|
|
Post by Asila on Mar 12, 2008 15:00:07 GMT -5
Evening shook her head at Rojo. "Why do you insist on helping me? I'll only owe you that much more." However, she did feel slightly better now. She tried to stand up, having tired of the way the two humans seemed to tower over her. Of course, even when she was standing, they were noticeably taller, but there was no reason to add to that problem by remaining in a reclined position. Standing was about as much fun as trying to sit up had been, but obstinance could accomplish much. She managed to regain her feet, wincing, though she had strained her wound badly enough that the faintest tinge of red had seeped through the bandage.
She looked over at Devon to await his answer. She sighed when he insisted that she need not repay them. Why wouldn't he just give up the argument? It was only more humiliating to have to insist on traveling with them. It would seem as though she wanted to travel with them. Which was completely untrue. She just wanted to rid herself of this debt. That was all. No other reason.
She didn't like the tone of her own thoughts, so she didn't say anything. She only gave Devon a flat stare, a look that suggested he drop the argument for she had already made her decision and wouldn't go back on it now.
Her expression changed in response to his inquiry about Rojo, however, becoming slightly surprised and -could it be?- worried. "Injured?" She asked without thinking, "Twice?" Then she noticed her own tone and quickly changed it to one of nonchalance. "Surely you are not that unlucky." She would have said 'unskilled', to try and get a rise out of him, but she tried not to pick on wounded people. It was in ill taste.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rojo on Mar 12, 2008 15:35:25 GMT -5
Rojo knotted his brow. He hadn't felt any pain. He put it down as a bruise.
"No...I think it's a bruise" he said, not bothering to look.
He smiled at Evening
"I only take debts when it suits me, and Devon is obviously to humble to take a debt" he rolled his eyes teasingly at Devon. He'd have to show him the tricks of his trade one day.
"Besides, 's part of The Heroes' Oath to put others before oneself" he went on conversationaly, making sure to pronounce the capital letters due to the importance of the words.
But he did not go on about it, as it was not the time nor the place. He paused
"Need any help with walking?" he asked Evening, half teasing her into thinking that she would be in even more debt if she did.
He looked at her clothes, they looked quite dirty and blood-stained, as did his and Devon's.
"By the gods!" he exclaimed, noticing how bloodied their clothing was. He raised a hand again, blue light one again skimmed and twisted around his hand. The blood sapped out from the clothing, and accumlated in a large ball that floated in front of the trio. He rummaged around in his pockets again. He didn't know that Evening was afraid of the sight of blood.
After a moment or to, he said
"Ah!" and pulled out a jar. He held it under the ball, and the blood dropped quite neatly into it. He grinned, satisfyed, and put the container away, along with his Fleshmoss. He wasn't about to explain why he had just put a large amount of blood into a jar, so simply said
"Just to clarify, I'm not a vampire" then he grinned again and turned towards the carriage.
|
|
|
|
Post by Seven on Mar 12, 2008 17:03:06 GMT -5
So far, it seemed as though everything would be alright. Devon, finally getting the clue to stop pushing the 'you don't owe us anything' bit, just smiled and nodded. 'What a strange group we'll be...' he couldn't help but note.
Jenri noticed the serene look on Devon's face, and couldn't help but smile as well and say, "Ye laddies and the lass did well, good job. My Master Devon, you've certainly matured since the time of ye' childhood, after all, I was expecting...eh, you know...." Jenri nodded. It was indeed a mistake forr Jenri to bring it up...Devon had completely forgotten with all the injured people around....
He looks down at his hands and bodace, going pale. His hands were stained with blood, he was covered in the sticky black fluid that was the Darkling's blood, and was covered in muddy dirt from tumbling all over the forest floor. Devon had been smiling, but now it looked as though his little grin was only there because he was frozen in shock, except a minor twitch.
"Oh boy..." Jenri muttered, just waiting for something.
About 12 years ago, Madame Luienski had been a brilliant mind in the the Maderal City University. Her works were astounding and far beyond the current level of knowledge in Venera. Furthermore, she had treated the young Devon much like a younger sibling. Devon has many fond (but blurry) memories of playing with the Madame and staring up at her with curiousity as she explained her theories. Her biggest achieviement had been an early foundation in microbiology, which she discovered after studying the reason people become ill. Though this discovery should have sky-rocketed her name into fame, it was ultimately her demise. The Episcopal had deemed her studies blasphemous and deamed her a heretic. Poor Madame Luienski, forever ruined, took it upon herself to vanish from the world by means of suicide. But Devon, with a young and impressionable mind, had never doubted her. In fact, it seems he took her words strongly to heart....
His eyes go wide, still frozen now that he has seemingly 'realized' something. He moves slightly, though very rigidly.
"master Devon? Are you all--" Jenri doesn't get the chance to finish his sentence. Devon has a sudden outburst, "FLITH! I'm covered in DIRT!!! SORRYFRIENDSIHAVETOCHANGE!!!" ((translation: sorry friends, I have to change)) he said very twitchily. Yes, Devon is mysophobic, he has a fear of germs, dirt, etc. Shadow might get a rude awakening as the young noble, abruptly dashes through the carriage. Like a whirlwind, he is in the carriage and out on the other side (with a new set of clothes and a four-panel dressing/changing stand).
The three remaining on the opposite side of the carriage would only hear a strange jumble off odd sounds, which includes the sounds of running water (he probably cast a water spell), and the sounds of something burning in a fire. If anyone were to walk over and look, they'd see Devon wet, in a new set of clothes as he's burning his old ones, and with a strange twisted, twitchy, half-manic grin. But at least he's clean?
|
|
|
|
Post by Asila on Mar 12, 2008 22:51:38 GMT -5
(Sorry Rojo, this is kind of confusing, but since Devon wouldn't have had his amusing little outburst if your charrie had rid him of the blood, we're kind of shuffling the timeline of those two events. So now, Devon went crazy before the magical blood sphere thing, and Rojo was only able to siphon blood off of himself and Evening. Forgive us? *lovable grin*)
Now what? Thought Evening with an expression of faint confusion as she watched Devon's smile freeze onto his countenance. However, by the time he broke into his short rant about filth and combined a six word sentence into one word, she had begun to catch on. She grinned to herself, watching him bolt for the carriage. Her voice was thick with laughter when she directed her next comment at Rojo. "Don't tell me that he's actually afraid of dirt-" She bit off the end of that sentence as she turned to look at Rojo and caught a glimpse of the blood that was gathering into a floating spere. The droplets of blood that flew through the air to join it reminded her...of...
She cursed and turned away from the sight, grasping her head with both hands as she fought the memories of her family's slaughter for what felt like the hundreth time in less than an hour. Her head must be splitting down the middle. It felt like it.
The only reason that she didn't curl into the fetal position and start sobbing was that she had turned away before the image could sink into her mind. Still, it had been close, and she found herself whispering, over and over. "Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Rojo on Mar 13, 2008 10:43:19 GMT -5
Rojo looked at the rapidly dissappearing Devon for a moment, turned to Evening, then shook his head, chuckling, if he was going to be like this after every fight...prehaps he could enchant his clothes so they couldn't get dirty...he'd have to do it later.
He watched Evening curl up and whimper, a look of confusing on his face, it appeared everything was going to pot...
((Oh what the hell, I'll throw Rojo's phobia in just to fit in...))
He was about to get back into the carriage, when he walked into something sticky...it covered his face, and he immediatly started grabbing at it. What came off was webbing, trailing off his fingers.
He stared in shock at his own hands for a moment, then jumped about two feet in the air and dived towards the carriage. Where there were cobwebs, there were spiders...
He thought it just safe when he felt something tickling his neck. He remained very still for a moment, paralysed with fear, then he bellowed at the top of his voice and ran around in a frenzy, scrabbling at the back of his head, this caused the spider to become afraid too, which proceeded to crawl over onto his face. Rojo screamed again and dived to the ground. He rolled around on the floor, ignoring the little hairy thing that was scuttling over his face. He sat up and shook his head violently from side to side.
The spider flew off and landed on the ground some feet away, he pulled out his pistol and fired at the insect, in his scared state, he couldn't concentrate, and most of his shots missed it
"DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!" he screamed at it, sounding like Devon when he had realised he was covered in dirt and blood. He fired one of his last shots, and the spider became a smear on the road. He put the gun back on his belt, and heaved a dramatic sigh of relief. He stood up
"Right. Nothing happened." He climbed back into the carriage. He didn't want to disturb Evening...phobias were a personal thing, he thought, all though this was quite ironic, as he and Devon had made their fears more public then needed.
Shadow woke with a start and fell off the seats as Devon flew past him. It reminded him of the comical sketches he and Rojo sometimes saw in the papers when they stopped in town. He grinned, but frowned as he heard Rojo yelling and firing his pistol. He guessed he must have seen a spider, as during battle he didn't make such feeble and unneccisary noise. He sighed, he was sure as hell glad he didn't have some fear...being afraid of Her didn't count, all Darklings were afraid of Her...
|
|
|
|
Post by Seven on Mar 13, 2008 11:35:39 GMT -5
Jenri just watched as the chaos ensued. First Master Devon, the Tallamous girl, and then the weirdo from another world. He just shook his head. "Kids nowadays..." he mumbled grumpily in minor disbelief. They had ALL charged into battle against some evil, invisible enemy, but they still conducted themselves so pathetically. Of course, it never crossed his mind that just moments earlier, he was in the back of the carriage crying for deliverance.
As Rojo had managed to calm down by himself (thankfully), Jenri thought perhaps it was time to snap Devon out of his little obsessive compulsive obsession with cleanliness. In a slightly skittish manner, he walked over to the other side of the carriage, where Devon was still watching the flames with a rather blank, wide-eyed, look "Lord Devon?" he tapped him on the shoulder.
Devon gave jump and a little 'eep' of suprise, as he had been oblivious to everything. He turned to look at Jenri, then at the smoldering clothes, bringing up one hand to cover a faint blush of embarrassment on his face. Oh dear, he'd done it again....
Well, the only thing one could do in such situations is hold youre head up high with dignity, smile, blantantly ignore that fact that you just flipped out, denying there was ever such an occurance. He looked around shiftily, walking to the other side of the carriage with a little sheepish smile. He was about to say something, when he saw Evening whimpering. He turned to Rojo and asked, "What happened?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Asila on Mar 13, 2008 11:58:27 GMT -5
She felt as though she were on the verge of going insane.This wasn't the first time. Blood had triggered such a reaction in her on multiple occasions, so often, in fact, that she had been able to develop a tolerance, however weak, to the sight of it. So she hadn't lost herself to the memories quite yet. However, it could be argued that this in-between state, not yet mad not quite sane, was worse than just sinking into the memories and screaming at the horror of it all until you couldn't breath. At least fear was something solid, something real.
What she saw now where terrifying flashes of memory, clips of splattering blood, carnage, familiar faces frozen into ghastly masks of pain and horror. All appeared before her eyes in a single flash, a still portrait that scathed her with it's macabre subject before vanishing into blackness, only to be followed by another just as horrific as it. She couldn't pull herself out of the demented slide show, even though she was aware of what was happening. She was still logical through all this, still able to think between rising tides of horror, but she couldn't make it stop.
It was then she heard the gunshots, and was so startled by the thunderous sound that she opened her eyes...and just like that, everything receded. Odd how she couldn't distract herself from the memories for the life of her, but a single sound, or series of them, could. The light bothered her eyes and agitated her headache, so she closed them again, though she sighed, relieved. She didn't know how often she could go through this and hold onto her sanity, though she had done very well, thus far.
She answered Devon before Rojo could get a chance too. "Nothing." She murmured, though her voice shook and she looked as though she had seen something so warped and terrible that is had nearly blasted her mind into a permanent state of incoherence. She walked toward the carriage. "Let's go."
|
|
|
|
Post by Rojo on Mar 13, 2008 12:05:14 GMT -5
Rojo was about to awnser when Evening beat him to it. He finished climbing into the carriage and sat down, probably in deep thought.
Shadow was absently twiddling his thumbs over eachother.
|
|
|
|
Post by Seven on Mar 13, 2008 12:12:31 GMT -5
Devon just blinked, feeling like he missed out on something. Not much that he can do to help it now. Jenri was already climbing back on the driver's position when Devon called up to him, empty bottle in hand, "Jenri, are you really alright to drive? You did just drink a whole bottle of--"
Jenri scoffs, "Pshaw--that was nothing," he rolls his eyes, "I've driven under much, MUCH worse cirumstances--'sides, I don't want to stick around in this forest no longer!" Devon sighed, not much use arguing, plus everyone else seemed set to go.
Devon followed Evening into the carriage. They were a preposterous little group, by noble standards in any case, and quite frankly, it made him a little giddy. He smiled a little, but didn't really have anything to say himself.
|
|
|
|
Post by Asila on Mar 13, 2008 13:13:12 GMT -5
When Evening stepped into the carriage, her movements were worn, slowed by injury and exhaustion. She didn't miss the irony in this. When she had first stepped into the carriage she had moved in exactly the same way, except she had been acting then and wasn't now. She would have laughed...if her mood hadn't turned dark. After her blood-induced episodes, she always felt sick with despair, burdened by guilt, and now was no exception. She just took her seat and stared blankly at the walls of the carriage while Devon and Jenri spoke, trying not to think of anything at all.
However, hers was not a persona that remained silent for long. Her mind offered her a distraction from her mournful thoughts by means of a post-battle analysis. She thought over the event for a moment, before turning back to the humans. She looked at Rojo. "So, what are the chances that your invisble stalkers will retaliate?" She didn't want to engage in a fight like that again. She was wounded, her power had been exhausted early on, and she was physically weak, as well. If they had to fight again, she didn't imagine the outcome to be a sunny one. Everyone had reached the end of their endurance.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rojo on Mar 13, 2008 13:24:37 GMT -5
Rojo was dragged away from his thoughts by Evening speaking to him. He didn't feel like speech; he felt tired. He yawned, then considered what to say. He decided on nothing and shrugged.
Shadow rested his head against the window and put his legs up on the seat. He stifled a yawn and blinked out at the trees. He saw a wolf look up from its dinner of bird meat, but as they passed it turned back to its meal with a ravenous look in its eyes. The wolf was...different. It was black, and it looked more...intelligent than other wolves. He ws quite sure it wasn't one of these...Tallamous, whatever they were, but he was also sure it wasn't a regular wolf. He sighed, this world was different.
Rojo looked at Devon quizzically, ignoring the small pain that had returned when he had excersized his arm through the shooting and scrambling away from the spider. He smiled, this noble definitely was different. And he wondered something, something he voiced allowed to Devon.
"So, Devon, do you live with your parents?" he was asking, as most nobles back home lived with their parents until they were married and had egnough money to swim in.
|
|
|
|
Post by Seven on Mar 13, 2008 17:43:19 GMT -5
Devon had leaned back in his seat, completely thankful to the person who invented chair cushions. He was also feeling a quite tired, so he closed his eyes for a moment, a serene look on his face, as he listened to the others' voices. He couldn't help but think how wonderfully lucky he was, not just in today, but in all aspects of his life. How many people (much less other nobles) claim to have done, seen, and learnt the things that he had?
As he heard Rojo direct his speech at him, Devon opened one eye. Then, the other one finally opened as well, as he didn't want to let his comfort level lull him to sleep. Rojo's question had seemed a little spontaneous to him, but he smiled. Though Devon was rather young (only 17), he was no different than the other nobles Rojo had met on Yorl. "Yes...actually, I do live with my parents...." he said a little sheepishly, wondering if this came off as immature or something else to his two traveling companions. "It would be a little silly to go off and try to live on my own, considering how much space there is..." he didn't mean to sound as if he were bragging, but it was the truth; the Shire household could possibly fit a small village.
|
|
|
|
Post by Asila on Mar 14, 2008 3:10:42 GMT -5
Evening glared at Rojo. Really, hers had been a perfectly reasonable question. Why would he ignore it? What was he hiding? She narrowed her eyes, paranoid now, but looked away, thinking.
She didn't reach much of a conclusion, however. How was she supposed to figure out what was going on? She knew almost nothing of these humans!
She mumbled moodily to herself for a moment, something that sounded like "If we get attacked because you're keeping this to yourself, I'll kill you before they can," when she paused to listen to Devon.
"You live with your parents?" She said, her voice wistful and her gaze full of longing. "You're lucky..." She let this trail off. It was obvious that she was thinking of her own mother and father when she said this. For all she knew, Devon wasn't even all that fond of his parents, but she really wasn't thinking of him at the moment. She was thinking of a time in her life when her existence was less stark.
Her gaze had turned inward and she was hardly even aware of Devon and Rojo anymore. A faint smile lingered on her expression as she dreamed of what had been.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rojo on Mar 14, 2008 10:33:05 GMT -5
Rojo raised an eyebrow at Evening, when he had shrugged, he had literaly meant "I don't know" but Evening might have not caught his drift. For all he knew, she wasn't familiar with gestures such as shrugging.
He gave a short laugh when Devon said he lived with his parents. Not out of spite, the others could tell by the tone.
"Heh, I left my parents when I was...nine, I think it was." He gave a dark smile "miserable old hag my mother was..." he laughed again. "D'you know, the entire family relied on me to look after them. Politics, see. The big cheeses don't pay no attention to the little cheeses. Just left us to fend for ourselves really." He sighed "two of my brothers died becuase I left. Wasn't egnough food 'cause I wasn't there, see." He paused. He thought he might try and get Evening involved in the conversation, so he looked at her.
"What's your family like, Lady Evening?" he called her a lady in the hopes to repay for his rude manners earliar. He didn't know that families were a hard subject for Evening, so you must forgive our poor Rojo for being curious.
Shadow turned over so his face was facing the seat. A nice smell filled his nostrils. He tried to sleep, but the cuishons were too soft, not what he liked. So he got up, walked into a little corner, sat down, curled up, and closed his eyes.
|
|
|
|
Post by Seven on Mar 23, 2008 20:59:18 GMT -5
Devon smiled when Evening said he was lucky; he really was. It never bothered Devon that he lived at home with his parents and brother, he cared for them all very much. He even mused what it would be like if he ever brought these two home with him....
They'd probably smile politely and begin pleasant chatter, but then later on drag Devon aside to another room where they'd question where he had picked up such strange people. And then he'd have try and look real innocent, like a small child who found a puppy who apparently 'followed him home,' till they both finally gave in. Devon stifled a little laughter at the thought.
But he forgot his happy sighs when he heard Rojo's story. "That's terrible Rojo....I'm so osrry to hear it...." he saw Rojo's laugh was sardonic at this point. Devon could be a little naive at times. He had always lived so well, it was only natural to project your views onto other people, to think they lived lives similar to your own. It's a strange psychological phenomena that occurs with most all people. It's hard to realize the people sitting right across from you could have suffered so much when you've suffered so little. Devon still has so much to learn.
He turns his attention to Evening when Rojo adresses her. He couldn't help but smile at Rojo's usage of 'Lady.' Somehow it did seem a little funny coming from him....
|
|
