[Other FULL] Gunpowder (M) (IC)

[shatteredxfrost]

"Really.... I mean really... I was gone for like two or three hours..."

Desirée stares at the puddle of water and dips her toes in the liquid before shooting a contemplative glance at Dalex. Does he despise water as much as I do?

"At least you two are ok. And I am going to guess Evi ran upstairs..."

She shrugs and leaves the puddle to perch herself on the couch backrest. "You would be guessing right..." but Desirée doesn't give in to her younger sister's tantrums; consoling her was Dalex's job.

Desirée smirks at Dalex, stretching her leg out and hooking her toes in his belt. She pulls him forward, close enough to press a swift kiss to his jaw and push him back just as quick. He, of course, was her sisters boyfriend but she had plenty of them. Dalex would be just another hit and run victim before he knew it.

Before Evian can run down the stairs and curse her or Dalex can properly react, she jumps down from the couch and hollers up the stairs towards her sisters' room: "Stop sulking and get down here!"

She pats Dalex's shoulder on her way to the front door. He can deal with that mess just fine on his own - in the mean time, Desirée's intention was a head start and to clear her head.

Thieves broke into their unstable home quite often in search of money, food, the usual - but they barely had any of that to give. Desirée was the definition of broke and Evian would cook anything Dalex manages to bring home - which isn't much for a household of three.

The tavern of Spider's Hollow was Desirée's main source of peace in town. Unless she fancied a trip to Gilded Brook - that was more for fun, than to catch a break from her sister.

From the moment her foot crosses the threshold, she seeks Aunt Ji out. The closest Desirée has ever gotten to her mother is through Aunt Ji, her mothers' sister. She spends her entire day in the tavern, speaking of lore and tales to any that care to lend a listening ear.

Desirée spots her in the farthest corner and waves. There's not much time to say 'hello', but Aunt Ji was someone that had to be taken care of. The poor woman would fret something fierce if Desirée didn't check up on her.

As if on que, Aunt Ji visibly deflates. Her long frail fingers lace together around the mug she raises to gesture back. "Mornin' Des," her hoarse voice reaches Desirée among the murmurs of other patrons.

"I will come back after meeting with Janet," Desirée promises and returns outside, patiently awaiting her sister and Dalex's arrival.​

​

 

[Ice1]

Emmett Holliday
Status - Outlaw - Stinky - Disgusted
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Water
Bounty - $2000

With the Devil on your Back​

The streets were starting to empty. In front of the church, a campfire was lit, and people mourned the murder of their faith. The people that went home were lucky, they didn't have to smell Emmett. His body odour was awful at the moment. Well, he said his, but one could argue it was someone else's body odour.

He strolled down the street, with his poncho packed under his arm. All he was wearing now, were his pants, and leftover people goo. His hair was thick and greasy. He had it pulled back to make sure it wouldn't get in his eyes. This certainly was the most disgusting day of his life, and he hoped to find someone else that could help him nullify in the future. Soup was just stomach turning.
He passed the crowd, and recognizing him, they did not. They looked at him with faces of disgust and quickly moved aside, trying to ignore him. He could hear the crowd commenting, though.

"He smells like a Culebra."

"That's what happens to people that don't eat their vegetables, Timmy."

"The disrespect. Can't he see that we're mourning?"

"I bet he made love to a rat, and that's why he smells like that."

Emmett just let the comments slide off. He could find humor in the fact that he disrupted their campfire, and it's not like words ever bothered him.

He almost left Fairbell without his precious 'cargo'. Dammit, he though, Agnes. He quickly got back to the house he had left her in. A man was toying with his keys, and trying to unlock the front door, but the rusty locked didn't cooperate. Emmett quickly ran to the house, and blinked inside. Thank god for windows, he thought. He quickly blinked to the closet, and tried to open it. The door, however, did not feel like it. Why was every door in this house broken? He thought about kicking it in, but he did not want to kill Agnes. The next best option seemed to be to throw the closet over. It came down with a loud crack, and the door sprang over. This probably quicker than trying to open it delicately.
"Hi Agnes," Emmett said, and he picked her up, and put her on his back. He ran downstairs, and without stopping he kicked the front door in, making the house owner fall over. He looked him straight in the eye, and then poked his tongue out and winked. Quickly he ran to the outskirts of town. Did he leave his horse here somewhere, or did he take it to Soup's place? No, wait, he did not take it to Soup's place, because he ran over some rooftops to get there. That meant the horse was still supposed to be nearby, but he did not see it anywhere. He decided to just run past the side of town, and hope he'd find a horse before a bullet found him. Quickly he saw a house with a beautiful, huge brown horse tied to it. He jumped on, and pulled Agnes onto it by the back of her gag.

They rode for an hour, before Emmett decided to stop. The place had some bigger rocks laying around, and the remnants of past campfires.
He pushed Agnes from the horse, and blinked down. He tied it up to a rock, hoping his skill at making knots was enough to keep such a big horse from running away.
He pulled the gag from Agnes mouth, and put her down against a rock. The girl was crying, and her eyes were red from the tears.
"I don't have water, so don't try to kill yourself by crying too much, okay?" Emmett said. He laid down, and looked at the sky. Clouds drifted by, and with clouds he meant cloud, and it wasn't a big one. The day was going to go on for some more hours, but he really didn't feel like just ridding around some more. Travel was boring, and he couldn't blink with a passenger.

"When my mother birthed me, they say, I was blue. I froze her from the inside, and she died soon after delivering me," Emmett started. He glanced over at Agnes, who gave him a confused look through her hands. "I killed my father when I was," Emmett bit down on his lip, "four or five. It's been a while. You can't expect me to remember everything. Anyway, I stabbed him, multiple times, but he died from frostbite. My brothers died soon after. By my hand too. I lived in the wild from there on, trying to gather my own food and water," he rolled over, so he was laying on his side. His head leant on one hand, and the other he used to help visualize his story. "I killed the people that got in my way. When I was seven, I lived in Gilden Brooks, stealing gold, and making miners disappear. Have you ever heard about the mine monster?" Emmett asked, "That was me. I killed half their work force when I left there." He stood up, and walked over to Agnes, crouching down before her. His stench was probably awful, and he saw the little girl flinch. "When I became a teen, I started to become more ambitious. I killed people, and I was, and I am, good at it. I freeze them, and break them. The reason I had no bounty back then, was because no one knew it was me. I'm a shadow, that cold breeze you feel when you leave your window open." He sat down next to Agnes, and put his arm around her neck.
"And now I hunt saints," he said and smiled.

Agnes flinched, but she did not start crying again.
"The Lord has a plan, and this is simply part of it. Ezekiel told me, I would ascend as a Saint. You're nothing but a rock on that road, and the Lord will burn your soul in Hell," she said. Her tone was aggressive, but her voice still had a beauty and serenity to it. A single tear came from her eye.
"Ezekiel will come get me," she repeated the sentence, as it got softer, and softer and softer, until it faded and she just stared to the ground.

 

[Junier]

Priscilla Varnett

Initiate Bounty Hunter l Earth l $0

Priscilla Varnett, an aspiring bounty hunter, has finally found the courage to accept her first ever mission. But first, she has to find the building. With its address in tow, she sets off across Spider's Hollow. A showman's attracted a group and everywhere else is crowded... not too eventful. But a nasty surprise emerges when a wagon pulled by mules tramples down the road, catching Priscilla off-guard and forcing her to Blink out of the way. At the last second, of course. The sudden disturbance seriously frightening the life out of her which caught the small crowd's attention, which obviously embarrassed the reserved, solitary Priscilla who hastily returns to her mission.​

~ // ~ ​

Assassination was not a foreign concept to Priscilla, though that certainly didn't mean she had to put up with it. Those last few evenings had been long ones as she paced about, wondering what to consider herself now. Finally, after digging too many mental holes to get lost and overwhelmed in, 'Cilla decided it didn't matter. Years prior, she learned that holding a strong opinion of one's self was a useless endeavor. People would think how they'd like about you, no matter of your perspective. Prsicilla would never in her livelihood consider herself a murderer. In her opinion, homicide and bounty-hunting were on two different sides of a spectrum. Yet, that mattered little, so she'd keep this little thought buried among many other hidden ones in her head. She would carry on with this duty, no matter how bloody it might become, and let her true feelings emerge during teatime with Perri.

For some particular reason, that last thought failed to settle her. Priscilla could have sworn that heavy sense of discomfort had burrowed even deeper in her chest. Today must be an especially meager day for her if not even the thought of teatime could clear her head. If she was ever going to catch a crook, she would need to clear her head and become less of a... a wuss, yes. But smack dab in Spider's Hallow hustling, bustling middle was not exactly a stunning place to reminisce. And what even was there to "reminisce" about? Priscilla's conclusion had been long reached: she'd accepted Thern's proposal. She was in this Hallow for a reason. Usually, she avoided the city for particular reasons she'd like to swat out of her conscious entirely. Joan was why'd she taken the stretching dirt path, fought through the sweaty crowds in the baking heat. She was looking for the address of the aged bounty hunter, simultaneously loved and feared by most, now crumpled in her glove. Thern's faithful handwriting was shaky yet readable. Priscilla knew peering down at her hands was the worse position to be caught in, especially in this central city that attracted all sorts of heathens. Yet, she couldn't look away from the blocky, bold letters scrawled across the slip of paper.

"That address will change your life." As Priscilla waded through the streams of citizens, her parasol acting as a shield from the sun, her mind was swamped by memories. Memories of the thin-eyed Silos Thern, portion of paper gripped in his long-nailed, aging fingers. He and his glassy green eyes were stone cold serious, every hour of the day. His words crawled like ear worms down the tubes of your ears and deep inside your skull, embedding themselves with the artistry and articulation that formed them. Silos had a way with words, molding and sculpting them with relative ease. He was a natural manipulator and, besides the engaging speeches he presented his students with, Priscilla was positive his skill could be used for darker deeds. He wasn't the heroic or generous sort, after all. Just a humble tutor, one with uncompromising yet effective methods that Priscilla didn't respect... but needed. Without Silos, she'd been helpless during... well...

"Down this here lane, tucked near some ol' barber's shop...?" She murmured recollections under her breath. The maiden passed beneath the overhangs of clustered-together stores, some rickety and abandoned, others still accepting business. Yet the location to Joan's agency was still unbeknownst to Priscilla. In her defense, she couldn't say this particular path held any familiarity with her. Fortunately, it wasn't the wider main road that led to the Hollow's center, meaning it was much less crowded, gave her elbow room and kept eyes off of her. For if it was anything Priscilla loathed it was drawing attention towards herself, though her chosen way of dress could attract a wandering eye anyhow... She was so contradictory, wasn't she? But ho, across the street a cluster had formed. A smaller one of a few entertained members. What had caused them to gather was not of Priscilla's business, as she planned to keep solely to herself, but she couldn't help but land a peeping eye anyhow.

As she unconsciously drew closer to the meeting area, it became clearer a man stood in the middle of their ring. Someone in a showy purple pinstriped waistcoat, a formal top hat nestled on his head and a thick black cape draped over his bony shoulders. The lanky fellow addressed the collection of people with a broad, glitzy smile and dramatic posture, arms thrown up over his head while his theatrical voice rang out loud and clear:

"Ladies, gentlemen, hold your applause! Please, I beg of you, stay silent if just for a moment. Not that I rebuff your appreciation, no! I simply must concentrate... I sense something... a vision! Please, allow me to focus!"

The hilarity shutdown immediately. The gentlemen and women watched with intense curiosity as the mysterious caped man scrunched his brow and gave a sweeping look over their surroundings. Priscilla felt a sensation as he stared right at her, eyes dark as night, and she made an effort to turn away. He'd noticed her. She had to communicate she was uninterested in the act. Well, admittedly, she was not, but that was just like her. Getting distracted by fruitless circus acts... he probably was one of those traveling performers, manipulating the world around him with a well-placed spell or two to gain money and prestige. It was nothing that should interest her as a grown woman, so she made an effort to separate herself from the crowd and continue--

"WATCH YERSELF, LADY!"

The wild thundering of hooves echoed throughout the town, violently stamping earlier tranquility into the dirt as it planned to do to Priscilla. The rousing, ear-bleeding sounds of snapping bones and shrill, agonized screams flooded her consciousness. In a split second, the wagon was racing towards her, the triplet of mules speeding across the dirt at breakneck speeds. The sounds' volume increased, as did Priscilla's heart rate, as the driver's whip lashing and snarl of warning were lost upon her. She gawked at her oncoming fate, barreling at her like a train on railroad tracks. But before the mules could run her clear over, leaving her a crushed and dirtied pile upon the ground, she burst to life. A flash of light appeared where Priscilla was last off, startling the mules and nearly throwing them off the intended route. The driver growled vulgarities as a recently-Blinked Priscilla lay gasping on the side of the road. And, just as he'd appeared from seemingly nowhere, the covered wagon was simply a shape in the distance.

Priscilla clasped her heart as if it threatening to flop out into her lap. That might as well have happened, as the townsfolk gawked at her, unknowing of what to think. She was slammed with a slew of emotions. First, disorientation. Then confusion, bafflement. What exactly had occurred seconds prior? Finally, embarrassment, as her face turned hotter than she herself already was in this unbearable heat. What a fool she'd made of herself. Before nary a word could be made, Priscilla rushed to collect herself before scuttling back down the road, address in tow.

~ // ~ ​

​

 

[Shak]

Anima

Achilles
​

It takes light to make a shadow - Part 2

A collaborative post between SYDAXARO220 and Aquataris

"Anima?" Achilles muttered in response. Upon hearing the name, Achilles thrust forward, causing the vines restraining him to tear. His wound re-opened, and blood began seeping from the opening once again. He grabbed Shadow by the collar. Though still weak, his grip was much firmer than the last time he'd grabbed her. "Where do I find Anima?" His teeth gritted as he spoke.

"I'm dissapointed," A voice came from behind Achilles.

Achilles froze. His grip loosened, and the voice behind him sent a shiver down his spine. He turned his head. Anima. He released the woman from his grasp and turned to face his new foe.

"I supposed that your skills were able to combat a target that could defend themselves. But I admire that you could tell that it was time to retreat." Anima lifted his hands up to his face mask, peeling it away from his skin. He pulled it down, revealing a unnerving grin. Around his mouth was several gruesome scars and many patches of scorched skin. He sighed happily, "I do like the breeze on my face after such a long time." He looked down at Achilles "You." he pointed at him, "Achilles Nimbus. Look at your scarred chest."

Achilles made no effort to hide his discomfort. He rubbed his chest, concious of what Anima was referring to.

"Your soul belongs on the planes of the Afterlife." Anima blinked forward. Electricity coursing through his veins. He held up his hand and let rip a lightning strike.

A large mound of sand quickly burst into the air, blocking the bolt. The flinching Achilles opened his eyes, not to Anima's scarred face, but to a dune or burned sand.

"Y'know, I'm really pissed off. I mean really pissed off. You know how long I was standing there looking for-" Isaac's seemingly disembodied voice was cut short. Achilles turned to see his returning companion attempting to assess the situation. "...this *****?" He groaned, noticing the bow on Shadow's back. "I need to relieve some pent up aggression, and you sir have given me the perfect medium through which to channel that anger." He grinned, as he shouted over the mound to Anima.

The mound rose into the air, hardening as it did so. It then began to fly at speed, headed straight for the male outlaw.

"Shadow, do take care of this pest." Anima let out a bored exhale as he blinked aside avoiding the flying sand. Shadow nodded. She activated her camouflage. She cut the spouts from their stalks. She retreated in to the shadows. Then she took off, running up and around to Isaac. She strung her bow and aimed it at Isaac. Meanwhile, Anima walked up to Achilles. "To be honest, I don't really care if or not if you see the beauty of the Astral Planes. But perhaps you wouldn't like your precious girlfriend to die. She is worthy, but he is not." He said the next phrase with a deadpan, intentionally bland and emotionless, voice. "How heartbreaking."

Isaac coated himself in metal, causing the arrow to bounce pathetically off of his steel frame. He clenched his fists. Fighting wasn't his ideal pass time, but it was certainly good for relieving stress.

"Achilles, you think you can handle eyepatch over there?" His focus switched to Shadow. Achilles clutched his slung arm.

"Not really." He muttered, not nearly loud enough for Isaac to hear. Without acknowledging his partners response, Isaac charged at the woman with his fist in the air.

Shadow turned invisible and laid down preparing to trip him up.

Isaac braced himself as the bright light from before appeared again. His body tumbled to the ground, however the metal casing allowed him to minimise the impact on the ground. The same couldn't be said for his impact with the metal itself though.

Achilles glanced over at his teammate, unsure of what to do.

As he re-orientated himself, Isaac raised two large rocks from the ground, slamming them into each other where his opponent was standing. Shadow rose up her hands, focussing her magic to her palms, her magic erupted from her palms and the wind picked up around her hands pushing the earth outwards. Anima grinned at Achilles, "I think I have something of yours." Anima brought out Achilles' spell book, Anima opened it and started to read it casually. Anima held up his hand to Achilles. "Move and die." Anima continued to read it non-chalantly. He then closed the book and put it away. He started to cackle, before glancing at Isaac. Anima reached in to his holster for his dagger. His magic went ecstatic, a large ball of lightning manifested itself in his hand. The outlaw blinked behind Isaac, he whispered to him. "Metal conducts." Isaac barely had time to fully turn, before the bolt struck through his side.

Watching helplessly on the sideline, Achilles could do little more than grovel as his only concious ally was pierced by a lightning bolt. The metal that had encased Isaac's body begin to flake, and fall from his body bit by bit.

Meanwhile, his partner clutched his sword. Every ounce of grievance in his body turned to anger, rage, regret; Anima was not going to get away with it again. He took his feet, drawing the blade as he did so. The sword was coated in a fierce lightning energy.

"Anima." He said plainly, wanting to catch the outlaws attention before attacking.

"I don't believe in last words." Anima glanced at Shadow. He pulled up his mask, since the wind from Shadow's attack kicked up some sand.

Achilles grinned at the response, despite it being a death threat from the man that had caused the death of three of his freinds, he found it amusing. He blinked behind Shadow, placing his hand on the women's back. Before she had time to react, he sent a surge of electricity through the woman. Shadow felt the electric surge through her nerves. Her limbs locked up. She became helplessly paralysed. Achilles stood over the fallen woman. He had no intention of killing her, for the sake of upholding his moral. He stepped over her and began walking towards Anima.

Anima blinked backwards, towards Charlotte, he placed a hand on Charlotte and began pulling her out of range of Achilles' minimum proximity to use his spell book. He held a electric palm by her neck. "You will not stop my Crusade." He picked up Charlotte by the arm, still holding the electric ball by her neck but also simultaneously draining her life energy through his hands, a spell of his own, an experience which no waking mind can retell.

Achilles began to charge his target, but became hesitant as the ball of lightning sparked up slightly. He had two options: hopelessly chase a dying friend, or stand around and watch her become a corpse. He sighed.

"Hey!" He shouted, testing his own voice. "It's my life you wanted , right?" Everything seemed against him at this point. He quickly realised that giving his life for some one that was already dying, and would die without him, made little sense. He could only hope that Anima wouldn't realise that.

"You are marked for death. Yes." He listened intently. Anima looked at him, observing his desperate measures, he had a link with this girl. "Prove your worth or she will recieve exaltation."

Achilles paused. He had no idea what this strange man valued, all he'd seem him do was kill for no reason. He looked back a Isaac, whose face was planted in the sand.

"I've killed over two hundred people, all of whom were worthy!" He tried to remain as composed as possible, it would've been obvious to a child that he was lying.

Anima burst in to laughing, his cackle was hinted with real laughter, not just the hysteria of a mad man. The boy's lie was paper thin and pathetic. He was very amusing. "Do you even deserve to feel the afterlife? You don't even believe in Gaudium. He commands obedience. Tell me, why did you come here?"

Achilles raised a brow at the question. He'd just been minding his own business before Anima showed up, and had the nerve to ask a question like that. Was Anima some sort of guardian of the desert? We he'd originally attacked Achilles in Fairbell, so that would be nonsensical.

"Why did I come where?" Achilles sighed.

"South."

Achilles paused again, was telling the truth really his best option here. He himself had almost forgetten the reason he'd travelled south. Chances were he'd been there so long the girl had either been found, or worse by now.

"I'm looking for a child. She went missing, and a few rangers have been sent to find her. I'm one of them." It almost sounded strange calling himself a ranger again. It felt like he'd been south for years.

Anima grinned with delight, he had him where he needed him. He took out Achilles book and dropped it on the ground, he blinked forward. His iris started to glow, swirling like a vortex would in to the ground. "It's fun to watch a man try his best to stay in this Hell." He walked closer. "Last time, I didn't kill you because you gave up a part of yourself in favour of your pride." He paused. "Come closer, peer at the face of Shillace before you die."

The invitation seemed sinister, but Achilles had no intention of passing up the opportunity to make ground on Anima, especially if it meant recovering Shillace. He began to walk slowly towards the outlaw.

Anima stepped back, taking out his gun and pointing it at Charlotte. He let Achilles walk closer.Achilles stopped. Not reacting beyond halting the movement of his feet. Anima looked in to Achilles' eyes Unveiling the sight of a crying Shillace locked in to a cage. Around her was images of Anima's murders playing and replaying.

Achilles quickly broke eye contact.

"Anima, what exactly do you gain from all this? This Gaudium of yours, what does he teach? Surely he doesn't preach senseless murder." He backed up slightly, after finishing his short monologue. Overstepping the boundaries with a character as dangerous as the one he was dealing with wouldn't end well for the hostage.

"Gaudium has created the perfect world that is only accessible after here, Now. I need to finish up buisnes." He let his lightning strike rip, it shot through the air heading straight for the fool.

Achilles dove forward, he momentarily felt his magic return and used his static ability to send the bolt straight through him. He stood up, and again looked at Anima, and again avoided eye contact.

"Like I said before, you want me, not her. If you let both Shillace and Charlotte go, you can have my life, on one condition." At this point, he effectively felt as though he was striking a deal with the devil. Though, there wasn't much more that could be taken from him down here.

"I want to let everyone meet Gaudium, some just need to suffer first" He stepped closer to Charlotte.

"What if we're not ready to meet Gaudium? What if he's not ready to meet us?" He brushed himself off, panting slightly. "You take Charlotte and Isaac to the priest in Fairbell, have him heal them, then let them go."

"You want me to reward 1 unworthy, sinful soul, and heal his friends, you must be stupid." Anima was bored of this, he brought up his shotgun and shoved it towards Achilles, shoving him in the stomach he pushed Achilles away and pulled the trigger, the shot sped out of the barrel and the shotgun shoot with recoil.

Achilles was pushed back by the force of the bullets flying into his stomach. He instinctively clutched onto the hole that had been torn through his stomach. He didn't dare to remove his hand from the wound, as he could see the blood spilling through his fingers. His body froze, his legs gave way and he fell to his knees.

Shadow felt her bones start to loosen. Her limbs reacted when she told them to move. Anima strode over to her. Shadow stood up tentatively. Anima scowled at Achilles. "I have a plan, we need to move. I need you to tell the plants to keep him alive. We're taking the girl. See to it that you stabilize her too."

Shadow nodded. She dropped a seedling in the ground near Achilles, she forced her magic to talk the seed. "He musn't die." The root burrowed in to the ground and then it grew out and wrapped itself around Achilles. Shadow took some of the leaves, "I'm sorry, but this is important." Achilles looked up at her, with his eyes full of pain. Shadow then stood and ran to Charlotte. She crouched down and wrapped the leaves around her, but saw the state Charlotte was in.

Anima blinked next to her, "Ready?" Anima looked at the girl.

Shadow looked to him, frowning, "She won't survive if she isn't treated immeditately. I'm afraid even the Seeds of the Windcaller can't help her at this point."

Anima nodded, he pulled down his mask and whistled for Cereberus. The hell-horse galloped up, "Take her to the pretender. If she'll survive, we have some plans for her." He lifted the girl on to the horse.

Shadow mounted Cerberus, "What's your plan?" Anima simply grinned at her.

"She'll be seeing the face of Gaudium soon, dead or alive."

​

​

 

[Zatanna]

"Stop sulking and get down here!"

"Dont yell at me you bitch! Just shut up!" Evian screamed down the stairs. She wiped off her tears and marched down the stairs, glaring at Desi as she did so. She found Dalex and hugged him, wiping her remaining tears onto him.

"This woman came in here and attacked me. It was awful... How was your day so far?" Evian asked looking up at him with her blue eyes, sniffling a little.

She took a deep breath then remembered how important the day was.

"Babe we have to go meet Janet. " she said pulling him to the front door while she glared at Desi.

"Even though you're a ho and Im mad at you. It's important we work together. " she said tossing her hair and opening the front door.

"Now let's go." She commanded as she stepped out the doors and started walking.

I cannot believe Desi talked to me like that! I mean I do the cooking the cleaning. I do so much for her. Without me she'd be fashionless and hungry and dirty. Ew. Dalex is annoying me too. He hasn't bought me a present in like... weeks. Im a very very very pretty girl. If he wants to keep me he should buy me more things. I would yell at them more but we need to work together because I cant handle the baddies by myself and they cant do anything without burning something down.

She turned around and sighed, they were kinda far behind her and she wanted them to meet Janet together.

"Hurry up!" she said under her breath. She rolled her eyes as they finally caught up with her.

"Okay guys. We are about to meet Janet. Be nice and respectful and make her likes us okay. And I can do most of the talking." She said nodding and practicing her 'winning smile'.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

Dalex Surand:

He smiled at Desi as she teased him a hit, the she stopped before Evi had come back done.

"Don't yell at me you rattata! Just shut up!" Evi yelled, coming down the chairs. She ran over to him and gave him a hug, wiping the rest of her tears on him, which he didn't mind.

He sighed, the two always seemed to be picking at each other.

"This woman came in here and attacked me. It was awful... How was your day so far?" Evian had asked, looking up at him with her blue eyes, sniffling a little.

"Babe we have to go meet Janet. " she said pulling him to the front door while she glared at Desi.

"Even though you're a ho and I'm mad at you. It's important we work together. " she said tossing her hair and opening the front door.

"Now let's go." She commanded as she stepped out the doors and started walking.

"Hey hey! You didn't let me answer you!" Dalex hollered after her as he rushed to catch up with Evi.

"Okay guys. We are about to meet Janet. Be nice and respectful and make her likes us okay. And I can do most of the talking." Evian said.

He took her hand as she caught up with Desi. He pulled her toward her and he met her lips with his and gave her a french kiss. He was afraid of Desi getting jealous, because she already knew. Not to mention they had shared their own moments in and out of bed. He wasn't proud of it, but Evi had probably done the same thing before while he wasn't home. He finished the kiss and he open her hand and dropped the bag of money into her hand.

"Here take this. It isn't much, as a wolf got in the way of my hunt, but It should get you something nice. Get whatever." Dalex told her.

Dalex picked her up by the back of the thighs and gave her another kiss before letting her down.

"Right, let us get started with becoming a bounty hunters, shall we?" Shadow suggested.

He fixed his hat again, along with readjusting his holster and rifle on his back.

 

[machomuu]

Amelia Caddaway - Rank One Outlaw
​

Bounty - $5​

"...Shakes," Amelia said, raising her head condescendingly. The "Shakes" she was referring to was a nervous wreck that she'd previously threatened with her gun. She started calling him that when she realized he liked to shake when he was scared- which essentially meant that he shook constantly. It fit. "Who's this joker? Those sure don't look like 'the goods' behind 'im." In front of Amelia was a spiky-haired, tobacco chewing, duster wearing man who seemed completely unfazed by her taunting.

Shakes' eyes looked the man over, from top to bottom. "I d-don't know, but this doesn't look like the guy." Shakes pulled up his pants and rolled up his sleeves, walking close and saying, "You better get movin' if you know what's good for ya." The tobacco chewing man merely looked down at Shakes, raised an eyebrow, patted him on the shoulder, and chuckled.

"Hehe...you serious, pal?" The man chuckled a fair bit more. "You really don't know who I am? Why I'm here?" Shakes and Amelia were mostly unresponsive. The man looked at Amelia curiously for a moment before licking his molars and nodding. He turned back to Shakes and said, "I'm 'the goods', just call me Boom. It's not the most original name, but it gets the job done." Amelia looked at Shakes, and him at her, prompting another chuckle from Boom. He revealed the inside of his duster and inside his pocket was a book. Specifically, a spellbook. Amelia's eyes widened and apprehension took hold of her, as she knew that the job had just become exponentially more dangerous. "Got hired earlier today. The way they put it, it was easier using a person than using bombs. Harder to find, easier to get done. And no one's gonna suspect a simple man in a duster." He walked backwards a few paces. "Or a bounty hunter with sticks and a topknot.

Upon hearing this, Amelia swiped the knife from her leg and took a defensive stance. The stance was filled with holes and was completely imitation, but it was the best she had considering that the knife wasn't exactly her weapon of choice. Amelia wasn't surprised that Boom knew she could use magic, and she was even less surprised that he thought she was a bounty hunter, as she might as well have been one considering her goal. Boom raised his hands in response to this, and Shakes' eyes darted between the two, unsure of what to make of the situation. "So what's the plan here?" Amelia started, her eyes trained on Boom. "You gonna turn yourself in or what?" She spoke with bravado, but Amelia was actually incredibly cautious and trying to hold back a sweat. After all, Boom was aware of the situation before either Amelia or Shakes were, and this meant that he had control from the start.

"Nah, that isn't gonna work out," Boom said, lowering one of his hands and digging into his ear with his pinkie. "I still got a job to do, but you pointing that knife at me makes me kinda nervous. It'd be better for both of us if you just left." Shakes looked to Amelia. She didn't move. Boom sighed and removed his pinkie from his ear, flicking whatever he'd dug out at Shakes and, before anyone could react, a loud popping sound rang out. Amelia looked at the source and what she saw was far less than pleasant. The right side of Shakes' face was, put vaguely, gone, and his shoulder bone was completelyexposed. He'd fallen to the ground a bloody, unmoving mess. It wasn't a particularly pretty sight. She didn't have long to process what had just happened before she felt a powerful impact on her stomach, causing her to drop her knife. Without giving even a moment in between, Boom caught the knife midair and slashed at Amelia, who did her best to dodge out of the way and was left with a deep, vertical cut on her knifearm.

Amelia crawled away and got to her feet, creating distance between the two of them. "Damn," Boom said somberly, looking at the bloody knife in lament. "I was hoping I'd be able to take you both out at once." Amelia's hand hovered over her bloody arm, her teeth tightly clenched so as to bear the pain. "Though it still went better than it could've wanted. Wasn't expecting such explosive results." Boom snorted a few times and held in a chuckle best he could.

"Why the hell'd you kill Shakes?" She looked to the side and glanced at Shakes' remains, winced, and turned back to Boom. "And how the hell'd you kill 'im?" She wasn't particularly remorseful considering Shakes wasn't on her side and was also potentially her prey, but she did feel it a waste. After all, she had no intention of killing anyone.

"You're asking to many quest-" Boom raised his finger and looked around. The subtle howl of the train off in the distance could be heard, and after a few moments, he said, "Scram, get outta here." He turned his attention to the rails. "And don't think about tryin' to get the jump on me if you know what's good for you."

Just as he said this, a loud "BANG" shot out and a scarlet drop appeared on Boom's arm. Amelia stood with her uninjured off-hand shaking, smoking gun unholstered. He gave no quarter, his face practically turning red with anger. A sound as loud as a gunshot was enough to alert those outside, which put the operation in a particularly delicate position. Boom swung around, using the momentum he threw a small sack Amelia's way and spit at it with a curiously crimson "loogie". Amelia jumped back, unsure of exactly what either of the two things were, but instincts told her that she should avoid both of them. Surely enough, just as the spit met the sack, flames erupted, accompanied by a loud popping sound. Giving no quarter, Boom lunged at Amelia in an attempt to stab her. She gasped, knowing she couldn't possibly aim at him in such short time with her off-hand. More, though, dodging wouldn't exactly put her in a favorable position. So she took a gamble.

Amelia dropped her gun and jumped backwards, clutching her bloodied arm and sending sparks (and an intense pain) dancing up and down its wet surface. She tried to move her arm but found that her control over it was...less than desirable. It moved slowly and shook uncontrollably. She clicked her tongue, but it was merely a feint. She was getting stabbed, that much was practically assured, it was merely a matter of deciding where. And though Boom was a skilled outlaw that was probably battle-hardened, he knew little of what she was capable up, and he'd already shown his hand. Amelia swerved, Boom's knife lodging itself just right of Amelia's stomach. The faux-bounty hunter bit her tongue to dull the pain and quickly, to match his pace, met her now-bloody palm with her adversary's face, enchanting it and shocking him. He was merely taken aback by this, but this was all she needed.

Boom had something in his duster, likely gunpowder, that he was to use in conjunction with magic to disturb the rails. That was the conclusion Amelia came to after seeing it more directly with the previous assault. Thus, it was time for Amelia's gamble to take effect. The train, which Boom had previously been scurrying to beat to the rails, shown its lights. This in conjunction with Amelia's attack had his attention divided. Still reeling, he reached into his duster for more gunpowder, but this time Amelia was ahead of him. She moved in close and smiled wide, her wounded arm still enchanted and, by this point, mostly numb. Boom realized what danger the electricity would be if it met the gunpowder and jumped back. His jump, unfortunately, was poorly timed.

The train roared down the tracks, meeting a rather unlucky bystander that happened to be standing there. Amelia, who was still smiling like an idiot, decided not to watch the unfortunate scene and merely picked up her knife and placed it back in its holster, picking up her gun and placing in her pocket. "Whelp, I suppose he'll be going by 'Crash' from now on. If he goes into music, I bet he'll be a real hit." She said, her words completely muted by the roar of the train. Even still, she shed a tear out of respect, and chuckled at her off-color joke just as Boom did before.​

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[Zatanna]

"Hey hey! You didn't let me answer you!" Dalex hollered and caught up with her.

She turned around and smiled sightly as he ran up. When he caught up he took her hands, in his and gave her a french kiss. She blushed, kissing back. Once that was done he dropped a bag of coins into her hand.

"Here take this. It isn't much, as a wolf got in the way of my hunt, but It should get you something nice. Get whatever."

She squealed and tucked the bag of coins into one of her pockets.

He knows exacty what I want. its like he read my mind~

He grabbed her by the thighs and kissed her again and she smiled at him.

"Thank you so much baby. And tonight, you can have whatever you want." she smirked up at him, walking her fingers up his chest and kissing his neck.

"Right, let us get started with becoming a bounty hunters, shall we?"

"Sounds like a plan hun." she said then turning around to see Desi sulking. Maybe she was jealous.

"Hurry up Desi. I dont have time to wait for you!" Evian screamed again.

"We are almost there!" she screeched again.

In the distance there was Janets house. She closed her eyes grabbing Dalex's arm.

Listen here Evian. You need to be good at this. Just as good as dad. Get her to fucking love you! Are you ready to be a bounty hunter? Get your game face on.

 

[Retro Bug]

Lillian Du Bois
Outlaw
Earth Sorceress
$500 Bounty
Location: Fairbell

"A purer sapphire melts into the sea."​

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap

Lillian couldn't help but repeatedly drum her fingers on her leg as she keenly listened to each word that came out of the lady's mouth who stood in front of her donned in the traditional nun uniform of Fairbell. They were located only a foot away from the burnt remains of the church that had existed mere hours ago. The stench of smoke, burnt wood, and flesh still clogged the air. Already the citizens of Fairbell were trying to rebuild, repair, and reuse what they could in order to salvage their holy place of worship. Lillian supposed she could understand their rush, the remnants of the church was a rather large blight on an otherwise pristine town.

The nun spoke rapidly and kept thanking God for her survival. It was a habit that had started to anger Lillian. Religion was a joke as far as she was concerned. Money spoke volumes more than words from ancient book ever could.

"So, an ice demon rode off on a horse with Saint Agnes after killing Tess?" Lillian questioned with a voice full exhaustion.

This was the fifth consecutive church goer she had questioned. All of them told the same tale... Big Bad Tess came into town with a chip on her shoulder to take vengeance on Ezekiel and before she could finish the deed another person stepped in and killed her. The boss had requested she check out Fairbell, immediately. Tess's death had been unexpected and Lillian was charged with gathering the necessary information. She was to make sure the boss's safety hadn't been a target and to report everything she had learned to a William something or other.

The nun continued to drone on about stones crashing from the heavens and warrior angels defending the holy man Ezekiel. Finally, the women spoke something of interest, "That devil's name is Emmett Holliday!" As soon as the name left her lips she launched into a series of chant of prayers and hymns, all of which sounded like mumbles. The medal cross that hung around the nun's neck was clutched in one hand and the other was raised to the sky. Lillian couldn't help but roll her eyes as far back as they would go and tried to cross her already crossed arms even further.

When it appeared as if Lillian wasn't going to receive anymore information out of the nun she stalked off toward the tavern. There was one last mission she needed to fulfill: money. It was time Lillian resorted to "old" tricks, or rather tricks the boss told her she no longer needed to do but still liked to do to pass the time. A little extra money was never a bad thing, well, at least not in her book. Ever since the boss had given her a job she hadn't the need to return to her previous line of work. Her eyes swept around the nearly full tavern for her next victim as she reapplied her lipstick then rubbed her lips together.

Lillian ran her fingers through her thick head of curls to fluff it out. Looking as "exotic" as possible worked well for what she had planned. She practiced fluttering her eyelashes to make sure she still had it. Without a mirror it was next to impossible to decide if she looked like someone spazzing out or a seductress. Lillian chose the latter. In religious towns such as these there were always deprived men who were looking for a little "release" even if their faith frowned upon that.

A man in his late thirties or forties, Lillian could never tell age accurately and it never really mattered, caught her eye. He sat at the bar draining a glass of its assumedly alcoholic content. Dressed in a white shirt and jeans that had a rather large belt hooped through the appropriate notches. His hair had begun to gray and thin which wasn't a winning combination but for Lillian it felt like she gotten lucky. From there Lillian moved onto ring finger, and noticed it absence of any wedding band. In any normal circumstance that would be another sign of lucky, but in this case married men were preferred. Married men were easy, less of a hassle. They didn't add to her already high bounty by ratting out she had stolen money during their brief escapade. Single men lacked a wife, two and half kids, and a horse so they were more inclined to report her theft.

But without any risks there were no rewards, right? That's what the boss always said.

Lillian strolled up to the counter of the bar and sat down on the wooden chair. "I'll have a glass of ale, please!" Lillian spoke in her most sickly sweet tone. Hyper-effeminacy paved a road to men's heart she had found. The man behind the bar nodded in her direction and fulfilled her order.

She searched through her purse and pockets like she was desperately trying to find any coins in order to pay for the beer. Lillian ripped open every pocket and began to drop things left and right, which gained her the attention of the graying hair man that she had taken a seat next to.

"Here, it's on me," His voice was gruff, he slid two coins in her direction but turned his attention back to milking his own drink.

"Thank you," Lillian feigned embarrassment and reflected it in her tone and expression. She lightly sipped the beer that tasted cheaper than what the man had paid, but kept a cheerful expression on her face incase the man was watching out of his peripherals. "Excuse me," she tapped him on his shoulder, "Is there any way I can repay you?"

"No," He said sharply, a little too sharply.

"I'm new here," Lillian lied. She had been to Fairbell as a child and a couple times after but never for an extended period. She dangled more conversational bait, "Don't really know anyone around these parts..."

"Don't seem new," The man responded not once looking in her direction. He swirled the remainder of the brown liquid in his glass. "Seemed like ya' knew exactly whatcha were doin' out there." He pointed his finger diagonally indicating the church.

"I know what you are," The man continued.

Crap. Lillian smiled meekly before a worried expression unintentionally broke through her façade. She hadn't noticed any of her bounty posters up on the way into town. Was he a bounty hunter? All of a sudden her spellbook felt heavy in purse. The Hex of Pain was at the edge of her fingertips ready to wrack the man's body with waves of pain. The boss would be more than furious if she got caught again.

"I have rented a place across the street join me when you finished your drink," His words seemed more slurred than before, the alcohol had finally settled in.

He pushed himself back from the counter and hopped off the stool. One of his hands landed on her shoulder before it traveled down her back in a slow motion. Lillian resisted the urge to let loose her spell right then and there. Lillian breathed a heavy sigh of relief outward once he had left. He didn't expect of being a outlaw just a lady looking for a good time... for a price. Little did he know that the price was a lot steeper than he imagined. She tipped the glass of beer back in order to chug the foul alcohol that was left. It didn't take long for her to collect the items she had dropped earlier.

She'd be back on track in no time at all...

​

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[Sonata]

Sophia Hartmann
Status - Outlaw - member of Culebra clan
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Air
Bounty - 580$

Jebediah Sanders
Status - Bounty Hunter
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Air
Money - $1200

Trainjacked Trainjackers

Marzia dusted herself off after having jumped the train and made her way back to wake the rest of the crew. If by some chance their fall and leisurely roll through the dirt and rocks that lie below hadn't been enough, they didn't have time to just sit and wait for everyone to get their beauty rest. She moved back to the furthest one back first and kicked Bear in the ribs.

"Wakey wakey, get the hell up. We've got to start walking."

Bear grumbled and cautiously opened his eyes. "What happened? Where's the train at? Why am I covered in dirt and why does my back hurt so much?"

The assassin curled up her lip as she moved on to the next member of the crew and kicked them awake. "Well you all fell asleep, almost got killed and then I had to make a decision and I guess so long as we can still finish this mission before the trainjackers finish it first then it will have been the right one."

Bear rose to his feet and rubbed the side of his head. "Trainjackers? I thought we was the trainjackers?"

"Well we certainly aren't the only ones with our eyes on the book." She continued on her line down the tracks, kicking awake the others as she went.

"Shit. Well why are you movin' so slow then?" Bear ran up to the front of the line of people and started kicking them as he went yelling out, "E'rybody wake up! We been kicked! Get up quick and get ready to run! Get your asses up!"

Jeb was awoken by a sharp kick to the ribs. Something cracked and he coughed up a bit of blood. "What the fuck was that for?" He squinted his eyes against the afternoon sun and turned his head from side to side looking for who had hit him.

Bear came back over after a few seconds and pulled him up off the ground. "Time to go kid. We been trainjacked."

Jeb slowly opened his eyes fully and licked his lips. "Trainjacked? Really?" He looked at his surroundings and the groggy crew that was still pulling themselves up off the ground. "Was it one of ours or?"

Sophia stepped up with an unusually overly pissed off look on her face. It seemed he had really struck a nerve this time. "How dare you accuse one of our own of being traitor. Of course it was someone else. Everyone we came with is out here."

Jeb rubbed his temples as the little girl attempted to talk down to him. "Sophia please. I just woke up. It's too damn early for this shit. Is Alice alright?"

Alice poked her head out from behind the tattered clothes of Sophia and nodded slightly.

Jeb nodded back and then looked around as the assassin came up from behind and punched him firmly in the gut.

"Well either someone here ratted us out to some kind of dog thing and a gang about twice the size of our party, or we're just real damn unlucky. Also," she bent down and met the gaze of Jeb, "you are not our leader. Do not try to act like our leader. You are just a tagalong, an extra brought in at the last second. Learn your place or I'll be sure to thoroughly teach it to you. You are just as much a suspect for the rat as anyone else here regardless of your relations with the others."

Bear stepped up and patted his hand against Marzia's shoulder and then gave it a light squeeze. "Now that that's all taken care of, if we hope to even catch up to the train before it departs again and the book is lost to us forever then we had best leave now. Yes? Yes. Let's go. No more dicking around now."

Bear took off running parallel to the tracks in the direction the train had been going to begin with and the rest of the crew began to fall in behind. Sophia smiled at Jeb's discomfort and embarassment before falling in towards the back of the crowd, followed closely by an apparently distraught Alice who wouldn't make eye contact with either of her adoptive guardians. Marzia slapped Jeb's good cheek in a playful yet demeaning manner and then brought up the rear of the group.

Jeb spit on the ground next to him once the others had started to distance themselves. "I can't believe this shit. I'll make a mental note to kill that assassin first and see if there's anything I can collect on with her. If not, it's still a win for me I guess." He cracked his neck and composed himself before using windfury a couple of times to close the distance. For now he would continue to play the good little hired muscle.

A joint post of Sonata and Foxrally​

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[JukeboxTheGhoul]

ANIMA

Information

Spoiler:

[S-HIGHLIGHT]Profile
Wiki Page[/S-HIGHLIGHT]
Sorcery Level: 1
Element: Electricity
Bounty: $950
Charges:

• Mass Homicide.
• Grievous Bodily Harm of a Bounty Hunter
• Torture
• Horse Theft
• Mass Horse Murder
• Infanticide x2
• Hanging
• Tresspassing
• Looting

Stock Spells:
Blink
Hex Of Pain
Elemental Burst - Electricity.

Anima blinked forward, he stood by the edge of a wall, he leant casually as Shadow and the girl came in to view through the haze. Shadow looked to Anima, frowning at him.
Anima looked at her, remarking, "Don't complain if you didn't learn how to Blink." Anima stood and began to walk the path. The feeling of fairbell was fairly frantic. People went back and forth. Gossip went from mouth to ear, brain to brain. The truth getting more and more soiled every time a new self-righteous person condemns or condones the action or event that took place. A damning thing, the human mind, it corrupts the truth, tainting information with it's acursed oil-stained fingers of the brain. This is why people do not understand.
Shadow dismounted Cerberus. Shooting a glance towards Anima. The glance of death, destruction, the glance of sorry, the glance of mutual understanding. It was a secondary aspect of the mind. To put it simply, stupid people have been intelligent for too long for their own good. They looked too much in to the aspects of responce, emotion, and behaviour. People read between the lines too much, unveiling truths that their diminutive minds couldn't even comprehend. Anima knew for a fact he had seen the face of Gaudium and he knew that even though his mortal body had an expiry date, his soul, his cause was immortal.

Anima smiled back at Shadow, unlike the humane laugh, back on the battlefield, the smile that was parading at his mind's masterpiece, his plans and devious concoctions were a marvel to behold. Anima dismounted Charlotte from the Hellsteed. He dug his knife in to her skin. Carving the mark of death in to her abdomen, he then looked around the street, he then cut the word "Nimbus", in to her body. He picked her up slinging her around his shoulder. He marched over to a door, he tied Charlotte's remaining hand to the door frame.
Anima returned to Shadow, Cerberus had walked over in to a stable.

"Some woman came through, a old nun, and she got in a fight and demolished the Church." Shadow recounted the news from the local gossip.
"Crypts?" Anima surveyed the roads while they talked.
"Undamaged, however the locals are looking in to redecorating." Shadow responded unwittingly sounding so cold.
"Plan B then." Anima walked towards the Gun Store. The Gun Store was an old establishment ran by Horatio Dartmoor, but it seemed it just became vacant for some odd reason. He noticed that the side window was wide open, he walked over to the door, waiting for Shadow to catch up. He focussed on the door for a few moments as he spoke. "Frosted glass on the front, can't teleport in. Can you blow it open?"

Shadow went up to the door on the side it opens. "Nope, locked."
"I can," Anima brought out his shotgun and aimed for the bolted door. He inhaled to steady his aim. He prepared to fire. Shadow held up her hand. The two were silent for a few moments. Shadow looked at Anima, it was truly amazing after one delve in to eachother's minds gave them such an acute understand of eachother. There were intruders in the house. Anima recalled the open window to his mind, he started to circumnavigate the building, as Shadow began to follow. Anima halted her advance with a hand signal. Anima went around to the side and looked at the bathroom ceiling. He disintergrated in to a shadow and snaked in to the window.
Shadow waited for Anima. She reflected on how frighteningly alike they had both become. Her moreso then him but She could remember the face of her lord. The God of Joy, Gaudium, the one and only god. Others are false idols. Her attention narrowed when she heard a glass smash inside and a grunt. The bolt was pulled back and the catch clicked before swinging open. At the door stood a teenager, blood on his hands and a dumb expression across his mug. Shadow stepped back, putting her hand on her dagger. Then the teenager flopped down on to the ground, face first. His jaw shattered as it hit the concrete. Behind him stood Anima, "Solved." He mumbled before urging her to come in. As Shadow hopped over the body, she entered the building. The counter having a second dead teenager sprawled across the table, sanguine dripping down the side of the counter. Anima dragged in the body from outside. "Ah yes... Fond Memories." He put the burglars in to the cupboard. Anima walked over to the back of the shop and uncovered a hatch by peeling away a rug. He opened the hatch and climbed down in to the Cellar. He looked at the barrels of Gunpowder and guns leftovers. Shadow pulled a crate over and a couple of stools.

"If we can't get in to the Crypt, this is our best shot."
"This will do." Shadow confirmed, she looked in to a crate of guns, finding a crossbow. She grinned. "I already like it."
Anima looked at her, "This isn't a treehouse."
Shadow glanced back, "Do you ever lighten up?" and at that very moment a loud knock at the door of the shop. Shadow sighed, "We're closed!" The two stayed very silent. The knock was repeated, this time more aggressive, violent, rapid. Shadow repeated, "Hear me? We're closed!" She walked up to the main floor. The banging repeated itself, a deep voice responded, but his speech was broken.

"Out here, Poloma"
​

 

[Sonata]

Sophia Hartmann
Status - Outlaw - member of Culebra clan
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Air
Bounty - 580$

Jebediah Sanders
Status - Bounty Hunter
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Air
Money - $1200

Wrench

Sophia, Drugs and Jebediah

The sun had set and the moon had began its rise by the time the group finally reached Wrench. The train had fueled up, what part of the crew that had remained un-replaced by the gang had gone to dinner before their next departure, and all was quiet save for the dry heaving and deep breathing of every member of the crew. They had ran all the way here from their drop-off point without stopping. Most could hardly breathe and a few dropped to the ground from exhaustion. They had managed to reach the town seemingly before anything had happened, but at what cost?

Bear stumbled over to one of the car doors and leaned against it before vomiting profusely. He heaved for a few moments more until there was nothing left to pull up and then wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt. A few others followed suit, leaning over whatever they could find so that they could spill their guts in a slightly more comfortable fashion. Jeb pulled up the rear by exhausting the last of his magic reserves. It would take some time to replenish his power, but he figured it was better than ending up writhing in unwarranted pain while writhing around on the ground. He was more than skilled enough to take out a gang without his magic so long as they didn't do some bullshit sneak attack again. The assassin seemed to have had hardly even broken a sweat and Alice had given up running about halfway and most everyone had taken turns carrying her at some point since she was the most important thing they currently had in their possession after being kicked off their ride along with the majority of their supplies.

Marzia made her way over to Bear and whispered something into his ear and they both turned to face the group.

Bear started to open his mouth to speak, but the action nearly caused him to vomit again so he submitted to only using gestures for the moment. He snapped his fingers to get everyone's attention and then motioned for them all to gather around close. He put his hands together and then sliced at the air in front of him, splitting the grouping of people into two and moving them to opposite sides of the train. He then went through and grabbed a group of four - two from each side - and made a third, smaller group right in front of him.

He pointed to the group on his right with his right hand, the group on his left with his left, and then motioned for them to stay put. He held up one finger, two fingers and then three fingers before clenching his fist. This would be their signal. He then pointed to the group in front of him and then referenced back to the other two groups, did the three fingers and then clenched his fist.

Bear then turned his back to the third group and stared down Jeb, Marzia, Alice, Sophia and Jack who had all joined around the front of the train to join the third group. Bear cracked his knuckles and the rest of the members readied their favored melee weapons. Bear raised his hands above his head and put up a single finger which the crew replied to by focusing their eyes on him. He raised up a second finger to which the crew replied with by getting into a readied stance. Bear raised up the third and final finger to which all three groups tensed their bodies to burst into action. And with the clench of their leader's fist, all three groups rushed their respective angles on the train.

The two groups which rushed the sides of the train went one man or woman per car all the way to the tail and stood ready to pull open the car doors. The smaller group that had formed behind Bear along with the others that were in front of him climbed up the front of the train and ran across the top, opening the hatches for each and using what magic they had to clear out each cart. Jeb took the lead and flipped open the tops of the carts while Sophia followed behind throwing in large bursts of air to stagger what men were inside. Alice, Jack and two of the four that had been taken from the original groups waited at the front of the train to ensure nobody got by in that direction. Bear, Marzia and the other two taken from the original groups jumped down into the first cart's hatch after Jebphia had passed and then began running through the carts assuring that each was clear. As the blasts of air came down, the members outside threw open the doors and readied themselves to kill whatever flew out.

However to their surprise, by the time Jebediah and Sophia had made it to the tail end of the train and jumped off the back, not a single body had flown out of the locomotive. Their weapons, tools and general supplies had all been left untouched - though scattered about by the bursts of air - but the insides of the last three carts were coated in a thick layer of fresh blood.

Bear stepped into one of the back carts and immediately covered his nose. "My god, can this night get any worse? What in the hell could have done all of this?"

A light chuckle and the sound of a loud snort came from behind a fallen pile of boxes. Marzia began pulling the boxes away from where the sound had originated and saw the same bipedal doglike creature that had appeared in front of her before when she was escaping the train to begin with. It's snout was covered in a white powdery substance and it had been impaled through the chest by a metal support beam ripped from one of the walls of the current cart. The dog-like creature's feet dangled below it and its body emitted a white-ish blue mist from the wound in its chest.

Marzia pulled the dog thing towards her, sliding its body across the metal beam and increasing the size of the wound. She got her face inches from its snout and snarled. "Who are you and what happened here?"

The dog winced in pain as its body slid against the beam and it groaned in pain, but as it did so it pulled out another small bag of white powder and rubbed its snout in it before laughing again. It rolled it's head around and shoved the assassin away before pulling itself off of the metal beam. "Grrr woof. The name's Scrig. And that bible's as good as mine. I can't be livin' off this woof shit forever. I need to get my body back. I need to get that bible. And I need to kill those fuckers that offed my crew. Treated them like they were grrrr were nothing more than your regular old chew toy. Now if you'll leave me be, I have someplace to be."

Marzia smiled and readied her machete. "I don't thi-"

Scrig brushed himself of and then disappeared before Marzia could finish her sentence. A look of surprise washed over he face, which was quickly replaced with anger. She screamed out for the others to capture it as it was their only lead as to what had happened. Scrig popped outside the train in front of Jeb and Sophia and smiled at both.

"Care for some of my patent pending cure all powder? One doggie bag only costs five hundred. Woof. But I'll make ya'll a deal since you look like a cute couple. Two for seven fifty. How's that sound?"

Jeb widened his eyes. It was Scrig. The shitty bounty that Janet had punished him with had just jumped right in front of him and he couldn't even collect on it because he was doing this stupid undercover thing. Then he realized what the dog had said and chuckled. "You really shouldn't have said that."

The dog looked puzzled as the other two teams swarmed around the sides of the train. "I'm sorry? What did I say?"

Just as the words left his mouth, Sophia slammed her fist into the dog's face and knocked out several of it's teeth.

"We. Are not. A god. Damn. Couple." She pulled out her revolver and shoved it down the monster's throat, readying to empty it into Scrig in a fit of rage.

Just as Sophia was about to pull the trigger and end the bounty's life she felt a bite on the back of her ankle and then began to feel light headed.

"Wha, wha, whaa-" she fell backwards unconscious and Scrig started to rise to it's paws before being decked by Bear and thus rendered unconscious.

Marzia snuck around the side of the train from which Bear had just came flying to incapacitate the creature. Her snake slithered away from Sophia and crawled back up her arm and into its resting place in her hood. The assassin sighed as she pulled out a coil of rope and began to tie up Scrig. "We didn't use poison, just a mild paralyzing agent. She'll be back with it shortly, but we just couldn't have her killing someone er, something so important. We need to thoroughly interrogate this one." Her eyes turned sinister as she dragged the bundle of fur back into the train.

A joint post of Sonata and Foxrally​

​

 

[Sonata]

Sophia Hartmann
Status - Outlaw - member of Culebra clan
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Air
Bounty - 580$

Jebediah Sanders
Status - Bounty Hunter
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Air
Money - $1320

Wrench

Interrogation

"Wake up pup. Time to tell me what we need to know." Marzia had taken off her cloak and was now only in a tight black undershirt and the pants that she had had on beneath the cloak. She had pulled out a pair of gloves and casually slipped them on as the dog began to come to. "I'm going to have so much fun with this."

One of the members of the crew was an earth mage and had made several three inch thick earthen rods. She picked one up off of the ground and slowly and meticulously slid it into and through Scrig's stomach, making sure not to hit any vital organs before pinning him to the wall.

Marzia smiled as she picked up another of the rods and began to shove it into the knee socket of the creature. "I'm going to take my time and enjoy this. And whenever you feel like talking, I'll be happy to put you out of your misery."

Scrig whimpered and looked away. So long as I can get my hands on my cure all before I die I should still be able to get away in time.

The assassin rammed the rod the rest of the way through Scrig's knee, putting it in just the right place to separate the two connecting bones."Listen, just be a good little doggy and this'll all be over soon. You won't have to see me anymore, you won't have to feel pain anymore, and I'm sure that there's somewhere that abominations like you can go when they die."

Scrig let out a low growl and bared his teeth. "I don't even know woof who did this. When we grrrr got into town, the informant or guide or whatever that you were supposed to meet was a no show. Then out of nowhere we got attacked by some creature. It was several feet taller than any of you or my men and it batted them away and ripped them limb from limb as if it were nothing. Grrrr it didn't have a book with it, but it may have been being controlled or something. I'm not sure. Woof. I just need to get that book you're after. It's the only thing that can save us."

Marzia listened politely. She nodded her head and wiped a nonexistent tear from her eye as Scrig finished his story. "That was beautiful. Thank you very much." She picked up another of the rods and shoved it through the dog's other knee so that it also dislocated the two bones.

"Arrrrrooooooooooo!" Scrig howled out in pain. "What the heck was that for!? I told you all that I know!"

Marzia smiled and leaned over to Scrig's face. "You sure did champ. But we're not done with you. See, we still have to figure out who tipped you off about our stealing the train in the first place. There's a rat somewhere, and you're gonna sniff it out for us."

She banged on the train door and Jeb and Bear climbed up into the car together.The assassin held out the machete towards Bear, and Jeb pulled a small knife from his pocket that he had found in one of the supply crates.The mist was pouring out of Scrig at this point, and Marzia pulled him off the wall and tossed him towards one of his bags of powder.

Bear chuckled and then shoved the dog's nose into the bag. "Get yerself all healed up. It's gonna be a long night."

As the powder flew into Scrig's snout the rods in its body were forced out and the wounds healed over and cured completely. He rose to his feet only to be greeted by a firm backhanded slap from Bear which was followed up by him slashing at the corners of the beast's mouth with the machete. Marzia pulled up one of the rods which had been forced out of Scrig's body upon his healing and then shoved it right back into its gut.

Scrig screamed out in pain, his jaw hanging down and resting on his chest as he dangled on the wall. His eyes started to gloss over and a tear fell from his eye. He tried to speak, but it was nearly inaudible due to not having control of his mouth. "Aa oo uuu aah ii ee? I oh oh ehyhii. Uh ee ee auu." The tears began to fall harder but were blurred by the cloud of mist that continued to flow out of it's body.

Slowly, Scrig's feet started to disperse into nothingness as the lift continued to leave him. Jeb picked up the bag of powder again and shoved the upper half of the outlaw's snout into it and Scrig began to weep even harder as its body pulled itself back together and he fell back to the floor.

"I don't know what you want from me!" He screamed out as his mouth came back together. "We just got lucky! We didn't even know you were on this damn train going for the same place until you all sat around and had that conversation! I don't care about the book anymore, just please stop! It hurts so much. I can't bare it any longer. Either kill me or let me go."

Bear looked to the assassin, the assassin looked to Bear, Jeb looked to both and asked, "what should we do? There's no telling what he'll actually do if we just let him go."

"I promise. I promise. I promise. I promise. I'll give up the life of an outlaw. I'll do anything. I'll leave you all alone forever. I'll never sell anything, I'll never buy anything. Never cheat, never steal, never lie, please just let me go." Scrig had curled up into a ball and was cowering from the group of three.

The trio looked to each other and then as Bear began to open his mouth to say something, Scrig scrambled to the bag of powder and then teleported out of the train.

"Sonuvabitch!" Bear screamed out.

A gunshot sounded to the north and then a few moments later Sophia appeared, holding the body of Scrig who had been shot with a dose of the tranquilizing venom that had been used on her.

"Ya know," Sophia began, "I really would have liked to put a few actual bullets through the shit. But I guess this is fine. As long as he's getting what he deserves in here."

Jeb smiled. "Oh he will now. Now it's my turn. And it seems that he's already outed with all that he knows. Now it's just time for fun." He turned to Bear and raised his eyebrow. "Do you know if we have any easily accessible and maleable metal on board? Something I could tie in some knots or something like that without too much effort would be nice."

Bear smiled back, "Oh I've got just the thing." He disappeared into a different car and Jeb began the prep work on his victim.

"You know something Scrig? I think I've got something figured out that will work perfectly for you. It seems that the more damage dealt to you the more that the stuff that sustains you leaks out, however if I chose to not use anything big or bulky or do anything crazy like slash apart your mouth, how long do you think it would take for you to completely disappear?" Jeb grinned evily at the paralyzed dog who simply stared back with an immeasurable amount of fear in his eyes. "We've got some time to waste, I think I'll have my fun with you too. And maybe, just maybe you'll remember something as we play."

Bear re-entered the car where the torture had been taking place and handed Jeb a rather large coil of copper wire.

"This'll be perfect. Thank you bear. Now could you do me a favor and just hold him up in the air for a minute or two. That would be most appreciated."

Jeb cut off a large piece of the wire and bent it a few times so that it had a 'W' shape at the bottom and a hook shape at the top which he hooked over one of the beams hanging above them. Bear lifted up the tiny creature and Jeb took the knife and made a small incision in one of its arms then began to thread the copper wire through his body while he was still paralyzed.

"Now see, from what I've gathered you don't really have any internal organs. You have bones so to speak, but nothing too vital. The more damage you take the more you go away. Pretty simple I'd say. So what I'm going to do, is I'm going to wrap this copper wire all throughout your body, make some cute little bowties with it around your bones, and then I'm going to hang you from the ceiling and let you slowly bleed yourself out. Fun right? Very fun."

Scrig whimpered as he began to regain some control over the rest of his senses and the pain began to set in from what was being done to him. Jeb first wrapped the wire in a spiral pattern around one arm and then around the ribs and down to one leg, then back up and down the other, then back around the ribs and to the other arm before bring it around to his neck. Then he cut off the wire and began a new thread which wrapped around the dog's neck several times before piercing through its ribs, exciting through its chest and then looping back around and getting tied off around the hooks he had made before.

"Now, let's wake up those sense shall we? Don't want you missing out on too much of the excitement. You've only got a few hours left. And uh, Bear and Marzia? If you want to go ahead and go get everyone ready, I'm going to just finish up here real quick and then I'll be out there."

Bear and Marzia nodded and then made their way out of the car. Marzia put back on her robes and removed her gloves and then puckered her lips as she looked back at Scrig one last time.

Jeb leaned over towards the door to make sure that the two had left. Sophia still stood there, watching the whole thing to ensure that Jeb didn't make any mistakes or try to bail out now. Once Jeb was sure that the two were out of earshot he dropped the copper wire to the ground and bit his finger until it drew blood. Then he picked up one of the crates and broke off a piece of it which he put the drop of blood on and then shoved it into Scrig once it had died.

"Now, I've come a long way to find you. And to be honest, I didn't expect to do it so easily. Usually these things take a couple of days, but you were stupid enough to come right to me. Great job. Now, you're going to be a good little bounty and ride this train all the way back and then wait for me to pick you up and take you to Janet. Got that Scriggly Diggly?"

Scrig just stared at him with a blank expression which was also shared by Sophia. "Are you fucking kidding me right now? You're worried about a tiny little bounty like that when you're trying to be undercover as a regular transporter? What the hell is wrong with you Jeb? No, seriously. What the hell?"

Jeb waved his hand at Sophia for her to be quiet and then he hit Scrig with a couple of uses of hex of pain. "Do you understand dog? I own you. You're going nowhere except for Janet's so I can get my money. After that, I don't give a damn what she does with you. But I bet you it'll be a lot worse than anything we ever did. Also, so you don't get any crazy ideas..." Jeb kneeled down and picked up the rest of the bag of powder and put it in his pocket. "And with that, you should be all set. Don't die to quick on me now. I hardly did any real damage to you so you should be fine for a while at least before you start to literally fall apart. Don't cause trouble on the train ride back now."

Jeb and Sophia climbed down out of the car and closed the door behind them. Sophia kept giving him a dirty look for still worrying about claiming bounties while already on a job, but Jeb just ignored it and met up with the rest of the group to start heading out to wherever it was that they needed to be. Bear had picked Alice up and put her on his shoulder to make it easier for navigation purposes and so that she could be heard easier.

Bear looked out over the crowd and did a quick head count to ensure everyone was there and then he cleared his throat. "So, here's the plan..."

A joint post of Sonata and Foxrally​

​

 

[Jauntier]

STETSON SUTCLIFFE
Wanted Outlaw
_____________________________________
23 | Initiate | Fire | $40



Only cocksure fools traveled into the blistering pit alone.

No other kind of man would dare, if not to forego the knots that formed within his own pit, or for the bliss of an invalid's mind. The Chasm was great, and as the people who made their homes where the very earth was torn asunder, so were their morals often just as base. The only way out of this place was a single road that rose to a highway, and as it was the only manner of entering and leaving, so often was the traffic that wore it down and away. At least, it was busy during the day. At night, it was significantly less so, as to move under the shroud of darkness was to also blindly enter into the presence of the creatures whom too took to it.

One such creature lay behind coarse, hardy shrubbery, experiencing a unique misery. Inward, his body was blazed at a feverish temperature, which caused him to sweat great beads that dampened his thick bundle of clothes. And yet, the air chilled his skin and through his clothes, but provided no relief. The man was sprawled on the dust, staring up into the speckled sliver of night sky as he deeply breathed in cool, ticklishly dusted air, hoping to clear the muggy fog that stirred around within his head. Beside him stood his steed, a dark bay Morgan, whose richly black tail flicked away gnats and moths attracted to a dimmed kerosene lamp nearby, as its brown-tipped muzzle brushed against grasses, grazing.

"I can't fucking sleep with Fever," the man quietly groaned to the air. He huffed, exasperated, but did not bother to move a hand and brush aside the wet grit that clung to his forehead. His current condition had lasted a day. In all typicality, this magically-initiated defense mechanism lasts only for a couple hours, and it eradicates any small foreign illness he may have caught from another. This, though, this has lasted for two sunsets already. The Fever, he began to conclude, was not burning out whatever pathogen entered his system. It only tried to stave it off.

And so here he sat up, with a pained moan. His clothes were thick on him, as the ground underneath retained no warmth when the sun did not burn its heat directly onto it. He reached over to the side and unscrewed the cap of his canteen. It was much lighter in his hand than he remembered. He gulped down lukewarm well water, and let the familiarly odd taste of it settle on his tongue. It did something to entertain his thirst and wet the back of his throat, at least. It, though, was not medicine, something he greatly needed to flush out whatever it was that was affecting his body. To purchase medicine would put a dent in his acquired funds, and not to risk falling short, needed to earn more to supplement the pay.

Payment was on its way. This area was quiet at night. The sound of creaking axles in bearings, and wooden wheels and hard hooves bringing weight down upon gravel and friable clumps of earth was heard not too far away. Peering up over the shrubbery, Stetson saw a small covered wagon making its way down the incline, pulled by a single ox. No lantern hung outside the vessel, as it intended to be discrete about its arrival. Though down here, the night was even blacker as the shadow of the Chasm walls swept over the area, and this traveler would soon see the need to illuminate his surroundings for his steer to be of sound mind and tread where it could see.

"Well, bless me Father," he crooned to himself. "This sorry bastard'll pay me wage."
​

__________________________________________

Summary:​

- It's nighttime and Stetson, enduring Fever, is at the base of the Chasm's only road out, intending to ambush an approaching coach.
​

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1

 

[Shak]

Achilles Nimbus
Status - Bounty Hunter
Sorcery Level - 1
Element - Electricity
Money - $1,050

Left For Redemption​

Achilles stared off into the distant desert; desolate. Even the sand sat still for his grievances. Solitude seemed to suit him, but he hadn't been alone very long since he got to the south. He'd always found a new companion to help him through whatever crisis plagued him at the time. Isaac, Charlotte and even Wyatt had helped him through rough times, and he couldn't help one of them. He sighed a deep sigh.

As he felt himself giving up, he heard groaning from behind the horse corpse he was leaning on. He may have panicked, had he not dragged Isaac there himself. Though, he was too flattened to even remember what excitement felt like at that point.

"Oww…where the hell…oh." Isaac sighed, as he recalled how he'd ended up in the middle of the desert. He groggily clambered into a standing position, and used the horse body to lean on to aid him in walking. Then he proceeded to throw himself into a seated position next to Achilles. "So, uh where's…?" He began.

"Gone." Achilles interrupted. He continued to stare off in the direction Anima had taken Charlotte.

"What about…" Isaac began again, before again being interrupted.

"Anima?" Achilles guessed, still very much absent in the conversation.

"Leather face, yeah." Isaac confirmed, almost immediately. He noticed a distinct lack of life in his companion's eye. "I'm guessing he's with her though." He gulped. Silence took the atmosphere, making Isaac very uncomfortable. Achilles had long since adjusted to the mood. An answer wasn't really needed. "So, what's the plan now then?" Getting some sort positive response from Achilles would've made Isaac feel much better, that was easier said than done though. Achillles simply shrugged, causing more frustration for his partner. "We could go home." Isaac suggested. Achilles looked up, giving Isaac hope.

"We could," Achilles looked as though those words were some kind of amazing revelation. "but we can't." The short burst of life that was in his eyes disappeared again. "We still need to find her." He continued in a droll tone.

"Chances are she's been found by now. If not, something worse." Isaac frowned as he gave his worrying opinion on the matter. "Either way, we should probably do something to take your mind off of this Charlotte incident. Got it!" He chuckled in contrast with the atmosphere. "We need to find you a quirky young lady, have some fun y'know." He snapped his finger and grinned. Achilles' rolling of his eyes could've been noticed by a blind man. "I'm serious here. A man can't work while grieving, but if he's got a woman to go home to it's great motivation. I learned that from you." He smiled, using a multitude of disturbing hand gestures in his explanation.

"You…learned that from me?" Achilles looked at Isaac in shock. Isaac grinned

"It's pretty obvious you don't have anything else you really care about down here. That's why you're giving up. When charlotte…sorry, sorry. I need to for the analogy." He acknowledged his setback in helping Achilles forget. "Seriously though, when she was around, you seemed like a completely different person."

"What you're saying is, it doesn't necessarily have to be a woman per se, just something I care about." Achilles attempted to neaten Isaac's analogy.

"Exactly! What I think you're forgetting though, is that you already have something like that down here." Isaac grinned again. He'd done it. Achilles looked up in confusion. "The kid! Bringing her home safely to her mother was the whole reason you came to this hell hole. No one comes to the south if they don't want to or have to, clearly you felt obligated…because you care." He took a moment to appreciate his speech.

"Like you said, some ones probably found her, and if not…worse. I can't return to Hazel without Lucy, I just couldn't." Achilles stood up. "So she's not in Spider Hollow, She's not in Gilded Brook, where next?" The passion began to gleam in his eye again. Isaac smiled.

"Well I don't know this place off by heart, but you said you saw Coady in Fairbell right?" Isaac scratched his head, trying to figure out where they were. Achilles nodded. "Let's stay the hell away from there then. I know you guys are…." He looked down at Achilles' broken arm. "…pals, but that guy's an asshole. We should head to Wrench, Theo's up there right?" He continued to peer out into the distance.

"It's probably the best place to go. We should head to Fairbell." Achilles said plainly.

"Don't be an ass. There's one of two reasons you wanna go down there: Find Charlotte and fight Leather face, or find and fight Coady. Either way it's a bad idea." He sighed. Achilles ignored his words, he'd already set his mind on the idea. He stood up, and walked over to his spell book that had been dropped by Anima. The sun was setting in the west, if he kept it on his right, he'd reach Fairbell eventually. Isaac sighed, but eventually gave in and followed.

"I need to tell you something, and it's probably gonna make you think I'm crazy." Achilles began nervously. Isaac chuckled at the notion. Achilles sighed before continuing. "You remember Shillace right?" He waited for Isaac to respond.

"God, she still exists? I'dve thought you got over imaginary friends by now. You're not helping with the whole not trying to look crazy thing." He raised a brow, but left Achilles to continue.

"After my first encounter with Anima, she disappeared." Achilles quickly continued before Isaac could interfere with a joke. "Or at least I thought. She seemed to be gone after my fight with Coady. Since my encounter with Anima though, I've been having visions of the past…memories in fact." He paused, expecting a dismissive response, but it never came. "They seem to be memories from my childhood that I don't remember. The most recent one, was when we were all at my uncle's, and we left because Coady's parents had a child." He again paused, awaiting Isaac's response.

"What's your point?" He chuckled.

"Coady and Hazel are both older than me." He look at Isaac, determined to understand the situation. Isaac gulped. He again chuckled, this time slightly more nervous.

"Is it weird that I'm feeling really hungry right now." He feigned as though he'd ignored Achilles' response. Achilles glared at him, but didn't continue to press for information.

 

[Jauntier]

STETSON SUTCLIFFE
Wanted Outlaw
_____________________________________
23 | Initiate | Fire | $40



Fever made his efforts progressively exhaustive.

Digging the toes of his leather boots against taut muscle, his hands gripping onto skin and hair, the man hoisted himself over his steed with a bit more difficulty than he would have otherwise. Shivers trickled down the back of his neck and his chest heaved, as swinging himself over into position swashed around the boggy soup that seemed to fill his skull. He shifted, seating himself more comfortably into the dip of his horse's back. No thing aside from the seat of his pants separated him from his horse. A saddle cost money, and a proper one more. It would prove useful, as a quality saddle would have a means of stringing along his small leather chest of travelling necessities and his recently-borrowed lantern. No, the only tack he had were a halter and a lead--head gear and a guiding rope, respectively. This horse, one could say, was not equipped for riding beyond a trotting gait, though that didn't stop its substituted master.

He and his nameless ride eased into a walk as the covered wagon and lone ox drew nearer. Stetson and the Morgan curbed around their particular cluster of low trees and tall plants, leaving behind them his extinguished lantern and trunk to have his horse stand idly by, blocking part of the road. When the single-man caravan was two ox-lengths away, the rider--still shrouded in shadow from his wagon's overhanging canopy--stopped his draft.

"Is there a reason y'just standin' 'round the road, feller?" The voice called from behind the ox, who too had itself a halter, though its rope was a rein.

"I'm mighty sorry, sir," raised Stetson, his dismal tone and breathy speech shone prominently through, if not a little bit emphasized for appearances. "I suppose I should get outta your way, eh? I just got myself up for a thinkin' ride." With a gentle tug of his lead, he flexed his horse towards the wagon, and eased himself over closer to the foreign Chasm visitors.

"Yeah? Y'okay there, feller? Y'don't sound too good there." As the man asked with what sounded like obligatory concern and a hint of suspicion, there was a soft shuffling sound of something like metal to glass. It put Stetson immediately in a state of apprehension, his senses suddenly rousing him to whet his dulled senses. There was a possibility that the man owned something that could slay Stetson dead at that very moment, and though he still couldn't see much but the faint contour of a man's silhouette, as he slowly approached, he considered that the traveler was reaching back for something.

"I've caught myself a little cold from sleepin' on the ground 'til dew fall, sir," he retorted. In actuality, this was not true and he knew it. The real cause that required Fever was not yet figured. His horse was now paired to the ox, and Stetson could see directly on. In the dark, he made out a man in a cloak-like jacket and a wide-brimmed sea cap. Next was a glint of metal. It was all too quick for Stetson to react before he heard the distinct click.

A soft glow of light enveloped the man as it radiated from his lantern. Stetson, whose stomach was knotted and heart was painfully beating, slowly passed a silent sigh between barely-parted lips. He saw now that the man did not have a gun, but instead saw clearly his sun-burned, clean-shaven features. The man's expression matched his tone of curiosity as he continued.

"Y'ain't got a home to go to, just a travelin' man? Y'catch somethin' to catch?"

"Yessir, and I'm positively certain it ain't contagious," Stetson groggily assured. With the lead rope in his right hand, he quickly flipped it over his steed's head and shifted it to his other hand on the other side, the horse trained not to flex during the switch. With his now free hand, he wiped off chilled sweat that collected on his furrowed brow and offered an unconvincing smile. "But I ain't got any money for drugs and I'm burnin' up like the devil in the pit. You s'pose you could spare me something in your pocket, sir?"

"Oh," was his answer. In the second of dead air, it became obvious to Stetson that the man was considering his next few words. Stetson's hand had settled on the belt of his trousers, but it slowly pressed its way under the oil cloth of his duster and rested against something chill. The man continued. "I got no money to spare. I came down here to see some family and help get them roused for the r--"

"Money, sir, or your brain blown to bits."

A flared brass muzzle aimed at the man's head. He looked on with wide eyes and a slight grimace of fear, his lantern that once hanged steady now rattled faintly by a trembling grip and a loose handle. Stetson's face was void of any other color but pink and any other expression but a dead man's. His arm was stretched full as he held his pistol out and steady.

"Y'ain't gonna shoot a poor man for th' truth!" The man's cry was incredulous with fear.

The flintlock cocked into place.

"Oh no?"

Off in the distance, a shot rang.
​

__________________________________________

Summary:​

- Stetson approaches a coach and the rider questions Stetson's business. Stetson says he has a fever but doesn't have money for medicine. When the man refuses to offer money, Stetson pulls his pistol on him.
​

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2

 

[Junier]

Priscilla Varnett

Initiate Bounty Hunter l Earth l $0

Poor Priscilla re-experiences a nasty recollection from days long gone, involving her aunt, a trio of donkeys and a whole lot of broken bones. Fortunately, the showman from earlier has returned to offer a helping hand... not that Priscilla's willing to take it. "Fortune-telling", too. What a phony... until he flat out tricks her. Somehow, instead of the agency, Priscilla is led straight towards a building she really, really doesn't want to see. And how'd the man figure what it was? ...does he also know why?​

~ // ~ ​

Brays and whinnies would haunt her from that night forward.

It was excruciatingly cold, chillier than a little girl like her should have to experience. The Varnett family was unused to the fluctuating weather of the Barren Lands. The crunching soil, uneven and strewn with all pebbly debris, only strained on their old wagon's axis'. Every rotation and the covered wagon would creak. The children inside were scared witless, thinking that, at any moment, the entire wagon would collapse and take all their possessions with them. They much preferred life out of this miserable abyss but their family issues still reigning up north and migration was a necessity. But the Barren Lands was not hospitable to newcomers, especially weaker ones with resources to spare. Immediately, they were tracked down by outlaws who demanded resources, which the head male happily obliged to fulfilling. His strategy to ward them off only attracted more hungry outlaws looking for a fill. The Varnetts weren't poor, after all, and soon most of their necessities were drained out. The clearing was crowded with wagons with more mules and bemused thieves than little children, shivering outside their emptied-out wagon with little protection. The outlaws sped away carelessly, splitting their finds and laughing maniacally at the gullible idiots' sufferings. They didn't notice how close they were to plowing over any of the sniveling little brats hanging around, too scared to comprehend what was going about around them. And one got far too close. The mules surged forward with little Priscilla unaware until the last possible moment... when her aunt shoved her out of the way and took the impact for her.

The last thing she recalled was the tangled, incomprehensible mess of sound of snapping, groaning and braying. Then, Priscilla shut down the memory for good. She mentally burned it, refusing to ever replay it mentally in her lifetime. It was how she dealt with most of those torturous past events; facing them one final time before never coming close to remembering ever again typically kept them at bay. Thus, she could resume her chase as normal. This time without distractions and -- god forbid -- no potential close calls like the minutes prior. Priscilla rose from a sitting position upon an empty crate just around the corner. It was shaded place tucked in-between two long locked-up buildings with broken glass to her right and rotting fruit to her left. The shelter was much obliged but, frankly, it smelled and she had an agency to pick out. And thus, when she was prepared and determined for departure, she would come face-to-face with the oddly dressed showman. Spectacularly timed, he blocked the already claustrophobic path with another stunning grin painted upon his face.

"Oh, but why leave so soon?"

This man, this walking skeleton of a man with a chalky white complexion and flashy yet mysterious way of dress, was certainly an odd stranger. Now that Priscilla could get a closer observation, she became even more intrigued in this oddity of a human being. His voice, for one thing, was just as flamboyant as he. Untypical of that common Chasm resident, he reeked of foreignness. His disposition itself hinted at some country overseas. The reason he'd even pay a visit to a place like this, Priscilla wished she had a justification. But his features too were fascinatingly weird. Everything was dangling and stringy, but not too loose. The fellow's face especially was very hardened with jutting, pointed features. His cheekbones lifted and stretched his thin skin over his bones. The man overall had a "tight" look to him. Even his murky brown eyes moved in some unreadable manner. Observing his captivating. Odd, as he wasn't particularly "handsome" to Priscilla, just... interesting.

"A quiet type, eh? No matter! Either way, I'm adamant on helping you, so please don't insist on departing just yet."

"I beg ya pardon, sir?"

"Your reaction to the wagon... Well, overall you seem like a troubled person.

"I... Troubled?" Just seconds in and Priscilla was already bewildered. Was "troubled" some backhanded insult? The man himself seemed awfully invading, dishing out criticism and smiling mindlessly all the while, though she knew his intentions were pure ones. Still, her temper remained intact, her voice soft and steady, her face devoid of anything that might imply she were "troubled".

"You give off a 'troubled' essence, like... hold on... you've got something to hide. Something that's been bothering you, itching at you, for months now. Something that you're far too reserved to vent about but still need to relieve aggression towards? Are any of these sound familiar?"

Finally, her bamboozled state dwindled. The showman was just doing as he knew: show business. Fortune-telling, more specifically. Priscilla was well aware of the mental arts, though she highly doubted this curious character was actually reading her mind. Still, she played along, if only to quicken the time he'd leave.

"Hmm... yep, that all sounds pretty accurate there, mista'. Though, to be specific wi' ya, I've been thinkin' 'bout a certain place..."

"A place? Why, yes! Oh, I definitely see a place. An aging building right on the edge of town. Tucked between a few other buildings. Associated with many people..."

"Sounds about right. It's an agency." She passed him the written address. "Belongs to ol' Joan? Y'know the woman, right? ...maybe not but I'd like ta find the place. Been searchin' for a while now, ya see."

The man went silent. Closed his eyes, thought a bit and then opened with another stunning smile. "Certainly, madame. I actually know the place. If it'll relieve your mind and unclog your thoughts, even if for a single moment, I will feel achieved."

Priscilla couldn't resist feeling touched by the man's hospitality. Perhaps it was because of his assumed foreign roots but, either way, earnest generosity was rarer than flecks of gold down in the Barren Lands. Hell, death was commoner than a simple act of kindness, and that wasn't figurative. It appeared letting the showman perform his fortune-telling act would have its worth after all. At first, he'd come across as rather condescending but, as he guided her down the dusty roads of Spider's Hollow, she was convinced he was of good nature. A rarity Priscilla couldn't have been more thankful for. Granted, an utterly bizarre rarity... But his pace was fast and Priscilla just got a glimpse of his streaming cloak's corner as he vanished down the road. She rushed after him, exposed in the sunlight and nearly losing him as they cut across the town's center. Eventually, she did lose sight of him. They had arrived at the destination, however, so it was of no matter.

That was until Priscilla realized the address was incorrect. The structure was incorrect, the location was incorrect... No, no. This wasn't the bounty-hunting agency she'd been aspiring to find all afternoon, it was that damned pub. The pub with the shattered windows and near-collapsed roof, insides mangled and destroyed. Once a competitor with the now highly-esteemed pub that put Spider's Hollow into relevance, it was abandoned, trashed and obliterated, leaving only, dirty, dirty memories that rattled through Priscilla's troubled mind immediately as the beheld it. How had that mangy magician known about this place? Priscilla swore she'd strangle him.

~ // ~ ​

❈ POST 1​

 

[gimmepie]

Alex Rose

On the Long and Winding Trail in the Middle of Nowhere

Alex stood in what could only be described as the middle of nowhere, the scorching heat of the barren lands beating down upon his skull. He had been wandering for hours now and it was becoming almost inevitable that he would be forced to turn back as his water supplies were going to fall lower than he needed if he continued on hopelessly for much longer.

Alex's head throbbed under the menacing sun, his throat parched from carefully limited water consumption and the conditions only causing his already sour mood to worsen as he remembered his recent exodus from Spider's Hollow, on rather poor terms with the local Sheriff and Janet both.

"I don't give a **** how much pain you inflict on trash criminals, I don't care how much of a mess you make doing your job, Alex. What I do ****ing care about is when your messes come back and bite me in the ass. There's a pissed off sheriff now that's threatening to cause me a lot of trouble over your actions, that includes us losing exclusivity on some of the bounties they put out. Do you no what that means for a hunting agency? It means losing ninety-nine Goddamn percent of our business and all of our income along with it.

Now I don't know what on Earth possessed you to torture a man to death in the middle of the sheriff's premises, but I sure as hell hope that these directions more than make up for the veritable shitstorm you've caused by doing it. Not to mention tearing up half our ****ing town in a blinkwar with some lunatic working for Rex."​

Alex wasn't sure if it was the unpleasant memory of Janet berating him or the spiteful shine of the sun that was making him wince at that point. One thing was certain though, considering all the trouble had gone through to get his directions – they had not been nearly specific enough. In fact, he was standing in the middle of a barren wasteland with no noticeable rock formations in any direction. At this point he was estimating that he was probably about twelve hours from Spider's Hollow, that meant by the time he returned it would almost definitely be the next day and he probably couldn't afford to keep Janet waiting much longer than that. As a bounty hunter in Spider's Hollow, Janet was probably the one person you really couldn't afford to anger.
"I better keep looking I guess, if I'm guessing correctly I need to move more to the north-west." Alex sighed before heading back over to his horse, the animal trying to graze but finding nothing. "Might as well see which one of us drops dead from dehydration first" Alex said, patting the horse's neck as he tapped its sides with his boots.​

 

[Jauntier]

STETSON SUTCLIFFE
Wanted Outlaw
_____________________________________
23 | Initiate | Fire | $40



If there was ever a time to regret, it was then.

The gun in his hand did not smoke. Stetson had not fired. The shot that rang out was a distance away, but not soon after did he hear the beating of hooves. They were too many to be by a lone rider yet not so that it was greater than a few. The sound quickly gained ground behind him as he whipped his head over his shoulder, looking back in the direction from whence he came. Emerging from the Chasm's shadow were three figures on black steeds at full gallop. They spanned the road, an encroaching barrier of harbingers, their pistols faintly catching the moonlight.

"Shit!"

The realization of immediate danger pierced through the fever-thickened mire in his skull. His body felt as if on fire from the coursing adrenaline and cloth-trapped heat. These highwaymen were after the same game. In his condition, he knew he couldn't take on all three. They would flank him and gun him down. They would steal from him and take his own hunt. The hunt he saw first.

When Stetson turned back to meet his victim, he only saw brass before he was struck. He shouted a curse, half of his head in dull, throbbing pain from the blunt force to his face. Stetson recoiled in involuntary reaction as he drew back from the sudden pain of what felt like a punch to his eye. In his recoil, his fingers flexed and his hand yanked. Then everything turned for the worst.

It all happened at once: As the man's lantern rebounded from the force of the accost, the glass crashed on the ground nearby, shattering. Kerosene poured from the cracked fount and was immediately set ablaze by the flame of the loose wick, a small fire spreading over the thin film of running oil that was now soaking the ground. The flame licked at the horse's foreleg heel and pastern, causing it distress from the sudden brush of burning heat, and in conjunction with the harsh, sharp yank of its lead rope, the animal wildly cut a flank, squealing with protest. In the moment the horse turned away, Stetson's fingers clenched in from his cringing pain and gripped the trigger.

The man who had seized the opportunity to throw his lantern at Stetson to buy himself time had already directed his ox to drive around and take off from the dangerous area, but as they were already a quarter-turn right back north with the man no longer in the direct path of the shot, a lead ball and splayed buck tore through the linen of his wagon's hood, striking something within. In that split second, there was an explosion.

A deafening sound and small splints of wood burst forth, carried on by the force of the disaster. Out from it swept a gale of searing heat that engulfed the rogue, as his horse screamed from the noise and the inescapable blast of heat. It kicked itself into a full gallop, but Stetson was not at all prepared from the hell of it all. The sudden jolt of the gallop with no saddle and stirrup to secure him had jarred him, and he fell off his seat, crashing to the ground below with a holler. Instinctively, he had gripped onto the lead as if for dear life, but that mistake had him dragged through dust and coarse earth. Letting go as soon as he could tell his muscles to react, he watched in his slowly blurring vision as his steed ran off toward the other men and his kin, only to shriek and fall following the sound of gunfire.
​

__________________________________________

Summary:​

- The gunshot was actually a warning from three oncoming bandits on horseback as they exited the Chasm. Stetson sees the approaching danger, but when he turns around to direct the caravan man he's holding at gunpoint, the man hits Stetson in the face with a lantern. In the commotion, Stetson accidentally pulls his trigger, which hits something flammable in the man's wagon, exploding it. His spooked horse runs off, Stetson falls off, and watches as the nearing bandits gun it down.
​

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3

 

[Sonata]

Sophia Hartmann
Status - Outlaw - member of Culebra clan
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Air
Bounty - 580$

Jebediah Sanders
Status - Bounty Hunter
Sorcery Level - 2
Element - Air
Money - $1320

Wrench

Make A Wish

"Right, so here's the plan. I just found a ring that belonged to our informant, and it was attached to a severed finger. Whatever was here and caused that scene must have gotten to him too. So now we're on to plan B." He nodded up towards Alice who was staring out over the crowd with a cute childish smile on her face. "This one's going to lead us to some shelter for the night and then in the morning Marzia and Sophia will be heading out to find some information."

Some murmurs spread through the group and heads turned towards each other before one of the shorter members - only a year or two older than Alice - stepped up and spoke. "Do we have any ideas about what might have made that mess?"

Marzia stepped out in front of the others to answer the boy's question. "The one who hijacked us spilled everything that he knew. By the time he had got here it seems the creature that attacked them had already done in our guide. It seems to be around ten or eleven feet tall and is said to be extremely strong as well as agile. The dog said that it made quick work of his team. Though they weren't magicals, it would still take a big bad level or possibly beyond that to take out a group that sized without having even a bit of trouble."

The boy bit his lip and looked back over to his friend that had originally pushed him to ask the question. He regretted taking on the task now. "So, we should like, have our guns loaded and ready to shoot anything that jumps out rea-"

The kid had started to ask a stupid question. Marzia put her head in her hand and rubbed her temples, letting out a very loud and clearly audible sigh. "You should have already had your guns loaded and ready to shoot anything that would jump out. I can't believe the amateurs I have to work with. Just how far have I dropped?" Her voice trailed off into a mumble as she turned her back to the kid and stomped away, half laughing at herself and half about ready to just shoot someone.

Bear motioned for the kid to go back to his place in the crowd. "Anyways, make sure your guns are loaded if for some stupid reason they weren't already or you decided to unload them. Make sure you're ready to shoot should anything come at us with ill intent. And make sure not to fall behind. We will leave you." After finishing the announcement, Bear turned his back and made his way in the direction that Alice was telling him to go.

"Straight forward Mister Fair Bear." Alice giggled as she kicked her legs. The smile on her face grew wider by the minute. It was almost creepy. "My stepmommy lives right up that hill in the big old mansion. When Mom divorced dad she moved out to Ironhaven to live in one of their houses. And then daddy stayed back in Aelham. After a couple of years he remarried and then bought a house down here as a summer home. Take a right up here." Alice wrapped her legs around Bear's neck and then flopped down, letting her whole body dangle while her hands were hit over and over by the running man's feet.

"Quit climbin' all over me and just sit still dammit." Bear grumbled. "I can't breathe when ye' got yer legs wrapped around my neck like that.Get up here and sit normal."

Alice sighed and then sat up. She rolled her head around, cracking her neck and then she yawned. "I'm tired." She stuck her pinkie in her ear and pulled out some wax that she wiped on the man's shoulder.

"Yeah, you're tellin' me. You didn't even have to run all that way either. I'm gettin' too old for this shit."

They ran on like this all the way to the other side of the town where Alice's stepmom lived. A few of the members of the gang fell behind or just plain passed out due to exhaustion. By the time they got to the mansion their numbers had drastically decreased. Now their group consisted of Alice, Bear, Marzia, Sophia, Jebediah, Jack and six others including the young boy who really shouldn't have been in their presence for at least another couple of years.

Everyone was exhausted. Nobody felt like doing anything except for laying down and going to sleep. This day had gone on for far too long. Alice hopped down off of Bear's shoulder and knocked on the door.

A stuck up-ish sounding voice came from the other side. "Mmmyeesss? Who goes there?"

Alice leaned her face close to the door. "It's me Cosma; Alice. I came to visit you and I brought some new friends too! Would you be able to give us some food and beds for the next night or so?"

Several latches and locks could be heard being undone on the other side and then the door swung open. A woman who seemed to be about twenty-four flew out. She was dressed in a rather large and frilly gothic dress. Her eyes and lips were coated in several layers of black dye and the remainder of her face and hair had been powdered to a blinding white. "Oh Alice! It's been just too long my dear. How are you? Have you been eating? My goodness look at your clothes! You're filthy! When was the last time you bathed? You simply must come in, and of course bring all of your friends too. It'd be awfully uncourteous of me to leave them out in the cold whilst we have a killer in town."

Alice nuzzled her head into the ribs of the woman and then giggled. "Yes momma Cosma." Then she winked at the group of outlaws and headed inside.

Tears began to stream down the faces of a few of the members. "My god. Beds! At long last we can sit down and rest."

Bear shuffled in to the house first, followed by Jack, Sophia, Jebediah, the rest of the others and then Marzia pulled up the rear. She gave a final scan of the area outside to ensure that they hadn't been followed and that all who had managed to follow that far were inside and accounted for.

As the assassin closed the door and began to make her way out of the entry room and into the rest of the house, Cosma swung around behind her and hastily did up all the locks.

"Unsafe times around these parts don't you know? Can't go a single night without a locked door anymore." Cosma glared at Marzia so intently that it actually made the assassin uneasy. Maybe it was just the makeup, but the woman's eyes were massive and they just seemed to bore a hole straight through her. She felt as if it didn't matter how many layers she covered up with; this woman was able to see through it all. "Be sure that you put that snake in a case before bed too. There's enough dangers around..." She trailed off as she walked away, talking about the various dangers that were present and how everything was falling apart and it all seemed so depressing. She walked through a doorway to the left and started shouting something about chicken au gratin and the family's special casserole.

Alice led Bear, Jack and the rest of the crew to a room to the right which she said was the dining area. Nobody looked like they really wanted to eat, but they surely wouldn't be ones to turn down free food. After a few seconds the only people left in the entry area were Jeb, Sophia and Marzia. Jeb was starving after having barely eaten any of the nasty bread that he was given earlier that day, but Sophia was still pissed at him for his earlier actions and forced him to join her as she went to speak with Marzia.

The assassin's eyes were still fixed on the spot where Cosma had been standing when she spoke to her. Sophia grabbed onto her shoulder and gave Marzia a light shake. "Hey, you alright? What happened?"

Marzia opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. A cold chill ran up her spine and then Jeb slapped her across the face. "Snap out of it."

Sophia jumped back and Marzia fell to the ground. "What the fuck!?" They both shouted a whisper at Jeb who simply shrugged.

"It's not healthy to be that out of it," he said. "What happened between you and that woman with all the makeup that got you all flustered?"

The assassin rubbed her head and then put her hood down. "There's just something not quite right about her. I'd be weary of sleeping too heavily tonight."

"What are you doing? It's time to eat!" Cosma strolled back into the room. "Go on, go on. Into the dining area. Get your hands cleaned and ready yourselves for dinner. I've the chefs starting in on a feast that'll be ready in a short bit. While we wait we can all share stories of our adventures and our lives! Won't that be fun? It's been so long since I've seen Alice or her sister. Have you met Scarlet? She's such a good girl, but my does she have a mouth on her. Oh I just can't wait to..." the woman began to trail off as she moved up and down the main stairwell a few times apparently looking for something. Her voice came in and out of focus, but nothing that was audible made any sense.

The trio decided that for now they'd go and eat dinner. The others needed to be warned discreetly, and they figured it was best to leave Alice out of the loop. The kid didn't need to have to deal with anything else today.

A joint post of Sonata and Foxrally​

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