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 Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:45 pm
 Jabril was looking for his brother.
Of course, looking for his brother did not mean that he would actually find his brother. As far as Jabril knew, Lock-Stock kept his own counsel, did as he pleased, and maintained no fixed address. That made him nearly impossible to track. Lock had a fairly distinctive scent, all oily fur and dry ice, but that was hardly helpful on a mountain as large as this one.
Jabril sighed and rested on a dead log. His paws were sore and bloody, and the snow had melted too far down to be any use in numbing them. The ends of his lab coat were winged and his hair had fallen out of its signature pony-tail. Searching for his sibling was utterly fruitless, a fool's errand, but Jabril didn't know what else to do. Too much smoke inhalation had left him short of breath. He could not run forever.
Jabril would have to hope that somehow, some way, some friend of his had heard the large explosion ring out from his laboratory, or seen the plume of smoke and fire against the sky. He did not have many allies in this world, but there was always hope.
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:38 pm
 With a long jump and a heavy and thick sounding landing, the eldest of the Acajou clan lifted his head after he knew he was safe on the ground, his chaotic eyes following the horizon and his nose to the air. Indeed, Lock stock had heard the explosion, it had been something very hard to miss, the dead and hard of hearing would have heard it hours away - and this made the 'mechanic' child worry.
Although the air held a crisp and clean spring breeze to it, as he took in a few deep breaths to gain his location and hopefully to find the object of his searching, the breath that exitted his body was as cold as winter, and hung on the air for a moment before blowing away. Stress affected his body temperature, and right now he was freezing, he had to make sure his baby brother was all right.
As he took his last breath in, before darting off again, he caught a familiar, and devestating smell. One that he kept since he left the remains of the city his family originated in, the one that Everard devestated, the scent of blood. Perking high, trying to use every inch of his large body on alert to scan as much overbrush as he could - his brother had to be here somewhere, or atleast have passed through here.
"O-Oi, Olly Olly Oxen free! Jabs, are ye'ere?" He called out, his usually meek voice ringing across the clearing. To be honest, he hadn't a clue what to say at the start of his search, and it had just came naturally. He was more worried about his brother.
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 3:05 am
Jabril was eternally thankful that his older brother hadn't been around when he was younger. It was true that he could have used a helping paw when their Da was trying to munch on his limbs, and it might have been nice to have someone to hang out with when his sisters' giggling made him want to throw a bunsen burner at one of them, but the benefits of having Lock miss Jabril's awkward years far outweighed the drawbacks. Lock had never witnessed all the times that Jabril had gotten chased around by wild animals, cut himself on lab equipment, or struck out horribly with femmes. Jabril had vague hopes of convincing his brother that he was cool.
Those hopes were rapidly diminishing.
"Over 'ere," Jabril hacked, voice lower and raspy. His lungs ached too much for him to breathe a proper sigh of relief. "I- uh, m'glad yuir in th'neighbor'ood."
The biologist dragged himself towards the sound of Lock's voice, over drifts of shale and sharp, half-dead bracken.
"S'pose ye saw- er. S'a funny story. But d'na worry!" Jabril pasted on a smile and gestured broadly with his forepaws. They were covered with some sort of thick, blood-like ichor. "Tis only a wee probl'm. Smallest setback ye e're saw. I practic'lly planned it."
He might have sounded more convincing if it weren't for the ominous rumble coming from the location of the blast zone.
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:55 am
To be honest, Lock couldn't help but worry just a little - it was just another wonderful feature that was infused into his genetics, a gift from his mother, he was sure. With a flick of his dark dark blue tails, the very little ounce of light shimmering off them, he listened closely for any sign of his brother - and when it came - breathed a great sigh of relief as he made his way towards him. With his eyebrows pinned high and maw set at a determined frown, he eyed his baby brother.
"J-Jabs, oi, there y'are. Ye look.. well.." A total wreck summed it up pretty good. Tattered and bruised, and probably "bloody" also fell into the same crowd as the first two words - but he was just happy that Jabril was alive. He assumed his mother raised the little biologist right, and he blessed the stars for that. Lightening up his face a little - or trying atleast - he did a quick sweep around his brother, to make sure he didn't incurr any mortal wounds. "Yuir alive, that's wot counts."
"Y'know 'ow it is. Wos takin' a walk an' th'next minute, I'ere an explosion. Usually means on'na me family members did som'mat wrong, or, I guess in E'vr's position, right. M'jis happy yuir okay." he finally answered, a slightly rushed statement, the tint of worry pouring out and slowly being replaced by a small tint of amusement, drowned by a fair ocean of relief.
Turning his head, he looked to the plume of smoke that marked the location of Jabril's.. still pretty hazardous laboratory, before cocking one eyebrow up, and turning back to his brothe with the wonderous look, before giving a soft chortle. "Y'did a good job there, Yuir gonna have't tell me th'story, ye know." he stated, it wasn't a question - this would be good. "D'ye need any help findin' a comfort'ble location t'heal? 'Ow are th' paws?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:06 pm
"I've 'ad worse," Jabril said sheepishly. Getting fussed over this way wasn't unpleasant, but it reminded him of their Mum.
He wasn't lying, though. Between getting electrocuted by a deranged security robot, gnawed on by Godiva, nearly being choked to death by a rabid alchemist, injecting himself with questionable solutions, bunsen-burner mishaps and chemical spills, Jabril had been involved in more than his fair share of painful accidents. It was a good thing that he didn't believe in Lady Luck. Otherwise he might think she held a grudge against skinny, defenseless biologists.
"This- er, t'is na mine, if tha's wat yuir thinkin'."
He broke into a wide grin, and canines shining sharp in the moonlight. There was an unholy gleam his his gold-green eyes, and he shed the fatigue that had settled over him. The younger male nearly bounced in place, humming with all the energy of a live wire.
"Any'ow- yuir 'ere! This is great! We c'n go right back now! Ye ha' t'see m'new project."
Jabril might have been worried about returning without protection, but now that his brother was here, he was all set to return! His new baby must must miss her da already.
Oily black smoke coiled ominously in the night sky.
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Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:25 pm
A small, small sensible part of LockStock's mind attempted to put forth a motion for more worry about his brother's current state of affairs, but it took him mere moments to forego that direction. It had taken a life full of growing up next to his parents - his father destroyed and his mother made sure (.. originally) that he did it right - that taught the boy that, whatever had possibly gone wrong was only a shadow of the effect it was to loom and build up to.
It always was a strangely comforting thought. "Home" in his mind, oddly.
It didn't take much for his brother's smile to win the older one over, and after a few moments, he couldn't help but reflect the grin that his brother held, even if the glint in his eyes was more serious - he grew up under his mother's.. er. paw.
"Well, if'n ye say so. But, we'll wan'na bandage yuir paws up wh'we 'ave a chance. Dinnae need any cross-contam'nation. Or sommat." he stated, scrinching his face up. "B'sides, ma woul' kill m'if she knew I let'chuh jus' walk aroun'wit bloody paws." Open wounds with oil? Seering pain. Open would in a laboratory? Fifteen tentacled monster of doom that could have been kept sane without blood. It was an obvious option. Watching his brother bound around him, although, was almost headache enducing - he wished he had as much energy at times. But he was glad to see the same ole' spark burning bright though the generations. It made up for Eliza.
At the mention of his new project, Lock's chaotic coloured eyes lifted to the tainted sky, the cloud billowing over what is usually the laboratory of the younger Acajou. Usually, he assumed, one would feel a sense of dread. I'mmuh die probably feeling. Instead, curiousity plagued the older son - something, he was sure, would be the end of him one day.
"I s'pose I'ave 'nough time t' see your new darlin'un, tho, lil' brother. Lead th'way." It could be worse. It could be worse. There usually was worse. But it gave him time to be with his brother - and to make sure no 15 tentacled monster of doom wasn't going down without a fight.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:40 pm
Jabril had to laugh at that, so he did, with a low chuckle that was nothing like his usual cackling. Perhaps he'd worn his throat raw back at the laboratory.
"Who needs Mum? I ha' ye 'ere, an' y'sound jus' like 'er." He grinned, then batted Lock in the shoulder with his left tail, to show that he was joking. "R'lax, yeh? S'like I told ye. I've 'ad much worse."
He brought his forepaws to his face and gave them a good stare. The shale had made small cuts just above the pads, and the slime he'd been working with had turned the cheery emerald of his forelimbs to a sombre forest green. But nothing was stinging, or growing scales like that one time, and Jabril knew his own limits. In his line of work, with these poor facilities, cross-contamination was inevitable. It was usually best to get it over with.
"Saves the trouble o' injectin' m'self." He chirped. "Now c'mon. This' gonna be great."
Jabril led his brother up the slope of the mountain, using an old deer trail to get them through the trees without too many scrapes and scratches. The pair crossed brooks and traversed cliff-sides, shimmied through briars and scrambled over dead logs.
The biologist hardly took notice of the majestic view, with the clouded moon high in the sky and a hundred-thousand trees spread out below them, standing sentinel over the kitusagi lands. He was too busy rambling. Few kitsu cared about Jabril work, and even fewer understood even a wee bit of what he was talking about. Conversing with his brother was so great!
"-an' tha' was th'third time I electr'cuted m'self. O'course, by then I'd caught on t'tha' eel's tricks, so I put s'm cotton in my mouth so's I'd na bite me tongue. S'not tha' bad when yuir na bleedin', 'elped me stay awake fer the rest o' the night, an' when I took out 'is pituitary, I-"
They came to a deep crevasse in the mountainside, which was bridged only by a single log. The remains of a second sandstone crossing were still there, but it was useless, as its middle part had long since worn away.
The whole thing was covered in viscious, violently purple ooze.
"Oi, look. We're almost 'ome!"
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:50 pm
[ Jabs' cert has been updated btw <3. ]
"'Ey now, now. E'ryun knows that th'oldest is responz'ble. M'just lookin' out for m'brood - b'sides, M'sure ye've done terrrrrible acts in yuir youth, I know I've 'ad m'share of death-defy'n days. But, I d'gress." he answered, with an equally hearty chortle, a deep sound from his throat that growled out happily. With a raise of his eyebrow, he silently questioned his brother's findings - he was like his mother, yes - but he was his father's boy. A mechanical genious, just a**-backwards. He couldn't complain. It kept his own twisted voices in tune, less death, too.
But he usually got repremanded harder, but that was the chase, and the thrill for him. Getting away with destruction fueled every blood cell and atom within his body. He just liked having science as a backup so when something went wrong, he could hypothesize so that when his mother asked, he had a damn good excuse. Fluffing up only a little, and exhaling a long held breath, he padded up to his brother and nudged him lightly on the side - partially to exude a bit more coldness, and partially to start this little adventure. "Aftr'Ye, then!"
--
The journey had been shorter than he expected - the looming smoke on the horizon playing tricks with his mind during the long walk. Or maybe it was all the rambling his brother had done, that made it feel faster - either way, his own chaotic shaded eyes never left his brother's form, with the exception of snares in the road that needed his visual sizing up.
They had spent the time throwing back and forth memories of near death experiences - to this family, one bad turn was just one bd turn, they lived on the brink of near death by just being children of a creature made to be a unpredictable psychopath - what was the harm of a few snares and traps along the way? Death was just a release from life itself, more would come afterwards, why not mangle it?
Whence they finally came up on the beginning of what he liked to call a perfectionists nightmare, his whole body followed his brother's lead, and the sight was both ghastly and awe-inspiring. His brother was an artist, he liked to believe. "Is as cozy as ever, Jabs." he barked out amusingly, a deep chortle once again. Unlike his brother, he had been born in a laboratory - so they always gave him a feeling of home.
"Looks like ye'were redec'ratin' recently, all for me, did'ye?" Most kitsusagi would be terrified about what they were walking towards, Lock was excited, and his body was doing very little to hide. Every step he took left a bit of frost on the ground, only to be melted slowly away by the spring warmth - normally at this time he was in a comfortable cool spot, but today was different, and he was as cold as ice. Which honestly never bothered him, just one more scarf. "Smells great, whot'ye make me for dinner?" Truthfully, he worried ever so slightly about the experiment, it keeping on the back of his mind.
Lords he wished he had more weapons today, and by weapons he met tools he kept in his pouches.
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:07 am
((Oh my gosh! Thank you~ <333
I'm sorry for the trouble. Back when I got him I was newb enough to assume the surname went on there automatically.))
The viscous ooze had grown thicker on the ground as Lock and Jabril approached the opening to his little lair. The entrance was unassuming, and a passing traveller could be forgiven for mistaking it for a simple cave were it not for the shifting chemical scents that permeated the air. No birds nested near Jabril's laboratory. The squirrels and raccoons had long fled, and even the trees seemed reluctant to grow near the cave entrance. Bare, spindly branches reached desperately upwards, as if pleading with the skies for escape. The place was eerily quiet.
Then a bush to the left rustled, and something long and dark slithered out into the path. At first glance it appeared to be an ordinary boa constrictor, until one saw that a pair of stout avian legs had been grafted to its front.
The snake reared up to look at the Acajou brothers, scented the air with its tongue, and then headed left.
"Coc'trice Nine! Yuir alright!" Jabril exclaimed, overjoyed to see that at least one of his creations had escaped the blast intact. "Awww, lookit ye. Were ye scared? Are ye happy t'see yuir Da?"
Cockatrice Nine coiled around Lock's legs and began twining around his body. It's little bird-glaws grabbed up his hat, and its jaws opened wide to try and fit around the curve of his head. It seemed to be trying to swallow him, or at least get in a good solid nom.
"O'course ye are!" Jabril's eyes closed into cheerful little crescents. He patted the two-legged constrictor on its head with one paw. "Ye gave yuir Uncle a 'ug. 'E's 'ere t'elp yuir Da wit' a wee bit of a problem, so do'nae ye fret."
Such a good wee boy!!! Jabril loved his twisted little pets almost as though they were his own children. That way he never had to be lonely.
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