Roleplay

Thalia was still trying to shake the hazy feeling that had settled in, the rage in the back of her mind now. A cold chill washed over her entire body. She was now only realizing that she had hurt someone in her rabid state. However, she wasn't glancing back towards where the Whisper once was. With that realization came another. If she had hurt it, then that meant she had hurt Callum, wherever he was. That was enough to keep her tears coming.

But what was enough to stop them?

Raphael.

She heard his voice again, but it wasn't croaking or moaning. He was telling her that she didn't have to be sorry. She wasn't even sure what she was sorry for exactly. Her mind cut back to June and Tem, and then she remembered. Deep in her soul, she knew very well that she shouldn't have just instantly sided with Callum; just because he was her brother, that didn't mean they had to agree all of the time. From what she had seen, that shadowy spike could've impaled Tem or Aerik. She didn't know what had been said, but it wasn't good, whatever it was. She didn't like to remember what she herself had gone through at that time.

She knew the remainder of the "group" here would have trouble if June, Tem or Aerik saw them again. That made her wonder what they were doing at the moment. Probably getting more done. All her part of the group did was get captured at the drop of a dime. Well, that and encountering the gorgon, who was honestly the least of her worries at this moment in time. Callum could be anywhere; she hadn't payed any sort of attention to the Whisper's outrage before they were all thrown in cages.

Screw this.

She blocked out everyone else she knew, and focused only on Raph. Her tears were ceasing, and no sobs came out of her. She took notice of the change in the usual tone of his voice, and smiled shakily. She peered curiously into his cage, seeing a golden coin that seemed to have prints on both sides of it. When was the last time she had touched a coin?

As she was offered the choice of playing a game, she chuckled a bit hoarsely. A game sounded like exactly what she needed right now. Screw everything else that was happening. Raph wanted to play a game. She liked games. "Truth or dare," she repeated, acting as though her voice might echo throughout the room quietly. "I like that. I'll... try not to ask questions that are too personal. Assuming I get this right." She paused, considering which side she would pick. She supposed she was feeling a little better now, and if she could feel it, she would know that her soul was mending itself, whatever soul she had, anyway.

"Tails."

---

Call watched the Whisper with caution and even worry. Though he wasn't outwardly expressing that worry, it still lingered in him. He knew what it came to do, but for some reason, it hadn't acted yet. If it really, really, REALLY wanted to kill this version of Athus, it would've already done so. After all, it had access to magic, while Call did not. He could feel his own magic being cut off entirely. He wasn't the one attacking, but Athus probably thought he would gang up on him with the Whisper.

Speaking of the Whisper, it was watching Athus closely, studying his every move. It knew something Call did not, and that almost made it grin. But it wasn't grinning. That would've been normal behavior for it. This was serious, and it had to act serious. It also had to hurry up; who knew when someone would look at the window of this room from the outside and notice strange constructs blocking the view.

When Athus gave a warning, Call felt a chill shake his entire body. The Whisper felt it too, but it ignored that. It also ignored the pain in its injured arm; the same arm Call had, wrapped in a bandage. Don't come any closer. It was tempted to laugh, but the laugh never came. It glanced between Athus and Call before letting its gaze fall back on the former.

"YOU WON'T HURT HIM," it proclaimed, its voice more demonic than usual. Call recognized that shift in tone; it happened when the Whisper lost its mind to the howl and the roar. He remembered his mind being strained in the Whisper's anger, and suppressed a shiver. He looked around, as if trying to find some sort of escape route. He thought the Whisper would be here to distract Athus so he could escape, but that didn't seem to be the case for the moment.

"YOU ARE UNPROTECTED BY DEATH'S WORD. YOUR SOUL DOES NOT BELONG IN THE PAST, AS DOES OURS. THAT BOY DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU. THE MARK MEANS NOTHING HERE."

Wait... Death's word?

...Oh no... Whisper... please...

Try as he might, Call's telepathic words weren't reaching it.

Letting himself enjoy for a moment of the eerie silence instead of repelling, his mouth twitched into the shadow of a smile of pride.
Seeing her smiling made him feel warmer on the inside, even as there is a seemly endless amount of thoughts that makes the urge to scream and give up quite the lure. He had worries, questions, problems, and what feels like the whole world going against him. Things that he tried to stop thinking about just for a moment, for her, because every single time they come up, he felt like loosing control and almost always does; fits of anger and aggression like some spoiled brat. Fu** he never even helped in anything, just make it worst. For every he spare he kills tens more, and knowing that taking a life might scar someone for life but he's became numb towards the guilt-

Nay.

"Well then. Perhaps this is where fate starts shifting." With no delay, he rested the coin on his thumb. His pale finger barely moved, but the coin flew up and tossed and turned in air, as if it cannot decide which road it should take. One side was carved with a serpent's feather crowned head, its neck ripped off the body; another side with the the same feathered serpent but with a small knife like objects next to it, the serpent's eyes wide alive. Both were carved in an exotic fashion, mortal gold in and out. His attention followed the flying metal, like a being trying to escape their fate of being bounded to the ground, given hope for a moment but failure at the next. But it never stops trying.

Catching it just when it sped towards the floor, the pale fingers lashed out and clutched it right between like a cage. Without peeking, he set it upon his other palm before releasing his tenacious grip. Bringing it closer to his face, the vampire sneered and closed his fingers. "Tails." It wasn't the game he was going for by no means. Shifting to sit cross legs facing Thalia, he still had blood on his face although most of the sources were gone as if they were never there. The melancholic fog exerted from him, yet no spreading bitterness come. His face was relaxed and calm, like a yellow sky. The storm still screams, the hate still burns, but those around him aren't the one who is to take it. He knew exactly who he marked in red and he'll save the goods for them.

---

They have to let it out soon. It had been beyond count of them as to how long it had been, but the abnormality had been left alone all along. It was soon discovered that it needs no need to eat, or any normal needs of a being by much. Their hopes of escape was quickly squashed, so it now awaits release. They didn't even have any malice at first, only stealing a guard's identity while hiding after they stole a large pouch full of cirlces that looked shiny and yellow. Then the other guards decided to attack when Scyco's flesh started to hiss from stepping in a puddle, and out of fear they may have tried to strangle a guard… and a few more or so. They just didn't realize that most being's heads and body parts don't regrow but instead passes away. So now here they sat, watching the interactions nearby as far as they can reach. If this was a way to torture them then the boredom certainly is doing its job. The two glowing white eyes were like souls floating mid-air, its form shifting constantly and had settled into fox with a large fluffy tail trailing behind it. They've seen a few different versions brought from wherever places, and so they also possess ears that are almost half as large as their face.

Tem grinned and took her hand, starting off at a walk and turning it into a run, leading June through the backstreets and skidding around the corners as though they couldn't afford to be more careful. She put a hand on her abdomen absently when they stopped to catch their breath, laughing out loud for a moment. "This is more like it," she gave June a grin. "Say... if we had the time to decide, how would you rather Torvald died?"

She asked the question as she took off again, twisting down the streets to where the weredog would be waiting for them, the assassins - hopefully - with her. Her blood was starting to pump, as though they were already being chased, as though she wasn't just being a child, running just for the joy of it. She squeezed June's hand, letting herself feel it as well as the breeze around her, feeling both at the same time.

She stopped again, panting, at the corner before their alley spilled onto a busy street. "You've got to promise me one thing, though." She couldn't wipe the grin off her face, too tired to force herself to hide how much she wanted to laugh from the exhilaration. "When all this is over, you're going to take me somewhere. The world across the sea," she waved her hand in an arc, as though outlining a skyline. "With a house like you always wanted to come home to."

---

Aerik had been waiting a while, her eyes half-closed, her back presed up against the stone of the nearest building. the castle-keep was ominous, looming above this section of the city like a warning, which was only amplified by the fact it had Torvald in it.

The assassins had prepared themselves a little camp to sit down and wait. This city was strange, in the way it worked like that. Little fires blossomed in alleyways for people who lived on the streets as though they were just part of the countryside, setting themselves city tents made of strange pieces of scrap and held up by wood planks, and if you rounded a corner you were likely to come across anything from a camp to a home-built house huddled in the corner of a square. She had never seen anything quite like it.

"Are they coming?" She was mostly talking to herself, in a low growl under her breath, but it didn't go unnoticed by their companions.

"If they don't, we can go without them. We don't have many chances to try the same thing."

"I'd rather they were here." She thought about June's lynx form, the power she had when they were truly in a tight spot, and the fact she would be left out in the city without a plan if they continued without her. She didn't think about Tem.

"Then we wait. Two more hours."

"Two more hours?"

"There is nothing out of the ordinary here. We're fine to wait. Come and sit, in the meantime."

Aerik uneasily did as she was told, heading to the fire and lowering herself onto the ground beside it, far enough away not to feel the brunt of the heat. She couldn't tell what they were burning, but it didn't look like wood. Some kind of... flammable scrap fire.

---

Athus narrowed his eyes, at whatever... this was. He had studied for a long time, and hadn't come across anything similar. It was possible - no, it was probable - that this was some manifestation of an aspect of the Last Shadow, but in that case, it was containing its destructive force incredibly well. He had seen it form in front of the gates of Colsar, way back when.

"The Life Spirit had the right idea. You're leading them to their own deaths. Much better to go to the future, when the world isn't as twisted as it is now, or as brittle as it became. You're lying, the Mark works. It'll always work. As long as it's on his arm, it brands him to me."

He couldn't know for sure if it was speaking the truth. He hadn't researched its effects through the time split, for obvious reasons, but he wasn't going to fail because something might not be a bluff. "Leave. Now."

Thalia watched Raph in anticipation, wondering what was going on in that head of his. She had always wondered that, and she only realized this now. She was leaning against the bars, waiting for the coin to be flipped in the air. She couldn't help but chuckle quietly upon hearing him speak. That line definitely sounded cheesy to her, but f**k it. She didn't care. In fact, cheesiness was what she needed right now. It almost made her think about the Whisper for a moment.

"Let's do it," she commented, right before the coin was tossed into the air. Her strange eyes followed it, watching it intently. She was silently crossing her fingers, hoping she would be lucky. She was usually lucky when it came to games. She found it easy to play card games successfully, but that was probably because she only really played against Callum, who was a sucker for sure.

A snake-like grin could be seen on her face as she turned out to be absolutely correct in her prediction. Tails. She always picked tails. She wasn't sitting cross-legged like Raph. However, she was putting her full attention on him, and only him. She could give a single f**k about anyone who wanted to drag her out of the cage and away from her love. She began thinking about what kind of question she could ask that wouldn't make things worse. She let out a thoughtful hum.

"How many worlds have you been to?"

---

Power.

That was what the Whisper was feeling right now. Pure, raw power. This power was tugging it in a direction it had almost gone down before. Take control. Take control. TAKE UTTER CONTROL. Nothing could tie it down. That was how it felt. It was an entity, just as the Last Shadow and the Exorcist were. Who were lower beings to treat it like it was one of them? Honestly, it was sick and tired of that.

Most importantly, it was sick and tired of being tied down.

It was tied to someone it considered important; the boy with the curse, the boy who was only taken care of by one person for most of his life, the boy who finally found love and was constantly pulled away from her by cruel fate. How it longed to break the link between them. He should be leading his own life, and it held him back. At the same time, it needed to stand alone in order to become more powerful. It finally had control, and it thought it held dominion over the current situation. The less serious memories it had were beginning to slip into the back of its mind, all the times it hadn't acted like an Entity at all.

It listened to this lower life form as he presented a rebuttal, and it didn't interrupt once. For a moment, it felt as though all of this Shadow energy filling the room at once could lead to something very bad. Two Cursed individuals and an Entity born from that same Curse; the room was just teeming with Shadow energy. However, noticing this only made it think it had more power and control over the situation. It knew what Athus told Call, but frankly, it didn't care about the fact that he was most likely right.

"FIRST, I'M NOT THE LEADER HERE," it clarified, frowning deeply and crossing its arms. "SECOND, I KNOW THE MARK PHYSICALLY WORKS. I WAS SPEAKING METAPHORICALLY... DO YOU KNOW WHAT A METAPHOR IS?"

The Entity almost asked this with light amusement, getting close to returning to its normal self... until the brimming energy in the room pulled it right back in, not intent on letting go. It couldn't help but laugh. Leave? Ha. How funny.

"I DON'T KNOW IF YOU NOTICED HERE, BUT I TOO AM CONNECTED TO THE BOY," it growled. "WHY THE HELL SHOULD I BE EXPECTED TO LISTEN TO YOU, HMM? I WILL NOT GO BACK INTO ANOTHER CAGE. I WILL NOT. BE. A. DAMN. PRISONER."

Making a mock sigh, he grunted grudgingly, "Don't have to look so smug." Resting the coin on the ground without looking, he was slouching a little as he thought about her question. Counting with his fingers, the vampire finally said, "Well, the first one I've been to is of course the world I was born in. It was a small one, distant from the any other and like a hidden paradise of a sort; except of course it wasn't a paradise to say the least. The dominant species was beings like me, except more flamboyantly colored and ... I was technically considered "lower form"."

"But then after my parents died, I left the place. There must have been a world somehow sent upon ours, because I never felt the shifting of worlds but now I look back and somehow I definitely managed to step between worlds. So that's two." Coughing to clear his throat, Raph wondered what happened to his orignal home. If the species still lives there and if he'd ever beable to go back. "Number three is the one that I went to for just a few brief heartbeats when Cessa teleports me and ... this one's the fourth one."

Giving a snicker when he finished, the vampire picked up the coin again and this time barely looked at it before flipping it in the air, saying loud enough as the coin spinned, "Heads." Letting the yellow flicker before swiping it with a half hearted grab, the result quickly wiped his complacent grin off from his face. He was sure luck would've come to him now.

Well then, fu** luck too.

He's got nothing but indestructibility, a barely binded soul and Thalia. Everytime he tried to get something more, he fails. Every single time. Whether its power, a sense of right, he should've spend his time making sure what little he has doesn't leave too. Or else they'll be gone too. Muttering "This isn't fair" in a childish manner, he said to Thalia casually, "You win then. Truth or dare?"

The Wereraptor laughed, though, she quickly wiped any hint of smugness off of her face. She was like a small child listening to a story, with bright eyes and an overall curious demeanor. By only focusing on this, it made her forget about everything else; most important, the goal. The true goal. Fixing this world... it almost seemed pointless to her? Why was that? Nothing was quite black and white; there would always have to be something wrong, otherwise everything would be too right.

It was a wish, but one that would upset the neutral balance if granted.

She let out a quiet sigh, listening to the answer coming from Raph. She wasn't sure how she knew of his status as a world-jumper of sorts. She just had a feeling, and she was happy to be right for once. She wasn't too happy to hear that he had been considered a lower form in his old world, but he hadn't fallen from it, so she wouldn't be slicing heads off today. I can't travel to that world anyway... besides, I'm locked in a f**king cage, which is just fantastic.

She couldn't let her thoughts drag her down, so she listened to the rest of Raph's answer. She heard him snicker and returned it with one of her own. Ooh, I like the smug attitude... she thought precisely as he announced which side he would be taking on the coin. She smirked. She knew it was going to be tails. Her luck was with her today... kind of. She wouldn't be stuck here if it actually had been. This must be some kind of apology gift, as if saying, 'sorry for getting you locked up like an animal and dooming your purpose... have some heads or tails luck'. It almost made her want to scowl, but she held back from doing so.

She heard him mutter and laughed loudly. "Aw," she teased, waving a finger at him. "Come on. I'm sure you'll get it next time." She liked how he made his next question casual, as though he wasn't disappointed with the result of the coin flip. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes playfully. "Dare? What am I going to dare you to do, with our limited surroundings?" She tried to say it in the most lighthearted manner she could; she knew he was just as sick of being trapped here as she was, perhaps even more so.

"I'm teasing," she added, chuckling. "Let's see... I'll go with truth, of course." She paused for a moment, a genuine smile lighting her face. "You could've been thinking about it at some point; where would you like us to settle, after this is over? Assuming we survive, which I would have confidence in."

All of Lucine’s energy was, at the moment, focused on reaching Callum using whatever energy bonded the both of them. Her small body was hunched over like an animal in pain, and her yellow eyes had been squeezed shut. Because of the strain she was putting on herself her head was pounding, making it hard to see or hear any of the activity which was happening around her. She was just by herself, trying to force her soul out of her body.

It was hard without the mage-lights to guide her. Hard without their magic to help her, and the girl possessed no magic of her own, unless being non-human counted towards that. If the rhythm of the young vampire’s soul happened to reach its recipient, he would feel her distress and strain, and not the comfort that she wanted to send him. She wanted to be able to whisper “I’m here.” instead of shout “I AM PRESENT AND IN IMMENSE STRESS!!!”

She considered that fact that maybe, whatever situation he was in, her presence would probably not be welcomed, especially not in her current state of mind. The girl relaxed a little, and for a moment the stress melted away, but it was replaced by a feeling of emptiness.

The words which the others around her were saying began to reach her ears. She could hear snippets of the conversation between Raphael and Thalia, and she soft hissing of snakes from the gorgon leaning against the bars behind her. Pulling her cloak farther over her shoulders, the girl began to sink backwards until she had curled into a small ball on the floor of the cage.

Let’s try this again she thought, and began to push feelings through her soul once more, but this time she wasn’t shouting. She was trying to stay as calm as possible despite the feeling of cold dread passing over her.

"If I keep calling heads I will get it. You'll see." He snorted, his face tilting away to not face her but a smile on his face. Focusing on simple questions and just this was good. It was easy. It wasn't laboring and didn't bring any damn troubles onto his mind like everything else. This was what he wanted, for things to just be simple for once and no more surprises and being tossed around like a puppet. If the world's going to end soon because they're all going to die soon, he's rather enjoy this last few moments than anything else.

He laughed, "I can do a lot of things if enough creativity is put in." Not going into the specifics in respect to keep things as light as possible in how she's doing too, her question made him think. What exactly did he want? A lot of things for certain … He wanted to be fixed. He wanted to be powerful enough to be able to protect others. At some point he did think about settling; at other times he wanted to see more worlds because they had forever to do whatever they want. It just seemed like such a waste to stop so short … He didn't think like how a mortal young adult would think with the threat of death looming in the far distant. His life might as well be endless, and there's simply so much possibility that spending eternity in one place seems so boring …

But it'll be with Thalia. She's going to be there. Would it be so bad? Certainly not … And just what if they travel and become entrapped in a catastrophe such as the one in this world? Can he, to be honest go through all this again? It seems so faraway … Because it is. Even as he tried, Raph can't imagine the day where he'd actually get to make the decision. All of these are just thoughts in his head in the end, and-

The brief moment of wist passed by and he smiled warmly, soft and faint but brighter than any other he had before. He can almost see the future playing out in his head, what feels like heat humming in his soul, "I … I would probably want to travel a little more. We have eternity after all… Then perhaps one day settle down. It doesn't matter where to me, as long as you're here. And yeah that sounded cheesy as f**k but I wouldn't mind, if you wouldn't that is." There was a faint trail of pink on his face, as the vampire played the idea over his head again.

It seemed like such a shame for so much potential to end here just because they're trapped.

"You know what, I believe you. We'll get out of here … We all will." Looking down against the ground, his voice was quiet but bright, "It feels so wrong coming from me but … I guess if there's nothing to do we just have to hope, right?"