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 Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:55 pm
 First Day of Reckoning, around 10 AM at Crow's 'Flat' in the Downers
It had been a hell of a night, that was the only way to put it. A blood-soaked and water-logged giant wolf arrived sometime in the early AMs with half-dead Ciro spread across her back like a tarp. The two--once Crow gained enough strength to switch back to mutt-form, did their best to wrap up what wounds were left, and make the newly grown teen as comfortable as humanly possible in a place like the Streets.
So come the first day of reckoning of Zeus's minions, their blemishes already causing a stir in most parts of the City. Crow had noticed such ruckus when she first left her home around 7 AM to scavange for food. Surprisingly, many carts and shops were left empty, of course that could be because the dozen or so spirits she seen walking the streets. What had happened that night, aside from Ciro's change and his idiotic...
Crow could not stand to see that mental image again, so a quick toss of her head and such was out. Food was her main thought, she needed food to feed Ciro, he would need more given his condition. Her thoughts returning back to the empty shop, she easily broke the window with a good kick of her hoof, and slipped her slender arm inside and unlocked the door. Thankfully, an alarm did not sound.
That was usual, all shops towards this end usually don't bother with alarms, as no one really listened to them anymore. But, they did pay attention to strange denizens with wings, so Crow made her actions quick to retrieve a leftover roasted chicken from the previous night, and a bag of rolls. With a few more checks around--what was with all those ghosts?!--she left the shopfront, and headed back to her flat.
Once back, Crow first poked her head in Hobert's hut. "Jeremiah been around?"
Hobert, still wiping the sleep out of his eyes from what little sleep he managed to obtain, grumbled illegibly for a few lines before managing something in English out.
"Neh... Why didja...?"
"Nevermind." Crow interrupted as she returned to her makeshift cover. Once inside, she placed her gatherings on her desk, then retrieved Ciro's knife from the desk corner (it had fallen sometime during the evening), and cut into the chicken, a few minutes later, the chicken was placed inside the rolls. "Better than garbage..." She muttered, taking a bite out of her own, and then placing one on Ciro's chest. She knelt down beside of him, her hand curled around his arm.
"Ciro...?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 12:52 am
“Mmm.” He grumbled out, words impossible in his mostly-asleep state. Below the blindfold, his eyes tried vainly to take in his new location. Eyelashes brushed against clothe, and the subtle realization his him once again. It was not the first time he would need to remember about his malady, and it would not be the last.
‘Oh, yea. I’m… Yea.’
Even in his mind, he seemed weary to actually admit to the fact that he was blind. It seemed… Even though no one would hear him… somehow admitting that he was blind would mean admitting that he was sub par. That was something that he never, ever wanted to experience.
Pulling himself up, he felt something light roll down his chest into his lap. His hands wandered to the roll, feeling the light texture of the bread, the slices of meat placed between them.
“Uhm…”
There was an awkward silence as his sleep addled brain was putting things together. The last thing it was doing, however, was recounting the last time it was awake. That seemed like it would just be unnecessary and confusing for the moment.
Now mattered now.
“Good Morning…..?”
He fingered the sandwich sheepishly, wondering just what the hell he was going to say in regards to this… Someone was there, to be certain… But who was it going to be?
Dear god, he hoped it was an ally. There was no way he could handle a fight right now.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 6:10 am
Her hand left his arm once he moved, too afraid she might tear into him as she did before. As Ciro bumbled about due to exhaustion, Crow moved her hooves out from under her and stretched her legs out the length of the couch. She flexed her ankles, the backs of her hooves dug into some sand that was piled upon the street. Ciro said morning as if he wasn't sure what time it was, she found this to be almost cute in a way, and smiled.
"Yes, Ciro, it's morning. Around..." She searched her room for that broken clock face, the one Hobert had repaired. "10 o'clock. You're gonna wanna eat that. Sorry I couldn't get anything else for you."
Crow took another hunk out, her fangs easily tearing through the thick hide of the roasted bird. Her mind tinkered with what to tell Ciro, whether she should tell him about the ghosts or not, or if he would need a recount of the night previous.
She wondered if that strange girl Echo was alright as well.
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:49 pm
He frowned at the bread, so that’s what it was? Food. Well, actually in a way he was relieved. Having it be food on his chest was a lot less frightening than a stuffed toy as he had originally expected it to be. From this small cliplet of speech, he could find out many bits of information other than the roll on his chest. Taking a bite from his sandwich, he considered all that he had gained. He was with Crow; it was a deeper woman’s voice, and it was familiar (He wasn’t going to think about why, though, that would complicate things too much right now), and it was morning. They were having issues with food, apparently? Well… That was to be expected: Living on your own and trying to get things while you looked like hell spawn wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to do.
He mulled over things a bit further as he took another bite out of his meal. “Mind if I ask a question or two…?”
Yea… two or three… Or a ton. He had no idea where he was, why he was with Crow (But he knew if he thought enough, he’d get it), and while he was vaguely aware of why he was blind… Well, there were some more bumps and bruises and slashes he had not accounted for.
But the main question running through his mind at this point…..
What was he going to do now?
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:05 pm
The teen crossed one leg and hoof over the other, and pulled herself downward to lay on her lap. She then stretched her wings skyward, and replied.
"Yeah, I figured you'd wanna ask some things... Promise me you won't flip, okay?" Crow dug her claws into her thighs, but not deep enough to tear through her own flesh. "Things... happened," the guilt trip began, "and... Well..."
Crow raised back up, and stretched her wings behind her. "Just... Try and remain calm, you're in no shape for flight."
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:20 pm
He finished off the last of his sandwich and sighed a deep sigh, not quite sure of what he was sighing about. Everything about life, he guessed.
“Well…”
This was feeling a bit more awkward by the minute. He felt like he had been off to Vegas and gotten married while drunk, and now Crow was going to tell him just what happened. But he knew it couldn’t be anything so stupid, and mentally slapped himself for thinking such useless thoughts.
“Just what…”
He shook his head once more, he knew what had happened, really he did.
WHY were these things happening!? He knew he was… well, puberty had gotten to him, he remembered that much, and the aching in his body was a clear enough sign of that… But why? And why was everyone freaking out about HIS mistakes? They were his to suffer the consequences. And furthermore, why was this turning into some giant fiasco… And what was going to happen from then on? What could possibly get worse? Where was he going to stay? With whom? How was he going to live? How was he going to fight? All these questions… It seemed like his head might just explode.
“What’s going on?”
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:30 pm
A groan escaped Crow's lips as she finally decided to stand up. "Move your legs, damnit, I want some of my couch back for now..." She said with a slightly irritated voice.
"So, what's going on is a open ended question, what's going on with you, or what's going on out there? What happened with..." She sighed, and forced the courage to speak bluntly about the night's events. Her head sunk low, her shoulders hunched forward and her wings tightened behind her, careful not to touch Ciro with them.
"What happened with you last night was that I went to Persy's to give her a tidbit of information on Len. You were there, with this Echo chick cuddling up to you like you were some lost pup and you... Well, you know. Anyway, we got into an argument, I accidentally clawed you somethin' awful across your chest, and then you passed out from, well, I guess a lot of things. Persy didn't want you around, so, I took you home."
"Will that do...?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:49 pm
Well, to get the short and sweet recap from someone else certainly saved him one angst filled trip into his own mind later. And, to his pleasure, this description seemed to have a nice lack of blame or accusation pointed towards him. He particularly liked not being blamed or accused for stuff he was already suffering for. Still, it felt a bit awkward to hear her recount, and he had to cough a bit in order to break his silence.
“I meant more along the lines of… What is going on now? What do you want me to do?”
That… sounded… retarded. He felt like a retarded two year old asking for what Crow wanted. At this stage, he should be caring about what HE wanted; HIS needs and goals and aspirations and all that good s**t. But right now… He didn’t want to think about it. Right now he didn’t want to think, and just let Crow tell him what was up. There, yea… That was his reasoning, he was doing what he wanted by not doing anything and letting her tell him what she wanted.
The logic must have broken in his brain and he knew it.
His hand went to his eyes, rubbing the empty sockets with thumb and forefinger, before wiping down his face in an exasperated motion. He noted, quite untimely, that he needed to shave, but the thought was quickly tucked aside with all his most recent thoughts in his “You are a Retard” section of his mind.
Maybe she would actually have some kind of a suggestion and not just criticize him. Really, if she was anything like his own mind, he was about to get the worst mental beating he could ever dream of… Personally, after doing it to himself, he was in no mood to hear it from Crow.
“I can leave if you want.”
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:00 am
Crow sat next to him, every muscle rigid and tense with confused emotions from the previous day. Was he upset? Did she do something wrong? Why was he asking what she wanted to do?
...because she still had all five senses, maybe? She took him in? Her mind filled with questions and worries and doubts when suddenly one single query broke it all with a sledgehammer.
For a moment she sat, her face screwed up with bemusement. Then one chuckle escaped, and a few more fell out. The random chuckles soon turned into a small bout of giggles, and the only way to stop herself was to speak. She was nervous, and Goddess Morrigan was it ever obvious.
"Y-y-you w-w-a-ant to l-leave? With th-th-the ghosts ou-out-t-t there? Y-you can't--can't even see, n-no-no less you don't e-e-even have the strength to h-handle anything."
Morrigan then smacked her upside the head. It had taken long enough for the goddess to awaken. The hardy metaphysical slap shifted Crow's gears back into place, thankfully.
"Okay okay, so, in other words, no, I don't want you to leave. I... I want... You... You need to stay, okay? We need to get your strength up, Ciro, so you can fight again. I need my only ally to be at his top game."
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:20 am
Ciro had to firmly bite the inside of his cheek in order to not suddenly start yelling at Crow. He was a man. A manly man. And manly men did not need to be helped by girls and were not week and ghosts were not even scary and EVEN IF HE FOUND ONE HE COULDN’T BUMP INTO IT DAMNIT.
Giggle fits were not a good way to make an already self-conscious manly man feel good about himself.
But then she continued, and the anger of being sub-par washed away quite quickly.
“So that wasn’t just a hallucination…” He said coyly, and he would have looked at her with some haughty look on his face if he could have, “You really are split with the mutt.”
Well, saying he was satisfied was a bit of an understatement. That meant that Writ, that ********, had one less ally while Ciro still had two. That was helping his mood, and knowing Crow had picked him more than compensated for her making fun of him earlier.
“So…. …. WAIT… What the hell? Ghosts? Have you gone insane?”
Wait… No… It was probably just him.
“… It’s me, isn’t it?” He asked in a dull tone, his mouth in a scowl of well-known disappointment and a tinge of familiar annoyance that seemed almost comical, “I’m the one that’s a nutter.”
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:26 am
Crow sighed, and absentmindedly a wing curled around his back. Her fangs--now that the chicken roll was out of the way--sank into her lip as her mind filled once again with doubts.
"You... You were the one to... To r-r-remove your own eyeballs..." Her voice would make it sound as though it pained her as well, which, it did.
"...and I liked your eyes." She added in a whisper. But, Crow figured that he had heard enough of the blame game (a game in which, Morrigan added, was on day two), and thereby she placed a hand on his.
"There's one other thing. Once we got back here," she swallowed air, "Persy sent a message and we were supposed to head back to Seasons, but, you were still... And... I... Anyway, I sent Jeremiah, but he hasn't come back, and... Something tells me there's more than just ghosts out there, Ciro. You..." Her hand squeezed his, "We need to start preparing, and that starts with you living here with me until you get better, ok? First thing's first, we need to get your strength up. You lost a lot of blood last night. I should know, a good portion of it was on me. So..." She got up and returned to her desk. "Want another roll?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:35 pm
He scowled once more, ignorant of the presence of the wing. First, Persy had not wanted him there, that’s why he was with Crow… And then she summoned for them. Furthermore… Ghosts? That seemed just a bit too insane for his liking. Sure, gods were real, but that… that was different. He had concrete proof of that. Ghosts? No such luck.
Her hand gripped onto his, and he felt his body temperature go up slightly. Not out of anything like rage or fever, which somewhat surprised the boy, but something much different. This entire… teenager thing… it was rather awkward, and threw something of a monkey wrench into the gears at the least opportune moment. When Crow left for the desk, he found himself slightly relieved and yet slightly disappointed. His head merely shook in reply.
“So… ********. ”
These thoughts were pandering through his head. Ghosts and all sorts of baddies… Running around the streets? This was too insane.
“ How the hell do they plan on getting away with this? Releasing s**t like this onto the real world… They played the game before… But if this kind of thing happened, we would have read about it or something. There’d be some real evidence… “ He was murmuring out his thoughts, trying to place them in order.
Right now… Right now was the type of moment he would desperately want a cigarette. He could feel the annoying lack of a bulge in his back pocket, the lack of cardboard and nicotine mocking him. Sighing, his body flopped back into the sofa, there had to be some reason for this. “Hell, so now there’s ghosts out there… What are we going to do about that? How do you fight something that doesn’t have a body?”
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:28 pm
"Food, Ciro, Food." Crow reminded him, the roll still in hand. "The ghosts? They don't seem to really be muckin' up things... Something brought them here. I don't know what. But there's more out there, Ciro, otherwise Jeremiah would have been back by now..."
She sighed, and her wings flicked and flapped for a moment, as if letting off some steam, or stretching them. "I dunno why they're here, Morrigan's clueless... Shamash got anything to say about this? Has he heard anything?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:36 pm
“Smokes, Crow, Smokes.” He chided, feeling somewhat like teasing her thanks to that tone. “I’m not hungry, but I will be later. Save it.”
He signed once more, thinking about what could have brought ghosts to their unhappy little haven of a town. “Maybe it’s a kid: A player. Or it could be entirely unrelated to the game, as unlikely as that is.” Added as an afterthought, it seemed reasonable to list possible options without committing to any of them.
He didn’t know who Jeremiah was, and he really didn’t care. If he wasn’t back by now, he must not be good enough to even note. The only word to describe what happened next was that he was ‘chortling’.
“Shamash? Tell me ANYTHING? He’s pretty much minding his own business, as far as it goes. Doesn’t like to associate with any of those ‘petty lower imitations of godhood’; you know, being one of the first gods ever and all… he’s a bit picky about who he chooses to fraternize with.”
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:51 pm
Crow shook her head, and sat back down next to him. She remember cigarettes, an empty box fell from his pockets. She pulled it out of her case and handed it to him. Her hand, once again, held on a few seconds longer than usual before she pulled away.
"I doubt a player can do that, I went all the way to Mid." She replied, her voice wavering slightly, "and I don't know of anyone with that type of power. It's something else doing it, Ciro..."
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