Welcome to Gaia! ::

Damion looked up from where he stood, bent over a row of jewels that glimmered in their various colors. His expression was like that of a child caught with it's hand in the cookie jar, despite the fact that both his hands were behind his back, clutched there.

" It's just Damion, Boss."

His voice carried no hint of it's usual annoyance at the formality, coming out as a robotic response. He'd just had to get used to it was all, but that was going down a tangent that needn't be adressed. The hydra straightened up, letting his hands slide around as he turned to face his employer.

" I was actually wondering if there were any deliveries that needed to be made?"

It wasn't that he was out of money. No, the coffers of the Temple had been left filled when it had sunk into the muck of the swamp. What drove him to venture into civilization was something far more simple. He was lonely. After the excitement of Heaven or Hell, he was painfully reminded that he had been human not that long ago, and still clung to the tendrils of humanity that reached out for him. He'd already spent most of the day exploring Latent again, visiting the mall for a short time before leaving.

It didn't help that his phone was deader than the creatures his gear was made of. The offending electronic rest in his right hand, clutched tightly like an errant pet, fearful for its escape.

" I'd like to stretch my legs abit after Heaven or Hell."

Such warm familiarity! It filled him with such good feelings, brought a smile to his face and a theoretical song to his heart! Too bad Damion had never been too good of a writer, cause the song rightly sucked, but it was his. He filed the name of the gems away for later perusion, perhaps a future purchase. The one that told of fortune might be the ticket, Death was too general a thing after all.

His eyes widened as Maximos zipped off like a large black hummingbird, cocking his head to the left when the man disappeared. Damion wondered what it looked like back there, what odd magics were performed away from prying eyes and the bulbous noses of neighbors. Was it anything like his binding to the Dagon? Surely, as sure as it could be, the shadowy man did lesser orders? Like the one he was suddenly presenting to Damion!

"This goes to the Latent Botanical Day Spa, its on the other side of town. They've been having trouble keeping their customers relaxed what with the new train route moving in nearby. Along with some sound proofing this should help."

" Day spa? What's that?"

He rotated the box over once, sniffing at it tentativly, curious yet cautious that it might be less than savory. Especially after the last delivery. It smelled alot like pineapple, suprisingly, and this only heightened his curiousity. What was hidden inside the box? And what was this slip of paper that Maximos was holding out to him? It stood out brilliantly against his dark skin, and he could understand the pictures easily enough.

" Um....o-ok....what does one do at a spa Maximos?"

Lay around? He saw massage on there, he knew what that was. The concept of a Mud bath seemed confusing to him, he was not a gator after all. It just sounded dirty.

That warning was all Damion needed to treat the box with abit more care, holding it aloft on his fingertips like a bomb squad specialist. Maximos's hands concerned him, as they always did. The man was as pale as death itself, which could not possibly be healthy at all.

"One spas, of course. Havent you ever spa'd before?"

" Um....not that I'm aware of? Does one conciously spa?"

And now the mention of ladies! What was this Spa place and what did one do there? His mind was abuzz with curiousity, thoughts and theories on this new destination flitting about like angry bees. The elemental started to turn on his heel slowly, keeping the box with its contents held far out infront of him as if the slightest shaking would cause it to explode or some such.

You never knew with magic after all, it could do any number of things aside from put everyone to sleep! " Wait....Which end of the town do I go to?" This seemed important, and made him stop at the door, looking back at his friend curiously again, one eyebrow cocked and his head tilted. " You know what? It'll be more fun to look for it, see ya in abit Maximos." It was a short lived look, replaced with a smile as he swept from the building and out into the dim sunshine of the day.

A change in the air! Like an elephant in the room, or a theoretical sword poised to drop, He felt that unasked question. And to continue with the metaphors, he was hooked and drawn to it.

Damion stopped in the doorway, a foot extended out into the world in the classic pose of a traveler. His hand remained on the doorknob as he turned, setting that foot down onto the streets of Latent while his attention refocused itself back inside. He was a creature of curiousity, and Maximos had very well dangled a bit of string infront of him.

" Yeah Max? What is it?"

He ignored the shooing motion, the notion of a secret more interesting to him than whatever it was that Spaing entailed. The door swung closed behind him, shutting off the sea air smell of Latent off in one tough gust. The box lowered to his side, still held tightly in his fingers, almost forgotten.

" Go ahead and ask now, maybe it'll take time to think about, ya know?"

Damion smiled, making sure his teeth were covered by his lips, making him seem almost human, instead of a wolf in sheeps clothing. This was an effort on his part, the elemental had gotten used to baring his fangs at offending predators during his time in the swamp, cowing them into submission. He had to remember that a smile between friends wasn't supposed to be a challenge.

" so go on, ask away."

+ After round three of Heaven or Hell +

It was a nice a day. It was safe to say that, even from a subjective point of view. The temperatures refused to crawl above the freezing point, but the sun on a baby blue sky offered some warmth, and the air was so crisp and refreshing that everybody seemed overly awake and aware of what was going on around him, instead of searching for anonymity in the crowd.

Lucind thought it must have been exactly a month ago since she approached rooms inhabited or otherwise used by Maximos, in the very same fashion, with a very similar looking package under her arm. She was even wearing the same jacket.



The only difference was that, snuggled between her hair and the fur of the cowl, there was a little something, turning its head here and there with an overall nervous attitude, but preferred to stay in the shadows. What it was? Well, you could ask three people, and would get three different answers. A tarsier! A sugar glider, of course. A new type of...amphibian, maybe? And indeed, each for it own and all answers together would be correct. You could make out huge light brown eyes (the pupil tiny thanks to the daylight) and filigree, extremely long fingers. There was definitely more skin between the extremities on both sides than usual, and a darker stripe ran over snout, forehead and all the way over the back. Only that...there was no real fur, except from some fluffy hair at the ears and, what one could not see thanks to his current hiding place, at the tip of its tail. The rest was leather like, dark green and brown.

Maximos had heard of it once or twice recently. And "it", which was actually a she, listened to the name of...

"...Piri. Behave yourself. Not doing so is something I would not recommend in a place like this. Did I make myself clear?"
Whatever meaning the half squeaked, half croaked reply had, Lucind seemed to be satisfied, and so they entered the Latent branch of the Magician Lucillien Dark's shop.

The Siren's ears twitched a little when she tried to adjust to the thick air inside, faintly reminding her of the aura in her secret book room. Two other customers were there, one of them apparently done with his business and about to leave, the other admiring the different weapons hanging above the showcases.

"Hel..." She wanted to greet, but her eyes directly fell on something silver, nice looking. "...lo..." What was that? It looked like a well crafted brooch, adorned by one larger and two smaller blue stones. Lucind placed the package on the floor, while Piri became more animated with each minute the woman studied the new objects that hadn't been there the last time. The amphibo-lemure finally crawled down her arm and leg to hop onto the package, but upon a stern look coming from Lu, it just sat there, idly watching the other customer.
The Siren always wondered if those items looking extremely complicated in their construction had given the Shadow an equal amount of work. Or were it the seemingly plain trinkets and gadgets that afforded all the more time?

"Oy, Piri...!" Throwing a look over her shoulder presented her with a pair of huge eyes staring up at her, displaying innocence, while all of her tiny mouth was covering one edge of the package. It looked as though the naked monkey had drooled over said edge and dribbles were also running down the short side. Piri retreated an inch or two when Lucind approached, but just when the Siren wanted to go and get the little one, her cell phone vibrated. She made a face, unbuttoned and -zipped her jacket and moved towards the door: It was one of her customers, so she wanted to find out what the matter was. But what about Piri? Lucind directed a command in Seireneia at the animal, which jumped a little and curled up, anxiously watching the woman leaving the store. She could still observe package and amphibo-lemure through the shopping window, right? That shouldn't be of a problem.

The customer calling her just wanted to hear how the research he had commissioned was coming along, therefore Lu was done after only a minute. But just when she turned to go back inside, a teenage girl bumped into her. Nothing happened, the girl apologized, Lucind nodded, let the other customer from Max's store leave, went back inside and - Piri was gone.

"Come on, gimme a break", she mumbled. The Siren, now the only one there, looked around but couldn't find the animal...until she heard it, the faintest slurping and gnawing. She looked back over her shoulder as she had done before: At the bottom corner of the package that lay in the shadows and which she hadn't really seen when walking past, there was a hole. "No..."

Suddenly, a high pitched screech. The package became alive, not only because of a certain frog-lemure panicking inside, trying the find the exit it had created. Something else began to vibrate, and it was not the cell phone this time. It looked as though other things tried to escape, pulling the package in different directions.

"Oh shi-" Turning on her heels, Lucind went to quickly dash over to keep the delivery's content inside, but in her haste, she tripped over her own feet, stumbled forwards, flailing her arms before ultimately falling down, right on the package, crushing it under her weight - only Piri managed to escape in time.

And then, chaos broke loose.

What else did you expect, when one hundred pairs of Voodoo chicken eyes, each trapped in a glass orb of about half an inch in diameter, viciously worked their way out of what little layers of cardboard held them now? Bringing them together like this, in such an amount, caused a lot of stress and confusion, if not aggression among the charms, who often were not the most peaceful objects anyway. Each pair was bound in a kind of love-hate relationship, made to always search for each other once they got separated. Before the beginning of HoH, Lucind had brought one pair from her last trip with the Feiruza, and when she saw how much Maximos liked them, she had immediately ordered more. Was this decision to be regretted now?
To make all charms keep still and silent, the Voodoo merchant from Meschkat hat placed a seal inside the box, a hand written spell on a piece of cotton. But Piri had gnawed through cardboard and an additional plastic layer and with her habit to drool on everything she found extremely exiting, had destroyed the seal - causing the chicken eye charms to go haywire, disoriented and enraged with the unexpected presence of so many of their kind. Many rolled in different directions, others were still busy escaping their prisons, while the rest indulged in battles, furiously clicking and clacking against each other, exchanging evil stares and gazes of doom.

"I can't believe it...", was the last thing the Siren murmured in common tongue. From then on, Siren words escaped her lips that sounded all together like chains of bad, bad terms.

And while she began to crawl around on the floor, collecting as many eyes on their strings as possible, Piri tried to help in her way, by hissing at them and trying to bite the glass covered eyes, which only ended up with her getting "attacked" and fleeing, tossing more eyes to roll in all directions by jumping and darting around. Finally, she even got caught up in the strings of several charms - in the background, she squeaked in fear while being dragged away slowly.

There was no way to solve this alone. Those charms Lucind collected began to fight with each other, and the choir of clicking sounds soon became unnerving for her. Several times did she slip on an eye - more swears hissed under her breath, or even louder. Plus, her ears told her that some chicken charms already had crawled behind the counter.

The expression on her face translated into one single, plain statement:

"This. Is not happening."

It was a nice a day.

Not to busy and yet not so slow as to become drull. The woman before Maximos was very young, cute in the sort of way a kitten is cute, and blonde. Maximos was staring at her. But particularly he was staring at her head. She gave him giggles and gestures and winks and even slipped her name and number on the receipt required to pick up ones orders...but all of this had the effectiveness of a sponge attacking a brick wall. Maximos was not interested in her so much as her hair. Gold hair. They did not have gold hair on Aria save for in one place and every so often a man or woman would entire with this particular head adornment and the Shadow's attention would be immediately divided between his current task and it. Most saw his interest and glances as suggestive. Most believed him flirtatious.

Most were wrong.

Blonde, as Gaian's called it, or Gold, as Arian's called it, was the color of the Lightwatcher Luminous' closest servants. His personal order of priests, priestesses and paladin's. When scouring raids were launched into the Shadowlands to destroy the "dark monstrosities" that lie within, that was the color of their hair. When they entered the cursed Shadow, their hair and eyes still shown like brilliant light. Those cold blooded rigtheous avengers of a no crime what so ever, were responsible for the death of countless of Maximos' childhood friends.

When they entered his shop, he watched them with his trademark smile. But not with fond attraction, but deadly intent. He was not checking this teenage girl out....instead, using the items on the counter alone, notwithstanding the treasure's within he worked out 436 ways to kill her before he cast a Lightbolt, or spoke a "holy" word. When she handed him her pick up receipt he was all but too happy to vanish into the workshop for a bit and ease his mind.

It was shortly after he entered that he heard the shop door open. Today the shop just so happened to be attuned to Latent. Durem and Strata had presented few customers and their doors were adorned with "Closed Today" signs. He mused at what this newest customer could want. Glass steel items were on a high today, and he was almost finished with a line of semi-permanent darkness and steel replacement limbs. Every customer was a new sort of excitement. The young teenage girl was picking up a sound distorting device reverse engineered from experiments using Lucind's voice. The Shadow grinned and let free a relaxed, drawn out sigh. The thought of her always made him smile, it all but entirely washed away the idea of killing little teenage girls and instead had him dreaming about where and what the Siren might be doing right here and now.

And then the wrapping was done. Max shoved the workshop door open with his, just barely hearing the shop door open and close as he did. The ordered device was rather large and clumsy. Max waddled backwards through the door and then awkwardly turned to set the large box on the counter. It was not heavy, just...large. And the blonde woman was alone, someone must have entered and then left. A shame. It appeared they left something however, a box and a...Max really had no words for this reptilian big eyed freakish thing beginning to gnaw at the box. He placed the money in the register and watched the woman leave, she was making wide blind steps and was just about liable to bump into someone walking like that.

The Shadow shrugged, and then slipped back into his workshop to clean up. Brushes get unusable if left to dry in open air, and Noct knows how some of these reagents stained the wood. Whoever left a box and a pet behind would be back. Neither could do that much harm, right? Right.

After a few patient moments and a bit of washing the shop door opened again. Max had just turned off the water leaving the room quiet save for the drip of drying tools. He moved for the door, ready to step into the shop proper. By the time his hand reached the knob and began to twist he already had several ice breaking greetings in mind an idea of which items to push...not for price of course, these items were untested. And then, just as he was about to step out...commotion. There were so many clinks and clanks and noises all at once that Maximos froze. His hand braced against the workshop door as he turned to stare at the blank wood, and his right eye ignited. What in the....?



Perhaps it was just the nature of the beast, Shadow's were the epitome of stealth. Perhaps it was because no one ever see's Death coming, not matter how obvious he may or may not be. But Lucind would go from standing in an empty room watching her new pet mercilessly dragged away as glass eye marbles waged an all out war to...

"Ahem." Suddenly, and immediately, not being so alone anymore. That, was a cough. But not the sort of cough that has anything to do with throats or healthy and everything to do with appearing seemingly instantaneously behind someone and startling them.

Needless to say, he was grinning. Max stood behind the counter with a towel in his hand drying them lackadaisically. The moment Lucind noticed him he would put his hands up in surrender and fighting back a laugh say. "No no, please. Dont stop on my account."

"No no, please. Dont stop on my account."

She looked at him, wild, unbidden, hair all tangled and eyes reflecting the madness of the floor all around her. She was furious! It was a sort of fury Maximos did not often get the chance to see, Lucind was usually so controlled. So reserved. It was...well it made him smile. And then she clenched her fist and he was almost sure she was going to swing on him when...

"Griegu!!!"

And everything stopped. And that warning light in the back of Maximos' mind that signifies he had just encountered something terribly interesting began to flash furiously. She had calmed the chaos with a single word. Oh the power of words...could it be recorded? Its power sampled and duplicated? Oh the possibilities were endless and boundless and the elation it brought him was focused and hewn into the shape of the mad huntress squatted on the ground.

"Congratulations. Your surprise order has arrived", she said dryly and looked back up at him. She was so angry. But she looked absolutely adorable when she was angry, and coupled with the new innovations in his mind he couldnt help but crack a smile. A smile which teetered precariously on the edge of becoming a laugh. Dont laugh. He told himself. Dont laugh. Dont think about laughing. Dont laugh.

"Hey. Don't you laugh!" Which of course made laughing all he could think about, and caused his smile to crack and the Shadow to break out in a small chorus of laughs broken and spotted with occasional apologies and attempts at keeping his face straight. Attempts that were shattered into bitty by the sight of her hair, or a stray marble rolling onto its side, or even her little frog hairless big eyed thing attempting to recover itself. Maximos was rather sure he managed to thank her a few times, but could not be sure if she actually caught it amidst the chuckles. "No no really, I'm sorry I should lauahahahahha....I mean thank you its wonderful! I always wanted a bunch of eyes rolling around my flo-aahahahahaa. Did I mention I love you? You've made my day."

Still grinning in a defeated manner, Lu carefully crawled to the the right side of the counter, where she fiddled with something, Maximos did not know exactly what it was but that it made noise and squirmed in her hand clearly alive. With all seriousness she could bring up, she said:

"Piri. Maximos.

Maximos. Piri."

Maximos in all truth did not know what to make of the creature. It was equal parts cute and repulsive. Something about its large eyes were unsettling and then its lizard like amphibian skin. He imagined it should have had fur, or a huge tongue, or....it looked incomplete and yet complete. Like one of those tiny dogs he had seen women carrying but far less gouche.

Being adventurous the Shadow reached out and patted its head. And by that, one means to say he literally patted its head. Not a petting. Or a gesture with any amount of the adoration and cuteness people give when addressing a pet. Maximos reached his hand out, and with a deliberate up and down motion of his fingers, pat Piri on the head. And said. "The pleasure is all mine, I'm sure."

And then Lu added: "Var give Tagis won't ask me to babysit her again." Maximos smirked at Lucind's words crossed her meaning. You didnt need magic eyes to see she'd taken a liking to it. And so Max added. "No, next time I dont imagine she'll have to."

"I'm sorry for the mess, but..." She grinned at the Shadow apologetically. "I really need your help. They won't stay like this for long, thanks to the glass covering them."

The Shadow chuckled softly and moved for the edge of the counter. "A mess? Non-sense!" He moved the small bridge, and stepped past it out onto the floor proper, placing his hands on his hips and surveying the floor. "This is not a mess, this is just an altered state of organization."

With a sweeping motion he reached down and picked up a few eyes by their leather straps and let them dangle lazily from his hand. "I dare say these little fellows are far closer to being where they need be than when they were in the box. All we need do is finish putting them in their new homes. Here...those can go there...."

Eyes for swords, eyes for sheaths. Eyes for boxes, and their lids. Eyes for any item in all the store that had a matching counterpart and should not be separated from it. And finally, a cluster of eyes to hang from the ceiling so that any lost and very important items could wander towards the most noticeable and biggest cluster of opponents and tug with it its cargo, to the middle of the floor where no one could miss it. Any extra pairs were put in a box together, far out of the reach of any frog-lemures.

"May they serve you well..." Maximos took a formal bow, though there was no formality about his person at the moment. "I am certain they shall."

Max watched the small creature cautiously. It met his eyes a few times, but then its large orbs rolled elsewhere while Maximos' stood focused on it. With the eyes sorted the shop was in proper organization, and he was not so very willing to see it placed in an alternate state of organization so soon. His attention pulled away when Lucind spoke.

"Actually", there was a slight change of tone in her voice. He knew that tone, hearing it from her made him smile. It usually came when he asked a customer if they needed any help, and they said no...and then that exact word exactly in that sort of tone followed by... "I also came to place an order. Or rather, I first wanted to hear your opinion on my idea, if it is possible at all to realize."

The Shadow leaned back against the counter folded on arm across his chest and let the other rest on the first so his hand could cup his chin. It was a listening pose. And without further ado, the Siren came forth with: "I thought about an adjustment to Isebell's munition - by placing my voice inside. If this can be done, it would...well, I probably don't have to explain to you what would happen if somebody or something was hit."

No no, not explanation was necessary. Maximos had been on the receiving end of her voice before. It was certainly not all pleasant song and soul stirring melody. He of course, imagined the immediate usage that was sonic blast gun shots, but he then moved to other uses. He would have to voice them.

"Even more so, it would be great if I could eventually charge that new munition on my own. - Think you can do that?" Maximos face split in a devious grin and he immediately replied without skipping a beat. "My dear sweet Siren, thats what I do. Thats what I live for. To help unfortunate folk, like yourself! Poor souls with no where else to turn too!"

Alright maybe he embellished that a bit. He reached into his inside vest pocket and pulled out a stack of paper that looked something like a pile of dollar bills only white. He flipped through them until he found the proper one, then set it on the counter. It paper was covered in the curls, swirls, lines and markings trademark of Lunaic, Maximos shadowy brand of magical array. And, then the Shadow snapped his fingers. There was a literal poof of thick black smog which quickly dissipated leaving a rifle laying on the counter. The Midnight Runner, Maximos' rifle. The Shadow picked up and with a c**k of the lever action pump a bullet flew from the breach which he nimbly caught and then set the rifle back down. "If I'm not mistaken, Isebell and the Midnight Runner use the same ammunition so this should he appropriate for testing."

There was a flick of his wrist, and in Maximos hand was a thin paint brush which he began using to draw more curlicues and lines and magic symbols on the small bullet. He had a sort of grace to his motion, like swinging a sword only on a smaller scale. The bullet did not provide much surface area and so he had to be precise or...well it would not be very pretty. As he painted, he spoke. "A bullet is a projectile that after being fired usually stays in the location it lands. A wall, a sheet of metal, even a fallen person. I'm sure you've already thought of using your voice to add concussive force or blast to a shot, but...if you added something else like that Griegu, or any of your other vocal commands you could effectively fire a silent envoy to a target beyond your vocal range. Or leave a inconspicuous message behind where your believedly discarded shell lie. An individual walks by what they believe to be a misfired gunshot hole, or fallen foe and then...."

And he left the rest off for her imagination. Just about the time he finished speaking, he finished painting. The brush was lowered and the bullet was held up to Lucind's face as Maximos said. "Now..."

And then with something of a sinister smirk, and a bit more darkness on his tone than he likely intended. "....sing."