Banished for (the Sake of) Good (1x1 w/Kodo & Demetri)

[Kodo Teal]

I heard his disappointment in the mentioning of the fire marshal and we both thought about how that egotistical p***k could possibly ruin things, but if we could waltz our way into that ball, it would be worth a 'temporary disposal' of the guy. Maybe I'd call and pretend to be a nurse saying his grandmother was dead/dying. That usually worked in movies, right? Those things had to be accurate as they're on TV.

"Hah!" I snorted at his invitation. "Don't flatter yourself. I can easily find a single, good-looking man on this thing called 'E-Harmony'. It rhymes, it must be truthful." I stated matter-of-factly. "When we get there, we should have invitations from our.." I struggled to think of the word, "recent popularity in the news, but even if we don't, we should be able to go in either by boasting about our recent heroics, or, you can slip them a bribe. Humans like small children, right? I think that Chinese place does." I wrinkled my nose as another smell from downstairs wafted to my nose.

By this time I had stood and was pacing the room with my ideas, tapping my finger to my chin. If there was one thing I could rely on, it was my ingenious ideas.

[Demetri Marquette]

I actually cringed.

...We're...we're not even going to address that E-harmony business. I had half the mind to recommend Craiglist to her instead, but I behaved. That should add some good karma to my name, right? A+ Deme.

(Though I'd love to ******** with her dating profile, and add all sorts of weird info. Her password really can't be that hard to guess. I bet you it's HeracineGirl12.)

"Bribing is out of the question, but I can definitely convince them to let us in." I nod. I'm sure if I am allowed to talk long enough, I could be the tipping point of whether Global Warming does or does not exist. Note: I am usually not allowed to talk that long. "From there, we make ourselves celebrities." It all starts with the local newspaper. From there, we climb to the tabloids, then television! Unless we manage to hit a cheat code and get a viral video on the internet. Making my partner here do horrible Karaoke to auto tune, or having her hilariously lose her balance will be plan B. "Get yourself a nice dress."

[Kodo Teal]

"In all honesty, I'd just grab one my kid's dads. I think one of them even has a high position somewhere. Just lock his wife in a closet." I walked back toward the window to wipe a spot on it to look out, and immediately regretting it due to the grime that stuck to my sleeve.

"A nice dress? With what money? I've been declined credit cards left and right!" I pouted as I stared out the window, the grayed blue letters on the building across from this one lighting up due to the evening. "Goodwill." I muttered, reading the word out loud. What kind of logo was that? "Hey, when we get famous, on our business cards, don't get a stupid logo like that one." I pointed, pressing my fingertip to the window. "It's half a face, and he's smiling about it. It's terrifying." To add emphasis I shuddered and made a face at it. Humans had little to no creativity sometimes.

[Kodo Teal]

My draw dropped at him. He expected me- us- to go in that place?! To buy things? Fine. And a size small suit? "I wish I could hide my demonic aura as well as you did, and change my form as much as you can. All I can do is suppress it into my hair with all these runes!" I held up a big thick wad of it, pointing at the strip of cloth that matched my hair color, the little symbols on it flowing almost seamlessly into the strands of my hair. You had to have a natural affinity for magics and be really close to see it, but it was definitely holding something back, almost bursting forth with whatever it contained. "See, all you have to do is fart and let your aura slip away- granted you'd level half a city block in sulfuric fire, but you can let some of it off. I can't. This hair gets bigger and purpley-er and I have to add more runes and before you know it, I'm going to look like- like- I stuck my finger in a socket and doused my hair at the same time. Rune magics is very tricky, and while I don't naturally have an aura as heavy as yours, it's building up with nowhere to go." I pushed the wad of hair out of my hand and watched it plop down next to me, the length of it brushing against my calves.

"Size reduction would be nice, too." Just POOF and I could be 130 lbs and 5'5". As much as I loved the empowered feeling of walking around at 5'11", I was almost as tall as most men and that scared people. We were supposed to blend in, and I wasn't doing a very good job of it- I scared most of my students the first day of school.

But we had a job to do now. "Are you coming with me on this shopping exp- expid- adventure?" I held the door open, expecting him to follow.

[Kodo Teal]

"Ex-cuuuse me!?" I burst out, my cheeks reddening. How could he- "I'll do no such thing! If there's one thing I take pride in, it's this gawds-awful," I reached up and started pulling at it, "floor-length atrocity!"

I was about to walk out with a huff whenever he continued speaking. Shuddering at his suggestion of food, I cringed and let the door slam- loudly- as I left down the hall. If these two events panned out according to plan, we'd have a great reputation ahead of us. Appeasing to humans isn't all that hard- right?

"Whatchh it.. drag queeen!"

A drunken slur caught my attention after I stubbed my foot into something soft and smelly on the ground floor of the stairwell. Really? A squatter? "Oh, get sober!" I retorted as I kicked the dude. Oddly enough, he didn't grunt in pain, but it sounded like he might've enjoy- no. Nononono. I ran out the stairwell door and into the skinny hallway that sided with the Chinese place. The smell from there made me nauseous on top of the homeless guy's.. reaction. Barely making it to the street for fresh air, I inhaled what little of it there was, though the stench of exhaust piling up in the air from the day's city traffic stung my nostrils. On top of that, someone was smoking one of those really strong European cigarettes that reek of death right next to me. Without even thinking I grabbed it out of the guy's mouth and flicked it as hard as I could away from me. "How can you destroy your fleshy body- the only one you'll ever get- with those death sticks!?" I screeched loudly, upset at these humans and their dumb ideas and their dumb self-inflicted (and slow) ways to die.

But- what was that wretched smell!?

Shouting suddenly came from inside the taco-joint-turned-Chinese-kitchen (as all it was was a large kitchen with a window on the front for ordering "food" ) as one of their stoves had caught fire. They were shouting at me and trying to put the fires out, only to have the flames reach higher up the wall. I watched dumbly, not comprehending the issue. Then I remembered- I flicked the cigarette into the kitchen.

Woooops. Demetri would kill me, there's no way I'd get to talk myself out of this one.

[********] I grabbed the strip of cloth that was tying my hair up into it's long pony tail and squeezed off a couple of runes (don't ask, it's a strange procedure to explain) then shouted the enchantment in Herac-ish, the flames of the place catching everything quickly on fire. A burst of purple and blue energy erupted from my fingertips that I pointed toward the kitchen, a wave of it quickly pulling out the fire, and everything else, with it. Looking at my handiwork, I grimaced as I saw the results. Anything that wasn't bolted to the floor and walls were either completely gone or covered in a shimmery glow of purple. One of the cooks trembled behind the counter, his (once white) clothing glowing with the effects of my ability.

Mumbling from behind me made me turn my head, and I saw a group of people had gathered in front of the Goodwill to watch the commotion. I was double dead. Shaking a little, I walked in a straight line toward them, and they gathered, expecting me to say something. When I paused in front of them, they looked at me expectedly before I stuck my arm straight out in front of me. I still had a job to do. The ones closest to me jumped and gasped before letting me through. Once inside the musty-smelling store, I found a circle rack stuffed with clothes and crawled to the middle to curl myself up into ball. I'd been seen. I just compromised our entire mission. There was no way we were going home now. We were stuck here. And now, because people had seen me walk in here and were following me around, they gathered around the rack to mumble among themselves, and occasionally I'd hear them try to talk to me. A human's curiosity will never cease to amaze me. You can give them explicit instructions NOT to do something, and the very thing they'll do is the thing. Anxiety and small panic attacks started to affect my breathing. How was I going to explain myself this time?!

[Kodo Teal]

My knees were pulled up, my arms wrapped around them. We were doomed, I knew it! Doomed to live on this stupid planet, with these stupid humans, and their stupid laws and their stupid stupid bad habits! I sniffled, feeling embarrassed. This wasn't me. This stupid place was affecting with my emotions. I was feared back home! I could wipe out a Century Beast in half a minute! But here? I can't even get my hair to hang straight. I could barely fit in this stupid clothes rack.

THIS WHOLE PLACE IS STUPID.

I jostled the rack in frustration, scaring some of the people around it, when I heard a familiar name spoken by a voice I knew, though the voice was disguised into a less harsher, throatier tone than normal. I felt relief, but after hearing his words I rolled my eyes, my chest starting to fill again with having to explain the situation.

"You mind coming out of there? I asked you to get a dress, not burn down the address."

I glared up at him as he peaked through the clothes at me, and I could see he was resisting a laugh from the awkward position I was in, my larger-than-average sized body making the clothes bulge outward from the rack. It was certainly uncomfortable. I was almost as tall as he was, now. "I shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere. All I ever do is mess stuff up!" I tried to stand, pushing the rack this way and that out of frustration and anger, only to have the contraption twist and fall on top of me- with me still in the middle. "Do you see what I mean!?"

Right about then the sirens from firetrucks pulled up outside and I freaked out, flailing this way and that, piled underneath a mountain of clothing. "YOU GET ME OUT OF HERE. RIGHT NOW!" Another panic attack was coming on.

[Kodo Teal]

Clothes stuck to me as he dragged me along, being quiet as possible despite the loud mess we were in. Closing the door behind us in the already cramped fitting room, Demetri gave me one of those "I'm-super-pissed-but-I'm-going-pretend-I'm-not-for-your-sake" grins that only meant I was in big trouble- which I already knew, but my hot-headedness didn't prevent me from not speaking.

"It was-" I clenched my mouth as I struggled to lie. I'd get nowhere if I did that, especially with him. "It was an accident! The whole kitchen caught fire- I had to do something, fast!" Concise, to the point. Maybe he'd appreciate that. Maybe he'd be too angry to care about my speaking tactics. But I stood, eyes open a little wider than usual due to my underlying worry for my own sake, my arms in an almost defensive pose.

If worse came to worse, I could release the runes from holding my aura back. It could catch him off guard, and give me a split second to escape. Granted it would transform me into my real form, the mess he- well, I, got us in would get bigger, possibly destroying this place.

I hated my life hinging on what others said or did, even if I had little to no self-control.

[Kodo Teal]

I watched his face fall, mid-sentence. After all our adventures in Herac'ine, even while we stood before the conciliate, I'd not seen him look this defeated. Suddenly his face changed and looked at me, words harsh. Pursing my lips at him, I frowned. "How in the Herac' do expect me to fix all this by myself?!" I hissed. "Every time I'm by myself, something shitty like this happens, it's why I lived a life of mischief back home, it was easier to deal with my- my-" I struggled for words like I normally did when I was under pressure, "my 'problem'. I attract commotion, I'm chaotic by nature!"

Glimmering purple streams started to flow from my hair, lifting the bulk of it up around us. Seeing this, my eyes widened and I grabbed at it, pulling my hair into my arms. "More runes! I need to put more on!" It was like adding more scotch tape to cover a crack in a dam. It might hold for a little bit, as long as there's no rain. But right then, with my heightened emotions, it was like a storm, and the crack was getting bigger.

Fumbling with my fingers and muttering things under my breath, small symbols materialized from thin air and integrated into the cloth that held my hair up. "Demetri," I pleaded, worried, "we need to get away from the city- away from people! I'm about to explode!" But his words came back to me. 'Oh that's right, you want me to do things on my own! Fine! Leave me to die, you selfish p***k! All you ever were good for was taking care of yourself anyways!" Damned stupid emotions, I regretted it when it left my mouth, but I was freaking out, and my pride kept me from apologizing right away.

What did people do when they had to let out a lot of stress? To calm themselves down? What outlet would a human use? Would it work on demons like us? Would shopping help? Drugs? Sex- ew.. no one would do that with me anyways, that was a bad suggestion, why would I think that?! Playing with a cute pet? Sleeping? Exercising? I started pacing now, still trying to add more "tape".

[Kodo Teal]

I was panting heavily as I struggled to completely comprehend his words. Stupid heart was racing too fast as I struggled with my clammy hands to put my hair up in a bun. It wrapped around my head almost too much, it looked like I was one of those canteen carriers in Africa, I noticed, leaning down to look at the mirror in the fitting room. "You'd do that for me?" I looked at him, feeling a little calmer, but nowhere near where I should have been.

"I was pretty sure you hated my guts." I took a step toward him, placing a hand on the door that he leaned against. At first, and I realized this later, it looked like I was coming on to him (ew), but I flipped up the lock and pushed the door open then peered out around the corner of the door, ignoring our closeness as I saw most of the people had left the store. Leaning back, I looked back at him. "No. The answer to your- forfeit question, that is." I smirked, then slid out of the room. I darted to the back of the store, waiting for Demetri.

For the split second I was alone, I felt my chest tighten as another panic threatened to surface. Taking short deep breaths, I closed my eyes for a second before forcing myself to appear like I was fine. I had to just hold out until I could release this build up of pressure without the threat of hurting others.