It's not a big deal. But yeah, I know how hard it is to bring out details for places, people, things... as much as I love details, they hate me.
Translations:: “Planul sa schimbat puțin.” = “The plan has changed a little bit.” “Rahat se întâmplă și, în timp ce este enervant, va trebui să vă reajustați planurile în consecință.” = “s**t happens and, while it's annoying, you'll need to readjust your plans accordingly.” “Ne pare rău, Krystina.” = “Sorry, Krystina.”
I can't take the pain, can't take the hurt. I wish that I could turn back time and say, I love you. I'd do anything to make it work. 'Cause even through the times they tried to hate on us, the only thing that mattered to me was our love. Never will I stop, I'll never get enough.
I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy. Now my angel can't save me. Oh no. I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy, drinking my pain away...
The Assassins Sheik, Trevor, Watari, Lucian, Runealis
&
The Allies Ephraim, Shayde, Deception, Kristoff, Rayne, TX-304 AoD
Scratching his ear ever so briefly, Lucian gave a slight sniff before closing his eyes and concentrating on the male before him. It was all there, and oh so heartbreaking. Furrowing his brow, he opened an eye and shifted its unseeing gaze towards Skylar. "Make up all the time he lost," he echoed in a low voice only to shake the thought off when he shook his head and returned to Shiro in front of him. Finally releasing his hands, he pulled out the same thing he'd given the others alongside a small purple square that just so happened to look like a Starburst. "You're going to need to gain some weight, first off. I'm kind of already placing that diagnostic on almost everyone here due to everyone I've examined thus far having said issue... As for this... This is a prototype of something meant for the specific purpose of aiding with internal deterioration. Whilst my pack doesn't exactly like vampires, we're part of the recovery unit that takes care of a man-made crusinik by the name of Holland Deatri. I was contemplating on whether or not I should have you try it earlier, but... Either way, it should at least help with the pain a little based on what's in it. Given time, however, I'm afraid prosthetics are your best bet... I'm sorry I can't do much for you, and even sorrier that I've given you a prototype medication."
Lightly setting a hand atop the rather sad blonde's head, Hayden glanced briefly at Skylar with a less than bashful gaze before returning to his seemingly timid nature. "Don't get so upset, Lulu. I'm sure he's already come to terms with it seeing as he's already started on making said prosthetics and he appreciates how much care you're putting into his health even if you've just met," he murmured somewhat comfortingly to him. Sniffing the air slightly, his normally dark eyes flashed a brilliant red-orange as he licked his lips. Shaking his head slightly, his eyes returned to their dark coloration. "Sorry, guys. He's actually pretty sensitive about not being able to help people. However, he did choose the life of a combat medic so he should know that sometimes there's nothing you can do. Right?"
"Yeah... So the next one is... Kuro, yes? Who's bleeding? It's not heavy, but there's the scent of blood in the air."
"Yep. I noticed, but I'm not sure. Should I check? Mm? Planul sa schimbat puțin. Rahat se întâmplă și, în timp ce este enervant, va trebui să vă reajustați planurile în consecință. Kuro-tan, your turn. I'm already putting together a dietary and physical regimen to restore all of your health to optimal positions. Once your conditions have improved, I'll have a training regiment to improve your state of being for survival albeit not like ours. You're not assassins nor are you ninjas, but you'll be better off with the civilian training I can give you seeing as it's all pretty basic stuff."
"No, Hades. You're sending off signals again and they're not mild. And don't go overboard with them on their excercise, Hades. I doubt they'll survive the full out version you're creating in your head. I had sixteen years of our kind of training and nearly collapsed after all. Ah... Sorry, Krystina. We didn't mean to wake you." Lucian started off with a warning tone, Runealis frowning slightly as his gaze shifted elsewhere, before returning to his previous calm.
"Right... Ne pare rău, Krystina."
Brushing his hair behind his ear, Kristoff gave the feline a hesitant nod. "Probably should. Don't need my arm getting infected again," he mumbled around chewing on his lip ring. Sighing once again, the feline set his bare feet on the floor and stood up. Might as well get it washed and wrapped back up. Pausing when asked if he needed help, Kristoff blinked then looked back at the girl. He simply stood there for a few long minutes in silence, deliberating whether or not to accept the offer. This resulted in a third, more tired sigh followed by a faint nod. "I'd appreciate your help in wrapping my arms back up once I clean them up a bit. It's a pain without having assistance..."
Ignoring the blood starting to run down his arm to his hand, he continued on his path to the bathroom without bothering to notice Jacoby sitting on the stairwell with his headphones in place. Once there, he flipped on the faucet and stuck his hand under the running water, the other cupping the water to raise over the cuts and rinse the blood off from higher up his arm. Unfortunately, his motions stopped after a few splashes just to stare at the scars that marred his skin. Stupid old habits making him expose them to the girl. Now she knew he was indeed one to be watched for signs of suicidal and homicidal tendencies like Trevor had asked. "Brilliant job there, dingus. Why not just ask to be placed into a straight jacket within a padded cell that seals off my abilities? So stupid," he mumbled softly to himself.
Laughing simultaneously at Kansei's opening remarks, both almost sounding condescending, Trevor laced his fingers together between his knees as Shayde crossed his arms over his chest. "Precisely our point, my dear. There's all these lovely categories - hipsters, emos -" Trevor started only to be interrupted by Shayde saying, "emus." Flicking him on the arm, he continued. "Scene, and the like - but the truth is that they're all subgenres of one singular entity: idiocy. It's stupidity in general that we hate albeit we'll be the first to admit that we're not rocket scientists ourselves. We're just not that level of stupid. And now that you're saying it was my daughter's pet project, I kinda wanna shake her awake and ask what the hell she was making a hipster mafia for since he calls almost everyone a hipster yet you agreed they could be placed under that specific category."
"I bet part of you just died on the inside just hearing that agreement was based on something your little princess was involved in," Shayde smirked earning him another flick on the arm.
"It did. Part of me wants to commit seppuku out in the yard at the moment... Ew. Dreadlocks... Few inches shorter, fifty pounds or so lighter... Retarded skull logo," Trevor sighed heavily before examining the picture whilst muttering small details to himself. Holding it over to Shayde, he raised a brow at him. "Mixed martial arts at best muscular-wise?"
"He's not built to withstand what you do in particular, Trevor, or at least not for an extended period of time. Rage isn't necessarily an advantage all of the time anyways. You say he loses focus, but that simply means he's gained unpredictability. His greatest weakness is his best asset, not counting his bodyguards and numbers. Your description of his intellect, however, is contradictory and that means it's not entirely reliable which leads me to believe you've incomplete data. Ephraim will have better details and new intel to work with than this. Question is, will he still trust Trevor enough to give him that information after keeping a room like that in his house all these years?" Shayde responded with a wave of his hand to dismiss the picture. His words, however, made Trevor visibly cringe and shift his gaze elsewhere in the room.
"I didn't have a choice but to install it in the basement. The brotherhood wouldn't release him to me until I did, and I never really intended to use it. Little did I know that they were right about not being able to contain that part of him without the use of shadow piercing lights. That little fxcker still hops shadow-to-shadow in that form like a frigging speed demon, and his strength goes up tremendously," he grumbled with an oh too obvious pout settled on his face, one hand on a shoulder as he gave it a few rotations as if popping it. He didn't like having to lock Ephraim up like that any more than he liked just owning such a room.
"But you did even though you knew. You cut him off from the shadows just like they did. It makes you no better than them."
"Don't compare me to them! I'm a million times better than they've ever been. Humans shouldn't even be allowed into the art of assassination. It was a Sheikah thing that actually made a difference and now it's being controlled by humans who took a long walk off a short pier. And what choice did I have exactly? Let him rampage around out there and have the high chance of jumping to a city where he could hurt and/or kill civilians? As far as I'm concerned, I kept him from doing that and he'd appreciate not hurting someone because of something beyond his control. He'd be appreciative for not having been hauled off by Wei Fong where he'd sit in one of those rooms in wait of an execution he doesn't deserve."
"I'm not discussing this with you, Trevor. If I'm not careful, you might throw me in there next, and you're not as attached to me as you are him. Either way, I'm heading up to bed so do, think, and feel as you please."
That said, Shayde stood up and left the room with his words obviously leaving Trevor in some kind of internal distress. After a long minute of silence, however, the Sheikah shifted his gaze over to Rayne and his friend sleeping on the end of the couch. "Brat... We don't take full assessments of our opponents until we know more details and actually encounter them, but I do appreciate your concerns. I also appreciate the information you've given me even if it may be outdated and/or incomplete. Every bit counts after all. I should probably check in on Ephie though now that he's calm and out of that room. If anything seems even the slightest bit off for you, let me know immediately. I'm concerned about Rayne's little friend from the labs considering he's the one that triggered Ephie's other self to begin with out of fear and likely his medicine wearing off. According to three sources, he ran out of what I'm assuming is suppressants based on what he did. Then again, there's actually a lot to be concerned about now that the house is lively again. If you can think of anything else that may come in handy later, write it down or tell Cloud there since he has nothing else better to do than sharpening and oiling up his swords, and/or blaming himself for things beyond his control. Whichever is easier for you whilst I work on getting the kids in bed. Time certainly flies and I'm kinda sad we only got through breakfast, a bath, and a minor skirmish that somehow triggered little Ephie in a single day. It makes my day just having the house lively again though."
Flipping up the visor to his headset and sliding it around his neck, Jacoby stood and hopped down several stairs past Shayde before making his way into the living room. "Cloud, answer this," he stated very bluntly making the blonde mechanic/swordsman glance up at the phone in the boy's hand.
"Kurodo here. What happened," he asked into the phone before scratching his cheek with the little finger of the hand holding the phone. Glancing between the group around him and the boy, he gave a simple sound of acknowledgement before making the motion of shooting himself in the head and actually starting up a small conversation, his sentences short and to the point, with the person on the other end. Jacoby was shuffling his feet now and then, ears flattened back, while gripping the bottom of his shirt out of nervousness. When Cloud hung up and held the phone out to him again, the little spirit fox gave a soft whine. "It's alright, Jake. Fox was just hospitalized 'cause he has a fever that set on because of a cold and humans are still... wonky about things like werewolves, kitsune, and spirit animals. They see it on tv and think it'd be cool if they were real, but freak out when confronted by them actually being real. You know how Fox is when it comes to work: it's the only thing his luck hasn't fxcked up so far. Call or text Elrick and have him go pick your brother up before these human doctors do any damage to him or they call animal control to deal with some random wolf with six tails lying in the bed of what was a patient. Alright?"
Giving a slight sniff, Jacoby nodded before flipping down his visor again and tapped away at the invisible keyboard in front of him. Once he finished, he flipped it back up only to hug Cloud then run upstairs. Unfortunately for those that remained, they'd notice that false comfort he'd given the boy was quickly replaced by his previous expression that made it seem like he was feeling down as he returned to his sword.
Furrowing his brow ever so slightly, Lurtz brushed his dark hair to the side before glancing between the two women. Was he failing to comprehend things today? No. He was letting things get to him and it was distracting... maybe? What was wrong with him?! He needed to stop playing friendly and start up on his old routines again before he came to be a complete moron of a wuss. And then he heard it, the sound of a faint mocking chuckle that took him by surprise. Shaking his head slightly, he wrapped his hands gently around their wrists and pulled them along behind him.
"She'll be fine for tonight. You'll know why soon enough," he responded simply before stopping in front of a door to what appeared to be a club. Banging on the door twice, a little door opened up at eye level only for a slew of curse words to follow several clanks. When the door opened, Lurtz pulled the girls in behind him before releasing them and moving on past various small groups loitering around the place. For every person they passed, a gasp and whispers could be heard yet the vampire showed no real concern about it.
Within a short period of time, they had reached their destination and Lurtz merely brushed his hair behind his ear whilst glancing around. Unfortunately for a nearby man, he wasted no time in kicking his legs out from under him and making him face plant on the ground to the side of him without any sign as to why. This action, however, earned a roar of cheer from the surrounding people as he mentally shook off the thoughts of him losing his edge. It had to be this new group not realizing their choices of words might be perceived certain ways and a third party intervening in that previous fight. Amidst the cheers were shouts egging on a fight, and obviously that of telling someone that someone in specific was back at the Pit. Giving a heavy sigh, the vampire shooed a couple of men starting to approach the trio with a brief wave of his hand. "Allow me to tell you why I was hesitant about coming down here. First off, my father created this place to stave off boredom, amuse my mother, and train. And secondly, you may have heard the rumors of there actually being a champion from here called Vallyne. My real name is Vallyne Allÿwar and this... This is my childhood playground. If either of you are to worry, then worry about whether my parents or any of my twelve older sisters are here. They don't like me too much. Surprise..."
The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen
I know they say you're moving on, But I'm begging you, please don't go. No, I don't wanna let you go. Oh no, oh. Yeah, you know that I want you back. Baby, I love you to the max; from here to the moon and back.
Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way this feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta. Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way it feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta.
No quiero que me dejes por favor y te pido pérdon.
Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:54 pm
Dantes_river
So I still don't have a car, but my head's better now.
Translations: بيريم يرسل تحياته، عدرا = Perem sends his regards, Adra Lasă-mă să știu ce și când și voi fi acolo = Just let me know what and when and I'll be there
The Lost Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth
&
Alone Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei
Warm yourself by the fire, son, And the morning will come soon. I'll tell you stories of a better time, In a place that we once knew.
Before we packed our bags, And left all this behind us in the dust, We had a place that we could call home, And a life no one could touch.
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Shiro smiled softly at the lycan, tail flicking slowly behind him. “Thank you for even considering the possibility of saving my legs. Most just write me off as a lost cause right away. I appreciate the thought. And the confirmation that my plans are headed in the right direction,” he breathed, taking the purple starburst thing from him to look at it briefly and sniff it slightly. What even was in it? Was it just medicine or was there more to it than that?
Nodding at his words, the valkyr shifted his position to start pruning his wings. "Lasă-mă să știu ce și când și voi fi acolo" He hummed softly, straightening his feathers slowly before pulling a whetstone out and running it along the silver primary feathers. It was probably only a few who knew his primary feathers were very thin blades, but he liked to make sure they were still sharp.
Setting his brother’s crutches to the side, the younger feline gave a sigh and nodded. “Arright I can roll with that,” he nodded, stepping up beside the bed his brother was on so the lycan didn’t have far to go. Shoving his mechanical hand in his pocket, he tucked a cigarette behind one ear before glancing at the Romanian. “The bleeding one is Mari, the feline we’re not related to. Niji is with him, handling his injuries. I’d say give them space as the kid’s kinda touchy on who knows but doesn’t realize we’ve got informants on both sides who are oh-so-happy to tell us what’s going on,” he sighed, holding up a piece of scratch paper from his pocket. “بيريم يرسل تحياته، عدرا” he murmured softly, smiling when Skylar tapped his chest in response.
“We’d be more than happy to join you in training. As we’ve said to the others in the house, we’d love to get back to our old routines and even improve beyond where we’d been before having to put our work on hiatus,” Shiro hummed, taking his crutches and swinging on htem a few times. “Honestly, I wish we could have continued what we’d been doing in the tower, but it makes sense why Kansei and bander wanted us to stop after hearing that we were being watched,” he sighed, settling himself against a wall and pulling his sketch book back out.
“That didn’t stop some of us, though,” Krystina sighed as she sat up, tugging a hand through her hair before looking at Hades. “I’m assuming that was an apology. There’s no need to say sorry, I wouldn’t have slept much longer anyways. Nightmares are a real peach.” She sighed, both hands coming up to pull at her face. Honestly why did she have to be reminded of that in the first place? There was enough trouble going on with other people, she didn’t need to add to the load.
Following after Mari into the bathroom, the girl nodded lightly. “Please don’t think like that. We’d never do something like that to you. We’re concerned about you, yes, but we’re not going to restrict your freedom,” she murmured softly, tail wrapping itself around her midsection as she waited for him to finish washing his hands. "It may seem strange, but even though we've only just met you, we want to help. Genuinely help. If you'll let us..." she sighed, rocking on her heels.
As if on cue with Shadowheart challenging Kansei's knowledge on the leader of the gang, a pile of sand formed with a parchment resting on top. Written in what looked like a cross between Sanskrit and English were the words, "Given name: Atish, Alias: Wisdom, Age 19, height 6'4", weight 160, trained in judo, and kickboxing, intelligence of a ball of mud. Only really known strategies were stolen from Truth. Known hangouts: Lopsided Bar, Terry's pawn shop, & The Hellhole (drug house in the western most portion of the city). Habits include abusing women, selling drugs, smoking marajuana, gambling, stalking, and bragging. Weaknesses include extreme rage, low IQ, and poor fighting stances. Is afraid of losing his power & has nightmares about clowns. Talk to your daughter about her reasons for making them dress like idiots. -Sandman"there was an evil smiley face next to the comment about nightmares and a small vial with a green liquid in it, the label reading "sleeping potion antidote".
Glancing over to Cloud, Bander rose an eyebrow and tapped him on the shoulder. Pointing after Jacoby, he gave a thumbs up and then a thumbs down to ask if things were okay.
Humming to herself as she finally left the room with the whetstones and weapon care items, Kana began slowly dancing down the hallway to a soft tune, doing flips and cartwheels as she went. "I'm looking to the sky to save me, Looking for a sign of life~ Looking for something help me burn out bright~! I'm looking for a complication, Looking 'cause I'm tired of trying. Make my way back home, When I learn to fly~ high~"
Grinning wide at the news, The energy around Rissa practically crackled through the air with how excited she was. "Oooh this is gonna be so much fun!!" She squealed, arms up in the air. "Cmon you have to fight me!! I've beaten every person they've thrown my way, I'd love an actual challenge for once." She hummed, bouncing on her toes as she spoke.
Seeing Rissa so excited, Liana placed a hand on her shoulder and sighed slowly. Taking the time to look around she used the only real signing she knew and apologized for Rissa's behavior. Dropping her hands, she peered around Lurtz and frowned deeply, pointing to the large thuggish man heading toward them. It looked like he had a beef to settle with someone.
"So yur tha wun tha's s'posed ta be the cham'ion?" He drawled, thick Irish accent making him sound completely drunk -though the smell of him didn't exactly argue that point. Glancing over at the blonde beside him, he growled at her. "Ya best poot yur metal to the test gurly. Ifn e's tha real thing yur in fur a whompin!"
"At least it wouldn't be as boring as fighting you again. Did you drink away all your money again, you thick monkey?" The elemental snapped, her eyes flashing bright crimson.
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
We are the angry and the desperate The hungry, and the cold We're the ones who kept quiet And always did what we were told
But we've been sweating while you slept so calm In the safety of your home We've been pulling out the nails that hold up Everything you've known
Glad you’re doing better. Sorry for taking so long. My brain is being evil by making it impossible to concentrate.
Translations:: “Știu, cioară, acum că ești blocat cu el.” = “I know, crow, now that you’re stuck to him.” “بيرم، يرجى أن نضع في اعتبارنا أن بعض الأسرار هي أن تبقى أسرار. ” = “Perem, please bear in mind that some secrets are to remain secrets.”
I can't take the pain, can't take the hurt. I wish that I could turn back time and say, I love you. I'd do anything to make it work. 'Cause even through the times they tried to hate on us, the only thing that mattered to me was our love. Never will I stop, I'll never get enough.
I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy. Now my angel can't save me. Oh no. I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy, drinking my pain away...
The Assassins Sheik, Trevor, Watari, Lucian, Runealis
&
The Allies Ephraim, Shayde, Deception, Kristoff, Rayne, TX-304 AoD
At being thanked by the feline, Lucian’s face heated up slightly only for him to start waving his hands in front of him a little frantically. “N-not at all! I mean, it’s a doctor’s job to test out all options instead of automatically going to the one most likely to kill someone. It’s bad medical practice for them to write you off as a lost cause without even trying. And even if there are other options, it’s always good to have a backup plan just in case they don’t work. I-it’s really just the basics of being a good doctor,” the werewolf argued before registering the other sounds in the room. An already prosthetic hand? Well, time to take a look at him. “Please just eat the thing already and inform me of anything and everything it seems to be affecting. Like I said, it’s a prototype so I don’t necessarily know what all the side effects will be for you. We’ve never used it on a cat.”
Gently taking Kuro’s hand and, hesitantly, the forearm to the one missing it’s hand, he started focusing on his readings. Unfortunately, the hand mirroring Kuro’s missing hand seemed to start making his pinkie twitch and the claws on that hand come out making Lucian snatch his hand away with a tisk. “Ow. You’ve got some serious nerve damage in that arm. I can fix it albeit I’d think Shayde or Hagen would be better at it than me. You’ll need a better quality base for the prosthesis, same with the actual hand, before I give it anything too extensive though. Other than that, the same malnutrition as the others and a tobacco buildup in the lungs though it’s a minor nuisance at the moment. I can help with those too, but I’m going to have to ask you to cut back on the cigarettes at least a little if you don’t want to quit for say stress reasons. The most good it’s doing is marking your location for me. For now, however, I’m going to give you the same thing I’ve given everyone else and a patch on that nerve for your current hand. Just do understand, the shadow arts I’ve learned from the Silent Shadow Clan deal with frigid temperatures so it might hurt a little.”
Making a few small hand signs, a shadowy hand slid up out of his shadow and wrapped itself around the nub making up the end of Kuro’s arm. Unfortunately, as it was doing a small internal patch up on the nerves in Kuro’s arm, Lucian’s arm started shifting into it’s werewolf form again as the nerves started making his clawed fingers start twitching. Once he let it drop, he made a brief shake of his hand to get his arm back into the human form only to hand him and Shiro the same jerky looking things he’d given the others. “Sorry. The shadow arts like to draw out what’s considered the dark part of their user since it’s dark magic even if it’s meant for healing. I think you should be able to use your current artificial hand entirely for now, but it will short circuit after a bit of time and have parts shut down because of it. Try not to overly stress out your arm until you get a better setup please or else this will be a common occurrence procedure.”
“Then let me handle the use of shadows, Lucian. I don’t have this supposed bright side after all, I’m already working on using the shadow moths on Shiro’s legs, and the little pussycat is already scared of you minus your eyesight. Your inability to see is likely the only reason she interacted with you at the bathhouse, the only thing about you that probably makes her more comfortable around you. Tell Niji she needs to get some sleep. She was with Mari and I didn’t feel it was my place to interrupt their interactions with his defenses going up like they are. He’s not going to come for an examination either. At least that’s what the shadows are saying.” That said from the shadowy male leaning against the doorframe, he turned right on around and dropped through his shadow. “And tell Perem, whomever he is, that there are some things he has no right to tell. Ephraim and I aren’t going to tell anyone your secrets, so he needs to be respectful enough to do the same.”
“I’d appreciate it even if you just reminded me that I’m intimidating to some. Sure thing. Wait. What? Perem? Is that Arabic he was using? I don’t speak Arabic though it seems Shayde understands it... or maybe the shadows do? Hades, do you know Arabic?”
“Arabic? I can read and speak it, with some trouble mind you, but I’m still working on reading lips with it. Știu, cioară, acum că ești blocat cu el. بيرم، يرجى أن نضع في اعتبارنا أن بعض الأسرار هي أن تبقى أسرار. There. Hopefully he got the message and didn’t get confused seeing as I kinda confused myself. Any ways, that’s good to know. I’ll see what I can do without trying to give y’all a heart attack,” Hayden smiled, his words a little hesitant if not questioning when he spoke in Arabic and fingers tapping nervously together. Glancing at Krystina, he gave her a timid smile. “It’s not surprising that there are those amongst you that kept at their work. Unfortunately, the health conditions of your group need to be improved before y’all may continue your work. In fact, we need to improve everyone’s current condition to actually get them up to working conditions. Fortunately, you have us and we’ll get ya back into tip-top shape. But yes, that was an apology. Sorry for my Romanian slipping out. I’m a little nervous about being out in the open, but Lulu’s my rock so I’ll be alright after a while. Either way, we were kinda loud whether you were already awake or not. We should’ve paid more attention.”
“In other words, we should’ve been more courteous.” As soon as that was said, little Jacoby slumped through the doors and flopped down on the bed next to Shiro face first with his ears slicked back and his chest slightly heaving in what could only be pants.
“So... Outta... Shape,” he breathed, before he was picked up by the back of the shirt and resettled on the bed sitting upright. “I think I’m gonna hurl.”
“Not on me please. You sound exhausted, but I can’t really hear much other than that and echoes of nails clicking in the back of my head. There’s only a hint of... nature around you too albeit I also smell... oil? That’s both nostalgic and weird.”
“Not really. I’m a spirit fox that’s lived in a den for most of my life so I didn’t really make much impact on the living world, not that I could even if I wanted to. The nails clicking are coming from my paws in the spirit realm, or the Between as some call it. In this human form, I can interact with the living better than acting as a poltergeist in my fox form. I’m also an avid tinkerer with mechanics so I don’t doubt the oil smell. If not for the bath and my brushing my teeth before coming over, you’d probably be smelling Cheetos, Mug root beer, orange chicken, egg rolls, and fried rice on me too.”
“Ah. So you’re the kind we can only pick up on vaguely due to our being sensitive to the spirit realm, but one that actually interacts with the living. My mom said it’d be hard to tell if a spirit animal passed by us, but I didn’t think I’d have one as a patient. Anyways, just sit up straight and take a few deep breaths to settle your pulse down. Good. Now, paws please.” Letting Jacoby take his hands, Lucian gave a slight shiver before his own ears popped up and started twitching, fur bristling simply by the contact. “Jesus Christ. That’s a serious case of the heebie jeebies. I didn’t think taking a peek at a spirit animal would do that. It’s no wonder you’re out of breath though. You’re going to need an intense dietary regimen, not to mention physical exercise to build up muscle mass, just to gain weight. Did you starve yourself for a couple years? Right now, you’d be best used as a toothpick. Your immune system is beautiful though.”
“Eh heh. More like I got trapped inside of a virtual reality game system for a year-and-a-half so I was unable to actually eat. As for the muscles, well, the most physical activity I’ve ever actually done is collecting and building my little gadgets and gizmos... even though Fox says I’m supposed to spend at least an hour away from my computer to do little things like jumping-jacks, jump-rope, or something. I mostly watch Cloud, Cirdan, and Lurtz doing their daily activities in that time whilst thinking they’re beasts. I can’t even dream of doing anything close to what they do. And Fox is my elder brother. He’s part of why I’m so into the living world too. He was banished from the den before I was even born because he was cursed with misfortune.“
“Nine-tailed spirit fox? And that’s no excuse as to why you aren’t working out.”
“Seven-tailed spirit wolf that removed one of his tails. They make it seem easy even when it’s really hard. It makes me feel... inadequate? It puts me down in other words.”
“Ooh. That’s worse. Don’t worry about what they’re doing. You just need to focus on you. I did and now I’m scaring kittens even though I can’t see squat.”
“Precisely. He suffers so much from it thus why I started living with him. Unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of time together so most of my days are spent online or hanging out with Cirdan, Lurtz, Cloud, Elrick, Trevor, and Ross and Seda. Sometimes we even pay a visit to the library with Tex and Enaia too. They’re super smart. Eh. She’s in the Terrible Twos stage. That’s where we are still playing pranks yet we know all about the adult games that created us.”
“Well, maybe you should tell your brother you’d like a little more time with him. For now, however, I want you to eat this, brush your teeth, and head straight to bed. We’re going to have to get you started on some of your excercising right away. It’s unhealthy for you not to have some form of activity and being this underweight in your life. Your growth is gonna be stunted if we don’t hop on this now. I never had that stage so I don’t know what you’re talking about, but whatever. It kinda makes sense.”
“I don’t wanna be short forever! Thanks for helping, big loup garoux!”
“My name’s Lulu, kiddo. Now then, get going so we can get an early start tomorrow... Kids. Well, at least that got his attention. Who’s next?”
Glancing at the girl, Mari gave her a soft smile before shaking his head. “Wish I could. And it wouldn’t be the first time if’n y’all did. The only difference is,“ he started to respond only to stop and start tapping his fist against the sink with a quick glance at himself in the mirror. After closing his eyes and shaking his head briefly to dismiss the darker thoughts in his head, he gave his arm a few quick splashes before sitting down on the floor with his back against the wall as he dried around the wound with small pats of a wash cloth. Might as well get down on her level if she was gonna help him. Tapping the floor with a nail, a small and rusty little metal box popped up out of the floor in which he simply opened it to show it only had, unfortunately, a small knife rigged to be like that of a scalpel, a spool of black string, an awkwardly curved needle that was obviously just a normal sewing needle that had been heated up and bent using pliers, a few lighters that had seen better days, and ace wrap bandages inside. “Doesn’t matter. It’s not important. Nothing I ever really say or do is all that important actually... I thought I had a little bottle of alcohol in there... Oh well. Either way, all clean. Let’s get these bad boys under wraps so they’re not out in the open. It’s not something I like to advertise after all. Besides, you need to get a checkup by the big ol’ puppy or his freaky Romanian buddy that makes my Agent Orange act up.”
Having skimmed the page after it formed up, his other hand sliding the vial into a small knife pouch at the base of his spine, Trevor’s expression darkened slightly. “Stupid alias for a stupid man. No surprise though. Abusing women is a pastime of his, huh? Yeah. This guy’s as good as dead when I get to him. Thank you again. Don’t forget to get a checkup by Lucian upstairs and go to bed,” he muttered as he started for the stairs himself. Passing by the room Lulu was in, he hesitated slightly by the bathroom at seeing Mari and Niji, but the male feline seemed to have noticed and quickly shoved the door closed with his foot. What was he supposed to do with him if he was always on edge like that? At least he was letting Niji near. Maybe she could help him settle down a bit. For now, however, he’d leave it be and check on Ephraim and Truth. Deception was watching Cloud as if trying to figure him out after all.
At seeing the informant trying to leave his room with his hand against the wall, he gave a heavy sigh before dragging him back into his room and over to his bed. After sitting on the bed, he made the younger male lay back down as he started brushing his fingers through his metallic hair and softly humming something of a lullaby to get him to fall back to sleep. The boy didn’t argue or try to fight him on the issue either, his breathing slowing down shortly after having laid back down. And now it was just getting everyone else to bed. Maybe he could knock them all out? Too harsh... Leaving the shadow user asleep in his bed, the Sheikah went to his daughters’ room to check in on Truth. Not seeing anything bad, he gently sat down on the edge of her bed and pressed a kiss to her forehead. His little princesses were finally home again. “Please don’t disappear on me again, princess. I might actually break entirely if you and your sister do. We’re gonna hafta talk about your uncle though, just the three of us. That means to quit spying on us, sandman. You may keep a perimeter if you’d like to be a protector to my little girls and their friends, and even aid the restless sleepers, but you will respect our privacy. No highway option. I know how to find you after all, but I’m being nice only because you’re playing nice with her. Do understand that at the very least.”
Glancing up from his sword when tapped, Cloud’s gaze followed Bander’s hand gestures. After a few seconds, the question seemed to click and he gave a thumbs up. “Jake’s brother will be fine. Honest. He’s just really bad at taking his own health into account,” he responded rather calmly before a faint click could be heard and a section of his sword popped out. Removing the piece, he began his careful examination of it. “Well, it might actually be a smidge worse than I explained it to Jake, but he will be alright.”
Clicking the piece back into place and sliding over to the paper with the map, he added, “Count me in with this Atish guy too. I’m not good at much, but I can at least stall some wannabe gangsters for Trevor. From the areas you’ve marked territory-wise, these Laughing Dorkwads are avoiding this part of town and these streets in the redlight district in particular and I’m not surprised by it. They’re not places even numbers can help you obtain. Sam lives in this area, and the Bloody Grasshopper has been seen frequenting this area though no one knows why.” That said, he gave a slight shrug. “The kid doesn’t play nice, or at least not to anyone but the bartender here and the prostitutes here. The bartender and his wife are the same way if not worse. You cross them, you might want to have a tombstone already carved out with your name and final message meant for the world to remember you by.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Practically feeling the air buzzing with excitement, Lurtz almost wanted to turn towards a wall and smack his head against it. Almost. When the blonde spoke of things being fun, he merely shrugged it off. And then she said he had to fight her. Making a quick glance around, he was about to shush her when the large Irishman approached. Crap. Now word was going to be spread around the Pit about there being a challenger for him. Growing annoyed of the man, he swiftly hefted the man off of the floor by the neck and shoved him against a nearby support column without the slightest problem. “Your obnoxiousness is worse than your ancestor’s was, but his eyes were less slanted and much darker. He must’ve had more fight to him than you ‘cause you’re as brittle as a snowflake. Makes sense though what with how soft you are in the middle. If I poked you in the stomach, would you laugh like the Pillsbury Dough Boy? Lose some weight as it’s unhealthy for a man of beyond your age,“ the dark haired male stated coolly, his dark eyes flashing a solid black ever so briefly alongside some kind of dark presence that just seemed to ooze off of him in thick waves. Dropping the man back down to the floor, he gave a heavy sigh before crossing his arms over his chest and actually making eye contact with Rissa. “Of course that’s what you want... We’ll have to fight in the colosseum sixteen floors below us if you’re serious, and I’ll have to retrieve something from the announcer from when I was younger. Following the rules of fighting me automatically set into play down here, I’m unable to fight anyone without them. Problem is, I don’t know if they’ll still fit much less if they need to be strengthened to where it’ll keep me in check. Just stay on my heels.”
Heaving a sigh, he turned on his heel and started back through the crowd that seemed to split like the Red Sea upon his approach. Stopping in front of a four foot tall man, he tapped on one of his wrists. “Where are they, Nimoi? And are they here?”
“Baa Baa! I-I mean, young Vallyne. It’s been so long since we’ve had the honor of having you down here-“ the man started off excitedly, his words practically stumbling over themselves after the first annoyed glare of being called Baa Baa. Sliding a box with much difficulty out of a cabinet, he began nodding vigorously as he came to realize that the vampire was unamused by his praise. “All twelve of your sisters, your lovely mother, and your father are in attendance tonight. They all have their own contestants tonight since you were no longer at home so... who are you with then?”
“Lovely. All fourteen of them are visiting. Simply put, I’m currently with my challenger and her companion, both friends of my current master. I’m under their orders until we return to him, and she wished for me to fight her. Much appreciated,” he responded rather blandly as he flicked open the case to show nine black bands within. Sliding his feet out of his boots, the vampire began sliding a couple of bands around each ankle though they seemed to fit a little snug. The same thing happened with the bands around his neck, upper arms and wrists, but he didn’t complain. After flexing his hands a couple of times, he gave an even heavier sigh. “Do me a favor please and retrieve my mother, Nimoi. They’re in need of adjustments, but I suspected as much seeing as I’m not a child anymore.”
Receiving a salute and words of obedience, the smaller man ran off as fast as his little legs could carry him. Glancing back at the elemental and fey, his arms shifted to where his hands rested at his lower back. “I suppose you two will get to meet the kindest member of my family, Lady Tahlia Allÿwar. Whether or not my sisters and/or father follow her, I cannot say for sure. It’s a fifty-fifty chance based on previous statistics.”
The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen
I know they say you're moving on, But I'm begging you, please don't go. No, I don't wanna let you go. Oh no, oh. Yeah, you know that I want you back. Baby, I love you to the max; from here to the moon and back.
Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way this feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta. Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way it feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta.
No quiero que me dejes por favor y te pido pérdon.
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 10:10 pm
Dantes_river
The Lost Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth
&
Alone Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei
Warm yourself by the fire, son, And the morning will come soon. I'll tell you stories of a better time, In a place that we once knew.
Before we packed our bags, And left all this behind us in the dust, We had a place that we could call home, And a life no one could touch.
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
“Still though, I do appreciate it,” Shiro purred, popping the purple thing in his mouth only to make a face. “Damn that’s bitter!” He grimaced, sticking out his tongue and shaking his head. Chuckling afterward, he leaned back and closed his eyes for a minute. “Like I said, it just confirms for me that I was headed down the right path in the first place,” he hummed, opening his eyes to watch the lycan’s reaction to Kuro’s arm. So that would have to go, too. That was a pain. The base was always the difficult part.
Watching Lulu’s arm, the raven-haired feline let out a low sigh. “Sorry ‘bout your hand, I can imagine the shock you got...” he mumbled, tucking the jerky thing he’d been handed into a pocket. “I mostly cope with the nerve damage by smoking. My cigarettes are laced with just enough opiates to keep me numb. Only downside is I can’t always tell when I’m injured,” he shrugged, putting his hand back on before going to nibble on the jerky.
“Jake, c’mere and take a seat with me, I wanted your opinion on some of my designs anyways and it’ll give you a chance to catch your breath,” the elder cat called with a smile, making room next to him for the fox.
“Don’t worry, he knows not to tell secrets that aren’t his. He only spoke up this one time to keep us from going looking for someone who wants to keep his issues private,” Skylar hummed, spinning some sand in a whirlwind before it fell to the ground, rushing out the door. “I’ve let the kitten know she’s to come here when she’s done and then head to bed afterward,” he explained, rolling his shoulders.
Nodding, the girl gave a hum and sat up, pulling her hair out of her face. “I told you boys already, it’s fine. I’m far too used to being woken up,” she purred, tugging her legs up under her chin as she began humming.”Your odds are slim, The walls are thin, cavin’ in, But there is still a way, you see - In just 1 mere percent of chance there’s possibility I won’t sit back, and accept the hand we are dealt, A fate that’s thrown out by someone else. There is still a future I can see, One I hope you’ll share with me””Bring it on ‘cause I’m just gonna grow up in the battle EY! Pushin’ (past) the limit – I’m still burnin’ with fire, An’ for our future, I am fightin’I gotta drown this nightmareAnd ain’t nobody gonna stop me! Forget the past – ‘cause we’re livin’ in the present. I ain’t scared of my past – and now in fact, Forever I’m screaming out for my pride!Now I never wanna see you cry, I will be screaming till you find the way~I’m never falling down, I will be soaring straight on through my destiny!Now I gotta keep your smile bright, I’ll give my everything to find a way~I gotta burn off the pain, for you and me, So now the rest of me can rest in peace Now I’ll Strike Back! Inside my mind, I pound the wall one more time, With all of the bitter pain I feel. I don’t care what my chances are, I will never run in fear! Today the rain will continue on And it’s all I know but never will wear me down. Because there’s still a future I can see~ There’s still future I can see! One I hope you’ll share with me~”
Taking the bandages, the kitten did her best to focus on wrapping his cuts, glancing up at his words. “Yknow, there’s someone out there who might think the world of you. I know there’s at least three people in this house who honestly appreciate and listen to the things you have to say, so don’t be afraid to voice yourself,” she murmured softly, tail swaying behind her as her ear twitched toward where the singing came from. Setting down the one arm as she finished tying off the bandage, she shifted to the other, her scarred eye moving almost to look behind her. “Thank you, Perry, I’ll head there when I’m done here,” she whispered, tail flicking a cloud of dust and sand out the bottom of the door.
“My name’s Perem,” There was a soft chuckle from a corner of the room, a cloud of sand forming into a young man in his twenties crouched beside the pile of stuffed animals and dolls. “I have no intention of invading anyone’s personal space or leaking secrets, though I am bound to your daughter. She and I made a deal that I would be able to feed on her dreams if I kept the spirit realm at bay for her and kept tabs on other things. I also tend to keep tabs on the others in exchange for menial tasks. Consider me something of a guardian, I suppose,” he purred, gold eyes flicking to the redhead’s sleeping form. “Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier, but I don’t exactly like the light in this form. My body is unable to leave the realm it’s in at the moment.”
Nodding, the wolf shoved his hands in his pockets. “Sounds like two people I’d love to be acquainted with if given the chance,” he murmured, smirking briefly. “And we’d appreciate any help you’re willing to offer.”
=~=~=~=
Giving something of a purr, the blonde tugged her hair out of its typical ponytail, braiding it tight and pinning it up against her head. “That’s fine~ I’m required to wear a few limiters, too, though it would be fun to go all out. I doubt anyone would be happy with me if I did, though...."
Glancing around Lurtz’s shoulder, the elemental gave a short nod. “He was sent with me to make sure I didn’t go overboard this time. ‘Cause someone was complaining about dragging my arse back after I drain all my energy.” She hummed, glancing pointedly at the faerie who gave her the bird. “Why I should say, miss, that’s no way for a lady of your standing to behave!” She teased, giggling and she nudged the halfbreed’s shoulder.
Straightening up at the mention of meeting his family, the blonde blinked and nodded. “Uh... okay...” she murmured, scratching at her neck before glancing to Liana again. Would they need to apologize for stomping a hole in the floor? Or any of the other problems they’d caused? Or would his parents even know who she was?
We are the angry and the desperate The hungry, and the cold We're the ones who kept quiet And always did what we were told
But we've been sweating while you slept so calm In the safety of your home We've been pulling out the nails that hold up Everything you've known
The Unknown & The Unspoken The sandman,The demon,The Goddess
I can't take the pain, can't take the hurt. I wish that I could turn back time and say, I love you. I'd do anything to make it work. 'Cause even through the times they tried to hate on us, the only thing that mattered to me was our love. Never will I stop, I'll never get enough.
I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy. Now my angel can't save me. Oh no. I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy, drinking my pain away...
The Assassins Sheik, Trevor, Watari, Lucian, Runealis
&
The Allies Ephraim, Shayde, Deception, Kristoff, Rayne, TX-304 AoD
Tipping his head slightly, fair hair resettling with the slight movement, Lucian took a moment before removing a small notepad from his earring. After a few moments of brushing his fingers over the pages of dots, he finally stopped on an empty page and let a nail extend just to start putting more of the dots into it. “Duly noted that it has been defined as bitter in terms of flavor. Please remember that I did state this was an experimental prescription grade drug and you are to alert me of any sudden dizziness, trouble breathing, abdominal pains, nausea, hives, or whatever else decides to pop up as a side effect whether it be harmless purple polka dots or not. Just keep up the good fight, kitty, or I won’t be able to chase you around the yard,” he responded as he finally snapped the book shut and let it vanish once again. Leaning back in his chair whilst flexing his hand, a teasing smile tugging on the corner of his lips, the werewolf gave a slight sniff. “Don’t worry about the hand thing. I’ve endured worse, specifically my own injuries, from my brothers. You just need that new base for a prosthetic, and probably an actual doctor that can set it into place, and then we can get that nerve damage fixed permanently. Smart as your brother is, Kuro, it might be better for a professional to do it after all and Hades and I are only combat medics. Simply put, our version of surgery is very crude and we don’t really have experience with prosthetics.”
“Yeah. That’s gonna have to come to a screeching halt. Hand ‘em over and I’ll get that pain under control without the use of an opiate. Trust me,” the Romanian started off seriously, his hand held out for the cigarettes. At the end, however, he flashed the feline a gentle, knowing smile. Lucian had shifted in his seat so he was leaning forwards, elbows against his knees and face in his palms. Oh Lord. That’s what that was. He hadn’t been certain, but now he knew.
“Now I know what that buzz was. I’m gonna end up with a secondhand high plus an addiction from intruding your system. He’s gonna remedy that by cutting you off cold turkey, buddy boy. Don’t bother fighting us on the issue. Hades may get nervous and shy around new people, the exception being Sky for some reason, but he’s as stubborn as an ox. Even worse, he’ll choke you out until you pass out just to keep you from smoking if you refuse and then you’ll never feel the pain since there won’t be enough oxygen in your brain to register it.”
Climbing up onto the bed beside Shiro, Jacoby nodded slightly in acknowledgment. “So long as I’m not up all night discussing this with you. I don’t wanna be this short forever and Lulu says sleep, excercise, and a proper diet are essential in a child’s growth and development. Unfortunately, that means I’m gonna hafta shift around time for my gaming sessions and projects as well. Everyone’s gonna think Fox is cutting my hours again like when he was in school,” the little spirit fox almost seemed to pout before flicking out a small visor for just the one eye from his headset and making a few brief taps of his fingers just in the air at chest level. Once done, he flicked the lens back down and smiled at Shiro. “There we go. I told them I’m working on a big project with my brother’s mechanical friend, sent all of my characters to safe zones, and logged out of my non-VR games. I didn’t get the chance to play one of those today. Pity. Alrighty. So let us see these designs of yours. We’re going to have to keep measurements of where the base on his arm and the bases of your legs will be located what with the weight and muscle y’all will gain under their instructions too. We don’t want half-assed work.”
Blinking and turning his gaze back to Sky when Lucian scribbled and tapped something on his arm, he gave the fair haired male a wide grin. “Then he’s bad at being vague. He could’ve just said it’s a minor wound and nothing to be worried about. Names weren’t necessary. Thank you guys for sending word to her though. And it’s still unacceptable behavior, Miss Krystina, whether you’re used to it or not.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Giving a soft sound that almost sounded like a snort, Kristoff shook his head once again. “Don’t worry your pretty li’l head about me, Niji-chan. I’ll be alright,” he smiled faintly, his voice somewhat hesitant whilst his gaze shifted to the distant wall. Alright. That was a bad lie and an obvious one at that, but part of him wanted to believe it was true. He wanted to be alright even when alone, but it always seemed so far out of reach. “It’s not that I’m afraid of voicing myself either. My origin story’s not too original, but just like talking about the original me, it makes me uncomfortable speaking about it. And everything I can say outside of that uncomfortable zone of mine, you can get from just about anyone else... Especially a certain bartender in this city that almost no one wants to fxck with. Point is, I’m not that interesting and I don’t have any particular knowledge others don’t already have or can gather. The most I’ve done with my life is continuously make bad decisions and making them often even if it’s one I’ve already made. I’m stupid like that.” Leaning forwards slightly when she got done with bandaging his arms, he gave her a quick tap on the nose with the tip of his finger. “Arigatō, Niji-chan. Now, be a good girl and go see the big ol’ koinu and his jolly green giant friend. Alright? I don’t want your brilliance being contaminated by my stupidity. It’s contagious after all.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Turning his gaze towards the other, Trevor gave him a smile in response. “It’s good you understand my words quite clearly though. And believe me, Perry, you’re not alone on the topic of light. Either way, I’ve given you my warning of leaving our personal matters between us as a courtesy and now I will hold no regrets ending you permanently if you become disrespectful of personal boundaries. Will she get mad about me doing it? Most likely. Will that bother me? Most definitely. Will she get over it? Perhaps one day she will. Will I regret it? Hell no. Please don’t take it personal either. I’d do the same thing to anyone else that steps foot inside matters outside of their jurisdiction. Besides, you’ve been making my Agent Orange act up all day trying to be so nonchalant. Word of advice, don’t do that. It makes you look suspicious to people that kill others for a living. Same goes with the disembodied chuckles. That just sends my Agent Orange into a frenzy,” he seemed hum oh too cheerfully though he was sure to keep his voice down so as not to disturb the peaceful setting around them. Standing back up, he set a fist to his hip and gave the sandman a thumbs up. “I appreciate what you’re doing, honest, but I’m... a little more than a smidge paranoid about things on that side. I almost lost my body to a dark entity as a child myself after all. Keep playing nice with them and let us have our privacy, and I’ll do the same to you. Ephraim and Shayde will likely gather intel on all of you as is in their nature, but they’ll stay quiet since I told them I wanna do things the right way; learn about y’all over time and through trust. And I will apologize for words that were almost said earlier in reference to you. Quite honestly, I may have called Shayde the same thing shortly after he came here so again, it’s nothing personal. I’ve even made references to the song Walk Like An Egyptian by the Bangles to him at least four times. I’ve just had a lot of bad experiences with people from that region so it comes out like word vomit.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
“Sam is someone I can introduce you to though it might be a little easier when I’m not playing babysitter to a preteen spirit fox unable to part with his game systems and an online gambling addiction. Fox makes him spend every Sunday evening at an Addicts Anonymous online rehab chat room for the latter. As for the grasshopper with the creepy a** snicker, you’re on your own with that. I don’t want any part of that,” Cloud smiled at the wolf ever so slightly before nodding. “It’s not like I’m super busy or anything, and Lord knows I’m not all that bright not to mention that I can hardly tap into my demonic blood. I mostly tinker around with my sword and motorcycle all day, occasionally fixing other people’s vehicles whether it be rotating the tires, changing the oil, or dealing with the check engine lights. My mechanics are all I’m really good at after all, unless you count my resilience in a fight a skill.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
“My father would rather we not tear the whole place down around our ears so some restraint is better than none,” Lurtz responded curtly before glancing around the place briefly. It’d been so long since he’d been down here, since he’d even seen his family. He wasn’t exactly sure how he should feel about being back though there was an excited buzz he could feel from their surroundings. The crowd was already getting pumped up over this yet to happen fight.
It didn’t take long for the short man called Nimoi to return, his eyes shifting nervously between the girls and Lurtz. And that was when the crowd pressed themselves against the walls as a small group of women bearing some resemblance to the vampiric soldier marched their way by them. Upon getting close, the woman in the dead center moved in swiftly just to smack him hard enough his head turned a bit only to press her lips to the very same cheek making him slightly scrunch his nose in a brief flicker of an expression of distaste.
“Hello again, mother,” he murmured softly, just out of his sisters’ hearing to be precise, as he simply turned his head back to face her albeit avoiding any eye contact with her. Even if it was a form affection between Lurtz and his mother, something Cloud had mentioned had never really been a part of how the vampire was raised, it was relatively short lived. Like his sisters, the elder woman seemed rather cold before and after the brief moment of a doting mother to her son.
“Told you he was hanging out with the troublemakers. I don’t know what got him here, but dad needs to fix him again,” one of the girls to the side stated ever so coolly only to be elbowed by a set of twins on each side of her. One then moved around her to stand beside her twin whilst playing with a large loop of string in her hands.
“Girls, welcome your brother back home. Look at how much you’ve grown. That means you’ve been away from home without a word to state you were still alive for over four hundred years, young man,” the first woman growled briefly at the girls before feigning a swoon at the sight of the vampire. Ignoring his sisters’ annoyance towards their mother falsely fawning over their brother, the woman waved at Rissa and Lianna. “I’m Tahlia, dearies, his mother to be exact. Sorry for making you have to put up with... well, him. He’s such a useless child when he’s without direction. Don’t worry about the damage and trouble you’ve caused down here either. Vallyne’s done far more damage as a child than you after all in all areas of the place. It amuses me to no extent to see his father get pissy.”
“Welcome back, Baa Baa,” the four remaining girls hummed simultaneously in a not so friendly way, each donning their own version of their mother’s dark smile.
“I’m home,” Lurtz responded to their words in something of a hollow murmur, his gaze avoiding them like the plague as the faint smell of jasmine and lavender drifted up from around his mother weaving together elven magic just to alter his bands. Yep. This was home, and this was definitely his mother with her magic. It was something he’d never forget no matter how long he was away. After the bands shifted a bit in size to where it didn’t look painful to wear, he briefly glanced at his mother now examining him and the bands intently. It was apparent by how less cold he was around the woman that he felt differently about her than the other four girls. “I’m sorry, mother. I didn’t mean to make you worry.”
“Worry? As if. I’ve been bored out of my mind without you irritating your father. Either way, it’s all water under the bridge, Val.”
Glancing back at Rissa and Lianna after his hand twitched slightly, his expression having returned to the hollow void he started out with, he briefly motioned towards the small group of women. “As previously stated, this is my mother, Lady Tahlia Allÿwar, a real gem compared to the rest of the family. And those four are my elder sisters. Starting from the left, there’s Lady Elisia, Lady Melantha and Lady Morwenna, and Lady Umna aka Pantasilea. The man down the hall shooting me a death glare is my father, Monsieur Cardenas Allÿwar. Unfortunately, the night’s only just begun and, as Nimoi mentioned earlier, I actually have twelve elder sisters so eight of them are still lurking in the shadows.” As he introduced his sisters, each gave either a bow or a curtsy so it was made clear which was which. Seeing as his sisters and mother already seemed familiar with the two girls, he hadn’t bothered with introducing them to his family.
The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen
I know they say you're moving on, But I'm begging you, please don't go. No, I don't wanna let you go. Oh no, oh. Yeah, you know that I want you back. Baby, I love you to the max; from here to the moon and back.
Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way this feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta. Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way it feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta.
No quiero que me dejes por favor y te pido pérdon.
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2018 9:03 pm
Dantes_river
@A@ brainwhyyouwaitsolongforposts
so uh... life moves fast some times.
I got engaged! ^-^
The Lost Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth
&
Alone Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei
Warm yourself by the fire, son, And the morning will come soon. I'll tell you stories of a better time, In a place that we once knew.
Before we packed our bags, And left all this behind us in the dust, We had a place that we could call home, And a life no one could touch.
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Kuro gave a low growl at the hand stretched out to him, hand clenching tight around the cigarette box in his pocket. Like hell he was giving that over! He couldn’t go back to the pain! Tail wrapping itself around his legs, the feline’s ears flattened back against his head as he continued to glare at the hand. Feeling a hand strike the back of his head caused him to hiss and jump at the same time, spinning to glare at whoever had done it.
“Down, kitty. They’re trying to help you,” Skylar frowned, holding his hand out for the cigarettes.
“I-I.... uh...” Kuro stammered, cheeks flushing as he handed the pack to Sky, who passed it to Hades. “Sorry....”he mumbled, pulling his hood up to hide his face.
Letting out a sigh, the songbird pulled Kuro into a hug and glanced up at Hades. “Don’t be stupid, Kuro. He wants to help. Without you having to poison yourself on that shite you’ve been doing.” He huffed, pushing the black cat off the wall towards the assassin.
“That’s fine, Jake. I just figured it’d be good for us to both be on the same page with what designs and plans we have. Plus I wanted your input on the alloys I’d picked,” the white cat smiled, passing over the notebook with his scribbles in it. The rough sketch of legs was partnered with scribbled notes about weapons and tool storage, a list of metals off to the side where iron and silver were crossed out. Circled below them were copper, bronze, and steal with question marks next to them. There was a brief note at the bottom of the page about enhancing the legs with a crystal generator, but on the whole it didn’t seem tied to anything else.
“Perem means well. He’s just awkward. Give him time and he’ll adapt to you,” Krystina murmured, pulling a hand through her hair as she leaned against the wall. “If you call that unacceptable I can’t imagine your reaction to some of our other habits. Then again, most of what we know is survival and coping for living on the street. Maybe it’s time to relearn how to live.” She sighed, rubbing one of her shoulders as a pained expression flashed across her face. Damn that stung. She’d have to let her wings out for a stretch soon, they were cramping bad.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The kitten gave a frown at his words, good ear pressing hard against her head. “Don’t be dumb, dummy. You have skills that others here don’t have. You taught me to read sheet music and how that correlated to guitar, didn’t you?” She chirped, leaning up to hug him. “I think you’re pretty cool, even if you don’t.” She smiled, pulling away to stand and stretch her arms above her head.
“I do hope you stay for a little while,” she murmured, smiling at him as she turned to the door. May as well get this over with. She had nothing against the lycan, personally, but him being what he was just set her off. “Ah well.... can’t be helped....” she mumbled, swallowing hard as she finally left the bathroom and headed down the hall.
Stepping into Krystina’s room, Niji’s tail wrapped itself tight around her stomach, her good ear twitching like mad as she cleared her throat. “I uh.... I was told everyone was getting checkups....” she managed to squeak out, fingers twisting the sleeves of her oversized sweater into tight balls. Just calm down. It’s not him. He’s nice. Your brothers are here if something happens. Krystina will keep you safe. He’s. Not. Him! Swallowing again, the kitten stepped up to the lycan and tipped her head to the side. “I uh.... never introduced myself properly at the bathhouse. I-I’m N-Niji.” She mumbled out, voice cracking on her name. Damnit! It. Wasn’t. Him. Why was this so hard?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The sandman gave a nervous chuckle and scratched at the back of his head. “Ah, sorry. I’m not used to being around new people anymore. I’ll try to be more careful. I guess I got too comfortable around the kids, they all just sort of passed it off as “she’s got a sandman now” and went on their way,” the dream demon mumbled, leaning back against the wall.
His smile growing at the comments about the two shadow users, he shrugged slightly. “I find the comments funny, honestly. Let people say and think what they will, I know what I am. As for your shadowed ones, I’d keep an eye on them should they try and dive too deep into any information they receive. Then again, the shadows have always been good at restricting information they don’t think someone is ready for.” He added with a low hum, a cloud of sand floating to Truth as she stirred.
Glancing up at the elder Sheikah a moment, he sighed. “Can I ask you for a favor?”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Cloud. Resilience in battle is good, and we can always use another tech. You’re worth more than you realize,” the wolf drawled as he stretched his arms up over his head.
“Plus there’s power in numbers, so even one more person will be helpful should something arise,” Kansei added, observing the blonde’s sword a moment. Where in the nine realms had she seen that before?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
“Yeah... I’m already on their s**t li-“ Rissa started, stopping short as the short one came back with a horde of ladies behind him. The slap to her companion’s face made the elemental frown, her hand instantly reaching out to grab Lianna’s tightly. So they were that type of family. Letting out a slow breath, she glanced to the faerie and stuck out her tongue. They both understood familial issues. And hated seeing others having to deal with it.
Peeking up when they were addressed, Rissa turned to face the vampire lady once more and smiled, bowing ever so slightly. “It’s a pleasure to actually meet you, Lady Tahlia. And let me just say how sorry I am again for ripping up that one arena when I first started here. You’ll have to forgive my companion for not speaking, she’s mute,” the elemental hummed as she stood, gesturing to Lianna who gave a slight nod of the head, tucking some hair behind one ear. They were behaving, but just barely.
Peering down the hall, Rissa gave a chuckle and sighed. “And it's a pleasure to officially meet you as well, Lord Allÿwar. I’d recognize that glare from anywhere.” She chirped, tugging on a blonde-red ringlet as she chewed on her cheek. Something told her that getting him out of here was going to be a lot harder than she’d realized. “I do hope my request to fight him doesn’t cause anyone too much grief. I just wanted a better challenge than walk-ons and drunks. I figured with him I could let loose a little more than normal.” She hummed, taking the final limiter from Lianna and wrapping it around her waist. The gold chain’s single gem fading from white to vivid red as it synced up with the various other limiters Rissa wore.
We are the angry and the desperate The hungry, and the cold We're the ones who kept quiet And always did what we were told
But we've been sweating while you slept so calm In the safety of your home We've been pulling out the nails that hold up Everything you've known
So open your eyes child, Let's be on our way. Broken windows and ashes Are guiding the way.
Keep quiet no longer, We'll sing through the day, Of the lives that we've lost, And the lives we've reclaimed
The Unknown & The Unspoken The sandman,The demon,The Goddess
It’s alright. Life happens. Congratulations! I’m super happy for you. Do let me know if you cannot continue these though please.
Translations:: Vechiul secret al sângelui. - The old secret of the blood. Secretele vechi de sânge. - Old blood secrets.
Gomar memec - Dumbass
përbindësh - monster
I can't take the pain, can't take the hurt. I wish that I could turn back time and say, I love you. I'd do anything to make it work. 'Cause even through the times they tried to hate on us, the only thing that mattered to me was our love. Never will I stop, I'll never get enough.
I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy. Now my angel can't save me. Oh no. I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy, drinking my pain away...
The Assassins Sheik, Trevor, Watari, Lucian, Hayden
&
The Allies Ephraim, Shayde, Deception, Kristoff, Rayne, TX-304 AoD
Having merely blinked at the little performance before him, Hayden only acted when Skylar handed him the pack of cigarettes to which he responded with a faint nod before tucking them behind one of his sheaths. Once the feline was pushed towards him, however, he gently caught Kuro’s arm with the prosthetic and traced out a small set of squiggles around the base of said prosthetic with careful precision. Once done, he gave the feline a shy smile and gently patted him on top of the head. “Don’t go overboard with it please. I’m not trying to be mean, but I’ve seen this before and I don’t want you and your loved ones to suffer from what these will do to you, especially with your already weakened physical state. Trust me when I say I only have the best of intentions for you civilians.“
At his final statement, a brief flicker of something dark passed behind the timid gaze before returning to that of a somewhat childishly timid gaze. It was likely noticed by all that there was an underlying statement of there being no highway option, but it was left unclear as to whether or not there was a threat with it.
“Are you doing something bad again?” And there was that subtle questioning from the werewolf.
Lucian’s question made him tip his head slightly with a low “hm?” making the werewolf use his hands in swift paced sign language to repeat the question. After a few moments of seeming to interpret the irritated question, the Romanian smiled at him and shook his head. “Nu.”
“Then what’d you do? I felt my blood tingle in my veins.”
“Vechiul secret al sângelui.”
“What?”
“Secretele vechi de sânge, old blood secrets. Technically speaking, it’s a type of blood magic with a wider range of use than other types of magic.”
“Ah. It’s the forgotten black magic of blood. I shouldn’t have to repeat myself, but I will for the simple fact your nervousness around the others is making you retreat to your original language: I don’t speak Romanian so please avoid it unless you intend to teach it to me. Outside of the demon in Skylar there, I don’t think anyone else here speaks it.”
“Da. For now, it’s detoxing his system of the negative side effects from drug abuse, not that I mean he’s using it for fun per say, much like your own system is burning off the buzz you got from him. That’s just about it so it’s nothing big, just like Mr. Perem and behaviors picked up for survival purposes. Scuse for the Romanian though. I’m just...”
“I know. You’ve been more actively involved with strangers today than usual and it’s gotta be getting to you. If you need to, take some time in a nice quiet area to calm your nerves a bit before you go full Romanian on us. Shayde, do you mind helping me out?”
“I’d rather not. Stretch your frickin’ wings out before I kick your head through the wall, girlie. I’ll use the shadows to tear open a small rift so they don’t disturb the room any. And why don’t you just have the feathery fiend or me translate him for you?”
“Because he’ll start becoming incomprehensible shortly after he goes full Romanian seeing as he can’t hear what he’s saying and it all slurs together with how fast he starts talking. As for you two, I’m trying to avoid drawing too much attention to the crow from unwanted visitors, and you don’t exactly like to let anyone know what is in your repertoire of skills. How am I supposed to know you can speak Romanian when you’re so busy calling everyone a dumbass?”
“Prost? Who’s a prost?”
“You, Hades, for not paying attention. Ooh. I’ve never seen such hostile sign language in my life, especially from someone who’s supposedly extremely shy. So his inability to hear his own words becomes more prominent the further out of his element he gets... I have four languages more than Trevor does in my skill set, Sheikah included.”
“You know the Sheikah language?”
“Yep. The twins will struggle something fierce with it should Trevor actually try teaching them about his culture, and Sheik will likely be smacking his head into a wall or table out of frustration. It’d be better if they stick to human languages.”
Nodding slightly at Shiro’s words, the little fox spirit began going over what all was scrawled across the notebook. Removing a pencil from his bag, his nose briefly scrunching up as if he hated writing things down, he flipped the page and started scribbling down his own notes on the different types of metal alloys, tool storage and weaponry. When it came down to the crystal enhancer, however, what he scribbled down didn’t even look like a picture much less any words. Tapping the page with the eraser of the pencil, he looked up at the feline. “When you go about metal, I’m going to say you wanna go with something that’s light yet durable and won’t overheat easily. As I’m sure you already know, weaponizing and/or making it a carrier for tools is simply going to weigh them down that much more too so you need to make sure you’d be able to move with them. You’d also want to avoid doing anything that may hinder the mechanisms from functioning properly. These would be alright, but there’s also aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and beryllium. Aluminum is a lightweight, non-ferrous metal with good corrosion resistance, ductility, and strength. It’s also a good electrical and thermal conductor, and it’s so versatile an alloy that it’s mostly applied in both every commercial and industrial segment. Magnesium is a non-ferrous metal with low density, a relatively high strength-to-weight ratio mind you, good ductility, moderate strength, and good corrosion resistance. It’s used in a variety of industries as well as aircraft, marine, and power tool applications. Titanium’s a metal with excellent corrosion resistance, good fatigue properties, and a high strength-to-weight ratio. Due to its properties, it’s used in aircraft or airframe parts, jet engine super-alloy components, corrosion resistant chemical processing equipment such as that of piping, pumps, and valves, prostheses and other medical devices, and marine equipment. Then we have beryllium which has the second lowest density compared to the previous three common structural light metal alloys and as such, along with its unusually high Young’s modulus, it’s extremely useful for aerospace applications. Compared to other metals, it has a superior specific heat dissipation due to its high specific heat and thermal conductivity making it have a low thermal expansion coefficient. Many thermal management products are fabricated using it. There’s also new magnesium which is as light as aluminum yet as strong as titanium now too. Light metal alloys are utilized most in operations requiring good performance properties with lighter materials and I’d think prosthetics in general are under that category. Thing is, the specific analysis of exactly what it is you’re wanting these legs to do. You need the inner and outer diameter, overall length and thickness, the shape, tensile strength, yield strength, melting point, conductivity, corrosion resistance, ductility, and malleability. All of this differs substantially based on the material or alloy composition. Personally, I’d stick with metallic alloys along the lines of magnesium, titanium, beryllium, and/or new magnesium. I’d likely even make any tools you’d like stored in the same kinds of metal alloys just to maintain that lightness yet maintain the strength.”
“New magnesium...? Oh. Right. That stuff Kortan was talking about testing as blades with yesterday. Should I put on the muzzle for the cannibals when the kitten comes in for her exam? She’s already kinda scared of me just ‘cause I’m a werewolf,” Lucian mumbled more to himself than anyone else. Deliberately forcing his muscles to relax as he slid out of his chair and onto the floor after his eyes shifted towards the footsteps coming for the bedroom door, he couldn’t stop the snicker from passing his own lips seeing as Hayden had given a soft snort at how little his intimidation went down by trying to seem less so. “Shut up, Hades. I can’t help how I’m built structurally.”
At hearing Niji introduce herself, he gave her a semi-sad yet entirely apologetic smile albeit he made sure to keep his hands on his knees so she wouldn’t feel threatened by his hands moving about. “It’s nice to actually meet you, Niji. I’m Lucian, but you may simply call me Lulu. In fact, I’d prefer it if you did. As you noticed before, I lack the sense of sight altogether so I’m forced into using my other five senses: hearing, smell, taste, touch, and spirits. It gets agitating when people telling me to look at something or mentioning colors when I have no idea what the color spectrum is although I can’t blame them for speaking of their most dominant sense absorbing the information in front of them. Then this giant lummox beside me is Hayden, but feel free to call him Hades. His family kinda floats around the death genre in general so it makes sense he has the code name of a lord of the underworld. He’s unable to hear things entirely so you’ll have to either write him messages or stay in his line of sight if you wanna talk to him. He can somewhat translate the vibrations in the air around him to piece together information, but the other two methods are easiest for him. It’s alright if you feel a little scared around me. All lycans are built in something of an intimidating manner, females a little less so, and I feel as if you’ve had a traumatic experience around canines in general. So in order for us to try becoming friends, in small steps of course, here’s my offer for you; if it’ll make you feel a little safer around me, I can put on one of the muzzles my mother gave me as a precautionary measure before I left home and refrain from moving entirely so you won’t have to fear me biting or clawing you. Would you like me to do that before I give you your examination?”
Hayden gave a cheerful yet somewhat timid wave at Niji before lowering himself into a crouch so he was more on her level as well. The only difference was he whispered something in the werewolf’s ear instead of speaking aloud. When asked if he was sure, he gave a soft approval before glancing at the dark shadowy male standing near Skylar. Ah. So Shayde still wanted an answer from him. At least he was trying to behave himself, rude as his previous words may have been.
“Ah! So it seems Hades said it was alright if I told you something about him if it too will make you feel a little bit more at ease around me. Would you like to know his secret as well? I would really like for us to become friends without all of the tension between us.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Having simply smiled ever so faintly at Niji’s remarks and hug before heading off down the hall to meet the werewolf for a physical exam, Kristoff returned to a more solemn expression. “Just something else that anyone else besides this idiot could’ve taught you, ya brilliant little pocketful of sunshine. We’ll see how long you think of me that way, and just how long I’ll be around in due time though. For now, however...” Giving a soft sigh at his mumbling to himself, he merely headed back down the hall opposite of where she went, and into the room he was occupying. Shutting the door behind him, he soon curled up on the bed with his arms pressed closely to his chest. No one would know so long as he could help it. No one else needs to know. She already knows too much...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Smiling oh too happily, Trevor gave a slight shake of the head. “It’s fine, Perry. Since the kids didn’t seem overly concerned about your presence, I pieced together that you weren’t hostile towards anyone here and so I’m doing what I’ve always done to new people: offer up some friendly advice with the undertone of don’t fxck with me and what’s mine. The advice is truly friendly, free and never-ending, but you only get the one warning and then you’re free game. First week of Sheik being outside of Sheikah territory, I warned the brotherhood they were to leave him be unless he approached them and they didn’t listen. I did some permanent nerve damage to over half of their Mexican elites and dismembered one ‘cause they were harassing him and I have no qualms about it whatsoever. And even if you do find it funny, that doesn’t make said comment alright so, again, I apologize. It’s not something I’m all too proud of much like lying to my daughters throughout their childhood,” the Sheikah responded casually albeit his gaze had shifted towards his daughter just as she stirred almost as if aware she was going to do so before it happened. “I can only do so much with them, but I appreciate your concern and caution involving them. Overall, my biggest concerns are their dependency on their shadows and Ephraim’s wellbeing in general. Don’t get me wrong. Shayde’s a tough cookie, but his stepbrother’s a human with minor shadow abilities and is stronger in both stamina and physical strength. And then Ephraim acts like he does around girls without them: overly exaggerated panic. Lessons from them have seemed to continue for Shayde, his skill with them at a pretty advanced level for such a little brat, whereas they cut Ephraim off once he got those seals. He’s lucky they’re letting him travel and communicate through them at all from what Shayde’s mentioned. You try to convince him of getting rid of them, however, and he gets hyper-aggressive about never removing them. In my personal opinion, they’ve all but abandoned him at this point and even he knows those seals are the cause for the mystery illnesses he’s started getting and their refusal to teach him anything else. After the horror stories he’s been told about what he did, the more distant his brothers became, he’s become scared of what he is and in an attempt to protect the only family he’s ever known, he’s only isolating himself even more from the very thing that could help him more than anything else. That’s why I’ll never reject him. He needs someone and his own fears are shutting everyone else out. But yeah, ask away. I’ll see what I can do to help ya out so long as it’s within reason.”
Glancing briefly at the door, his gaze following something down the hall, Trevor could only give a heavy sigh. “Seems he was right. Mari’s keeping his distance from everyone else. He may be teaching Niji how to read sheet music, but he’s trying to maintain his distance. If she learns what he deems as too much about him, he could retreat into his suicidal tendencies or get excessively hostile towards her. Do you mind alerting me if you notice he’s starting to exhibit any kind of negative signs towards himself or others? As much as I feel I crossed a personal boundary with him at breakfast, I wasn’t joking about everyone keeping an eye on his behavior. Just from the past twenty-four hours, he’s been extremely wishy-washy in his moods and I think even he’s aware of it,” he murmured a bit softer than before, his arms crossing over his chest. Giving a flicker of a smile, he added, “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours type thing, ne?”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Giving off a soft chuckle, Cloud shook his head slightly. “You say that now, but you’re only just meeting me. Things are still super mellow at this point. Given enough time, you’ll see that I’m just like Fox; chop full of bad luck. Jake kinda mellows it out with his extremely good luck, but it’s still there. Our excessive misfortune sometimes overrides his excessively great fortune, even individually, though so you’ve been warned in advance. As a prime example of that, my medical records are about as thick as the toe of my boots,” he smiled faintly before clicking the piece back into his sword and then looking up at Kansei. “But yeah, I’ll agree to the strength in numbers thing though. I’ve certainly required numbers over the years, and even then, I’ve been losing them one by one. Let’s hope none of y’all are gonna be a casualty my becoming friends with ya causes.”
Sliding his sword back into the little leather straps acting as its sheath, he briefly pointed at the ceiling before pointing towards the obviously rarely used television to the side and then removed a notepad and Sharpie from his pockets. “We told you my name was Cloud, and technically that’s not a lie. I just have a different spelling and somewhat pronounced version of it: Kuraudo. That’s why I introduced myself as such over Jake’s phoneline. My full name is Kuraudo Sutoraifu ie Cloud Strife, and no, I was not named after a video game character,” he explained briefly before showing Kansei and Bander the three different ways of writing out his name. Shortly afterwards, he moved over to the entertainment center just to remove a small cd case and a movie case only to show them to the duo as well, both of which had the words Final Fantasy VII and a picture somewhat resembling the blonde standing in front of them albeit with much more noticeable differences. “Final Fantasy VII, a serious what-the-fxck moment for me when I tried entering the civilian world again. They called it the Buster Sword, weapon of choice by one Cloud Strife, or Spiky to some, ex-soldier and present day delivery boy. At least that’s how they put it. An even worse what-the-fxck moment was the sequels. If you ask Trevor or Jake, they’ll say I kinda lost it for a few days and butchered my garage with my sword. I won’t deny I had a brief meltdown either. It’s years of my life I don’t like talking about, so if any of you know anything about these games or movies, and I’m somewhat thinking you at least have some familiarity with the sword considering your eyes keep focusing on it, don’t ask me to clarify what’s fact and what’s fiction. Just know that you have a general idea on just who I am, and Trevor’s neighbors will probably tell you I’m a fully grown man that needs some mental help based on the fact that I think I’m a fictional character.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The response from Lurtz’s father at being addressed was a scoff followed by him vanishing into the surrounding crowds. His daughters, or those that were in the open to the girls, all started laughing in something of a mocking manner. Lurtz had simply shifted his gaze sidelong ever so briefly as if unamused.
”It makes me glad you wanna fight down here again, Val. Unfortunately, I will need you to deal with one teensy little thing before we let you two fight. This little nuisance doesn’t come down too often, but when he does, he stirs things up in a bad way. Last time he was down here, he staged a full blown coup with the other pets and blood bonds down here just for the hell of it. I’d like you to convince the troublesome thing not to come back down here,” Tahlia hummed with an obvious air about her that said she had no real care as to anything Rissa and Lianna said or did. Instead, she briefly tugged the collar of his shirt forwards, stood on tiptoe to peek down it, then release it so it was back as it had been. Turning on her heel, she beckoned her son to follow with one long red nail before moving onwards down the corridors. Lurtz merely motioned the girls to stay close albeit he gave the girls an apologetic half-smile before following after her alongside his four sisters, a fifth joining them enroute.
Hearing a commotion of some kind enroute to where his mother was leading them, outside of the loud music on this end of the Pit that is, Lurtz’s gaze lifted off of the floor only for him to stop abruptly. The action caused his mother to turn back, his sisters from the sides, towards him with a raised brow. “What? You’ve never halted like this before unless we stopped in front of you. What’s wrong?”
Briefly raising a hand to point towards a dark haired male in the midst of a crowd made up of humans, fey, a handful of demons and a couple of werewolves, wearing a pair of black jeans and a light grey tanktop with several horizontal slits going across the front and back, the vampire shook his head slightly. “If he’s the problem you’re having down here, and I’m getting the strong feeling he’s why you’ve brought me all the way over here, you’re on your own,” he answered making his mother stiffen.
“Elaborate. Do you know him? Vallyne, do you know that human?”
“I do,” Lurtz sighed heavily as the music changed, the large crowd opening up a bit so a demoness with dark hair could could be seen giving the human some form of secret handshake as two other human males dragged a vampiric male off the floor with blood running down his face. With the change of music came a change of who all was amidst the dancers and who all was simply watching, the dark haired human seeming to have remained as one of the dancers albeit with a bottle now in hand. Unlike the demoness taking up the act of leader alongside the other dancers, his moves just seemed so unnaturally smooth and he was somehow avoiding spilling his drink in the process.
Frowning slightly at something and briefly rubbing the tips of his fingers against his forehead, the vampire clucked his tongue a few times before seeming to shake off whatever had made his attention shift. “His name’s Samuel Reed though most will refer to him as Sam. He runs the bar in the city lacking a name and caters to all species, and before you go saying anything, he’s not Lady Saria’s pet. If anything, he’s tamed her into being a docile house cat. You tell him no, he’s just going to get more adamant about it, and reverse psychology won’t help you any. He’ll be ten steps ahead of you the whole time, reversing what you’re attempting to do entirely, and you especially don’t want to fxck with him when he’s drunk or already in a foul mood. Even the silver-tongued Kynadriel can’t get him to do what he wants. And it’s not that he comes down here just for the hell of it either. If anything, he’s pissed about being here altogether, but the ever supporting husband, he came for Lady Saria.”
“Uh huh... I’ll believe he tamed that woman when he opts to disobey her orders. As if I’d believe she’d actually marry a little bloodbag. And what do you mean by he’s pissed?”
“I’d suggest you start believing that he’s not a pet she can control seeing as he had the gall to stage a coup de’tat and she clearly didn’t try to stop him. And I mean exactly what I said: they’re married and he’s pissed. I’d say he’s even more irritated about being down here than father is at my still being alive. As for how I know I can’t protect you from him, I’ve had a minor skirmish with him before and lost. Quickly. Ierione, you piss him off any more than he already is, I’m not stepping in to save your a**.”
“Liar. You’d never lose to a human of all things. They’re so very brittle. If I need you to step in, baby brother, you will step in. You’re obligated to protect our family. Right now, that human is causing more trouble in a single night than your little girlfriend does in a week and she physically tears down the place.”
“Gomar memec, she’s not my girlfriend. She’s my temporary mistress, the one my current master placed in charge of me whilst we’re down here. Don’t try starting a fight you know you can’t win. I’m serious. He’s not some normal a** human you find on the street everyday,“ he growled at his sister after catching her arm and snatching her back to him. The bands he’d put on earlier now turning red whilst dark multicolored sparks began dancing around them, that faint air of pure malice from annoyance earlier beginning to pick up around him again.
“You vile little monster. Let go of me this instant,” the girl hissed with a brief grimace making Tahlia step in swiftly, her hands attempting to detach his one hand from his sister’s arm.
“No.”
“Vallyne, release your sister.”
“No. If I do, she’s going to go pick a fight with him and when she gets hurt, you’ll make me go save her a** like every other fight all twelve of them pick. You’ve preached about protecting the family my whole life, so I’m cutting the head off of the snake in trying to protect her by keeping her from even picking said fight. If I have to protect her from him, it’s not going to be pretty.”
“Let go of her, përbindësh,“ Elisia snapped as the blade of a halberd swiftly made its home against the male’s neck making the vampire blink before glancing at his sisters, the one already showing bruising on her arm under his hand. Finally letting go, he stepped backwards whilst the dark air around him began settling down once again.
“Don’t blame me if you get hurt, Ierione, and don’t ask me for help,” Lurtz stated coolly, his fists clenched taut at his side as his dark gaze shifted over to his mother. “I’m sorry, mother, but I can’t help you with him.“
“Just try not killing the girl or destroying the place then, Vallyne. I’m worried about that lack of self-restraint you just had, not to mention the gall you had to backsass me.” And with that, Tahlia grabbed the one daughter by the arm and headed off back into the crowd whilst Lurtz seemed to have focused his gaze on the ground.
“Stupid creature,” Morwenna huffed slightly before following after Elisia, Tahlia, Ierione, and Umna.
“I told dad we should’ve kept you locked inside that cage in the basement, but now I’m starting to doubt any kind of seal will keep the beast inside the prison it’s already in,“ Melantha sighed heavily before giving a salute with a tomahawk and following after her twin.
Finally turning a little towards the female duo as the group of women began to vanish amidst the crowd, a dark cloud seemed to loom over his head even though he seemed a little happier his sister opted to heed his warning. “My free will was taken from me when I was a child for a reason, and you’ll see soon enough why young Miss Niji and Monsieur Rayne had every right to run away when we arrived. As it’s been clearly stated, though I may walk around in the skin of a man, I am anything but one,” he said softly though he kept his gaze averted from them in some manner. What sparks had been dancing around the bands he was wearing started to dissipate as he briefly touched the space just below the space between where his collarbones met, or where the charm on a necklace would be hanging more specifically. And now the girls knew just how little his family cared for him, how exactly they reacted to his mere presence in the public eye.
Moving his hand to point towards the human amidst the crowd, he gave the faerie a slight shooing motion. “Go to him. He’ll be sure you come back to Monsieur Trevor’s house with us... and Kynadriel over there, obnoxious as he may be, will help keep you safe. It’d help removing your safety as a distraction for me if Miss Rissa decides to slip into the bloodthirsty mannerism she showed back at the house.” It was soon after that the only male in the area with a guitar strapped to his back turned his gaze towards the trio only to start waving emphatically with his grin getting wider. “And now he’s noticed I’m here...”
The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen
I know they say that you're moving on, But I'm begging you, please don't go. No, I don't wanna let you go. Oh no, oh. Yeah, you know that I want you back. Baby, I love you to the max; from here to the moon and back.
Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way this feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta. Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way it feels. Esto no me gusta.
No quiero que me dejes por favor y te pido pérdon.
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:13 pm
Dantes_river
The Lost Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth
&
Alone Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei
Warm yourself by the fire, son, And the morning will come soon. I'll tell you stories of a better time, In a place that we once knew.
Before we packed our bags, And left all this behind us in the dust, We had a place that we could call home, And a life no one could touch.
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Kuro murred as his arm was taken in Hades’ hand and something was sketched onto it, staring at the symbol as his ears flattened against his head. What the actual ********? At being called a civilian, he raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “Not a civilian.” he mumbled, turning to go back to his corner while shaking his wrist and staring at the marks. “I still got one bullet in the chamber.”
“I’d rather not let Firebutt have control again for a bit. He draws attention from unwanted parties even when he’s just latched to my form,” Sky chirped, before pulling out an old book with a sigil across the front. For a brief second, a series of circles pulsed across his skin, allowing the book’s latch to unlock. Flipping through it, he began reading the notes, unfazed by the demonic language he was skimming over.
Krystina glanced at Shayde for a moment and stuck her tongue out, but pulled herself forward off the wall just enough to roll her shoulders. Closing her eyes as the tattoos on her arms faded away, she gave a hum as two wings sprouted from her back. Unlike her brother’s, however, they weren’t in pristine condition; the metallic primary and secondary feathers looked tarnished, the white and grey feathers of the rest of her wings were matted in some places and falling out in others. “.... even they look sick....”
Shiro nodded and gave a smirk, taking the notebook back again to look over the notes. “Right. I had been sort of leaning towards aluminum bronze just for strength. Or possibly nordic gold. I know that’s mostly used for coins, but I figured if I tweaked the ratios just a bit I'd be able to keep the benefits it has of being hypoallergenic, antifungal, and corrosion-resistant. I suppose if I added magnesium into the mix it would handle the heat better. Won’t really know for sure how that’ll work until we go to the forge, though,” he sighed, scribbling out a few notes on possible ratios between magnesium, tin, aluminum & copper. “I want them to be functional for both mechanic work and work that might need some stealth and swiftness. That’s why I'd been considering crystal generators instead of electrical currents. I’d read about a few different crystals that are typically used for magic, but I figured I could harness their powers as a current to run my legs without worrying about them being deactivated via emp or something similar, and not have to worry about charging them again as most of them seem to restore their own energy over time.”-
Niji gave a shy smile, brushing her hair out of her face and tucking it back with a headband. The scars across her face caught the light a bit harsher here, the shadows emphasizing the grooves and dips across her left eye and all down her cheek, towards her neck. “N-no... you don’t have to wear a muzzle.... Muzzles are horrible and uncomfortable.... I m-might be a little un uncomfortable but that’s not your f-fault.” she managed to stammer out, swallowing hard and taking a breath.
“I know you’re not him... and I know he didn’t do it on purpose... but it doesn’t make it easier when I think about how his claws made everything putrefy,” she whispered, scratching at one of the deeper scars along her cheekbone. Glancing over at the other boy he’d introduced, she blinked and then glanced back to ... Lulu? "I mean... if he said it was okay, I guess so...”
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
The sandman gave a chuckle and nodded, standing with a stretch as a crack could be heard. The shift in position made his image flicker in the sand, deep grooves and edges forming across his face for a second. “Yeah his seals actually have Adr- thedemoninSkylar going twitchy.... They definitely could use some time off from the shadows but I’m not the person to do that to them since I’m betting it would just set them off. Ask the right questions to that demon and he might be able to help,” he shrugged, having to stop himself from saying his friend’s name for fear of the light realm watching. It would be bad for them to find him after all the effort they took to hide him.
“Yeah I can keep an eye on him, I'm keeping tabs on a handful of others so that works,” he shrugged and then glanced back to Truth for a minute. “As for the favor.... I want your help in getting Truth to unbind me... I have no issues continuing our arrangement, but I have other people who I need to contact and I haven't been able to go respond to them in spirit or person since she bound me to her, all they’ve been receiving is messages from the sands.” he sighed, opening his palms face up to show Trevor the seals set into them. “I'm a demon, but I’m not one to hurt anyone. I just feed and move on, keep tabs for my friends, and report back to them so they can keep one step ahead of the court.”
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
To be honest, what we know of any of this is already a harsh bastardization based on the Disney stuff. Niji was a Kingdom Hearts geek when she was still in recovery, but her weakness was for the uh.... Kansei, what’d they call ‘em?” Bander mumbled as he looked over the cover and then passed it over to the feline.
“Organization 13. She thought they were the coolest, for a while. Thank the gods she grew out of that. I will never get what was so thrilling about that series for her.... Then again, I don’t much like video games.” the panther shrugged, setting the case down without looking at it.
“For us, the fascination is more about the sword itself and how it works, but we just like talking weapons. And hey, just wait until they get a load of my name, then they’ll get really confused. I mean really, I don't expect mundanes to understand why I chose Bandersnatch as a name.” he chuckled, giving a very toothy grin.
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
For the most part, the duo followed behind quietly, Lianna keeping a hand on Rissa’s shoulder to stop her from doing anything extra stupid. At the final comment from Lurtz’s last sister, Rissa rolled her eyes and glared after them, waiting until they were a good distance away before she gave a salute of her own, that involved far fewer fingers. “Wow they just make everything sunshine and ******** rainbows, don’t they?” she grumbled, kicking a pebble before looking up when Lurtz started talking again.
“Pfft you’re no more a monster than I am. Sure we might have something darker than others lurking behind the scenes, but that don’t change that we’re people. Though, I do understand the ‘free will being taken’ thing. Maybe not as drastically, but I do.” the elemental breathed, placing a hand on his shoulder before she pulled him into a hug.
Letting him go, she turned to Lianna and tugged a hand through her hair. “Yeah, he’s right. Go ahead. He’ll keep me in check and you’ll still know if you need to activate the charm. You can always sense it, no matter where you are. Besides, if he pisses off the lady of the house, he’s sure to be tons of fun, right?” At Lianna getting a grin on her face most unfitting of a faerie, the elemental grinned and gave her a fist bump.
Peeking out around the duo, Lianna nodded and gave a thumbs up. Giving a short whistle, she rose an eyebrow and shoved a thumb at the group.
“No, you don’t have to drink. And you’re fine as you are, let them think you’re fragile, it’s more fun that way.”
Another series of whistles came in response.
“I’m sure they have something for you to write with over there, or the brains enough to understand pantomime. But yeah, let’s go say hi since it looks like he wants to see Lurtz anyways.” And with that, the girls were both walking over, Rissa giving a half-wave as she wrapped an arm around Lee’s hip.
We are the angry and the desperate The hungry, and the cold We're the ones who kept quiet And always did what we were told
But we've been sweating while you slept so calm In the safety of your home We've been pulling out the nails that hold up Everything you've known
So open your eyes child, Let's be on our way. Broken windows and ashes Are guiding the way.
Keep quiet no longer, We'll sing through the day, Of the lives that we've lost, And the lives we've reclaimed
The Unknown & The Unspoken The sandman,The demon,The Goddess
Translations:: Italian Cucciolo, vieni qui. - Puppy, come here. Tutto apposto? - Alright?
I can't take the pain, can't take the hurt. I wish that I could turn back time and say, I love you. I'd do anything to make it work. 'Cause even through the times they tried to hate on us, the only thing that mattered to me was our love. Never will I stop, I'll never get enough.
I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy. Now my angel can't save me. Oh no. I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy, drinking my pain away...
The Assassins Sheik, Trevor, Watari, Lucian, Hayden
&
The Allies Ephraim, Shayde, Deception, Kristoff, Rayne, TX-304 AoD
Glancing at each other when Kuro opted to try correcting them, Lulu mostly just looking in the direction he’d deemed between the other two assassins, they all raised an eyebrow. “Sure. If you don’t want to be a civie, then you’ll be labeled as the second lowest echelon of the assassin class: a ninja. Unfortunately, it’s still below Ephraim’s classification of informant and these guys’ classification of a field medic, yet still above a regular information broker,” Shayde responded coolly before dismissing Krystina in general with a wave of his hand. After turning his attention back towards Skylar whom seemed preoccupied with the book in his hand, he narrowed his eyes and kicked him in the shin. “Answer my question already, damnit. You started it, but never finished. What’s the deal with this emotional crap y’all keep going on about?”
“How quaint. He’s one to pick a fight whereas I’d’ve just left it at a sure. Ooh. Not pleasant at all... Niji-chan, it really wouldn’t bother me if it will make you feel a little safer. When you have twenty older siblings that are complete d-cks like I do, just about anything’s like a breath of fresh air. Not everything mind you, but a lot of things are easier to overlook,” Lucian started off with a slightly unamused tone only to give Niji a gentle smile. Unfortunately enough, he scrunched up his nose at Krystina’s letting her wings stretch out. Vampires in general smelled of death, but to add in the scent coming from exposing her wings made him feel like he was sitting in the middle of a village that had been struck by a plague. Shaking it off, he briefly glanced towards where Hayden had remained crouched down beside him. This ended up with him giving a sigh and make the slightest shooing motion of the hand. “You’re getting too anxious, Hades. I’ve already got her nervous about being around me, but you can actually settle down if you go find a nice, quiet spot to settle down. I’ll be alright in here for a little while in order to continue with her checkup.”
At hearing the dark male give him a slurred apology in Romanian as he stood up, he shook his head at him only for the other to make his way out of the room. “Sorry. It gets a little distracting when I can feel his overwhelming urge to hide beside me. Like I said before, he’s a very shy individual so he’s kinda been forcing himself to stay out in the open around a mass of people he doesn’t know yet. And I might not be what has caused you to be afraid, but I am still of the canidae family and I don’t want you to force yourself to be okay with my presence. We’ll take baby steps until you feel comfortable around me. I’ve been told that the real bandersnatch has a putrification element to his salivary glands making infection set in within the first twenty-four hours, gangrene in forty-eight hours, and death within seventy-two hours, but I’ve never heard of his claws having the same thing. Perhaps a lesser putrification is in his claws? Either way, you’re a very lucky girl to still be alive. I’m curious to know if the Cheshire Cat used his own spit to counteract it or if you got ahold of the White Queen’s medical potions,” the werewolf rumbled in as gentle a tone as he could muster, a bit of curiosity in his voice near the end. Setting his hands palms up on his knees again, he beckoned her to go on and touch his hands so she wouldn’t feel threatened. “The secret of my big, shy, and friendly giant Hades is he used to have a fear of werewolves until he met me. He was in an accident when he was younger involving a rogue pack of werewolves. He lost his mother in the attack and almost lost his own life. When we met, I was still a puppy and I had let some of my older brothers get under my proverbial skin. Physical stuff is easier to shrug off than the mental crap. You’d have thought that the years of torment and constant belittling for being not only the smallest of the litter, but being disabled too would’ve thickened my skin. It didn’t, but rather made me feel like I was in my own living Hell. Instead of rejecting their cruelty, I had a meltdown and yet they kept picking away which only made things worse. Hades took a deep breath and plunged straight into the fray simply to protect me from them, kicked all of their asses too. He was still super wary of me after that, but he eventually became so comfortable with me that we created a language together simply to get around our disabilities. We’ve been best friends for years now. I hope that one day you’ll find that same comfort he did, and we can become best friends too. Plus, I have the healing kind of spit rather than the kind that has a rapid onset of infection. Well, that and Hades will keep me from wanting to lash out at anything that tries to touch me like when I get caught in a bear trap... Again. Twice was more than enough times for me. It isn’t fun in the slightest, and even less so when you’ve gotta sit there for an hour or two with someone or something pulling your leg further out in order to reset the bones as your rapid healing gene mends it back into place.”
Grinning at the older man, Jacoby nodded enthusiastically. “Great minds think alike! If Cirdan was here, he would probably have a way around the electrical issue. He did go from the age of the samurai to well past the thirtieth century at the very least. His Evil Angel is super advanced considering it was built during the age of the samurai. Man still hasn’t discovered how to make it, and make it functional in general,” he responded before pulling a pen and notebook of his own out of his bag just to start up his own calculations of what they were talking about using. “I think Cloud would probably be better for actually building it though ‘cause he‘s not too great of a conscious thinker much less a teacher, but he’s got some mad skills with mechanics. His brain seems to go on autopilot when he’s working on stuff like this. Cirdan just isn’t a really big talker, but he’ll give you silent instructions on things you can do or observe upon throughout the construction of said mechanics. You can also ask questions, and he’ll answer after some thought as if he’s deciding how best to answer it.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Giving a soft snicker, Trevor shook his head slightly at Perem. “Everything sets them off. There’s no real winning with them so you just gotta make do really. I mean, I had to snap off into them earlier ‘cause they were behaving like serious d-bags to my girls and their friends. I also don’t doubt the twitchy feeling about his seals. For the longest time, I didn’t feel right about them being there. I eventually got used to them mind you, but when he started getting sick, it returned with a vengeance and I’ve been trying to get him to get rid of them ever since,” he almost seemed to purr only to look down at the marks Perem was showing him. Ah. It seemed familiar, but he doubted he’d ever had anything to really do with it. Or maybe it was just something that was similar in appearance? Oh well. Didn’t matter. “I’d appreciate it. As for this, I’ll see what I can do about it. If there are complications, I’ll take a look into some Sheikah records to see if we can’t forcibly detach y’all from each other. Or I’ll just ask Tex. He’s a knowledgeable fellow. I can understand how you feel in some ways so we’ll try and get ya taken care of. Thanks again. Let us be friends from here on, and I’ll do my utmost not to fall back on habitual name calling. Savvy?”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
“Compared to a lot of other games I’ve played, Kingdom Hearts was one of the better games. There’s a few people that complain about the sequels, but then they play things like that Slenderman note collecting game, that climbing one where you’re a sledgehammer wielding pot-man, the one about some psycho wielding a knife with constant references about going to sleep, and the haunted animatronic thing. The first one has it to where you die even if you do collect all of the gibberish notes, the second is a mystery even Tex and Cheshire can’t decipher aside from having you climb really stupidly up a bunch of trash mounds, the third is you running away from something that can outrun you with a ridiculous backstory, and the fourth just has you calling your character a dumbass for being a dumbass in an unrealistic haunted funhouse thing. And then there’s that SCP game where you only walk a short distance only to end up having to run miles to escape from a bunch of ridiculous critters like the one that’ll kill you if you take your eyes off of it, but you can only blink and every so often you automatically blink. It makes you wanna ask if they’ve ever heard of a wink. They’ll try to reason that it’s supposed to be a challenge, but Jake and I call it retardation f-ckin’ up the 2D world. Ico was a good game and the only thing you’re basically doing is trying to escape a castle with a girl you’ve gotta protect from the shadows. The prequel Shadow Of Colossus was also a good game that actually explains how things got to that point and all you’re doing is running around killing colossal critters in a part of the world that seemingly has zero people,” Cloud retorted to the mention of the games. He’d fight tooth and nail on that topic, and he only just got back into gaming recently thanks to babysitting Jacoby. Giving a soft sigh, he raised a shoulder in a half shrug. “When you have absolutely no life, and nothing else better to do, video games can be one of your best friends. As for the sword, it is multiple hollowed out swords built together into making one large sword which is basically where everything connects together and has various different ways of breaking apart. The main trigger is in the hilt, and it separates all the pieces at once so I can toss them up in the air and use each of them in rapid succession causing more damage before gravity even decides they need to come back down. Some call it magic, some call it demonic ability, some even call it magnetic forces ie magnesis, but I just call it innate know-how. I literally can’t explain how it works, but I do know that whenever I use it as the multiple piece form, it’s like the world around me slows down if not completely stops. I also know that when I focus on something some distance away and swing my sword at it, a sharp blue light blade shoots out and slices things apart. It only started after my military days though so... meh. It could’ve been my demonic blood waking up for all I know. And as for your name, eh. I mean, you’ve got people walking around called Abcde and Lemonjello. Naming your kid Bander isn’t too big of a deal. They’ll be like, “oh that’s pretty unique. Were your parents fond of Alice in Wonderland?” Even the name Cloud isn’t too unnatural. It’s more along the lines of my being so closely comparable to the main character of the games and movies that tends to make people think I’m role playing all the time. I’m just being me though, awkward and depressing as it may come off, and it’s nigh near impossible for me to change that.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Hearing Rissa’s words, Lurtz would almost say he felt himself smile if not for the fact that he was practically incapable of making most expressions. At being hugged, however, he was taken off guard. Koail was usually the only one who did that after all, unless Jacoby was feeling down and he had no one else to cling to in order to pick himself back up. For a moment, his mind drifted back to a girl from his childhood only for them to be torn apart the very same day. Silly elemental. He was only bad luck, and yet she seemed to be trying to make him feel like he wasn’t quite what he believed.
Once they’d started off to meet with the ones he called Sam and Kÿnadríel, he followed suit in silence. This would become irritating rather quickly with the musician, but it’d be better if they were introduced properly. Stepping around the girls in time for his hand to get a knife through it, he gave a tired sigh before smacking a dark haired boy with the much too large hoodie wielding the knife on the forehead.
“Bad dog. Sam, he’s misbehaving again,” he stated coolly whilst pulling the knife back out of his hand and holding it out to the human called Sam whom had just stepped out from the makeshift dance floor in order to reach the trio.
“Cucciolo, vieni qui. Grazie. ‘Sup? I know already and I’ve been waiting for their slow asses to make it down here. His family ain’t exactly subtle in showing their distaste for Lurtz’s very existence nor my presence in general. If ya thought their brief interaction was bad, the drow race in general was bad, that’s their PONYDIP face, roughly translated into play-our-nice-yet-dominating-in-public face. You might think I’m kidding based on the acronym, but it’s entirely true. Rumor has it that he spent about half of a century locked up in a cage in their basement, those years being a brief time period where he vanished from the face of the Earth. According to actual fact-finding research and the many, many, many, many scars he wears, it’s entirely true. Word from a certain crafty musician from his childhood, however, says that something far worse than a deity of chaos came to life with him when he was born and it’s been in a deep slumber since they changed him. If true, and I don’t doubt the information based on previous statistics, I’d love to see what it actually is when it wakes up,” he somewhat slurred with a half-smile, his freehand retrieving the knife just to return it to its owner. Still not hesitating in the slightest much less looking in the direction of the newest person approaching, he used the hand with the bottle to shove the bottom of said bottle into the guy’s chest. “You don’t hafta drink, hon, but this is almost entirely water. The lower class such as blood bonds get the cheapest of the cheap down here whilst people like my wife, the rest of his family, and their special guests get the fancy schmancy hard liquor. Hold please.”
“I can only feel pity for this guy that has opted to approach just because he gave a partial smile,” Lurtz muttered as Sam turned his head sharply towards the guy and set a hand on the knife-wielding teenager’s hand when he flicked his knife back out towards the new guy.
“Nuh-uh. You tell him I said that I don’t do business with minions. If he wants to talk business, he better make time for some face-to-face interactions with me instead of playing the part of some dipshit leader hiding behind a bunch of tools. He’s got zero credibility from me as a gang leader, even less so as a wannabe mafia, by trying to send you guys in to make deals with me. It was cute the first five times, he’s still new to the experience and the princess was too, but now it’s just pissing me off and y’all don’t want that. He needs to nut up and come see me himself or shut the fxck up and go move his a** to California so he can join the Crips and the Bloods in acting the fool. Next time he sends you pansy a** minions, he’s getting your skulls sent back to him dressed up like it’s Día de los Muertos courtesy of the Bloody Grasshopper and yours truly. That’s right, Mr. Smarty-Pants. Let the horror sink in simply by knowing that I’m on good terms with the kid turning y’all into confetti in the redlight district when you’re not trying to find your teeth outside of my bar... or trying to stop arterial bleeding as of recently. Until he comes to see me personally, he’s being ignored. Now shoo, fly. Don’t bother me.”
After dismissing the man with a flick of the wrist that smacked the bottle into the man’s chest again, the bartender looking no older than twenty himself flipped the empty bottle in his hand only to toss it off to the side where another guy caught it to dispose of it. This left him the opportunity to readjust the black cords making up a variety of necklaces around his neck. “Stupid woman... She knew I needed to get groceries today, but no~. We gotta come down to this shithole just to piss in ‘er daddy’s wheaties. Now I’m gonna be tryin’ to sleep off a hangover all day and practically bathe in incense all over again,” he breathed out, taking a moment to take a new bottle from a woman dressed up like she was going to a club and taking a swig out of it. Shuddering slightly as he dropped his hand with the bottle down to his side, he stuck out his tongue. “Blegh. Alright. Introductions are going down like this so pay close attention. I’m Sam, bartender and information broker. You need intel on something, I most likely already have it or I’m getting to it. Depends on how deep in the rabbit hole the details go and information’s always changing its flow. This giant a** group of what looks like juvenile delinquents and partygoers are my childhood friends and some of their friends from other cities, states, and/or countries. I wanted to escape this city my whole life with them, but as you can see, this city’s gravity won’t let me out. Nowadays, when I say jump, the city asks how high they should go. Atish is gonna find out real quick that he needs to clear everything with me, and I’ve always been a bit of a d-ck. It’s a hereditary condition I inherited from my dad though people will argue that he was a saint with a gambling problem and I was simply born a problem child. Put into simpler terms, if this dipshit tries to continue building his faux empire on my turf, I’m gonna turn it on its head. His minions don’t scare me. Either way, Odessa, the crazy a** red head in the red corset and black leather pants next to the makeshift bar over there mind you, is someone you’ll want to avoid as much as possible. If she ever learns about the songbird and the crow in your group, she’ll want him in her coven. She’s so overly possessive in an obsessive compulsive kinda way that if she can’t have something, no one can. She’s been Koail’s mother vamp since he touched mortal soil, and at the moment, her ruby red talons have been sunk into his arm so he’s stuck at her hip. He’s the guy with the Cheshire Cat grin and the guitar with the Vengeful One from Disturbed next to her that gave Lurtz the overzealous wave. Most hunters know him best as Kÿnadríel, but everyone else calls him Koail for when people realized he was merely a curious and fun-loving bard that was a little too emotionally involved with a vicious vamp. He visits Trevor and Sheik now and then so he’ll become a normal occurrence for you soon enough although his appearance changes practically every visit. Lurtz, however, will refer to him as his childhood bully if you ask him. The guy in your ten-thirty with the ponytail and the red oni mask is Hagen, whom you’ve vaguely met over a bathhouse wall. He’s how I knew y’all would be here and I’d likely be with one of ya throughout the remainder of the night. You’ll come to find that underneath all of the murderous intent directed at Shayde he’s actually a bashful and cuddly teddy bear.”
“Sam! Don’t try making me seem like I’m the softest thing since cotton candy,” the other responded sharply making Sam give him a toothy grin.
“What? It’s true. You’d give people diabetes with how nice you are behind the demon mask. Either way, he’s playing bodyguard under my wife’s orders. Whilst I don’t feel like I need one, my wife insisted I have a minimum of two after certain events took place in time thus she’s hired him for the next seventy-two hours. If any of you so much as reference alcoholism and me practically murdering my liver, I will let yours become close friends with his knife. That’s where our final introduction is. This tall, dark, and Italian teenager in the black tent of a hoodie that just tried to stab you is someone that I personally call puppy. You’ll likely hear people refer to him as the Knifer or the Mad Dog, but his real name’s Giulio. Kid’s been bred to kill so he is merciless with the blade and is strictly loyal towards the Italian mafia, a select group that doesn’t make Italy look so wishy-washy in wars, and me whenever he’s here. Giulio, this is Rissa and Lianna. Lee here can’t speak so I’m gonna need you to help keep an eye on her so guys like that guy you recently decapitated don’t try anything funny. Tutto apposto? Good. And now, ladies, this is Giulio. He’s fourteen, smart as a whip, and somewhat timid in his own way. I’ll need you to help keep him from killing anyone else. He‘s fluent in body language, and he knows English just fine too. If you see him start muttering, let me know so I can bop him on the head. It’s like a precursor to his more violent tendencies, and we don’t want that.”
“Air, and food if at all possible. You’re gonna end up puking if you keep chugging those down, and I’d rather not have to carry you back home,” Hagen muttered irritably from the side earning him a soft snort followed by laughter from the human. “Ah. I should probably warn ya, Lianna, his wife’s a little overwhelmingly possessive when it comes down to the fey being around Sam so she might pop in at some point and try aggressively eating his face. One of her exes was fey, and they ended on bad terms so she thinks he’s having other fey trying to drive a wedge between them. It’s not funny, Sam. Saria’s gonna be pissed if-“
“Like I care if she’s gonna be pissed. I’m already pissed enough for both of us. Her fangs cut my tongue open again though and she’s sleepin’ on the couch. It makes me feel woozy,” he scoffed as he straightened up once again and shifted his drink around a few times as if stirring it. Waving dismissively over his shoulder, his brow furrowed just before rubbing the side of his face with a brief shudder. “I’m not hungry. I just want these ghosts to shut up. They just keep frickin’ multiplying.”
“And there you swaying again like you are drunk,” Hagen sighed after catching the others shoulder as if to keep him from moving. “You’ll have to forgive him and his mood swings. Even with the layers upon layers of wards against spirits, his sensitivity to their side cuts through it like a hot knife through butter and he starts getting influenced by all of the spirits around him.”
“That’s not me, stupid. They’re fighting over who goes first in getting what they want. I’m just the middleman. With the strong buzz of energy down here, they’ve got plenty to work with to alter the physical world.”
“You’re just chop full of excuses, aren’t ya?”
Giving Hagen a quick punch to the shoulder before rotating his bottle again in a stirring motion, Sam took a few seconds to glance at how Lurtz seemed to be getting an annoyed expression without even realizing it. “Bite me. One more word about my being fine enough to continue drinking and I’ll beat the sh-t outta you.”
“Fine, fine. Just slow down a bit or you’ll burn yourself out before dawn even comes to the horizon. As the teddy bear you claim me to be, you’re still only human too and you’re wearing me out just watching you,” Hagen sighed tiredly before briefly waving the notebook at him as if trying to cool him down. After having it swatted away, he gave another tired sigh before holding it out for Lianna to take. “Giulio’s acting as his second bodyguard if that wasn’t already obvious. I’d suggest keeping one eye on him at all times at the very least. Sam said he was bred to kill, and he wasn’t lying. He’s practically a serial killer without those he’s loyal to controlling him with their proverbial leash. Bad, cucciolo. Put the knife away.”
At being called bad for a second time, the Italian almost seemed to glare at Hagen before following directions in putting his knife away.
The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen, Sam, Giulio
I know they say that you're moving on, But I'm begging you, please don't go. No, I don't wanna let you go. Oh no, oh. Yeah, you know that I want you back. Baby, I love you to the max; from here to the moon and back.
Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way this feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta. Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way it feels. Esto no me gusta.
No quiero que me dejes por favor y te pido pérdon.
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:41 am
Dantes_river
So, it turns out we're gonna be moving again.... in like a week. the house we're in now is kinda a wreck...
The Lost Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth
&
Alone Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei
Warm yourself by the fire, son, And the morning will come soon. I'll tell you stories of a better time, In a place that we once knew.
Before we packed our bags, And left all this behind us in the dust, We had a place that we could call home, And a life no one could touch.
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Kuro only gave a roll of his eyes before heading to the very same window Sky had crawled in through earlier, crawling up to the roof. Finding a place that was flattish and decently cleared of debris, he pulled a knife off his leg and began throwing it in the air, almost juggling it as he threw and caught it in a strange dance. Grinning to himself as he continued to dance and juggle the knife, he added another as he began to sing. “Killer for hire, soldier of fortune! Gotta walk through fire for what's important. And the warrior's blood through your veins is coursing~ Killer for hire, soldier of fortune! The whole world's watching every move, Take your shot don't act a fool: All you've got and all you'll ever need~ Is one bullet in the chamber! Breathe easy take your aim boy, Ain't nobody gonna save you! So what you gonna do? All eyes on you! One bullet in the chamber, Breathe easy take your aim boy. Ain't nobody gonna save you! So what you gonna do? All eyes on you. Do or die, you're a mercenary. None of a kind, that's your burden to carry. Go and make them proud do what's necessary, Oh no, do or die, you're a mercenary. Now the whole world's watching every move, Take your shot, don't act a fool! All you've got and all you'll ever need~ Is one bullet in the chamber! Breathe easy take your aim boy, Ain't nobody gonna save you! So what you gonna do? All eyes on you. One bullet in the chamber, Breathe easy take your aim boy. Ain't nobody gonna save you! So what you gonna do? All eyes on you. Now the whole world's watching every move, Still your heart so much to prove, Fight for all the things that you believe in! Now the whole world's watching every move, Take your shot, don't act a fool! All you've got and all you'll ever need! One bullet in the chamber! Is one bullet in the chamber! Breathe easy take your aim boy! Ain't nobody gonna save you, So what you gonna do? All eyes on you! One bullet in the chamber, Breathe easy take your aim boy! Ain't nobody gonna save you, So what you gonna do? All eyes on you~”
Closing his book, Skylar gave a chuckle and looked up into Shadowheart’s eyes with a smirk. “What part? Be more specific. Are you referring to how I wear my heart on my sleeve? Or perhaps how my sister and I believe that emotion gives strength, but can also be a hindrance?” He asked, batting his eyes oh-so-sweetly. Yes, he was being a turd, but sometimes it was fun to poke, even just a little.Are- are you flirting? Hush. NoI’mnot. But you do find him attractive. Shut up. As soon as his face started flushing, Sky looked away, burying himself back in the book. Although he seemed awfully focused on a single spot on the page now, rather than actually reading it.
Tugging her knees up under her, Krystina gave a sigh as she began pruning her feathers, trying to smooth them down and polish the metallic ones. Leaning over to one of the bags settled beside her bed, she pulled out a rag and whetstone, carefully running that across the longest few feathers as best she could. Unfortunately for her, her hand was shaking too hard to keep at it for long. Setting things back down, she pulled her knees up under her chin and closed her eyes. There had to be something she could do.....
“It would be pretty nice to work with someone on building them. Although I do like to just pour myself into a project. You ever get so focused on a build that you forget that food and sleep are a thing?” He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. He was excited as hell to get started on this project.
Nodding along, the kitten’s ears flattened as he explained Hades’ little secret, a small frown on her face. “So you’ve got one of those families..... I’m sorry....” she whispered before tugging the massive orange hoodie up over her head. With that out of the way, she was left in a bright yellow tank top and shorts that showed just how many scars ran down the whole of her left side, from head to ankle. Stretching her fingers on her left hand a few times to get them out of their stuck position, she gave a sigh when she was able to get it flatter and then set it in the lycan’s hand.
“I don’t actually remember how they stopped it.... I remember the pain. And curling up small so I was harder to hit. I remember his whining, and his growls, and his wet tears. I remember wanting it to stop, not being unable to do anything. And then Bander and Kansei were there.... the next thing I remember is waking up with bandages all over and no noise on one side....” she whispered, Shiro pausing in his words to stare at his little sister. She didn’t talk about that time very often, and the guilt on his face was extremely obvious as he looked away.
“It’s nice that you and he were able to become close friends. I hope that one day I’ll be able to make friends like that too.” She chirped, all sadness gone from her voice as she grew super cheerful.
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
Giving a smirk, the sandman nodded and stuffed his hands back into his pockets. “Arright. I’d be glad to count you among my comrades.” He hummed, crossing his legs mid air.
“So now that we’re friends, I have a question. How much do your daughters know about your abilities?” He asked softly, glancing over to Truth as sand floated towards her. Ah, that dream. Poor girl couldn’t catch a break. “I ask, merely so I don’t slip up and mention something to them. You asked me not to spill secrets, and I’m genuinely unsure how much they know or don’t about it.”
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
“I’m sure there’s some interesting ones out there....”
“We just can’t sit still long enough to focus on something like that.”
“But that does explain why Niji and some of the others enjoy them a bit more. When all you’re getting is quick glances while passing them by on missions, it’s hard to tell what the heck is going on.” Kansei shrugged, sliding a knife out from a hidden holster on her back so she could begin cleaning it on her shirt.
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
“So you’re the one who helped Truth get out. Pleasure to actually meet you. She didn’t tell us much about you. Just that you created the opportunity for her to get away. My guess, Atish is too scared to actually show up in front of you.” Rissa smiled, tapping her fingers against her thigh as she watched the scared figure running off. “Like you just said, Lianna is mute. But she’s figured her ways around it. I’d recommend keeping an ear out for whistling, or give her some paper if possible.” The blonde shrugged, tugging a small flask off her hip and passing it over. “As a thank you for letting her hang out with you, some Kraken Rum.”
Getting nudged in the side by Lianna, she glanced backwards. “What?” At having the far raise an eyebrow at the flask, she gave a grin. “No this one’s mine. You left yours back at the house.”
Stepping closer to Sam and Hagen, Lianna gave a smile and the smallest of bows. Gesturing to where the majority of the group seemed to be dancing, she made a motion of playing violin and smiled softer as she shoved her hands into her pockets.
We are the angry and the desperate The hungry, and the cold We're the ones who kept quiet And always did what we were told
But we've been sweating while you slept so calm In the safety of your home We've been pulling out the nails that hold up Everything you've known
So open your eyes child, Let's be on our way. Broken windows and ashes Are guiding the way.
Keep quiet no longer, We'll sing through the day, Of the lives that we've lost, And the lives we've reclaimed
The Unknown & The Unspoken The sandman,The demon,The Goddess
I can't take the pain, can't take the hurt. I wish that I could turn back time and say, I love you. I'd do anything to make it work. 'Cause even through the times they tried to hate on us, the only thing that mattered to me was our love. Never will I stop, I'll never get enough.
I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy. Now my angel can't save me. Oh no. I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy, drinking my pain away...
The Assassins Sheik, Trevor, Watari, Lucian, Hayden
&
The Allies Ephraim, Shayde, Deception, Kristoff, Rayne, TX-304 AoD
“It’s not precisely true, what they’ve said, just something fed to those that are within the Brotherhood as a method to contain and control the opinions of the masses. They’ve got a set dialogue for their members and they don’t want people confusing them with what could be construed as shoddy work, not that I’m saying anyone here does anything terribly. I’m just meeting you after all so I don’t really know what all you can do. Either way, Shayde was raised in the Silent Shadow Clan for a time, Lulu by the Nightengale Pack, and Hades by the Sareila Clan. All three are run by the Brotherhood, and they don’t count those outside their jurisdiction. If you’d like to get technical, there’s various levels to the label of assassin and most here that state they’re of that specification aren’t solely placed there. They kill people, yes, but there’s more to it than that. You’ve got Ephraim collecting and redistributing information, Lulu as a guardian type field medic, Hades flitting about somewhere between the jobs of Ephraim, Lulu, and Watari who is a mercenary/messenger type of shinobi, and Shayde and Hagen go so far as freelance mercenary assassins. They refer to those not within the loop that is the Brotherhood as civilians because they go further down the rabbit hole to which half of you escaped from. You’ve been there, but you haven’t been there if that makes any kinda sense. You can still be under the classification of an assassin, but you’re still a civilian to them even if you were trained by a turncoat to the organization. At least you will be until you get initiated if you decide you want to join the organization and they accept your services for the better good. Even then, you can tell which ones are actually in that same exact category even though they say they are just by looking at their left hand. Hades, Lulu, and Ephraim are the only ones actually branded as a member of the Brotherhood via their marriage finger as a commitment to the Brotherhood. Sheik and Trevor are committed to the Sheikah in maintaining order amidst the Grey thus unable to make that same kind of commitment. Watari wasn’t actually raised or taught either the ways of the Brotherhood nor the Sheikah, but as that of a feudal era shinobi where murder was a last resort tactic. Then you get Shayde and Hagen whom, whilst raised amidst the Brotherhood, never actually made it to the branding stage where they were to dedicate life and limb to said organization. It would appear that Hagen felt like he couldn’t make the commitment until Shayde and him settled their differences whereas Shayde has made a commitment to his own survival,” Jacoby intervened before briefly stretching his arms up over his head. He then gave Shiro quite the peppy grin. “I can’t wait to get started! It’s always fun when you have several great minds to pass ideas around as well as extra hands on the construction of new things. And I do that pretty often only Fox pops in and bops me on the head nowadays. He does the same thing when I’m too zoned into a game to pay attention to anything else as well save for the VRMMORPGs where he will use the computer in his workspace to hop into the game with an orchid colored wolf avatar numbered 7 in a specific font at a set size to nag at me. I built it from scratch just like my headsets with the multiple layers of firewalls, automatic timer to multi-shuffle passwords with their own set of security questions, antiviruses and viruses as well as the ability to hack into practically anything. There’s a rare prompt here or there, but never anything serious. It’s something of a middle-ground we decided on for us to connect due to the age gap and completely different lifestyles - my technological and gaming world meeting his overworking law work ethic. Ooh. That’s some good self-restraint, Lulu. Your biceps and shoulder blades tensed when he jumped out the window, but you avoided any kind of hostile actions and presence entirely. Oh! You might need to have Trevor or Hades drag Cloud up for a physical too. He avoids anything medical like the plague albeit Cirdan and Elrick tag-team him when they feel he’s gone too long without getting his ailments and/or injuries treated thus his ability to function going on a steep decline.”
“I’m just gonna let Hades smack him for me. I already said it’s too frickin’ soon for people to be hopping in and out of windows. At least let me learn everyone’s scent and the layout of the area first. Yeesh,” Lucian breathed out almost like that of a pant. At hearing the girl and feeling her hands touch his, he gave a slight nod. “I believe it may be one of those things meant to help thicken your skin to that kinda crap, and to help you get stronger by pushing your limits, but it just pisses me off. Then again, my brothers and cousins could just enjoy making me pissed off enough that we try mauling each other. Y’know, the whole dominance dance us dumb dogs do. It’s especially stupid on my part ‘cause I don’t have a chance in Hell nor Helheim against them. Almost died getting into fights with them a few times too, but they were moments in time that made me super happy: my dad acknowledged my existence. Of course, Kortan would always have to drag me back to the den and my ma would have to treat my injuries for a few days, but I’d been acknowledged by the man that gave me life for fighting back even if it was futile. Those moments were the best times for me in the pack since my grandmother on my dad’s side had passed. She went blind in her mid-forties so she was more understanding and happy to help me figure out the world around me.”
Smiling ever so gently as he remained as still as possible for the girl, he was certain that he’d shown some semblance of a cheerful kind of sadness as he spoke of his near-death experiences being something that made him happy, but he wasn’t going to let others focus on it too long. It’d bother him if they started trying to convince him that it was horrible to find such morbid memories as happy ones. “Don’t apologize for my family, my sweet little kitten. Hayden makes up for all of their cruelty with his kindness. I do wish for you to find him just as sweet, tenacious and mischievous as I have once he gets more adjusted to being out in the open with you all. As for what happened to you, well, it happened and you survived. That’s all that really matters. Good choice in choosing to go small as a side note. I used to do that when I was a puppy and too scared to even think of fighting off my siblings and cousins. It was such a joy being the runt of the litter, the baby and blind. Hm... I actually think Hades knows how to work around the tea party so meals shouldn’t be too hard for you. You are a little underweight, but we should be able to fix that real quick-like and in a hurry. Sorry if this is taking a little bit longer than examining Kuro did. There’s a lot more intricate details than a little bit of nerve damage from missing ligaments turned into a rudimentary prosthetic - no offense, Shiro,” he thrummed from deep down in his diaphragm, his unseeing gaze shifting every now and then to what one could only guess he was tuning into. “And I do hope so too, Niji. A friend for you that can be like Hades is to me will mean oh so much when you do find them. They’ll be... just so amazing I can’t really find the words to explain it. I really do hope I can become one of your friends though, Niji. We’ll just take baby steps until you can come to feel more comfortable with me being here for the moment though. Also, I have extremely good news. I can mend some of the internal muscular corrosion from the injuries you had sustained, but like when I tried patching up the nerve in Kuro’s arm, it’s going to draw out the big bad wolf in me and I don’t want to do that with you being as nervous as you are. One faulty move, and I’m only just going to do more damage.”
Shayde narrowed his eyes slightly at Skylar though it was more of an inquisitive staredown than anything else. He took a half-step back suspiciously before glancing briefly at Lucian only to return to the feathery fiend seemingly taunting him. “Then give me the blueprints, puppy, and I’ll see what I can do so you don’t go snapping and snarling at people. Dark magic and the dark arts don’t affect me like the rest of you. And stop calling me that. I don’t go by that name anymore,” he stated rather bluntly only to cross his arms over his chest. “Just all of it. What’s their purpose? They’re more of a hindrance than a strength from what I can tell. They only hand out irrational and illogical thoughts and actions, and your only real reward from it is getting hurt.”
“Uh... That’s not how this works, Shayde. I can’t exactly give you blueprints for what needs to be mended since I don’t really have anything you could really work with. It’s more of a sensory diagnostic if anything. Secondly, I’m older than you so you’re more of a puppy than I am. Thirdly, it’s still your name in technicalities and calling you Shadowheart just feels... wrong. Fourthly, emotions give validity of life and whether one has ill intent. Lack of emotional presence would be as bland as dealing with a robot. As for the last thing, and this is more for Niji’s sake, there should be a small jar on my chair with what appears to be jerky in it. I’d like you to take one even if it might taste a little yucky. I’m giving one to everyone after all much like how everyone thus far has been diagnosed as being malnourished.”
“I don’t care if it feels wrong to you. Use it. And I wasn’t asking for a blind dog’s opinion on emotions since it’s already outta whack as is. Here, girlie. He’s trying to stay as still as possible for you much like his failed attempt to seem smaller and less of a massive predator,” Shayde countered as he made a brief flick of the wrist simply so a pair of shadowy hands moved to hold out the jar to her with the lid removed.
“It’s not funny. I’m doing my best to show her I’m not gonna hurt her. I figure by remaining as still as possible and less tense for her, I’d at least appear to be far less threatening.”
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
“Good, good. I’m glad,” Trevor grinned only up until Perem opted to question how much the girls knew about him. Well, what they knew of his abilities. Returning to a rather solemn expression, he raised a hand simply to hold up his index finger and thumb about an inch at most set between them. “Not much really. I didn’t really talk much about my side of the family in general to the girls. It’s not that I didn’t want to, just more like I didn’t know how to talk to them about their dad being an alien~.”
Giving a soft chuckle, he gave that a brief wave of dismissal before crossing his arms over his chest. “No. It’s just a complex topic so I avoided almost everything about me like it was a plague. They mostly got inspirational, stupid and/or vague stories and life lessons, not to mention the repetitive response of how we don’t talk about daddy’s family. A lot of things they’ll want to know, I really can’t say with absolute certainty. There’s too much... resistance to it. I didn’t want to just be vague and indecisive about it with them so they know the bare minimum about me as a whole which is mostly my civilian life because I wanted something concrete to work with. Seventeen of this realm’s years and a large time gap apart kinda doesn’t help. As children, however, I just knew they’d be the embodiment of truth and deception thus the roughly translated Sheikah-to-English names. It’s the inheritance of the Sheikah lineage only maintained by Karma being an embodiment of her namesake. That’s something I used to talk to them about in being an ability when they were little, and then there’s the whole physical crap in which I told them I had lots and lots of practice for my job in protecting people. In order to tiptoe around their gifts related to their namesake, I had to be vague with them - never really lying, but not really saying the truth nor the full details either. I used to make jokes about manipulating spit as one of my best skillsets which adheres to the Lick-N-Stick Method of healing. They both squealed in that way that girls do when something’s both gross and funny... And then Ephie jumped in with saying that men are often considered dogs and dogs licked wounds in order for it to heal. Dee followed up that comment by asking what he meant by that, and he deflected it by telling them that girls are also considered dogs except they’re called chiennes earning him a smack upside the head. I was glad that he opted for a foreign language until I later learned that the girls had a teacher with the ability to speak French and Dee asked her what that meant, she called Karma, Karma got mad at me, and I slapped Ephie upside the head for a second time.” He smiled again at the memory before leaning down and giving the red haired girl a kiss on top of the head. “I’m hoping I can answer some of their questions about my side of the family and all that comes with it tomorrow. Watari will have to try keeping up with checking in on everyone in the meanwhile whilst Hades and Lulu go around learning the area save for their personal routines... and Hades hiding quite honestly. It’s kinda sad how timid he is, and even more so that he’s hiding in Shayde’s room in an attempt to settle his nerves.”
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
“Well, you’re likely going to get dragged into the gaming world with Jake around. I got sucked in, and when I’m not tinkering with mechanics or sleeping, I play games with him. He has me hooked on the Assassin’s Creed series right now, and y’all might get a better insight on how their brotherhood functions through watching and/or playing it yourselves. With how Hades, as he calls himself, was examining everyone at the bathhouse, I’m pretty positive y’all are gonna be put on restrictions until you fit well within his standard of healthy which means a lot of time to fill in with fights or miscellaneous stuff that doesn’t compromise his caretaking. The werewolf is likely to behave as the enforcer so as to be like an extension of his reach which is already pretty damn far. He’s at least six-foot-nine in height. I’m sure he’ll interact with others, but he’s a bit skittish at the moment so his hand will have to be forced if Lulu can’t contain and control naughty patients,” Cloud chuckled perhaps a little too amused by their explanation of not playing many video games. Scratching his left collarbone, he slightly shook his head before giving Kansei a motion of his hand as if telling her to pass it over to him. “Either way, y’all need to get a checkup so the puppy knows who you are. I’m gonna take a pass for the moment. I gotta talk to Trevor about something beforehand after all. I can clean up and sharpen your blades for ya whilst you borrow a couple of Trevor’s knives - located under a panel on the couch below the cushions - as a safety net in the meanwhile.”
-=-=-=*=-=-=-
“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t. Who really knows how things played out. I get lots of people that step on my toes, and most get kicked down off their high horse for opting to do so on the wrong day. Today, for example, would be a bad day to step on my toes. Whether or not it gives anyone opportunities, well, that’s just coincidence. As for Atish, he better find his inner wisdom and show his fugly mug to me in the next forty-eight hours of his own volition or I’m gonna make some noise he can’t ignore... or maybe just make a house call. Depends on how I’m feeling at the time,” Sam shrugged with a rather evil grin. He then gave a slight motion towards Hagen with his beer bottle before shifting his weight onto one hip and using his freehand to accept the flask. Handing his bottle to Giulio whom briefly sniffed it, scrunching up his nose in the process, Sam opened the flask and gave it a slight sniff of his own. Setting a hand over the rim of the flask then making a swift shift so as to just get a little on his palm, he then took a second to lick the very same spot just to nod in approval. “The good stuff. It’s even well-made. Haven’t found this stuff in ages much less this well-made. Grazie. He’s got a pen and paper, and if ya need a new pen ‘cause there’s no ink, he can get it for ya. I’d suggest ignoring the doodles in the back of the notebook ‘cause they’re pretty morbid. I was trying to distract Giulio with it, and he was doing fine until someone touched him. The pen he was using ended up in their eye, they went to the hospital, and I made Giulio sit in a corner for a little while. I had to bop him upside the head about twenty minutes later ‘cause he started the weird whisper thing, but still. I don’t know if it’s from his point of view and how he’s seeing the world or just something he was doing to appease the killer instinct, but it’s something I will be burning later.”
Taking a moment to reach over and smack the Italian teen upside the head, Sam shot him a pointed look. “Stop it. Three people in three hours, Giulio. Three. That’s three too many,” he scolded the boy whom frowned as he briefly brushed some of his dark hair out of his face with one hand.
“Scusati,” Giulio finally seemed to murmur before slightly narrowing his dark eyes at Lianna when she made the motions of playing a violin. Of course him flicking out his knife with a low growl earned him yet another slap upside the head, but that merely kept him standing in place.
“Sorry, honey. He’s a little touchy about violins, and I’m guessing he only caught the motions you made of playing one so he got a little irritated that there may indeed be a rat in the family, especially one so close to Giancarlo. Almost all details about Giulio are one of the most confidential subjects within the Italian mafia. All people are supposed to know is that he will be coming after you if you step on their toes. Give him a few seconds for it to sink in that you’re not wanting him to play it and he’ll settle back down. As for you playing... Let’s do it! Gimme a sec to get their attention, and know that you’re the only Lilianna down here aside from that lady there, but she’s a spirit so meh,” Sam smiled ever so casually, his finger briefly pointing towards an empty space, before making an about-face towards the crowd. Once his fingers moved up towards his lips, however, Giulio set his hands over his ears whilst Hagen covered Lianna’s ears. After what could only be a shrill whistle, everyone had come to a stop to turn towards him whilst Hagen uncovered the girl’s ears. “Alright then, guys and ladies, here at the Pit Sidelines. As you can all see, we’ve a new presence, a new face here on the floor so please welcome Miss Lilianna! And it’s only fitting that since we’ve a new face, that as a contrast we play something off the wall. Let’s see if she can keep this party hoppin’ and us entertained.”
Scowling slightly as Sam gave an enthusiastic clap, the crowd following suit as if it was expected of them, Hagen could only give a low scoff as he tapped the girl with the notepad and pen. “For a guy that wanted to be a musician his entire life, he’s certainly avoiding performing for the people here even though most of them already know he’s the human equivalent of Koail. What you’re seeing, girly, is the control of a mere human over the masses of many species or the power of what Koail himself calls the Siren God. Supposedly, if you were to put him and Koail in the same band, time and space itself would stop everything just to listen to them. I wouldn’t actually know if it’s true or just the weird bard over there spreading rumors, but it’s what I’ve heard. For whatever reason, most people want to please Sam as if their life depends on it. Either way, he’s got them prepped to hear you play. Don’t let him down.” That having been said, he tapped his foot on the ground just to catch a violin case that jumped up in response to it. Opening it up, he turned it to face the faerie simply to expose a black electric violin inside of it. “Plug it into the amp there for the entirety of these partygoing nimrods. You break it, I break your neck.”
Giving his arm a swat, Sam gave the girl a grin. “It’s his mother’s original violin, and now currently his. He just didn’t want Shayde to have it. Learning the violin and the cello was his way of getting closer to her.”
“Stop saying crap that makes me sound like a frickin’ teddy bear. I just didn’t want it sitting around collecting dust, and it makes my- crappy days a little less crappy,” Hagen huffed irritably before immediately shifting his gaze elsewhere after he’d cut himself short.
“Heheh. I know your little secret, and it’s why I told Saria to leave you out of my guard detail. You’ve already got a lot on your plate. One frickin’ night down here with the Italian mafia’s attack dog is overkill as is,” Sam started with an amused chuckle before patting Hagen on top of the head like a child. It was chased off by a light kick to the shin which only got Sam to laugh more before he turned and hit someone upside the head with his beer bottle. “Hey! I’mma smack that head of yours off the wall if ya keep it up! Go, ladybug. Show me what ya got. And you, Goldilocks, best start headin’ for the colosseum with Lurtz. For all we know, they could make ya fight the fourteen fighters before him.”
The Opposition, the Neutral & the Changed Cloud, Lurtz, Cirdan, Fox, Jacoby, Cheshire, Hagen, Sam, Giulio
I know they say that you're moving on, But I'm begging you, please don't go. No, I don't wanna let you go. Oh no, oh. Yeah, you know that I want you back. Baby, I love you to the max; from here to the moon and back.
Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way this feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta. Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way it feels. Esto no me gusta.
No quiero que me dejes por favor y te pido pérdon.
Posted: Fri May 28, 2021 9:01 pm
Dantes_river
two down! two to be worked on after I sleep I wanna write them now, but work is at 6 am crying hopefully the flow continues and I can just work on them while I'm cleaning carts.
The Lost Krystina, Skylar, Rissa, Lianna, Truth
&
Alone Bander, Shiro, Kuro, Niji, Kana, Kansei
Warm yourself by the fire, son, And the morning will come soon. I'll tell you stories of a better time, In a place that we once knew.
Before we packed our bags, And left all this behind us in the dust, We had a place that we could call home, And a life no one could touch.
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
Don't hold me up now I can stand my own ground I don't need your help now You will let me down, down, down!
“I have a feeling that your brother is going to hate me when he actually talks to me, simply for the fact I do the same as you,” shiro chuckled, shaking his head before shrugging. “Kuro does something similar for me, where he’ll pull my a** out of projects or whatever to get me focused on reality. Usually it's a simple shove of food into my line of sight or he’ll full-body pick me up and drag me away.... He knows not to do it when i’ve got music running because i will outright maul him....” he rambled, sighing softly. “We can start working on this tomorrow, yeah? It’s late and you really should get that rest like our new doc was saying,” he smiled, closing the notebook properly and grabbing his crutches. “I should probably head to bed too. After I get fuzzbutt off the roof.”
Shiro gave Lulu a slight shrug at his comment about the prosthetic being rudimentary. “You’re not wrong. It was never intended to be the final product, and it is very basic. But for what I had on hand, i’m happy with the results. Now that we’re here I fully intend to do far superior work.”
“That doesn’t make it suck any less, Lulu.” Niji mumbled, a single fingertip coming off her hand to poke him in between the eyes. As quick as it had happened, it was back where it belonged, a sly grin on her face. Could he keep that a secret, she wondered. She hadn’t mastered it, hadn’t told anyone but him. Could he keep it to himself? “I’m glad Hayden helps so much. And I really do want to grow past my fear and be able to know you better. Both of you. I’m already stuttering less,” she smiled at him, her tail unwinding from around her waist to sway a little.
As he continued to try and examine her beyond all the wounds and scar tissue she had, she couldn’t help but let her mind wander a little more. There was something there, in the way Sky and Shayde were interacting. Something that made her sly grin grow a little bigger. Turning her head back to look at the lycan as he offered she smiled a little more sadly. “While I think that would be wonderful.... I uh... don’t... i don’t think I could handle you getting more canid right now....” she mumbled, chewing on her lip as she watched him carefully. “Perhaps... perhaps after we uh... we’ve known each other a bit longer?”
The blonde gave a chuckle and shook his head, closing the book entirely as he looked up at Shadowheart. He certainly had an interesting view on the world. “Irrational? Certainly. Illogical and confusing? Most definitely. But they can also make the world make so much more sense, allowing puzzle pieces to fit where you didn’t expect them to. While there is the risk of getting hurt, I’ve found that the risk is often worth it to meet new people and create connections I wouldn’t have otherwise,” he smiled, folding the book in half and then quarters to shrink it, before tucking it in his pocket.
He paused to watch Niji grab a piece of jerky and sniff it briefly before she opened her mouth and shoved the entire thing in. “Certainly, I’ve been stabbed in the back for it, but I've also experienced some of the most amazing things because I wear my heart so openly.”
“Of course, you also believe that wearing your heart on your sleeve means that you’ll be able to spot those who would abuse you or use you.” Krystina mumbled, standing from her bed. Slapping her brother’s hand away when he tried to help her, she rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine. It’s ten feet to the bathroom. If I decide I want food or something I’ll just call someone to help me, okay?” she chuckled, poking his nose before she headed out and down the hall. Rather than doing as she’d said, she made her way over to the staircase and sat down, leaning against the banister. She was tired, but she couldn’t stay in that room where everyone was still talking.
~*~*~
“Then I will do my best to leave that side of things to you. It’s hard when she asks me such direct questions, though. She knows her skills well....” he breathed, stretching his arms over his head again. “For now, she’s content with just getting to learn about you and your family again. I’m sure she’ll have many for you when she wakes,” he smiled, eye twitching slightly at the mention of Hades off in another room. “This is... quite the gaggle of people, I'm sure everyone will take a bit to get used to each other. And the speed bumps that come from such new and raw interactions.” he added, eyes shifting to the window.
“Mmm.... dreamcasters. That’s why she’s having such foul nightmares right now.” he muttered, stomping his foot as a sand cloud shot out from his body. When it returned, the sand was deep red, and he gave Trevor a dark grin. “She only specified I wasn’t allowed to hurt people she cared about. She stopped caring about the laughing skulls a while ago. There was a second one but they had holy magic, I couldn’t get close to them.”
Truth whimpered in her sleep, rolling slightly as her body seemed to glow only to flicker briefly before disappearing altogether, her blankets and stuffed animal falling back to the bed.
“Ugh.... not even a full day in a new place and she’s already managed to get kidnapped....” the dream demon frowned, facepalming before looking at Trevor. “You still got knives or do we need to make a pit stop before we go after them?” he sighed, a bit of sand falling off his fingers and heading towards Krystina’s room.
Outside, the priest that had managed to pull Truth from her bed gave a cruel grin as he scooped her sleeping form off the ground, the entire area lit with holy light to keep Perem and others away as he gathered her up and performed a second spell to transport them further away. He knew better than to leave on foot. Or to let the holy lights go out while the remnants of the portal were still available.
Opening another portal from where he was, along with a few more as decoys, the priest stepped into another space and another before finally making a call on his cell. “Alright, boss, I’ve got ‘er. Feel free to approach him.” he breathed, settling Truth down in a room still full of holy light. Any other time they’d done this sort of thing, her stupid sand demon had always been able to track them down. This time. This time they had the drop on him and the others.
~*~*~
“We’ll be sure to do that soon, we just wanted the others to get in first. We’re used to patching each other up, anyways.” Kansei smiled, passing her knife over. It had fresh blood starting to dry on it, covering up an etching that looked like flowers and vines set into the black steel. Unlike the younger kids’ blades, it appeared hers had been well maintained aside from the current blood on it. “I’m sure the others would appreciate the chance to clean up their toys, but Bander and I had more opportunities to keep our blades sharp compared to the others. While that one needs a bit of cleaning, i’m sure you can see that they’re plenty sharp.” she smiled, only to yawn and stretch her arms over her head.
“I’m sure they have plans for the lot of us, after they’ve had us all visit their medic. But for the moment, I think the best idea is probably sleep. It's been a long day, and we’re gonna have another long one tomorrow trying to figure out how to explain everyone to the neighbors.” Bander added with a hum, scratching behind his ear as he too let out a yawn.
~*~*~
Rissa smiled warmly and gave Sam a thumbs up before sighing. “I’mma head off now, thank you for keeping her safe. It means a lot to me.” she hummed, bowing briefly before grabbing Lurtz’s hand and nearly bouncing away. “Alright.... So i dunno about you but knowing lee is safe with him actually has a weight off my chest. I’m lookin forward to this fight more knowing i don’t have to worry about her as well!” she grinned, almost vibrating with excitement as she bounced along beside him.
Smiling warmly at the intro, Lianna gave a slight shrug at Giulio’s threat before giving Hagen a slight bow and shaking her head. Pulling her arms out from behind her back, she held up her own violin in purple and hooked it into the amp instead. She could not use his, as it did not have the same spell cast on it as hers did. Setting the violin delicately down beside the amp, she pulled a tiny mp3 player from her bag- old, beaten, and hardly the newest model- but it ran, and she knew exactly what order things were in on it, no matter if the screen didn’t have a light anymore. Once she found the song she wanted, she gave another slight bow to the quieted crowd and readied herself as the beat started. Soon enough, she was playing, her signature lightshow starting around her as music began.
Lights began flashing around her in pulsing colors and she couldn’t help but sway a little herself at the music, her movements more like that of a trained fighter than a dancer, but strange with a violin in hand.
With the distraction of Lianna playing, and her supposed threat diminished, a gathering of laughing skulls gang members began floating around the edge of the crowd, only for a group of four individuals to come up to where Sam was settled at the table. Leading the group was an individual with black and red dreads and purple eyes, a laughing skull tattooed on his forearm. “Which one of you is Sam?” he sighed, shoving his hands in the pockets of his baggy sweater. The trio around him shuffled slightly, eyeing the faerie who was still playing her song. With any luck, she’d keep playing for a bit before spotting them.
“I’m Atish. I wanted to know why you suddenly went from letting us do our own thing to trying to eradicate us. I thought Truth had made a deal with you?” he murmured, shifting his weight as he spoke. While he stood as if he didn’t care, his eyes spoke of an unspoken anger on Truth’s name.
We are the angry and the desperate The hungry, and the cold We're the ones who kept quiet And always did what we were told
But we've been sweating while you slept so calm In the safety of your home We've been pulling out the nails that hold up Everything you've known
So open your eyes child, Let's be on our way. Broken windows and ashes Are guiding the way.
Keep quiet no longer, We'll sing through the day, Of the lives that we've lost, And the lives we've reclaimed
The Unknown & The Unspoken The sandman,The demon,The Goddess
I can't take the pain, can't take the hurt. I wish that I could turn back time and say, I love you. I'd do anything to make it work. 'Cause even through the times they tried to hate on us, the only thing that mattered to me was our love. Never will I stop, I'll never get enough.
I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy. Now my angel can't save me. Oh no. I'm missing you, baby, up all night going crazy, drinking my pain away...
The Assassins Sheik, Trevor, Watari, Lucian, Hayden
&
The Allies Ephraim, Shayde, Deception, Kristoff, Rayne, TX-304 AoD
Giving a chuckle, the little spirit fox nodded at his words. “He’ll probably be annoyed by it, but he’s sure to be happy I made a physical friend all by myself that isn’t just an avi in a video game with weird names like BallsOfSteel. I met him in the game we got trapped in, and we both nearly got killed on the seventy-fifth floor by a shiva in order for the remainder of our relatively small guild that were injured far worse than us to get the much larger guild who were worse than them out of the room. We won with him having seventy-three HP whilst I only had two HP. Everyone was crying and calling us stupid, all of the clerics and priests chugging mana potions like they were going out of style in order to heal everyone just so we could leave the dungeon since our hearthstones were glitching, but our party got a really sweet mount to get to the Lost Isle on floor thirty-four in order to get some SSS class gear, the item required to summon said shiva, and the ability for everyone to ascend to the next floor. Of course half of the players had given up on trying to beat the game at this point and were settling in on floor fifty which was cleared of monsters once we killed the orc warlord. Well, all save for the class SSS fish, but you needed a special fishing rod from floor forty-five’s goblin king in the Lost Tomb of Agrimarr and entirely maxed out fishing for him to even show up and he only spawned once daily as in reality days, not game days... And I’m doing it again. Sorry. He’s just a really good gamer friend that really loves Duke Nukem, and we went through a lot together in that game yet loved it all the same. Unlike most other players that put us beta gamers under the label of cheaters, he was one of the first two players who defended us,” he hummed happily as his tails flicked behind him from side to side, a faint echo of a purr and something of a mewl following his words. As it dawned on him that he’d started rambling about his time trapped in a virtual world, however, his ears flattened in sync with his apology. They then picked back up and twitched a few times just as his brow furrowed a bit. “How stupid can they be? Trevor’s gonna murder them, drag them back from the dead to kill them again, and rinse and repeat until he gets bored. Bedtime it is! I can’t wait to get started tomorrow. It’s gonna be a blast! I’m sure Krystina and her brother would appreciate everyone clearing out of their room so they can rest. I’ll be bunking in Ephie’s room if ya need anything. I’m sure Trevor will appreciate someone keeping an eye on him anyways. Oh! Don’t be surprised if Cloud’s sleeping on the couch in the morning. It’s more common than you might think. A little less common than finding him curled up on the floor, but still super common.” Shaking off the thought, his echo of a mewl and purr starting back up as he crawled back off of the bed and started practically bouncing out of the room. He did pause briefly next to Niji and shifted his gaze to the corner of his eyes at her, but didn’t really say anything before he continued straight on out the door.
“Ooh. My fur’s standing on end from when the clicking of his nails paused to now. What happened?” Lucian had felt an uncontrollable shiver run down his spine briefly when he’d paused before he settled back into a relaxed position when he moved on.
“Eh? I think he gave the kitten a silent warning or maybe a threat. It just made the shadows fluctuate with whatever it was. If it was either of those, Sheik would say it’s not a good way to make friends his own age. He could’ve just wanted to say something then changed his mind about it since he said he’s awkward with kids his own age too. Or he could’ve been trying to size her up in how she’d handle Fox since she wasn’t really around him today, and he’s a spirit wolf so she might react to him like she did you... Which would not be a good thing in Jake’s eyes via that thing called emotions,” Shayde answered the werewolf though his gaze never shifted from Skylar’s form. Crossing his arms over his chest when the blind dog reacted to the others speaking of using the emotions to read people with an amused laugh, he clicked his jaw a couple of times. Annoying dog was taking the bone thrown to him and running with it. “You can’t choose your family, kitten, nor the lifestyle of other people. He just dealt with it the best he could. I don’t have family so I don’t have that problem. Don’t do it, dog.”
“Too bad. I’m doing it. Told ya so~. Told ya so~. The big bad wolf told ya so~. Hahaha! From what I can tell from here, you currently don’t intend to do anyone harm, but you will most likely use actions to portray how you feel because you don’t know how to express them in any other way. Ephraim’s slightly better than you in that department, but he’s had more human contact in half of a year than you’ve had your whole life. Something you both do, however, is cross your arms over your chest as if to contain those emotions and keep people out simultaneously. It’s actually a pretty common action to take in order to maintain distance. Thank you, Mr. Skylar, for feeling the same way I do about emotions,” Lucian hummed with perhaps a much too happy grin though he was lightly touching where Niji had poked him. “I can wait for it, sweetheart. And it does suck a crap ton of donkey balls, but like Shayde said, I didn’t get to choose my family and how they treat me. I didn’t get to choose whether or not I was gonna be blind either. You just have to learn how to make do with what you’ve got. I just happened to get a crappy hand from the start, but in one of the cards I had to draw in all of my seventeen years of existence, I got a wild card. It’s the best card to get in a game of cards from what I’ve been told. Right now, the card y’all have drawn is a joker, and in some card games, the joker is the wild card. All you can do now is see if this is one of those games. Make sense?”
“Stupid dog... All I got from letting myself feel something was a bunch of ghosts, Mr. Skylar, and a guy blaming me for them becoming ghosts. But fine. Whatever. Enjoy your feelings, but don’t ask me to care for them. Dog, we’re moving to Sheik’s room so the girl can go back to sleep. Get your stupid sister back in bed before I kick her down the stairs. Trevor, do you want me to deal with the asshat or would you prefer me to retrieve the girl?” As if hearing a response, his lips twitched up in a smirk just as he wrapped a hand over the bottom half of Lucian’s and began sinking into their shadow with him. The werewolf, of course, furrowed his brow at first before realizing what he was doing, shutting his eyes and holding his breath. “Will do. I kinda just wanna see you dismember someone after hearing some of the stories of the man who distorted time itself... So long as he doesn’t use any unnatural lights like that frickin’ room does, he’ll never know the difference.” And with that, the duo popped up in Sheik’s room where the strawberry blonde was sitting up on the bed with a scowl though that didn’t stop Shayde from just stepping back into the shadows.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-*•*•*-_-_-_-_-_-_-
“Mm. I hope she will be alright learning about the family a little at a time, and she’ll be patient if I get a little confusing or just end up at a standstill here and there. The Sheikah aren’t exactly the easiest kind of people to talk about, and my specific lineage even more so,” Trevor almost seemed to hum though he appeared to make no real reaction to Perem’s sands. At the mention of the Laughing Skulls, it became obvious that just hearing they’d showed up nearby made him highly unamused and quite irritated. Once she’d disappeared from her bed, however, he heaved a sigh before flicking out the knife with the hourglass handle Truth had on her. “Sandman, I’d like to introduce you to the Blade of the Djinn. At least humans would call it that in their infantile and barbaric gibberish. It’d be easier to just go with that or Blade of the Desert Faerie instead of it’s actual name as well as understanding that it’s a Sheikah blade, and as such, it’s entirely neutral for its purpose is to protect the balance. In short, it’s a resilient little thing and can protect however much of your sand will fit in the hilt. I’ll simply deliver it for you and cut off the light show so you can give them a nice little boo~. And then I’ll tear them limb from limb for touching my princess. Sound like a plan?”
He paused in speaking briefly just to set a hand on his stomach for a second and puff up his cheeks almost as if sulking about something, his feet seemingly moving onwards as if they had a mind of their own. “Now I’m kinda hungry... Ah. I just remembered something I mentioned earlier. Sam’s likely going to get involved with these hysterical skellymen if they’ve started interfering with his bar in any way, shape or form, and/or if they start intentionally aiming for the grasshopper in the red light district. The kid’s been hit by so many vehicles that it ain’t even funny anymore.”
Pausing when he heard Shayde talk to him, his voice only being audible enough from the shadows to the redhead, he perked up a bit. “If you could retrieve her and leave a replica, it’d be greatly appreciated. I’m still gonna kill him though. And I’m sure you do. Everyone seems to want to see me in action once they hear the stories. Be careful though. It would seem this one uses holy magic... Of course not. You’re far too thorough with your shadow work. Ya hear that, Perry? He’s gonna save us some trouble of his own volition. He must be happy about something. Or unhappy. He’s one of the more complicated children I know.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-*•*•*-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Gingerly accepting the knife in order to examine it a bit closer, Cloud gave a slight nod as if impressed by its condition. “Blood’s nothing new around here so you’ll likely notice we mostly ignore it. Trevor won’t, mind you, but he’ll find appropriate times to mention it on most occasions. If it’s his daughters’ blood, however, I’m sure he’ll do the whole creepy smile thing before telling you he’s going to murder you a million different ways. I’ve only seen it a couple of times in the entirety of our time together, and it is indeed super creepy. If you’ve ever seen an anime or manga where there’s a character whose smile on their face makes a literal U shape from one temple to the other and their eyes are like slits, you get something of an idea on just how creepy his smile can be. Better yet, the Smiley Man from the New Mutants movie or even the cartoon version of the Grinch from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This blade’s definitely in better shape than what I’ve seen of the others, but I’m not sure if Ephraim would approve of it. He‘s super picky about the sharpness of his blades. You’ll also get used to his snooping around yet keeping your secrets as secrets seeing as it’s his job. Lord knows he’s still running around trying to dig up information on some of us that’ve been around longer than y’all,” he responded with a brief flicker of a smile before flipping a couple of cushions off of the couch followed by opening what looked like a bed tucked inside. What it was, however, was something of a cabinet holding a variety of blades of various shapes and sizes. Leaving it to them if they wished to keep a blade near, the blonde male began cleaning up the blade of Kansei’s knife whilst seemingly studying the craftsmanship put into it. “Sleep sounds like a good plan. I hope you’ll come to trust we’ve got your six just in case something does happen, but we do hope nothing will. No one likes interrupted sleep. Either way, night, night.”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-*•*•*-_-_-_-_-_-_-
She’d grabbed his arm and started dragging him away with an obvious pep to her step, but Lurtz had glanced behind him for a moment. Only idiots knew how to approach the human, and he was pretty certain he’d heard just that: morons. At realizing she’d been talking to him, he made a soft sound as if agreeing with her yet internally asked if that’s what he actually felt. She wasn’t going to be a distraction for him now so... maybe it was? Shaking off the thought, he briefly tugged her nearer the wall simply to open the door of an elevator that obviously wasn’t on this floor. Wrapping an arm around her waist just to lift her off of the floor, he turned in the militarized command of about-face and stepped backwards into the open elevator shaft only to use the other arm to raise her legs up higher just before he made impact with the roof of the elevator. Setting her back down, he opened the hatch on the unsuspecting passengers and dropped down inside.
“As you were,” he murmured even as the car gave a jolt followed by a ding to inform them that they’d reached their destination. Motioning the girl to drop down with one hand, he used the other to keep the door from closing. And that’s when he heard a, “Vallyne?!”
Slightly turning his head towards the door, he immediately regretted it. “F_ck me.” Those words ended up making the formally clad girl with silvery hair just barely tinged with a hint of lavender giggle. As soon as the blonde had joined him within the elevator, he briefly made a gesture towards the other girl. “Lady Rissa, this is the lovely Lady Sierra. I accompanied you all to one of her family’s bathhouses earlier today. She would be the ninja with the clothes and crutches.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Rissa. Val- Lurtz and I have known each other since we were children, and we were even engaged for a short time until my father realized he was entirely fey. The adults follow the silly rules about purebred vampires and somesuch. I do hope you enjoyed your bath, and that you forgive me for all of the lace and frills, but my father insists on my behaving and dressing as a lady of noble stature. The cocktail dresses for the girls not quite within my general size, however, were from the princess. I mean an actual princess, not your friend of course. She’s super rebellious against her mother and likes to party it up. Lurtz, I’ve called in an extra security favor because you don’t like to take care of yourself like you should, and you nearly took the whole place down around our ears when you were younger from a blood frenzy so let’s not do that again,” she laughed after having given the blonde a curtsy.
“But of course, Lady Sierra. That would be bad, especially since I’ve gotten much stronger with age. I’m no longer a fledgling though so I shouldn’t be bad enough for a total loss of control if I were to hit a blood frenzy stage. It was still a wise decision simply for the fact that she’s not like most other contenders though so I’m quite grateful you took that extra step.”
“Still super creepy to talk like you’re a formal version of an android~. Don’t feel so down about it, sweetie. I don’t blame you for what happened then, but I do wish we may still be friends. I also know you’re not a fledgling anymore yet I still worry about you. Kÿnadríel is oftentimes telling me of the excessively long time between your feedings, and the many occasions you get injured protecting someone just to dust yourself off and move on. This wasn’t a choice you made, but it’s something you’ve no choice to accept either. You really should take better care of yourself.”
“I’d have to politely decline, milady. My presence will only tarnish your reputation. If you’ll excuse us, we must find Meena to discuss the finer details of the spar she wishes to engage in,” he responded with the slightest of bows towards the girl before stepping around her and heading off down the open hallway overlooking a large arena with dirt-lined grounds in which some areas were darker than others. It was obvious that he was opting not to comment on her mentioning his welfare seeing as it wasn’t a topic he was instructed to discuss, and even more so that he didn’t wish to discuss it at all.
“Be careful, dearie. He has killed elementals down here before, half intentionally and half accidentally,” Sierra warned the blonde though she was visibly upset with his behavior. “My dear, sweet Vallyne. He’s so different now...”
-_-_-_-_-_-_-*•*•*-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Sam had given the peppy blonde a grin and wave that seemed to say that it wasn’t an issue before she ended up taking up Lurtz’s arm and dragged him away. Poor boy was likely lost on the sense of relief she was probably expressing to him oh so very openly, but he wouldn’t doubt that he actually felt the same deep down. One less distraction was always a relief. Lurtz was just so ignorant of his own emotions that he couldn’t translate it as the general depictions he’d use as an explanation for others. It was hilarious, but also kind of sad. If he came across her though, he’d just have a different sort of distraction on his mind.
Shortly after Lianna had rejected Hagen’s offered instrument and then started up playing, he gave a brief whooping cheer before clapping a few times. Just as soon as Atish and the Laughing Skulls opted to make their move, however, he turned to face them with what could only be a somewhat amused expression. “Ooh. He found part of his spine, but he’s still slithering in like a snake in the grass.”
Leaning his weight to one side at Sam’s intentional jab at Atish’s presence, Hagen jutted a thumb towards the nearby chair. “Sit. It’s not a request,” the shadowy male instructed only to tisk when Sam elbowed him. Instead, he turned his head to keep his eyes on Lianna whereas Giulio was more focused on the trio behind Atish.
“It’s his choice on how this goes down, Onii-san. The way he’s talking and behaving seems rather immature though,” the bartender chuckled ever so casually before he merely made a gesture with his hand at the seat. “Please do have a seat seeing as we have much to discuss. And they really shouldn’t be worried about her when they’ve got the Mad Dog and myself so close to you. Press your luck and we’ll be on you faster than her little twinkle toes can carry her over to us. He definitely will considering he’s been a little murder-happy tonight.” That having been said, he briefly patted the Italian on top of the head as if he were a good boy just to take a breath and let the smile fade.
“I’ll be honest with you here, kid-“
“I think he’s actually a smidge older than you,” Hagen interrupted seemingly making Sam tip his head slightly to the side as he studied the other male.
“Really? I thought it was the other way around.”
“I think so. Didn’t really care enough to pay too much attention to his file. Saw the name, the nickname, his behavioral patterns, and got bored so it all kinda blurred into random letters and numbers without any real sense behind it.”
“Weird. I’ve never seen you grow bored of someone’s file before.”
“It happens when you’re a hipster or a gangsta wannabe. Sadly, he’s the first I’ve ever encountered that’s a combination of the two so I kinda wanna congratulate him on being original just to reward him with a swift and painless decapitation for it. I’d probably feel like I was dealing with more of a real threat if he had a man-bun and broke out into Atomic Dog than how he just approached you.”
“Okay then. A little enlightening on my end as to your insight, but still. Heh. Bow wow wow yippy yo yippy yay~. That’s funny. I’d have to have cucciolo cut off the man-bun if he did have one though or I’d be completely distracted by it. Anyways, as I was saying before he interrupted with his comedy routine, you’re already starting off on the wrong foot here. You can’t go charging in talking about such-and-such deal with someone that wasn’t you. In order to save you some face, I’ll pretend you didn’t just approach me like some kind of noob and we’ll restart at where you first introduced yourself with the addition of the questioning tone in bringing up my requesting your presence. My response to that is that you would be correct about me calling up this meeting between us for some time now, and I’m glad you could find the time to get off your a** to meet me. Of course, I’d also have to suggest you call your little friend back up and let him know his glittery little parlor tricks aren’t gonna work on the Hell headed his way, but will annoy him more so than he’s already done. Let me know when you’re done with that so we may continue this chat.”
The Other Side Cloud, Lurtz, Jacoby, Sierra, Hagen, Sam, Giulio
I know they say that you're moving on, But I'm begging you, please don't go. No, I don't wanna let you go. Oh no, oh. Yeah, you know that I want you back. Baby, I love you to the max; from here to the moon and back.
Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way this feels. Esto no me gusta. Esto no me gusta. Girl, I'm not with you, you're not with me, and I don't like the way it feels. Esto no me gusta.
No quiero que me dejes por favor y te pido pérdon.
