a spirit, someone who apparently looks an awful lot like her, but way older,” Kana sighed, pulling her hair out of its ponytail before looking back at him with a frown. He was acting funny, saying things like having Trevor teach his children. Giving a sigh as she pointed a finger at him, a squirt of water spouted from her hand to hit him in the face. “You’re getting all serious, and your face is gonna get stuck in a frown. C’mon, at least try and look at the bright side. It’s a beautiful night, and we just whooped a**. I say we deserve food and a moment to collect ourselves in the here and now,” she purred, a fluffy green and white tail lifting two apples from the table. “Sound like a plan?"

'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

The Unknown & The Unspoken
The sandman, The demon, The Goddess

 

[Dantes_river]

Pure T0rture

I wanna hide the truth,xxx
I wanna shelter you,
But with the beast inside,xxx
There’s nowhere we can hide.
No matter what we breed,xxx
We still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.xxx

The Assassins
Sheik, Trevor, Watari,
Lucian, Runealis

&

The Allies
Ephraim, Shayde,
Deception, Kristoff,
Rayne, TX-304 AoD

"Who said anything about complete trust? You're still infantile in understanding much, but otherwise your age if not slightly more mature in knowing others," the werewolf snorted before crossing one leg over the other and flashing her a toothy grin. She might not like how he explained it to her, but she was the one not quite putting the pieces together properly. "I honestly wouldn't consider it as lying. They omit details and are hesitant for you might not like what they have to say. They say the truth will set you free, but it's not always what you wish to know, hear, see. You fear -correction, feel- your father and uncle speak lies to you. It's perfectly logical knowing that their jobs involve immense dishonesty, but let me ask you this: what if some lies are the truth? Could you accept them as truth, or more importantly, would you? You can only find answers if you know the right questions and actually ask them." Giving a slight shrug, he stretched his arms up over his head just so several low pops could be heard from his back. Dropping his arms back down, he let out a slow breath as his expression became a little sad. "Thy life is a riddle to bear rapture and sorrow, to listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment from the land doth life flow, yet in one fleeting moment for anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die and know... Understand?"

Chuckling at how Skylar responded to keeping it a secret, Hayden spun back to face him with his childishly peppy grin still in place. Padding back over to him on soft footfalls as the two hummed their own song, his smile faded out a bit only for him to gently set his hands on the boys cheeks in one quick, solitary motion and placed a soft kiss on his forehead. "Both of you are quite real to me. Heh. It seems a little funny that I'm a good head or two taller than you, cioara, even if this is Sky's body. Either way, my apologies for the intrusion of your personal space," he smiled as he lightly slapped his cheek a couple of times and stepped back once more. Glancing over the edge of the roof at the others returning, he flexed his hand a bit. "It'll work fine so long as you can keep your mouth shut, especially anywhere near Truth and Deception. I doubt even Adra could utter a lie around them and get away with it. If anything, send them to me if you're having troubles with keeping quiet. And make Shayde or Ephraim use their shadows as a telephone for if Sheik drags us around the world a few times whilst you're here with the remaining folk. Don't forget to get a checkup from Lulu. And the rendezvous is at the bus stop just down the road at half past midnight."

Making a short run towards the edge of the roof, he made a quick spin-flip just to catch the side of the roof and swing back in through the window he'd come through, his body seeming to naturally slide around Truth like a stream around a rock. "You missed the funniest comment, Hades. She thinks Time and Sheik are lying. And you called it. I had to give them to her instead of their intended purpose. Sometimes I feel like you're spying on things ahead of time or just have a super strong precognitive ability you just aren't talking about," Lucian smiled as the Romanian moved nearer to him. This got him to give an embarrassed, if not nervous, laugh in response.

"It's just really strong gut instincts. I was really hoping I'd be wrong this time though. Pity," he sighed softly in the werewolf's ear as he leaned over his shoulder. Standing back up straight, he exchanged the now cool rag on Krystina's forehead for one warmed up again. "There's a difference between lying and omitting details. Why doesn't anyone understand that?"

Having mostly been trying to avoid the discussion with Deception and Trevor, Mari's thoughts had drifted elsewhere altogether. His sleeve being tugged on got him to snap back to the present and shift his gaze towards the girl. It then turned into him pointing at himself and raising a brow. "Me? I mean, I guess I can show you a bit of what I know. I'm kinda self-taught, starting by ear before turning into actual sheet music stuff, so I can't promise any superb lessons though," he responded a little hesitantly, his ears twitching slightly before flattening themselves off to the side. As if recalling his cat ears were out, he ran a hand through his hair just to make them vanish again. Them things just liked expressing things he didn't want advertised. Directing his finger towards the stairs, he shoved the other hand into his pocket. "I'll be in the room Trevor's letting me occupy for anything you need or if you want a few starters. I'm... Feeling a little displaced at the moment, if that makes any sense, and the less people there are around me, the better." Having let her know where he'd be if she wanted to start right away or not, he started backwards towards the stairs before turning around and heading upstairs by taking the stairs two at a time.

Having grown quite a bit serious, Trevor carefully watched the girl interact with the odd teen up until he left the room at a rather swift pace. "That's gonna bug the hell outta me. I can't tell if something's gonna set him off or not. These sudden changes in mood, thought and personality aren't normal. Even worse, I don't like how he said that," the Sheikah muttered before lightly biting the tip of his thumb when his daughter nodded. This was definitely going to bother him. "Niji, if you follow him up there, would you mind keeping tabs on him for me like I asked earlier at the table? If you notice anything wrong with his behavior, please let me know immediately."

Letting his tails flick beside him slightly, the little fox spirit began twiddling his thumbs in his lap. "It'd be easier to say what I didn't like about it. Games have flaws, they have bugs, and they can grate on a person's nerves. That's a given. Thing is, I'm used to them. They're what I've spent most of my life submerged in. Real people, real schools, the real world as a whole is foreign to me and it doesn't seem to want to work with me. Adults can get along with me, but they tend to act like I'm either stupid or something just 'cause I'm kid or like I'm trying to be a snooty know-it-all when they find out I went through college with Fox and have degrees in more than one area. That was the closest to schooling I could go through as I was too smart or unable to properly focus or I just got expelled from three schools. Long story," he tried to explain only to scratch the top of his head between his ears. As if giving in on not knowing what exactly made him love the game, he gave a slight shrug. "I don't know. Maybe it was the thrill of the challenge that the game hadn't been beaten during the Beta test game when I usually do beat the game in the length of time usually given and the best part of the challenge was staying alive. I'm a sucker for challenges, especially those challenging great fortune." Rolling back over to the new game that'd loaded up, his fingers began tapping away at keys making screens pop up and down at a swift pace. When those stopped jumping around the screen, the farm started being tended to even as he rolled himself away from that screen over to one of the others where there was a cutscene ending. Once he got the character on that screen running around collecting things and fighting on its own, he rolled over to the message board and typed something up for the people on the other end starting to try messaging him for having not gotten a response from him. Once that was done, he turned back to the two males just so he could set his hands in his lap. "That's actually pretty common around here. It's either spirits that get drawn to the house by the sensitives or me, or all the crazies surrounding all of you here. I'm just so used to the feeling of being watched that I don't really take notice of it consciously anymore. If you're not used to it already, you will be soon enough."

Seeming thoughtful for a moment, Sheik glanced around him briefly before quickly snapping his gaze back towards Kana when water hit him in the face. Giving a soft sigh, he rolled his eyes whilst giving her a partial smile. "Cute," he responded only to nod slightly in answer to her question. Wiping the back of his hand against his cheek to get rid of what remained of the water, he gave a soft snort. "I wasn't frowning and I am looking at the bright side. I have a pretty good probability of having kids." At the mention of it being a beautiful night, he shifted his blue-green eyes to the sky to see how it was indeed dusk. How had time flown by so quickly? Turning back to face forwards, a faint shudder ran down his spine. One whole day was gone in the blink of an eye. And nothing to show for it other than small talk... "The here and now sounds nice. This whole day would be nice to repeat altogether. The only real annoyances of the day was the arguing with Maryse Sareila and Hildegarde Nightengale, this stupid attack by half-assed ninjas for hire and kitty boy hitting Trevor upside the head with a barstool." As soon as the words had finished leaving his mouth, he wound up flinching and rubbing the back of his head at having seen the blonde soldier hit the ground hard. "Ooh! I know that had to hurt. Lurtz, bud, he's not getting back up from that for a while. The fact that he's still conscious, nose unbroken from how hard you kicked him upside the head, is surprising by itself. Just leave it at that. I'll have a towel and some dry clothes ready for you when you're able to get back up without blacking out or tumbling over, Cloud."

The vampire merely nodded as if in understanding before turning on his heel and starting back inside the house. Cloud, however, gave Sheik a thumbs up for what he said before letting out a hiss as he slowly and carefully touched his nose. That was gonna hurt for a while. "I hope to God I don't get a black eye from that... Certainly didn't feel like he was restraining himself."

The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed
Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen

Don't wanna let you down,
xxxBut I am Hell bound.
Though this is all for you,
xxxDon't wanna hide the truth.
No matter what we breed,
xxxWe still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.
xxxThis is my kingdom come.

 

[Pure T0rture]

Dantes_river

The Lost
Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth

&

Alone
Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Whoa!
My head is on fire but my legs are fine.
After all they are mine.
Lay your clothes down on the floor,
Close the door, hold the phone,
Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us now.

XXXXXTruth let out a long huff as she looked at the lycan, one eyebrow raising slowly before her shoulders slumped. "Sorry, but I don't see it that way. If I don't have the full picture, I don't know what i'm getting myself into. Can't make a battle plan when all you've got is half a report," she breathed, glancing sideways when Hades came swinging in right beside her. "But it's fine. whatever. doesn't bother me." she mumbled, rubbing a hand across her face before looking to the corner where the ball of magic had turned into a massive blue globe. Grinning when a man flickered into view briefly so he could bow to Truth, she nodded and gave him a quick salute before he faded out, a potion bottle left in his place.

"Real, hm? I suppose we'll have to work harder to break this curse then, if your friend thinks so highly of you." Sky breathed, grinning at the fire bird that perched on his shoulder. He had to admit, it was interesting to see the relationship between his demon and the other, even if he was only grasping the slightest hints of it. At realizing he'd been told to get a checkup, the blonde male gave a frown and stuck out his tongue. Then again, it would only be smart, since he'd spent so much time around his sister. they did share the same genetics, after all, even if he had the bonus immunity from Adra to help him. Just get it over with, you wuss. Besides, I want to meet his new friend. I swear, you're worse than an excited puppy now that someone you know is here. No. A kid with a sugar buzz is a better description. Giving a huff, the blonde pulled himself over the side of the roof, swinging himself down to stand beside Truth. "How's my sis holding up?" he mumbled, sitting beside the redhead.

"Everyone here's self-taught, so that's no big deal, but no one's been able to teach me how to read sheet music. Even just the basics would be better than telling me to listen harder," the kitten mumbled, bouncing slightly before pouting when he went off to his room. Looking to Trevor as he spoke, she nodded and padded after Mari, tail wagging slowly behind her. Poking her head into the older cat’s room slowly, she tugged on her sleeve and smiled slowly at him. “you gonna be okay if I’m in here? I don’t want to bug you if you’d rather be alone.”

Looking up from the couch, Bander rose an eyebrow. "I'm a little worried about leaving her alone with him when he's so temperamental, she can say things without realizing what they mean." He murmured, stretching his arms over his head before letting out something that sounded faintly like a yelp. "Kansei! Why'd you pull my tail?!?"

"There was something stuck to it." The panther shrugged, holding up a barbed sphere in between two clawed fingers. It was here she paused, sniffed it and quickly tossed it in the air, shooting it with a gun that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. "s**t. Tracker." She huffed, her eyes narrowing on the metallic bits as they clattered to the floor, setting the gun in her pocket, she scooped up a piece and sighed, shoulders slumping. “I didn’t want to think they could find us again…. I’m sorry, Trevor, but it looks like Bander unknowingly brought danger to your daughter,” she mumbled, holding up the metal for Bander to look at the insignia etched into it. The Laughing Skulls were back.

“sounds pretty rough, actually. I can see why you’d want a challenge every once in a while,” Kuro mumbled softly, only to blink when there was suddenly a pile of sand in front of one of Jake’s keyboards. “I’m not really bothered by spirits myself. Truth’s a beacon for them herself, so’s her sister. What I don’t like, is when spirits leave s**t lying around and mess up our projects,” he drawled, ears flattening on his head at the disembodied laughter in the room. “And then there’s him. Truth’s little sandman. He’s a bit strange, if you ask me,” he murmured, flipping a coin in his hands only to grumble when the sand that had been on Jacoby’s desk flew up and caught it.

“You shouldn’t pick on someone who can -,” shiro started to scold his brother, his face contorting in pain as he put a hand on his leg, almost trying to claw at an area above his knee. After a minute, he let out a sigh and relaxed against the bag, panting slightly. “damnit.” He grumbled, tugging his pantsleg up to see the damage done. Underneath the jeans he’d been loaned, just above his right knee, a deep red welt about the size of his fist and half the length of his thigh began forming, the edges the color of a newly formed bruise. Staring at it a moment, he glanced up to his younger brother before shaking his head slightly. Pulling the fabric back down, the white haired feline grew silent and went back to designing what now looked like legs.

Kana gave a snort at his response, sticking out her tongue before wincing at the sound as well. “That had to hurt. Um… here… don’t get sick, okay?” she mumbled, waving her hand so that the rain around Cloud formed a dome of water rather than hitting him. Turning back to Sheik, she nodded towards the inside and rose an eyebrow. “C’mon. I gotta clean my blade. And probably sharpen it. It shoulda gone through those guys like warm butter,” she breathed, hefting it off her shoulder to rub a thumb across the edge and tsk. Didn’t even break skin with that. Definitely needed sharpening.

Looking down at the blonde in the grass, Lianna tilted her head for a moment before shrugging lightly and looking up to Rissa who seemed to be grinning from ear to ear. Uh oh. She knew that smile. s**t. s**t s**t s**t s**t s**t. Something in the elemental had snapped at seeing the vampire down cloud so easily. Pouncing on the elemental, she seemed to make quick work of pinning the other under her, staring at the other with a stern frown until she saw the red fade from her brown eyes. Good. They didn’t need anything more chaotic happening today than already had.

“I think I might need to go back to the underground sooner than I thought…” Rissa sighed, rubbing at her eyes tiredly before leaning against the faerie. At least there, she could let go a little and maybe learn a bit of control over her powers while in the ring. It seemed to be working a little.

'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

The Unknown & The Unspoken
The sandman, The demon, The Goddess

 

[Dantes_river]

Pure T0rture

I wanna hide the truth,xxx
I wanna shelter you,
But with the beast inside,xxx
There’s nowhere we can hide.
No matter what we breed,xxx
We still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.xxx

The Assassins
Sheik, Trevor, Watari,
Lucian, Runealis

&

The Allies
Ephraim, Shayde,
Deception, Kristoff,
Rayne, TX-304 AoD

Expression falling along with his gaze, the werewolf almost seemed hurt yet seemed to immediately brush it off and turn his head slightly to where Hayden was writing something on the side of the water bowl. "Can't make battle plans with half a report, huh? Then you might want to get a second opinion about your health," Lucian finally chuckled in a soft, bitter manner before starting up a low growl at hearing something else hit the windowsill. At hearing Skylar's voice, however, it stopped and he cleared his throat. God, people needed to wait to be hopping through windows like that until he knew who everyone was. Standing up, he picked up his chair and moved it further away from the bed so as not to disturb Krystina's rest much less get in the Romanian's way as he took over caring for the vampire. "I have her resting due to a fever setting in, but is otherwise in a more stabilized state. I intend to keep a check on her for a few days though, just as a precaution. Now, if you don't mind, I need you to come over here so I can take a peek at what I'm working with and get your scent at the same time. Correction. It's scents for you, isn't it? Though it's not very prominent, I get faint whiffs of fire every now and then when you're near though Hades said not to worry too much about it. If he's not worried about it, I'm not going to worry about it."

Glancing over at Truth, Hayden motioned her to the door with a slight wave of the hand. "Well, go on and fetch someone else from your group. Once he's done with him, he'll need to check the others too not to mention their scents," he instructed lowly though his speech partly betrayed his inability to hear what he was saying, much less the faint Romanian accent to it, or how shy it actually sounded. Feeling the corner of his lips twitch up into a faint smirk, he added, "Unless you want that second opinion on the health of you and your friends from those who don't use half of a report." Having said that, he returned to being serious once more and started up a soft hum to distract the lycan from her previous words. "I close my eyes, tell us why must we suffer? Release your hands for your will drags us under. My legs grow tired, tell us where must we wander? How can we carry on if redemption's beyond us? To all of my children in whom Life flows abundant, to all of my children to whom Death hath passed his judgement, the soul yearns for honor and the flesh the hereafter. Look to those who walked before to lead those who walk after. Shining is the land's light of justice. Ever flows the land's well of purpose. Walk free, walk free, walk free, believe. The land's alive so believe... Tell us why, given life, we are meant to die, helpless in our cries? Thy life is a riddle, to bear rapture and sorrow. To listen, to suffer, to entrust unto tomorrow. In one fleeting moment from the land doth life flow, yet in one fleeting moment for anew it doth grow. In the same fleeting moment, thou must live, die and know."

Sitting on the bed, arms stretched out over his knees and head tucked down between them as his forehead rested against his knees, was Kristoff as Niji entered the room. Scattered around him were various sheets of paper lined with musical notes though it all appeared to be handwritten. Under certain parts of the notes were small words. Shifting his position, he shook his head slightly in response to Niji's question. "It's not you guys. It's just me... And I just can't believe I used the it's not you, it's me line. Ironic how such a clichéd line as that is actually the truth... Displacement is just the easiest way to explain it," he responded lowly before lifting himself off of the bed without disturbing the pages around him. Even when his feet hit the floor, there was only the faintest vibration in the floorboards to signal his presence having left the bed and yet a few pages had vanished as soon as they had made contact. After picking up one of the pages lying on the bed, he made a pen appear in his hand and began scribbling on it. "So... Um... I guess I can show you a few things about sheet music. The biggest thing about it is all the symbols that go on the staves, or the five lines with the four spaces that dictates a note representing a letter ranging between A and G. The note range alphabetically from bottom to top is A through G though that doesn't necessarily mean that the bottom line is an A at all. That's where things can get kinda tricky 'cause the lettering and pitching changes between which clef is used based on instrument. There's three clef signs you'll find at the start of the staff on the far left -English reading style: the G clef, the F clef and the C clef, which all have a main key line with which their names derived from. G clef, this weird cursive S looking symbol, is used for higher pitches like if you played the flute or violin and the main key line cutting through this little loop on the bottom is G4. It's most commonly called the treble clef. The F clef, the backwards C with a colon to the top right side of it, is used for the tuba or cello. It's commonly called the bass clef due to the musical range being deeper and lower in pitch. Main key line, F3, is this line that cuts between the two dots. And finally, we have the C clef which has the main key line, C4 or middle C, cutting through the center of this capital B shape. That brings us to placement of the three clefs as there are ten places between the three of them, but two are kinda considered the same thing. There's the French violin clef, treble clef, soprano clef, mezzo-soprano clef, alto clef, tenor clef, baritone clef, bass clef and sub-bass clef. Most aren't used anymore though so you'd only run across them in the older pieces. The ones still in use are the treble clef, bass clef, alto clef and tenor clef, but the ones you'll use for the guitar are going to be either the treble clef or the bass clef... That's not too complicated, is it?" As he explained this small amount of information, he held up a piece of paper for her to see what he was talking about: one staff drawn out for the notes yet only holding three symbols marking the clefs at ten different spots. To each one named, his finger tapped just over it so she knew which was which even though it was also written below them. Unfortunately for the girl, there was still a mass amount of the page left for scribbles to teach the girl about sheet music.

Sighing heavily, the Sheikah briefly scratched at the side of his head. "With how he was talking, I'd think he's currently more dangerous to himself than to her which is why I didn't feel inclined to argue about her following him. I'd like to hope his moods settle into something more calm, but we can't rush it much less crowd him or he'll retreat that much further. He needs psychiatric help and yet he'd likely run away or end up doing more damage before he actually sat down and talked about, well, anything," Trevor murmured with a brief half shrug. He trusted the girl's instincts to keep her safe from his mood swings. She seemed pretty smart after all. His own instincts were kind of... Off-kilter on a good day. The older teen was smart, from what he could tell, just too erratic for any kind of stable version of himself to make itself well-known. "Um... If we're going to get technical, we just had ninjas for hire and others trying to off us not even ten minutes ago. Danger lives here so basically he just got their letter stating that they were visiting and you discovered they pinned it to his tail. It's what they do and, sadly, this is only the beginning of our friends visiting. I'm afraid it's just gonna get worse from here on out. Call it... A very strong gut feeling."

Nodding slightly at Kuro seeming to have understood what even the fox spirit considered a failed attempt at an explanation, Jacoby began fidgeting his fingers though his pupils narrowed to slits and seemed to follow something through the air. When the sand caught the coin, he merely twitched his nose slightly. "Yeah. I noticed they were sensitive like Trevvy and Sam. I dwell in that territory whether I want to or not. Trevvy tries slipping out of his body sometimes and I have to reconnect him before he becomes aware of it much less gets dragged off or possessed by the bad entities in the Between. If the Sandman gets my computers or consoles overheated or damaged by his sand, I will be super pissed though," he stated calmly though it was apparent that his final statement was more of a warning than anything else. Turning his attention towards Shiro just as the pain shot through his leg, he noticed what he was working on and tapped his fist in the palm of the opposite hand. Pushing himself over to the computer with the chat screen, he minimized the screen before pulling up one meant for blueprints and started tapping away at a rapid pace. The faster he typed, the more images and letters appeared. Having finished typing, he clicked a little switch on the headset around his shoulders just for the image to form up in a touchable holographic image before him. Rolling back over to him, he made a quick swipe with his fingers over the image to enlarge it then flicked up a tab bar with various fields of changing up the blueprints. "You can alter it if you want or feel you need to. This is just a rough draft for a new hand and a pair of legs, but I like having a general plan on building things and I have this feeling that you do too. We like things to be properly functional. As for the materials, I can get non-scrap ones from either Cloud's garage or Cirdan though we might need aforementioned forge. It's either the forge or Cloud's blowtorch after all. I'd personally like my own workshop, but my brother says I'm too young and little to be using things like skill saws and blowtorches."

Giving a thumbs up was Cloud's only response before shutting his eyes and rubbing his forehead. Unfortunately, something seemed to get his attention making him roll onto his stomach and turn his gaze towards Rissa. It was then that Lianna pounced on the elemental just as his vision began to swim followed by simply going dark. Crap. At least the fey girl got that negative energy to settle back down since he was in no condition to defend anything at this point. Why did all of their friends, allies or whatever they want to call themselves always come with heavy baggage and something bad floating just at the edges of your peripheral vision? That just seemed to be the thing about people these Sheikah boys didn't have issues with. "Ask and plenty of the guys inside the house would take you up on some sparring to wear that down. I would, but I don't have the greatest combat skills nor the ability to stand at the moment," he told the blonde before dropping his head down against his arm. Yep. He moved too soon and now he felt like a small boat on a raging sea and it was making him feel a little nauseous.

Giving a soft snort, Sheik gave a half-smile at Kana's words. "Cloud get sick? Ha! You'd have a greater chance at seeing him get impaled, poisoned or drunk than ill," he responded before glancing at the fair haired female beside him. Rolling his eyes at her testing the sharpness of her blade, he slid his hand into hers and pulled her along behind him without ever stopping by the living room. Having stopped in a room one could say was a mini gym just with extra space, he let go of her hand and opened a cabinet with a bunch of smaller weights in it. After sliding a side panel with several whetstones, a large flask and a few knives out of the inner wall, he pulled a couple of stones and the flask out before returning to her side. "Blade maintenance is something you should keep up with from here on out. Ephraim was telling Trevor the blades you guys have were duller than dirt, but my brother didn't want him messing with your stuff and like the good little boy he is, he obeyed. I really didn't want to believe him and yet you've made it so abundantly clear that you'd likely dent a car before scratching the paint on a good day. Then again, I sometimes wish Shayde were more like Ephraim instead of being an extremely sarcastic and grouchy brat yet I wake up to face that every single day... Either way, I'm just going to suggest all of you sharpen your blades and maintain it whilst the gunners keep their gun maintenance up. This was just a minor nuisance, something that isn't unusual in the slightest. I suppose we got the medics in at a good time though. With what's coming, everyone's going to have to be on their toes and maintain their minds, souls, bodies and weapons. Help pass along the word, yeah?"

The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed
Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen

Don't wanna let you down,
xxxBut I am Hell bound.
Though this is all for you,
xxxDon't wanna hide the truth.
No matter what we breed,
xxxWe still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.
xxxThis is my kingdom come.

 

[Pure T0rture]

Dantes_river

Truth's in a bad place, mentally, right now. >.>

I'd originally had a different song in place, and when I put in Lithium I guess I deleted extra bits. Oops.

The Lost
Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth

&

Alone
Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Whoa!
My head is on fire but my legs are fine.
After all they are mine.
Lay your clothes down on the floor,
Close the door, hold the phone,
Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us now.

XXXXX"Glad someone could get her to sleep, she doesn't listen to me anymore," The blonde hunter drawled as he stood, walking over to Lucian slowly. Well, the pup seems pretty collected, aside from growling at us earlier. We did kinda jump through a window. Fastest way down, that's all. Standing in front of the lycan, Sky gave a huff and peered over to where Hayden was, pouting slightly still at being told to get a check up. "yeah... I share my body with a demon who saved my life in exchange for breaking the previous bonds he was under. Until the curse i'm under is broken, he's stuck with me, so occasionally there'll be a firebird no bigger than my fist around," he explained, looking back at the apparent medic, mismatched eyes watching him intently.

Frowning when she realized she'd messed up, Truth heaved herself off the windowsill and glanced to Sky with a slight shrug as she picked up the small glass vial left for her in a pile of sand. Looking back when Hayden spoke to her, the redhead shook her head. "That wasn't what I'd meant..." she mumbled, brushing past him to leave the room. Closing her eyes as she walked down the hall, the girl gave a sad sigh. Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside. Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without Lithium, I want to stay in love with my sorrow. Oh, but God, I want to let it go. Come to bed, don't make me sleep alone. Couldn't hide the emptiness, you let it show. Never wanted it to be so cold, Just didn't drink enough to say you love me. I can't hold on to me, Wonder what's wrong with me. Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside. Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without Lithium, I want to stay in love with my sorrow. Don't want to let it lay me down this time. Drown my will to fly. Here in the darkness I know myself. Can't break free until I let it go. Let me go. Darling, I forgive you. After all, Anything is better than to be alone. And in the end I guess I had to fall. Always find my place among the ashes. I can't hold on to me, Wonder what's wrong with me. Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside. Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without Lithium, ...stay in love with you. I'm gonna let it go." feeling sand on her skin, truth gave a flicker of a smile at the disembodied hand and the face floating in front of her at the top of the stairs. "I'm fine, it's nothing I'm not already used to. Go make sure Krystina gets the sleep she needs..."she mumbled, tugging her braid over her shoulder as she started down the stairs.

Nodding to the older cat as he spoke, Niji looked down at the papers and tugged her bangs out of her face. "Yeah, that makes sense. So these ones, depending on which is used, denote the overall pitch of a song?" she asked, pointing to the three clefs he'd drawn, before looking back to the notes. "and then these make up the different patterns that actually create the music," she breathed, tail flicking behind her as she thought she understood it. ".... but the few times i've looked at sheet music, none of the notes have looked the same. All the dots have had little squiggles on them or something," she mumbled, looking up at him in confusion.

"mmm. This is worse, in my opinion. These are people specifically hunting Truth," Kansei frowned, standing as she pulled her hair out of her face. "Their leader considers your daughter his property, and will do anything to get her back," she murmured, ears twitching briefly towards the stairs at hearing someone singing. "Truth hasn't been herself since the last time he came to get her and we haven't been able to figure out wh- hiiiii Truth!" Kansei started, her face shifting from extremely serious to overly-cheerful when the ginger stepped into the room. "Did you see the disasterous duo got their gun working again? They let little Jake fire it and it seems the plasma cannon portion's not stuck anymore," she hummed, hands dropping behind her back to twist her tail in between her hands.

"Kansei, don't give me that cheery bullcrap," the halfbreed grunted as she looked at the panther and Bander. Something was going on. "I'll figure out whatever you two are hiding, just like always. But whatever. Lucian's started doing his evaluations of everyone so when you get a moment head on up to Krystina's room and let him examine you," she drawled, padding past the others to stand beside her sister. She honestly felt completely terrible right now, like a cloud of gloom was over her head.

"Nah, he won't do anything malicious like that. He just likes pulling pranks on us sometimes," Kuro sighed, grabbing a chair from a corner of the garage and heading back over to his brother. "Get off the floor, goober, before you do something stupid," he mumbled, lifting the other into a chair before pulling his brother's pants leg back up to check the mark again, ears flattening to his head as he watched the welt sinking slowly into the older feline's legs, creating a divot.

"Rissa's forge would be preferable. I enjoy molding the metal myself," shiro murmured, staring at the hologram for a second before clipping his pen to one of his ears. Fidgeting with the image for a moment to get a feel for the program, he gave a smile and began tweaking the length and materials involved. "Rissa can bring the forge here for us, if need be, or we can visit it's home location with her help. I'll show you how to work it, too," he smirked, glancing over at the fox for a moment before frowning at his brother touching his leg. Kicking Kuro away, the white haired teen turned his head slightly. "It seems the sandman thinks we should get a check up from the medic that Sheik brought," he drawled, pointing to the words written in sand far enough away form Jake's computers to not damage them.

Looking to cloud when he spoke, the blonde gave a snort and shook her head. "I don't think people would like me too much if I took anyone here out of commission for a long period of time. I tend to leave people out cold or broken, so I hit up fighting rings that have a no holds policy," she hummed, cracking her neck as she knelt beside the blonde. "how's your head doing?" she mumbled, chocolate gaze watching him carefully, Lianna standing behind her with bright green eyes focused on Cloud as well.

Fiddling with the dull blade as she waited for Sheik, Kana gave a smirk when he returned, glancing at the whetstones in his hand and nodding. "It is pretty sad looking, isn't it? I've never seen my blade this dull before now," she mumbled, wondering to herself if the others' blades were just as bad as her own. "Believe me, this won't ever happen again, once we have the ability to, everyone's going to want a chance to get their toys back up to playing standards. Shiro will even insist upon re-calibrating his two guns three times before they're considered good, the only ones you'd have to worry about are Krystina and Skylar, who will insist on caring for their weapons in private, not that anyone's seen theirs," she mumbled, finally sitting crisscross on the ground as she tugged her crop top off to clean away the blood left on her sword, leaving her in just an old sports bra. She didn't seem to care one way or the other what he saw.

'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

The Unknown & The Unspoken
The sandman, The demon, The Goddess

 

[Dantes_river]

Pure T0rture

I can see that.
And that's alright. It happens.
Lulu's feeling a little bitter though it's more towards himself than her.
Translation: Crow, be nice. My puppy is a little sensitive.

I wanna hide the truth,xxx
I wanna shelter you,
But with the beast inside,xxx
There’s nowhere we can hide.
No matter what we breed,xxx
We still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.xxx

The Assassins
Sheik, Trevor, Watari,
Lucian, Runealis

&

The Allies
Ephraim, Shayde,
Deception, Kristoff,
Rayne, TX-304 AoD

"Well, it does get pretty monotonous hearing the same thing from the same people day-in and day-out. Either way, she needs it if she wants to recover even in the slightest and I guess 'cause I'm a combat medic she's taking it seriously. I can't be certain and even if she is, she's probably doing it begrudgingly. You need to get her off of the field entirely right now though. Given time, she may be able to return to it, but that depends on various factors. Right now, I'd say she's doing more harm than good trying to help in even the simplest of ways. For the time being, those two little jars on the bedside table will keep her in this state of stability as we do some extensive research on fixing this failure to react immune system. Some things just don't mesh so I have to figure out how to reboot her white blood cells altogether just to make her immune system functional again. DNA restructuring type stuff to put it in less words. Seeing as you're family, you have the right to know what I was telling her before I was able to get her to rest," Lucian smiled at first before becoming serious once more as he explained to Skylar what his game plan for his sister was at the moment. He was quite serious, and he hoped Sky understood he wasn't making any requests, at the mention of removing her from the field. Battle, whether a minor skirmish or full out war, wasn't where she needed to be. Finally taking the other fair haired male's hands into his own, a thin coating of water creeping over their hands, he took a deep breath before focusing in on everything the other was radiating. It was hard what with the flickers of the other entity in him, but he was separating the two entities over time. "Well, this gives me an idea of how big your fist and the image of the bird is... Please don't stare so intently at me. It's a little unnerving... And it's kinda my first full excursion outside of pack territory and not taking care of other lycanthropes."

Twitching slightly when two arms gently slid around his neck and a chin set on top of his head, the werewolf shifted his eyes around ever so briefly even though he knew he wouldn't see anything and yet he didn't feel threatened. He knew these arms after all. They were Hayden's arms and with them came a calming touch to keep him from stressing out as every other time he'd been set in front of people to see if he could get an accurate reading. Without him, he'd surely be freaking out internally about being watched. In a pinch, he was fine in front of people, but at the calmer times as this one, he had a bit of stage fright. Hayden merely smiled in mild amusement at Skylar from over the werewolf as it became a little more noticeable that he was settling the lycanthrope's nerves. "Cioară, să fie frumos. Catelusul meu este un pic mai sensibil," he finally seemed to scold oh so playfully before tapping his finger against the werewolf's chest in a specific pattern. As his nerves seemed to have settled down, the Romanian's eyes flashed mischievously at Skylar. "Don't be so nervous and stare so hard at him. He's not going to bite. Hard. Kidding, kidding. He's gotta separate your auras so it's taking a little longer than it would the others and the intensity of your gaze is quite noticeable and unsettling. I'm sure you've felt like someone was watching you with such intense eyes. Just relax, relax."

"And I still don't speak Romanian. Alright. So, like your sister and Truth, you're slightly underweight and malnourished, but otherwise rather healthy. Your connection to the bird demon seems to have kept your immune system quite well-balanced if not strong so you should thank him for keeping it up to par. A few weeks of our cooking and you'll be right as rain again. Thank you both for cooperating with this. No one likes seeing a doctor, combat medic or not, but these minor checkups also helps me know who you are if you go jumping through another window," the werewolf finally smiled, his hands releasing Skylar's hands and giving him a thumbs up. Growing serious for a moment, he turned his head slightly towards Hayden when something seemed to click in his head. "I thought something was up. You just don't listen when I tell you not to push yourself or press your luck. Be quick?"

"Sorry. I thought it'd be longer than this. And of course I'll be quick for you. Behave yourself, Lulu. Make sure the cioară plays nice if he's gonna talk to him please, Sky. Be back shortly!" That said in such a cheerful manner, the Romanian swiftly left the room making the fair haired werewolf start tapping his fingertips together. This was awkward. What was he supposed to talk to him about? Hayden, however, had simply tossed a jawbreaker half-assed at Truth as he padded down the hallway to the bathroom. Everything was so dramatic to kids nowadays. They all might as well earn Grammies with how they acted.

Nodding slightly at her wording, he took a moment to scribble down some things on the paper again before turning the page back to her. "Yeah. And those discrepancies - uh, differences - in those notes are because there's actually three parts to a note: the note head which is the circles that are filled or empty, the stem which is the lines attached to the note head, and the flag which is the little squiggly you've likely seen attached to the stem. The reason for the stems is so you can read the notes better whilst allowing them to fit neatly on the staff and for the flags or beams that attach to the notes. The flags are telling you how long to hold a note though it also shortens the note's duration, but I'll get to that in a minute. Whether or not the note head is filled, however, represents the value of the note. Starting with the filled note, this little black one here, we get the quarter note which counts as one beat. That'd be like going one, two, three, four in a single measure. If it's an open note head with a stem like this one, we get a half note that gets two beats. That'd be like one hold, two hold, for a single measure. And finally, this little O shaped one here is a whole note that'd require you to hold it for four beats so it'd be one single strum of a cord reverberating through the guitar for the full measure. That brings us back to extending notes. While there's those values of notes, you'd need to know there are other ways to extending a note besides the flags. The dot next to this half note here is a way of extending the half note by that of a quarter note making it three beats instead of two. Basically, the dot cuts the value of the note in half and adds it onto the already set number of beats to extend the note only so much. There's also the tie here which is a simple curved line attaching two notes with which you'd hold the note for the entire time of the two notes combined. If it's a tie between a half note and a quarter note, it'd be three beats. Those are usually used when extending a note over a measure or a bar. The bar is this vertical line separating a certain amount of notes from each other all the way down the line. That's another one of those things I'll have to get back to in a bit," Mari continued to explain seeing as she seemed to be keeping up with what he was telling her, his finger still pointing to everything he was talking about as he told her what his - most likely - crappy notes were trying to explain. At least he could do this much without causing anymore trouble for the household. Why was he always such a screw-up? Was it like some unknown curse from having taken his mother from his father just by being born? He shouldn't have existed if all he was good for was hurting or killing someone. Shaking off his thoughts as he shifted his finger over the page to where she could still keep up. "And now we're back to the flags shortening the value of the notes to counteract the extended ones. If, per say, you have a quarter note - one beat - with a single flag, you'd have to cut that quarter note in half making it an eighth note and thus you'd have to hit two notes in a single beat at a faster tempo to actually get all the beats required in a single measure. If it were two flags, you'd have to cut it in half again making it a sixteenth note. In short, like every other note, they're fractions of an entire measure which, in turn, are fractions of a single staff that repeats to being a fraction of a whole score, or song. So yeah, a note is really just a fraction of a fraction of one thing... The beams, these things connecting the notes, simply do what the flags do and I suppose they're somewhat easier to read than a million flags or something...? I don't really have a solid idea as to why they have the bars if they just do what the flags do. Either way, that's when we get to the point of having rests in a song where you don't play a note in the score. That's where we get these marks here and each has a value like any note requiring you to play. A whole rest is four beats, a half rest two, a quarter rest one, an eighth rest half a beat and a sixteenth rest being a quarter of a beat. I still haven't lost you yet, have I?"

Tapping a finger to his armrest, the cheery and docile look in his eyes seemed to be growing more like the calm before the storm the longer Kansei spoke. "Is that so? Then I suppose I'll see if Ephraim and Shayde can find this twerp for me so I can-" Trevor started only for a hand to slide out from behind his head and cover his mouth. Of course Shayde was going to do that for Sheik. His younger brother was so gentle at heart compared to him. At the sudden switch to cheer, a briefly annoyed glare directed itself at the feline before the hand disappeared again and his far more calm gaze shifted towards Truth. "She was just talking about some dill hole your daddy's gonna hafta kill, dismember into various little pieces, and scatter in Alligator Lake. I'm trying to be more open with you girls about things now that we're together again. You deserve that much from me at least. Whether you accept or hate me for the truth about things, however, is up to you two and I'll respect your decision either way. You're just forbidden from meeting my parents, and sister, God willing."

"I hope he has a defibrillator in this house 'cause if he continues following through with this whole honesty thing, I'mma have a heart attack," Deception muttered as she briefly patted her sister on top of the head. Don't get her wrong, she loved her to death, but she just wasn't truly a touchy-feely kind of girl even when consoling others she actually liked. It was always suck it up, buttercup for her and yet it irritated her that her mother had said Trevor was the same way when he was younger, but he'd allow her to show her affection the way she wanted to because he loved her so much. Maybe she just needed a guy to love the way he'd loved their mother to develop the ability to actually show how much she cared. "Can't believe there's people whom enjoy comparing me to him... Sounds like he got the gist of it, Truth. That jerkwad ain't getting near ya again."

"Doesn't hafta be malicious or even intentional. My computers, games and just technology in general are my life and I won't tolerate anyone that threatens my livelihood. Fox says it's my biggest flaw, that I'm too dependent on them, but I can't help it. All of these things are my addiction, besides online gambling that is, and it bothers me that I've cut just a few hours off of them everyday for health reasons. If you think alcohol, cigarettes and gambling are hard to give up, you'd hate to be in my shoes. If I could, I'd live off of Mountain Dew Code Red and Citrus Cherry, Coke Cherry and Vanilla, ultimate supreme pizza, Chinese takeout and Cheetos. Unfortunately, according to various people, that would be extremely unhealthy," Jacoby smiled a little darkly at first before returning to the innocent cheer any normal fox pup would have. Nodding quickly, the boy lightly clapped his hands together excitedly. He'd seen the damage, but he wasn't going to say anything about it. It's not like there was much he could say or do anyways. "I can't wait for that. It'll be so much fun and about as far from my computers and games you'll ever get me. Hm? Probably for the werewolf's sake more than any of you. He'll need to know our scents while he's around since he can't see us. Thank you, Mr. Sandman, for keeping that away from my stuff. We should head upstairs for him first though. Gotta let them know I'll be away for a bit too..." That said, he rolled back over to the screen with all the new bubbles popping up every few seconds as if there was some discussion being carried out and typed in a quick message for those on the other end.

Rubbing the side of his nose slightly, Cloud flashed a slight smirk at the elemental. "Mm... It's hurting, but I've had worse," he responded before opening his eyes to expose the brilliant blue-green eyes he'd originally had were now solid black. Sitting back up, he cracked his neck and took a deep breath just for them to switch back. "Ugh. I hate having to draw on that half's power to recover faster. Oh well. At least I'm still conscious thanks to Sheik. Him and Watari are like giant marshmallows although one says the glass is half empty whilst the other says it's half full. They kinda balance each other out in optimism and pessimism." Giving a soft and brief chuckle, he seemed to think about Rissa's words a minute before glancing back at the house. "Depends on who you ask. Seeing as Trevor's got a head wound, Ephraim's down for the night, Mr. Dissociative Identity Disorder isn't up to it at the moment, and I only tapped into enough of the other part of me's energy to keep my vision straightened out, I'd likely say you should request, without actually requesting that is, Lurtz to spar with you. I would wish you all the luck in the world to take him out of commission. Hell, just knock some free will into him and we'd all be happy. Even if you do, no one will be upset about it except him. It's likely eating him up that he failed to count the number of enemies y'all took care of properly. Sheik and Watari, while pretty thin and fragile in appearance, aren't weak... Unless you count them being giant marshmallows. If you add Shayde to the mix, the three of them can take on twelve or thirteen hordes slightly larger than the one we've already faced. After that, Shayde'll be on his own for nine or ten. If you add Trevor, I'd say the four of them could last several weeks with short breaks for snacks, water and resting periods."

Smiling lightly at her response being that they wouldn't be that way for long much less anytime in the future now that they had the tools required for caring for their weapons, Sheik sat down himself and began sharpening what few knives he'd used and had returned by Shayde. "They are pretty pathetic at the moment, but I do believe, strongly, that can be fixed. And I certainly hope you and your companions do keep them up to par. They'll need to be for a while. I can't be certain as to what lies after that though," he murmured softly. Glancing up at the female to see how she was doing though he wasn't sure why seeing as things had settled down again, his face swiftly heated up at seeing her in an old sports bra making him swiftly pull his mask back up and over his face. "I will have to say though, privacy is an iffy topic in this house with our kind of work. It exists, yes, but it might be intruded upon now and then. Accidentally, of course, but as I said, it happens."

The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed
Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen

Don't wanna let you down,
xxxBut I am Hell bound.
Though this is all for you,
xxxDon't wanna hide the truth.
No matter what we breed,
xxxWe still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.
xxxThis is my kingdom come.

 

[Pure T0rture]

Dantes_river

Translation: Don't worry, I won't break him. I'm just curious.

The Lost
Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth

&

Alone
Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Whoa!
My head is on fire but my legs are fine.
After all they are mine.
Lay your clothes down on the floor,
Close the door, hold the phone,
Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us now.

XXXXX“That makes sense, I suppose. She really could use the rest, any ways. She won’t like me for it, but I know a way to shut down our valkyrie genetics for a little while. It’s an emergency spell our grandmother gave me in case either of us contracted Night Plague. It runs in the family, so she wanted us to be able to defend against it while we’re out of contact with her,” he chimed, watching the water bubble briefly at the temperature of his skin. “I should mention, my temperature changed upon joining with the demon so I’m warmer than most, and water doesn’t necessarily like me,” he chimed, watching as a pattern began creeping up his fingers.

Glancing up when he heard Ru- Hayden, he smirked and nodded. “Nu-ți face griji, eu nu-l va rupe. Sunt doar curios,” Came the deeper voice, the firebird fading away. Looking back to Lucian, he grinned and pulled his hands away. “He’s already thanked me enough just by sharing his body with me,” he breathed, hands coating themselves in fire briefly before he took a seat against the wall. Waving the spider monkey off, he looked back to the lycan and smiled softly. “So, you and he seem awfully close.....” he observed, shoving a hand into his coat pocket to pull out a ball and bounce it a few times.

Staring at the paper as Mari continued explaining things, Niji pulled her hair out of her face completely and nodded slowly. “It’s... making some sense. How does one determine the amount of beats? Or is that pretty general across the board?” she asked softly, tail tugging itself around her midsection as she glanced up at him.

Glancing up at Trevor when he told Truth what was going on, the panther let out a low sigh and turned to the girl to see her face slump into a look of total hopelessness. Great. “Truth, there’s twice as many people as last time; he won’t get to you again. Besides, we don’t even know if he’s still running the Laughing Skulls.”

“Of course he is, Kansei. I put him on top and now that I’ve quit, he’s out to get me. He thinks I’m gonna go play for his enemies,” the redhead murmured, squeezing her sister for a second before dropping her arms and sitting on the floor behind the couch. Staring at the ceiling, she let out a breath and rolled her head to look at her dad with half empty eyes. “You’d have to be able to get near him in order to kill him. Even with Ephie that’d be impossible,” she mumbled, looking back up at the ceiling as a flurry of sand came crashing down the stairs into Trevor’s ankles, an empty sleeping potion settled within.

“Nah, he won’t do that. The sand is his body, for lack of a better explanation,” Kuro drawled as he stood and stretched his arms over his head. “If anything, he could probably clean the dust out of them without having to pull the cases apart. And don’t get us started about unhealthy diets. You’re talking to the kids who’ve been surviving off the dollar menu for the better part of seven years,” he hummed, tail reaching out behind him to grab Shiro’s bag for him.

“I can’t wait either! There’s nothing more awesome than being able to say you made the whole project yourself, completely from scratch,” Shiro hummed as he pulled himself up onto his crutches and swung a few times. "Perem’s pretty cool once you get to know him, Jake. His powers are what inspired the molecular converters in my guns,” he drawled, ear twitching slightly at hearing a soft chuckle from the corner. “ a’course, he’s kinda a jerk sometimes too,” he mumbled, frowning when the sand came up behind him and tugged at his tail. “Oi! If you’re gonna be a jerk go pester the songbird and your stupi-“ he started to yell, finding himself flat on the ground as the sand knocked his crutches out from under him. “yeah... I deserved that...” he wheezed, rubbing the back of his head.

“As tempting as it would be to fight him, I really don’t think it’s a good idea right now. I need to let out enough energy to flatten a city block, so I’m probably going to hit up the underground once more,” Rissa breathed, tugging at a few of her curls. “And if I do happen to lose control, I want to be as far from my friends as possible, so I don’t hurt anyone,” she hummed, offering him her hand.

Glancing upwards when she heard a noise, the faerie tilted her head slightly before smiling when her violin was brought back to her. Checking the strings for a moment, she smiled and tucked the instrument behind her back. Looking back down to Cloud, the fae gave a whistle that caused Rissa to frown.

“Don’t invite him with, I just said I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of m- Yes I know the underground is full of people but they’re not my friends,” Rissa breathed, spinning on her heel to stick her tongue out at Lianna. “I don’t even like having to bring you or Bander with when I go,” she frowned, crossing her arms.

“I don’t think any of us here really care about privacy much except for Deception and the blondies, the rest of us are content for the moment just to have a roof over our heads that doesn’t leak when it rains,” she hummed, glancing up for a moment as she began using the whetstone on her blade. “I already had a run in with the two shadow boys coming through my room. I’m used to not really getting any space for myself, so it’s no big deal. Just so long as they knock before entering the bathroom.” She added, smirking briefly before refocusing on her sword again.

'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

The Unknown & The Unspoken
The sandman, The demon, The Goddess

 

[Dantes_river]

Pure T0rture

I wanna hide the truth,xxx
I wanna shelter you,
But with the beast inside,xxx
There’s nowhere we can hide.
No matter what we breed,xxx
We still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.xxx

The Assassins
Sheik, Trevor, Watari,
Lucian, Runealis

&

The Allies
Ephraim, Shayde,
Deception, Kristoff,
Rayne, TX-304 AoD

Giving a brief chuckle, the werewolf shook his head slightly. "Not really. I mean, you're warm, yes, but no warmer than I get with a fever or go into heat. That may just be my opinion though. And next time I give you a check-up, I'll see about using light or finer fire instead of water then. It's just easier to feel the disturbances through the water in a quick check-up and I figured you'd like to get done with this quickly for a first check-up by me. You were quite hesitant about it after all. Should I feel it necessary, I may need you to use it, but for now I was able to get her to rest and start to stabilize a bit," Lucian thrummed smoothly before briefly scrunching up his nose. There was that fire, if not just burnt, smell again. He supposed he'd have to get used to that. At the mention of the Romanian and him being close, his face flushed a bit before he began tapping his fingertips together nervously. That could've been read as two ways after all. He knew what he meant, but the gutter meaning was still in his head making him flush. The way Hayden had reacted to him, however, had been quite significant to him from his earlier life. "I suppose we're close though I'm sure no one will ever get close enough for him to tell all of his secrets to. Either way, I've never felt him get that excited, relieved, hurt and mad, especially never at the same time, just by seeing you. Honestly, he's more like my own little guardian angel of sorts just trying to protect me yet teach me how to survive better whilst still keeping a bunch of stuff about him secret. Whether he's actually lying or just simply opting not to say anything to me, I will always consider him my closest friend, guardian, and someone to admire. Without him, I'd still be stuck around a cave in the mountains with my siblings picking on me, my mother babying me and my father... More than just disappointed about my very existence. He just showed up from way outta left field one day when I hit an all-time low in life. It's like he picked me back up on my feet, dusted me off and cheered me on again by saying everyone falls at some point in life. From then on, we'd meet up and help each other work around our flaws. Being cooped up in one place isn't something he handles too well it seems. And he might say he's not one to try to be like, but I'll fight him tooth and nail on the subject even if it kills me. I've never personally experienced anything bad about him, and sure, it's recorded that he went AWOL and killed the head assassins a few times, but I'm sure he had legitimate reasons for doing so that the brotherhood wouldn't want recorded ever. He's not a bad man, just a little bruised and broken is all... So I'm guessing you were the freaky fire guy the Romanian brat caused a scene with in Damascus that visits nearly every day? There's mention of you in the personal documents of someone called Malik back during the twelfth century. It doesn't go much into detail, just little things like they met at that stupid well again today. What's their deal with that thing? and it's been several months since he showed up last and still he waits for that man. He's fallen asleep on the bench every night in wait, though he remains restless as if expecting him to suddenly appear... You must've had a big impact on him back then if he still waited for you for months after you stopped showing up. Like I said before, so long as Hades isn't worried about you, not to mention your being attached to this poor boy, I don't feel it's necessary for me to worry about your presence. The most I'll worry about is long-term effects your being attached to him may do. Bleeding effects tend to happen more often than not after all not to mention the possibility of overwriting his very existence. Though the latter is an extremely rare occurrence, it's still possible."

Staring at the girl as she stared at the paper, Mari could see the gears turning in her head to keep up with what he was saying. There was likely a few that lost traction here or there, but they seemed to catch back ahold of each other after a few clicks. Scribbling a few fractional images on the staff spaced out evenly with a simple clef before them, he turned the page back towards her just to tap them with the pen. "Good question. You'd have to know the meter, or the beat you'd use when you're, for example, dancing along with the song. The meter of a song is these little numbers resembling a fraction which signals the song’s time signature. The top number tells you how many beats to a measure, or the space of staff in between each bar which requires those lovely ties to be used to extend a note from one measure to the next. As for the bottom number, that tells you the note value for a single beat, the pulse your foot taps along with while listening. This one here has it to where the time signature is 4/4, meaning there are 4 beats per bar and that every quarter note gets one beat. That'd be 1, 2, 3, 4 - 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on and so forth. Even if you had two quarter notes and a half note, you'd still get the four beats in that measure. Then there's the 3/4 time signature here, meaning there are 3 beats per bar and that every quarter note gets one beat therefore you'd get 1, 2, 3 - 1, 2, 3, et cetera. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, a child's song for a simple reference, has a 4/4 time signature," he explained as he shifted the pen along the staff so she could follow what he was saying. Unfortunately, he had to pause for a breath. Boy did explaining this require a lot of talking and notes. Using the pinkie finger to the hand holding the pen to brush his hair out of his face, he then tapped the pen on the little bedside table just for a metronome to rise up out of it. "That's where we also have to add a tempo to create a rhythm. The tempo is how many beats are played per minute. Some may be faster in tempo, like say 200 BPM for example, and others may be slower, like 40 BPM. The faster the BPM, the more notes you have to play in a single second. Terms like Largo, Allegro, and Presto are sometimes seen on sheet music which signify tempos commonly used. Largo is between 40 and 60 BPM, Allegro is between 120 and 168 BPM, and Presto is between 168 and 200 BPM. Technically speaking, from slowest to fastest tempo you'd be going 40 to 60 BPM all the way up to 200 to 208 BPM. For whatever reason, all of these magical tempos have Italian names to them. Musicians usually use this little device called a metronome to help keep tempo for new pieces they're practicing until it becomes second nature to them. Do you need a minute or two to fully absorb what all I've said so far or are you good? This is a lot of information you're trying to take in all at once after all and your gears are likely losing traction in compiling all of it for you to understand."

Letting something of a dark grin slide across his face, Trevor began twirling a knife that seemingly appeared out of thin air in his hand. "Challenge accepted. I'm gonna have so much fun with this hunt," he purred before giving a soft snort and stabbing the blade into the arm of his chair. What had been a dark grin was now a cold gaze set upon his daughter. His mouth opened to say something only for him to change his mind, jaw clenched taut, and kick the vial across the room. Positivity, and honesty, was key to a better relationship with his family. Sometimes his honesty wasn't too positive for anyone, but he was capable of working out the negativity to make it positive... Kind of. "He won't lay a hand on you. Now that you're home, I won't let him even without Ephraim." There. Negative word choice removed and so was 99.6 percent of what all he wanted to say. "Such a stupid gang name anyways. It's like the PKers from Jake's games only less digital... Let's hope he does not disappoint. I've already been disappointed in never getting the chance to spar with the King of Killers. It would've been fun to see which of us was truly the best at what we do, but life truly was unkind in that manner."

Lightly swatting his cousin upside the head, Watari crouched down beside Truth. "Mm... Should I take her to bed? Or should we have Shayde put her to bed?" he murmured softly. Lucian avoided mentioning it apparently and so did Hayden. Why'd they avoid it? Trying to let her maintain her privacy perhaps? But this wasn't something she'd overcome on her own just like Trevor's meltdown a few years back. At least that's how he felt about the issue. The sandman, however, just seemed to be irritating Trevor though he appeared entirely calm altogether. His eyes, body language and aura all seemed at peace albeit relatively frigid. It even had Deception shudder a bit. Well, him and something he wanted to say, but didn't want to say at the same time. "Tyvinida Harashï, henenæ iet vunne." Blinking, Trevor smiled at the bi-colored haired male before nodding slightly, his cheer once more in place. "What say you, Miss Kansei? Should we send her off to bed and a restful sleep? And I apologize for my cousin. He can be rather... Unfriendly at times."

Flicking his tails behind him, the spirit fox hopped up out of his seat and moved over to Shiro to help him up. "No need for him to do that either. And you're talking about the fire crow having some kind of relationship with your sandman, right? I don't care about much other than my brother alongside my stuff and can keep secrets of he wants it that way, but he needs to quit being a butthead. We got the message and there obviously isn't any current danger so he needs to back off unless he intends to play nice. Let's hope he can actually prove to me that he is as you say before I opt to seal him up like a genie in a bottle... That sounded less racist in my head, but now that I've said it, I can only picture him as Aladdin or Jafar from that stupid Disney movie," Jacoby smiled at the other two males in the room. His final comment, however, made him smack a hand to his forehead. That was terrible. How'd he even miss that? What was wrong with him? This was why he preferred his computers rather than actually talking with people. There was so much more confidence behind that screen compared to face-to-face encounters. The thrill of his fantasy world partly coming to life in reality and the irritability of certain issues, however, had managed to make him seem far more confident in his social skills. Now that he'd settled down, unfortunately, he wanted to retreat back to his fantasy world of video games. "I'm going to be in trouble with the PC police now... I do love being able to say I've completed technological projects. Hey. Maybe Cloud can help us make y'all your very own weapons that do what his sword does."

Sighing heavily, Cloud dusted himself off, as little good as it did, just to check that his sword wasn't going anywhere. Satisfied with it, he briefly pointed to the faerie before tapping his thumb to his chest. "I'm with her. You either take Lurtz or me with you, no highway option. Better yet, just take him with you. He's gotta be bored outta his mind playing babysitter all the time, but he's too toy soldier to say anything about it. You lose control, well, I'll leave that to your imagination. Either way, it's better to have a little extra insurance down there for any kind of unknown variable that might pop its ugly little head out from under a rock," he responded before turning to the house and giving a shrill whistle past his thumb and middle finger. In response, the vampiric soldier padded back out the door and simply stood behind the fair haired mechanic who, in turn, slapped him on the back a couple of times. "I've got the kid, Lurtz. You get to play in the Pit with Miss Rissa here. Underground stuff. Keep her out of trouble and don't listen to orders that'll cause trouble. Understand?"

Nodding slightly, the vampire merely responded in a very hollow voice, "Go with Lady Rissa to the Underground in order to expend energy, ignore all but her and keep her from stirring up unnecessary trouble. Correct?" Getting another slap on the back, the soldier seemed to have his answer.

"You got it. Oh. And if you want to join in on the fun, feel free to do just that. Maybe you can even show her a real challenge. What is it? Speak."

"I don't think it'd be appropriate if I hit a woman, fighter or not. Besides, if I hurt her..."

"Just restrain yourself to non-lethal strikes and she'll be fine. And try not breaking her nose like you did for me. My head is killing me even with my demonic blood quick healing it so I can see straight. Don't worry about Jake. If you don't think I have him covered, well there's like six or seven guys with the skills to protect him still in there. There's something else?"

"Lord Allÿwar or the lady of the house may be down there."

"Dude, we don't talk like that anymore, for one. For two, it's still really weird for you to refer to your parents that way."

"Well I do apologize for being raised in a time era that understood manners and proper grammar, you blithering idiot." It took only a second for the hint of irritation to come and go from the vampire, the realization hitting him like a brick to the face. Whilst Lurtz, unfortunately, seemed to be waiting for something precisely like proverbial brick to actually hit him for his slip-up, Cloud merely smiled at it.

"And that, ladies, is an extremely docile version of his truer behavior. This facade of an obedient soldier is all attached to a magical kill-switch in his head placed there by his parents when they forced the change upon him for fear of what lies beneath the surface. I met with it briefly, and I never want to meet it again. It's sad when even the ones meant to love you are afraid of you even when you don't give them the reason to be afraid."

Smiling back at her, only realizing after he'd cleaned up his knives that he had his mask up to hide his embarrassment, the Sheikah nodded slightly. "That's a definite albeit I had to treat Shayde like he was a wounded feral animal when I first found him. This... Sarcastic and irritating attitude of his is the minimum of one long year's hard work on domesticating him. He doesn't mean any harm by it, but it comes across most as hostile or cruel which can get annoying rather quickly. Like several others currently in this house, there is a fear of letting others inside that bubble called trust. Once betrayed by someone you cared deeply for, however, it instills a fear of letting another get that close again. Trevor's personal scar, for example, is Karma. His family's going to forever be in his trust circle, but he's afraid of how Truth and Deception will react to the real him which is why he's kind of held them at arm's length but just within reach that he could protect them. Will they hate who he is? Will they leave again just to never return? The cheer, kind words, and expressions in general are what he's molded himself into being just to create what he had here. It was what he'd dreamt of having since I can remember, something our parents never had," he told the fair haired female sitting across from him. Sliding his knives into the sheaths on his thighs, he pulled his knees to his chest, ankles crossed and fingers laced together before him. "My nieces should already be used to lacking privacy thanks to Ephraim though. He was never good with those of the opposite gender, being raised around only boys as he was, so he failed to understand the difference between here and there until Trevor intervened. Now that he's older, he's a bit wiser to such things only now he freaks out around girls. Funny, isn't it? Sadly, we're all pretty hypocritical when it comes down to secrets. We despise having things kept from us yet keep so many things from others. Even worse is how with Ephraim's upbringing through Wei Fong, not to mention working with Trevor since he was little, it's a natural habit for him to search out every last tiny detail about people, places, or things themselves. His job requires those details to be gathered and his wanting to protect Trevor from a repeat of the event that dragged me all the way to this side of the world has made it to where he will find all of it no matter the cost. He can be childish, like Shayde, but he has always had good intentions at heart."

The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed
Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen

Don't wanna let you down,
xxxBut I am Hell bound.
Though this is all for you,
xxxDon't wanna hide the truth.
No matter what we breed,
xxxWe still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.
xxxThis is my kingdom come.

 

[Pure T0rture]

Dantes_river

echet ver=have faith

The Lost
Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth

&

Alone
Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Whoa!
My head is on fire but my legs are fine.
After all they are mine.
Lay your clothes down on the floor,
Close the door, hold the phone,
Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us now.

XXXXXThe crow's shoulders fell as he listened to the lycan's words, eyes softening. "You must've meant something to them, for you to have been named after that old dog. They don't just give that name out freely, after all," he breathed, rolling the ball in his palms a few times as he thought to himself. So, he really had been waiting all these years. It makes sense, though, you were like an older brother to him for a time. I know. "Yeah, I'm the freaky fire guy. I didn't think he'd wait so long for me after I disappeared, though," he mumbled, the ball stopping for a brief moment.
XXXXXWhen the crow looked up again, he smiled briefly. "I don't think I could actually wipe this kid out if I tried. He's stronger than you all give him credit for," he chuckled, bouncing the ball against the wood a few more times. "Bleeding effects, though, I've seen them before... I'd be wary of spontaneous combustion around me. This isn't my first rodeo with being tied to someone else's body."

XXXXX"Okay, so then something with an 8/8 mark would have eight beats, and then each eighth note gets a beat?" she breathed, tugging a hand through her hair as the color shifted from predominantly purple to vivid teal. Smirking when he commented on it being a lot to take in, she shrugged briefly. "It's not that bad, this is only one subject. I had someone once trying to give me four topics all in the span of an hour because I'd told him I wanted to learn but couldn't afford schooling. He was a freakin' library with a mouth. It took someone trying to hug him from behind to get him to stop, and then they were off chasing each other down the street" she snorted, tugging at the sleeves to the sweatshirt she was wearing.

XXXXXSmirking at the glint in his eyes, Kansei had to hide her chuckle at Trevor saying challenge accepted. It made him sound like some pretentious teenager trying to prove himself to his buddies. Looking over to Watari when he mentioned putting the little ginger to bed, she nodded and walked over. "I'll take care of it. She's probably half drugged already from one of those sleeping potions," she sighed, picking truth up in one arm with ease. Glancing over to Bander a moment, the panther nodded at him and then headed towards the staircase. "Echet ver, Princess." she murmured, smiling at her friend as she carried her to her bedroom.

XXXXX"They're called the laughing skulls because they're known for wearing the skulls of their enemies as masks," Bander drawled, spinning the piece of metal with their emblem in his fingers. "The lower ranks have masks made from teeth of their kills, but the higher ups wear the full face as a mask. Their leader wants Truth's skull. But he also wants to make her suffer. I used to be a member, so if you want info just ask," he breathed, pulling his hair back into a short stub of a ponytail, revealing a red skull with a thick black X crossed through it just under a series of scars that used to be human ears.

XXXXXSighing when he was pulled back up, the albino gave Jacoby a smile and nodded. "Yeah, we're not really supposed to talk about it, but apparently he's like the fire demon's brother or something," he hummed, hiding a chuckle at the genie comment. "don't worry about the comment, he's not gonna hold it against you," he hummed, readjusting himself on the crutches once more. "But we should get going. I need to find that crazy blonde and talk to her after we're done seeing the medic," he hummed, heading towards the door so he could get a headstart.

XXXXXFollowing after his brohter, he paused briefly to look at the fox and raise an eyebrow. "What's so special about Cloud's sword?" he asked softly, readjusting his grip on the duffle bag as he caught the sandman leaving out of the corner of his eye. Someone must've gone to sleep.

XXXXXShoulders drooping when they basically forced someone to go with her, the elemental gave a huff and nodded. "alright, fine, but don't blame me if anyone ends up with a broken arm or something," she grumbled, crossing her arms. Steaming in her own emotions, she just barely caught what Lurtz called his parents and snorted. "We need to get you to loosen up. I don't even call my family by their dinky titles. It's fine you were raised in an era that valued manners, but grammar's changed and so have the rules and expectations of family. If we run into them while we're there, I can always handle them," she smiled softly, placing a hand on the vampire's shoulder.

XXXXXSetting down her sword and the whetstone, Kana found herself listening closely to what he'd said, nodding at his comment about the girls. "They certainly don't know what boundaries are, much less the rest of that stuff. I'd say we're all walking on eggshells with those two and their father. It's only a matter of time before one of them says something to set him off. They don't really understand their effect on others," she sighed, rolling her shoulders until she got a solid pop from the one side. "The two shadow boys seem like they're alright. The conversation I had with them earlier made them seem like they're just searching for their place in the world, which I guess I understand."

'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

The Unknown & The Unspoken
The sandman, The demon, The Goddess

 

[Dantes_river]

Pure T0rture

Bump

I wanna hide the truth,xxx
I wanna shelter you,
But with the beast inside,xxx
There’s nowhere we can hide.
No matter what we breed,xxx
We still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.xxx

The Assassins
Sheik, Trevor, Watari,
Lucian, Runealis

&

The Allies
Ephraim, Shayde,
Deception, Kristoff,
Rayne, TX-304 AoD

As if actually seeing how the other male's eyes softened by his words, the lycan shifted his eyes away from his general direction and laced his fingers together. "Don't give me that look. I'm fine. I've moved past it... Mostly... As for the name, it's not quite as rare among packs as you think. Alphas prefer naming one of their pups, usually the strongest, Lucian so they usually do. Sometimes it's to honor my ancestor and other times it's for the simple reason of embodying the name like how Time supposedly named his daughters after their key skills: truth and deception. Did they embody their names or were their names based on said skills? It's all a matter of perception. Either way, you get used to certain things after a while, burying it like a bone you don't want to share. Point is, you don't let it have power over you. Words are just that: words. They can only hurt you if you let them," Lucian snorted softly, one might even say bitterly, as he began twiddling his thumbs. It was true though. He didn't need his eyes to know how others looked at him when they heard how his pack, his family, looked down on him. He didn't need sight to know how anyone looked at him once they knew he was blind. As for his name, while he was entirely serious for the name being used often in packs, also had a petty reason behind it if anything else. He just didn't want to talk about it, especially now that he already seemed to be feeling sympathy towards him. It wasn't something he needed much less wanted. Even worse thing was, he was also feeling a bit of jealousy at the fire crow having known Hayden before he was even an assassin. The history not among the stashes of documents on the Romanian was something that was avoided like the plague after all. "But yeah, I'm not scared of an itty bit of fire. It'll sting like hell for a week or so, yeah, but I'd heal faster from a burn than from a wound inflicted by silver. And I'm not going to get into a debate over whether you will or won't overwrite him. It's not even a matter of how strong he is 'cause I know he's not super pitiful. He's got strength behind him, I could feel it, but I could also sense that he wears his heart on his sleeve. The point was that it's still a possibility if you're attached to him too long just like the bleeding effect. I'd just keep an eye on how he's holding up with you the longer you're attached to him as a precaution 'cause you'll notice those changes before any medic will. That's all I was saying."

Taking in the girl's question, Mari nodded slightly while still watching her ever so closely. The changing coloration of her hair didn't really bother him seeing as he did it so often to his own hair thus his lack of care at mentioning it. "Correct. I was just making sure since I could see the gears in your head lose traction a few times. It was the same for me when I was just learning how to read and write music," he smiled ever so faintly at the younger girl. The more she talked of this gentleman that'd been teaching her and school, however, he started scratching absentmindedly at his forearm as his gaze shifted to the side. His lips twitched up in a half-smile when she told him of the chase started by a mere hug though and his hand slowed the scratching a bit. "Mm... Where was I again?"

Glancing back at the piece of paper in the hand of the arm he'd been scratching, he frowned slightly when he noticed the bandages hidden beneath an illusion of skin had faded out and were now torn, dark pink scratches with several small red dots forming on the exposed skin already marred by old scars. Crap. Sighing heavily, he set the page of scribbles down just to remove the dingy bandages entirely from his arm then run his fingertips over the scratches to hide them once more. Once hidden again, he picked up the paper and began scribbling on it again. "If it makes any difference, you're almost done learning how to read sheet music... Alright. So now we're onto scales which are made of eight consecutive notes, for example, the C major scale is composed of C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. The interval between the first and last notes of the C major scale is called an octave. Once you have the C major scale down, the other major scales will simply fall into place so it's important for you to practice it. Each note corresponds to the white keys on a keyboard or piano. As the notes ascend the staff, or move right on a keyboard as drawn here, the pitch gets higher. That leaves us these black keys though which leads us to question what exactly they are and what they're meant for. Musically speaking, the whole tones, or steps between the note letters, would limit the sounds we're able to produce on our instruments. The C major scale, for example, has the distance between the C and D notes considered as a whole tone whereas the E and F is a mere half tone. Unlike the C and D keys, the E and F keys don't have that black key between them thus they're only a half step apart. Every major scale will have the same pattern of steps: whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half. Of course there's other scales such as that of minor scales, modal scales, and more which all have their own unique sounds and patterns," he continued while deliberately trying to keep the girl from bringing up the start of fresh wounds created on his arm from something on his mind. "Semitones, or the half steps, give us an infinite variety of sounds to put into musical compositions such as that of a sharp and a flat. A sharp, or the italicized number sign here, means you're going a semitone higher than the note to the right of it whereas a flat, or this italicized lowercase B here, means you're going a semitone lower than the note to the right of it on sheet music. You'll notice here, between the C and E notes, that the sharps and flats used depends on whether you're ascending or descending the keyboard. In the matter of using a guitar, the higher notes are at the bottom in which you're still doing the same thing so long as you have the fretboard, or neck if you want to use that word instead, facing a keyboard. The thinner the string, the higher the pitch though adding finger movement on said strings makes it slightly lower in pitch due to less of the strings vibrations hitting the sound hole here in the body... I just heard myself say it and it sounds so vulgar... Either way, to get back on topic, there's one more note in semitones which is that of the natural, denoted by this weird italicized square-ish shape, that cancels out a sharp or flat within a measure or song. If the note is a sharp or flat, it'll extend throughout the measure unless this natural symbol is present. And finally, you'll need to understand key signatures, in which you already have knowledge of one; the key of C. The C major scale was in the key of C and scales are named after their tonic, the preeminent note within the scale aka the first and last note. So long as you follow the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half pattern, you can start a major scale on any note. Unfortunately, using those other keys outside of the key of C requires those sharps and flats to be used. Since it's a requirement, you'll place aforementioned sharps and flats here, after the clef and before the meter on the sheet music. This tells you to maintain the sharps or flats throughout the music unless it's overwritten by the natural symbol. Soon enough, after you see a bit of the sheet music of other songs, you'll start to recognize the key signatures based on the sharps or flats shown." Phew. That was definitely a lot of explaining for one topic, more than he really cared for by most standards.

"You should laugh if you find his declaration of a challenge being accepted as funny. Unfortunately, he's quite serious. They will die, especially their leader. You'll see soon enough," Watari murmured before standing upright and brushing imaginary dirt from his legs. Hopping over the couch, he ruffled his cousin's hair before crossing his arms behind his back. "Isn't that right, Trevvy?"

"We'll see," Trevor mumbled in response before frowning slightly and setting his jaw against his hand. How disappointing and clichéd. Couldn't they think of something, anything else? "That's their excuse for that joke of a name? That's pitiful. Even worse is how they're practically copying an alley kid that kinda chirps like a cricket and has been arrested three times more than the years he's actually lived. That's not counting the straitjacket, two heavy a** ball-and-chains on his ankles so he couldn't move around as freely as he wanted to, and putting a muzzle on him like he had rabies when he was put into a correctional facility. Some think he's crazy and some think he lives on the most basic of instincts: survival of the fittest. Then there's those who think they can correct his behavior, create some picture perfect citizen, but they're never going to succeed. That's like trying to teach a dog not to bark or a cat not to meow. Mm... Such a disappointment. Skull Crusaders alone would've sounded like less of a joke than Laughing Skulls though just slightly. Why not something dealing with pirates what with the X? What about Animosity's Booty? Was that not originally part of it? They just sound like a small branch from the guild off of Jake's games called Laughing Coffin. Even their emblem looks better than these guys' emblem and theirs was a coffin with a cartoon-y Mr. Potato Head face on it. Even they were a joke and their PKing days turned into a real life witch hunt for all of the strongest gamers that got stuck in the same game as Jake a few years ago. I mean, that's just a red skull with an X on it. When's the hail Hydra salute going to go off? That's what I associate a red skull with. And then the pirate thing with the X. I simply don't see how the logo matches the merchandise. Quit laughing and explain the humor or terroristic threat this is supposed to resemble. All I'm getting is confused."

"Anim-animosity's booty. Pfft! Ahahaha! I'm sorry. That's just so terrible, Trevor. Now you're just mocking them. They could be really bad people that, maybe... Laugh with the skulls of their enemies on out of amusement? I can't. I just can't wrap my head around this either. It's like a bunch of idiots that worship a violent fourteen-year-old we know as Gabishi, the Bloody Grasshopper. And even his title, via other people, is absolutely terrible. Gangs simply need to return to being strictly under that of the true mafioso. We should just ask Giancarlo to deal with these wannabes."

"Nah. He'd send the Mad Dog after 'em and that's like bullying a bunch of disabled children. Hell, I already feel like I'm bullying a bunch of handicapped kids. I feel like a jackass and I haven't even done anything yet except try to figure out the concept of their insignia. What's even remotely linking it to a gang? It's a motherflipping temporary tattoo you get outta those fifty cent dispensers in stores, restaurants and bowling alleys. Does that make me a d**k for not being able to figure it out? Like seriously, what the ******** style="color: green">You're making me feel like a jerk now 'cause I don't get it either. I'm only getting mental images of a red headed pirate searching for their booty. Heh. Animosity's booty. Hahaha!"

"Thank you! I'm not the only one confused here rather than scared or intimidated. I'm only tickled pink 'cause it doesn't make sense. Putting aside the fact that we are confused, talk to me about this leader of theirs that's supposed to be a challenge. Name, age, description, known abilities and talents, IQ estimate. Details. I love, want and need more details about him. And I stand by what I said about him: this guy just keeps sounding more and more like a bad joke I need to kill for the sake of humanity's intelligence rather than their safety. Maybe explaining them in more detail will make them sound like less of a childish prank and more like a challenging gang I need to eradicate from the very fabrics of time." How disappointed Trevor seemed the more he was hearing about this fellow and his band of nuisances made his cousin chuckle in amusement. He could be so picky about details. If too boring for him, he'd likely treat it as a game just for entertainment purposes. Then again, he'd do the same thing just to test the abilities of those that intrigued him too. He was far too relaxed when it came down to actually doing what he was raised to do.

Seeming thoughtful for a moment, the little spirit fox nodded as if it was understood that it was indeed a close relationship between the two and it wasn't to be talked about. Soon after Shiro headed out the door, Jake was following after him with perhaps a little too much pep in his step. As his brother would say, he had too much energy after being cooped up in his room with his games. Some might even say he was hyperactive or had some kind of derivative of ADHD. Giving a cheerful laugh, he made a chopping motion with his hand. "His sword may look like it's a broadsword, and it's usually used like one, but he made it himself out of a minimum of ten smaller swords. With a click of a button, and a little bit of magnesis, they'll all break apart and scatter around a large area so he can either take on a super strong enemy or various enemies. Cloud's always felt inferior to other people though so he always seems depressed and negative, but he usually just puts himself down by saying he's no good or he can't protect anyone, not even himself. It's kinda sad, but no matter how much you argue with him, you can't reason with him. Supposedly, he was really fun-loving and mischievous, but something apparently happened after Acid's dad moved him into their basement followed by him going to this military academy thing. Once he came back, after several years away from both his childhood friends and the academy thing, he just wasn't the same or at least that's what Acid and Hugo said. Now all you ever really see him doing is practicing with his sword or working on his swords, cars and motorcycles," he answered, his cheer seeming to lessen substantially the more he talked about the blonde swordsman. He wished he knew the guy that once was, to see the man that his brother's - friends? Acquaintances? - had once seen him be. "I wish I could help him stop seeing himself as useless, but I'm starting to think that he's never going to see himself in any kind of positive light after whatever happened to him back then. He won't even talk to anyone about it just to vent and get it off his chest. He just bottles up his sorrow and anger and it's like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders."

Seeming to pop up out of nowhere in front of the trio, Hayden tipped his head slightly before pointing at Shiro then tapping his own shoulder. "Would you like me to piggyback you up the staircase? It'd be faster than hopping them on crutches and less strenuous on you," he asked softly, his words a little slow so as to keep the muffled slur out. As before, the Romanian seemed to have reverted to a far more timid version of himself in front of groups of people even if it were only a small group of three.

Nodding slightly in approval, Cloud flashed her a half-smile. "We won't complain about any injuries so long as you don't complain about any injuries," he responded before brushing his blonde hair out of his face. Motioning toward the back door, he set a hand on Lurtz's head. The vampire just stared at the ground in silence only to be tapped by Cloud's hand. "Respond already, Lurtz. Jesus Christ. We've had this talk a million times now. And remove your eyes from the ground. Your feet and the dirt and grass under them are not that interesting."

"I apologize," the vampire murmured softly as he shifted his dark gaze up at those around him only to return it back towards the ground. His simple apology and habit of staring at the ground got Cloud to give a heavy sigh in annoyance, but he otherwise left it as an attempt on the vampire's part. Finally, his eyes shifted to the hand on his shoulder and followed it up to Rissa. "If they're present and things become hostile, you'll refrain from laying a hand on them. You keep your hands off of them, I'll keep their hands off of you. Simple. No highway option."

"You're still going to defend them after they made you their puppet? After everything they've said and done to you? You've admitted considering killing your dad before, but now this? What's going on in your head?"

"Mm... It would be easier to say that I have uncertainties involved with them..."

"Uncertainties? Ugh. Whatever. Fine. He's all yours. I'm going back inside and y'all should do the same." Ruffling Lurtz's hair, Cloud headed back inside making the dark vampire curl his toes inside his boots in silence. He didn't know how these people wanted him to be. What was he supposed to be saying and doing to make them happy? Sure, part of him hated his family and the way he was in general, but the other part reminded him of all the good things that came with being what they wanted him to be. Why was there always someone unhappy with him? What was he supposed to do about it? What was he doing wrong?

Giving a light laugh, Sheik finally slid down his mask and nodded at the fair haired female's response. "Indeed. The tap dancing around eggshells is kind of something our family does better than anyone else or so it seems. Anything can set any of us off at any minute and even if we've already seen it coming, it can strike just as hard as if it were a surprise. Trevor tends to forget, or some might even say he fails to care about it, rather than not knowing though," he told her rather casually though his golden red-orange eyes seemed a bit distant for a moment. Taking a moment to reach over and brush his thumb a few times against the edge of her blade, he seemed to be thinking about her words on the shadow boys. Lifting his gaze back up to her, he smiled and nodded a second time. "I agree. They're not too bad overall, but like all else, they have their flaws. One of those flaws would be how they can act like they're six over something petty. It's understandable though. They're not like us, what with their bodiless voices and temperature fluctuations, and it makes them feel alien even in familiar places with familiar faces. I would honestly like to spend a day in their shoes just so I could get to see what they go through everyday and understand it myself. It's like, maybe if I could experience it myself, I could try helping them when they aren't doing too well. Whether they feel the same or not, however, I couldn't think of any place they could fit in any better than this one here. They're already a part of this large, dysfunctional family of ours, and I wouldn't trade them for anything."

That said, he leaned back on one arm and stretched his legs out to the sides. Sitting still could be such a pain. Standing back up, he dusted himself off from some invisible dirt and turned towards the door. "Don't forget to visit Lucian upstairs for me please. You can finish up here, but I don't want to hear any crying about him hitting or stabbing someone for sneaking up on him. And you can just let everyone else know where those are so they may sharpen their blades as well. Like I said, it'll be necessary for them to maintain their abilities of cutting and killing. Perhaps tomorrow my brother will explain why I say that, but who knows. He's so very Trevvy about things." And with that, he gave Kana a slight wave as if saying he was headed off to bed.

The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed
Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen

Don't wanna let you down,
xxxBut I am Hell bound.
Though this is all for you,
xxxDon't wanna hide the truth.
No matter what we breed,
xxxWe still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.
xxxThis is my kingdom come.

 

[Pure T0rture]

Dantes_river

The Lost
Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth

&

Alone
Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Whoa!
My head is on fire but my legs are fine.
After all they are mine.
Lay your clothes down on the floor,
Close the door, hold the phone,
Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us now.

XXXXX “.... I know the power of words.... Should you find them becoming a bother again, I am always here to listen,” he murmured, glancing to the window before flinching out of the light, a small plume of smoke coming off his hand.

“Verdamt dummkopf!” Sky hissed, shaking his hand as his eyes shifted back to normal. “Sorry, I don’t think the crow’s gonna be talking for a while.... he’s drawing too much attention towards us,” he breathed, shaking his hand to get rid of the sting before flexing it slightly. “He’s right, though. If you ever need someone to talk to, either one of us would be willing to listen,” he sighed, tugging his hand through his hair as he began to fidget with the necklace he wore. “And I’ll keep what you said in mind, about the bleeding effects. And the other things. Although, I’m hoping to be rid of this curse before he has the chance to overwrite me....” he whispered, rubbing a hand across the mark on his face.

Nodding, Niji smiled and tried to follow along, hands twisting the fabric of her sleeves tightly as she looked at all the notes. “I think I’ve got it, now...” she nodded softly, scratching at the ear lying limp against her head. “And to convert the music over to guitar, you just need to know where to place your fingers to produce the correct notes and chords. Thankfully, my big brothers showed me how to do some of that,” she hummed, scratching at her nose before looking around a moment. “... do you smell blood?” she asked softly, wondering if maybe she hadn’t cleaned her hands well enough after helping Mr. Trevor.

Chuckling softly, Bander shook his head and pulled his hair back over the mark, milky-blue eyes shifting over to the staircase a moment to spot a flurry of sand following Kansei back upstairs. Looking back to Trevor, he nodded and looked around a moment, grabbing a scrap of paper from where Shiro had dumped his duffle bag earlier. Taking a moment to sketch a rough map of the city with a procured pencil, he began marking a border of the areas the gang controlled, that ended up encompassing two thirds of the map. “Over the past few years their territory has expanded to cover most of the city, to the point they’ve absorbed other gangs into their own. They’ve got numbers in the thousands, and to keep the former gang leaders appeased, they each get to continue governing their own areas and people, provided they changed colors and pay a protection fee to the leaders,” he chimed, flipping the paper to draw a ranking system with five layers.
“There’s the footmen, who make up the majority of the gang; just your usual people really, nothing special there. Above them are the section leaders, the former leaders of enemy gangs, the runners, and the hitmen. It was structured so that there was always someone available to replace these men, and so that the former leaders didn’t have too much power within the ranks. After them it’s the Warlords and Deathlords, there’s only four of each, and they work as a crew to determine which branches should be doing what. Warlords organize and lead the various sections and annexed gangs, and the Deathlords are either in charge of the drug runners or the hitmen. And just below the head honcho himself are the Generals. They’re basically the elite crew, pulled from the ranks for their skills and abilities. Truth and I both were here. They’re allowed to pull men to run their own schemes and rings on the side, provided they get approval from the boss. Among them are a crooked priest, a human trafficker, and a couple of guys running out of the underground, as well as Atish’s personal guard, three individuals who excel in various forms of fighting. Currently, he’s got a sniper, a martial artist, and a spell caster who are always with him,” the snatch drawled, marking the various ranks and sub ranks in simple notes and scribbles.

Tucking Truth into bed, Kansei gave a hum and nodded towards the sand cloud forming in a corner of the room. “Keep her safe, Perem.” She murmured, heading back downstairs while humming a lullaby under her breath. Stopping at the foot of the stairs to listen to Bander as he explained the ranks to them, she let out a low breath and slid back over to sit beside him. It would be best to wait on explaining their battle strategy so they could answer questions as they went.

“Some people just do-” Shiro started, yelping when Hayden appeared in front of him, almost knocking him backwards on the staircase. “Give a guy some warning when you do that!” he chuckled, tail wrapped tight around his leg as he looked at the Romanian. “Uh... Sure... I guess...” he sighed, passing his crutches to Kuro, who had a s**t eating grin on his face after Shiro yelped like a scared child. “Thanks...?” he mumbled, still trying to recover from being startled.

“Sounds like Cloud has a lot on his mind. I’d love to see that sword of his, though,” Kuro purred, smiling at Jake and winking. “you never know, he may end up going full circle, and becoming that cheery man once more. All you can do is be there for him and help lift him into a better place."

Waving Cloud off, Rissa smiled at Lurtz and nodded towards the city. “c’mon, no need to stress yourself out over it. Just.... do what you normally would...?” she mumbled, glancing to Lianna with wide eyes. At hearing two small tweets from the faerie, she rolled her eyes and smirked slightly. “Lee says if you want, she’ll allow you to act as her guard. I think she’s mostly joking, but it’s hard to tell sometimes. She is part drow, after all,” she mumbled, stretching her arms over her head as she started back to the city.

Nodding at his words, Kana waved to him and smiled softly as she picked up her sword and gave it a test swing before nodding and gathering the materials off the floor to put them away. “Late at night I could hear the crying. I hear it all, trying to fall asleep. When all the love around you is dying, How do you stay so strong? How did you hide it all for so long? How can I take the pain away? How can I save A fallen angel, in the dark? Never thought you'd fall so far.... Fallen angel, close your eyes. I won't let you fall tonight.... Fallen angel. You do it all for my own protection, You make me feel like I'll be okay. Still I have so many questions. How do you stay so strong? How did you hide it all for so long? How can I take the pain away? How can I save, A fallen angel, in the dark? Never thought you'd fall so far, Fallen angel, close your eyes! I won't let you fall tonight! Fallen angel, just let go, You don't have to be alone. Fallen angel, close your eyes, I won't let you fall tonight! I was right beside you when you went to hell and back again. I was right beside you when you went to hell and back again. And I, I couldn't save, a fallen angel... A fallen angel, in the dark. Never thought you'd fall so far. Fallen angel, close your eyes, I won't let you fall tonight. Fallen angel, just let go, You don't have to be alone. Fallen angel, close your eyes, I won't let you fall tonight. Fallen angel~”

'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

The Unknown & The Unspoken
The sandman, The demon, The Goddess

 

[Dantes_river]

Pure T0rture

Translations: “Scuzati-ma” = Excuse me
“Nici o problema” = Not a problem.
“Scuze” = Sorry
“Nu-ți face griji în seara asta, Sky” = Don't worry about tonight, Sky
“Da” = Yes
“O am sub control” = I have it under control

I wanna hide the truth,xxx
I wanna shelter you,
But with the beast inside,xxx
There’s nowhere we can hide.
No matter what we breed,xxx
We still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.xxx

The Assassins
Sheik, Trevor, Watari,
Lucian, Runealis

&

The Allies
Ephraim, Shayde,
Deception, Kristoff,
Rayne, TX-304 AoD

Smiling at the other, Lucian gave a slight nod. "I appreciate the offer from both of you. And I don't mind so long as he remains friendly when he does come out. I'll be even happier if he refrains from upsetting Hades. That's the only thing that will bother me outside of tossing me into the middle of the ocean. I'll be so lost, it won't be funny, and I'd likely become hostile to anyone trying to help me for the simple fact that it pisses me off that I am lost. It's not fun being placed somewhere and having nothing to really work with," he hummed before letting a light flame cover his hands. Shortly after taking Skylar's hand back into his own, the werewolf flashed a quick toothy grin before releasing it again. "There you go. Please try to be careful. I could smell it, as brief as it was. The double edged part of having no sight, your other senses become very acute to the smallest of things to make up for it. I hope you two will be able to separate one day soon without the ramifications of a curse too. It makes working on a patient harder when they've got something else attached to them."

"Bingo," Mari smiled as the girl seemed to have picked up on his explanation of sheet music. She was rather bright and nice, this young girl, but she had suffered much in life. Well, now she had a brighter future to look forward to here. And then she mentioned the scent of blood. Heaving a sigh, he allowed the illusion over the arm he'd been scratching to fade out to expose the many scars smeared a bit by blood and held it out to her. "That's probably what you're picking up on..."

Watching the boy drawing out a rough sketch of the city, Trevor leaned forward in his seat to get a better look at it as Bander talked. The city... Thousands of members... Absorbing gangs... Changing colors... His brow raised slightly though he never interrupted. No. He wanted the nitty gritty details on this group. Watari had copied him so as to get an idea himself. And then came the ranking system. Lips curling up into a grin one might see the Cheshire Cat wearing, the red headed man began tapping his fingertips against his inner leg. "Watari, keep him company for a little while."

"Sure thing. Play nice with them, Trevor."

Waving his cousin off, he tapped the page. "This is all sounding pretty standard. The worst part I'm hearing is that they've got numbers and that's not that bad. It's not that good, but it's not too bad either," he sighed before moving his finger towards the top of the hierarchy. "So who's the head honcho? Atish? What does he/she/it look like? My challenge is killing the captain, not his first mates. If they get in the way, that's a different story. On another note, I will say I've probably screwed over parts of their business in this city though. I can't wrap my head around stupid and that's all I've had to work with for several years. What's worse is that this is the first time I've heard of 'em and I have sources so deep in the underground it ain't funny. Please continue if you've more info." His hand flipped over the page and made a circle around a few portions of the map placed under the supposed rule of the gang when he mentioned ruining some kind of business. Why was this the first time he'd heard of these guys? He'd have to ask Ephraim later. Oh boy did he hope the boy would forgive him for that room... Maybe he should call him too...

"Speaking of Ephraim, he's calmed back down and is in his room now. You're so very welcome for temporarily partially blinding myself, not to mention draining my energy away, for you," Shayde muttered as he removed a pair of sunglasses and tossed them on the coffee table. Rubbing his eyes ever so briefly, he gave a heavy sigh before turning his gaze towards Cloud sitting on the floor some distance away with his sword on his lap though he couldn't really see him too well. "It seems Lurtz and Rissa are heading to the Pit for the night."

"Ooh~ Lady's bringing the vamp. They're gonna be excited about their reigning champ's return."

"I told him to restrain himself so the biggest issue is if the Allÿwar family is getting their dues there or not," Cloud muttered while giving the blade a close examination.

"True. If they happen to be there, things can get ugly. Well, I have faith that he'll bring her home in one piece. Until Ephie wakes up, I'm going to direct this question towards you, Shayde: why have we never heard of the Laughing Skulls?"

"'Cause they're just a bunch of hipsters pretending to be the Italian mafia. Given enough time to take over the whole city, Sam will tear them apart from the inside out."

"Hipsters...? Oh crap! Which moron opened their mouth and told people my greatest weakness is hipsters and emus?!"

"They call themselves emos or scene, whatever the frick that even means, Trev. Those are the greatest weakness to all of us assassins in this house. We're all gonna die of laughter."

"Haha! Alright. I'm trying to be serious, Shayde, so stop kidding around. Continue please, Bander."

Taking a moment, the Romanian scratched his neck before raising a brow at Shiro. "Scuzati-ma," he seemed to question as if unable to catch what he'd said. At seeing the crutches now with Kuro, he turned around and crouched low enough Shiro wouldn't even have to lightly jump onto his back only to slide his arms around the boy's legs and lifted him up whilst standing as soon as Shiro's arms were around his neck. As one might expect, the extra weight had been distributed evenly without any form of discomfort as if he'd done this a million times before. "Nici o problema. Scuze. I was heading the same way anyways so it really isn't a problem. I'll try not jostling you too much." That said, he gave a quick wink and toothy grin before skipping several stairs with little to no jostling whatsoever. At the top, he headed into the room where Lucian was making the werewolf's nose twitch. "Next up, Lulu. This one's Shiro."

"Thanks, Hades. I appreciate it. You feeling any better?"

"Da. At least for now. Nu-ți face griji în seara asta. O am sub control."

"Speaking Romanian again, Hades. And you've been rather chatty with Sky here. You're usually so shy."

"Scuze. It's nothing to worry about though so you may relax," Hayden hummed apologetically as he set the feline down on the other bed in the room. Moving over to the werewolf, he took a breath before lifting the chair with him in it and moved it over to the other bed though it obviously took the blonde off guard seeing as he was gripping the seat of his chair. Once settled down, he set Shiro's hands into Lucian's hands. "Little Jacoby and Kuro will be next through the door. I just helped him get up the stairs."

"Thank you again. You scared me by picking up the chair though."

"Scuze. I just wanted you to be able to focus on the scents, names, and health of those you'll be taking care of medically."

"You spoil me. Nice to meet you individually, Shiro. You may just call me Lulu and I'll do my best to help keep you in tip-top shape. This is just a check-up for now so I can get an idea of what I'm working with and commit your scent to memory."

"Hopefully so. I don't like seeing my friends in pain and misery," the little fox spirit smiled oh so sweetly. At Shiro's response to being surprised by Hayden, not to mention the several awkward seconds of silent confusion from the Romanian including the very language coming from him, Jake started to snicker with a sound one could say they'd hear a fox use to laugh. Unfortunately for him, the Romanian took off with Shiro at a swift pace and he doubted he could keep up with him even without his laptop. How the heck did he skip three stairs at a time with so little effort?! Walking up the stairs with ears flattened, he gave a low huff. "He has really long a** legs and I am so outta shape... Hm? Um... Go on ahead. I'll catch up in a second."

Shoulders dropping slightly, Lurtz's gaze shifted to the side a bit. That was definitely not helpful in the slightest. "Pretend," he echoed softly before starting off towards the city himself though he never moved ahead of the blonde woman. "If she'd like me to be her bodyguard, if only temporarily, all she has to do is say the word. I don't pretend though, and I can't help but stress over issues involving my family. You'll find out why once we get there..."

The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed
Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen

Don't wanna let you down,
xxxBut I am Hell bound.
Though this is all for you,
xxxDon't wanna hide the truth.
No matter what we breed,
xxxWe still are made of greed.
This is my kingdom come.
xxxThis is my kingdom come.

 

[Pure T0rture]

Dantes_river

thank you for making Lulu's words darker~
You would not believe how hard it was to come up with a description for Atish.... in the time we've been rping together, this is the first i've ever had to describe him xD

Translation: I'm still willing to help if you need it, or did your plans for tonight get canceled?

The Lost
Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth

&

Alone
Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

Whoa!
My head is on fire but my legs are fine.
After all they are mine.
Lay your clothes down on the floor,
Close the door, hold the phone,
Show me how no one’s ever gonna stop us now.

XXXXX“The last thing the crow wants is to hurt him. He just wants to make up for all the time he missed,” Sky mumbled, watching as Lucian healed his hand. “uh... thanks...” he mumbled, rubbing a finger across where the burn had been. Tucking his hands into his pockets, he glanced to the side when he mentioned the curse and shrugged. “I don’t see that happening anytime in the near future. The scag who put it on me keeps coming back like a fricking cockroach,” he mumbled, fingers trailing across the mark.

Looking down at the cuts, the kitten gave a sigh and held her hand out, a roll of bandages appearing. “You should probably clean those... but here, you can put something clean on them,” she breathed, smiling softly at him. “Unless you need help?” she added, tipping her head to the side to look at him, dead eye seemingly trained on him as well as her good one.

“Hip..sters?” Kansei questioned, rolling over the back of the couch to sit beside Bander. “I guess they’d fit that category, but I’ve never really known what the actual definition was. There’s so many different kinds,” she drawled, pulling the pen from Bander and flipping the paper so she had space to sketch. Tuning out the rest of the conversation for a minute, the panther began drawing a kid about Truth’s age. “Atish is just a kid, really. He likes to think of himself as king of the city, but really he’s kind of dumb. If it weren’t for Truth he wouldn’t even be in power,” she drawled, closing her eyes in thought for a minute before continuing to sketch. “He’s got the emblem on his right forearm; it’s a laughing skull just like the name. Other tattoos and things would be the sacred geometry pattern on his left shoulder, and the three studs in his right ear. He keeps his hair up in a ponytail for the most part, but it’s got braids and dreads in it; last we saw him it was black with red ends. He’s roughly 6’4” and is 150ish pounds of muscle. He’s smart, but he’s got a short temper. If you can get him away from his guards, your best bet for handling him quickly is to make him angry so he loses focus,” she drawled, handing Trevor the finished drawing after a few minutes.

“As to why you’ve never heard of them before now, Truth made it her mission to keep their entire existence under the radar. She wanted it to look like they were just a bunch of kids pretending they were some big gang. She’s quite the schemer when she has the motivation. She would even go out of her way to work with cops in the area when members got caught,” the wolf drawled, standing and stretching his arms over his head. Arms coming down, the teen scratched at the side of his face and glanced over at Trevor. “Don’t expect this to be easy just ‘cause they’re mostly kids. They were Truth’s pet project for a few years.”

Shiro gave another yelp when he was picked up, tail wrapping around his middle as he was carried in and set down. “uh... thanks....” he mumbled, tugging his knees up under his chin as he watched the trio interact. Why was sky talking to them so easily? These two seemed like they had their own bubble, and then the songbird just clicked so well, what was with that?

Blinking when the lycan was plopped down in front of him, he nodded briefly and looked at the hand on his. “uh... right... I uh... I’m gonna warn you, I’m pretty messed up, so sorry in advance, I guess?” he mumbled, looking away.

Watching him for a moment, Kuro nodded at Jake and smiled. “I’ll see you in the room, then,” he hummed, setting his brother’s crutches over one shoulder and heading up the stairs after the Romanian. Panting when he caught up, the black haired feline put his hands on his knees and started laughing. “That proves it. We’re out of shape. Shiro, you and I are gonna start working out again,” he chuckled, standing to walk further in and set his brother’s crutches by the bed.

“Sunt în continuare dispus să vă ajut dacă aveți nevoie sau ați anulat planurile dvs. pentru seara asta?” Sky asked, placing a hand on Hades’ shoulder to get his attention.

“Okay really, where did the Romanian come from?”

“Don’t know”

"Liar"

“Drop it, guys he’s not gonna tell you....” Krystina mumbled, rolling onto her side for a minute to look at the boys in the room. “And try to be a little quieter, please? You’re always so loud...” she sighed, putting a hand over her eyes. What was that dream? She could blame the boys all she wanted but she knew a nightmare when she had one. There was only so much a sandman could do when other people were sleeping too. And his priority right now was on Truth... she must’ve gone to bed.

“We never said anything about pretending. We just don’t like treating people as if they have no choice in the matter,” Rissa drawled, pulling a series of silver bracelets and armlets out of one of the pockets on her pants. Sliding them on, the power that had been radiating from her minutes ago seemed to condense down into one spot, her eyes flashing blood red for a moment. “But yeah, even if she doesn’t want it, I’d appreciate it if you stayed with Lianna while I’m fighting. I’d hate for her to get lost when she can’t talk. Especially in a place like the underground,” she drawled, head turning to the faerie who crossed her arms and gave a short whistle at her. “Such language, miss! Maybe we ought to clean that mouth out!” the elemental snorted, locking the last silver cuff on her arm before smiling at them both. “C’mon, this’ll be fun!”

'Cause here we are
We are shining stars
We are invincible
We are who we are
On our darkest day
When we’re miles away
Sun will come
We will find our way home

If you're lost and alone
Or you're sinking like a stone.
Carry on.
May your past be the sound
Of your feet upon the ground.
Carry on.

The Unknown & The Unspoken
The sandman, The demon, The Goddess