Y.Z. Act IV [PG-16]

[parallelzero]

OOC thread can be found here.

The City of Seratis, Alta | 7:05PM
"Even though we came here upon hearing news of a festival, why is it nothing seems to be happening, Saki? I knew this would be an incomprehensible waste of time." The young boy, dressed far older than he appeared, spat as he ridiculed nobody in particular. A passing girl raised an eyebrow at the boy, who in turn responded by raising his nose to the air. Women were below the great Yuki, heir of the Sumeragi fortune. The only one he needed was his dear sister, and he didn't even hold her on that high of a pedestal despite the fact that they shared the same body. He had only agreed to come out this far from their previous location in Carn since they really had nowhere else to go, and maybe a festival could have brightened their spirits. But, alas, there was no festival to be found here. Though, maybe it wasn't a total loss. This city was famous for it's beautiful cobblestone walkways that tread alongside crystal clear streams and waterfalls throughout the entirety of the city. It was nearly nightfall, and thus the entire scene was decorated in a lovely orange hue. It, however, was not a practical place to spend an extended vacation. Alta was one of the few countries where residents of Carn and Tealia vacationed, and with what had been happening in Tealia recently, conflicts have been starting up in places where the two peoples interact. Yuki was from Tealia himself, but he was removed from home recently. The depth of the situation there was lost to him.

Though it was highly abnormal. This was the second largest city aside from the capital in this country, so where was everyone? The streets were abnormally bare aside from a few people running around frantically from place to place, and the odd traveller that seemed to be as confused as he was. "Maybe the festival is somewhere else in the city?" a familiar voice chimed in Yuki's head. The voice was similar to his own, albeit a bit higher and more feminine. "We came all this way, so we might as well check it out anyways~?"

"I suppose..." Yuki replied aloud once again as he tapped his right index finger against the jacket of his black suit on the opposite arm as he considered their situation. "But don't things seem abnormally quiet?"

---

"Ehhh? What do you mean Carn is going to try to invade Alta today?!" The cloaked figure threw down his glass of cream soda in protest against the bartender who had left him with that little piece of information. God awful timing to pick up a mission in this damn country. But, on the bright side, maybe his reward would double if he met with any trouble. Beside his seat at the bar, a single, steel hoop stood up against the smooth mahogany that was the bar. A design like ivy wrapping itself around the weapon was etched into the steel, and it reflected the dim light of the near-empty bar. The cloaked individual had no plans to reveal his face, nor his identity. He had a high paying job to do, hopefully enough for his mom to at least look at him again, even if the task at hand was essentially a murder mission.

The bartender looked at the cloaked individual as if he were high. "I don't see how ya couldn'ta heard, news of them there Carn flagships headin' 'wards Alta has been on the news since yesterday. Everyone who wuz afraid flew the coop shortly after. You'd best do the same. I hear they got hold of some pretty powerful technology recently. Be best to not go picking any fights with 'em. At least if ya want to keep yur shady little head!" The smelly old bartender managed a laugh, which left the cloaked figure in a state of sweatdroppage. Though, new technology? Carn had been advancing just a little too quickly recently. It was fishy at best. But Carn had some powerful soldiers, didn't they? Maybe this was his chance to actually get a challenge out of a fight!

---

Yuki brushed his bangs aside as he glanced blankly down at the object presented before him. Whatever the hell these two young men were moving, it certainly looked heavy. The object in question was a large, metallic crate with a dial on the side. It was silver, shiny, and large enough to fit a person in if the need arose, though it was unlikely. "Excuse me, could you tell me what that item is?" Yuki needed to know. He had a thirsty for knowledge, as did his sister, so even the little things needed explanation.

"This?" One of the young men asked as he dropped his end down, before swiping his arm across his forehead to wipe the sweat free. "This is a container for carrying livestock. It's new. Apparently is knocks the animals out cold and keeps them preserved or something like that."

"Do you know what's inside?"

"Nope. Just supposed to deliver it to the given address."

"Can I take a look?"

"Well, I don't see the har-"

"BANG!" A mahstion bullet flew from down the road a ways, the man's brains flying out the side of his head as his body fell to the ground. Yuki turned in the direction of the gunshot, and found a small batallion of Carn soldiers. Carn? Here? And why the hostility? Gunshots, swords, and screams began to rise up from across the city. Yuki, panicked, grabbed the metal crate and ran, dragging the more than heavy item behind him as he ducked into a nearby alleyway. Not good, not good, not good. Seeing no other option, he stashed the crate behind a garbage can in order to make it look like waste, and jumped in. He'd rather hide with some pigs than have his brains blown out by the entire Carn military force.

What he felt his body pressing against was not a pig, however. It was far too soft, and shapely, and it had a nice smell - like flowers. Yuki finally opened his eyes, and found him staring at the face of a cute girl. Once again in shock, he leapt out of container. There... there was a body in there! This was not looking to be one of his better days...

 

[Loki]

Dimitri frowned, rolling his shoulders and stretching his back. These artificial wings had to be the most uncomfortable thing he'd ever worn, and with six piercings (or more?) on his face, he'd worn quite a few uncomfortable things in his lifetime. How could anyone stand having something jutting out of their backs? It was impossible to sit comfortably, and they ruined his balance, no thanks to the added air resistance. But the boarding parks above ground were generally better facilities than the ones in the Underground. There was no way to say 'no' to that. And not only that, but custom boards were actually worth buying up here. Dimitri folded his skyboard down and laced the strap through its slot, pulling the machine onto his shoulder as he stood up. He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets, glancing around at the other boarders who were either being dorks and just gliding, or being intelligent and actually executing tricks other than crapped out ollies. His work was done today, as six hours of boarding from opening hour to now was just enough to suffice for the day. As he trudged around the half pipes and past the concession stand that sold mediocre food. At least it wasn't stale chips and expired soda though, like it was in Dimitri's home park. As he walked out, he said nothing to anyone. It was better not to get to know above grounders. They would kick you off the island soon as they figured out the wings on your back were fake. And a fall from the sky to the ground was not Dimitri's idea of sick air. Okay, well it would be sick air, but coordinating freaking out and getting a skyboard put together probably wasn't exactly a walk in the park.

The chains on his wallet that were hooked onto one of his belt loops clinked against each other, the sound adding to the small tinkle that came from the flat metal earrings on his right ear. It was hard not to look insecure, surrounded by people who only passed their glances over him because he was wearing a pair of fake wings. It was hard not to feel pushed in by danger at all sides. Good thing he wasn't claustrophobic. But Dimitri had long accepted that he just generally wasn't welcome here, and the price of taking advantage of the better stuff up here was being alone. Well. Not that there were many people waiting for him down in the Underneath. He wouldn't have been surprised if Kenny, Big Ben, Slinky, and Boss were all whittling away their time in jail or something, comparing tattoo's of women on their arms that they could make dance by flexing their bicep. Or something repulsive like that. Dimitri didn't like seeing the same people twice, so he limited himself to hanging around more deserted cities that had people who didn't want to talk to you. It wasn't hard to find the perfect country for that. Tealian people talked to Tealian people, Carn people talked to Carn people, Beta and Gregar people never really came here, and well. Underneather's weren't usually in Seratis. But you can damn well guess that Dimitri was the one Underneather who was walking through the streets of Seratis without a single worry in his head, even when people were frantically running in the opposite direction, screaming and panicking. The works.

"Hmm…" Dimitri stopped walking after being shoved aside by a man running for dear life, peering after him with a raised eyebrow, "That was kind of rude. He didn't even say 'Pardon me' or anything." After a moment of silence, Dimitri shrugged it off. "Oh well. No harm done." He took a few more paces to the building he'd taken up residence in, a moderately respectable building that looked recently abandoned. Stepping into the lobby of the apartment building, he looked towards the main desk and quirked his eyebrow again, his piercings moving as well. "… Huh, maybe Jackie went for a run too."

He hardly flinched at the sound of a gunshot, instead looking over his shoulder with a lightly surprised look on his face. "… Am I in Alta, or the Underneath?" Stepping to the side of the window, he cautiously peered out of the corner, down the street. Ooh, those uniforms that those people stampeding up the road were… Carn? Maybe. Dimitri wasn't exactly too knowledgable on above ground matters, other than skyboarding. He twitched the curtains open a little farther to reveal that the building would soon be quickly vacated, empty, and therefore, not worth invading, before retreating upstairs to his loft, standing casually in front of his collection of iron pipes. Picking a random one, he stuck the metal between his skyboard and notched the curved end into one of the decorative holes in the leather strap. "Wish Slinky was here. I need to bail." Dimitri mumbled to himself, sitting down on his bed and peering out the window.

'Hopefully these soldiers are as stupid as the guy we used to steal bread from.' Dimitri thought, picking up an iron pipe that was lighter than the one on his back, just in case. Always be ready, or something like that. Getting kicked off the island was kind of likely, and Dimitri had mostly planned for it. But getting kicked off the island by getting shot was not in Dimitri's to-do list.

 

[parallelzero]

"Oi, we can't just stand around here, nii-chan. Those soldiers are going to find us sooner or later!" Saki echoed in Yuki's mind. He was quite aware of that fact, but what the hell was he supposed to do? There was a person is the goddamn container, probably in a deep sleep or something. Why? His guess was any good as any, but it was a life he could possibly save if he brought it with him. Speaking of which, why the hell was there a massacre going on right before his eyes? Sure King Piper had made some indecent decisions in the past, but ordering something like this... Then there was Tealia. Princess Evaline wasn't a bad person like the citizans made her out to be, but throwing that woman into politics in a foreign country wasn't a very smart move. Yuki had always rationalized the move as someone trying to get rid of her. It seemed that way, at least. Anyways, if Alta fell to Carn, then that left Beta and Gregar as the only airborne regions not under the control of Carn. If he lived long enough, he'd be interested to see the response of those two countries along with Flazure and the Underneath. Not that Yuki had any respect for the wingless. Wingless bandits were the reason he and his sister almost died after all. "BEHIND YOU!"

Not a moment after the warning had been cast occured before the steel of Yuki's chakrams met the steel of a large ring-like object, which flew back to it's owner on the rooftop above. A smirk was seen from beneath the black cloak of the attacker as his black, feathered wings ruffled in the back. "Eh, you're not bad. I didn't expect you to pull two weapons out of your pockets, let alone in time to block my attack. If I wasn't in a hurry, I might have liked to have some fun with you." The figure sank into the building following his words. Well, he didn't sink into the building exactly. It was most likely a pool of teleportation dation that formed beneath his feet. That meant this person was either a dation user, or he had an accomplice that was.

Yuki stood at the ready, his arms down and out to the sides, the silver loops in his hands reflecting the setting sun as he quieted his breath. In order to anticipate the attack of someone who lurked in the shadows, one had to understand the shadows, after all. If he was quiet and at the ready, when the attacker made his move, he'd know exactly where it was coming from. This was far from easy, as the sound of explosions and gunfire all over the city was highly distracting, especially when one of those shots could be coming at you. Several seconds past with no action from either side, but Yuki finally whipped the two chakrams down at the ground before him just as a dation pool opened and the assassin's head popped out. The dual blow to the head knocked the attacker back into the hole he came, appearing several seconds out of where he had teleported from atop the building and tumbling to the ground below in a dazed manner. Yuki just watched, unamused, as the attacker through off his cloak, swaying back and forth like a drunk. His orange hair was certainly something to laugh at it, not to mention his shirt and jeans were black. Yuki needed all his self control not to shout out 'HAPPY HALLOWEEN!' and laugh, although Saki was doing her fair share of it where the teen couldn't hear. "Okay, I'll admit, you're a bit talented kid, but I really need to kill that Semi back there before I get killed first."

"Semi? Back there?" Yuki's eyes glanced back at the cooling container. So that's what was in there. The bi-product of a human and a skill. Hate for skills was bad enough, but one unfortunate enough to be born from both sides must live a godawful life. Wouldn't someone like that be in Teflin, though? Unless they were cast away, maybe... But Yuki didn't discriminate against skills, so why would he against Semis? A life is a life. "With what's going on here, I'm going to save what I can. Semi or no."

The orange-haired boy spat on the cobblestone path to his left as he put his hands on his hips. "Listen kid, I don't know what's with you and your lame outfit, but you probably don't understand the world too well. People need to do things to make money, or else they die. Me, I gotta kill that Semi or else-"

"You'll die, is that it?" The teen seemed irritated at having his sentence finished for him. "So someone else's life in exchange for yours is okay?" Yuki's words didn't have much impact by themselves, but his tone of voice was cold and unamused, so it had a chilling effect. "Selfish people like you are despicable. You're the one who deserves to die."

Soren sweatdropped. This kid's life must have been one hell of a ride for him to write someone off based on one comment. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but there was more riding on his situation than just money. He sighed, and gripped his hoop tightly before charging at the boy, only to suddenly disappear and appear behind Yuki. "Tag!" Was all Soren heard as he swung the weapon at his target. But, he found himself blinded by a bright light - well, it wasn't that bright, but at the close quarters it was enough to knock out his vision for a second - and his attack didn't connect. He was quickly met by a foot to the face, however, as something jumped up off of it. "Oi, I'm a lot faster than Yuki-nii-chan, so try to keep up, 'kay?" Soren's vision finally cleared, and his original guess of that voice being female was correct. Now, this girl standing seven feet away from him... looked a lot like the boy from before, although the gothic lolita outfit was a lot farther up on the weird scale than the suit the boy had on. Though she said "nii-chan", right? So she was probably his sister. but where did this Yuki fellow run off to? Soren couldn't pinpoint his presence anywhere. Though, this was bad.

"I... don't hurt girls." He murmured submissively as his eyes hit the ground. It had been the one thing that his mom had drilled into his head... which may be why he's never beaten her in a fight.

"Then how were you intending to kill me? You are here to kill me, correct?" A lifeless, female voice called from behind Saki. Soren almost had a heart attack as his eyes adjusted to the increasing darkness and saw a girl, probably fifteen or sixteen, nude behind the girl who stood in his way. Plus... the tattoo above her left breast... the black, half-moon, that was the identifying mark of a Semi, their brand, if you will. Saki panicked first of all, having not heard this individual approach from behind. The girl had an unusual, greyish white hair colour, and her blue eyes looked like they belonged to a doll more than anything. Picking a tattered, dirty robe off of a nearby garbage can, Saki threw it over the girl. It smelled like garbage, but the Semi didn't complain. Soren just whimpered in defeat. He really wouldn't be able to carry out his mission after all.

"Hey, what are you brats doing back here?!" A rough man's voice shouted from the end of the alleyway, and his shadow was cast down the way, but since he was in the path of the sun, they couldn't make out his appearance. "You should be out getting killed like everyone else!" He held up a mahstion pistol and pointed it at Saki. "They say women and children first, right? Well you're both, so might as well!"

 

[Loki]

"Today…" Dimitri said to himself, sweatdropping as he backed up against the window of his one room flat, feeling behind him for the latch, "Just isn't going very well." Three soldiers had burst into his room. Well damn if the room was dusty and he couldn't hold back a sneeze. It wasn't like he was a neat freak or anything like that. Erk, three mahstion guns pointed at him was not a case of Dimitri's happy time. "W-Why don't we just… be friends?" Dimitri tried, to no avail as he ducked behind his dresser, multiple holes appearing in the stuff scattered around the room. "Hey this stuff is expensive you kno- woah!" Dimitri pulled his head back behind the metal furniture looking at the clean hole that had been burned through the wall- right behind where his head had been a few seconds ago. Honestly, he'd been raised to run from fat men wearing aprons and carrying a hammer or something, not fit men wearing uniforms and carrying guns! "So like, how has your day been?" Dimitri stalled from behind his dresser. Three gunshots answered his question. "Oh, you know you should find a psychiatrist or something, I hear they're great for relieving-" Dimitri put his feet up against the back of the dresser, shoving it out towards the soldiers as he finished his sentence, "Stress!"

…. Oh, but he hadn't counted on the fact that the dresser was too heavy to reach the guy in the middle. Well crap. So much for that.

"Eh- well you know how it is, survival of the….. okay um. Toodles!" Dimitri smashed out of the window, whipping out his skyboard and just barely landing on it before crashing to the ground. A two-story fall wasn't enough time to do anything graceful, damn it, not to mention the three soldiers had piled out of the window to shoot down towards him. "Man what is with these above grounders?" Dimitri grumbled to himself, strapping his feet into the board as he sped along, in the opposite direction in which the soldiers had been moving. The roads were essentially empty now, remnants of the raid littering the streets. "I'll bash their faces in if they trash the park-" Dimitri let out another high-pitched yelp as he crashed into a soldier, the nose of his skyboard connecting with the side of the man's face at at least 75 miles per hour, if not more for the fact that Dimitri was trying to escape from a bunch of people who were playing war. Flying off of his skyboard, Dimitri managed to twist himself into a secure landing, muttering to himself as soon as his feet hit ground, "Saaafe- wait- not!" He spun around, his eyes wide as he stared at the nose of his skyboard, which looked essentially unharmed. Letting out a sigh of relief, he hurried back to his skyboard, picking it up and wiping the tip with the end of his shirt. "Good thing it hit his cheek, otherwise it might've dented!" He looked down at the unconscious soldier, "You would've owed me three hundred dollars in repairs, be grateful." Finishing the one-sided conversation by stepping on the man's head and giving his face a good bash with the end of his iron pipe, Dimitri gave him a thumbs down, "And tell your buddies that that was for trashing my place." Unfolding his skyboard, Dimitri muttered irritably to himself, "Stupid people being stupid-"

Dimitri's lazy gaze settled on the group down the alleyway before giving a bright smile as if he hadn't just knocked the living daylights out of a dangerous man on accident. "… Well hi there folks! I'm a little busy, you know, what with this um…" Dimitri brought the end of his iron pipe onto the man's head again, a sickening crack sending visible shivers from his toes to the tip of his head, "Ooh, my bad. That didn't sound too good. Well uh. You guys look kinda-…" Dimitri's sentence was cut short as he caught sight of the esssentially nude girl. Or at least, she was nude from the back, since he'd interuppted just when that... whatever it was had been thrown over her front. He coughed and waved his hand through the air in front of his nose and mouth, as if trying to wave away a bad scent, "Uh…. Busy. I guess." Dimitri shook his head, "What the heck am I saying, you know, it's not decent for a girl to be walking around wearin' squat, or whatever that lump of... whatever is. Especially with these guys," Dimitri poked at the man's lifeless head, "running around like Santa's coming to town. You all friends and stuff? Cause like, friends don't let friends run around half... you know." Dimitri motioned up and down, failing to read the situation in all ways possible.

 

[parallelzero]

Silence hung over the alleyway like a neuce in a medieval courtyard. Soren and Saki sweatdropped at the newcomer's arrival. He wasn't exactly... graceful. "Man, you're lame." The large mouth of the Semi hunter blurted out after regaining his composure. Saki, as well as Yuki in her consciousness, both sweatdropped again at how accurately the attacker had summed up their own feelings on the stranger. With all that was going on at that very moment, it was hard to keep track of things. "And hey, don't throw me in with the likes of these people. Like I'd be friends with a Se- OW!" The boy was cut off my the stomping of the horned girl's foot onto his own, as if she was saying 'finish that sentence and I'll kill you'. Safe to say, he shut his trap soon after, throwing his right hand behind his back.

Feeling the need to cover up, Saki spoke next. "Ahh, we actually aren't of any relation. My cousin and myself were in town on a visit when Carn came a short while ago. We had to run. There wasn't time to get her changed!"

"Dirty li-AOWWWW!" Soren shrieked at the reuniting of Saki's foot with his own.

The Semi girl, in all the commotion, tore a long strand of hair from her own head, the locks weaving as they began to glow, a long chain resting in place of the hair that once was. "If I may. It is not safe here. We should move somewhere safer before continuing." Yeesh, she seemed to be awfully calm for being half nude in the middle of an alleyway during a hostile takeover by the most powerful country in the world.

"Fine, fine. We'll sort this mess out later. Name's Soren, by the way." The attacker - Soren - finally coughed up his identity as he threw his hoop around his left shoulder. "Chances are they've got the exits sealed off, which means the only way out of here is down."

"...Down?"

"Yeah, the Underneath. This city is on the edge of Alta, after all."

"Hmm... Yuki seems to agree with your idea. So I guess I have no choice but to go along. Saki is my name~!" Saki replied cheerfully. Soren raised an eyebrow. That name again. Yuki was it? Who was she speaking for? It sounded like she was referencing a fael, but didn't she refer to him as her brother earlier? "And what's your name?" She turned to the Semi, who looked back blankly, and answered with only one word.

"...Miki."

"Okay Miki! Let's go!" Saki exclaimed, dragging the Semi out into the streets once more. Thankfully, the soldiers seemed to be off in another area. But... the beautiful streams running through the beautiful city... they were red with blood. Saki lurched, not being very strong when it came to the gruesome, and deterred away from the water.

Soren sweatdropped. "Great, looks like I'm babysitting now. You want to come too? It'd be stupid to try and get out of here alone at this point." Soren murmured after jerking an uncaring finger at Dimitri.

---

"Sir... it's questionable enough that we were told to slaughter an entire city, but why are we throwing all of the bodies into the water?" The black haired, orange eyed footsoldier questioned her superior as she leaned against her spear. Saria Delsworth was a little more than troubled by her King's orders as of late. "Surely the rest of the troops don't agree-"

"They don't." The heavily armored man replied. "And neither do I, but we have our orders. With all of these bodies floating downstream, I guess whoever is in charge of strategy wanted the bodies to fall to the Underneath where'd they'd be a beacon of terror... I guess."

"We didn't even get an explanation for this slaughter. This is god awful." One of Saria's fellow soldiers added. As if she didn't know."

"Saria, I know you're young, and not used to this kind of thing, so why don't you join Kelvin's squad near the edge? They should have the lightest workload." The general added, apparently concerned for the girl's well being. Well, that was to be expected. He had adopted her, after all.

 

[Loki]

Dimitri raised an eyebrow, shouldering his skyboard and leaning his weight onto his left leg, "Man, you people'd get shot on sight in the Underground, goin' around tellin' people they're lame when they just saved your butt. Or… I think I did anyway." Dimitri glanced down at the dead soldier and shrugged, "But the point is, you guys, or well, you guy," Dimitri jerked his chin towards Soren, "Should get some first impression manners, you know? Anyway, you lot can't say much about me being lame to begin with. I mean..." He pointed around at them with a general movement of his arm, "You guys aren't exactly Cool-Cover material either." Dimitri paused, chewing on the inside of his lower lip as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Daaaaamn. He got up here for what, a year odd and now he was getting ushered back down. That kind of sucked. "You seem to be pretty laid back about going down. I dunno, most people are usually more wary of the people down there. I mean. Mob of racist people down there," Dimitri pointed down, "Or mob of soldiers with… guns….." Dimitri trailed off, rubbing his chin in thought, "Hmm. I have a good point. Well!" Dimitri stood up properly, bowing gracefully, and letting a friendly grin spread across his face when he straightened again, "It's nice to meet you all, Yuki and Saki, Miki, Soren. Since we're just going by first names, I'm Dimitri. I'll tag along, since I can't really take a shot." Dimitri twirled his iron pipe in his right hand as he sidled up to the group, walking past them towards the edge of the city. "Why're these guys storming the town anyway? I don't think anything was going on before today." Dimitri looked over his shoulder, flipping out his skyboard again and sitting on the floating device, "I mean, not that I keep up with current events, but you know. Oh and um." Dimitri pointed to Miki, "I think we should get her something less shoddy before we go down. You know. Just so people don't think she's a hooker or something. We could probably raid any random house along the way, since chances are whoever lives in it is dead- or, not coming back again."

Down under again, huh? Dimitri hooked his ankles together. Oooh, definitely not a happy prospect for him. Still, at least he wasn't the one with the shortest end of the stick here. Hm. But reconsider, he was the only one out of all of them who had walked freely without care for getting mauled just for having wings in the Underground. He didn't exactly have any hiding tricks, and taking off a pair of already uncomfortable artificial wings didn't exactly sound like a professional massage to him. Dimitri's conflicting second thoughts were impossible to see though, a calm, carefree smile on his face. Hey, if he had to pick between being trapped in a raid, or going home…. Home wasn't really much better, but it was better by a slice. Might as well soak up the nostalgia, right?

"Ah, another thing!" Dimitri piped up, "Before we go, what's the closest city under this one?" He looked pointedly at Soren, since he assumed; Hey. It was his idea. Dimitri assumed that he knew where they were going.

 

[Alter Ego]

The rivers of Alta were widely renowned for their beauty, countless sappy poets bleeding their hearts out onto paper in praise of romantic sojourns to the great unknown, floating over the edge and beyond with nothing but the clear waters of the river below you and the endless sky above.

These poets, it occurred to Pethalamine, had probably never taken a dip into an actual Altan river, never experienced the biting chill of the water, the countless tiny parasites gliding on top of its surface and by its banks and gleefully biting into vulnerable flesh, or - above all - the revolting collection of refuse that the good citizens of Seratis threw in there.

Admittedly, the presence of hundreds upon hundreds of rotting corpses was not exactly helping to romanticize the moment.

Inhaling sharply, the girl had to exercise all of her inner resolve not to vomit at the stench that invaded her nostrils from all sides, or - worse yet - make a grimace or other body movement that would attract attention to her. She had taken the precaution to cover her face with a damp piece of cloth in an attempt to ward off the worst fumes, but even so her position, smack dab in the middle of the growing procession of corpses heading downstream, was far from pleasant. As repulsive as the smell was, however, it was ironically savior as well. Cold-blooded and merciless in their killing though they were, Carn soldiers seemed no better at handling the grotesque drama playing out on the river than the rest. Only a few deigned to even look at their handiwork directly as it floated past below their eyes, even fewer could tolerate the smell enough to even come close, and no-one was really inclined to give the pile of cadavers a closer inspection.

It had seemed like a good idea at first, disguising herself as the only thing that the soldiers weren't actively shooting at and simply float by, unnoticed and unhindered, out from the very core of the besieged city, and technically she supposed that it still was, but no amount of careful planning and theoretical knowledge could have prepared her for the horror of the downriver trip. The oppressive silence of the countless dead that served to keep her afloat, the strain of remaining completely motionless, the constant fear of discovery, the numbing cold of the water, and above all, the nauseating stench of death that clung to her, seeping in beneath the drenched garments and through the skin, into her very being.

It seemed like a good idea...Pethalamine would have laughed had she had the strength and position to do so. How perfectly that single phrase encapsulated this entire excursion. Yes, it had seemed like a good idea, to both her adoptive mother and - she supposed - her to seek the counsel of a foreign fael expert on the situation with her insipid faels - if they even were faels, fidgety little things. The girl subconsciously pressed her left forearm closer to the body beneath her in a vain attempt to silence the barely audible whining sound from her tattoo at this point - and what a good idea it would be to see the festival too! There at the same time, after all, and only a short side-trip away. What a perfect opportunity for Pethalamine to see a bit of the world outside of her books and Beta! And Faewyn would even get to visit the grave of a close friend of hers, something which the jerk - formally known as Aertan - had always adamantly opposed, insisting that getting mixed up with 'those people' again, no matter how remotely, would only lead to trouble.

Looking at their current situation, Pethalamine found herself thinking that maybe, just maybe, the jerk had had a point for once. The so-called 'expert' had been a complete hack; all he had done was poke and prod her a few times, ask a number of banal questions, and have a long and complicated conversation with her foster mother, only to finally give it up on the third day with a vague promise to 'keep in touch' if he came up with anything new, and of course they had barely managed a few steps inside of Seratis before all hell broke lose. The girl never did manage to find out quite what had happened, why it had happened, or even who was making it happen; one moment they were inspecting the city and the next Faewyn was ushering her into a hiding spot, just moments before strange men in uniform stormed in from all sides. One thing had led to another, and before Pethalamine knew she was marooned in a foreign city with seemingly everyone wanting to kill her and her foster mother nowhere in sight.

"I don't like this either..." she murmured soothingly to the agitated dog shape on her arm, immediately regretting it as a new wave of nausea washed over her. She couldn't keep going like this for long, she knew, but she was so close. Was that...was that not the city gate up ahead? That and-the knot in her stomach tightened, soldiers, lots of them, busily at work with a set of long poles as they attempted to break up a clog that the carcasses downstream had created. There was no way of getting past that one unnoticed, none; risk or no she had to get out NOW.

Fighting back the nausea, the girl concentrated as best she could, a slim film of Dation seeping out from her fingertips and stretching out over the corpses. With her strength drained and point of observation inconvenient to say the least, negotiating the current was no small task for Pethalamine, but slowly she managed to angle her morbid little barge towards the right-hand riverbank, finally slipping off over the side and into the water as the bodies continued downstream.

The river was, if possible, just as repulsive as the collection corpses she had hitched a ride on, and the scholar's attire was certainly far from well-suited for swimming, but she eventually managed to half-climb, half-collapse onto the pavement by the river, dripping with bloodstained water and gasping between desperate attempts at breathing and equally demanding retching fits. Eventually, she managed to calm her breathing down to a manageable tempo, even as her heart continued thumping like mad in her chest. She was soaked, she was cold, and she was still feeling faint, but she was alive. In spite of the circumstances, Pethalamine couldn't help cheering up just a little at this, the newfound energy allowing her to rise to her feet, if somewhat shakily.

It was then that she noticed them.

With a frightened yelp, the girl took a step backwards at the sight of what was a bizarre company to seem the least. Between the weird punk with the skyboard and the lolita chick it seemed safe to assume that these weren't with the Carn soldiers, but even so...they were definitely strange (a somewhat hypocritical thought, considering that she herself probably resembled some Victorian era corpse both in appearance and smell at the moment), not to mention armed. Besides, he didn't like the look of the guy with the ponytail. Garm was, at this point, agitated beyond all hope, his frantic movements a faint blur of motion beneath the drenched sleeve of her outfit, and Pethalamine's right hand instinctively moved to clamp over and cover the spot; she had already been pawned off to the highest bidder once, and she certainly didn't want to let these ruffians onto anything that would make them want to do the same.

"You..." she murmured, taking another cautious step back, only to realize that she was now precariously close to the edge of the river, effectively boxed in by this strange crowd, "...who are you people? I warn you." coming from her petite, shivering and drenched form, the words appeared as pitiful as the feeble gathering of dation she amassed around her free hand in an attempt to enforce her threat, "Try to hurt me and I will take at least one of you down with me, I swear! I have nothing to do with whatever stupid war you're involved in so just back off!"


OOC: Whee...some good old morbidness for the opening post. It's...kind of random but I needed some way to throw Pethalamine in there from the get go and this is best I could come up with at the moment.

 

[parallelzero]

OOC: lol short. But to be fair, it's 2:30AM and there wasn't a lot to say.

"Z-z-z-z-ZOMBIE!" Soren exclaimed at the arrival of Pethalamine. Saki had to admit. A girl rising from the gruesome waters of the dead was certainly unlikely, as well as highly disturbing, but there was still a chance that this was a living, breathing girl. Although, she wasn't looking to be the type of girl that Saki would be friends with. Her appearance, as it stood, was so... morbid. Needless to say, as overcautious as he was with Saki's safety, Yuki had already traded places with his sister and was working on a prison for the new guest. Wind began to spin round and around where the girl stood as it created a violent twister around the Pathalamine with the girl in the core. One step would be enough to get her caught in the vortex and have her sweapt away. Of course, it wasn't enough to hold most people, but he needed to guage her ability. Saki protested, but was quickly silenced. She wouldn't go against his wishes. She owed him too much.

Yuki approached the twister, removing the chakrams from the pockets of his dress pants again. "I'll ask once. Your name, occupation, and reason for being in that... state, please?"

"...." Soren was having trouble processing what had just happened, but he wasn't an idiot, so he pieced it together eventually. "Absolute resonance. The sharing of one body, of one soul. Is that it? Is that what you two are?" No reply was recieved from Yuki, but maybe that silence was more than enough. But for a brother and sister to end up in those circumstances... it was difficult to consider any possibilities.

"...When two become one..." Miki murmured to herself as she held the sheet over her front with one hand, and fiddled with the chain in her free, left hand, although for the most part the chain was floating around her. "...Isn't that... love?"

 

[Loki]

OoC: Argh. /facepalm. Too much going on at once. xD;

iC: Dimitri's attention was being torn back and forth. What was going on? Between the girl, the other girl that was now a guy, or wait no that wasn't it, wait, what was going on again? One thing at a time, he told himself, nodded slightly. Dimitri tilted his hip towards the front of his skyboard, directing himself between the new arrival and Yuki's lovely prison of wind and complicated weapons. (Wow, those fit in his pockets without cutting a gazillion holes in them? Sick pockets.) His face spelled out exasperation as he raised an eyebrow, "Man, you guys really do top the cake in terms of manners. The girl hasn't done anything to you and you start harassing her with mahstion. I mean seriously, in the situation we're in, it's like, hey, walking, bloody girl in lolita dress. Not the most trustworthy silhouette in town, yeah? But seriously, that's biased; I mean lookit me!" Dimitri yanked lightly on his metal earring, "Do I look like Polly Pocket to you? You attack everyone who approaches you, or is it just habit?" Dimitri shook his head folding his arms, "Cause, you know, I'm not walking through hostile streets with you if you're going to go all wionus on anyone who invades your personal space." Dimitri then pointed his finger to Soren, "And don't change the subject so fast, please. I can't keep up with you guys. The fael-body-changing thing is one thing, the new girl is another. Let us handle them one at a time, because the former really doesn't matter. He, she, it, is what he, she, it, is."

Dimitri spun around on his skyboard, scratching the back of his head as he surveyed the new girl, "And, to answer your question, since you asked first," Dimitri threw a bored look over his shoulder at Saki/Whoever before turning back to Pethalamine, "We're just a band of rag tag acquaintances on our way out of town. No worries, I'm not involved in whatever war this is either, other than a victim of getting my flat ransacked, so we won't attack y- well…" Dimitri paused, throwing another look over at Saki/Whoever, "I guess it's too late to assure you that we won't attack you. But hey, no harm done." The Underneather laughed lightly, even in this wild situation. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, settling into his seat on the floating skyboard, "So- Oh right right, sorry."

Sitting back on his skyboard, the young male continued to babble on endlessly, "I'm running my mouth again, but maybe we should get a move on? I mean, the soldiers'll eventually come back, and it's not like I'm concerned or anything, but aren't we- you know, trying to escape? Ah but, I dunno about going under with a girl in a sheet and another girl in an antique murder dress. We'll already stand out more than enough with these fancy thingamajigs sticking outta our spines. I personally don't think you guys are thinking this through, but hey, nobody cares, or is listening, so honestly."

Dimitri took a deep breath and let all the air rush out of him. Wow that was a mouthful. Twenty bucks said that this group of manner-less tards didn't hear a single word of it, too. Man, there was wrapped up in your own world, and then there was obsessed with your own world. They knew how to tune people out. Dang he needed that ability. Seriously though, he liked taking things at his own pace, which was much slower than the speed these people wanted to go. But between their rudeness and his want to admonish them for it, his own principles were starting to collide and butt heads. Ahhh nevermind. Dimitri regretted his decision to tag along. Ahhh well he wasn't exactly being very nice either. The morning's events had spoiled his disposition. Backing out now would be rude though. Honestly, he'd rather go down alone, than with these people. They'd just make escape from the radar harder. Especially that one fael-reila-switch-happy girl-guy, if he kept up with the windworks. Huh, well. Maybe it was fun, switching back and forth. Dimitri had never really tried doing anything with his faels before. They were both either indifferent or annoyed, so they weren't usually up for anything like that. Not that Dimitri's very poor mahstion skills helped their relationship any.

"Soooooo…." Dimitri pulled his legs up onto his board, crossing his legs pretzel style as he tried to keep an uninterested expression off his face, trying to look as friendly and amused as usual, "I guess since you guys all seem to got your own plan, I'll just, go along. Just… better first impressions, please."

 

[Alter Ego]

Zombie? Pethalamine couldn't help giving Soren a quizzical glance, but she quickly masked it as the implications hit her. She was a complete mess right now, after all, no doubt very much resemblant of the corpses that had kept her company during the escape, and she had just crawled out of the river. Anyone suitably jumpy or superstitious would have come to this conclusion, and maybe...just maybe she could play this undeath thing to her advantage.

Before the girl could give this route any further consideration, however, a burst of Wionus suddenly engulfed her, shortly followed by a foreign male demanding...well, her life story in short, basically. Beneath the damp clump of hair still loyally covering it, Serret's tattoo snarled in indignation, and had the negafael's physical manifestation possessed eyes of its own, they would surely have been giving Yuki a glare just as hateful as the one Pethalamine was already providing. There were very few things that the scholar would ever admit to having in common with her faels, but an intense dislike for being caged up was one of them, and veiled threats was another. Slowly, the girl's lips parted, only to shut themselves again. Whoever this weird guy was, he/she/it certainly hadn't made a friend in Pethalamine, and the girl was far from co-operative when it came to dealing with non-friends. Yet, at the same time...'I'll ask once' was about as clear as subtext got. She was fairly confident in her ability to teleport out of this little trick - it was only a very basic trapping mahstion, after all; she was pretty sure that she had seen the very procedure detailed in one of her foster mother's research journals - but escaping through this mob, especially in her current condition, was a completely different matter.

It was then that Pethalamine's salvation, for the second time that day, came from the most unexpected of sources. Had the girl possessed even half of Faewyn's youthful exuberance - and not been trapped in a miniature whirlwind - she would surely have pounced Dimitri out of sheer gratitude. The skyboarding punk had looked like your average street trash at first glance, but as she listened to his words the scholar couldn't help thinking that his was - quite possibly - the only voice of reason in the bizarre ensemble.

"Great Ophelia, a stranger who doesn't want to chop me up, blast me with mahstion, or shoot me?" she remarked with sarcasm so thick that it was practically tangible, "It must be my lucky day. The name is Pethalamine, scholar of pre-Y.Z. history. And if you must know..." she added in Yuki's direction, "I'm in this 'state', as you put it, because I've just spent the last hour or so playing dead with my cadaver pals over there." she jerked her head towards the river behind her, "Not the most pleasant experience I've had, but I thought it was preferable to being dead for good. And no, I'm not a zombie." she added to the ponytail guy, "I am just extremely cold, wet, exhausted, covered by a number of things I don't really want to identify and quite fed up with having sharp things pointed in my direction, so now that we've established that you're not after my head and that I'm not after the flesh of the living..." with a carefully indifferent expression on her face, the scholar summoned up what little mahstion she still had at her disposal, using her foot to trace out a small circle in the limited area she had at her disposal and vanishing into the pool of dation that formed inside it, only to rise a split second later right behind her would-be captor's back.

"...how about putting those away before they get you into a needless fight, hmm?" she nodded towards the chakrams in the male's hands, "I'm with the skyboarder; this place is already swarming with soldiers out to get us, so the last thing we need to do is to turn on each other as well." as she spoke, Pethalamine absent-mindedly grasped a handful of her auburn hair and wrung it out, a small burst of pale red water hitting the pavement with a splash. The scholar bit her lip in thought, these people were certainly far from her preferred company (her, herself, a book, and possibly her foster mother) but as much as it she mistrusted them, she also realized that they were her best bet at getting out of this alive.

Her only bet, too, if one wanted to be meticulous about these things.

"I'm coming along too, if you don't mind." she added to no-one in particular, "I don't know where you're headed, but it can't really be much worse than this, can it?"

 

[parallelzero]

In Yuki's opinion, he had done nothing wrong. His father had taught him that being overcautious was a key factor in both work and life. Trust no one, unless you can keep them close to you. After his father died and his uncle cast him aside, he began to live those words, not opening the way to himself and Saki for barely anyone. People didn't deserve friendship if they were just going to abuse it. "Dimitri, was it? Shut up. I'm just with you people because Saki and I agreed it's our only way out." He didn't even spare the skyboarder a glance, and he wasn't even going to bother addressing this new girl. It's interesting to note that he indeed DIDN'T put away his chakrams, and ended up keeping them at his side. "And I'd like it if you'd not speak foolishly about our situation. 'He, she, it', was it? Have some respect for those who've been through more than you ever will." There was a long pause after this line. He was getting complaints from Saki about his behaviour. He didn't care, though, this was for her sake as much as it was his. "And if you don't want to go down, shut up and go back. I won't have a guilty conscious when I hear you were massacred by Carn soldiers. Wings or no wings, we're safer down there than here. Which brings me to you." He glanced backwards at Miki, who didn't seem very wary of her surroundings. In fact, it seemed like she was daydreaming as the chain coiled in the air around her. Yuki hadn't considered the fact that her identity wasn't known to Pethalamine or Dimitri yet. "You being here is like a target on our backs. Not to mention you have no wings, so there's no possible way for you to descend without dying."

"Oi, oi, calm down!" Soren finally intervened. This boy's tone, it was just sickening. "Just who the hell do you think you are, speaking crap like that? So this girl isn't a zombie, my bad. But just because we're all different from you does NOT give you the right to talk down to us. Heir to a superfamous company or whatever, you are not better than us, Yuki Sumeragi." Ah, the boy looked a little bit shocked. At least from the behind angle... if you could tell such a thing. Oh well Soren just assumed so anyways. Not at any point had Yuki nor Saki mentioned their last name, but Soren had thought Yuki looked familiar. A few years ago, the boy was featured in an article in a business magazine known as "SINE". It was some super long, super boring story about how the boy was set to inherit his father's company, but they questioned the boy's capability after 'losing his only twin sister'. There was also a picture, which lead to this recollection. "So, do I get points or-"

"Shut up, assassin."

"..." This guy was going to be a pain to get along with. Yup...

 

[Loki]

Dimitri shrugged, smiling to himself. This guy really was… well not so much amusing as high on his own ego. 'Shut up, huh…' Dimitri thought to himself, neither offended nor planning on being offended over such a rude remark, 'Isn't he charming.' He saluted in obligation to Yuki, dragging his forefinger and thumb across his lips and tossing the 'key' over his shoulder. Hm, one really had to wonder how old he, she, it was. Or more like, he, since the Saki personality seemed more agreeable. He was certainly acting as though he was the most important person in the world. Well, it wasn't as though Dimitri thought of himself as more important, but self-importance was one of those things people normally kept to themselves, right? Modesty, false, honest, neither, whatever. Dimitri listened to Yuki blow a fuse, giving the man all his attention. Seemed that he'd probably blow another fuse if Dimitri ignored him, and if all his fuses were gone before they got anywhere, then it would not be a happy journey. Hm, but that last point seemed like something he could add to.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about the wingless-clothing-less girl. She can hitch a ride with me." Dimitri pointed to his skyboard, grabbing the edge and shifting his legs out from underneath him. Planting his feet onto the machine, he stood up and shifted aside for a moment. "It's not really a carrier thing, but I'll stand on the nose and pull out the lasso, so that I can navigate without pressing the back heel and she can sit there." He pointed to the other spot where his feet were supposed to be situated, "So are those all the grievances you need to share? We can leave now, right?" Ah, that came out sounding more 'uncaring' than he'd intended, "Er, not that I don't care that you got issues with me or anything- I'll do my best to respect those who have been through more than I have. So I'm just gonna refer to you and Saki collectively as 'they' or 'them'. 'It' was kind of rude, so like… yeah sorry about that." 'If this guy was a girl, he'd be one high maintenance girlfriend.' Squatting down as the thought ran through his head, Dimitri unlatched the small square on the back of his sky board, pulling out a bracelet sized red rubber loop. The lasso was attached to a long black wire that was dispensed from the inside of the skyboard, a customized element that was mostly for tricks, like spinning the skyboard around under the user's feet or something. "Unless Miki's got a better way of getting down, like, I dunno, she could probably do it with wionus or make something out of dation, if that's her cup of tea. But if you want to go on the skyboard express," He pushed his fingers through the loop of the lasso, grabbing onto it and pulling on it so that it was long enough for him to grasp even on the other side of his board as he moved aside, "…Hop on, I guess. We got time, since the great Yuki doesn't seem keen on going anywhere anytime soon." Dimitri grinned and gave Yuki a thumbs up with his free hand to show that he was kidding, although inside he was greatly regretting even spewing out the joke.

That unfriendly, no-sense-of-humor type guy would probably just get more wound up. And again, "respecting those who had been through more than he'd ever go through", Dimitri repeated to himself, though not really having ever considered it sincerely. So Wiz had been right all along; Above grounders were all spoiled brats who didn't appreciate their own fortune of being born with wings.

"Oh right," Dimitri quickly changed the subject, "Pethalamine, was it? Nice to meet you, I'm Dimitri, that's Soren, Yuki and-or Saki, and Miki. I don't have any qualms with you coming along, but I'm not the mastermind behind this operation, so my opinion doesn't really count much here."

 

[Alter Ego]

Once again, Pethalamine made as if to speak but then shut her mouth without letting a single sound escape. Sure, she was not exactly the chummiest girl on the block herself, but this Yuki character was in a league of his own, sporting cold indifference in her direction will being a downright scolding little nag in Dimitri's. 'Have some respect for those who've been through more than you ever will.', huh? Talk about hypocrisy. Who was this uppity boy, to say that his (or her, Pethalamine was still having trouble wrapping her mind around the whole two-people-one-body concept) suffering was so much greater than anybody else's? Had he, perhaps, been cursed at birth with a pair of grotesque marks that not only went around whining and biting people but also served as an open gawking license for every curious jerk in the whole wide world? Had he been torn away from everything and everyone he knew not once, not twice, but three times? Had his mother pawned him off like a bothersome pet?

Faewyn would not have stood for this kind of attitude, this she knew from personal experience. Faewyn would have spoken up in that understanding, world-loving tone of hers and talked and reasoned for hours, days, even weeks if need be until Yuki would finally have been forced to admit that life really wasn't as horrible as he made it out to be, that everyone had their own problems to deal with and that he - and everyone else - would be happier if he just tried to make the best of what he had instead of dwelling on all the things he didn't. But Pethalamine was no Faewyn, no matter how much she admired and envied her foster mother's ability to genuinely care for a complete stranger, or how hard she tried to emulate it. Pethalamine was Pethalamine was Pethalamine, law of identity, and Pethalamine's prime concern was always Pethalamine, law of priority. Everything else had the value that Pethalamine assigned to it, law of relative importance. She didn't care for Yuki; whatever this grievous burden he was carrying on his back and using to justify his boorish attitude was, she had no interest in sharing it. She didn't care for Soren either, Miki even less. Dimitri was...nice, she supposed, but that didn't mean that she was going to stick her own neck out for him. Pethalamine just didn't bond with people that fast.

So where did that leave her? Surrounded by an argument that she had no interest in, knowing that someone should be mending the bridges they all seemed so eager to burn but not feeling any real inclination to be that someone, the girl did the one thing she was used to doing in situations like this: she stayed out of it. Taking a few steps away from Yuki to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, the scholar focused her attention on getting rid of the worst water. The dress she could do nothing about, not under the current circumstances anyway, but a few minutes' effort was all it took for her to get out of her boots, let out the small lakes that had somehow managed to form inside of them, and put the boots back on. They were still wet, but at least they didn't go 'sploosh' every time she took a step.

"Pethalamine, was it?"

The girl's head snapped to attention with a light amount of shock. Having focused on re-lacing her second boot - a surprisingly difficult task given the annoying way her fingers kept shaking - she had been completely oblivious to the skyboarder's approach until he addressed her directly, offering introductions both for himself and the rest.

"It's...nice to meet you too, I suppose." the girl managed in response, though it was somewhat lacking in enthusiasm, "And...I'm going to need help with the flying too, you know." she gestured towards her quite blatantly wing-free back, "Normally, I could use a dation wrap, but my condition being what it is, I don't think I could make it stable enough and I don't really relish the prospect of losing control in mid-air. So do you think you can fit another person on that skyboard or can Miki fly somehow or can someone else here help with it or..?" she let the question hang in the air, hugging herself in a vain attempt to gain some warmth as a particularly strong breeze brushed past, "And if everyone is done sulking and arguing, could we please move?" she added, "I'm freezing here."

 

[parallelzero]

Miki gave Dimitri a wary nod at the skyboard offer. She didn't have any other way down, not that it mattered much to her anyways.

"Peth, if I can call you that," Soren was next to speak up, while ushering for the group to keep moving. Yuki had fallen silent at the negative reaction that he had recieved from the group. But that's how he wanted it. For his safety, and Saki's more importantly, he couldn't make 'friends'. The word 'friend' was just a mask for the word 'traitor', at least as his life experiences had shown him. He didn't care about what the others were talking about either, but listening to them was the preference above listening to Saki complain about how he acted, or the bloodcurling screams in the distance. "I'm a dation user as well, so I should be able to get you down there if you need it." Soren grabbed the cloak that he had been wearing earlier, which had been hanging over his shoulder the entire time, and tossed it to the younger girl. "If you're freezing, wear that for a while. It's pretty warm." Though he couldn't help but consider the possibility of putting it through the wash eighty times to even get a little bit of the smell of corpse out of it. A chill ran up the boy's spine, however, when he saw Yuki glaring back at him. "W-...what?"

"We have a half-naked girl in our company, why didn't you give that to her earlier?"

"Oh, he must be a pervert!" Saki chimed in everyone's mind.

"...Disgusting."

"Though didn't you jump in the container with her when she was naked?"

"..."

Soren glanced back at Miki, who was lagging behind the rest quite significantly. It was true, he had been an idiot and had forgotten. But he was no pervert! But... how was she clothed? Was she not wearing just a cloth barely five minutes ago? Now she was wearing an entire outfit complete with black legging, a white skirt, and white and black torso, long white sleeves, and even black ribbon in her hair. Just what powers did that girl have? Or at least, Semi's in general. Maybe it'd be worth learning more about her before deciding on how to kill her. But could he really do it? She looked so harmless, mind you the chain snaking around her body without actually touching her anywhere was creepy, like she had some psychic powers, but not someone you could kill without thinking twice. And her eyes, why were they so emotionless?

Then there was Dimitri. Soren didn't know what it was, but he couldn't shake a bad feeling about him. Maybe it was because he knew nothing about him - not that he knew more about the others, but something was nagging at him. Something seemed off. "So if you have wings, Dimitri, why ride a skyboard? Surely only Underneath people use those these day-" He bit his tongue, remembering someone else who goes against that stereotype. "Nevermind, my uncle rides as well."

"Why is this trip so easy?" Yuki finally spoke aloud. "We haven't encountered a soldier since meeting up with Dimitri. Something isn't right..."

 

[Alter Ego]

"If you make sure to pronounce the 'h'." Pethalamine replied in a slightly softer tone than earlier, nodding curtly as she wrapped the cloak around herself as best she could, savoring the warmth it brought, "Long story; don't want to get into it."

As with the earlier argument, the scholar chose not to speak up as Soren and Yuki went head-to-head once more, focusing on the road ahead of them instead. Certainly, despite her initial misgivings, the guy who had declared her a zombie was now showing some sign of manners, but in Pethalamine's book that only went down as compensation for his earlier scream; it wasn't like she was about to become his protector either now, was it? The girl absent-mindedly rubbed her left forearm, now carefully covered by the cloak, vainly attempting to ease Garm's frantic movements beneath. Despite things technically looking up, the plufael only seemed to be getting more and more agitated, and besides...Yuki made a good point. For being at the heart of a military occupation, this city was way too quiet. Were were all the-?

"Ga-ghh..!"

Without any prior warning, a jolt of pain suddenly ran down Pethalamine's left forearm, causing her to lose her balance and grasp it with all her might. The sensation was truly hard to explain, at least to anyone who wasn't a schizophrenic; it was as if her very arm had suddenly grown fangs and bit itself, and the girl immediately realized what was causing it.

"Over...there, eh?" she mumbled, her glance traveling towards a nearby alley. Out loud, however, she still needed to cover up her strange behavior, "Don't worry." she added to the others, just in case, "It's...just a little muscle ache, caught me off guard, that's all." she demonstratively massaged her forearm, "See? It's already letting up. Anyway, I-I think I saw something over there just now." she nodded towards the alley, "Just, give me a second and I'll-"

'This had better be important...' she thought for herself, shooting a discreet glare at her arm before turning her attention back to the alleyway.

Soon thereafter, however, the scholar staggered back, her face considerably paler than before as she raised a hand to her mouth.

"Guys..." she managed weakly, still staring mesmerized at the sight in front of her, "...I think I know where all the guards went."

Dead, they were all dead, a quick pulse check had been enough to confirm that, but...there were so many. The girl stared in disbelief at the squad of carn soldiers lined up in geometrically perfect rows within the otherwise chaotic alleyway, their skin and bodies flawless, save for the grotesque expressions of pain frozen on their faces, each with their hands crossed over their chest, as if guarding something precious. "Who..?" Pethalamine stammered once fairly confident that her breakfast wouldn't attempt an escape with the words, "Who could have done something like this? And...why are they all holding Ophelian crucifixes? I thought Carn worshiped Thylonstus!"


OOC: Awwright...intro-ish little plot twist for Alderian. Sorry if this is totally screwing with your plans, but this could all just be a smaller bad acting in the shadow of the big bad, so...

 

[Loki]

Man, these people. Dimitri had been quite confused after Soren finished speaking; After all, he'd struck a sensitive nerve by asking why Dimitri was using a skyboard instead of flying, and while Dimitri already had a great excuse for this thought up by his instructor ages ago, he was stopped short when Soren took back the statement by mentioning that his uncle did the same. So, what now? Was Dimitri in the clear? Was he still being suspected? Did he have to say anything? What-what-what-what? Calm down, that was Dimitri's first course of action. Address the problems at hand; One, Miki being completely dressed in the blink of an eye. Two, figuring out a way to inform Miki that she would be getting on the other side of the skyboard once they reached the edge of town; for the fact that Dimitri had now let go of the lasso and was occupying the entire board. She seemed like she kind of had a drifting attention span, so it would be important to pick a time when she was actually listening, otherwise he might end up hauling two people's weight all the way to the end of town; not exactly power efficient for a board designed for tricks instead of carrying weight. Three, the fact that Pethalamine didn't have a way down either. Four, the fact that Yuki was obviously implying that Dimitri was the reason for the lack of soliders. (Which he wasn't, because if they knew who he was, they'd pounce on him any chance they got.) And five, the realization that Miki and Pethalamine didn't have wings. Dimitri stared unabashed at Pethalamine first, since she was the one who openly voiced that she had no wings. Then at Miki, who had said nothing about it, but.. it was still quite obvious. "Wait, so… how did you guys not get thrown off the island if you don't have wings? What if someone from the above ground realized that you-"

Dimitri was quickly silenced by Pethalamine's sudden cry of discomfort. "???" Was all that Dimitri was really thinking of at the precise moment when he raised an inquiring eyebrow at Pethalamine, but under his main train of thought, Dimitri was relieved that the young girl had interrupted him. 'Above Ground' was a term mostly made popular in the Underground. It wasn't as if people from above would use a degrading term like that to refer to themselves. Close slip, probably. He'd just been so excited at the prospect of other Underneather's at his side that he'd totally forgotten that there were regular people with wings here too. Kicking at the back of his skyboard, Dimitri swiftly glided through the air to position himself behind Pethalamine, peering over the top of her head- a height advantage provided by the fact that his skyboard was already about half the length of a grown man's legs off the ground anyway. He blinked, registering the dead soldiers, mostly eyeing their wings. His lack of deductive skills of course made him completely oblivious to the fact that they held Ophelian symbols in their dead hands. But his lack of respect for the dead also earned a whistle from him as he scratched his cheek with an index finger heavily weighed down by silver rings.

"Now that's what I call genocide." Dimitri commented, completely unfazed and unconcerned by the scene of carnage. Ah- wait. He turned to Yuki, remembering his accusation that no soldiers had appeared since he'd shown up, quickly covering up for the slip of his tongue, "I-I'm not with them though, just so we're all clear! It's just a coincidence that someone beat the pulp out of them after I came around! It doesn't have anything to do with me so-… Well I guess we're just lucky that they got beaten to a pulp."

 

[parallelzero]

"I am from Telfin. I was knocked unconscious and shipped out of the city to here, apparently, where I can only assume I was sent to be killed." It was the most Miki had said yet, and Soren couldn't help but feel a little ashamed about her words. He was meant to kill her, after all. The money he was to get from the job would be more than enough to last him ten years, but did this girl really deserve to die for the way she was born? It wasn't a decision she made herself, it just kind of happened. But couldn't that be said about Underneathers, as well? Soren himself wasn't, personally, fond of them at all thanks to some unpleasant experiences, but the theory could be applied just the same. Though to be exiled from the only safe haven for skills was quite the feat. Was humanity really that fickle that something born of opposing races could be rejected by both as well?

After unconsciously following Pethalamine, Soren was snapped out of his train of thought by the cry of the leading girl. "...How the hell do you manage this? There isn't a scratch on them!" Soren exclaimed after examining one of the corpses nearby. "Judging by the crucifixes, it was an elitist group of some sort, obviously into the Ophelian faith. As many as these soldiers have probably killed today, this seems a little... much. Extreme is probably a better word. Anyways, I'm all for getting the hell out of here so whatever the hell happened to them doesn't happen to us!"

"I concur. It's getting dark anyways, and we're close to the edge of the city." Yuki replied in a manner that had Soren raising an eyebrow. When the emphasis on 'dark'? He had been looking more and more skittish as the day got darker. Was he afraid of the dark? The boy seemed to be on the outskirts of the alley, where the streetlights dimly lit the area along with the almost set sun. Wasn't he a sitting duck like that? "..."

Yuki felt a sharp stab to his back as something pierced his flesh. It was only a little, but it still hurt enough for him to wince. "ANSWER MY QUESTIONS. WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY COMRADES?" The voice was clearly female, and obviously from a Carn soldier. Judging by the size of the object stuck in his back, it was most likely a knife or the end of a spear. And considering the volume of voice he was hearing, she was probably physically too far away from him to be using a knife. The voice was far from controlled. In fact, the girl seemed downright distraught. It could be for other reasons, but I'm sure anyone finding bodies, apparently undamaged, as such, would react that way. "WHY DID YOU KILL MY FATHER!?" Or not. Yuki's eyes went wide as the pole slid all the way through his flesh, before breaching the other side. Thankfully, it was the side opposite his heart, so he wasn't guaranteed death. As the spear was brough back out from where it came, blood began to gush from the now open wound before he fell flat on his face.

Soren wanted to jump up in joy at the boy's fall, but he'd save that for later. The form that stood behind the now wounded boy was for certain a girl. Her hair was long and black, and she was wearing a warm gray mandarin collared sleeveless ao dai dress, the skirt of the ao dai cropped just below her midsection, while the cool gray underskirt is cut off the front for easier movement, and left at full length in the back. Underneath the white lined dress is a pair of cotton capri's, the fabric notched at the knees to reveal intricate black lace. Her orange eyes were leaking like a faucet, and they were wide and far from sane looking. What was fuelling this girl now was probably revenge. Great. Wrong place to be at the wrong time. He glanced over at Pethalamine after a short moment of silence. "This is your fault, you know."

OOC: Saria.

 

[Alter Ego]

"Agreed." Pethalamine concurred with another curt nod as the subject of leaving was brought up, rising up from beside the body she had been inspecting, left arm still carefully covered by the cloak, "Whatever killed these soldiers is obviously a lot more than we can handle. Besides, if we stay here any longer there's a chance that we might be-"

The sickening sound of metal piercing through flesh interrupted the scholar's remark, "...implicated." she finished rather unnecessarily, turning on her heel to face the raving woman who had just skewered Yuki without a second thought, demanding to know why they had killed her father in a rather high-strung voice. The girl's face paled just a little bit, the body she had just been inspecting was the one that had struck her as most decorated - implying the highest rank in the group - surely that couldn't have been-? This was bad...this was really bad. Unless they did something fast, Yuki would soon bleed to death, and while she didn't particularly care for the obnoxious rich kid, that didn't mean that she enjoyed seeing him killed right in front of her eyes. Besides, given the sheer hysteria of this woman, it was heavily implied that they would be the next to follow.

"This is your fault, you know."

Soren's attempt at blame-shifting caught Pethalamine completely off guard, earning him a withering glare and a sharp kick to the ankle from the scholar. What was he thinking? Picking an argument now out of all times? Even for Soren, this kind of childishness was just too much-she paused. No, this wasn't the way to go about this. In a situation like this, she shouldn't be thinking of this as a mistake but an opportunity. Maybe, just maybe, Soren - or failing that, Dimitri - would be bright enough to co-operate with her on this.

"Well excuse me." she scoffed, louder than before, "The next time I find an alleyway full of dead people, I will just keep quiet and let you walk straight into whatever is responsible for it, shall I?" she shook her head disapprovingly, "You know, I'm surprised that, given how easy you are to distract, you haven't led us straight into a sneak attack yet!"

Pethalamine bit the inside of her lip, turning her glance back to the spear-toter. 'I distract; you sneak attack.' had any of them managed to catch the emphasis trick? She certainly hoped so, because otherwise this was going to get ugly.

"And as for you." she continued flatly, turning the glare of her single visible eye to meet Saria's, "As much as I'd like to claim credit, we've done nothing to these soldiers. Nor has any of us killed your father, whoever that is. We, unlike your lot, are not bloodthirsty murderers." she nodded curtly towards Yuki's bleeding form, not relinquishing her glare for a second. If this wasn't enough to provoke a reaction from the hysteric woman then she couldn't really think of what would, and given her current mental state the soldier would undoubtedly do something reckless and leave an opening for anyone from the group to attack. The die, as they said, was cast.

 

[Loki]

ooc: I feel like I'm doing serious injustice to RP'ing right now. xD;; I need to change Dimitri's personality, because I just can't pull off one character like AE. D:

ic: Dimitri's expression was one of a lightly surprised look as he shifted his foot, turning the skyboard around to face the grief-stricken but otherwise young looking girl. (A soldier? Above grounders. Absolutely no regard for age.) However many surprise attacks, anything involving violence seemed to have very little effect on him. His hands casually set in his pockets, Dimitri tilted his head to look at the spear jutting through Yuki's chest, bringing it back upright when it was removed. As far as Dimitri could tell, he would live. Unless he was as pretty-rich-boy as he seemed, in which he would simply bleed to death and be done with his apparently not-so-happy life. Standing silently on his skyboard, he looked over his shoulders, checking to see if there was possibly any other raving mad soldier left in grief and despair running up to stab him in the back. Nope. No one that he could see, thank goodness. While he failed to bring his entire head to face the new enemy, Dimitri's eyebrows raised ever so slightly when he slid his gaze back to the scene. He slid off his skyboard, leaning his elbows on the smooth surface. Seeing that this would be yet another hold-up that might take some time, he wasn't really interested in putting unesseccary strain on his most precious possession. And besides, the two iron pipes he'd brought with him ran across the sides of the skyboard. With his arms like this, it would be easier to whip them out and catch the tip of the spear in it's hollow confines if the mad-woman decided to attack. He let his eyes move to Pethalamine as she spoke, listening quietly but not really understanding what she meant.

"You know, I'm surprised that, given how easy you are to distract, you haven't led us straight into a sneak attack yet!"

Hidden message? Nothing of the sort, to Dimitri. If anyone wanted to get through a thickheaded person like him, they needed to wink first, and give him at least five minutes to think it through. "Come on guys, chill out for a second! She wants us to answer her questions, so before another one of us," 'With more worth to the goodness of humanity, unlike mister ego on the floor over there,' Dimitri added to himself, as he looked around at his temporary companions, "gets attacked, let's let the little lady calm down, y'know?" Turning back to Saria he smiled and tried to think back on what she'd asked, accidentally rambling off yet again.

"Well, Miss, we didn't do anything to these soldiers, other than gawk a bit. And quite honestly, I think it's rather hypocritical of you to be having a huge fit over your father's death, considering that your friends and possibly, yourself, were all stampeding through town killing every person in sight left and right. Did you think that all the people in town have absolutely no relation with each other? Did you think that none of the bodies in the river don't have a family? I mean, I'm very sorry about your father and I don't mean to be rude but you really should think it through before you go around stabbing people." Dimitri took a second look at the girl's face however and heaved a heavy sigh, "…Not that you look like you've got any inclination to think about it, let alone listen to me…. But you seem interested in answers, so back to your questions. Please pay attention if it's convenient."

"First, 'who are we'. Well we're just various people, some who came for the festival the soldiers spoiled, me a resident of the town, my place trampled by a bunch of strangers, and well they have their own little story that isn't involved with this mess. Then, what we did to your friends… We didn't do squat to your comrades, but I'm assuming your comrades are those dead people over there? Oh wait if they are, I take that back." The punk-teen rubbed his chin, remembering how he met Soren, Yuki, and Miki to begin with. "I accidentally ran into one awhile back with my skyboard because I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. We don't know who your father is, so we- or at least, I, don't have any motive for killing him; therefore, unless he's the guy I ran into earlier- which, I'm very sorry if that was your old man- we didn't kill him, it was probably someone else who's also running for their lives, or possibly a mutiny?"

Dimitri's lack of being in a peaceful environment for half of his life was definitely shining through by the sheer fact that he was as calm as still water, even after someone who was supposed to be his comrade, albeit disagreeable, was near-fatally or fatally stabbed. "So if the guy I killed was your dad, then it's my fault, not the pretty boy on the floor over there. Actually someone should probably tend to that hole in his torso…"

 

[parallelzero]

Soren sweatdropped as a grimmer and grimmer look grew on his face. Dimitri and Peth REALLY needed to think about what they were saying before they said it. Sure, Peth tried to be smart by using Soren's attempt at blame as a ways to spell out the real scenario - the one in which they were innocent - but she finished her little gimmick by insulting the girl's people. Yeah, let's pour bleach on the wound. That'll calm her down. And then there was Dimitri, who skipped the bleach and went right for the nitroglycerin. He admitted to injuring at least one - which she'd most likely use as justification for killing them if her orders weren't already enough. They were being naive by assuming they could try and rationalize and/or maniulate the scenario as to not end up killed by someone in the state this girl was in. She definately wasn't anymore amused than she was before those two opened their traps. And what was with Peth's gesture? Soren excelled in fighting. He was no fool when it came to that subject. A sneak attack would be stupid here. Besides, Soren thirsted for battle. If anyone was fighting here, it'd be him. He shrugged his shoulders, which allowed the hoop that was thrown around his right shoulder to slide down his arm and into his hand. Now there was still a problem. Even if he attacked, he still didn't know what mahstion this girl had. It could backfire entirely, but ah well.

Saria had noticed this gesture and labelled it as hostile - though if Soren had dropped a pin on the ground she would have labelled it as hostile. Her 'father' had been killed! These people must have done it! These people! They were the only ones around, after all! She dropped her spear to her side, the orange rope tied to the back dropping with it. Soren initially took this as a sign of surrender, but found himself eating his own assumption as flames erupted from the alleyway exits. Fionus, huh? She couldn't do too much with- "Ah! MY HAIR! MY HAIR!" Little balls of fionus began raining from the sky. It was a technique Soren had never seen before. Of course, making all of those little fireballs would drain her energy a lot faster than normal attacks. Not hesitating, Soren brought his right arm up into the air until it was at about neck height, and thrusted it into the wall beside him as it became enveloped by the darkness. The hoop reappeared from before Saria's feet, and the weapon flew up and smacked her in the jaw, knocking her to the ground. Sure, he probably could have done worse, but he had already said he didn't kill women.

A gust of wind blew through the alley, extinguishing the flames as Yuki was the first to exit the deathtrap in the direction of the edge, clenching the wound in his chest and walking in a crippled manner. "Jeez, he doesn't waste time..." Soren murmured to nobody in particular. "Oh well, let's go while she's disoriented. If she really cares that much, she'll catch up at some point."