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 Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 12:57 am
His touch didn't linger on her for very long, as she steadied herself against the recuperacoon. Somehow, Zeffer seemed to have some vague sense of the feelings she was harboring, even though he didn't dare voice them. It was a very strange time, he realized, for the both of them; the black nature of their previous interactions had been momentarily set aside. She was one of his closest friends, and she had needed help. There was a limit to how far black feelings and condescension could go, and Zeffer couldn't find it in him to apply such things to her current state. He was still too deeply elated over the simple fact that she was alive...and she had survived the first night, too. Even though she was weak, her eyes looked clear, and as she spoke, a grin broke across his face. If there was anything he could appreciate, it was how hardy their species was.
"I found you in the woods last night. You passed out after we got here. We're in my hive." He explained the situation with a level tone, still not entirely sure what all she remembered, assuming she meant what had occurred the previous night. He moved to give her some space, sitting cross-legged a couple feet away, unable to banish the relieved smirk on his face. "Man, I'm glad you're awake. Thought you were gonna sleep way longer than that, since you lost so much bl---" He was cut short when she happened to look down, and suddenly the happiness was shifting into sly sheepishness as she questioned him angrily. There was the Akko he knew and hated.
"Listen! Don't be mad! You were so ******** filthy, I was afraid your wounds were gonna get infected! And your clothes smelled like s**t. I washed them, you can change into 'em right now, if you want!!" His explanation came fast as he scrabbled back, grinning like a moron and lifting his hands in a disarming manner. She was still pretty wobbly, he figured, so it'd be easy to avoid getting slugged for his supposed misdeed.
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 1:21 am
She leaned back against the recuperacoon, brows furrowed as she listened to Zeffer recollect the previous night. She remembered, vaguely, their reunion and the torturous ride back on Arcus. Had she blacked out sometime after arriving at his hive? Akko had no memory of him putting her in the guest respiteblock or tending to her wounds, she noted, as she caught glimpse of freshly wrapped bandages peeking from under one of the sleeves. Let alone changing her clothes.
Byakko let out a low, short hiss of condemnation as she glared once again at the blue lightning print PJs she now donned. Figures he'd wear something suited for a ******** wriggler. Admittedly Zeffer had few options, given her condition, and his blood pumper was in the right place... but still. Her humiliation only grew. Akko sharply bit her lower lip, nearly enough to draw blood, shooting daggers down at the blueblood. Had she the energy, she would have lunged and swatted at him, but instead she merely slitted her eyelids and tried to drive her point home visually.
"Whatever," she muttered reluctantly after a long pause, breaking their locked gaze as her vision flitted elsewhere, face still flushed. She didn't have the strength to scuffle, let alone admit his validity. Byakko would have even thanked him if he didn't have that <******** s**t eating grin painted across his face.
The mutant likewise slunk to the ground, grunting, pressing her back against the recuperacoon as she slid back down to meet the floor- this time on her own accord. Akko folded her legs gingerly beneath herself before settling into a position that didn't completely skewer her with pain, turning to stare across at Zeff. "No, I mean... what happened?" She lifted a hand to wearily gesture at his presence. "How are you here? You escaped? What about the others, I thought everyone was de-" For some reason Akko stopped herself, but it was clear where she had been going. She drew a shattered breath. "And then, back there with the bunker..."
She glanced down occasionally at her bandaged hands folded in her lap as she babbled, dampened gauze beginning to seep a mutant pink. Something tugged at her a little more urgently than the other questions, despite their obvious importance.
"You don't care. Why?" She demanded, eyes narrowing across the room at Zeffer as she studied him in wonderment, as if for the first time.
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 1:24 am
"I'm sorry! It would suck to go through all that and have your dumb face rot off." He tried to inject a bit of humor into the situation, a tiny touch of blackness to defuse the tension. Her venomous stare cut through him, despite his perpetual grin, and though he was deeply amused by the color in her cheeks, he avoided mentioning it, not wanting to work her into a frenzy just yet. After a moment, he inched back further, before standing and moving over to the wall, grabbing something from off the top of a half empty shelf. Seating himself again, he set down her sash and robes, nice and clean, save for a few faded bloodstains that hadn't come out, and a towel. He'd done his best to leave as much of her dignity intact as possible, but there was only so much he could do given her situation.
He was about to suggest that he leave and she clean up, but her repeated question left him seated on the floor. Oh. In the excitement and worry and scurrying around, he'd nearly forgotten. His grin faded slightly as he paused, realizing that his scars probably looked startling to her, at best. Even though the events of the prison were still only weeks in the past, it almost felt as if it had been months, between his accident and what had happened to Aprife...things had taken a turn for the abysmal, but they'd all managed to survive, somehow. In Zeffer's opinion, it could only get better from there on out.
As Zeffer opened his mouth to explain the prison break, he was effectively cut off again as Akko referred back to the night they had all been taken away. Even after all the s**t that had happened, he could still remember that night, clear as a bell. Swallowing the growing knot in his throat, he finally responded after hesitating for a moment. "After all the s**t we've been through? I'm not gonna throw it all away just because of that. It just goes to show that all the bullshit they feed us about mutants being inferior is a load of crap." Zeffer's lip curled slightly, fangs shining still in a nasty half grin. He'd never known a mutant until she'd revealed herself to be one, and even though it was still pretty crazy, it changed nothing. Her blood could be glowing neon green for all he cared.
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 1:35 am
Byakko only squinted unforgivingly as as Zeffer apologized, scowl plummeting as he mentioned her face. Lifting a lightly quivering hand to the bridge of her nose, she winced, the searing throb reminding the mutant all too vividly of her encounter with Regina. There was no way there wasn't a scar. Akko's fingers warily trailed across bandaged cheeks before her arm flopped back into her lap, chest heaving with a defeated sigh. She ignored her robes for now. Changing seemed rather mundane in retrospect, although the issue was far from absolved in her mind. Akko'd have her revenge, just... later.
His stint at the prison might have seemed like ages ago for Zeffer, but for Byakko the jumbled mess of chaotic events and her hazy journey to the Fronds felt like it all happened the night prior. She traced the scars on Zeffer's face once again with newfound intrigue, having no recollection of noting them during their reunion- it was all so cloudy to her now. Byakko swallowed back a wave of guilt. He may have escaped, but apparently not unscathed. It was her fault everything was in shambles either way, wasn't it? That any of this had even happened? Despite the vast amount of time she had spent dwelling on it, Byakko couldn't wrap her mind around the concept that she had led the rebels, her friends, so horribly astray. It ripped at her very core.
Byakko's vision remained intently locked on Zeffer's face, unwavering as he spoke, but as soon as he fell silent her gaze immediately dropped down to her teal sash. He really did still see her for who she was, not her mutation, didn't he? Akko reached out to sheepily poke at one of the vague stains, pressing her lips firmly together as she dazed into a trance of sorts. The robes had been scrubbed with care, she noted, but they were nonetheless stained in spots with pink. Amongst all their squabbling, until that moment when Zeffer pressed those bandages into her bloodied hand, she hadn't realized how deeply they valued one another. "You know aiding a mutantblood is a cullable offense?" She was still unable to meet his eyes. It seemed pointless to state something so obvious, given his affiliation with the rebels, but Byakko blurted it out like an idiot regardless. He had proven his loyalty to her repeatedly, but she still hesitated at his acceptance. They had been through a lot together, surely, but what if Zeffer knew everything? Her stomach clenched with dread as she glowered at the floor.
She believed in hemoequality vehemently, knew she wasn't inferior based on that alone, but she still felt an overwhelming crushing feeling that she was.
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Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 1:43 am
Zeffer snorted at the question as he leaned back on his hands, his eyes narrowed in vicious amusement. "If I was worried about that, I wouldn't have joined the rebellion in the first place." He retorted, eyes shading at the thought. He had killed plenty of trolls, as they all had, and he was sure he'd done more to deserve death than just helping a mutant, in the empire's eyes. He couldn't help but reflect on it for a short moment; part of the reason he had joined in the first place had been the excitement, the violence, and defying authority. Of course he had cared about his lowblooded friends, but he'd always been able to protect them before. He couldn't abide living in a world where highblooded hunters could run around slitting throats without retribution, or where perfectly good trolls were tossed aside for petty reasons. His head tilted as her gaze dropped off, and he sighed softly.
"As for the rest of us," He continued on, figuring he would answer her other questions, "Some of the Initiative must have escaped the bunker, enough to coordinate a prison break. It was chaos, but," He grinned, and lifted his hands, "Here we are." After a moment, his grin faded into a more thoughtful look. That night was still a blur to him, and he didn't really remember the hard details. Hell, he hadn't even been able to tell who their saviors had been, because of their disguises. "I don't know who it was, and I don't know how they did it. The place was crawling with drones when we got there, but they managed, somehow." He let out another puff of breath, remembering how they had shuffled out of their cells and through the maze-like interior, out into the cold realm of freedom. He couldn't help but wonder if anyone had died on the mountain that night, forced to avoid civilization and the transport stations to avoid capture. He and Aprife had barely managed to make it down themselves.
"What about you, though?? Where did they even take you?" Zeffer leaned in, finally able to ask the question he was dying to know the answer to. His voice had dropped in volume as if it were some horrible secret, but in truth, it still made his stomach twist to think about. "When you weren't in the trucks with us, or in any of the cells...I thought for sure you had been culled..." He swallowed hard, willing his voice not to crack. His expression drooped, eyes going glassy as he thought back, flexing his left hand. The tattoo was still there, hidden beneath his sleeve and some strategically placed bandages. Suddenly, he jolted back, looking at her sharply. "They must have marked you, too. Can I see? They put tracking devices in, when we got there..." He inched closer, not keen on the thought of the military tracking her to his hive.
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Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:18 pm
Usually Zeffer's snickers at her only served to irritate, but as he laughed off her last question she felt strangely... comforted? Byakko returned her uneasy gaze to him, picking absentmindedly at one of the pink stained bandages wrapping her forearm. It still felt odd, the way he carried on as if it wasn't a big deal, because to her, it was. She had taken such care to hide her mutation from everyone outside the immediate members of the Initiative, Zeffer was the first to know both her identity and mutation; he had barely batted an eye at it since first seeing her blood during the chaos with the bunker. It completely baffled her. As perplexed as Byakko was, she was equally grateful. It was a foreign, but uplifting feeling to know she had made a friend who readily accepted her, as hard as that was for her to fully wrap her still spinning mind around at that moment.
As he recollected the rebel's escape, Byakko shifted her weight to lean in, expression bleak as she listened despite report of their small triumph. It was reassuring to know that there had been others capable enough to handle the situation swiftly, and as evidenced by the grinning blueblood alive before her, successfully. Akko made a mental note to later try and piece together with him who their rescuers had been... she owed them much. Still, it wasn't enough information. "But who got out exactly? Aprife, I assume? What about everyone else?" She swallowed back a gnawing pit of distress, sinking back down to lean against the recuperacoon. Byakko's mind immediately went to the nondescript hooded trolls that had been scattered among their forces, not certain how to ask about their fates without seeming suspect. It tore at her. Reaching up to scratch at the back of her neck, she let a hefty sigh.
"Where did they take me?" Akko echoed Zeffer's query emptily, stare clouding as she reflected internally on her own experiences. Noting the change in his demeanour, her eyes darted back down to the folded robes as he voiced quelled fears, the corners of her lips trembling. She remembered being loaded onto a truck by drones, away from the others, and the sounds of the other trucks stopping much before her own. "I'm not sure. A jail, somewhere on Busthind... I was alone." she stopped, unsure how to explain how she hadn't called out to the others before they were separated or her encounter with Regina. Before Akko could piece together the words, Zeffer was advancing. "A-a mark? What?" She squinted, looking back to him, drawing back farther against the recuperacoon. "I don't know what you're talking about. Besides, wouldn't you have seen?" The last bit was spit out bitterly as she gestured down to her clothes. "You mean... put tracking devices in- what, you? Please tell me you ripped it out." Her eyes widened as she gawked over at him.
"But no, nothing like that happened. I was put alone in a cell, like I said, until..." Akko trailed off again, narrowing her eyes on Zeffer in preparation to read his reaction. There was no point in lying, although she'd have to be selective with her words. "The Queen came to talk to me. Then we fought." Byakko shrugged loosely, fully realizing how unsatisfactory that bland answer likely was, but she was at a loss on how to respond. How to explain that the Queen wanted them to do better, even if out of some sort of twisted boredom? Everything seemed surreal still- it would be easier to dart around his questions. "I got away, clearly." Even with her lengthy explanations, Regina's actions still bewildered her at her core.
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Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 7:32 pm
Zeffer smirked and colored a little at her accusation, huffing as he halted his advance. "No need to be so damn melodramatic, Legs. I didn't look, okay? You had a towel draped over you the whole time anyway. And yeah, I tore mine out the second we got down the mountain." Though he was telling the truth, she did have a point. Between being elated about her survival and worried over her wounds, he hadn't really thought to check for a tattoo or a tracker. Thankfully it seemed as if she'd been spared that bullshit. But why? His guess was that they'd planned to execute her, until she continued to explain. Her next revelation practically caused his jaw to hit the floor.
"You fought the queen!?" Zeffer's mouth gaped, before he heaved a breathy laugh of partial disbelief. "Are you ******** serious? How? What?! What the ********>" He laughed again, and scooted forward as he reached out to show her the tattoo on the inside of his wrist, finally healed up and less swollen than it had been. The snaking lines were clean and stark, a fresh inky black over his grey skin. He would have to get rid of that as well, soon. Once she'd has a good look at it, he swiftly pulled his sleeve back down to cover it up. He wasn't nearly as interested in showing off than he was in learning exactly what had happened. Was Regina that much of a ******** showboater, or had Byakko somehow managed to get some sort of upper hand?
"How did you escape? C'mon..." He bit his lower lip, eyes glued to her with manic excitement. After a moment, though, he thought better of hounding her, and took a deep breath, reeling himself in before sitting back. He'd been out long enough for the traumatizing nature of the whole ordeal to dull slightly, but Akko was obviously still ******** up about it. Despite his raging curiosity, he forced himself to sit back against the beanbag chair.
"To answer your question from before, though...I'm not entirely sure. Aprife, yes, and a lot of the other younger members. They segregated us by age." Zeffer's brow furrowed as he thought back, expression seemed to droop after a moment. "There were some adults, too, but I can't remember what happened to them. After we got out of the cells it kinda turned into a ********>
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 8:25 pm
"That's what I said, isn't it?" Byakko's face remained blank while Zeffer burst forth with the revelation. "We fought with our weapons," she began to spit sarcastically, then after a moment of brief thought, backtracked. Maybe she was still feeling sentimental from the whole mutation-acceptance thing. "The details aren't really crucial. She came to rub my nose in our capture. There was a chance for battle. I took it." There was no intention in indulging him with the juicier bits of their exchange. Byakko was still... sorting through it herself. There was a lot to process. "At one point, we fell over a balcony. I don't know how long that drop was, but when I came too, she was gone and the way out was unguarded. Maybe she thought I was dead." Byakko knew all too well that last bit was a lie. "Well, I'm not. And neither are you guys," clearing her throat, Byakko shifted against the recuperacoon and did her best to keep her blankfaced composure. Her stomach knotted and flipped upon hearing about the age sorting, and hadn't stopped it's wild acrobatics since. "Hopefully the others got out, too." Hearing it outloud didn't help clear the thick cloud of doubt clinging to that statement like she had dared to hope. She knew better. Regina planned this. "I guess we're safe for now if you cut out that tracking device. Good move." Not that she doubted Zeffer to that extent, but it was still a rather unpleasant thing to run yourself through. There were probably weaker trolls wandering around with them still in. Pointing a cartoon-adorned bandaged finger (really, Zeff?) at his wrist, she spoke up again. "If you're smart, you'll do something about that tattoo, too." Why had she been spared a marking, though? It was one thing she couldn't quite place her finger on. Then again, Regina had left a more personal mark. Byakko reached up to graze her fingertips across the bandages wrapped around her face again, hissing softly to herself. Then, there was a rumbling. Byakko paled. One hand clutched through the borrowed shirt at her stomach, realizing with each gurgle of hunger that it had been... wow, how long had it been since she last ate? She ******** hated Regina for offering those potato chips, and hated herself for not accepting nourishment while she had the chance. "Uh. I haven't eaten in... awhile..." Face hot with shame- her comrades were likely dead, and she was thinking about food?- Akko hung her head. After a moment, she peeked up through her bangs at Zeffer, much to prideful to ask for his help further.
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