Northern Winds [NC-17] (IC)

Started by Stygian, April 14, 2007, 05:42:12 PM

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OMGWTFBBQ?!!???!!1one!
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Time for the rooftop chase!
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Total Members Voted: 7

Stygian

'That's because I'm not,' Stygian replied, still twirling the knife between his fingers. 'What I can't do with my claws... well...' he continued. 'Firearms do a better job at what I need any weapons for.' He tossed the knife up into the air for a bit, spinning it, and catcing it between the fingers of his other hand. Tipping it from side to side, he looked at it for a while, then just put his hand down. Ambivalently, he stared forward, looking pensive.

Cogidubnus

"I see..." the wolf said, eying the knife that Stygian then set down and raising an eyebrow. He wondered what the bat was doing with a knife, if he didn't use them - perhaps it was more for utility than anything else - it was rather small, although the thigh strap made him give the bat yet another odd look.

He sighed, leaning back again, and then yawning.

Mel Dragonkitty

Mel looked thoughtfully at the door the stoat had exited. She shook her head, that would have to work itself out piece by piece as she learned to accommodate her magic to this dimension. She took a seat and addressed Stygian,  "Anything you care to share about the moments before everything went bad?"
My, I'll bet you monsters lead interesting lives. I said to my girlfriend just the other day: "Gee, I'll bet monsters are interesting," I said. The places you must go and the things you must see. My stars! And I'll bet you meet a lot of interesting people, too. I'm always interested in meeting interesting people.

SpottedKitty

Just after Mel spoke, Kerya reappeared in the doorway. She still looked queasy, and her face and muzzle fur showed signs of being quickly washed and not properly dried. "Urgh... my apologies," she said as she walked in and sat, or rather slumped, in the corner. "That was one shock too many, after everything that has happened tonight. I will be all right now, I think."
ENGLISH: A language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages
and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.


Stygian

The suddenness of Mel's question drew Stygian's eyes up, and one of his eyebrows cocked in turn as he looked at her sideways. He had really hoped that he could save the lengthy explanations until later, to earn a little pause. But to say that he hadn't been ready to go through things would have been an outright lie. Still, he wanted the initial shock of things to settle. It had been less than half an hour before they left the station. So the best compromise right then was to take things one at a time.
   'Things went... badly, I guess. But not as badly as some things that I had predicted. And it seems that we evaded the by far greater part of mayhem and disaster,' he said, hoping that this explanation would make them ponder how things could have unfolded.
   Stygian's latter thought was supported by Kerya's statement when she returned, having made a rather quick transition from looking neat and pretty to merely small and somewhat haggard.
   'I hope you will be,' the bat stated, truthfully. He extended his hand, holding her knife. 'You dropped this. Now... As for other things, I think it would be suitable that we all discussed the situation together. Not that I won't explain things to you now, of course. But please bear with me if I'm rather short.' He looked at Mel seriously, and then between the rest of the ones present. 'I met with a very old acquaintance of mine; a business partner if you like. Her name is Ashtareth, or Astaroth or Sekhmet or any other of a number of names, whichever you prefer...' He said that last thing as if it were just a minor detail. 'She has stated her intentions to have me and other members of our party captured or killed. And she has support from a number of other creatures like her. Powerful creatures.' He looked between them all again. 'Creatures much like me.'

SpottedKitty

Kerya stared bleary-eyed at the dagger in Sebastian's hand for a second or two. She jumped a little, put her hand on her inner thigh, and blinked as she felt nothing under her dress except leg. "M' thanks," she muttered fuzzily, "someth'ng must've snapped, di'n't feel it go." She leaned forward and took the dagger, slipped it through the sash around her waist, and leaned back again with an "I've got a really bad headache, so if you value your tail don't bother me" look on her face.

She sat up again though, all business, a moment later when the bat mentioned one particular name. "Sekhmet — you mean the lioness who sang in the club? Before we finish here tonight, Sebastian, I need to know what else she did besides sing. The moment I heard her voice I was... captivated. That rabbit, the 'Cubi, said something about the song helping her beguile me so easily — grasping control of Sekhmet's bindings as they released me, I think she said."

The little stoat then turned to face Mel with a frown of concern. "And I hope my new mind-shield spell is an effective defence against this. It was a most unnerving experience — at least, when I was once more capable of thinking." She hugged herself and shivered, although anyone paying very close attention to her face and scent, or eavesdropping on her still unshielded thoughts, might think her reaction was not out of fear.

Perhaps... longing? Desire?
ENGLISH: A language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages
and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.


Mel Dragonkitty

Mel looked as if she was about to say something to Ignatz when Kerya asked her question about some sort of hypnotic in the singer's voice. She paused for a moment then answered, "Truthfully, I have no idea. I was not touched by the spell to know how it was shaped. Whether the protection was my shielding or the fact that I was standing beside the waterfall and could barely hear the music I can not say. Unless Ignatz knows something more specific about his business partner's powers you will have to adjust on the fly."
My, I'll bet you monsters lead interesting lives. I said to my girlfriend just the other day: "Gee, I'll bet monsters are interesting," I said. The places you must go and the things you must see. My stars! And I'll bet you meet a lot of interesting people, too. I'm always interested in meeting interesting people.

Stygian

Looking between Kerya and Mel, Stygian snorted, and then wished he had a cup of tea or a drink to sip so he could down his eyes a bit while he thought of a comment. Instead, he looked out the window a bit, voice somewhat murky and distant as his eyes caught the landscape.
   'I can assure you that it would be hard enough to analyze, even if you were affected by it, Mel,' he said. 'That one has had far too much experience, even with alternative ways of influencing the mind. Sometimes I say that you are the best mentalist that I have ever met, Mel. Well...' He sighed, and then looked back to the dragonness. 'That's sort of a lie. You might be the most powerful one, but not the best. Ashtareth outstrips you there. By a good deal.' He kept looking at her seriously, even somewhat apologetically, for a while, before turning his gaze down and resuming. 'That's what's earned her the name. Aberrant. Or, you might know her by some other pantheon name; Delirium, for example.'

Sunblink

...Keaton:

In the face of Kerya's explanation regarding the chimera-creature she had seen, Keaton merely remained in her sullen, sulking position, glaring irritably at the far wall. There probably wasn't a logical explanation behind her agitation, but Keaton simply hated the idea that she had been discovered lurking about Kerya's personal thoughts. It made her feel ostracized, even if that quite clearly wasn't the case. Hypocritical, considering her isolating tendencies, but she preferred to be alone by her own volition--whether she had left peacefully or chased everyone away. That thought trailed away when Stygian said something--something about a protection spell and the club--which made the stoat violently ill and forced her to retreat for the nearest bathroom facilities. Distracted from her rather contradictory musings, Keaton watched uncomfortably as Kerya sprinted past, then eyed Stygian, wondering why he looked so accomplished.

Ah well. Stygian's agenda wasn't exactly something Keaton wanted to intimately analyze. Someone could get hurt.

When Kerya returned, retrieving the knife which Keaton hadn't seen her drop from Stygian, Keaton looked sympathetically at the stoat. She was no stranger to losing her lunch so violently, having drank her way into borderline sickness countless times over the course of her life. It wasn't fun. Her wordless sympathies passed on, Keaton redirected her attention to Stygian, who was beginning his explanation about the enemies they were facing.

At the moment, she was most fascinated with the lioness they had encountered within the Red Sands. She had reversed her shapeshifting and had read her memories. There was no explanation behind her knowing her real name. It was infuriating. Just thinking about it made Keaton smolder silently.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

Stygian

#909
Without any apparrent concern for the particular thoughts or musings of the others, the bat kept going on. He was going to summarize things as concisely as he could, as they would have plenty of time going into the details later, when they had their questions worked out. Because he did not doubt that there would be quite a few.
   'Besides Ashtareth, there are four more. One, we faced before the station. Probably the strongest in direct combat of them all; don't be fooled by this escape. He was only caught by surprise, and had to wait in the others. His name is Lehvithan, or Pandemonian, or Destruction...' He waved his hand a bit as he said the names, and his tone indicated that he could go on a long exposition there. 'And besides him there is also Viceful, Marred and Imperious. Although they may not all like those names.' He grinned, and went on, still looking nowhere in particular. 'They are creatures, or entities even, perhaps, old and terribly mighty and all part of one and thesame group. A sort of covenant of power-holders, rivals yet not because they compete but on different territories and aid each other in certain agendas and to certain purposes.' It was only now that he glanced back up at the others, his undefinable gaze slowly shifting between them. It seemed so hard to tell just by that dim gleam in all that darkness exactly who he was looking at, until one was caught by his gaze. What made Keaton feel that his eyes had stopped on her was as much the angle to his head, as the sudden, chilling feeling she got. It was like the prickling at one's mind when being watched by something from out of the shadows, something that can't be seen or heard, but that one knows is there. The whole of the cabin seemed shadowed and murky, true. But the feeling that the bat's blackened eyes seemed to convey was a darkness much deeper than that.
   'Needless to say,' Stygian continued unfettered, 'they have vast resources, and so we are going to have to move and work in secrecy.'

SpottedKitty

Kerya nodded and muttered agreement to Mel's reply. It wasn't the most reassuring answer the white leopard could have given, but it would have to do for now. Besides, she had examined the spell carefully as she was adapting it. She still wasn't sure how, or for that matter why, it operated, but what she had noticed were several points where the spell could be adjusted. Presumably these were what Mel meant.

Her attention returned to Sebastian as he continued his little speech. None of the names meant anything to her, of course, so she glanced sideways at the others from time to time to see if she could be guided by their reactions. She returned the bat's gaze calmly and confidently when she was sure he was looking at her for a long moment. Inside the hoped-for privacy of her thoughts, she was more honest with herself. I am beginning to have a very bad feeling about all this...
ENGLISH: A language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages
and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.


Cogidubnus

 Cog had almost fallen asleep before the conversation had really started in earnest, and keeping his eyes closed and the wolf simply leaned back and listened as the bat described what the hell had exactly gone on back in the club.

His ear flicked as the bat went on, describing this pantheon of figures that had seemingly taken a dislike to all of them. From the sound of it, none of them were to be taken lightly, although they seemed to have made it back from Ashtareth's lair alright.
Cog paused, musing for a moment. This -could- be useful... he thought, wondering exactly how strong Laertes was. He doubted that the Jackal was as strong as all of them - perhaps he could somehow twist this situation to his advantage.

Cog coughed, shaking his head slowly, his eyes still closed.

"Son of a bitch."

Stygian

Stygian almost hesitated as Cog interjected. He knew what the man meant, but it really was a bit needless. Instead, he opted for some sort of relief, this time by humor.
   'That's alright. I don't mind,' the bat said, completely seriously, lowering his eyes and waving aversively and distraughtly with one hand. 'But in regards to the deal at hand, we must be quick about things. I have a few connections in Jann's, but not too friendly ones. Either way, we should try and find our way from there as fast as possible. And on our own; not by some traceable means. There are a few places we could go, but only a few cross my mind as good. Haven, for example. Getting lost in the crowds. Or D'Asir. I know some we could go to, but...'
   Placing his hand on his chin, the bat turned his gaze out the window for a bit, scratching his jaw and neck, before turning back to the others, looking at them yet again, though this time with a somewhat more friendly air.
   'I'm sorry. Perhaps we shouldn't be thinking so much about escaping as finding out just precisely it is what our foes want. That's what you're thinking, right?' he asked. Regardless whether if anyone of them had thought so, he went on. 'I think I have a clue, that's true. But we will need to find out more. And there are very few ways and places for that. That is why we are running, right now. To buy time.'

Cogidubnus

 The wolf considered for a moment, opening his eyes invisibly behind shaded lenses. I don't think any of this started -after- we met him... he mused, scratching his chin. They must want something to do with the bat. It wouldn't make any sense for them to want anything we have.
He paused. Perhaps they just want to kill him, and us by extension.

He adjusted his hat. "So, you don't think it's just a homicidal dislike for you then? They...want, something?"

Stygian

Cogidubnus' comment seemed well-thought, but it also caused the bat to develop a sour expression and direct his eyes in the wolf's direction, the other man getting a full taste of that narrow-eyed and icy glare. Couple with the landscape outside, it made it hard not to shiver.
   'I have eluded them for quite some time. They have power and resources, and if I gave off hints, then I would be dead if they wanted me that way. But we have not even met in a long while,' he said, taking the wolf's words partly as a comment on his abilities. 'They know my opinions on them, and what I've caused them before. If it were not something they wanted, they would keep the Hell away from us all.' He looked away again, a bit bitterly. 'And of course, since it's them and this way, it must be something considerable.'

Mel Dragonkitty

Mel filed away but didn't take offense when Ignatz stated that his business associate was a better mentalist. Even with a very long lifespan one could study and practice just so many things. "Just how fast is their information gathering? Since I did not join the merry band until the second bar fight and Kerya here until the third and neither of us are exactly local, how quickly will they get us worked into their machinations? Is it long enough to be of any sort of benefit?"
My, I'll bet you monsters lead interesting lives. I said to my girlfriend just the other day: "Gee, I'll bet monsters are interesting," I said. The places you must go and the things you must see. My stars! And I'll bet you meet a lot of interesting people, too. I'm always interested in meeting interesting people.

SpottedKitty

Kerya's ears flicked back and forth as she thought about something. Finally she spoke up, after Mel's question. "I notice, Sebastian, you have not mentioned that winged jackal with the scythe, the one who started the panic in the club with that little performance of his. Is he not part of this group hunting you? He is certainly powerful, I hit him with a lightning bolt — not at full strength, admittedly — and it only seemed to annoy him."

Suddenly Kerya's ears perked up and her eyes widened. She stared at the bat with a surprised, almost amused look on her face. "Wait... Keaton called you "Styg"... Stygian? You are the "Stygian Don'chel" that idiot jackal was looking for?" Now she did giggle a little, fast and high-pitched like most of her speech. "I remember wondering if "Stygian" might end up needing help as well..."
ENGLISH: A language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages
and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.


Stygian

Mel's question did not come as a surprise, although it was not as easy a one to answer as the others. 'Fast. Fast enough so as to be almost immediate compared to that of most others. But I don't think that they will take regards to you and other circumstances unaccounted for. They have probably already worked out what they want and how they want it. So I would not count on that for some sort of relief.' The bat was about to say more, before Kerya cut in, and he turned his gaze toward her, frowning slightly.
   Almost sighing at Kerya's response and near-immediate mood-shift, Stygian made an admitting gesture with his hand and a single nod. 'Yes, Stygian. He was referring to me. Though I wonder what sort of "help" you mean...' He shook his head and adjusted his position a bit. 'Regardless, his name is Laertes. The other two who were with him are called Carey and Ace. They are another part of the equation though. Hunters. They will probably pursue us, though their chances at succeeding at their task after having been drawn into this...' He made a nonchalant gesture and stopped.

Cogidubnus

 "Laertes Melanthious the Obsidian, fifth inquisitor of the Church of the Martyr's Blood, a religious organization that's quite prominent in the West." Cog said, not really looking at anyone, although his eyes were looking at Stygian from behind his shades.

"You remember our conversation, before we entered the club, yes?" the wolf said, now looking directly at Stygian. "I have another question, now. What does that Jackal want with you?"
The way Cog spoke, it was apparent he knew the priest in some fashion, although he wasn't volunteering any information in that regard.

He paused for a moment as well, thinking, and then spoke. "And when do you think we'll arrive?"

Stygian

'If you had checked the timetable, you would see that the train runs for eleven hours to Jann's cliff. We have to pass through a few valleys,' Stygian said, rubbing his temple. 'So we're sleeping here. As for Laertes...' The bat sighed, and shrugged. 'I can only imagine that either I have offended him, or more probably he is the one the church has assigned to chase me down. I posed as a cleric for a few years and delved into not a few of the Martyr's Blood's secrets. Not without aid, I will admit, but...'

Cogidubnus

"My apologies. I must have missed it when we were running to board." Cog said, pausing a moment and then raising an eyebrow.
"My apologies, but you...posed as a priest? Really?" Cog stared at the bat for a moment, and smiled slowly, amused at something.

"Perhaps we do know why he's trying to kill you, then." Cog said, smirking slightly. "If only for slander." Cog's voice was amused, and he looked away from the bat to stare outside the windows. "Truly, though...they take heresy seriously in that church. If you know something you're not supposed to, they aren't generally nice about it."

Cog paused, seemingly staring into the sky, and then spoke again. "Do the rest of these...'powers', know about him?" he said, turning to look at the bat again. "I doubt either of those parties would like each other. Getting caught in a crossfire is marginally better than getting hit by both of them at once."

SpottedKitty

Kerya hmmf'ed noncommittally at Sebastian's reply, looking thoughtful. Her ears perked up when Cogidubnus added some more detailed information about Laertes. "So, there were actually two attacks, neither connected to the other?" she asked, more talking to herself than to anyone else. Her eyes and ears flicked between the wolf and the bat for a few moments, then she grinned wryly. "A pity that we cannot do as happens in all the worst bard's tales, as you suggest, Cogidubnus, and trick this Laertes and Sebastian's foes into fighting one another, and perhaps weaken both of them. Somehow I doubt they would be so obliging, or so stupid, as to allow us that."

After a moment's pause she added, not entirely seriously, "Or would they? Of Laertes I could well believe it, after his grand fanfare of an entrance — literally, if I remember. He may have power to match the grandeur of his titles, but such arrogance can be a weakness that we may have the luck to turn to our advantage, if we dare."
ENGLISH: A language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages
and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.


Stygian

Chuckling at the stoat's suggestion, Stygian shook his head a bit, and then leaned on his hand again, bent forward so that he looked at her a bit closer.
   'A very good suggestion. Unfortunately, it is me he wants. Not to mention that Ace definitely wants only me. And the others, I think would have to be hard pressed to expend any of their efforts on a fanatic and a simple, unremarkable bounty hunter or two,' he said, not disregardingly or overly dismissively, but merely pessimistically. 'I am not saying we can try. But I wonder just what good it would do, save buy us time which we already should have better alternatives for than coming near them.' The bat sighed, and sat pondering for a good while. The discussion had already taken time, and not really surmounted to anything. They were going to need more information. And this when right then they were on the move. He would have turned to Mel in normal cases, but he happened to know that few, if any Dragons or even Fae could know about the threat they were facing. Unbelieveable to some, but a special precaution that could be, and had been taken, he knew for a fact. Because so very few knew and understood what was actually happening that it had been enough to keep things secret through personal channels, the only way that anyone could have found so much as a hint.
   Finally, the bat put his hand down and slumped a bit, breathing slowly before he sat back up and looked toward Kerya and then Cog. 'I'll think about it. Thoroughly. Right now though, we need to escape. And if they are not on our trail already, they will be quite soon. Which of course means that we shall have to depart from Jann's Cliff as soon as we can.' He looked around between the others. 'So I suggest that we all think of the best ways to move stealthily. Jann's Cliff is a coastal city by a sound, but it is high up at the same time, and there are hills and mountains and fields wide around, but few forests. Land, sea or air. What is sure is that we can't resort to walking all the way at least.'

Mel Dragonkitty

Mel nodded a little with everyone's points, but didn't have anything constructive to add. "I think that being rested when we arrived at Jann's Cliff is probably be the best immediate plan. We should probably sleep while we can since it is uncertain when the next chance will be."
My, I'll bet you monsters lead interesting lives. I said to my girlfriend just the other day: "Gee, I'll bet monsters are interesting," I said. The places you must go and the things you must see. My stars! And I'll bet you meet a lot of interesting people, too. I'm always interested in meeting interesting people.

Cogidubnus

#924
 "Probably the best way to pass eleven hours." Cog said, nodding his head. He sighed and rubbed at his temple and then stood, brushing a few stray hairs out of his eyes. A long-suppressed yawn escaped him. It really had been a rather long day.

Cog sat, waiting until everyone was situated correctly before trying to pull out the sofas or any of the other fold-ups into a bed.

SpottedKitty

#925
At Cog's words, Kerya cleared her throat and glanced at Mel and Keaton. "I too may be retiring soon," she said, "it has been a long and eventful day for me. Before I do, though, I am about to essay that mental shield spell. Mel, if you would, can you watch the spell as I feed it power? I do not wish to discover the hard way that it reacts... poorly to being fully activated. And Keaton —" she turned to face the jackal 'Cubi with an almost entirely convincingly innocent smile on her muzzle "— I give you an invitation." The words this time were not spoken aloud, but nevertheless hung there clearly at the end of the little stoat's statement. "Would you try yourself against my shield, once I have it stable? Give it a buffet or two, see if there are any weak points that may require shoring up or reworking."
ENGLISH: A language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages
and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.


Sunblink

...Keaton:

Keaton remained uncharacteristically silent throughout Stygian's explanation and description of their antagonists, instead transferring all heightening anxiety to toying with her fingernail. Gritting her teeth together, the jackal apprehensively eyed Stygian over her fingernail, which she was gnawing on rather viciously, her ears flat and her expression generally tense. Unlike Cogidubnus, she didn't seem as obsessively engrossed with any particular individual, even though her vendettas lingered mostly on Ashtareth.

At the end of Stygian's presentation, Keaton merely nodded, finding herself bereft of any commentary or questions, for once. Just for once. All that she could register in that moment was that she had a horrible headache, the result of digesting that day's events and the afore-described information all at once. Running her index and middle fingers over her temple, she irritably mumbled something about getting a drink under her breath, then started to turn and leave when Kerya confronted her. Blinking, Keaton turned her head around to gaze down at the stoat.

An... unusual request. Keaton hummed nonchalantly to herself and nodded her confirmation. The stoat's slightly insincere smile was a little unsettling, but the jackal couldn't see any immediate problems with testing her mind-fortification. It wasn't like Kerya was going to drive her insane. Just in case, Keaton answered, "Sure. I can do that..." Keaton lifted her index finger helpfully. "Provided you don't think up any freaky monsters like that.. whatever-you-call-it from before."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

Cogidubnus

 "That's very well and good, girls." Cog said, suppressing another yawn and standing. "But unless you want to see Richard half-naked, I suggest that you go and get him before he beds down in your cabin."

"Unless you want to sleep in the same cabin as him." Cog said, nodding his head towards Stygian. "In which case, I am going to go to sleep in the dining car."

Stygian

#928
The bat himself had been just about to comment about something, possibly the image of Richard half-naked or, more probably, the wisdom in having Keaton check one's mind-shields. He was broken off before he could start though, by Cogidubnus' statement. One that quickly made a devious smirk spread over his features. It seemed that the wolf had taken a few things to mind since their first meeting some time ago.
   'What?' he said, with mock incredulity, and then turned his face to Kerya. 'Honestly, I have no idea what he is talking about. You must forgive him.' He chuckled, and then glanced over at Cog, sharp fangs glistening in a wicked expression and cold eyes glistening. 'Really, don't you have more faith in me than that, puppy?' he said, using a name for Cog that he was aware was quite effective at putting the latter off.

Cogidubnus

 The wolf looked over at the bat, a bit of a nonplussed and sardonic look on his face. He tipped his at to the bat.
"You are a man, sir, that I would and have trusted with my life. But perhaps not with my wife." he said, giving him a short grin. "So, no."

"Of course, I don't mean to be a bore or anything. I can still go to the dining car."