Post by Joliette Thorne on Aug 16, 2008 9:39:51 GMT -5
I've made it my dear, face it, I still kiss the darkness.
What I've wasted, I still taste it, I'm sickened and hardened
I'm gonna tear, I'm gonna tear your walls down
I stole into your hideout
And it's cold there now,
And everything outside the truth, theres nothing more to cut it loose,
I've left the path, the road just disappeared.
-- "Into Your Hideout" by Pilate
What I've wasted, I still taste it, I'm sickened and hardened
I'm gonna tear, I'm gonna tear your walls down
I stole into your hideout
And it's cold there now,
And everything outside the truth, theres nothing more to cut it loose,
I've left the path, the road just disappeared.
-- "Into Your Hideout" by Pilate
-- The Hanging Corpse Tavern--
Vaelustil wandered back into the tavern, his left arm held stiff against his side and wrapped in bandages comprised of torn pieces of ragged clothing that he had found outside the hut where he received this newest 'wound.' He grumbled as the pair that follow him - a pygmy and an elven woman in a racy silk dress - seemed to argue in the pygmy's native tongue, making his way swiftly to a seat that he can pull off to its own, leaving the dragon-in-elf's-skin to the hearth, where she always took up position at. Pity for Vael this night that the woman was hell-bent on annoying him. They followed, needless to say. "Phraktos xsa ol jal," he grumbles, his head falling into his still-usable arm's hand. Clearly he was agitated.
Deilakrion had drifted off in the chair near the fire. Her previous sleep had been interrupted by a very untimely nightmare not of her own making, and so it was that she had given in to the temptation. So very sloppy of her. She continued to snooze, drool pooling on one shoulder.
Eilyo gently wraps her slender arms around the shade, pulling her close, resting her head gently against her chest. She gently rocks the woman, trying to calm her. She gently runs her hand over the woman's hair still, closing her eyes. "I forgive you. I do. Just don't do it again. It would hurt...It would hurt me so much if you fed from anyone else ever again...." She wraps her arms a little tighter around the woman, nuzzling her cheek against hers.
Rikailin seems to appear from out of nowhere, spontaneously generating next to you.
Rikailin fidgets slightly in the circle of Eilyo's embrace. "Can...can we leave? I hear voices. Too many. I need...I need quiet. Is this too much to ask?" Rikailin's face suggests that she feels as if she is taking a risk by asking.
Eilyo shakes her head, gingerly standing from the shade's lap. She holds out her hand to help the woman up. "It's not at all. I kinda want to go somewhere else too. Where do you want to go?"
Adena was slumped forward in her chair, elbows propped upon the grainy table top, ears pressed flat against snowy locks, and eyes locked upon the door without meaning. The feline was obviously lost in her thoughts, tail flickering idly. She vaguely registered others in the tavern though her interest was minimal.
Vaelustil certainly hoped the pair would leave. The strange pair that followed him was bad enough without such a blatant display of sexual frustration. However, he found some solace in Deilakrion's snoozing presence, even if she was drooling on herself. With a chuckle he rose, making his way over to her and lightly, very lightly, trying to shake her awake. "Come now, Creature, don't leave me to be assaulted by the mindless."
Rikailin rises slowly and then beckons Eilyo to follow her without a word.
Tenebrae pushed through the door, making for the bar; last-minute preparations for a journey needed making and she'd forgotten a thing or two. The crowd were given cursory glances, aside from a face or two she'd not seen in a... "Vael?" The woman stopped in her tracks, and a grin alit her lips. "You're back." While she was thus employed in stating the obvious, she settled her gaze on the sleeping Creature, her grin abating to something softer. "Tell me, drow, where have been, and..." She turned her attention back to the man, studying his companions. "Who are they?" The pygmy, in particular, had her frowning.
Tenebrae said, "A moment, Eilyo?"
Eilyo glances at Rikailin. gently running a hand over the shade's cheek. "Hold on, please." She saunters over to Tenebrae, idly tucking a burgundy lock behind her ear. "Yes, Miss Tene?"
Tenebrae said to Eilyo, "You're fired."
Eilyo blinks at Tenebrae, her jaw dropping. "But, but why Miss Tene?"
Deilakrion came awake in a smooth snarl, and in a second had her nails dug into Vaelustil's hands before she realized who she was mauling. "Oh. You." She dropped the hand, not really having the grace to look even partially ashamed. "No touch."
Tenebrae arced a brow. "If you'd rather be crawling on hands and knees across my pub and snuggling with..." Her eyes went the "shade's" way. "Whoever, while customers watch on, and don't get served, how can I trust you to run the bar?" She didn't sound angry about it. "I have had complaints."
Vaelustil winced. A lot. The hand the Creature had dug into was the hand attached to his newly tattoo'd arm, and the hand, itself, had a bit of the serpent's head on it. Right where the woman's nail had gone. Ouch, poor Vael. And so with a voice significantly more strained than usual, he turns and regards Tenebrae. "Yeah...I'm back...As for them, the woman's my bone dragon, and the pygmy is the artist of this wound under these rags. Found him at some shack a little ways to the east. Along with a pile of goods."
Eilyo gasps, frantically glancing around the room. "Please! Please don't fire me for that. I-I’m always on duty, how could I have even been considered working then, ya know? Please Miss Tene. I love working here more than anything. I've always wanted to work here. I always have."
Deilakrion yawned widely, eyes squeezing shut from the sheer force of it. A few words came out in yawn-speak, before it ended on a more comprehensible note: "--pile of maggot muck." She was looking at the undead dragon-turned-elf as she said it. Then, rather belatedly, she snapped her attention to Tenebrae. No matter that Tenebrae was already in another, more important conversation, the lycan had been waiting to talk to the woman, and others, but the woman was there. "Fierce hunter!" She was up, and around, and edging rather near to the vampire as though the woman would disappear. "Must talk. Soon. Now." Her stare didn't waver.
Tenebrae pursed her lips. "Then perhaps you might make your...personal time... less visible to the customers, eh? I'll leave management for now. You're regular staff, until I see some respect for the place returning."
Eilyo nods quickly, sniffling a bit. "A-alright. Thank you Miss Tene." With that, the woman quickly slips from the tavern, wiping at her eyes.
Tenebrae was interrupted, but she didn't mind. She shifted her gaze the elf's way, "Creature. we must."
Cuki makes a quiet entrance into the pub making sure to ease the door closed behind him with one hand so as it lessen any noise it might make. A small bag is held by the other. The aroma of fresh fruit and a myriad of colors come from the satchel. Cuki's gaze is locked upon the floor in an avoidant manner.
Deilakrion waved her arms about a bit, as if to make her point without speaking, until: "What? This creature. . .the smells. . .blood?"
Tenebrae's smile dulled to a sere line of lips, and she sighed. "Some men were killed upstairs. By... a stranger. But one who knows us." She gave a hard look to toward the stairwell. "Knows us too well."
Vaelustil gingerly rubbed at his hand as he, too, made his way towards Tenebrae and the Creature, his two companions following in his wake - and by Cire, how he wished they would go away about now! Regardless, however, he dips his head in respect to his sire, and he offered a grin. "I've a bit of news, myself, aside from finding the pygmy and the stash."
Deilakrion looked between Vaelustil and Tenebrae, noting Cuki's entrance with a quick tilt of head. "Ah. Ah. And the. . ." she gestured again. She smelled far too much, and even now it was making her emotions react. ". . .smells?"
Tenebrae, caught between the two conversations, gave Delakrion reply first. "Smells?" The woman didn't mean the blood. "What smells, Creature? Have you caught scent of..." A suspicion narrowed her eyes. "... something strange?" Pale brow furrowing with the implication, she looked then to Vael. "Found it? That's Saiyah's pygmy, I am sure of it." More worry was etched upon her then. "And may we discuss this, in a moment? The matter of these 'smells' is rather urgent."
Vaelustil simply nodded, leaning against the bar counter to eavesdrop on the conversation; he was intrigued, as well.
Deilakrion nodded fervently and took deep breaths to calm herself. She was more jittery than she had a right to be; the actions earlier in the pub must have gotten to her. "This creature noticed. . .things, previously. Been getting worse. Keep missing. . .them." And here she'd wince and duck her head, as if ashamed she hadn't been there. "Not right smells. Half-smells. All the pack smells swirl around this other one, that's. . .more of a hole. Not there. Should be there. Isn't." She shook her head and tucked into herself slightly, hunching. "And . . .it got into this creature's head." She wasn't too happy about that.
Cuki follows the wall keeping away from the loosely populated common area. As he reaches the bar Cuki slips behind the stone inlayed counter. The Human takes a place where he poses the least obtrusive. Tilting the bag on top of the bar he spills the contains. Grapes, apples, oranges, cranberries, cherries, and strawberries litter then cold stone. One would almost question where the Cook would even acquire all these different kinds of fruit.
Tenebrae was very still the whole time Creature spoke, and her hand came to grip the nearest furnishing, knuckles tensing to bone-white. "He got to you, too, then? He paid a little night-time visit to both Caedan and I, as well. Blood. Strings. It was... well, not nice." She included Vael in the conversation here, her eyes shifting back and forth between the two. "He is dangerous, and I mean to stop him. He knows things he should not know, at all. Especially.. " She had promised the psychic she wouldn't lead others to their planned trap. But they had a right to warning. "The shadows. The ones who hunt me. Us." The last word was spoken with a deeper frown. "Be wary of the clown, the jester, the one who grins like a skull. You'll know him." She looked to Deilakrion. "By his scent. He is.. a wrongness."
Deilakrion nodded at that, looking away. "The pack must gather." Her face was grim.
Vaelustil listened to the accounts, taking it all in. His following duo had still been yakking like mad, but the dress-clad elfess earned herself a quick smack not too long into the accountings, and the pygmy earned a swift kick. That shut them up, for a while. "Shadows, you say? Well, there goes one of my strongest advantages."
Spawne descended the stairs, pale eyes milky and vague. He rubbed at the coarse stubble on his chin, pulling and stretching crimson flesh like putty. He'd just awoken from his slumber, though much like the night before, his thoughts had given him no space to rest. A wave of his hand beckoned the publican to bring him a drink, the stronger the better.
Tenebrae said to Deilakrion, "Gather here. Tell them all there is a danger, of the mind. Keep them informed. I need to go and do a little... research. Hopefully, that might help. If he turns up here, don't try to restrain him." She looked upstairs, and back. "Humour him. Go along, for a while. Track his mind." She looked to Vael next. "Different kind of shadows, pet." Spawne was given a wave, and as he neared the necromancer frowned. "Red. Did you not sleep well?"
Spawne seated himself with quiet tact, rather uncharacteristic of the colossal man. He sucked hard at the liquor laid out in front of him, finishing half the bottle in his first swig. He swallowed at the lump in his throat, before resting his face in his forearms.
Spawne spoke into his arms, "Same dream, every damn night... Someone’s tryin' t'get to me, girlie..."
Deilakrion 's eyes slid to the side. She frowned. "Talk to pack," she mumbled to herself, before her eyes assessed Tenebrae with a quick precision. "When over, other. . .problems. To talk." Truth, she didn't much like all the talking, but communication wasn't simple, and she wasn't willing to pay the price of not talking. Spawne's words gained her attention, and she snarled. "Maggot juice, it is. Monster. . ." And here she'd look at Tenebrae , "… back. May help."
Vaelustil remained quiet again. He would have to now worry about mental attacks, hm? Well, at least he had some new defenses he could attempt to rely on. "I'll have to pray to Cire tonight, I guess," he muttered, after a time, looking to his bone dragon companion. The proclamation seemed to sober her from her typical antics, and she simply gave Vael a curt nod. The pygmy, however, was back to squealing in that strange language of his, gesturing this way and that.
Tenebrae might have told the pygmy -- whom she strongly suspected was Dio-- to shut up, and promised herself a good long chat with the drow as soon as time allowed; but she had more urgent business. "Creature.. have him help the ones that gather. Make them strong, if he can, somehow. And yes, we must talk before I go. We have much to share, I imagine." She was already stepping toward the Catastrophe though, a pale hand reaching for his massive bicep. "Red? Were there strings? A child?" She hurried on, "A few of us are having similar experiences, if so. It's no nightmare, pet. It's an attack."
Spawne said to Tenebrae, "I lock up the mask every night before I hit the sack... But since I started having his dream..." He looked up to the fingers curled around his arm, then to the Sin Eater beside him. "I wake up, and I'm wearing it...""
You 's fingers closed harder around scarlet skin. "You must lock it up tighter, then. Something, Red. He can't be allowed to control us this way."
Spawne leaned in to speak quietly to Tenebrae, concern clear in his voice.
Deilakrion bared her teeth, and faced her clanmates with hard eyes. "We hunt. The pack hunts. And when we hunt, we kill." She smiled. "We will kill."
Spawne whispered to Tenebrae, "He's something outta hell, yeah? I was told it was sealed for good... I was promised."
Tenebrae replied to Deilakrion first. "Those men up there. You didn't see... There is a secret to his death. We must find it, or risk..." She glanced upward, then to Spawne. "Some kind of Hell, yes, I think so. Whether it's the same one you and I know, I cannot say. But if the mask is not safe, if he seeks control, we must remove his playing pieces." She held out her hand, slowly, not lifting her eyes from his, knowing full well the gravity of what was she was to ask. "Give it to me?"
Vaelustil stared at the pygmy. It still wasn't shutting up, rambling on about something, making some sort of waving movement with its arm - perhaps like a snake moving? - and gesturing off, far off, into the distance. But whatever it meant was lost on Vael. And so he looked to Streea...who promptly bonked the pygmy on the head, knocking it unconscious. Ah, the advantages to a dragon pet.
Spawne said to Tenebrae, "I lock it up in Gualon, I crash upstairs here... However its showing up with me, the closet is never unlocked when I go to put it back."
Tenebrae said to Spawne, "Worldly locks have never yet stopped Hell from walking the world, you should know that. We need... a firmer prison, until it's safe."
Deilakrion grimaced. "Will kill." She affirmed, a sudden smile tugging at her lips. "Always is way." She wasn't sure what was going on with Spawne, but she watched anyways. She commented, while watching the exchange, "Monster will need to see inside fierce hunter's mind."
Spawne swallows, his response somewhat more affirmative than those prior, "But... I need it."
Tenebrae pressed her lips together firmly, the result of both replies. "Red, it's a danger to you. Remember the "trick"? Feller with the cards and the creepy smile? That dream is courtesy of him, and he just made rat slurry out of four of our best men. Yes, despite you tying him. He walked through the wall... he can get into our heads. You don't need the mask, right now, if it's only giving him a means to control you." She had visions of strings, shook her head to make them go away. Then to Deilakrion, "Monster?" She went silent a moment, frowning. "In my... why is that any better than the "trick" seeing in?" But she recalled the desert. A pact, made. She took her time answering further. "If you think he offers no harm, I will allow it."
Monster, as if hearing the tug upon his name, took shape a short while after. His was no slow materialization, but a sick 'pop' as though the very fabric of reality protested his violent use. He was garbed in feathers. Seabird feathers. They were fashioned in a sort of regal cloak, and a few were tangled in its long, sleek hair. Its skin was painted like that of a bird, and its clothes were whorls of blue, as though the sky. It smiled. "My, my, we are garnering much debt lately."
Deilakrion sniffed at the Monster. "One day you will die, too." She told it matter of factly.
The monster simpered at Deilakrion. "So says the one come begging. You are not in the position to prophesize, little creature." It looked up at the gathered, gauging the room's tension. "But someone will be."
Vaelustil regarded the Monster with a simple smirk. Streea cocked her head to the side. The pygmy snored.
Tenebrae gave the strange and exotically dressed being a sere look. "Speak of the devil..."
Spawne growled through and exasperated sigh, clutching at the darkened cloth balled up in his left hand.
Tenebrae glanced to Vael. "Now, you and I need to chat. I will delay my .. journey a brief time, so we may do so."
monster lifted perfectly shaped eyebrows. "Inside of the Dark Lady's mind?" Even the monster could be surprised, so it seemed. A slow smile, and then a vast bow. "I will keep my pretty fingers to myself, I promise. . .for what occasion?" Here it looked back and forth, between Deilakrion and Tenebrae.
Deilakrion stiffened. "Finding pack-mates." She muttered.
Tenebrae clenched her outstretched hand, and opened it again, this her only response to Spawne.
Vaelustil offered the Lady a nod, adjusting his comfort against the bartop. "What is it, exactly, you need answers to, Tenebrae? I'll answer as best as I can." Streea was still staring, rather confused-like, at Monster. And the pygmy was beginning to drool.
The monster looked at Deilakrion, and bounced slightly upon its toes. "This will . . .erase much debt." It seemed rather pleased with itself, and aimed one more shot at the creature. "It would seem my advice has been of some use, after all."
Tenebrae said to Monster, "Look as you must, and no more." She glanced to Creature, as though hoping the elf had some say in it. "If it helps us gather. Together, we are strong, I hope stronger than this... jester." She spoke to Vael, then. "Tell me what I need to know. How things have changed, with you." The woman with him was eyed, "And who this is, exactly."
Spawne drank heavily from the bottle again.
Vaelustil grinned, a touch. "I've managed to master my thirst, to an extent. And I'm now a priest. I've apparently gotten a new tattoo, courtesy of the unconscious midget over there. As for her, she's my bone dragon."
The monster smirked, and nodded to Tenebrae, hands up and fingers spread as though it was showing her it held no tricks. Then it rubbed those hands together, and stared intently at Tenebrae. Creature was shuddering, and looked away as if in memory. Likely it would be gentler on Tenebrae than it had upon creature in the Necromancer's hall, and careful to keep itself contained. If it wasn't, creature or Tenebrae would likely snuff it on the spot. However one snuffed monsters. Creature intended to find out one day, no matter what. After a few seconds of rocking back and forth, the monster broke its stare and took a step backwards. "We must try that again." It purred, evidently satisfied with the whole affair.
Deilakrion glared at the Monster. The monster held up its manicured fingers and waggled them. "I held true to my word, little one. I would think, now that you would be kinder. . .now that I have shared intimacies with your leader." That smile was back.
Tenebrae had a great deal to see to, this was obvious. "Listen, all of you. I am going.. upstairs, to Dia's bar. I will need a short time, to prepare for..." Her eyes went to Monster. "Then I think it best I see you, one by one, to discuss.. " But Monster and Creature were speaking, and Vael, and then the room was a blur. Something --moved-- inside her mind, shifted like a waterbird diving through a pond, leaving bubble-trails and ripples in its wake. The sensation was... wholly one she did not wish to have again. When Monster drew back, she was more pale still. "I.. uh. Will meet you up there. Red, you first. But.. finish your drink."
Monster smirked. "Oopsie, did I come too soon?"
Tenebrae gave the featherclad mage a soft snarl, and made her way up the stairs. "I need a rest. Tell the coachman to return tomorrow."
.