~Silvira~ She munches her muffin. "Well, you can find the bounty board and hunt for the creatures on it. You could probably find work at a shop or restaurant somewhere, join a faction and go on missions, any number of ways." Silvira explained, and took a sip of her tea. She raised an eyebrow at Alan. "That might not be very smart here, since a lot of the people here could kill you pretty easily." She said, and snorted softly, setting her teacup down and giving Alan a slight humorless smile, revealing sharp catlike teeth. "Unless your Gift is to see what Gifts someone else has, thievery wouldn't be a good idea." ~Gwen~ "Doesn't stop you from shoplifting though, does it?" She asked, relenting a small chuckle as she gives a just-barely-joking disapproving glance to Silvira.
<Nia> Nia shrugs. "I don't want to shoplift anymore, I've been doing it for too long." Nia said, then added quickly, "I mean, only when I have to, of course!" She quickly changes the subject. "You mentioned joining a faction? What's a faction?"
-=+Alan=+- "Yes, what's a faction?" He asked. "Is it like, a guild or something?" He sat up and looked over at Silvira, waiting for her to answer.
~Silvira~ "The factions are basically a big guild, yeah. Kind of. Depending on how your Gift works and what it does, you go to different factions. There's Physical, Dimensional, Elemental, Mental, and Unaligned. They're pretty much exactly what they say on the tin. Your faction will support you and give you a place to live and will supply places to train in return for going on missions and participating in faction events. It's pretty nice, though I don't live in faction housing now I have learned some about it." She falls silent afterward, remembering when she did live in faction housing and what had happened there. ~Gwen~ "I live in faction housing. Unaligned. Not the best living space, but it's not the worst either." She said, taking a bite of her scone.
<Nia> "Hm, I might have to check it out, living on the street gets old after 4 years. I wonder what my pow-I mean, Gift, I guess- would be considered..." Nia says as she takes another bite of her cookie.
-=+Alan+=- "I would say most likely dimensional or physical. You create portals, right? You're manipulating space," Alan said, deadpan. "I'd probably be Unaligned. My thing is wierd."
~Izuna~ Izuna would look at Haku then at Jake blinking before she shakes her head “I still think she will like my apartment better than a dumb old basement!”. [Kuhaku] “To be fair, I haven’t seen this furnished ‘cell’ yet. But yes, I am on probation so I can’t stay with you, Izuna,” Haku interjects. Speaking to Jake quietly, “May I see that knife again?” [Jake] “Of course.” Jake hands Haku the knife, giving her a quizzical look. ~Izuna~ Izuna’s ears fold onto her head sadly and she nods slumping over a bit “Ooook...I don’t know if I can spar after trying to mess up Liam ‘cuz he gave me a druggie brownie” She looks over at Liam her tail twitching a bit. [Liam] “Heeeey I’m sorry okay? I can give you real food to make up for it?” Liam pouts and pleads, showing cupcakes, croissants, and sandwiches in turn. Yeesh what is up with these girls? I like to think of myself as a pretty likable guy. [Kuhaku] Haku takes the knife from Jake and concentrates, and the knife metal seems to ripple. Once it’s done, the knife has a different edge, but looks about the same as before. She moves onto the sheath and replaces it with new material. Haku gives the knife back to Jake and explains quietly, “The base is now the same metal as that elevator door, and has a diamond edge. Should be sharper and sturdier than before. And the sheath should be much more resilient now as well.” Seeing Izuna’s sad form, Haku replies, “Maybe we could stay together after they deem me to be safe.” Glancing over at Liam’s food, she asks, “Can I have some more food? I’ll need more so I don’t pass out halfway through sparring.” Thinking back to the muffin from earlier, she didn’t feel any negative effects --meaning that it wasn’t drugged. Guess he’s a decent guy...although he really doesn’t act like it. ~Izuna~ Izuna looks at the cupcakes, glancing at the new knife before she raises her hands “I want a cupcake too” she looks over at Haku and brightens up “Yes! you could stay in my room with me! It’s lonely there” she looks at the cupcakes trying to grab one and nibble on it hungrily, her ears going back to their original form twitching a bit. [Liam and Jake] Jake smiles as he takes the knife back from Haku. I can’t wait to test this out... Jake admires the knife, turning it over to inspect every inch. It appeared to be fundamentally perfect, with not a single mark on it. Even brand new blades tended to have some minor factory flaws. Liam sighs and gives Haku a look. He hands Izuna the cupcake and Haku the sandwich. Soon he’d have to stock up on more food. ~Izuna~ Izuna nomnoms on the cupcake making a purring noise as she does and makes a ^-^ face giggling happily before she finishes it, licking her lips she looks at Liam “You’re a refrigerator I think” she nods “And a druggie, Ill call you druggie for now!” she nods happily, her ears twitching a bit at him “By the way! How far down is this creepy old basement?” She tilts her head. [Kuhaku] Haku receives the sandwich from Liam and consumes it ravenously. After she’s done, she looks back at Liam and asks, “More food?” [Liam] “No, Vance has food. Hell, if you’re that hungry, Vance can feed you from the nutrient tank even. I like my food.” Liam hugs his arms protectively around himself. [Kuhaku] Haku blinks at Liam and says, “That’s fine with me. I just need more sustenance.” Avoiding eye contact with him and somewhat abashed, Haku continues, “And…. sorry about earlier. For attacking you unceremoniously. I...just wasn’t comfortable not knowing anything about your Gift so I decided to test your capabilities. No harm intended.” [Liam] “That’s... okay. But seriously, you’re going to have to get used to not knowing what people’s Gifts are. I mean, everyone around you has a Gift, and you’re not going to know what they all are. And if you plan on attacking everyone to find out, you’ll find that’s a great way to get yourself killed.” Liam shrugs as he says it like it is. [Kuhaku] “I’ll keep that in mind. It’s a force of habit and also because we were supposed to be working together from now on,” Haku concedes. [Liam] “That’s even more reason for you to not attack me. I was planning on telling you my Gift before we sparred. And I suppose I still will once we begin...” Liam looks away and takes out his unique rope, swishing it around by running air through it. He occupied himself by making it move like a live snake, or form letters, although he was having difficulty controlling it. [Kuhaku] “Who is the other guy? I never got his name,” Haku asks Jake, motioning to the other man in the elevator. [Jake] “That’s Vance.” Jake nods at Vance. [Vance] The elevator stops at last, and the doors slide open. “Okay guys, so I can’t actually think of something cool to say. This is the hallway.” ~Izuna~ Izuna blinks as the doors open and she quickly rushes out of the elevator looking around the hallway curiously then looks back fixing her big colorful shirt waiting for Vance to take the lead “Why did you think I was one of your dumb experiments!...Dummy” she grumbles. [Vance] Vance passes Izuna and looks back to lead the group down the sparsely doored hallway. “Well you were in my room and you look of… perfect… qualities of my experiments. Not the uhh… no nevermind.” Vance turns back and opens a large, metal door 3/4th down and beckons them inside. The door leads to his main office, and many other doors that lead to shorter hallways that contain experiment cells, the bathroom, a rudimentary kitchen, and a couch. “Haku, your room is down that door” Vances points to the door leading to the experiment cells. “It’s the first one on the left, and don’t worry about noise, there’s nothing in the cells next to it. The room has a nice bed, and its own bathroom built into it. There’s only one chair, and a table to go along with it. It also has a swanky rug inside. I think there’s a couch inside…” [Kuhaku] Haku peeks around the room that Vance pointed to. It was exactly as he had described, and looked like an upgrade from the prison cell that she was staying in earlier. Haku sets down the elevator door she had been carrying in a corner. Looking back at Vance, she asks, “Do you have food?” [Vance] Vance walks back into the main and points towards the kitchen. “There’s a pantry. And a fridge. Or if you’re into that kind of stuff, the door next to this one has the nutrient tanks.” ~Izuna~ Izuna makes a face reaching up and patting her fluffy ears quietly huffing a bit before she follows him down the hallway and into the main office and blinks looking around “Still creepy” She shrugs shaking her head a bit before she moves to the couch sitting down shifting around her ears twitching slightly listening quietly. [Kuhaku] Haku walks over to where Vance motioned to and starts opening cabinets and other doors. She finds a whole package of bread and eats it--along with the plastic wrapping itself. Opening the fridge, she takes out various containers of luncheon meat and a whole carton of milk, but eyes the vegetables disdainfully. You need a balanced diet, she reminds herself, and grudgingly grabs a head of broccoli as well. Setting her meal down on the counter, she finishes eating everything (packaging included) within a minute or two and downs the entire carton of milk. Heading back to the others, she says, “I’m ready to spar now.” [Liam and Jake] “That can’t have been healthy to eat all that. Especially that fast.” Liam says. “Vance. Make sure Haku can spar safely after eating that.” Jake says. [Kuhaku] Haku glances over at the brothers and replies, “It’ll be okay, I can speed up my digestion with my nanites.” [Vance] That’s like all my food omgosh” Vance waves his hand in dismissal at Jake’s concerns. “Now is everyone ready?” Vance leads the way down the experiment cell hallway and opens up a large room, 40 feet tall and 100 feet wide. ~Izuna~ Izuna gets up heading over to the door Vance opens and blinks raising her hand to her neck checking her pulse “Does anyone have gatorade or...something that can get my blood pumping?” she blinks “I cant fight on low blood pressure!” She shifts around making a face. [Vance] Vance crouches down at eye level and stares at her for a good 10 seconds before getting up to go to the nutrient tank room and grab a bottle of “nutrients.” He tosses it to Izuna. “It tastes like chocolate chip cookies in a bottle. I have strawberry if you’d like that instead.” [Liam] He continues to derp around with his rope, starting to get the hang of controlling it now. He could throw it around him at any location he liked, straighten it, and return it to him. Next, he exudes a knife from the end of the rope and practices swinging around the extra weight, imaging the knife blade cutting throats and piercing flesh. He rummages around in his Pocket for things taking up space and finds a ball of string. Liam takes it out and examines it. “I don’t need this, so anyone want it?” He asks. ~Izuna~ Izuna blinks staring at the bottle of the mystical chocolate chips nutrient bottle and holds her hands up to it “I want the chocolate!” She smiles happily before adding a “Please” after a bit jumping up and down excitedly “Gimme Gimme Gimme!” she giggles a bit, looking at the ball of string Liam pulls from him and her eyes widen causing her to slowly walk over to him and tries snatching it from him “Mine!” She yells out loud. [Vance] He enables his processor to give him a superior advantage over the competition and attempts to snatch the ball of string right from Liam’s hands. “Gimmie.” ~Izuna~ Izuna blinks looking at Vance as he steals the precious ball of string and growls “Gimme that! I want it!” she walks over to the bottle of chocolate chip nutrient stuff and opens it nomnoming the entire bottle’s contents blinking as she stares at Vance “I want the ball of string!” She yells. [Jake] He teleports to the center of the room, past the annoying people scrabbling over string, and pulls out the new knife that he’d been dying to test for what felt like days. He slides it out of the sheath and tosses it into the air, catching it and throwing it across the room, narrowly missing Vance’s head. The knife lodges in the wall, sinking nearly to the hilt. Jake presses the button the sheath and watches as the knife breaks down into nanites and returns to knife form after a few seconds. He draws the knife again and inspects it, seeing that it was exactly the same as before. [Kuhaku] Haku ignores Vance’s and Izuna’s quarrel and instead observes Jake testing out the knife she made him. Watching it sink into the wall like butter, she thinks Physical faction metal and diamond go really well together… Walking over to Jake, she comments, “Nice throw.” [Jake] “Thanks. I love it” He says, giving Haku a thumbs up. [Vance] Vance crouches down and looks Izuna in the eye for a good 15 seconds. “No.” ~Izuna~ Izuna growls a bit louder and brings her hand back before she sends a hard fist towards his face “I WANT THE STRING!” She yells frowning deeply her ears twitching, her eyes changing a bit. [Vance] Vance lets the punch go through and flies backwards across the room, crashing into the wall with a loud bang. Aaaaaghh…. no suit over my face… [Liam] He sprints over to Vance, practically exploding in his rush to get to him. He picks him up in his arms, looking at his face in utter panic. “Vance, Vance! Don’t leave meeee! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Liam screams pitifully, throwing his head back toward the ceiling. ~Izuna~ Izuna growls loudly clenching and unclenching her hands before her ears and tail change to a deep red then her hair before her eyes follow “Gimme the string now!” she yells charging towards Vance to take the string by force. [Liam] “Don’t touch him!” He growls, drawing a stun baton and pointing it at the charging Izuna. “I’ll never let her have you, Vance.” He whispers tenderly. [Vance] He rolls out of Liam’s embrace and fully envelops himself in his suit. ~Izuna~ Izuna hisses loudly speeding really quickly towards Liam and Vance zipping around the floor before she sends a hard kick to his legs and if it connects she would quickly follow through with a powerful punch into his chest “STRIINNGGG”. [Vance] He steps in Izuna’s path and catches her leg, lifting her up over himself and slamming her into the wall. He spins around and pins her against the wall again as she falls, and hits her with an uppercut afterwards. ~Izuna~ Izuna hisses yelping a bit as she’s slammed into the wall causing her to wince faintly before she growls louder letting out a high pitch scream yowling a bit as she brings her legs up and kicks out with surprising strength for her height and look after she is uppercutted she gets dazed blinking rapidly. [Vance] Izuna’s kick knocks him onto his back sending him skidding backwards, to where he then rolls to his knees. [Jake and Haku] They watch as Liam very narrowly avoids a messy death, courtesy of one well-timed save by Vance. “So, how’s the weather? I haven’t been outside at all today,” Haku asks Jake nonchalantly. “It’s warm,” He responds. “Let’s start sparring now.” Jake says, teleporting a normal knife into his hand and appearing behind her, driving it at her side. The moment Jake says start, Haku steps into a battle stance. She was well-aware of Jake’s ability to teleport, and jumps immediately. “Nice dodge.” Jake states, widening his stance and drawing a second knife, this one the one Haku gave him. He starts a series of stabs and slashes, teleporting to and away from Haku at the apex of each swing to minimize her window of opportunity. Haku narrows her eyes at the knife that Jake pulls out--using the weapon she herself made against her was not the best idea. As Jake goes on the offensive, she blocks the first knife by turning the targeted skin area into metal and simply lets him hit her with her own knife. Haku doesn’t even blink as the knife disperses at the touch of her skin. Have to predict his movements…I can at least see how he’s going to swing. She changes both of her arms into blades and parries and blocks Jake’s assault while constantly keeping her back facing the wall. Seeing as none of his attacks were going through, Jake switches tactics and drops his knives mid-swing, instead moving to grab her blades with his bare hands and freeze them by leeching the kinetic energy from them. Once Jake grabs her blades, she instantly detaches them when she finds she cannot move them properly, Didn’t know he could do that… And then reforms her blades again, watching Jake warily. He might still have some cards up his sleeve...” At this moment, the sparring pair are interrupted by a small flying ball of fur. ~Izuna~ Izuna hisses loudly following after a small breather and leaps into the air going to dive bomb into Vance with her feet leading her dive bomb “GIMME THE STRING NOW VANCE!” She screams loudly her eyes shuddering as she flies downwards. [Vance] “THE STRING IS MINE!!!!!!!!” He screams as he leaps towards Izuna, hand outstretched to strike Izuna as they come closer. The string is slightly squashed from his grip tightening. Be strong little string. ~Izuna~ Izuna’s feet collide with his hands/hand(Whatever)and she pushes off of him growling as she lands on her butt with a thump and gets up “GIVE ME THE STRIINNNG!” She yells running at him before she jumps up at the last second and does a flip bringing her heel down towards his head. [Vance] Vance stares at the heel, slowly arcing towards his face. He shifts his head to the side slightly to dodge the hit and brings up the ball of string to her leg, unrolling it, and attempts to wrap her ankle in it, leaving the ball bouncing on the end of the string. ~Izuna~ Izuna blinks watching the string get tied to her ankle and her kick misses him as she loses interest and she completely forgets about Vance staring at the ball of string quietly before she pounces/tackles it actually meowing as she paws it around the floor blinking as it rolls around and she giggles happily her hair and everything else reverting back to their original color as she plays with the ball of string giggling and laughing, occasionally letting out a meow as she paws it around. [Liam] “Awwwww...” Liam makes a face and sits down next to Izuna and watches her rolls around playing with the string. ~Izuna~ Izuna purrs a bit mewing randomly as she rolls around on the floor following the ball of string with a ^-^ face, giggling happily. [Vance] Vance looks at Izuna, who was happily enjoying the ball of string, giggling as she rolled about the floor. He walks over to her and taps Liam to the side, then steps forward with his left foot, then brings the right one up and forward, into Izuna’s side. If Vance’s aim was on, she would land on top of Jake and Haku. ~Izuna~ Izuna yelps loudly blinking as she flails in the air before she realizes that she’s flying towards Haku and Jake and flails even more “No no no no Stttriiinnnngg!” She yells “Aaaaaah!” she watches her ball of string roll/fly after her. [Jake] Jake stops what he is doing as Izuna slams into him. He stops her momentum automatically and teleports her upside down in front of him, then side kicks her towards Haku. “Sorry!” He yells, as he reacted half on reflex. ~Izuna~ Izuna blinks getting dizzy now as she’s teleported around and winces yelping again her string ball probably knocking into Jake’s head lightly before following after her “WHY AM I THE BALL!?!” she yells whining loudly. [Kuhaku] Seeing an Izuna fly towards her, Haku nimbly dodges to the side. Glaring at Vance for interrupting their session, Haku releases invisible nanites to cut the string around Izuna’s ankle, pick up the ball of string, and drape it over Vance’s face. ~Izuna~ Izuna is kicked into the wall behind Haku and winces slowly getting up and slumps over slowly trudging over to Vance and tries to grab her ball of string cuz you guys are mean for taking the string from Izuna >.>. [Vance] Vance hoists the ball of string in front of Izuna, flicking it once to let it swing back and forth above her. ~Izuna~ Izuna blinks staring up at the string mesmerized as she starts to paw at it her eyes seeming to widen a little as she starts playing with the string above/in front of her giggling and letting out random meowing noises. [Vance] “Hmm… what to do now...ahh we have Alot to do.” Vance signals a switch in the labs via his processor, and a hatch opens up at the far side of the room. Soon, a cage rolls up to the opening and unlocks. "The wild ALOT, a cross between a Derikan bear, yak, and a pug" Vance announces. It bursts from its containment and rushes into its new environment. This Alot was bulletproof, and hungry. ((Source: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html )) ~Izuna~ Izuna’s ears twitch a bit before she looks over at the cage rolling into the area and blinks squeaking slightly at the scary and derpy ‘alot’ before she yelps loudly grabbing the string from Vance and runs away from him to avoid being trampled by the VERY dumb looking alot screaming a bit “AAA WEIRD THING” The Alot stares at the group and charges! ((Source: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html )) [Liam] SO BOOORED. Liam had been spending the last 5-10 minutes playing with his rope some more, hurling objects into the air and catching them with the rope, then throwing the object up into the air once more. What IS that?! “Kill it with fireee!!!” He screams horrified, as he sprays the Alot with gasoline and dives sideways before it tramples him. Liam rolls to his feet and fires flaming shrapnel at the Alot, setting it alight. [Kuhaku] Haku notices the charging alot, watches as Liam sets it on fire, and says in a deadpan tone, “That’s Alot of fire.” ((Source: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html )) [Vance] “I don’t think the fire helped…” Vance says as he remains at the side, the Alot ignoring its master. [Liam] “True, true.” Liam glares at the Alot and hoses it down with water, totally extinguishing the fire. [Kuhaku] Haku watches steam rise from the dowsed Alot and comments with a serious expression on her face, “Now there’s Alot of mist.” ((Source: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html )) [Liam] “You need to die. I’m sorry but you can’t be allowed to live any longer.” Liam raises his hands, palms forward, and opens fire with Edonis’s specially heated and accelerated shards of metal. The equivalent firepower of two large-caliber mini-guns is unleashed upon the unfortunate beast. [Jake] Eww. Jake teleports explosive charges beneath the steaming Alot and sets them off. [Kuhaku] Haku simply sits back and throws homing diamond-edged blades at the Alot. ~Izuna~ Izuna at this moment would be hiding under what ever she can hide under cheering random words like “KILL THE WEIRD DISGUSTING THING” and “WHAT KIND OF MONSTER IS THAT KILL IT WITH FIRE!” while playing with the ball of string. [Kuhaku] Once the Alot is brutally dismembered, cut up, and roasted by the explosives--Haku points to the smoking carcass and asks, “Can I eat that?”
[Colin] Colin is hungry. He's been hiding for about a week now, away from luxuries like the bath - he's positively stinky right now. But hunger takes priority, so here he is, out in the open, in front of the door that he knows leads to a small pantry. A risky move for a stowaway, but he's hungry. He reaches out for the handle, hoping the door is open just like how it has been several occasions in the past, but to his dismay, the door won't budge. "Whaaat do you think you're doing?", a feminine voice suddenly called from his side. Almost immediately, Colin chose a random direction and broke out on a run, his pursuer following behind. [Annabelle] Anne was quite bored, even while wandering the deck. After all, throughout the last week she had nothing very exciting to do - Gift exercise, sleep, eat, bathe, physical exercise, maybe talk to a fellow passenger - in hindsight, she could do with being more social. But now, she finally found something remotely fun to do - she just saw a young man, likely to be a stowaway, running in an attempt to escape from a simple greeting. Smiling to herself, she runs in pursuit. Her exhilaration was short-lived, however, as her target managed to run himself into a dead-end, causing her to let out a sigh. "Well, you sure got yourself in trouble, didn't you, non-legal passenger?", she says, trying to strike up a conversation. "Well, uh, I would have gotten here legally, but... I didn't have any money with me, and the ETG was getting really close", her target replies, looking nervously at his feet. "This tail ruined my life" Anne shrugs, her gaze wandering over the tail that extended behind her target. It was reptilian, and about as glaringly obvious as a lit neon lamp at night. "Well, can't say I can blame ya, then. The crew's going to be pissed if they find out, though" "So, are you going to tell them or not?" "Not even gonna bother. Apparently, this has happened more than once in the past. 'Sides, it's not like they can do anything now" "Uh, thanks", the young man finishes the conversation, turning around in search for a hiding spot. "Hey, who said I was letting you go-" Before she can finish, Anne was interrupted by the loud sound of the ship's whistle, as the craft slowly carried itself to a stop, followed by the captain's voice sounding over the intercom once more. "All right, folks, welcome to Derika. Now, 's much as you'd probably like to get sightseein', this here island's got some crazy wildlife around, so we got you guys a couple armored ATV's to ride on. Don't keep 'em waiting, yeah?" Anne sighs, reluctantly letting her target go. "Well, there's my cue. I need to go", she sadly says, starting to run back the way she came from. Looking over her shoulder, she let out one last sentence, "By the way, name's Annabelle Silvers", to which she received a single word in response. "Colin" --------- "...Welcome to Derika, huh?", she says as she emerges onto the deck, her footsteps slowing as she walked closer to the alien landmass in front of her. She takes a deep breath, and lets out an equally deep sigh. "Man, I'm nervous..."
-Revi- Walking down the street casually, he glanced into the stores every so often as if he was simply window shopping. However, even though the shops were hardly crowded, Revi failed to spot a golden-brown haired girl wearing a white, long sleeved collared shirt, a gray sweater vest, and black pants. Revi closed his eyes and sighed. The image of his beautiful angel filled his mind’s eye. It quelled his insecurities for a moment, but only a moment. Immediately after, he was overwhelmed with a wave of panic. Time was running thin. He had already wasted too much of his time going at this slow, docile pace that yielded no fruit. He needed to inspect the remaining buildings further down the street, but he did not want to seem too pronounced by rushing down the street in a frantic, crazed manner. If he did not scrutinize them soon enough, he might allow his target to evade him once more, and that was definitely not an option in this case. Revi furrowed his brow. To be so conflicted over such a menial task...what was going on with him? He was used to being put through unusual, disturbing tasks, but this one was just plain dumb. Pushing the thought aside, he resolved that for some insane reason, this task in finding the girl had become important to him, so he relented to his lesser judgment. Revi dashed down the street and quickly surveyed the customers within each store. As he reached the end of the street, he checked inside the last shop, but there was no one matching her description. Revi released a long, drawn out sigh as he turned around and continued back down the street, retracing his steps. Still a little hopeful, he glanced back over his shoulder twice, but to no avail. The girl with the golden-brown hair was gone along with the wonderful feeling of elation he had experience earlier. -Amisa- Amisa waited for a good hour and a half inside the little store, occupying herself with the clearance section as she occasionally glanced towards the entrance. A couple of people passed by the little clothing shop, but none entered, luckily. She suspected a few of the people that stopped and stared at the overall selection offered and its occupants within, but each and every one of them moved on after they finished their window shopping. There was one exception though. He had light, lush green hair and he nervously hurried down the street. He peered into the shop in a frenetic fashion as if he was desperately looking for someone of great importance, but he left in an instant. The queer part was that later, the same man walked sullenly back the way he came, obviously due to the fact that he never found the one he was looking for. He never made eye contact with Amisa, but she felt a certain familiarity with him, as if she had seen him somewhere before. She shrugged off the feeling to masquerade her insecurities, since the feeling was all to common with lots of people that she had seen. Although, just to be on the safe side, Amisa decided to wait a bit longer inside the store. Leaving a gracious amount of time between the uncanny coincidence and her departure from the little store, she purchased a useful, cheap salmon pink tank top to show her silent gratitude towards the store and shop owner for allowing her to use their place of business as a sanctuary. Amisa waved a polite goodbye to the cashier with her default, indifferent facial expression as she exited the shop. Upon entering the outside world, she was met with the blinding rays of the sun that she “missed” oh so much. She glared back at the sun as she shielded her eyes. Even her now-sunglasses were not enough to dim the sun’s unrelenting gleam. Amisa sighed and decided that it would be safer to leave her clothes in their modified state, just as a subtle precaution in the case that her stalker were still on the prowl. Tired from her “stagnant” day, Amisa made her way towards the elemental faction building to apply for housing. She was unsure of how the process worked exactly, but she had overheard several people mention free housing to those that prove to have beneficial abilities and skills. -------------- -Kasey- As the ship pulled into the port, Kasey awoke from her long nap, still tired. Normally she would have slept on through the whole docking process, but luckily the ship’s captain had an overly boisterous tone that managed to wake her from her slumber.Yawning, Kasey stretched her as best she could within her confined quarters as she desperately tried to ignore the latest banter taking place within her head; however, it was all done in vain. This was not new to her though. One would think that she would have developed and mastered a technique in blocking their chatter after 23 years, but alas, Kasey never truly molded any such skill. Blaming this inability on no one and nothing in particular, she simply found that the more she concentrated on the problem, the harder it was to disregard. Kasey grabbed her most immediate belongs that were at the side of her bed and shoved them into her navy blue backpack that sat next to her bed, too lazy to actually arranging them in a systematic fashion. After zipping the unorganized mess, she grabbed her suitcase and stumbled towards the door. Adjusting to the sensation of actual movement again, Kasey was anxious to get off the vessel. She could not recall creating any fond memories over the indeterminable amount of time she had spent on the long voyage, but that was fine. She had spent most of her trip sleeping, all thanks to her gift, which was a first, seeing as how it had not provided much use previously, and she could feel the unhealthy after effects of neglecting exercise to her muscles. Kasey steadied herself as she wobbled and slowly dragged her weak body over to the door. Balancing herself with the help of the door handle, she took one last gander at the small room, making sure that she had collected all of her belongings, before she exited the room to join the crowd of people waiting to disembark the vessel.
"Ooh, that was noisy", Clarisse groaned, rubbing her temples, still cringing from the sound intensity of the ship's whistle. She was still quite awake when the whistle blared, as unlike some people in the ship, her Circadian rhythm is still one of a normal person's. Sighing, she went to prepare herself and her belongings for disembarking. As she prepared, she took a short look back to the trip - the voyage to Derika, the land of those like her... Though, as far as by-sea trips go, she really can't say it was very pleasant. The ship was overly stocked with armor and armaments, and it was a rather haphazard job, too. She'd say that the ship is either a combat frigate turned passenger ship or vice versa, as much good as that did. Then again, she supposed luxury was out of the question, considering the creatures she has occasionally seen the crew drive off with guns and cannons. Still, the people she met inside made up for that. It was quite refreshing to see others in the same predicament as her, and aside from the complications their Gift had gave them, the majority of them were normal people, normal teenagers, most of them desiring the same happy life everyone desired. It took her longer than most - a lady has to make herself presentable, after all - and a glass of coffee, but she managed to make her way out onto the deck, fully dressed in a simple violet one-piece, just before the ship finished docking procedures. She thought about joining the same crowd the others are on, but she decided otherwise as she saw a certain familiar face she didn't see very often standing a ways off the main group, a young woman - though older than her - staring blankly at the night sky. "Good evening, Annabelle", Clarisse greeted the young woman as she approached, doing a slight curtsy as she did. "Eh, wha-?" Annabelle reacted in surprise - not at the person doing the greeting, not at the politeness of the greeting, but the fact she was greeted at all - as she turned around to the source, an eyepatch-wearing girl about one head shorter than her. "Oh, yeah. Evening... Um... Clarisse, was it?" "That's right. I'm pretty glad you remember me. We don't meet very often at all, do we?" "No, we don't... Wait, I don't meet anyone very often, do I?" "No. But why don't you meet up with people? You're a pretty nice person if I do say so myself" "Well... I guess I'm just not used to it. Never found the proper time, too" "I see... But we're talking now, right?" "Maybe. By the way, aren't you supposed to be with the others? I thought you were the social type" "I guess I am, but that doesn't change the fact that I don't like being trampled in the crowd. I'm content in waiting out the line, thanks" "Oh yeah, you're the one with some of the lowest P.E. averages at school..." "You're still on about that? Let me remind you that my scores are still higher than the worst" "And that's saying much?" "Yes" The two girls chuckled. Their talk lasted for a short while, but it was still long enough that the group of passengers in front of them has mostly disembarked from the frigate. Annabelle was the first to notice. "Oh hey, look, line's out" "Ah, I can see that. Should we go down before we get yelled at?" Clarisse replied. "What do you think?", Anne answered, already walking down the bridge between ship and land, Clarisse quickly following. Shortly after, they joined the other passengers in loading up their luggage into the lightly armored vehicles that have been readied for them, before getting on the vehicles themselves in a short drive through the forest trail toward Brinkhaven. It was, fortunately, quite an uneventful ride, with Annabelle dozing off in the first ten minutes, and it wasn't too long before they arrived at the Brinkhaven checkpoint.
~Lenard~ You wake to the sound of some kind of clang. You initially sit up, but when you hear nothing more, you rollover and go back to sleep. When you do get up, you find that Snow is missing from your living room and your front door is off its hinges. This is going to be a fun day. You can tell already. From the couch Snow was sleeping on out the door and down the hall into the stairway is a peculiar trail of ice. On closer examination, you find that the ice trail is in fact warm, but not melting at all. Curious. Throwing on some proper clothes, you follow it out the door, down the hall, and all the way down the stairwell, completely oblivious to the fact that you just left your apartment open for thieves to take as they please. You make it outside the building until you realize that the trail of ice is going to keep going for a while. You’re going to need the Jeep. You follow the ice trail as it goes down the street, around a dozen corners, then finally stops in an empty spot of a parking lot for some general mart of no significance. The trail ending might have impeded your progress if it weren’t for how obvious the car wreckage across the street was. Even the continuing ice trail is hideously obvious. You wonder what exactly the story is with this. Following the ice trail, you eventually come to the city gates. The trail continues out of it, across the bridge and into the treeline. The ice trail is so long it’s ridiculous. Leaving the city boundaries, you follow the ice trail as it quickly veers off the beaten path into the treeline. As you near the wooded area with gaps barely enough to maneuver your Jeep through, you stop and consider your options for a moment. 1. Go after this lunatic into the forest with exactly an 86% chance of death. 2. Drive back home and forget about this crazy shit. The logical thing to do is to drive in like a dumbass, of course. It doesn’t take long for your Jeep to get stuck in a hole. Why there’s a hole in the middle of the forest, you don’t question. In any case, you continue on foot, taking out your knife which happens to be utterly useless in any and all situations forever. You eventually come to a peculiar clearing in the middle of the forest. Large, covered in grass, it's almost like something from a storybook. What kills the storybook mood however, is when something hits you in the back of your head at no less than the speed of sound, if not light. Because that blow obviously killed you instantly. Obviously. Then something steps on your back. The sheer rage induced by the blow resurrects your body, and powered only by your eternally burning hatred for the offending stepper, you rise from death itself. Assbag is trotting across the field like he left the stove on. That is, if the stove were that flying golden spherical thing off in the distance, too far for you to make out. Picking yourself up, you immediately chase after him. After about two seconds, it becomes clear that he's going way too fast for you to ever catch up. Every step he takes sends him forward in enormous strides you could never catch up with. As he reaches the other end of the field and continues into the treeline, you try your ability. 'OI, STOP. TURN AROUND NOW, RIGHT NOW, RIGHT NOW." As you try, you get the feeling you've failed, but rather than have no effect, he looks back without stopping. "What?" As he says this, he runs into a tree. The tree promptly topples. "AH SHIT." He pulls himself up just in time to see whatever that golden thing that hit you in the head was vanish into the thicket. He turns to you. "Dude, what [Dramatic Pause] the fuck." Before you stands a man around your age wearing a white and orange rain jacket and a hat that matches. Both possess minor geometric designs you recognize, but you're not sure from where. His Jeans are plain enough, and his face wears a look comprised of anger and irritation. Focusing again, you answer. But of course, the only answer you could give is one of confusion. "WHAT'S GOING ON?" "I WAS GOING TO CATCH THAT DAMN PIG IS WHAT'S GOING ON. I was so close..." He takes up a sullen, disappointed expression. "What..." "Don't tell me you're here out in the woods and have never heard of the legendary flying paragon pigs." "Are you fucking kidding me. I'M DONE. WHO IS PULLING A PRANK ON ME, WHERE ARE THE CAMERAS?" "Oh my god, you're serious." "Derikan paragon pigs are among the most difficult creatures to hunt in the world, and supposedly one of the most delicious." "So you went into this forest full of vicious monsters and predators, just to catch a pig and eat it." "They're worth a fortune because they fly too fast for anyone to catch them and are unreasonably smart. Although I admit I'm not in it for the money. I want me some of that bacon. You have no idea." "Are you insane?" "Eh, the monsters are pushovers anyway. You can take out most monsters easily enough. The pigs however are always out of reach." Done talking about pigs, you decide to move onto a more productive topic. "Have you seen a lunatic just like you running around here leaving behind trails of ice?" "Well fuck you too kind sir. I'm pretty sure there was an ice trail back there near the old hag's house. If he went there, I'd recommend running far, far away and never coming back. Ever." "Thank you for your suggestion. I will be going back to Brinkhaven now." Lies. "Also, you might want to get back to civilization. Just saying." Very obvious lies apparently. "Trust me, you don't want to get on Vanderschwank's bad side. And I have an apartment in Brinkhaven you ass. WHY DO YOU THINK I'M OUT HERE?" "I won't get on Vandersomething's bad side, don't worry, and I think you are here because you are a maniac who chases flying golden pigs around forests filled with hag houses and ice men." "A single paragon pig is worth millions of credits. It's meat is said to be the most divine in the entire world." You shut up. "Be seeing you then." He turns and starts walking away. "You too..." What a pointless encounter with a completely pointless person. You are positive that this person will be completely irrelevant to you from now on until the end of time. Returning to the clearing, you find the ice trail again and find that it took a hard left. (or rather, right from where you're looking) Only now do you realize that an old house lies at the far end of the clearing. Peculiar. As you walk up to the obviously haunted unsettling house, you note that there is literally a garden of tombstones to its side. The very Earth you walk on feels blighted by the deathly aura given off by the house of horrors before you. ...Or perhaps it's just your imagination. The ice trail leads up to the front door. As you step up onto the porch, you see a flash of red hair through the front window. It's gone in an instant. Well, you didn't come all this way into this damnable forest to run from some random red-haired hermit who lives in the woods. You step forth and knock on the door gently, as to keep the sound down. Don't ask why. When you get no response, you knock a bit louder, only to be met with an eerie silence. Giving up on any semblance of patience, you slam your fist on the door like an irate tax collector. To your dismay, no answer comes even still. You were hoping it wouldn't come to this. The door looks old and brittle enough, so you slam your foot in the door, kicking it down with surprising ease. You feel your testosterone levels rise at the sheer magnanimity you're certain you possess at the moment. Then you stop. You crouch down and yep, there goes your pride. The door was unlocked the whole time. "Crap." The house before you puts you at a crossroads. To your left is an archway into a rather poorly lit room. From the looks of the silhouettes you can make out, you'd rather not go there. Is that a severed head? Directly ahead and to the right is a stairway to the second floor, with a rather innocuous hallway visible from your standpoint. To the left of the stairway is a living room of sorts, but the decorations are anything but normal. Jars line the shelves, many filled with formaldehyde and some sort of object in them, (more often than not, organs) others filled with odd liquids, one notable one clearly being blood some kind of condiment that for some reason isn't in the kitchen why isn't it in the kitchen why why why why why. There's taxidermy animals, models of the human (and sometimes not human?) body, globes, tribal masks, a variety of animal skulls, small artifacts resembling miniature golden pyramids, ornate swords, maps of places you don't recognize, preserved human eye balls... everything. It's mostly preserved dead things. On the upside, the couch looks extremely comfortable. You know what, no, that doesn't make up for just how many dead bodies are in this room, many of which look human. About the sound of a whisper, you try to call out his name. "Snow?" Of course, you get no answer, as the only sound given back to you is the sound of your own heartbeat. You try once more, a little louder this time. "Snow?" ... You don't know what you were expecting. You decide against yelling despite there being no one in sight. You return to your examination of the room, ready to move deeper into the eerie house. In the corner of the living room on the wall and next to the staircase is a door. To the right of that door is a door on the wall perpendicular to it, leading under the staircase. A closet perhaps? Choosing thoroughness over covering more ground, you decide to investigate the door leading under the stairs. Still not trusting this place, you open the door only slightly, with an unnerving creak accompanying it. Peaking through the crack in the door the first thing you notice is that the room is extremely dark, with only the light from the doorway to light it up. You can't see much from here other than a concrete floor and a wall with an empty shelf. "Frosty, ya in here?" Of course, silence follows. You're seeing a pattern here. "Guess not." You shut the door. One dramatic sigh later, you open the door again, widely this time. There's not much actually in the room now that you can see its contents clearly. Really, it's pretty much a tiny, featureless closet. There are only 3 things in it; that empty shelf on the side, a light-bulb (with pull cord) hanging from the ceiling, and a hatch on the floor. Because it's perfectly normal for the basement to be accessed through a hatch in the closet. Riiiiight. You ask yourself the burning question that, if answered, would explain this entire escapade instantly. "Why am I so stupid?" You get down and live the hatch a little slowly. As soon as you move it half a millimeter, it screeches like a banshee and you immediately drop it like it waved a mummified phallus in your direction. To your dismay, dropping it just makes an enormously loud clanging noise and you cringe as hard as you are physically capable. ...Well. You didn't expect it could ever be that loud. You pull it open all the way, ignoring the ear-splitting sound of metal scraping against metal. Once again you are met with a dark room that the light-bulb above barely penetrates. There's a ladder leading downward to the ground, which isn't too far down and an odd bluish glow in the room. Sticking your head in, you see yet another light-bulb hanging from the ceiling. Looking at the source of the glow, you find five golden, lightly luminescent stars aligned pentagonally with the space between them forming a glowing blue emptiness. The blue area is shaped like a star, and has little flashes of light dance across its surface for only instants before they fade away and are replaced by more. It's strange, really. It's as if you could jump right in it... The opposite end of the room is hard to make out. It looks like a pile of odd shapes. Since none of them are moving and there's not much else to the room, you decide to stop wasting time and descend the ladder already. Wasting no time, you turn on the light, then immediately turn it back off. Ahaha. That's funny, you could have sworn you saw things that definitely shouldn't be here. Fuuuuuck. You pull the cord and your eyes are assaulted by a an enormous array of body parts, most of which are internal organs. Hearts, Kidneys, Lungs, Livers, Stomachs, Intestines, Eyeballs, Nonstop gore lies in a pile on the other end of the room. Blood just completely and totally bathes it, with an aura of it extending outward. It's on the wall, it's on the floor, it's almost everywhere. Above the pile of gore are unused shackles chained to the walls. To the left of it all, behind the ladder is a metal table lined with surgical tools, none of which look like they'll save a life. They are bathed in blood like everything else and sitting next to a pile of organs, and unlike the living room above everything in the room is unmistakably human. Tendons strewn about, mangled, disfigured organs, you're surprised you didn't notice it from sheer smell alone. You can't take shit like this. You promptly throw up on the ground before stumbling backwards, away from the pile and into the portal. Suddenly, you're cold. Pulling yourself together, you realize that you are in the middle of a snowy field not unlike the field outside of the superbad evildeath haunted house of horrors. Like before, it's quite large. Unlike before, it is covered in about 6 inches of snow and all the trees are extremely far away. To the side, presumably where you fell in from, are the stars arranged in what you now know to probably maybe be a portal. Also, Snow is standing there in the distance. You call out to him. "SNOW". He doesn't respond, but a familiar voice from behind you does. "Hello Lenard." You whip around, but what else do you see but Snow himself standing there between you and the portal. You fall back in completely justified surprise. Completely. "WHAT THE FUCK MAN?" "Hehe. You know, this is a pretty special place." "WHY DID YOU COME HERE WITHOUT TELLING ME OR ANYTHING? WAIT WHAT?" "She knows you're here." Suddenly you hear the same Snow voice coming from behind you, two of them in fact. "And we're here to deal with you." Without turning your full body, you turn to see, surprise, surprise, two more Snows standing behind you. Always the logical thinker, you do what any sane person would do in your situation. Panic and run away. Run far, far away. The only problem with your ingenious plan is that a Snow stands between you and the portal. Quick to calculate, you slam your foot into his chest. It is only through sheer planetary-alignment granted supernatural ability that he manages to grab your foot. I mean, it's not as if you miscalculated. You? Miscalculate? Unthinkable! No but seriously he grabbed your leg and you get a sinking feeling in your stomach that you are not among the 14% who would survive. "GAH LET ME GO." The Snow doesn't listen. Maybe you should have tried that with your ability instead of yelling it. Instead the Snow raises your foot, causing you to loose your purchase and fall flat on your back into the snow. You shove your foot out, kicking the Snow in the shin, but one again a completely different set of planets align and he falls on top of you, catching himself with his hand on either side of you and a shit-eating grin a bit too close for comfort. "Just accept it Lenard." The Snow in front of you raises his hand and materializes a fully metallic knife out of thin air. Last you checked, Snow's ability had something to do with ice. What the fuck. As you're about to ready you ability to prevent what could be a black curtain falling over your life, you're surprised to find that the Snow slits his own throat rather than harm you with it. You pretty much sit there confused as his blood sprays all over you and his body eventually falls limp and lifeless. You push the body off of you and attempt to get up in the process, but find that the blood the Snow sprayed all over you has frozen you to the ground. Three words. OH COME ON! Another Snow casually comes to sit on Lenard's stomach, on top of the frozen blood. Wasting no more time, you immediately target him with your ability 'Get off me, go kill the other one, and make this frozen blood disappear' You find it a success, and are happy to find the Snow is getting off you. Things seem to finally be going your way FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE. The frozen blood is likewise removed, but you quickly realize it wasn't by him. The other Snow has taken it to turn it into a blade and impales the Snow you just gained control of. "Shit." The Snow turns to you, wearing an annoyed smile. "Cheeky little- YOU DON'T FIGHT A GODDESS!" You roll to the side, getting up and readying your worthless knife. The Snow points his blood sword toward the star portal, yelling. "GET OUT OF HERE! SNOW IS MINE! GET YOUR OWN!" "NEVER!" You say for no reason at all, suddenly fond of Snow for no reason whatsoever, and ignoring the fact that those words were coming out of what appeared to be Snow's mouth. You are en garde and ready to THROW DOWN. The Snow, seeming to get extremely annoyed at your willingness to fight, yells out "YOU KNOW WHAT FUCK THIS." He then impales himself with the same bloodied blood blade. He lets go of the sword and looks at you with a straight face. "I don't know how to use blood weapons." He then falls to the ground, presumably dead. You will never stop being confused of all these things that just keep happening. You stay on your guard anyway. For the third time in the last few minutes, you hear things behind you and immediately turn to see what's there. This time however, you are met with what appears to be a clone of you. He's exactly like you in every way, right down to your shitty knife. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?" "LENARD FUCKER!" The "Lenard Fucker" clone then proceeds to rush you, dagger in hand. At the last possible moment, you sidestep, putting your feet out to trip the fake. The fake falls on its face and you take the opportunity to stab it in the back. It stops moving, so you can only guess that it died instantly. You now question your own coordination and physical soundness. "I'm suddenly really thankful I'm not athletic." You remove the knife and get up only to be greeted with more Lenards. All the Lenards. So. Many. Lenards. They are everywhere. As you turn, you just find more and more of them. They encircle you, each with a knife in hand. Yeah there is no way you're going to be able to handle these guys in a fight like you did just now. As such, you try your ability. 'Everybody here stop right there.' ... Critical failure. They weren't moving before, but now they're closing in slowly. You are sooo fucked. That is, before a deus ex mulier comes out of nowhere and a loud feminine voice with a very heavy british accent commands you to "GET DOWN." Scared and unsure of what to do, you comply, getting down. You watch as there's a flash of movement, the sound of grotesque cutting and chains and the spewing of blood from all around. In an instant, all the Lenards are either decapitated or had their throats slit. Every single one in view, dead. The sight hits you pretty hard as you just watch dozens of yourself die horrible, gruesome deaths. As you turn to look behind you, you find a woman standing next you, with a maniacal smile on her face and the queerest quirked eyebrow, as if she feels sorry for you. Her clothes are form-fitting and revealing, but her disfigurement puts you off. "Quit yer bellyachin' n get up!" Her britishness is harsh and it scares you. You fucked up arm scares you. Her arm on a chain holding a bloodied dagger scares you. But most of all, that creepy smile and piercing topaz eyes that bore deep into your soul is what makes you decide to run for your life screaming. You don't care if it's away from the portal, he do whatever necessary to run from the monster that... just saved your life, maybe? You are drawn out of your stupor when a Snow is thrown at you out of nowhere. He's parallel to the ground, but high enough that it hurts your chin when his back slams into you. You are flown to into the freezing cold snow yet again as the Snow lies on top of your chest. He's very obviously either dead or unconscious. "Get off of me!" You shove the Snow off onto the Snow, where it doesn't stir. Finally, a womanly voice comes from up ahead, from the snowy nothingness. "And here I thought you two were friends." Like the Snow, a woman appears out of nowhere wearing a black qipao and smoking from an elegant pipe. She's quite young, definitely not a hag, and her hair is black instead of that fire-orange from before. "You came all the way out here to get him back? Rigel would have a field day with this..." In light of recent events, your objective today has gotten very blurred. "I guess." "That's not very reassuring." "Okay, I did." "Are you sure? I could always just keep him." "Yes" This woman is slightly annoying you now. "And here I was looking forward to so many experiments..." "What do you mean by 'keep him'? There will be no experiments, he's a human being!" You look around for the star thingy and are surprised to find it right behind you along with that creepy chick from earlier "Can I cut em up real nise nao?" So. British. The woman in the qipao sighs. "Miina, I'm going to need more clones here." At the word, more clones start popping up behind the portal of varying types, all of them Lenards, Snows, and this third guy you don't recognize. Mostly Lenards. Immediately the creepy chick springs into action and goes on a slaughtering spree, splattering blood all over the pure snow in a manner you're sure is symbolic in some way. "What's going on here...?" The woman in a qipao seems to be growing more and more irate. "Okay look, Snow isn't exactly human, okay? Now mind getting out of my house? I have important matters to attend to." "Wait a second what do you mean not human?" "The liver will spoil if I don't put it to use soon. Find out yourself." The woman pushes past Lenard, stepping over the unconscious Snow, and leaves through the portal. Accompanying it, a girlish voice comes from the sky itself. "Can't all of you get out of here!?" The creepy woman, now covered in blood, complies after ripping out another heart from another Lenard, leaping into the portal with an insane grin but without a word. "CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" You yell it at the sky. To your surprise, the sky yells back. "NO SCREW YOU." You give up in frustration and confusion. "AND TAKE WINTER WITH YOU!" You roll your eyes as flippantly as possible, but tap him on the shoulder anyway. "Oi, Frosty, get up." He's sleeping soundly like a rock. Your attempt to wake him has no effect. You lean down. You position your mouth in front of his ear. Then you yell. "GET THE FUCK UP!" Instead of getting up, he cringes, puts his hands to his ears and keeps his eyes closed. The sky chimes in. "FOR CRYING OUT LOUD-" Lenard and Snow are then hovered a couple of feet off the ground. They are then thrown in the portal rather violently. You brace for impact, but it's softened anyway by the pile of blood and guts you land in. "Ouch." You rub your hand on your bumped head before realizing that someone's there with you besides Snow. The woman in a qipao is wearing a disposable surgical mask and safety glasses while holding a bloody chainsaw. and standing over the two of you. She pulls her mask down. "Trespassing is illegal here on Derika." You ignore her and go straight for the questions that will bother you until the end of time if not answered. "Why did Frosty over here come here? Obviously you had something to do with it." "He didn't. Jack dragged him here by force." "Kidnapping is illegal too." "I was merely retrieving him for analysis and his mother. He's very human-like." "His mother?" "In a sense. It'd be more accurate to call her his creator." You're never-ending train of confusion continues and you wait for her to explain. "But perhaps you should hear about this from someone other than me." Bitch. "I want to hear about this. I don't care who tells me." You completely forget the fact that you are sitting on a pile of mangled innards. "oh, but I won't be able to tell you the minor details as well as he can. You can find him in the Elemental faction, doing whatever it is he does nowadays. His name is Lars Christensen, although he normally goes by "Winter." "So you want me to go all the way back to Brinkhaven, find this random dude you speak of, all just so that I can hear what you could tell me right now?" "Finding him will be vital to understanding all the questions you could possibly ask about Snow." "I don't care, you just need to tell me what Snow is, who made him, and how." You don't like fetch quests in video games and you refuse to do one in real life. "Don't you have any sense of adventure?" "No" "Boo." "I'm a real person" "Then I guess I'm a fake." She produces a piece of paper with a red outline and some unreadable writing in another language. "Welcome to reality, where you work for money and NOT fight waves of monsters by mashing B" The woman then throws the piece of paper onto the blob you were sitting on. The blob starts to move "By the way, have I introduced you to Jack?" The blob starts making gargling sounds as it stirs to life. "You'll find Jack the Ripper up the ladder, ready to guide you out of my house." The blob grabs your leg with a mangled arm... mouth.... thing. Snow is stirred by the movement of all things. You spasm your leg, pulling it out and scrambling up off the blob, suddenly realizing you have blood all over you. Snow follows and cleans the blood off of both of you in one sleepy, fell swoop. The eldritch abomination of a blob starts to crawl toward Lenard and Snow. It sounds like every breath causes it immense pain. Snow starts casually climbing the ladder in silence and the woman goes back to dicing up organs on her table behind that surgical mask of hers. You follow Snow, telling him to hurry it up. It's clear you're not getting anything else out of the woman. Jack the ripper waits at the top, simply pointing at the empty hole where the front door used to be with her blood-stained dagger. "I came in here earlier thank you, I remember where the door is." You're feeling especially snarky. "You sure I dunt need me to engrave it onya? Ya'd have a map 't all times. PERHAPS THEN YA WOOD'NT BREAK UNLACKED DOORS?" With Snow stirring to life, next to you, you're feeling more confident, but still don't want to deal with "Jack the Ripper." Which is a total sham anyway. Everyone knows Jack the Ripper was male. You just answer with the neutral response of "Yes, I'm sure." Snow rubs at his head as you two cross the boundary of the front door. "Fuck that bitch." At that moment you both say "You have no clue." You continue. "Neither do I." As does he. "Then neither do I either, I guess. ...She choked me with her god damn chain arm, then dragged me around the place like it was some kind of fucked up collar. At one point she threw me in the trunk of a stolen car and tried to drive off, but she crashed the damn thing after like 5 seconds. Everyone around here sucks at driving, don't they? So anyway, after dragging me to her god-forsaken house of horrors in the middle of the woods and doing the whole ms. Bad touch routine when she tried to give me a physical, she up and threw me in a god-damn portal. Then, I don't know..." "Then you came, acted all creepy, slit your own throat, got impaled on a sword by yourself, then proceeded to impale yourself on the very same sword you used to impale yourself." "Wat." "Nothing" "Are you sure I'm the one who spews crazy crap? Oh hey look an upside-down Jeep." "I'm not sure about my own mental state." You look back at the clearing in the distance and hope that that house is still there. WHOA WAIT WHAT "Upside-down Jeep?" True to his word, your Keep is upside down. On the upside, it's not really stuck in the hole anymore... Well... It's still in the hole, but it's not touching the bottom now. It's propped up against the opposite end. None of this makes any sense to you of course, because when you left your Jeep most definitely was not upside-down. "Oh, I forgot I got my jeep stuck" "But upside-down?" "I don't know and don't want to frankly. I've had enough crazy shit for today."
((mini-collab post)) [Vance] “I would prefer if you didn’t. My experiments need food, and we’ve prepared it quite nicely.” Vance responds, giving Haku a stern glance. [Kuhaku] After Vance’s insistence that Haku in fact, could not eat the Alot, she reforms Jake’s knife and holds it out to him. She really needs sustenance though, especially after only eating a meager amount to compensate for the last 48 hours, expending energy to fight both Liam and Jake, and dealing with the Alot. Before she can make a move in any direction, Haku blacks out and collapses onto the ground, dropping the knife in her hand in the process. [Liam] “Vance, can you make my rope longer? Four feet isn’t long enough to do fun things with.” Liam pleads, shooting his rope onto Vance’s face. Liam steps over Haku as he approaches Vance. [Jake] He gives Haku a look and teleports her and him in front of Vance. “Vance, fix her.” [Kuhaku] Sun. She didn’t like the sun. Sunlight was too exposing, and meant that her tormentors were active, milling about in the village. Haku pulls back, stepping into the shadows behind her house. Maybe they wouldn’t bother her today. Maybe. But that was wishful thinking. They always found her. “Hey look, the little monster seems to be sulking in the dark! Right where she belongs,” a kid, several years older than her, sneered. And today was no exception. “Well, I hear that witches hate sunlight,” another light-haired boy added. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone? A third boy roughly shoved Haku, and she consequently lost her balance and fell down onto the ground. “The ground is a suitable place for scum like you,” the first boy said maliciously, while giving her a swift kick to the stomach. As the kick made contact, her mouth parted in a soundless cry of pain. She knew she couldn’t fight back--lest she’d invite even more pain upon herself. But Haku wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her affected by all of this. She grit her teeth and curled up into a tiny ball to minimize her surface area as the other kids joined in. Wave after wave of pain kept rippling through her small body, and after an undetermined amount of time, one of the boys stopped and said, “This is getting boring. She’s not screaming or anything.” The group of kids nodded in agreement and began to leave-- the last one, trailing behind the others, flashed her a sadistic grin and kicked dirt all over her prone body, “See you again tomorrow, monster.” If I’m a monster even though I don’t fight back, what does that make all of you? You who torment me without any due cause aside from the fact that I exist. Haku lay still on the ground. Minutes passed, and she slowly picked herself back up. Bracing her arm against the wall of the house, she staggered over to the door and quietly opened it. Before she entered, she gingerly brushed off most of the dirt on her clothes--her parents would get mad if she tracked dirt everywhere. Inside was the living room, furnished with wooden flooring and walls, a fireplace, table, two couches, and a sheepskin rug. Checking to see if anyone was in the vicinity, Haku limped across the room over to a second door. Opening that, she clumsily flopped onto the only furniture in the room, her bed, and stared blankly at the ceiling. I never asked to be born. I wish I was never born.
It was a bright, sunny day. A picturesque example of pure, unadulterated “beautiful day”. It was the kind of day parents around the globe would yell at their children at for not spending outside. It was the kind of day that would serve as the subject of envy from all of Siberia. Glasnost, however, was unaware of the springtime parade taking place right around him. He walked with his head down, avoiding bodily contact and, if at all possible, eye contact as well. He wasn’t in the mood to try and talk to people. Rarely was, honestly. He was just out to buy some eggs and get on with his day. In private, if he could get away with it. As he stepped foot in Megamart™, he went out of his way to avoid the attention of any nearby cashiers, shoppers, and security personnel. Attention meant possibility of social contact and… people. No thanks. After maneuvering around aisles with an imminent need to ask people to move their carts like his life depended on it Glasnost eventually found his way to the egg section of Megamart™. He initially had some momentary confusion on exactly what sort of eggs he needed. Along with regular chicken eggs, there were eggs from a variety of fowl found on Derika. After a few seconds of deliberation, he decided to go with what he knew and got two dozen chicken eggs. His entire day was going normal and there was no reason to suspect that at that very moment someone was being beheaded two rows over, but that’s neither here nor there. Going to check out his eggs, Glasnost left the aisle and was about to skulk his way to the self-checkout when he slipped on a puddle of something face-first into what felt like a wooden wall. Landing ass-first in the unusually warm puddle, he immediately went to grip his brutally damaged nose. It was probably broken instantaneously. This was the reason Glasnost was called “Glass” by almost everyone who knew him, which was about six people. “YOU DARE SOIL THE SACRED CRUCIFIX?” Ears ringing, face on fire, glasses likely broken, Glasnost struggled to focus on the grandiose voice coming from somewhere above. The voice was laden with contempt and anger. It spoke epitomizations of imminent peril. For an insane moment, Glasnost toyed with the idea of summoning the demon for the sole purpose of saving his skin. Not seriously of course, but he thought, just this once, it might be nice to actually wield his ability in self-defense. He then waved the thought away like a fly with a death wish and prepared to face the consequences of falling over the wrong way. In a slightly nasal voice, he valiantly attempted coherent speech. “I- um, ah, sorry, ma’am. I didn’t look where I er.. was... falling? C-Completely my, uh, my, um, fault...” His attempted apology began at a barely audible level, then proceeded to peter out somewhere in the middle, turning into a resigned whisper by the end. “DESIST YOUR INCESSANT MUMBLING BEFORE I SEND YOUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS INTO THE STARS ABOVE WHERE THEY WILL SIT FOR ALL ETERNITY UNTIL DRIFTING INTO THE NEAREST FLAMING BALL OF FIRE. SPEAK YOU SPINELESS WELP. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF YOUR BLASPHEMY?” Glasnost decided that would be a perfect time to pass out cold on the floor. When he came to, he was in a bed he didn’t recognize in a house he didn’t recognize wearing clothes he didn’t recognize. Of course, this was not entirely immediately apparent, as his vision was about as blurry as the view of a riverbed through the bottom of a Coke bottle. He had a headache that made him inexplicably want to feel around his scalp for an axe. To his supposed good fortune, no such axe was to be found, but his hair was certainly wet. With what, he couldn’t tell. That was a mystery he’d save until the more pressing one, namely where he was and what he was doing there, was absolved. Getting up, he failed to find his glasses anywhere in sight, yet sitting alone on the nightstand, seemingly waiting for him, was a pair completely unlike his own. As he recalled the events leading up to his current situation, it becomes stunningly obvious that he has been kidnapped... or something. Out of curiosity more than anything else, Glasnost put on the glasses. Incredibly, they not only fit, they worked perfectly, as if they were made for him. He’d even go as far as saying they were better than his old glasses. Hopefully break-resistant, too… Stumbling out of the room that in all ways seemed to have no difference from a regular (if high-end) uncustomized Brinkhaven apartment, he was hit by the smell of something frying. It was hard to tell what through the lingering iron-infused smell of blood, but it certainly smelled, and it smelled good. That said, he had no idea if it was meant for him, or if the person holding the pan would take kindly to someone showing up unannounced in their kitchen with a broken nose, so he proceeded with a healthy dose of caution. He was in an innocuous hallway with white walls, but every door he saw only gave him more doubt as to where he should be going. As he ventured outward into what appeared to be a living room, the smell grew stronger and so did his unease. When he turned a corner and saw the boy from earlier working the stove of a fancy kitchen, he immediately stepped right back behind the corner, debating whether to turn tail where he was and call it a day. Surely one of these doors was the way out, right? Maybe if he was lucky, he’d be able to escape unnoticed... The doors back in the hallway likely led to other rooms in the apartment. The most likely door to actually get him out of there was the one across from the corner, at the other end of the living room. The problem was that it was fairly visible from the kitchen… Glasnost took a deep breath, steeled the few nerves he had, and waited until the boy at the stove was distracted by something on the burner before slowly creeping towards the door. This was when all those years of flying under the radar would have paid off, if only the door was actually unlocked. One turn of the knob was all it took, and before he knew it, he was staring down the boy from before from across the room. There was a silence that seemed to go on for hours. He was younger than Glasnost, probably shorter than him too, but from the gleam in his eyes Glasnost knew the boy would have no problem removing him have no quarrels with removing him from the world if he was called upon to do so. When the surprise wore off and the silence approached awkward levels of tension was when he finally spoke. “Hey. You’re awake.” Not trusting his voice, Glasnost simply nodded rapidly. “Come sit down, I made bacon, eggs, and toast.” Glasnost was not meant for this. These sorts of mindgames were beyond his purview. He couldn’t bring himself to react in any way and simply froze. The door was locked, the other doors would require running closer to the disturbingly calm boy across the room, and he just plain didn’t know what to do. What do you even do in this situation? Sitting down at the table spells death, and everything else risked upsetting the mysterious boy looking at him expectantly from across the room. With no reaction, the boy simply gave him a queer look and started walking towards him. Of course, as usual, Glasnost’s demon chose the worst possible moment to start talking. “Oooh, this one’s a can of worms. He knows perfectly well he’s slaughtering innocents and still does it willingly. You ask me, I think I might actually have a bit of fun this week. This kid’s a regular kriegskämpfer.” Glasnost frowned, mumbling, “Is now really the best time, Graves?” As the boy drew closer he slowed down, coming to a full stop in front of Glasnost. Glasnost was very pointedly looking anywhere but at him. Anywhere. The ground, the ceiling and the furniture were all apparently absolutely entrancing. Ceft was at a loss of what to do, really. In front of him stood a man who looked scared out of his wits and ready to fall over at the slightest breeze. It was like looking at a frightened animal. He could reach out and grab him, probably sending him flying into a panic, or he could leave him be and hope he calmed down by himself. … Nah, anyone jumpy enough to get so worked up over nothing isn’t going to come out of their shell so simply by themselves. Gently grabbing him by his arm, he lead him toward the kitchen, where his bacon beckons to be taken off the stove. “Come on, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Okay this is awkward. Was he traumatized or something? “Woefully incorrect,” Glasnost mumbled in spite of himself. Ceft thought he heard something vaguely resembling vocalization, so he hazarded the question. “What was that?” It may have just been the wind. The wind in his enclosed apartment was louder than this guy. Glasnost spoke up again, slightly louder this time, and maybe the slightest bit petulantly. “I have everything to be afraid of. I woke up in a strange room I’ve never seen in my life, wearing clothes that aren’t mine and someone else’s glasses that just happen to fit me perfectly, and when I leave to see if I can get home I get accosted by someone even younger than me who has a look in his eye like he could kill me where I stand without even trying. I am very, very afraid. Oh, and the last thing I remember is breaking my nose on somebody’s crucifix.” Almost taken aback, he let go of Glasnost’s wrist, moving around the kitchen table to transfer the bacon out of the frying pan and onto some plates prepared early. As he picks up the plates and returns to the table, he begins the arduous task of tackling this man’s insecurity. “To tell you the truth, I probably could kill you where you stand. It looks like most people could really… actually, I’m fairly certain a cat could do some major damage without trying… er… sorry, I’m getting off topic.” Setting one plate in front of himself and the other in front of Glass, he turns back, getting some ice water for the two of them. “After you smashed your face into Lesua’s cross, she got upset. I talked her out of being rash and took you back here. Your glasses were shattered and you were covered in blood, so I had to replace them and clean you first. You can keep the clothes by the way.” He set the glasses of water down and took his seat, casually picking up a picking up a strip of bacon and eating it. Glasnost nodded, but his momentary bravery had passed, largely due to the admission (and confirmation) that ending his life would be no difficult feat for the person sitting across from him. When he spoke again, it was in yet another indecipherable murmur. To try and defuse the situation, as well as delay any further conversation, he stuck an entire fried egg in his mouth and promptly regretted it, as the thing had just come off the frying pan and had roughly the same surface temperature as the pan itself. It was almost worth it, though, because the egg was better than anything he could have made himself. Stifling an exclamation and bearing the pain, he managed to swallow the egg down, though not very subtly. He immediately washed it down with some water. It was only when he put the glass down did he notice that the boy sitting diagonal of him was staring. He nonchalantly returns to eating for a while before stopping and asking the question that probably should have been asked earlier. “What’s your name by the way?” Glasnost coughed a few times, then muttered, “Glasnost Gorsky.” “...Mind if I call you Glass?” He laughed humorlessly. “If I did, what could I do about it?” Ceft shrugged. “Tell me you didn’t want me to call you that. I take it you were bullied in school?” Glass took an abrupt and extremely focused interest in his plate. Fuckfuckfuck “Eh… I shouldn’t have said that.” Scrambling for a new topic, Ceft returned to the circumstances of their meeting. “So, what were you in a rush for? - Back at the Megamart™.” Glasnost mumbled something that might not have even been english, now studiously inspecting the edge of the table. Ceft felt a twinge of pity for the complete and total lack of social skills this man possessed. “I mean, you were running somewhere, right? That’s how you ended up banging into Lesua’s cross?” After a moment, Glass mumbled, “I would have been fine if I didn’t slip in the puddle. I imagine it would have been embarrassing, if, you know, I was conscious for it.” “Puddle? wha… OH, you mean the blood that got everywhere. Yeah, I admit I got a bit messy back there…” Glass blinked slowly. “...blood?” Ceft, almost a mirror image blinked with a blank face as realization crossed his features. “Uh, yeah. You didn’t see the body?” Glass’s eyes widened, and he tried to push the chair he was sitting in back and stand up and the same time, which ended with him on the floor. Again. However, this time he only sustained a glancing blow to the back of the head, and pushed himself into the corner of the room, staring at Ceft with sheer, unfiltered terror. Ceft stared with lifted eyebrows as Glass scrambled into the corner of the kitchen. He slowly reached toward his plate, retrieved a slice of toast and took a bite. He chewed while the ocular deadlock between them continued in silence. Really, this guy. He supposed he just had an aversion to gore or something. That was really too bad. Thinking about it, he realized he probably couldn’t make it through a month without dealing with gore what with his occupation. Maybe he should attempt to shelter Glass from the truth? Glass stayed in the corner, thoughts flashing through his head in no discernable order. Murdered someone in public. Not afraid of the police. Mercenary? Too young. Why did he kill them? Who was it? I think you should give him the gears, interjected Graves. He’s obviously a couple clowns short of a circus, I could have told you that. I haven’t had a go at someone in weeks, come on! Ceft began trying to broach the trembling lump of flesh in the corner of the kitchen. “Calm down, I… Well, yes, I killed them, but I’m not going to hurt you.” Glass pointed from the corner, prepared to try and end this without a fight. “Please. Th-th-think about what you did. K-k-killing without reason is a straight path to the p-Pit. I-I would know.” Ceft was not expecting this at all. It’s almost as if he grew some nerve. “I don’t go around killing people! It’s just those Lesua tells me to.” Glass laughed, although it sounded a little sick. “Y-you don’t kill unless someone s-says to? That’s ins-s-sane.” Ceft frowned. “Not just anyone. My allegiance is solely to Lesua; no one else.” Glass looked at Ceft seriously. ‘Wh-what if she told you to k-k-k-kill someone you know? Someone you l-like? Would that be any d-d-different?” “The only one I like is Lesua. The only one I wouldn’t let her tell me to kill is her. I’m sorry, but I can’t answer your question.” Glass sighed. Struck out, as usual. “In that case, y-you haven’t just f-failed your fellow m-m-man, you’ve failed yours-s-self.” He sat up straighter. “I’m s-s-sorry. This is for y-your own g-g-g-g-good.” Ceft only had time to say a confused “Wat” before bright lights appeared between him and Glass. It was blinding. When the light subsided into something that could be looked at with the human eye, he was face to face with himself. Before him stood a complete and total duplicate of himself, but instead of his normal white robes, he was in a blue tunic, unremarkable beige pants and leather boots. In his right hand and leaning on his shoulder was a mundane farm pitchfork. The mirror image sighed, shaking his head in mock disappointment. “That disappoints me. It really does. I thought we were smarter than that! Come on, what breed of love-blind moron can’t tell when he’s being used?” Ceft casually picked up another slice of bacon and ate it. Only after washing it down with a drink of water did he actually respond with a confused but inquisitive “What.” Less a question and more a statement of his confusion. The duplicate calmly stepped forward and buried the pitchfork in the table, half an inch from Ceft’s finger. “Catch on already, you dumbass farm-boy. Ever since you joined the church you’ve been locking yourself in, deeper and deeper into this neverending degradation of morals. Every time she tells you to do something, you do it like her own personal lapdog, telling yourself you’re okay with it. You tell yourself she’s more important, that she matters more than your moral code, that it’s okay if you get your hands dirty, that she’d do it anyway with less restraint without you, but guess what? You’re a fucking scumbag.” Shadow Ceft used one hand to lift the end of Ceft’s plate before tossing it through the air. It spun and shattered against the wall, and the remains of his breakfast fell flat to the kitchen counter. “And you know what the best part is? We both know she’s never going feel the same way about you. She doesn’t see you as a person, she sees you as a tool. You’re just a blade that can talk in her eyes. If you were to die tomorrow, or even today, she wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep over it. You KNOW that, but you keep obeying her every whim out of desperate hope. What do you even have to say for yourself?” Ceft calmly grabbed his glass of water, finished off its contents, then slammed it back into the table. He stood, pushed in his chair and finally turned to face his double. “We should take this outside.” The double sneered. “What’s the matter, afraid you’ll make a mess?” Ceft ignored the double and walked out of the door without missing a beat. The double waited until he was out the door, then nodded in Glass’ general direction. “Shouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes with this clown.” It strode purposefully out of the apartment. When Ceft stepped outside, he walked directly into the street. While the traffic wasn’t particularly busy, any cars around hightailed it at the sight of his robes. They knew what’s down. Any cars too far down the street turned around. Clearly this road was reserved in the name of Lesua. When Shadow Ceft reached the bottom floor and out the apartment, Ceft removed his necklace. A gift given to him by Lesua, it was supposed to facilitate him to actually do what she told him to. One of two gifts, it was meant for offense. There was nothing to do in his mind. Regardless of the circumstances, no one was allowed to speak ill of Lesua, especially not someone with his likeness. Those god damn farm clothes needed to be burned. Ceft positioned the cross in his hand and activated it. In its place he was granted “holy” weapon #1: “Archangel’s Broadsword”. Ornate and long, Ceft took up a stance worthy of wielding it. The shadow strolled out of the building like it had all the time in the world, dragging the pitchfork behind it with a sound like nails on a chalkboard. When it saw the broadsword it simply laughed. “Oh, please. THAT’S what she gave you to go around killing people with? What are you going to do with it, reflect the sun into my eyes?” It closed the distance on the street, bringing the fork into a ready position, almost like a trident. When Shadow Ceft drew near, Ceft met the Pitchfork with his own blade, stalling it by force and keeping it a safe distance away from his body. By tilting the blade and pushing up, he pushed the pitchfork away from pointing at him and with a turn, moved to elbow his shadow and bring down his sword. Contrary to expectations, his shadow didn’t so much as flinch as the blade failed to penetrate his shoulder. It raised an eyebrow. “No mercy, even on yourself, huh?” It grabbed the blade with its left hand, lifting it off him with no trouble whatsoever before bringing down its pitchfork across Ceft’s face. Withdrawing his blade as not to lose it, Ceft returned it to its neutral cross form as he was slammed to the ground. He attempted to scramble back up, but was interrupted by a kick to his stomach. The double looked down at him with unveiled disgust. “To top it all off, you’re barely even a good swordsman. She doesn’t even drag you around because of your skills! She drags you around because anyone with half a brain cell would be smart enough not to put up with her shit!” The double kicked him again. “Where’s the bravado now, huh? Not so tough when you don’t have your owner backing you up?” Ceft steadied himself. “Shut your filthy heathen mouth.” With a roll, he returned to a standing position and repositioned the way he was holding the cross, activating it. In its place he was granted “holy” weapon #4: “Death’s Scythe”. Gothic in design, he took up a stance worthy of wielding it. The doppelganger attempted to take advantage of the opening, swinging directly at Ceft’s head with the pitchfork. Ceft dodged, not through maneuvering, but as if he was being pulled backward. Looking behind him, one could see the gold-trimmed translucent wings erupting from his back. The second gift of Lesua. How could he protect her if he was never there? They were like real wings, every feather edged a shiny gold, but with no actual feather to speak of. Blade to the ground, he took off backwards before rushing forward in a dive. As he neared and swung the scythe, shadow Ceft merely grabbed a hold of the scythe and shifted the momentum, spinning Ceft out of the air and into the ground. His wings withdrew in an instant and he reverted his scythe back that it wouldn’t provide the copy leverage. Rolling off the ground and back up, he rematerialized his scythe before rushing his clone. A spin, a twirl, a flourish, the clone deflected every last strike without incident using nothing but his rusty pitchfork. Blow after blow, shrugged off like it was nothing. It didn’t take long for the fake to catch his scythe at one point, and for it he suffered searing pain in his left foot as the pitchfork was rammed through it. The double didn’t let up, taking the opportunity to give Ceft a hard right hook across the face, sending him backwards along with the pitchfork remaining firmly in its position in his leg. He deactivated his scythe and ripped the pitchfork from his foot in one smooth motion. He failed to withhold an outcry of pain and quickly ripped off his footwear. Producing some green powder in the palms of his hands, he held it onto the wound. It’d stop the bleeding and relieve some pain, but fighting on foot no longer remained a valid option. As he picked himself up by his wings, he found his shadow changing with a distinctly “dark” glow. Sharply contrasting the standard farm outfit, wings erupted from his back as well, distinctly more bat-like than Ceft’s. Pitchforks swirled around him in a haphazard aura of pure death. His clothes changed to something more streamlined and risque; red and black, with a studded collar around his neck. With a condemning gesture toward Ceft, his clone spoke. “Dog of the devil, prepare to have your judgement visited upon you!” A pitchfork flew through the air like a missile, pinning Ceft to the wall of the building behind by his robe. The shadow drew closer to the boy trying and failing to remove the weapon as it armed itself with another nearby pitchfork. He stopped a few feet in front of Ceft, pointing the pitchfork at him. Ceft struggled to rip his rope out, giving up on removing the pitchfork. “Look at me.” Ceft frantically tried to remove his robe, but he’s not disfiguring the cloth fast enough. “LOOK AT ME.” The clone yelled it and with a nudge has his pitchfork up to Ceft’s throat. Ceft conceded his attention. “This is your true self. This is what you are. Never tell yourself that she was worth this.” The shadow reared back the pitchfork, about to thrust it through Ceft’s throat when a feminine voice called from above. “Ceft!” Oh shiiiiit she noticed what was going on. Shit shit shit shit shit. Ripping off the last of the Robe’s cloth, he summoned “holy” weapon #3: “Shisa’s Tonfas” and thrust it into the fake’s stomach. Kicking himself off the wall with a spin, he threw a kick in the same place, kicking off of that and immediately taking off upward, quickly switching to “holy” weapon #2: “Judgement’s Pistol” and firing back at the monster below. He wasn’t a fool. He probably only bought himself moments, but that’s what he wanted. Just some moments. Flying up to the only window daring to be open at a time like this, he was met face to face with his goddess herself. The BGM of a paused final fantasy game could be heard coming from behind her. He was disturbing her. That would not do. Unfortunately not verbally gifted around her, he stuttered out a greeting. “Uh… hi Lesu-” Lesua cut to the chase like a flaming knife through butter. “Ceft, what the fuck.” Ceft, getting back to his imperial manner of speech, reported in like a soldier. “This imposter dare insulted your holy name. I-” Lesua was having none of this bullshit. “Ceft, shut up. I don’t want you to take care of it.” “But milady-” Lesua sighed. “Ceft, he’s probably right. We both know I fuck everything up all the time. You don’t need to go to war every time someone brings up that I’m pretty much the antichrist. It’s okay, just go down and apologize to whoever that is for me.” Peeking further out the window, she sees the cloud of death below along with Ceft’s wounded foot and torn robe. “He looks like a toughie.” “I… yeah, he is…” “Go make friends with him, then come see me. Fighting games are no fun to play by yourself, and you can’t go around the place with a foot like that.” “I… But… uh…” “Come on, I can only derp around in training mode for so long.” “I- right…” Lesua gave him a smile; a genuine, friendly smile and closed the window. Ceft’s heart melts. He’s then stabbed in the back by a pitchfork. “That was heartwarming,” deadpanned the double. “Or, you know, would have been. If she wasn’t just trying to keep you loyal.” Ceft had had all of the shit he could handle. “I’ve had enough of you.” Ceft removed the pitchfork from his back, tossing it to the ground below. He turned to face his copy, steeling his will. “I know I’m a bad person; I’ve never denied that. I know Lesua is a menace and I know that there’s no justifying what we do. I know she may never feel the same way, but don’t you dare try to tell me that she’s a bad person when she can help it.” “holy” weapon # 2: “Judgement’s Pistol”. “Lesua is my friend. You can say what you want about her, but I trust her, and as me, you’re going to have to live with my judgement.” Ceft raised his gun to his own face in front of him. “I may not be doing the right thing here, and I may become a worse person because of it, but this is the life I chose to lead. I have no regrets.” Ceft pulled the trigger and looked onward as his own face received a hole through the forehead. “So stop acting like I should have given up long ago.” The double’s face fractured like a broken mirror. He looked at the genuine Ceft with a mixture of pity and satisfaction before the pieces faded into small pillars of smoke. ... Trudging back on magic wings that didn’t actually fit in the halls of the apartment, (thank goodness they didn’t actually require flapping) Ceft eventually found his way back to his apartment. He couldn’t burden Lesua with his current state. He soon came upon the almost limp body slouched on the kitchen floor, still in the spot he left him in. Ceft wasn’t ready to deal with this. Really, fuck this shit. He just wanted to go to sleep. Anywhere really. Hell, the floor was looking pretty damn comfortable. Damn, it’s just so fucking irresistible. That’s it, it’s settled, they are now wed. Screw Lesua, he pronounces himself man and floor, fucking swoon. He was out like a light in moments. A small puddle of blood slowly started to form. It would get to Glass eventually. Glass, of course, couldn’t do anything about it, but the fact that Ceft had come back at all gave him some relief. It’d have been a real shame if the boy had stuck by his delusions. He seemed like a good sort, after all. So, Graves, you got your wish. Not a bad time. I certainly had fun. He didn’t exactly resolve to change his ways, but I got him to admit he basically sold his soul to the devil. After a while, Glass regained enough strength to stand. After failing to rouse Ceft, he decided to go for help, despite his less-than reputable appearance. When he knocked on the door of his immediate neighbor, it opened only a crack, held in place by a chain lock. An old man peered out at him. He’s indifferent, merely staring down Glass with an expectant glare. “You sellin’ cookies?” The completely non sequitur question startled Glass into answering. “No, there’s a boy unconscious in the other apartment. I need help.” “Feh. No one round here’s gonna spare any time for him. Hell, you should put ‘em down yourself.” The man’s glare intensified paralyzingly. When Glass fails to respond, he continued. “If you’re really dead-set on helping that son of a bitch, whatsherface lives on the 7th floor, room 7G.” With that, he slammed the door. The fact that it was only 20 feet to the elevator was a small mercy. Glass got in, hoping there wasn’t a security camera, and pressed the button for the seventh floor, leaning heavily against the door. He was still pretty out of sorts, as was normal after summoning. Nothing to do about it but go home and get a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately, that was neither here nor there. When the elevator doors opened, he began the arduous trek towards room 7G. As he reached the fabled room 7G, he could do naught but knock. By the time the door opened and a girl with ivory hair appears in the doorway, Glasnost has already steeled himself for the inevitable social interaction to come. Cutting right to the chase, Glass took a deep breath and went into one of his rare talkative states. “I realize we’ve only met twice, and both times I’ve been covered in blood and likely not meant to be standing upright, and I really am very sorry for breaking my nose on your crucifix, but your… friend… is on the third floor lying in a pool of blood about a foot in diameter around him and the man that lives next to him said to come to you for help. Can you help?” The girl just stared blankly at Glasnost before realization crossed her face. “Oh yeah, you’re that guy from the Megamart™ who got was so scared he couldn’t speak. Sorry about that… uh… wait here, I’ll go get him. Feel free to help yourself to a drink while I’m gone.” She left, moving toward the elevator, leaving her door agape for Glasnost to enter. Glass came in and sat at the table, staring blankly at the wall with a somewhat shell-shocked look on his face. The girl couldn’t be older than him, so after several moments of deliberation, he gave into curiosity and checked the fridge. She couldn’t possibly be referring to alcohol, could she? ... Red bull. Monster. Orange Juice. Glasnost closed the refrigerator door and returned to his seat. There was no indication that he actually left it. Nope, none at all. Him? Leaving? That’s just a myth. When Lesua returned, leading a now conscious but clearly unnerved Ceft behind her, she quieted down whatever she was talking to Ceft about and gestured for Glass to follow her and Ceft into another room. Glass stood and followed her, looking straight ahead. He was hoping that if he didn’t look directly at either of them, they wouldn’t want to ask any questions. It rarely worked, but, nothing ventured, nothing gained. As he stepped foot into the next room, the lack of lighting unsettled him. There was only one light source in the room; a large, flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. A controller was shoved into Glass’ hands. On the screen was a large skull juxtapositioned over a heart with the title “Skullgirls”. “You ever play this game before?” A quick shake of Glass’s head. He hadn’t played ANY game before, but it was a bad time to bring it up. As she navigated a menu, Glass is presented with a character selection screen. “Choose one!” The girl was apparently selecting an eldritch blob the likes of which Glass only saw in his nightmares. After cycling through the characters a bit, (partly because he was trying to figure out what all the buttons did) Glass picked a character who looked like a saxophone with a trenchcoat taped to it, which he found inexplicably funny. It took less than half a minute for his healthbar to empty out. Twice. Lesua just kind of sat there and stared at him. To break the increasingly uncomfortable silence, Glass mumbled, “I think I know what the A button does now.” Lesua gently removed the controller from Glass’ grasp and put it in Ceft’s. It was around this point that Glass decided it would be safe to leave. He mumbled out, “If you don’t mind, now that you’ve lain waste to the brass section, I’ll think I’ll be going now…” Lesua didn’t take her eyes off the screen. “Yeah, yeah, you go do that.” Neither did Ceft. “I’m not done with you, but that can wait.” Glasnost sighed. “Joy.” He was about to take his leave the hell out of there, when he couldn’t help but notice how much better at this Ceft was than him. The boy was actually not dying instantaneously. He stopped and looked at the two people playing games before him and how much younger they both were than him. They were teenagers, probably not even old enough to legally live by themselves, and yet here they were with enough self-confidence to run a criminal syndicate. If Glasnost didn’t already feel like a failure, that probably would have hurt his self-esteem. Still, even with 0 self-esteem, it felt like it was dropping into the negatives as these two, years younger than him, exuded sprezzatura the likes of which he could only wish for. Glasnost shoved the thoughts down and left the apartment before realizing that he had no idea where in Brinkhaven he was.
=Clarisse= Clarisse found that the ride through the forest trail was quite uneventful. Rather dull, even. Oh, sure enough, the ride was bumpy, and if she would be forced to describe it in one word, she would be incapable of using the word 'comfortable' or any synonyms thereof, but that's beside the point - normally, she'd be having troubles staying awake by this time of day even in such a situation, the only thing saying otherwise being the amount of caffeine in her system right now. Still, a part of her assumed that such a peaceful trek is among the best-case scenarios she can wish for. She's never been fond of things that get her heart racing, after all, even if she's gotten used to jump-scares and disturbing imagery over the months. Fortunately, it wasn't very long before the ATVs reached the entrance of Brinkhaven, the majestic city of the Gifted. Even as late as it was in the night, it was easy for the young girl to marvel at the sight of an enormous walled city on top of a volcano. As the vehicles went past the security checks, however, Clarisse couldn't help but wonder at the leniency the checkpoint guards demonstrated. It's as if they didn't care at all about the security of the city... Or is it? Filled with curiosity, she at last decided to utilize her gift, her peculiarity. She focused her attention to the seemingly ignorant guard, tuning out everything else around her, and lifted her eyepatch just enough to sneak a peek... An eye. A fist-sized, floating eye connected by long crimson tubes to the person in question. And around her, she could see tendrils of red floating about, originating from her and the other people in the vehicle, seemingly drawn to the crimson eye. Words are etched on every visible surface of the red tendrils, words written in a language she did not understand, words which the crimson eye seemingly read with fervor, words that seemed to float out and be absorbed by the one with the eye. ...Perhaps that would be the answer, she thought, silently placing her eyepatch back into place. As soon as she could figure out what the vision meant. Which would probably be obvious if her brain was working at full capacity. In any case, the ride soon came to an end, and she exited the vehicle into the new world she would face. As soon as she can get all her luggage set and accounted for. ... That is, as soon as she could get a certain sleepyhead to wake up. -Kasey- The seats of the vehicle were unimaginably soft and cozy, or maybe they only seemed that way in comparison to the ship's small confined corridors and narrow bed that were undeniably less comfortable. Either way, Kasey found it extremely difficult to keep herself awake despite the fact that she had just awoken not too long ago. Reluctantly relenting to her heavy eyelids, Kasey dozed off once more. Phasing in and out of consciousness, Kasey didn't fall into her usual deep sleep. She would be jostled awake by the slightest nudge or bump that they came across until she was finally notified that they had arrived in the city. Yawning, she rubbed her eyes and followed the people in front of her out of the vehicle. A bit confused and unsure of what to do, Kasey stood with the other people that had started congregating to the side of the cars as she waited for her luggage. =Annabelle= Rolling plains, clear blue skies, drifting clouds. An ocean of the purest blue, glittering from the rays of the shining sun. There the wanderer walks, crossing the endless plains. How long has she walked? Where is she going? Has she been here before? Does she have a place to return to? When will her journey end? The wanderer does not care. She continues to walk, for each step she takes is one step closer to her goal. Yes, the goal that spurred her into beginning this journey. So she walked. And walked. And walked. Unbeknownst to the wanderer is that her path took her to a sheer cliff overlooking the ocean. Each step brought her closer and closer to the cliff's edge, but still the wanderer does not care, even as she is a mere ten steps from a catastrophic fall. Nine steps. Eight steps. Seven steps. Six steps. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. And then the wanderer takes the step that would plunge her into the deep blue waters- "Annabelle! Wake up!" The dream ended. "Nngh... Huh?" Wait, she was dreaming? It felt so real. Too real. Was it truly reality? ... Annabelle opened her eyes and looked around, finding herself within a stopped car near the entrance of an enormous, walled-off city. Turning her head to the side, she saw- "Clarisse?" "Yep" "Where are we?" "...Are you still sleeping? We're in Brinkhaven already" "...Oh. Yeah. Brinkhaven. We were going there. Right?" Clarisse sighed. "Sheesh. Honestly, I don't think which one of you is worse - You or Kasey", she said, dragging the still-disoriented Annabelle off the vehicle. As the recently awakened young girl managed to reorient herself, she took a good look at her surroundings. It's dark out - probably past 9 PM already. The cars had stopped near the entrance, their passengers mostly gathered nearby, the others helping the drivers in lowering their belongings from the vehicles. As far as the city went, it seemed and felt quite normal - huge wall aside, that is - but then again, it's late out. The last baggage case was finally returned to its rightful owner soon after, and with it came a final announcement from one of the drivers. "Well, kids, here's the final stop. You're all on your own from here on out. You're big kids already, all of you - You all can pull through this. If you need something, anything, don't hesitate to ask some of the locals. They're nice folk, most of them, especially the social service workers. Stay safe now, you hear?" And with that, they left. "...Well, that was informative", Annabelle commented on that. She wasn't even sure if she was being sarcastic or not. "Anyone got any idea where we go to now?" Not that she expected anyone to.
-Kasey- Acknowledging Annabelle's question, Kasey murmured in a low tone, "I-is there an information booth or something similar around here?" Not waiting for an answer, as she knew that most likely no one heard her nor had one, she grabbed hold of her measly luggage case and wheeled it through the city gates. To the girl's delight, she released a gasp of exuberance as she noticed a map of the city not but about 2 m ahead and what seemed to be a welcoming, information center for tourists and newcomers also within eyesight. Excited that she was able to find something of use, Kasey almost lurched forward, almost forgetting about her luggage. Tripping, as the old, stubborn wheels on her luggage refused to budge with her sudden moment, Kasey stumbled towards the building. She could her the mocking laughter of the voices in her head, but she managed to ignore them, for the most part anyway. Kasey was relieved to find that the information center was still open, so she hurried back to the group that was still congregated outside the city gates to report the good news. "U-um ex-excuse me, everyone," she stuttered sheepishly as she was not thoroughly accustomed to gathering the attention of crowds, or people in general. "Speak up, girl! No one can hear your pathetic whimpers," barked one of the daemons that took residence in her mind. "U-um...Excuse me, everyone," she tried again, "There seems to be an information center type of building just beyond the city's entrance...if you are interested...or something..." She had started off strong in her report this time, but by the time she had reached the last few words, her voice had begun to trail off to a whisper. After hearing her message, the few people that had heard her either passed on her message to the others or they made for the building themselves. "You know, mortal, you should have gone to the information place yourself and then reported back to your fellow mortals. It would have been the wiser option, because now you are still useless and uninformed. Knowledge is power and you now lack both." criticized Geras. "I know...I just thought that some people would have different preferences in where they would like to go. Right now i would prefer to find out about living situations over dining. I'm quite tired again. Others might rather find some food and refreshments first, so...yeah..." "But that still does not explain why you are letting them go first. Now you must wait in that growing line for your turn when you could have already retrieved your own information. Why is that?" Kasey only shrugged in response. "Ugh. You mortals are truly confusing." "I don't know why you even bother with her anymore, Geras," mocked Momus as another debate ensued. Ignoring the rising argument, Kasey enjoyed the cool night air as she watched her fellow passengers enter the city. =Annabelle= Annabelle raised her eyebrows slightly at the mention of the information center. "Well, that's convenient. A bunch of places I've been to don't even bother with an information center" "Shouldn't that be a given, though, considering the kind of place this is?", Clarisse quickly remarked. "Good point" Annabelle turned to the others, the majority of them already forming a crowd in front of the city gates. "Should we get in line, too?", she questioned. Clarisse shook her head. "Not me. I'm not much for being literally pushed and squeezed around - as I said before" Annabelle shrugged. "I guess we're waiting, then. By the way..." Her sight then fell upon the one girl who took the initiative, something she regarded admirable, as meek as her delivery was. "So, uh, who's our brave young informer this time?", she asked, a definite hint of awkward nervousness in her voice. Clarisse was quick to reply to that: "Kasey Chen, if I remember right. She's, er, the one that sleeps about as much as you do" "Oh, I see. Nice to meet you, I guess?", Annabelle answered, rather obviously still nervous about completely forgetting the name of a fellow passenger, extending her hand outward. She didn't expect to get a handshake, but it was common enough courtesy that she did it on instinct. -Kasey- Caught off guard when she overheard her name being mentioned, she turned her head to see two girls that were staring at her, one of which was extending her hand in a friendly gesture and the other...seemed familiar. Kasey, even though she had not chosen to interact much with the other passengers on the ship often, she could have sworn that there had only been one passenger that wore an eyepatch. However, even though she recognized the girls and picked up their names from previous encounters, she did not believe that they had ever been formally introduced to one another, or as far as she could recall. Giving a slight smile towards the two familiar faces, she fumbled with setting down her luggage as she struggled to free at least one of her hands to return the girl's polite gesture. Gently grasping the girl outstretched hand, she lightly shook it in an awkward notion. "U-uh it's nice to meet you...too," she replied a bit absent-mindedly. Distracted by the uproar of arguments brought up by the voices if the gods in her head, she struggled to separate her own thoughts from theirs. "So..um...do either of you have an idea of where you will be wanting to go?" =Annabelle & Clarisse= "Sleep" "Lodgings" The two girls replied differently in unison. Both swiftly turned to each other in surprise, an awkward second passing before they turned back. "Well, uh, I guess the two of us have the same idea", Annabelle said. "Word", Clarisse agreed. "Ah, yes, my name is Clarisse Lorelei - call me Clarisse. Pleasure to make your acquaintance", she continued. "Oh, yeah, forgot about that", the other girl interjected. "Annabelle Silvers. Ann, Anne, Anna, Bell, Belle, Phones, call me whatever you want, so long as I know it's me", she said, indicating her headphones at the mention of 'phones' for emphasis. The bare introductions finished, Clarisse then took a glance at the crowd of fellows gathering before the main gate. They're actually lining up in order now, but it really doesn't look like it's going to move on for a bit. She could understand that - people her age are usually very much inquisitive. Still, that didn't stop her from letting out a sigh. "...We're probably going to have to wait for a while before we can even get into the city, though" "Can't argue with that", Annabelle commented, setting down her decidedly large backpack, "So I guess we should make ourselves comfortable until then, huh?" The somewhat tomboyish young woman clapped her hands together, "I'm gonna show off a bit, if you two don't mind" And closed her eyes to focus. Make it simple. If there's one thing she had learned over the days and weeks of practice, it's that making it simple always works better. As awesome as flashy light shows are, it's just not efficient. Pine? Cypress? Nah, she kinda forgot the 'feel' of wood. Metal, though - remembering the knife she had is enough. Shape... Easy enough. Size... Her limit's just large enough. Opening her eyes, Annabelle spread out her hands, and willed. From out of thin air, in front of her appears a simple, unadorned park bench crafted fully from stainless steel, just large enough for three teenagers to fit in without compromising personal space. Clarisse let out a small 'ooh' of amazement, while Anne quickly sat down on her creation, testing its uses. "Not bad, if I do say so myself", she said after a yawn", "Feel free to take a seat" Snapping out from her small bout of being awestruck, Clarisse tentatively followed the older girl's advice, sitting next to her on the newly-created bench. It was... Decent. Clearly far from even the cushy chairs of cars, but it did its job - better than standing, at least. "So... That's your Gift?", she decided to speak. "Yep", Anne answered curtly, motioning for the other girl to follow. "I made it for three, you know?" -Kasey- Stunned by Annabelle's display of her gift, Kasey cautiously approached the bench after the girl motioned for her to join them. It looked magnificent, and upon closer inspection, it felt solid and cool just like a real stainless steel bench. Kasey slid her hand across it's smooth surface and circled around the bench that the two girls were sitting on. There was no getting past it, Annabelle had actually just pulled a bench out of seemingly nowhere. Kasey had witnessed some of the other passengers on the boat demonstrate their powers over the course of their long journey, but she had never really registered any of them as anything more than a figment of her imagination; a conjuring of her subconscious mind to amuse her dream-like stasis. It was a sort of coping mechanism for her, allowing her to keep the little sanity she had remaining after learning that things akin to superpowers really did exist. Maybe she wasn’t really losing her mind with these overly intuitive voices in her head...Maybe she was close to normal...Nah who was she kidding? Even if she managed to learn to cope with this strange new world, it would always feel like she had been transported to some other planet compared to her old life. Having lived in a “sheltered” little city her whole life only made this transition more difficult for her. Everyone that seemed normal, was somehow not. Was her old life all a blissful lie? There was no one back in her hometown that had magical abilities like these people did. Did they just hide them out of fear, or were they really just normal, everyday Joe's? Why did it seem like only she was left out of this loop and labeled mentally handicapped or a freak? Why didn't her parents enlighten her to this insightful bit of information? Maybe she wouldn't have thought herself to be as useless as she did. Sighing, Kasey tried to quell her runaway thoughts, as none of them mattered at the moment. “Well, technically, you are still worthless. Why can’t you do something as interesting or useful as what the other mortal just did? I’d make a comment about how the other mortal’s power is much more practical than your own “power”-If you cannot already tell, I am putting some of your mortal air quotes around power to emphasize that fact that we may or may not be your mortal’s term for a gift, ability, power, etc. and to leave you in a continued state of confusion for my own amusement-, but that would insulting myself...and these fellow sorry excuses for deities. We are in fact fully capable of being useful, we just choose not to assist someone as useless as yourself,” lectured Momus. He was always the quickest to mock the poor girl. "It is true, we are quite knowledgeable in our respective attributes and could be put to good use, but we are not. This is solely because, first off, you, silly mortal, have failed to ask for any assistance whatsoever, and second, you seem to be too...what’s the word? Clumsy? Distracted? Please don’t be too offended, but there is just too many problems with you, your attitude, and that personality of yours, that we have lost any and all motivation to provide you any means of assistance," chimed in Nemesis. "But we are anything but uncanny! Especially me! I'm the most wonderful of them all!" Squeaked the jittery Eris. "Shut up! Enough from you, you little twit!" Barked Momus and with that the conversation ended. Fed up with the scorn-filled thoughts, Kasey brushed them aside and diverted her attention back to the two girls, or more specifically, Annabelle. Staring at the girl with a blank expression, she failed to select just one emotion from the many conflicting ones that she was feeling at the moment and defaulted to confusion as she managed to form words for her jumbled thoughts. "How...how did you do that?" She questioned as she moved to take a seat next to Annabelle on the mystifying bench. =Annabelle= "How did I do that, huh?" Annabelle repeated, thinking as she unconsciously began to twirl around the cord connecting her music player and headphones. It certainly wasn't the first time she was asked the question, and it likely won't be the last, either... But even so, it's still rather difficult to come up with a satisfying explanation. "Well... I don't really know. I just do it", she began, suppressing a mental sigh as she did. Surely she can do better than that. "Right... If I think of something hard enough, it happens. I imagine something in my head - its shape, its color, what it's made of - and then I imagine it appearing in front of me, and then it does... That's a pretty bad explanation, wasn't it? I can't really explain better, though..." Annabelle sighed, for real this time, before continuing. "It's just..." =Clarisse= "It's something that comes naturally, doesn't it?", Clarisse decided to interject just then, "It's like walking, or running, or even breathing... You don't think about it too much, you just do it. It's the same for me... It's the same for a lot of others", she said, looking at the two others with her innocent smile. "...I guess I can agree to that", Annabelle replied. "You don't seem that surprised" "...I'm used to it", Clarisse responded, her voice wistful in tone. She still remembered the past few months... The past few months of her coming to terms and familiarizing with her Gift... The past few months when she would so often witness things horrific and indescribable, driven into her mind so strongly she several times felt her head was going to explode. And the first time her power spiraled out of control... It's unlikely she'll forget it for a long time, if at all. Who knows where would she be now if her parents weren't there to help her that time? ...No, she probably knew where she would be now. At that time, still clear and vivid should she choose to remember, she remembered that she had a passing thought... Shatter the closest mirror she can find, find the sharpest piece she can wield, and then-- No, stop. No point thinking about it further. She's much better now, and now she's going to step into a new world, in a new life, surrounded by new friends... ...That line of thought actually just made her nervous. Change... Change is always jarring at first. She has never been to many places in her life, either. That didn't help. Oh well. She should just 'wing it' and see what happens. Opening her mouth again, "And, well, unlike some people I know, I actually met up and talked about our Gifts. You get less surprised...", she remarked, playfully giving a knowing glare onto the two other ladies. Some minor schadenfreude can be quite enjoyable at times, after all. "Ahaha", Annabelle let out a rather nervous laugh at her words, fully accepting her vulnerability as a target. "So, um, since I don't get out much, may I ask you two what your Gifts do? I've already shown mine, after all..." "Well", Clarisse replied, "My Gift is a whole lot harder to show off than yours. It's a bit of a weird thing...", she continued, seeming somewhat reluctant to demonstrate, "But I'll just say that my left eye isn't actually blind. I just cover it up so I don't see weird things" -Kasey- Regretting asking the difficult question, as she now realized how hard it must have been for the other girl to put such an inexplicable concept to words, Kasey nodded at Annabelle’s and Clarisse’s responses and clarifications. Now faced with a similar question, Kasey mulled over the properties of her own Gift. “Mmm...Like Clarisse, I cannot readily display my Gift, but it is kind of easy to explain. It seems that my Gift is the ability to communicate with the very seven daemons that personify negative emotion from Greek mythology via a mental link. That's why I am occasionally arguing and talking to myself...I mean I could just talk to them through my thoughts, but sometimes i forget about that. And I know it must sound at least a bit crazy...I mean mythology actually being true, how juvenile, right? Heheheh...sometimes I even wonder if it can be called a ’Gift’. I might just be losing my mind,” Kasey rambled, her voice shaking as she threw in disheartened, weak laugh at the end. "Anyway..." Kasey stared at the ground and fumbled with her hands nervously. What a lovely way to start things off in a new city, right? Hysterically rambling on about how you have more than likely lost your marbles to friendly-enough strangers, she thought to herself. She hoped that the conversation would move on to another topic, or maybe something would happen to ease the tension that she had just created. =Clarisse= "Hmm..." Clarisse began murmuring under her breath, intently staring at the willowy-thin lady sitting on the bench with her. Greek daemons of negative emotion? That's... Interesting. Weird and interesting. I wonder what would my left eye see her as? Mm, but isn't that somewhat of a privacy violation? And then again, considering what she just said... Maybe I'm the most coo-coo person in this place? Her train of thought continued, her body unconsciously leaning over towards Kasey, when suddenly- =Annabelle= "Oh, hey!" Anne exclaimed, shooting up out of her chair. "Looks like it's our turn now!", she continued, her eyes fixated on the city gate. True enough, there's barely anyone left in there - even if the three immediately went in 'line', they'd likely have to wait for no longer than a minute. She helped - or rather, pulled - the other two girls up, and began to walk over to Brinkhaven's information center, dragging the other two along if needs be. Clarisse quickly complied and walked along, though, muttering something about how her wrist hurts if pulled along like that. Reaching the information center right as the last group of other fellow passengers left, Annabelle immediately opened a conversation. "Good evening! We're new here, and we'd like to ask you some questions! Don't worry, we're the last ones in the bunch. Maybe" Perhaps her word choices were a bit awkward, if not outright shameless. But that's just her.
((A brief intermission for this unscrupulous duo...before I forget about them again...)) -Revi- Ashamed in losing the girl with the golden-brown hair and black rimmed glasses once more, the strangely overly-obsessed man with short, lush green hair wandered around the city aimlessly for another hour or so carried by only his own forlorn hopes in potentially catching another glimpse of the girl. Sadly, his extra exerted effort was all in vain and the man, Revi, was forced to retire for the day. He made his way back to his most favorite spot within the entirety of the city, a bench. No, but this was no ordinary bench. Of all the wonderful, identical benches placed strategically throughout Brinkhaven, there was only one that captivated Revi’s eye. There was nothing particularly special about this one bench physically that made it any more unique or desirable than the rest, as it was of the same design as the other wooden benches found in and out of the city. No, it was not his favorite bench due to an increased amount of comfort or considerable lack in bird poop, because to be honest, no bench is comfortable enough for a grown man to be sleeping on nor safe from the terrifying whims of birds. No, this bench was special to all and only to Revi, for whatever delusional reason. Clinging to the sentimental value of the bench like a child to the place in which its own mother had abandoned it, Revi cherished that bench fervently along with the deranged belief that if he waited long enough, he would once again encounter his angel there again, just like the first time they had met. Reminiscing over the twisted memories of his beloved angel, Revi was lulled to sleep by the soothing pitter-patter of the fountain that lay behind his lonely park bench. -Amisa- The test was simpler than the girl had expected. She merely demonstrated her Gift to the concierge that stood graciously behind the front desk of the Elemental Faction Building. After following the conceirge into a back room and displaying her Gift, the concierge left the room only to return minutes later with a key card in hand. However, before handing over the key card, the concierge reaffirmed that the girl understood that by accepting the key she would have to abide by the Elemental Faction’s rules, which included the need to willingly cooperate with her faction leader and factions mates if and when called upon to do so. The girl, who could have honestly cared less, impatiently rolled her eyes and accepted the terms with a slight nod of her head. The unamused concierge grunted and reluctantly dropped the shiny, reflective key card into Amisa’s extended hand, probably doubting that she would actually comply with the aforementioned rules. Since the deal had been sealed, both parted ways, Amisa to her newly assigned room and the concierge back to his prior position behind the front desk. The girl had faced a long, tiresome day once again, and therefore, she longed to feel the relaxing sensation of washing off the day’s grime followed by a nice, long rest on a pile of plush pillows in a decently air conditioned room. As these calming thoughts filled her mind, Amisa could feel her body growing more and more tired. Each step felt like a million and each flight of stairs, a mountain. Upon reaching her room, she swiftly entered her room and closed the door before collapsing on the nearest piece of furniture. Skipping each step of her imagined plan, she eased into the soft, fluffy cushions of what seemed to be a couch. “Ah this feels nice,” she muttered to herself. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly as she drew out her next words, “It almost reminds me of home…” With that, the girl brought her arms to her chest as she curled up into a ball and began to doze off to the tranquil silence that filled the room. What a “stagnant” day.
Colin traversed through the forest, suprisingly fast for someone who was starving. It was the promise of all the food in Brinkhaven that made him run. The combination of speed and a sea of vines and leafs were making it hard for him to stay on his feet. For once his tail was useful and was making balancing easier, but of course it was bumping on the trees a lot. The fact that it was getting dark didn't help. At least he could see fairly well in front of him with his phones flashlight app. His new phone... His mind started to trail of to a day tree weeks ago, when his parents gave it to him. He remembered how he informed his parent of his gift and the ETG. He smiled when he thought of how he texted his parents to pass on his "smell you later" taunt to the ETG. He could imagine the ETG pulling their hair out trying to figure out where he dissape- Colin was pulled back to reality as he hit a big tree head first at high speed. He got a small headache but nothing more thanks to his scales. Not wanting to repeat his mistace he focused on running. There were less trees now as Colin was closer to the city. It was getting cold but his black hoodie, red shirt and blue jeans were keeping him reasonably warm. He felt relieved when he saw the gates. He must have been lucky to not meet any beasts on the way. That or he was too fast for them. He put his phone to his jean poket, got rid of his scales and walked through the gates. The large amount of people was making him a little nervous, but Colin didn't let his gaze target the groung. He kept his tail behind his left leg, the best he could, trying to get it out of sight and breezily walked to the edge of the croud, staying apart from everyone.
-Kasey- Oblivious to her surroundings as she stared at the ground apprehensively, she was abruptly startled when the girl with light brown hair jolted to her feet and announced vehemently that the line for the information center had shortened considerably throughout the duration of their conversation. Kasey, seeing no rush in things, sluggishly stretched out her right hand to grab hold of her luggage’s handle. She was just in time to do so, too, as she was swiftly yanked away from the bench moments later by the animated Annabelle. Annabelle proceeded to drag both Clarisse and Kasey for a good part of the way over to the information booth. Kasey acquiesced readily and allowed the light brown-haired girl to lead her over to the building. Upon arrival at the information center, Annabelle struck up a conversation with the unlucky person that had been tasked with the night shift. Seeing that only one person was really needed to ask their desired questions, Kasey let her attention and gaze wander until it finally found itself resting on Clarisse’s eye patch. She recalled that the girl had mentioned how it protected her from seeing “weird” things, but what kind of weird things and for how long has she had to wear that eye patch? As Kasey diverted her attention to her curious thoughts, she unintentionally began to stare at Clarisse’s face. =Clarisse= Lightly massaging her somewhat strained wrist, Clarisse observed as Annabelle began questioning the officer currently on-duty in the information center. Her friend was... Well, 'rude' was one way to put it. Still, as informal as she talked, Clarisse found that Annabelle conversed surprisingly fluently, as if she's gone through this situation several times before - and she probably really did, too. Not seeing anything to do as Annabelle continued to talk, Clarisse's gaze began to wander, looking about the room for anything of interest. She didn't find anything worth mentioning, though... But then her gaze fell upon her other companion, Kasey -- who was intently staring at her face. No. She was staring at her eye. "O-oh. Is something the matter, Kasey?", she asked, somewhat taken aback. -Kasey- Kasey blinked at the sound of Clarisse’s voice and pulled herself out of the dark void of thoughts that she had subconsciously been sinking into. “H-huh?” she queried in a daze as she fluttered her eyelids. Suddenly aware that she had been unintentionally staring at the shorter, black haired girl by the stinging pain of her drying corneas, Kasey instinctively rubbed her eyes. After bringing back some moisture to her eyes, Kasey opened her eyes to find that her gaze still lingered on Clarisse's eye patch. Flushing slightly, Kasey averted her eyes away from Clarisse's face and murmured an embarrassed reply to the girl's question, "Oh...um...it's nothing..." She had not meant to become so apparently fixated on the other girl's face nor fabricate such a conspicuous fib, but in the heat of the moment, she could only generate petty excuses for her actions. However, moments after giving the obvious lie, Kasey regretted being untruthful to her new, dare she say, friend. Fidgeting with her hands, Kasey mustered enough courage to try and right her wrong, for whatever it was worth, and began rambling her explanation. "Well...actually...," she began warily as she glanced at Clarisse sheepishly, "I was curious about your eye patch... I know you mentioned that it protects you from viewing 'weird' apparitions, and I don't intend to pry any further on the aspects of your Gift or your personal information, but I was just wondering about how long you have had to wear your eye patch? ...How long have you had your Gift?" =Clarisse= "Ah", Clarisse replied at Kasey's request, nodding in understanding. Truthfully, she should have known the question would come, and she should have been expecting the question from anyone she made a passing mention of her Gift to. After all, her eyepatch is the most conspicuous feature she has, and people are always curious. "Well, let's see, now", she said, her hands unconsciously moving to a steeple as she started to remember. Those events that led her to realize that she is not quite as normal as she seemed to be... When did it begin? "I think... I think it was the middle of the school year, around winter break. So... I guess it was just over a year ago, then? That time, I kinda got roped into participating in my school's winter sports competition", the girl began, retelling a part of her past. "Er, did I mention I'm horrible at P.E.? Well, I am. So I got a dodgeball to the face for my troubles. That hurt" she recalled, managing to form a somewhat wry smile at that. "It was definitely an accident, though. Now, I don't know if that concussion rewired my brain or something, but, well... This happened" As the words were spoken, Clarisse took off her eyepatch, revealing the deep blue eye beneath. Though it was her little secret, she decided that the person in front of her at least deserves this much for her previous, unsatisfying explanation. That, and since everyone here should be in a similar state as her anyway, hiding it is somewhat of a moot point. "I'll start seeing weird things if I close my right eye now, see - I have to look only through my blue left eye", she explained, "In hindsight, I was probably lucky I sorta followed the craze on colored contacts back then, so I didn't have to deal with people asking me why my eye color suddenly changed... But on the other hand, I only realized that after I got home later that day, and, well... I kinda lost it back then. But I got better", she continued, her expression becoming somewhat wistful as her sentence draws to an end. Even though months have passed ever since her Gift awakened, she still vividly remembers that day. The sights that she saw, the fear that she felt, and - most of all - the warmth of her parents. "Well, Anyway, I've worn this eyepatch ever since so I don't accidentally see through my Gift when I wink or something", Clarisse finalized, clapping her hands together "Sure, there were a bunch of questions when I got back to school, but that didn't last long" "But enough about me, Kasey! What about you?", she asked back, jumping at the chance as she closed her right eye in what seemed to be a playful wink, "I'm sorry if this is a bit private, but I'm pretty curious about you and your Gift, too. Like, well, what the seven statues wired to your head are", she explained, casually saying what she saw from that passing glance. "Those seven statues actually do have name-plates, but I can't read Greek, so help would be much appreciated!" -Kasey- Attempting to be courteous, Kasey nodded at infrequent intervals as Clarisse spoke. She listened to the other girl’s explanation intently, trying to find a way to empathize with her, but her tale was quite different from her own. Nevertheless, Kasey could still sympathize with Clarisse; whether she could express this clearly on her face or not was another thing, though. As Clarisse’s explanation drew to an end, Kasey withdrew a bit in her stance and brought her right arm up to her face, resting her hand on her cheek and her right arm’s elbow in her left hand. Intuitively she slipped her pinky under her lower lip and prodded it until it was in her mouth so that she could begin nervously chewing it; an old habit she had retained since a child. Kasey began to delve into her own thoughts when Clarisse changed her tone of voice and topic of interest. Taken aback a bit at the sudden allocation of focus, Kasey flicked her head to face Clarisse and was just in time to catch the other girl wink at her. She wants to know about me? she thought to herself. “No, she wants to know about US, you insolent mortal. She clearly asked for our names, not yours. Goodness show some respect like this fine, young woman. She obviously is much more civilized than you, expressing such interest in us gods. I am quite flattered. If only all you mortals could be as ingratiating as this one, maybe I wouldn’t mind sticking around in this realm.” Momus grumbled to himself. “Fufufu she is surely an interesting one,” chuckled Apate. “Ohh ohh tell her about me! Tell her about me, mortal! The great Eris is here!” Eris chimed in. Patently unamused, Kasey hesitated in her response to Clarisse as she capriciously flipped between the idea of opening herself to the girl or not. She finally came to the conclusion that there was no justifiable reason to withhold the information and it would only be equitable if she shared about her Gift, too. But how was she to start? Kasey drummed her fingers on her chin as she contorted her face to one that sufficiently expressed her perplexed disposition. She then switched to tapping only her pointer finger on her lower lip as she began, drawing out the syllables of her words as she gathered her jumbled thoughts and placed them into an organized manner, “Hmm...Well where should I start? First there is Momus. He is the personification of mockery and satire and he is the most talkative of the bunch...mostly because he loves ridiculing others. Then there is Thanatos, the personification of death; Oizys, the personification of pain; Moros, the personification of doom and fate; Apate, the personification of deceit; Nemesis, the personification of retribution; and finally, Eris, the personification of chaos, discord, and strife. Yup. all seven of them...All seven of them stuck in my head...and get this! They don’t need sleep because they are immortal beings, so yay, friends 24/7... Oh hush Eris! I put you last for a reason. I was hoping to forget about you for at least a second!” Huffing a bit at the end of her sentence, she stared upward as if she were trying to look up at someone or something, but of course there was nothing there. “Oh...uh...sorry about that...do you have any specific questions? It seems that they would be willing to answer ‘those within their node of knowledge’,” Kasey queried as she added in air quotes for emphasis. =Clarisse= Noting the sudden discomfort in her conversational partner's voice, Clarisse listened to Kasey's concise explanation about the nature of her Gift, unconsciously nodding several times as her explanation neared its end. That is, until Kasey started to complain about how her 'friends 24/7' work. Followed quickly by shushing the one named 'Eris', the 'personification of chaos, discord, and strife'. Clarisse blinked. "I see", she replied, somehow managing to keep a completely straight face despite what just happened. That's certainly proof of a two-way communication. But on a much more relevant note, from the tone of voice she heard Kasey use, it felt as if she and the seven Greek 'deities' have known each other for a long, long time. Perhaps it should be unsurprising. Then again, Clarisse herself had only had her Gift for about a year or so. In any case, it seemed that she can actually ask the seven personifications of Kasey's gift about topics 'within their node of knowledge', air-quotes included. She mulled over the prospect a bit, but her train of thought was soon cut short when a nearby voice made itself known. =Annabelle= "Hey", Annabelle spoke up, walking in her two friends' conversation, having finished interrogating questioning the poor officer who was currently on duty at the moment. Stepping in between the two, she continued, "So, had fun without me?" "A-ah. Well, I guess you can say that", Clarisse replied curtly, somewhat taken aback by Annabelle's unannounced appearance. Annabelle then carefully leaned in closer to the violet-wearing young woman, inadvertently causing some unseen discomfort to the latter. "Y'know, I never knew you were heterochromic, Clarisse", the brown-haired lass inquired, curiosity in her eyes. "Ah", Clarisse responded, instantly realizing that her eyepatch is not, in fact, currently covering her left eye, leaving it open for all to see. Not that there's many people around by now, of course. "Um, well...", she attempted to compose a reply, trying her best to not appear nervous while doing so. "...Not naturally", she then continued, settling for that short answer. "Ah. I see", Annabelle replied, understanding Clarisse's implication almost in an instant. She did mention that her Gift has a connection to her sight, after all. "Anyway", she continued, calling the attention of both her current companions, "I've asked around, and I think I know about most of the places that count, at least. There's hotels around and stuff, but there's also this interesting thing about 'faction housing' here in Brinkhaven. I'll explain on the way" The brown-haired lass took a moment to stretch her arms a bit, preparing to walk outside. "So, can we get up on our own, or do I have to drag you girls out myself?", she asked, smiling lightly as Clarisse replied with a swift "I can walk just fine on my own, thank you".
5 minutes. It takes Glass 5 minutes to give up and head back to the apartment of the hegemonic she-devil. He truly has absolutely no sense of direction. When he got back to the apartment belonging to the antichrist, he realized he had left the door open. Whoops. Better close that, leave, never come back, try to forget he was ever... Yeah, no, not happening. Who was he kidding? Shoving down a feeling of dread descending upon him, he opens the door to find the living room still empty and the sounds of the game from earlier playing off in... her… room. With as much stealth as a donut trying to escape a police station undetected, he skulked towards the sound. Maybe the less-crazy one… Ceft?... would be there, and he could get directions from him. It was a calculated risk, but, if he was wrong, he could always just clench his fists, take a deep breath, puff out his chest, and run away crying like a little sissy. As Glass maneuvers through the doorway, it becomes immediately apparent that even if they noticed him, they wouldn’t care; locked in a deathmatch the likes of which he could never compete in. Well, he could, but it’d likely be over in less than the time it took him to regret his decision to return, which was about seven seconds. In those seven seconds, the team controlled by Ceft is wiped out in a whirl of blood and thunder, stemming from an innocuous woman with an egyptian motif. Odd. Hadn’t seen her when he’d first played. As their match comes to a close, Ceft leans back against the bed Glass is now hiding beside. Taking it as an opportunity to quickly ask for directions and get out, causing as little disturbance as possible, he’s about to step forth before a booming voice echoes from besides Ceft. “I TIRE OF THIS CHILD’S PLAY.” Commence Operation Duck and Cover. Glass hit the floor so fast, the sound it made was actually disguised by the hellish bellow of Ceft’s… leader? Boss? Something. Staying completely silent, he slowly reached up and tugged on Ceft’s leg, speaking in a whisper. “...Help?” Against all of Glass’ hopes and wishes, the moment Ceft turned to look at him, he grabbed Glass and dragged him out of the corner with one hand. Naturally, and with a decidedly undignified squeak, Glass ineffectually scrambled to free himself, succeeding only in half-heartedly flailing his arms and gently scratching at the offending hand. “You again. Lesua, I really don’t know what to do with this guy. I think you’d be better off dealing with him.” What followed was the first and last time Glass legitimately got the upper hand in a fight. Seeing no other option, he poked his captor in the eye and ran for the exit. Unfortunately, the entire door frame was blocked off in a shiny wall of what Glass would describe as light. “SINNER! YOU DARE AGGRESS THE CHURCH?” Lesua points an accusing finger toward Glass, and if it wasn’t clear before, it’s obvious now that she’s not in her right mind. Ceft decides to chime in. “I… well… okay, so he did, but… Er…” Lesua just stares. “He wasn’t trying to affront your church. Just me, and I’m fine.” Narrowing her eyes at Glass, she stares with enough force for Glass to feel like a hole is being bored through his chest. At a loss for what to do, he decided the best course of action was to stand stock-still and silently pray for his life. Finally Lesua speaks. “You were not fine.” She walks forward and grabs Glass with one hand, carrying him under one arm like a book. “COME. WE’RE GOING TO THE CHURCH.” With astounding clarity of thought, Glass weighed his options, chose the most effective one he had… and passed out. Again. When Glass woke, it was in a grand cathedral the likes of which he had never seen. Columns of what he could only identify as ivory lined the place along the walls. Pews adorned in red velvet occupied the majority of the church, and the entire place had a somewhat gothic architectural feel to it. Glass woke sitting in the 3rd row pew on the right. In the confused, bleary clarity of half-consciousness he, for some reason, was overwhelmed by a sense of comfort. And then he’s snapped out of it as a booming voice calls forth. “LEAVE MY CHURCH. BEGONE WITH YOU.” Glass barely has any time to turn around and catch a glimpse of an elderly woman scrambling to abscond through the front door. He’s about to follow suit when he notices Ceft sitting next to him, shutting some book he was reading and looking directly at him. In less than a second, he resigns to his fate. Though it is with great pride that Glass can say that he was only slightly petulant when he was dragged up and to the front of the church to Lesua. The pews were mostly empty, though the bustle certainly made it clear that whatever it was they they do was in operation. As Glass was presented before Lesua like a CHOICE CUTS™ steak, there was no grand ceremony. There were no bats stirred awake by the commotion who decided now would be the opportune time to fly the fuck out. There was no faulty lighting system that caused all lights except for the one highlighting Lesua’s face to go dark. There was no hunchbacked mutant leaning on all the high keys of an organ, nor one looming over a titanic cauldron large enough to require a ladder to access. With not even the simplest or innocuous of divine rhetoric, Lesua handed Ceft a small, unsealed envelope and just like that, he turned, dragging Glass with him. When they reach the door, Ceft merely hands Glass the envelope, turns, and walks away. Well, that was unexpected. If he hadn’t known better, Glass would have thought the lady wasn’t some kind of eldritch monstrosity with a cute face. Not knowing what else to do, he slowly looked down at the envelope and opened it. Inside was a cross necklace and a piece of paper that described a task of “retrieving a unicorn”. Stunningly sparse information is given, and really, all he has to go off of is an address and the name of the person he’s to be retrieving it from, “Phillip”. Well… that was actually a little insulting. Why did Glass have to go get somebody’s unicorn? Was it a real unicorn? Who was Phillip, and why did he have a unicorn that apparently belonged to the church? And, most importantly, did Glass work for the church now? Still in the confused, somewhat submissive state of mind he’d adopted when he was woken by the devil’s yowling, he left the church, wishing the paper had given him directions. Surprised to find his bicycle in the parking lot, he nonetheless embarked on his given task. Maybe when he was finished, he could finally go home. The problem with being given a piece of paper with a destination, instructions on what to do when you get there, and nothing else, is that you very rarely know exactly how to get where you’re going. Especially if you have the sense of direction of a below-average tube of toothpaste. As Glass turned the corner and saw the same sign he had passed by at least umpteen times by now, Graves stopped him-rather abruptly. The problem with that, of course, is that being stopped abruptly while riding on a bicycle tends to cause one to fall off of said bicycle. This problem is compounded significantly when you’re Glass. It wasn’t completely catastrophic, as he managed to twist in the air to land on his side instead of his skull, but it still hurt quite a bit. “Ow! What was that for?” “I don’t know.” “That’s helpful. You know, I usually assume you have a reason to throw me at things, but apparently you’re just getting vindictive. You can’t eve-” “Close your face. There’s something weird nearby...” “Is it named Graves?” “What kind of name is Graves?” a male voice came from a nearby alley. Looking down said alley, Glass could only see a garbage bin and errant bags of trash. Perhaps someone was behind the bin? The put-upon demon wrangler would have jumped a foot in the air if he hadn’t still been crouched on the ground. He briefly considered his options: 1. Run the fuck away. 2. Run the fuck away. 3. Run the fuck away and never come back. 4. Shove Graves down the alley and run the fuck away. Option 4 was looking pretty good. Or, rather, it would have been looking pretty good if Graves hadn’t promptly vanished. Hm. Option 3 it is, then. Getting up haphazardly, Glass nearly forgot to bring the bike before setting it upright and flying down the sidewalk as quickly as possible, narrowly avoiding more or less every pedestrian he came across as if he got more points for catching the handlebars on people’s sleeves. When he had traveled a good 7 blocks or so, he remembered that he was actually supposed to be somewhere. Looking at his surroundings, he realized he was going the completely wrong way and was going to have to turn around. When he attempts to bring his bike to a halt, he realizes that the brakes have no effect on the bike’s speed and it seemed as if he was going faster. ...Wow. Never thought I’d die going towards the inherent mortal danger. As his bike picked up speed for no apparent reason and was likely around 30 miles per hour, he decided that the sooner he bailed, the less it would hurt. With that in mind, he still waited until he passed the telephone pole, not trusting his luck as far as he could throw it. Speaking of throwing, he was fortunate to have waited, because when he did leap off the bike like it was a one-way train to the underworld, someone just so happened to break his fall. In fact, they caught Glass as if they were waiting for him to jump. Completely caught off guard by the lack of his bones snapping, Glass didn’t even have the presence of mind to be terminally awkward. As the bicycle careened towards oblivion, it inevitably collided with a nearby guard rail and promptly flipped itself over and knocked a kid flat on his ass. “Well damn.” Glass looked up to see a tall man, probably around his age, blond with somewhat spiky hair and wearing sunglasses. He was staring down at him, but with a face hard to read. Probably either pity, amusement, or disgust. It was hard to tell. The sunglasses blocked any visual cues from the upper half of his face. “Hey, you okay?” “...Well, substantially more okay than I’d be if I hit the pavement instead of you.” “Good to know I did something right for once then. What were you uh… doing on that deathtrap?” “Something stupid, I’m pretty certain.” Wow. Way to go, Glass, That was two coherent sentences in a row without choking on your own tongue. You’re on a roll, buddy. “Why don’t you take a break from being Evil Kanival incarnate- there’s a coffee shop right here.” “B- what. I d-don’t… what?” ...And there it goes. Good while it lasted. Better luck next time, you turkey. “You look… I don’t know, shaken. I was just on my way out, but I could always use another excuse to waste time here. The coffee is the best in Brinkhaven.” “B-but… I’m not- I mean-” Better to just get it over with now, kiddo. “...Okay.” “Great.” The man begins to push open the door immediately behind him, before stopping and turning back to Glass. “By the way, I never caught your name.” “It’s, uh… Glasnost. That’s- it’s- Glasnost’s my name.” Wow, way to sound sure of yourself. The man smiles. It may just be Glass’ rampant paranoia, but it seems just a smidge crooked. “Got a nickname?” Well, we knew that was coming. “...Yeah. G-glass.” He holds the door to the coffee shop open “Don’t take it personally; my name is Zweihänder, but everyone calls me Zwei.” An inexplicable burning sensation begins to develop in Glass’ right arm. He ignores it, assuming it’s from slamming into Zwei and mumbling under his breath for a moment before stepping through the door. “...Y-your nickname is ‘Two’?” Closing the door and without missing a beat, Zwei countered “says the guy who’s nicknamed after a material colloquial to being transparent and fragile.” Glass blushed in embarrassment and stayed quiet for a few seconds. “...I-it’s accurate. Be-besides, at least my n-name isn’t just a German sword.” Zwei shakes his head before walking backward towards the counter. The sunglasses he wears becomes significantly more conspicuous indoors. “Got any particular preference?” Oh, boy. “Uh… coffee?” Yes, perfect. That narrows it down to roughly everything. There was the bit where Glass’s only experience with coffee came out of a tin back at college, and the last time he’d had any he hadn’t slept for 83 hours, but he wasn’t about to mention that to his new… friend? Zwei smiled in a way that almost seemed intrusive. “I know exactly what you mean.” He turned to the barista and ordered a ‘double venti triple machiatto hold the argotello with extra sprezzateranno...’ he proceeded to go on and on about coffee details that in no universe could have possibly been real ingredients. Seriously. Who would put almond shavings in coffee? What’s the point? Despite the order however, the barista seemed to write everything down without so much as a single complaint or question. She then left, and in a surprisingly short time came back with two coffee cups in standard starbucks style. He took the cups, handing her a bill most likely excessive and told her to keep the change before moving to an empty table near the door and setting the cups down. He removes the lid from both cups, revealing what appears to be plain black coffee. Glass blinked and slowly followed, sitting down across from the strange man and steepling his fingers, only slightly awkwardly. “While I, uh, appreciate you… saving me… you r-really didn’t have to buy me a drink.” “Ah shush. Didn’t you hear the coffee order? I thought it was clear by now that I’m loaded. Anyway, don’t get comfortable, we can bring the coffee on the road, I just gotta add some things.” Zwei produces 2 small, unlabeled packets and opens them both. He pours them both into their respective coffee cups and flaky powder drops out of it and is quickly dissolved by the liquid. They look the same; a light red tint to them. He returns the lids to the cups and sets them out side by side. “Take your pick.” Glass looked at both of them, scratched his chin, and nodded. “O-okay. I pick neither.” “Haha, you really are transparent.” Zwei picks up one cup and takes a sip. “Best coffee in Brinkhaven, I promised.” His face exudes smugness. “That- you-” He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose, even though it surprisingly wasn’t that sore. “You… realize that that di-didn’t prove anything, right?” “Heh. So I take it you’ll be wanting this one, then?” He places the cup in front of Glasnost and picks up the other cup. “Although I’m pretty sure you’d like this one a lot more than that one.” This was the point where Glass had to balance his paranoia and his ‘social skills’. On the one hand, that powder could be literally anything. On the other, that didn’t mean it was something bad. On the OTHER hand, he didn’t know if Zwei (if that was his name) had some sort of antivenom ability. On the OTHER other hand, this was a lot of effort to nail one guy with no real import of any kind. Glass took the plunge and drank a tiny sip. He instantly regretted it. The inside of his mouth was instantly transported to a pocket dimension where the only truth was pain. He immediately spit the coffee out - only by sheer luck missing Zwei still standing next to the table. “Did I mention that that was my coffee?” Even if Glass had had a witty retort- which he didn’t, he still would have been too busy trying to get his windpipe to work properly again to use it. Coughing like a chain-smoker in a dust storm, he seriously considered licking his sleeve to see if that would help. The triumphant look on Zwei’s face seemed to fade. “Drink this one, it’ll help.” Zwei hands the other coffee cup to Glass, but he just put it back on the table, shaking his head. Fool him once, he was probably never going to talk to you again. “Come on, trust me. It’ll be nothing like my coffee.” He takes the other coffee cup and takes a deep swig as if he were a child drinking soda. When he finishes, he looks down to see Glass still making no attempt towards the other coffee cup. “Would you like me to taste it for poison your highness?” “Th-th-that di-” More coughing. “-didn’t w-work the last time…” “What are you talking about? My coffee is sweeter than candy, I just knew you wouldn’t have the same tastes.” That was just met with admittedly hostile silence. “Just give it a try. It’ll be like liquid ambrosia… I mean, couldn’t be worse than mine, right?” Despite his better judgement, Glass was willing to try almost anything to make his tongue stop trying to retreat down his throat and took the other cup, taking a large mouthful. Immediately, relief washed through his mouth. Like drinking a god damn aurora, it quelled any discomfort he had and tasted abso-fucking-lutely nothing like coffee. It’s not even hot. What the fuck. Okay, lesson learned. Only trust this guy the second time he tells you something. How strangely appropriate. Zwei just keeps getting more smug by the minute. “Like it?” “...I-I don’t want to say yes. But… y-yes.” “That’s so fucking cute.” “Huh?” “Alright then, let’s hit the road.” “...oooookay?” “You said you were lost and had someplace to be?” Wow. Leave it to… this guy… to make him forget he was supposed to be making Satanette NOT want to kill him. That said, now that he was reminded, Glass realized he was likely running late. “Oh. Yeah. That.” And with that, completely disregarding Zwei but not actually minding if he came, he legged it. In only moments, Zwei was running right beside Glass, casually sipping his death coffee. It’s not long before he passes him and eventually begins to lead Glass through the maze-like streets and alleyways. “Wait, you don’t even kn-know where we’re going!” Zwei reaches into his pocket with his free hand and pulls out a folded piece of paper. Wait. WHAT? Okay. He’s a pickpocket now. Probably lifted it off Glass while he was holding him. Going to have to remember that little bit of information. Zwei then unfolds the piece of paper to reveal… A poorly drawn image of a figure holding out its hands. On the top of the image is a caption “WOW”, with the words “IT’S FUCKING NOTHING” arcing between the hands like a rainbow. ...Or maybe he’s just a very lucky moron. “I can hear your thoughts you know.” Oh, that isn’t good. Psychics are the worst sort of people. “No, it’s just that you think really loudly and make actual glass look opaque.” Sausage slaps. The capital of Azerbaijan is your mom. “Drink your coffee.”
