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 Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:59 pm
The blockade had become apparent not long after leaving the clothing store. Fortunately, it was fairly dark out, so Mercury was able to see the blockade and change course before he was noticed. A turn at a sidestreet, and then a quick jump, he glided up to the roof of a nearby building, and continued to head towards Middling, easily jumping the gaps between the buildings.
The thought occured to him that he didn't know why there was a blockade; so he doubled back, stopping a few buildings down from where the road block was. Easing over to the edge, he sat down and leaned out, watching and listening to what the blacksuits were doing.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 11:14 pm
Routine. That was what it'd become. Dip into the shadows, cross over to Downers, and wait. Watch, listen, judge, and condemn. Eat, get rid of the evidence, and then head back home. Finally, clean up. Like clockwork.
The clock stopped tonight, for a little while. Heading home, with the blood still wet upon his palms -- and a scent hit him from across the rooftops. He slowed to a halt, puzzled, peering through the night.
He almost didn't recognize it.
He most certainly had trouble recognizing its owner. It was hard to recall, to compare the boy from before to the hard-edged person now.
But the person spying down upon the Blacksuits was most certainly the fleet-footed Godling he'd once teamed together with, long, long ago. Loping closer, he stopped just short of the neighboring building's edge.
"Jubs, v'as it?" He kept his voice low, though he barely gave the agents down below a second glance. "Long time, no see."
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:03 am
Hearing footsteps on the roof, he turned around slowly, hand gripping the staff behind him. Whoever it was didn't sound like a blacksuit; too quiet. That meant it was someone else running the blockade. Seeing it was another godling, he smiled a bit. Perfect, he could get some information.
Mercury likewise had trouble placing the man before him. He had known Vale as a little kid. Now Vale was older than he was.
"I suppose someone could be aged a second time." Hermes said, anticipating Mercury's question.
He nodded at Vale. "It was. It's Mercury now." He said, also keeping his voice down. "Vale, right?" Unused for a while, his voice was hoarse.
"I've been away for a while. Know anything about this?" He guestured back toward the blacksuits.
The blood on Vale's hands didn't go unnoticed, but unless Vale was out hunting godlings, it didn't concern him.
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:16 am
"Mercury, then. And da," he affirmed, thankful his name was at least remembered it part.
He swore, the first person to finally address him by his full name, he would hug them and never let go. Shortening it had never really sat well with him.
But better to shorten it than change it. He observed Jubs, Mercury now, still cautiously keeping the gap between the roofs between them. He didn't look well. Dirtier, harsher, rougher - what had happened to the other godling?
He frowned, shaking his head at the question. "Not much more than anybody else. V'rit and I might have prodded the beast too much, but their response is a little late for that. V'e don't know v'hy they're doing this, now of all times."
It hinted at things. Things like the events of the past, and he wondered if another godling had been swept off the streets, missing. But the Judges surely would have organized them again for yet another rescue mission.
It was strange, but out of his sphere for now.
"You look like hell v'armed over," he complimented, resting a foot on the edge of the cement blocks that ringed the building he stood upon. "Did they get you?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 12:02 am
"He's still alive? That's good to hear." Writ was one of the few people he still cared about. Even if it was less about friendship and more about having an ally now.
Speaking of allies, he wasn't sure where Vale stood in all this. Sure he wasn't attacking now, and it didn't seem like he was going to, but that could easily change. Mercury still didn't know the current situation between the godlings. Were there alliances between the gods still? Or was it a giant free-for-all? Maybe he should have attacked Vale all out the second he saw him. That Vale said he was hanging out with Writ suggested that there was at least some peace though.
He laughed at Vale's question, a dry chuckle that turned into a cough. Luckily he was able to keep it quiet enough that the suits wouldn't hear it. "Those idiots? Never. Wait. Do you mean they got someone else?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 12:14 am
The godling had certainly been out of the loop, it seemed. He scraped his heel nonchalantly upon the cement, giving a longer, distasteful look at the agents below.
"I do not know if they have kidnapped anyone else," he admitted, "not since Anubis called us together. But I v'ould not put it past them to have taken others v'ithout even the Judges knowing."
Kids disappeared every day.
"Ciro's dead," he informed, knowing that Mercury surely remembered the horned demon. "In a fight v'ith Fish." Who was at the top of his list. "And Echo died a v'hile before that. V'e thought it v'as V'rit who killed her, but it v'asn't."
Any other deaths? It had been a long year.
"Miss Floros has been gone for a v'hile, too," he added, remembering that Jubs had been particularly attentive to the florist.
"I think that is about it. Heard anything, v'here you have been?" Wherever it may have been. It sounded like he hadn't even been in the City, if he knew none of this.
Outside the City, now that was a thought. For a moment, just a moment, he wanted to go.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 12:56 am
He glanced out again at the blacksuits, dumbly looking up and down the streets, never realizing that their quarry was right there. The incident with the blacksuits before had been the breaking point. Being given a rescue mission, told to save someone's life. In comparison to the fight to become a god, it was nothing really, but it had driven home the point of how serious it was. The pressure had snapped Jubs, and he'd fled.
Ciro's death brought his attention straight to Vale. "Really." He said, unable to keep a sinister smile from his face. Ciro had always seemed powerful, from the few times he'd met him. That he was dead, and by a godling that he was at least amicable with, at that. That was definitely an interesting development.
The smile dropped from his face though as Vale mentioned Miss Persy. Whatever horrors he had been through, his childhood crush had survived. Somewhere in Downers there was still an unopened bottle of water hidden away, he hoped. At least for this news he managed to keep his face neutral, though he gripped his staff harder. "Gone? Is there anyone running The Game then?" Maybe Anubis had taken control.
"Not a thing. Didn't hear any news at all there. Just noises in the dark." Really, it wasn't so bad down there, once you went insane.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:35 pm
Now, Valeriu knew he wasn't exactly a paradigm of sanity. Maybe at one point he'd been as sound and healthy as he liked to remember, but even he could acknowledge that his mind was, at the least, a little bit off-kilter lately. He really couldn't blame it - being subjected to so much stress could make even the toughest of minds wobble around a bit, and Valeriu was no psychologist. He didn't know what to do on that front.
But here, in front of him, he could tell: something went wrong. It was probably the smile that first clued him in, the change of name, the time spent gone--
The minute he mentioned the darkness, Valeriu understood. Jubs had not had a god of darkness, of that he was sure. And someone, without that support and affinity--
Well, the results weren't pretty. Within minutes, hours, they were never the same.
He took a minute, to honestly consider the boy before him. All godlings were probably unhinged to some degree. But not like this boy.
He was a threat. He'd smiled at hearing Ciro's death, and that already rankled Valeriu in uneasy ways. Here was someone who probably didn't care who died, playing the Game. Someone who wouldn't know where to stop, who might do anything to win.
He was a threat to the fragile peace here, and, even more importantly, he was in Valeriu's way.
"Da, probably," he said, even as the shadows pulled towards his open hand. "I haven't seen them, but I am sure the Judges are still around."
Wrapping around his fingers, up his arm - sharp, shadowy claws, curling at his side like a living entity.
"The Game is still on." A statement, a reminder, and a warning.
A little bit more blood on his hands wouldn't make a difference.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 1:55 pm
He might have been insane, but he wasn't stupid. He had slipped up, not showing any sympathy for Ciro, and Vale had noticed, it seemed. Though it was night, there was still enough light to see that it was getting darker around Vale. He had never actually seen any of his powers, so maybe this was nothing. But he couldn't take that chance. Especially from someone covered in blood at that moment.
The mention that the game was still on sealed it. It looked like it would be a fight. Unfortunately, this was a fight he didn't have much of a chance in. Vale was older, and apparently in his element. Mercury needed to get away for now. He crouched a bit lower on the roof, and another creepy smile spread across his face.
"I'm gonna win, Vale. No one is going to stop me." With that, he leaped backwards, gliding over the street to the building on the other side.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:07 pm
What. What!
Hackles raised, he glared across the street as the other fled the potential fight. That smile cemented his opinion: the b*****d was insane, and it would be idiotic of Valeriu to let him run around as he pleased. It put everyone in danger when someone didn't play by what little rules there were. It put Sydni in danger, and Tepin more so.
Growling under his breath, he backed off from the edge of the building, turning to head back home.
He'd given his warning. It was what his last, tattered shreds of decency concerning this whole affair insisted on.
Next time he saw Mercury, there would be no warning.
The last thing that lunatic would see would be Valeriu's claws jutting out of his chest.
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